Will Copyright Bots Lead to Significant Freedom of Speech Issues?

By emeadows
September 12, 2012

Copyright “bots” are becoming more prevalent, leading some to worry about the effects they could have on freedom of speech.
Wired reports that the bots (or systems) “can block streaming video in real time, while it is still being broadcast,” when they detect possible copyrighted material.
The problem here is that the machines cannot take into account instances of fair use or otherwise legitimate use of material.
In a recent example, “a livestream of the Hugo Awards — the sci-fi and fantasy version of the Oscars — was blocked on Ustream, moments before Neil Gaiman’s highly anticipated acceptance speech. Apparently, Ustream’s service detected that the awards were showing copyrighted film clips, and had no way to know that the awards ceremony had gotten permission to use them,” explains the article.
While a “notice-and-takedown” system is in place within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it doesn’t work well for live streaming. The notice would be too late and the opportunity for takedown would be over by the time the paperwork went through.
“It’s likely that this collision between algorithmic defense of copyright versus spontaneous speech isn’t going to be resolved soon,” writes Wired.

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