Paul Hourican, the man behind the collapsed Period Door Properties empire, toasting himself in a 2019 Instagram post. Source: Instagram / hourricanemusic.
Last Updated on 21 July 2026 by Watchdog Witness
What happens when a businessman tries to make negative news disappear — not by addressing the complaints, not by setting the record straight, but by gaming a legal system designed to protect artists and creators?
In June 2021, a copyright takedown notice landed at Google. It demanded the removal of a critical article about Paul Hourican published by The Phoenix magazine.
The notice claimed copyright infringement. It alleged that The Phoenix had stolen content from an earlier article.
There was just one problem.
The “earlier article” did not exist — not in any honest sense. According to a detailed investigation published by Gripeo , it was a back-dated fake, created specifically to trigger a fraudulent DMCA takedown. The real target was legitimate journalism about Paul Hourican’s business affairs.
Paul Hourican — the man behind a collapsed luxury lettings empire — had allegedly tried to scrub his past from the internet.
This is the story of how he tried. And why he failed.
🔗 For the full background on Paul Hourican’s business history, including the collapse of Period Door Properties and his High Court disputes, read our original investigation here.
Who Is Paul Hourican? A Brief Refresher
Paul Hourican is a Dublin-based businessman who built a property sub-letting empire. His company, Period Door Properties Ltd (PDP), managed over 25 luxury rental homes in some of Dublin’s most affluent neighbourhoods — Ballsbridge, Clontarf, Monkstown, Rathgar, and Donnybrook. His tenants were young professionals, many working for tech giants like Google.
According to company filings cited by The Phoenix , Paul Hourican did very well. Between 2018 and 2019, he received €400,000 in dividends from PDP. Another €250,000 followed in the year leading up to March 2020.
But the money flowing to Paul Hourican stood in stark contrast to the complaints emerging from his tenants. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) ruled against PDP on multiple occasions. Tenant complaints reached critical levels. By 2021, PDP was wound up in the High Court by Judge Michael Quinn.
Paul Hourican resigned from the company’s board. But he did not disappear.
Within a year, Paul Hourican was back — with new company names, new business structures, and the same industry.
🔗 Source: The Phoenix – Paul Hourican’s New Hat
Part 1: The Article Someone Wanted Gone
On June 11, 2021, a DMCA takedown notice was submitted to Google through the Lumen Database — a public archive of content removal requests managed by the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.
The notice targeted a specific article: “Paul Hourican’s Rent Roll,” published by The Phoenix magazine on April 22, 2021. The article was critical of Paul Hourican’s business practices and his role in the luxury lettings market.
The sender of the notice was listed as “John Reynoso.” Who John Reynoso is — or whether that name is real — remains unclear.
The notice claimed that The Phoenix article infringed on an earlier piece. According to the notice, that earlier article had been published on the Hot Water Brigade blog before The Phoenix published its version.
There was just one problem.
The Hot Water Brigade article appears to have been back-dated. In other words, someone created a copy of The Phoenix’s work, gave it an earlier date, and then pointed at it and said: “See? They copied us.”
🔗 Source: Lumen Database Notice 24080511
🔗 Source: The Phoenix – Paul Hourican’s Rent Roll
Part 2: The Source Code Reveals the Truth
A detailed examination of the Hot Water Brigade blog’s publicly accessible source code confirms the article was created on April 21, 2021 — nearly two months before the DMCA notice was sent.
The source code explicitly states:
"datePublished": "2021-04-21T04:22:00-07:00"
This is an official timestamp from the Blogger platform. It cannot be easily altered.
The source code also confirms the author of the Hot Water Brigade article is listed as:
"author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "John Reynoso" }
This matches the name used on the fraudulent DMCA notice.
The article itself is a fragment—a single image and a few sentences that cut off mid-sentence. This is consistent with the “back-dated article” technique described by investigators: a fake “original” is created quickly to establish a false priority date, then abandoned.
The Homepage Confirms the Pattern
The blog’s homepage (https://hotwaterbrigade.blogspot.com/) is equally revealing. The source code shows:
- A generic blog title: “The Hot Water Brigade”
- No profile picture
- No other posts
- No author information beyond the single article
This is a classic “sock puppet” blog—a website created solely to host a single piece of content used in a fraudulent takedown scheme. It has no genuine readership, no editorial purpose, and no reason to exist other than to serve as a prop for a fake copyright claim.
