Tuesday, 11 June 2013

My Unusual Brush with American Copyright Statutes

As many of you may be aware, for a number of years I was writing a thread on rpg.net in which I examined/reviewed each monster in the 2nd edition AD&D Monstrous Manual in order, and people wrote comments. After this was over, I compiled the whole thing into a PDF (which was thousands of pages long) and uploaded it on mediafire for people to download and enjoy (the link is on the right).

The other day I received this unusual email in reference to that file:


Now, I know what you're thinking. Fucking Wizards of the Coast, right? Stomping all over the little guy again!

Er, actually not:


Yes, that's right: for some reason a bot has managed to uncover a breach of copyright in a thread discussing the AD&D 2nd edition Monstrous Manual which is held by NBC Universal. Have you ever heard of something so ridiculous? Or a lawyer who doesn't know how to use the space bar? I spend 90% of my time telling law students the same thing: presentation is important; grammar is important; spelling is important; if you start applying for placements at local firms and there is an error in your application form, it will go straight in the bin. Apparently I'm old fashioned!

In substantive terms the challenge is absurd, as should be obvious: it specifically refers to video files, and my file is a PDF - even assuming that a forum thread containing no media whatsoever could somehow breach copyright. (Shit, I told you guys all about Star Trek Into Darkness in my previous entry....Paramount are going to be all over me!) I expect the sheer idiotic frivolity of it doesn't matter to mediafire, however, who are so terrified of a suit that they'll play along anyway. Oh well: fuck you, NBC Universal. If anybody wants the PDF, I'll change the link to a different host. 

EDIT: The link to the PDF on the right hand side of the main blog page has been changed to dropbox. 
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22 comments:

  1. Trey11 June 2013 at 03:12

    I had this same thing happen twice with a pdf file (completely my own work) and movie production companies. They just farm this business out to smaller companies that troll the internet looking for people to send letters to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. noisms11 June 2013 at 03:20

      It doesn't make NBC Universal look very good, does it?

      Delete
    2. Matthew12 June 2013 at 03:42

      That's why they farm it out. People mostly don't care, but if something should register on the radar they'd blame the subcontractor and fire them. The subcontractor goes out of business and then NBC/U hires a new one that just opened and happens to be in the same offices and have the same employees as the old one, but is a totally different company.

      Delete
    3. Ivan13 June 2013 at 04:36

      Has this actually happened?

      Delete
    4. Ivan13 June 2013 at 04:36

      Sorry, that was directed at Matthew's comment.

      Delete
  2. The Boulder11 June 2013 at 04:06

    Which NBC property did their letter say you were infringing? I'm curious as to what would trigger on Read_Monstrous_Manual.PDF.

    Rights holders should be fined every time they issue a bogus request. It's ridiculous that they can get away with issuing blanket requests like this one and get original content that they don't own taken down.

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    1. noisms11 June 2013 at 04:29

      As far as I can tell (because the 'letter' is barely coherent) it's the properties listed at the bottom of the second screen grab - Continuum, Defiance, Hannibalmama, etc. I don't know what any of those things even are!

      Delete
    2. ravencrowking11 June 2013 at 04:34

      That is a great idea. Rights holders should be fined!

      Delete
    3. Ivan11 June 2013 at 04:42

      Not sure about copyright, but I know that some state attorneys general have begun bringing consumer protection lawsuits against "patent trolls." (Vemont?) Losing one of those could sting -- usually treble damages and attorneys' fees for a prevailing plaintiff.

      That MM thread is truly a great one. I should go back and finish reading -- I think I only made it to T or so.

      Delete
    4. noisms11 June 2013 at 05:01

      I've been slowly re-reading it on my kindle. There is some brilliant stuff in there.

      I know in English law malicious prosecution (i.e. pursuing legal action against somebody for spurious reasons) is a tort, but the bar is quite high - just filing a claim is not enough.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous11 June 2013 at 04:10

    I for one would love a new link to the file!

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    1. noisms11 June 2013 at 04:33

      The link is fixed with a new one to dropbox.

      Delete
  4. Gus L11 June 2013 at 04:47

    Well the DMCA seems to be a terrible law designed to make the internet less usable for the benefit of more traditional media companies - I for one am not surprised. My understanding is that there's no oversight, accountability or sanctions to prevent, find or punish it's misuse - it's simply a way for big rights holders to bully every other form of content with the help of an army of shady subcontractors. Perhaps remaining the PDF something like CALIFORNIA_ CIVIL_CODE128.7_SANCTIONS_BAIT.PDF would help?

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  5. Dennis Laffey11 June 2013 at 07:12

    I had the same trouble about a year ago. Some contractor claimed Flying Swordsmen was in violation of some media firm's copyright. I nuked my MediaFire account after complaining and getting no help from them. Now I host my files elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 賈尼11 June 2013 at 18:26

    A new monster: the IP Troll.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. noisms13 June 2013 at 02:58

      It seems tailor made for a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, I think. Maybe it's a programme that roams cyberspace, which you have to track down and kill with a hellhound.

      Delete
  7. F. Douglas Wall12 June 2013 at 01:22

    I actually had something similar happen to me. In the run-up to the latest Oz movie, Warner Brothers got very defensive on their copyrights (they own the rights to the Judy Garland movie) and went after every item on Zazzle.com that was tagged Wizard of Oz, including a number of items that were inspired by the original novel (which is public domain and therefore Warner Brothers has no claim). A number of my items got pulled as a result of this.

    It took a few emails (And I know a number of other people that were affected also wrote in) but I was able to make my case and got everything back up within about a week.

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    1. noisms13 June 2013 at 02:58

      I emailed mediafire but no response. It doesn't matter now; I've moved the file to a company who knows what the hell they're doing.

      Delete
  8. Matthew12 June 2013 at 03:29

    That's the DMCA for you - bad bad bad law. There are no penalties for filing false infringement claims and the only way for tech companies to indemnify themselves against being named as accomplices is to honor every takedown notice. Media company subcontractors (lowest bidder!) run the equivalent of a google search and send off form letters for hundreds of sites at a time with no worry of false positives.

    That's what you get when you spend millions of dollars a year buying congressmen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. noisms13 June 2013 at 02:59

      The huge advantage of the common law is that it can never be subject to regulatory capture. Some day I'll write a book on that.

      Delete
  9. -C12 June 2013 at 18:04

    EFF.org

    They might be able to help. Popehat has a writer who's a 40k player and they are all about first amendment rights.

    But you probably know all this, and it's easier just to find a different provider.

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    1. noisms13 June 2013 at 03:00

      Yeah, it just isn't really worth it, is it? Which I know is what the whole thing is predicated on: that people will just go "oh well" and forget about it.

      Delete