5 ms·

Company That Issued Bogus Takedown of TechDirt Post Says It Was All A Mistake

34 points by mbrubeck 15y ago

pluies_public 15y ago
It's not "a mistake", it's perjury. With written acknowledgement from the offending party. I hope TechDirt find this worth pursuing in court, these kinds of abuses of the system should not be allowed to continue.
- sounds 15y ago
  Ok, fine. They win a court case against the offending party. The problem though is that instead of the RIAA/MPAA facing competition from a thousand directions, TechDirt is facing the threat of takedown from a thousand nameless companies. I mean, who's ever heard of Armovore before? The DMCA, right now, puts the burden of "guilty until proven innocent" on the innocent. TechDirt is innocent. The problem is the DMCA. The solutions available include: • Fix campaign finance rules, elect better congresscritters, and repeal the DMCA. • Implement a technical solution that renders the DMCA outdated (What other solutions are available?)
  - wmf 15y ago
    Or they could just file a counter-notification.
  - a_a_r_o_n 15y ago
    "Fix campaign finance rules, elect better congresscritters, and repeal the DMCA." Yeah, except it's Congress that makes those rules. Given that vicious circle, how can that specific problem (campaign finance) realistically be fixed? "Vote them out" doesn't seem to work.
    - sounds 15y ago
      Were you suggesting another solution? My first suggestion is 100% legal - but I think we were all already aware of the problem with that route, considering what just happened to TechDirt.
- Natsu 15y ago
  To be fair, they did point out that it would be "smart and reasonable" to make a donation to the EFF and Public Citizen over this. So... I think they might have something in mind. I doubt they're going to let it pass by quietly. That company gave them a really pathetic excuse, too. They admitted to knowing their DMCA bot wasn't good enough yet, but they let it issue notices anyhow. A place like that is going to end up digging their own grave one of these days, even without TechDirt's help. I mean, I went through their notice and it looks pretty sloppily put together. There are some 555 URLs listed on that particular notice: https://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=189468 https://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=189468 And it's very hard to see how the TechDirt post got in there, because it doesn't seem to match any of the relevant keywords. They appear to have tried to take down material relating to some movie called "Innocent High" and a group called "Team Skeet." Except that they got a lot of other random releases by Team Skeet in there, so there's what appears to be a pirated DS ROM or two, a release of Desperate Housewives and some other random stuff. It does look like stuff that's infringing upon someone's copyrights, but I have to wonder if they are "the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed" with respect to all of those things, which they swore under penalty of perjury that they were. Just what copyright interest does this place have in a crack for Kaspersky antivirus, dare I ask? There are also random PasteBins, but those at least appear to be links to torrents. There are also a few other items which do not appear to be infringing on that particular notice: item #255, which is some random forum thread on AnimeSuki where people are discussing a high school related anime, a news article by the Independent on that cruise ship captain (#250), and some digital graphics site (#251) that seems to be completely unrelated to anything. So yeah, I don't see why they'd sign off on statements from some broken keyword matching robot, knowing that it wasn't very good.
shingen 15y ago
It should be ringing alarm bells? The President of the United States recently suspended habeas corpus with the NDAA bill, realistically declaring an early form of martial law, and very few people noticed or cared. Then he decided to use the Espionage Act to viciously attack and suppress whistle blowers; even less people noticed. Apparently we've also lately codified that it's ok for the US Government to murder US citizens through assassination per Obama's talking points on the subject. In the same time frame, extraordinary rendition has also basically become codified into acceptable practice by the US Government - what was previously intensely argued against a few years ago, is now policy. Clearly the bar has been raised into a whole 'nother universe for what it takes to set off the alarm bells. You're dealing with a confused, bewildered, tired, numb, scared, and extremely divided American people at this point. TechDirt, and everybody else, can expect things to get radically worse yet.
- Zirro 15y ago
  As a non-American I just have to ask, as I see his name thrown around a lot, is Obama really the one making these decisions? Are there not people on a lower level signing some of these? It seems to me, essentially impossible for one man to be able to handle all things brought up recently, not to mention all the non-tech questions I'm sure are debated just as much in other places.
  - mbrubeck 15y ago
    Bills passed by Congress and enacted into law are literally signed by the President; somewhere there is a physical piece of paper that Obama marked with a pen -- except in a few cases where it was a robotic pen: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/11/obama-signs-budget-bill-by-autopen/1#.T02d9SQnaTE http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/11... And the other decisions mentioned above come directly out of the office of the president, which is to say Obama and his cabinet and staff. The executive branch is the president's instrument to wield; I think everyone would agree that the president has responsibility for the actions of his appointees and White House staffers. And the key documents like executive orders are, again, literally signed by Obama's hand.
beedogs 15y ago
Boy, it's a good thing the burden of proof still lies with the accuser... oh, wait. Thanks again, US government, for handing over more of our rights to the wealthy and powerful.

