UPDATE: The takedowns have gone cross-platform. WBD’s enforcement vendor MarkScan has issued a copyright strike against the Cosmic Book News YouTube channel over our commentary video — the claim marks the “entire video” as WBD content — and Facebook has removed the same video via a notice that names no rights owner at all. Full story here.
UPDATE 2: It wasn’t just the social team. WBD’s Content Protection division has now filed a second notice against our account — claiming a “spoiler,” as text, is copyrighted material. [Full story here.]
We now know exactly who has been nuking Lanterns posts off X all day, and exactly why, because they wrote it down on the form they sent us.
Following the DMCA strike that locked the Cosmic Book News X account over our coverage of the Hal Jordan death leak, X sent us a copy of the takedown notice itself.
It was not filed by Warner Bros. legal. It was not an automated anti-piracy vendor.
It was filed by a “Social Strategist” on HBO Max’s brand social team, on behalf of “HBOMax,” from a WBD brand-social email address.
And here is how the notice describes the infringement, word for word:
“People discussing the spoilers of the first episode of Lanterns, using images, video and text.”
That’s it. That’s the claim. Not leaked footage. Not a stolen script. People discussing spoilers.
Spoilers Are Not Copyright
Copyright protects the episode itself: the footage, the script, the expression. It does not protect the fact of what happens in the story.
“Hal Jordan dies in Episode 1” is information, and discussing information is not infringement, no matter how badly a marketing department wants it off the timeline.
The rest of the notice doesn’t hold up any better.
The “original work” being infringed is listed as hbomax.com, the network’s homepage.
The reported content is categorized as “Video/Audiovisual Recording,” when the media on our post was a single still photograph, an official image of Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre that HBO distributed to the press.
And the media on the fan post that started all this was a meme built from decades-old comic art.
The form even includes a standard acknowledgment that the filer understands they can be liable under federal law for knowingly misrepresenting that the reported material is infringing. It’s signed.
One Filing, Six Posts, Five Accounts
The notice lists every post struck in today’s sweep: the fan meme from @damiebi10, two posts from @G_O_A_T_Lantern, posts from @KnightGambit and @review_flicks, and our own.
Fans, a review account, and credentialed press covering the story, all swept up in a single filing.
One detail stands out: the second G_O_A_T_Lantern post listed appears to be the viral post calling out the first takedown, the one declaring the leak real because of the strike.
In other words, HBO Max’s social team DMCA’d the post about the DMCA.
The Confirmation They Keep Signing
The notice identifies the work at issue as “The first episode of Lanterns, the new DC show coming to HBOMax in August,” and the harm as people discussing its spoilers.
Nobody swears out federal takedown paperwork over a rumor that’s wrong.
Every strike today has pointed at the same conclusion, and this document does it in writing: two timelines, the Manhunters, and Hal Jordan dead at the end of the premiere — what we said coming out of WonderCon back in March.
We reached out to HBO Max for comment and will update if we receive a response.
What Happens Now
We have filed a counter-notification and requested a retraction.
Under X’s process, counter-notices are forwarded to the complainant and to the Lumen database, meaning this notice becomes part of the public record either way.
The claimant then has roughly two weeks to take it to court or let the content come back.
That clock runs right into the Lanterns Hall H panel on Friday, July 24, where the creative team will take the stage in front of a few thousand fans who have spent this week watching the marketing department confirm the leak one takedown at a time.
Cosmic Book News will be in the room.
Lanterns premieres Sunday, August 16 on HBO and HBO Max.
