The RIAA continues to insist that the DMCA (considered one of the most draconian copyright laws ever crafted) doesn't go far enough, and ISPs should be forced to filter out pirated content. The push comes in a letter sent by the RIAA and 14 other groups to the US Copyright Office. In the letter, the RIAA claims that the safe harbor protections granted by the DMCA to ISPs that move to "expeditiously" remove copyright infringing material doesn't go far enough, and more heavy-handed actions by ISPs are necessary.
"The extremely burdensome -- and ultimately ineffective -- notice-and-takedown process is hardly a fair exchange for the highly valuable immunity the DMCA safe harbors give service providers, allowing them to continue profitable business operations while avoiding liability for copyright infringement and the potential for statutory damages," states the letter.
For one thing, the RIAA wants the term "expeditiously" removed and replaced with a harder time frame in which ISPs are forced to take action. But the RIAA then continues to insist that having ISP automatically remove copyrighted material almost immediately would be a nifty idea.
"One possible solution to this problem would be to require that, once a service provider receives a takedown notice with respect to a given work, the service provider use automated content identification technology to prevent the same work from being uploaded in the future," states the letter. "Another option would be to require the use of such technology to identify and take action with respect to known third-party copyrighted works at the time of upload or sharing."
The problem. of course, is that automated content identification technology consistently already result in legitimate content (including fair use) being removed from the internet. Expand this to include automated removal technology at the ISP level, and you're likely looking at an exponential explosion in the removal of non-infringing content. The RIAA's letter comes as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to take a new look at the nation's copyright laws.
You can find a full copy of the letter
here (pdf).