Retroarch slammed with dmca takedown notice


Great link, many thanks.

Really hope this is not a sign of things to come for Android emulation.
This has been an issue with Google Play for a long time. It isn't limited to emulators. Basically anyone who issues a DMCA request, regardless of legitimacy, can get your app taken down. The DMCA itself only requires that websites comply with takedowns for up to 2 weeks if the issuing party hasn't produced a court order. They usually don't try to take the person in court (especially if their claim was BS to begin with) but Google does nothing to follow up on it.

You'd think Google would care about such obvious anti-competitive abuse but they don't. You can do stuff like this with little risk and little cost and get your competitors totally wiped out. They even let repeat offenders get away with this when it's in everyone else's best interests (including theirs) to ban their account.

The sad thing is that they probably would take this more seriously if it were involving an app that makes a lot of money. That's really pouring salt in the wound for people like RetroArch's devs who keep it free on principle.
 
I'm not sure what's worse, Google's immediate response without investigation or Apple's apathy to legitimate complaints.
 
yeah, don't point the finger at Just Google here; all stores have always been like this .. and its quite common for competitors to knock each other off air. Sad :/

Hell, I wouldn't even point the finger at Google/Apple/etc so much.. its the DMCA. It costs nothing to fire off a DMCA takedown, and it costs a lot (time, possibly $$) to recover from it; any situation where a nuisance entry level is low, it'll be abused. (Consider ou boards.. use the search function, or post a newbie post? Using the search takes just an instant of time, but peopel rather post and forget, let other people do the footwork..)

If Google had to respond to every notice, they'd be spending a lot of $$ doing it; they prefer presumably to let the DMCA take care of it the way it was intended (stupid as it is.)

So, sucks for everyone involved :/ Cant' count how many of my favorite apps have vanished for weeks at a time, while they unfuck up this stuff.

Sadly, emu authors should _expect_ this as well; its actually not too common now, but used to be various copyright owners would troll us emu devs, causing all sorts of mischief :/

jeff
 
This has been an issue with Google Play for a long time. It isn't limited to emulators. Basically anyone who issues a DMCA request, regardless of legitimacy, can get your app taken down.


...
Wow, so someone could just rattle off DMCA takedown requests for the top 50 grossing Apps on the play store and they'd just remove them from the store, no questions asked?  :blink:  


Kinda surprised this is not being abused on a truly massive scale by those with trollish tendencies.
 
Seems like its a sign of the times.  

Just 2 weeks ago the License managing company for Taito -> CPLG sent me an email asking that I buy a license to use Space Invaders artwork on the Mini arcade machines I made in the past and have up on Youtube.  They even  linked the 2 videos in question.  They asked me to purchase a license or threatened to take down my Youtube channel.  In the end I told them I wasn't selling them and they were ok with that.

It seems the old retro companies so to speak, have employed licence/copyright managers (external companies) that spend all day trawling the internet searching for offending material. 
 
It seems the old retro companies so to speak, have employed licence/copyright managers (external companies) that spend all day trawling the internet searching for offending material. 
Everyone is so hard up for some cash now a days, that this seems to be the new order of the day. I can't believe a company like Taito is recouping much money through these kinds of tactics, but maybe I'm wrong. It seems like they would be paying more to their legal department, than what they would have coming in, but who knows?

Chris
 
Just because they seem to represent taito doesnt mean they are. Order of the day is spamming out lots of spurious claims and scare people with FUD, slippery slope.
I had that thought also, which is why I did some research on them. Turns out, they are exactly who they say they are and do represent Taito
 
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It wouldnt surprise me if "CAVE CO" have something to do with this what with the authors rant and battle cry to them on retroarches front page

Cave SH3 drivers have been baked in again. In case some kind of shitstorm erupts over this – here is my stance. Cave officially exited the arcade game business – they have no leg to stand on with regard to “demanding this stuff be not included”. Preservation of arcade hardware can not just have arbitrary “end dates” just because certain manufacturers don’t like it. There is no more money to be made in arcades to begin with – find other viable solutions for your ailing business instead of falling back to a scene (arcade scene) that is all but six feet under (and counting). And no, iOS ports don’t count and are a mere shadow of their former arcade selves. Touch controls are a total disgrace to bullet hell shooters.
 
Re: Space Invaders .. This is another case of management com,panies gone wild :)

Reminds me of an old Negativland thing; Now, Negativland is a huge crazy whacky story, and they make great music, so check them out. But one of there crazy things was to get a license to do a U2 song, and then butchered the living hell out of it (into a far better song ;) , and then U2's management company came after them. The Edge (guitarist for U2) funded the defence of Negativland, while the U2 team went on the attack.

Sometimes business is crazy. (Always?)

jeff
 
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