A year or two ago I explained to my mother, a lawyer of 30 years, how web sites like YouTube work. I explained that some people figured out that a provision in the DMCA implied these practices were ok and case-law seems to uphold this. She was blown away. To be fair, my mom doesn't do email or surf the web, ever, but its amazing how many people don't understand this substantial change in intellectual property law.
"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has notable safe-harbor provisions which protect Internet service providers from the consequences of their users' actions." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_harbor
Every legal opinion I've ever read thinks scribd, youtube, etc can only exist due to this law.
Comments
A year or two ago I explained to my mother, a lawyer of 30 years, how web sites like YouTube work. I explained that some people figured out that a provision in the DMCA implied these practices were ok and case-law seems to uphold this. She was blown away. To be fair, my mom doesn't do email or surf the web, ever, but its amazing how many people don't understand this substantial change in intellectual property law.
Could you provide some more information on what changes you are referring to?
Are you saying that before the DMCA, Scribd's standard operating practice would have been more illegal or more legal?
"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has notable safe-harbor provisions which protect Internet service providers from the consequences of their users' actions." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_harbor
Every legal opinion I've ever read thinks scribd, youtube, etc can only exist due to this law.