The DMCA has been taken very seriously by those that feel they can lay down the law with a few bogus reports. Apparently there have been a few different cases of completely legal videos or content being reported, just to get back at someone, and it being forced to be taken down.
Usually an ISP gets involved and with no truthful information they err on the side of caution and have the content removed. You can use the DMCA to send a subpoena without actually proving the infringing material is truly an issue. Then, the companies will give you the IP address of the “offender” once they get the subpoena and you have what you want. A company did just this to “hunt down critics” and it sounds to me like there are many other uses for the scam.
The EFF filed a lawsuit against someone for abusing the DMCA but I have a feeling this will NOT be the last one we see with these same unlawful reports. Someone apparently, in this case, did something to someone online and in their anger and rage the offended party he simply decided to file DMCA complaints against them and the ISPs worked to take down the offending stories–even without a copyright issue involved. It was just nasty stuff being said by another party and a free speech platform.
Basically they are saying that you have more power by using the DMCA with ISPs because they do not want to be held accountable…they react fast to reports and THEN ask if you are guilty or not. What happened to the “innocent until proven guilty” clause that we normally see with laws? I think in these cases everyone involved is too scared to be sued or get into trouble so they all act responsive to the first report, good or bad.
YouTube had this happen as well with a notice given to take down any videos that had the tags “florida” and “football”, citing Collegiate Images which handles college media licenses includes the University of Florida and if you had a personal video, as this person did, of a friend in florida playing football, it was removed. Why? Why does it have to be such a broad rule? I think basic rights are being stomped on in these cases and something needs to be done.
The DMCA is being used to force legal content to be removed and the DMCA supporters will stand by their opinion that there is nothing wrong with this action. What do you think could be done to make the DMCA do more research? There is an anti-DMCA site available for some response to those that disagree with this practice.
