
Using The DMCA To Stop Patients From Rating Their Doctors - gasull
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090328/1445494290.shtml
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streety
"Even though you can get in trouble for filing a false DMCA notification (and
even for failing to take fair use into account), most online services will
quickly pull down content when receiving a DMCA takedown to preserve their
safe harbor protections. So in almost all cases, the content will get pulled
down, even if the content isn't really infringing."

Although this will be true for content randomly scattered about the internet
there aren't that many services reviewing doctors, RateMyMD.com was mentioned,
and so I would expect them to have the clout and the incentive to stand
against this.

~~~
smanek
My understanding is that the DMCA says that when a site receives a take down
notice they have to take down the content immediately and notify the poster.
If the poster chooses the contest the take down notice, the service can put
the content back up while the supposed-copyright-holder and poster fight
things out in court. In return the service isn't liable for what users post.

Thus, RateMyMD.com doesn't get to fight the copyright infringement notice -
the poster does.

~~~
eli
Correct, but knowingly filing a false takedown notice is technically a
criminal offense. You are swearing under penalty of perjury that you are the
copyright owner.

~~~
billswift
True, but has anyone ever actually gotten charged to this, no matter how
egregious? About a year or so ago, the RIAA was caught basically spamming any
IP address that their automated system came up with as a possible music
downloader including some networked printers that could not have been
downloading.

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/06/framing_comput...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/06/framing_compute_1.html)

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/08/monitoring_p2p...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/08/monitoring_p2p.html)
(this one has link to an academic paper (pdf) discussing it)

I thought there was a post on Freedom to Tinker about it too but couldn't find
anything.

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billswift
"Discrimination is perfectly legal so long as it's not based on a protected
class (race, religion, gender, handicap, etc.). Our society hasn't quite yet
reached the ridiculous point where refusal to sign copyright clauses is a
protected class."

Actually, I, and at least some others here are in an anti-protected class.
"Being intelligent is not a felony, but most societies rate it at least a
misdemeanor."

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mhb
RateMyMD.com appears to be a parked domain. Maybe they mean
<http://www.ratemds.com>?

