Universal Censors Megaupload Song, Gets Branded a “Rogue Label”

http://torrentfreak.com/universal-censors-megaupload-song-gets-branded-a-rogue-label-111210/

by lomegor • 15 years ago

179 75 15 years ago

torrentfreak.com

thebigredjay• 15 years ago

Why isn't this video hosted on Megavideo?

lomegor• 15 years ago

I think it is. But they also hosted it on YouTube.

xer0• 15 years ago

Well of course UMG prevailed. They're the bigger, legitimate party, and they're who the DMCA was written for. The DMCA was never intended for us to use.

DenisM• 15 years ago

The real problem here is Youtube who refuses to take counter-notice seriously. It's been many years and they still can't figure out that simple bit "counternotice filed".

pyre9• 15 years ago

Do we really know if this isn't an over-zealous bot that say big names like P. Diddy and Snoop Dogg and decided that it was time to issue a notice?

I still think it's an abuse of the DMCA power to have bots out there mining for things and sending notices without a human ever looking over its shoulder, but there's a difference between negligence and malice.

chairface7• 15 years ago

I see no practical difference between a human issuing illegitmate DMCA takedown notices, or using a bot to do the same. The difference to the affected party is nil. "The bot made me do it" is not a legal defense.

pyre9• 15 years ago

  > "The bot made me do it" is not a legal defense.

Please re-read my post instead of tearing down a straw man.

rcthompson2• 15 years ago

If a boot does it, then it is much more difficult to pin the crime on any one person, therefore much less likely to result in any consequences for any of the guilty parties.

sp332• 15 years ago

No. The bots might find the videos, but the DMCA requires a statement made under penalty of perjury to be submitted along with the takedown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA_safe_harbor#Takedown_exam...

alexcoomans• 15 years ago

I'd have to agree with sp332, since I don't see how a bot would be able to legally sign a document - the legal backlash could be significant if a bot signed a document and that document was submitted without any human checks. Then again, it doesn't always seem like the media has regard for the law unless it is benefitting them, so it wouldn't surprise me.

pyre9• 15 years ago

People seem to be misunderstanding my post. I'm trying to differentiate between:

"I hate those MegaUpload people. I'll issue a false take-down notice to shut them up! Bwahahaha! <twirls mustache>"

and

"Oh. Another hit from our crappy YouTube crawler bot. <rubber stamps take-down notice>"

There is a difference between malice directed towards MegaUpload and (willful) negligence.

[ Also, don't reply with something stupid like, "but that won't hold up in court." Because a careful reading of the above text will reveal a lack of me making any such statement. ]

wnight• 15 years ago

> there's a difference between negligence and malice.

Initially, maybe. But when it keeps going on because it's profitable, it's malice.

citricsquid• 15 years ago

controversy aside, what a terrible song. It's like a really poor TV jingle.

rabidsnail• 15 years ago

It's not meant for you.

Zarathust• 15 years ago

Totaly, its not a "song", its more like a 4 minutes commercial. I feel dirty now

eridius• 15 years ago

Isn't the DMCA supposed to punish people who file fraudulent takedown notices?

cynest• 15 years ago

There's a high transaction cost in someone filing a complaint against those, so it doesn't happen. It's quite a shame given that I've seen a few examples of videos taken down by actors with no connection. Eg Zenimax taking down a video related to a tv show.

schwabacher• 15 years ago

I was curious what the penalties are for issuing a false DMCA takedown request. According to this article (http://intellectual-property.lawyers.com/blogs/archives/1036...), the penalty is perjury, which is a felony. Does anyone know who would be responsible for bringing charges? Is it something that Megavideo can do, or would it have to be Google, who i assume would not press charges in order to keep their good relationship with Universal?

dangrossman2• 15 years ago

I assume it would have to be a prosecutor at some level in government.

