For at least the past year, Twitter has been inundated with DMCA takedown notices. Most of these claims arise from tweets containing links to infringing material, or even tweets containing links to links to infringing material. The legal basis of these takedowns are questionable. Copyright grants rights holders the exclusive rights to reproduce the work, create derivative works, perform or display the work, and distribute the work. A tweet containing a link to a blog post, which contains a link to download or stream an album isn’t really doing any of those things, but then again copyright has always been a gray area.
In the past, Twitter’s policy is to notify the user that the tweet has been removed due to violation of DMCA. Twitter has always acted as the intermediary between the alleged infringee and infringer, and never revealed to the user who exactly had sent the DMCA notice, leaving the user with no recourse to appeal. Without knowing who sent the notice, it is difficult for the user to ascertain the notice’s validity, and users might not issue a counter notice, even if doing so would be justified.
Unfortunately, Twitter has gone beyond the forward-and-delete strategy to suspending accounts altogether. Popular hip-hop blog Rap Radar had their Twitter account suspended earlier this month. In a blog post, the outlet claimed that they have only provided links to free streams and only download links for free releases. Rap Radar’s account has since been restored, but this is a dangerous precedent Twitter is setting.
Twitter Suspending Accounts Based on DMCA Claims
0For at least the past year, Twitter has been inundated with DMCA takedown notices. Most of these claims arise from tweets containing links to infringing material, or even tweets containing links to links to infringing material. The legal basis of these takedowns are questionable. Copyright grants rights holders the exclusive rights to reproduce the work, create derivative works, perform or display the work, and distribute the work. A tweet containing a link to a blog post, which contains a link to download or stream an album isn’t really doing any of those things, but then again copyright has always been a gray area.
In the past, Twitter’s policy is to notify the user that the tweet has been removed due to violation of DMCA. Twitter has always acted as the intermediary between the alleged infringee and infringer, and never revealed to the user who exactly had sent the DMCA notice, leaving the user with no recourse to appeal. Without knowing who sent the notice, it is difficult for the user to ascertain the notice’s validity, and users might not issue a counter notice, even if doing so would be justified.
Unfortunately, Twitter has gone beyond the forward-and-delete strategy to suspending accounts altogether. Popular hip-hop blog Rap Radar had their Twitter account suspended earlier this month. In a blog post, the outlet claimed that they have only provided links to free streams and only download links for free releases. Rap Radar’s account has since been restored, but this is a dangerous precedent Twitter is setting.
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