UFC Just Sent the Most Embarrassing DMCA

e’ve seen dozens of erroneous DMCA takedown notices in recent years, many of which have caused their senders embarrassment. However, notices sent to Google last week by an anti-piracy company working for the Ultimate Fighting Championship are the most cringe-worthy yet, and a direct result of a carpet-bombing approach to takedowns when a precision strike was needed.

picarddmcaWhile it might not yet have the high profile of the major Hollywood studios, the UFC is currently out-punching the movie business when it comes to anti-piracy activities.

As the leading mixed martial arts promotion in the world the UFC is hugely protective of its content. In recent times it has spent considerable sums lobbying in an attempt to have U.S. copyright law changed in its favor. Owned by Zuffa, the UFC would like to see streaming turned into a felony, with the aim of protecting their lucrative PPV events.

But while the instant money comes from their live shows, the UFC also makes money from selling post event DVDs and in order to protect that market the company hires several anti-piracy outfits to take content down.

The most visible of these actions are the DMCA notices Zuffa has outside companies send to Google. According to the search engine’s Transparency Report, Zuffa has used three companies to have more than 535,000 infringing links removed from Google’s indexes. Most of the time these are pretty standard fare, as the notice below illustrates.

UFC DMCA 1
While the above is an example of a highly targeted takedown (very specific URLs containing torrents to the actual infringing content) there is a growing trend at anti-piracy companies to employ a carpet-bombing mentality, rather sending in the required precision strike.

The terrible results of this broad brush approach can be seen in this very embarrassing notice sent by Zuffa / IP Arrow to Google on August 14. As can be seen from the screenshot, Zuffa is claiming that some pretty awful content is their property, and (worst still) the original copies can be found at UFC.com, which they obviously can’t.

UFC DMCA 2
So how is this needless embarrassment being caused? No prizes if you guessed “automated crawlers.”

Instead of pinpointing specific pages carrying UFC torrents for example, the crawlers will target any other pages (even those created dynamically by search engines) that link to them, meaning that the generated DMCA notices deindex hundreds of other items that have nothing to do with the specific rightsholder. This, while often leaving the actual torrent page intact.

For example, this DMCA notice sent by Zuffa targets many URLs which initially appear to have nothing to do with UFC content. We’ve highlighted just one as an example.

UFCDMCA3
On closer inspection the X Factor page has a section at the bottom titled “related torrents”. Sure enough, links to other pages that carry UFC content are listed. Instead of taking those down though, Zuffa’s anti-piracy company shot the messenger instead.

This carpet-bombing approach to takedowns is no doubt causing legitimate content to be censored too, so one might hope that embarrassing content in public DMCA takedowns will be enough for these companies to be a little more accurate in their work.

Anti-piracy companies working in this field have a difficult job, no one is doubting that. But wiping the freeway off the map when a mere side road has caused offense is hardly an acceptable strategy.

Yeah. The UFC's extreme anti-pirating service has gone crazy and sent out notices to torrent sites with pretty much anything with the letter U or F or C in it. 99% of the videos they claim copyright too are just random videos. Including child porn. They also claim they got the videos on UFC.com.

"there is a growing trend at anti-piracy companies to employ a carpet-bombing mentality, rather sending in the required precision strike.

The terrible results of this broad brush approach can be seen in this very embarrassing notice sent by Zuffa / IP Arrow to Google on August 14. As can be seen from the screenshot, Zuffa is claiming that some pretty awful content is their property, and (worst still) the original copies can be found at UFC.com."

On top of this Zuffa deleted our Fertittas mafia thread a couple of times, closed down our twitter and threatened this site with Nevadas best Law firm. Criminals know how to control the internet but we won´t back down.

are you for real?

kayneoTheRisingWarrior wrote:are you for real?

Yes, we´re top priority on their must destroy list. There are Vegas people lurking here all the time.

dam those bastard .if they ever do this again we are going called anonymous bec they hate    corruption company.anonymous will help and bring justice for us
@anon99percenter.THIS IS ANONYMOUS TWITTER ACOUNT @AnonOpsLegion,
@PublicAnonNews
@AnarchoAnon
@anon99percenter

Hey KSW make a video about what happen then called for anonymous because they will listen and help us

The best way to defeat Zuffa is to inform fans about other promotions and their world class fighters. Sooner or later fans all over the world will start supporting all mma, not just UFC, and then Zuffa will go down. We can´t let one private owned mafia company control our beloved sport.

Bro I try that but sometime sheep are stubborn people who don't wanna open and have an open mind.

Wow @ that cease and desist.

ZUFFA is like the US government of the MMA world. Trying to control as much as they can.

And do they not realize that things like fan HL's on YT promote their product?

Going after MMA fans is truly pathetic.

KSW wrote:The best way to defeat Zuffa is to inform fans about other promotions and their world class fighters. Sooner or later fans all over the world will start supporting all mma, not just UFC, and then Zuffa will go down. We can´t let one private owned mafia company control our beloved sport.

I really hope so. I've been spreading the word about this site to as many fans as possible. ZUFFA ain't stopping the GMMA hype!

kayneoTheRisingWarrior wrote:Bro I try that but sometime sheep are stubborn people who don't wanna open and have an open mind.

I agree with the picture 100% I used to hate Zuffa and everything about them until I realized there is nothing I can do to combat their stranglehold on NA MMA. That it's the promoters, not the fans job to make the change. 10/10.

SRC wrote:

kayneoTheRisingWarrior wrote:Bro I try that but sometime sheep are stubborn people who don't wanna open and have an open mind.

I agree with the picture 100% I used to hate Zuffa and everything about them until I realized there is nothing I can do to combat their stranglehold on NA MMA. That it's the promoters, not the fans job to make the change. 10/10.

We´re making a change right here, right now. We´re standing up for the sport since no one else does. It´s every true mma fans duty to try to make a change.

SRC wrote:

kayneoTheRisingWarrior wrote:Bro I try that but sometime sheep are stubborn people who don't wanna open and have an open mind.

I agree with the picture 100% I used to hate Zuffa and everything about them until I realized there is nothing I can do to combat their stranglehold on NA MMA. That it's the promoters, not the fans job to make the change. 10/10.

It's the jobs of both, my friend. It does take the work of promoters to get things going, but it's also up to us to give as much exposure to these organizations as possible. Look how important the internet was to an organization such as PRIDE. I'm only speaking for myself, but I'd have had no idea what PRIDE was had it not been for internet forums. The two entities (fans & promoters) must work in unison to make it happen. Again, just my perspective.

lol claiming child pornography vids that might come back to bite them

Hey SRC you misinterpreted my view   
Hey don't give up SRC bec ounce you do you kind lose faith on things.
You remind me of a character name droopy

src be more postive  of life

LMAO at Droopy.

Sonatine wrote:LMAO at Droopy.

LOL YES!!

SRC =

but in a lame business suit too