Harlan Ellison Can Sue AOL Under DMCA

mbstone writes "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that sci-fi author Harlan Ellison can go ahead with his DMCA lawsuit against AOL. Seems somebody posted some Ellison stories to Usenet, AOL made 'em available, Ellison complained, and AOL blew him off."

Comments

All Usenet would be vulnerable...

[Ioldanach]

There are two aspects to this case. First, he contacted two companies running Usenet servers via e-mail. AOL didn't respond, and says they didn't get it, thus they didn't remove the files from their servers. That's what the lawsuit is really about. Personally, I think if the case comes to this point, the testimony will bear out exactly what happened. He may have sent to the wrong e-mail, or it got lost among the spam. If you want something done, legally, send a piece of paper, not an e-mail.

The larger issue is that each Usenet group is carried, in its majority (not necessarily whole) by hundreds, possibly thousands of companies across the globe. Tens of thousands of messages pass through thousands of groups daily. Any server carrying a large percentage of groups with a standard policy for deletion should be treated as a common carrier. The case here should revolve around whether notice was served and responded too.

Otherwise, all Usenet would be vulnerable to this kind of attack, and companies might begin to shut down a valuable means for information exchange on the presumption of the guilt of its users. It isn't like this is a single company who can fight using the "substantial noninfringing uses" argument.

Of course, this doesn't exclude the fact that he contacted 2 of the hundreds or thousands of companies with news feeds. What about the rest? Did he not know how the system worked? He should be taking out potential losses on the hide of the person who posted the material.

Re:Pray the jury is sensible.

[JabberWokky]

What's the matter, Harlan? Not enough money lining your pockets from your successful writing/consulting/speaking career?

No, it's just that Harlan is a freaking lunatic. I have been screamed at by the man not once, not twice, but three times in my life (so far). The guy goes into screaming fits regularly. I have also seen him lift a barstool to clock a guy at a bar inside a hotel lobby. He threw a fit because a group of us were making too much noise as he was giving an interview... by the hotel elevators. And then he tried to throw me out of the filk room when it was reserved, as I happened to be the first one there setting up for everybody. Again, another "interview", which was far more important than the use of the room by a dozen people who had reserved it on the schedual months ago.

The guy is the closest match to the cartoon definition of meglomania I've ever seen. He's a parody of a egotistical jerk. If he wins this case, I would not be surprised if he then proceeded to sue every other ISP that has a usenet server... and be cocksure he should win.

If you want a longer version of these ancedotes, I've posted about him on Slashdot before. He's an amazing guy. Good writer, but I think if I had to sit next to him in a plane, one or both of us would be stepping outside ten minutes after takeoff, likely with a firm kick to the rear.

--
Evan