

Ask HN: I received a DMCA claim against a Tweet, advice sought - ohashi

I have a twitter account which automatically tweets available jobs. One of the tweets got a DMCA takedown notification today because it linked to a site that they are claiming is violating their copyright. The job in question was looking to create a clone of a site that allegedly violates copyright.<p>They also sent me a list of all the other tweets that these people filed against. They appear to have filed against anyone who tweeted the same URL regardless of context.<p>My natural instinct says this is BS. It seems absurd that you can file a DMCA against a link to a URL. I would like any advice/experience people have with dealing with this sort of issue.
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Theory5
Standard Disclaimer:I am not a laywer, nor am I handsome enough to play one on
TV. My advice is not legal advice, nor is it particularly good advice. Consult
a lawyer ASAP.

According to a quick google search:
[http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/...](http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter6/6-c.html)

A normal link is considered fair use, but the law is sort of murkey. Many
websites have policies about linking. If your linking directly counters the
websites policy then it is considered infringement.

Personally I would consider a link to my site a compliment, unless it is from
a post directly attacking my site. \---- I do know that if your feed is
automated you should have a policy on your site that clearly outlines the fact
that you have no control over said tweets/postings; and are not responsible
for the content of the job posts. Such a policy may go on to say that you will
remove any posts in violation of copyright, but that is probably up to you
and/or applicable laws in your area.

Cloning sites probably does violate copyright law, but once again if you
didn't post the actual job, then you may not be responsible (though you may be
required to remove the actual job post). I think as long as your site doesn't
advocate the cloning or abuse of copyrighted material you have a chance to
fight this.

Good luck!

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eksith
The DMCA is broad enough that posting a link may be considered "aiding"
copyright infringement (that's a stretch, but since they hold the weapons,
your shields need to be stronger). If all you do is post links to sites, then
you have a legitimate claim that all you're doing is providing examples (and
this is covered under fair use).

But if you do intend on fighting it calling it BS, your alternative is to file
a counter-claim. Going against BS takes effort, as they say.

~~~
ohashi
So the text was along the lines of 'I need a clone of website.com
<actual_link_to_job>' Twitter turned the text website.com into a link. The
intent of the tweet is to communicate what someone is looking to hire for and
a link to the job posting.

Fighting BS takes effort, I am wondering what sort of effort/risk? Has anyone
done it before and can share their experience?

~~~
eksith
It's entirely possible the claims were somehow automated or involved some
drone in an office blindly filing DMCAs with links to the site (just a step
above automated). A counter-claim is enough of a red flag that they'll stop to
take notice of what exactly is going on and who they're filing against. If
this is the case, they're more likely to drop it since pursuing Tweets isn't
as effective as going after the actual site itself.

Either way, if you do decide to fight it, you need some legal counseling
unfortunately, hence the effort bit.

If you prefix your Tweets with "Job Listing: " or just "Listing: ", that may
deflect responsibility more in the future. Also on the Twitter description
maybe an added disclaimer is warranted.

------
jcr
I submitted the following a week or two ago:

Consequences of Filing a False DMCA Takedown Request (aaronkellylaw.com)

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5356163>

Fighting BS can be troublesome, but it can also be profitable!

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gesman
Tell them it's a twitter's problem. Let them DMCA twitter.

