Earlier quoted context omitted.
There has never been any blowback from false DMCA claims.
That is not true. This old (2010) article mentions two such cases: https://blogs.lawyers.com/attorney/intellectual-property/con...
Cunningham's Law ftw.
Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
31–40 of 96 posts
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#32https://twitter.com/thexpaw/status/1376796965942464515 > We've got in touch with someone at SEGA of America and it is being looked into. > Thanks for your support everyonee, it is truly amazing to see that my hobby (!) project is useful to so many people
I hope they consider taking Sega to court over this. Sega’s behavior is clearly in violation of the law, and a precedent needs to be set. Perhaps the EFF or a similar organization would be willing to represent them. https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/05/fraudulent-dmca-takedown-...
A multi-year long, expensive lawsuit over a hobby project isn’t what anyone signed up for though.
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
SteamDB is a hobby project by two guys - I doubt they want the cost of a lawyer or headache of a legal defense. They may also get suspended by CloudFlare in the meantime.
I think a response would take about 30 minutes billed time to tell them that it's fair use. If Sega decided to drop their DMCA claim, I don't think the cost would exceed 2 hours billed time even if they decided to write back or schedule a conference call about it or whatever. Depending on the nature of the claim, Sega's real disposition, and what was on the page, a counternotice might have sufficed to clear it up wit…
Or they can skip the hiring a lawyer step, because it's a hobby project, and post something to Twitter and hope it gains momentum. Like it has.
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
SteamDB is a hobby project by two guys - I doubt they want the cost of a lawyer or headache of a legal defense. They may also get suspended by CloudFlare in the meantime.
I think a response would take about 30 minutes billed time to tell them that it's fair use. If Sega decided to drop their DMCA claim, I don't think the cost would exceed 2 hours billed time even if they decided to write back or schedule a conference call about it or whatever. Depending on the nature of the claim, Sega's real disposition, and what was on the page, a counternotice might have sufficed to clear it up wit…
On the other hand, raising a stink on Twitter seems to accomplish the same goal, and is free. As much as I dislike the pathology of modern social media, it does seem to be an effective tool for individuals to defend against businesses, big or small.
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
There has never been any blowback from false DMCA claims.
That is not true. This old (2010) article mentions two such cases: https://blogs.lawyers.com/attorney/intellectual-property/con...
Site seems to be broken, gives me an Access Denied. Here's Google cache: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AVUICl...
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
SteamDB is a hobby project by two guys - I doubt they want the cost of a lawyer or headache of a legal defense. They may also get suspended by CloudFlare in the meantime.
I think a response would take about 30 minutes billed time to tell them that it's fair use. If Sega decided to drop their DMCA claim, I don't think the cost would exceed 2 hours billed time even if they decided to write back or schedule a conference call about it or whatever. Depending on the nature of the claim, Sega's real disposition, and what was on the page, a counternotice might have sufficed to clear it up wit…
> Hiring a lawyer to fight a DMCA claim is not the same as hiring one to defend you in a lawsuit or a criminal matter.
It's still expensive. Two hours of time can cost you into the thousands of dollars; more if you are unlucky enough to get a scumbag of a lawyer.
And there's nothing resembling a guarantee that the letter alone will work. Fair use is a positive defense, which means that you're admitting that you are infringing on their copyright, only you believe that you're within the allowed limitations.
Large corporations can and do easily push the discussion into the court system, since the court is the only entity who can ultimately judge whether something is fair use or not. Suddenly you're up to much more than a couple of hours with your lawyer, only to have the corporation drop the suit at a late hour and leave you with nothing - no judgement in your favor, no recompense for your costs.
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? If the risks for making a false DMCA takedown request were that high, I would expect to see less false takedown notices, and less aggressive bots. Or maybe the aggressors are just assuming that the victims don't have the resources to fight a megacorp in court? If it's the latter it seems like an organization like EFF should step in to fund such a fight.
I believe for all of the above to apply, it would have to be proven that the request was knowingly malicious, as in they had full knowledge that the page did not infringe but decided to send a takedown notice anyway. That's highly unlikely, and good luck proving it anyway. However, they are still liable and can absolutely be sued civilly for an improper takedown notice. But the penalty probably wouldn't extend beyond…
So the approach is to write a bot, do zero human checks and then say "well, see, yes, we sent this complaint, but we didn't actually send it ourselves, the bot did, so we didn't know that it was wrong, because we've decided to never check these things before sending them out"?
It's weird, when you can write a program to do something in your name and as your agent, and then claim "it totally wasn't me, lol".
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe for all of the above to apply, it would have to be proven that the request was knowingly malicious, as in they had full knowledge that the page did not infringe but decided to send a takedown notice anyway. That's highly unlikely, and good luck proving it anyway. However, they are still liable and can absolutely be sued civilly for an improper takedown notice. But the penalty probably wouldn't extend beyond…
At what point does neglicent become knowingly malicious?
More generally: we need a legal framework that makes people deploying automation responsible for what the automation does to the same extent as they would be if they hired people to do the same work. "It's a false positive in an automated system" should never be acceptable justification for invalid legal action, nor should it be used as extenuating circumstances. Either you're prepared to pay for the mistakes of your algorithm, or you should not be deploying the algorithm at all.
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#39https://twitter.com/thexpaw/status/1376796965942464515 > We've got in touch with someone at SEGA of America and it is being looked into. > Thanks for your support everyonee, it is truly amazing to see that my hobby (!) project is useful to so many people
I hope they consider taking Sega to court over this. Sega’s behavior is clearly in violation of the law, and a precedent needs to be set. Perhaps the EFF or a similar organization would be willing to represent them. https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/05/fraudulent-dmca-takedown-...
Take their lawyers to court. They're the ones that need to experience a chilling effect for acting in bad faith by signing off on fraudulent claims.
Re: Sega Lawyers Demand “Immediate Suspension” of Steam Database over Alleged Piracy
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe for all of the above to apply, it would have to be proven that the request was knowingly malicious, as in they had full knowledge that the page did not infringe but decided to send a takedown notice anyway. That's highly unlikely, and good luck proving it anyway. However, they are still liable and can absolutely be sued civilly for an improper takedown notice. But the penalty probably wouldn't extend beyond…
At what point does neglicent become knowingly malicious?
IANAL, but I think it's when, in a follow-up lawsuit, they find emails or other such evidence showing the takedown submitting party did so with knowledge that it was a false notice ahead of time. If you can't find something like that, then it stays negligence.