Copyright infringement is the unauthorised use of copyright material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it (Wikipedia, 2004).
By far the most published and more common copyright infringement is music downloading. The illegal downloading and sharing of music in the form of mp3s is still widespread, even after the demise of Napster and a series of infringement suits brought by the recording industry against music-sharing individuals seemingly chosen by random (Wikipedia, 2004). Many infringement claims involve simple cases of piracy where the copying is obvious. Others, however, are more difficult to resolve because copyright protection is not limited to exact copying. Overall the ease of copying digital materials and the apparent lack of severe consequences for the pirates, has been gradually eroding the belief that copyright as presently constructed is indispensable. The problem of copyright infringement is growing larger both nationally and internationally (The Congressional Budget Office, 2004).
The Congressional Budget Office, (2004) says copyright owners confront two primary obstacles to enforcement that appear potentially more important today than during earlier copyright disputes. Increasingly, copyright infringement is an issue both at the individual level and in the international arena (Congressional Budget Office, 2004). Therefore the effectiveness of any nations efforts to protect the rights of its copyright owners depends increasingly on international coordination of enforcement efforts and the harmonization of copyright law across countries.
Some approaches used for prevention of software copyright infringement include:
Overall as Internet bandwidth increases and the duplication technology improves, becomes cheaper, and is widely distributed, copyright owners of intellectual and new media technologies will face infringement issues. All these arguments suggest that the digital age requires a fundamental rethinking of copyright law (Langenderfer and Cook, 2001, p.289).
References
Congressional Budget Office (2004) “The Current Copyright Debate,� retrieved September 20, 2004, from http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5738&sequence=2
Langenderfer, J. and Cook, D. (2001) “Copyright policies and issues raised by A&M Records v. Napster: the shot heard round the word or not with a bang but a whimper?,� Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, vol.20, iss.2, pp.280-289.
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopaedia (2004) “Copyright Infringement,� retrieved September 3, 2004, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopaedia (2004) “Copyright Infringement of Software,� retrieved September 3, 2004, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_piracy
Julie Bui 16:17, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
