Re: RIAA took down youTube-DL
@23, I can make a case for (a)(2) as well:
(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that—
(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
Though (B) is questionable, its very possible, because it does have "only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure". Additionally, one could argue that YTDL makes a case for (A) as well as (C) because YTDL does circumvent Youtube's "rolling cipher" and is (indirectly) marketed as being able to perform such circumvention. It does that for various other sights, too, but this complaint was about Youtube and not any other streaming services that YTDL consumes. However, the definitions for both are kinda confusing. (a)(2) has the definitions:
(A) to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and
(B) a technological measure "effectively controls access to a work" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.
And (b)(1) has the definitions:
(A) to "circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure" means avoiding, bypassing, removing, deactivating, or otherwise impairing a technological measure; and
(B) a technological measure "effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, prevents, restricts, or otherwise limits the exercise of a right of a copyright owner under this title.
I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not really sure of the exact/precise differences of these two terms, but from what I can tell it seems trivial to be accused of violating both subsections simultaneously. Section 1203(c)(5) has innocent violations covered though:
(5) Innocent violations.—
(A) In general.—The court in its discretion may reduce or remit the total award of damages in any case in which the violator sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that the violator was not aware and had no reason to believe that its acts constituted a violation.
(B) Nonprofit library, archives, educational institutions, or public broadcasting entities.—
(i) Definition.—In this subparagraph, the term "public broadcasting entity" has the meaning given such term under section 118(f).
(ii) In general.—In the case of a nonprofit library, archives, educational institution, or public broadcasting entity, the court shall remit damages in any case in which the library, archives, educational institution, or public broadcasting entity sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that the library, archives, educational institution, or public broadcasting entity was not aware and had no reason to believe that its acts constituted a violation.
If the DMCA notice is accurate though, then YTDL's authors/contributors were not innocent violators, so would not be covered by this clause. But I've strayed a bit.
The "they", if I remember right, was RIAA; I don't remember off the top of my head (I edited the post to eliminate the legal language and just dwindled it down to a link to the chapter in question).
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