Copyright experts are speaking out against a recent proposal from the U.S. Copyright Office, arguing that it will strip companies of vital protections that shield them from liability for copyright infringement.

Safe harbor protections

At issue is Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects service providers from liability for copyright-infringing activities on the part of users. To receive these so-called safe harbor protections, one thing a service provider has to do is register an agent to receive takedown notices with the Copyright Office.

On May 25, the Copyright Office issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning a new submission process to designate these agents. At first glance, the proposal was noncontroversial, calling for the implementation of an electronic registration system and proposing reducing the fee to designate an agent from the current price of at least $105 to only $6.

The catch

The catch — which came by way of a footnote — is that, in order to pay for the new electronic database while lowering fees, registrants have to renew their registration every three years. Under the current regime, service providers only register once and pay a one-time fee.

Despite that the Copyright Office only asked for comments on the fee change, a handful of comments were submitted in response to the NPRM on or shortly before the June 24 deadline that expressed concern about the agent renewal condition. One such submission from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) with 11 other organizations and internet law expert Eric Goldman noted that, because of the new condition, a service provider could “be exposed to a massive — and potentially business-ending — damage award that could reach millions (or even billions) of dollars for forgetting to renew or maintain the agent designation on time.”