Updated August 10th @ 15:15 EDT (20:15 BST): The affected videos have all been brought back online. A Vimeo representative confirmed to Ars Technica that this was a result of the original complainant, Entura International, withdrawing its original takedown notice, which had incorrectly alleged that the videos in question contained footage from the Columbia Pictures film.

Original story

The Internet didn't really need another reason to hate July's critically panned Columbia Pictures film Pixels, but it got one in the form of a sketchy DMCA takedown. The request comes from a copyright troll, and it's directed at a number of videos hosted on Vimeo.

TorrentFreak got the scoop on Saturday by discovering a successful takedown request filed by Entura International, an "anti-piracy" organization acting on Columbia Pictures' behalf. Entura targeted films that had nothing to do with the Adam Sandler film, with the exception of having the word "Pixels" in their titles. One of those takedowns hit a 2006 short film titled Pixels, and its creators, the filmmaking group NeMe, took to Vimeo's support forums to express their disdain. They noted that the DMCA takedown request counted as a "strike one," in spite of allegedly not violating any of Columbia Pictures' copyrights. It forced the short film's creators to provide "an assortment of statements."

Most of the other films noted in the Chilling Effects report had nothing to do with the Sandler film, with the ironic exception of a trailer for the film in question. Additionally, TorrentFreak reported that the film's source material, a two-minute CGI film in which video game icons came to life, had received a takedown. As of press time, that video had been restored to Vimeo.

Vimeo's forum moderators encouraged NeMe and other affected filmmakers to file a counter DMCA notice, but as of press time, most affected films remain down due to an apparent automatic compliance with the DMCA request.