The respect of copyright on the Internet

Résumé du document

In this work, I have chosen to talk about the respect of the law in e-business. More specifically, I'm interested in the problem that artists and music producing companies are facing, namely the non-conformance to of copyright acts through peer to peer and free download. We have all heard about the Napster lawsuit and the dilemma that exists between download via Internet, and software like Grokster or Morpheus, and the interests of music producers relating to copyright. To download free illegal content is very easy nowadays, and the scope of use is the World Wide Web. How then, is it possible to avoid such abuse? To understand the background, we will have to specify which products we are talking about, which are the works concerned and protected by copyright, and what are the exceptions and the author's prerogatives. We will see what the legal issues are, when copyright isn't respected. This will enable us to understand the main differences between American copyright and the European author's right. Talking about International agreement will help us understand the background relating to the Internet and the application of the law on World Wide Web. Once the situation concerning the respect of copyright on the Web is understood, it will be interesting to see what the responsibilities allocated to professionals of Internet are. To conclude, we will talk about the other alternatives that exist to protect the copyright on the Internet.

Extraits

[...] E-business and respect of copyright: which solutions for the future? Technology may be a solution. As the problem is far for being solved, companies publishing protected contents and in the same way, companies producing protected products have to find other solutions than legal procedures. Here is the fact: international cooperation regarding legislation and application of the law is a very low process. Music publishing companies have invested to find a technologic innovation that could limit the content use. The use of the CD, and then the copyright could be managed thanks to the ECMS (Electronic Copyright Management System) technology. [...]

[...] The same Gfk's opinion poll says that half French families freely downloads protected music without feeling threaten by legislation. Moreover downloader doesn't want to pay for a song. Research providers on Internet To make web users apply legislation concerning protected music is a difficult mission. Could copyright be more respected through companies like Google, Yahoo! which provide research service on the web? What is their juridical status? International business law -Diane Neveu- Page 11 27/04/2008 Tools to do a research on the web are key elements on World Wide Web. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, the European directive can't ignore the key role of such providers on the Internet. Article 21 of this directive regarding the e-business charges the European Commission to find solutions to prevent them from such responsibility. In the first report of 2003, the European Commission reminds the importance of this kind of services on Internet and underlights relevance of states' legislation such as Spain, Portugal, Austria and Liechtenstein. These states decided to enlarge the access and accommodation's provider's limitation of responsibility to research providers. [...]

[...] The moral right can't be given up or limited for a period of time. That's why it's transmitted to heirs. International business law -Diane Neveu- Page 7 27/04/2008 A different interpretation of the European author's rights: the American copyright. The European author's rights are often opposed to the American Copyright. Firstly, France like Germany, for example, consider that the author's right is a physical person benefice, (authors or his heirs), and refuse it to moral person, except for collective works. [...]

[...] In the same time but at other place, on the distribution side, other way to limit counterfeiting is being evolved. In fact, if Internet as a distribution channel network contains a high danger level, it's totally safe to distribute digital music via Internet on mobiles. To understand how huge the market is: seven on ten French families already owned a mobile in 2004. At the same time, only 31% of computer family7 owners had Internet connexion. A growing sector for e-business relating to music: mobile phone activities. [...]