Remember the recent leak about the Xbox 720? The one coming from a very long and richly-detailed document posted on sites like Scribd? That document – and by extension, the reports based on it which include our own here on Social Barrel – is likely authentic.

When that 56-page document hit Scribd, it also took by storm the whole tech news scene. With dozens upon dozens of pages revealing Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox 720 and the ecosystem it will create, the document was the topic of reports everywhere.

At first glance, the document seemed fairly too long to be the work of just a someone who just has a lot of time and wants to mess around.

After a short time, the document also vanished from Scribd courtesy of a request from Covington & Burling LLP, a law firm which Microsoft has hired in the past. This has given the document a further air of authenticity. Nonetheless, there still remained doubt – and rightly so – that the Xbox 720 leak may not be real.

However, it has now come to our attention that Microsoft has started sending takedown notices to sites which still host the now-famous document. One such site is Ihned.cz, a Czech tech news site.

It revealed that it has received the following notice from a certain Alan Radford who’s acting on behalf of Microsoft:

Microsoft has received information that the domain listed above, which appears to be on servers under your control, is offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted works published by Microsoft.

1. Identification of copyrighted works:

Copyrighted work(s):
IEB Roadmap

Copyright owner:
Microsoft Corporation

2. Copyright infringing material or activity found at the following location(s):

xxxxxxxxxxx-XBox-720-9-24-Checkpoint-Draft-1.pptx

This is the strongest indication yet that the Xbox 720 document is real and is the property of Microsoft. Why would it say “relating to copyrighted works published by Microsoft” if this isn’t the case?

Furthermore, Dropbox has also received a takedown notice for the Microsoft Xbox 720 document which can no longer be shared using the service. The notice from Dropbox reads:

“Restricted Content – This file is no longer available due to a takedown request under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act by Microsoft. Learn more about Dropbox’s copyright policy.”

It seems Microsoft is at work at preventing copies of the document that has spawned the latest Xbox 720 leak from further spreading through the interwebs.

Images 1 & 2 from TrojanDan & jeremyfoo on Flickr (CC)

About Solon Harmony Dolor

A passion for technology and journalism makes this upcoming writer very interested in social media and technology news. Fresh from finishing an English and Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, he aims to bring interesting news to our readers .