I hope they consider taking Sega to court over this. Sega’s behavior is clearly in violation of the law, and a precedent needs to be set. Perhaps the EFF or a similar organization would be willing to represent them.
They would crush any small company in the prelude, even if they didn't intend to. I dont really think that copyright can be fixed, but at the very least we would need new laws to the effect of if you get sued for wrongful dmca, you pay the oppositions legal fees in addition to lost income and you risk losing the ability to make takedowns if the claim was in bad faith or negligent.
Small claims court is also an option. This is a hobby site, after all. It’s also a clear cut case. How many takedown notices have they sent? What percentage got kicked back historically? Non-zero? Then they knew they were sending fraudulant claims. If not, they still knew this claim was fraudulent after the site responded and they kept filing takedowns anyway.
Did they address these issues by carefully vetting things they signed under penalty of purgery? Clearly not. The facts speak for themselves. Case closed, I think. I’m not sure you really even need a lawyer (though one would help).
Sega should be taking their lawyers to court. The amount of tarnish to their brand they have garnered from gross incompetence is surely breach of contract somehow.
https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/05/fraudulent-dmca-takedown-...