Measuring Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights

© Crown Copyright 2014. You may re-use this information (excluding logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov. uk/doc/open-government-licence/ Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concernedThe review is wide-ranging in scope and overall our findings evidence a lack of appreciation among those producing research for the high-level principles of measurement and assessment of scale. To date, the approaches adopted by industry seem more designed for internal consumption and are usually contingent on particular technologies and/or sector perspectives. Typically, there is a lack of transparency in the methodologies and data used to form the basis of claims, making much of this an unreliable basis for policy formulation. The research approaches we found are characterised by a number of features that can be summarised as a preference for reactive approaches that look to establish snapshots of an important issue at the time of investigation. Most studies are ad hoc in nature and on the whole we found a lack of sustained longitudinal approaches that would develop the appreciation of change. Typically the studies are designed to address specific hypotheses that might serve to support the position of the particular commissioning body. To help bring some structure to this area, we propose a framework for the assessment of the volume of infringement in each different area. The underlying aim is to draw out a common approach wherever possible in each area, rather than being drawn initially to the differences in each field. We advocate on-going survey tracking of the attitudes, perceptions and, where practical, behaviours of both perpetrators and claimants in IP infringement. Clearly, the nature of perpetrators, claimants and enforcement differs within each IPR but in our view the assessment for each IPR should include all of these elements. It is important to clarify that the key element of the survey structure is the adoption of a survey sampling methodology and smaller volumes of representative participation. Once selection is given the appropriate priority, a traditional offline survey will have a part to play, but as the opportunity arises, new technological methodologies, particularly for the voluntary monitoring of online behaviour, can add additional detail to the overall assessment of the scale of activity. This framework can be applied within each of the IP right sectors: copyright, trademarks,patents, and design rights. It may well be that the costs involved with this common approach could be mitigated by a syndicated approach to the survey elements. Indeed, a syndicated approach has a number of advantages in addition to cost. It could be designed to reduce any tendency either to hide inappropriate/illegal activity or alternatively exaggerate its volume to fit with the theme of the survey. It also has the scope to allow for monthly assessments of attitudes rather than being vulnerable to unmeasured seasonal impacts

Leech: BitTorrent and Music Piracy Sonification

This paper provides an overview of a multi-media composition, Leech, which aurally and visually renders BitTor- rent traffic. The nature and usage of BitTorrent networking is discussed, including the implications of widespread music piracy. The traditional usage of borrowed musical material as a compositional resource is discussed and expanded upon by including the actual procurement of the musical material as part of the performance of the piece. The technology and tools required to produce this work, and the roles that they serve, are presented. Eight distinct streams of data are targeted for visualization and sonification: Torrent progress, download/upload rate, file name/size, number of peers, peer download progress, peer location, packet transfer detection, and the music being pirated. An overview of the methods used for sonifying and and visualizing this data in an artistic manner is presented

Can P2P Replace Direct Download for Content Distribution

While peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing is a powerful and cost-effective content distribution model, most paid-for digital-content providers (CPs) rely on direct download to deliver their content. CPs such as Apple iTunes that command a large base of paying users are hesitant to use a P2P model that could easily degrade their user base into yet another free file-sharing community. We present TP2, a system that makes P2P file sharing a viable delivery mechanism for paid digital content by providing the same security properties as the currently used direct-download model.} introduces the novel notion of trusted auditors (TAs) -- P2P peers that are controlled by the system operator. TAs monitor the behavior of other peers and help detect and prevent formation of illegal file-sharing clusters among the CP's user base. TAs both complement and exploit the strong authentication and authorization mechanisms that are used in TP2 to control access to content. It is important to note that TP2 does not attempt to solve the out-of-band file-sharing or DRM problems, which also exist in the direct-download systems currently in use. We analyze TP2 by modeling it as a novel game between misbehaving users who try to form unauthorized file-sharing clusters and TAs who curb the growth of such clusters. Our analysis shows that a small fraction of TAs is sufficient to protect the P2P system against unauthorized file sharing. In a system with as many as 60\% of misbehaving users, even a small fraction of TAs can detect 99\% of unauthorized cluster formation. We developed a simple economic model to show that even with such a large fraction of malicious nodes, TP2 can improve CP's profits (which could translate to user savings) by 62 to 122\%, even while assuming conservative estimates of content and bandwidth costs. We implemented TP2 as a layer on top of BitTorrent and demonstrated experimentally using PlanetLab that our system provides trusted P2P file sharing with negligible performance overhead

Intellectual Property and the Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Game Theory Justification of Copyrights, Patents, and Trade Secrets

