Over 30% of DMCA Cease and Desist Notices Deemed Illegal
By David Walker |
November 25th, 2005 
A report has just been released as part of the Chilling Effects project showing that upwards of 30% of cease and desist orders given under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) were illegal (via Ars Technica). The study focused on “takedown notices,” which demand that ISPs or Search Engines remove links that point to items that violate copyright law. Interestingly, of the 900 notices that were examined, over 84% were sent to Google. Even more surprisingly, a mere 6% of the notices were sent by the music and movie industry. They were probably too busy suing 85 year-old grandmothers who pirate movies to be bothered with serving notices. To add to the confusion of it all, 34% of the notices were sent concerning material not even hosted in the United States, raising questions as to how fair and enforceable the notices are.
Short URL: http://bit.ly/9G71Yt [+] Filed in: Industry Buzz