Re: ISPs now responsible for Pirated Material

Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 07:29:38 -0500 To: general@la-ma.org From: Doug Krick Subject: ISPs now responsible for Pirated Material Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-general@la-ma.org Precedence: bulk

http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,28357,00.html?st.ne.fd.mdh

Summary: IF a local ISP doesn't register with the goverment, per a new law Clinton signed this week, the ISP can be held legally responsible for any pirated material that may be on their site.

Not really a problem. Its one thing to require a contact person. It's quite another to get an ISP to provide sufficient resources to adequately police its feed. In many of the Usenet .warez. groups, for example, postings expire after only a few hours/days. By the time action is taken its gone anyway. The ISPs made a very good argument, in the SC CDA hearings, that policing their feeds and access was impractical. Sounds like this could be pretty much the same problem. I wonder how Eternity servers, using Usenet references, would be treated under these regs? --Steve