{"id":10830,"date":"2026-07-02T19:50:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T11:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/?p=10830"},"modified":"2026-07-02T19:50:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T11:50:55","slug":"googles-dmca-crisis-is-disrupting-the-web-it-will-only-get-worse-via-sejournal-martinibuster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/?p=10830","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s DMCA Crisis Is Disrupting The Web. It Will Only Get Worse. via @sejournal, @martinibuster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p> <div id=\"narrow-cont\"> <p>Google is experiencing a malicious DMCA crisis that is causing legitimate content to be removed from the Internet. Malicious actors are filing fake DMCA notices with Google, leaving publishers trapped by a system that is supposed to protect them. Many are asking Google to do something about it, but they are highly likely to be disappointed.<\/p> <p><strong>Disclaimer:<\/strong> This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For legal counsel regarding a specific DMCA dispute, please contact a licensed attorney.<\/p> <h2>Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)<\/h2> <p>The DMCA is a law that went into effect in 1998. The purpose was to modernize United States copyright law by giving digital creators a way to enforce their existing copyright protections. Another part of the law gave Internet platforms what is known as Safe Harbor, a legal framework that enables them to host content without being dragged into copyright infringement lawsuits.<\/p> <p><iframe class=\"sej-iframe-auto-height\" id=\"in-content-iframe\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/wp-json\/sscats\/v2\/tk\/Middle_Post_Text\"><\/iframe><\/p> <p><strong>The goals of the DMCA had a good intent:<\/strong><\/p> <ul> <li>Give digital creators a way to protect their work from plagiarizers and other infringement.<\/li> <li>Provide Internet platforms a way to prosper without the threat of copyright lawsuits hanging over them. All they had to do was to provide a way for digital creators to report copyright infringement.<\/li> <\/ul> <p>What happened next turned into a letdown for digital creators and created a loophole for malicious actors to exploit.<\/p> <h2>What Went Wrong With The DMCA?<\/h2> <p>The DMCA requires platforms to provide a way for copyright infringement to be reported so that infringing content can be removed. But it also requires platforms to accept a counter notice by the alleged infringer that will result in the restoration of the content that had previously been removed. That counter notice part is supposed to protect against false infringement claims.<\/p> <p>A platform\u2019s obligation to remove content is outlined in the DMCA law, 17 U.S.C. \u00a7 512(c)(1)(C) which details that they are not liable for infringement claims if they comply with a multi-part set of statutory conditions. Along with meeting requirements like lacking knowledge of the infringement and not directly profiting from it, they must satisfy subsection (C), which specifies that the provider:<\/p> <blockquote> <p>\u201c\u2026upon notification of claimed infringement as described in paragraph (3), responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity.\u201d<\/p> <\/blockquote> <p>It is at this point that things go wrong.<\/p> <h2>Why The DMCA Problem Will Only Get Worse<\/h2> <p>Something that has only now become evident is that the DMCA never makes Google (or whoever) responsible for identifying whether a DMCA notice is valid or not. Their job is just to accept the notice and remove infringing content. And if they receive a counter notice that contests the claim, they are required to restore the content (after 10 to 14 business days).<\/p> <p>There is no requirement for Google to investigate and decide whether the copyright claim is valid or whether the person filing the claim is real.<\/p> <p>The job of judging the legality of a DMCA claim of copyright infringement belongs to a federal judge. That\u2019s because once a counter notice is submitted, the platform must wait 10 to 14 business days to give the DMCA claimant time to file a federal lawsuit. To stop the content from being reinstated, the entity that filed the original DMCA claim must file a federal lawsuit within that window of time.<\/p> <p>Publishers who are victims of false DMCA claims frequently complain about how long it takes for Google to restore their content after contesting the false DMCA claims. But Google\u2019s waiting that long because it\u2019s a legal requirement.<\/p> <p>There is also a provision that enables a party that is falsely accused of infringement to file a federal lawsuit against the malicious DMCA claimant.<\/p> <p><em>The DMCA law states:<\/em><\/p> <blockquote> <p>\u201cAny person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section\u2014 (1)that material or activity is infringing\u2026 shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys\u2019 fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner\u2019s authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it.\u201d<\/p> <\/blockquote> <p>But that doesn\u2019t help the innocent party that is falsely accused of infringement because the fraudsters are using fake email and physical addresses. This problem will only get worse as more malicious actors learn that they can file false DMCA claims and get away with it.<\/p> <h2>Publishers Have A Serious Problem With False DMCAs<\/h2> <p>An unintended consequence of the DMCA is that people with malicious intent have learned to take advantage of it to damage competitors or minimize reputational harm caused by unflattering online articles.<\/p> <p>Ex-Googler Pedro Dias (LinkedIn profile) has been posting about this problem for months. He most recently called attention to an article about a false DMCA claim filed against a news organization. His comment:<\/p> <blockquote> <p>\u201cGoogle has a serious problem and no one is working to fix it\u2026 Or willing to.\u201d<\/p> <\/blockquote> <p>But is this Google\u2019s problem? If they are following the law, is it reasonable to expect them to change a legal process that currently keeps them in compliance? Many may feel that Google is leaving publishers on their own to navigate a broken system that has been turned against them.<\/p> <p><em>Featured Image by Shutterstock\/Elnur<\/em><\/p> <\/div> <p>News,SEO#Googles #DMCA #Crisis #Disrupting #Web #Worse #sejournal #martinibuster1782993055<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google is experiencing a malicious DMCA crisis that is causing legitimate content to be removed from the Internet. Malicious actors are filing fake DMCA notices with Google, leaving publishers trapped by a system that is supposed to protect them. Many are asking Google to do something about it, but they are highly likely to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2151,3434,20945,179,415,80,345,40633],"class_list":["post-10830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility","tag-crisis","tag-disrupting","tag-dmca","tag-googles","tag-martinibuster","tag-sejournal","tag-web","tag-worse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}