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Their legal team is vicious about taking down any open-source implementation of the W3W encoding algorithm. This is sad because it could be legitimately useful
by whatfreewords 7y ago
Their legal team is vicious about taking down any open-source implementation of the W3W encoding algorithm. This is sad because it could be legitimately useful in a small handful of circumstances, but only if it were free and open to all.
We released WhatFreeWords last week and it was taken down after 4 days.
It is back up now at https://whatfreewords.org/ https://whatfreewords.org/ but who knows for how long.
You can read their DMCA notice to our previous hosting at https://whatfreewords.org/download/dmca-20190917.pdf https://whatfreewords.org/download/dmca-20190917.pdf
- kdbg 7y agoAdding onto what nitrogen said (and I also am not a lawyer) but interoperability is a listed exemption to DMCA. It might be costly to fight but I really don't think they have a leg to stand on to claim copyright. Terms of service violation or something maybe.
- nitrogen 7y agoI'm not a lawyer, but I don't think US copyright covers functionality (that is what patents are for) if you haven't copied any code or creative output, and thus the DMCA wouldn't apply, so that wouldn't be a valid use of a DMCA takedown.
- whatfreewords 7y agoUnfortunately that's not how the DMCA works. Once they've submitted a DMCA notice, the hosting company has to take it down within 2 days unless you file a counter-notice, which has to personally identify you and be signed "on penalty of perjury". None of the DMCA process has anything to do with whether the claimant has a legitimate copyright claim over the work.