Copyright is defined as a bundle of exclusive, legally secured rights to reproduce, publish, and sell anything created in the form of a literary, dramatic, musical, scientific and artistic work (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616). In other words, it either permits or forbids specific uses of a work, thereby giving the author the ability to control who may copy, adapt, distribute, publicly perform or publicly display their work (Litman, 2001, p.198). As a result it is designed primarily to protect the creator against any unauthorised copying of their work (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616). However, the introduction of new media technologies has impinged on the effectiveness of copyright. As technology advances so swiftly, the law finds it difficult to keep up (Alcock, Chen, Ch’ng, and Hodson, 2003, p.130). In particular copyright laws have failed to keep pace with the technological development of the Internet. For example, there are arguments that perceive the World Wide Web as a ‘public domain’. As a result, the dilemma on how to safeguard intellectual property has become even more complex and confusing, with many new challenges and significant trends in legal and social issues affecting copyright law and fair use.
It is generally considered that the world’s first copyright law was enacted by the British Parliament in 1709, as the Statute of Anne (Godwin, 1998, p.164). In 1741, a similar law was enacted in Denmark. However it was not till 1790 that the United States passed its first copyright statue (Litman, 2001, p.15). These laws required compliances with a variety of regulations as a condition of copyright protection, which included registration, copyright notice and renewal, although, recent laws have dropped these requirements, abandoning conditions which have limited copyright to publicly distributed works (Litman, 2001, p.15). As a result, copyright protection is automatic (Litman, 2001, p.15). Furthermore, it was also established that these laws have a limited duration, and upon expiring, the once copyrighted works could pass into public domain and is then available for anyone to freely use (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616). However, the industrial age brought about developments in communications, which increased concerns over the protection of authors’ rights on an international scale (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616). With these developments copyright law found itself in a state of real flux as, most laws were outdated and did not take account these new technologies.
It was inevitable that the introduction of the Internet instigated misunderstandings regarding the operation of and policies behind current copyright law (Godwin, 1998, p.171). This is not only due to the outdated laws but also to users’ unfamiliarity with the legal distinctions between intellectual property and tangible property (Godwin, 1998, p.171). As a result, there are ever increasing claims that online infringement, especially unintentional ones of intellectual property, amounts to ‘online theft and fraud’ (Godwin, 1998, p.171).
Copyright infringement is the unauthorised use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights (Stanford University Libraries 2004, http://fairuse.stanford.edu/primary_materials/codes/92chap5.html). This form of unauthorised reproduction and distribution is often referred to as piracy. The Internet has been regarded as one of the greatest new media technologies, which has created the relative ease in which people across the globe can easily communicate, compress, access and share information (Langenderfer and Cook, 2001, p.280). However the disadvantage to this new connectivity, in the eyes of copyright owners, is that it is now also easy to duplicate and widely distribute copyrighted materials without authorisation. Langenderfer and Cook (2001, p.280) states that “the explosion of the Internet has sparked a commensurate explosion of copyright infringement�. Therefore enabling anyone connected to the Internet the power to violate copyright laws. Therefore preventing piracy and theft of other intellectual property appears both legally and technologically impossible.
A prime example of copyright infringements bought along by the new technology of the internet is in the entertainment industry. The Internet’s emergence as a perfect digital copying and distribution medium has meant that it is possible for users to obtain and reproduce video, audio, software, and text from thousands of potential sources (Langenderfer and Cook, 2003, p.281). Therefore music downloading in particular became one of the fastest growing activities on the Internet in 2000 (Langenderfer and Cook, 2003, p.281). These free music exchanges have become a way of life for a whole generation of Internet users. However those in the music industry share a different view. File sharing is a simple case of copyright infringement and theft (Wade, 2004, p.12). According to the Recording Industry Association of America unit shipments of recorded music has fallen 31 percent, with revenues down by 22 percent from 2000 to 2003 (Wade, 2004, p.12).
