Study: copyright takedown notices are ineffective at stopping piracy ...

If copyright holders want to stop piracy, seizing domains from infringing sites isn't an effective method, according to computer science researchers from Northeastern University. A much more effective strategy would be to go after the money that pirated materials and sites generate, they claim.

The study looked at what it calls one-click hosting (OCH) sites, like Megaupload and Rapidshare, and attempts by copyright holders to have their content taken down if hosted illegally. Looking at the typical effects of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices, the researchers noticed that there was usually a mild short-term drop in the relevant files being available before they reappeared elsewhere -- the start of what the researchers describe as a "cat-and-mouse game between uploaders and copyright owners".

They write: "Currently, this game seems to be in favour of the many pirates who provide far more content than the copyright owners are taking down. This imbalance of powers, together with the size and diversity of the OCH ecosystem, suggests that anti-piracy laws to reduce the availability and reachability of pirated content may be less successful than their proponents might expect."

However, the good news for copyright holders is that "strategies against economically motivated actors may effectively target certain parts of the ecosystem". Since the OCH sites rely on advertising and subscription revenues for their income, "increased legal proceedings" could "render many OCHs more diligent, and maybe even more proactive, in their own anti-piracy efforts". That means sites taking action to delete copyrighted material before a copyright holder resorts to legal action -- in other words, self-regulation.

The study specifically cites the shutdown of Megaupload as a noteworthy example of an ineffective gesture against piracy. The number of files being illegally shared around the web hasn't decreased, but the number of different sites hosting them has rapidly multiplied making enforcement by takedown a harder prospect. Indeed, the events that have followed its closure -- and the legal adventures of its founder, Kim Dotcom -- may well end up costing the parties involved more in the long run, in both money and bad publicity.

Image: Shutterstock

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/10/blocking-no-effect-filesharing

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