| Quentin |
06-21-2012 10:57 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by VenusBlogger
(Post 19017175)
this does not make sense...
DMCA protects oron and all the other sites.
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If Oron is compliant with the DMCA, that might well be true; the heart of Liberty Media's complaint, however, is the assertion that Oron simply does not comply with DMCA, and that it clearly did not comply with an important provision of the statute prior to July 2011.
From the complaint:
Quote:
Normally, a web hosting company takes advantage of the ?safe harbor? provisions of the DMCA 17 U.S.C. § 512, and would not become a defendant in this cause of action. During the period of most of the complained of infringements, Oron did not have a registered DMCA agent. It is not entitled to the DMCA?s safe harbor provisions for the complained of infringements.
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There is much more to complying with DMCA than simply honoring take down requests. As the bit from Liberty's complaint that I quoted above suggests, one of the other important facets of compliance is registering a designated DMCA agent with U.S. Copyright Office, and subsequently publishing contact information for that agent on your website(s).
Oron only registered its DMCA agent in July of last year, so with respect to any infringing activity at issue in Liberty's complaint that took place prior to that date of registration, the court may well find that Oron should not benefit from DMCA safe harbor with respect to such infringement.
Beyond that, there's nothing in the DMCA that protects you from contributory copyright infringement claims if you are willfully and knowingly profiting from infringement, even if the direct infringement itself is being perpetrated by third parties.
Which brings us to the following claims in Liberty's complaint:
Quote:
41. Defendant Oron.com induces its members to upload content in the hopes that it will be downloaded in massive quantities, such as full-length motion pictures belonging to Plaintiff Liberty.
42. Oron rewards members who steal copyrighted content and provide this content to Defendant Oron.com. Defendant Oron.com publishes illicitly obtained copyrighted materials to lure potential members to its website.
43. Defendant Oron.com engages in this illicit activity for profit. The members uploading the illicitly obtained material also profit.
44. Defendant Oron.com compensates members for their infringing activity.
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If Liberty can provide evidence of those claims at trial, in combination with the lack of a registered agent for Oron prior to July of 2011, I'd say Liberty is in a pretty good position to come out on top in this case. |
