The evidence is increasingly clear: The DMCA needs work.
Also, here to help explain are some panda gifs.
A new study by the Copyright Alliance shows that creators have frustrations with the Digital Millennial Copyright Act (DMCA) system for dealing with copyright infringement on the internet.
52.2% of creators monitor the internet for infringement in some way.
37.4% do not monitor for infringement.
Yet (and this is important) only 2.5% say they do not mind if their work is used online without permission.
There is an obvious gap between 2.5% who are happy to give their work away and 37.4% who may not be happy to give it away but don’t monitor for infringement. The study suggests an explanation: Creators lack information on how the DMCA works or perhaps it’s too difficult and time consuming to merit the time.
There are lots of other interesting findings in the study – you should read it – but the other key finding is that 47.6% of respondents say that the DMCA is ineffective. That’s a pretty high level of dissatisfaction with a system that was supposed to safeguard creators’ rights. Not quite a panda-playing-in-the-snow level of happiness.
This study dovetails with one I worked on with the Arts and Entertainment Advocacy Clinic at my law school, George Mason Law (where I’m a 3L and ready to graduate!). In that study, student lawyers took on the role of monitoring and reporting infringement online for several works.
Probably the most shocking finding of our many hours searching for and responding to infringement is the astounding level of malicious schemes masquerading as sites to download these works. In other words, bad guys dangle the lure of a download to steal personal information, credit cards, or to install malware on computer of the consumer. Many times, in fact, the promised download was not even on the site, something one discovered only after clicking through endless screens and downloading who knows what software.
47% of the sites purporting to offer the work were instead malicious in some way.
With this added dimension in the mix, we were able to confirm removal of only 16% of infringing content from the internet using the DMCA.
You can read the George Mason Law study here.
The studies show the DMCA is not working as it should, especially for individual creators just trying to make a living off their art. More research is needed, but even more, the DMCA needs updates. The pandas, though, are fine.