The Development of an Effective Framework and the Violation of the Copyright Law - Research Paper Example

 1. Introduction The increase of the cost of life worldwide has led to the development of activities that aim to save the expenses on a series of products/ services; the distribution of CD music over the internet has become a common phenomenon leading to severe losses of the firms operating in the particular industry; the above practice has been often condemned as of its severe consequences on all aspects of the music industry. On the other hand, the measures that have been taken for the limitation of the specific activity have been proved to be inadequate in order to control the expansion of the problem. Current paper focuses on the identification and the evaluation of the measures that would be taken towards the limitation of the specific activity. The examination of the literature published on the particular field has led to the assumption that the elimination of the problem is not feasible; however, its limitation would be possible if cooperation among the countries of the international community would be increased – referring to the specific issue. The update of existing laws in regard to this activity would be also valuable; however, this initiative should be followed by the development of a mechanism responsible to control the application of the relevant rules; indeed, in many countries the legislative framework regarding the copyright rights is detailed and well supported but it is not closely monitored – as of its application in practice. A potential framework of practices is suggested in this paper taking into consideration the fact that the level of profitability of the firms and the individuals following this practice is extremely high – a fact that can explain the delays in the development of effective policies for the protection of copyright laws in regard to the distribution of CD music through the Internet. 2. Business ethics – overview – relevance to copyright law The development of criminal behaviour can be sometimes related with the wrong understanding of people on law; more specifically, law cannot be considered as a set of rules that introduce prohibitions and permissions; it should be rather regarded as ‘the skeleton that gives a society shape and form’ (Wines, 2006, p.5); for this reason, law should not be considered as a framework of rules that should rather be avoided as being restrictive of the personal freedom; rather, its application should be enhanced as it protects the existing social context; in other words, law is a set of rules regulating the daily human activities aiming to protect the public peace and safety and not to set limits to the human rights. The understanding of the above issues could help people to change their view on the necessity and the integrity of law; in its first characteristics, necessity, the law has to be applied on each case where it is considered as applicable – as these terms are derived from its text or by the ethics; the second characteristic, i.e. the integrity, means that the law cannot be alternated as of its content; no one can change the text of a legal rule apart from the legislator. In accordance with the above, the laws regulated the human activities in a specific society should be respected; there violation should be punished in accordance with the relevant law provisions. The violators of law – either individuals or legal entities, for instance, firms, need to be punished indicating the absence of tolerance in regard to the criminal activity; however, there are certain actions that despite their opposition to the existing laws remain unpunished. The distribution of CD music over the Internet belongs to this category; different causes can be identified to this outcome: the relevance of this activity to the entertainment sector and the lack of severe punishment of similar initiatives have led to the de-activation – in practice – of the copyright law. In this context, the development of business ethics would lead to the limitation of this activity; however, incentives should be set for entrepreneurs – referring to those entrepreneurs that support – either directly or indirectly – the violation of copyright law - in order to avoid the particular activity. At the next level, individuals would be convinced on their obligations in regard to the protection of copyright law. In other words, the specific activity should be primarily controlled at a corporate level; the prohibition of individuals from participating in such initiatives would be imposed indirectly using as an example the consequences of the firms that violated the copyright law. Moreover, the development of business ethics would help individuals to change their perceptions on ‘good’ and ‘bad’ business practices; therefore, they would easier avoid supporting businesses the practices of which are in opposition of the business ethics. In this context, emphasis should be paid by the state on the development of business ethics as a framework of controlling the violations of law in regard to the distribution of CD music over the Internet. In order to understand the role of business ethics in the limitation of the criminal activities – like the distribution of CD music over the Internet – it would be necessary to explain the context of these ethics – as described in the relevant literature. In accordance with Nelson (2006, p. 12) ‘each individual’s business ethics cover his or her expectations about how businesses should behave in their business dealings with individuals who are members of different corporate constituencies’; from a similar point of view, Coady (1993, p.25) noted that the term ‘business ethics’ can be used in order to show the practical application of certain theories, especially the one stated by Rawls in The Theory of Justice (1971); in accordance with this view, business ethics is a concept used in order to show the necessity of morals in business activities; it is also used in order to show that the violation of laws that regulate business activities need to be punished in the same context as the rest actions that violate the existing legal rules. The importance of business ethics for the stabilization of the framework of a particular society is highlighted in the study of Halbert et al. (2008); in the above study it is noted that ethics would not be regarded as a set of rules aiming to impose a specific behaviour under specific circumstances; they would be rather defined as a ‘lifelong conditioning process’ (Halbert et al., 2008, p.16); this means that the application of existing laws should not be considered as an obligation imposed just periodically – especially in regard to specific activities; it would be rather a way of life – showing the respect of individuals to existing laws; under these terms, the limitation of the distribution of CD music over the Internet would be achieved not by establishing strict punishment but by taking measures for the development and the improvement of the perceptions of individuals on the value of law. It is clear from the above that the specific activity – distribution of CD music over the Internet – is related with two different factors: a) the personal views on the value and the credibility of existing copyright laws and b) the establishment of necessary mechanisms that will monitor the application of the rules of copyright law; in the context of the first of the above factors, the measures taken by the legislators towards the limitation of the specific activity would be preventive; in regard to the second factor, the specific activity could be effectively controlled by developing an effective mechanism for controlling the application of the rules of copyright law. The above issues are analyzed further in the section that follows where measures for the control of distribution of CD music over the Internet are suggested. 3. Control of distribution of CD music over the Internet– recommendations As noted above, the distribution of CD music over the Internet reflects the perceptions of people on the credibility and the necessity of legal rules in regard to the copyright law; most people consider the particular activity as not being a violation of law; for this reason, they tend to ignore the laws controlling the specific activity; the fact that no major examples of punishment of this activity have been existed – or at least such cases have not been published in order to become known to the public – further supports the expansion of the phenomenon. The examination of the literature related with business ethics led to the assumption that these ethics can influence the perceptions of individuals on the morality of a business practice (Jeurissen, 2007, p.42). Furthermore, the existing internet law defines the criteria under which the specific activity is characterized as violating the law; the direct opposition of this activity to the existing law is the major argument for urging people to avoid developing the particular activity; in practice, this fact is not always adequate (Ashcroft, 2007, p.32); often, the opposition of an action to the law is considered as being a grammatical statement – an assumption derived by the fact that this activity has been taken place for quite a long without the authorities to proceed to the actions that the law defines. All business activities are regulated by the law – referring to those activities that can have a reference to an existing legal rule; in relation to businesses, law is characterized as being ‘a code of conduct that defines the behavioral boundaries for business activity’ (Meiners, 2008, p.5). The application of legal rules is necessary for all businesses; in fact it is noted that ‘compliance with the law is normally regarded as the moral minimum of ethical business behaviour’ (Miller, 2009, p.70). In accordance with the above, the market should accept a framework that would regulate more effectively the various aspects of modern business activities (Mead et al., 2006, p.18); the parts of this framework would have specific characteristics, which can be defined using the relevant findings of the literature. One of the most important requirements for choosing the appropriate methods through which the specific activity could be limited is the identification of the elements of this activity that are opposed to the law – the suggested measures would target to the prohibition of these activities; at this point, the follow problem exists: the use of Napster – like systems is not always considered to be a violation of the copyright law (Delta et al., 2002, p.5-133); on the other hand, the existing law requires that the copyright has been registered in order for a relevant action to be brought before the courts (Montgomery v Noga, 1999, in Scott, 2009, p.230); at the next level it has been noted that ‘a pre-recorded CD is not music, even though it contains music; it is a digital copy of a recording of a particular performance of a piece of music’ (Parker, 2004, p.24); it is at this point that the right of the owner of the piece can be set. In this context, the creation of a copy of a CD without the permission of the owner of the particular piece – recorded in the CD – could have legal consequences for the person attempting to copy the specific CD (Bainbridge, 2007, p.39); the type of the music included is not of interest; regardless the methods used for copying the specific CD, the specific action is still considered as an opposition to the law (Copinger, 2008, p.14). In the above context, the following measures would be suggested for the limitation of the distribution of CD music over the internet: a) negotiations among