1. Columbia Pictures and the Trailer Takedown
False DMCA notices are defamation
A DMCA notice is essentially an accusation that a video or some other work on a site is an act of infringement against the copyright owner on the part of the uploader. So, a false DMCA notice is a false accusation of copyright infringement.
(so technically Columbia pictures was defaming their own movie trailer…)
In an effort to stop anyone from sharing pirated versions of the movie Pixels online, Columbia Pictures had a company called Entura International file a DMCA notice on their behalf.
However, the motion filed didn’t work the way they had hoped. It was so vague (acting against anything with ‘Pixels’ in the title) that not only did it down mostly unrelated works, but the one major video that was taken down that did have to do with their movie was the film’s own trailer.
It also took down the video that had inspired the movie to begin with, a short film by Patrick Jean called, you guessed it, ‘Pixels.’
Even my own studio doesn’t want people watching my movies ),:
But mah freeze peach!
Yes, these DMCA issues do have a negative impact on free speech, such as:
DMCA ruins anonymous speech. Alleging that someone online did something infringing can allow a copyright holder to find the person's identity.
Copyright & trademark owners can and do sometimes use their rights to take down pages that contain criticisms of their work. This happens a lot to online critics on youtube, for example.
Most IP claimants aren't always held accountable when they file false claims, which serves to encourage others to abuse the system as well.
Should vimeo and similar sites be responsible for free speech?
They do have a responsibility to commit lawful actions, and false DMCA notices do not fall under the category of 'lawful' so a company has an obligation to investigate these claims before giving a user a 'strike' against their account. It should not be the user's responsibility to make sure that the website they use is acting within legal bounds.
Pixels barely made back its budget at the box office, but I don’t think we can blame that on copyright infringing videos on Vimeo.
Why does it matter?
When a video is taken down the
user who uploaded it gets a strike
against their account, regardless of
the claim’s validity. This can lead to
their account getting banned or other
unfortunate consequences unless a
counter-claim is filed and accepted.
What do we do about this?
~A~C~C~O~U~N~T~A~B~I~L~I~T~Y~
It wouldn’t solve everything, but holding people accountable for their false DMCA notices would make a lot of these false claims go away

2. SOURCES
Forcing-Its-Removal html