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IP: New Law Requires ISPs to Register & Rat
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Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 08:11:11 -0600
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Subject: IP: New Law Requires ISPs to Register & Rat
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Source: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,28357,00.html?st.ne.1.head
Law enlists ISPs in
piracy fight
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 4, 1998, 5:30 p.m. PT
A new set of federal regulations
requires Internet service providers to
register immediately with the U.S.
government, lest they be held legally
liable for pirated material that flows
through their servers.
The new rules, which went into effect
yesterday, flow from the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, which was
signed by President Clinton last week.
The law shields ISPs from being sued
for copyright infringement based on
their subscribers' postings, so long as
they register with the U.S. Copyright
Office. The provision is the product of
negotiations over the original copyright
law, and was accepted reluctantly by
service provider industry
representatives.
"This isn't what we would have
wanted. It's a Washington approach to
a simple kind of problem," said Dave
McClure, executive director of the
Association of Online Professionals, a
trade group that represents ISPs.
Copyright holders had complained that
some ISPs were not responding to
warnings about pirated material
located on their servers, or were
claiming ignorance even after being
notified.
"Copyright holders pushed for a
requirement that a person actually be
physically designated to receive
information about infringement,"
McClure said.
The new law fills a legal gap left by
the passage of the Communications
Decency Act in 1996. Under that law,
ISPs cannot be held liable for
slanderous or libelous material that is
posted on their services. That
provision, which has been tested
several times in court already,
specifically excludes copyright issues.
The new regulations require each ISP
to designate a point-person to receive
complaints about copyright
infringement, and to send that
information to the federal copyright
office along with a $20 filing fee. The
person's name and contact information
also must be displayed prominently on
the ISP's Web site.
The rules went into effect November 3.
Any unregistered ISP can legally be
held liable for pirated material on its
site from now on.
The Copyright Office rules are only an
interim step in the new law's
implementation. Regulators will draft
permanent rules and host a public
comment period later this year or early
next year.
-----------------------
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
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-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [email protected]>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'