[T]he extraordinarily complex system created by the Copyright Act and related statutes cannot safely be revised this quickly without risking serious unintended consequences.
When 73-year-old Tom Brown*, a retired police officer from Seattle, received a letter from Comcast, he might have mistaken it for a broadband bill. Instead, it was a subpoena. He had been sued in federal court for illegally downloading 80 movies. Some of the titles sounded cryptic Do Not Worry, We Are Only Friends or banal, like International Relations Part 2.
A little-known company wants to spend $100 million to go after internet providers that allegedly ignored DMCA notices. There's a new twist in the long and winding saga of Redbox's demise: Assets originally belonging to the company's corporate parent, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, may have finally found a buyer. But don't expect a resurrection of Redbox's red kiosks, or Chicken Soup's Crackle streaming service, any time soon.