Source: https://www.aaronsanderslaw.com/is-it-time-to-furl-the-dmca-red-flag/
Timestamp: 2020-04-06 12:28:05
Document Index: 397810041

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512', '§ 512']

Is it Time to Furl the DMCA Red Flag? - Aaron Sanders Law
| copyright DMCA Nimmer red flags willful blindness
The basics of the DMCA safe harbor are that, if you are an “internet service provider,” you are immune to claims of (civil) copyright infringement under four different circumstances—there are thus four different flavors of DMCA safe harbor—if you meet qualifications specific to the flavor you seeking protection under, and you have and reasonably implement a repeat-infringer policy. The most popular flavor is that the content you are accused of infringing was placed on your computer system at the “direction” of one of your users. This flavor is known as § 512(c). This covers a wide range of common internet services, from comments, to videos uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo, or even stuff stored in the “Cloud.” Although Congress had in mind the first and last of these scenarios, it’s been user-uploaded content to public sites, like YouTube, where the action has been.43The recent decision against the ISP Cox Communications invoked a different flavor of DMCA safe-harbor, but involved the “repeat infringer” issue.
To qualify for protection under § 512(c), you need to prove three things: (1) you didn’t have either “actual” or “red flag” knowledge that the material in question is infringing; (2) you don’t receive a financial benefit from the infringement, at least where you had the right and ability to control the infringing activity; and (3) you maintain a designated agent who “expeditiously” removes infringing material upon receipt of a proper takedown notification44The statute says “notification,” not “notice.” Does anyone know the difference? If you fail at any of these three things, you lose your safe harbor.45If you don’t even have a designated DMCA agent, you therefore lose the safe harbor as to everything on your system. Otherwise, it’s just with regard to the material at issue.
This argument was accepted by the trial court, at least enough to deny some of Vimeo’s motion for summary judgment. The appeal was before Judge Leval of the Second Circuit, who is the closest thing to a copyright scholar among federal judges.46Justice Ginsberg is not a copyright scholar. Her daughter is, however. Justice Ginsberg and Judge Leval probably don’t see eye-to-eye on copyright matters, I’m betting. But Judge Leval is also not exactly the copyright owner’s best friend on the bench. He wrote the Google Books opinion, and he gave us the whole concept of “transformative use.” It should be noted, however, that there were no dissents from his opinion in this case.
The answer lies in that really boring47Well, fascinating, if you’re me. discussion about burdens of proof. You see, the DMCA safe-harbor is an affirmative defense, and affirmative defenses, by definition, must be proven by the defendant. That’s how it works: the state proves you murdered someone, and you have to prove that you did it in self-defense. The rights holders prove that you copied the work without authorization, and you have to prove that, even so, you are protected by a DMCA safe harbor.
One employee told a user that Vimeo would allow a lip-dub video48 Like this one? I think there was a suit over the Flagpole Sitta lipdub, which just shows some people can’t stand other people having fun. Remember when these were a thing? Some were actually kind of fun. I’d say a lot of them are fair use. but would have to take it down in response to a notification. That, actually, sounds legit to me.
Another employee told another user that Vimeo doesn’t review audio content, saying “Don’t ask, don’t tell ;).”49In a footnote, the court explained that it understood that to be a wink. Thank goodness. But the law is clear that there’s no obligation to review content, so, so what?
When someone else asked what Vimeo does about the use of copyrighted music50Who are these people? Investigators for the plaintiffs?, the Vimeo employee wisely didn’t respond but forwarded the question with the comment, “Ignoring, but sharing.” Not sure how this means anything.
When another user asked whether there would be “issues” with using a certain copyrighted song as a “soundtrack” to a home video,“ a Vimeo employee responded, ”The Official answer I must give you is: While we cannot opine specifically on the situation you are referring to, adding a third party’s copyrighted content to a video generally (but not always) constitutes copyright infringement.“ Which is 100% correct. Good job! Oh, but then he added, ”…Off the record answer … Go ahead and post it….“51Dude, you understand that if you write your answer down, it’s not ”off the record.“ Ohh, stumbled at the end! Having said that, putting a copyrighted song as a ”soundtrack” to a user-created video might well be fair use, and Vimeo is hardly in a position to give specific legal advice here.
