[Infowarrior] - Judge gives Universal Music 24 hours to explain takedown spree

[Richard Forno]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/judge-gives-umg-24-hours-to-explain-takedown-spree.ars

Judge gives Universal Music 24 hours to explain takedown spree

By Timothy B. Lee | Published about an hour ago
         
A federal judge has given Universal Music Group until the end of the day Thursday to respond to charges that it abused the DMCA takedown process to censor a promotional music video by the locker site Megaupload.

There's been no love lost between the American recording industry and the Hong Kong-based Megaupload. The RIAA has called Megaupload a "notorious service" that "thumbs their noses at international laws, all while pocketing significant advertising revenues from trafficking in free, unlicensed copyrighted materials."

So label executives must have been furious on Friday when the locker site unveiled a new promotional video featuring some of the music industry's biggest names singing the site's praises. One of the labels, Universal Music Group, went a step further and started filing takedown notices.

The legal basis for the takedown requests isn't clear. Megaupload says that the music and artwork in the video are original, and that it has signed agreements with everyone who appeared in it. An early report suggested that Will.I.Am sent a takedown request, but this may have been the work of an over-zealous lawyer, as Megaupload CIO Kim Dotcom says that he "spoke directly with will.i.am," and confirmed that the artist "absolutely had not authorized the submission of any takedown notice on his behalf."

On Monday, Megaupload—doubtless relishing the opportunity to play copyright victim—filed a lawsuit in federal court against UMG for misuse of the DMCA takedown process. UMG, it said, is "abusing the DMCA takedown mechanism to chill free speech they do not like." It asked the court to declare that Megaupload had the right to post its video and to restrain UMG from submitting any more takedown notices.

But UMG apparently continued its takedown campaign, targeting an episode of Tech News Today that included a clip from the video in its coverage of the controversy. The host, Tom Merritt, says he filed a counter-notice under the DMCA, but as of Wednesday evening the show had not been restored. Under the DMCA, it will take 10 days for the video to go back up. "In 10 days a daily news show is worthless," he told the Verge, "so Universal was able to censor this episode of Tech News Today."

On Wednesday, Megaupload asked the court to rule quickly on the matter, arguing that UMG's takedown campaign was harming Megaupload's free speech rights. "UMG has squashed not only the video itself, but even public comment about it by others, including a 45 minute news broadcast that criticized UMG," the firm wrote. "The Court should act immediately to ensure the public that such tactics will not be tolerated."

In a brief order on Wednesday afternoon, Judge Claudia Wilken wrote that she would "defer ruling" on Megaupload's request for a restraining order until UMG has had an opportunity to respond. But she asked the label to file its response "on or before December 15"—that is, on Thursday.

Ars sought a comment from UMG, but we have not received a response.

Correction: An earlier version of the story stated that it takes up to 10 days for sites to restore content in response to a takedown request. In fact, a site must wait at least 10 days before restoring the material.

Image courtesy of Megaupload