Copyright Part 2: Enforcement and Balances

March 12

Digital technologies spawned the proliferation of sharing of media and music, which has led to a number of controversial legal and technological strategies for control and copyright enforcement. “Controversial” may be putting it lightly; the ongoing fight between copyright owners and Internet evangelists is one of the most popularly debated fights surrounding Internet control.

This class focuses on how copyright is enforced online, with particular emphasis on the "notice-and-takedown" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), which allow Internet service providers to limit their liability for the copyright infringements of their users if the ISPs expeditiously remove material in response to complaints from copyright owners. The class will also look to the now-famous fight concerning SOPA and PIPA, and other attempts to more strictly regulate against online piracy.

Readings/Watchings

• Digital Media Law Project, Claims Based on User Content and Protecting Yourself Against Copyright Claims Based on User Content

• Electronic Frontier Foundation, Takedown Hall of Shame (peruse)

• Chilling Effects, About and peruse the weather reports.

• Matthew Ingram, Paid Content, How Google did the right thing with the NASCAR crash video, and why it matters

• Erin McKeown, A Perspective On the Complexities of Copyright and Creativity from a Victim of Infringement

Case Study: SOPA/PIPA

• Jonathan Zittrain, Kendra Albert, and Alicia Solow-Niederman, A Close Look at SOPA
• Ethan Zuckerman and Joi Ito, MIT Media Lab Opposes SOPA, PIPA

Case Study: ISP "Six Strikes"

• Brooke Gladstone, On The Media, Interview with Jill Lesser of Center for Copyright Information
• Jonathan Bailey, Plagiarism Today, The 6 Likely Impact of Six Strikes

Optional Readings

• Andy Sellars, Seized Sites: The In Rem Forfeiture of Copyright-Infringing Domain Names

• Wendy Seltzer, Super Bust: Due Process and Domain Name Seizure

Class Discussion

Please remember to sign your postings by adding four tildes (~~~~) to the end of your contribution. This will automatically add your username and the date/time of your post, like so: Asellars 15:29, 21 January 2013 (EST)

Google's decision concerning the horrific video posted in Matthew Ingram', Paid Content, How Google did the right thing with the NASCAR crash video, and why it matters, raises an interesting question. Google has now assumed the role of immediate arbiter in terms of determining what is and is not copyright infringement. I understand the point that the student who took the video at the NASCAR event created his own copyrighted document when he created the video, but NASCAR's counter, that it had a contractual right to the content of the video pursuant to the valid contract on the ticket the customer purchased would seem to have some merit to it. Google in accepting the customer's rights over NASCAR's contractual rights has effectively made a legal decision that will cause brand damage to NASCAR. I can see how NASCAR could claim these damages against Google in a suit. I suppose this is just another example of how powerful Google has become in determining what average Westerner's will see on the internet. A quick Google search for the word 'nude' will have google proffering you thousands of images and videos of porn, which is easily accessible by minors. Google IS the way that we all access the internet, given its prevalance in our lives I'd be surprised if the government doesn't create more formality in Google's decision making processes with regards to copyright, freedom of speech, protection of minors, and all sorts of other legal issues that Google is now deciding for society. Joshywonder 10:35, 3 March 2013 (EST)

I find the legislation and history on copyright law and infringement extremely confusing. It seems as if SOPA and PIPA would have completely negated major aspects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. I share the belief that the propositions of those bills would have limited innovation. Had SOPA/PIPA have passed, I think the case of Vietnamese accessing Facebook shows that there exists markets in foreign regions that will engage in illegal means of accessing those domain names. I also was interested in the "backdoor" that sites like youtube have for content providers to remove infringed material. What other "backdoors" exist regarding copyright law and content infrastructure? AaronEttl 18:24, 10 March 2013 (EDT)