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EU Parliament Debates a DMCA Equivalent

Posted by timothy on from the stakeholders-sometimes-means-wooden-stakes dept.

bs0d3 writes "Right now what is lacking across Europe is a standard law to handle notice-and-take-downs of illegal sites like the U.S.'s DMCA. Right now illegal content across Europe is subject to non-standard takedown letters, some of which include no mention of what law was allegedly infringed, nor in which jurisdiction in Europe it's infringed, or who to contact in your jurisdiction to challenge the claim, or even which company it is that is being represented by the law firm that gets in touch with the [site owner]. They need a system so that the notices would have to include information that makes them verifiable as correct." Perhaps that will change; "The EU is holding a public consultation discussing notice-and-take-down laws."

8 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. I have an idea... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

    I wouldn't look to the DMCA for guidance on this one... It has, perhaps, inspired a slightly greater degree of verbosity in US takedowns; but it certainly hasn't done much for the legal quality of the genre. The effective pressure to get anything other than the 'this is a DMCA takedown notice' part of the takedown notice right is close to zero.

  2. What would you do ... by Tim+Ward · · Score: 2

    ... if as the operator of some tiny UK web site for some voluntary community group you got a letter in dubious English from some foreign lawyer accusing you of something incomprehensible?

    OK, you'd probably ignore it, and quite often, perhaps usually, that would work. But if was serious, and you were actually in the wrong, what then?

    Some EU-wide law saying that such notices have to follow certain rules might help actually.

    (Last time I saw one of these - a letter in dubious English from some foreign lawyer accusing an organisation of something incomprehensible - it turned out to be cheaper to use Google than to pay our own lawyers to respond. The author of the letter turned out to have an "interesting" history, so the letter was just kept on file, in case it turned out to be useful evidence should the person involved try again using a less "interesting" UK firm.)

  3. DMCA = "Guilty until proven innocent" by squash_me_quickly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem with the DMCA is that, in every case where I have seen it used, ones content is blocked on the internet after lawyer are involved.
    It is then completely up to the owner of the site to prove that they have no infringing content on their site.

    The process of sending a DMCA complaint was free, the last time I checked. Go to DMCA.com... and fill out a form, quote from the site "The DMCA.com Takedown claim form takes about 3 minutes to fill out."

    If one is a victim of a bogus DMCA complaint, there is no easy help to find on their site. Once one finds the correct page one can read that a counterclaim can only be sent "after the DMCA Takedown has been submitted and after the content has been removed."

    Once on sends the the counterclaim to the ISP "they must wait 10-14 days" before they may unblock the content.

    Accused = sentenced immediately :(
    Exonerated = sorry, you got to wait 10-14 days :(

    1. Re:DMCA = "Guilty until proven innocent" by Kjella · · Score: 3

      Yes, I think this is a big flaw with the DMCA. If you have the chutzpah to file a signed counter-notice under penalty of perjury with your real name and address, then I say the ISP should be required to "act expeditiously to restore, or enable access to, the material" and let them battle it out in court, it's a civil matter and there should be no presumption to either side. Also you run the risk of perjury and they don't, the notice should require the "A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law." to be under penalty of perjury. You might be wrong, but you must do so in "good faith" - right now you can send out anything you want as long as you don't "knowingly misrepresent" which is practically impossible to prove. If you have a stupid process with simple keyword searches and no QA you can be as reckless in sending out notices as you please and it's fully legal.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    2. Re:DMCA = "Guilty until proven innocent" by Elldallan · · Score: 2

      Personally I do not think the complaining party should have have a "in good faith" protection. If you want to take content down you better be 100% sure it is infringing and that the use is not permitted by fair use etc or you should not send the complaint.
      A counter claim should have a "in good faith protection" however because there should not be the same assumption that they know the law. And yes the content host should be required to restore the content with expediency(within 48h) if a counter claim is sent, this can then be forwarded to the complaining party who can then go to a court and have the content pulled if they still believe they have a case.

      The complaining party should have the entire burden of proving infringement and be fully liable if they were wrong, that way they cannot go on "fishing expeditions" without risking serious fines and/or damages.

  4. Re:Don't worry by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 2

    in no more than 5 years

    We'll achieve controlled fusion, etc, etc, yada-yada.

    --
    Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
  5. WARNING by zakkudo · · Score: 2

    WARNING

    If you are playing this video game outside of the country of Japan. You are involved in a crime.

    STOP

    Use and export of this video game outside of the country of Japan is in violation of copyright law and constitues a criminal act.

    Media has said similar messages to this for at least decades. The DMCA are just another layer on top of already draconian copy right laws. It is just a case of, "First they came for, then they came for, then they came for me" type of issue. Most people have been breaking laws for years and didn't even know it. Why should the general populous care now?

    It is copyright infringment if you buy a book in France and then bring it back to the US to read it. It is copyright infringment to buy a DS game while in Japan and play it on your plane right back to the US. Why do laws like this suprise people and why are they only getting aggrivated *now* when they can't get their youtube videos?

    The quoted message is from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE1pwBApchk

  6. Public consultations by Serpents · · Score: 4, Informative

    I wonder how "public" they're going to be. During the ACTA debacle the Polish government invited representatives of all movie/music/whathaveyou industry organizations and not a single NGO, representative of an alternative point of view or somebody who actually has some idea about how the Internet works and they called it "public consultations". I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar here