The DMCA provides safe harbor provisions from liability for internet service providers if they comply with certain requirements. Registering your DMCA agent is one of those.

What is a DMCA agent? The Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows an internet service provider to have immunity from DMCA claims if they follow certain procedures. This immunity is known as a "safe harbor" for the party in question. To comply, a site must put a detailed explanation of how it can be notified of copyright violations, where it can be notified and designate an agent to take such notice provisions. The agent acts as the human face of the entity, the person that physically takes delivery of notices and deals with them. 

One requirement for this provision is the site must register its agent with the copyright office. Most sites don't do this because the owners simply don't know it is a requirement. This can obviously lead to disaster as a smart copyright claimant will look to see if they are registered or not. A few examples can help show how the failure to register can turn into a nightmare. 

Let's assume you are a host. You put up the necessary copyright safe harbor provisions on your site to comply with the DMCA. You do not register your agent with the copyright office. A party serves you with notice that someone has posted a copyrighted item on your site. You remove it and contact the poster who is in some other country. They don't reply. The copyright owner sues both you and the poster. Since you are in the country and the poster is not, guess who is going to be blasted by the lawsuit? You!

Now let's take it into an area that most website owners don't realize exists. Let's say you have a forum on some topic you love. Do you realize you are considered an internet service provider under the DMCA? Well, you are. People are posting on your forum all day so you are going to face the very real situation of needing to comply with the safe harbor provisions of the Act. If you don't, you are asking for a lawsuit. Of course, complying means you also need to register your DMCA agent with the copyright office as well.

Okay, let's take it even farther. Let's assume you blog and allow people to comment on your blog entries. What if someone copies and posts a comment from a third party that was made in an article for Newsweek? This is an infringement on the original copyright, is it not? Of course it is. If you don't have the safe harbor provisions up and don't have your DMCA agent registered with the copyright office, you will be held liable for said violation along with the person that posted it.

Most people mistakenly assume that the DMCA safe harbor provisions only apply to hosts. A better view is that these immunity provisions apply to anyone who allows a third party to add content via posts or any other means to their site whether it be through posting videos, blog comments, audio or whatever. If you fit this profile, contact me today at 619-637-6043 to learn more about getting registered and in compliance with the DMCA.