Google Drive Flags Text Files Containing '1' as a Copyright Infringement

pcmag.com:

Google Drive is suffering from a rather unusual bug that sees it flag text files as a copyright infringement simply because they contain a "1" or a "0."

As TorrentFreak reports, the behavior was first spotted by Dr. Emily Dolson, an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. She posted an image showing Google Drive flagging the output04.txt file stored on her Google Drive as violating the copyright infringement policy. All the file contained was the number one and was created for use in an algorithm class at the university.

Users on HackerNews decided to test how prevalent this was and discovered the copyright infringement was also triggered when a text file contained a "0" or "1/n." It's unclear what is causing Google's automatic file checking system to decide these files are violating someone's copyright, but clearly something is going awry.

Thankfully, someone at Google was checking the Google Drive Twitter account and spotted Dolson's tweet querying the infringement. Sure enough, it's a bug, and one that "The Drive team is very much aware of now." A fix is in the works, but there's no indication of when it will be released. Unitl then, it's best to avoid storing text files containing just these characters on your Drive, unless of course you like seeing little infringement flag icons next to your filenames.

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