cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/games/p/2117387/sega-issues-dmca-takedowns-to-scrub-persona-6-images-from-the-internet-as-fans-expect-i
Images allegedly showing leaked Persona 6 characters and logos have been scrubbed from the internet via copyright claim, with Sega believed to be behind the takedowns.
When you receive a DMCA notice you can respond with a counter-claim notice that says the claim is incorrect and that you’re willing to go to court about it. This could be because you have distribution rights, because of fair use, or for any other reason that would make the claim invalid. The copyright holder then has 14 days to file a case to sue the alleged infringing party. If they don’t, the notice can be ignored and any third party host must restore access to the files.
Whether these files should be accessible under fair use, I don’t know, but at that point it’s up to the court.
Point being, if you file a counter-claim you’re basically saying go ahead and sue me then. If a company with deep pockets has a reason to think they can enforce the claim, they probably will take you to court. Even if you win, you’re going to have to pay for a lawyer and deal with a court case.
https://copyrightalliance.org/education/copyright-law-explained/the-digital-millennium-copyright-act-dmca/dmca-counter-notice-process/
I don’t disagree with any of this. It’s just that companies rarely if ever follow through with a lawsuit if they’re abusing DMCA. For them the strikes YouTube / Twitch influencers get on their business accounts is enough of a deterrent. In this case nobody is even bothering filing counterclaims because they know they’d have a very weak case.
That’s really the purpose of how DMCA is set up. It gives websites that host files uploaded by third parties a way to respond to copyright violation claims that removes their liability. They don’t have to act as an arbiter, they can simply act on the claim and then act on a counter-claim if the claim is disputed. YouTube is a little different, because they take it on themselves to look for potential violations ahead of time, but the benefit of being able to host unknown content without liability is still there.
Whether a company follows through with a lawsuit once they get a counter-claim is ultimately up to their priorities. Though I imagine the number of people who ever bother to file a counter-claim is probably vanishingly small. But if a company the size of Sega is bothering to send DMCA notices in the first place, I don’t think I’d bet on them ignoring the counter-claim, personally. Any counter-claim they ignore is an argument for public availability and thus fair use.
There are people making counterclaims because if you own content or need to extract ad revenue of your derivative but legal content then you know the other side won’t follow through. Making frivolous counterclaims on content you don’t own is an obviously futile endeavour, hence it doesn’t happen.