Copyrightagent Searches Out Online Copyright Violators

Last year, Copyright.net debuted its CopyrightAgent software that scours Napster and other peer-to-peer networks for copyright infringers (Billboard, Dec. 9, 2000). The first wave of E-mails went out to violators in late September, warning them to license the copyright works on their desktops or face a loss of service.

To date, Copyright.net has notified Napster that 1.5 million of its users were violating copyright laws, and as many as 700,000 users have reportedly been blocked from further access to Napster.

"CopyrightAgent provides a viable notice, take-down, and licensing tool that encourages the creative community to make their works commercially available on the Internet," Copyright.net CEO Tim Smith explains.

The software allows Copyright.net to search Napster users' hard drives to see which files are stored on their computers. If it finds material that is not authorized to be swapped, it alerts users and offers them a chance to remove the file or lose access to Napster. Copyright.net is also attempting to get Internet service providers to block violators' Internet access. Yet Smith feels Copyright.net is not in the law-enforcement business. "We believe many people who download music or movies or other copyrighted works want to do the right thing and find a way to license the work they so clearly value."

Despite the widespread effort to curb illegal file-sharing, the technology has become controversial. Even the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) has come out against it. "Our strategy has been to pursue the company that is seeking to build a business based on the use of other people's creative work, not the casual user," RIAA general counsel Cary Sherman told USA Today.

Copyright attorney Jay Rosenthal says while that may seem like an odd position for the record industry to take—since a thief is a thief, whether the scale of stealing be that of an interstate hijacking ring or an individual shoplifter—it does fit in with its larger legal strategy. "They have made it clear as much as possible that they're not going to go after the users; they're going after the company, the middle guy that is providing the technology. The record companies may think it's a little Draconian to go after the users, because then you're just pissing off the music lovers, and that doesn't make much sense. It's not like these guys are like the guys in the jungles of Thailand who have factories that put out 2 million cassettes a month. These aren't bootlegging scoundrels and gangsters—these are kids."

The industry's reluctance to go after the front-line copyright violators also comes as little surprise to Digital Music Assn. executive director John Potter. "Record companies have never been really excited about suing their fans, their customers."

From a copyright law perspective, however, Rosenthal says that based on Napster's entire file-sharing model, its users could be guilty of willful infringement because Napster users largely know they're breaking the law and they are downloading anyway.

Meanwhile, some artists are backing Copyright.net. The estate of Roy Orbison is among its most vocal supporters. Since enlisting the software to find illegal copies of Orbison's music, CopyrightAgent has sent more than 1 million E-mails to fans who have stored an illegal copy of an Orbison track on their hard drives. To date, only Orbison's "Only the Lonely" has been authorized for download.