Astraweb Automates DMCA Process

DMCA isn’t your average discussion topic for Usenet providers in a public forum.  That’s why we were surprised to read a post in the Newsbin forum from an Astraweb representative speaking directly about their strategy on DMCA notices.  Noting that Astraweb has automated their process for handling DMCA requests.

First let’s take a really quick look at what the DMCA is and how it works.  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows copyright holders to request that service providers remove copyrighted content.  Since most large Usenet providers have servers in the U. S. they must accept valid DMCA requests and remove posts or face strong penalties.  Astraweb has news servers located in the U. S. and therefore must react to DMCA requests.

Let’s dive right into the topic of discussion which is Astraweb’s choice to automate DMCA requests.  Rather than having a person review and make the decision as to whether or not a takedown notice is valid.  Here’s what the rep from Astraweb had to say in the Newsbin forum:

– DMCA’s: it’s a given. We receive, we process! No debates! End of story! If we want to continue to operate as a business, we have to comply or get shut down.
– We do not have 24/7 staff dedicated to handling DMCA. We have an automated process. Nearly everything about USENET is an automated process, and DMCA notification processing is just another automated process. Why is it so difficult for people to imagine that there could be an automated process instead of a manned process?
– We’ve always processed DMCA notifications that we received. We didn’t receive as many takedown notifications back then as we do now. We’ve been asked; What’s changed, and why do some other providers receive less than us? Time is what has changed things.

The Astraweb rep covers some other topics as well.  You can read his full post on the Newsbin forum for all the details.  For now let’s take a look at each statement above:

– DMCA’s: it’s a given. We receive, we process! No debates! End of story! If we want to continue to operate as a business, we have to comply or get shut down.

While members might not be thrilled that Astraweb has to abide by the DMCA they are in the same boat as many other companies.  What appears to set them apart is their means of processing the requests.  Instead of reviewing them for accuracy they run them through an automated system.  To be fair we understand the number of requests have gone through the roof.  As you can see from the screenshot at the end of this post.

– We do not have 24/7 staff dedicated to handling DMCA. We have an automated process. Nearly everything about USENET is an automated process, and DMCA notification processing is just another automated process. Why is it so difficult for people to imagine that there could be an automated process instead of a manned process?

The concern is that automated processes are flawed.  They don’t allow a human to review the requests to make sure their valid.  Errors happen more than you might think.  Here’s a recent example where Google processed a DMCA request from Microsoft that cut out search results from sites like Wikipedia and the BBC.

– We’ve always processed DMCA notifications that we received. We didn’t receive as many takedown notifications back then as we do now. We’ve been asked; What’s changed, and why do some other providers receive less than us? Time is what has changed things.

Astraweb is far from an unknown.  Having become a very popular Usenet service over the years.  While some might have thought they were outside the DMCA spectrum that just isn’t the case.  Anyone with news servers in the U. S. must comply with the requests.  Astraweb’s growth has just made them a larger target.

What are your thoughts on Astraweb automating the DMCA process?  You can join the discussion on the Newsbin forum or over at DSL Reports.  We’ll end with a screenshot that shows just how hard some are working to generate an overwhelming number of DMCA requests.