Piracy vs.

Intellectual Property: Old-Fashioned New Regulations Against P2P Networks

Av. Name men

In this assignment, I am going to discuss what action should the governments and international organizations take to combat piracy through the Peer to Peer networks. Firstly, I will explain the notion of piracy, how it evolved into Internet piracy, then, I will focus on the complications between Intellectual Property and Internet piracy, and which regulations and protection measures came into effect up until now. After that, I will try to clarify what P2P means, and what kind of a decision was made in the Napster Case. I will also explain what HADOPI and Digital Economy Act 2010 means to Internet users, what their characteristics are. Lastly, I will conclude with what kind of a system can be useful and legal for Internet users instead of downloading, how rights owners should act in terms of protecting their rights with restricting people. The word piracy meant robbery or illegal violence at sea in early times1. Accordingly, pirates used to rob people and loot their properties. Up till now, actions of pirates have been accepted illegal and the meaning of the word piracy has changed. Today piracy does not only mean robbing or looting but shows itself as copyright infringements in the context of Intellectual Property. It is generally used to describe the deliberate infringement of copyright on a commercial scale.2 When Internet usage was not very common, there were so many books, photocopies, music and film cassettes, CDs, DVDs without tax labels, accepted as pirated products. Although it was attempted to fight against the pirated products, the main reason of the decrease in physical piracy is the Internet piracy. -- "Internet piracy" refers particularly to the acts of infringements on the Internet that are of commercial nature - not necessarily due to the motivation of the perpetrator. While some Internet pirates generate income from their activity, many people engage in such acts for other, non-commercial reasons - yet they all can cause enormous commercial damage. The term is also often used to
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_views/what_is_piracy.html

refer more generally to any use of creative content on the Internet that violates copyright, whether via websites, P2P networks, or other means.3 In the beginning of the Internet usage, there was no effective way/solution to protect Intellectual Properties. It was because of the inadequacy of procedural and territorial law. Still national protection systems about intellectual rights are not sufficient. Copyright infringements occurring on the Internet are more often outside of the jurisdiction. When internet usage was newly common, general opinion was in favor of struggling unyieldingly with copyright infringements. Today, it seems that this approach give up its seat to harmonizing Intellectual Property and the Internet, for example selling intellectual products for underpriced fees or generating income through ad revenues instead of charging a fee. The idea about harmonization still holds an important place and it has become widespread. Even though the idea of harmonizing is more useful, this approach became unyielding in recent years because of the domination of many parties (film studios, phonogram producers, game companies, etc.). The most important international treaty about intellectual properties is Berne (1896-1971) Convention. However related to the computers, the Internet and intellectual property TRIPS came into effect after Uruguay Deliberation in 1995. It was a treaty about intellectual property within the context of to commercial use. TRIPS affected legislation of its parties (countries), for example TRIPS Article 10 is about accepting and protecting computer programs as literary works. It also abrogated intellectual-industrial property section. Computer Programs and Compilations of Data 1. Computer programs, whether in source or object code, shall be protected as literary works under the Berne Convention (1971). 2. Compilations of data or other material, whether in machine readable or other form, which by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute intellectual creations

http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_views/what_is_piracy.html

shall be protected as such. Such protection, which shall not extend to the data or material itself, shall be without prejudice to any copyright subsisting in the data or material itself. 4 WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) also held international gatherings and at the end of 1996, WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) were signed. The most important part of the WPPT was that all kind of communication to the public was accepted by the treaty, including the Internet. Communication to the public of a performance or a phonogram means the transmission to the public by any medium, otherwise than by broadcasting, of sounds of a performance or the sounds or the representations of sounds fixed in a phonogram. For the purposes of Article 15, communication to the public includes making the sounds or representations of sounds fixed in a phonogram audible to the public. (WPPT, Article 2/(g))5 Also Article 7 is about exclusive right of right owners about reproduction. Article 10 right of making available of fixed performances was added especially for Internet users make benefit without any time or place limitation. This is an absolute right of the performers and phonogram producers.

Bu makale Do. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz'in nternet Hukuku lisans dersi iin hazrlanmtr. Makalenin devam ya da sorularnz iin nagmeogmen@gmail.com'dan iletiime geebilirsiniz.

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http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/t_agm3_e.htm#1 http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wppt/trtdocs_wo034.html#P69_4021