34 points by mbrubeck 15y ago

It's not "a mistake", it's perjury. With written acknowledgement from the offending party. I hope TechDirt find this worth pursuing in court, these kinds of abuses of the system should not be allowed to continue.

sounds 15y ago
Ok, fine. They win a court case against the offending party. The problem though is that instead of the RIAA/MPAA facing competition from a thousand directions, TechDirt is facing the threat of takedown from a thousand nameless companies. I mean, who's ever heard of Armovore before? The DMCA, right now, puts the burden of "guilty until proven innocent" on the innocent. TechDirt is innocent. The problem is the DMCA. The solutions available include: • Fix campaign finance rules, elect better congresscritters, and repeal the DMCA. • Implement a technical solution that renders the DMCA outdated (What other solutions are available?)
- wmf 15y ago
  Or they could just file a counter-notification.
- a_a_r_o_n 15y ago
  "Fix campaign finance rules, elect better congresscritters, and repeal the DMCA." Yeah, except it's Congress that makes those rules. Given that vicious circle, how can that specific problem (campaign finance) realistically be fixed? "Vote them out" doesn't seem to work.
  - sounds 15y ago
    Were you suggesting another solution? My first suggestion is 100% legal - but I think we were all already aware of the problem with that route, considering what just happened to TechDirt.
Natsu 15y ago
To be fair, they did point out that it would be "smart and reasonable" to make a donation to the EFF and Public Citizen over this. So... I think they might have something in mind. I doubt they're going to let it pass by quietly. That company gave them a really pathetic excuse, too. They admitted to knowing their DMCA bot wasn't good enough yet, but they let it issue notices anyhow. A place like that is going to end up digging their own grave one of these days, even without TechDirt's help. I mean, I went through their notice and it looks pretty sloppily put together. There are some 555 URLs listed on that particular notice: https://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=189468 https://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=189468 And it's very hard to see how the TechDirt post got in there, because it doesn't seem to match any of the relevant keywords. They appear to have tried to take down material relating to some movie called "Innocent High" and a group called "Team Skeet." Except that they got a lot of other random releases by Team Skeet in there, so there's what appears to be a pirated DS ROM or two, a release of Desperate Housewives and some other random stuff. It does look like stuff that's infringing upon someone's copyrights, but I have to wonder if they are "the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed" with respect to all of those things, which they swore under penalty of perjury that they were. Just what copyright interest does this place have in a crack for Kaspersky antivirus, dare I ask? There are also random PasteBins, but those at least appear to be links to torrents. There are also a few other items which do not appear to be infringing on that particular notice: item #255, which is some random forum thread on AnimeSuki where people are discussing a high school related anime, a news article by the Independent on that cruise ship captain (#250), and some digital graphics site (#251) that seems to be completely unrelated to anything. So yeah, I don't see why they'd sign off on statements from some broken keyword matching robot, knowing that it wasn't very good.

shingen 15y ago

It should be ringing alarm bells? The President of the United States recently suspended habeas corpus with the NDAA bill, realistically declaring an early form of martial law, and very few people noticed or cared. Then he decided to use the Espionage Act to viciously attack and suppress whistle blowers; even less people noticed. Apparently we've also lately codified that it's ok for the US Government to murder US citizens through assassination per Obama's talking points on the subject. In the same time frame, extraordinary rendition has also basically become codified into acceptable practice by the US Government - what was previously intensely argued against a few years ago, is now policy. Clearly the bar has been raised into a whole 'nother universe for what it takes to set off the alarm bells. You're dealing with a confused, bewildered, tired, numb, scared, and extremely divided American people at this point. TechDirt, and everybody else, can expect things to get radically worse yet.

Zirro 15y ago
As a non-American I just have to ask, as I see his name thrown around a lot, is Obama really the one making these decisions? Are there not people on a lower level signing some of these? It seems to me, essentially impossible for one man to be able to handle all things brought up recently, not to mention all the non-tech questions I'm sure are debated just as much in other places.
- mbrubeck 15y ago
  Bills passed by Congress and enacted into law are literally signed by the President; somewhere there is a physical piece of paper that Obama marked with a pen -- except in a few cases where it was a robotic pen: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/11/obama-signs-budget-bill-by-autopen/1#.T02d9SQnaTE http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/11... And the other decisions mentioned above come directly out of the office of the president, which is to say Obama and his cabinet and staff. The executive branch is the president's instrument to wield; I think everyone would agree that the president has responsibility for the actions of his appointees and White House staffers. And the key documents like executive orders are, again, literally signed by Obama's hand.

beedogs 15y ago

Boy, it's a good thing the burden of proof still lies with the accuser... oh, wait. Thanks again, US government, for handing over more of our rights to the wealthy and powerful.