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Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

blog.pragmaticengineer.com

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Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#21

Post by donohoe »

nubinetwork wrote: post #6

I'm curious how Google notifies people about things like this... do they pull an email out of whois, or your DNS SOA? If there's nothing linking your website to a Google account, it seems like they could just make your website disappear.

Many sites have setup Google Search Console and so you can be notified through that.

Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#22

Post by donohoe »

progbits wrote: post #10
LoganDark wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they even?

> So imagine my surprise when I was notified that Google removed the article from its search results You know you can just read the linked articles, right? Edit: parent has edited their post, it used to say something like "google has never notified anyone about such things".

I have received notifications for stories published by the org I work at when they were delisted for certain terms. Like here, it’s people who got caught doing disreputable things and trying to cleanup their online presence.

Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#23

Post by lambdaone »

DMCA notices are meant to be submitted "under penalty of perjury", and false notices could in theory result in civil action being taken against those who send them. In practice, neither of these occur even if the sender is a real person, like a record company lawyer lending their name to complaint that are entirely computer generated, or, in this as in so many cases, a completely fabricated identity.

Requiring verification through government ID for takedown notices should be a minimum requirement.

Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#24

Post by altmanaltman »

> The fake DMCA is made by a fake profile from a country with zero inhabitants. The removal requests by this "Ellie Piee" are made from the country called Bouvet Island, an uninhabited Norwegian dependent territory in the South Atlantic/Southern Ocean near Antarctica. It has zero inhabitants, and is referred to as the "world's most remote island."

this is the most infuriating part, you don't even have to be a person to do this?

Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#25

Post by eamag »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #11
pancho111203 wrote: post #4

How easy is it to challenge these claims?

You pay lawyer, they back off, you're now in the red for lawyer fees. I guess you could sue for damages but good fucking luck

1) Do you have to pay for the lawyer? Can't you object yourself? 2) Shouldn't offending side reimburse the expenses?

Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#26

Post by orliesaurus »

Does Google use GEMINI to handle these?

The thing that stands out to me isn't even the fake identity or the fake country. It's that the incentives are completely backwards.

Submitting a bogus DMCA is basically free. Google's cheapest option is to comply first and sort it out later. Meanwhile the person who did nothing wrong has to spend hours (or money) fixing it.

That's a system where every incentive points toward abuse...without knowing what and how this system works behind the scenes, makes me wonder...if it's one of those "delegated to Accenture" processes; like the Google Drive file moderation...

Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#27

Post by masfuerte »

eamag wrote: post #25
PunchyHamster wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pay lawyer, they back off, you're now in the red for lawyer fees. I guess you could sue for damages but good fucking luck

1) Do you have to pay for the lawyer? Can't you object yourself? 2) Shouldn't offending side reimburse the expenses?

> Shouldn't offending side reimburse the expenses?

In an ideal world. They might even be legally liable in this one. But you still have to sue them to get the money, which is an expensive gamble for a very small pay off.

Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#28

Post by nneonneo »

I’m guessing the obvious fakeness of the request is part of it: they’re testing to see if anyone is paying attention. Maybe the author doesn’t care if it gets taken down after four years; maybe they see a super fake request and assume it won’t succeed (or read it as spam). It also costs them nothing and has zero legal liability because there’s nobody to prosecute for such a fake request.

Re: Pollen tried to remove my article and Google is assisting with it

#29

Post by nubinetwork »

donohoe wrote: post #21
nubinetwork wrote: post #6

I'm curious how Google notifies people about things like this... do they pull an email out of whois, or your DNS SOA? If there's nothing linking your website to a Google account, it seems like they could just make your website disappear.

Many sites have setup Google Search Console and so you can be notified through that.

That was what I was referring to... if you never set it up, I guess you'll never know then?
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