Google Sues Group Over Fraudulent Copyright Takedown Requests

Google LLC alleged in a lawsuit that two Vietnam residents and a group of other unnamed people created dozens of fake accounts claiming to represent large companies, celebrities, and famous brands to submit copyright takedown requests that targeted more than 117,000 URLs.

Nguyen Van Duc and Pham Van Thien “deliberately, systematically, and illegally exploited Google’s” notice-and-takedown system through 65 different Gmail accounts, according to the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

The defendants claimed to represent Amazon.com Inc. in one takedown request for an allegedly infringing t-shirt, the lawsuit said. In another, the ...