14 DAY TRIAL // GitHub has announced some major changes to the way it handles DMCA takedown notices from now by updating its copyright police.
In an effort to increase transparency and clarity in the process surrounding the DMCA, the company is making three improvements for starters.
First and foremost, whenever possible, users will have a chance to fix the problems with their repositories before the content is taken down.
Secondly, GitHub will not automatically disable forks in a network based on a takedown of a parent repository unless the takedown notice explicitly includes them. Lastly, the company has revamped the DMCA policy and a pair of how-to guides for takedown and counter notices to make the process more transparent and easy to understand.
DMCA notices targeted at GitHub have been quite popular in recent months. For instance, one such document sent in by the MPAA pulled down Popcorn Time from the site.
There's a new order of business
So, from now on, copyright owners will need to conduct their investigations as usual, but they’ll have to send a properly formatted takedown notice to Github. The company will publish it in the transparency report and contact the user that’s being targeted.
Up until now, at this point Github would have immediately taken down the content that the complaint referred to, without asking too many questions, in a hurry to comply. Well, they’ll have to give users some time to see what the problem is and if maybe they can fix things before the content is removed from the repository. They’ll have 24 hours to modify or remove content after they’ve been notified of the complaint.
There’s an exception to the rule, however, if a DMCA notice claims that the entire content of a repository infringes on their copyright. In such cases, there’s little wiggle room and the entire thing is taken down quickly.
The most interesting update in the whole list is the fact that when Github receives a copyright complaint against a parent repository, it will not automatically disable project forks. They’ll have to be mentioned specifically in the complaint if that is to happen.
“GitHub will not automatically disable forks when disabling a parent repository. This is because forks belong to different users, may have been altered in significant ways, and may be licensed or used in a different way that is protected by the fair-use doctrine,” Github explains.
Since the right of reply seems to be under used at Github, the company wants to make sure that users affected by takedown notices have a right to reply if they believe they’ve been wrongly targeted. A counter notice can be sent by them, which will also be published in the transparency report.