Last week, service providers associated with this blog received formal notices from Mr. Crook that basically amounted to, “Nevermind, I take it back, I never had any right to try to bully you into taking down that image.” A number of other websites have received similar notices. This is welcome news, and I thank Mr. Crook for his apparent change of heart.
That change likely has something to do with the fact that the EFF sued him for abusing copyright law in an attempt to silence online speech. I understand that they’ve negotiated a settlement which will be announced soon.
Meanwhile, Scott Beale of the ISP Laughing Squid (they host one of the blogs targeted by Crook’s abuse) has an update here: Link. Scott adds, “News of his DMCA retractions is also being reported by Valleywag, Techdirt and Thomas Hawk.”
Related BB posts:
• Michael Crook sends bogus DMCA takedown notice to BB
• EFF Sues Michael Crook for Bogus DMCA Claims
• RU Sirius show about EFF suit against Michael Crook
• Ethan Ackerman schools us on DMCA and ISPs’ obligations
• Troublemakers enjoy harassing sites with bogus DMCA
• EFF fights another DMCA abuser
• HOWTO protect yourself from “The Craigslist Experiment”
Reader comment: John Sinteur says,
I received the apology as well: Link.