Lawsuit: Does Copyright Screening Constitute Copyright Infringement?

A lawsuit filed in California regarding the regulation of user-generated content on websites will decide whether copyright laws protect companies who use trademarked content to screen for possible cases of infringement.

In August, author Elaine Scott filed a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement against the website Scribd.com, the Wall Street Journal reports. The suit claimed that a user on the site, which allows people to publish books and documents online to be shared with others, posted one of Scott's books without proper permission. The book was called Stocks and Bonds, Profits and Losses.

Similar cases have ruled that websites cannot be held accountable when users post stolen material. Scott, however, alleges that although the Scribd.com removed the plagiarized material, the company did not do enough to protect her copyright.

The author holds that Scribd does not have the right to use her book in an online filter, which is designed to spot when users are posting copyrighted material.

Scott told the news source, "The filtering system is Scribd's way of asking for forgiveness, rather than permission."

In 1998 the U.S. Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which limited the liability of online service providers for infringement by users.