EFF: Copyright, The First Wave of Internet Censorship
Copyright, The First Wave of Internet Censorship We’re taking part in Copyright Week , a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what’s at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation. When someone wants to remove speech from the Internet, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) notice and takedown process can provide the quickest path. This has made copyright law a tempting tool for unscrupulous censors. As content companies push for even more control over what gets posted online, it’s important to remember that any tool used to police copyright will quickly be abused, then adapted, to censor speech more widely. We’ve seen abusive DMCA takedown notices from a would-be Senate candidate , small businesses , and Ecuador’s President . We’ve also seen robots-run-a...