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Man sued for using bogus YouTube takedowns to get address for swatting
YouTube is suing a Nebraska man the company says has blatantly abused its copyright takedown process. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act offers online platforms like YouTube legal protections if they promptly take down content flagged by copyright holders. However, this process can be abused—and boy did defendant Christopher L. Brady abuse it, according to YouTube's legal complaint (pdf).
Brady allegedly made fraudulent takedown notices against YouTube videos from at least three well-known Minecraft streamers. In one case, Brady made two false claims against a YouTuber and then sent the user an anonymous message demanding a payment of $150 by PayPal—or $75 in bitcoin.
"If you decide not to pay us, we will file a 3rd strike," the message said. When a YouTube user receives a third copyright strike, the YouTuber's account gets terminated. A second target was ordered to pay $300 by PayPal or $200 in Bitcoin to avoid a third fraudulent copyright strike.
A third incident was arguably even more egregious. According to YouTube, Brady filed several fraudulent copyright notices against another YouTuber with whom he was "engaged in some sort of online dispute." The YouTuber responded with a formal counter-notice stating that the content wasn't infringing—a move that allows the content to be reinstated. However, the law requires the person filing the counter-notice to provide his or her real-world name and address—information that's passed along to the person who filed the takedown request.
This contact information is supposed to enable a legitimate copyright holder to file an infringement lawsuit in court. But YouTube says Brady had another idea. A few days after filing a counter-notice, the targeted YouTuber "announced via Twitter that he had been the victim of a swatting scheme." Swatting, YouTube notes, "is the act of making a bogus call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address."
YouTube doesn't provide hard proof that Brady was responsible for the swatting call, stating only that it "appears" he was responsible based on the sequence of events. But YouTube says it does have compelling evidence that Brady was responsible for the fraudulent takedown notices. And fraudulent takedown notices are themselves against the law.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 25 2019, @03:00AM (5 children)
The bastard should be in prison, and his victims dividing his possessions among themselves. Law enforcement and everyone who supports the 911 system should be in line to crucify him. And, yes, as the last sentence of TFS notes,
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 25 2019, @05:19AM (1 child)
Cops will be happy. They can armor up and maybe shoot somebody not just once, but twice.
Who in their right mind would give their home address?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 25 2019, @07:29PM
And don't forget the person's dog, either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 25 2019, @06:37AM
The sad part is that other people could do it and get away with it. "Doxing" isn't exactly a crime, it's on you to prove that the claim is fraudulent, and they could use fake details to file the initial claim.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 25 2019, @10:12PM
Take him to court and prove extortion and fraud. As that is what this man did.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday August 26 2019, @02:20AM
Part of the effect of this lawsuit is that it will put to official court record exactly what the defendant did, including his fraudulent 911 call. So this actually aids the effort to put this jerk in prison.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.