Author: Sam Castree, III, J.D Candidate, Class of 2013, Chicago-Kent College of Law
Online media distribution has become big business in recent years. For example, Apple sold 10 billion songs on its iTunes platform between April 2003 and February 2010, an average of 46 songs per second. So far in 2012, Amazon.com has sold 14% more e-books than traditional paper books. These and other online digital media stores allow individuals and companies big and small to distribute their creative works worldwide. However, the ease of copying electronic files also turns digital media stores into excellent opportunities for the unscrupulous to turn a quick, dirty payday. Numerous creators, typically lone individuals and small start-up companies, are seeing their works copied wholesale by plagiarists and sold in digital media stores.
Unfortunately, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Congress’s attempt to protect online service providers from secondary liability based on the actions of other Internet users, is not equipped to handle the widespread growth of digital media stores. In particular, two provisions of the DMCA’s § 512(c) safe harbor for user-generated content are ripe for messy conflict because of ambiguities in the statutory language and contradictory interpretations by the courts. Absent a revision by Congress, these gaps will only be closed by costly litigation and appeals, something that many of the victimized creators cannot afford.
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The views expressed here are exclusively of the author and do not represent agreement or endorsement by the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, or Yeshiva University.
