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by jrochkind1 2029 days ago
I've never done it, but I don't think you need a lawyer to file a DMCA takedown request. It's not that hard to do.

Is there any reason for him not just do it, or that you'd need legal counsel? Thinking it through, I suppose theoretically you might worry that if you did it wrong you could get in legal trouble, but a) this guy is positive he owns the copyright to this thing it's not any kind of grey area, b) even those who totally file DMCA takedowns under bad faith never ever ever get penalized for it, like nobody ever has been penalized for filing a DMCA in bad faith I don't think? (This is not a good thing, but is in this guy's favor here). And again, this one would definitely not be in bad faith.

Just fill out a DMCA takedown request and send it to github? It's not that hard, you can definitely find a template and fill it out within a very unhurried couple hours max with a couple coffee breaks in there. You don't need a lawyer.

I know HN loves to hate Github, but you can't get mad at them both for taking things down when those claiming copyright ask them to, and also for not doing so unless someone actually follows the proper (pretty simple and not very burdensome) procedure.

The OP sounds like he's mad that the world is not entirely arranged in his favor to cater to his personal needs, and this is somehow a new realization for him.

3 comments

In this case, the author did submit a DMCA takedown request, but the Github user then submitted a DMCA counter notification stating that, under penalty of perjury, they have a good faith believe that the takedown is invalid.

As I understand it (and I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice), the only next step available is to use the US court system to sue for copyright infringement and perjury.

> In this case, the author did submit a DMCA takedown request, but the Github user then submitted a DMCA counter notification stating that, under penalty of perjury, they have a good faith believe that the takedown is invalid

Are we sure of that? GitHub publishes the notices and counter-notices. I can't find any notices there that appear to be for that repository, nor any relevant counter-notices.

I wonder if the author may have sent his request through some other channel than GitHub's DMCA takedown request form?

oh, I see, thanks. :(

it is true that in past issues, the mob would be mad if Github did anything different.

> even those who totally file DMCA takedowns under bad faith never ever ever get penalized for it, like nobody ever has been penalized for filing a DMCA in bad faith I don't think?

The "dancing baby" lawsuit ended in a settlement, so maybe? I can't find the details of the settlement.

He's in the lawyer phase now because Mr-steal-your-script contested the takedown he filed.