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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.
    -----------------------
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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'