copyright takedown experiment

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kurt Albershardt <kurt () nv net>
Date: October 19, 2004 2:17:32 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net, gnu () toad com
Subject: copyright takedown experiment

> From <http://www.doom9.net/>:

Dutch civil rights organization Bits of Freedom has run an interesting 
experiment: They put up a text by a famous Dutch author, written in 
1871 to accounts with 10 different ISPs. Then they made up an imaginary 
society that is supposed to be the copyright holder of the author in 
question, and sent copyright infringement takedown notices to those 10 
ISP via email (using a Hotmail account). 7 out of 10 ISPs took down the 
material, sometimes within hours and without even informing the account 
holder. One ISP doubted the legitimacy of the claim and asked for some 
proof that the alleged plaintiff was in fact the copyright holder. Yet 
another ISP actually realized that copyright had long since run out on 
the work. That's real scary, don't you think? Made up society, Hotmail 
addresses and a website is gone. I doubt it would work if you wanted to 
take down the MPAA/RIAA homepage, but if you run a small website, 
chances are good that somebody can have your site shut down with little 
effort, even if there's absolutely no grounds for it. I guess "guilty 
until proven innocent" is already a reality in a lot of places.

Paper here <http://www.bof.nl/docs/researchpaperSANE.pdf>



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