Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Attorneys at Imagine Law have significant experience consulting with clients and litigating cases brought under the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, which prohibits bypassing "digital locks" in order to gain access to copyrighted material. The DMCA also regulates the dissemination of technology that can be used to bypass technological restrictions, so its implications for technology companies are particularly noteworthy.

Attorney Robin Gross has twice been invited to testify at the US Copyright Office's triennial rule making proceeding that examines the exemption of certain technologies from the DMCA's circumvention ban. We also have experience advising clients on how to design technology to avoid DMCA liability and on assessing the potential for future liability of a client's existing technology under the DMCA's circumvention prohibitions.

Attorneys at Imagine Law also have significant experience under the DMCA's "safe harbor" provisions, which create legal immunity for Internet service providers for copyright infringement by third parties under a "notice and take down" system in which a copyright owner sends a proper notice of infringement to that intermediary who then promptly takes down the material from the Internet. There is also a procedure for putting the material back up on the Internet pursuant to the DMCA's statutory process.

We help copyright owners enforce their rights online by sending DMCA notices to have their copyrighted works taken down from the Internet, and we also assist clients in the lawful republication of material erroneously complained of by sending proper DMCA "put back" notices. We assist online service providers and other intermediaries in the proper handling of such notices in order to avoid liability for the infringement of third parties on their systems.

Website owners should ensure DMCA compliance to protect themselves from copyright liability by contacting attorneys at Imagine Law to assist with DMCA Agent registration with the US Copyright Office and with implementing statutorily compliant processes for lawful takedowns and put backs of material online.