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> Copyright law is also used to suppress anything that the Rightsholder doesn't like Neither of the examples you give really support that. GoPro was about tra

by SEMW 13y ago

> Copyright law is also used to suppress anything that the Rightsholder doesn't like Neither of the examples you give really support that. GoPro was about trademarks (and was hopeless anyway - it's not really the fault of trademark laws that someone can send a nastygram that's completely without legal merit, using 'trademark violation' as a scary magic word). The dentist one was only worded in terms of copyright so that the dentist could use DMCA takedown notices. You could abolish copyright altogether, and that wouldn't stop a dodgy dentist putting a clause into their patient contract saying 'you can't post bad reviews' and suing people who do. (Obviously it's bad that the DMCA is so easy to abuse, and the DMCA's flaws are well documented on hn - the point is, they're flaws in the DMCA, not in the concept of copyright).

bediger4000 13y ago
If you don't like the examples I gave above, use some Google fu - I chose among a bunch of alternatives. I didn't want to just list a pile of URLs. Any particular instance of DMCA-based speech suppression is probably arguable. "Oh, that's just some crank getting riled up." You have to look at the DMCA as a system. The DMCA encourages notice and takedown, not notice and notice. The bias in copyright law as a whole is towards the rightsholder, so copyright law becomes an easy tool for abuse.
- SEMW 13y ago
  > You have to look at the DMCA as a system. I do? I was approaching this thread as being about the correctness of IP rights as a concept. Again, I'm not disputing the defects of the DMCA, only the use of DMCA abuse to imply that the whole concept of copyright is inherently flawed. (As it happens, I don't even live in the US, so the DMCA doesn't apply to me). > The bias in copyright law as a whole is towards the rightsholder In its current US (and EU) implementations, sure. But unless you're saying the existence of copyright as a property right itself is the bias (in which case 'unbiased copyright law' would be an oxymoron), that's an implementation issue.

by SEMW 13y ago

bediger4000 13y ago

If you don't like the examples I gave above, use some Google fu - I chose among a bunch of alternatives. I didn't want to just list a pile of URLs. Any particular instance of DMCA-based speech suppression is probably arguable. "Oh, that's just some crank getting riled up." You have to look at the DMCA as a system. The DMCA encourages notice and takedown, not notice and notice. The bias in copyright law as a whole is towards the rightsholder, so copyright law becomes an easy tool for abuse.

SEMW 13y ago
> You have to look at the DMCA as a system. I do? I was approaching this thread as being about the correctness of IP rights as a concept. Again, I'm not disputing the defects of the DMCA, only the use of DMCA abuse to imply that the whole concept of copyright is inherently flawed. (As it happens, I don't even live in the US, so the DMCA doesn't apply to me). > The bias in copyright law as a whole is towards the rightsholder In its current US (and EU) implementations, sure. But unless you're saying the existence of copyright as a property right itself is the bias (in which case 'unbiased copyright law' would be an oxymoron), that's an implementation issue.