Dropbox Banning OPDS Users?

[edbro]

Scary post on the Calibre2OPDS site.
http://calibre2opds.com/2012/04/30/d...re2opds-users/

Guy claims that Dropbox deleted his account due to his opds catalog. Anybody else heard about this happening? I've moved my catalog out for the time being. I can't afford to lose Dropbox.

I figured this site would get more visibility than the single post on Calibre2OPDS. If this is for real then more people need to see it.

Edit:
It looks like the post was made by somebody on the Calibre2opds team. This lends more credibility to the scare.

[nesler]

Something I was wondering: In the post, it was stated that the takedown notice referred specifically to HTML links (within the catalog pages) to the book files. It makes me wonder if a search engine's spider cataloged all that stuff, and then whatever publisher's legal team simply did searches for copyrighted material.

If so, would a robots.txt file help?

[JCSullivan]

I was curious to know why everyone is talking about dropbox and what it is so I clicked on nesler's link and then, I wanted to know the diff between dropbox and google docs so I found this comparision chart.

It scares me to know that there are teams out there with access to my stuff (see OP's remarks) but that's the downside of technological improvements.

Anyway, then I wondered what does all this cost so I scrolled all the way down to below the green advertising to find a link to the "explore pricing". That's bloody sneaky if you ask me - to place links about pricing down there - no mention of this anywhere near the top of the page.

Now, if someone would do a comparison chart about ALL the pricing. In truth and in my opinion these are nothing but glorified megaupload, hotfile, rapidshare, etc.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by JCSullivan

In truth and in my opinion these are nothing but glorified megaupload, hotfile, rapidshare, etc.

Yikes, that's harsh.

I use Dropbox as a backup option. You don't have to use it to share documents with others, but it's a nice way to share pics with family when you're not interested in putting them out there for the whole world to see.

[Mikou]

Originally Posted by JCSullivan

It scares me to know that there are teams out there with access to my stuff (see OP's remarks) but that's the downside of technological improvements.

I believe the "team" mentioned by the OP is responsible for developing the calibre2opds software. They don't have special access to people's stored items.

In truth and in my opinion these are nothing but glorified megaupload, hotfile, rapidshare, etc.

Most people I know who use online storage technology use it to be able to access to their own documents from various locations -- e.g. work and home -- and/or on various computers or devices that they use. DB is treated like a folder on your computer, but once something is saved there, you can access it on any device you own that has DB installed. Nothing has to be made public.

Megaupload, et cetera don't sync with the user's devices nor are they accesssed the same way.

I'm not sure if your comment was meant to be accusatory, but that's the way it sounded to me.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by nesler

Something I was wondering: In the post, it was stated that the takedown notice referred specifically to HTML links (within the catalog pages) to the book files. It makes me wonder if a search engine's spider cataloged all that stuff, and then whatever publisher's legal team simply did searches for copyrighted material.

Is an "OPDS Catalogue" public? If so, the fact that copyrighted books are being make publicly visible for download would certainly justify closure of the account, and very rightly so!

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JCSullivan

In truth and in my opinion these are nothing but glorified megaupload, hotfile, rapidshare, etc.

Then you have very little concept of what most folks here are using DropBox for.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Then you have very little concept of what most folks here are using DropBox for.

Torrents have perfectly legal uses also.
If someone shares their 'cloud' account (that contains controlled content) outside the terms of the content, then it is a violation (I will concede many of the terms are overly restrictive ).

[JCSullivan]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Then you have very little concept of what most folks here are using DropBox for.

That may be, but still, it is external storage.

Originally Posted by Mikou

I believe the "team" mentioned by the OP is responsible for developing the calibre2opds software. They don't have special access to people's stored items.

I was referring to the teams on the service suppliers' side - those who are "keeping an eye" on the content of the dropbox. I don't have any illegal stuff so don't have to worry from that end. Sorry for any misunderstanding this may have caused.

Most people I know who use online storage technology use it to be able to access to their own documents from various locations -- e.g. work and home -- and/or on various computers or devices that they use. DB is treated like a folder on your computer, but once something is saved there, you can access it on any device you own that has DB installed. Nothing has to be made public.

Megaupload, et cetera don't sync with the user's devices nor are they accesssed the same way.

The first part I understand but not the fact that it synchronizes.

I'm not sure if your comment was meant to be accusatory, but that's the way it sounded to me.

Not at all. My reference was to the service supplier NOT the user.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JCSullivan

I was referring to the teams on the service suppliers' side - those who are "keeping an eye" on the content of the dropbox. I don't have any illegal stuff so don't have to worry from that end. Sorry for any misunderstanding this may have caused.

Was the person who allegedly had their DB account closed making copyrighted material publicly available via their DB account?

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Was the person who allegedly had their DB account closed making copyrighted material publicly available via their DB account?

That will certainly be what any DCMA takedown request will be claiming as such a request needs to be raised by the copyright owner (or their agent) and sent to the service supplier (i.e. Dropbox) specifying the exact items to wich the request applies. In Dropbox terms this means that copyright material is exposed via the Public folder so that anyone can download it.

One weakness with DCMA requests is that they can be raised without going through any formal process and the onus is on the recipient to prove that they have not broken copyright so it is perfectly possible to get served with such an order for material that you have the right to make available. In practise most service providers simply act on them without bothering to check they are valid. There is in theory a penalty for issuing DCMA takedown requests incorrectly but I have not heard of this being applied.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by itimpi

That will certainly be what any DCMA takedown request will be claiming as such a request needs to be raised by the copyright owner (or their agent) and sent to the service supplier (i.e. Dropbox) specifying the exact items to wich the request applies. In Dropbox terms this means that copyright material is exposed via the Public folder so that anyone can download it.

Right - that's what I thought. Forgive me if I'm being dense, but I really don't see what connection this has with OPDS as such. Is this a case of someone losing their account for using OPDS, or is it a case of someone losing their account for making copyrighted books publicly available for download (ie piracy)?

[itimpi]

You are right - it is not the fact that OPDS is used that is critical, but the fact that the catalog and associated books were put in the public folder so anyone could download the books.

[SirBC]

I think one of the issues here is that most of us that use the "public" folder are counting on the fact that unless you know the exact address of the files in the folder you can almost (almost, but maybe not quite) assume that content in that folder is private. This isn't like people are just throwing ebooks into a "public" folder for the masses of the internet to gobble up. The purpose of the public folder is to be able to easily share, with those you give the address to, files that can be shared in a HTML/Website format (ie, a webpage).

An interesting thread on how "public" the public folder is can be found here on the dropbox forums. This post by a moderator pretty much sums up how I thought the public folder operated:

crawlers can only index links that they can follow. if you never ever publish the public link to your file and nobody else ever ever find & publish it, then google won't be able to find it.

In other words, if you do not publish somewhere on the web a link to any of the flies in your public folder, the odds of a search engine (or anyone else) finding any of those files is infinitesimally small. I may be totally wrong about that, but that is how I assumed the Dropbox public folder worked.

[HarryT]

"Security through obscurity" is a highly dubious model to employ. You're breaking copyright law by simply putting a copyrighted work into a public folder, regardless of whether or not anyone downloads it. DB would seem to be entirely justified in taking this action. Is there nothing in their TOS which prohibits public sharing of copyrighted material?

Given the issues with MegaUpload, etc, it's hardly surprising that they're being vigilant in their monitoring of the use to which their public folders are being put.