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

[delete12345]

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.

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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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Google Drive Flags Text Files With "1" or "0" As Copyright Infringements * TorrentFreak

Google Drive's algorithms are flagging text files that only contain a "1" or "0" as copyright infringements.

torrentfreak.com

Mark as copyright infringement if old.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Disney purchased the digits 1 and 0. It sucks but someone was going to buy them eventually and this way they can appear in the MCU.

 

[TheStebe]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

 

[FliX]

Dr. Emily Dolson should have minted the 1™ ealier... too late to complain now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[DarkSora]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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LOL!

 

[Porygon]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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lmao

 

[neoak]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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💯

 

[super-famicom]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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oh shit

 

[LifeLine]

"A review cannot be requested"

When you have so much trust in your AI machine learning copyright detector that thinks the number 1 is copyrighted.

 

[jroc74]

omg at that warning, lmao!!

 

[Wiibomb]

omg that warning, i'm dead lmao

 

[N64Controller]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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This might be the best warning any mod has ever given on this site forever and ever, I'd like to personally congratulate them I laughed out loud

 

[CatAssTrophy]

"A review cannot be requested"

When you have so much trust in your AI machine learning copyright detector that thinks the number 1 is copyrighted.

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This is the real news.

A new article coming out for each and every time someone cries afoul of the algorithm is going to get really annoying. "So now files with [mundane thing] are infringing according to Google!" for each time their system erroneously flags a file.

 

[Turnbl]

Go0g1e

 

[Midas]

Hahaha love that binary post. Deserves a tag!'

Edit: tag should be 01010111 01100001 01110010 01101110 01100101 01100100

 

[HotsauceDragon]

Microsoft did this 24 years ago.

Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeroes

EDIT: I can never get my URLs to unfurl.

 

[LTG]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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Hahaha, this is hilarious!

 

[mute]

If you can't employ/train/pay real people to handle your ridiculous copyright robot's fuckups then maybe you shouldn't make copyright robots.

 

[collige]

It's really dumb that the message doesn't even say who the alleged copyright holder is. This is the type of shit I was worried about when the last thread on this subject popped up.

"A review cannot be requested"

When you have so much trust in your AI machine learning copyright detector that thinks the number 1 is copyrighted.

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I don't think there's any AI issues going on here, I think they simply don't manually audit the files that are submitted to them as being copyrighted. DMCA abuse is pretty rampant and if they make any file that's gotten a DMCA unable to be re-used, it would definitely generate a ton of false positives.

 

[Daysean]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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Fun IS allowed lmao

 

[strudelkuchen]

> A review can not be requested for this restriction.

Modern Google in a nutshell.

 

[Zyrokai]

I need to get off Google Drive omg

 

[Jedi2016]

There's an episode of TNG called "11001001", Google's gonna go after Paramount next...

 

[Mivey]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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So blatant copyright infringement like this just nets you a warning? Era mods are soft on crime. Smh.

 

[The Albatross]

Well, duh, U2 copyrighted it

 

[The Albatross]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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Dude did you just admit to a crime?

 

[imbarkus]

 

[Quacktion]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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Bruh

 

[stersauce]

RESETERA IN GOOGLE'S POCKETS I KNEW IT

 

[Watchtower]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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you_just_made_the_list.gif

 

[Tendo]

Yoooo that warning was a funny play. Well done haha.

 

[riotous]

That's probably George RR Martin's Winds of Winter being flagged.

 

[Dyle]

That's why I write everything with I-s and O-s rather than 1-s and 0-s

 

[KazeSim]

What a joke.

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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"User warned" lol

 

[GameAddict411]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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FYI it translates to "Google pls"

 

[Chikor]

Google is a garbage company, our IP laws are fucking terrible, and together they like wonder twins of garbage, like this particular case is mostly silly, but the approach both our lawmakers and google have been taking for online copyright enforcement is fucking terrible, and it hurts pretty much everyone outside a handful of big media companies and a whole lot of lawyers.

 

[cwmartin]

I'd love to know the context for having a file in your shared drive that simply contains "1" LOL

 

[Infinity Times Two]

I've been thinking of getting off the Google Drive and its monthly subscription, and going NAS for all files. I don't know much about it though.

 

[Kelsdesu]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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Bravo

 

[Damaniel]

I'd love to know the context for having a file in your shared drive that simply contains "1" LOL

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Perhaps they have a script that outputs the return code of a running application. I've definitely output single bytes of data to temporary files before - but that's not the kind of file I'd be uploading to cloud storage.

That being said, a single byte file should never trigger a copyright warning, period - and certainly not one where you can't contest it.

 

[BasilZero]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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lmao

 

[DBT85]

Stop storing shit on drive

 

[zma1013]

I own this now as NFT.

 

[Futureman]

Love the people in teh comments saying "I'm going to OneDrive!"

I don't get being up in arms with Google, but you're ok with Microsoft?

 

[Walter White Walker]

My file is "one zero"

 

[L Thammy]

The Body Electric

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupThe Body Electric · RushGrace Under Pressure℗ 1984 Anthem Records Inc.Released on: 1984-01-01Composer Lyricist: ...

www.youtube.com

 

[Dreams-Visions]

01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01110011

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amazing with the warning

 

[Darren Lamb]

I own this now as NFT.

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Can I buy it for a high price?

 

[bmdubya]

"A review cannot be requested"

When you have so much trust in your AI machine learning copyright detector that thinks the number 1 is copyrighted.

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I've had to work with Google "support" both as a consumer and in my work capacity, and Google's support is absolute dogshit. I can't believe people don't talk about it more. I got locked out of my Google account that I have had since Gmail beta days, and I couldn't talk to a real person to get access back. It was so infuriating.

They also don't care if Google Docs is used for phishing attempts; which happened at my work. We got on enterprise support since we have G Suite and their response was "we can't do anything about it because the form isn't hosted on our platform;" when the URL for the phishing form started with docs.google.com.

 

[mreddie]

zero zero zero zero zero zero one
zero zero zero zero zero zero one one
zero zero zero zero zero zero one one one
zero zero zero zero zero one one one one
Come on sucker, lick my battery

So is google gonna take down Robots from Flight of the Conchords too?