Internet Legal Trends to Watch. Part 4: Copyright’s Race to Keep Up with the Internet?

Along with the entry of internet access into more homes and into our daily lives comes more opportunities for piracy and new attitudes about copyright law. In response, content owners have tried to squelch the unauthorized online sharing and copying of their copyrighted content.

Starting with the RIAA

Beginning in 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued or threatened to sue over 35,000 individuals who participated in P2P file sharing of music. Most of the RIAA lawsuits never went to trial and resulted in settlements in which the accused file sharer paid a settlement fee of several thousand dollars. Due in part to complaints against RIAA’s methods and the failure of the lawsuits to deter piracy significantly, the RIAA has phased out its strategy of suing individual file sharers.

Righthaven Follows

However, other content owners have picked up where the RIAA left off. Righthaven is among the most notorious. Since last year, Righthaven filed over 200 copyright infringement lawsuits against bloggers and website owners for posting newspaper articles without permission. Those hit with Righthaven lawsuits include former senate candidate Sharron Angle and the Democratic Party of Nevada. For a blow-by-blow account of the Righthaven lawsuits, read Steven Green’s stories, a Las Vegas Sun reporter who has written extensively about the lawsuits. Another content owner trying its hand at massive copyright infringement lawsuits is Third World Media, which has tried to sue 1,243 individuals who downloaded copies of the pornographic film, Tokyo Teens.

What These Cases Mean for Everyday Internet Users

The Righthaven lawsuits may provide more guidance on how far one can push fair use online. Most of the people sued by Righthaven who attempt to defend themselves rather than settle claim their use of the articles qualifies is a fair use. That argument worked in the case of a realtor who used only eight sentences of a thirty-sentence news article. However, most of the Righthaven defendants have copied an entire article. For them, it is more difficult to make a persuasive fair use argument.

Many have also criticized Righthaven for filing lawsuits without first issuing a DMCA takedown letter. While the majority of content owners would likely send a takedown letter prior to filing a lawsuit, there is no statutory requirement that they do so. Hence, it will be interesting to see how this “no warning” argument resonates with the courts.