Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA

Communications and IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad on June 25 claimed that access to his own Twitter account for almost an hour over the alleged violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA.

• Mr Prasad objected to the action saying it was in the gross violation the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 where twitter failed to provide him any prior notice before denying access to his own account.

• The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a legislation enacted under the Clinton administration in 1998.

• The legislation was brought in furtherance of the United States’ commitment to the two World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties.

• The DMCA also addresses a number of other significant copyright-related issues.

• The act seeks to protect access to a copyrighted work. It also gives web hosts and Internet service providers (ISP’s) a safe harbour from copyright infringement claims, if they implement certain notice or takedown procedures.

(News was edited)