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Tell the U.S. Copyright Office: the DMCA is already bad enough without turning it into SOPA! Stop takedown abuse and protect free speech on the Internet!

For years, huge companies like Sony, Disney, and Comcast have been abusing a law called the DMCA to take down enormous swaths of online content, using automated software that ignores fair use rights and frequently misidentifies music and videos as copyrighted. Now these companies are launching a huge lobbying effort to make the DMCA even worse by forcing websites to play copyright cop and systematically take down user-uploaded content.

What's at stake

The Internet flourishes because of all of the stuff people make and share. But, there's a force that has kept works off the Internet entirely, making it so that there's a whole host of content that most us never get to see or hear. The current notice and takedown system for copyright unnecessarily allows for abuse. With the current DMCA rules, copyright holders can censor and takedown practically any online content, just by saying that it infringes their copyright—no court order or oversight required. It's time to bring fair use back to the Internet.

The DMCA was created to help curb piracy, but all too often it is abused to censor content with valid free speech or fair use rights. Video and music creators are having their work taken down and their income stolen by big corporations who bet that nobody has the legal resources to challenge them. And even when people successfully challenge a takedown and get their work restored, oftentimes there is lasting harm done to their reputation or income.

It's time to take a hard look at the DMCA. A clear fix to the current system is to impose penalties on corporations who abuse the DMCA by issuing false takedowns.



