File Sharing is Controlled or Controllable by the Law of Copyright - Coursework Example

? Table of Contents Introduction 3 Copyright and P2P File Sharing 3 Copyright Law and Control over File Sharing 4Limitations of Copyright Law for File Sharing 5 Conclusion 6 Introduction With the dawn of file sharing tools and advancement in the technology internet users can share music videos, audio files, books, games and other applications that are protected by copyright law, the sharing has been augmented to a record level with nominal costs. The negative side of this picture is that the file sharing technology has destabilized the inducements of the authors, producers, manufacturers, entertainment companies, publishers, and recording firms to make and distribute new works (Harrison, 2006). The empirical studies on the impacts of the incentives for the authors and publishers reveal that the file sharing of music is responsible for the decline in the sales of the industry. However, the reduction in the sales is not solely responsible for the reduced incentives for the authors, producers and entertainment companies to come up with novel efforts (Zentner, 2006). File sharing is has also become an enigma for the markets for concerts, communication infrastructure and electronics industry, for instance the file sharing technology has caused the augmentation of the concert prices. This in turn induces the artists across the world to organize concerts and tour different destinations frequently thereby raising the overall income of the artists (Borland, 2003). Copyright and P2P File Sharing The file sharing technology described above has such a nature that the implication of the copyright law becomes inevitable. It is worth mentioning that each digital file, text, video or audio, is fixed with the purpose of protecting intellectual property rights no matter it is present on a hard drive, DVD, CD or only present in the RAM (Hall, 2006). The files shared between the two or more users mostly come under the category of copyrighted sharing. The result of file sharing from an end user to another person is categorized as the imitation, redistribution, or a public performance. In terms of copyright law, the word ‘public performance’ refers to the representation of a work to public which is protected by copyright law. According to copyright law, every activity in P2P file sharing involves some type of reproduction, public performance or distribution, thus file sharing technology is suspicious from its beginning (Boorstin, 2004). Copyright Law and Control over File Sharing It has been more than two centuries that many countries developed unidirectional copyright laws. The intellectual property rights of the authors, publishers, producers and inventors were strengthened over and over again. This trend led towards the increased prices of these commodities for the general public, it also discouraged the consumption of these commodities on the end user level (Varian, 2000). The unidirectional development of copyright laws across the globe widened the gap between the protection of the intellectual property rights and advancement in the technology. Keeping in view the above discussed background, the advent of file sharing has weakened the protection of the copyright laws. Although it is claimed that file sharing has disturbed several creative industries including the music industry yet the empirical studies show little evidence on the disruption of these industries due to file sharing, instead it seems that the weakness in the copyright laws have benefited the music as well as other creative industries (Zentner, 2006). In order to understand the limitations of the copyright law to control the file sharing, it is essential to know the nuts and bolts of the file sharing. The technology has experienced revolutionary changes in the recent past and this has led the manufacturers of the file sharing software towards the most complicated legal challenges of the date. File sharing is based on computer networks which provide the facility of transfer of data. In these networks, each computer, called a node, may provide accent to share files and P2P file sharing software allows it to do so, in this way the person having original copy of the product reproduces and redistributes the protected work and commits the infringement (Harrison, 2006). Copyright law in most of the countries is very clear regarding the infringement, it sharing files on the internet that are protected by copyright law. Traditionally, copying any piece of work was very costly and it was committed by large organizations having the resources to mass reproduce the copies of the original work and distribute but the technology has made it almost free of cost. Limitations of Copyright Law for File Sharing The infringement committed by the end user is referred to as direct infringement in terms of copyright law if the owner of the copy rights had not permitted the redistribution of the work as fair use. The end user is responsible for the direct violation of the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner (Varian, 2000). As the peer to peer file sharing systems are used on large scale, it is virtually not possible to pin point the end user responsible for the infringement. Therefore, file sharing cannot be controlled effectively unless the technology is utilized to prevent the sharing of the unauthorized files. Specific technical measures should be taken that allow the sharing of only those files that have authorization mark cryptographically pasted on them. Although the law exists about the direct infringement yet it cannot be implemented due to the lack of technical support. However, the copyright law can sometimes reach those who are indirectly responsible for infringement. This also happens in other cases when law reaches the indirectly involved culprit, e.g. if someone supplies a gun to a person who knows that he is going to kill somebody, the supplier will be indirectly involved in the murder. In the same sense, copyright law holds the providers of the file sharing software responsible for the violation of the copyright laws (Hall, 2006). A recent example is the RIAA successfully sued against Verizon communication in USA, asking them to reveal the identities of KaZaA users. Thus the creative firms are now targeting intermediary organizations to implement the copyright laws due to the large transaction costs associated with finding the person responsible directly for infringement (Borland, 2003). Conclusion From the above discussion, it is obvious that the copyright laws provide but a little control over the file sharing which has become a serious violation of the copyright laws in the modern world. The main reason for this is the insufficient use of technology to determine the main culprit and bring him to justice. Although some firms have utilized business to business model instead of business to customer model for controlling the file sharing yet it has not provided the required control over the file sharing. Bibliography Boorstin, E. S. (2004) Music Sales in the Age of File Sharing. A.B. Degree Thesis. Princeton University. Borland, J. (2003) RIAA lawsuits yield mixed results. Available [August 19, 2011]. Hall, H. (2006) “The day the music died: The Supreme Court's reversal of MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster and its impact on secondary liability for copyright infringement”. Journal of Law & Education, 35(3), pp. 387-393. Harrison, D. (2006) “The P2P file sharing war after Grokster: it feels like Belgium over here”. Journal of College & University Law, 32(3), pp. 681-708. Varian, H. (2000) Buying, Sharing and Renting Information Goods. University of California at Berkeley Working Paper. Zentner, A. (2006) “Measuring the Effect of Music Downloads on Music Purchases”. Journal of Law & Economics 49(1), pp. 63-90. Read More