"Oh No They Didn't!" – Ninth Circuit Throws DMCA Safe Harbors For Moderated Content Into Disarray

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit handed down its latest decision on the scope of the optional safe harbor for web hosting services under Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The April 7 decision in the case, Mavrix Photographs, LLC v. LiveJournal, Inc., limits the availability of safe harbor protection for social media platforms and other sites that use moderators to review user-submitted posts in copyright cases, even where the website has processes in place for expeditiously removing materials identified in DMCA takedown notices. And it will likely have broad implications on what screening procedures, if any, a service provider adopts for user-generated posts and material.