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IT Technology

Parody Site ClownStrike Refused To Bow To CrowdStrike's Bogus DMCA Takedown (arstechnica.com) 96

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Parody site creator David Senk has rebuffed CrowdStrike's attempt to shut down his "ClownStrike" website, which lampoons the cybersecurity firm's role in a recent global IT outage. Senk swiftly contested the Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice, asserting fair use for parody. When hosting provider Cloudflare failed to acknowledge his counter-notice, Senk defiantly relocated the site to a Finnish server beyond U.S. jurisdiction. The IT consultant decried the takedown as "corporate cyberbullying," accusing CrowdStrike of exploiting copyright law to silence criticism. Despite CrowdStrike's subsequent admission that parody sites were not intended targets, Senk is remaining resolute, demanding a public apology and refusing to return to Cloudflare's services.
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Parody Site ClownStrike Refused To Bow To CrowdStrike's Bogus DMCA Takedown More

Parody Site ClownStrike Refused To Bow To CrowdStrike's Bogus DMCA Takedown

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  • Hurt people.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      This corporation's reputation has been hurt far beyond Senk's power to add or detract. Hurt by the corporation's own incompetence.

      However the joke I was looking for was something about Streisand effects.

      The "Hurt corporations hurt people" joke could have worked, though the moderators disagreed. But it has me wondering if ClownStrike [I like the rebranding] actually fired anyone for screwing up so badly. Extremely unlikely it would have been anyone near the top, however, even though that's where the roots of

      • I thank you for your candid punditry and the mods and the academy. I win some, 90% sucks. Some, some I let go.
        I was going for further contortion of the grotesquery of corporate personhood, furthering the logical fallacy of anthropomorphization of our business gods. Your inclination was to go Streisand which, cool and apropos, but I personally find silly for the lack of shame of the folks running that corporation. Seems like they actually want you to look. Maybe so you'll feel sorry for it? Give it stuff--Co

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shanen ( 462549 )

          Interesting point. It's really hard to build up a corporate reputation as a computer security firm. If you are doing the work properly, then no one should ever notice you because you should have prevented all the problem.

          Now it's really hard to say you've never heard of CrowdStrike. Count me in with the folks who cannot recall having heard of them before this fiasco. Sure, their stock price took a hit, but now they can say "That was just a bad blip and we haven't screwed up lately." (Unless they do screw up

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mysidia ( 191772 )

        Cloudstrike's has... Cloudflares has not, And Cloudflare is responsible for Processing a "DMCA" notice that actually is Not a legal

        DMCA notice. The Section 512 statute they are citing does Not allow for takedowns based on Trademark law. The DMCA safe harbor applies solely to Copyright issues.

        Also, by ignoring the counter notice Clodflare loses their safe harbor and could be sued by the party whose content they have taken down.

        • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

          Barratry (/bærtri/ BARR--tree, from Old French barat ("deceit, trickery")) is a legal term that, at common law, described a criminal offense committed by people who are overly officious in instigating or encouraging prosecution of groundless litigation,[1] or who bring repeated or persistent acts of litigation for the purposes of profit or harassment

        • Still does not stop them from flashing their "Cookie Crisp Cookie Patrol" cereal box police badge and hoping that their target will get spooked and turn into jelly.

    • This is offensive to clowns! What did they ever do to you except make you laugh? CrowdStrike made you cry! LOL.

  • Censors gonna censor. The DCMA is the closest thing to a "hate speech" law we've got in the USA. This goes to show you that censorious corporations will do anything they can to censor dissent or criticism. It's a good reason to dislike the DCMA. It's not just for trade secrets, it's also apparently for apropos criticism or even just parody.
    • This goes to show you that censorious corporations will do anything they can to censor dissent or criticism.

      Yup. Those censorious corporations will definitely censor [cnn.com] anything related to dissent or criticism [newsweek.com].

      • I got kicked off Twitter for retweeting about Elno's election interference.

        Which is itself election interference.

        Can't we deport that fuckface yet?

        • Elno will never reward your abuse of moderation.

          Even if you are Elno, it will never give you the feeling you are missing because you chase your family away.

          Elno infamously froze the account of White Dudes for Harris for no reason other than trying to prevent them from fundraising for Kamala while at the same time running a fake voter registration site [newrepublic.com]. The first thing wouldn't be election interference without the other, because he doesn't owe them a platform (although he is obviously a liar when it comes to

        • I read up about Elon Musk and I was almost blown away at just how much of a shitbag he is, and to his own family. Publicly be rating his transgender daughter who is now fighting back against her monster of a father, keeping his kids from seeing their dying grandmother, and just being a rotten absentee parent in general. And this leaves out all of the public shit he did such as promoting Islamophobia. Why the fuck did we have to have THIS GUY be the figurehead for innovation in America. I hope this dufus cra
      • You think because they censor leftists as well that I'm going to flip-flop? Dude, I'm not some "conservative" that's going to try and split hairs and have it both ways. Censorship of adults is always a bad thing. Ideas should be able to compete, not simply be subject to supply. Who is in the crosshairs simply depends on the year and how angry the propaganda vendors in the media are at that group at that time.

