Some Thoughts On Twitter Pulling The Plug On Trump's Account (techdirt)

Background First of all, corporations enjoy First Amendment protections, among other constitutional protections. Although some of my friends decry that proposition, given the Supreme Court's current composition, that is not going to change during my lifetime. And the First Amendment protects the right to refuse to associate with speech one does not like. There is only so much that legislation could do to prevent companies like Twitter from controlling the speech that they allow. Second, wit...
Tags: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, News, Supreme Court, Congress, Senate, White House, Georgia, Washington Dc, Usps, Ohio, Dmca, Capitol Hill, Trump

2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 5 (Contracts, E-Commerce, Defamation, Censorship, & More)

Contracts * Kidstar v. Facebook, Inc.,  2020 WL 4382279 (D.N.J. July 31, 2020). The plaintiff sued Facebook because he lost access to photos in his account. assuming, arguendo, that Plaintiff opened a Facebook account in 2004, the 2009 User Agreement became the governing document upon his registration in 2009 until 2017, when the 2017 User Agreement became the governing document upon his creation of a subsequent Facebook account… Plaintiff had reasonably conspicuous notice of Facebook’s contract...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Law, California, Washington, Ebay, Court, Bloomberg, E-commerce, Thailand, United States, Fairfield, Silicon Valley, Dmca, Google Maps, Crossfit

GameJolt Issued DMCAs by Possible Nintendo Copyright Troll, Takes Down 379 Fan Games

Game Jolt has removed 379 fan games from its platform after being dealt a cease and desist letter from “Nintendo”, with the letter appearing to be similar to the questionably authentic letters sent to the site and other people four years ago. Nintendo has been very persistent in taking down those who use their IP […]
Tags: Games, Crime, Copyright, Nintendo, Dmca, Anime

Judge rules Corellium iOS research app 'fair use' in slap to Apple

But DMCA claims about circumventing security protections still stand A judge has ruled against Apple in its copyright battle with Corellium, a Florida startup that offers virtualized iOS instances for security researchers.…
Tags: Apple, Florida, Software, Dmca

Judge Tosses Apple Lawsuit Against iPhone Emulator in Big Victory for Security Research

Security researchers looking to get under the hood of technology in order to improve it received a pleasant victory on Tuesday when a federal judge in Florida decided to throw out Apple’s copyright violation claims against the maker of virtual iPhone software. Read more...
Tags: Apple, Florida, Lawsuit, Science, Copyright, Dmca, Security Research, Emulator, Corellium

Apple’s lawsuit against Corellium has been partly thrown out

Back in August of last year Apple filed a lawsuit against the virtualization software company Corellium, arguing that the product infringed its copyright and later adding claims that Corellium’s product violates the DMCA. While the DMCA claims will still need to be settled in court, a judge in Florida has tossed out Apple’s copyright claims. So what is Corellium? To over simplify it, Corellium allows security researchers to spin up a virtualized ARM device (including iOS devices) in a brow...
Tags: Apple, TC, Florida, Washington Post, Court, Tech, Dmca, Smith, Rodney Smith, Corellium, Corellium During

Is it defamation to accuse someone of sending a bogus DMCA takedown notice?

Esports aren’t only about 21st century video games. Apparently there is a relatively robust community of Tecmo Bowl enthusiasts who – though the game is three decades old – gets together to compete in tournaments. A couple of members of that community got into it with one another online, and the spat spawned some fierce litigation. That scuffle raised the question of whether accusing someone of sending a bogus DMCA takedown notice is defamatory. The online scuffle Plaintiff was up...
Tags: Facebook, Texas, Law, Copyright, Chicago, Dmca, Esports, Defamation, Perjury, Hawkins, Tecmo, Evan Brown, Knobbe, Court of Appeals of Texas

2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright)

* UMG Recordings v. RCN Telecom Services, LLC, 3:19-cv-17272-MAS-ZNQ (D.N.J. Aug. 31, 2020): Plaintiffs have made allegations sufficient to satisfy the knowledge requirement at the pleading stage. As to actual knowledge, Plaintiffs aver that the five million notices sent to RCN by Rightscorp that provided the IP address of the user, the date and time of the activity, and the name of the infringed upon content is sufficient to confer actual knowledge to RCN. Plaintiffs similarly argue that, at a ...
Tags: Amazon, Facebook, New York, Etsy, Law, Groupon, Court, Copyright, Chicago, United States, Dmca, District Of Columbia, Bain, Cmi, Mango, Kmt

YouTube’s Copyright Filter Is Crushing Video Critique—And It’s Getting Worse

In July, Harry “hbomberguy” Brewis shared a video on his popular YouTube channel called “RWBY Is Disappointing, And Here’s Why.” The two-and-half-hour video — a sharp, detailed critique of the cartoon RWBY — was the result of a lot of work by Brewis and his producer, Kat Lo. It also took an extra week and a half of…Read more...
Tags: Science, Law, Youtube, Copyright, Criticism, Eff, Dmca, Content Id, Brewis, Kat Lo It

YouTube Class Action: Same IP Address Used To Upload 'Pirate' Movies and File DMCA Notices

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: YouTube says it has found a "smoking gun" to prove that a class-action lawsuit filed by Grammy award-winning musician Maria Schneider and Pirate Monitor Ltd was filed in bad faith. According to the Google-owned platform, the same IP address used to upload 'pirate' movies to the platform also sent DMCA notices targeting the same batch of content. In a motion to dismiss filed in November, Pirate Monitor said YouTube had provided no "hard evi...
Tags: Google, Youtube, Tech, Hungary, Pakistan, Dmca, Maria Schneider, Pirate Monitor Ltd

Algorithms like YouTube's content ID harm fair use, free speech, and creativity

The Electronic Frontier Foundation just released new whitepaper study titled Unfiltered: How YouTube's Content ID Discourages Fair Use and Dictates What We See Online that examines the oppressive use of algorithms to police user-generated content in order to "defend" copyrights from perfectly legal things like fair use. — Read the rest
Tags: Post, Youtube, Copyright, Copyright Infringement, Dmca, Content, Algorithms, Fair Use, Content Id, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Copyright Trolls, I just really love content, Algorithmic Cruelty, YouTube is broken, Content Id For Everything, Contentid

Campo Santo Co-Founder Caught Banning Dota 2 Player for “Bad Call”

A Valve employee was caught misusing their powers to ban a player in Dota 2 for making a bad call, the employee in question turning out to be the co-founder of developer Campo Santo, Sean Vanaman, who issued DMCA takedowns to Pewdiepie and tried to convince others to do the same after the YouTuber said […]
Tags: Games, Valve, Dmca, Anime, Pewdiepie, Youtuber, Bans, Campo Santo, Dota, Online Gaming, Campo Santo Co Founder Caught Banning Dota, Campo Santo Sean Vanaman

512(f) Claim Against Robo-Notice Sender Can Proceed–Enttech v. Okularity

Okularity “represents” several photography clearinghouses. This means that Okularity’s robots scour the Internet looking for clearinghouse photos and then send automated takedown notices for alleged infringements. “Okularity waits until the notices accumulate to the point when a social media platform disables the infringer’s account before contacting the purported infringer to initiate settlement negotiations.” In this case, the target was the magazine Paper, and Okularity filed 48 takedown noti...
Tags: Amazon, Instagram, Law, Copyright, Dmca, Johnson, Smith, Crossfit, Vodka, Usc, Viacom, Automattic, Shropshire, Umg, Dod, Amaretto

YouTube Defeats Lawsuit Over Cryptocurrency Scam–Ripple v. YouTube

Ripple Labs developed a cryptocurrency called XRP. Scammers phished verified YouTube accounts and then used the hijacked accounts to post YouTube videos–seemingly from Ripple–inducing consumers to transfer their XRP, where they were stolen. YouTube allegedly responded to takedown notices slowly. Ripple Labs and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse (of the Yahoo Peanut Butter manifesto infamy) then sued YouTube for contributory trademark infringement, publicity rights violations, and 17200. The court dismis...
Tags: Google, Law, Youtube, Ebay, Marketing, Dmca, Trademark, Privacy/security, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Hepp, Derivative Liability, Publicity/Privacy Rights, Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple Labs Inc, YouTube LLC

After Restoring YouTube-dl, GitHub Revamps Its Copyright Takedown Policy

On October 23rd GitHub initially complied with a takedown request for the open-source project youtube-dl — and then after 24 days, reinstated it. "If there's a silver lining to the episode, it's that GitHub is implementing new policies to avoid a repeat of a repeat situation moving forward," reports Engadget: First, it says a team of both technical and legal experts will manually evaluate every single section 1201 claim. In instances where there's any ambiguity to a claim, the company says it ...
Tags: Tech, Dmca, Engadget

