Lowering the Stakes: toward a Model of Effective Copyright Dispute Resolution

The digital revolution, the popularization of the internet, and the proliferation of file sharing applications have caused some to question the effectiveness of American copyright law. While lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, and other organizations against both technological innovators and individual file sharers have put a spotlight on the inadequacies of traditional federal litigation as a method of resolving copyright infringement disputes, such problems are not unique to the digital environment. Rather than crafting potential solutions that focus exclusively on digital infringement, policymakers should consider reforming the underlying problems that have contributed to the current situation. The federal government could best accomplish this goal of facilitating an inexpensive, fair, and humane method of copyright enforcement by creating a federal small claims court that would allow litigants to resolve copyright infringement disputes equitably and efficiently.