Board Thread:Wikia Discussion/@comment-22224-20190129194843/@comment-22224-20190131024911

Hello,

After talking with our general counsel, we have decided the Twitter post is legally acceptable evidence of the DMCA takedown being invalid and thus we can restore the images. I am beginning the process to do so as promised.

Obviously, I know this incident has left many of you upset and questioning why things happened in this matter. So I'd like to add a few points, which may not answer all the concerns you have, but is important to note:


 * You, as the end users, have more recourse for protesting a DMCA than we do as your safe harbor provider. We are not allowed to protest a DMCA notice - we must legally take what is stated in the document at face value and, without concrete evidence to the contrary of its legitimacy, act upon it in the most expeditious manner possible. This DMCA notice was received two weeks ago, and after finding no obvious spoofing in either the email address, IP originator, or its scope, we had to act upon it. That's US federal law and one we act upon as conservatively as possible due to its importance to our ability to host content.
 * I genuinely am grateful that the community was able to reach out to the Twitter account in question and get a denial. Again, this was something we were not permitted to do until the DMCA was complied with (as it had been just a few hours before).
 * In the nearly ten years I have worked for Fandom, this is the first time we believe we have had a fake DMCA. You may have opinions upon how fair the DMCA law based upon this experience, but at least know that lying on a DMCA Takedown Notice is considered criminal perjury and Fandom will take the necessary action to inform authorities about the matter.
 * It's also important to note that Fandom's entire Community team is trained to handle DMCA takedowns. I would hate for someone to feel as though this would be handled any differently by a "non-tech" member of the platform. This is at least the dozenth DMCA case I've handled in the last few years, although admittedly the final result is far different than previously.

I would like to say to the community that I personally am genuinely sorry that this incident happened the way it did. I know that doesn't make it right in the minds of all of you, but please know we were stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one and I dropped everything (my dinner included) to go ahead and start restoring files.