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Friday, 17 June 2011 23:54

Good Grief! Peanutweeter Gets Taken Down Following DMCA Claim

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Good Grief! Peanutweeter Gets Taken Down Following DMCA Claim

Peanutweeter, the hilarious marriage of random funny tweets with Peanuts cartoons, was removed from Tumblr Friday, following a claim that the blog violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

A tweet from the @Peanutweeter account, sent just after noon PDT, claimed that the site had been taken offline following a DMCA claim by Iconix Brand Group, which owns copyrights on the Peanuts characters and comic strip.

The site’s creator, T. Jason Agnello, said he doesn’t plan to fight the takedown.

“I believe I put a good-faith effort into specifying that this was a fair use parody,” Agnello said Friday in an e-mail to Wired.com. “However, I don’t have the legal might to argue it. Nor do I wish for the stress in doing so.”

Iconix Brand Group operates a subsidiary called Peanuts Worldwide that, according to the company’s website, is a joint venture with Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates that formed “a new home to the global Peanuts property.”

A letter sent by Iconix to Tumblr claimed the web service was hosting content that infringed on copyrights owned by Peanuts Worldwide and made a request under the DMCA to remove @Peanutweeter. The letter added that Peanuts Worldwide is the owner of numerous copyrights for the Peanuts characters and comic strip including “the material depicted at www.peanutweeter.com.”

The company, based in New York, did not immediately return Wired.com’s phone call and e-mail requests for comment on the matter.

The DMCA offers internet service providers immunity from civil copyright liability for user content if the provider promptly removes infringing material. When complying with a takedown notice from a rights-holder, the law demands that intermediaries such as Tumblr remove the content immediately without evaluating the claim or considering the fair-use rights of users. If the intermediary doesn’t abide by the notice, it can subject itself to copyright liability.

Bottom line: Peanutweeter is probably gone for good. That’s sad news for its creator.

“While I am disheartened by Tumblr’s and Iconix Brand Group’s actions, @Peanutweeter has brought joy to thousands of people on a daily basis for two and a half months,” Agnello said. “So I can’t say I have any regret.”

Additional reporting by David Kravets.

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