The company’s takedown notices appear to confirm the authenticity of the huge document — a 50+ page PowerPoint file — that purported to lay out the roadmap for Microsoft’s upcoming console.
Microsoft is playing hardball with companies that are hosting a purportedly leaked Xbox 720 document.
A Czech tech site called Ihned.cz (Translate) said it received a notice recently from Microsoft Internet investigator Alan Radford requesting the site remove its “copyrighted works” from its Web site. In a notice, obtained by The Verge, Microsoft claims the site was “offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted works published by Microsoft.”
WP Central yesterday reported that Dropbox has also banned the file from its service. The blog’s reporter, “RogueCode,” said that when he tried to open the document via Dropbox, he was sent to a page saying that it was “no longer available due to a takedown request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by Microsoft.”
Microsoft’s document, which showcased the company’s purported plans for its next console, popped up on Scribd over the weekend. Soon after, international law firm Covington & Burling, which lists Microsoft as one of its clients, had the document taken down from the site.
Microsoft is certainly no stranger to takedown requests. According to Google’s Transparency Report, the company has requested the removal of more URLs — over 480,000 — in the last month than any other. NBC Universal is in second place with nearly 242,000 takedown requests.