Mar, 2003 : Microsoft Complaint Leads to Site Shutdown

📅 March 11, 2003 - According to reports released Monday, Windows news site Neowin was shut down for nearly 24 hours last week after Microsoft accused the site of infringing on its copyrights.

Microsoft's Internet investigator sent a take-down notice on Tuesday, say reports, alleging that the site infringed on copyrights relating to the recently-released Windows XP Peer-to-Peer Software Development Kit, apparently as a result of a posting in an online feedback forum.
In this unusual case, instead of the routine legal filing being sent to the site, it was delivered to the upstream Internet service provider responsible for Neowin's connection. The provider responded by pulling the entire site from the Internet. Neowin declined to identify the ISP, but sources reportedly confirmed that Microsoft had contacted Hurricane Electric Internet Services.
Sommer Farrin, a spokesperson for Hurricane Electric says that, while the ISP did receive a letter from Microsoft, Hurricane Electic does not host Neowin, and took no direct action. Instead, it passed the request on to a customer that services Neowin's Web host directly. Farrin did not identify the customer.
Neowin and its Web host, Invision Power Services Hosting, said the incident was Microsoft's fault for denying the site a chance to fix the problem before taking the matter to the ISP.
Takedown notices are common under 1998's Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which offers ISPs immunity from liability if they remove material after receiving notice of alleged infringement from a copyright holder. The Neowin case is unusual, however, because take-down requests generally result in the removal of the offending material, rather than the entire site.
Microsoft says the removal of the entire site was not the company's intent, and says it communicated that to the ISP in a second email. The company has said it is working with Neowin to see the situation resolved.