In August 2013, the Wikimedia Foundation recived a DMCA takedown notice of some content on the “Sport in Australia“-article on the English Wikipedia. That’s because the sending party claimed that they own the copyrights for the following information table, which is included below.

It consist only on material and data points which are in themself not copyrightable. Despite this, the Wikimedia Foundation was forced to comply with the takedown notice, in order not to lose it’s status under the Safe harbor.

The list itself might not be that encyclopedia, and should perhaps not be in the article, but if I want to use that table in another article, or restore an old version of this article, this takedown notice must be refuted first. That is why I sent in, 2.5 years later, a formal DMCA counter notice stating that I had a good faith belief that they were in error and that this is not copyrightable.

They, the senders of the DMCA takedown notice, now have 14 days from reciving my forwarded counter notice to respond with legal actions to stop this content from being displayed. If they do not, this is a huge victory for our community.