Re: DMCA hearings and protests

On Fri, May 26, 2000, Keith E. Taber <keith[_at_]drylaw.com> wrote:
>
> Many fair uses are obvious to those who practice in this area. Given
> an accurate and clear cut set of facts most of the attorneys, and many
> of the librarians, editiors, and others on this list, will give you a
> very confident prediction about whether there is a successful fair use
> defense. The fact that such an obvious defense is available has never
> stopped cease and desist letters and apparently there is now no
> protection against DMCA take downs.

Keith -- that's my understanding and, in principle, I'm personally troubled by this. If I'm advising a client who's an ISP and who wants to claim safe harbor DMCA protection, I'd have to advise them to take down purportedly infringing material no matter how ridiculous a claim might be.

This is in sharp contrast to some model ISP Acceptable Use Policies pre-DMCA which suggested that offending material would be taken down only after a court order was obtained. Eg -- the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, Yahoo, Infoseek etc.

Lee T. Lau
<lau[_at_]wedge.com> Received on Sun May 28 2000 - 01:14:26 GMT