Confused Indian Anti-Piracy Group Asks Us To Remove Article It Doesn't Like From Some Other Blog

from the try-again-guys dept

Fri, Oct 14th 2011 10:00am — Mike Masnick

Well, this is bizarre. A few hours ago, we received an email to our copyright notice email address from Aiplex, an Indian anti-piracy/SEO/medical transcription company. You may remember the company because we wrote a short post about them over a year ago, when its CEO said in an interview that it would resort to denial of service attacks on sites that didn't cooperate. We also noted that the somewhat confused company listed "Bram Cohen" as a type of BitTorrent client.

Anyway, I'd nearly forgotten about the company until we got this email. But the email is asking us to take down the post. Except, it's not. Rather than asking that we remove our post, it actually asks us to remove a copy of the post on a spam blog that appears to copy every Techdirt post (there are a bunch of sites out there that do this and get no traffic -- it makes no sense to us, but they're free to use our content that way, if they want). Here's the email:

This has reference to the below article on your webpage, we kindly request you to deactivate the link as the article is defaming the company�s image & its prospects. It was mis-interpreted by the news agency which was blown out of proportion by some of the pirates across the globe. And subsequently we have to face damages/threats from the pirates & undergo immense losses due to their attack on our servers/websites etc.

Although, we did declare that we are not involved in any of those activities as published in the article, we still have to face the consequences for reasons unknown.

Below is the link for your reference:

http://www.phphosts.org/blog/2010/09/bizarre-indian-anti-piracy-group-says-it-does-dos-attacks-on-file-sharing-operations/

We kindly request you to deactivate at the earliest possible please.

Appreciate your help on this matter.

Jagadish
Support Operations
Aiplex Software Pvt. Ltd.

Interesting stuff. First of all, they used our copyright notification email, and this issue has nothing to do with copyright. Second, they are asking us to remove our content from a site that is not ours, and which we have no control over. The content did, certainly, originate from our site, but they don't ask us to remove the content on our site. This does not speak highly of their technical skills, let alone their basic understanding of this World Wide Web we live on. Finally, as to the claim that this is "defaming," the article directly quotes the company's CEO.

Anyway, seeing as we don't control the web page they've asked us to take down, we obviously won't be doing a damn thing about it, other than to publish this post and hope that, sometime in the future, Aiplex learns a little bit about how the web works.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: anti-piracy, copyright, defamation, india
Companies: aiplex

37 Comments

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Keith_Emperor_of_Penguins (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:16am

"Aiplex-an Indian anti-piracy/SEO/medical transcription company"
I wonder if they do weddings and bar mitzvahs too?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:20am

Well, that's what happens when you outsource your complaints about defamation.
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- surfer (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:31am
  
  Re:
  lol
  
  my question is what does anti-piracy, search engine optimization and medical transcription have in common?
  
  and if it's from India, um, where did they outsource to?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2011 @ 4:50am
    
    Re: Re:
    Bangladesh(ex part of Pakistan) and Vietnam.
    http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/vietnam-china-labor-business-manufacturing-outsourcing-ox ford.html
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  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2011 @ 4:51am
    
    Re: Re:
    There are always poorer people in the world.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:22am

Jagadish
"Jagadish"

If you say this really fast it sounds like a head hitting a desk.
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Mike C. (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:31am

So wait a second...
Does this mean that if TechDirt goes down due to a DDOS attack later, should we or should we NOT suspect Aiplex Software Pvt. Ltd. of the act?

/I'm so confused....

:-)
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6, 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:34am

Mike,

At the risk of putting words in the indian's mouths I believe they want you to assert copyright over your article and get the other copy taken down.
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- Beta (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:41am
  
  Re:
  I think you're being very generous.
  
  Also, it's "Indians' mouths" (unless he's one of those multi-headed Indian princes you see in the movies).
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  - hothmonster, 14 Oct 2011 @ 12:14pm
    
    Re: Re:
    then it would be Indians' mouth unless he is some multi-mouthed monster.
    
    Although i do believe he was originally write because he was referring to a whole company so many Indians all with one (presumably) mouth.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2011 @ 12:59pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      doh, what is the law that demands any correction to someone's grammar or syntax will have a grammatical or syntax error.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ninja (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:34am

LOL! Well, in their defense I must say that they managed to make my day (and provide good laughs) every time I read about them. This time is no different.

Good luck explaining them the situation, if you take the time to do it of course.
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eldavojohn, 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:55am

Perhaps It Has a Specific Purpose
Let's assume they did this correctly and asked you to remove your post. Scenario: Legal sounding e-mail gets sent to you complaining of defamation. Two results: 1) You take it down or 2) you decide to fight it and refer them to your legal department.

Now assume that they know they have absolutely no reason to force you to remove this post. But they risk you sending legal letters back to them about who owns the copyright and yadda yadda yadda you suck up their time and money.

However, if they contact you and ask you to remove the blog post from another site there is a slight difference in the outcomes: 1) you recognize the blog posting as your own and diligently remove it, afraid to offend anyone or 2) you contact legal who says "wtf?" and you contact them who say "sorry, wrong people" and that's the end of it. They still might achieve their goal without risking a lengthy back-and-forth with you.

