[Air-l] Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Sandra Braman sandra.braman at mail.ua.edu
Mon Oct 1 09:32:33 PDT 2001


The Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires network
services providers -- including schools and universities --
to shut down any websites it hosts if there are complaints
to the institution that there is copyright infringement.
For this purpose, each such institution must have a person
whose responsibility for copyright infringement via the
system is made public along with contact info.  The website
must be shut down BEFORE it has actually been decided in a
court of law that there is in fact copyright infringement,
which is a significant change in copyright law many find
distressing.  However, this Act does NOT limit links to home
pages only.  All legislation is complex, this particularly
so, and many folks in good faith make a decision to read as
restrictively as possible out of prudence (or fear) -- but
in this case the requirement being asked to limit links to
home pages is not necessary.

Sandra Braman





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