Exploring the Safe Harbor Principle and the Allocation of Platform Liability in the DMCA

Abstract

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor clauses, which was established more than 20 years ago, are no longer able to reconcile the current widespread problem of copyright infringement in social media. Therefore, this paper examines the allocation of responsibilities between social media platforms, users and copyright owners in the event of digital copyright infringement in social media, the negative impact of the DMCA provisions on stakeholders in social media and possible solutions to the problem. The main problem with the current DMCA's safe harbor doctrine is that the exemptions provided shift too much responsibility and liability to copyright owners and social media users, fail to provide effective remedies, and place an extremely heavy burden on them to enforce their rights. This has had a negative impact on the development of social media and creative output. For this reason, Congress need to change the DMCA's upregulating to increase the bar for safe harbor designation and impose additional requirements on platforms. In order to more effectively contribute to the growth of the social media business and the preservation of digital copyright pairs in the field of practice, this study primarily adopts a legal doctrinal research technique, comparative research approach, and literary research method.