The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) today filed an FTC complaint about inaccurate copyright warnings. If you watch major league sports, chances are you can recite some of the warnings from memory — for example, “accounts and descriptions of this game may not be disseminated without express written consent.” CCIA argues that warnings associated with certain sports telecasts, movie DVDs, and books misrepresent federal law by overstating the copyright holder’s exclusive rights and ignoring key limitations like fair use, exemptions for classroom use, and the legal principle that facts and ideas may not be copyrighted.

It’s true that copyright in general and fair use in particular often turn on subtle and imprecise distinctions, with the result that interpretations of the law differ. So coming up with a completely “objective” copyright warning may be difficult. But it’s equally true that many copyright warnings don’t seem to make any effort whatsoever to paint an accurate picture of the law, under any good faith interpretation.

CDT has argued for some time that public education about copyright is a key component of a sound copyright policy for the digital age. Certainly that means educating citizens about what constitutes infringement and why engaging in infringement is wrong. But the CCIA petition highlights the risk of highly slanted or partial education. A real education campaign should be focused on giving the public a greater understanding of the contours of copyright law and of why copyright matters — not parading around a scary caricature of the actual law. Good faith efforts at education will require an appropriate balance.

Incidentally, the NFL is one of the parties CCIA names in today’s FTC complaint. On the subject of aggressive copyright claims in the football arena, the Green Bay Packers apparently invoke copyright to limit linking to their (public) Web pages, according to this blog post.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Digital Copyright. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.