DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google • Hacker News Board

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#61

Post by j42 » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:39 AM UTC

adamnemecek wrote: post #37

ghuntley wrote: post #6

Have submitted a counter-complaint (#2-4109000005746) for the following: # curl https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/10275257 | grep github https://help.github.com/articles/dealing-with-non-fast-forward-errors/ https://github.com/Zizzamia/ng-tasty https://github.com/zen-kernel/zen-kernel https://github.com/yahoo/pure/releases/ https://github.com/yahoo/pure https://github.com/YabataDesign/afterglow-theme https://gi…

What an eclectic collection of projects.

Looking at common keywords among the URL's, it appears as though they are merely taking a movie database, googling titles, and submitting complaints for anything containing said title/keyword in the URL (e.g. Pushover, Knockout, Wicked, etc.).

Shady, manipulative, and particularly troubling when the DMCA protocol is "shoot-first" and there is absolutely no oversight or review.

Some kind of punitive penalty for false complaints and a few precedents are needed to put these copyright trolls in their place...

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#62

Post by Zancarius » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:40 AM UTC

jkrems wrote: post #43

markbao wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very unlikely that Google would follow through on an obviously wrong takedown unless if the competitor was actually infringing copyright. EDIT: Well, yes, they did do that here. My bad. My original point was that Competitor A submitting a wanton DMCA takedown against Competitor B wouldn't fly past Google's radar.

Well, they just took down rust's package manager on Github. That's an obviously wrong takedown. If I understand the system correctly, it actually is designed for "shoot first, ask questions later".

> Well, they just took down rust's package manager on Github.

Just in case anyone skims this far and panics by misreading jkrems' post, I should clarify that they took down the Google search results for Cargo, rather than the Github repo [1]. Unfortunately, for the average user, removing something from Google may as well be a complete takedown...

This implications of this are troubling.

[1] https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#63

Post by kngspook » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:41 AM UTC

click170 wrote: post #38

Wow, this is awesome, thank you! It would have taken a half hour to come up with such an extensive list of torrent sites, and here they've done all the hard work for me! Merry Christmas to me! Side note - I'm surprised they've included some pages which do not contain copyrighted work though, they may be exposing themselves on that one.

As I was scrolling through the list, that was my thought too... "Hey, check out all these porn sites I didn't know about!"

Then I realized their master plan: they're protecting their business model by (1) making it harder for us to do our work since it's harder for us to find the software libraries/tools we need, and (2) by providing us with a list of porn sites they fill up the time we would've otherwise spent coding.

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#64

Post by lstamour » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:42 AM UTC

Nobody's pointed it out, so I'll say I'm really surprised wet-boew was picked up in all this -- it's from the Government of Canada, and what they've done to try and advance web accessibility, etc. http://wet-boew.github.io/v4.0-ci/index-en.html#about

The name is not ... the greatest, though. Maybe they should have called it "Boilerplate, eh?" ;)

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#65

Post by dsl » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:45 AM UTC

markbao wrote: post #28

Presumably, Takedown Piracy LLC and their client would have to have signed the Sworn Statements on Google's DMCA page [0]: I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. The information in this notification is accurate and I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I am the copyright owner or am aut…

Sure, you can take that tiny little shell holding company for all its worth...

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#66

Post by teddyh » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:46 AM UTC

declan wrote: post #55

If you send bogus DMCA takedown notices, and this qualifies as one, there can be legal consequences. The DMCA requires: "A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed." Whoops! This particular list of "infringing" URLs wasn't actually, well, accurat…

> Note that this situation probably won't get that far. That's because the DMCA doesn't require Google or any other provider to comply with bogus takedown notices. And Google happens to have some smart attorneys (at least one ex-EFF lawyer, in fact) on its payroll who are well aware of that fact.

Google removed all URLs except 3:

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/...

In other words, Google is not the EFF.

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#67

Post by ctoshok » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:46 AM UTC

nissehulth wrote: post #33

ghuntley wrote: post #6

Have submitted a counter-complaint (#2-4109000005746) for the following: # curl https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/10275257 | grep github https://help.github.com/articles/dealing-with-non-fast-forward-errors/ https://github.com/Zizzamia/ng-tasty https://github.com/zen-kernel/zen-kernel https://github.com/yahoo/pure/releases/ https://github.com/yahoo/pure https://github.com/YabataDesign/afterglow-theme https://gi…

Are they going to accept that counter-complaint, coming from a third party? (yes, I should probably read up on DMCA procedures)

GitHub doesn't :( I filed one for the craftbukkit takedown a while back, and got a polite response saying it has to be the content owner.

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#68

Post by jkrems » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:47 AM UTC

Zancarius wrote: post #62

jkrems wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they just took down rust's package manager on Github. That's an obviously wrong takedown. If I understand the system correctly, it actually is designed for "shoot first, ask questions later".

> Well, they just took down rust's package manager on Github. Just in case anyone skims this far and panics by misreading jkrems' post, I should clarify that they took down the Google search results for Cargo, rather than the Github repo [1]. Unfortunately, for the average user, removing something from Google may as well be a complete takedown... This implications of this are troubling. [1] https://github.com/rust-la…

Yeah, sorry. I took a lazy shortcut there. What I meant was "they targeted the URL of rust's package manager and took a link to it down". It was less about the impact and more about how they couldn't claim that they honestly thought ("good faith") they had any claim on that page. But from all I can find that doesn't matter since there don't seem to be any repercussions for these kinds of takedowns.

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#69

Post by dsl » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:49 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #36

The DMCA notice came from TAKEDOWN PIRACY LLC CA Entity Number: 201034110080 Date Filed: 10/13/2010 Address given to the California Secretary of State's office is: 8045 RETRIEVER AVE LAS VEGAS NV 89147 There is a house at that address. Clark County records ( http://clarkcountydata.com/property/id/iHcTS5Q5V ) show the owners as Clifft Jeremiah J 50% Allegrucci Stephanie L 50% The owners do business as a law firm, Clif…

Here is the owners Twitter... https://twitter.com/tdpnate

They seem to be based out of Las Vegas and almost exclusively cater to the adult and amateur wrestling industries.

Re: DMCA Copyright Complaint to Google

#70

Post by otterley » Wed, Jan 07, 2015, 4:51 AM UTC

declan wrote: post #55

If you send bogus DMCA takedown notices, and this qualifies as one, there can be legal consequences. The DMCA requires: "A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed." Whoops! This particular list of "infringing" URLs wasn't actually, well, accurat…

The "under penalty of perjury" phrase modifies the second clause, not the first. In other words, it's not perjury if the information in the notice is inaccurate -- it's perjury if you falsely claim you are authorized to act on behalf of the grieving party.