Last month, I wrote about a Fourth Circuit decision in Doe v. Sidar, which discusses one-sided pseudonymity. Last week, Google received two requests that it remove that post from its indexes—and thus vanish it from search results—on the theory that the post violated the copyright in a Tumblr post, https://www.tumblr.com/case49news/745091056157196289/fourth-circuit-on-one-sided-pseudonymity-in-sexual:
Re: Unknown
NOTICE TYPE: DMCACopyright claim 1
KIND OF WORK: Unspecified
DESCRIPTION The decision allows such pseudonymity when the defendant has already been found (by default judgment) to have committed the assault, but Judge Wilkinson's concurrence argues that, absent this unusual factor, one-sided pseudonymity should be frowned on.
ORIGINAL URLS: https://www.tumblr.com/case49news/745091056157196289/fourth-circuit-on-one-sided-pseudonymity-in-sexual
ALLEGEDLY INFRINGING URLS: https://reason.com/volokh/2024/02/21/fourth-circuit-on-one-sided-pseudonymity-in-sexual-assault-cases/
But it is that tumblr post that copied mine, not vice versa; though the post appears to be backdated to the day before I posted mine, whoever sets up a site is able to do that sort of thing. Indeed, the post is the only one on that particular tumblr blog, which I expect was created precisely to make the deindexing request. And if you want still more evidence, note that the post (on the tumblr blog as well as on my blog) talks about "my amicus brief on my own behalf in this case"; you can check the court records to see that this was my brief, not some anonymous tumblr blogger's brief.
