When the harbor is no longer safe--AOL and repeat infringers.(Law of the Line)(Digital Millennium Copyright Act)

Hawaii Business, June, 2004 by Godbey, Bob

We have discussed in this column before the "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that limit liability for copyright infringement for online service providers. These safe harbors are based on four types of conduct by service providers: transitory communications; system caching; storing of information at user direction; and information location tools. The basic goal is to protect an innocent service provider from allegations of contributory copyright infringement because of actions of the service provider's customers.

To be eligible for this protection, you generally must be a provider of online services or network access, or the operator of facilities for such services. If you host bulletin boards or forums on your Web site,...

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