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No, Github has no discretion in this process. Their only job is to follow the policy to the letter: provide the notice to the presumed offender and disable cont

No, Github has no discretion in this process. Their only job is to follow the policy to the letter: provide the notice to the presumed offender and disable content, then forward the counter-notice to the original complainant and re-enable the content in 10 days.

KenoFischer 6y ago
GitHub can decide a takedown notice is facially invalid. Of course if it's later found that they're wrong by a court of competent jurisdiction, they'd be in trouble, so they're likely to be extremely conservative in making this determination.
- URSpider94 6y ago
  I'm curious to know whether platforms ever even bother to evaluate takedowns, beyond the most basic fact-checking (e.g. the item to be taken down is spelled properly). It seems like one of those cases where the risk of getting it wrong outweighs the benefit of trying to discriminate between good and bad requests.
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    Doesn’t Google deny DMCA requests sometimes?
    - duskwuff 6y ago
      Sometimes. Not as often as they should, but they will at least reject keyword-based delisting requests for obviously innocent web properties like Wikipedia or IMDB (typically because they have an page about the movie that some overzealous "copyright defense" outfit is trying to protect).
  - greglindahl 6y ago
    "Perfect 10" is famous for filing obviously invalid DMCA takedowns and then suing. They've even won, e.g. Perfect 10 vs Yandex.
ars 6y ago
They are required to wait 10 days, or that's just their minimum timeframe?
- URSpider94 6y ago
  The way I read it, they are required to wait 10 days. I think in part to give the complaining party time to go to court if they think there's a true infringement.
nullc 6y ago
> Github has no discretion in this process That is absolutely untrue. Github could ignore the notice or put the content back up immediately. If they do so, they may lose the DMCA safe harbor for this complaint-- but if there is no credible infringement, that isn't of much consequence.
- lostcolony 6y ago
  To do that is to assume all legal risk themselves, such that should a suit be forthcoming, it's against them, and far less likely to be thrown out, even if it's not credible. They're more likely to have to pay legal fees, and have lost legal protections. The issue isn't their actions, it's that the process requires a 10 day wait, regardless of whether the content is infringing or not.

KenoFischer 6y ago

GitHub can decide a takedown notice is facially invalid. Of course if it's later found that they're wrong by a court of competent jurisdiction, they'd be in trouble, so they're likely to be extremely conservative in making this determination.

URSpider94 6y ago
I'm curious to know whether platforms ever even bother to evaluate takedowns, beyond the most basic fact-checking (e.g. the item to be taken down is spelled properly). It seems like one of those cases where the risk of getting it wrong outweighs the benefit of trying to discriminate between good and bad requests.
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  Doesn’t Google deny DMCA requests sometimes?
  - duskwuff 6y ago
    Sometimes. Not as often as they should, but they will at least reject keyword-based delisting requests for obviously innocent web properties like Wikipedia or IMDB (typically because they have an page about the movie that some overzealous "copyright defense" outfit is trying to protect).
- greglindahl 6y ago
  "Perfect 10" is famous for filing obviously invalid DMCA takedowns and then suing. They've even won, e.g. Perfect 10 vs Yandex.

ars 6y ago

They are required to wait 10 days, or that's just their minimum timeframe?

URSpider94 6y ago
The way I read it, they are required to wait 10 days. I think in part to give the complaining party time to go to court if they think there's a true infringement.

nullc 6y ago

> Github has no discretion in this process That is absolutely untrue. Github could ignore the notice or put the content back up immediately. If they do so, they may lose the DMCA safe harbor for this complaint-- but if there is no credible infringement, that isn't of much consequence.

lostcolony 6y ago
To do that is to assume all legal risk themselves, such that should a suit be forthcoming, it's against them, and far less likely to be thrown out, even if it's not credible. They're more likely to have to pay legal fees, and have lost legal protections. The issue isn't their actions, it's that the process requires a 10 day wait, regardless of whether the content is infringing or not.