To be fair, it's not clear that Microsoft explicitly knocked out the website. Network Solutions took the site down (apparently earlier than they claimed they were going to), so it's not a given that this was the result Microsoft was after when it sent the notice.
Yes. From what I gather MSFT wanted to get their PDF removed. But surely they know that's not how DMCA allegations work, right?
Yahoo! Did the same thing not too long ago, and when Young refused to remove the document, Yahoo! just let it drop. The site never went down, and Yahoo!'s doc is still there.
I can't comment on the actual interpretation of the laws in question, but whenever we dealt with DMCA notices at a previous company, standard operating procedure was to take down the content in question, and then reinstate it if a counter-notification was filed and leave it up to the two parties' lawyers to settle the dispute. In this case, there seems to have been a counter-notification and the involvement of legal counsel so simply taking down the website seems highly extreme. Maybe it just comes down to operating procedure and Network Solutions goes for a heavy-handed approach because a lot of their customers are hosting warez and such.
Emails from Network Solutions were included in the backup of the site. Apparently it's their policy to suspend sites for 10 days after receiving a counter-DMCA notice and reinstate the site after 14 days if they haven't been served with a lawsuit.
and the email to MSFT from Network Solutions says:
"Attached please find a Counter-Claim Notification received from John Young of www.cryptome.org on this date. We note that pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”) we will reactivate the Web site following the allotted time frame (not less than 10 and no more than 14 business days) unless we receive notice of litigation."
The funny thing is that doing so, now even more websites are talking about the matter, exposing MS bad behaviour regarding DMCA and publishing the document for everybody to read.
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 36.6 ms ] threadStill waiting to hear back from MSFT...
Still bad form either way, though.
Yahoo! Did the same thing not too long ago, and when Young refused to remove the document, Yahoo! just let it drop. The site never went down, and Yahoo!'s doc is still there.
Also! Here's Microsoft's spy guide: http://www.scribd.com/doc/27394899/Microsoft-Spy
What a shitty company.
Edit: the mirror is at http://cryptomeorg.siteprotect.net/
and the email to MSFT from Network Solutions says: "Attached please find a Counter-Claim Notification received from John Young of www.cryptome.org on this date. We note that pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”) we will reactivate the Web site following the allotted time frame (not less than 10 and no more than 14 business days) unless we receive notice of litigation."
They only got things go worse.