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The head of a pro copyright lobby group has likened protesters of DMCA abuse to zombies in the popular TV show The Walking Dead, and says their protest lacks "effort and brainpower".
With the US Copyright Office currently seeking public consultation on changes to the DMCA laws, there has been an increased focus on the problems associated with the process, with many pointing out the high number of invalid DMCA takedown requests, while others have called for new penalties to be introduced for this type of DMCA abuse.
Joining the chorus of disapproval were non profit Internet activist group Fight for the Future (FFTF) and popular YouTube channel ChannelAwesome, who joined forces to launch an anti DMCA abuse campaign. The campaign and its website allowed users to send messages of protest to the US Copyright Office, and users took up the opportunity to express their anger, with a surge of 90,000 messages flooding and eventually crashing the US Copyright Office's servers.
But Keith Kupferschmid, head of the Copyright Alliance, says the mass protest means very little because not much effort was needed by the protesters to make their voices heard. In fact, Kupferschmid compares the protest movement to hordes of zombies from the hit TV show (and target of mass piracy) The Walking Dead.
"Well, in case you were unconscious and left for dead in a hospital last week, the copyright community experienced its own zombie apocalypse", writes Kupferschmid. "These 90,000 comments are all identical submissions generated merely by clicking on the 'I’m in' button at takedownabuse.org. Like the zombies in The Walking Dead, there was not a lot of effort or brainpower that went into the 90,000 plus submissions."
Kupferschmid derided these "zombie comments", adding "as we've learned from The Walking Dead, those zombies are rather easily disposed of."
Interestingly, the Copyright Alliance frequently runs similar "pre-written" campaigns. And it's worth pointing out that the TakedownAbuse campaign does allow users to add their own comments (and many users choose to do so), while many of Copyright Alliance's campaigns do not allow user editing.
Those interested in becoming the newest member of the "walker" horde can still take part as the TakedownAbuse campaign still has 36 days to run.
With the US Copyright Office currently seeking public consultation on changes to the DMCA laws, there has been an increased focus on the problems associated with the process, with many pointing out the high number of invalid DMCA takedown requests, while others have called for new penalties to be introduced for this type of DMCA abuse.
Joining the chorus of disapproval were non profit Internet activist group Fight for the Future (FFTF) and popular YouTube channel ChannelAwesome, who joined forces to launch an anti DMCA abuse campaign. The campaign and its website allowed users to send messages of protest to the US Copyright Office, and users took up the opportunity to express their anger, with a surge of 90,000 messages flooding and eventually crashing the US Copyright Office's servers.
But Keith Kupferschmid, head of the Copyright Alliance, says the mass protest means very little because not much effort was needed by the protesters to make their voices heard. In fact, Kupferschmid compares the protest movement to hordes of zombies from the hit TV show (and target of mass piracy) The Walking Dead.
"Well, in case you were unconscious and left for dead in a hospital last week, the copyright community experienced its own zombie apocalypse", writes Kupferschmid. "These 90,000 comments are all identical submissions generated merely by clicking on the 'I’m in' button at takedownabuse.org. Like the zombies in The Walking Dead, there was not a lot of effort or brainpower that went into the 90,000 plus submissions."
Kupferschmid derided these "zombie comments", adding "as we've learned from The Walking Dead, those zombies are rather easily disposed of."
Interestingly, the Copyright Alliance frequently runs similar "pre-written" campaigns. And it's worth pointing out that the TakedownAbuse campaign does allow users to add their own comments (and many users choose to do so), while many of Copyright Alliance's campaigns do not allow user editing.
Those interested in becoming the newest member of the "walker" horde can still take part as the TakedownAbuse campaign still has 36 days to run.