Page 57 - A Study on the Role of UGC Platforms in Copyright Law：An Intermediary-oriented Approach

A Study on the Role of UGC Platforms in Copyright Law: Chapter 2 Copyright in the Pre-Internet Age: An Intermediary-oriented Approach
An Intermediary-oriented Approach

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of radio stations.
Nevertheless, because webcasting was categorised as a non-interactive non-subscription
service that was subject to the free use exemption under the 1995 DPRA, the recording
industry could not receive its fair share from the new distribution channel. In response, a
new bill, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), extended statutory licence, which
had previously applied to cable and satellite transmissions, to webcasting. This became a
new category of ‘eligible non-subscription transmissions’, while retaining the exemption for
non-subscription broadcasting.
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A more critical aspect of DMCA has been its abundance of the long-standing
intermediary-oriented approach by providing a safe harbour for online intermediaries. The
Congress stated in the House Report on DMCA that the exemption for online intermediaries’
liability should be clarified; otherwise they might stop investing in the expansion of the
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speed and capacity of the Internet. A detailed discussion of how the online intermediaries
have been exempted and how individual users have been caught is provided in the next
chapter.

2.3.3 The film industry

Just as a sound recording is the distribution of sheet music to records, a film is the
adaptation of pre-existing works such as photographs, novels and dramas to a new
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medium. On the other hand, films have also extended to other media, such as television,
VCRs (video cassette recorders) and the Internet, just as how pre-existing works have been
applied to films. Similar to record producers, filmmakers have moved from the distributor
camp to the producer camp with the development of technology.
1) Adaptation of pre-existing works: Controlling the new distribution channel via the old
rule
The earliest film, which originated in the 1890s, was a series of pictures photographed
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on a cylinder and viewed through a microscope. The general practice to avoid competitors’
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piracy (known as duping) was to register the film as photographs. However, whether a film
could be recognised as a series of photographs remained unclear until the 1903 landmark
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case of Edison v. Lubin. In this case, Lubin copied Edison’s films without permission.
183
176 Ibid.
177 Section DMCA § 405; 17 U.S. Code § 114(d)(2).
178 S. Rept.105-190, at 8 (1998).
179 Peter Decherney, Hollywood's Copyright War: From Edison to the Internet (Columbia University Press 2012) 18.
180 Motion Pictures - The Edison Papers (Rutgers, October 28, 2016) <http://edison.rutgers.edu/pictures.htm> accessed 16 May
2019.
181 Decherney (n 179) 17.
182 122 F. 240 (3d Cir. 1903).
183 Ibid 241.

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