TechCrunch:Expanded DMCA Still Has Limits

An anonymous reader writes "Last week, in a blow to the content industry, the Ninth Circuit granted Veoh a pyrrhic victory against Universal Music Group and clarified the scope of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor provisions for online service providers. By adopting a position taken by the Second Circuit in Viacom v. YouTube, the decision harmonized the law in two intellectually influential jurisdictions and set the standard in New York and California, national hubs for content creation and technological innovation. Going forward, tech startups will have more room to innovate while facing decreased risk of crippling financial liability. An article by two IP lawyers published today in TechCrunch simplifies and explains the scope of safe harbor protection in light of these rulings.

Comments

Pyrrhic victory

[93 Escort Wagon]

I do not think that means what you think it means.

Re:Pyrrhic victory

[houstonbofh]

Yes. It does. Exactly. Only way it could be a better example is if there were shot after winning... They won the lawsuit that drove them out of business.

Re:Pyrrhic victory

[Kjella]

Pyrrhus was fighting the Romans and despite inflicting heavier losses and winning the battles the Romans had far more men to resupply with which was why these "victories" would be his undoing. Veoh won, but still lost because they ran out of money while their opponent had much deeper pockets. How could it get any more appropriate than that?

Re:Pyrrhic victory

[Warhawke]

Pyrrhus was an aggressor against Rome who spent exorbitant sums of money to achieve small victories that ultimately led to his losing the war. Veoh was not an aggressor and was bankrupted before the victory could be achieved. In fact, the RIAA and MPAA could be said to be Pyrrhic victors considering how much they spend in litigation without any profit from collection. The proper expression here would be "hollow victory."

Re:Pyrrhic victory

[Attila Dimedici]

While you are correct that Pyrrhus was, more or less, the aggressor against Rome (he initially began his campaign against Rome in defense of a city which Rome attacked), the term pyrrhic victory refers to any victory in which the winner of the battle ends up losing the war.

Wat???

[interval1066]

Anyone else read the summary and say "...what...?"

Re:It doesn't have enough limits

[KiloByte]

Until recently, owning a person used to be legal. Today, it is legal to own both ideas (patents) and culture (copyright). Let's hope this changes rather swiftly -- I'm quite sure it will change eventually.

Re:It doesn't have enough limits

[asmkm22]

It will change once the world economy grinds to a super-monopoly, where all major industries around the world are dominated by one or two players, much like the ISP situation in most of the U.S.. Right now, companies aren't complaining because they have the golden egg laying goose that is China, but even that plan is starting to unravel due to China having such a huge disparity between the rich and poor, with no real middle class to speak of.

Once that happens, either laws like DMCA and IP will have to be scrapped just so growth can continue, or the world economy will contract back into more regional entities like they were 20 years ago; connected but independent. I wouldn't be surprised to see the next revolution in internet connectivity revolve around a method for encrypting or limiting traffic to a physical region of the world, in an effort to segment things.

Re:It doesn't have enough limits

[Kjella]

Once that happens, either laws like DMCA and IP will have to be scrapped just so growth can continue

Last century it was about who owns the factories and those that tried to wrest those from capitalists and corporations into the hands of the people are reviled socialists and communists. This century it'll be about who owns the bits and bytes and I expect the same warm welcome of any IP reform. Oh sure, different companies want different IP laws that best suit their business model but 99% of all campaign contributions to Congress want them in some form, even Red Hat probably prefers the GPL via copyright as opposed to no IP law at all. If there is to be a reform, I think it would have to be a popular revolt that most people simply no longer consider those rights valid.

Re:Legal system is broken, NOT DMCA.

[shentino]

Even if the DMCA is complete bullshit, proper, thorough, and EQUAL enforcement of the laws we already have on the books will do ten times as good as writing new ones.

Right now, "The rich and politically well connected possess immunity" is an implied part of the constitution.

If the law were enforced as written most of the elite would be rotting in prison.