DMCA – Page 2 – MMO Fallout

Youtube is finally taking the fight to copyright trolls and this week filed a lawsuit against an individual for allegedly abusing the DMCA takedown system in order to extort and harass Youtube creators into paying him money.

The defendant is Christopher Brady, an individual residing in Omaha, Nebraska. According to a complaint filed in the District of Nebraska, Youtube alleges that Brady has sent dozens of DMCA takedown notices making false claims of copyright infringement. The DMCA takedowns were part of a campaign to harass and extort money from the creators, with Brady threatening to send additional fraudulent notices in order to cause the termination of his victim’s Youtube accounts unless they paid him off. Brady is also accused of misusing the personal information that his victims supplied to him during the counter notification process.

Youtube’s attorneys went as far as bringing attention to the DMCA’s built-in risk of abuse:

“Further abuse can arise because of the DMCA’s counter notification process. Under the DMCA, users who believe that their content was removed because of an improper takedown notice may ask YouTube to restore the content pending resolution of the question of infringement. To trigger the counter notification process, a user must supply their name, address and phone number to YouTube, provide details of the allegedly wrongful takedown notice, and consent to be sued by the original complainant. In accordance with the DMCA, YouTube forwards a copy of complete and valid counter notifications to the original complainant. Instead of using the personal information in a counter notification for purposes of resolving an infringement dispute, abusive complainants may use it for purposes of harassment.”

Brady is accused of targeting multiple Youtube accounts although the lawsuit notes two in particular that Brady allegedly proceeded to send ransom letters to, promising that he would rescind the strikes if money was sent via Paypal or bitcoin in the sum of over $100. Both Youtubers publicized their experiences which brought the extortion attempt to Youtube’s attention.

But the story gets worse. It always gets worse.

Further on, Youtube alleges that Brady attempted to extort a Youtuber going by the handle Cxlvxn. When Cxlvxn submitted a counter notification, his house was swatted.

“Cxlvxn submitted a counter notification on July 4th, 2019. On July 10th, he announced via Twitter that he had been the victim of a swatting scheme that day. “Swatting” is the act of making a bogus call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address. Given the timing of (i) Defendant Brady’s online dispute with Cxlvxn, (ii) Brady’s false copyright claims against Cxlvxn; (iii) Brady’s receipt of Cxlvxn’s true home address via Cxlvxn’s counter-notification; and (iv) the reported swatting incident, it appears Brady used the personal information gained through his abuse of the DMCA process to engage in swatting.”

All in all, Youtube alleges that Brady submitted more than two dozen false DMCA claims, which were signed under penalty of perjury, using at least fifteen fake identities all of which were traced back to him. The false claims have caused Youtube a substantial sum in investigating to detect and halt his behavior, and the very real possibility that Brady will continue his abusive conduct into the future.

Youtube is requesting compensatory damages for violation of 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), attorneys’ fees, injunctive relief barring Brady and his associates from filing false DMCA strikes, and anything else the court may deem appropriate. When parties file at DMCA takedown, they affirm that they do so under penalty of perjury for false claims and may be held liable for damages incurred by their false claim.

As always, the docket related to the case has been uploaded to the MMO Fallout Google Drive. All allegations laid forth in the lawsuit above are mere allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. More information to come as the case progresses.

IPE: MMO Fallout Hit With DMCA Takedown

Hello folks,

I initially grappled with whether to publish this piece, and just decided to go with it. It came to my attention over the weekend that MMO Fallout, specifically our domain host, has been hit with a DMCA takedown notice. The notice was sent to us in regards to an In Plain English article that was published last year, and it appears that someone is unhappy enough with our coverage and publicization of the events that they’ve decided to claim that our usage of their name in coverage and the court dockets infringes on copyright and trademarks.

Now MMO Fallout knows its legal rights and will not be voluntarily taking down this article. I have nearly full confidence in our hosting provider that they will see the takedown for what it is and will ignore it. That said, I fully understand that it is in their best interest under US Copyright law to act now and make me defend myself later, so I decided to publish this notice as a warning that, on the off chance this website suddenly goes dark over the next few days, you know what happened.

With that, I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[NM] Star Control On Stardock’s Website Following DMCA

Star Control Origins has returned to digital store shelves following its removal from Steam and Good Old Games just a few days ago. Star Control: Origins was removed from Steam and Good Old Games following a DMCA takedown request by Fred Ford and Paul Reiche, two individuals with whom developer Stardock is currently fighting in court over disputes regarding the Star Control franchise.

In the course of their lawsuit, Stardock requested that the court grant an injunction preventing Ford and Reiche from interfering with the release of Origins. The judge denied the request, stating that Stardock developed Origins with the full knowledge that a serious copyright dispute was likely to arise, and that any harm is of its own making.

“Plaintiff was aware of Defendants’ copyright claim to Star Control 1 and 2 since the development of Origins commenced, however, and was aware of the contours of the present copyright dispute since at least December 2017,” Armstrong writes. “Thus, whatever monies Plaintiff invested in Origins was done with the knowledge that serious copyright disputes were likely to arise or had arisen.”

Origins is currently 50% off on Stardock’s store.

Source: Stardock

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