DMCA Crucial to Internet Growth, Should Be Preserved, Internet Association CEO Says

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been crucial to the development of the internet over the past two decades, said Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman in a Medium opinion piece Thursday. “While a few players are pushing a divisive narrative and attacking the laws that form the economic foundation of the internet, the reality is that we are all in this together,” Beckerman said. DMCA “is working,” he said. “The internet sector is now a global driver of the economy, reaching nearly $1 trillion  --  or 6 percent  --  of our GDP in 2014 alone. An era of previously unimagined cultural diversity is available globally at the touch of a finger.” The internet’s overall growth “surpasses the growth of infringing activity on a percentage basis,” Beckerman said. “DMCA has ensured that legal platforms can scale: studies indicate that the introduction of lawful online video and music platforms is typically followed by reductions in online infringement by 50 percent and 80 percent, respectively.” Beckerman said top internet companies have demonstrated their “commitment to holding up our end of the bargain” in the DMCA-created notice-and-takedown system via a “plethora of voluntary ‘DMCA-plus’ programs in use today” like Facebook’s Rights Manager and YouTube’s Content ID program. “Rather than spending their time lobbying Congress for wholesale legislative rewrites, our hope is all sides can come together and focus efforts on doing everything possible to improve the system,” Beckerman said. The Internet Association previously defended the DMCA Section 512 Tuesday, when the group said it opposes legislative proposals that would revamp the statute’s safe harbor provisions and the framework for the notice-and-takedown system (see 1606210040). An advertising campaign by almost 200 recording artists and music industry entities urging Congress to enact a DMCA revamp to rein in Internet Association member Google and other internet companies is underway (see 1606200047). Free State Foundation President Randolph May and Senior Fellow Seth Cooper supported the recording industry’s DMCA revamp campaign Thursday in a blog post for The Hill. A DMCA revamp “shouldn't be about taking sides in the disputes,” Cooper and May said. “Online service providers should retain a safe harbor for good-faith efforts to remove infringing content. But songwriters and recording artists deserve an easier and more efficient means for curtailing online posting of copyrighted music. And reforms should include simpler ways to combat multiple postings by repeat infringers.”