        Free speech is an indispensable right.

        • >>Free speech is an indispensable right.

          IF you can defend it. And lately it seems only the rich can do that.

          • Well, it's got some powerful enemies. That doesn't mean for one second that we shouldn't defend free speech. It just means it's harder than it's ever been.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Marful ( 861873 )
      Don't know why you're labeled troll and not insightful...
      • People who favor censorship are chicken-shit pussy assholes. They cannot debate it because they don't know how to defend being a dirty censor without sounding like the head of the PTA mixed with Goebbels. So, they snipe with AC accounts and downvote their betters. It's the best they can do until they get hate-speech laws passed in the USA.

  • Clownstrike (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Keick ( 252453 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2024 @11:57AM (#64687920)

    The website in question, https:\\clownstrike.lol, isn't much to look at - and isn't in itself all that newsworthy.

    However, while trying to find said site, I tried the obvious https:\\www.clownstrike.com, which redirects to cloud strike.

    Now that I find very funny.

    • Oh no, LOL. Let's see how long they keep the redirect.

    • CLOWNSTRIKE.COM was registered in 2012, last updated 2023-10-30, and is held by "CSC Corporate Domains", the same agency named in the article (and the same registrar that holds CROWDSTRIKE.COM itself)
      It's pretty common for these agents to register any potential parody names, but with the proliferation of gTLDs many slip through (.lol wasn't a valid TLD in 2012)

    • Hi, URLs have the proper slash you should always be using, the forward slash (/) not the weird Bill Gates/Microsoft backslash. (\)

    • I saw the ".lol" site and I wondered "How could they sue over this?" but an actual clownstrike--}Crowdstrike .com redirect? Yowch! Crowdstrike might have a valid case after all. :-(
      • ..that is if Crowdstrike didn't register that domain itself to prevent malicious actors from using that domain to capture users who made a typo.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2024 @12:00PM (#64687938)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Yes, they are a problem. I know of more than one case where they just arbitrarily decided to refuse service, and went dark to all inquiries about it. Very sinister, dystopian overtones to how they do business.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ocean_soul ( 1019086 )

      Cloudflare is pretty much a protection racket, exactly because everyone uses them.

    • The most concerning thing about this is Cloudflare's action.

      Actually it's not concerning, it's literally the required process by law. From Section 512:

      (B) upon receipt of a counter notification described in paragraph (3), promptly provides the person who provided the notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) with a copy of the counter notification, and informs that person that it will replace the removed material or cease disabling access to it in 10 business days; and

      (C) replaces the removed material and ceases disabling access to it not less than 10, nor more than 1

    • The most concerning thing about this is Cloudflare's action. .

      Yup. Guess they need a Clownflare website too now.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Xenx ( 2211586 )
        This is just Cloudflare doing what Cloudflare is required by law to do, if they want to retain safe harbor status.

    • Cloudflare isn't your friend, people, and it never was. It's good that people are starting to understand that.

    • The most concerning thing about this is Cloudflare's action.

      Yeah, their action was criminal, not merely a civil violation. A snowball has a better chance in hell than this does towards getting prosecuted, or even looked at.

      That is why society is breaking: laws are not being enforced on businesses.

    • There might be a typo there maybe you mean clownflare?

  • Access to the Legal System (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Midnight_Falcon ( 2432802 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2024 @12:00PM (#64687940)
    Peter Thiel, in the context of being a douche bag, once said "single-digit millionaires do not have effective access to the legal system." While Peter is a resolute douche and stating this about Hulk Hogan during his Gawker-revenge-takedown, he's 100% accurate. Entities with money and existing legal teams/resources can easily file DMCAs to get content taken down they don't like. If that content is protected because it is clearly "fair use" such as parody in this case, leave it up to the other side to spend time and money getting it restored. Then, rinse and repeat; maybe try a new legal angle such as a full-on lawsuit.

    The lawyers involved know they have no real case, but they also know the other side can't afford $1200-an-hour lawyers to respond to their DMCA notices, and potentially later a lawsuit, motions, discovery requests, etc. So, they accomplish their goal of getting negative content taken down despite the law not being really on their side.

    A number of states do have Anti-SLAPP statutes, but I think we need to go a step further and make sure it is a black mark for all the attorneys involved. Make it like an attorney DUI -- you file a frivolous DMCA, nasty demand letter or lawsuit in the context of stopping public participation with legal bullying, you get an automatic suspension from the practice of law.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        There's always money in the banana stand. *Tch-tch.*

    • There's already laws and rules against filing frivolous and bad faith claims. They tend only to be enforced against poor people (and their lawyers).

      The bigger problem is a culture-wide capitulation to the inequitable distribution of privilege.

      • They tend only to be enforced against poor people (and their lawyers).

        Also, Trump's lawyers. Granted, many of his legal actions go beyond frivolous and bad faith and are actively abusive of the legal system, which tends to piss off judges.

