To preface this blog, I had completely no idea what the DMCA was when I was first assigned this project. Though at first I wished I got a topic like Twitter so I could put in more personal experience and relate to the topic, I am happy that I got a topic that I knew nothing about. I'm happy I learned about it too because with the advancement of social media and web 2.0 it is important to know what the rules with online content are. So here goes nothing:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for short is an American copyright law that criminalizes production, use and distribution of technology, devices, or services. Essentially what this law does is worsen the penalties of copyright infringement on the internet. This law was passed on October 12, 1998 by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate. The law was then signed by Bill Clinton two weeks after.
One potential loop-hole in this law and one that I myself was wondering about was who gets in trouble for a website that contains links to other sites with illegal material. There have been no cases in the US where a website owner has been found liable for have links to this type of material so it has yet to be decided how it would be handled.
I think that this law is very important. It is way too easy to just copy and paste material found online, and put it anywhere. I do not have any "professional" websites but I do have facebook, twitter and now this blogger account. Learning about this law has made me realize I should be careful with what I post because it could be copyrighted material.
Refrences:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act
http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/
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