Now's the Time to Tell Congress to Ban Carriers From Selling Locked Phones

Late last month, the UK banned carriers from locking smartphones. Now, Wired is reporting that the same thing might happen in the U.S. in 2021, as consumer activists push legislators to do away with some pesky regulations that allow for locked phones in the first place.Read more...
Tags: Gadgets, UK, Science, Smartphones, Dmca, Carriers, Consumer Advocacy, Consumer Tech, Right To Repair, Unlocked phones, Unlock Da Phones, Time to Tell Congress

GitHub restores youtube-dl project, sets up fund to defend developers against DMCA claims

Microsoft-owned code repository GitHub has restored youtube-dl — an open-source third party utility to download YouTube videos and associated metadata like subtitles — that it took down in September following a copyright claim from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The RIAA had argued that youtube-dl illegally circumvented protections against downloading of videos on YouTube. GitHub announced the restoration of the project on its blog. Why did GitHub reverse its decision? Th...
Tags: Travel, News, Microsoft, Youtube, US, Copyright, Dmca, Riaa, Github, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Recording Industry Association of America RIAA, YouTube GitHub

GitHub Defies Copyright Cops, Restores YouTube Downloader

Last month, GitHub removed a popular tool that is used to download videos from websites like YouTube after it received a DMCA takedown notice from the Recording Industry Association of America. For a moment, it seemed that GitHub might throw developers under the bus in the same fashion that Twitch has recently treated…Read more...
Tags: Science, Youtube, Dmca, Github, Recording Industry Association of America, Youtube Dl, Right To Research

GitHub defies RIAA takedown notice, restoring YouTube-dl and starting $1M defense fund

GitHub has restored the code of a project that the RIAA demanded it take down last month after finding that the group’s DMCA complaint was meritless. YouTube-dl, a tool that lets videos from the streaming site be downloaded for offline viewing, is back in action — and GitHub is changing its policy and earmarking a million dollars for a legal defense fund against future importunities. The controversy began in mid-October when the RIAA sent a DMCA complaint to GitHub claiming that YouTube -dl...
Tags: Developer, Youtube, Tech, Copyright, Eff, Dmca, Piracy, Riaa, Github, Copyright Law, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Section 1201, Youtube-dl

Twitch Users Protest Its DMCA Policy By Streaming Videos With Homemade Sound Effects

Wednesday Twitch warned its users to delete any videos containing copyrighted music. PC Gamer reports on what happened next: Since October, Twitch has been deleting significant quantities of videos over copyright claims, leaving the affected streamers with no way to respond or issue counter-claims. Twitch eventually explained that the number of DMCA notifications it receives from major record labels has surged, going from "fewer than 50" each year to "thousands" beginning in May. The recommenda...
Tags: Tech, Dmca

How to Avoid DMCA Takedowns on Twitch

Background tunes make Twitch streams more immersive and fun, but the platform has seen an increase in Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement notifications targeting streamers playing recorded music during their streams. This uptick led to weeks of confusion, with streamers unsure of Twitch’s music…Read more...
Tags: Gaming, Copyright, Streaming, Dmca, Lifehacks, Twitch

Twitch Says It's In Talks To License Music, Tells Users To Delete Videos With Unauthorized Tracks

In a lengthy blog post, Twitch told streamers that they must stop playing recorded music on their streams (unless it's officially licensed) and that "if you haven't already, you should review your historical VODs and Clips that may have music in them and delete any archives that might." Variety reports: The Amazon-owned live-streaming platform also claimed that it is "actively speaking with the major record labels about potential approaches to additional licenses that would be appropriate for th...
Tags: Amazon, Tech, Dmca, Jeff Bezos, Riaa, Twitch, SAG AFTRA

Netflix Files Copyright Notices Against Negative Tweets That Included Its Movie Trailer

Some of the dozens of tweets Netflix issued DMCA claims against used clips from the actual movie, TorrentFreak reports, in which case Netflix’s claims are understandable. However, many of the tweets in question shared the film’s trailer, which is widely and publicly available on YouTube for anyone to view or share. – Ars Technica
Tags: Art, Media, Netflix, Dmca, 11.05.20

