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Comment by jonknee | Hacker News Reader

Removing individual links makes sense--if someone filed a DMCA request with Dropbox for a song and it ended up getting removed from my Dropbox as well that would be ridiculous.

In the case of something that is always illegal (say child porn) there would be a duty to remove all instances of a file, but when it's a case by case basis of whether or not there is a copyright issue it does not make sense to take files down en masse. Remember that uploads to MU were private--you received a secret link.

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Random question here: Let's say I keep a backup of my movie and music library on Megaupload. Is there anything wrong with it? Like is it my duty to password protect the files in order that nobody else can access it? i.e. what I am trying to say is, does just because there is copyrighted content on Megaupload it has to be automatically illegal?

> Removing individual links makes sense--if someone filed a DMCA request with Dropbox for a song and it ended up getting removed from my Dropbox as well that would be ridiculous.

Dropbox has a very clear concept of private files and public files. If a DMCA request was issued for a file you're storing in your public folder, I would certainly expect Dropbox to remove all instances of that file in all public folders on all accounts.

You seem to be saying that if I write and record a song and put it on a dropbox public folder, then issue a DMCA takedown for another user who has copied my files, dropbox should delete my files as well.

That makes no sense, whatsoever.

What if the file in another public folder was held by the owner of the copyright, or someone else who had license to distribute it?

...then that exceptionally rare person will be inconvenienced in the process of correctly dealing with the significantly more common case. In either case it should be relatively easy for them to reacquire the file, if needed.

> but when it's a case by case basis of whether or not there is a copyright issue it does not make sense to take files down en masse.

I disagree.

If you're hosting copyrighted material that I own, and I file a DMCA, I'd expect you to remove that material from the server / to stop hosting it.

You just don't get to keep the data file and hide it behind more links.

Hopefully they also remove the one they're hosting for you, the copyright holder.

If I had files in dropbox for personal use removed because someone filed a DMCA request against the same file someone else was sharing with everyone I'd be rather annoyed. Especially in the day of digital downloads.

Just because 1 upload is using it in an infringing manor doesn't mean all of them are.