{"id":12525,"date":"2015-06-13T16:42:01","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T16:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/annoyed-gif-artists-pestered-by-lunatic\/"},"modified":"2015-06-13T16:42:01","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T16:42:01","slug":"annoyed-gif-artists-pestered-by-lunatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/annoyed-gif-artists-pestered-by-lunatic\/","title":{"rendered":"Annoyed GIF artists\u00a0pestered by lunatic"},"content":{"rendered":"

brucesterling<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

*This just in from Hexeosis, a Tumblr GIF guy who very obviously makes his own material and never copies anything.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

http:\/\/hexeosis.tumblr.com<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

WHY TUMBLR\u2019S DMCA POLICIES ARE RIDICULOUS AND DISINGENUOUS<\/p>\n

Yesterday myself and several other GIF artists received a notice from Tumblr regarding copyright infringement. The letter\u2019s tone of voice is unnecessarily condescending and contains awesome phrases such as \u201cthis is a good opportunity to learn more about US copyright law (never a bad idea)\u2026. \u201c\u00a0<\/p>\n

You\u2019re right Tumblr, let\u2019s learn more about copyright law together since it\u2019s never a bad idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter starts with:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hi,
We\u2019ve received a notification of alleged copyright infringement on one of your blogs. Here are the details of the content in question:
Copyright holder: Darryl Anka (Bashar Communications, Inc.)
Post URL(s): http:\/\/hexeosis.tumblr.com\/post\/97515717733<\/a><\/p>\n

I clicked the link and nothing is there. It\u2019s already been removed. That makes it really difficult for me to see what\u2019s going on Tumblr. Maybe a screen capture included with the letter would be a good idea? Tumblr\u2019s official policy in regards to DMCA notices is to delete the content first and then let you know about it. However Tumblr also states:\u00a0<\/p>\n

If we remove material in response to a copyright or trademark claim, the user who posted the allegedly infringing material will be provided with information from the complainant\u2019s notice (like identification of the rightsholder and the allegedly infringed work) so they can determine the basis of the claim.<\/p>\n

That part isn\u2019t true, I can\u2019t determine the basis of the claim with the information provided to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tumblr\u2019s policies state:<\/p>\n

Please note that we require a valid DMCA notice before removing content. Parties asserting a trademark infringement claim should identify the allegedly infringing work and the legal basis for their claim, and include the registration and\/or application number(s) pertaining to their trademark. Each claim is reviewed by a trained member of our Trust and Safety team.<\/p>\n

The evidence provided in the letter sent to me:<\/p>\n

Description: Copyrighted Work: Bashar channeled by Darryl Anka. Copyright 1984-2015. All Rights Reserved.&nbsp;From multiple event productions presented by Darryl Anka on dates ranging from 1984-2014. The copyrighted works can be found at&nbsp;www.basharstore.com\/.<\/p>\n

The claim is that my work is in fact copyrighted by \u201cBashar channeled by Darryl Anka\u201d What? I looked it up. Darryl Anka believes that he is channeling information from a space alien from the future named Bashar that lives on a planet called Essassani via telepathy. Cool story bro.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What exactly is the legal basis for their claim? Maybe it has something to do with \u201c&nbsp;\u201d ? Is that some kind of alien code? Or did Tumblr just auto copy and paste the email they got including stray HTML garbage characters?
What is the evidence? \u201cThe copyrighted works can be found at&nbsp;www.basharstore.com\/.\u201d I clicked that link. There\u2019s no GIFs on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing that resembles anything on my blog. Again, Tumblr\u2019s policy states \u201cEach claim is reviewed by a trained member of our Trust and Safety team.\u201d I find it difficult to impossible to believe that actually happened.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my conclusion: Tumblr\u2019s DMCA takedown system is fully automated and \u201ctrained members\u201d do not in fact review anything. Or, embarrassingly someone did look at all of that \u201cevidence\u201d and decided that aliens from other planets have legal rights on Earth and that even though a copy of the alleged infringing work is not on the site provided, they\u2019ll just take Darryl\u2019s word for it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back to the letter Tumblr sent me, it continues with this nifty lecture:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important for all creators that our users respect copyright, and so we ask that you take greater care when posting other people\u2019s creations to your Tumblr blog. You can review Tumblr\u2019s Terms of Service (https:\/\/www.tumblr.com\/policy\/terms-of-service<\/a>) and Community Guidelines (https:\/\/www.tumblr.com\/policy\/community<\/a>) for more information on our copyright policies.<\/p>\n

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we are legally required to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. The notice we received counts as one strike against your account. If you receive three uncontested strikes within 18 months, your account will be terminated. You can contest this notification by following the instructions for a \u201cDMCA Counter-Notification\u201d found here:https:\/\/www.tumblr.com\/policy\/terms-of-service#dmca. A successful counter-notification will remove this strike against your account.<\/p>\n

The way the letter is worded and structured indicates that you are assumed to be guilty and already have a \u201cstrike\u201d against you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It only mentions that you can contest this after saying \u201cIt\u2019s important for all creators that our users respect copyright, and so we ask that you take greater care when posting other people\u2019s creations to your Tumblr blog.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

I ask that you Tumblr staff take greater care in wording your letters. I ask that you take greater care when complying with takedown notices from space aliens that provide zero evidence to support their claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say if I\u2019m more annoyed with Tumblr or Darryl. I can\u2019t figure out the value to Darryl of having one out of about 800 of my posts removed. Or why he is going after a bunch of other GIF artists as well. I really hope that there aren\u2019t more notices coming. If Tumblr deletes this account because he sends two more notices, you can find me on https:\/\/ello.co\/hexeosis<\/a><\/p>\n

Note: I did all of the stuff Tumblr asks you to do in this situation – I sent a signed counter-claim letter in the mail and I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll get to it eventually.
P.S. Tumblr, you\u2019re welcome for all of the free content I provide to you. I hope you are enjoying all of the advertising revenue you collect with your sponsored posts. I hope you buy yourself something nice. <\/p>\n

13 hours ago
Source: hexeosis
Tagged: #tumblr #DMCA #dmca takedown notice #bashar #darryl anka #tumblr staff #staff #gif #trust & saftey #aliens #Essassani #bigblueboo #dotroom #zwian #dreamland51 #zionites #copyright #copyright troll #support #legal<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

brucesterling: *This just in from Hexeosis, a Tumblr GIF guy who very obviously makes his own material and never copies anything. http:\/\/hexeosis.tumblr.com WHY TUMBLR\u2019S DMCA POLICIES ARE RIDICULOUS AND DISINGENUOUS Yesterday myself and several other GIF artists received a notice from Tumblr regarding copyright infringement. The letter\u2019s tone of voice is unnecessarily condescending and contains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-3g1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}