Users were left startled as Google Drive's automated detection systems flagged a nearly empty file for copyright infringement.
The file, according to one Drive user, contained nothing other than just the digit "1" within.
Is digit '1' copyrighted?
Dr. Emily Dolson, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Michigan State University, reported experiencing some strange activity when using Google Drive this week.
'output04.txt,' one of Dolson's Google Drive files, was practically empty, with nothing but the numeral '1' within.
However, this file was detected by Google since it violated the company's "Copyright Infringement policy."
Worse, the professor's warning ended with the phrase "A review cannot be requested for this limitation."
Uh, @googledrive, are you doing okay? This file literally contains a single line with the number "1". pic.twitter.com/4tLhOzQY1T
— Dr. Emily Dolson (@emilyldolson) January 24, 2022
Dolson's file 'output04.txt' was saved in Drive under the directory 'CSE 830 Spring 2022/Testcases/Homework3/Q3/output,' prompting the professor to wonder if the file location was a factor in the false alert.
The file was among a batch of TXTs comprising output created as part of a homework assignment on Dolson's "non-educational Google account."
One too many digits.
Files containing only the numeral "1"—with or without newline characters—were identified by a pseudonymous user in their Google Drive account, according to screenshots.
"The 1-byte files contain just '1', the 2-byte file is '1\n', and the 3-byte (not flagged yet) file has '1\r\n'," wrote the user.
 |
| Files with '1' also flagged by Google Drive for copyright violation (Imgur) |
It turns out that the behavior isn't confined to files that include the number "1."
When uploading many computer-generated files to Drive, Dr. Chris Jefferson, Ph.D., an AI and mathematics researcher at the University of St Andrews, was able to duplicate the problem.
Over 2,000 files were created by Jefferson, each having only a number between -1000 and 1000.
Google Drive quickly identified the files with the numbers 173, 174, 186, 266, 285, 302, 336, 451, 500, and 833 for copyright violation.
Some claim that if the file contains only the digit "0," Google would permanently delete your account, however, this is more likely to happen to people that Google considers to be serial infringers.
"I erased the experiment simply in case my account was suspended for having too many dirty numbers," Jefferson says.
Google's automatic technique of detecting possible copyright infringement possibilities, according to Mikko Ohtamaa, creator of Defi startup Capitalgram, might be problematic with aspects of the GDPR regulations.
However, as noted by the UK's ICO, GDPR Article 22 aka "automated individual decision-making, including profiling" refers to making automated judgments about individuals based on their online conduct, such as before providing a loan or when making recruiting decisions.
"I'd have more compassion if the limitation didn't say 'A review cannot be sought for this restriction,'" writes OneLeggedCat on HackerNews. "It's intended to be as harsh and oppressive as possible. This was their choice. There is no redress if it is found guilty unless proven innocent."
It's unclear what's causing this behavior, and BleepingComputer hasn't been able to duplicate it as of this writing.
In 2018, Google released a lengthy document outlining the company's anti-piracy efforts. However, when it comes to Google Drive, the paper claims that "full-time exploitation engineering
group "Google created it to combat illicit streams delivered through Google Drive. As a result, nothing is known about how Google's algorithms handle non-video content saved on Drive.
BleepingComputer contacted Google ahead of time to ask specific concerns, such as if Google used checksums to monitor copyrighted content and if this behavior stemmed from a probable hash collision between copyrighted and innocuous files that shared the same hash.
At this time, we have not received a response from Google.
Click here for more trending news
You can also follow us on our Facebook page
You can also follow us on our Twitter page