Anshe Chung’s penile assault
p2pnet.net News:- “More and more people who want to stop information from flowing are realizing that they can use the DMCA in an abusive way that it wasn’t intended for, to stop free speech.”
So says Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin.
A Brazilian model and her banker boyfriend were able to convince Google it’d be in its corporate interests to take a down an embarassing (to the model and her boyfriend) video featured on YouTube.
But before that happened, a Second Life land developer got GooTube to yank a flic, “of her virtual self being harassed during an interview, raising novel questions about the legal rights of virtual world participants,” says CNET News, going on to explain:
The controversy stemmed from video taken during an interview with Anshe Chung, the virtual world’s biggest land owner, conducted by CNET News.com in its Second Life bureau last month.
During the interview – which took place in a digital theater in front of dozens of audience members’ avatars – a group intent on sabotaging the event attacked it with 15 minutes of animated penises and photographs of Anshe Chung’s real-life owner, Ailin Graef, digitally altered to make her look like she was holding a giant penis.
Afterward, a video of the attack was posted on YouTube. When Anshe Chung Studios filed a complaint with the popular video service claiming that Graef’s copyrights had been infringed because images of her avatar were used without her permission, YouTube promptly removed the video.
Who could resist? Certainly not Boing Boing which, following a Sydney Morning Herald report, last month published a story on the ‘attack,’ complete with a pic.
“Unable to continue the discussion because of the disruption, Anshe left the stage,” says the SMH. “The meeting was hastily reconvened in another room on property owned by Anshe. But there was no escaping the griefers who attacked the new venue, eventually crashing the server which housed the auditorium. After a restart, the forum proceeded without interruption for another three hours.”
How did the DMCA come into it? “Anshe Chung Studios demanded that YouTube delete the recording, citing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which generally requires Web sites to remove material that infringes on copyright laws,” says CNET in its intro.
Meanwhile, Ailin Graef “can control tracts of land in Second Life all she wants,” the story has Jardin saying. “But she can’t control the rest of the Internet where I and other journalists like to live and speak freely. And we intend to continue to do that.”
The GooTube version may be down, but it’s still on Google video, as CNET points out. Not only but also, the December Boing Boing post has an exact Google Video link, forwarded by Hutcheon.
It was still online when we went for a look at 10:20 am PST.
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
Also See:
convince Google – YouTube deletes Cicarelli flic, January 5, 2007
CNET News – The legal rights to your ‘Second Life’ avatar, January 5, 2006
Boing Boing – Second Life griefers assault real estate millionaire Anshe Chung, December 21, 2006
Sydney Morning Herald – Second Life miscreants stage members-only attack, December 21, 2006
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January 9th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Remember that DMCA takedown is only part of the equation.
For example, let’s assume Cranky Copyright Claimant (CCC) has sent a DMCA takedown notice to your United States Internet service provider (ISP). Your ISP then removes your content, and notifies you of the removal.
You now have the right to give your ISP a DMCA putback notice. The essence of the putback notice is “put up or shut up.” Once putback notice has been given, CCC must either file a federal lawsuit against you, or give up the infringement claim. If no lawsuit is filed within 10-14 business days, the ISP must restore the content.
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DMCA putback notice walkthrough:
1) Determine your ISP’s DMCA notification agent. Your ISP should have already supplied this information. Just in case, the Copyright Office has all registered notification agents available at the following link:
http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/list/index.html
2) Prepare your putback notice in accordance with 17 USC 512(g)(3). An attorney is best suited to assist you with this. If legal counsel is not available, the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse has a web tool to generate a PDF notice at the following link.
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca/counter512.pdf
3) Sign, or electronically sign, your putback notice. Submit it to the ISP’s DMCA notification agent. I’d use snail mail, myself, but how you send it is up to you. Your ISP will send a copy to CCC, so you don’t have to.
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Important putback notice caveat: For your DMCA putback notice to be effective, you must submit to the jurisdiction of the United States federal court district you reside in. If you reside outside the United States, you must submit to the jurisdiction of the United States federal court district your ISP resides in. Because of this, if you are otherwise free of United States jurisdiction, this can make it easier for CCC to sue you.
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The DMCA has a further option for you (and your ISP) to set things right. 17 USC 512(f) entitles you (and your ISP) to sue CCC; if it is proven that CCC knowingly lied about whether your content is infringing, both you and your ISP can recover all costs incurred by CCC’s false DMCA notice.
You, or your ISP, may file or threaten a lawsuit over a false DMCA notice, even if CCC does not sue you. Due to the cost of federal lawsuits, however, you might want to file it only as a counterclaim, in case CCC does sue you.