The U.S. House of Representatives has drafted their version of Senator Leahy's Protect IP Act, renaming the bill the E-Parasites Act. Among other changes discussed previously, the bill now makes internet service providers and websites liable for activities of their users that infringe upon copyrights, effectively overturning parts of the 13-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
posted by jeffburdges on Oct 27, 2011 - 120 comments

Bad Lip Reading's parody video Dirty Spaceman has been removed by YouTube following a DMCA takedown request by Universal Music Group. (previously) [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges on Oct 23, 2011 - 24 comments

Andy Baio: “Kind of screwed”. Baio produced a chiptune tribute to Miles Davis’ classic album Kind of Blue. He licensed all of the tracks and assigned all profits directly to the five musicians on the album. The one thing he didn't do was check about the cover art, a pixelated rendering of the photo on the original album cover. Jay Maisel, the photographer who shot the photo in question, sued Baio for $150,000 per download plus $25,000 for DMCA violations. Baio settled for $32,500, not because he wasn’t convinced he was in the right (this almost certainly qualifies as fair use), but because it was “the least expensive option available”. [more inside]
posted by spitefulcrow on Jun 23, 2011 - 302 comments

For over a year now, Righthaven has been suing bloggers, news websites, and now even journalists covering Righthaven for reproducing, in full or part, articles and pictures from newspapers that it purchases the copyright for. But it might be starting to backfire. [more inside]
posted by SirOmega on Mar 29, 2011 - 18 comments

Has DRM just been dealt a crippling blow? "Today [the US Copyright Office has] designated six classes of works. Persons who circumvent access controls in order to engage in noninfringing uses of works in these six classes will not be subject to the statutory prohibition against circumvention."
posted by griphus on Jul 26, 2010 - 57 comments

YouTube allows fair use defense. Under a new policy, users claiming fair use in videos previously taken down due to a copyright claim will be restored, and the claimant forced to file a formal complaint under DMCA. [more inside]
posted by l33tpolicywonk on Apr 23, 2010 - 57 comments

Shepard Fairey's Fight for Appropriation, Fair Use and Free Culture Evelyn McDonnell ponders his career and quotes Fairey's reasoning about the Obama "Hope" poster that got AP angry.
posted by dabitch on Jan 21, 2010 - 7 comments

Stage 6, recently linked in a popular FPP, has announced it will shut down today. Rumors about why include their battle against UMG to a "ridiculous battle of egos."
posted by Avenger50 on Feb 28, 2008 - 13 comments

Gonzales pushes plan to criminalize copyright infringement, making it punishable by life imprisonment; to increase wiretaps; and to require Homeland Security to notify the RIAA in certain circumstances. "To meet the global challenges of IP crime." I'd comment on this, but I'm afraid that someone might think I was copying someone else. The Intellectual Property Protection Act (official press release) appeared previously in a speech (2005) and as a draft (2006) - now the Justice department is pushing Congress to bring it forward. [newsfilter]
posted by blacklite on May 15, 2007 - 59 comments

New Zealand may soon implement legislation very similar to the DMCA , if the latest draft of the Copyright Amendment Bill is passed. It would appear that the New Zealand government is about to make the same mistake made by the USA several years ago. Most specifically, they propose:

[To] introduce an offence (carrying a sentence of a fine not exceeding $150,000 or a term of imprisonment of up to 5 years, or both) for commercial dealing in devices, services, or information designed to circumvent technological protection measures

Her contact details are available online. We have a small window of opportunity to point out the problems and unintended consequences with similar legislation in other countries, and hopefully circumvent the same problems in New Zealand.
posted by pivotal on Dec 6, 2006 - 17 comments

It's over. YouTube is taking down Daily Show and Colbert Report clips.
posted by mullingitover on Oct 27, 2006 - 86 comments

The new DMCA: the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 The 24-page bill is a far-reaching medley of different proposals cobbled together. One would, for instance, create a new federal crime of just trying to commit copyright infringement. Such willful attempts at piracy, even if they fail, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.
posted by beth on Apr 26, 2006 - 36 comments

Rep. Zoe Lofgren's BALANCE act attempts to protect "Fair Use" rights from harmful legislation like the DMCA. Some related links: [summary] [whats wrong with the DMCA?]
posted by skallas on Mar 7, 2003 - 4 comments

SomaFM is back on the air after a hiatus, courtesy the DMCA and Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP).
posted by plexi on Jan 6, 2003 - 13 comments

Let your voice be heard. The Copyright Office is Taking Comments On The DMCA, starting today. You can read the law as a PDF Here. They are requesting written comments from all interested parties, including representatives of copyright owners, educational institutions, libraries and archives, scholars, researchers and members of the public, in order to elicit evidence on whether noninfringing uses of certain classes of works are, or are likely to be, adversely affected by this prohibition on the circumvention of measures that control access to copyrighted works.
posted by Blake on Nov 19, 2002 - 26 comments

Ever wonder who collects information on DMCA violations?
posted by anathema on Sep 20, 2002 - 8 comments

Apple doesn't seem to think the DMCA bites Apple is using their interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent third party dealers from providing software to Apple users enabling them to burn DVDs on external drives. They have no problem with them burning DVDs on Apple drives, naturally. And to think I was just about to switch, too. Um, yeah.
posted by John Smallberries on Aug 29, 2002 - 38 comments

