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A German music company has attempted to claim copyright on some of the world's most popular downloads, including Skype, AMD drivers, Linux and many more. Over the years we have seen many copyright holders attempt to abuse the DMCA takedown system to censor legitimate content and the worst part is, there are rarely any consequences for doing so. The most recent example of this is brought to us by Total Wipes Music Group, who have actually attempted to target some of the biggest companies around.
In an effort to ‘protect' the album “In To The Wild- Vol 7”, Total Wipes sent one massive DMCA takedown notice to Google, covering a total of 95 URLs, none of which have anything to do with music. Each URL just appears to be a download page for widely popular software and services.
The long list includes Java, Skype, Ubuntu, Open Office, VLC Media Player, Team Viewer, XMBC, Z-Zip, Unity3D, Origin, RaspberryPi and even AMD. If you want to see the full list of targeted download pages, you can find it, HERE.
The takedown notice itself claims that Total Wipes Music Group has an exclusive and worldwide deal for distributing all content found on the list. The main point to take away from this is that the DMCA system is often abused and there are rarely any consequences. There either needs to be an entirely new system implemented or companies need to start being held accountable for false claims.
What is worrying is that Total Wipes Music Group doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon, TorrentFreak had a dig around and found that the company is filing multiple notices almost every single day. Google does reject most of them but something may end up slipping through the cracks eventually.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: This might just be the most blatant abuse of the DMCA system we have seen in quite a while. Sure Google rejected the claim, but surely there should be consequences for consistently attempting to claim copyright on something you don't actually own? Do you guys think Total Wipes should be held accountable for its actions here?
Via: TorrentFreak
And this comes as a surprise? DMCA has been abused for many years. Nothing changed then, doubt we’ll see any changes now. If they do punish for false claims it’ll be only the first step towards abuse control.
Yeah this happens to peoples legit youtube videos all the time too
They are sure as hell pissed off at AMD Drivers :p
I got a DMCA take down on a video that was mind and was just me talking at the camera no music or anything Google cleared it up very fast but I’m sure it wastes a lot of time for Google
Perhaps this Total wipes group are just trying to highlight a major flaw with the whole DMCA system.
“The long list includes Java, Skype, Ubuntu, Open Office, VLC Media
Player, Team Viewer, XMBC, Z-Zip, Unity3D, Origin, RaspberryPi and even
AMD. If you want to see the full list of targeted download pages, you
can find it, HERE.”
You guys have an error in the above statement. “Z-Zip” should say “7-Zip”.
More like Total Ass Wipe music, amirite?
What was the reason they gave?
That they owned the content just some randome bull but google saw it was bogus but from what I read online I was not the only person that it happened to just some random company that was just pushing out DMCA claims they even contacted me asking me to pay up a fee or I would face legal action lol
There should be a charge to file a DMCA takedown that gets refunded if your request is legitimised.Even if it was say £100 that wouldn’t stop legitimate claims, but it would really dissuade abuse of the system.
Did you reply to them daring them to take you to court? I know I would have as they would have lost a shed load of cash then LOL