Chilling Effect
26 November 2005You’ve all probably heard at some point or another mention of the
shining beacon in the great American fight against piracy that is the DMCA (Digital
Millenium Copyright Act). If you read the same news sources I do then
you will probably not have heard it mentioned in a greatly flattering
context, among the hubub surrouding this contentious piece of
legislation some hard facts are starting to emerge. Researchers at
University of Southern California and UC Berkley have released their
research into the (chilling) effects of the ‘ceast and desist’ type
provisions contained within the bill. Ars Technica, as always, has a good write up on the issue.
The study shows some interesting results about who is issuing these summary notices and what their
primary motivations are. Over 84% of the notices are sent to Google, not to the ISP hosting the material
in question. While the removal of a Google link makes a site much more difficult to find, it does not
remove the material from the Internet itself. Most of the corporations sending the notices are
small Internet businesses. 55% of the notices sent to Google are requests to remove links to the
complainant’s direct business competitors. A surprisingly low 6% of notices were sent by the music
and movie industry.
In a word - scary.
top