ISP registration

[Kragen Sitaker]

If you're an ISP and you want to be immune to prosecution for your
subscribers' materials, you have to register;
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/onlinesp/ is the place to look for more
info, with a directory of those 700 or so who have registered
at http://www.loc.gov/copyright/onlinesp/list/index.html and a form to
register at http://www.loc.gov/copyright/onlinesp/format.html.

It seems strangely big-brotherish to require registration with the
government of today's equivalent of printing presses and copying
machines.

I have not read the law, but I understand that immunity from (possibly
criminal) prosecution requires that you act promptly when notified of
copyright violations by your subscribers.  I don't know what you're
supposed to do if your subscriber disagrees with the copyright holder
about whether or not they're in violation; are you then still liable if
you don't take their allegedly-infringing material down?

Scary stuff.

-- 
<kragen@pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
TurboLinux is outselling NT in Japan's retail software market 10 to 1,
so I hear. 
--  http://www.performancecomputing.com/opinions/unixriot/981218.shtml