Congress Should Modernize Civil Copyright Enforcement for the Digital Age

Online infringement of copyrighted content – including sound recordings and motion pictures – is pervasive on popular Internet-based user-upload services. Numerous and repeated instances of infringement on sites such as YouTube deprive copyright owners of their exclusive right to the proceeds of their property and creative labors.

In our Perspectives from FSF Scholars paper “Modernizing Civil Copyright Enforcement for the Digital Age Economy: The Need for Notice-and-Takedown Reforms and Small Claims Relief,” FSF President Randolph May and I make the case for why Congress should update civil enforcement provisions regarding online infringements of copyrighted content.

In particular, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”) needs to be revised in order to keep pace with the last two decades of changes in Internet technology and online user habits. Among other things, the DMCA’s Section 512 “notice and takedown” provision should be updated in order to provide copyright owners with more efficient means for enforcing their exclusive rights and combating online infringement. Also, Congress should establish a U.S. Copyright Office-administered small claims court to resolve disputes over takedowns of infringing online content and other low-value infringement matters.

Read our paper for more. Also consider the principles and policies for copyright reform that we discuss in several other Perspectives from FSF Scholars papers on intellectual property (IP):

• Randolph J. May and Seth L. Cooper, “The Logic of International Intellectual Property Protection,” Perspectives from FSF Scholars, Vol. 11, No. 3 (January 13, 2016).
• Randolph J. May and Seth L. Cooper, “The Public Contract Basis of Intellectual Property Rights,” Perspectives from FSF Scholars, Vol. 11, No. 13 (April 19, 2016).
• Randolph J. May and Seth L. Cooper, “Liberty of Contract and the Free Market Foundations of Intellectual Property,” Perspectives from FSF Scholars, Vol. 11, No. 27 (July 29, 2016).
• Randolph J. May and Seth L. Cooper, “Intellectual Property Rights and Compulsory Licensing: A First Principles Approach to Reform,” Perspectives from FSF Scholars, Vol. 11, No. 39 (November 11, 2016).
• Randolph J. May and Seth L. Cooper, “The Common Purposes of Intellectual Property and Antitrust: Promoting Creative and Innovative Output,” Perspectives from FSF Scholars, Vol. 12, No.19 (June 6, 2017).
• Randolph J. May and Seth L. Cooper, “Modernizing the Copyright Office for the Digital Age Economy,” Perspectives from FSF Scholars, Vol. 12, No. 37 (October 30, 2017).
• Randolph J. May and Seth L. Cooper, “Unalienable Rights and Alienable Intellectual Property: Why ‘Moral Rights’ Should Not Be Imported into U.S. Copyright Law,” Perspectives from FSF Scholars, Vol. 12, No. 46 (December 11, 2017).