Via Art Brodsky, communications director of PK, “At about the same time this morning that Gigi [Sohn, president of PK] was giving a major speech on copyright reform at Boston University, she was also part of a Good Morning America story on copyright reform.

The GMA story was about the woman who got a take-down notice for a video of her toddler she posted to YouTube that had a song by Prince playing in the background. The video version of the story talks about how Prince hires people to search out uses of his music. Gigi is quoted in the video version and, more extensively, on the text story on the Web site, talking about how the recording companies don’t respect copyright law. In the video, Gigi tells GMA that sending out take down notices is a ‘riskless endeavor’ for record companies, which ’send out more than need to, and hopefully catch really illegal stuff with stuff that isn’t illegal at all.’ Most of the comments posted on the GMA site about the story took our side of the argument.”

The six points of reform that Gigi Sohn and Public Knowledge outline are, as taken directly from the article:

1. Fair Use Reform. The existing four-part legal test for fair use should be expanded to add incidental, transformative and non-commercial personal uses of content. In addition, Congress should provide that making a digital copy of a work for indexing searches is not an infringement.
2. Limits on Secondary Liability. The 1984 Sony Betamax decision by the U.S. Supreme Court protecting a manufacturer of technology from liability as long as the technology has “substantial non-infringing use” should be codified.
3. Protections Against Copyright Abuse. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) should be expanded to deter copyright holders from filing frivolous requests that material be taken down from a web site. Congress should provide legal relief for legitimate users of a work should copyright owners overstate their rights.
4. Fair and Accessible Licensing. Congress should simplify the Byzantine world of obtaining rights to use a musical work, and should require broadcasters to pay performance royalties as satellite and Internet radio do.
5. Orphan Works Reform. Congress should limit damages for the use of works for which a copyright can not be found after a good-faith search. In addition, competitive visual registries should be established to protect visual artists and photographers.
6. Notice of Technological and Contractual Restrictions on Digital Media. Copyright holders should be required to provide clear and simple notice to consumers of any technological or contractual limitations on a consumer’s ability to make fair use or other lawful use of a product. There would be legal consequences if that notice isn’t followed.