Google, or any other corporation or citizen, cannot bring criminal charges... we can only file civil actions and report crimes to authorities in the appropriate jurisdiction (the police or FBI for example) who then report to prosecutors who decide whether to bring charges. Perjury is not just an offense at some specific person or organization, it's an offense to society, and society punishes through criminal prosecution (United States v. You, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. You, etc.).

At least that's my "Civics 101" level understanding.

ugh2• 15 years ago

I’m guessing that depends on the kind of agreement Universal has with Google. Google can allow Universal to do whatever they want, there don’t have to be any takedown requests involved anywhere in this story.

Maybe Universal merely broke their contract with Google.

rhubarbquid• 15 years ago

My understanding (though I'm not a lawyer) is that under the DMCA, Megavideo can sue. [edit: like dangrossman says, I don't think they can bring perjury charges, but the DMCA does allow them to sue]

Some information here: http://targetlaw.com/consequences-of-filing-a-false-dmca-tak...

ugh2• 15 years ago

But was there a DMCA takedown?

iamandrus• 15 years ago

Megavideo would, they hold the rights to the song and have agreements with the artists in question. UMG would be held responsible since their name is on the infringement notice.

traldan• 15 years ago

Since Corporations are People, how would UMG be charged with a felony?

mustpax• 15 years ago

In the US, felony criminal proceedings are initiated by a grand jury at the recommendation of the District Attorney. Megaupload can file a criminal complaint, but the DA has a lot of freedom in deciding to put the case in front of a grand jury or not.

Megaupload can bring a civil suit against Universal but these proceedings cannot lead to a felony conviction, which once again is a criminal sanction.

joelrunyon• 15 years ago

Not the only abuse of the system. Interscope issued a takedown notice for UK rapper Skepta because they wanted to buy the beat from him. No actual copyright infringement at all...just blatant abuse of the system.

link: http://www.sohh.com/2011/07/interscope_youtube_shakedown_rap...

spdy• 15 years ago

Oh this will be fun to watch if you know the history of Kim Schmitz aka Kimble aka Kim Dotcom [1]. He has quite a talent to get into the spotlight if he needs too and it looks like that he is able to legally re-appear in public again.

But i would love to know how a trickster like him got this video together. Maybe he is running out of money again and needs some publicity.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Schmitz

sek• 15 years ago

I still can remember when he was a celebrity here. I never felt sorry for the people he ripped of, it was so obvious. I always wondered about his secrecy, he seemed to be someone who needs the spotlight.

It's quite impressive what he pulled off with Megaupload, it is a competitive market and his infrastructure has to be quite big. When you look at the numbers of MU, i don't think he is short of money.

andrewflnr• 15 years ago

If you, like me, are wondering where he got a name like "Kim Dotcom", he apparently just calls himself that, according to this [1] reference on the Wikipedia page.

[1] http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&obj...

RandallBrown2• 15 years ago

Megaupload/megavideo is such a scummy site. It may have it's uses but it's covered in garbage. You can't even watch a video without clicking 2 or 3 ads. It's terrible.

I know that Universal is doing something illegal but I guess I just don't mind that much because of how terrible megaupload is.

dangrossman2• 15 years ago

Do you think there's any other way to run the site, at least in 2011?

There's no other reasonable way they could make enough money to cover the expenses. The audience for these sites is, by design, children/teens with no access to money and adults who are there explicitly to avoid spending money. By the nature of the content they host, they're not going to get any first tier advertisers, so they have to make up for it in volume.

RandallBrown2• 15 years ago

Yes, it's designed to host illegal pirated content. I know there are plenty of legitimate uses for it, but it doesn't change that it's still a shitty site.

I'm not saying that nothing should be done about this Universal thing. I actually enjoy seeing the music industry taken down a few pegs.

ricardobeat• 15 years ago

That's like not minding that your fat ugly annoying neighbour is being mugged. Wrong is wrong.

shinratdr• 15 years ago

If you use jDownloader, they differences between those sites become irrelevant.

