Slashdot | @Home Cuts Newsgroups Due to DMCA Complaints

[georgemw at speakeasy.net]

On 22 Jun 2001, at 12:03, Steve Schear wrote:

> I don't understand how DMCA comes into play for content already ripped by 
> someone else.
> 
> 

You're correct,  of course.  It doesn't.

> >Does @Home also filter & grab NNTP requests to servers they
> >don't control, like some other ISP is filtering & grabbing SMTP?
> 
> I don't think so, but have never checked.
> 
> It seems that one ploy the digital video posters could use is to select a 
> popular, innocuous, news group, and add their content.  @Home would then be 
> forced to either filter binaries from that group or take it offline, 
> offending a lot of innocent users.
> 
> steve
> 
> 
They're not forced to do anything.  They're probably under the 
delusion that they're safer from liability if they ban groups whose
names imply pirated content.  It's not their fault if somebody
puts metallica mp3s in alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork,
but what the hell did anyone expect to be in alt.binaries.metallica?

I think actually they're shooting themselves in the foot.  If they
excercise no editorial control at all over their news servers
they're protecyed as common carriers,  whereas if they
do excercise some control,  they might be considered to approve
of whatever they let through.

OTOH,  they're probably rich enough to be safe anyway.

George