google drive

Users were left startled as Google Drive'due south automated detection systems flagged a near empty file for copyright infringement.

The file, according to ane Drive user, contained naught other than but the digit "one" within.

Is digit 'one' copyrighted?

This calendar week, Banana Professor at Michigan State University, Dr. Emily Dolson, Ph.D. reported seeing some odd behavior when using Google Drive.

One of the files in Dolson's Google Drive, 'output04.txt' was nearly empty—with nothing other than the digit '1' inside it.

But according to Google, this file violated the company's "Copyright Infringement policy" and was hence flagged.

And what's worse is, the warning sent to the professor ended with "A review cannot exist requeste for this brake."

Dolson's file 'output04.txt' was stored at path 'CSE 830 Spring 2022/Testcases/Homework3/Q3/output' in Drive which led the professor to wonder if the file path possibly contributed to the false alarm.

Nowadays on Dolson's "non-educational Google account," the file was among a batch of TXTs containing output generated equally part of a homework assignment.

One too many digits

A pseudonymous user also shared screenshots of their Google Bulldoze account where files containing simply the digit "1"—with or without newline characters, were flagged.

"The 1 byte files contain simply 'ane', the 2-byte file is 'ane\n', and the 3-byte (not flagged nonetheless) file has '1\r\n'," wrote the user.

google drive copyright violation
Files with '1' also flagged by Google Drive for copyright violation (Imgur)

And, information technology turns out the behavior isn't limited to merely files containing the digit "1."

Dr. Chris Jefferson, Ph.D., an AI and mathematics researcher at the University of St Andrews, was likewise able to reproduce the issue when uploading multiple computer-generated files to Drive.

Jefferson generated over 2,000 files, each containing but a number between -grand and yard.

The files containing the digits 173, 174, 186, 266, 285, 302, 336, 451, 500, and 833 were soon flagged by Google Drive for copyright infringement.

Some allege that should the file contain merely the digit "0," Google would permanently disable your account, although the outcome more than probable applies to users that Google deems to exist echo infringers.

"I deleted the experiment, just in case I got my account deleted for also many naughty numbers," writes Jefferson.

Mikko Ohtamaa, founder of Defi company Capitalgram, declared that Google's automatic style of flagging suspected copyright infringement candidates could exist problematic with parts of the GDPR legislation.

Note, however, the GDPRArticle 22 aka "automated individual conclusion-making, including profiling," more specifically refers to making automated decisions virtuallyindividuals past profiling their online behavior, such equally before granting a loan or when making hiring decisions, every bit explained by Britain's ICO.

"I'd have more sympathy if it weren't 'A review cannot be requested for this restriction,'" writes HackerNews user OneLeggedCat. "Information technology's designed to be equally vicious and callous as possible. They chose this. It is guilty until proven innocent, with no recourse."

It isn't known yet what causes this beliefs, and BleepingComputer has been unable to reproduce the issue at the time of writing.

In 2018, Google published a detailed certificate explaining how the company fights piracy. Just when specifically talking almost Google Drive, the report states a "full-time abuse engineering
team" was set up by Google for tackling illegal streams served on Google Drive. As such, not much information is available on how Google'south algorithms process non-video content stored on Drive.

BleepingComputer reached out to Google well in advance of publishing with specific questions—such equally, whether Google relied on checksums to keep track of copyrighted content and if this beliefs rose from a possible hash-collision betwixt copyrighted files and a benign ones sharing the same hash.

Nosotros accept non heard back from Google at this fourth dimension.

Update 11:43 AM ET—Google seems enlightened of the effect and is working on a resolution. The company additionally shared links for requesting a review of a violation and urged users to visit the Customs Forum for additional assistance.