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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday August 01 2019, @06:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-turn-off-the-internet dept.

The Senate Judiciary Committee intends to vote on the CASE Act, legislation that would create a brand new quasi-court for copyright infringement claims. We have expressed numerous concerns with the legislation, and serious problems inherent with the bill have not been remedied by Congress before moving it forward. In short, the bill would supercharge a “copyright troll” industry dedicated to filing as many “small claims” on as many Internet users as possible in order to make money through the bill’s statutory damages provisions. Every single person who uses the Internet and regularly interacts with copyrighted works (that’s everyone) should contact their Senators to oppose this bill.

Making it so easy to sue Internet users for allegedly infringing a copyrighted work that an infringement claim comes to resemble a traffic ticket is a terrible idea. This bill creates a situation where Internet users could easily be on the hook for multiple $5,000 copyright infringement judgments without many of the traditional legal safeguards or rights of appeal our justice system provides.

The legislation would allow the Copyright Office to create a “determination” process for claims seeking up to $5,000 in damages:

Regulations For Smaller Claims.—The Register of Copyrights shall establish regulations to provide for the consideration and determination, by at least one Copyright Claims Officer, of any claim under this chapter in which total damages sought do not exceed $5,000 (exclusive of attorneys’ fees and costs). A determination issued under this subsection shall have the same effect as a determination issued by the entire Copyright Claims Board.

This could be read as permission for the Copyright Office to dispense with even the meager procedural protections provided elsewhere in the bill when a rightsholder asks for $5000 or less. In essence, what this means is any Internet user who uploads a copyrighted work could find themselves subject to a largely unappealable $5,000 penalty without anything resembling a trial or evidentiary hearing. Ever share a meme, share a photo that isn’t yours, or download a photo you didn’t create? Under this legislation, you could easily find yourself stuck with a $5,000 judgment debt following the most trivial nod towards due process.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Thursday August 01 2019, @09:11PM (1 child)

    by edIII (791) on Thursday August 01 2019, @09:11PM (#874260)

    All the more reason for for the people to aggressively "go dark". I just recently put up a protest site for some people, using cryptocurrency and TOR.

    It's highly doubtful that anybody will unmask my identity, and there are zero communications now making their way to back to me from the site. It's fully funded for two years with a registrar and site provider that specializes in free speech. The wallet that I used to pay for it has since been destroyed, and will not be used for anything else.

    There are ways to protect ourselves, and the more people that get nailed by stupid bullshit like that, are going to represent the increasing population of the various Dark Nets. None of this is good for social networks, so I'm kinda surprised they aren't fighting this tooth and nail. We need good Dark Nets, as well as browsers specifically designed to obfuscate identity.

    Considering how the IoT is getting underway, protests and unpopular Fair Use that is being suppressed, can migrate to smaller embedded servers that can be hidden in plain sight. Imagine a solar powered mini-webserver sucking off an open access point, or spliced into a network cable. Finding, and identifying the owner may proof very problematic.

    I'm ready for a good ol' information war. Are you? :)

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @12:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @12:35AM (#874383)

    I prefer legislating for freedom, though a Johnny Mnemonic type of future does sound exciting.