The blog’s name, “The Hot Water Brigade,” appears to be a deliberate attempt to sound like a legitimate publication. But the absence of any other content reveals its true purpose.
🔗 Source: Hot Water Brigade – Paul Hourican’s Rent Roll (Source Code)
🔗 Source: Hot Water Brigade Homepage (Source Code)
Part 3: The Attempt to Remove the Article Failed
The fraudulent DMCA notice was unsuccessful.
Despite the notice being sent, “Paul Hourican’s Rent Roll” remains available on Google search results. The Phoenix article can still be found using the search engine. This means the attempt to censor the article failed.
However, the fact that the notice was sent at all is significant. It demonstrates that an attempt was made to use fraudulent legal means to suppress legitimate journalism. The Lumen Database record confirms the notice exists. The Hot Water Brigade blog confirms the fake “original” was created. The only thing that failed was the outcome.
🔗 Source: The Phoenix – Paul Hourican’s Rent Roll
Part 4: The “Back-Dated Article” Trick — How the Scam Works
This is not a new technique. Investigators who study online censorship have documented a specific pattern of fraudulent takedowns. It works like this:
| Step | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 1 | Someone copies a legitimate critical article. |
| 2 | They back-date the copy to appear older than the original. |
| 3 | They host the fake “original” on a website they control. |
| 4 | They send a DMCA notice to Google, claiming the real article infringes their “copyright.” |
| 5 | Google removes the legitimate article from search results. |
| 6 | The fake “original” is quietly taken down, leaving no trace. |
In this case, the scammers completed steps 1-4 and 6. They created the fake, sent the notice, and deleted the fake. But step 5—the removal of the legitimate article—did not succeed. The Phoenix article remained online.
The goal is not to protect intellectual property. The goal is censorship — even when it fails.
The Gripeo investigation , published in September 2023, uncovered almost 2,700 illegitimate DMCA notices using this exact technique. And Paul Hourican is named in that investigation.
🔗 Source: Gripeo – Paul Hourican of Laputa Limited Attempts to Censor Shady Past
Part 5: “Perjury, Impersonation, and Fraud” — The Gripeo Investigation
The Gripeo investigation did not hold back.
Here is what it said about Paul Hourican and his company, Laputa Limited:
“It was clear that the copyright takedown notice that Paul Hourican Laputa Limited sent to Google was fake, and the ‘original article’ that went with it was a clear attempt to trick people.”
And then this:
“Paul Hourican Laputa Limited is therefore an entity of suspicious character, stupid enough to commit perjury, impersonation, and fraud to manage their reputation or lack thereof.”
Perjury. Lying under oath or in a sworn legal notice.
Impersonation. Using a false name — “John Reynoso” — to hide the real sender.
Fraud. Attempting to deceive Google into removing content that had no copyright violation.
These are not minor accusations. They are serious allegations of legal misconduct. And they are now part of the public record because someone sent a fake DMCA notice to a major technology company.
Under Florida statute (cited by Gripeo), forgery is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. While the notice was sent to Google (a US company), the principle is clear: falsifying legal documents to deceive a platform is a serious offence.
🔗 Source: Gripeo Investigation
“Under Irish law, such conduct would constitute the offence of Forgery under Section 25 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment on conviction on indictment.”
Link: Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001, Section 25 .
Part 6: The Streisand Effect — Why Trying to Hide Made It Worse
There is an old saying in the world of public relations: “The cover-up is worse than the crime.”
When someone tries to suppress information, they often draw more attention to it. This is called the Streisand Effect — named after Barbra Streisand, who inadvertently drew massive public attention to a photo of her home by trying to have it removed.
Paul Hourican is now experiencing his own Streisand Effect.
By sending a fraudulent DMCA notice, he did not protect his reputation. Even though the notice failed, he created a permanent public record of attempted censorship.
- The Lumen Database entry is still there.
- The Gripeo investigation is still there.
- The Phoenix article is still available — on Google and everywhere else.
- The Hot Water Brigade source code confirms the timeline.
- And now, this Watchdog Witness article is here.
The Gripeo investigation explicitly noted this irony:
“A case perfect for the Streisand effect… In order to make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with us.”
In trying to make the story disappear, Paul Hourican guaranteed that it would become more visible than ever.
🔗 Source: Lumen Database Notice 24080511
Part 7: RTBF vs. Public Interest — Why This Article Stays Online
Under European data protection law (GDPR), individuals have what is called the “Right to be Forgotten” (Article 17). This allows people to request the removal of personal data from search results under certain circumstances.
