

Key Techdirt SOPA/PIPA Post Censored By Bogus DMCA Takedown Notice - TDL
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120223/15102217856/key-techdirt-sopapipa-post-censored-bogus-dmca-takedown-notice.shtml

======
strags
There's certainly precedent for punitive action to be taken.

[http://targetlaw.com/consequences-of-filing-a-false-dmca-
tak...](http://targetlaw.com/consequences-of-filing-a-false-dmca-takedown-
request)

"...A California court agreed with the Group and granted a request for summary
judgment, after which Diebold settled with the Group to pay $125,000 for their
monetary losses and legal fees."

~~~
davidu
I was actually intimately involved in that particular case and one of the
named parties in Diebold's C&D.

Support the EFF. They got the proceeds from our settlement.

~~~
strags
That's great to hear. Thankyou.

------
mindstab
It's good that the US is still the land of "Innocent until proven guilty" and
not vice-versa or even secretly guilty while it's convenient.

~~~
est
Fun fact: China's GFW designer, Fang Binxing, during a national TV interview,
accused Google's censorship with DCMA and Chilling Effects[1].

His argument is basically like this: since Google will censor web content with
bullshit copyright claims in the US, why can't Google censor taboo topics in
China?

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fang_Binxing#cite_note-4>

~~~
tomp
Good point, really. I also wonder why Google censors the copyrighted content
worldwide, if they only get DMCA complaints from the US...

------
davidu
There should be punitive punishment for filing inaccurate takedown notices,
and instead there is immunity.

~~~
bgentry
There are provisions for this type of thing in the DMCA. I'm not sure to what
extent these damages have been enforced, but it appears that the company that
submitted these DMCA requests to Google has committed perjury by doing so in
bad faith.

~~~
rosser
Penalties for bad faith DMCA takedowns have ranged from awarding lawyer's
fees, &c, to the folks whose content was taken down, to having the party that
issued the takedown issue a public apology and take a class on copyright law.
It's also perjury, so criminal sanction is an option, though I don't know how
likely that is to succeed, or how often it's been pursued.

~~~
gbhn
Yes, it's theoretically perjury, but getting a prosecutor to go after it seems
like a pretty far reach, even though it seems clear some of these notices are
an abuse of the law.

------
nextparadigms
A TF article was also censored by "mistake":

[http://torrentfreak.com/torrentfreaks-us-censorship-
mistake-...](http://torrentfreak.com/torrentfreaks-us-censorship-mistake-
article-censored-by-mistake-120227/)

------
wmf
The headline seems a little alarmist; the article in question wasn't
"censored" completely, it was just removed from Google. (I'll preemptively
disagree with the argument that if a page is not Googleable it doesn't exist.)

~~~
irons
The fact that you had to employ the modifier "completely" to make your point
suggests that the headline's use of the verb "censor" was defensible.

~~~
Groxx
You just rationalized all hyperbole.

Their post was obliterated. Could not be found. Ceased to exist. The DMCA
take-down notice removed TechDirt from Google. TechDirt was erased.

All completely true if you don't require modifiers to be stated. I'd prefer
that HN doesn't turn into a tabloid.

~~~
irons
This is a wonderful linguistic cul-de-sac you've steered into, but the fact
remains that "censor" means "suppress"; it does not mean "eradicate". When the
government of China or Acela's internet filtering vendor block a site, they
are censoring it, without removing it from the internet. The same principle
applies here.

~~~
Groxx
Indeed - it was only eradicated from Google's search results. My point is that
that's a modifier, therefore the use of it is defensible...? That's an
objective claim that's completely ridiculous when taken to other contexts.

Whether it's alarmist / excessive is subjective. And, since either would be
technically correct, it probably has more to do with implied meanings or the
common use of a word, and not the dictionary definition. Their usage of it is
certainly defensible, but that has little to do with whether or not a modifier
would make it more accurate.