In today’s environment there are no solid copyright laws that will stop these infringements from happening. These copyright laws are not strong or threatening enough for people to take notice. One of the biggest obstacles the copyright holders face is overcoming the mindset that there is nothing wrong with piracy (Wade, 2004, p.12). This is supported in a report (Lenhart and Fox, 2000, p.12) concentrating on music downloading, which emphasises that a growing majority of people who download music files are not concerned whether the works are copyrighted. The people who seem to care the least about copyright, according to the report are students (Lenhart and Fox, 2000, p.12). Akst (2003, p.4) continues and says people tell themselves stories they like to hear to justify what they’re doing. This is the general attitude that is present at the moment. Digital media and new technologies have created a breeding pool for copyright infringements, which brings to light dishonestly and questions ethics.
Digital media and network connections have changed the marketplace promoting free expression and access to a large and broad source of information (Litman, 2001, p.12), whereby everyone can become a publisher (Litman, 2001, p.19). Hence, it is said to be the most democratic of all new media (Litman, 2001, p.12). However, in regards to copyright, the Internet and its globally open and free nature causes more difficulties. Langenderfer and Cook (2001, p.288) says all these arguments suggest that the digital age requires a fundamental rethinking of copyright law that have been used to protect creative works ensuring profits generated are distributed to the copyright holders. As Internet bandwidth increases and the duplication technology improves, becoming cheaper and more widely distributed, copyright owners will all face a threat regarding issues of infringement, much like the one presently affecting the music industry (Langenderfer and Cook, 2001, p.288).
Hence, laws need to be redesigned in order to be effective and compatible with new media and digital technology. The 1998 enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (Litman, 2001, p.37) was enacted in the United States under the Clinton administration (U.S. copyright office, 1998, p.1) to prevent unauthorised access to a work by means of prohibiting any circumvention or unauthorised alteration (Litman, 2001, p.136). This Act also incorporated provisions to protect Internet service providers from avoiding liability when infringing material is passed through their systems (Litman, 2001, p.143). In 2002, the United States also enacted the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act to control infringement and strengthen copyright laws and methods for the future. This would require personal computers and television sets to be manufactured with encoding to prevent illegal copying or redistribution (Holland, 2002, p.8). These are some of the solutions and actions that have been formulated to try and combat copyright infringements in new media and technologies.
Furthermore laws established to protect creators of original works of authorship vary from country to country. For this reason, there is no such thing as international copyright laws that enable authors to protect their work throughout the world. However, most countries are members of the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention.
There are 14 original member states of the Berne Convention, which was adopted in 1886 (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616). The core of this convention lies in its provision that each of its member countries provide automatic protection for works in other member countries and for unpublished works whose authors are citizens or residents of these countries (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616). The Universal Copyright Convention, conversely, took effect in 1955 and consists of countries that are not included under the Berne Convention, such as the United States (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616). This convention is more comprehensive than the Berne Convention, as it provides the same protection for foreign works as for domestic works in all countries regardless of where the work was first published (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616).
However, on the other hand, these laws are subject to many limitations, the most important being fair use, which is not considered an infringement (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990, p.616). Fair use is based on the principle that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted material for the purposes of commenting, criticising or parodying copyrighted works and therefore does not require permission from the copyright owner (Stanford University Libraries 2004, http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-a.html).
Overall the importance of copyright is great as it serves to protect the rights of the creators of intellectual property and other creative works. It was first created in 1709 in the Statue of Anne in England and other countries following soon after that. However the effectiveness of copyright is being threatened with the introduction of new media technologies, such as the Internet. There have been many arguments regarding the ease of copying digital material from the Internet and the apparent lack of severe consequences for violators, which has gradually undermined and eroded the belief that copyright is an indispensable tool in protecting authors and copyright holders. There are millions of file sharers around the world who routinely use the Internet to breach copyright laws as they have been proven to be difficult to enforce and monitor. Therefore there needs to be stricter regulations to ensure copyright laws and methods are enforced appropriately therefore guaranteeing intellectual property and creative works are protected in favour of the author and copyright holder.
See also:
Reference List
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Weena Tan 12:18, 8 Sep 2004 (EST)
Julie Bui 12:16, 8 Sep 2004 (EST)
Julie Bui 10:22, 9 Sep 2004 (EST)
