Disney will send you a copyright strike if your face looks like Loki's

Can a bunch of us on HN just meet up, call a congressperson together, and basically ask that congressperson to add to some larger omnibus law a DMCA reform saying frivolous DMCA takedown requests carry an automatic $1000 penalty per request as determined by arbitration or lawsuit, with loser paying the victor&#x27;s legal fees?<p>[ Edit: Also, you know how we name-and-shame Patent Trolls? This is the behavior of a Copyright Troll and we should call this behavior as such. And ultimately we need legislation against Patent Trolls and Copyright Trolls. ]

The context here is a bit more interesting. The case seems closer to: Disney will send you copyright strike for a photo you yourself called Loki, after a number of successful takedowns on your cosplay photos for the Loki character.<p>I&#x27;m against the idea of DMCA for cosplay in general... But if he knew how the rules apply before, this seems like testing the boundaries &#x2F; &quot;I&#x27;m not touching you&quot; game. He can contest the request through the standard procedure. It would get interesting if <i>that</i> gets rejected.

The letter: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;LordAmalthean&#x2F;status&#x2F;1407360501252755462?s=20" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;LordAmalthean&#x2F;status&#x2F;1407360501252755462...</a><p>Looks like this is an actual complaint from Disney, as opposed to the proactive content removals Redbubble has been sending and was discussed a few days ago: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27551372" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27551372</a>

So essentially Disney has some ML face model running around sending DMCA strikes? I really hope one day they do this to someone who can afford some stupid expensive team of lawyers to take them all the way through court for a false DMCA.

This happens because content creators outsource this work to law firms. The law firms have an incentive to be as aggressive as possible. The more takedowns they report, the more effective they seem.<p>All these comments which imply Disney pursued this takedown despite consideration of competing interests like supporting fans are a bit silly. First, Disney itself isn’t likely directly involved. Second, Disney is MASSIVE. Even if one of Disney’s marketing departments opposes such notices, they likely wouldn’t even know who to call to try to stop them.<p>Note: I dislike takedown notices as much as the rest of you.

If only these companies put half as much effort into their actual product rather than lawyering up against each other and every suable entity in the universe.<p>I don&#x27;t think copyright laws should be abolished, but this shit is getting ridiculous. Sending false copyright claims should be treated as a crime in it of itself. When falsely accused of a copyright claim, the recipient has to go through a process to try and get that pulled, costing time, effort and potentially money. And yet these corporations get no punishment for spamming legal threats to whatever their bots deem appropriate.

I don&#x27;t want to watch Disney&#x27;s crappy TV show, but this story just makes me want to go pirate it right now.

Hopefully it goes without saying that you shouldn&#x27;t be able copyright other people&#x27;s photos of their own face without their consent. Any lawyers on here to disagree?

At some point in his life he did cosplay the disney owned variation of the public concept of loki. But loki in general is definitely not something that disney owns. And just his face without a costume is not disney loki. So this should be immediately rejected on dmca appeal.<p>Should he have to appeal and enter into a legal battle with one of the most dangerous and well funded legal teams on earth? No. It sucks. But the DMCA we have now probably cannot be improved and the safe harbor provisions are vital to the freedom of the net. Any attempts to change it for the better will just make it worse.<p>The best thing he can do, what he&#x27;s done, is try to get wider public coverage of the stupidity in the hope that disney will try to avoid controversy.

Total sidebar...<p>Who would have thought that Tom Hiddleston&#x27;s Loki would have gotten so popular?

IP is a big chunk of the balance sheet. Posturing like this is necessary for a company like Disney, even if it doesn&#x27;t believe it is effective. Not doing this would imply its IP is less valuable than it is currently valued at. And then shareholders would be sad.<p>As long as IP is an accounting asset, this isn&#x27;t going to stop.

Reminds me of that south park episode with mickey mouse being an evil heartless brute ru(i)nning Disney.

There really needs to be some back pressure mechanism for DMCA requests. Right now it feels like we are all peasants living at the whims of some medical lord issuing decrees. I am just not sure what that mechanism would look like, because it is a fine balance to strike.

I call shenanigans. Looks like the user made their account private. But this isn&#x27;t how copyrights work. If your face looks like Loki&#x27;s good for you. There would have to be a lot more going on in the photo to be an infringement.

We hear a lot about Patent Trolls. We should call this behavior the actions of a Copyright Troll. And we need legislation against <i>both</i> Patent Trolls <i>and</i> Copyright Trolls.

It&#x27;s set to private. I can&#x27;t see anything on this link.

Hey that&#x27;s pretty crazy, but also why is a person going by Lord Amalthean selling shirts with his face on them?