Marco Armet takes a sobering look at the current DMCA takedown problem:
Anyone can force any content on nearly any site hosted in the U.S. to be taken down or removed from Google’s index, at least for a while, with no ramifications, liability, or traceability by filling out a simple web form or sending an email. An attacker could republish this post on another blog, give it yesterday’s date, and send an email to The Planet claiming that this is infringing their copyright. Within a couple of days, this post would be gone, and I’d have no recourse.
I bring this up here for two reasons. First, if you're posting content online you need to know that you may fall victim to such attacks, whether valid or not. Secondly, problem legislation like this is increasingly invading the technology and online areas of our lives. The particular problem with this aspect of the DMCA? It assumes guilt on the part of the accused, completely reversing the basic premise of our legal system.