Internet Piracy

I'd like to kick around a couple of situations of internet piracy. I want to make certain that I'm pinning the correct people with potential liability.

Unfortunately, neither of these is a hypothetical.

(1) Semi-famous author 1 notices, during a web search, that one of her
short stories generates a hit one an unfamiliar webpage. The webpage is hosted by a "free hosting" Service 1, which claims that it will not take action against one of its members short of seeing a physical copy of a copyright registration. Author 1 has never registered that actual story, and does not want it to see print at all, as she feels it is an inferior early effort. The actual webpage, though, properly attributes the story to author 1, and notes that "some of these stories are posted without permission." Further search of the site discloses more unauthorized reproduction of work by authors 2, 3, 4, and 5. All email links on said site bounce.

Attorney emails to Service 1, informs Service 1 of the continuing and admitted violations. After several days of aggressive displays, Service 1 backs down and kills the site.

(2) Several months later, Author 2 finds a short article of his posted
by another user on a different part of Service 1. Author 2 sends email to Infringer 2 owner, which itself is through a different "free" email provider. Again, the article contains a copyright attribution, but is an early work that Author 2 does not wish posted. The email to Infringer 2 removes that page. However, Infringer 2 just moves to a different "free" service provider (Service 2). Further faxes and emails to Infringer 2 and Service 2 finally result in removal from THIS website. (It's too early to see if Infringer 2 will open yet another site.)

Questions:

(a) In situation 1, did Service 1 lose common carrier status when it
became aware of an ADMITTED infringement using its service? Should Service 1 bear liability because it refuses to accept proof other than the physical registration certificate, even though registration is not required to protect the copyright?

(b) Service 2 has several "flavors" of sites. If Infringer 2 opens an
infringing site on one of these other "flavors," is Service 2 willfully abetting infringement by failing to screen out either Infringer 2 in general, or the infringing material specifically?

I'll hold my thoughts, since I was Attorney in both cases, and had to act very quickly.

C.E. Petit, Esq.
<cepetit[_at_]usa.net> Received on Sun Jun 13 1999 - 16:06:48 GMT