Impostor Sending Out DMCA Notices In Chaturbate's Name Now Targeting Techdirt URLs

from the doubling-down dept

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a long series of questionable DMCA notices I thought had been issued by online onanism portal Chaturbate. The takedown requests appeared to have been generated by a faulty algorithm with no human vetting involved. Many of those I examined appeared to target names of Chaturbate broadcasters, but without any of the precision one normally associates with the word "target." Sites named for delisting included geographical research, an Amazon page for a book about the Hadron Collider, track meet records collections, and even Chaturbate itself.

After some discussion with Chaturbate, it was determined someone is filing notices in Chaturbate's name, but without Chaturbate's official blessing. The scattershot, extremely prolific approach was now harming Chaturbate's reputation, tying it to bogus DMCA notices targeting all sort of non-infringing content. (I have since updated the original post to reflect the my conversations with Chaturbate and offer my apologies for naming the wrong party in the original post.)

Whoever's performing these bogus takedowns hasn't stopped. Chaturbate's legal rep has been asking Google for more details on the impostor requests. Google is looking into it, but so far has only provided an incredibly long list of likely auto-generated Gmail addresses as the source of these bogus notices, which now number into the thousands.

While we continue to work towards discovering who's behind these bogus notices, there have been some interesting developments. First, the impostor is now including Techdirt URLs, including the original post and my user page, in their takedown requests.

Second, whoever's doing this appears to have read my post. The issuing party has changed from Chaturbate LLC to Multi Media LLC. This is the name Chaturbate uses when it issues takedown requests. I never used the name in the updates to the post but did link to an example of a genuine Chaturbate takedown notice, as supplied to me by Chaturbate's representatives.

This would seem to indicate whoever's behind the bogus takedowns is aware multiple parties are trying to expose them. The DMCA notices containing Techdirt URLs contain almost nothing but adult-themed URLs, suggesting the TD pages may have been added in an attempt to bury the story. It still could be a faulty algorithm is flagging anything containing words like "Chaturbate," but the relative lack of unrelated sites suggests a slightly more targeted approach is being taken, even though there's still an emphasis on quantity over quality.

The other theory is the post hasn't been read, but the impostor has received challenges from Google when submitting notices under the Chaturbate LLC name. A little research may have uncovered the fact Chaturbate's legitimate takedown service only issues takedowns under the Multi Media LLC name.

If the impostor is reading these posts, they might want to remember the perjury side of it doesn't cover the URLs targeted for takedown, but rather the assertion they represent the rightsholders listed in the notices. According to Chaturbate, this impostor doesn't. All rights are retained by each individual Chaturbate broadcaster and Multi Media LLC makes no claims otherwise when issuing takedown notices on behalf of its clients. The impostor, however, makes these claims for several performers in each takedown request and does so under the names of companies they don't work for or represent. We're still trying to find out who's behind this and will keep you posted as this investigation proceeds.

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, takedown
Companies: chaturbate, google

Someone Impersonating An Adult Chat Site Sends DMCA Takedown Service Targets Tons Of Legit Sites, Including Chaturbate Itself [UPDATE]

from the bumptious-interloping dept

UPDATE: Not until after the post went live did I finally hear back from Chaturbate about its bogus DMCA notices. Chaturbate's support claims these notices were performed by an imposter. I'm not ready to take the company at its word, as there are hundreds of DMCA notices to be dug through before anything can be determined further. It does appear some DMCA notices were more finely-targeted (claims sites "stilled content" [?!]) but all of these were issued in a five-day span, suggested a concerted effort by Chaturbate that appears to have misfired, at least initially.

UPDATE #2: After several emails back and forth, it appears someone is using Chaturbate's name to send DMCA takedowns, but it is *not* Chaturbate itself. (Here's what a legit takedown notice performed by Chaturbate's in-house service looks like.) Here's the latest, direct from Chaturbate:

From what we can tell, these notices are likely from one of two possible sources. The first source is some third-party DMCA notice service that has contracted directly with our users. We are in the process of emailing each user on whose behalf one of these bogus notices has been sent, asking them to put us in touch with the takedown service they are using. The other possible source is some user who has taken it upon themselves to make a dent in the community of sites that republishes content that's been recorded from Chaturbate and decided that sending out DMCA notices without authorization was a good way to accomplish that goal. If we get a response from any users that helps us get to the bottom of this, we will let you know.

When more details are available, a follow-up post will be written, hopefully exposing the third party DMCA service impersonating Chaturbate and doing a flatout lousy job protecting someone else's intellectual property.

Portmanteau words are great. It's a highly-efficient way to forcibly join two (possibly unrelated) actions and create a brand new activity. Add to this a decently-fast internet connection and you have Chaturbate, a service that puts people together to do things to themselves separately.

Granted, much of this could be done with other services, including the portmaneau'ed ChatRoulette, but targeted markets are more profitable than floating from chat to chat hoping to escape the "turbate" part of this internet concoction. Chatting is fun. So is masturbation. But not many people enjoy being masturbated at, especially when they're looking to just chat a little. Chaturbate, however, gives people what they want, in as many varieties as they want it.

Good for Chaturbate and its users. Like any other webcam service, Chaturbate wants to keep people from finding the same stuff for free. So it performs its own free, in-house DMCA takedown service. Good news for its clientele, especially those providing the entertainment.

Unfortunately for Chaturbate and its users, an unknown third party has stepped in to do this as badly as inhumanly possible. Over the course of two days in July, Chaturbate someone using Chaturbate's name carpet-bombed Google with DMCA notices -- many of them likely duplicates. Almost nothing has been removed. It may be there are a few illicit streams/recordings somewhere in the stack of webpages, but it's going to take some time to sort them out because of all the garbage added by these takedown efforts.

In addition to targeting its own site Chaturbate itself in its takedown requests...

The third party has also targeted:

• Geographical research
• A book on the Large Hadron Collider
• A Canadian high school basketball coach
• A fundraising effort for curing cystic fibrosis
• The lyrics to a Miley Cyrus song
• A New York State Supreme Court decision
• A UK Mercede-Benz dealer
• The graduates of the University of Rochester
• A Steam forum discussion
• A report on treating Alzheimer's patients

And that's just a few selections from a single DMCA notice. There are dozens more, filled with the same errors. Multiple university websites are targeted, along with several product pages from Amazon and eBay. The only thing that seems to tie these URLs together might be the names mentioned on the pages. "Colin" seems to be one trigger, netting multiple bogus targets in Chaturbate's these takedown notices, including most of the URLs listed above.

If Chaturbate someone is performing searches using performers' names, it's auto-generating a ton of garbage hits that no one at the company is sorting through before passing the takedown notices on to Google. A lack of attention to detail is never a good sign when it comes to the business world. It's even worse when it has the potential to delist legitimate content. And this would be happening en masse if Google were as careless as those issuing takedown notices.

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, takedowns
Companies: chaturbate