EFF Sues Michael Crook for Bogus DMCA Claims

The EFF has just filed suit against Craigslist copycat scammer Michael Crook for filing bogus DMCA claims. In September, a blog post about Michael Crook on 10 Zen Monkeys (which is run by Jeff Diehl) used a screen shot from Fox News of Michael Crook. Michael then send a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice to Jeff’s web host, claiming that he had a copyright on the image. Jeff’s web host then forced him to remove the image or his account would be suspended. Jeff then moved 10zenmonkeys.com to Laughing Squid Web Hosting (the web hosting company that we run). Within 24 hours, the data center was sent a DMCA claim from Michael Crook, requesting that the image be removed. They immediately contacted Jeff to discuss the situation, as well as Jason Schultz, an attorney at The Electronic Frontier Foundation. A few weeks later, EFF filed the complaint.

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