Copyright Part 2: Enforcement and Balances

March 4

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.

Joining us will be Adam Holland, who works here at Berkman on the Chilling Effects project.

Assignments

The second half of assignment 2 (commenting on prospectuses) is due before class today. Information on the assignment can be found here.

Readings/Watchings

The DMCA Notice-And-Takedown Process

• 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

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

The big picture

• Ernesto Van Der Sar, BitTorrent Traffic Drops in America, Grows in Europe

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

Optional Readings

Case Study - ISP "Six Strikes

• Brooke Gladstone, Interview with Jill Lesser of Center for Copyright Information (On The Media)

• Jonathan Bailey, Plagiarism Today, The 6 Likely Impact of Six Strikes

Case Study - Operation In Our Sites

• 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: Andy 15:12, 7 November 2013 (EST)

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Yet again, related to an earlier class, but another interesting write-up was just published on The Verge: The Internet Is Fucked (but we can fix it) --Seifip 19:05, 26 February 2014 (EST)

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Ditto, not related to Copyright, but the theme of the class in general, politics & control of the Internet. The Quebec government started fining businesses for not writing in French on their Facebook pages. I've never understood why Canada has such a stereotype of being 'nice'. Erin Saucke-Lacelle 23:37, 26 February 2014 (EST)

Erin, thanks for sharing this. Seems like a really interesting example of the ways in which the Internet and digital technologies are a new place for old and ongoing debates to play out. With so much of our lives now taking place online, it makes sense that concerns about language, heritage, and culture have to be grappled with anew. I wonder if some of the push-back from business owners-- like the one in this article who says "Facebook has nothing to do with Quebec"-- stems from the idea that the Internet is a malleable and border-less place and confusion over what laws govern speech on a global forum run by a US-based company. And yes, I have heard some Quebecois friends get a little less than "nice" when it comes to discussing their francophone heritage... Jkelly 15:16, 2 March 2014 (EST)

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The highly controversial Section 512 of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. § 512 provides a “safety zone”, where online service providers could operate shielded from liability charges on account of copyright infringement. Service providers function by allowing people to modify, post, and search content on their servers. By hosting foreign content that is not generated by the OSP or ISP, they were placing themselves into position of being held liable on infringement charges. This changed in 1998, because as long as roughly three essential steps were taken, an OSP could take advantage of the “safe-harbor” clause. One of those steps is the “expeditious” removal of infringing content. On the other side, the alleged offender can send a counter-notice disputing the copyright holders claim. This might seem in favor of the public domain with an anti-copyright agenda, but it does not diminish the copyright holders privileges in any way. This provision also allows the first step of prosecution in the form of takedown notices. While these measures are beneficial for the public good and provide a degree of protection, they seem utterly inefficient in situations like Erin McKeown experienced. In an attempt to control infringers and pirates, the ICE has engaged in domain seizures, which resulted in tens of thousands of innocent websites being shut down. Emmanuelsurillo 22:26, 1 March 2014 (EST)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Takedown Hall of Shame has excellent examples of cease and desist letter offenders, even citing unusual claims such as one over the copyright privileges of a monkey’s photos! That is where major companies should take and follow Google’s example of standing up for users rights. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), MIT points out that to stop pirating has many dangerous side effects including but not limited to being unconstitutional in violating certain aspects of free speech. Emmanuelsurillo 00:06, 3 March 2014 (EST)

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I was unable to find out anything about how many actions have been taken under the Copyright Alert System. Are there any known statistics on how many of these notices have been sent out or how many consumers have been affected? (whether centrally managed, or done by a third-party watchdog like EFF?) Jradoff 13:48, 3 March 2014 (EST)

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