Forgive me focussing on SOPA and the DOJ seizures so obsessively on this blog, but I truly believe we are at a turning point in the history of the internet, and it would be a shame to not write about it. Here’s the background for this article:
- The DOJ has shown a desire to become more active in the domain seizure game (see my last post on the topic)
- SOPA rallied the internet to mass protest earlier this week (Google & Wikipedia gaining most of the attention with their blackouts, Wikipedia’s which actually limited use of the site), and the bill is probably dead in it’s current form
- and the big one, the day after the SOPA protest, the FBI / DOJ seizes MegaUpload (a popular file locker/sharing site) and has the owners arrested
We are about to see fully what MegaUpload’s use trends really look like, and so far all we have is an overloaded justice department indictment that is currently inaccessible due to server demand (or Anonymous attack, who knows…). What bothers me: How is MegaUpload different from YouTube, which it seems clear is legally operating under the DMCA safe harbor provisions? If MegaUpload’s service was violating the DMCA, which is the law on copyright infringement on the internet, why were the owners instead brought up on charges under the criminal provisions of Title 17, Chapter 5?
My worry is that with SOPA seemingly dead, where SOPA would have given private companies a right to move against sites with infringing content, the government is quickly moving to fill the void of regulations that SOPA was hoping to close. This is just ridiculous timing – the DOJ looks like they have already determined that SOPA was a proper piece of legislation, and they are endorsing stronger enforcement of copyright over the will of the country, before Congress even votes on the bill. Congress probably won’t vote on SOPA after the recent protests, making the DOJ’s action seem like a unilateral decision to enforce the notion behind the bill anyway. Again, we don’t seem to need SOPA if the DOJ can seize the property and arrest the owners of a content hosting site like they’ve done here.
The case against the MegaUpload owners itself seems weak, and begs an obvious question – if MegaUpload is indeed covered by the DMCA safe harbor, but a court finds them guilty of criminal copyright infringement, where does that leave the DMCA as an effective shield for legitimate service providers?
danielmarkmiller.net 