Posted on 07/28/2019 2:18:26 PM PDT by ransomnote
A bi-partisan bill working its way through Congress could drastically change how copyright claims are processed, and would create a system to impose up to $30,000 in fines on anyone who shares protected material online.
In other words, the Congress wants to make it easier to sue people who send a meme or post images that they didn’t create themselves, essentially a giveaway to lawyers who sue unsuspecting suckers for a living.
The Senate Judiciary Committee last week approved the “Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2019,” which “creates a voluntary small claims board within the Copyright Office that will provide copyright owners with an alternative to the expensive process of bringing copyright claims, including infringement and misrepresentation …. in federal court,” according to the Copyright Alliance.
“This new board, called the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), would allow recovery in each case of up to $30,000 in damages total, with a cap of $15,000 in statutory damages per work infringed,” according to the alliance, an advocacy group for the copyright industry.
Critics contend the CCB created would essentially provide a way for copyright trolls to target individuals or small businesses to secure five-figure default judgements for innocent mistakes. Put another way, someone who shares memes they didn’t make could be on the hook for $30,000 in fines from folks who make a living from copyright lawsuits.
A petition on ActionNetwork.org opposing the CASE Act explains:
Have you ever shared a meme that you didn’t make? Or downloaded a photo you saw on social media? If Congress has its way you could soon get slapped with a $15,000 fine by copyright trolls – with no chance of appeal – just for doing normal stuff on the internet.
These trolls buy up copyrights with the sole intent of sending out mass threats and lawsuits to harvest settlements. Now, a dangerous new bill called the Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement Act is sailing through Congress to make it easier for everyone from trolls to Hollywood producers to sue you. …
In recent years, federal courts have made it easier for regular people to defend themselves from frivolous lawsuits by trolls. But the CASE Act would create a separate, industry-friendly system for copyright claims to $30,000, with no option of appeal.
btt
Voting for it, even if it doesn't pass, will be an impeachable offense, y'know, under the Nadler standards. Thanks ransomnote.
Is there going to be a sunset exception in this bill. How would you eliminate every image and meme you used in the past?
What country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.
Btt
What about fair use? Hot linking? We may be out of business.
Btt
Shades of the EU’s Articles 15 and 17 (formerly 11 and 13).
The United States Senate has become our very own House of Lords.
The only way around it is for meme makers to use only stick figures and to have a creative commons symbol on the meme...
I can see how this can be used to suppress memes, which is where most comments are directed. But, isn’t the intent of this to shut down peer to peer file traffic transfers in general? Movies, software, books, TV shows, etc?
[ INSERT PIC OF WRESTLER RANDY SAVAGE SAYING "OH YEAH!" ]
Can there be any doubt the United States Senate is the bottom of the beltway sewer?
What was it that that old comedian George Carlin said about "b-partisan"?
Somehow this stinks of New York City.
Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2019
Outfits that broadcast songwriters' tunes (i.e., restaurants, live venues, radio stations, streaming services) pay a fee to ASCAP and/or BMI. They take those monies and redistribute them to the owners of that property on the basis of playlists and other methods of documenting how often their songs are being played.
The ASCAP-equvalent for memes could collect a fee from ISPs or hosting services or whatever (which would be passed on to the users) and then, based on an accounting of how often, say, Grumpy Cat memes are posted on your website, the Estate of Grumpy Cat would receive a payment.
It isn't perfect. But the alternative, i.e., ignoring property rights, is something I'd expect from the DNC. Paying for the use of property is the classically liberal way of dealing with the problem.
Fair use is defined by 17 U.S.C. § 107, and this would presumably modify that section of the U.S.C.
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