Thread on the CASE Act, which was just passed by Congress last night. One of the main points I try to get across when I teach Copyright is that the structure of the system is predicated on massive under-enforcement: what constitutes infringement is radically expansive, 1/

but that expansive approach to infringement is tempered by the costs and difficulties of enforcement. This means that 'high value' (mostly $ value, but sometimes other value to © holder) infringement gets litigated, while enormous amounts of low-dollar-value, sometimes 2/

under the radar infringement just gets ignored. And this is a good thing for the system! BUT: This means we should always be concerned about significant changes to the infringement/enforcement balance. If the CARES Act actually makes it much easier to enforce low-level /3

infringement, then it runs the risk of substantially altering the role that copyright plays in our everyday activities. It's not just an alternative venue, its (potentially) a big step towards more intrusion of copyright where it's not expected. I'm worried. /end