Law Commons^™

Convergence And Conflation In Online Copyright, Christopher A. Cotropia, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is showing its age. Enacted in 1998, the DMCA succeeded in its initial goal of bringing clarity to wildly inconsistent judicial standards for online copyright infringement. But as time has passed, the Act has been overtaken—not by developments in technology, but by developments in copyright’s case law. Those cases are no longer as divergent as they were in the last millennium. Instead, over time the judicial standards and the statutory standards have converged, to the point where the differences between them are few.

At first glance, this convergence seems unproblematic. After all, uniformity was the …

Higher Education And The Dmca, James Gibson, Christopher A. Cotropia

Law Faculty Publications

The nearly twenty-year history of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor provisions has been marked by criticism from content owners, online service providers, and end users. Content owners complain about the cost of monitoring online content and sending takedown notices. Online service providers complain about the cost of receiving and processing the notices. And end users complain about their legitimate use of copyrighted works being subject to DMCA takedown. Colleges and universities have been at the forefront of this controversy; as providers of online services to their students, they have been a focus of both Congress and copyright owners. …

Commentary To The U.S. Copyright Office Regarding The Section 512 Study: Higher Education And The Dmca Safe Harbors, Christopher A. Cotropia, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The nearly twenty-year history of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor provisions has been marked by criticism from content owners, online service providers, and end users. Content owners complain about the cost of monitoring online content and sending take-down notices. Online service providers complain about the cost of receiving and processing the notices. And end users complain about their legitimate use of copyrighted works being subject to DMCA take-down. Colleges and universities have been at the forefront of this controversy; as providers of online services to their students, they have been a focus of both Congress and copyright owners. …

Danger In The Dmca Safe Harbors: The Need To Narrow What Constitutes Red Flag Knowledge, Hank Fisher

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Danger In The Dmca Safe Harbors: The Need To Narrow What Constitutes Red Flag Knowledge, Hank Fisher

Law Student Publications

This comment considers recent cases interpreting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") and urges Congress to expand the protection of service providers through the DMCA safe harbors. The comment proceeds in six parts. Part I explains contributory and vicarious liability, the applicable sections of the DMCA to this comment, and the fair use doctrine. Part II provides a brief overview of video-sharing websites. It further observes the impact that video-sharing websites have had on digital media, focusing on the impact on the music industry. Part III looks at the recent cases interpreting the DMCA's red flag exception to safe harbor …

International Covergence On The Need For Third Parties To Become Internet Copyright Police (But Why?), Dennis S. Karjala

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Taking Note: On Copyrighting Students’ Lecture Notes, Matthew M. Pagett

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

An essential element of individual property is the legal right to exclude others from enjoying it. If the property is private, the right of exclusion may be absolute; if the property is affected with a public interest, the right of exclusion is qualified. But the fact that a product of the mind has cost its producer money and labor, and has a value for which others are willing to pay, is not sufficient to ensure to it this legal attribute of property. The general rule of law is, that the noblest of human productions— knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions, and ideas— …

A ‘Pinteresting’ Question: Is Pinterest Here To Stay? A Study In How Ip Can Help Pinterest Lead A Revolution, Stephanie Chau

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Bulletin boards and pushpins are archaic. Yet, each day represents a new paradigm for the technologically savvy. Innovators pair old concepts with new functionalities and technology, often achieving groundbreaking results. Digital counterparts for Post-It notes emerged for computers and other wireless devices. Other examples abound. Thus, it is no surprise that pins and boards also have new meaning in the digital age. Credit is due to the founders of Pinterest, a nascent social networking site with a devoted following, for modernizing the pin. As a newer social networking site, Pinterest has experienced unparalleled growth after its inception only a few …

Notice And Takedown, Here And Abroad, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been around for more than a dozen years now. Some of its provisions were just weird, such as the one that established sui generis protection for boat hull designs. Others have had a skeptical reception in the courts, like the anti-circumvention provisions that forbid certain forms of hacking through technological protections for copyrighted works.

But one DMCA provision that has proved popular in both the copyright community and the courts is the notice-and-takedown procedure codified at 17 U.S.C. § 512(c). When a copyright owner finds that some Internet user has illegally posted its copyrighted …

The Dmca And Repeat Infringers, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The recent agreement between big media companies and big Internet service providers (ISPs) concerning online copyright infringement has the law and technology world abuzz. ISPs like Comcast, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable have agreed to implement a system under which subscribers who repeatedly and illegally download copyrighted content will have their Internet access impeded and maybe even terminated.