In this article, I will offer an argument for the protection of intellectual property based on individual self-interest and prudence. In large part, this argument will parallel considerations that arise in a prisoner’s dilemma game. In brief, allowing content to be unprotected in terms of free access leads to a sub-optimal outcome where creation and innovation are suppressed. Adopting the institutions of copyright, patent, and trade secret is one way to avoid these sub-optimal results

A Case for P2P Delivery of Paid Content

P2P file sharing provides a powerful content distribution model by leveraging users' computing and bandwidth resources. However, companies have been reluctant to rely on P2P systems for paid content distribution due to their inability to limit the exploitation of these systems for free file sharing. We present TP2, a system that combines the more cost-effective and scalable distribution capabilities of P2P systems with a level of trust and control over content distribution similar to direct download content delivery networks. TP2 uses two key mechanisms that can be layered on top of existing P2P systems. First, it provides strong authentication to prevent free file sharing in the system. Second, it introduces a new notion of trusted auditors to detect and limit malicious attempts to gain information about participants in the system to facilitate additional out-of-band free file sharing. We analyze TP2 by modeling it as a novel game between malicious users who try to form free file sharing clusters and trusted auditors who curb the growth of such clusters. Our analysis shows that a small fraction of trusted auditors is sufficient to protect the P2P system against unauthorized file sharing. Using a simple economic model, we further show that TP2 provides a more cost-effective content distribution solution, resulting in higher profits for a content provider even in the presence of a large percentage of malicious users. Finally, we implemented TP2 on top of BitTorrent and use PlanetLab to show that our system can provide trusted P2P file sharing with negligible performance overhead

An investigation into darknets and the content available via anonymous peer-to-peer file sharing

Media sites, both technical and non-technical, make references to Darknets as havens for clandestine file sharing. They are often given an aura of mystique; where content of any type is just a mouse click away. However, can Darknets really be easily accessed, and do they provide access to material that would otherwise be difficult to obtain? This paper investigates which Darknets are easily discovered, the technical designs and methods used to hide content on the networks, the tools needed to join, and ultimately what type and quantities of files can be found on anonymous peer-to-peer file sharing networks. This information was gathered by conducting weekly searches for specific file extensions on each Darknet over a 4 week period. It was found that connectivity to Darknets was easy to establish, and installing peer-to-peer file sharing applications was a simple process. The quantity of content found on Darknet peer-to-peer file sharing networks indicates that file sharing is rampant. Of particular concern was what appears to be a large quantity of child pornography made available

Game piracy activity vs. metacritic score

The practice of illegally copying and distributing digital games is at the heart of one of the most heated and divisive debates in the international games environment, with stakeholders typically viewing it as a very positive (pirates) or very negative (the industry, policy makers). Despite the substantial interest in game piracy, there is very little objective information available about its magnitude or its distribution across game titles and game genres. This paper presents a large-scale analysis of the illegal distribution of digital game titles, which was conducted by monitoring the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing protocol. The sample includes 173 games and a collection period of three months from late 2010 to early 2011. A total of 12.6 million unique peers were identified, making this the largest examination of game piracy via P2P networks to date. The ten most pirated titles encompass 5.27 million aggregated unique peers alone. In addition to genre, review scores were found to be positively correlated with the logarithm of the number of unique peers per game (p<0.05)

How does digital piracy influence the subscription of online video bundling services?

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThe availability of digital channels that allow the distribution of copyrighted material has raised several questions over the last few years. With several different media and entertainment companies claiming lost profits due to digital piracy, this master thesis was created to deliberate whether companies have a right to feel damaged by illegal activities related with their content, more specifically TV-shows, the motives leading to this behavior, and if this influences the subscription of online video bundling services such as Netflix for people who access this content illegally via for example Torrent communities. We address these questions by gathering information from various legitimate sources regarding current TV-show business models (Mirrlees 2013) (Masouras 2015), the way pirates’ access and visualize copyrighted content and by inquiring said pirates about their purchase intentions regarding services like Netflix. In order to do this, an online survey was created and shared on social media as well as in popular torrent websites, targeting people that incur or had incurred in illegal downloading of video content. We use a variation of the popular Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to gather the data regarding pirates’ intentions of subscribing an online video bundling service. While some of the chosen variables revealed themselves to be non-significant contrary to what was firstly believed, we were able to identify Perceived Convenience, Price, Perceived Value and Morals and Ethics as the most influential factors that users contemplate when considering adopting an online video bundling service. This master thesis is therefore an addition to the current academic literature that depicts media consumption when users have an illegal free option to choose from. Adding the fact that this research focus specifically in the TV-Show industry ( something that has been majorly overlooked so far), we hope that the studios and related media personnel will understand what is actually valued by these type of consumers so that in the future they can offer higher value in order to capture these potential customers