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Daily Archives: April 20, 2015

Robots, Pirates, and the Rise of the Automated Takedown Regime

Carpou, Zoe, Robots, Pirates, and the Rise of the Automated Takedown Regime (April 6, 2015). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2591187

“The notice-and-takedown provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has become increasingly controversial, particularly with the ever-increasing use of “robo-takedown” requests — an automated procedure by which a copyright holder locates allegedly infringing content online and then sends a takedown notice to an ISP. The rise of the robo-takedown request has been met with considerable backlash, with critics pointing to the high volume of content removal and instances of overbroad takedown requests as evidence of “abuse” of the notice-and-takedown procedure. With automated processes, there can appear to be little stopping copyright holders from regularly sending illegitimate takedown requests to ISPs, sometimes in massive numbers. Users are able to counter-notify under the DMCA to contest removal of their content, but use of the counter-notification procedure is difficult to track and seemingly rare. But, does the high rate of takedown and the seemingly low instance of counter-notification reflect “abuse” of the notice-and-takedown procedure, or does it simply mean that the DMCA is effective at combating digital piracy? This Note takes an empirical approach to exploring the issue of notice-and-takedown “abuse” with a focus on instances of robo-takedown. To do so, it identifies and analyzes all known instances of litigation arising from the notice-and-takedown procedure, isolating those instances that arise from section 512(c) user counter-notification as well as those that are predicated on section 512(f) misrepresentation claims. After presenting the empirical findings, this Note argues that robo-takedown procedures aren’t actually doing as much harm as believed, and that they, coupled with methods of strengthening user pushback procedures and lessening the risk of overbroad takedown requests, are actually an efficient means of combating the high volume of infringing content in the digital world.”

NOAA Builds Tool to Hold Unprecedented Amounts of Data from Studying Unprecedented Oil Spill

“This is the seventh in a series of stories over the coming weeks looking at various topics related to the response, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment science, restoration efforts, and the future of the Gulf of Mexico. APRIL 17, 2015 — The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history.… Continue Reading

DHS Data Framework – Interim Process to Address Emergent Threat

Privacy Impact Assessment for the DHS Data Framework – Interim Process to Address an Emergent Threat. DHS/ALL/PIA-051 April 15 , 2015. “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is publishing this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) to explain its plan to expedite DHS’s ability to meet a critical mission need through the use of an interim manual… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – 202 Census, Defense Inventory, DOD Acquisition Rulemaking

2020 Census: Recommended Actions Need to Be Implemented before Potential Cost Savings Can be Realized, GAO-15-546T: Published: Apr 20, 2015. Publicly Released: Apr 20, 2015. Defense Inventory: Services Generally Have Reduced Excess Inventory, but Additional Actions Are Needed, GAO-15-350: Published: Apr 20, 2015. Publicly Released: Apr 20, 2015. Department of Defense: Acquisition Rulemaking Practices, GAO-15-423R:… Continue Reading

NIST Seeks Comments on De-identification Report

EPIC – “The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a draft report on “De-Identification of Personally Identifiable Information.” The agency is requesting comments by May 15. The NIST report reviews de-identification techniques and research, including work by EPIC Advisory Board members Cynthia Dwork and Latanya Sweeney. Last year, in response to a similar… Continue Reading

Indicators to support monetary and financial stability analysis: data sources and statistical methodologies

Indicators to support monetary and financial stability analysis: data sources and statistical methodologies IFC Bulletin No 39 April 2015 – 837 pages PDF. Papers in this volume were prepared for the Seventh IFC Conference held in Basel on 4-5 September 2014.  Table of Contents as follows: Indicators to support monetary and financial stability analysis: overview of… Continue Reading