Critics of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act got some ammunition—not to mention a laugh—last month, when Warner Bros. Entertainment embarrassingly asked Google to take down hundreds of copyright-infringing websites, only to later realize that it had included legitimate sites and some of the company’s own official pages. General counsel say that the blunder dredges up questions about whether the current notice and takedown system is working for both copyright owners and service providers.
Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides a notice and takedown process that allows copyright owners, like WB, to protect their works from online infringement. On Aug. 18, WB, via its hired DMCA agent Vobile, sent a DMCA takedown notice to Google listing over 300 allegedly infringing sites. As tech blog TorrentFreak discovered, legitimate domains were targeted, such as an Amazon page selling “The Dark Knight” and an official IMDb page for “Batman Begins.” Also listed were some of WB’s own official websites for movies such as “The Matrix.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]