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Full-Text Articles in Law
Reinterpreting Repeat Infringement In The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Hunter Mcghee
Reinterpreting Repeat Infringement In The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Hunter Mcghee
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
In 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which aimed to balance the growth of the internet with the enforcement interests of copyright holders. In exchange for immunity from third-party infringement, the DMCA imposes certain conditions on internet and online service providers. Unfortunately, the law continues to contain many ambiguities in its statutory scheme, not least of which is the requirement that service providers maintain a “repeat infringer policy” to remove individuals that repeatedly infringe intellectual property rights. In response to a review of the Copyright Act conducted by the House Judiciary Committee, the US Copyright Office authored a …
Lenz V. Universal: A Call To Reform Section 512(F) Of The Dmca And To Strengthen Fair Use, Marc J. Randazza
Lenz V. Universal: A Call To Reform Section 512(F) Of The Dmca And To Strengthen Fair Use, Marc J. Randazza
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), those who issue materially false takedown notices are liable for damages. However, Section 512(f) has not effectively protected fair use. Currently, the DMCA issuer only has to prove he considered fair use before issuing a takedown notice, but faces no liability for actually taking action against fair use. The outcome of the recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case Lenz v. Universal shows the flaws in the language of the DMCA. This Article calls for a mild adjustment to Section 512(f) for the purpose of protecting fair use …
Infringers Or Innovators? Examining Copyright Liability For Cloud-Based Music Locker Services, Brandon J. Trout
Infringers Or Innovators? Examining Copyright Liability For Cloud-Based Music Locker Services, Brandon J. Trout
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
Music lockers--Internet sites where users may store a copy of their music for later playback--have revolutionized the way people listen to music, allowing them to take their music with them anywhere in the world. However, rights holders are concerned that these locker services potentially infringe music copyrights when they allow their users to upload and stream music and when they use a space-saving technology called "deduplication." This Note delineates the separate rights guaranteed under the Copyright Act as applicable to music lockers: the right to copy and the right of public performance. The analysis looks at several music locker services …
Curbing Copyblight, John Tehranian
Curbing Copyblight, John Tehranian
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
This Article identifies and analyzes the growing problem of "copyblight" the use of overreaching claims by putative copyright holders to ownership of public domain works, and, more broadly, to exclusive rights which they do not hold in copyrighted works. Despite the fact that copyblight circumscribes political and social discourse, stifles creativity, and constricts the dissemination of information, present law provides few, if any, disincentives against the practice. Building on the groundbreaking work of Paul Heald and Jason Mazzone, this Article advances three proposals to temper the problems of overreach in order to restore a needed balance in our copyright system: …
Is Online Copyright Enforcement Scalable?, Annemarie Bridy
Is Online Copyright Enforcement Scalable?, Annemarie Bridy
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
This Article examines P2P file sharing and the copyright enforcement problem it has created through the lens of scalability. Part I traces the evolution of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks from Napster to BitTorrent, with a focus on the relative scalability of successive architectures. Part II takes up the difficult question of the scale of P2P infringement and its harms, examining the strategic number-crunching that underlies industry data on piracy, the government's credulous acceptance of that data, and the risk of letting industry hyperbole drive copyright policy and law enforcement priorities. Part III evaluates the efficacy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act …
I Put You There: User-Generated Content And Anticircumvention, Rebecca Tushnet
I Put You There: User-Generated Content And Anticircumvention, Rebecca Tushnet
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
This Article discusses recent rulemaking proceedings before the Copyright Office concerning the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). During these proceedings, non-institutionally affiliated artists organized to assert their interests in making fair use of existing works, adding new voices to the debate. A proposed exemption for noncommercial remix video is justified to address the in terrorem effect of anticircumvention law on fair use. Without an exemption, fair users are subjected to a digital literacy test combined with a digital poll tax, and this regime suppresses fair use. The experience of artists (vidders) confronting the law illustrates both …
Illegal P2p File Sharing On College Campuses--What's The Solution?, Antionette D. Bishop
Illegal P2p File Sharing On College Campuses--What's The Solution?, Antionette D. Bishop
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
Since the introduction of Napster in 1999, illegal peer-to-peer(P2P) file sharing has been a continuously growing problem for the music industry. According to the music industry, Internet users are allowed to copy and distribute millions of songs and other copyright-protected material illegally by using internet networks and P2P file-sharing software. To stop the illegal P2P file sharing, the music industry has taken action against the individuals who participate in illegal file sharing, as well as the parties that promote and facilitate the illegal activity, by filing numerous lawsuits. The music industry has successfully sought to hold facilitating parties, such as …
Atlantic Recording Corporation V. Xm Satellite Radio: A Brief Analysis Of The Case And Its Implications For U.S. Copyright Law, Lyle Preslar
Atlantic Recording Corporation V. Xm Satellite Radio: A Brief Analysis Of The Case And Its Implications For U.S. Copyright Law, Lyle Preslar
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
In May 2006, the Recording Industry Association of America ("RIAA"), representing the four major record labels, brought suit against XM Satellite Radio, Inc. ('XM') in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.' The plaintiffs allege that XM's introduction of its new service utilizing certain satellite radio receivers, including Pioneer's "inno" (the "inno"), dubbed "XM+MP3,"constitutes "massive wholesale infringement" of RIAA members' copyrighted sound recordings. The plaintiffs claim that XM's new service allows XM subscribers to record broadcasted songs, store them in playlist form, and replay them at the user's will, "effectively provid[ing] a digital download service." This …
From Safe Harbor To Choppy Waters: Youtube, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act,And A Much Needed Change Of Course, Lauren B. Patten
From Safe Harbor To Choppy Waters: Youtube, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act,And A Much Needed Change Of Course, Lauren B. Patten
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
YouTube.com, named Time magazine's "Invention of the Year" for 2006 and widely recognized as the most-visited video site on the Internet, has changed the face of online entertainment. With the site's acquisition by Google in October 2006, the possibilities for YouTube's growth became truly endless. However, there is a darker side to the story of the Internet sensation, one that is grounded in its potential liability for copyright infringement. The issue is that many of the most-viewed and most-popular videos on the site are copyrighted. The copyright owners of those popular clips want their works back and are suing YouTube …
An Analysis Of The Recording Industry's Litigation Strategy Against Direct Infringers, Kristina Groennings
An Analysis Of The Recording Industry's Litigation Strategy Against Direct Infringers, Kristina Groennings
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
In the fall of 2003, suing direct infringers may have been the only recourse left to the recording industry. The industry faced a long-term trend of a decrease in sales, due largely to file-sharing. The decline in album sales following the inception of Napster, from 1999 through 2002, had been the most dramatic in the past 30 years. CD sales were down from $13.2 billion in 2000 to $11.2 billion in 2003. The industry's victory in Napster was fleeting, as publicity over the issue increased awareness of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology and users flocked to decentralized networks like Grokster and KaZaa, …