When Copyright Becomes Too Much

The fact that the RIAA has been trying from all sides to get ISPs in charge with policing the different files that navigate their networks or are hosted by their customers is old news. There are, however, many good reasons why this shouldn’t happen and TorrentFreak is offering a very eloquent one.

The example involves a certain record label that deliberately made all its music available for free to download online. It so goes that the record label had its web site taken down by its host for violating the copyright. The thing is that Quote Unquote Records (the site in question) only offers its very own music! That didn’t stop the webhost from getting overzealous and shutting the label's website down for copyright infringement.

The ridiculous story gets even …more ridiculous as when the record label's chief -who has actually written many of the tracks offered by the site - called the hosting company, he was asked to present the host with the paperwork proving that he owned the copyright for those tracks. However, since there was no registration as it’s not really necessary to have one (although there are a few advantages if you do have) because the songs had just been put under a Creative Commons license, ergo the problem.

So, this is a clear example of what may go wrong in the eventuality a law that would require ISPs or webhosts or even online services like YouTube to play the copyright infringement cop.

While it makes sense that the RIAA would be happy with such a law it’s not very obvious why politicians and ISPs are so eager and willing to give the RIAA a hand in this matter.

You can follow the whole story here.