How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down • Hacker News Board

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#11

Post by kijin » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 4:55 AM UTC

lacker wrote: post #6

It isn’t really fair to pick on Linode, all US hosting providers work the same way. When someone files a DMCA claim, if you want to keep the content up you need your lawyer to file a counterclaim. Hosting providers are then allowed to leave it up, and you can fight about it in court. It sounds from this article like the newspaper didn’t have a lawyer, or at least not a lawyer familiar with American law. That sucks bu…

This is a common misconception. You can't use a counter-claim to keep your content up. You can only use one to have your content reinstated after it has been removed.

https://www.dmca.com/faq/What-is-a-DMCA-Counterclaim

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#12

Post by rgrs » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:01 AM UTC

It's time to move cloud out of US.

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#13

Post by adrianmonk » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:01 AM UTC

> Our questioning the veracity of the complaint did not seem to make any difference.

Linode is an ISP, not a court of law.

Legally, it's not up to them to make this determination. If they are compelled to take down a site by law, then their opinion about the veracity of the complaint is not really relevant. Unless they want to defy the law in order to go out on a limb to protect a customer. Which is a lot to ask of any business.

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#14

Post by cft » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:02 AM UTC

lacker wrote: post #6

It isn’t really fair to pick on Linode, all US hosting providers work the same way. When someone files a DMCA claim, if you want to keep the content up you need your lawyer to file a counterclaim. Hosting providers are then allowed to leave it up, and you can fight about it in court. It sounds from this article like the newspaper didn’t have a lawyer, or at least not a lawyer familiar with American law. That sucks bu…

Absolutely not. You can ignore a defective DMCA notices and see if the claimant files a lawsuit. Google routinely does this [1]. It is a business risk choosing between losing a client vs getting sued. If you value your clients, you should have a review process to access the legality of DMCA notices you receive.

1. https://torrentfreak.com/google-keeps-rejecting-hollywoods-b...

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#15

Post by anonydsfsfs » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:03 AM UTC

jachee wrote: post #8

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re not in the US, avoid US technology providers subject to US law. This publication would likely be better suited using a provider out of Europe.

What's the non-US equivalent of Linode?

https://www.hetzner.com/

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#16

Post by mherdeg » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:05 AM UTC

I'm kind of amazed at how effective this digital reputation management technique is:

* publish an exact copy of the offending content on a web site and include something that looks like a datetime which is earlier than the publication date of the offending content * tell the web site's ISP and other service providers that they're violating copyright, pointing to your fake content and using the providers' copyright-violation processes, which you know all about because your reputation firm does this stuff all the time

This also works for search engine deindexing, right?

It's just remarkable to me that (a) we all know this works super well and (b) it keeps working even though everyone knows about it.

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#17

Post by stanislavb » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:07 AM UTC

The question is whether other providers would have done the same. i.e. is it Linode to blame explicitly or federal law and US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)?

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#18

Post by Sendotsh » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:07 AM UTC

> please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

The title of this submission should be "CENSORED: How the M&G got taken down". Linode aren't the bad guys here and the title is flat-out misleading.

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#19

Post by illuminati1911 » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:09 AM UTC

The DMCA is truly a steaming pile of shit.

Nintendo and other companies are also abusing it to take down fair use videos by individuals on YouTube.

Re: How the “Mail & Guardian” got taken down

#20

Post by ISL » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 5:12 AM UTC

Sendotsh wrote: post #18

> please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html The title of this submission should be "CENSORED: How the M&G got taken down". Linode aren't the bad guys here and the title is flat-out misleading.

It is unclear that Linode is acting like a good guy here.