#176: Future of Internet Copyright (w/ TechDirt)

Tech Policy Podcast

TechFreedom

Technology

4.8 • 45 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2017

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What can Taylor Swift and Katy Perry agree on? Not much, but they both think America’s notice-and-takedown laws are outdated. These laws allow copyright holders to ask Internet platforms to remove content that infringes on intellectual property. The 1996 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) aimed to strike a balance that protects copyright while shielding online platforms from being sued out of existence. But plenty of stakeholders have gripes with the current system. Many in the music industry say Internet platforms are enabling piracy, which robs artists and discourages creativity. The tech industry worries that stricter copyright laws would allow frivolous lawsuits to put platforms out of business, creating a chilling effect on free speech. Evan discusses with Mike Masnick, founder and CEO of Floor64 and editor of Techdirt.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the tech policy podcast. I'm Evan Swarchthropper. On today's show, our first episode about copyright. This is not an issue that tech freedom has engaged on, but it's an important one. And a lot of people in the tech policy world are talking about it all the time. So I'm excited to have someone on the show to talk about it. So without further ado, my guest is
0:25.6	Mike Maznick, founder and CEO of Floor 64, an editor of the TechDirt blog. Mike, thanks for joining.
0:33.7	Sure. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here and to bring copyright to your world.
0:38.2	Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, one way of getting listeners into this is to talk about Taylor Swift and Katie Perry, because those are two names that people recognize. And they might not agree on much outside of the policy world. But they do agree that our notice and take down laws,
0:55.1	they say they're outdated. What do I mean by notice and takedown? This is the mechanism by which a
0:59.8	copyright holder can essentially ask an internet platform to remove content that infringes on those
1:05.8	copyrights. And this comes from the 1998 DMCA, that's the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
1:12.4	And Section 512 of this act tried to strike a balance between copyright protection and protecting
1:18.6	internet platforms from excessive liability.
1:21.0	So just imagine, you know, you've gone on YouTube and you've seen clips of someone
1:25.6	filming their television with an NFL game on it.
1:28.7	I mean, just imagine if every time some idiot did that, you could sue YouTube for mass sums.
1:35.3	So that would obviously present a problem for internet platform's viability.
1:39.9	So Congress has been trying for years to do something about copyright to update it.
1:44.2	And this issue raises really important questions about free expression, user privacy, and balancing intellectual property with other rights.
1:52.7	So the Copyright Office is taking a look at three policy studies on this issue.
1:59.0	And they're accepting public comment.
2:00.6	And Mike, I know that you and
2:02.9	your think tank, I forget what it's called, the think tank arm of your website, but you submitted
2:10.3	comments. So do you want to just kind of give a high level summary of what you're arguing that
2:16.8	the copyright office should do.
2:19.3	Sure. And the think tank side of our business is called the Copia Institute.
	...

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