App developer Elias Saba’s Android TV app, Downloader, encountered trouble with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedowns. It was initially suspended from Google Play in May after complaints from Israeli TV companies. This led to a three-week suspension, which Google later reversed. However, the app has now been suspended once again due to a vague DMCA notice suggesting that it can load the Warner Bros. website.
Downloader functions like standard web browsers, providing users with access to both legal and illegally shared content. Despite this, Saba asserts that the app itself contains no infringing content and doesn’t direct users to such content.
Following the recent suspension, Google notified Saba that the app allegedly infringed upon the copyright of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. through a complaint filed by “digital asset protection” firm, MarkScan.
“Properties of Warner Bros. Discovery”
MarkScan’s DMCA notice fails to provide specific details regarding the copyrighted work infringed by Downloader, ultimately referring to “Properties of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.” The notice also didn’t offer an authorized example of the work that was infringed.
Saba has appealed the takedown and submitted a DMCA counter-notice, giving the complainant 10 business days to file a legal action. He expressed his outrage, emphasizing the lack of verification carried out by Google before acting on such takedown requests, which, in his opinion, makes every app on Google Play susceptible to suspension based on frivolous claims.
Developer appeals
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Saba’s blog post called it “absurd that Google seems to make no effort at all to verify the copyright claims being made on my app which is just a web browser that can download files and has no content of any sort in it.”
Google aware of DMCA abuse
Google is clearly aware that its system for handling DMCA complaints is routinely abused. On November 13, Google sued a group of people accused of weaponizing the DMCA to get competitors’ websites removed from search results.
We contacted Google today to ask why Downloader was suspended based on a DMCA notice that doesn’t cite a specific infringing work, and whether Google is doing anything to prevent repeated suspensions of apps that are wrongly targeted. We also contacted Warner Bros. about the DMCA notice, and will update this article if we get any response from either company.
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