COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

Irina Atanasova

Abstract

The digitalization of copyrighted works including text, music and video has dramatically increased the efficiency of unauthorized copying. Nowadays it is easier to copy and share digital information, to copy and paste from a web page, to share files. Even common tasks such as sending email and browsing the web involve the creation of copies. The Internet allows the infringers to produce thousands of copyrighted work at little cost. Providing legal protection against the copyright infringement has been the subject of an international treaty (the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty), a European Community Directive (the Information Society Directive) and major copyright legislation in the USA (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Although there are consistencies among nations’ intellectual propertylaws, each jurisdiction has separate and distinct laws and regulations about copyright.Overprotection of copyright could threaten democratic traditions and impact on social justice principles by unreasonably restricting access to information and knowledge. If copyright protection is too strong, competition, innovation and creativity is restricted. A balance betweenthe interests of copyright owners in receiving fair reward for their efforts and the interests of copyright users in receiving reasonable access to copyright materials should be maintained. The paper discusses and compares different solutions and approaches to the issue of reducing the digital copyright infringement without restricting the innovation and creativity.

Keywords: copyright infringement; copyright legislation; liability; digitalization; criminalization

JEL Codes: K14; K24

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

References

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References

Crews, K. (2011). Copyright Law and graduate research. http://www.umi.com/en-US/products/dissertations/copyright/.

Dong Elaine and Wang Bob. (2002). Copyright of electronic publishing. Information services and use

Gasaway, Laura. (2001). Is copyright dead? University of California, San Francisco.

Law Commision of Canada. (2004). What is crime? Defining a criminal conduct in contemporary society. UBC Press.

Law Commission of Canada. (2004). What is crime?Defining criminal conduct in contemporary society. UBC Press, Canada.

Law Commission of Canada. Defining Criminal Conduct in in contemporary society. (2004). What is crime. UBS Press Vancouver, Canada, p. 65.

Lawrance, S. (2005, vol. 83). The future of Copyright. Texas Law Review, University of Illinois, p. 2011.

Legal, C. o. (2011). Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in Digital Environment. International Federation of Library Associations.

Lemley, Mark and Reese, R. (2004, June vol.56). ‘’Reducing Digital Copyright Infringement Without Restricting Innovation’’. Stanford Law Review.

Lessing, L. (1996). Revising copyright law for information age. L.Rev. 19.

Marke, J. (1997, March 18). Database protectiona Act and the 105th congress. New York Law Journal.

Solum, L. (2005). The Future of Copyriht. Texas Law Reviw, 1137.

Stokes, S. (2005). ’Digital Copyright: Law and Practice’. Oxford, Great Britain: Hart Publishing.

Stokes, S. (2005). Digital Copyright: Law and Practice. Oxford, Great Britain: Hart Publishing.

Vaidhyanathan, S. (2001). ’Copyrights and copywrongs-the rise of intellectual property and how it threatens creativity’. New York: New York University Press.