Internet Association warns against 'radical changes' in copyright review

A group representing Internet companies like Google and Facebook told a federal office that protecting companies from litigation as long as they police copyright violations works to ensure adequate copyright protection online. The comments concern a legal provision — known as section 512 — that shields service providers from liability for hosting or transmitting content that infringes on copyright, as long as they adequately deal with such violations. The law created a system of notices that users can file to ask a website to take down content that they believe violates copyright.

The Internet Association filed comments with the US Copyright Office on April 1 saying that its “member companies depend on the certainty and clarity in Section 512 to provide users and creators access to a broad diversity of content available on a variety of platforms.” “Radical changes to the existing safe harbors would chill incentives to invest and innovate at a time when both are sorely needed globally,” said association president Michael Beckerman. “Changes that increase the burden on intermediaries would also likely create the unintended consequence of building a regulatory moat around existing Internet platforms. On the other side of this regulatory moat would be smaller startups that do not have access to the capital needed to hire sophisticated compliance teams.”