Recent copyright office rule changes could terminate an unsuspecting OSP’s eligibility for the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) creates an important safe harbor from copyright infringement liability for certain websites and other online service providers (OSPs), so long as they follow a set of rules prescribed by statute and regulation. One such requirement, which applies to an OSP that stores user-generated content on its system or network, is that the OSP must register and designate an agent with the US Copyright Office to receive “takedown notices” (short communications from copyright holders claiming that content on the site infringes their rights). Failing to maintain a registered agent with the Copyright Office jeopardizes this critical DMCA immunity.