Ecuador: Spanish Anti-Piracy Firm Targets Chevron With Bogus Copyright Takedowns

Techdirt.com reported that there’s the strange case of Spanish “anti-piracy” firm Ares Rights, which didn’t actually seem that interested in “anti-piracy” but in out-and-out censorship via copyright fraud on behalf of various Latin American countries. Ares Rights (correctly) realized that copyright notice-and-takedown provisions were a de facto censorship tool, and has used that to the maximum advantage possible, regularly issuing highly questionable copyright takedown claims to take down all sorts of content that might embarrass the governments of Ecuador or Argentina, even if they have no legitimate copyright interest in the material.

Now, however, Adam Steinbaugh alerts us to the news that Chevron itself has posted a blog post on a blog the company has dedicated entirely to the Ecuador lawsuit (yes, they have an entire blog on the topic) in which the company explains how Ares Rights has begun issuing a similar series of completely bogus takedowns on Chevron’s own videos.

THINKING OF MOVING TO ECUADOR? READ THIS BOOK

Chevron also chides Ecuador for its recent attempts to “rebrand” itself as the “home of internet freedom” at a time when it’s doing plenty of things that suggest it is not a fan of internet freedom at all. Read Article