Donning a tinfoil hat, I'd say it's possible the run the content duping sites or pay someone to run them to dupe your content so they have this avenue (you said so yourself that there is no reason for these blogs to dupe your content).
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- BeeAitch (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 10:45pm
  
  Re: Perhaps It Has a Specific Purpose
  I did not don my tinfoil hat but, WTF?
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ahow628 (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 11:11am

Don't let that stop you.
I don't think lack of knowledge ever stop people from doing stupid things. Heck, I just made this comment.
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Frankz (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 11:31am

Does this other site that copies Techdirt content, copy only the articles or does it copy/scrape entire pages with all of their embedded links intact?
If the latter, then maybe the Indians actually clicked on a copyright notification link on that other site, which of course points back to the real Techdirt.
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- harbingerofdoom (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 11:57am
  
  Re:
  it does not link back the way you are thinking, but the comments link under the story on their site does link back to the comments here at techdirt.
  
  specifically, the copyright notice does not link back to here.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
SUNWARD (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 11:32am

techdirt is copied
for money.

The site has lots of original content. Some sites will clone the content to get ad revenue.

Other will clone the content in order show better on search and then allow links to their own site.
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Bazilon, 14 Oct 2011 @ 12:17pm

That's kinda what the Indian dude is asking
It's true the the request isn't very clear, but it's kinda implied when he says "deactivate the link" he means either take down the article on your server so the link becomes dead, or move the article to a different URL so the old links don't work.

Both request are above what techdirt is required to comply with by law but they're not crazy request as you suggest.

You kinda come across as a bit dense actually, the Indian dude just sounds like he's over-confident in his communication skills in English.
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- freak (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 12:27pm
  
  Re: That's kinda what the Indian dude is asking
  . . . eh?
  
  What are you arguing against? It seems to be something that wasn't said in the article.
  
  The issue with the request, is mainly that phphosts.org =/= techdirt.com, and secondly, that defamation =/= copyright.
  
  Neither of which have anything to do with not understanding 'we request you to deactivate'.
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- SheriffFatman, 14 Oct 2011 @ 2:03pm
  
  Re: That's kinda what the Indian dude is asking
  WTF are you talking about? The "Indian dude" references a copy of a Techdirt post on a completely different website: how would changing anything on the Techdirt server affect it in any way? (Tip: it wouldn't.)
  
  You're not really in a position to accuse others of being "a bit dense".
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Scooters (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 12:22pm

Did I just see "World Wide Web" used in 2011?

I suppose this means it'll be on about 10,000 other pages tomorrow...

... and this Indian company will have quite a few emails to write to Mike.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2011 @ 1:33pm

#thirdworldproblems
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- Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2011 @ 1:48pm
  
  Re:
  starvation and murder?
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Larry, 14 Oct 2011 @ 1:53pm

Congratulations Aiplex
You have successfully further destroyed any credibility you might have had.

Thanks You
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- The Devil's Coachman (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 2:21pm
  
  Re: Congratulations Aiplex
  Would you like a squishee with that?
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- The Devil's Coachman (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 2:22pm
  
  Re: Congratulations Aiplex
  Thank you very much. Come again!
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  - G Thompson (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 9:58pm
    
    Re: Re: Congratulations Aiplex
    You typed that in Apu's voice didn't you o�O
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    - The Devil's Coachman (profile), 16 Oct 2011 @ 7:08am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Congratulations Aiplex
      Siri wouldn't understand it.
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- That Anonymous Coward (profile), 14 Oct 2011 @ 11:40pm
  
  Re: Congratulations Aiplex
  This implies they ever had ANY credibility.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2011 @ 2:33pm

You should hire them to work their SEO magic on the article about them so it gets more views.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2011 @ 2:43pm

Just wait till the other site copies this post, then Aiplex sees it and gets really upset! Then the other site will get DDOSed, and it'll be your fault!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2011 @ 4:55am

http://www.ironspeed.com/articles/Outsourcing%20to%20Vietnam%20Are%20You%20Kidding/Article.aspx

I s time to outsource to other places LoL
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Designerfx (profile), 15 Oct 2011 @ 9:49pm

Aiplexx = MPAA, don't forget
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiplex_Software
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AIplex Merchants of ddos, 16 Oct 2011 @ 5:05pm

Apparently they are ddos users according to wikipedia source of all knowledge on the internets. I'm guessing that they really don't want to be the target of a ddos attack. Why anyone would aim an attack at these silly bozos i don't know.
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Donovan R., 2 Dec 2014 @ 2:42pm

A number of similar Indian companies have popped up of late. These people also falsely reporting copyright infringement and filing takedown notices on content they do not own, nor do they represent the copyright owner of the alleged infringing content. They are falsely and illegally having content removed from video hosting sites on a daily basis because they know a counter-notice will not be filed. A better job must be done by service providers to ensure that the reporting process must authenticate if the content is actually owned by the person reporting it, or if that person is actually an authorised agent.
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Bruno Fehr, 11 Jul 2016 @ 2:23am

They don't even understand Google Ads
Our case is also bizarre. This company is threatening us since once our ads appeared on a certain blog which they claim us copyrighted material. In the screenshot they provided, that Add is shown through Google Ads where the ads you see are based on our Google search history.

They have no idea what they are doing.
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