Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment - PowerPoint Presentation Example

Running head: Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment Copyright Protection In The Digital Environment The everyday life of Europeans has been revolutionized by the internet in a way that can be compared to revolutions of industries during previous centuries (Tian 2008). Online services and electronic commerce are now at the exposure of the business people, consumers and other citizens generally (Ogawa 2006). There are dynamic changes in the way services and goods are sold and purchased, searching and availability of information, training and learning, interactions, and data handling. Developmental milestones have been adapted in terms of online sales and communication via the internet (Srivastava 2008). This type of convergence leads to innovation and tight competition that is beneficial to everyone. However, some rules require review in order to cater for the new technological developments and policies (Ogawa 2006). New growth types will be generated by a digital market that is genuine and benefits will be registered at all European Union sectors of economic (Mazziotti 2008). The e-commerce growth rate is skyrocketing nationally but it is still marginalised in the retail trade of Europe and this hinders online services development (Solovay & Reed 2003). The deficiency of knowledge about the applicable rules, rights conferred and opportunities offered by digital economy enhances their reluctance (Blythe 2011). The difficulties associated with transactions across the border such as deliveries, dispute resolutions and payments discourage business people from accepting the internet advantages to purchase or distribute their services and goods (Ogawa 2006). Digital single market therefore has a long way to go before achieving its complete potential. Objectives that are geared towards growth potential of online services and commerce must be set up (Solovay & Reed 2003). Their boosting at the European level needs action that is concerted and firm as stipulated in the Digital Agenda for Europe (Tian 2008). This commission is dedicated to working along with stakeholders in order to achieve the set objectives. Most of the initiatives outlined in this commission have been adopted (Perritt 2001). Peer-to-peer networking is making use of computers that are relatively powerful, are personal and their computing tasks are beyond those of the client (Campbell & Woodley 2002). The current personal computer has a large memory, very fast processor and a large hard disk, not all of which are used when browsing or e-mailing (Ogawa 2006). This computer acts as a server and a client (a peer) for several applications. The features of peer-to-peer networking include; Real-time communications (RTC) which enables real-time matchmaking, instant messaging and game play without a server (Zappalà & Gray 2006). The other feature is collaboration, which involves sharing of files, workspace and experiences, an example is windows Meeting Space, and it is included in Vista Windows (Mazziotti 2008). Content distribution is another feature, which allows video, text and audio distribution, and updates of software products. The feature of Distributed Processing allows distribution of tasks of computing and aggregation of processor resources. Lastly, Improved Internet Technologies feature provides improved internet utilization and supports upcoming internet technologies (Neubert 2005). Copyright infringement poses a major threat to authors and their economic interests, and to the internet growth and development as an online resource (Solovay & Reed 2003). There have been attempts to solve copyright violations by protecting the works through copy detection and storing work on a CD-ROM other than on the web. Infringement can be identified by preparation of document fingerprints from the web so that a repository and a match of targeted documents is formed against other repository fingerprints (Ogawa 2006). The systems involved in this include; turnitin.com, Copy Catch, SCAM and different fingerprint calculation with differently defined similarity (Perritt 2001). Different strategies of chunking are used to break documents and their texts to small pieces. Threats to security are all over the internet because adware and spyware are inadvertently installed, key loggers penetrate ones firewall, transmission of virus through email and malicious code broadcast associated with peer-to-peer networks, thus the initiation of policy conflict over the use of such networks in copyright material download (Ogawa 2006). Threats reduce performance of the system, generate unusual behavior, destabilizes systems and they modify the registry of the window, and internet bandwidth hogging (Campbell & Woodley 2002). The sources are from software downloads, floppies, peer-to-peer networks, emails and attachments, DVDs or CDs, chat rooms and internet in genera (Mazziotti 2008). Malicious software comes in different forms that are designed to disrupt or destroy networked machines. It degrades performance of the system by interfering with the memory and infecting files therefore becoming greatly resilient (Neubert 2005). It also causes system instability with unexpected automatic rebooting and systemic error messaging. This software also causes unusual behavior of the system by modifying system registry and can grant accessibility to the computer. The E-Commerce directive aims at ensuring free movement of societal information services and to encourage e-commerce use by eliminating barriers throughout Europe (Mazziotti 2008). It also boosts the consumer trust and confidence by clarifying obligations and rights of consumers and businesses (Ogawa 2006). This directive addresses criminal and civil liabilities of the internet service providers and it acts as an intermediary. Its mandate is ensuring that ISPs are not held liable in any law field applicable within their services. It is also stipulated that Member States are not supposed to impose general requirements on ISPs for information monitoring that is under their storage and transmission (Srivastava 2008). ISPs are also protected against obligations that are active in seeking facts or circumstances that could indicate illegal activity (Perritt 2001). ISPs that act as