Copyright Enforcement and Digital Piracy - Essay Example

? Copyright Enforcement - Digital Piracy Introduction The activities of piracy have existed since the inception of printing press. In the digital environment also piracy has become a significant problem for copyright holders. They are always quite concerned about the widespread illegal copying of their works. The pirates have always been capable of gaining advantage from others’ imaginations. Nowadays, the internet and other innovative communication technologies have made digital piracy a serious international issue. According to U.S. copyright agency, digital piracy can result in loss of billions of Dollars along with loss of significant amount of employment. Thus, policymakers necessitate assessing and calibrating their copyright policies in order to ensure that these strategies can effectively reduce the number of digital piracy events and provide creators with ample incentives to generate new things. The paper deals with understanding different issues regarding piracy in the digital environment. The major objective is to understand the attempts made through enforcement of law and also to provide certain solutions in order to avoid the detrimental occurrences of digital copyright piracy (Litman, 2006). Overview of Digital Piracy In present days, digital products have much demand in the market particularly for young consumers. The easy reproduction and sharing of digital products makes it very attractive to transmit the pirated contents with less effort and time. Those who are related with digital breach of copyrighted products also take the benefit of this market, where young consumers frequently prefer convenience rather than quality, particularly when expediency is a vital aspect (for instance, movie or live program of a major sporting event) (OECD, 2009). Unlike other markets, the products of digital market have a large number of suppliers whose major objective is to achieve more acknowledgements and appreciations within a peer group, rather than making profit. Hence, these suppliers provide free access to users for enjoying the digital content. This activity is continued because the cost of imitation and distribution of digital products is negligible. Unlike other industries, where copyright possessors need to struggle with pirates, who provide the similar products at a much lower cost, in the digital products market, the copyright possessors also require competing with pirates who are ready to provide the similar digital products at almost zero cost. In these circumstances, the non-price aspects such as authority, accessibility and quality have become particularly vital in permitting digital product suppliers to sustain in the market. The basis for survival of illegal digital piracy, where pirated products are traded against certain price, seems counterintuitive due to high competition from genuine product providers and introduction of several open access websites. When digital pirates function in the market they probably can enjoy remarkably high amount of revenue by taking advantage of low cost activities, particularly if they are capable of misrepresenting them in front of the users as genuine creators of digital products and can charge price accordingly (OECD, 2009). The pirates of digital products function in different nations which come under different jurisdictions, thus having different regulations. These differences obstruct the efficiency of legal enforcement for preventing digital piracy activities, further making it more challenging and expensive. Nations that have strong copyright protection have low rate of piracy events. However, without effective enforcement of laws, copyright protection cannot be succeeded. Moreover, the flexibility of digital piracy provides pirates an opportunity to change their functions effortlessly to those markets where legal commands are poor (OECD, 2009). Influencers of Digital Piracy The major influencer of digital piracy is computer. The features of computer along with internet simplify the collection and distribution of digital products and accelerate exchanges between suppliers as well as users. For instance, the introduction of ‘peer-to-peer’ (P2P) system enables sharing of digital products much easier than before. Majority of P2P systems encourage people to enhance the amount of product distribution. In this system, heavy uploads are generally remunerated with better services. However, it should be mentioned that not every service is developed for the purpose to facilitate piracy, and all users of these services are not termed as copyright infringers (OECD, 2009). The latest developments of storage facilities such as web servers, and easy transferable storage drives have also influenced the request for pirated digital products. Nowadays, the expenses of storage devices have become within the affordable cost of majority of users which acts as a helper for enhanced digital piracy activities. The digital products are quite easier to search and they can be gathered from local sources such as family, friends and co-workers among others. Even though users of digital products give importance more on the imminence, they can also get quality products with little coast. These features also accelerate piracy of digital products by a large extent (OECD, 2009). Several researches have depicted that users of reproduced digital products are unconscious that it is against the law. Nevertheless, the sharing of pirated digital products is rarely observed as