All your dirty secret are belong to us
|
|
|
Warner Brothers admits making false takedown requests
BIG MEDIA OUTFIT Warner Brothers has admitted in court that it asked Hotfile to take down material that it did not own.
The film studio made the admission in a federal court, according to a report at Torrentfreak, and revealed that it had removed files from Hotfile for which it did not own the copyrights.
It used a scatter gun approach to takedown requests, apparently, and sometimes it removed files by mistake. The firm also admitted that one of its workers took down open source software that could be used to speed up downloads from the web site.
The case is a murky one. Hotfile gave Warner Brothers access to its web site after the company complained that its copyrighted material was being shared on its web pages. Hotfile soon complained that the media firm was abusing this right, and the result is what we have in front of us now.
"Warner has made repeated, reckless and irresponsible misrepresentations to Hotfile falsely claiming to own copyrights in material from Hotfile.com," said Hotfile in a complaint published by Torrentfreak.
Warner Brothers admitted that this was true, and said that it did not always accurately check the contents of files, and thus made a number of errors.
"Warner admits that, given the volume and pace of new infringements on Hotfile, Warner could not practically download and view the contents of each file prior to requesting that it be taken down through use of the tool," it said.
"Warner admits that, as one component of its takedown process, Warner utilizes automated software to assist in locating files on the Internet believed to contain unauthorized Warner content."
Warner Brothers has asked that the claims be dismissed and argued that even though it took down some content falsely, this did not mean that some other copyright holder might not have done the same thing. µ
Tags: Internet
Share this:
Share
Yes they have. A DMCA takedown notice includes a declaration, "under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA_takedown)
"Perjury" means you have promised to tell the truth. So if it turns out you weren't, then you get subject to legal penalties for lying.
Under US law, at least, all works are covered by copyright from the moment of publication (even without filing a copyright registration with the USPTO).
Ergo, if I publish a video of a worm crawling across my driveway, which I created with my handy little digital camera, I *automatically* own copyright on that video.
If WB (or anyone else) falsely claims copyright on that video for the purpose of a DMCA takedonw request, the false claimant is in violation of US Federal law (to wit, the DMCA).
There is a significant (much greater than zero) chance that, among the works that WB claimed to own, were some that were lawfully published on Hotfile.com by the actual copyright owner(s).
If this is the case, and the copyright owner(s) were to come forward, it would be quite possible for Hotgfile to press counter-charges on WB for knowingly and willfully violating the DMCA.
@bigger_luddite
"no matter how gleeful pirates are over getting back at WB"
Is this comment in reference to the postings below?
If so, have you just accused these people of being Pirates without any evidence? Wow! you should bat for the Media Mafia cause they appear to do that too ;-)
There are still two sides of a complex argument here, no matter how gleeful pirates are over getting back at WB.
) First, WB hasn't apparently lied, at least not in court. So drop all that.
) Was the "mistakenly" taken down material copyrighted? -- If so, then WB acted lawfully, just not on their own behalf.
) Is Hotfile hosting terabytes of illegal content? -- You betcha. That's why they gave WB a special tool to remove some.
) If the "we can't police it all" defense works for Hotfile and other file hosts, then works for WB in this case. Turnabout is fair play.
lets just quit the fucking game of politics and had over the police and military to the what ever corporation wants to use them.
They dictate all actions anyways. Just make them pay the bill from now on.
While we're at it, there is no more need for lawyers and judges, just let the corporations decide if you committed a crime and then they can put you into a forced labor camp, it would be like normal living but you don't have to receive a pay check and pay bills, you just work. Fuck, we'd probably end up with more free time not having to deal with bills.
"Warner Brothers has asked that the claims be dismissed and argued that even though it took down some content falsely, this did not mean that some other copyright holder might not have done the same thing."
So, I can shoot the lawyers if I can prove that someone else in the world might have shot them if I didnt...
"...this did not mean that some other copyright holder might not have done the same thing."
Maybe it is time then for all in the world to send many DMCA requests to remove content from the WB site. There are invariably some copyright holders somewhere that may want for some reason some or all of some stuff taken down. Can't be too careful at publishing; better send a takedown beforehand.
dont mince words here, they lied to the face of the law
they obviously believe they are above the law and can do what they like while everyone else has to abide
they ought to be severeley punished but theyll probably make a fiancial donation to the courts xmas party and get away with it
... big content have now admitted that they are unable to police the alleged misuse of their IP and yet they are striving with all their might to get governments around the world to force ISPs to do exactly that. This is either cynical or an admission that ISPs are much more on the ball as regards the internet than the big studios are. What makes it even worse is that they propose to do this at OUR expense via the fees levied for internet access. Bah!