Final 7 days we reported how impostors abuse the DMCA takedown process to punish rival pirate websites.
Just when we believed we’d seen it all, an even additional bizarre selection of takedown requests appeared.
This time our pretty personal publication is a target, along with a number of other web-sites that include censorship linked news and developments.
At the middle of the make a difference is the reporting agency “Topple Track“. In a series of takedown requests, the enterprise targets a broad variety of correctly legitimate sites, web sites that have nothing at all to do with the content material for which the notice is sent.
For instance, this request was despatched to Google on behalf of Melbourne artist Gamble Breaux, supposedly listing web sites that linked to infringing copies of her music This Time.
Nonetheless, most, if not all of the links in the see are entirely unrelated. This contains our post on pirate site blocks in Denmark, and a Danish information report on the increase of illegal streaming.
Sigh…
Even extra bizarrely, maybe, the identical discover also lists a number of articles or blog posts about the EU “upload filter” and “link tax” proposals.
This incorporates the Savethelink.org campaign internet site, this short article from Boing Boing, as properly as an article from the German news internet site Der Spiegel, and a submit from legislation firm Wilde Beuger Solmecke.
Worryingly, the same detect also lists an write-up from EU Member of Parliament Julia Reda, which Google has in truth removed from its index.
Reda’s report, long gone
It can barely be a coincidence that a DMCA notice for a random music observe lists so quite a few “censorship” related articles. In particular when it only contains 23 URLs. There is some bittersweet irony in there too.
As a result far we only have reviewed one particular takedown detect but there are a lot of more. Electronic Legal rights Team EFF noticed this much too, as they them selves are among the specific web sites.
The Topple Track DMCA ask for where by EFF is outlined has yet another theme though. Instead of a EU censorship concentration, it lists a variety of pages and content articles relevant to the MP3Tunes circumstance, which includes this piece from Stanford.
Yet a further takedown discover has a “YouTube” topic, focusing on several non-infringing information reviews from web sites these as The Verge, Chip.de, CNET, Ubergizmo, Wikihow and a variety of other people. Even the US Government’s FCC is not safe and sound from Topple Track’s notices.
TorrentFreak reached out Topple Track for a remark on the conclusions. The reporting company admitted that there may well have been some inaccurate filings and provided an apology.
“We will issue retractions for anything impacting your model and web-site and will even more attain out to EFF.org as effectively to clarify and situation retractions for all backlinks sent there as perfectly. We apologize for how this might have afflicted you and some others,” the company said.
The company has set its assistance in upkeep method to make certain every little thing is solved and rectified. Soon after that, they will determine how to transfer ahead.
Though it is obvious that problems were being created, we have to give the organization credit score for getting obligation. With any luck ,, this will also assist to stop identical issues in the potential.
Resource: TF, for the hottest data on copyright, file-sharing, torrent web pages and more. We also have VPN evaluations, discount rates, gives and discount codes.
Written by David Minister
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