unethical, on such conditions where no revenues are made. Additionally, people who are involved in digital piracy are concerned for being renowned within the group, for their extensive technical abilities and talents, rather than gaining financial advantages. These motivations drive the activities to copy the digital products. Other aspects such as socialism, low parental supervision also are recognized as vital aspects which influence the activities of piracy (OECD, 2009). An Overview of the Issue Related to Digital Copyright Piracy The issue associated with digital copyright piracy can be recognized from the diverse viewpoints of each of the parties involved in it. It has been apparently observed that in general, there lie three important parties who broadly raise the problem of digital copyright piracy by a considerable level. The involved parties include the pirates, the content makers or the distributors and most importantly the customers. In this similar context, the content makers or the distributors raise the issue of piracy due to their active interests of accomplishing significant monetary benefits. The pirate, an individual who unlawfully copies as well as distributes media, increases the copyright issue because of achieving substantial earnings by illegally copying along with sharing the protected materials to the end customers. Finally, it is the customers who eventually decide to which of the aforementioned involved parties they would invest the money and can attain huge profits. It has been viewed that the different record labels, movie studios and other related organizations lose extensive sum of money every year because of digital copyright piracy which is made by the aforesaid individuals i.e. the pirates, the content makers or the distributors and the end customers (Dahlstrom, Farrington, Gobera, Roemer, & Schear, 2006). Moreover, the different motion picture, software as well as recording industries also face huge loss due to digital copyright piracy. This is because the involved parties in making piracy share or reproduce the protected contents with the end customers without having any sort of authorization or consent from the actual copyright holder. Besides, apart for this vital reason, the other reasons which include the capability to generate ideal materials or copies and the emergence of media particularly in digital format have ultimately provoked the issue of digital copyright piracy at large (Dahlstrom, Farrington, Gobera, Roemer, & Schear, 2006). The issue regarding digital copyright piracy has been significantly mounting in this modern and competitive financial market. The major cause behind this scenario is that the different important software, attractive video games, enchanting music, pictures, movies as well as other media are extensively delivered online which draws the end customers by a greater extent. In this regard, most of the customers select the online medium and pay for their required digital applications or contents through accessing different online sites like iTunes and Amazon among others. It has been viewed that the issue relating to online or digital copyright has imposed a considerable impact upon the economy of the United States. In this similar context, it has been apparently observed that the various business software, motion picture, video game and sound recording industries belonging to the US have lost huge amounts, which amounts to in excess of US$20 billion Dollars in the year 2005. The issue associated with digital copyright piracy extensively damages the different artists who are liable to generate the contents along with the valuable editors, software programmers, technicians, game programmers, editors and the set designers who are mainly accountable for delivering the final contents to the end customers. Apart from these major personalities, the piracy of digital copyright also upsets particularly the law-abiding customers who pay higher charges and enjoy lower quality or less content (Castro, 2010). The pirates who unlawfully copy as well as distribute the copyright protected consents to the end customers can be regarded as one of the major contributors in mounting the issue of digital copyright piracy. The pirates normally make the execution of one copy of the originally protected material or consent and make huge quantity of duplicate copies which are ultimately sold at enormously low prices to the customers in comparison to the original. The growing capability for managing, organizing, storing as well as transferring various digital media related contents or files into the computers and associated networks has had a major impact on generating ample opportunities for the content makers along with the producers, consumers and most significantly the pirates to raise the issue of digital copyright piracy. In relation to the piracy linked with media sharing, it has been viewed that after the immediate release of the codec file of a MP3, the pirates start to rip music which they own from the CDs and thus transfer it to the MP3 files on the hard disk drive. In this similar context, the pirates often share the music by employing various sorts of online services which include web pages, e-mail and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) as the files of the MP3 are quite small in order to transfer through internet connections. As the piracy relating to digital copyright is growing excessively, it is quite necessary to introduce as well as to implement certain useful solutions for