Copyright infringement 1

I am trying to get my head around the issue of copyright infringement. The OWNER of the work owns the copyright.. OK, this gives him the right to issue copies or allow viewing/listening and to licence this to another.

I can obtain permission to copy (that means to buy) the work from the owner. Such copies are widely available from legal sources, like Amazon, iTunes, etc.

But I can today get a copy of the work from another source, an illegal web site hosting an illegal copy it somehow obtained. I can find this illegal copy using a search engine or a site dedicated to indexing illegal sites.

Here my diagram which tries to illustrate this:



Rest of the internet - this is every other site I can access

ISP - this is my Internet Service Provider who provides my physical connection, resolves my requests and goes and gets the things I ask for (web pages, files to download, etc)

Search engine - typically Google, Bing, etc. Almost essential tools that index the internet and allow us to find things

Pirate index - a site that creates an index of where you can find illegally hosted works, e.g. Pirate Bay

Host - the offending site which hold illegal copies of copyright worka, and makes them available for downloading

Owner - the owner of the copyrighted work, who can sell it to me.

The Issues

Owners want to stop Hosts from offering illegal copies of the copyright works. To do this they are trying to get government to pass laws banning Pirate indexes, links to them and links to Hosts, they are also asking my ISP to participate in this and block my access to the Hosts.

Sounds OK, but what are the issues.

1 The ISP becomes a law enforcer, and the way the laws are being proposed they can be asked to block my access without due court process, just on request of copyright owners. This is not the basis of our laws "innocent before being proved guilty"

2 If, as the Americans propose, the way to implement this is by interfering with the way the internet actually works. When you type in www.apple.com the ISP has a DNS (Domain Name Server) look up the computers number - its Internet Protocol or IP number - like 172.114.378.388, which is what is actually used by the net to feed your request to the requested site. The site then sends the information you want back to you at your IP address.

3 But who owns the work, the Owner, and who obtains the illegal copy, Me. So the legal claim is between the owner and me. It has nothing to do with the system or "messenger" that delivered the work to me. So sue me. End of story?

4 One other issue, a commercial one, comes up. Many of the copyrights of works are owned by old fashioned companies with old business models. For example film studios, that set both geographic and time windows for the permission to display their work (e.g. Cinemas for the first 6 months, DVD next and Web downloads last, or limits to USA first, UK second, etc).

This begs the question that the owners complaints about illegal downloads are more about sustaining their old business model, rather than protecting artists, who many think they pay miserable rights to anyway… And many feel that they are not innovating their delivery channels to meet today's consumers needs, to protect their profits.

Anyone interested should investigate the USA SOPA proposals, and the world's secret treaty proposal called ACTA. Also have a look at UK's Digital Economy Act and Frances Hadopi.