mere conduit by not selecting recipients, not initiating relevant transmission and does not change content is given a safe harbor (Tian 2008). For an ISP to qualify for a safe harbor, one must comply with the given conditions on information accessibility, should have no interference with industry-standard technology and obtaining data, cached information should not be modified, and should be compliant with industry-standard rules in regard to information updates (Neubert 2005). The directive offers protection of broader base against third party liability beyond copyright (Ogawa 2006). The regulations of the e-commerce directive in relation to internet service providers, limits certain liability types of suppliers who might unwittingly store or transmit unlawful content given by others in other circumstances (Plotkin, Wells & Wimmer 2003). The service providers of the following criteria have their liabilities limited by the regulations; the ISPs who relay information in a conduit capacity, those involved in “hosting” information and those who are in “caching” information (Papadopouli & Schulzrinne 2009) There are measures proposed in the Digital Economy Act which include; a practice code whose adoption sets specific conditions to be met before requirements of copyright infringement kicks in (Mazziotti 2008). The owners of copyrights who have evidence of infringement online are required to notify ISPs of addresses involved with such infringement, and ISPs are required to give technical measures that will bar subscriber accessibility such as suspending internet accessibility(Carr & Stone 2009). The act also requires provision of an appeal process that is independent and it will cover grounds of infringement reports (Ogawa 2006). Body set by Ofcom will hear the cases and the cases will be judged in favor of subscriber not unless an ISP or copyright owner proves infringement of copyright. The ISPs have a role in curbing infringement. The mandate requiring the ISPs to block pirate bay access has substantially reduced the users involved. Significant progress has been reached through the said intermediaries and 62 illegal website cut off (Solovay & Reed 2003). Search engines like Google very helpful in accessing routes culprits searching for unlicensed internet details. Cooperation with the said engines is key to aid in prevention of funding the illegal sites through advertising (Campbell & Woodley 2002). A new tact is in use to eliminate digital piracy known as Graduated Response. In this method, the copyright holders alert the internet service providers and providers of mobile data network of illegal content uploading by IP addresses (Srivastava 2008). This method however does not interfere with the user’s privacy; it’s only involved in watching and monitoring channels of file distribution (Fitzek & Charaf 2004). In this respect, internet service providers warn the involved subscribers of their illegal operations and if they further continue with their illegal operations, action is taken (Ogawa 2006). The sanctions or penalties imposed include bandwidth reduction, suspension of accounts and fines (Verma 2004). The subscriber can also be enrolled in a program that will educate them about content creator’s rights and copyright law. Chronic file sharing can also warrant total service termination (Oram 2001). In view of the rates of volume growth of case-law and statutory, the need to create a horizontal European framework for notice and procedures is inevitable (Perritt 2001). Intermediary internet providers to block, and curb illegal content once they are notified use these procedures and actions. They can also request that the subscribers responsible for posting it take down the illegal content. (Campbell & Woodley 2002) Actions against continuous infringement, preventive measures and being proactive will go handy with the takedown and notification procedure. This commission will enhance implementation of intellectual property rights of the European strategy and in particular, presentation of legislative initiative about private copying. The directives to end illegal information and abuse will become more efficient in a framework that will guarantee legal certainty (Tian 2008). There will be proportionality in respect to fundamental rights and rules that govern a business. There will be no prejudice in the European notice and action procedure in this initiative (Dumortier & Robben 2001). References Blythe, S.E., 2011. E-Commerce Law Around the World. Bloomington: US, Xlibris Corporation. Campbell, D. & Woodley, S., 2002. E-commerce: law and jurisdiction. Canada, Kluwer Law International. Carr, I. & Stone, P., 2009. International Trade Law. New York: USA, Taylor & Francis. Dumortier, J. & Robben, F., 2001. A Decade of Research @ the Crossroads of Law and ICT. Bruxelles: Belgium, Larcier. Fitzek, H.P. & Charaf, H., 2004. Mobile Peer to Peer. New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons. Mazziotti, G., 2008. EU Digital Copyright Law and the End-User. New York: USA, Springer, Neubert, M.E., 2005. Virtual Slavica: Digital Libraries, Digital Archives. New York: USA, Routledge, Ogawa, M., 2006. Protection of Broadcasters Rights. Leiden: Netherlands, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Oram, A., 2001. Peer-to-peer: Harnessing the Benefits of a Disruptive Technology. Tokyo: Japan, O’Reilly Media, Inc. Papadopouli, M. & Schulzrinne, H., 2009. Peer-To-Peer Computing for Mobile Networks. New York: USA, Springer. Perritt, H., 2001. Law and the information superhighway. New York: NY, Aspen Publishers. Plotkin, M. E., Wells, B. & Wimmer, K. A., 2003. E-commerce Law and Business. New York: NY, Aspen Publishers. Solovay, N. & Reed, C.K., 2003. The Internet and Dispute Resolution. New York: NY, Law Journal Press. Srivastava, P., 2008. Copyright in Academic Libraries in Digital Environment. New Delhi, Ess Publications. Tian, Y., 2008. Re-thinking intellectual property: the political economy of copyright protection in the digital era. New York: USA, Taylor & Francis. Verma, D., 2004. Legitimate Applications of Peer-To-Peer Networks. Hoboken: New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons. Zappalà, S. and Gray, C., 2006. Impact of E-commerce on Consumers And Small Firms. Farnham: UK, Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Read More