Ashley Madison Misusing DMCA, EFF Says
An advocacy group joined others in slamming Ashley Madison parent Avid Life Media (see 1508210042) for what they say is abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. ALM sent "numerous DMCA takedown notices to platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and others in…
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an attempt to stop the dissemination of millions of names and email addresses of the site’s users,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz in a blog post Monday. “Regardless of whether their goal is a noble one, their use of the DMCA is problematic.” Facts like names, addresses and phone numbers can’t be copyrighted, he said. Biographical descriptions and pickup lines can be copyrighted by users, but ALM still wouldn’t be able to send a DMCA takedown notice, he said. Ashley Madison users’ could transfer copyrights to ALM, but Stoltz said that is a difficult and rarely done process. ALM’s DMCA takedown notices have been vague and are “unlikely to curtail access to the data,” Stoltz said. Millions want to see the data disappear, but misusing DMCA “encourages more abuse, such as censoring political commentary and criticism,” he said. ALM didn't comment.