WordPress.com has begun to change its attitude towards abusing the abolition of copyright law. The company recommends to the US Copyright Office. (US Copyright Office) to introduce a new law that allows compensation to reduce the frequency of erroneous and abusive DMCA removal requests.
Automattic, the company behind the popular WordPress.com blogging platform, receives thousands of copyright removal requests each year.
A significant proportion of these announcements contain inaccuracies and there are several which are incorrect, fraudulent or abusive.
In a recent report to the US Copyright Office, Automattic CEO Paul Sieminski explained that "enforcement robots" and the lack of human review are responsible for many of the inaccurate removal requests.
"While we recognize that the use of automated tools may be necessary in certain forms of infringement and in certain types of websites, personal blogs are not the appropriate targets for law enforcement robots."
"Copyright holders have a duty to consider the request before sending a removal notice, and robots just can't be right at all," says Sieminski.
Automattic makes every effort to comply with DMCA requests, but the company believes that more needs to be done to prevent such future situations. The current regulations are not sufficient, the company supports.
Among the changes proposed by the company is a new law that will allow compensation in the event of abuse of removal requests by the DMCA.
"This can ensure that those who cause harm through false statements will be held accountable for their actions," Sieminski said.
Automattic's comments have been submitted to a public government consultation to assess whether or not the DMCA law needs to be reformed in the future.
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