Bogus copyright and trademark complaints have threatened all kinds of creative expression on the Internet. EFF's Hall Of Shame collects the worst of the worst.
Takedown Hall of Shame Honorees
Self-Described Twitter Troll Ryan Hintze Discovers New Way to Troll Twitter: the DMCA
Let’s start by making one thing clear: you don’t own an article that is written about you, and if you do file a frivolous copyright claim about that article, you certainly don’t have a right to DMCA a tweet about that DMCA takedown. As Luke O’Neil first reported in...TV Doctor Believes Copyright Will Save Him From Criticism, Is Very Wrong
Using the DMCA to take down criticism is never a good idea, especially for public figures, and it’s a particularly bad idea when you can’t even spell the word “copyright.” Dr. Drew Pinsky, a media personality and addiction specialist, tweeted: “Infringing copywrite laws is a crime. Hang...Automated Copyright Filter Can’t Detect Infringement or Irony
Stop us if you’ve heard this one: legal expert posts video on YouTube with fair use clip in a lecture about copyright law, which is then taken down after a copyright bot finds it. Simply pointing out the mistake doesn’t restore the video to the Internet. Instead, extraordinary measures have...The Saga of the Disappeared Baby Yoda Gifs
If a character becomes a meme, but there are no GIFs of it, did it ever really go viral? That’s the question now facing the very adorable creature the Internet has named “Baby Yoda.” In mid-November of 2019, culture behemoth Disney launched its new streaming service, Disney +, with an...The Strange Case of Ellen DeGeneres, George W. Bush, and a Very Bad Takedown
It’s legitimately amazing that famous people and companies keep doing this. They keep using the DMCA to take down criticism, which always makes them look even worse than they did when the criticism was allowed to be seen. Does no one in Hollywood know about the Streisand Effect? Comedian...The Mistake So Bad, That Even YouTube Says Its Copyright Bot ‘Really Blew It’
Copyright filters don’t work. And sometimes, they fail so badly that they scare creators and make them self-censor. YouTuber SmellyOctopus has over 21,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, and about 2,000 on Twitch. In early January 2019, SmellyOctopus did a nine-minute, private stream where spoke into his microphone to...DMCA Mystery: Did Epic Games Send a Takedown to Itself?
Welcome to a brand new kind of whodunnit. This one has everything: an extremely popular game, a short-lived takedown, and so very many memes. The ways of the DMCA and YouTube are unknown and unknowable. Trailers are a time-tested and proven way of getting attention for a new piece of...Sony Finally Admits It Doesn’t Own Bach and It Only Took a Bunch of Public Pressure
Here’s the thing about different people playing the same piece of music: sometimes, they’re going to sound similar. And when music is by a composer who died 268 years ago, putting his music in the public domain, a bunch of people might record it and some of them might put...FIFA Is Not Okay With Dancing In Front of the TV
It’s World Cup time. That means goals. And goals means goal celebrations. Here’s a compilation of U.S. soccer fans celebrating a last-second goal in the 2010 World Cup. Ah, memories. Anyway, FIFA apparently doesn’t like it when fans celebrate near their television sets. It sent a takedown...Author Trademarks the Word 'Cocky,' Earns the Ire of Romance Writers Everywhere
It’s a bad idea to come after romance authors’ favorite double entendres. Unfortunately, Faleena Hopkins, holder of a trademark on the word “cocky” and a shaky understanding of trademark law, fired a bunch of shots and not only missed the mark, but managed to turn her entire industry against her...A Critic Uses the DMCA to Avoid Criticism
Critics, perhaps more than anyone, should know fair use. It’s impossible to review a book, movie, or a video game without using text or images from that same copyrighted work—that’s why fair use is so critical to free speech. So a professional critic is the last person you’d expect to...Video Game Developer Says He Won't Send a Takedown of a Bad Review, Does So Anyway
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we get into a Twitter fight with someone who gave our video game a bad review on YouTube. And when we say that we would never send a DMCA takedown for it. And when one mysteriously turns up anyway. This is...
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A Guide to YouTube Removals
So your video was removed from YouTube... what do you need to know?
Avoiding Gripes About Your Gripe or Parody Site
Tips for warding off complaints about your website.
No Downtime For Free Speech
Headquarters for all things related to EFF's work protecting free speech from bogus legal threats.
