Irony, thy name is DMCA

That the U.S.'s Digital Millennium Copyright Act is something of a mess is something that any YouTuber could probably attest to... and many have. Criminalizing acts as innocuous as making backups of media for your own use, and inviting all manner of systemic abuse by moneyed corporate interests, all while providing almost no additional protections for fair use, the DMCA would almost read like parody if clueless U.S. lawmakers hadn't passed it at the behest of the lobbyists of those same moneyed interests (and the moneyed corporate donors that they represented).

But this tidbit of news finally illustrates the absurdity of the DMCA in ways that nothing else ever could, that I could think of.

From The Beeb:

Film studio Warner Brothers has asked Google to remove its own website from search results, saying it violates copyright laws.

It also asked the search giant to remove links to legitimate movie streaming websites run by Amazon and Sky, as well as the film database IMDB.

The request was submitted on behalf of Warner Brothers by Vobile, a company that files hundreds of thousands of takedown requests every month.

[...]

The self-censorship was first spotted by news blog Torrent Freak, which said Vobile had made some "glaring errors".

In one request, Google was asked to remove links to the official websites for films such as Batman: The Dark Knight and The Matrix.

Licensed online movie portals such as Amazon and Sky Cinema were also reported for copyright infringement.

"Warner is inadvertently trying to make it harder for the public to find links to legitimate content, which runs counter to its intentions," said Ernesto van der Sar, from Torrent Freak.

[...]

Companies such as Vobile typically work on behalf of major film studios, reporting illegally uploaded copies of movies and television programmes.

Google's transparency report says Vobile has submitted more than 13 million links for removal.

It also reveals other potential mistakes - such as film studio Lionsgate reporting a copy of London Has Fallen found on the Microsoft download store.

"Unfortunately these kind of errors are very common," said Mr Van der Sar.

Warner Brothers has yet to comment, but really, what can they say? The DMCA, a law they lobbied hard to get, which tramples the free expression rights of U.S. residents on a regular basis, and whose features the RIAA and MPAA are working hard to see adopted globally through such vehicles as the Trans Pacific Partnership, is such a mess that a company as big as Warner Bros. is issuing automated DMCA takedowns against itself. We're through the looking glass here, people.

The DMCA needs serious revision, as do similar laws already passed in the UK, EU, and elsewhere, and I think that's going to have to start with at least one major movie studio admitting that they got it completely wrong when pushing for the law's passage in the first place. It's not an enviable role, by any means, so kudos to Warner Bros. for stepping up, and nominating themselves in such hilarious fashion.

</sarcasm>