How the DMCA Anticipated the DSA’s Due Process Obligations

Abstract

Enacted in 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) created online safe harbors (17 USC 512) that provide several due process-like protections for user-authors. This essay identifies some of those due process elements, compares them to the analogous provisions in the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), and discusses the lessons from the DMCA for the DSA. Though the DSA uses a different policy paradigm than the DMCA, it’s unclear if it will achieve better outcomes.

Keywords: dsa, dmca, due process, digital millennium copyright act, copyright, digital services act, european union, 17 usc 512, online safe harbor, notice-and-takedown

JEL Classification: k2, k42, l86, o38