DMCA bots must recognize Fair Use

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DMCA bots must recognize Fair Use

US Appeals court rules against Universal

tangor

11:54 pm on Sep 14, 2015 (gmt 0)

The concept of "fair use" of copyrighted images and music has been given a big boost in a decision this week by the California Appeals Court (Ninth Circuit).

The court ruled that music and film companies need to take into account whether their material is being used legally before issuing DMCA takedown notices.

In doing so, it explicitly rejected the claim made by Universal Music Group that "fair use" was something others would need to use to argue against a takedown notice.

[theregister.co.uk...]

This probably won't change much, the DMCA bots will still be active.

topr8

8:59 am on Sep 17, 2015 (gmt 0)

it seems to me the whole 'fair use' concept is a can of worms, and is going to cause legislators headaches for years to come.

Under the law (stemming from 1976), you are allowed to use someone else's copyrighted work "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research."
from the register article

plenty of schoolkids are being told to basically rip images from the internet to decorate their work - does a 6 year old writing a story about monsters count as scholarship ... and more to the point, are we teaching them at a young age that they can take whatever they want, we already have a generation who think nothing of downloading music/movies illegally (in today's law)

tangor

9:40 am on Sep 17, 2015 (gmt 0)

Fair Use is a concept well-known in law and publishing and won't be going away. Theft, on the other hand, is also well known in law and life and won't be going away either. But they are NOT the same.

I can only speak to the USA side of Fair Use, as I use it routinely in sites and dissertations, with full attributions (which is part of the same).

Were I to write an article regarding fizzy beverages I might include a short video clip and a text that read "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" (attrib: Hilltop Singers, Coke Commercial circa 1971) and all is grand and good.

If I download Ant-man from YT or other source, that's theft.

Guess which site would get a DMCA notice? The one I wrote about fizzy beverages or the site that has a full length movie pirated?

More accurately, as the article does reveal, copyright owners can't send their armies of bots after every (already protected 15 second sound clips ... just listen to your local radio broadcasts ... again, USA) instance of "something".

While the ruling will likely favor those who do it correctly, the bots will still hammer ... and all too many might fold because they do not have knowledge of the ruling.

Things will remain messy for a bit... but those with lawyers, or merely commonsense to do the research themselves, will still have to deal with these aggressive bots ... and they are BOTS not humans.