IP Basics: Copyright on the Internet

This discussion focuses on copyright issues most apt to concern those who post to or own email lists or those who have put up web pages. Such matters as the fundamental distinction between works that are and are not for hire, registration, and issues to consider in transferring copyright interests are treated in other copyright discussions above

Copyright Publication on the Internet

This Article tackles the question of when a work distributed over the Internet is published as a matter of copyright law. Copyright publication doctrine retains significant practical importance and can have a dispositive impact on the economic value of a work. Publication can also determine whether a court has jurisdiction over a copyright claim. For many twentieth century works, publication with observance of formalities was required if copyrights were to attach to creative works at all. Publication remains relevant in determining the length of copyright protection, but duration is far from the only copyright issue that turns on this concept. The federal Copyright Act repeatedly references publication for many other purposes. Year by year, works dependent on the publication doctrine for their duration are entering the public domain. As the works of the twentieth century enter the public domain, the issue of copyright publication will fade from importance for purposes of duration analysis, and the relative impact of the doctrine will be experienced more forcefully with respect to other issues. Therefore, it is time for research on the copyright publication doctrine to shift its focus from duration to other copyright issues

Protection of copyright on the Internet

The problem of improving of legislation in the field of copyright protection is one of the urgent problems facing modern legislation. Due to the rapid development of information and communication technologies, dishonest users have the opportunity to post fragments of other people's creative works on their sites without reference to the author, source of borrowing and without disclosing information about the owners of the site. According to the main international copyright convention, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886), copyright protection covers a wide array of human creativity - all “literary and artistic works.” Due to the process of digitization all these forms of creativity can be transmitted across the Internet and in case of violation of rights to them, a mechanism for their protection should be developed in a modern society. It is concluded that information is transmitted via the Internet mainly in the form of creative works that are object to copyright. Moreover, the implementation of any formalities and the fact of publication of the creative work are not needed. The peculiarities of the legal regime of creative works placed on the Internet, the rights of which are the object of civil protection, were disclosed in the article. The author discloses problems of copyright protection for works posted on the Internet, including the problem of identification of the offender. In the article it is also identified basic ways to protect copyright, such as self-defense and judicial protection. The author examines issues of copyright protection for creative works posted on the Internet. Technical and legal means and methods of protecting the rights of authors are analyzed, which allow effective protection of creative works placed on the Internet both before and after their infringement. In the article it is argued that the protection of interests of copyright entities on the Internet depends to a large extent on the technological means that they use. The evolution of these tools and techniques will diminish the role of copyright as a regulator of civil legal relations on the Internet

News on the Internet

Newspapers are in trouble. Circulation and advertising are down as readers shift from print to online media. Although changing reader preferences and the loss of lucrative classified advertising to online sources are major worries, the news media seems preoccupied with news aggregators and bloggers who distribute news content on the internet without permission. Newspapers are not the only ones worried about the unauthorized distribution of their news on the internet. Financial services companies are unhappy about the distribution of their hot stock recommendations and other content providers seek to control online news ranging from movie schedules to business ratings. Traditional copyright doctrine offers varying degrees of protection for the literary format of the news — broad in scope for the text of news stories, narrower and less certain for smaller expressions like news headlines and leads. Content providers want more. They seek to control the online distribution not just of their literary forms, but of the very facts that are the news itself. The battle is being waged on two fronts. One involves an attempt to extend the traditional scope of copyright beyond the protection of expression into the previously forbidden realm of facts. The second front involves efforts by content providers to enlist the century-old common law tort of misappropriation. The reemergence of the misappropriation tort from the shadow of federal copyright law is somewhat improbable, resting as it does on a single paragraph of legislative history, extracted from an ABA Committee Report, that was directed at a portion of the copyright revision bill that was never actually enacted. Nevertheless, its application to news on the internet has been cheered by many commentators. This Article examines the recent attempts by content providers to gain control over facts through federal copyright law and the common law tort of misappropriation

Hukum dan Teknologi: Model Kolaborasi Hukum dan Teknologi dalam Kerangka Perlindungan Hak Cipta di Internet

The main issues in this research include: first, what the legal issues and cases are related to the protection of copyright on internet? Second, how is the development of the copyright protection recently? Third, is the collaboration of law and technology as the model of copyright protection on internet? This research was conducted by using the normative legal method. The result of the research showed some conclusions: first, the presence of internet has brought a negative impact on the attitude and behavior of human. Such negative impact is reflected with the increasing cases of copyright infringement. Therefore, the issue of copyright protection on internet becomes one of crucial issues. Second, recently, the copyright protection on internet can be done through technology approach or legal approach. If these two approaches are conducted separately, then the copyright protection on internet is found very difficult to be realized. To realize the copyright protection, then the model of the collaboration between the technology approach and legal approach becomes something certain. Third, the instrument of the copyright protection in internet collaborates between the technology and legal approach as seen in the regulation in Article 11 and 18 WIPO Internet Treaties and in some other countries such as United States and Indonesia