Paul Hourican could, in theory, try to invoke this right to have articles about him removed.
But here is the critical detail that the public needs to understand.
Article 17(3) of the GDPR explicitly states that the right to erasure does not apply to information that is necessary for:
- “The exercise of the right to freedom of expression and information”
- “The establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims”
Legitimate news reporting about matters of public interest — including business failures, High Court rulings, RTB disputes, and attempted censorship — is protected from RTBF removal requests.
A DMCA notice attempting to remove such coverage under false copyright claims is not a legitimate use of the law. It is an attempt to circumvent these protections using fraud.
This article is journalism. It is commentary. It is reporting on a matter of public record. It stays online.
🔗 Source: GDPR Article 17 (EUR-Lex)
Part 8: What We Still Do Not Know
The public record raises more questions than it answers — and those questions are important.
| Question | What We Know |
|---|---|
| Did Paul Hourican personally send the notice? | Unknown. The notice was sent under the name “John Reynoso.” That name does not appear in any other public record linked to Hourican. |
| Who operated the Hot Water Brigade blog ? | The blog’s source code shows it was authored by “John Reynoso.” The blog has no profile picture, no other posts, and appears to have been created solely for this purpose. |
| Did Google remove The Phoenix article? | ❌ No. The Phoenix article remains available on Google search results. The takedown attempt failed. |
| Has any legal action been taken? | Unknown. No public record of prosecution, civil litigation, or regulatory action has been found. |
What is certain is that a DMCA notice was sent, targeting a critical article about Paul Hourican, using a technique that independent investigators have identified as fraudulent. The notice failed to remove the article, but the attempt itself is a matter of public record.
The notice exists. The Lumen Database record exists. The Gripeo investigation exists. The Hot Water Brigade source code exists. The blog’s homepage confirms it was created solely for this purpose. And the Phoenix article remains visible in Google search results.
Paul Hourican has not publicly commented on any of this.
Why This Story Matters for Watchdog Witness Readers
This is not a story about a business collapse. That story has already been told.
This is a story about what happens when someone tries — and fails — to erase the evidence.
Paul Hourican is still active in business. His new ventures — Laputa Ltd, Property Letting And Management, Corporate Leasing Solutions — are still operating. The Phoenix article that someone tried to remove is still available, visible to anyone who searches for it.
But the attempt itself is now a matter of public record.
The question for Watchdog Witness readers is simple: If a businessman tries to hide critical journalism using fraudulent legal notices, what else might he be trying to hide?
Sources – Click to Verify
| Source | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| The Phoenix | “Paul Hourican’s Rent Roll” (April 22, 2021) – the article targeted for removal | View Article |
| Lumen Database | DMCA Notice 24080511 (June 11, 2021) – confirms the takedown request | View Notice |
| Hot Water Brigade | The alleged “fake original” blog – source code confirms date and author | View Blog |
| Hot Water Brigade Homepage | Minimal blog with no profile picture, no other posts – confirms “sock puppet” nature | View Homepage |
| Gripeo Investigation | “Paul Hourican of Laputa Limited Attempts to Censor Shady Past” (Sept 29, 2023) | View Investigation |
| The Phoenix – New Hat | Background on Paul Hourican’s business activities | View Article |
| Original Watchdog Witness Article | Full business background on Paul Hourican | View Article |
| GDPR Article 17 | Right to erasure and public interest exemptions | View Regulation |
Disclaimer
Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available records, including The Phoenix article “Paul Hourican’s Rent Roll” (April 22, 2021), the Lumen Database notice (ID 24080511), the source code of the Hot Water Brigade blog, and the Gripeo investigation published September 29, 2023. The DMCA notice was submitted under the name “John Reynoso.” There is no public evidence that Paul Hourican personally submitted the notice. The claims of “perjury, impersonation, and fraud” are those of the Gripeo investigation, not of Watchdog Witness. The Phoenix article remains available on Google search results. This article does not constitute legal advice and is provided for informational and journalistic purposes only. All individuals are presumed innocent of any criminal wrongdoing unless proven otherwise in a court of law.
Watchdog Witness will continue to track this case and others like it.
Should you wish to request the removal of this article, we will consider legitimate and lawful grounds for doing so, in accordance with our editorial policy and data protection obligations. If you have information about this story — a tip-off, new evidence, or a correction — we want to hear from you. Your identity will be protected. If you believe any detail in this article is inaccurate, please contact us with your evidence, and we will review it promptly.
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