COMPLYING WITH THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1998

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 ("DMCA") was signed into law on October 28, 1998. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act amended the United States Copyright Act to provide potential limitations of liability on Internet "service providers" for copyright infringing materials that may be accessed from or through their systems via the Internet.

The DMCA contains a tangled web of requirements and prerequisites that must be complied with by Internet service providers in order to receive the liability limitations and other protections that are made available by the DMCA. All Internet service providers should take steps to assure that they are in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires several steps to be taken by service providers, including:

1. Filing the appropriate designations, 2. Establishing appropriate user policies, 3. posting appropriate notices on the service provider's web site, and 4. following the rather complicated set of procedures laid out in the DMCA when the service provide receives notice or knowledge that information available through its service may infringe on the copyright of a third party.

DMCA Guide From DigiLaw [Word][RTF]

 

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