The Aftershock Of Stupidity: Lendink Reopens Only To Receive Trolling DMCA Notices

from the effects-and-after-effects dept

"Well, I t certainly did not take long before I received my first post-lynch mob DMCA Violation notice. I received the following email from an attorney this morning and promptly responded. I was afterwards advised that they are going to contact Amazon to have the lend status changed and they expect the books to be removed from my site. Yet another example of how people do not understand their agreements with Amazon and fail to realize that Amazon allows affiliate to sell their books even if they are not lendable."

A few folks dug and it appears that the "lawyer" who issued it is no lawyer at all, and probably an Internet troll (evidence includes not being listed as a lawyer in PA, using a home address, and sending the takedown from gmail). Or just a really bad lawyer.

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It is easy at times to look at some of the stories of the misinformed or abusive on Techdirt, shake our heads at the stupidity of them, and then move on, assuming the issue is passed. This is a misunderstanding of how things work. Rather, when we take into account factors like chilling effects of these cases, they are more like earthquakes in that there is the initial burst of activity followed by the rippling effect and aftershock.Take, for instance, the story of Lendink Tim Cushing brilliantly outlined a few weeks back. That story helped to create a firestorm in which a large swath of authors were caught up in the backlash of the internet, all because they couldn't be bothered to both know their own contracts and do even a modicum of investigation into the site they decided to lynch. One would think that such a well-publicized backlash, coupled with what was a fairly impressive number of knowledgeable authors whoknow their stuff trying to educate the rest, might have a positive ripple effect in favor of Lendink and sites like it. And, perhaps to some degree, it did. But the ignorance of the offending authors also created a negative ripple that has been felt immediately now that Lendink has reopened its site.From Lendink's Facebook page we learn that they have reopened. And, upon reopening, they almost immediately received what appears to be a bogus DMCA takedown notice Lendink then promises to post every single DMCA notice they receive, perhaps banking on the previous internet backlash against authors and rights holders being a deterrent. Now, if this notice was just another ignorant author, that'd be one thing. But, a little sleuthing by the Slashdot crowd seems to indicate that this is just a troll The point is that these things don't occur in a vacuum. Regardless of whether the takedown notice is from a lawyer or a troll, the ignorance and overreaction of a group of authors has put Lendink in the sights of others either equally ignorant or else nefarious. The ripples continue and the damage done not completed.As an author myself, I can't tell my peers how liberating it is toabout anyone who wishes to share my work. It alleviates me of all the drama against readers. It alleviates me of all potential missteps against legitimate services. It alleviates me of the responsibility for any ripple effects those missteps might cause. Have I read every word of the contracts I've signed? Yes. Do I understand every word of them. Of course not.Because I don't have to.

Filed Under: dmca, ebooks, lending, takedown

Companies: lendink