The DMCA’s Safe Harbor provision may protect it, that is if it can prove that it has legitmate uses as well.
Ars Technica has an interesting analysis of the RIAA’s lawsuit against Usenet.com. There’s reason to believe that Usenet.com — and most other Usenet providers — could qualify for protection under the DMCA’s Safe Harbor provision.
‘The DMCA’s Safe Harbor provision provides protection for ISPs from copyright infringement lawsuits as long as they take down offending material once they are served with a notice of infringement. But, the RIAA is trying to argue that "Usenet.com has promoted and advanced an illegal business model on the backs of the music community," said an RIAA spokesperson. "It may be theft in a slightly different online form, but the illicit business model of Usenet.com is little different that the Groksters of the world."
The RIAA is basically trying to say thta Usenet.com is basically like Grokster, KaZaA, and other P2P servives it has taggeted in the past because it facilitates copyright infringemnt with little if any legitmate uses.
"Whether the Safe Harbor applies is the central legal question that is going to be raised," EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann told Ars. An RIAA spokesperson tells Ars that the group has issued "many" takedown notices to Usenet.com, but von Lohmann says that the volume of takedown notices isn’t what counts. "The DMCA’s Safe Harbor makes it very clear," von Lohmann said. "The number of notices doesn’t matter as long as you take the infringing content down."
As Ars also points out however, "Yes, there’s a lot of copyrighted materials, but there are also thousands of discussion groups devoted to everything from religion and programming to tech support and pet care."
Usenet.com may just find "safe harbor" from the RIAA after all.
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I think that is what is going to happen. The RIAA has bitten off more than they can chew with this lawsuit. But to be fair the site in question did ignore (according to the RIAA) takedown notices sent to them.
But they don’t seem to understand that the way usenet works…anything that is taken down….is usually put right back up again in a matter of hours!
So the RIAA has their work cut out for them.
They are not only going against a site that could be protected under the DMCA but also is VERY HARD to police!