American Civil Liberties Union v. Miller

Copyrights protect the original creative expression of authors, movie makers, and songwriters. Copyrights give authors exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute their work for financial gain. However, an estimated $2 billion in royalty fees were lost in 1997 through internet transmissions. Should copyright laws apply to this new electronic international medium? Most agree they should, but the debate focuses on who is responsible for preventing such violations.

The authors, or "content providers" as known in the computer age, argue "access providers," including commercial online services such as America Online and internet browsers, should be held responsible for the transmission of copyrighted materials. Those actually doing the pirating are often hobbyists with little money or live in foreign countries out of reach of U.S. authorities.

Access providers claim little capability to prevent copyright infringements before their occurrence. They contend a requirement to inform their users of copyright laws and remove copywritten materials from their systems as soon as identified should be their basic responsibilities. Like video recorder distributors of the 1980s, they should not be held responsible for how someone uses their hardware and software. Such restrictions would stifle creativity and threaten privacy. Congress passed the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of 1998 to begin addressing these concerns.