Anti-piracy firm proposes changes to DMCA copyright law

Apr 17, 2016 00:55 GMT  ·  By

On April 1, representatives for CEG TEK filed a motion with the US Copyright Office asking for a series of modifications to the current DMCA copyright law.

According to CEG TEK's proposal obtained by TorrentFreak, the company wants ISPs to pay fines when they fail to stop repeat copyright offenders from downloading pirated content.

Further, the anti-piracy company also wants ISPs to be forced to forward copyright violation notices to their customers. Under current DMCA rules, ISPs are not obligated to do so.

Most ISPs refuse to forward these notices because they also contain settlement proposals aimed at making copyright infringers pay hundreds of dollars for their actions. ISPs avoid helping these firms mainly because it will damage their public image.

CEG TEK's main business is to help copyright holders fight piracy by chasing pirates, reaching settlements or suing them. These proposals are primarily aimed at making their job easier.

CEG TEK: ISPs should to pay $30 for each pirated movie you download

While forcing ISPs to forward copyright violation notices to users is in line with what Canada is already doing, the ISP fine proposal is a little bit strange.

Current DMCA rules give ISPs safe harbor by not considering them guilty of the illegal downloads of their clients, but they have to take action against repeated offenders and collaborate with law enforcement.

The proposal received by the US Copyright Office will change the DMCA model from the ground up because the fine is a method through which ISPs will be held accountable and punished for copyright violators.

CEG TEK hopes that, by affecting an ISP's bottom line, they will force them to be more responsive to copyright violation notices in the future. The fine they proposed is $30 (€27) for each instance when a known pirate downloads new copyrighted content from the Internet.

Taking into account that some users might download a few movies in one go from torrent portals, someone's Saturday night movie binge might end up costing the ISP a few hundred dollars in fines.