Editing Unjust and extraterritorial law: DMCA (section)

== Example 1: National licenses overridden by global enforcement ==
The global reach of the DMCA does not only suppress individual rights. It also overrides national legal frameworks that are supposed to authorize the lawful use of copyrighted content.

In France, web broadcasters are required to pay licensing fees to SACEM (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music), the official agency representing authors, composers and publishers. A small French station such as "House Station Live .com" may fully comply with SACEM licensing requirements by paying the appropriate fees, which grant the right to broadcast copyrighted music on the internet worldwide. The SACEM license is not restricted to national territory. It is designed for global web distribution, taking into account the cross-border nature of online access.

But this legal authorization becomes useless the moment the content is hosted on a platform based in the United States. Services such as YouTube, Twitch or SoundCloud operate under US law. They do not recognize foreign licenses like those issued by SACEM. Instead, they rely on the DMCA to manage copyright enforcement through automated systems. A perfectly legal French broadcast can be removed or muted as if it were a case of piracy.

The result is that the user, despite having paid for international rights, is flagged as an infringer. They lose visibility, access and sometimes monetization. Their reputation can be harmed by repeated copyright strikes, while no platform takes responsibility and no French court offers protection. The license becomes legally valid on paper, but irrelevant in practice.

This is not a misunderstanding between systems. It is a power grab. The DMCA functions online as if it were the only copyright law that matters. It cancels foreign authorizations automatically, without legal standing outside the US and without being challenged by any authority. The user ends up paying for a right that is ignored in most online contexts, and has no meaningful way to enforce it.