Once Again, The DMCA Doesn't Let You Takedown Any Content You Don't Like

from the eff-on-the-case dept

Sometimes people have a difficult time understanding that something they dislike isn't necessarily illegal -- and because of it, they can sometimes take legal action even though they have no right to do so. This is quite common with the DMCA, where we've seen numerous examples of people abusing the DMCA in this manner. Luckily, the EFF has been fighting back against many of these bogus DMCA takedowns, and the latest is the case where an anti-animal cruelty group posted a bunch of videos showing treatment of animals at a rodeo.

No matter what you think of the group's position, the rodeo still had no right to send a DMCA takedown notice, since it didn't own the copyright on the videos -- but that didn't stop the rodeo from filing the DMCA takedowns anyway. Again, it seems like a case where the rodeo didn't like the videos, and thus assumed they simply must be illegal, even if their complaint had nothing at all to do with copyright. Speaking of which, it's not clear under what rules Henry Nicholas, the recently indicted founder of Broadcom, was able to get YouTube to remove a video of himself ingesting white powder. However, in a filing with the company, his lawyer insisted the person in the video was Nicholas, and asked that the video be removed.

Filed Under: dmca, henry nicholas, rodeo, takedown

Not Your Every Day Tech Exec Scandal

from the um.-wow. dept

While the good folks over at Valleywag might have you believe otherwise, most tech execs lead rather boring lives. There aren't that many "scandals" that happen around these parts -- and the ones that do happen, tend to be rather mundane. Some stock option backdating and maybe a bit of lying on the old resume, seem to be about as scandalous as it normally gets. But Henry Nicholas of Broadcom apparently decided to go with the more made-for-Hollywood sort of scandal. There is the option backdating issue here, but that's nothing compared to the fact that he's now been indicted for also keeping a warehouse full of drugs which he used for things like putting ecstasy in other tech execs' and customers' drinks, as well as supplying speed, cocaine and pot to tech execs. And then there were the prostitutes. Oh yeah, and the sex lair that leaked to the press last year. There's definitely a movie coming out of all of this one day. In the meantime, though, I think I prefer the Silicon Valley with more mundane executive scandals.

Filed Under: backdating, drugs, ecstasy, henry nicholas, prostitution, scandals, spiked drinks
Companies: broadcom