Some rightsholders might litigate any unauthorized use of their work no matter how small, unintentional or protected by the defense of fair use. There will also be claims by those who are not so aggrieved. Of course, there will be those with legitimate claims against brazen infringers. Many rights holders will avail themselves of this opportunity to sue. Now CASE has the potential to make such lawsuits a whole lot easier. Most of the time, we potential infringers are protected from legal action, not because we are on the right side of the law, but because it isn’t worth the time and effort for a rights holder to bring a lawsuit against us. A law professor once hypothesized that anyone could easily be guilty of up to millions of dollars of copyright damages through mundane daily activities. Many of the emails we resend, memes we post, and the videos and pictures we take could technically be violations of copyright law. The biggest problem with it is practically every American could find themselves subject to a CASE lawsuit because practically everyone, on any given day, commits copyright infringement. A “voluntary” process to deal with copyright infringers before a cheaper venue? What’s not to like about CASE? Defendants can opt out of Board proceedings. CASE is not a complete replacement for federal courts in copyright cases. The Board will hear cases in which it can render judgments of $5,000 per claim up to a total of $15,000. Copyright Office called the Copyright Claims Board (the Board). CASE will provide these aggrieved rights holders with a cheaper alternative-a small claims court housed in the U.S. “Middle class” rights holders often find an infringement lawsuit is not worth that cost. Currently, they have to sue copyright infringers in federal court, the processes of which can be long and expensive. The goal behind CASE is to create an alternative process through which rights holders can protect the creative works they own. Unfortunately, CASE will provide a deterrent paper tiger to the worst infringing bad actors while creating headaches for everyone else. CASE’s advocates argue the legislation is necessary to protect the “ creative middle class ,” currently being deprived compensation because of rampant copyright infringement in the digital age. It will create a copyright small claims court through which rights holders can pursue small copyright infringement claims. This proposal is the Copyright Small-Claims Enforcement Act (CASE)-currently embodied in the companion legislation of H.R. An otherwise polarized Congress is poised to pass legislation that could expose a multitude of Americans to copyright lawsuits.
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