the governments worldwide in regard to the development of a common scheme of action towards the specific phenomenon; this scheme would have different aspects, including: a1) reduction of taxes imposed on the firms that operate in the music industry – at least for a period up, aiming to support the industry’s recovery; in this way also, the prices of the CDs could be reduced – referring to the CDs that include recorded pieces of music, a fact that will make these products approachable to the public, a2) introduction of necessary schemes of funding of the firms operating in the music industry; this funding will aim to increase the competitiveness of the firms and help to the development of the relationship between the public and these firms; in this context, the media will be used in order to help people to understand that by avoiding the particular activity – distribution of CD music over the Internet – they help towards the development of the economy – the consequences can be made clear both in the short and the long term; these consequences should be analytically explained both to the violators and the people that participate in this activity by downloading the specific pieces of music; in this context, it should be made clear to the users of the Internet that by downloading CD music through the Internet they take part in the limitation of music events – firms in the music industry will not be able to fund the relevant activities – and so on; a3) development of a common framework of action against the firms that use the specific practices; when this activity is developed at a business level, then the profits – and the taxes that are not paid – can be high; b) use of the media and the Internet for informing the people on the criminal elements of the particular activity, c) restrictions applied in the Web Distributors operating in each country in regard to the ability of the Internet users to download music, d) a team of controllers should be developed in each country regarding the monitoring of the particular activity; it would be preferable that the people participated in this team would have the power to proceed to immediate action in regard to the legal punishment of this activity – for instance a team of police officers skilled on the particular subject. 4. Conclusion The development of an effective framework – in the context suggested above – for the limitation of distribution CD music over the Internet would help the music industry to recover – referring mostly to the losses that have been resulted because of the violation of the copyright law (Greech, 2007, p.49). On the other hand, this initiative would benefit the entire market helping to recover the balance of power among the various industrial sectors (Jennings, 2005, p.34); also, the unemployment rate will be reduced; in other words, the limitation of the specific activity would not benefit only the music industry but all the industries operating in a particular market. The evaluation of the measures suggested through this study has led to the assumption that the limitation of the specific criminal activity is possible but only under the condition that these measures will be welcomed by the public; the existing legal framework in regard to the copyright law is important; however, it is not appropriately monitored and its effectiveness is low (Schaffer et al., 2008, p.71); for this reason, the effort to limit the particular activity – distribution of CD music over the Internet – need to be developed in two phases. In the first phase, the public will be informed on the various aspects of the relevant project – the participation of the public to this effort is the target set at this phase; at the next phase, the improvement of existing law and the introduction of additional rules in regard to the specific activity would be developed; the specific phase would be completed with the establishment of the mechanism – for instance a board of controllers at state level but also at the European and international level – that would monitor the appropriate application of the copyright law. (2579 words) References Ashcroft, J., 2007. Law for Business. Cengage Learning Bainbridge, D., 2007. Introduction to information technology law. Pearson Education Coady, C., 1993. Business, ethics, and the law. Federation Press Copinger, W., 2008. The Law of Copyright, in Works of Literature and Art: Including That of the Drama, Music, Engraving, Sculpture, Painting, Photography and Ornamental and Useful Designs: Together with International and Foreign Copyright, with the Statutes Relating Thereto, and References to the English and ...The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. Delta, G., Matsuura, J., 2002. Law of the Internet. Aspen Publishers Online Greech, K., 2007. Electronic media law and regulation. Focal Press Halbert, T., Ingulli, E., 2008. Law & Ethics in the Business Environment. Cengage Learning Jennings, M., 2005. Business: its legal, ethical, and global environment. Cengage Learning Jeurissen, R., 2007. Ethics & Business. Uitgeverij Van Gorcum Mead, L., Allan, W., 2006. Fundamentals of ethics, corporate governance and business law. Butterworth-Heinemann Meiners, R., Ringleb, A., Edwards, F., 2008. The Legal Environment of Business. Cengage Learning Miller, R., Jentz, G., 2009. Fundamentals of Business Law: Excerpted Cases. Cengage Learning Nelson, B., 2006. Law and ethics in global business: how to integrate law and ethics into corporate governance around the world. Taylor & Francis Parker, N., 2004. Music business: infrastructure, practice, and law. Sweet & Maxwell Schaffer, R., Agusti, F., 2008. International Business Law and Its Environment. Cengage Learning Scott, M., 2009. Internet and Technology Law Desk Reference. Aspen Publishers Online Wines, W., 2006. Ethics, law, and business. Routledge Read More