It's no surprise when a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request turns out to be terrible and absurd, but just in case anyone forgot how ridiculous these automatic notices can be, the DMCA has been kind enough to offer a little refresher in the form of HBO telling Google to remove links to... itself.


Now, technically, the request was filed on behalf of HBO by DtectNet, the anti-piracy arm of MarkMonitor, but it didn't just ask Google to remove links to the "Eastbound and Down" section of HBO's online store, it also demanded that MTV.com, IGN.com, and Pinterest remove entirely legitimate, non-copyright-violating-whatsoever links and news stories from their sites.


Fortunately for HBO, Google caught the error before anything could actually be removed, but not even near-omniscient Google can keep up with every single bogus notice. Just last year, there were 50 million DMCA takedown requests demanding that (often entirely legal) content be removed. Still, obnoxious as it may be, it's doubtful we'll ever tire of seeing companies that abuse the DMCA essentially hitting themselves in the face over, and over, and over again. [Geekosystem]

Image: Shuttershock/FXQuadro