Court Maxes Out DMCA Web Site Shutdown Power

(Forwarded from Interesting People list)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [IP] Court confirms DMCA 'good faith' web site shutdown rights
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 07:53:38 -0400
From: Dave Farber <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]


>Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 06:39:54 -0400
>From: Richard Forno <[email protected]>
>
>
>Dave, for IP if you like.....rf
>
>
>
>Court confirms DMCA 'good faith' web site shut down rights
>
>A U.S. court has extended the power of the DMCA even further with a ruling
>this week that backs up copyright holders' ability to shut down a Web site
>on "good faith."
>
>InternetMovies.com had asked the District Court for the District of Hawaii
>to require that copyright holders investigate infringing Web sites before
>shutting them down. This rational request was rejected by the court, as its
>granted the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and any other DMCA
>zealot the right to put the clamp on Web sites at will.
>
>"This decision rules that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does
>not require a copyright holder to conduct an investigation to establish
>actual infringement prior to sending notice to an Internet Service Provider
>(ISP) requiring them to shut-down an allegedly infringing web site, or
>stopping service all together to an alleged violator," InternetMovies.com
>said in a statement.
>
>In the land of the DMCA, a "good faith belief" of infringement makes it
>possible to hijack a Web site without investigation.
>
>This decision seems to have thrown a large chunk of the Internet into a
>virtual Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. military describes its Cuban compound as
>the least worst place , which is an apt take on where Internet users appear
>to be.
>
>< snip >
>
>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30943.html


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