Posted on 10/27/2019 9:51:03 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to approve a measure that would shake up the Copyright Office if it were made into law, creating a small claims court where online content creators can go after their infringers.
The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act, or the CASE Act for short, was approved by 410-6 vote. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) introduced the measure last year with the goal of giving graphic artists, photographers, and other content creators a more efficient pathway toward receiving damages if their works are infringed. Under current law, all copyright suits must go through the federal courts, a system that is often costly and time-consuming for creators who decide to litigate their cases.
With the CASE Act, Congress is hoping to streamline the process for both parties. If the measure were to become law, the Copyright Office would house a tribunal of “Copyright Claims Officers” who would work with both parties involved in a lawsuit to resolve infringement claims. As outlined in the bill, damages would be capped at $15,000 for each infringed work and top out at $30,000 total.
“The internet has provided many benefits to society. It is a wonderful thing, but it cannot be allowed to function as if it is the Wild West with absolutely no rules,” Jeffries told The Verge in an interview back in September. “We have seen that there are bad actors throughout society and the world who take advantage of the internet as a platform in a variety of ways. We cannot allow it.”
The internet has made it easy for potential infringers to copy and paste creative works from artists, especially those whose businesses exist primarily online. However, internet advocacy and civil rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union have warned that a system like the one proposed by the CASE Act could cost the average internet user thousands for simply sharing a meme or lead to encroachments on their First Amendment rights.
"Any system to enable easier enforcement of copyrights runs the risk of creating a chilling effect with respect to speech online,” the ACLU wrote in a letter to lawmakers on Monday urging them to oppose the measure. “Many of these cases will be legitimate. However, some will not, and others, even if brought in good faith, may be defensible as fair use or for some other permissible reason.”
Jeffries and others who support the bill argue that the small-claims tribunal is only an option and not a requirement for those who are looking to settle a copyright suit. Both parties need to agree to go forward in this way.
“There is no gun that is being held to anyone’s head, because the small claims court like tribunal is voluntary in nature,” Jeffries told The Verge. “Any argument made to the contrary, represents a deliberate attempt to misrepresent what’s at stake as part of the effort to do away with the content copyright laws that have been part of the fabric of our democracy since the founding of the Republic and in fact the Constitution.”
“The internet doesn’t change the Constitution,” Jeffries continued.
Some organizations that oppose the bill, like the ACLU, agree that something should be done to fix a broken copyright system, but argue that previous changes like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) have been wrought with abuse. When someone receives a DMCA takedown, oftentimes they’ll take down perfectly legal content protected under “fair use” entirely out of caution to avoid legal action.
In remarks made on the House floor Tuesday, Jeffries called the DMCA takedown system “inefficient, cumbersome,” and even “pointless” for content creators.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has already voted the bill out of committee. It currently awaits a vote on the Senate floor.
Another brick in the wall.
They’ll pass it, go to court, and immediately be struck down.
We need more laws to stamp out fair use and to make copyright even more absurd in its length.
Disney is just loving this.
Is it just me...or does sound a lot like the link tax and/or meme ban legislation the EU just passed?
Related
The House Votes in Favor of Disastrous Copyright Bill
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3789430/posts
Electronic Frontier Foundation
OCTOBER 22, 2019 | BY KATHARINE TRENDACOSTA
This is designed to prevent memes and content discussion that could harm the democrats.
More unelected tribunals in our justice system as well.
And in Houston unelected HERO’s homofascist tribunals may make a comeback under Mayor Turner or Buzbee.
It’s “wrong” to share photos to expose Democrat lies.
Big Tech wants dollars and one world solutions.
So now every time someone on free republic posts a copyrighted article or EVEN an excerpt then lawsuits will quickly follow from “outraged” demoncrats.
ABCDisney would attempt to censor the sharing of their deleted broadcast of footage DISNEY altered from Kentucky and presented as “Trump’s fault, war in Syria” footage.
Passes in House 410-6. Lot of Repubs voted for it.
Some organizations that oppose the bill, like the ACLU, agree that something should be done to fix a broken copyright system, but argue that previous changes like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) have been wrought with abuse. When someone receives a DMCA takedown, oftentimes they’ll take down perfectly legal content protected under “fair use” entirely out of caution to avoid legal action.
Watch most of these people’s works become absolutely worthless overnight.
Nobody will see them, hear about them, or care about them.
And yet billion dollar corporations regularly steal private individuals’ works for fun and profit. T-shirts available at Levi’s and Wallmart included.
This tribunal takes it out of the hands of jurors. And the settlement is capped at $30,000 (2x the base $15,000 infraction). So the big boys can easily afford to settle while those at the low end of the scale (meme generators) are scared into submission.
And there will be lawyers who troll for infractions to collect a piece of the settlements no doubt. Just as they target businesses for ADA compliance shakedown money.
It’s not the billion dollar corporations I worry about.
It’s the folks who use graphics across the internet to make a point, not meaning to make a profit off them at all.
This will have a chilling effect on the linking of images.
We come easily come to the place we won’t be seeing graphics here anymore.
These people are amazing; they simply cannot conceive that things like this will come back to bite them.
If it goes through, immediately file against anyone you can think of. Flood the system. We can hogtie them as easily as they think they can us; we just need to be cocked and primed when it goes down.
As much as I love YouTube, I’d love to see them go down because of this.
It’s meme control.
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