Scanlyze

Letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren about the CASE ACT S.1273

TO: Senator Warren and staff; whom it may concern

FROM: Henry Edward Hardy

SUBJECT: CASE ACT S. 1273 concerns, proposed revisions

DATE: October 23, 2019

Dear Senator Warren.

I am a strong supporter. We in Somerville Ward 7 love you and we have your back.

I want to share with you in more detail some of the concerns about the CASE ACT S. 1273 which I shared during my call to your office today.

Copyright is enabled by the US Constitution Article I, Section 8, Clause 8:

[The Congress shall have power] “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.“

In other words, the social good desired is for all writings and discoveries to come into the public domain in a reasonable time.

The development of copyright law over the past century has gone instead in the direction of keeping copyright works out of the public domain for longer and longer times, and imposing more and more harsh punishments on violators, and moving into the domain of strict liability without regard for knowledge, or intent of the alleged violator.

“Copyright trolls” churn out hundreds of thousands of demand letters to try to bully individuals without the means to afford legal representation to settle on their terms. The people who will be the targets and victims of the CASE Act will be the most vulnerable and underprivileged members of society. Just missing a notice or failing to file the right papers in a timely manner could lead to a default judgment of $15,000 dollars or more.

A possible remedy for the CASE Act is to revise it such that:

* The plaintiff must show knowledge and intent by the alleged violator.

* The plaintiff must demonstrate with clear and convincing evidence that a specific accused person committed specific illegal acts on a specific day and time, in a specific place, in a specific manner, causing a specific harm. Not just Internet Protocol Number or MAC address matching over a range of dates.

* Fair use must be a specifically available and overriding defense.

* The plaintiff must document actual harm in a specific dollar amount.

* The accused who are indigent, disabled, or on public assistance must receive defense counsel at federal expense.

* There should be no elements of strict liability and the burden of proof must lie entirely with the plaintiff.

* There should be substantial punishments for those who misuse the statutory procedures to churn out false or unsupported claims. In particular, the ‘unclean hands’ doctrine should apply to plaintiff trolls who have already been found in violation.

Thanks for all you do and we love you!

Best,

Henry Edward Hardy

25 October, 2019 - Posted by scanlyze | CASE ACT, Elizabeth Warren, politics, S.1273, scanlyze, Warren | 2019, bill, CASE ACT, copyright, S.1273, scanlyze, Senate, troll, US, USA