Ernesto wrote a piece on Torrent Freak about Automattic the company behind WordPress and their case seeking $10,000 related to a misuse of the DMCA takedown process. The case in question involved Oliver Hotham who wrote  an article about “Straight Pride UK” which included a comment he received from the organization’s press officer Nick Steiner. Steiner did not like the article and sent WordPress  a takedown notice claiming it was infringing on his copyrights.

From the article:

Automattic, the company behind the popular WordPress blogging platform, has seen a rapid increase in DMCA takedown notices in recent years.

Most requests are legitimate, aimed at disabling access to copyright-infringing material. However, there are also many overbroad and abusive takedown notices which take up a lot of the company’s time and resources.

Last November, WordPress decided to take a stand against these fraudulent practices. The company teamed up with student journalist Oliver Hotham who had one of his articles censored by a false takedown notice.

Since Steiner failed to respond in court WordPress and Hotham have requested a default judgment. In a recent filing they demand a total of $10,000 in damages as well as $14,520 in attorneys’ fees.

If the court agrees with the request it will be mostly a symbolic win, and hopefully a signal to other copyright holders that false DMCA takedown requests are not without consequence.

Read the full article here

It would be nice to see a precedent set and that those abusing the DMCA would be responsible monetarily for using the DMCA to effectively censor, rather than protect their legitimate intellectual property interests.