James Delahunty
5 May 2005 3:29
The United States Supreme Court has denied to hear the InternetMovies.com vs. Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) case. This now sets the stage for continued subjective interpretation of the good faith belief provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It now gives copyright holders the power to attack websites and force them shut down without reasonable investigation. This case first appeared in 2002 when the MPAA had InternetMovies.com wrongfully shut down.
The MPAA sent a cease and desist letter to site's host claiming that InternetMovies.com was illegally making movies available for download including The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. This was 2001 and the third instalment of the LOTR trilogy which was apparently available for download wasn’t even released in theatres or finished until 2003. "All I was doing was reporting news about movies online. This now proves there are no freedom of speech or due process rights on the Internet for the common person." site owner, Michael Jay Rossi said.
"The MPAA did not dispute it had made an error in judging the site's content, the District Court, Ninth Circuit Court and Supreme Court have all sided with the subjective interpretation of the DMCA and ruled in favor of MPAA," says Rossi. "Believing material from the future is downloadable is now a valid and reasonable belief that protects copyright holders to continue to abuse the 'shoot now, ask later' good faith belief in the DMCA. A Pandora's box of troubles for web site owners and individuals is open." he added.
Source:
PR Newswire