[Not Blender] When the real goes beyond the virtual: a journey into DMCA

Everything started back in june 2014, the summer is ending (here in Italy), everyone is going back to work and a bunch of lab monkeys from the copyright infringement division of the FOX network decided to scan the whole web looking for illegal acts of redistribution and diffusion of their productions.

What happened?

Long story short, the FOX, through a direct request to Google asked the de-indexing of thousand of web pages, including my last article: Add all selected bones to a new Keying Set from the Google Search archives.

Check this link for the list of every removed content

DMCA BlenderProps
Look mom! My Blog! into a Copyright infringement! Yay!

 

My head boomed WTF when I’ve discovered it a few months later looking at a comment (thankyou!!!) into the incriminated article!

From a great power…

For those of you who have lived on a rock in the sea, inserted in turn in a closet, and closed with the key in the stomach of a sperm whale, the DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) is an U.S law that assure the right to remove everything from the Google search (and other web engines) by asking to Google itself via a formal copyright infringement request.

But why?

[This is obviously the best part]
My article is about “Add all selected bones to a new Keying Set”: a python script that allows to create automatically a keying set of the selected bones by pressing one button.
So the FOX network looked for removing everything illegal that involved their show “Bones” (!!!). This happened bypassing the authors of any page and without questioning themselves if the world should or not talk into blogs or website about an anatomic part that everyone has: The skeleton

And now?

After a few investigation I’ve discovered that is much more easier to remove a content (here it is a step by step form and a guided webpage) that to reintroduce it..

The steps to follow in order to restore a content are into the Google web search:
[If you know which webpages are involved you can skip to step number 5, in order to discover if there is any removed content that involves your website just continue with step 1]

  1. Subscribe to the Google webmaster tools
  2. Add and verify your website/blog
  3. Check if there is any message from Google (after half a year there was one waiting for me!) about your site

    Selection_002
    In english is a “Notify of DMCA remotion from Google Web Search”
  4. Follow the instructions
  5. Or just go into the DMCA counter-notification form if your website was removed and you think it’s a mistake, or go into the Restore URLs changed after legal complaint if you have fixed/removed the illegal content
  6. Follow the instruction and submit a legal request, so be careful of every information provided

Wait Google for the rest

The lesson

Never talk about anything on the internet! even your body could generate a copyright infringement! just don’t do it!

Cheers
Sparazza

Una risposta a “[Not Blender] When the real goes beyond the virtual: a journey into DMCA”

  1. Google is getting dumb.
    What logic is this of blocking websites just based on keywords?
    Is this an error on google logic or it is accepted norm to block?

    What is the way forward? How do we create awareness?

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