Samsung silences leaker with copyright shutdown on Twitter

He’s one of the longest running leakers in the tech world, and today, he was shut down in part by a Copyright claim which could spell the end of leaks or at the very least force leakers to reconsider the way they present things.

Evan Blass or @EVLeaks as he’s best known – has been leaking phones on the internet before their formal announcements for a decade.

And his accuracy rate is phenomenal – but his most recent leaks of the Samsung Galaxy S22 – which look pretty spot on if we’re honest – have hit a snag.

Here’s how they appear on Twitter right now

And there’s even an entire Tweet that is withheld:

It doesn’t appear that this has happened to any other leaker – and there are a few, but a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) claim is a way that content publishers (like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook) can be held to account over stolen content.

So for example, if I copy a music video, post it on my YouTube channel, YouTube has a system that allows the owner of that content to not only file a complaint and have it removed, but do that automatically if the content is already legally on the platform.

But what’s fascinating here is the claim has been made over images.

Now I guess, in reality, the images Evan has access to are Samsung property, they are to be used in advertising and product pages – but who owns the rights to those images – and should we expect future leaks to be taken downs so fast?

Should publishers like EFTM expect to receive DMCA claims, or cease and desist letters when we publish such images? if not – why not?

If we do, and if this DMCA claim action continues – it’s a bad thing in our view – Leaks are part of the game.

Then again, getting a bit of extra attention for this DMCA style takedown could also be part of the game – we’re all just players.

Smartest thing to do is sign up to Evan’s new newsletter – leaks direct to your inbox – hard to take those down!