I think what we're dealing with here is different from the Paypal affair. Paypal was just arbitrarily making up rules that it wanted Smashwords and similar companies to follow, so when there was an outcry, they rescinded (kind of) their own arbitrary rules. They didn't really have a leg to stand on, and they quickly pivoted when they saw a PR disaster coming.
The media company that told Zazzle to take this picture down, however, is not making up arbitrary rules that it wants sites to follow: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives media companies and other rightsholders the right by law to send infringement notices, and forces companies like Zazzle - again by law - to comply with those notices. If Zazzle doesn't comply, they risk getting sued for copyright infringement themselves. There's literally no one on the web who's allowed to just ignore this kind of automated infringement notice; if they do, they can get sued. Paypal never had that sort of power. Which makes this nonsense all the more terrifying. Paypal didn't really have the power to play cop and judge, but Summit Entertainment most certainly does.
(e.g. Dreamwidth has to comply with the DMCA as well, although it's as nice as humanly possible about this, explains very thoroughly what a user's options are, and sets reported content to non-viewable rather than deleting it outright. But most online companies aren't this nice and/or don't have the option of turning content "non-viewable", so the content is simply taken away entirely.)
no subject
The media company that told Zazzle to take this picture down, however, is not making up arbitrary rules that it wants sites to follow: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives media companies and other rightsholders the right by law to send infringement notices, and forces companies like Zazzle - again by law - to comply with those notices. If Zazzle doesn't comply, they risk getting sued for copyright infringement themselves. There's literally no one on the web who's allowed to just ignore this kind of automated infringement notice; if they do, they can get sued. Paypal never had that sort of power. Which makes this nonsense all the more terrifying. Paypal didn't really have the power to play cop and judge, but Summit Entertainment most certainly does.
(e.g. Dreamwidth has to comply with the DMCA as well, although it's as nice as humanly possible about this, explains very thoroughly what a user's options are, and sets reported content to non-viewable rather than deleting it outright. But most online companies aren't this nice and/or don't have the option of turning content "non-viewable", so the content is simply taken away entirely.)