Texas ISP Slams Music Industry For Trying To Turn It Into a 'Copyright Cop' (theregister.co.uk)

An ISP based in Texas has complained to a judge that the music industry is trying to turn internet providers into the "copyright police." From a report: "This case is an attempt by the US recording industry to make Internet service providers its de facto copyright enforcement agents," reads the latest filing in an ongoing court case involving ISP Grande Communications. It goes on: "Having given up on actually pursuing direct infringers due to bad publicity, and having decided not to target the software and websites that make online file-sharing possible, the recording industry has shifted its focus to fashioning new forms of copyright liability that would require ISPs to act as the copyright police."

Grande Communications is a high-speed ISP that is the main provider for several university campuses in Texas. It was sued in April 2017 by 18 music companies including Universal, Capitol, Warner and Sony, who accuse it of allowing its users to "engage in more than one million infringements of copyrighted works over BitTorrent systems."

Comments

Re:wait ... common carrier?

[SvnLyrBrto]

The really frustrating thing is that the problems with the DMCA could be easily be solved, if the congresscritters weren't so despicably corrupt. It'd take just two simple steps:

1) Abolish mass and automated takedown notices. Mandate that every takedown be reviewed by a single, responsible, and identifiable individual who swears, under that currently-uninforced "penalty of perjury" clause, that he is the owner or their representative thereof of the copyrighted work and that the online content is, in fact, infringing. Require these notices to be delivered, in writing, via a tracked and audible service such as FedEx, DHL, or certified or registered mail.

2) Put some teeth into the "under penalty of perjury" that accusers of infringement are supposed to swear upon. If the content is found to be owned by someone else, or by someone the accuser doesn't represent, or fair use, or satire, or journalistic, or in any other way non-infringing; off to jail with the perjurer. A nice schedule, I think, would be 30 days in county for the first offense, 90 days for the second, and a year in the state pen plus permanent disbarment and a ban on holding corporate office or trading on the stock market for the third offense.

Easy-pasey, lemon-squeasy... the fraudulent and frivolous DMCA filings would evaporate overnight.