This is big news, and it will probably receive more attention in this IP Viewpoints series. But the purpose of this column is to put this agreement in context, because much of what the companies have agreed to do appears to be …

Viacom V. Youtube: A Different View On The District Court Ruling, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

In an earlier essay in this series, Randy Picker discussed the recent copyright decision in Viacom v. YouTube, and in particular the court’s ruling that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “safe harbor” for remote storage applies to YouTube’s online video service. I agree with Randy that the court’s interpretation of the DMCA is problematic, but I see a good argument that the outcome is correct and that the ruling should be affirmed on appeal.

Viacom v. YouTube is a hugely important case. It pits the world’s fourth-biggest media company against Internet behemoth Google, which purchased YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 …

The Darknet: A Digital Copyright Revolution, Jessica A. Wood

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

We are in the midst of a digital revolution. In this “Age of Peer Production,” armies of amateur participants demand the freedom to rip, remix, and share their own digital culture. Aided by the newest iteration of file sharing networks, digital media users now have the option to retreat underground, by using secure, private, and anonymous file sharing networks, to share freely and breathe new life into digital media. These underground networks, collectively termed “the Darknet[,] will grow in scope, resilience, and effectiveness in direct proportion to [increasing] digital restrictions the public finds untenable.” The Darknet has been called the …

The Case For (Considering) Regulation Of Technology, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

Given a choice, which would you prefer: A world in which it is easier to encrypt information than to decrypt it? A world in which decryption is easier than encryption? A world in which the two stand in a cost/benefit equipoise?

When the question is put like that, the answer seems to depend on how we weigh certain core values. For example, if we prefer privacy over order, we might prefer the first world. If we value order more than privacy, perhaps the second world is more to our liking.

As it happens, we live in the first world. Modern …

How “Choruss” Can Turn Into A Cacophony: The Record Industry’S Stranglehold On The Future Of Music Business, Andrey Spektor

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

A sixty year-old man is delighted when his son shows him how to use Pandora—an interactive, hip Internet radio site that puts the listener in control. Having grown up a huge Louis Armstrong fan, the man quickly selects the jazz singer as one of his “stations.” When listening to this station, Pandora will only play songs by Armstrong and other similar artists for him. When he hears Armstrong’s classic, “What a Wonderful World,” the man immediately clicks the “Thumbs Up” icon, indicating his approval of Pandora’s recommendation. Pandora’s recommendations are drawn from its “Music Genome Project,” a database of song …

Freedom Of Information Laws In The Digital Age: The Death Knell Of Information Privacy, Ira Bloom

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

With technology, everything just comes faster, smarter, and meaner. But the basics remain the same.

State Of The Art(S): Protecting Publishers Or Promoting Progress?, Thomas A. Mitchell

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Framers guarded against the future accumulation of monopoly power in booksellers and publishers by authorizing Congress to vest copyrights only in ‘Authors.

Using The Digital Millennium Copyright Act To Limit Potential Copyright Liability Online, Jonathan A. Friedman, Francis M. Buono

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Any online service provider ("OSP"), including a website operator, that accepts user postings or includes content from other parties on its website or online service is at risk that it will be held liable if such third-party content infringes the copyright of another party. Liability for copyright infringement is an expensive proposition and can run into the millions of dollars. Thus, an OSP must be vigilant in limiting its potential liability in connection with such third-party content.

Update: Riaa V. Diamond Multimedia Systems - Napster And Mp3.Com, Jayne A. Pemberton A. Pemberton

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

After the Recording Industry Association of America's ("RIAA") attack on the Diamond Rio proved unsuccessful, the music industry turned its attention to the companies enabling reproduction of copyrighted music. Two important cases appeared after the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Diamond Rio was not infringing on copyrights. These cases, A&M Records, Inc. et al. v. Napster, Inc. and UMG, Inc., et. al. v. MP3.com, Inc., will shape computer technology's effect on American copyright law. This update will discuss these two cases and give brief overviews of the courts' findings and conclusions. These findings will …

Musical Works Performance And The Internet: A Discordance Of Old And New Copyright Rules, Stephanie Haun

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

I feel strongly that the great fundamentals should be discussed more in all public meetings, and also in meetings of schools and colleges. Not only the students[,] but also the faculty should get down to more thinking and action about the great problems[,] which concern all countries and all peoples in the world today, and not let the politicians do it all and have the whole say. I have often been told that it is not the function of music (or a concert) to concern itself with matters like these. But I do not[,] by any means agree. I think …