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.

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

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