Automated DCMA take downs
A single DCMA takedown request from Pearson, a textbook publisher, caused the death of more than 1.45 million education blogs.
According to Ars Technica Pearson targeted a single page from 2007 that was using copyrighted material. EduBlogs, the host of the blog in question, found it self shut down after overarching provider ServerBeach receieved the DCMA notice. Edublogs thus took the appropriate action to make sure "the content was no longer available, and informed ServerBeach."
However, ServerBeach noticed that Edublogs still had the file in its Web server cache, and so it pulled the entire site offline even though the file in question was no longer easily accessible to the public. The October 10 shutdown came, less than 12 hours after ServerBeach provided Edublogs with this DMCA notice.
ServerBeach had also contacted Edublogs 10 days previously through their automated system, but either wasn't sent or we didn't get it. The company did not think to ring anyone. Anyway it has all been sorted out but it does show the problems of enforcing the DCMA process.
More here.
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Nick Farrell
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