The legislative history is of little help. The House report is here, the Senate here. When discussing actual knowledge under § 512(c), the committee explained its use of “activity” so as to broaden the types of infringement that the provider might conceivably have actual knowledge of: not just the act of copying the copyrighted material onto the system, but unauthorized performance, for example. When discussing red-flag knowledge under § 512(c), the committee didn’t explain further, except to emphasize that the provider is under no obligation to investigate.52Some point to the committee notes for the same language but under § 512(d), which provides a safe harbor for linking or referring users to infringing content. There, the committee says that a search engine or catalogue (this was written in the area when Google was in its infancy and Yahoo!‘s catalogue was most users’ way to finding things on the Web) gains red-flag knowledge if a site it links to is obviously a pirate site. The argument goes that, since Vimeo is obviously a pirate site, it must also have red-flag knowledge of infringing activity on its network. I cannot agree. Even the committee limits such “red-flag” knowledge to sites which are obviously “pirate” sites at a glance: “The common-sense result of this ‘red flag’ test is that on-line editors and catalogers would not be required to make discriminating judgments about potential copyright infringement. If, however, an Internet site is obviously pirate, then seeing it may be all that is needed for the service provider to encounter a ‘red flag.’” By contrast, Vimeo is not obviously a pirate site at a glance. You’d have to investigate in order find that out, and the committee is quite clear that you don’t need to be that “discriminating.” Further, there’s maybe a reason why this discussion is limited to § 512(d) and not § 512(c), even if the language is the same. Nothing in the legislative history suggests that § 512(m)(1) may be ignored.
But courts are right to limit red-flag knowledge to the actual material at issue—and “activity” related to that material. And you don’t need to consult any committee reports for it. Here’s why. When I was describing how the knowledge requirement of § 512(c) worked, I left out an important piece: You lose your DMCA protection if you have actual or red-flag knowledge, unless you “act[] expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material.“ If Congress had meant for red-flag knowledge to be generalized, and not limited to the material at issue, then Congress would have need to add, ”…or, where the provider is aware of facts or circumstances from which infringing activity is apparent, acts expeditiously to stop the infringing activity.“ Otherwise, this provision would be meaningless for those with red-flag knowledge. In fact, red-flag knowledge would irretrievably destroy DMCA safe-harbor protection because there would no way to ”fix“ is expeditiously.53Nimmer, who again straying from role as a writer of treatise and into the role author law review articles that happen to be bound in a treatise, thinks that red-flag knowledge is generalized. So what should one with red-flag knowledge remove? Nothing, Nimmer. The service provider must just ”react.“ But that’s not what the statute says. It says to remove material. The committee report Nimmer cites to is no different: ”New subsection (c)(1)(A)(iii) provides that once a service provider obtains actual knowledge or awareness of facts or circumstances from which infringing material or activity on the service provider’s system or network is apparent, the service provide does not lose the limitation of liability … if it acts expeditiously to remove or disable access to the infringing material.“ Sorry, Nimmer, it does not just say ”react.”
Hey, there’s more to this case. Although the ruling on red-flag knowledge seemed to draw the most flack, though it barely moved the needle, the ruling held for the first time that the DMCA safe-harbor protections apply to pre–1972 musical sound recordings! OK, that sounded more exciting in my head, but it’s actually a big deal. Here’s why. Believe or not, before 1972, the Copyright Act didn’t cover sound recordings. Songwriters got protection, but the musical artists (and sound engineers, etc.) didn’t for the artistry involved in bringing a song to life.54Reminder: almost every song you listen to has two separate copyrights: one for the musical composition, which belongs to the songwriters, and one for the sound recording, which belongs to the artists. If you perform someone else’s song live, you infringe the composition but not the recording. If you publicly play a recording of the song, you infringe both copyrights. Got it? Yes, music and copyright is unnecessarily complicated.
