Last November, WordPress had enough and decided to take a stand. The company joined with student journalist Oliver Hotham who had one of his articles censored by a false takedown notice. The article was concerne with ÂStraight Pride UK which included a comment he received from the organizationÂs press officer Nick Steiner. The latter didnÂt like the article Hotham wrote, and after publication Steiner sent WordPress a takedown notice claiming it was infringing on his copyrights.
Through a lawsuit filed in a California federal court, WordPress and Hotham now hope to be compensated for the damage this abuse caused them.
ÂSteinerÂs fraudulent takedown notice forced WordPress to take down HothamÂs post under threat of losing the protection of the DMCA safe harbor Steiner did not do this to protect any legitimate intellectual property interest, but in an attempt to censor HothamÂs lawful expression critical of Straight Pride UK. He forced WordPress to delete perfectly lawful content from its website.As a result, WordPress has suffered damage to its reputation,ÂÂ a spokesman for WordPress was quoted. A decision is expected in a few months.
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