DMCA: Did you Designate an Agent Today?

Posted by michael on Tuesday October 3, 2000 @04:24AM from the little-known-facts dept.

Scott Brady writes "The New York Law Journal is running an article on how to comply with the DMCA if you happen to be a web provider. The article turns up a particularly troubling part of the act I wasn't aware of: "To qualify for the DMCA's safe harbors, a service provider must first take the following actions: 1) Designate an agent to receive notification of claimed infringement from copyright owners. ... 2) Register the designated agent with the U.S. Copyright Office. ... The cost of registration is only $20. 3) ... [The] contact information for your designated agent also must be posted on your Web site."" Well, I was aware of it, but perhaps others aren't. In order to qualify for the DMCA's exemptions, you have to effectively act as judge, jury and executioner against your users.

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Yep, this again... by Millennium · 2000-10-03 00:23 · Score: 3

Yet another boneheaded maneuver making ISP's responsible for people they don't employ and cannot be reasonably expected to control. Also, due to the mandatory take-down policy (noting, by the way, that the policy mandates that the ISP take doen "infringing" material before there's proof that any infringement is even taking place), we have yet more evidence that RIAA and its ilk want to consider you guilty until proven innocent, undermining our Constitutional rights.

Don't you love it when governments become little more than fronts for corporations?
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