Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Lenz court interprets and limits damages available under DMCA 512(f) for wrongfully issued takedown notices

The newest Lenz decision interprets damages available for bogus takedown notices under 17 U.S.C. 512(f), but its practical effect will be to limit the amount plaintiffs can recover.
Submitted by Meghan Bohn last modified Mon, 03/22/2010 - 1:19pm

Legal and How-to Guides for Independent Creators, Internet Users, nonprofits, and small businesses

Submitted by New Media Rights on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 5:38pm

Our educational guides are organized by category and title below. We also have the Fair Use app and 150+ video guides available.  You can check out our video legal guides by clicking here!  You can also buy our new book Don't Panic, a plain language legal guide that every creator and business should have when starting a project.

New Media Rights Guides are available to browse, read and learn from. They are organized by category and title.

Webtreats Glowing Neon Social Media Icons by Flickr user webtreats used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license

Best Practices for Creative Commons attributions - how to attribute works you reuse under a Creative Commons license

Find out how to cite or attribute Creative Commons work. Creative commons licenses allows you to share, remix and reuse the work legally, just make sure to check out the conditions of the license!

Submitted by New Media Rights last modified Tue, 04/18/2023 - 4:36pm

How service providers deny users the right to counternotify for content removed by DMCA takedown notices

DMCA pic

New Media Rights recently heard from a blogger who received notification that a takedown notice was sent to their service provider, a website that hosts individuals blogs, and that the user’s content was removed.  However, the blogging service didn't

1) Identify the individual who requested the information be taken down OR

2) Specifically identify the infringing material

What's the problem?  This essentially destroys a users right to counternotify, allowing overreaching large content companies to control and remove Internet speech at will. 

Learn about the problem here, and learn how to fight back if you have content removed by a DMCA takedown notice.

Submitted by Art Neill last modified Wed, 04/20/2011 - 10:41am

New Media Guides Legal and How-to guides

Submitted by New Media Rights on Thu, 09/03/2009 - 5:14pm

Welcome to our Legal and How-to resource center.  We hope these guides will help you, the user/creator,  to learn about

  • Rights and laws on the Internet
  • How to use new technologies and social media in your own life

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Is the DMCA the weapon of choice for Internet bullies?

Internet bullies are taking matters into their own hands by trying to use the "safe harbor" provisions of the DMCA to wrongfully intimidate others. It is crucial for all Internet service providers, website operators, bloggers, etc. to fully understand the state of the law in order to avoid unneccesary harassment. 

Section 512 of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) creates "safe harbor" provisions for online service providers who allow user generated content. Under these provisions, online service providers are granted some protection against copyright infringement claims as long as certain procedures are followed. Generally, a copyright holder must send a "take down" notice to the service provider, and the service provider will inform the user the content has been taken down. In response, the user may reply with a "counter notice" letter to try and have the content re-posted.

Submitted by Anonymous last modified Thu, 06/18/2009 - 8:55pm

EFF Launches TOSBack - A 'Terms of Service' Tracker for Facebook, Google, eBay, and More

San Francisco - "Terms of Service" policies on websites define how Internet businesses interact with you and use your personal information. But most web users don't read these policies -- or understand that the terms are constantly changing. To track these ever-evolving documents, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is launching "TOSBack": a "terms of service" tracker for Facebook, Google, eBay, and other major websites.

Submitted by New Media Rights on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 9:11am

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The AP is going stop bloggers from pirating content (or quoting in fair use for legitimate reasons)

The AP says it is taking aim at "wholesale theft" with new technology that is aimed at targeting reposting of "entire articles." The new technology is supposed to simply flag questionable articles for lawyers and paralegals to then review.

The question is will the new technology be so limited, or will the AP use the technology to follow the same path it took filing DMCA takedown notices falsely characterizing the law regarding the Drudge retort's postings as follows:

"...the use is not fair use simply because the work copied happened to be a news article and that the use is of the headline and the first few sentences only ."

Submitted by Art Neill last modified Wed, 06/03/2009 - 3:46pm

Essential Free and Open Source Software Toolkit

A tool kit full of Free or Open Source software
Open source software has gained popularity because of its effectiveness, flexibility, security, and low cost. By adopting an entirely new philosophical approach to software development and user freedom, open source software empowers you, the downstream user not just to use it to perform a task, but to build upon, adapt, and modify it to fit your needs. In this way thousands of developers and users around the world are able to work to improve the software's effectiveness, flexibility, and security. Join the many people around the world using open source software, a way of life that encourages openness, sharing, community, innovation, and discovery.
Submitted by New Media Rights last modified Tue, 04/18/2023 - 4:38pm

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