Talk:Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act
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[edit] Text to merge
The second gives ISPs a "safe harbor" from copyright liability and litigation for hosting copyrighted files, as long as they take down copyrighted files quickly after being notified. (Example: I post a Madonna MP3 to my Earthlink web site. Madonna sends a letter to my ISP pointing this out. If my ISP takes the MP3 down quickly, they cannot be sued for copyright infringement.) It also requires that the ISP hand over information about subscribers to copyright holders upon request (a "DMCA subpoena", which doesn't have any judicial oversight).
For the second, some are concerned that it causes ISPs to be overly cautious about hosting copyrighted material, and encouraging them to take down any material they're requested too. Many are also concerned that DMCA subpoenas invade the privacy of Internet users. The ACLU was involved in this controversy as well, in the case of RIAA v. Boston College et al..
A controversial use of this title in 2003 was the use by the RIAA of the subpoena provisions in 512(h) to obtain the identity of ISP customers. On 20 December 2003 Verizon prevailed on appeal in a case seeking to prevent such disclosures.
In late 2003 Diebold Election Systems used the takedown notice provisions of OCILLA to demand that memos that are "allegedly" written by Diebold employees be removed but subsequently ceased making such requests. Others also see these take down notices as being contrary to the First Amendment free speech protection of free speech as a necessary part of the copyright provisions of fair use. [1]
Blizzard Entertainment threatened the developers of bnetd, a freely available clone of battle.net, a proprietary server system used by all Blizzard games on the Internet. Blizzard claims that these servers allow circumvention of its CD key copy protection scheme. (The Electronic Frontier Foundation is currently negotiating a settlement.)
- The Church of Scientology is one of the first organizations to make use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In June of 1999, Scientology used the controverisal law to force AT&T Worldnet to reveal the identity of a person who had been posting anonymously to alt.religion.scientology with the pseudonym of "Safe."
- The Scientology organization also used the law to force the Google search engine to erase its entries on the popular anti-Scientology Web site Operation Clambake in March 2002, though the entry was reinstated after Google received a large number of complaints from Internet users.
- The Recording Industry Association of America sued Verizon Communications to obtain the name of a Kazaa subscriber who allegedly shared hundreds of music recordings. A District Judge ordered Verizon to disclose the information in January 2003. Verizon appealed and prevailed and ISPs have reportedly subsequently refused to honor any similar subpoenas from the RIAA.
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- I removed the following text "Note: Copyright infringement occurs ONLY if the alleged infringer: (1) copies material with a copyright; AND (2) has had personal gain or has made monetary profit from copying material with a copyright." which I believe to be materially untrue as far as US copyright law goes (IANAL). Palnu 23:29, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "Most" Supportive or Unsupportive?
The first paragraph states (without specifics or supporting documentation): "Most are generally unsupportive of the act believing it has many problematic portions and is overused." The first line of the Criticism section says: "While there is broad general support for the law, some object to specific provisions or uses they find problematic."
So which is it? And according to whom?
