[digital-copyright] MOOC's and Film Copyright

["Marvin, Stephen" <SMarvin@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Russ, et al.

In regards to some answers to your great questions, there's a new sheriff in
town.

Whether the university is liable or the MOOC provider/creator would probably
rest with the creator assuming it is a faculty member performing instruction
for a limited time, for non profit and effect on the market of the items is
limitied.  DMCA allows requests to have items taken down.  In addition, Safe
Harbor provisions with claims of Fair Use permit use of items.  I would think
the Fair use would be the stronger reason to be able to retain the films.

My questions...
-- Is there any responsibility or liability for the university or the third=
-party MOOC provider for these links being publicly posted (and reposted se=
veral times) on their official course website??  The university did not pos=
t these links, they were posted by students.  Does the university or MOOC p=
rovider need to monitor such activity?
-- What is Google's liability?  Are they allowing copyrighted material to b=
e posted on their applications?  I believe that a student tried to post a c=
opyrighted film onto YouTube and it did not last long.   The older films we=
re freely available on YouTube.  YouTube takes copyright very seriously.  H=
ow about Google?

Recent rules went into effect regarding some content on the internet
particular films, video, tv, other broadcasts:

Copyright Alert System (aka the six strikes anti-piracy program) started this
week. Created by the Center for Copyright Information with backing from the
RIAA and other copyright organizations along with the major internet service
providers: AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon, the group
monitors peer-to-peer file transfers, and sends out email notices when it
detects you're downloading copyrighted material. The Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) allows notification to take down content deemed unfair
from the perspective of the copyright owner.  However, there are Safe Harbor
provisions involving Fair Use which individuals can apply, for free, to return
content which a company may have found objectionable. 'Rights owners' can file
DMCA takedown notices at will and free of charge, but it costs the consumers
$35 to conduct an 'independent' review process with the Copyright Alert
System.

What the Copyright Alert System Does  alerts an internet user their account
is used for downloading copyrighted content illegally using peer-to-peer file
sharing. The first time, you receive an email letting you know and educating
you on the laws of copyright. The second offense may be another email
requiring you to acknowledge receipt, or an educational call from your ISP.
The second level of warnings (third and fourth emails) require you to watch a
video before getting online (or a redirect from certain web sites to an
education video).

The final tier of warnings are for the fifth and sixth infraction. They range
from throttling your bandwidth to redirection to a new landing page. Each ISP
has a different policy with how they'll tackle each offense, but they haven't
shared their plans yet. Mashable has the breakdown of how it'll work with
Verizon, Time Warner, Comcast, and AT&T.

The system starts with content partners (the RIAA, MPAA, etc) snooping in on
public peer-to-peer networks to find content they own being shared illegally.
When they find a copy, they trace the IP number through the ISP, and forward
that information to the ISP. Next, your ISP matches that information with your
account, and sends you the warning.

What the Copyright Alert System Doesn't Do - is not a government program. Your
ISP won't even give up your personal information to the content partners
unless it's required by law through a subpoena or court order. The most
annoying thing that'll happen if you get caught is that your bandwidth might
be throttled. Only peer-to-peer traffic from public BitTorrent trackers are
monitored. Basically, if you're not using BitTorrent you have nothing to worry
about.

Basically, the Copyright Alert System is meant to teach people about the
legality of peer-to-peer downloads. Comcast has been criticized for its
actions since it appears Comcast shuts down ALL torrent traffic, individuals
will need to use direct download, not a torrent. There are a lot of legal uses
for bittorrent as well as illegal uses. No one knows how will they
differentiate between them.

How to Get Around Any Issues with the System

Technically, the Copyright Alert System doesn't really have any direct legal
ramifications, but if you don't like the idea of strangers watching what you
download, it's easy to subvert. Anonymizing your BitTorrent traffic with a
proxy is one way to go, and a virtual private network is arguably even better.
A a private BitTorrent tracker is also a good idea. Blocklists like PeerBlock
will not keep you safe, so don't even bother with them. Of course, if you want
to ditch BitTorrent completely, Usenet is simple to set up and not tracked by
the Copyright Alert System.

If you do get alerts from your ISP and you're not actually torrenting
anything, then it's probably time to secure your wireless network. It only
takes a couple of steps to up the security on your wireless network, and if
you're seriously worried someone's in your network it's pretty easy to track
them down. You can file for an independent review process to get the alert
removed, but it costs $35.

Another alternative is a service called PeerBlock
(http://www.peerblock.com/docs/faq). PeerBlock lets you control who your
computer "talks to" on the Internet.  By selecting appropriate lists of "known
bad" computers, you can block communication with advertising or spyware
oriented servers, computers monitoring your p2p activities, computers which
have been "hacked", even entire countries!  They can't get in to your
computer, and your computer won't try to send them anything either. And best
of all, it's free!

from Thorin Klosowski, Thorin. (2013) The Copyright Alert System: How the New
Six Strikes Anti-Piracy Program Works. Retrieved from
http://lifehacker.com/5986961/the-copyright-alert-system-how-the-new-six-stri
kes-anti+piracy-program-works

Stephen Marvin, MLS
FH Green Library
West Chester University
25 W. Rosedale Ave., Suite 205
West Chester, PA  19383
610-436-1068
Faculty Mentoring Coordinator
Campus Copyright Coordinator
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