"Fair use is not just an excuse to copy-it's a pillar of online speech protection, and disregarding it in order to lash out at a critic should have serious consequences. That's what we told a federal court in Channel 781 News v. Waltham Community Access Corporation, our case fighting copyright abuse on behalf of citizen journalists. Waltham Community Access Corporation (WCAC), a public access cable station in Waltham, Massachusetts, records city council meetings on video."
"Channel 781 News (Channel 781), a group of volunteers who report on the city council, curates clips from those recordings for its YouTube channel, along with original programming, to spark debate on issues like housing and transportation. WCAC sent a series of takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), accusing Channel 781 of copyright infringement. That led to YouTube deactivating Channel 781's channel just days before a critical municipal election."
"The DMCA gives copyright holders a powerful tool to take down other people's content from platforms like YouTube. The "notice and takedown" process requires only an email, or filling out a web form, in order to accuse another user of copyright infringement and have their content taken down. And multiple notices typically lead to the target's account being suspended, because doing so helps the platform avoid liability. There's no court or referee involved, so anyone can bring an accusation and get a nearly instantaneous takedown."
Channel 781 News curates clips from Waltham city council meeting recordings and posts them on YouTube alongside original programming to spark debate on housing and transportation. Waltham Community Access Corporation (WCAC) sent multiple DMCA takedown notices accusing Channel 781 of copyright infringement, prompting YouTube to deactivate the channel days before a municipal election. Channel 781 sued WCAC for misrepresentations in its takedown notices under a DMCA provision. The DMCA notice-and-takedown process allows rapid removal of content without judicial review, which creates incentives for abuse. Copyright holders must consider fair use before issuing takedown notices.
Read at Electronic Frontier Foundation
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]