Microsoft Sends Google A DMCA Notice... To Block Microsoft's Bing Search Engine

from the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept

Mon, Oct 8th 2012 10:49am — Mike Masnick

Ah, bogus DMCA notices that you just can't make up. TorrentFreak has a good article highlighting a completely bogus DMCA notice from Microsoft (sent by one of its partners on its behalf) that tries to take a bunch of legitimate news sites out of Google's index, on the mistaken claim that they violated Windows 8 copyrights. But, even more ridiculous is an aside mentioned in the article, that some other DMCA notices appear to target Bing, Microsoft's own search engine. Indeed, they're not that hard to find. If you look up DMCA notices asking Google to remove links to Bing, Microsoft shows up quite a bit:

If you dig down, you can find out the specifics, such as this DMCA notice sent on May 23 of this year, sent by Marketly on behalf of Microsoft, supposedly to stop the infringement of Office 2010. It lists out 997 URLs that it wants Google to take out of its search results, including a link to a Bing search. Given that Microsoft owns Bing... you'd think it would remove that search first. What's even more amusing is that if you go to the link in question on Bing... it's still there.

Yes, this is yet another silly move by an automated system, but it once again highlights some of the ridiculousness involved in DMCA takedowns for search results.

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Filed Under: automated, bing, copyright, dmca, takedowns
Companies: google, microsoft

23 Comments

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Ninja (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 9:55am

Now just imagine if Bing department files a counter notice for Windows 8 DMCA notice. Expect bloodshed in this horrific civil corporate judicial war!
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Corby (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 10:57am

Google should comply with this DMCA regarding Bing and take the link down. Should Microsoft complain then Google should point out that they were doing there job in taking the link down as required by the DMCA.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 11:07am

And another reason to mock copyright law.
If they can't be bothered to care about it, why should we?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2012 @ 11:11am

Well they can't be expected to review every single link on that list. Sheesh!
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Sneeje (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 11:14am

Re:
Whatever happened to good ole' mutually assured destruction? Don't these guys know anything about strategic nuclear armament?

Wait, what were we talking about again?
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gorehound (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 11:17am

And when will those who Submit these DMCA Complaints have to pay for the time it takes to wade thru the BS.
Time to start charging these people lots of money.
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c3l3st0 (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 11:27am

OMG this is good! :D
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monkyyy, 8 Oct 2012 @ 11:30am

how long does it usually take to undo a dmca request? 3 years

moment of truth google, do u take a stand or do i switch to duck duck go
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2012 @ 11:40am

Personally, I'm ready to look for a search engine as good as google, but that NEVER de-lists content. I'd sell your soul for that.
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Ninja (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 11:45am

Re: Re:
Multiple personality disturb or so I think. But if you think about it's mutually assured destruction, one personality (Windows 8 dept) seems to be trying to obliterate the other (Bing dept) without actually realizing they are both in the same body and if one dies the other goes with it.

Where have I seen that before?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2012 @ 12:11pm

When is the Justice department going to swoop in and seize the bing.com domain? They have to protect Microsoft from those evil pirates!
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2012 @ 12:13pm

Re: Re: Re:
Is a civil war brewing at Microsoft?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2012 @ 1:05pm

Re:
Yandex is a good search engine. I don't know if they an official policy of never de-listing information but they are better then Google, not just in term of neutrality, but overall search result quality as will.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2012 @ 1:27pm

Well, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot, let them.
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Gwiz (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 1:44pm

Re:
Personally, I'm ready to look for a search engine as good as google, but that NEVER de-lists content. I'd sell your soul for that.

I use YaCy on my personal machine. By design it can never be censored by anyone, including those who created it. If you use it as a proxy for surfing, it will crawl based on where you surf and will eventually make the searches faster by using your local data first. The trade off is that you are asked (not required though) to contribute disk space and bandwidth and it can be a bit slow.

I also recently discovered Gibiru which looks interesting in that it seems to be designed to list alternates to mainstream media higher, as opposed to Google which Gibiru claims are bowing to the wishes of the NSA and are delisting alternate news sources on issues the NSA would like to be kept quiet.
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monkyyy, 8 Oct 2012 @ 1:50pm

Re: Re:
i couldnt find a policy on delisting so i expect they do delist
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Sammy Moshe, 8 Oct 2012 @ 3:53pm

So are you saying that Microsoft wants to be the leading source for it's own piracy? That's actually pretty progressive of them.
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davnel, 8 Oct 2012 @ 5:18pm

The answer is obvious. No automated DCMA notices should be allowed. If a copyright holder objects to a posting somewhere, he has to find it himself and request a takedown, himself. This crap of allowing a misprogrammed confuser to make such decisions and requests is totally nuts, obviously. What is the total cost in time and money of all of these false notices? Bunches, I'll wager. And for what? This is a profit-making enterprise. Notices result in lawsuits, which result in profits. Bah!! It's always about money.
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abc gum, 8 Oct 2012 @ 5:59pm

Reminds me of this:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/microsoft-patents-ones-zeroes,599/
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2012 @ 6:52pm

Re:
been there a while now. I like it.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2012 @ 7:36pm

ROFL Google should just accept that one and when Microsoft cries about it tell them you morons asked us to remove it! Then give them a big troll smile.
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Alana (profile), 8 Oct 2012 @ 8:46pm

Re:
You aren't selling my soul!

*Draws sword*

HAVE AT THEE! MAKE MY DAY!
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duh, 5 Jan 2015 @ 7:04pm

Re:
ummm it is there job to do just that....if you hired a guy to check your parts as they were being made and he told you that....you would fire him
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