A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator | by Cory Doctorow | Jan, 2022 | Medium

The Nugget

A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator: An oversight in early Creative Commons licenses has led to the emergence of copyleft trolls who exploit minor attribution errors to threaten individuals with large fines.

Key quotes

"To make matters worse, this new kind of predator specifically targets people who operate in good faith, only using materials that they explicitly have been given permission to use."
"Everywhere CC licensed works are hosted, the pre-4.0 versions of the Creative Commons licenses — the ones without the 'cure' provision — should be disfavored."
"If you send threats instead of requests for correction, you are terrible person and you should feel really bad about yourself."
"'I was there when Creative Commons was born! I was the organization’s European director!'"
"The reality is that the automated enforcement tools that Pixsy uses will always generate false positives."

Statutory Damages: Under US copyright law, copyleft trolls exploit statutory damages to engage in highly automated, mass-scale extortion for minor attribution errors.
Creative Commons Background: Early Creative Commons licenses omitted a "cure" provision, leading to vulnerabilities exploitable by copyleft trolls targeting those who believed they were using materials correctly.
Automated Threat Generation: Copyleft trolls like Pixsy use automated tools to generate legal threats, causing distress even to individuals who correctly attribute content.

Responsibility of Rightsholders: Rightsholders like publishers and individual creators play a role in enabling copyleft trolling by hiring enforcement agencies without proper oversight or awareness of potential consequences.
Legal Inadequacies: The Pixsy case highlights issues with legal threats being pseudonymous and sent without thorough review, complicating accountability and fostering an environment of fear.

Upgrade Licensing: Suggestions include upgrading pre-4.0 Creative Commons licenses to prevent vulnerability to copyleft trolling tactics.
Platform Interventions: Proposals for platforms to prompt users to upgrade licenses, issue warnings about outdated licenses, and provide automated attribution tools to reduce inadvertent infringement risks.

💡 Upgrade for Security: Early Creative Commons license holders should consider upgrading to the latest license version to prevent legal vulnerabilities.
🚫 Say No to Automated Threats: Automated legal threat generation by copyleft trolls can lead to inaccuracies and false accusations.
📝 Accurate Attribution Matters: Ensuring correct attribution for CC-licensed works is crucial to prevent exploitation by copyleft trolls.
🤖 Human Oversight Needed: Legal correspondence and threat assessments should involve human oversight to prevent unjust harassment due to minor errors.

This summary contains AI-generated information and may have important inaccuracies or omissions.