That’s right, even us individual artists of all types without corporate deep pockets will now have an option through the legal system to fight IP infringement! This is fabulous news to me, along with the much overdue (and still insufficient) covid relief bill.
You’ll probably see and hear a lot of fear-mongering about this bill, warning that grandmas and even children will be thrown in jail for simply downloading a meme, but please ignore the spin, it’s not based in fact.
The truth is, this bill has been moving through Congress at a glacial pace since 2011 and had been in the works even before then. It’s been re-worked and modified, and no it’s not a golden ticket for copyright trolls.
Quite the opposite in fact! We’ll be limited to how many claims can be filed each year, and bad or malicious claims can ban a person from using the tribunal again for some time. In fact, because of the voluntary nature of it I would argue it’s still not protecting indie artists enough, but the pressure from Big Tech and anti-copyright groups forced that option. I’m still waiting to hear back from those who are more in the loop regarding whether or not the claims filed will be a matter of public record. I’m hoping yes, as there would be at least some incentive then for the defendants to agree to the process in order to prove their innocence if they feel they were in the right, along with the risk that the person filing a claim could end up taking them to federal court instead and they would not be able to go back to the small claims option after if I’m not mistaken.
Don’t just take my word for it, here’s a great article breaking everything down and covers all the concerns:
https://illusionofmore.com/omnibus-bill-passes-congress-anti-copyright-crowd-turns-shrill/?fbclid=IwAR2leK30SYOiy_hwI1gCBVn2-CwI3HLTIWlQcnBMFb38QJbNXHUAPn05fjs