Scientology Falsifies DMCA Claims to Remove Critics' YouTube Videos

September 9, 2008 | New York City, New York | Vetting explained

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It seems Scientology's OSA goons are up to their old tactics, and the same free-speech stifling which caught the attention of Anonymous in the first place; they're pulling down YouTube videos which they own no rights to. In fact, most of the 4000+ videos which were removed through false DMCA claims were the sole property of protetsters who had recorded the footage at their local protests against Scientology. The most interesting part of this story is that at least 3 of the companies which filed false DMCA violations through You Tube DO NOT ACTUALLY EXIST. They were created to appear legitimate in an email and simply get the anti-Scientology videos removed. source: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/09/massive-takedown-anti-scientology-videos-youtube by Eva Galperin "Over a period of twelve hours, between this Thursday night and Friday morning, American Rights Counsel LLC sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology. Clips included footage of Australian and German news reports about Scientology, A Message to Anonymous/Scientology , and footage from a Clearwater City Commission meeting. Many accounts were suspended by YouTube in response to multiple allegations of copyright infringement. YouTube users responded with DMCA counter-notices. At this time, many of the suspended channels have been reinstated and many of the videos are back up. Whether or not American Rights Counsel, LLC represents the notoriously litigious Church of Scientology is unclear, but this would not be the first time that the Church of Scientology has used the DMCA to silence Scientology critics. The Church of Scientology DMCA complaints shut down the YouTube channel of critic Mark Bunker in June, 2008. Bunker's account, XenuTV, was also among the channels shut down in this latest flurry of takedown notices."

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