WWE Lawyers DMCA Tweet With Video Of Independent Wrestling Event, Probably Over A Hashtag That Promotes WWE
from the takedown-the-takedowns dept
I think it's fair to say that the lawyers for wrestling's WWE have found themselves playing the heel in the past. Perhaps it's the result of the company being run by known crazy person Vince McMahon, who has found his way to our site by being an IP protectionist among other things. WWE's lawyers have tried some pretty nefarious methods for going after those they believe violated WWE's intellectual property rights. For instance, they tried to get the mailing address of the operator of a streaming site by falseloffering a gift bag.
But the legal team never tried to simply and incorrectly make DMCA claims on the videos of other wrestling operations... until now. Bar Wrestling, which is described as an independent wrestling promotion, routinely films its matches and events, and puts them online for free, including on Twitter. For some reason, a lawyer for the WWE issued a takedown on one tweet with Twitter, which complied and removed the content.
WWE had a tweet pulled & our twitter was temporarily locked for posting a link to Jake Atlas vs. Brian Cage with footage we own & using a photo that we commissioned & own.
Watch the match for FREE at https://t.co/7w8qWbpIha
Stream all 55 of our events at https://t.co/7WwBpywrS7 pic.twitter.com/kPMWiP10VP
— Bar Wrestling (@BarWrestling) June 10, 2020
That "illegal link" goes to video content owned by Bar Wrestling. Period. Full stop. I can't be sure, but my guess is that the lawyers for WWE police WWE hashtags, so when they saw the hashtag denoting one of the wrestlers in the tweet, and saw the shortened link, they assumed it was illicit content to an illicit site. Which ultimately means that WWE lawyers go about laying claim to content on the internet without doing even the barest amount of checking into that content, as simply clicking the link would have made it clear that this was Bar Wrestling content.
So, WWE called someone else's content theirs, Twitter immediately takes it down, and then it's left for the victim to go clean up everyone else's mess? Need we a better example as to why takedowns at the speed of light are absolutely stupid?
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Filed Under: content moderation, copyright, promotions, takedowns, wrestling
Companies: bar wrestling, wwe
Reader Comments
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That complaint isn't even coherent. A tweet can't post. A tweet is a post. And the account[s] are violating twitter users? Good lord, we can't have that!
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It's probably a fraudulent notice. WWE can afford lawyers with a college level understanding of english.
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I'm more concerned about how a tweet can be "violating the twitter users". Not Twitter's t&C's or the rights of the users, it's violating the users themselves!
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Does the DMCA cover trademarks? Because the indie company using WWE trademarks is the only possible fuck up here
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The DMCA covers everything you can think of until the moment someone decides to question a takedown notice in court.
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They can't own a hashtag.
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Wait til eu laws come into effect .every image or audio clip or video clip is potential infringement
This stupid overblocking will happen every hour and every day twiiter. has to respond to every dmca
no matter how futile they are
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I think it's great that you've come out of your closet, Tim. I especially admired your piece about "burn it all down", that was revealing. You're an anarchist, be proud of it. You, like techdirt, advocate for mob rule in all things, which is great. You should do it. Let us know how it goes. How's "CHOP"? How are things in your neighborhood? Are you personally protesting? What is your vision of the future, Tim? Have you considered volunteering to police your neighbors yourself? Does it sound appealing?
How about the rest of you techdirt anarchist activists? Are you protesting? Let's hear about it. Have you volunteered to do policing? Let it all hang out, baby, everybody wants to know!
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Hi there, stupid. Quick question: did you know there are more than one "Tim"s in the world? For instance, there is a Tim Cushing and a Timothy Geigner and we're....wait for it....DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
The burn it down post was written by other Tim. To be fair, he's a better writer than I am and that piece, even if I didn't agree with every shred of it, was glorious.
So instead of making an ass of yourself here, why don't you go outside and play hide and go fuck yourself?
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Re: Re:
Considering that Spamiltard imagines that only the voices in his read operating his sockpuppet (the only ones that have ever agreed with him) posts, while projecting that any real posters are fakes by Techdirt staff, I'm pretty sure the answer to your question is no.
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The idea boggles the mind.
Not my mind, the clown at WWE.
As WWE has no intellect it is incapable of having Intellectual Property.
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Re: The idea boggles the mind.
Right (what?).
Here at the Department of Justice, we are imagining a new way of policing - citizen policing. This is in response to the nation-wide protests about Police. So, to further our investigation, we would appreciate public responses to the following question: How many Techdirt members would be willing to put on the blue suit and the blue cap and police your fellow citizens? Surely, some of you bombastic assholes must have the intestinal fortitude to talk on policing.
When you are a policeman, you can take someone's liberty, arrest them, imprison them, even kill them outright. Who wants to do it at Techdirt? How many volunteers do we have? How about you, Stephen T. Stone, how about you, PaulT? Are you READY to POLICE?
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Re: Re: The idea boggles the mind.
It's likely you just violated 18 U.S. Code §912 by posting what you did.
Impersonating a Federal employee and soliciting things are never a good idea, but I guess that's on par for you.
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Re: Re: Re: The idea boggles the mind.
Oh, are you an attorney? Or a pimpled faced child living in your mothers basement?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: The idea boggles the mind.
Well somebody is acting like a pimple faced kid with a juvenile sense of humour....
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Re: Re: Re: Re: The idea boggles the mind.
You just pretended to be a federal employee. You DO know that techdirt is legally allowed to give law enforcement your IP address you posted from right?
And I can't imagine you're smart enough to even know what VPN stands for, let alone use one thats untraceable.
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It's par for the course for the WWE, thus js a company that threatens forums and fan sites for embedding Youtube footage featuring WWE owned material if it wasn't uploaded by the company themselves.
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Bit suspect..
Are WWE employing lawyers for whom English is their 7th language now?
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Re: Bit suspect..
You are so right. English, language, that's at the hart of the problem. Anyone who misabuses the English language should be barred from practicing protesting From now on, only high achievers in English can protest. That'll fix a lot of problems. All those poorly spoken niggers, for example. (did you know there is no spell check on niggers?). They can't protest. Only clean, well spoken educated niggers like Obama will be allowed to vote. Go right tot he Hart of the probem! No more porrly spoken protestrs! THATLL FIX EVERYTHIGN!
Brought to you by Stacy Abams, the Rightful Governer of Georgia, and your NEXT FUCKING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! COMING SOON!!!!!
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Re: Re: Bit suspect..
How incredibly boring.
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Re: Re: Re: Bit suspect..
You flunked out of college, right? Everyone knows this reference but for you.
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Re: Re: Bit suspect..
So, not you? Given that you just typed:
How's that foot of yours holding up, Hamilton? On account of all the bullet holes.
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Re: Re: Re: Bit suspect..
He clearly meant that a deer was the problem /s
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Re: Re: Bit suspect..
You called someone else stupid?
Hart of the problem
misabuses <-- not a word
weird capitalization in From now on
half sentences
porrly , protestrs. THATLL. EVERYTHIGN.
It's like you were too busy staring at a picture of your naked cousin and furiously typing away.
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Re: Re: Bit suspect..
You really need to up your trolling game mate because to be honest you suck at it.
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