The DMCA Should Not Be An All Purpose Tool For Taking Down Content; And It's Espeically Bad For Harassment
from the so-dumb dept
Remember not too long ago when some internet dude was saying that the best way to deal with harassment on the internet was to basically create a DMCA for harassment, where people could issue takedowns? And remember how we pointed out that this would make things worse, because just as the DMCA is regularly abused to silence people, this new tool would actually be used as a tool to harass more people and silence their speech? Here's just a little example of why a DMCA-like approach is a really, really, really bad idea as a way to deal with harassment or abuse online. Business Insider has a story about an unfortunate setup where a woman who is clearly being harassed was told by Twitter that she should file a DMCA notice, since some of the harassment involved using some of her photos. Following the sending of the DMCA notice, Twitter forwarded her notice to the folks harassing her, making them somewhat gleeful since it included her full contact info.The Business Insider story doesn't reveal who the person is, and we're not going to do so either, because having looked at the details it's not going to do anyone any good. Suffice it to say that the story is legit. It involves a "controversial" topic (that shouldn't be controversial, if you're even remotely informed) and I don't want the comments on this story to devolve into an argument about said controversial topic. Either way, this is a clear story where some people on "one side" of this issue decided they were going to harass and intimidate someone on the other side. And this wasn't just garden variety "disagreement on the internet" that someone claims is harassing. This was a dedicated plan to intimidate the person. And they were clearly happy about getting her info and planned to do more with it:
The person complained to Twitter about the harassment and it appears that someone from Twitter told her that since the people harassing her were using photos, she should make a DMCA complaint. This was mistake number one. The DMCA should never be used for things that aren't really about copyright issues. It's not designed for that kind of thing and Twitter deserves to be chided for one of its employees suggesting that. However, in looking at the commentary around all of this, a lot of people are angry that DMCA notices involve passing on the full notices. I saw someone complain that companies should never forward on DMCA notices because it only will be used for abuse. That's a really bad idea.
There are good policy reasons for why we should want companies to forward DMCA notices on to the person who gets their work taken down. For one, given all the bogus takedown notices we talk about, things would be a lot worse if the people who were accused of infringement never were able to find out the details of who sent the notice. That's part of the point of the DMCA, to create at least some channel of communication between the copyright holder and those accused of infringing. Obviously, in a harassment situation, things are totally different and it's why the DMCA notice-and-takedown is exactly the wrong tool for this sort of thing, and any attempt to expand it in that direction is a really, really bad idea.
Furthermore, we should want DMCA notices passed on, including to places like Lumen Database, because that's how we actually get some information about how the DMCA notice and takedown process is working -- or not working. Worrying about censoring information in notices or not passing them along is not a good move. It just highlights why the DMCA process is a bad idea in contexts like harassment.
Now, the Business Insider article does make a good point that other companies, like Automattic and Github, are much clearer to people who are submitting DMCA notices that their details will be passed on to those who they're accusing of infringement -- and point out that you can have an agent file on your behalf. That's also something that Twitter should do. But people complaining that Twitter should not forward on DMCA notices are confusing two separate issues. Twitter absolutely should forward on DMCA notices. That's important. What they shouldn't do is tell people to file DMCA notices over harassment issues.
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Filed Under: abuse, copyright, dmca, harassment, stalking, takedowns
Companies: twitter
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The info had been scraped from a personal site, so I thought it was a pretty good idea at the time. I think she even went on to write a paper about it.
I don't think ti would have worked as well now. Clearly the environment has changed.
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Let me guess...
(sorry for the other comment, wrong window).
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Re: Let me guess...
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I cant tell you how may times I have had my life threatened on YT. I even had someone make me a video threat. It was cute really. But ya know... IT'S THE INTERNET.
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Re: Re: Let me guess...
If you really care to know, it's like this:
I've had death threats over winning dozens of times, rape threats, boot up the butt threat, 3 in-person threats from friends who literally cannot handle losing to a female. I no longer make any joke/teasing comments if I haven't figured out what level their ability to play nice with women is at.