the motive of diminishing piracy and also to restrict the recording, motion picture and the software industries from facing considerable losses by a significant level (Dahlstrom, Farrington, Gobera, Roemer, & Schear, 2006). Attempts to Provide a Solution for Stronger Reinforcement In general, national protocols do not discriminate between utilization of digital and physical products. There are general legal remedies accessible in the US for infringement of copyright activities, but these remedies at times become inappropriate to prevent piracy of digital products. For instance, during the event of live transmission of sport, the value of digital products becomes significant only for that moment of time, thus legal remedies cannot stop the preliminary loss due to piracy activities (Yu, n.d.). Unlike piracy of other products, piracy of digital products cannot be perceived easily. The movement of pirated products is quite challenging for copyright authorities to track because a large number of people are involved in those activities. Often, it has been observed that there are no profit motives behind the activities of digital piracy. These present additional difficulties for legal agencies to enforce law on preventing digital piracy. Furthermore, the absence of strong global collaboration among law enforcement organizations represents further challenges to stop digital piracy (Yu, n.d.). Initially, the US was only concerned regarding the use of copyright laws in order to protect only digital applications. However, as penetration of internet increases, other problems of digital piracy such as intellectual property issues have become a major concern for several organizations. Due to this problem, the ‘World Intellectual Property Organization’ (WIPO) provided several suggestions in order to develop the protection for intellectual property in digital environment. ‘WIPO Copyright Treaty’ (WCT) and ‘WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty’ (WPPT) have been enforced in the year 2002 in order to protect the intellectual property rights possessors from illegal digital sharing of intellectual products to the public. These legal enforcements necessitate member states in the US to implement further protection and effective legal preparations against circumvention tools and to safeguard intellectual rights information from illegal modification and deletion (Yu, n.d.). In an attempt to provide solution for stronger reinforcement against digital piracy, several nations also sanctioned new legislations. For instance, the US has sanctioned ‘Digital Millennium Copyright Act’ (DMCA) in the year 1998, in order to prevent illegal copying of digital products. However, DMCA creates a safe place for internet service providers unless they eradicate the hosted digital products which can apparently interfere with the works of genuine copyright possessors (Yu, n.d.). Thus, in order to efficiently defend the digital works, genuine copyright holders must continuously improve the copy protection technology. However, these kinds of improvements can also draw further attention from different hackers, who are just enthusiastic to interfere with up-to-date technology. Hence, there is a requirement for strong anti-circumvention legislations in order to inhibit the infringement activities and efficiently defend the digital copyrighted works. Although, in the early phases, digital piracy concentrated mainly on digital applications, recently copyright has shifted the focus towards unauthorized downloading of digital products, such as music and videos. Hence, in order to fight against digital piracy in terms of audio or video products, several nations have enforced mandatory licensing. For instance, in the US, the copyright legislators had imposed ‘Audio Home Recording Act’ in the year 1992 in order to provide compensatory royalties to the copyright holders who are harmed by illegal reproduction and sharing of music and video files. The legislation also provides limitations on the type of digital contents which can be copied, thus protects the users from illegal digital recording and non-commercial copying activities (Yu, n.d.). The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) which emphasizes upon enhancing the efficiency and innovation along with resolving any sort of digital economy issues, has attempted to provide a solution regarding the massive emergence of digital copyright piracies globally. In this regard, the ITIF had presented various significant policies in the year 2009 for the motive of decreasing the infringement relating to digital copyright piracy along with supporting the recording, software and motion picture industries by restricting them from facing considerable losses. One of the important policies includes introducing as well as developing a procedure by which the responsible governments along with the aid of third parties can recognize the online websites throughout the globe which are methodologically involved in making piracies. The other main policy proposed by the ITIF comprise effectively enlisting different internet service providers (ISPs) in order to combat piracy by obstructing the online websites which deliver pirated contents or materials. The enlistment of the search engines by eradicating the websites to contest against piracy which provide infringing contents from the search results was also included in the policy proposal. Another significant proposal which was presented by the ITIF contains constructing a procedure by which the