5 ms·

Bogus copyright and trademark complaints: EFF’s Hall Of Shame

91 points by umaar 8y ago

mpweiher 8y ago
Organized Streisand Effect. I love it! Might have this as a regular submission, for extra amplification.
Asgardr 8y ago
I wonder how long it'll take before someone tries to takedown this page ;-)
- cm2187 8y ago
  I wish good luck to someone trying to DMCA the EFF...
r3bl 8y ago
I'd like to mention the most obvious abuse of copyright I've ever seen. It was featured in EFF's hall of shame back in January: https://www.eff.org/takedowns/ten-hours-static-gets-five-copyright-notices https://www.eff.org/takedowns/ten-hours-static-gets-five-cop... Long story short, a YouTube channel got five copyright notices on a 10 hour video featuring nothing but white noise. It was also the story that kind of influenced EFF to re-introduce Takedown Hall of Shame: https://twitter.com/EFF/status/971541783380242433 https://twitter.com/EFF/status/971541783380242433 And, finally, a link to the tweet that started this whole story by the uploader of the video: https://twitter.com/littlescale/status/949032404206870528 https://twitter.com/littlescale/status/949032404206870528
superflyguy 8y ago
Not searchable by name. There's a description like "video game developer says he won't take down had reviews but does" but you'd presumably have to watch the linked-to video to find out who. I guess this is for legal reasons. "Hey, we didn't mention anyone". Means that the page needs to be monitored for dead links when the videos/articles get taken down.
- JdeBP 8y ago
  The hyperlinks are not to videos. You might try actually following one.
richardhod 8y ago
Unfortunately What Can We Do Worse? the Time Warner customer service parody on this list seems to be down http://twccustomerservice.com http://twccustomerservice.com and https://www.eff.org/takedowns/what-can-time-warner-cable-do-worse https://www.eff.org/takedowns/what-can-time-warner-cable-do-... Perhaps the listing of it here can help it get back up. ..
- ryanlol 8y ago
  TWC took (or more likely, just threatened) legal action and now owns that domain. It's not coming back up.
swebs 8y ago
They could link to the censored object in question in the articles. For example, in this [1] report they mention that the tweet was reinstated, but they never link to it. After some searching, I eventually found it here [2] [1] https://www.eff.org/takedowns/critic-uses-dmca-avoid-criticism https://www.eff.org/takedowns/critic-uses-dmca-avoid-critici... [2] https://twitter.com/PhoxelHQ/status/991790495088173056 https://twitter.com/PhoxelHQ/status/991790495088173056
ddtaylor 8y ago
My channel was given a notice from Nintendo and I appealed it agreeing to go to court. They disputed and re-filed the claim multiple times and said I lost the claim after appeal. The video was of me downloading via Github a NES emulator that someone wrote in less than 1000 lines of C++ not even minified or anything. It worked too and had many features. I made the video to show the developer a bug with the sound. None of the sound even played correctly which was the entire premise of the video itself. You could barely make out the tune of the original Zelda game even if you knew it, let alone enjoy it with all the random static, pops and clicks. I was actually excited to make a series of videos showing me doing emulation from the ground up so that more could enjoy the hobby and teach people how emulators aren't always complicated black boxes of magic, but upon losing the appeal over the course of 2 months on my FIRST upload I gave up since it would have taken me hours to manage this for every video when I wasn't expecting to make anything from it. Also Nintendo attempts to essentially bribe you saying they will make it all go away is you give them 60% ownership and sign their partner agreement. I declined, and they later said I violated the partner agreement I never accepted in the YouTube dispute. Nintendo is trash in my book now.
- jrhurst 8y ago
  Wait. So did you go to court or not?
  - ddtaylor 8y ago
    No. I had to sign an affidavit as part of the appeal after Nintendo appealed saying I was willing to go to court and that YouTube was going to end their involvement in the dispute if it continued then the next email I received was saying I had lost my dispute and I could start the process over again for a third time. At that point I started considering the reality of doing this with every video and decided to cut my losses since it would never scale.
    - busterarm 8y ago
      YouTube's content takedown/appeal process is both Kafkaesque and completely rigged in favor of large businesses. Even/especially when they claim content that they don't own.
digitalgravy 8y ago
I don't understand; is stealing Bethesda's artwork for the Fallout series meant to be ironic?
- detaro 8y ago
  The "Bethesda artwork" that's a commonly used TV test pattern, in the public domain, designed in the 30s?
  - digitalgravy 8y ago
    That one specifically is just a Photoshop'd Fallout "Please Stand By" test card: Bethesda 'original': https://www.theworkprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/please-stand-by-fallout-bethesda.png https://www.theworkprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/plea... EFF 'version': https://www.eff.org/files/2017/08/01/no-downtime-1.jpg https://www.eff.org/files/2017/08/01/no-downtime-1.jpg
    - kayfox 8y ago
      Those look like their both from the same test card pattern, but not the same image of that test card. The paper grain/noise looks different between the two.
    - busterarm 8y ago
      RCA original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian-head_test_pattern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian-head_test_pattern

91 points by umaar 8y ago

mpweiher 8y ago

Organized Streisand Effect. I love it! Might have this as a regular submission, for extra amplification.

