Microsoft sends takedown notice to sites hosting Xbox 720 doc, including Dropbox
A massive 56-page document on Microsoft's “Xbox 720” plans surfaced on the internet over the weekend, revealing some potential ideas around Kinect Glasses and more. The document itself was hosted on Scribd …
Context & Ripple Effects
Five days after a 56-page internal document laying out Microsoft's Xbox 720 plans — including the Kinect Glasses project and a $299 console target — surfaced via Scribd, the company is responding with copyright takedown notices aimed at every host it can reach, Dropbox included. The breadth of pickup is notable: Examiner, BGR, VG247, PC Magazine, Forbes and others all ran the story on or about June 21, meaning the document's contents were already fully public before the enforcement wave began.
The timing lands in a busy stretch for Microsoft, which in the same window held its Surface tablet launch event and previewed Windows Phone 8 — so an uncontrolled reveal of next-generation console thinking is competing with the company's own carefully staged announcements.
First-order effects
- Hosting services including Scribd and Dropbox face immediate removal obligations under the notices, forcing them to police copies of the document on their platforms.
- Because the document's contents had already been reported across at least eight outlets by the time takedowns went out, removal suppresses the artifact but not the reporting around it.
Second-order effects
- Takedown pressure tends to disperse rather than destroy leaked material, pushing copies toward mirrors and file-sharing channels that are costlier for Microsoft to chase than two cooperative hosts like Scribd and Dropbox.
- Other consumer-hardware makers watching this episode get a live case study in whether legal enforcement or rapid official comment better contains a roadmap leak ahead of a console launch cycle.
Third-order effects
- If enforcement becomes the standard first response to internal-document leaks, platform holders may harden internal document handling before major launches, while press outlets grow more comfortable reporting leaked roadmaps' substance rather than just their existence — shifting leverage in pre-launch information control from the vendor to whoever holds the copy.
The trend: Unannounced console plans are increasingly exposed through leaked internal documents rather than controlled reveals, with vendors defaulting to copyright takedowns as their containment tool.