private sectors can easily seek advice from the government regulators relating to the usage of anti-pirated technologies. Additionally, the proposal of the ITIF also encompasses funding various researches like content identification technology which are linked with anti-piracy technologies and put in practice the international frameworks in order to defend the intellectual properties. Furthermore, the ITIF also presented in the proposal regarding imposing considerable pressure as well as penalties upon those nations which ignore or break the digital copyright piracy associated laws (Castro, 2011). Apart from the aforementioned proposals, there also lie certain other main strategies which can be attempted to provide a solution for decreasing the digital copyright piracies along with making stronger reinforcement of the anti-pirated policies by a considerable extent. The problem relating to the issue of digital copyright policy is not new and it is increasing significantly in this modern financial world. In this similar context, several attempts which include the combination of employing various important mechanisms such as interlocks, anti-theft packaging modules and closed-circuit TVs have been made to solve the issue of digital copyright piracy. It can be stated that the governments of various nations might play an imperative part in defending the intellectual properties particularly of the copyright holders. The government can introduce and incessantly develop a powerful legal system through which the digital copyright piracy can be minimized by a greater degree. The content makers or the producers have made a deliberate attempt in order to provide a solution for stringer reinforcement of the anti-piracy schemes. They have endeavored to educate the end customers or the users regarding the problems associated with digital copyright along with transforming the public behaviors. In this regard, the Software Publishers Association introduced a well-known video campaign entitled “Don’t Copy that Floppy” in the year 1992 for the motive of clarifying the impact of piracy upon the motion picture, recording and software industries. Moreover, the video campaign was also attempted to advise or support the end users to value and to admire the digital copyrights (Castro, Bennett, & Andes, 2009). Apart from the content makers, the movie industry has also made significant attempts in order to deliver a remedy for stronger reinforcement of the anti-pirated policies. The movie industry have started to display anti-piracy notices at different movie theatres and most importantly produced videos related to anti-piracy on the DVDs. It has been apparently observed that it is quite difficult for the internet users to make a distinction between accessing the legal as well as the illegal materials or contents which ultimately raises the issue of digital copyright piracy. In order to resolve this dilemma, the content makers or the producers have attempted to deliver the end customers or the users to recognize the legal means for accessing any sort of legal or illegal contents. In this similar context, the content creators as well as the movie industry have introduced and developed trusted labels for the motive of facilitating the users to easily differentiate between accessing legal and illegal materials or contents by a significant level (Castro, Bennett, & Andes, 2009). Conclusion The uniqueness of digital piracy market generates special and unique challenges for copyright possessors to stop piracy of digital products. The exiting legislations are quite widespread and general in nature to deal effectively with the quick technological progresses which accelerate the activities of digital piracy. The policymakers in different nations must consider enacting legislations considering the improvement in technologies in order to deal with the potential infringement of piracy laws. As digital pirated contents are extremely perishable in terms of time, thus legislators must develop techniques to enhance the rapidity at which legal system can react to the activities of piracy. Legal measures can be imposed on those websites which provide pirated products to the users, but the effectiveness of such measures can reduce over time due to the participation of a large amount of users in the infringement process. Therefore, innovative methods to deal with the digital piracy activities are essential by considering the aspects of legal enforcement along with proper education to those who are engaged in digital piracy activities knowingly or unknowingly. References Castro, D. (2010). Better enforcement of online copyright would help, not harm, consumers. Retrieved from http://www.itif.org/files/2010-copyright-coica.pdf Castro, D. (2011). Potential legislative responses. Retrieved from http://www.itif.org/files/2011-coica-testimony.pdf Castro, D., Bennett, R., & Andes, S. (2009). Steal these policies: strategies for reducing digital piracy. Retrieved from http://www.itif.org/files/2009-digital-piracy.pdf Dahlstrom, D., Farrington, N., Gobera, D., Roemer, R., & Schear, N. (2006). Piracy in the digital age. Retrieved from http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep590/06au/projects/digital-piracy.pdf Litman, J. (2006). Digital copyright. United States: Prometheus Books. OECD. (2009). Piracy of digital content. Retrieved from http://www.ifap.ru/library/book443.pdf Yu, P. K. (n.d.). Digital piracy and the copyright response. Retrieved from http://www.peteryu.com/piracy.pdf Read More