DMCA Title II - Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act
Title II of the DMCA is called the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act.
- limits the liability of an online service provider (OSP) for its customers’ copyright infringement
- Online service providers lobbied hard for these provisions
- were concerned that they could be held liable for their users’ actions under some secondary liability legal theories
- exempts OSPs from claims under specific conditions:
- Transitory communications (providing network communications services)
- aka conduit
- System caching
- Storage of information on systems or networks at the direction of users (hosting)
- Providing information location tools (search engines)
- Transitory communications (providing network communications services)
Safe Harbor Requirements for OSPs
- safe harbors do not require an OSP to monitor the content posted or transmitted by the OSP’s users for copyright infringement
- must develop a policy of terminating the accounts of repeat copyright offenders
- must not interfere with any technological measures that copyright owners use to protect their copyrights
- must also meet additional criteria for three of the safe harbors:
- Under the transitory communications safe harbor section, OSP must show:
- Someone other than the OSP initiated the transmission of content
- transmission was carried out through an automated process
- OSP does not select who receives the transmitted material except as an automatic response to the request of another person
- No copy of the transmission is retained in a manner that makes it available to other recipients
- OSPs transmit the material through its system without modification of its content
- Under the information storage and information location tools safe harbor provisions, OSP must show:
- users control what material they post online
- they do not have actual knowledge of users’ infringing activities
- they do not profit from the user’s infringing activities
- they take down or block access to infringing material when they receive proper notice from a copyright owner
- Under the transitory communications safe harbor section, OSP must show: