Google Drive Flags Text Files With “1” or “0” As Copyright Infringements

upnorth

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Jul 27, 2015
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Google Drive is flagging text files that only contain a "1" or "0" as copyright infringements. These seemingly harmless bits are automatically targeted by the storage platform's filtering algorithm, apparently for a terms of service violation. As if that's not drastic enough, there is no option to challenge this arbitrary decision.

The entire digital world is made up of binary code, often 1’s and 0’s. When you piece enough of them together, beautiful things can be created. By themselves, these two numbers are not that impressive. However, Google Drive appears to see them as a threat of sorts. Yesterday, Dr. Emily Dolson, an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University studying eco-evolutionary dynamics, noted that the storage platform had flagged one of her files. It is no secret that Google uses automatic hash recognition to scan for copyright-infringing content. In this case, however, it was nothing more than a text file containing the number “1”. The name of the file is “output04.txt” which doesn’t sound any alarm bells either. Still, Google determined that the file represented a copyright-related terms of service violation and prevented it from being publicly shared.
 

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