HBO Asks Google to Take Down “Infringing” VLC Media Player

[eCa]

Why not some sort of suspension system?

Request take down of something you don't own -> you can't invoke DMCA for a month. That should be a deterrent.

[mcv]

They can't outright refuse to handle DMCA requests, but they can stop automated handling of such requests. If I understand correctly, big content holders get special tools they can use to remove infringing content from some Google services (YouTube at least; not sure about search results). If they abuse that special access, Google can take away these privileges and double check everything manually. That takes a lot of time, and means that the infringing content will remain accessible for a longer time.

[bjeanes]

I doubt that is legal. That (or something along these lines) would be a good improvement to DMCA process in general, but doubtfully something that Google can decide to do.

[tovmeod]

or maybe charging, if such a request is sent they have to pay for the employee time wasted on that

[cdooh]

The DCMA takedown process is broken, the burden is on services to proved their innocence and there are little or no consequences for bogus takedowns

[mikestew]

More telling is that they requested that their own website be removed. To me that should be the headline.

[Dylan16807]

That was the headline. Half a year ago. When it happened.

Are you asking them to use the wrong headlines for articles, or are you asking them to republish things every couple months?

[DHowett]

The takedown request outlined in the article contains a reference to VLC as distributed by a popular torrent tracker, and not VLC itself. While this is still overstepping the boundaries of copyright, it is disingenuous to say that HBO asked Google to take down VLC.

[mariuolo]

How is it possible that nobody is ever held accountable for such egregious mistakes?

[speedyrev]

"VLC doesn't pirate movies - People pirate movies"