COPYRIGHT ENFORCEMENT
MADE EASY
BY: LAWRENCE G. WALTERS, ESQ.
WALTERS LAW GROUP
Few things can be more disheartening to a content producer than finding
one’s valuable content displayed all over some free site, without
your permission, just so some webmaster can generate a few more pages
views than his competitor. All the time, effort, blood, sweat and tears
that goes into creating high-end erotica is flushed down the tubes when
content is stolen through little more than a few mouse clicks. The ease
with which digital rights can be violated has presented the webmaster
community with a unique challenge: How to protect online content from
blatant theft while granting easy access to those entitled to view the
materials?
Copyright law provides the starting point for any enforcement action,
but the legal enforcement mechanisms can often be cumbersome and time
consuming. The traditional sequence of events have involved retaining
a lawyer, explaining the legal predicament, researching the identity
and location of the infringer, beginning the process through a demand
letter, often called a Cease and Desist Notice, and ultimately culminating
in federal court litigation. While this procedure can occasionally produce
results, it is rendered virtually useless if the infringer is located
outside of the United States of America or simply cannot be geographically
located.
Enter the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”): To
its credit, Congress quickly recognized the difficulties facing online
content producers in light of the rampant potential for electronic theft
in cyberspace. To address some of these concerns, Congress passed the
DMCA which allows copyright owners or their authorized agents, to serve
Notices upon hosts, third-party billing processors, and others providing
services to infringers[1]. The contents of the Notice
are specified under federal law, which requires:
(a) An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to
act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property
interest;
(b) Description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property
that you claim has been infringed;
(c) A description of where the material that you claim is infringing
is located on a site;
(d) Your address, telephone number, and email address;
(e) A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed
use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
and
(f) A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above
information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright
or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright
or intellectual property owner's behalf.
Nothing in the terms of the DMCA prevents this Notice from being served
electronically (i.e. via email) and specifically allows for electronic
signatures on the Notice[2]. Some companies have developed
their business model around service of DMCA Notices. For a fee, certain
businesses will take down the infringer’s information, and prepare
the DMCA Notice on your behalf. Advances in electronic communications,
and a little ingenuity, now allow content producers to serve their own
Notices automatically and electronically.
Our firm has developed the world’s first automated copyright enforcement
device described on www.DMCANotice.com.
By completing a simple electronic form, and using a combination of the
E-Sign Act[3] and the Unsworn Declarations Act[4]
our clients will now be permitted to generate and serve their own valid
DMCA Notices containing all of the required elements contained under
federal law. This innovative system dramatically reduces the time and
level of human involvement previously required to generate DMCA Notices.
Now, clients can simply fill out a simple form and, in minutes, generate
a legal infringement notice containing an electronic signature along
with all of the legally required statements. The service provider receiving
the Notice must immediately disable or remove the allegedly infringing
content, or risk liability as a contributory or vicarious copyright
infringer under the Copyright Act. Most hosting and billing companies
have adopted DMCA policies, and immediately comply with valid Notices
to avoid monetary exposure for infringement claims. While some foreign
service providers still ignore DMCA Notices, even many of the non-United
States-based hosts and billing companies are beginning to comply in
order to generate business relationships in the United States.
What used to take hours of research and prep time has now been virtually
eliminated. The cost to the client has been reduced to a nominal charge
to process, file and calendar the DMCA Notice for follow up action upon
receipt of an electronic copy of the Notice, which is automatically
generated by the system. Senders also receive a copy of the Notice they
initiated, immediately upon sending.
In an era where legal concerns abound, and significant funds are being
devoted to achieve legal compliance, any legal cost-saving device is
sure to be welcomed by the industry. As technology develops, legal services
will become more and more routinized with the client as the ultimate
beneficiary. DMCANotice.com is simply the next in what will likely be
a series of innovative legal tools designed to protect the best interests
of the webmaster and secure important digital rights.
[1] Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §
512.
[2] 17 U.S.C. § 512(3)(A)(i)
[3] Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce
Act, (the “E-Sign Act”) 15 U.S.C. § 7001.
[4] Unsworn Declarations Act, 28 U.S.C. §1746.
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