What does a dispute over a Beyoncé photo on a gossip site have to do with your association? It might affect your potential liability for copyright infringement.
A decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in April raised concerns about website owners’ liability for copyright infringement—in content that website users post. The decision, Mavrix Photographs, LLC v. LiveJournal, Inc., says that online providers might not be able to use the safe harbor that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides if they moderate the content. The act protects websites from copyright infringement claims for user-posted content.
Now, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, Google, and Facebook have asked the court to rehear the decision. The case involves a copyright issue with photos of Beyoncé that a user posted on a LiveJournal celebrity gossip site. The decision raises the question of whether the site’s use of moderators to review users’ posts—for compliance with the site’s rules—makes it ineligible for the DMCA’s safe harbor.
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