Ever downloaded an episode of a tv show through gnutella or other P2P means? The MPAA may be on the lookout for you.
posted by mathowie on Jul 10, 2002 - 20 comments

When stupid laws attack: this article points out that the widely syndicated article about thwarting the copy protection of sony's CDs is a direct violation of the DMCA. Will news directors at Reuters, Yahoo, and CNN be seeing fines and jail time soon? How many times does it have to be pointed out that the DMCA restricts free speech as it attempts to thwart piracy at any cost? (via k5)
posted by mathowie on May 24, 2002 - 10 comments

Hackers win round one! Feel free to post DeCSS to this thread; it is no longer illegal.
What, if anything, does this mean to the movie industry?
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger on Nov 2, 2001 - 15 comments

Music biz wants tougher DMCA "If the RIAA gets its way, ISPs will be as guilty of copyright violation as their subscribers. "Because of the magnitude of the problem, ISPs can no longer be shielded from the wrath of the law," shrieked Rosen righteously."
posted by Mick on Oct 8, 2001 - 23 comments

A quick break from all the WTC stuff... Considering the recent events, it's probably been overlooked. Canada is proposing a Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues which is similar to the DMCA in the US. All comments on it have to be received by Sept. 15th. You can read the EFF Alert, for more information.
posted by Jairus on Sep 14, 2001 - 2 comments

DMCA: It's not just for software pirates and movie traders anymore. [salon link, sorry] Don't like what a web site is saying about your company and its investors? Cry copyright wolf and the site goes down, no questions asked.
posted by darukaru on Sep 4, 2001 - 10 comments

The first indictment under the DMCA could imprison Sklyarov for 25 years. Adobe and the US's plan to put the fear of the DMCA into the hearts of billions is going according to plan.
posted by skallas on Aug 28, 2001 - 12 comments

Scary story about how the MPAA wields it's bought and paid-for DMCA. (via slashdot)
posted by skallas on Aug 23, 2001 - 8 comments

This NYT article on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), written by Prof. Lawrence Lessig (author of an excellent book on copyright law and policy in the digital age), raises concerns that were academic prior to the recent arrest of a Russian software programmer at a Las Vegas computer security convention for violation of the act's Sec. 1201(a)(1)(A)'s anticircumvention provision. Is Lessig right that Sec. 1201 essentially makes coders (and their employers) into de facto lawmakers and, if so, is this a bad thing? If Sec. 1201 is bad policy, are there any more reasonable alternatives for effectively protecting access to software and/or providing negative incentives for the unauthorized use of software? (NYT article, registration required)
posted by estopped on Jul 30, 2001 - 16 comments

The DMCA, a flawed law responsible for such things as the lawsuit against 2600 and adobe's attempt to prosecute Dmitry Sklyarov is spreading! Canada is starting hearings into its own version of the US's DMCA! Where will all this end? Via /.
posted by bytecode on Jul 28, 2001 - 5 comments

The Digital Millenium Rape Act.
posted by Kikkoman on Jul 25, 2001 - 16 comments

Adobe backs down, Dmitry left on the hook. They dropped all charges against Dmitry, but the Justice Department may not.
posted by Kikkoman on Jul 23, 2001 - 1 comment

Napster to Use "Fingerprinting" Technology to help it filter out copyrighted songs. "There are many technological challenges.'' That's putting it lightly. How badly would this slow down their system if they could even get it to work?
posted by Outlawyr on Apr 21, 2001 - 10 comments

Free as Air, Free as Water, Free as Knowledge : is my favorite link to quote people these days. I like especially the references to Ben Franklin. How do we resolve the problem of fair use in a market driven world? Dan Gillmor's latest column, which calls for people to get active on the issue of fair use, brought the speech once again to mind.
posted by artlung on Apr 8, 2001 - 12 comments

Scientology Strikes Again Last Saturday a comment was posted on Slashdot by an anonymous reader that contained text that was copyrighted by the Church of Scientology. They have since followed the DMCA and demanded that Slashdot remove the comment. After consulting with their lawyers, that's exactly what Slashdot did, but posted the above page with oodles of links to anti-Scientology resources. Will Scientology stop at nothing to silence its opponents?
posted by yarf on Mar 16, 2001 - 21 comments

Ok... let me get this straight. copyright.net has turned loose a tapeworm, called CopyrightAgent, that crawls around on your computer without your permission, looking for copyrighted MP3 files. If it find them, it reports back your IP address, and they have Napster block you, if you're a Napster user. Otherwise, they contact your ISP, and have *them* block you under the DMCA.

And the first I heard about this was a Knight-Ridder wire story in my local paper?? Why the hell hasn't the Internet reacted by burning these people's offices (or uplink :-) to the ground?
posted by baylink on Mar 3, 2001 - 20 comments

Wired News reports on the upcoming DMCA review. Via Linux Weekly News: "When music is streamed, webcasters are required to pay a performance royalty. In order to generate smooth playback of incoming streams, computers temporarily store some of the data in memory in a RAM buffer. Music publishers have stated that the data in this buffer should be considered a physical creation that would require webcasters to pay a mechanical royalty, similar to what they pay for downloads or CDs." Anyone need any more on that? Time to get your congressman on the phone...
posted by baylink on Nov 30, 2000 - 3 comments