      • Privilege is, by definition, inequitably distributed. "Privi" as in private.

    • My biggest problem with the entire way DMCA works is that there seems to be no real review when one is issued. It's issued, the content is done. Period. If the content wasn't actually supposed to be taken down, the onus is on the person/entity who posted the content to figure out how to deal with it. I get that our corporations wrote this law, oh, sorry, I mean "advised our congress how to write this law," so that it would be easy for them to take down any media they weren't getting a direct cut from, like

    • Make it like an attorney DUI -- you file a frivolous DMCA, nasty demand letter or lawsuit in the context of stopping public participation with legal bullying, you get an automatic suspension from the practice of law.
      Hahahaha, oh you were serious? I present you one Kevin Clinesmith [justice.gov]. Plead guilty to false statement on a FISA warrant. 12 months probation and 400 hours of community service, That act didn't meet the standard for "moral turpitude," Didn't get disbarred, instead suspended his law license. So I d

    • "just so you guys all know that me simply quoting him doesn't mean I actually like this guy"

      Couch your post more firmly in social-medial virtue-signaling context, +1.

    • You donâ(TM)t need a $1,200 per hour lawyer for a counter notice. Just get instructions from the internet. All you need to do is tell the ISP that you havenâ(TM)t infringed on anyoneâ(TM)s copyright. Alternatively, tell them that you donâ(TM)t mind being sued. If thatâ(TM)s what yo want.

      DMCA is not the problem. It gives you a chance to get out of the situation for free, without getting sued. But the company could have sued him anyway without DMCA.

  • I Can See the Future (Score:5, Funny)

    by organgtool ( 966989 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2024 @12:03PM (#64687952)

    When hosting provider Cloudflare failed to acknowledge his counter-notice, Senk defiantly relocated the site to a Finnish server beyond U.S. jurisdiction

    I can see a Clownflare web site in our future!

    • Why? Cloudflare are doing what is exactly required of them by law.

      (B) upon receipt of a counter notification described in paragraph (3), promptly provides the person who provided the notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) with a copy of the counter notification, and informs that person that it will replace the removed material or cease disabling access to it in 10 business days; and

      (C) replaces the removed material and ceases disabling access to it not less than 10, nor more than 14, business days followin

  • Working as Designed (Score:3)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2024 @12:48PM (#64688112)

    The DMCA was written to make it easy and low risk for corporations to abuse people, and difficult and expensive for people to fight back.

    • Thatâ(TM)s quite wrong. The company could have sued him immediately for copyright infringement. DMCA gives him the choice to walk away with zero cost or to go to court. Without DMCA. court would have been the only choice.

      • The DMCA lets corporations censor people without having to bother with going to court, and I've yet to see any penalty for abusing the process.

        It's a law for corporations, against regular citizens.

  • No, I don't think that people would confuse any real site with that one. Not much content, though.

  • Don't Crowdstrike's lawyers have more important things to be doing right now?

  • As in, Don't Crowdstrike My A--; it's been done already.

  • I had a coworker (UNIX nerd) ask me yesterday, "what's that company called, the Global Cyber Fuckup one?"

    We decided that would be sufficient and to refer to it by the ticker $GCF.

    'Clownstrike' is tame.

  • Without reading the article to find the correct URL, I simply tried clownstrike.com which hilariously redirects to crowdstrike.com

  • "...Cloudflare never received either of Senk's counter notices, which is a problem..."

    Yeah a problem, Cloudflare must be using the cloudy struck software in its servers. And CloudFlare customer support is like the Maytag repairman. Both companies have their heads in the cloud...or someplace where the sun don't shine.

    JoshK.

  • "There was a clown strike, and the clowns threw down their tools."

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0zbZDn7juc

  • Shouldn't they be focusing on fixing their problems than controlling publications?

    Wasn't it Adderall that was incredibly honest when there was a manufacturing supply issue with tampering, but through being honest with the news they earned trust.

    Taking sites down that spread awareness isn't ideal, it just makes the company look dishonest like they're trying to silence the customers. At this stage they should look more like they're working with the users to resolve issues, not protect their name.

  • They already look really bad, and a lot of people who never heard of "Crowdstrike" now know all about it and in a very bad way. The site in question can do almost nothing to further damage their reputation. The fact that their fee fees are so bruised that they are trying to DMCA the parody site makes them look like even bigger clowns than they already were. I guess it's the soup line for Crowdstrike.
  • I wonder if Crowdstrike is familiar with it?
  • Is a video of a still picture of a cartoon clown with generic circus music and some clown hat thingy animating in the corner with the word "CLOWNSTRIKE" under the clown. That's literally all I could find on that site. So what could Crowdstrike sue over? The typeface? The judge will laugh at Crowdstrike and throw out the case, and maybe make them pay damages to the site owner.

  • ... of a death spiral

    That's what it is. This POS company needs to go down. In fact the whole cybersec industry needs to take a lesson in accountability from this.

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