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DMCA Takedowns Remove Perfectly Legal Plex Pages From Google * TorrentFreak:
Plex is a multifunctional media software and service that allows users to easily access all their entertainment in one place.
[...] The Mediaverse part of the Plex site appears to cause some confusion. While it offers content that can be legally streamed for free, it also lists many other titles, such as The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones, Wonder Woman 1984, and Tenet.
These other titles are not freely available for streaming, of course. Plex merely added an informational page to its library so people can put these titles on their watchlist. However, not all copyright holders appear to get this distinction.
Over the past month alone more than a handful of DMCA takedown requests were sent to Google, asking the search engine to remove these "copyright-infringing" pages. The takedowns suggest that Plex offers access to the full videos and list its URLs together with those of notorious pirate sites.
[...] We reached out to Plex to inform the company about the takedowns and requested a comment. The company informed us that they are aware of these notices and will try to work things out with the copyright holders individually.
That's probably wise because too many notices put sites at risk of being demoted, which can seriously hurt search traffic.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday February 01 2021, @04:58AM (2 children)
I do not understand the meaning of term "perfectly legal".
If a law is inherently evil, like for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act [wikipedia.org]
should such laws be complied with, just because of the pure argument of legality?
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday February 01 2021, @05:03AM
In business, legality is all there is, quantified in payables vs receivables
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday February 01 2021, @09:01PM
Of course, what you're describing is the right of conscience. Corporations that comply with bullshit DMCA requests have no conscience.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Monday February 01 2021, @06:07AM (5 children)
Why should Plex have to do anything? It is, after all, perfectly *illegal* to file a takedown request against material that is not infringing.
Blacklist the copyright holders.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 01 2021, @06:08AM
Its 2021, and people STILL have NO idea how this "Internet Thing" even works...
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Monday February 01 2021, @08:14AM (2 children)
They would do something if they want their content to stay up the way it is. Why would they blacklist the copyright holders when it clearly does not align with their product goals? What does align with those goals is... What it is now, with the pages falsely claimed to be infringing. Now why would plex want to do that? Why would anyone add a movie millions want to see to their wishlist, so they're notified when it's available? Well, if you can't figure that out, I can't help you.
It is in fact illegal to file those takedown requests. And plex is free to sue them, and after a couple of hundred thousand in attorney fees, they'll win a couple of hundred. No, in the real world attorney's fees are almost never awarded to the winner.
And "blacklisting" those copyright owners is exactly what those copyright owners want. But let's look at this in the real world. Does it take all that much effort to counter the claim and have the video restored, prompting the sender of the claim to look at it manually and waste time? Nope, it takes about 30 seconds to paste their name and the link in there. Which is what plex appears to be doing. An unpaid intern at plex.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Monday February 01 2021, @12:47PM (1 child)
Say what? They are actually getting free advertising via Plex. These automated DMCA claims would seem utterly counterproductive, because Plex could always just remove those links...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Monday February 01 2021, @07:19PM
well, since plex put the links there, plex thinks it be'efits'plex to have them there. you think adding a notification for when the movie is available for free is 'advertising.' the content owner thinks it's adbertising a way to avoid a purchase, so it's free advertising -not for them, bit against them. i'm not sure what is unclear to you here. is it that what two companies want is not what you think they should want?
(Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 01 2021, @11:46AM
Better that a million worthless (non-monetizable) works be lost forever than a single source of income be pirated one time. /s
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ledow on Monday February 01 2021, @08:25AM (5 children)
If those pages include, say, cover images of the DVDs, copyright sypnosis, etc. then those pages may not be "perfectly legal" at all.
I'm a Plex user myself, but the metadata it scrapes seems to come from places like TVDB which I can tell you now - anyone can upload a synopsis or cover image from anywhere and it immediately goes live on their website and Plex clients.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 01 2021, @06:45PM (4 children)
I was under the impression that things like cover images are covered under "fair use", but "fair use" is generally a defense.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Touché) by Spamalope on Tuesday February 02 2021, @10:46AM
Google can use those in search results (and scrape whole news articles etc), but plebs absolutely cannot. It's about equality under the law, see?
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday February 02 2021, @10:58AM (2 children)
Fair use describes only the usage.
Scanning in / scraping every DVD cover art in the world to present to users of a streaming service that does NOT stream those movies itself probably isn't fair use.
And copying synopses verbatim for one movie you're reviewing might be fair-use. Having a copy/pasted synopsis of every movie on the planet probably isn't.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pino P on Tuesday February 02 2021, @01:41PM
How does IMDb get away with having cover art? If it's through a negotiated license with each film distributor, then are there distributors that choose not to license their cover art and synopsis to IMDb?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 02 2021, @04:27PM
That doesn't seem to add-up as someone else pointed out, with regards to IMDb. Now, if you were selling a database of DVD cover art. That would likely not be covered under "fair use".
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"