Copyrights: P2P, MP3 and the DMCA

Statutes

Digital Millenium Copyright Act, Pub. L. 105-304, October 28, 1998.

Cases

Costar Group Inc. v. LoopNet, Inc., CV-DKC-99-2983 (September 2001)
The United States District Court for the District of Maryland reviews a case under both a claim of contributory negligence and defence under the 'safe haven' provisions of the DMCA and provides a very good review of the current state of copyright law and the interpretation of Sec. 512 of the Copyright Act.

Recording Indus. of Am. v Verizon Internet Servs. (In re Verizon Internet Servs.), 257 F. Supp. 2d 244 (U.S. Dist. , 2003)
On behalf of copyright owners, the RIAA sought the identity of an anonymous ISP user alleged to have infringed copyrights by offering hundreds of songs for donloading over the Internet. The ISP claimed the DCMA violated Article III by authorizing federal courts to issue binding process without a pending case or controversy, and violated Internet users' First Amendment rights. Inter alia, the court held that the subpoena power under 17 U.S.C.S. § 512(h) did not violate Article III's case or controversy requirement. The statute assigned only a ministerial function to the court clerk. Any authority granted under § 512(h) presented neither a danger of encroachment nor some other threat to the institutional integrity and independence of the judiciary. As the DMCA did not regulate expression and was not directed at the suppression of expression, it was not overbroad and did not abridge the First Amendment rights. Moreover, customers had little expectation of privacy (or anonymity) in infringing copyrights. Further, the ISP was unable to show irreparable harm or that it was likely to succeed on an appeal of its constitutional or statutory challenges, so a stay was inappropriate.

Reports

Unintended Consequences: Five Years under the DMCA, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Website version, HTML, PDF)
Since they were enacted in 1998, the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), codified in section 1201 of the Copyright Act, have not been used as Congress envisioned. Congress meant to stop copyright pirates from defeating anti-piracy protections added to copyrighted works, and to ban “black box” devices intended for that purpose. In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy. As a result, the DMCA has developed into a serious threat to several important public policy priorities: