Days before Christmas, a New York glass installer who admitted he uploaded an unfinished copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to the Internet, received a one-year sentence in federal prison from a U.S. District Court judge who termed his actions "extremely serious."
It's a sad story for Gilbert Sanchez, the glass installer, but what, you ask, does this have to do with my company or start-up? Let's suppose for a moment that instead of installing glass, Sanchez worked for you and, rather than uploading the movie from his home, he did so using his work computer and your company's Internet connection. This circumstance may carry implications for businesses.
Recently, a raft of lawsuits have appeared accusing thousands of individuals of illegally uploading and downloading materials in violation of U.S. copyright laws. Attorneys for film companies -- including one Los Angeles plaintiff that sued more than 5,800 individuals for downloading one particular adult film -- file many of these suits.
OK, so you probably won't see many of these films at the Academy Awards celebration in February, but the plaintiffs in these lawsuits are hell-bent on collecting settlements from a large number of individual defendants. They're in the process of issuing subpoenas to Internet service providers to obtain the name and address of individual subscribers -- including businesses -- to pursue mass settlements.
The question is, what do you do if your company is subpoenaed as a result of a mass filing? The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 1990 to defend digital rights, says that because these cases are unique you should immediately contact an attorney in either the state where the lawsuit was filed or in the state where your business is incorporated.
Stewart Kellar of the San Francisco-based E-ttorney at Law agrees, but says business owners slapped with a mass file-sharing lawsuit also need to have an Internet Usage/Copyright Infringement policy in place to avoid such legal actions in the first place. He says that policy "should state in no uncertain terms that the Internet is to be used for business and (maybe) personal email use only and for no other purpose."
Kellar suggests that if your business does receive a subpoena from its ISP, it should first be determined if the infringement occurred on a work computer by an employee. If so, the company can offer up the employee to the plaintiff, pay the settlement fee and seek reimbursement from the employee. Or a company can just ignore the demand letter and see if the plaintiff will proceed and make good on its threats.
"A business that provides an Internet connection to its employees or the public is itself an ISP," says Keller. "Unless it knew about the infringing activity and then induced or facilitated that infringement, contributory liability is very unlikely."
How have you dealt with employees' Internet usage? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Comments:
Rogue employees are also damage the organizational culture. I had been working with an organization where all the computer work was being stored on main server. And was overlooked by the IT department. I think that process must be followed by every organization to overlook their employees that what they are doing.
Would common sense work in a lawsuit crazy world? How about: 1) have a computer policy in place clearly banning such downloads with the employee signing an agreement that, if violated, loss of his position and full financial penalties would be his burden. 2)The company should be able to access a weekly/monthly listing of all downloads to nip any such problem in the bud. 3) Unless the company is a competitor of the injured company, I can't imagine too harsh a ruling against a first time offender; especially if the company appears to be the unknowing victim of a bad employee. 4) I think we are getting overly concerned because it involves "computers!" - Let's swith the device involved with employee wrongdoing to a telephone: what would be a company's liability if one employee made harassing phone calls from his desktop phone while on the clock?
Hi Mikale! It is great post. As mentioned above, it is very important to protect our business from rogue employees.The above mentioned information would give better idea in getting solution to this problem. Keep updating.
Mikal makes a huge arguement for the practice of some kind of computer audit. Having such an audit done can severely reduce the likeyhood of someone doing something stupid. And there are any number of 'Computer Use' policy's out there on both public domain and Gov't site's that are available for use. Not having such a policy is inviting a lawsuit. And with the increase in E-Commerce, does anyone really want to risk their business ?
RIAA and MPAA are the devil. They should leave the internet alone. I am sorry you couldn't afford a second Porsche this year.
True word Mikal, Rogue employees are every business owners nightmare. Catching and punishing them not only to deter others but to ensure they do not get away with their crimes is a necessity for any serious business. One get away can have grave implications for any business. Great Post