digital millennium copyright act

One of the most common tactics used by copyright trolls is sending a cease and desist letter demanding that you stop using “their” intellectual property, as well as insisting that you owe them a substantial amount of money for any use that has already occurred. These letters are ostensibly supposed to put you on notice about a copyright violation, but they are often abused by individuals and companies who are simply looking to make a quick buck by threatening a frivolous copyright lawsuit.

Original creative works can provide valuable revenue streams to their authors. That’s one reason that copyright can be used to protect original works in certain tangible mediums (e.g., movies, books, photographs, and computer software) against unauthorized use. Unfortunately, copyright trolls often attempt to take advantage of the law by pressuring others into cash settlements. When this happens, the party on the receiving end of a copyright demand letter will need to respond immediately – or risk a costly lawsuit.

Copyright trolls have become a serious problem in recent years, with more and more people using outdated copyright laws to take advantage of an internet and social media landscape that is constantly changing. Using a decades-old law that pre-dated YouTube (let alone hundreds of thousands of fan sites on Instagram), the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows anyone to send automated notices to social media sites claiming that they own copyrights on content used by certain accounts on the sites.