Fight Against Piracy Continue: Pirates Beware

Fight Against Piracy Continues – Next on the List … Digital Storage Sites
by Hauwa Otori

The Obama Administration is supporting its strong stance against copyright infringement.  Almost a year ago, Victoria Espinel, the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, released the Administration’s first Joint Strategic Plan to combat “intellectual property theft.”  Then, just a few days ago, the Administration released yet another report addressing digital copyright.  In this report, the Administration lays out a proposal for new digital copyright laws, which it plans to introduce to Congress “in the very near future.”   With mention of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, it is very clear that the Administration is focused on strengthening intellectual property protection, particularly online.

As the Administration does its part to ramp up more protection for IP rights, the MPAA is also following suit … literally. On Tuesday, February 8th, the MPAA filed suit against Hotfile, a file-hosting service, operated by Anton Titov, whose business model is allegedly based on the storage of pirated movies. Because cyber-storage sites, such as Hotfile, are serving as alternatives to Bit Torrent file sharing, they are gaining increased popularity.  Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), some cyber-storage sites may be lawful as long as they obey certain rules.  A quick look at Hotfile’s Intellectual Property Policy gives the appearance that the company is doing just that:

“HotFile is a service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. section 512 (“DMCA”). HotFile has adopted the following policy concerning copyright infringement in accordance with the DMCA and copyright law. Hotfile will respond promptly to claims of copyright infringement reported to its designated copyright agent. It is Hotfile’s policy to: (1) accommodate and not interfere with standard technical measures (as defined by the DMCA) used to identify and protect copyrighted works; (2) disable access to or remove content that it believes in good faith may infringe the copyrights of third parties; and (3) discontinue service to users who repeatedly make such content available or otherwise violate HotFile’s Terms of Service. Please do not abuse the HotFile service by using it to distribute materials to which you do not have the rights.”
While the MPAA recognizes that not all cyber-storage sites are illegal, the association is specifically targeting Hotfile because it alleges that the site “encourages…users to upload files containing illegal copies of motion pictures and TV shows to its servers and to third-party sites.”  Given that Hotfile makes profits by charging a monthly fee and has become a heavily trafficked site in less than two years, perhaps the MPAA may prevail in receiving damages and the injunctive relief it seeks.  But as always, only time will tell, so this is definitely a case to watch out for in the future!