IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Google broke my heart

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Google's Unresponsive Support and Bias Against Small Creators

Users criticize Google's automated, evasive process that ignores legitimate DMCA requests from individuals while favoring big players.
"Google's default attitude towards anybody who contacts them is that they are a scammer." – dekhn
"If a big player sues, Google is going to have to pay a staggering amount of money, thus they obey. If you sue, its lawyers will drain you financially." – WesolyKubeczek
"Humans then decided not to act on the DCMA request... I do, however, think this is just a mishandled situation." – moralestapia

2. DMCA Abuse Justifies Verification, But Google Fails to Communicate Requirements

Fear of false takedowns prompts caution, but Google's refusal to specify proof frustrates valid claims.
"people issue false DMCA takedowns all the time. Which I presume they would point out in court." – johncolanduoni
"Google needs to say what would convince them that the author is who they say they are. The author asked multiple times." – digitalPhonix
"DMCAing Google has always seemed a bit pointless... DMCA complaints that helpfully compile a list of pirate copies." – RobotToaster

3. Legal Recourse or Copyright System Overhaul Needed

Many urge suing Google or hiring lawyers; others call for abolishing/reforming copyright amid digital realities.
"Sadly, I think your only option is to follow up with legal action against Google." – jmholla
"The entirety of copyrighted law has failed... We need something new to replace it." – riskable
"hire a lawyer, they know how to communicate with these teams." – dekhn

🚀 Project Ideas

Proof of Rights (PoR) Protocol

Summary

  • A decentralized or standardized verification protocol (using PGP or Content Identifiers) to link digital content to its creator.
  • Solves the "identity vs. ownership" gap where Google refuses to acknowledge a user as the author despite the user having site-owner credentials.
  • Core Value Proposition: Provides an "on-chain" or "notarized" paper trail that large platforms cannot ignore without losing safe harbor.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Self-published authors, indie developers, and digital artists.
Core Feature Cryptographic signing of digital assets (Ebooks, ZIPs) linked to a public profile.
Tech Stack PGP/GPG, IPFS, and a public ledger or "Notary" service.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: SaaS subscription for "Verified Creator" certificates.

Notes

  • HN users suggested that "adding a PGP signature when releasing content prevents situations like this."
  • A formal verification system provides the "shibboleth" that commenters noted is missing when dealing with low-level support bots.

Certified Notice-as-a-Service

Summary

  • A legal-tech service that automates the delivery of physical, certified mail to corporate legal agents (C.T. Corporation) for technical disputes.
  • Solves the problem of "screaming into the void" of human-less LLM support by escalating to a physical legal process.
  • Core Value Proposition: Forces a human in the legal department to sign for a document, which restarts the liability clock for safe harbor.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Small creators and business owners being ignored by Big Tech.
Core Feature Automated generation and mailing of legally-formatted timelines and demands.
Tech Stack Python (Doc generation), Lob API (Certified Mail), Legal Templates.
Difficulty Low
Monetization Revenue-ready: Pay-per-notice (e.g., $49 per certified filing).

Notes

  • "Every time I have asked for a certified mail address... the globocorp gave me what I wanted." This project automates that "shibboleth."
  • It bypasses the "AI-washed auto-reject script" by moving the dispute from a browser tab to a legal desk.

DMCA "Evidence Pack" Generator

Summary

  • A tool that scrapes a user's own site and the infringing site to generate a side-by-side comparison spreadsheet, formatted specifically for court or internal review.
  • Solves the "refusal to acknowledge" problem by providing "concrete expression" comparisons that meet the AFC (Abstraction-Filtration-Comparison) test.
  • Core Value Proposition: Reduces the friction for small authors to act like "big players" with high-quality evidence.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Independent content creators and IP lawyers.
Core Feature side-by-side automated metadata comparison (publishing dates, WHOIS, code similarity).
Tech Stack Selenium/Playwright, Diffing algorithms, OpenAI (for semantic similarity reports).
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium (One report free, paid for bulk/automated monitoring).

Notes

  • Commenters noted that "LegalEagle" and others only got results when they provided a "spreadsheet with copyright violations and original sources."
  • This moves the user from "friendly and emotional" to "implacable robot that knows the process," which users identified as the only way to get results from a "lawnmower" company like Google.

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