Terms of Service Lawyer | Court Rules No Liability for Internet Service Provider

The District Court for the Northern District of California granted motion to dismiss without leave to amend in Williams v. Life’s Rad and Cafepress.com, 2010 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 46763 (N.D. Cal. 2010) after finding that Plaintiff failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. 

In this case, CafePress.com provides goods and services over the internet which allows users, also known as shopkeepers, to upload their custom-made designs to be printed on merchandise, also offered by CafePress, such as t-shirts, posters, coffee mugs and other merchandise.  Shopkeepers then sell their custom-made merchandise on the internet through online shops, also provided by CafePress.  The Plaintiff and Defendant Life’s Rad are shopkeepers on the CafePress site.  The Defendant ,Life’s Rad,  notified CafePress of the Plaintiff’s use of the terms “Life is Rad” to sell his merchandise and that such use infringed its trademark rights in the mark LIFE’S RAD.  In accordance with their Terms of Use agreement, after confirming the trademark registration, CafePress removed infringing material from the alleged infringer's online shopping site in compliance with its shopkeeper and terms of service agreements, which authorizes CafePress to prohibit the sale of goods that it believes “infringes the rights of a third party, including, without limitation, copyrights [and] trademarks,”.  Plaintiff, acting pro se, filed suit against Defendants Life’s Rad and Cafepress.com (CaféPress) alleging that Defendants had violated the DMCA, Lanham Act, his constitutional right to due process, and engaged in unfair competition.

The court ultimately concluded that the Plaintiff failed to state a claim and that the complaint could not be cured by amendment.  Read the court's reasoning below:

Google Argues Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Safe Harbor In Viacom YouTube Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

The ABA Journal reports that Google has outlined its defenses in its $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit with Viacom over the display of copyrighted videos on YouTube.  Verizon originally filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google in 2007, alleging that Google had infringed upon its copyright rights by facilitating the posting of over 63,000 Viacom videos on the YouTube service.  Google claims that it is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor provisions, which provide Internet service providers with a statutory safe harbor provided they expeditiously removes copyrighted materials from their servers upon notification.  If you are faced with a copyright infringement lawsuit, or if you believe that your copyrighted content has been stolen and are need of advice concerning the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, contact one of our expert copyright lawyers today at 866.936.7447.

Interview with William Patry, Author of Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars

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ANNOUNCER:  Today’s program is brought to you by Traverse Legal.  A law firm specializing in copyright law, Internet law, domain disputes and technology company representation.  That’s Traverse Legal.  www.traverselegal.com.  Welcome to Traverse Legal Radio.  Now here’s your host Enrico Schaefer.

Enrico Schaefer:  Welcome to Traverse Legal Radio.  Today we are speaking with Bill Patry, the author of Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars.  This is the second interview of Bill concerning the book, and today we’re going to be talking a little bit about some of the controversy concerning Moral Panics.  How are you doing today, Bill? 

Bill Patry:  I’m doing well.  How are you?

Does DMCA Cover Attempted Distribution and Copyright Infringement?

On Friday, EFF filed an amicus brief in Atlantic v. Howell, an Arizona lawsuit brought as part of the RIAA's national campaign against individuals for file-sharing. Although the case has received attention recently over the issue of whether CD ripping is legal, the main event in the case is about something different: can the RIAA sue people for attempted copyright infringement?

Ninth Circuit Addresses “Reasonable Implementation” And Other Elements Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act

In Perfect 10, Inc. v. CCBill LLC and Cavecreek Wholesale Internet Exchange d/b/a CWIE LLC, No. 04-57143 (9th Cir., March 29, 2007) the Ninth Circuit allowed Perfect 10 to pursue copyright infringement claims against defendants, who provide web hosting and credit card billing services, arising out of the unauthorized posting on the web by their third party customers of “adult” images in which Perfect 10 holds copyrights. Questions of fact precluded a determination of whether defendants were immunized from monetary liability for such claims by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). The Court of Appeals held such immunity extends only to service providers who “reasonably implement” a policy for terminating those of their customers that repeatedly infringe copyrights. In considering this question, the Ninth Circuit held courts should consider not only the manner in which the defendants responded to “take down” infringement notices sent by the plaintiff copyright holder, here Perfect 10, but also the manner in which they responded to similar notices from third party copyright holders.  It is evident Courts will consider not only policies concerning take down of infringing content but actual implementation of those policies under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA.

Digital Millennium Lawsuit Against Universal Music Publishing

Interview with Marcia Hoffman, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) www.eff.org. Ms. Hoffman is the lead attorney representing YouTube contributor, Stephanie Lenz, against Universal Music Publishing Group. Universal Music recently shut down Ms. Lenz' YouTube video of her toddler son dancing to a Prince song on the internet with a bogus take down notice to YouTube.

• Watch the video here.
• See the Lenz v. Universal Music Publishing Group Complaint here.
• More Info on the EFF here.

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ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio Tech Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.

FAIR USE Act 07 Alters DMCA's Stance

It is widely held that the DMCA needs revisions; from abusing takedown notices to false assertions of copyright ownership the DMCA has more than its fair share of balancing issues. The new changes brought on by the passing of the Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007 (FAIR USE Act), in February of 07 has made some progress in addressing these problems with the DMCA.

DMCA has Compliance Issues

Over at Life On the Wicked Stage they've noted that the Media Rights Technologies, MRT, has filed cease and desist orders under the DMCA against four companies; Apple, Microsoft, Real, and Adobe. MRT filed the order because these companies have avoided using MRT technologies in their products, somewhat effectively circumventing the DMCA.

Companies Use DMCA to Shut Down Websites

One of the major powers that the DMCA provides to companies, as noted by Greg over at Consumer Law & Policy Blog, is an "easy way for companies to get information taken off the Internet." The way that companies accomplish this is by filing a notice of claimed infringement with the DMCA. The DMCA in turn notifies the ISP with a takedown notice and the ISP usually removes the content or shuts down whole sites which were claimed to be copyright infringing.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Overview

Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998

The DMCA is a synthesis of two WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) treaties. The two treaties are the WIPO Copyrights Treaty, and the Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The DMCA, very broadly, provides a standard for determining what is a copyright infringement and further mandates a system of civil remedies and criminal penalties if a violation has occurred. The two treaties that the DMCA is based off of also dealt with protection of intellectual properties from other countries that were members of the treaties. This theme is furthered in the DMCA as it provides rules for protection of works from other countries.