View Single Post
Old 08-13-2009, 04:37 PM  
gideongallery
Confirmed User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 7,082
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nautilus View Post
Safe harbor provision has nothing to do with the protection of fair use - it was meant to protect ISPs from frivolous lawsuits, from getting sued for what their users are doing when things were beyond their control.

Fair use existed well before the internet and never needed a safe harbor to protect it - people made parodies and commentaries/critiques long before the first computer, let alone the internet, appeared.
take some time and look at the transcript of the floor when the DMCA was debated

the safe harbor provision was put in place specifically to prevent the take down notice (new power to copyright holder) from censoring fair use. It was specifically put in place to balance the new rights granted to copyright holders. Before that point a host could simple say go get a court order and then we will remove it and the judge would have to decide.

the take down allows you send a 1 page form to get rid of what you claim is a copyright infringement. The problem happens when what you claim is an infringement is really fair use.
__________________

“When crimes occur through the mail, you don’t shut the post office down,” Steve Wozniak
gideongallery is offline   Share thread on Digg Share thread on Twitter Share thread on Reddit Share thread on Facebook Reply With Quote