

Universal Music accused of using fraudulent DMCA notices as a negotiating tactic - jancona
http://torrentfreak.com/youtube-dmca-takedown-grabs-track-for-eminem-110719/

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larrik
Do we know how much of this is really true? The only actual quotes in here are
a pair of vague tweets.

This could be fear-mongering by the anti-music groups, or it could be a stunt
to give Skepta more attention/credibility. Or it could literally be false or
an otherwise non-story.

Of course, it can be true after all. It just sets off alarms in my head saying
"this doesn't seem vetted."

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Natsu
"Anti-music" groups? Is there some group of librarians out there trying to
hush anyone playing music or something?

We may not know why the complaint was issued, but we know that the artist
released it on his own YouTube account and we know that the video was replaced
by a copyright notice. Those are all things that any person browsing the web
could verify for themselves.

Only the copyright holder or their agent can authorize a DMCA notice, so it's
pretty hard to understand why the artists own upload got taken down.

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larrik
Poor wording on my part. I meant anti music _industry_ groups, (all of the
RIAA haters, torrent websites, etc.). I count myself among them, although my
reasons are a little different.

There were tons of stories about companies (especially TV studios, I believe)
where the PR/Marketing team would post stuff to YouTube, and then Legal would
file DMCAs to take it down. I believe that was even a part of the lawsuit
against YouTube. So, the idea that something similar happened here isn't
ridiculous, especially if Skepta thought he had rights to the music he signed
away that he did not in fact have.

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raganwald
Is it fair to call this "hacking" the DMCA system? Or should we frown and
prefer the more pejorative "exploiting?"

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onemoreact
I don't think it's really "hacking" the DMCA when you are simply committing
fraud and breaking the law. If anything I would call it simple bulling.

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joelrunyon
Earlier submission --> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2785126>

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kellysutton
Well, that's one way to get someone's attention.

