Any Scribd users or SFWA members here?

[CX]

Worse than Vogon poetry: bogus DMCA takedowns stun sci-fi lovers

By Nate Anderson | Published: August 31, 2007 - 11:27AM CT

Viacom isn't the only organization involved in sending out "bass-ackwards" DMCA takedown notices; the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (abbreviated, for complicated reasons, as the SFWA) is in on the fun as well. The group has issued DMCA takedown notices for sci-fi reading lists drawn up to aid teen literacy, freely-distributed webzines, and Creative Commons-licensed material.

The debacle began a few weeks back when the SFWA contacted Scribd, a site that allows users to post documents in the same way that YouTube allows people to post videos. SFWA alleged that numerous works on Scribd violated copyrights of SFWA members and requested that these works be taken down. They were. But it quickly became apparent that the USS 1701-SFWA had a crack in its dilithium crystals.


Stories began to emerge from the blogosphere, and not the sort of Stranger in a Strange Land stuff that the SFWA exists to promote. Nick Senger, an eighth-grade teacher and promoter of teen literacy, found his sci-fi bibliography targeted in the crackdown. "I'm not sure what the SFWA has to gain by requesting that the list be removed," he notes. "That list does nothing but encourage people to buy their books."

The editors of a magazine called Ray Gun Revival also learned that their work had been yanked after a DMCA complaint from the SFWA. The only problem was they had purposely released the magazine for free distribution on Scribd.


The editors had harsh words for the SFWA. "Whether this is a misunderstanding or not isn't the issue," one wrote on the group's blog. "What is apparent is that the SFWA are policing Scribd, filing takedown notices on behalf of organizations they have nothing to do with. In our case, they’re not only not protecting our magazine, they are harming our ability to gain the most exposure for our contributors through cool services such as Scribd." (In the comments to this blog entry, SFWA president Michael Capobianco apologized for the situation.)

And blogger/author/professional-loather-of-DRM Cory Doctorow notes that his own Creative Commons-licensed novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom had been pulled at the SFWA's request. Doctorow points out 1) that the book is specifically allowed to be redistributed free of charge and 2) that he has told the SFWA not to handle rights issues pertaining to his work.


The SFWA's actions are already causing a small backlash against Doctorow. "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom was the first novel released under a Creative Commons license, and I've spent the past four years exhorting fans to copy my work and share it," Doctorow writes. "Now I've started to hear from readers who've seen this notice and concluded that I am a hypocrite who uses SFWA to send out legal threats to people who heeded my exhortation."

Because DMCA takedown notices require a sworn statement from the sender that the works in question are actually infringing (and that the sender has the right to handle copyright issues related to those works), the SFWA could actually find itself in the legal equivalent of a Vogon airlock over the notices.

What appears to have happened is that the group ran a Scribd search for certain author names and then issued takedown notices for all the results—Doctorow's book makes a reference to Isaac Asimov, for instance, and Senger's reading list is populated with the names of great sci-fi authors. This, it hardly needs to be said, is a less than foolproof way to police copyrights.

Perhaps it's time for the SFWA's legal team to guide the ship to a starbase for some needed repairs.

[Distracted]

Interesting. So they basically did a site-wide search for the NAMES of the authors for whom they supposedly handle copywrite infringment issues and had all of those documents indiscriminantly pulled, even if said documents were basically ads for the works supposedly being "infringed upon". Which is really peculiar because the authors who are deliberately plagiarizing a SFWA member's work wouldn't necessarily use the original author's name, and if they do it's probably in a disclaimer THANKING the original author and saying they're not making any money so don't sue!

What a bunch of lazy-asses! I can see using a list like that as a starting point... but then you have REAL PEOPLE read the works on the list to determine which ones truly infringe and pull those. Duh.

Guess they didn't want to spend the money to pay people to use their brains. Pressing "enter" was just so much cheaper and easier. How typical.

[CX]

It would serve SFWA right to have a lawsuit slapped on them because of this. I doubt it'll happen though.

[pookha]

the above is old news ..
sfwa already saw the nightmare that they were in.
http://www.sfwa.org/news/2007/sfwamotion.htm

Motion: That, effective immediately, all of the activities of the current ePiracy Committee be suspended and the Committee itself be disbanded until such time as the Board has had the opportunity to review the legal ramifications of sending out any additional DMCA notices, as well as to explore other methods by which SFWA may be able to assist authors in defending their individual rights, while ensuring that any such activity will not unduly expose SFWA to negative legal ramifications.

=======
http://www.sfwa.org/news/2007/sfwascribd.htm

Unfortunately, this list was flawed and the results were not checked. At least three works tagged as copyright infringements were nothing of the sort. I have personally apologized to the writers and editors of those works. If you are a creator who has had material removed and has not yet been contacted, please email me at president@sfwa.org.

SFWA's intention was to remove from scribd.com only works copyrighted by SFWA members who had authorized SFWA to act on their behalf. This kind of error will not happen again.

Michael Capobianco
President, SFWA

Posted August 31, 2007
------
a lot of the sfwa site is open to non members by the way including
the news area.

[CX]

Wow, that happened fast considering the article I read was posted only a few days ago. Guess the backlash really smarted.

[pookha]

it sounds as if it just took someone letting sfwa now that the items had not been checked.
and it is fast considering this happened during world con with some of the membership including i suspect officers in japan.