Aereo and Internet Television: A Call to Save the Dukes (A La Carte)

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. The most recent U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the Copyright Act employed this “duck test” when determining that Aereo, an Internet content-streaming company, violated the Copyright Act by infringing on the copyrights of television broadcast networks. The Supreme Court ruled that Aereo\u27s Internet streaming services resembled cable television transmissions too closely. Therefore, by streaming copyrighted programming to its subscribers without the cable compulsory license, Aereo violated the Transmit Clause of the 1976 Copyright Act. Subsequently, Aereo used this Supreme Court decision to obtain a compulsory license from the Copyright Office but was denied. Forced back into litigation, Aereo filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy This Issue Brief describes Aereo’s technology, the litigation that followed, and the related precedent, and concludes that the district court should have granted Aereo a Section 111 Statutory License in line with the Supreme Court’s “duck test.” It considers the implications of the Court’s preliminary injunction against Aereo’s “a la carte” TV technology, what this means for the future of similar technological innovation, and the effects on consumers and competition

Aereo and Internet Television: A Call to Save the Dukes (A La Carte)

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. The most recent U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the Copyright Act employed this “duck test” when determining that Aereo, an Internet content-streaming company, violated the Copyright Act by infringing on the copyrights of television broadcast networks. The Supreme Court ruled that Aereo\u27s Internet streaming services resembled cable television transmissions too closely. Therefore, by streaming copyrighted programming to its subscribers without the cable compulsory license, Aereo violated the Transmit Clause of the 1976 Copyright Act. Subsequently, Aereo used this Supreme Court decision to obtain a compulsory license from the Copyright Office but was denied. Forced back into litigation, Aereo filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy This Issue Brief describes Aereo’s technology, the litigation that followed, and the related precedent, and concludes that the district court should have granted Aereo a Section 111 Statutory License in line with the Supreme Court’s “duck test.” It considers the implications of the Court’s preliminary injunction against Aereo’s “a la carte” TV technology, what this means for the future of similar technological innovation, and the effects on consumers and competition

Copyright Use and Excuse on the Internet

1998 ended with voluminous copyright legislation, pompously titled the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [ DMCA ], and intended to equip the copyright law to meet the challenges of online digital exploitation of works of authorship. 1999 and 2000 have brought some of the ensuing confrontations between copyright owners and Internet entrepreneurs to the courts. The evolving caselaw affords an initial opportunity to assess whether the copyright law as abundantly amended can indeed respond to digital networks, or whether the rapid development of the Internet inevitably outstrips Congress\u27 and the courts\u27 attempts to keep pace. This Article addresses recent Internet-related controversies concerning technological protection measures and copyright management information; fair use and linking; private copying online services; and choice of law issues posed by foreign websites accessible in the U.S. The Internet copyright cases this Article examines call not only for interpretation of the provisions of the DMCA, but also for application of principles developed in pre-DMCA cases involving digital media and digital networks. What may make the current controversies different is the intensity of their impact on end-users. While the defendants in the current cases are generally, albeit not exclusively, commercial intermediaries, many of the practices here at issue pose the prospect of mass uncompensated copying by the public. Hence the feeling of desperation and even moral outrage that one senses pervades many of the copyright owners\u27 actions. From the user perspective, digital media offer unparalleled opportunities to access and enjoy copyrighted works; copyright owners\u27 endeavors to staunch the free (as in unpaid) flow of works are misguided attempts to stop the inexorable forward march of technology for the sake of preserving mastodontic business models of distribution. Certainly the Internet will compel adoption of new business models, and the sooner copyright owners adapt, the better. The tools the DMCA and copyright caselaw give copyright owners to confront copyright use on the Internet should be employed to promote broad distribution of works of authorship at reasonable, and variable, prices. If copyright owners instead wield these tools to enhance control without facilitating dissemination, we can expect to see courts expand the zones of excused uses, whether or not the excuses are doctrinally persuasive. Copyright owners cannot, and should not, control every Internet use, but neither should every use prompt an excuse, lest we undermine the ability of copyright owners, and especially of individual creators, to make a living from their creativity

Leslislating in the Face of New Technology: Copyright Laws for the Digital Age

This Note discusses the agendas and proposals of different countries with respect to copyright regulation in the digital age. Part I discusses the present state of copyright law in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Community. Part I also examines laws that have developed in response to new technology. Part II considers the varying commentaries and proposals addressing the promulgation of copyright law for digital technology. Part III argues that the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Community should take their existing copyright concepts and expand them to fit with digital technology. In addition, Part III maintains that lawmakers should consider copyright infringement liability standards which are based on an OSP\u27s knowledge of and ability to control infringing works appearing on online services. Finally, this Note concludes that promulgation of copyright laws relating to the Internet is crucial to the growth of online services and a necessary prerequisite to a global information infrastructure