In its report on Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Copyright Office has incorrectly determined that the only groups whose concerns should be addressed are those of large tech companies and major rightsholders.
The solutions it proposes are in the service of tilting the "balance" of Section 512 towards rightsholders, ignoring the users who will actually bear the brunt of these policies.
For example, the proposal to terminate someone’s Internet access—at any time, but especially now—is a hugely disproportionate response to unproven allegations of copyright infringement.
Finally, the report gives short shrift to the reality that the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA protect a vast array of all kinds of internet activities—sharing videos, photos, speech.
If you depend on a service provider to communicate with the world, from an ISP to a web host to YouTube, you rely on safe harbors. The DMCA is not just a protection for Big Tech; it is the cornerstone of the Internet. copyright.gov/policy/section…