I have the same right to tease, but don't. Why? After the first human a foot taller and 100 lbs larger than me got in my face yelling at me for shooting them, I realized some men are FAR TOO SENSITIVE to tease. And far too chauvinistic. I'm not saying all men are like this but, just because you don't harass women in video games doesn't mean no men do it.
Try being a female before commenting on what it's like gaming as a female.
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Nice victim blaming there. Anyone with even an ounce of decency knows that there is no justification for the vile behaviour you casually dismiss as "hate" just because "it's the internet".
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However, it's a fact that certain groups of people, such as female gamers, experience this sort of thing regularly. To claim that this is in some way normal or acceptable and that it's somehow the fault or responsibility of the abused group is itself an example of the problem.
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Re: Let me guess...
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"The Business Insider story doesn't reveal who the person is, and we're not going to do so either, because having looked at the details it's not going to do anyone any good. Suffice it to say that the story is legit. It involves a "controversial" topic (that shouldn't be controversial, if you're even remotely informed) and I don't want the comments on this story to devolve into an argument about said controversial topic."
[Goes and gets beer(s), doesn't really care.]
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In addition:
"This woman, who is in the tech industry, has been publicly involved in certain political activities."
If she was a tech, she should have known. Prolly a DBA or developer.
"publicly involved in certain political activities"
So.... the "Doxing" wasn't really a challenge as she is in the public arena anyway.
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Lemme guess... she works with Trump. Lemme guess again... the harassers are Bernie babies.
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Recap: She's a "Tech." But didnt have the brains to call local police but instead went running to Twitter. And what did she think was going to happen? Their accounts were going to get shut down? What would that have done? They would have just made another one.
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Without actually knowing any of the details because someone won't tell us, sounds to me like she's not the brightest tech in the box.
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This is the idiot generation. A wealth of information available to them, but some guy from Twitter tells her to file a DMCA... she sees all the info requested and does not even do a Google search to see exactly what is involved and what will happen. I bet she deposited a check from a Nigerian Prince too.
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"and I don't want the comments on this story to devolve into an argument about said controversial topic."
Mike... meet internet, internet, Mike. ;)
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History of bad behavior. Here is a story about the exact same guy stealing yet another woman's photos and posting them to twitter: https://thepoxesblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/joe-gooding-wants-to-smear-you-at-all-costs-if-you-eve n-hint-at-liking-the-idea-of-vaccination/
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2. Unlike claims made against 'minor' accounts I can guarantee that any claims against a large company actually receives human scrutiny, so the only people that would really get screwed over by something like that are the same people that already get screwed over, the smaller accounts and individuals, the larger ones wouldn't even notice.
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This is correct. It has nothing do with gaming at all. And I'm disappointed that people are so focused on trying to figure out who it is, rather than focusing on the story.
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I can understand that you want people to focus on the tech/legal side of this situation. However I come to techdirt to be informed. I want to read the articles here because they list reference material and have details that allow me to see for myself the issue instead of just accepting what the writer says and/feels is important. Yes I can go do my own google search and find out the information. I come here because it is faster and usually closer to neutral (at least logical and we'll reasoned) in the stories than other media.
That being said I think you do a huge disservice to your readers when you obfuscate information like you did in this post. Readers that care will find out the info anyway and those that don't care won't bother commenting. The immature ones will be handled by the community. So grow some section 230 balls for any legal issues and let us readers police ourselves.
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I do wish there was an edit button.
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The only reason there's even that much detail in the article is to show that this is a real thing happening, not a hypothetical situation that people could just shrug off.
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I don't care if it's gamergate, bernie babes vs trumpettes, or someone slagging Cincinatti parents. That really isn't relevant to the carefully put main point of the story.
