CrowdStrike Abuses DMCA to Attempt Takedown of Parody Site
Subsentient writes:
CrowdStrike has sent a DMCA takedown notice to parody site ClownStrike, a clear abuse of United States copyright law, as the site in question is undoubtably covered by fair use in United States copyright law. Editor: See first link for more detail.
It is unfortunately well known that the DMCA is used by corporate cyberbullies to take down content that they disagree with; but, is otherwise legal. The Counternotice system is also hillariously ineffective. The DMCA requires service providers to "act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the infringing material;" yet, it gives those same "service providers" 14 days to restore access in the event of a counternotice! The DMCA, like much American legislation, is heavily biased towards corporations, instead of the actual, living, breathing, citizens of the country.
It's absolutely asinine and I would love absolutely nothing more than to have a lawsuit "win" against CrowdStrike. That would be absolutely amazing for marketing! Especially given the timing of such events...
Additionally, using the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to attempt to takedown a parody site for Trademark Infringement is absolutely hillarious.
There are several ways that anyone is allowed to use a trademark belonging to "others." This is considered "Fair Use." Fair Use is an important aspect of trademark and copyright law. It is a right to use trademarks and copyrighted works for parody, criticism, transformative works, news reporting / journalism, education, etc. Corporate cyberbullies don't like that anyone else has rights. Again, I don't care, because the only thing that matters is the law, and what a court thinks about it.
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