Microsoft Sends Google A DMCA Notice… To Block Microsoft's Bing Search Engine

from the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept

Ah, bogus DMCA notices that you just can’t make up. TorrentFreak has a good article highlighting a completely bogus DMCA notice from Microsoft (sent by one of its partners on its behalf) that tries to take a bunch of legitimate news sites out of Google’s index, on the mistaken claim that they violated Windows 8 copyrights. But, even more ridiculous is an aside mentioned in the article, that some other DMCA notices appear to target Bing, Microsoft’s own search engine. Indeed, they’re not that hard to find. If you look up DMCA notices asking Google to remove links to Bing, Microsoft shows up quite a bit:

If you dig down, you can find out the specifics, such as this DMCA notice sent on May 23 of this year, sent by Marketly on behalf of Microsoft, supposedly to stop the infringement of Office 2010. It lists out 997 URLs that it wants Google to take out of its search results, including a link to a Bing search. Given that Microsoft owns Bing… you’d think it would remove that search first. What’s even more amusing is that if you go to the link in question on Bing… it’s still there.

Yes, this is yet another silly move by an automated system, but it once again highlights some of the ridiculousness involved in DMCA takedowns for search results.

Filed Under: , , , ,
Companies: google, microsoft

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Microsoft Sends Google A DMCA Notice… To Block Microsoft's Bing Search Engine”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
23 Comments
Gwiz (profile) says:

Re:

Personally, I’m ready to look for a search engine as good as google, but that NEVER de-lists content. I’d sell your soul for that.

I use YaCy on my personal machine. By design it can never be censored by anyone, including those who created it. If you use it as a proxy for surfing, it will crawl based on where you surf and will eventually make the searches faster by using your local data first. The trade off is that you are asked (not required though) to contribute disk space and bandwidth and it can be a bit slow.

I also recently discovered Gibiru which looks interesting in that it seems to be designed to list alternates to mainstream media higher, as opposed to Google which Gibiru claims are bowing to the wishes of the NSA and are delisting alternate news sources on issues the NSA would like to be kept quiet.

davnel (profile) says:

The answer is obvious. No automated DCMA notices should be allowed. If a copyright holder objects to a posting somewhere, he has to find it himself and request a takedown, himself. This crap of allowing a misprogrammed confuser to make such decisions and requests is totally nuts, obviously. What is the total cost in time and money of all of these false notices? Bunches, I’ll wager. And for what? This is a profit-making enterprise. Notices result in lawsuits, which result in profits. Bah!! It’s always about money.

Leave a Reply to Gwiz Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...