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The ridiculous thing is that there are no consequences for the groups sending out those invalid DMCA requests. Every other week I read about how someone uses D
by Zikes 11y ago
The ridiculous thing is that there are no consequences for the groups sending out those invalid DMCA requests. Every other week I read about how someone uses DMCA to censor a YouTube video or article that's critical of them, but apart from the loss of face with the public they don't see any of the legal or financial penalties that are supposed to result from invalid DMCAs.
- duskwuff 11y agoPart of the problem there is that the DMCA (and arguably the legal system in general) doesn't deal well with pseudonymity. Contesting a DMCA takedown requires that you send your real name and contact information to the service provider and to the sender of the DMCA. This ends up making the DMCA a dangerous harassment tool; targeted individuals end up with an unpalatable choice between allowing their harassers to force any content of theirs to be taken offline (which will often cause their accounts to be suspended on sites like YouTube!), or giving their harassers their personal information. But more generally -- yes, it's a huge problem that the DMCA has few consequences for "spray and pray" takedowns. While there are some provisions in the law for damages against knowingly issuing an invalid takedown, it's incredibly hard to prove (I'm not sure if it's ever happened!), and in any case, it doesn't apply if the takedown was simply sent in error. Even if you make that error repeatedly, and don't do anything to prevent it.
- ascagnel_ 11y agoA takedown notice is sent under penalty of perjury (which makes it different than a C&D notice). The issue is that it's up to the party that receives the takedown to petition the court for the perjury cause, and that's almost never worth it.