Brazil Decides Against DMCA-Style Notice-And-Takedown For Third Party Content
from the good-news dept
We've had numerous stories concerning Brazilian service providers, such as Google, being held liable for messages created by third parties. Brazil, apparently, had no concept of a safe harbor for third party liability. However, that's apparently on the verge of changing -- and it might even be changing in a smart way. While an earlier proposal would have required service providers to take down pretty much any content under a notice-and-takedown system, similar to what the US has for copyright in the DMCA, complaints about the possible impact this would have on free speech appear to have been listened to. The latest proposal moves away from a notice-and-takedown regime to one where service providers would only need to take down content under a court order. In other words, people just complaining by themselves, with no judicial oversight, cannot force a site to take content offline:An Internet service provider shall only be held responsible for damages resulting from content created by a third party if, after receiving a related court order, it does not take measures to render unavailable (within the scope of its services and within the timeframe specified) the content identified as infringing.That seems significantly more reasonable than traditional notice-and-takedown schemes that are widely abused. It would be nice if the US could move to a similar thing for copyrights as well to avoid the serious First Amendment problems with a notice-and-takedown system.
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Since this often doesn't exist under the current system, there would be a far lower number of accusations and thus not significantly high numbers of cases for the courts to handle. It would also allow penalties to be enforced for repeat and volume offenders, who eventually make it to court anyway under today's system.
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Wait, you're really going to try to argue that due process is a bad system?
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In both systems if the content is illegal then it will be taken down.
Question to you: If a rights holder doesn't like (but the content is legal) a work, why is the burden on the new creator? Shouldn't the rights holder have to prove that a work is infringing before it is removed?
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Also note that the procedure is only prelimninarily against the ISP ("ação cautelar preparatória" = something like a preliminary lawsuit) and the real suit and procedure are against the content creator. And, once again, in Brazil these procedures are cheaper than in US.
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Perhaps that would make them keep track of what their employees are posting. Think the YouTube Viacom case.
"only the freeloaders benefiting from the stolen content get off at the same price, free."
"Infringing" content not "stolen"
"there is something wrong with that when the law makes it more expensive to be a victim or a third party to a crime."
Yeah about that, think the words "Due Process" which everyone in the media creation and distribution industries want to not apply to music, or video. There is a small problem with that, once due process is removed for one thing it can be removed for others. That is a really big issue, warrantless wire taps, monitoring everything sent over the internet, take down notices, border confiscation based on suspicion, proving that you downloaded files legally.
Removing Due Process creates a system that is ripe for abuse. Where anyone can cause problems for someone else just by accusing them of doing something. Where free speech is trampled on. Where any dissenting voice can be silenced. Sounds like you are on your way to creating a really wonderful society.
Be careful though it might just comeback and bite you on the ass.
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Some people seem to be misunderstanding the fact that online service providers can still remove content if they want to - It is not like they cannot act on their own and have to wait for a court order. If the content violates their terms of service, for example, they can just take it down, court order or not.
This seems to be a great system indeed. Here's hoping it ends up becoming law.
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Exactly.
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see http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2010/05/proposed_intern.htm
"American readers should also bear in mind that, contrary to the situation in the United States, in Brazil it is neither too complicated nor too expensive (at least in comparison to American standards) to file a lawsuit demanding content to be taken down. In fact, under certain circumstances, such lawsuit can even be filed directly by the alleged victim in a small claims court at little to no cost."
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