Daniel Yankelevits is asking Google to delist WikiLeaks for showing off his salary.
Well, it's got nothing
to do with copyright infringement
A Sony Pictures
executive is asking Google to delist the controversial whistleblowing website
WikiLeaks from its search results as the website has made public a leaked email
containing his salary details.
For
someone who wants privacy, Sony Pictures Legal Affairs VP Daniel Yankelevits
has a funny way of trying to get it, as he sent a Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA) takedown complaint to Google requesting that the search engine
remove details relating to his salary.
However,
as noticed by TorrentFreak, the DCMA
notice is publicly accessible and can be seen on the Transparency Report
section of Google.com. The request lists the reporting
organisation Sony Pictures Entertainment, a link to the full copyright claim notice on Lumen, as well as
the exact infringing hyperlink, which lists the exact details of Yankelevits'
salary.
In the description of the complaint, Yankelevits writes:
"My salary is in google due to Sony Hackhttps://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/103755 please remove the above on your
results page. It's not right."
The
email in question describes a conversation between Yankelevits' superiors in
Sony Pictures asking another employee to approve an annual salary increase for
him that was sent in April 2014. Yankelevits submitted his DCMA complaint to
Google on 15 June 2016.
Well, it's got nothing
to do with copyright infringement
Sadly for Yankelevits, Google states that
it has chosen to take no action, but no reason is given. However, it could have
something to do with the fact that DCMA takedown requests are designed to
enable copyright holders to inform the search giant about copyright
infringement.
Unfortunately,
neither the details relating to the individual's salary nor the email in
question are copyrightable in any way, shape or form – rather, Yankelevits'
issue is a matter of breach of privacy, and it is an issue of a personal
nature, rather than a business issue, even though he sent the takedown request
on behalf of Sony Pictures.
Yankelevits
also requests that Google delist the entire WikiLeaks section on leaked Sony
emails rather than the email mentioning his salary, a request that Google would
be unlikely to ever comply with as it is not specific enough.
Perhaps
the funniest thing about this situation is the fact that the complaint is being
made by an individual who is in fact a lawyer for a huge media conglomerate,
yet seems to not really understand how copyright law works and is instead
seeking to use Google's reporting procedure as a form of censorship. Troubling,
indeed.
Representative
Image
Source: IBT
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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