Asgardr 8y ago

I wonder how long it'll take before someone tries to takedown this page ;-)

cm2187 8y ago
I wish good luck to someone trying to DMCA the EFF...

r3bl 8y ago

I'd like to mention the most obvious abuse of copyright I've ever seen. It was featured in EFF's hall of shame back in January: https://www.eff.org/takedowns/ten-hours-static-gets-five-copyright-notices https://www.eff.org/takedowns/ten-hours-static-gets-five-cop... Long story short, a YouTube channel got five copyright notices on a 10 hour video featuring nothing but white noise. It was also the story that kind of influenced EFF to re-introduce Takedown Hall of Shame: https://twitter.com/EFF/status/971541783380242433 https://twitter.com/EFF/status/971541783380242433 And, finally, a link to the tweet that started this whole story by the uploader of the video: https://twitter.com/littlescale/status/949032404206870528 https://twitter.com/littlescale/status/949032404206870528

superflyguy 8y ago

Not searchable by name. There's a description like "video game developer says he won't take down had reviews but does" but you'd presumably have to watch the linked-to video to find out who. I guess this is for legal reasons. "Hey, we didn't mention anyone". Means that the page needs to be monitored for dead links when the videos/articles get taken down.

JdeBP 8y ago
The hyperlinks are not to videos. You might try actually following one.

richardhod 8y ago

Unfortunately What Can We Do Worse? the Time Warner customer service parody on this list seems to be down http://twccustomerservice.com http://twccustomerservice.com and https://www.eff.org/takedowns/what-can-time-warner-cable-do-worse https://www.eff.org/takedowns/what-can-time-warner-cable-do-... Perhaps the listing of it here can help it get back up. ..

ryanlol 8y ago
TWC took (or more likely, just threatened) legal action and now owns that domain. It's not coming back up.

swebs 8y ago

They could link to the censored object in question in the articles. For example, in this [1] report they mention that the tweet was reinstated, but they never link to it. After some searching, I eventually found it here [2] [1] https://www.eff.org/takedowns/critic-uses-dmca-avoid-criticism https://www.eff.org/takedowns/critic-uses-dmca-avoid-critici... [2] https://twitter.com/PhoxelHQ/status/991790495088173056 https://twitter.com/PhoxelHQ/status/991790495088173056

ddtaylor 8y ago

My channel was given a notice from Nintendo and I appealed it agreeing to go to court. They disputed and re-filed the claim multiple times and said I lost the claim after appeal. The video was of me downloading via Github a NES emulator that someone wrote in less than 1000 lines of C++ not even minified or anything. It worked too and had many features. I made the video to show the developer a bug with the sound. None of the sound even played correctly which was the entire premise of the video itself. You could barely make out the tune of the original Zelda game even if you knew it, let alone enjoy it with all the random static, pops and clicks. I was actually excited to make a series of videos showing me doing emulation from the ground up so that more could enjoy the hobby and teach people how emulators aren't always complicated black boxes of magic, but upon losing the appeal over the course of 2 months on my FIRST upload I gave up since it would have taken me hours to manage this for every video when I wasn't expecting to make anything from it. Also Nintendo attempts to essentially bribe you saying they will make it all go away is you give them 60% ownership and sign their partner agreement. I declined, and they later said I violated the partner agreement I never accepted in the YouTube dispute. Nintendo is trash in my book now.

jrhurst 8y ago
Wait. So did you go to court or not?
- ddtaylor 8y ago
  No. I had to sign an affidavit as part of the appeal after Nintendo appealed saying I was willing to go to court and that YouTube was going to end their involvement in the dispute if it continued then the next email I received was saying I had lost my dispute and I could start the process over again for a third time. At that point I started considering the reality of doing this with every video and decided to cut my losses since it would never scale.
  - busterarm 8y ago
    YouTube's content takedown/appeal process is both Kafkaesque and completely rigged in favor of large businesses. Even/especially when they claim content that they don't own.

digitalgravy 8y ago

I don't understand; is stealing Bethesda's artwork for the Fallout series meant to be ironic?

detaro 8y ago
The "Bethesda artwork" that's a commonly used TV test pattern, in the public domain, designed in the 30s?
- digitalgravy 8y ago
  That one specifically is just a Photoshop'd Fallout "Please Stand By" test card: Bethesda 'original': https://www.theworkprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/please-stand-by-fallout-bethesda.png https://www.theworkprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/plea... EFF 'version': https://www.eff.org/files/2017/08/01/no-downtime-1.jpg https://www.eff.org/files/2017/08/01/no-downtime-1.jpg
  - kayfox 8y ago
    Those look like their both from the same test card pattern, but not the same image of that test card. The paper grain/noise looks different between the two.
  - busterarm 8y ago
    RCA original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian-head_test_pattern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian-head_test_pattern