<
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/youtuber-won-dmca-fight-with-fake-nintendo-lawyer-by-detecting-spoofed-email/>
'A brave YouTuber has managed to defeat a fake Nintendo lawyer improperly
targeting his channel with copyright takedowns that could have seen his entire
channel removed if YouTube issued one more strike.
Sharing his story with
The Verge, Dominik "Domtendo" Neumayer—a German
YouTuber who has broadcasted play-throughs of popular games for 17 years—said
that it all started when YouTube removed some videos from his channel that were
centered on
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Those removals came after
a pair of complaints were filed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA) and generated two strikes. Everyone on YouTube knows that three strikes
mean you're out and off the platform permanently.
Suddenly at risk of losing the entire channel he had built on YouTube, Neumayer
was stunned,
The Verge noted, partly because most game companies consider
"Let's Play" videos like his to be free marketing, not a threat to their
business. And while Nintendo has been known to target YouTubers with DMCA
takedowns, it generally historically took no issues with accounts like his.
For many YouTubers, a DMCA takedown request is considered too risky to
challenge, even if it's obviously fake. The risk of losing their channels
outweighs the risk of losing income from removing specific videos at issue, so
users often choose to delete content voluntarily, rather than defend their
content. Copyright trolls try to benefit from this, getting content removed
that otherwise would remain on the platform and sometimes attempting to push
users to submit unnecessary payments.
No one knows how much copyright abuse occurs on YouTube. According to YouTube,
about 6 percent of removals from July to December 2023 were abusive, along with
10 times more attempted abusive removals. But if a significant number of users
never flag abuse—out of fear they could be sued for contributing to copyright
infringement—then the true figure could be higher.
Neumayer clearly took a long hard look at the DMCA takedown requests before
making any rash decisions about submitting to the claims. That's when he
noticed something strange. The requests were signed by "Tatsumi Masaaki,
Nintendo Legal Department, Nintendo of America," but the second one curiously
"came from a personal account at an encrypted email service:
'
tatsumi-masaaki@protonmail.com,'"
The Verge reported.
Defending his livelihood, Neumayer started asking questions. At first, that led
to his videos being reinstated. But that victory was short-lived, as the
supposed Nintendo lawyer only escalated his demands, spooking the YouTuber into
voluntarily removing some videos,
The Verge reported, while continuing to
investigate the potential troll.'
Via Fredrick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
