> Then they sent a DMCA takedown notification notification to someone they were just trying to censor...
That's not true. They used an admin control to disable public sharing of a file in DropBox; this procedure apparently is typically used when DropBox receives a DMCA request and it had a side-effect of (mistakenly) notifying the file's owner that DropBox received a DMCA notification. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2483053. DropBox didn't send a DMCA takedown request to any service provider hosting the file.
Honestly the whole DMCA explanation from the executive team sounded like finding an explanation that fits. I hate that people read a comment like that then turn around and claim it to be the truth as you are doing.
You do not know what happened any more than the OP does so your usage of the word 'true' is weak at best. I'd be more okay with your comment if you had written "Drew explained" instead of "That's not true" as if you speak authoritatively.
I must remind you that DMCA email did contain name of the company who sent it (and it was "Dropbox", if I remember it correctly). I guess, Dropbox administrator had to type it by hand (I doubt they frequently send DMCAs from "Dropbox") - and it is hard to imagine that UI was unclean on purporse of that field.
This is completely unfair to Drew and also out of line.
We do know what happened, because Drew told us what happened.
Years ago, when my wife thought her MacBook was stolen, I emailed Drew and asked if he would notify us if it connected to Dropbox, and he was happy to help. This was back when Dropbox was small. (My account is number 315, for example.)
Drew is a good person, and unless you have some basis for calling him a liar, don't.
What is "out of line" is attacking me for operating on a default-untrusted policy instead of a default-trusted policy. We all don't share your happy Drew Houston story do we?
That is great that Drew helped you when the company was small. Facts are easy to distort when your company's reputation is getting flushed down the toilet and it is not a reflection upon Drew personally that I do not automatically trust him.
I tried believing in the best in people. It stopped working. Until shown otherwise I question every input and you would be stupid to do otherwise.
I can relate with "I tried believing in the best in people. It stopped working." I've had some nasty experiences as well. I've been burnt, badly, a lot. By both family and friends.
You're right. I was probably just clinging to the fantasy that YCombinator is the one pure group of people in a world of backstabbers. But I guess Airbnb already disproved that.
I don't distort facts. Neither did Feynman. Drew is an MIT alum, so I was assuming/hoping YCombinator consisted mostly of people with that type of scientific integrity.
I think there's a difference between deciding that you're skeptical, so that you're not going to act in a way that risks too much; versus publicly implying that it's actually a lie.
That's not true. They used an admin control to disable public sharing of a file in DropBox; this procedure apparently is typically used when DropBox receives a DMCA request and it had a side-effect of (mistakenly) notifying the file's owner that DropBox received a DMCA notification. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2483053. DropBox didn't send a DMCA takedown request to any service provider hosting the file.