So if I sent a DMCA notice against every one of Microsoft's Repos on Github, they would go down for ten days if I ignored the counter-claim? Because if not, why not?
You should give it a go - in reality these rules are for people hosting other people’s content (as in GitHub hosting your project), and filing against MS repos probably falls in a grey area, or an area where MS is more likely to say F you.
The problem is that the DMCA is designed to explicitly allow and encourage weaponisation of fraudulent take down claims. Specifically in GH doesn’t obey the DMCA and pull the repo the DMCA makes them legally liable for the alleged infringement. Why would they take on that risk for any random organization/project that likely can’t afford the legal costs?
I'm just gonna quote GitHub
"The DMCA requires that you swear to the facts in your copyright complaint under penalty of perjury. It is a federal crime to intentionally lie in a sworn declaration. (See U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1621.) Submitting false information could also result in civil liability — that is, you could get sued for money damages. The DMCA itself provides for damages against any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing.
"
Seems like no one has ever been prosecuted for perjury on a DMCA take down notice. This feels like more of an empty threat by Github to prevent false DMCA complaints, but of course submitting claims on their repos would be one heck of a way to test that.
a lot of the "infrastructure" within the legal community, including laws themselves, assume that the attorneys practicing the law are operating in good faith and with ethics in mind. It's clear these days that there are quite a few attorneys who are simply not operating in good faith.
The law also recognizes that attorneys work for their clients and with in many ways are obligated to do what the client wishes. that includes "fucking around" with the law, it seems. Legal ethics rules are supposed to prevent the worst of it, but because it happened so rarely prior to the current day, the legal system has developed no "antibodies" against this kind of behavior.
it is also becoming clear to attorneys that there is little or no punishment for malevolent behavior except in extremely egregious situations, so expect this trend to continue for a while until some remedy is developed.
Wouldn't there effectively be no penalty if it were submitted by a user in another country? Also good luck proving that anyone "knowingly materially misrepresents" anything.
The problem is that the DMCA is designed to explicitly allow and encourage weaponisation of fraudulent take down claims. Specifically in GH doesn’t obey the DMCA and pull the repo the DMCA makes them legally liable for the alleged infringement. Why would they take on that risk for any random organization/project that likely can’t afford the legal costs?