nsane.forums Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 It’s no secret that copyright holders are trying to take down as much pirated content as they can, but their targeting of open source software is something new. In an attempt to remove pirated copies of Game of Thrones from the Internet, HBO sent a DMCA takedown to Google, listing a copy of the popular media player VLC as a copyright infringement. An honest mistake, perhaps, but a worrying one.Day in and day out copyright holders send hundreds of thousands of DMCA takedown notices to Google, hoping to make pirated movies and music harder to find.During the past month alone copyright holders asked Google to remove 14,855,269 URLs from its search results. Unfortunately, not all of these requests are legitimate.In some cases the notices are flagged as false because the content has already been removed from the original site. But the automated systems used by copyright holders also include perfectly legitimate content. While Google keeps a close eye on this type of “abuse” the search engine can’t spot them all.One good example of such a mistake is contained in a recent demand by HBO. The network is faced with a high demand for pirated copies of Game of Thrones and over the past months they asked Google to remove tens of thousands of links to the popular TV-show.Usually these notices ask Google to get rid of links to pirate sites, but for some reason the cable network also wants Google to remove a link to the highly popular open source video player VLC.Pirate VLC?The URL in question belongs to the torrent site TorrentPortal but as can be seen here, it doesn’t link to any infringing content.The same DMCA notice also lists various other links that don’t appear to link to HBO content, including a lot of porn related material, Ben Harper’s album Give Till It’s Gone, Naruto, free Java applets and Prince of Persia 5.Over the past months HBO and many other copyright holders have built up a dubious track record when it comes to DMCA takedown notices. In addition to many “bogus” claims the company also tried to have its own website removed from Google.The above mistakes may be relatively harmless to the site owners, but they show once again how much can go wrong with these automated DMCA notices. This is particularly troublesome since Google is down-ranking sites based on the number of DMCA notices it receives for them.Whether these mistakes can be rooted out is doubtful as there is very little incentive for copyright holders to improve their accuracy. Google, however, is determined to prevent abuse and mistakes.“We still do our best to catch errors or abuse so we don’t mistakenly disable access to non-infringing material. Google continues to put substantial resources into improving and streamlining this process, including into identifying erroneous and abusive takedowns, and deterring abuse,” Google told us previously.For now, however, these erroneous takedowns will continue.View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flitox Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 come on VLC let's sue them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lacius Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 Although this was almost certainly an automation mistake, it should be noted that using VLC Media Player in the United States to read DVDs is technically illegal according to the DMCA. VLC Media Player breaks DVD encryption forcibly rather than pay for the licence to use it.http://www.howtogeek.com/138969/why-watching-dvds-on-linux-is-illegal-in-the-usa/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danieltex Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 Cracking a code by whatever method is not illegal anywhere. The application of the code is not illegal. The use of that code to breach copyright might be, however in purchasing a DVD you are buying an encrypted data set and you have purchased the legal right to decrypt it to see the licenced material you have a paid licence for (implicit in its purchase). The means and the tools used to do this is are surely up to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lacius Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 Cracking a code by whatever method is not illegal anywhere. The application of the code is not illegal. The use of that code to breach copyright might be, however in purchasing a DVD you are buying an encrypted data set and you have purchased the legal right to decrypt it to see the licensed material you have a paid licence for (implicit in its purchase). The means and the tools used to do this is are surely up to you.What you said should be the case, but it is not the case in the United States with the DMCA.http://chillingeffects.org/anticircumvention/faq.cgi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calguyhunk Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 Why are we acting so surprised here? :o The corporates are running the world. Have been doing so for all of recorded history :(We'd have a lot less problems round the world if Wall Street had less influence in the day to day running of the US of A and by extension - the rest of the world :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flitox Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 usa isn't the world so still not a good reason to ask for the link to be remove.and as you said if that's an automation mistake, let's sue them even more so they can deal with their incompetence! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrioNeXus Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 We should dump our computers and run to the forest to live :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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