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Warner Bros. Admits To Issuing Bogus Takedowns

Posted by Soulskill on from the hold-up-a-cease-and-desist-notice-if-you're-surprised dept.

An anonymous reader sends this quote from TechDirt: "One of the bizarre side notes to Hollywood's big lawsuit against the cyberlocker Hotfile was a countersuit against Warner Bros. by Hotfile, for using the easy takedown tool that Hotfile had provided, to take down a variety of content that was (a) non-infringing and (b) had nothing to do with Warner Bros. at all (i.e., the company did not hold the copyright on those files). In that case, WB admitted that it filed a bunch of false takedowns, but said it was no big deal because it was all done by a computer. Of course, it then came out that at least one work was taken down by a WB employee, and that employee had done so on purpose, annoyed that JDownloader could help possible infringers download more quickly."

6 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. They did it to me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They're totally guilty as charged. They attempted to take down a video that (kinda) had some of their content. The problem was, it was a lecture about fair use AND the topic was about a song that should have been a fair use of their content. The band had been sued by Island back in the early 90's and there were lots of issues with the way the whole thing went down.

  2. Not good at all by Tmann72 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "In that case, WB admitted that it filed a bunch of false takedowns, but said it was no big deal because it was all done by a computer." Tell that to all those people who lost their homes due to robosigning.

  3. Re:Oh Okay by parkinglot777 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I agree... Another loop hole in the laws and someone (big company) is abusing it...

    The "penalty of perjury" language appears to only apply to the question of whether or not the person filing the takedown actually represents the party they claim to represent -- and not whether the file is infringing at all, or even whether or not the file's copyright is held by the party being represented. And, in the lawsuit, Warner Bros. is relying on that to try to avoid getting hit with a perjury claim.

  4. Re:The score so far by TheCarp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have a friend who has been in several not so famous bands. We worked together back when napster was still a place people went to get music.

    His comment at the time was "if I found out someone had put my bands music up online for people to download, why I would hunt him down and shake his hand".

    --
    "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
  5. Re:Oh Okay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    these are actually feasible for static images.

    http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolution-of-mona-lisa/

  6. PERSPECTIVE by AndrewOsiris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Kill Michael Jackson: 5 years Pirate Michael Jackson music: 15 years