Copyright and tech blogs are abuzz with news of RIAA attorney Jennifer Pariser’s comments at a conference that US courts have not done enough to protect rights owners under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Greg Sandoval of CNET reported Sunday that Pariser said “Congress got it right, but the courts are getting it wrong” – a nod to a number of recent US rulings in favour of ISPs, including Viacom v YouTube and Universal Music Group v Veoh.
Today, the RIAA also drew attention to a guest column rebutting a CNET editor’s column decrying the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was introduced late last month in the House of Representatives.
“With the number of co-sponsors of the Senate rogue sites bill now pushing 40 (and growing), we felt it important to respond to some of the hyperbole being thrown about in certain corners of the Internet regarding the rogue sites House bill,” said an RIAA release.
In the guest post, RIAA CEO and chairman Cary Sherman asked readers to “take a deep breath” when reading headlines about how SOPA and the Senate’s corresponding Protect IP Act “are going to kill the internet”.
CNET’s Molly Wood referred to the US government as “a villain in the piracy act story” in her column.
The proposed legislation would greatly increase the ability of rights owners to take action against ISPs.