“It’s just a false positive” while a regular person has their life fucked up. Whether it’s first party or another company hired to do the job, these giant companies don’t deserve any grace when they abuse DMCA.
Rheinish@lemmy.world 2 days ago
As per the reddit post it’s Tracer, a copyright enforcement company working on behalf of Zenimax and Bethesda, not Bethesda directly. I would be surprised if this was intentional because there is nothing but bad PR to gain. It’s probably just a false positive.
Feyd@programming.dev 2 days ago
sanpo@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
It’s always annoying how “it’s just a contractor/company working on their behalf” is used as an excuse.
No, this is on Bethesda.
They hired this copyright troll and they’re responsible for fraudulent DMCA requests sent on their behalf.
They have enough money to either vet their contractors, or do the job themselves.
Rheinish@lemmy.world 2 days ago
This is not an excuse. I was adding nuance to the claim made in the title. I also don’t disagree that Bethesda is ultimately responsible for the contractors it hires, and if Tracer made an erroneous DMCA request, Bethesda should take responsibility for correcting it. However, given Bethesda’s previous treatment of projects like Daggerfall Unity and OpenMW, I think a simple error is a more plausible explanation than the company being a copyright troll.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 2 days ago
Absolutely this. I wish I could say I thought higher of Bethesda than employing copyright trolls, but unfortunately I guess I’m not surprised.
magikmw@piefed.social 2 days ago
This, no amount of contractual deniability can absolve from responsibility for subcontractors action.
5gruel@lemmy.world 2 days ago
oh stop your outrage, saying that it was a contractor is just context, not an excuse.