Congress finally added sound recordings to the scope of what was protected by the Copyright Act then in force (the Copyright Act of 1909). In 197855It was passed in 1976, but took effect in 1978., the current Copyright Act took effect, and completely got rid of all of those old state copyright protections. Well, completely, except for pre–1972 sound recordings. Congress could have retroactively protected those recordings, thus sparing us a lot of pain, but it didn’t. And they continued to be protected, if at all, by a hodgepodge of state laws. That’s not insignificant, since a lot of great music was recorded before 1972.
The Second Circuit got around this problem by pointing out three things. First, the DMCA was passed in 1998, after the current Copyright Act was passed, so Congress could be assumed to know about this general prohibition against limiting state copyright law. Second, the DMCA safe harbors protection against “infringement of copyright,” without limiting it to federal copyright (which it sometimes does by adding “under this title”). Third, removing pre–1972 recordings from the protections would be weird, er, “substantially defeat the statute’s purposes.” Which is true enough, though Congress sometimes writes crazy-bad laws.56Sometimes I think Congress writes such sloppy laws because it knows courts will bail them out. It’d be nice if Congress got better at drafting statutes. You’d think that’d be a core Congressional skill.
Devlin Hartline	on June 24, 2016 at 4:16 pm
I enjoyed reading as always, Rick! Just a few comments:
1, 15, 29, 43. ↑ The recent decision against the ISP Cox Communications invoked a different flavor of DMCA safe-harbor, but involved the “repeat infringer” issue.
2, 16, 30, 44. ↑ The statute says “notification,” not “notice.” Does anyone know the difference?
3, 17. ↑ If you don’t even have a designated DMCA agent, you therefore lose the safe harbor as to everything on your system. Otherwise, it’s just with regard to the material at issue.
4, 18, 32, 46. ↑ Justice Ginsberg is not a copyright scholar. Her daughter is, however. Justice Ginsberg and Judge Leval probably don’t see eye-to-eye on copyright matters, I’m betting.
5, 19, 33, 47. ↑ Well, fascinating, if you’re me.
6, 20. ↑ Like this one? I think there was a suit over the Flagpole Sitta lipdub, which just shows some people can’t stand other people having fun. Remember when these were a thing? Some were actually kind of fun. I’d say a lot of them are fair use.
7, 21, 35, 49. ↑ In a footnote, the court explained that it understood that to be a wink. Thank goodness.
8, 22, 36, 50. ↑ Who are these people? Investigators for the plaintiffs?
9, 23, 37, 51. ↑ Dude, you understand that if you write your answer down, it’s not ”off the record.“
10, 24. ↑ Some point to the committee notes for the same language but under § 512(d), which provides a safe harbor for linking or referring users to infringing content. There, the committee says that a search engine or catalogue (this was written in the area when Google was in its infancy and Yahoo!‘s catalogue was most users’ way to finding things on the Web) gains red-flag knowledge if a site it links to is obviously a pirate site. The argument goes that, since Vimeo is obviously a pirate site, it must also have red-flag knowledge of infringing activity on its network. I cannot agree. Even the committee limits such “red-flag” knowledge to sites which are obviously “pirate” sites at a glance: “The common-sense result of this ‘red flag’ test is that on-line editors and catalogers would not be required to make discriminating judgments about potential copyright infringement. If, however, an Internet site is obviously pirate, then seeing it may be all that is needed for the service provider to encounter a ‘red flag.’” By contrast, Vimeo is not obviously a pirate site at a glance. You’d have to investigate in order find that out, and the committee is quite clear that you don’t need to be that “discriminating.” Further, there’s maybe a reason why this discussion is limited to § 512(d) and not § 512(c), even if the language is the same. Nothing in the legislative history suggests that § 512(m)(1) may be ignored.
