Wal-Mart backs away from DMCA claim

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Wal-Mart backs away from DMCA claim
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 5, 2002, 5:31 PM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-976296.html
Wal-Mart said on Thursday that it would not pursue copyright claims against
a bargain-shopping site that posted details about "Black Friday" sales.

In a closely watched move, the mega-retailer invoked the controversial
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) last month to force FatWallet.com to
delete a list of products and prices scheduled to appear in Black Friday
advertisements. Wal-Mart then sent a special DMCA subpoena to FatWallet
asking for the identity of the person who posted the details on the site.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving each year when retailers, legend
has it, go "in the black" and start to make money.

But after a law clinic at the University of California at Berkeley stepped
in and said it would represent FatWallet and fight the subpoena, Wal-Mart
backed down. 

"We're satisfied that our copyrights were protected in this case," said Tom
Williams, a spokesman for Wal-Mart. "Accordingly, we withdrew the subpoena."

Wal-Mart's subpoena invoked an obscure part of the DMCA that allows a
copyright holder to ask for "identification of an alleged infringer" without
filing a lawsuit first.

Deirdre Mulligan, the Berkeley clinic's director, said she was glad that
Wal-Mart abandoned its legal demands, but said the case highlights how the
DMCA can be misused.

"People are using the DMCA as an extremely flexible tool that gets ISPs
(Internet service providers) to take down information," Mulligan said. "ISPs
are not in a position to fight back. It requires resources--it puts them in
a position where they could assume liability. The ability to silence
speakers even where the underlying claim does not have any merit is
worrying." 


The Berkeley center, called the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy
Clinic at Boalt Hall, is part of a coalition of groups that run the
ChillingEffects.org site, which is devoted to highlighting and fighting
misuses of intellectual property law.

<snip>

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-976296.html?tag=fd_top

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