Me drooling over copyright stuff.
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Mmm lets see *zippys brain starts grinding and bleching out smoke and the creaking of cogs and gears can be heard for miles around* currently we have 4 levels of copyrighted item use, non copyrighted/public domain thus mostly untouched by the copyright system,fair use which is argued daily, licensed item use, and infringement which is argued daily with a small portion of it being real crime.
Fair use and infringement(non commercial) touches the lives of thousands of people daily and can effect many peoples right of personal use, archiving, format shifting, and free expression/speech.
Commercial infringement is mostly counterfeiting as going after more vague types of illicit profit is difficult due to various loopholes and oversight within copyright law.
So we add a level thats a combination of 2 other levels where the public can use the wealth of media at their leaser as long as they do not profit from it in any way shape or form, this takes pressure off certain areas of fair use,non commercial infringement and the vast majority of frivolous lawsuits(IE the public can not be complicated in any copyright right crime civil or criminal unless they have tried to make money from the process).
Sites that attempt to make money off being he middle man can be giving some leeway but mostly the courts will decide if the model is gaining a illicit profit, basically the status quo is used to look at the case with a caveat where if money is made from the negligent or willing process of trade or sale of copyrighted items there is a moderate possibility a crime is taking place.
Basically it removes the end user from the take down process and focuses on the site itself, their rules and their ability to reasonably remove content that the copyright owner has bitched about if files are removed in a timely manner(set by the court) then they are not breaking the law, its a stop gap measure to allow a site to get its records and what not in order and appeal .
IMO its better than the DMCA and stealing more rights from the public, if you are a site that relies on outside funds that dose not fall within the bounds of exemption then you will have just have to abid by fair use and the letter of the law or deal with the copyright bullies in court in a less frivolous manner than today.
Most popular content is copyrighted tus you are going to have to do something about what the public can reasonably do with it(dose not try and make money in any shape for form is not a crime in any shape or form) and what business and the copyright owner can do with it.
How do you suggest you balance the needs of the public and the needs of the media industry?IMO Profit must be protected but not at the cost of user rights.
RapidShare didn’t infringe on copyrights, says US court – Ars Technica OpenForum.
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