The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998: A Proposed Amendment to Accommodate Free Speech

Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 limits liability for copyright infringement for online service providers if they remove from their services material posted by users that copyright holders allege infringes on their rights. This article argues that the Title provides too much incentive to OSPs to remove the material, creating an imbalance in the "fair-use" tradition of copyright law and threatening freedom of speech. The article suggests that the law be amended to require that copyright holders prove infringement before OSPs are made liable for infringement.