The evolution of anti-circumvention law

Countries around the world have since 1996 updated copyright laws to prohibit the circumvention of "Technological Protection Measures", technologies that restrict the use of copyright works with the aim of reducing infringement and enforcing contractual restrictions. This article traces the legislative and treaty history that lies behind these new legal provisions, and examines their interaction with a wide range of other areas of law: from international exhaustion of rights, through competition law, anti-discrimination measures, regulation of computer security research, constitutional rights to freedom of expression and privacy, and consumer protection measures. The article finds that anti-circumvention law as promoted by US trade policy has interfered with public policy objectives in all of these areas. It picks out key themes from the free trade agreements, legislation and jurisprudence of the World Trade Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, USA, EU member states, and South American, Asian and Australasian nations. There is now a significant movement in treaty negotiations and in legislatures to reduce the scope of anti-circumvention provisions to ensure their compatibility with other important policy objectives

Human Aspects in Digital Rights Management: the Perspective of Content Developers.

Legal norms and social behaviours are some of the human aspects surrounding the effectiveness and future of DRM security. Further exploration of these aspects would help unravel the complexities of the interaction between rights protection security and law. Most importantly, understanding the perspectives behind the circumvention of content security may have a significant impact on DRM effectiveness and acceptance at the same time. While there has been valuable research on consumer acceptability, (The INDICARE project, Bohle 2008, Akester 2009) there is hardly any work on the human perspective of content creators. Taking video games as a case study, this paper employs qualitative socio-legal analysis and an interdisciplinary approach to explore this particular aspect of content protection

Protecting Copyright in the Digital Era in China: A Critical Analysis of the Relevant Law and Practice from a Comparative Perspective

China, as the birthplace of several great inventions, is no stranger to creativity, and, indeed, innovation. That said, while the notion of copyright has for a long time been recognised as being essential to the protection of Chinese inventions, it is perhaps regrettable that the existing system of copyright protection in that country remains largely inefficacious, at least when compared to western countries, in terms of addressing the key challenges and complexities posed by the rapid developments that characterise the digital age. It is against this backdrop that this thesis has been conceptualised; the overarching aim, in this regard, being to assess the development and nature of copyright protection in China, from a comparative perspective, in an effort to unearth the challenges that arise in the digital age, and to proffer suggestions for reform in this regard. More specifically, through the adoption of the doctrinal, historical and comparative methodologies, this thesis examines the historical evolution of copyright protection in China, and argues that while there has been some progress in recent years in terms of copyright protection that commensurate with China's economic development and international obligations, a number of outstanding issues remain unresolved, especially with regard to striking the right balance between competing interests. The thesis also evaluates the role of emerging technologies, such as peer-to-peer technology, and argues that China has struggled to address many of these challenges associated therewith, notwithstanding the progressive approaches countenanced by other jurisdictions. The thesis argues that one of the main challenges that account for the existing inadequacy that characterises China's system of copyright protection is the country's very history and culture, which do not ascribe a high degree of primacy to the exclusive rights of copyright owners. History and culture, among other, mostly legal, factors, might also account for the currently high levels of uncertainty that characterise the construction of secondary liability in relation to ISPs in China. Apart from assessing the uncertainties associated with secondary liability, however, the thesis will also examine the complexities and challenges that surround the use of emerging technologies, such as technological protection measures, that aim to protect copyright in the digital era, and argues that while these challenges are real, they are not at all insurmountable. Against this backdrop, pragmatic solutions, drawing largely from other jurisdictions, are provided throughout this thesis

Human aspects of digital rights management: the perspective of content developers. [Conference Paper]

Legal norms and social behaviours are some of the human aspects surrounding the effectiveness and future of DRM security. Further exploration of these aspects would help unravel the complexities of the interaction between rights protection security and law. Most importantly, understanding the perspectives behind the circumvention of content security may have a significant impact on DRM effectiveness and acceptance at the same time. While there has been valuable research on consumer acceptability (The INDICARE project, Bohle 2008, Akester 2009), there is hardly any work on the human perspective of content creators. Taking video games as a case study, this paper employs qualitative socio-legal analysis and an interdisciplinary approach to explore this particular aspect of content protection

The Double Punch of Law and Technology: Fighting Online Music Piracy or Remaking Copyright in a Digital Age?

For the recording industry the case seems clear. Music sales are down for the third straight year. CD sales are now almost 20% lower than in 2000. Despite their successful campaign against Napster two years ago, online music sharing through peer-to-peer service such as KaZaA and Gnutella continues to flourish. To re-establish its pre-Napster margins, industry thinking goes, the record labels have to put an end to illegal music sharing over the Internet once and for all. Hence, the recent decision by the industry-leading Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to take the fight directly to file sharers, not merely to commercial file sharing services

This Content is Unavailable in Your Geographic Region: The United States\u27 and the European Union\u27s Implementation of Anti-Circumvention Measures

Recently, people streaming movies and TV shows have begun to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access content that streaming services restrict to certain geographic regions. Because of the ambiguity in international law and the implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty, domestic law fails to offer streaming services a recourse to sue foreign VPN users. The WIPO Copyright Treaty established an anti-circumvention provision that would seem to apply to using VPNs to stream from other countries. But because of the provision\u27s ambiguity, many of the WIPO Copyright Treaty member countries have adopted different standards. This problem is exemplified by the United States and the European Union (EU). The United States adopted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act from the WIPO Copyright Treaty\u27s language, but the US circuit courts have split on whether circumventing a technological measure requires a connection to an infringement of US copyright law. Similarly, the EU member countries have also split on whether their respective domestic laws require a connection to domestic infringement. This has resulted in varying regimes, harming the WIPO Copyright Treaty\u27s goal of harmonizing international copyright law. But if the United States were to adopt the Austrian implementation of this treaty provision, the United States would take steps toward fulfilling the WIPO Copyright Treaty\u27s goal of harmonization. Specifically, - the United States should adopt a statute that creates liability for circumventing a technological measure for the purposes of streaming a copyrighted work

Does existing UK copyright law adequately address the issue of copyright enforcement in the digital age?

The legal landscape in the digital age of copyright law is one of confusion and discord. Effective enforcement is difficult against websites, cumbersome and overly complex against individuals and a near impossibility against the tech-savvy. Therefore legislators are always left playing catch-up to the unrelenting change in technology. In general, they seek to deal with the problem via new and increasingly stringent legislation. This thesis analyses these issues by studying the current state of copyright law in the UK, alongside the series of government commissioned reports on reform in this area. The thesis considers whether or not there is an appropriate balance reached between rights holders and consumers, deducing that the balance is currently too much in favour of rights holders, while still being largely ineffectual when attempting to adequately enforce those rights. Having established that legislation alone is not enough to face the challenges of copyright enforcement, the thesis looks to alternative and complementary methods of improving the balance of rights between copyright holders and users and ensuring better enforcement. The tax/levy model represents a strong solution to the problem, alongside other alternative revenue systems. The thesis concludes that the problem of copyright enforcement cannot be solved by any one single solution: the needs of all parties must be met as much as possible in order to ensure a workable balance and provide a strong framework capable of facing the challenges of the digital age. A balance between legislation, alternative revenue streams and education may be the only effective and appropriate way forward