11, 25. ↑ Nimmer, who again straying from role as a writer of treatise and into the role author law review articles that happen to be bound in a treatise, thinks that red-flag knowledge is generalized. So what should one with red-flag knowledge remove? Nothing, Nimmer. The service provider must just ”react.“ But that’s not what the statute says. It says to remove material. The committee report Nimmer cites to is no different: ”New subsection (c)(1)(A)(iii) provides that once a service provider obtains actual knowledge or awareness of facts or circumstances from which infringing material or activity on the service provider’s system or network is apparent, the service provide does not lose the limitation of liability … if it acts expeditiously to remove or disable access to the infringing material.“ Sorry, Nimmer, it does not just say ”react."
12, 26, 40, 54. ↑ Reminder: almost every song you listen to has two separate copyrights: one for the musical composition, which belongs to the songwriters, and one for the sound recording, which belongs to the artists. If you perform someone else’s song live, you infringe the composition but not the recording. If you publicly play a recording of the song, you infringe both copyrights. Got it? Yes, music and copyright is unnecessarily complicated.
13, 27, 41, 55. ↑ It was passed in 1976, but took effect in 1978.
14, 28, 42, 56. ↑ Sometimes I think Congress writes such sloppy laws because it knows courts will bail them out. It’d be nice if Congress got better at drafting statutes. You’d think that’d be a core Congressional skill.
31, 45. ↑ If you don’t even have a designated DMCA agent, you therefore lose the safe harbor as to everything on your system. Otherwise, it’s just with regard to the material at issue.
34, 48. ↑ Like this one? I think there was a suit over the Flagpole Sitta lipdub, which just shows some people can’t stand other people having fun. Remember when these were a thing? Some were actually kind of fun. I’d say a lot of them are fair use.
38, 52. ↑ Some point to the committee notes for the same language but under § 512(d), which provides a safe harbor for linking or referring users to infringing content. There, the committee says that a search engine or catalogue (this was written in the area when Google was in its infancy and Yahoo!‘s catalogue was most users’ way to finding things on the Web) gains red-flag knowledge if a site it links to is obviously a pirate site. The argument goes that, since Vimeo is obviously a pirate site, it must also have red-flag knowledge of infringing activity on its network. I cannot agree. Even the committee limits such “red-flag” knowledge to sites which are obviously “pirate” sites at a glance: “The common-sense result of this ‘red flag’ test is that on-line editors and catalogers would not be required to make discriminating judgments about potential copyright infringement. If, however, an Internet site is obviously pirate, then seeing it may be all that is needed for the service provider to encounter a ‘red flag.’” By contrast, Vimeo is not obviously a pirate site at a glance. You’d have to investigate in order find that out, and the committee is quite clear that you don’t need to be that “discriminating.” Further, there’s maybe a reason why this discussion is limited to § 512(d) and not § 512(c), even if the language is the same. Nothing in the legislative history suggests that § 512(m)(1) may be ignored.
39, 53. ↑ Nimmer, who again straying from role as a writer of treatise and into the role author law review articles that happen to be bound in a treatise, thinks that red-flag knowledge is generalized. So what should one with red-flag knowledge remove? Nothing, Nimmer. The service provider must just ”react.“ But that’s not what the statute says. It says to remove material. The committee report Nimmer cites to is no different: ”New subsection (c)(1)(A)(iii) provides that once a service provider obtains actual knowledge or awareness of facts or circumstances from which infringing material or activity on the service provider’s system or network is apparent, the service provide does not lose the limitation of liability … if it acts expeditiously to remove or disable access to the infringing material.“ Sorry, Nimmer, it does not just say ”react.”
You might find this post from The IP Breakdown, the Aaron | Sanders Law Blog, of interest. Title: "Is it Time to Furl the DMCA Red Flag?". Link: https://www.aaronsanderslaw.com/is-it-time-to-furl-the-dmca-red-flag/. Enjoy!