The latest social media application on the rise is Periscope, which allows users to live stream content from their phone to other specific users or to the public if they wish. Many people, however, have used the app’s live-streaming function for “video piracy,” allowing viewers to access copyrighted content that is often, but not always, protected behind some sort of paywall.

Periscope Facilitating Video Piracy

This issue first rose to prominence when some users streamed the fifth-season premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones. But it became a topic of national discussion following the recent boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, which cost $100 to watch via pay-per-view. Many boasted online about how they had sidestepped the $100 fee—and the pop-up adds that often come with online streaming sites—by using Periscope, and promoters for the fight have vowed to take legal action. In addition, a PGA Tour blogger recently had her credentials revoked after she streamed an untelevised golf practice round over the app.

Periscope appears to have anticipated the problem. It had a team ready to receive Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices and said it received 66 such notices during the fight. It took down about half of them, and the other half had already ended.

Periscope App Technology Raises Question of Expeditious Takedowns

This new technology, however, raises new questions about what it means to reply to a DMCA takedown request expeditiously. The speed at which these live streams emerge and go silent makes it difficult for Periscope’s takedown notice team to effectively combat infringers. In addition, because any user can point their phone, start a live stream, and make that live stream available to the public, copyright holders have a difficult, if not nearly impossible, time locating the infringing streams.

Eventually, a copyright holder will probably litigate these issues, and the courts will have a choice. They may take a flexible approach and evolve DMCA standards to align with the way many apps such as Periscope work. Or they may interpret the DMCA standards rigidly, shifting a greater enforcement burden to Periscope and perhaps away from copyright holders.

Sources: http://variety.com/2015/digital/opinion/periscope-piracy-sets-up-grudge-match-hollywood-vs-twitter-1201486298/ http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/8/8565983/periscope-meerkat-piracy-boxing-mayweather-pacquiao http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mayweather-pacquiao-piracy-20150503-htmlstory.html https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150505/06292630889/pga-joins-nhl-yanking-reporter-credentials-over-use-periscope-golfers-practicing.shtml

For more information on this topic, please visit our DMCA Compliance service page.

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