> We received a similar notice from the same company in 2023 and successfully appealed against it. This company also filed a similar notice this year against an indie game with similar voxel art style by the name of Allumeria.
They'll backtrack and apologize - again.
At some point, the pathway for Microsoft to regain some of the goodwill associated with Minecraft is to fire the senior lawyer most responsible for sending out these notices.
> At some point, the pathway for Microsoft to regain some of the goodwill associated with Minecraft is to fire the senior lawyer most responsible for sending out these notices.
Why would anyone with brain give them any good will for that? I might believe them if they would give Luanti 2x the damages and gave in writing that they will pay 10x damages the next time this happens.
Minecraft does indeed have a lot of knockoffs that sometimes even use official imagery (e.g. the creeper). It seems Microsoft is using this AI tool to automatically detect these and submit DMCA requests
If anything, this problem would be fixed by hiring MORE lawyers. Not firing them.
They're likely using this copyright tool as it's cheaper than paying lawyers to scour the internet for infringing content. They're probably right, as long as the externalities of the AI tool's false positives fall on others, like the Allumeria and Luanti devs. There really should be a system to push the burden back on Microsoft - they can save the lawyer costs, but then they are as responsible for the AI decisions as they are for a human employee's actions.
They can do both, hire more lawyers to review and fire the lawyer who presided over bullshit claims (because I'm sure this isn't the only one). firing a lawyer makes news in the legal world and makes other lawyers more risk-averse.
Google should also be sued for violating its DMCA obligations, specifically
Section 512(g)(2)(c) of the DMCA requires that providers “[replace] the removed material and [cease] disabling access to it not less than 10, nor more than 14, business days following receipt of the counter notice”. Google’s failure to adhere to the deadlines specified by the DMCA raises questions regarding its approach toward handling DMCA counter-notices.
They'll backtrack and apologize - again.
At some point, the pathway for Microsoft to regain some of the goodwill associated with Minecraft is to fire the senior lawyer most responsible for sending out these notices.