Abstract
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) unfairly discriminates against copyright holders by allowing online service providers to employ inadequate and outdated takedown protocols of copyright infringement. These protocols promote piracy resulting in illegal advertisement revenue streams. Congress must reform the DMCA to ensure online service providers are held properly accountable when copyright infringement occurs on their platforms. Specifically, the DMCA’s existing takedown protocols should be reformed to ensure online service providers cannot benefit from issues associated with advertisements attached to posts containing infringing material. This Note examines the pertinent sections of the DMCA; relevant caselaw concerning the DMCA, online service providers, copyright holders, and internet users; and recommendations for changes to be made to reconstruct the DMCA so that it may fulfill its original purpose. The proposed recommendations address rising tensions between copyright holders and online service providers. These proposed solutions involve revising existing takedown protocol requirements to give copyright holders more freedoms rather than limiting their remedies to a “band-aid” fix that only provides an illusory remedy. Efficient and updated procedures should be added to the DMCA, to ensure that copyright holders are protected from the issues presented by an ever-digital climate. We cannot continue to apply a law written in Short Code to a world living in the Metaverse.
Recommended Citation
Sabrina Ortega,
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act – In Need of a Major Software Update,
12
Mich. Bus. & Entrepreneurial L. Rev.
75
(2023).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mbelr/vol12/iss1/4