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Scammers Hit Pirate Game Sites With 'Irreversible' Google Takedowns

posted by chromas on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the [deleted] dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Every single day, rightsholders and their representatives scour the web for references to pirated content, which aren't hard to find. These links are then reported to various online services, such as Google, requesting their operators to remove the allegedly infringing content. This system works well in theory but it's being abused by scam-artists as well.

One of the most recent scams we've seen targets various popular game piracy sites[...] The notices in question are seemingly sent by prominent names in the gaming industry, such as Steam and Ubisoft. However, the sudden flurry of takedown requests appears to be initiated by scammers instead.

[...] The end result of these fraudulent notices is that thousands of URLs have been wiped from Google's search results by what appear to be scammers. In some cases, Google has rejected the requests, but many have been honored.

What certainly doesn't help is that the allegations are not incorrect per se. Pirated games often circumvent DRM. However, the scammy notices are sent out for a different purpose.

Source: https://torrentfreak.com/scammers-hit-pirate-game-sites-with-irreversible-google-takedowns-181130/

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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 11 2018, @07:52AM (4 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday December 11 2018, @07:52AM (#772792) Homepage Journal

    When I got googles notice I figured I'd been pwned but no those URLs were never at my site. I also checked wayback.

    I filed a counterclaim with a very oblique worded letter in hopes that they sue me. If they do I'm going to press a barratry complaint against their ambulance chasers

    The "plaintiff" was a corporation that was formed specifically to own the rights to a certain season of some TV series

    I read their notice at chilling effects. It listed hundreds of URLs. My guess is that my two 404s were a stale pointer bug in their bot

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:14AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:14AM (#772802)

    You've just won a Rolex watch, click HERE [scams-r-us.com]

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday December 11 2018, @04:15PM (2 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday December 11 2018, @04:15PM (#772911) Homepage
    Why should a "(looks somewhat vaguely like it) violates my copyrights by virtue of it being an exact copy" claim be different from a "(looks somewhat vaguely like it) violates my copyrights by virtue of it being a copy that's been modified" claim? What was the "logic" beind codifying that into the law? Yes, I'm probably asking for something coherent from the MAFIAA, something which most likely doesn't exist. I don't remember hearing of this distinction before - it sounds stupid.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

    • (Score: 2, Redundant) by tangomargarine on Tuesday December 11 2018, @04:38PM (1 child)

      by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @04:38PM (#772926)

      If it were an open-source product the former wouldn't actually be illegal. But yeah, for AAA games that is unlikely to matter.

      Interestingly, this is one time where just quoting the first paragraph of the article makes things a lot clearer.

      Scammers are abusing Google's takedown system to remove popular game piracy sites from search results. The notices are not standard DMCA notifications. They accuse the sites of circumventing DRM instead, which means that there is no counter-notification option available. Making matters worse, malware-ridden sites are now rising in Google's search results.

      So this is a ploy by the guys distributing malware versions of the games, to try to increase the exposure of their products?

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"

      • (Score: 1, Redundant) by FatPhil on Wednesday December 12 2018, @08:30AM

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday December 12 2018, @08:30AM (#773367) Homepage
        Quoting "circumventing DRM instead, which means that there is no counter-notification option available." doesn't make things clearer, because it raises the question "why the different types of claims?". Oh, I raised that already.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:38PM (2 children)

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:38PM (#772983) Homepage

    However, the scammy notices are sent out for a different purpose.

    Which is what? Are we clickteasing now?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Fluffeh on Wednesday December 12 2018, @01:15AM (1 child)

      by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 12 2018, @01:15AM (#773222) Journal

      Here it is in four easy steps.

      1) Create scammy site offering some semblance of product
      2) Find legitimate sources of software similar to your product and then spam google etc to remove those sites from their listings.
      3) Wait for your site to rise in rankings as other valid sites above you are vanished by your fake notices.
      4) Profit - users are now installing your scammy software in lieu of the real thing as your site is at the top or near the top of the search results.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @02:55AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @02:55AM (#773261)

        2 doesn't sound right. TFS says they are pirate sites.

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