RIAA Takedowns Backfire as Pirated MP3s Now Surface on GitHub (slashdot)

Two weeks ago the RIAA asked GitHub to remove the open-source stream-ripper software youtube-dl. This request wasn't well-received by developers, many of whom retaliated by posting copies of the code. Yesterday, things went from bad to worse when a user with the name 'FuckTheRIAA' uploaded three MP3s of the songs the RIAA mentioned in its takedown notice. TorrentFreak reports: A few hours ago we spotted a new GitHub user named 'FuckTheRIAA' who uploaded a copy of youtube-dl as well as a 'FuckThe...
Tags: News, Youtube, Dmca, Riaa, Justin Timberlake, BeauHD

Proctoring Software Company Used DMCA To Take Down a Student's Critical Tweets

A series of tweets by one Miami University student that were critical of a proctoring software company have been hidden by Twitter after the company filed a copyright takedown notice. TechCrunch reports: Erik Johnson, a student who works as a security researcher on the side, posted a lengthy tweet thread in early September about Proctorio, an Arizona-based software company that several U.S. schools -- including his own -- use to monitor students who are taking their exams remotely. But six weeks...
Tags: Twitter, Tech, Arizona, Dmca, Edelman, Johnson, Wayback Machine, Scottsdale Arizona, Miami University, Erik Johnson, Proctorio, Andy Lutzky

Proctorio used DMCA to take down a student’s critical tweets

A series of tweets by one University of Miami student that were critical of a proctoring software company have been hidden by Twitter after the company filed a copyright takedown notice. Erik Johnson, a student who works as a security researcher on the side, posted a lengthy tweet thread in early September about Proctorio, an Arizona-based software company that several U.S. schools — including his own — use to monitor students who are taking their exams remotely. But six weeks later, Johnson rec...
Tags: Twitter, Florida, Washington, New York City, Tech, Arizona, Dmca, Michigan, Edelman, Johnson, Wayback Machine, Erik, University Of Miami, University of British Columbia, Scottsdale Ariz, Olsen

RIAA Takedowns Backfire as Pirated MP3s Now Surface on GitHub

Two weeks ago the RIAA asked GitHub to remove the open-source stream-ripper software youtube-dl. This request wasn't well-received by developers, many of whom retaliated by posting copies of the code. Yesterday, things went from bad to worse when a user with the name 'FuckTheRIAA' uploaded three MP3s of the songs the RIAA mentioned in its takedown notice. TorrentFreak reports: A few hours ago we spotted a new GitHub user named 'FuckTheRIAA' who uploaded a copy of youtube-dl as well as a 'FuckThe...
Tags: Youtube, Tech, Dmca, Riaa, Justin Timberlake

GitHub warns devs face ban if they fork DMCA'd YouTube download tool... while hinting how to beat the RIAA

No, no, no, you hit it like this *whack* GitHub has warned it may ban users who fork a DMCA'd YouTube download tool on its platform while at the same time hinting at how netizens can continue distributing the software without drawing fire.…
Tags: Software, Dmca, Riaa, Github

The RIAA is coming for the YouTube downloaders

In ye olden days of piracy, RIAA takedown notices were a common thing — I received a few myself. But that’s mostly fallen off as tracking pirates has gotten more difficult. But the RIAA can still issue nastygrams — to the creators of software that could potentially be used to violate copyright, like YouTube downloaders. One such popular tool used by many developers, YouTube-DL, has been removed from GitHub for the present after an RIAA threat, as noted by Freedom of the Press Foundation’s Parker...
Tags: Google, Media, Developer, Youtube, Tech, Dmca, Piracy, Riaa, Association, Freedom Of The Press Foundation, Parker Higgins, Shock Horror Piracy YouTube DL

Streaming As Infringement

Some basic questions on streaming and internet and copyright can be found on this (oldish) video about Youtube. But it comes down to that if you created something, you have some rights in dictating how people use that thing when it creates a derivative work. By derivative work I mean the legal version of this term, better explained by real lawyers. I remember sitting in a class about this stuff 15 years ago and it was already well-understood that the internet, as used by individuals back then...
Tags: Google, Japan, Usa, Congress, Disney, Tesla, Dmca, Anime, Modern Visual Culture, Digibro, Gura, Hololive, Gawr Gura, Silicon Valley Tech Startup, USA Tesla