Episode 005: DMCA (part deux)
Click on this link to listen to Episode 005 or subscribe and listen through iTunes. (And check out my flickr photos from our interview.)
SHOW NOTES
Host: Colette Vogele
Guest: Jason Schultz, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Jason is a staff attorney for the EFF specializing in intellectual property and reverse engineering. He currently leads EFF’s Patent Busting Project and also teaches graduate classes on Cyberlaw at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law and School of Information.
Topic for Episode 004: In this episode, we conclude our discussion about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”). Last week’s episode dealt primarily with the background of the DMCA and the anti-circumvention laws in section 1201 of the Act. In this week’s episode we digg into the details of section 512, the “notice and takedown” process that allows copyright owners to have illegally copied works removed from websites. Jason describes the steps needed to submit a “counter-notice” if you’re site has been taken down improperly, and also steps you can take to protect your own content. We also discuss the delicate balance that we’re faced with in being both content owners who may wish to enforce copyright, and also content users who may need to defend their works from claims of infringement. Lastly, learn what Jason’s favorite podcasts are!
Links for this Episode:
EFF FAQ on IP Copyright office 1998 summary of the DMCA ChillingEffects.Org’s DMCA FAQ
Some free-speech friendly internet service providers:
Lauging Squid Speak Easy Computer Tyme (Ctyme) Hosting Blip.tv (and Mike Hudack)
(Another ISP that I’ve been referred to in the past is NearlyFreeSpeech.Net. Read their DMCA FAQ.)
Jason’s podcast recommendations:
Open Source Sex with Violet Blue Galacticast Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! This American Life EFF’s Line Noise
Background: To get more general background information on the DMCA follow these links:
Wikipedia entry on DMCA Jessica Litman’s Digital Copyright
As always, you can reference the The Podcasting Legal Guide: Rules for the Revolution for more information on legal questions related to podcasting.
Credits: Benjamin A. Costa, Legal and Production Intern. Music for this episode is licensed from Magnatune. (Artist: Burnshee Thornside; Album: The Art Of Not Blending In; Song: Can I Be A Star.) Special thanks to Creative Commons and Alex Roberts for the logo design, and to Bill Streeter for getting this site designed and rolling for us.
Feedback: We would very much like to hear from you and get your feedback on this new podcast series. Things you like, don’t like, or questions you have that you’d like answered in a future episode are welcome. Please send us your feedback and questions by emailing us at colette [at] rulesfortherevolution [dot] com or by calling our listener comment line at 206-350-5738.
Licensing:
The original content of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to “Colette Vogele, Rules for the Revolution: The Podcast”.
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Colette: You are providing a great resource and public service with your podcast. Congrats on your launch, and keep up the good work! Your fan Dave
Jason wrote me a quick note to clarify a couple things about the safe harbors under section 512:
First, The safe harbors only protect you from lawsuits over copyright and nothing else. This is an important point. There are other laws, like section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which we’ll be discussing in a few weeks, that can protect you from other issues, but section 512 of the Copyright Act (the DMCA) only protects you from copyright liability.
Second, Jason reminded me that the safe harbors don’t protect you against what we can call “red flag knowledge” — situations where the podcaster/blogger knows or should have known that something posted to their site is infringing. This would be like a full episode of a TV show or a full music file from an RIAA label. Something where there is no colorable fair use argument. So, in those situations, even if you employ a section 512 coypright agent and have a take down policy, you cannot hide behind the safe harbor if you actually know or should have known the content is infringing.