Dylan16807• 15 years ago

Odd, I can't remember seeing any ads on megavideo. I haven't been there in a while but at that point it had a solid ux until it cut you off at 70 minutes to make you wait or pay.

angrycoder2• 15 years ago

Well at least the anti-SOPA people now have a high profile, clear cut example of why giving these companies more power is a bad idea. These numb nuts very well have just shot themselves in the foot over a silly video.

cleverjake• 15 years ago

honest answer - was china not a good one to you?

angrycoder2• 15 years ago

I am not the one who needs convincing. Anyhow, a headline that reads 'New internet law will make us just like China' sounds so ridiculous most people wouldn't think it was true, even though it is. But 'Record label shuts down song by P Diddy, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, The Game and Mary J Blige.' grabs attention.

Animus7• 15 years ago

China's far away. This example hits closer and is therefore much easier to consume.

Of course, this isn't a logical argument. But lawmaking isn't fundamentally driven by logic these days anyway.

derleth2• 15 years ago

You can't honestly say that the Chinese Internet censorship policy is a reversal from the heady pro-liberty days of the 1970s, for example. The most you can say is that China lost another opportunity to not oppress its people.

DanBC• 15 years ago

Comparing tax-paying US companies to oppressive Chinese regimes isn't helpful when you're trying to persuade politicians.

Having a really easy to understand simple clear example of existing powers being used illegally should be helpful, although I realise that this example probably won't do anything.

SneezyRobot• 15 years ago

Ironically, MegaUpload is headquartered in Hong Kong...

throwaway64• 15 years ago

I have a sneaking suspicion this video was specifically designed to trigger DMCA takedown bots on youtube, via artist tags, knowing the personality of the founder, i think it fits perfectly.

This is going to give them huge ammunition in the media against the RIAA.

It could even possibly used in court to prove the bad faith nature of UMGs DMCA takedowns.

What a brilliant tactical stroke.

nextparadigms2• 15 years ago

Yeah, and UMG fell straight for it. This will also give the Megaupload song much more media attention than it would've gotten otherwise, which again will help Megaupload.

ChuckMcM• 15 years ago

Nice hack. I wonder if they could get a court to issue an injunction against UMG from using its takedown tool until they have established a way to prove to Youtube that they do indeed own the copyrights to material. This would seriously limit their tool's usage :-)

nextparadigms2• 15 years ago

The labels going against the artists they pretend to "protect"? I love this. Because if the artists get angry with the labels for stuff like this, it means next time the labels will try to push a law like SOPA "in the name of the artists" - the artists will be there and call them on their BS, and say the labels are representing nobody but themselves. I predict this will become fun to watch.

petercooper• 15 years ago

Kim is not one to back down easily, if ever. He loves to win. He placed first in the infamous Gumball 3000 rally twice, and on one occasion faced a certain loss so drove down a packed pedestrian promenade honking everyone out of his way (see around 9 minutes into http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIXYuusRIxA ). What a guy.

In http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boSUCzJB2Gw#t=6m35s you can see him make an almost impossible gap in traffic at high speed, actually clipping another car, and.. he keeps on rolling :-) Not a guy I'd want to be taking on, that's for sure.

damncabbage• 15 years ago

  What a guy.

What a complete dick.

Guts and determination is one thing. Risking other people's lives over a petty race is completely different.

thwarted• 15 years ago

Hehe, that second video (voSUCz) returns "This video contains content from WMG and UMG, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."

paulhauggis• 15 years ago

While I don't agree with what they did here (or SOPA), I have a problem getting on the same side as a site that thinks piracy does no damage to the copyright holder.

Hwee• 15 years ago

This is being done in our name and with our money. If you don't like it you might want to consider your choices when buying or requesting presents this festive season. Make it an RIAA- and MPAA-free Christmas and tell your friends and family why.

Universal Censors Megaupload Song, Gets Branded a “Rogue Label”

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