COPYRIGHT RIGHT LAW
Copyright law will undoubtedly provide one of the most important forms of intellectual property
protection on the Internet. Considerable challenges will be presented, however, in adapting
traditional copyright law, which was designed to deal with the creation, distribution and sale of
protected works in tangible copies, to the electronic transmissions of the online world in which
copies are not tangible in the traditional sense, and it is often difficult to know precisely where a
copy resides at any given time within the network.
The most difficult aspect of adapting copyright law to the online world stems from the fact that
virtually every activity on the Internet-such as browsing, caching, linking, downloading,
accessing information, and operation of an online service-involves the making of copies, at least
if the law treats electronic images of data stored in RAM as copies for purposes of copyright law.
In short, copying is both ubiquitous and inherent in the very nature of the medium. If the law
were to treat all forms of copying as infringements of the rights of the copyright holder, then the
copyright holder would have very strong control over Internet use of the copyrighted work.
Which forms of copying the law should deem to be within the control of the copyright owner and
which should not presents a very difficult challenge.
The global nature of the Internet may give rise to multiple territorial liabilities. If every
intermediate copy made during a transmission is considered infringing, there is the possibility
that a single transmission could give rise to potential liability in several countries, even countries
in which the sender did not intend or contemplate that its actions would result in the creation of a
copy. Moreover, differing standards could apply-the same intermediate copy created in the
course of transmission through the Internet could be considered infringing when passing through
one country, and not when passing through another. In addition, the violation of the rights of
transmission and access under the WIPO treaties might occur in yet another country. Although
the WIPO treaties may afford a vehicle for greater transnational uniformity of copyright law,
there is no guarantee that implementing legislation in the various signatory countries will be
consistently adopted, consistently interpreted, or consistently applied.
In sum, copyright owners may have potentially unprecedented rights over use of their
copyrighted material on the Internet. One can expect that the fair use and implied license
doctrines (and their international equivalents) will take center stage in resolving the balance
between copyright owners' and users' rights on the Internet. How broadly these doctrines will be
applied, and whether they will be consistently applied in various countries, remains to be seen.
With the development of Internet in 1980s and growth of on-line services such as the World
Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail (e-mail) and files' transfer protocol (ftp) servers, copyright
law faced major challenges. The WIPO Copyright Treaty – covers copyright protection for
computer programs, databases as intellectual works, and digital communications, including
transmission of copyrighted works over the world-wide Internet and other computer networks.
However, during the previous decade, the situation seems to have turned in the opposite
direction. Firstly, technological development fostered the development of digital rights
managements systems (DRMS), or technological measures, which gradually enabled right
holders to physically control access and use of a work made available on-line'. These
technological measures were seen as being most prospective measures to fight against online
piracy at the time. Therefore, as the second step, DRMS were very soon provided with legal
protection against any circumvention acts. Such legal protection was primarily imbedded in the
World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Phonograms
and Performance Treaty (WPPT), the so-called WIPO Internet treaties, and soon implemented
into most national legal systems worldwide, including by the European Community Directive on
the Harmonization of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information
Society' (EC Information Society Directive). In addition, these acts readjusted the copyright
system with regard to other challenges caused by digital technologies, by imposing a high
copyright protection level. Thus, digital on-line technologies, together with law, now provide
copyright owners with a potentially strong on-line copyright enforcement system, which is still
being gradually developed.
Copyright Right Law by Velanati Jyothirmai @ Lex Cliq
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