Should Copyright Holders Pay For Bogus DMCA Takedowns?
Found on Techdirt on Tuesday, 26 January 2010
While the court eventually did (much to many people's surprise) say that copyright holders do need to take fair use into account, it's not really clear what sort of punishment there is for those who do not.
Given how massive the damage awards can be for simple (even incidental or accidental) copyright infringement, the fact that there is barely any real punishment for bogus copyright claims seems incredibly one-sided and unfair.
The loser pays; it's like that in court so a fake DMCA shouldn't be an exception. Especially since that law is abused a lot. Sure, accidents happen sometimes, but in many cases it's just a blatant abuse to take down perfectly fine content.