The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (full pdf of DMCA here) amended U.S. copyright law to limit liability for online service providers for information or material residing on a system or network that the service provider controls. The infringing material must have been placed on the system at the direction of a user, and, to qualify for safe harbor, the service provider must:
- Designate an agent to receive claims of copyright infringement, initiate take-down, receive counter-claims, and initiate restoration as appropriate.
- Inform users of a policy that terminates service for infringements.
- Register an agent to receive DMCA claims with U.S. Copyright Office, which is then placed in its directory of registered agents.
- Identify the DMCA agent via “its service including on its website in a location accessible to the public.”
- Remove material identified in a claim expeditiously.
In a nutshell, that is it. For purposes of our discussion, YouTube’s registered agent form is here (pdf), and as of Dec. 5, 2005, its registered DMCA agent is:
Heather Gillette
71 E. Third, 2nd Floor
San Mateo, CA 94401
p: 650-343-2960
f: 650-343-2983
e: copyright@youtube.com
For fun sometime, look at the name of the companies listed in the directory. Copyright office + amateur porn sites = hilarity.
