Chilling Effects Weather Reports

Twelve Years Under the DMCA at the Electronic Frontier Foundation

David Abrams, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, March 12, 2010
Abstract: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) describes multiple instances in which the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have been used to stifle legitimate speech rather than stop pirates.
more

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Court Order. We've Got the DMCA.

David Abrams, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, March 11, 2010
Abstract: Last month, MySpace sent a DMCA takedown notice to Scribd to remove a document summarizing recommendations on rebuilding a portion of the MySpace website, alleging a copyright violation. Although original intended to stop Internet piracy of creative works such as music and video, this is another example of the takedown provisions of the DMCA being used to avoid the time and expense of obtaining a court order to remove documents that, while possibly sensitive or embarrassing, do not themselves have commercial value.
more

YouTube Takes Down then Reinstates Video by Artist Using His Own Song

David Abrams, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, March 9, 2010
Abstract: Assemblage 23 (A23) frontman Tom Shear reports that YouTube removed the first video in his band’s planned video diary of their American tour at the request of Warner Music Group. The irony in the takedown is that the video included only A23’s own song and its purpose was to promote the band’s US tour and its new album. YouTube has since reinstated the video.
more

Careful What You Download - What You Don’t Know Can Cost You

David Abrams, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, March 5, 2010
Abstract: A second federal appeals court has now eviscerated the “innocent infringer” defense for copyright infringement, this time for residents of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The court concluded that, as long as a copyright notice appears on a physical CD somewhere, anyone who illegally downloads that music from the Internet is subject to the higher $750 statutory minimum damages; even if that person believed he or she had permission to download the material. In 2005, a different appeals court made a similar ruling affecting residents of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.
more

Microsoft Invokes DMCA to Take Down Cyptome.org, then Relents

David Abrams, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, February 25, 2010
Abstract: Network Solutions has taken the Cryptome website down after receiving a DMCA takedown notice from Microsoft claiming copyright infringement. Microsoft objects to the publication of a handbook provided to law enforcement describing what information the service keeps on its users and what legal steps are required to obtain that information. However, its takedown of the well-known web site may have effect of increasing the number of people who read the document.
more

Complete Weather Reports Archive

Maintained by Chilling Effects