UK building firm abuses DMCA to remove a bad review - Polidicks

[url]https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/23/copyright-law-internet-mumsnet[/url] [quote]Narey, who is the head of programme at an international children’s charity, had turned to London-based BuildTeam for a side return extension, but almost six months later, the relationship had turned acrimonious. The build, which was only supposed to take 10–14 weeks, was still unfinished, she wrote. “On Christmas day a ceiling fell down in an upstairs bedroom,” she says, apparently due to an issue with the plumbing. “Mercifully no one was hurt. [That] there seem to be so many glowing reports out there it is frankly curious. Proceed at your own risk,” the review concluded. BuildTeam disputes her account. In a letter sent to Mumsnet, which the site passed on to Narey, the builders complained that the comments were defamatory. They say it is “untrue” that the ceiling fell down due to an issue with plumbing, and cited a total of 11 statements they claimed were defamatory.[/quote] [quote]As soon as the DMCA takedown request had been filed, Google de-listed the entire thread. All 126 posts are now not discoverable when a user searches Google for BuildTeam – or any other terms. The search company told Mumsnet it could make a counterclaim, if it was certain no infringement had taken place, but since the site couldn’t verify that its users weren’t actually posting copyrighted material, it would have opened it up to further legal pressure. In fact, no copyright infringement had occurred at all. Instead, something weirder had happened. [B]At some point after Narey posted her comments on Mumsnet, someone had copied the entire text of one of her posts and pasted it, verbatim, to a spammy blog titled “Home Improvement Tips and Tricks”. The post, headlined “Buildteam interior designers” was backdated to September 14 2015, three months before Narey had written it, and was signed by a “Douglas Bush” of South Bend, Indiana.[/B] The website was registered to someone quite different, though: Muhammed Ashraf, from Faisalabad, Pakistan. Quite why Douglas Bush or Muhammed Ashraf would be reviewing a builder based in Clapham is not explained in “his” post. BuildTeam says it has no idea why Narey’s review was reposted, but that it had nothing to do with it. “At no material times have we any knowledge of why this false DCMA take down was filed, nor have we contracted any reputation management firms, or any individual or a group to take such action on our behalf. Finally, and in conjunction to the above, we have never spoken with a ‘Douglas Bush,’ or a ‘Muhammed Ashraf.’” Whoever sent the takedown request, Mumsnet was forced to make a choice: either leave the post up, and accept being delisted; fight the delisting and open themselves up to the same legal threats made against Google; or delete the post themselves, and ask the post to be relisted on the search engine. “Although we understood the user’s argument that something odd had happened, we weren’t in a position to explain what - our hope was that by zapping one post we might ensure that the thread remained listed.” Mumsnet deleted the post, and asked Google to reinstate the thread, but a month later, they received final word from the search firm: “‘Google has decided not to take action based on our policies concerning content removal and reinstatement’ which (it turned out) meant that they had delisted the entire thread”.[/quote] Good ol DMCA

Somehow, I imagine the review of games, movies and books in the future are just going to be a blank screen and the person talking about it. No text, No images or videos just them talking for an hour.

Isn't this literally censorship?

[QUOTE]Mumsnet deleted the post, and asked Google to reinstate the thread, but a month later, they received final word from the search firm: “‘Google has decided not to take action based on our policies concerning content removal and reinstatement’ which (it turned out) meant that they had delisted the entire thread”.[/QUOTE] Something doesn't make sense here. Either Mumsnet didn't actually file a correct counterclaim or the DMCA wasn't involved in the first place, because content hosts have absolutely no control over whether they remove or reinstate content claimed or counterclaimed through the DMCA. If they get a claim, they [i]have[/i] to remove it. If they get a counterclaim, they [i]have[/i] to reinstate it. That's just how the law works.

[QUOTE=Sims_doc;50376876]Somehow, I imagine the review of games, movies and books in the future are just going to be a blank screen and the person talking about it. No text, No images or videos just them talking for an hour.[/QUOTE] There was actually a youtube video that got 'DMCA' claimed for copyright infringement. The video was two guys sitting in a car after having just seen a movie, discussing the movie. That's how insane things have gotten already.

[QUOTE=V12US;50377402]There was actually a youtube video that got 'DMCA' claimed for copyright infringement. The video was two guys sitting in a car after having just seen a movie, discussing the movie. That's how insane things have gotten already.[/QUOTE] Got any sources on that? The whole story just seems incredibly vague and a bit far-fetched.

[QUOTE=Menien Goneld;50381705]Got any sources on that? The whole story just seems incredibly vague and a bit far-fetched.[/QUOTE] it was one of the midnight reviews by brad jones iirc