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In this case I was able to find out for myself that the backstory and details were not relevant to further develop the story or modify the DMCA. However the backstory could be used to propose law changes or at least personal protection strategies that the author has no interest in pursuing because it goes beyond the realm of DMCAs.
Also should we as readers just have complete trust that Mike and his team wrote about the whole issue or didn't write the story in an unbiased way? No, we trust but verify and part of the verification is having all the details or at least provided enough information to go get the details for ourselves.
In this story there was no bias that I could detect but I could only verify that after looking deeper into the backstory. I think TechDirt prides itself on being honest in their writing. But after earning that trust someone or something could still be introduced that might cause readers to be misled in the future.
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And on a complete tangent, imagine the Internet drama there'd be if Anita Sarkeesian started advocating for vaccines.
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Re: Re: Streisand Effect even affects Techdirt author Mike Masnick
for some backstory about the TechDirt post and how it came to be that the DMCA notice was issued.
Mike was trying to keep the person from becoming the focus of the comments section but all it did was cause people to talk about gamergate, etc..., instead of talking about the merit of issuing the DMCA request in the first place.
Regardless of if you think the person who sent the DMCA notice is a victim or not, the backstory is helpful for examining all the evidence about what people may or may not consider harassment. Which in turn can cause people to make better decisions about how 1st amendment issues should be dealt with on the Internet.
Also it could have pointed to some other related articles dealing with SB277 and how technology may or may not effect the outcome of legislation, see http://www.wired.com/2015/06/antivaxxers-influencing-legislation/
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The DMCA filing was not valid.
This was an invalid DMCA filing, period. It appears the complainant simply did not like the tweets being sent about her. Sometimes that's just called Twitter-not harassment. The pic complained about appears to have come from a FB account, so not stolen. And the use appears to have been covered by fair use. That's all.
In any event, Twitter clearly advises DMCA filer that personal info may be sent to party accused of infringement. Complainant should have been aware of what she was signings when she filed complaint.
On the other hand, I wonder where complainant got the screenshot of the messages she alleges were sent between the infringers? Very suspicious. IMO.
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Re: The DMCA filing was not valid.
Dumb and unfortunate, I know.
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DMCA may have been a stupid call but Twitter really screwed the pooch on this harassment situation. And TD got the story right.
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If ya can't take the heat, don't get involved in trying to remove other peoples freedoms. Or don't cry victim when there's backlash.
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OIC. My spidey sense says ur one of the anti-vaccers harassing this woman trying to make your side sound better in the comments here. I bet ur the one with "law" in her handle saying completely wrong garbage about how she asked for it by having photos at all and getting Fair Use all wrong. Even the bottom 1% of a law school class calls themselves lawyer.
Ur trying to smear her in comments and missing the point of the article. She DMCA'd because you sleazeballs harassed her for over a year and tweeted her private photos and other things about her behind a block. And one quick search of your feeds shows that's true. Real freedom-fighters - free to spread diseases to chillens. Go back to your anti-vaccine blogs.
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About 2/3 of the women I personally know who are active on the internet have been using male names for years. Originally, it was to get rid of the incessant sexual propositions -- but now it's more to avoid more hostile forms of harassment. The problem is very, very real.
This has also been a problem for a very long time -- even longer than some people on the net have been alive.
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Espeically
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Hope
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Another anti-vaccine visitor or bad lawyer.
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If you have a portrait done, you do not own the copyright to it unless the photographer has specifically signed the copyright over to you -- which nearly no portrait studios do without a substantial additional fee.
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Publishing photos of someone and their child to intimidate them is scum low, Wahhhh. If you really are the Trump cooter doing it you or his buddy you need your head examined.
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Context
Check this out
http://namelyliberty.com/twitter-falsely-accused-of-passing-info-to-stalkers/
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Re: Context
https://thepoxesblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/joe-gooding-wants-to-smear-you-at-all-costs-if-you-eve n-hint-at-liking-the-idea-of-vaccination/
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