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DMCA Abused To Get Sucks Site Taken Down
from the ouch dept
Greg Beck writes in to let us know about the latest example (in a long line) of DMCA abuses. In this case, a home building company, Powermark Homes, is upset about a website called Powermarkhomessucks.com. Now, there's a long legal history around the legality of so-called sucks sites -- and in most cases, they're perfectly legitimate. However, that battle hasn't even played out yet. While it's pending in court, the company took a second route to knock the sucks site completely offline with no judicial review whatsoever: filed a DMCA complaint with the ISP hosting the site, alleging copyright infringement on the site. The "infringing" content in question isn't even infringing. It's a photo that was included as part of the court filings in the case and is taken from a trade magazine (who most likely owns the copyright). However, thanks to the wonders of the notice and takedown system, the ISP is required to take the content down for at least 10 days to avoid liability. So down goes the site, despite no infringing content and without any kind of judicial review -- while the actual case sits and waits in court. As Beck notes, this is likely to come back to hurt Powermark Homes, because filing a false DMCA takedown notice can get you in all sorts of trouble. Then, of course, doing so also has a bit of a Streisand Effect as well, as a lot more folks are suddenly hearing that there are at least some folks out there quite unhappy with Powermark Homes.
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Why don't we hear
If we know that it's wrong to use the DMCA for this, then why do lawyers still get away with doing it? For they, above all, should know this is illegal not to mention schmarmy legal tactics, but I repeat myself.
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Powermark Homes?
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DMCA Abused To Get Sucks Site Taken Down
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There is a solution....
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I'm going to have to stop...
These are basic human rights they are trying to control.
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Shouldn't the headline have been...
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Re: There is a solution....
The end result is that the original complainant in this instance gets a de facto 10-14 day temporary injuction without any judicial oversight.
Great job there Congress... :-(
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And yes - the "Streisand Effect" comes into play. Any company that files a questionable take-down notice has questionable ethics, IMO. Too much competition to consider them.
I'd rather review both sides of the issue and make my decision. Now, since the 'opposition' has been silenced, I can only assume they were silenced because their complaints were legit.
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As much as I hate to say it...
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powermarkhomes@alltel.net
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Boring
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but "Powermark" sounds like they make double-wides, perhaps? Not the moniker of a high-end home builder.
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'Suck" websites...
I;m about to do this to a well-known grocery chain keeps closing my case without resolution or even contacting me.
Nice Customer Service. Here comes my website.
Crappy Customer Service... Same effect.
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Paint me a little confused, but...
In the end it's still a bogus take-down because even though Powermark may be using the image with permission, they likely do not own the copyright for the image.
Does that sound about right?
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Powermark Homes Suck This
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Oh, I did
"Good afternoon,
I just wanted to say how thankful I am that you guys filed a false DMCA takedown notice to the corresponding Sucks website (powermarkhomessucks.com).
Now I know all about how the sucks site must have been very true for you guys to file a fake takedown notice.
I have never heard of you guys until this, but now I have.
And if I ever end up in an area you service and build, I know to completely avoid you guys.
On top of that, for adding to the problem of corporations filing false claims, I hope you guys get fined out of the business.
Thank you and have a shitty day."
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Re: Oh, I did
Honestly... It seems that no one today can take criticism. Sure, when we are kids, we are taught to "say nice things", "give constructive criticism", etc. They must carry that too far to where since no parents/teachers are around, they go tattle to some higher authority.
Honestly, if someone feels strongly enough about your horrible service to build a whole web site dedicated to it, you are obviously doing SOMETHING wrong (even if it is as simple as not clarifying to the customer how you are NOT at fault in a given situation if you really did nothing wrong).
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DMCA
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Archive link
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My letter!
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Dear Powermark Homes
Today I read about your shameful and cowardly takedown of a website that was simply excercising its first amendment right to free speech.
Just because that free speech happens to paint a negative picture of your company does not entitle you, legally or morally, to silence that voice. If anything that was said of you was slanderous or libelous, you could have sued the person on those grounds... but abusing a law (the DMCA) to get a "quick and dirty" solution to the thorn in your side makes your company look far worse than any ranting and raving website every could.
By now I am sure you understand the consequences of your actions... not only can you be sued for illegal use of the law, the story of what you have done has begun to trailblaze its way across the internet, bringing news of your company's abuse to a far greater audience than the website you took down ever could have hoped to.
You have just insured that millions of people will find out how much Power Mark Homes really does suck.
Good job!
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Just Imagine ...
They are probably thinking "Oh shit I wish I didn't let me lawyer do that".
Flooded with emails of people who know to never use them because of this. Such a beautiful thing.
I bet the person who set up the Sucks site is probably laughing their as- off by now.
I am assuming they know about the article here since it was their lawyer (based on knowledge gained from archived site linked in #21) who sent the news to Techdirt here. Thank you TechDirt!
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Google is your friend
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Fight fire with fire
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This is about more than a sucks site
Any company of size is going to have unhappy customers. Using lawyers to silence them is nuts.
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Tell Lawyers How you Feel!
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Some One Reported My Blog
I really dnt know how this stuff happened.
I am not a full time blogger and neither I am interested in earning money from blog i just lov blogging but tiday i received a DMCA complaint stating that my article on a cyberghost vpn is illegal. LOL I just wrote about their advantage & disadvantage, that's it.
moreover it's just a blogger's blog with mere 9 lakh ranking and.... ughhhhh thay found it as potential threat, really it sucks big time.
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need to add company owner names
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