Microsoft sends anti-FairUse4WM takedown notices

Microsoft has begun to send out odd takedown notices against people who host copies of FairUse4WM, a program that lets you get more use out of the music and video you buy by breaking off the DRM.

Microsoft is sending takedown notices to FairUse4WM hosters asserting that FairUse4WM violates Microsoft's copyright in Windows Media Player. This is an odd claim -- it may be that FairUse4WM is a DMCA violation because it circumvents Windows Media Player, but it's quite a stretch to say that it violates Microsoft's copyright.

The Microsoft FairUse4WM takedown notice doesn't actually purport to be a DMCA notice, but it follows the format and wording of a DMCA notice. DMCA notices shield ISPs from liability -- if you get a notice and abide by it, you aren't on the hook for any infringements committed by your customers.

This notice, though, does no such thing. It demands that you take down FairUse4WM, but doesn't offer any immunity from future prosecution in exchange (it may be that failure to abide by a notice like this could make things worse for you in court).

It's a strange strategy from Redmond: there's clearly no infringement of Microsoft's copyright here. Instead, the violation is of the notional "compatibility right" that the DMCA seems to create: a right to control whose software can interoperate with yours. Link (Thanks, Daniel!)