The content’s ours, but that URL isn’t—and thanks to Google they’re still online A Chinese gambling site has cloned entire chunks of Lucire’s website. It’s not the first time this has happened with a bad actor behind the Bamboo Curtain; some years ago I had to ask a friend from Wuhan to intervene to […]
Read More… from Of course Google’s fine with running cloud services for known pirates
If you are a pirate, then GoDaddy seems to be the place to host. Last November, we spotted three stolen articles on the sephari.co.nz domain, which appears to be hosted by GoDaddy. I filed two DMCA notices, to no avail. They were in the standard format, one that GoDaddy requests and has acted on in […]
Along came Copytrack again yesterday, identifying an image that they allege we stole and put on Lucire’s website. And once again I had to go back through old emails—only 11 years this time, not 13 like the last—to retrieve the email to prove that I had the correct licence to publish it, and that and […]
I think these are going to get more frequent. We received another copyright claim, accusing us of publishing a photograph without authorization. They wanted around €500, part of that for the licence, and part of that for running it since 2009. This one, from a German company, was easier to deal with than an American […]
Read More… from When reverse image search services allege you’ve stolen work
Apparently the New Zealand government says Big Tech will pay a ‘fair price’ for local news content under new legislation. Forget the newcomers like Stuff and The New Zealand Herald. The Fairfax Press, as the former was, was still running ‘The internet is scary’ stories at the turn of the century. What will Big Tech […]
Read More… from Google’s advertising business is a negligence lawsuit waiting to be actioned
Nine days since the first DMCA notice was lobbed against us, the saga has finally reached the powers-that-be at Hearst SL. And once it did, things began happening quickly. I’ve heard from their head of legal, and what he’s outlined to me seems like a good resolution to the whole saga. He tells me some […]
Read More… from The Red Points saga: this might finally be resolved
This is too good. Now, Hearst Communications, Inc. was sensible enough to realize that what I raised was real, and a senior VP put me on to a colleague dealing with Hearst Magazines International. Nothing yet, but I wrote a release, sent it to a few colleagues, and published it on Lucire describing what had […]
I suppose it’s positive that Google has finally responded to our first counter-notification against Hearst SL’s and Red Points Solution SL’s fraudulent DMCA notice. Hey, Google, why don’t you begin by asking your complainants for proof before presuming an innocent party guilty? Then used your milliards of dollars and high-tech to see that our work […]
Read More… from Google finally responds to our first counter-notification
Yesterday morning, we received a second notice with two more URLs—one with wholly our own content—from Hearst SL and its contractor, Red Points Solution SL. I’ve done a bit more digging and it’s usually fraudsters who engage in this behaviour. You can read more about them in Techdirt, Mashable and Search Engine Land. With their […]
Read More… from Companies worth millions engaging in fraud, and Google is their weapon
Still nothing from the Spanish outpost of Hearst or from Red Points Solution SL on their false accusation against Lucire, so tonight I contacted one of the Hearst VPs in New York—as they’ll more likely understand where we’re coming from. Whenever there’s been a copyright matter, Americans tend to respond quickly, faster than Europeans or […]