Ten Wrongly Targeted URLs for DMCA Takedowns

Last week, we reported on the Google Transparency Report which brought to light some of the obviously wrongly filed DMCA takedowns being sent to Google. We decided to start doing a little data mining of our own to see just how rampant of a problem wrong DMCA notices are in the first place.

Note: This is an article I wrote that was published elsewhere first. It has been republished here for archival purposes

1. The Guardian

The first complaint we found was allegations of infringement for Wrath of the Titans from Warner Bros. The link that was alleged to be infringing was to the trailer of the movie as well as a brief description for it as well.

2. The Guardian

The second complaint we found was sent by the RIAA. The allegedly infringing link for the Guardian points to a review of a music album.

3. IMDB

The third complaint we found was sent by Warner Bros. The allegedly infringing link we found was to the IMDB entry for Wrath of the Titans.

4. Wikipedia

The fourth one we found was sent by Sony. Sony apparently claimed that the Wikipedia entry for the movie “The girl Who Played with Fire” was an infringing URL.

5. Discogs

The fifth probably wrongly sent DMCA takedown URL was sent by Watch-Over The Anti-Piracy Service. The allegedly infringing URL was a discogs entry, a website that catalogs music releases.

6. Discogs

The sixth one we found was also sent by Watch-Over The Anti-Piracy Service which targeted another entry on Discogs.

7. Discogs

The seventh was, once again, sent by Watch-Over The AntiPiracy Service which, once again, targeted a discogs entry.

8. Discogs

The eighth was sent by Bliss Music. The alleged infringing URL was to another Discogs entry.

9. Discogs

The ninth was also sent by Bliss Music. The alleged infringing URL was also a Discogs entry.

10. Discogs

The tenth and final entry we found was sent by Carol Kaye. The complaint alleged this Discogs entry was infringing.

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.