And in comes the internet and lots of digital works - music, films, TV, etc - which are easily copied, anyone can do it on their PC. Copy CDs to your iTunes library, copy DVDs to your iTunes library (all-be-it with a program that breaks the Digital Rights Management of the DVD). And then in comes the internet, which allows wide distribution of files.
That is where we are. When it comes to copyright infringement no one seems clear who is doing the infringing or if there is such a thing as contributing or promoting infringement. Is the guy standing on the corner selling copies of DVDs infringing, or is it only the guy that made the copies, or is their an offence which he is doing because he is promoting the sales of infringing DVDs?
Let's have a chart of the so called "internet piracy" (I want to make it abundantly clear here that this is not piracy, it is not stealing, the original still exists in the hands of the owner. It is copying, not stealing, piracy is the wrong term for it. And if any infrainging is going on then it is a civil offence not a criminal one).
To me it is obvious that the person that obtains the first illegal copy from a DVD, a cinema or TV or elsewhere, unless he pays for it is infringing. He is abetting copyright infringement by giving web access to this copy on his web site. And if I go to this web site and copy it to my computer then I am infringing. So the actual infringement occurs at the source, if he doesn't pay, or by me even if he does.
In the middle of all this confusion are some web sites (like Pirate Bay) that index the source sites carrying possibly infringing files. And there are the people that provide the internet, the ISPs, who in no way could be considered infringing, they are just open information providers, innocent pipes.
Now if the owner of the works wants to prosecute anyone for infringement then he has to identify the source and the copier. If the source web site has made illegal copies then he is infringing, even if he gets no hits on his web site. If I download from his web site any material at all, legal or illegal copies, then I am infringing.
The problem for the owners of the works seems to be how to find the people who are putting illegal copies up on their web sites, and who is downloading them. Anything in between is an innocent service. Except if we recognise "aiding infringement" as illegal in which case the web indexes are doing just this.
I don't have a solution to this problem, except to say that it is two things that need attention:
1 The law of copyright. Is it right in this day and age to maintain a law of monopoly that was born centuries ago to give certain people a monopoly? Why should a musician selling 1,000,000 copies of a single CD still make money 70 years after he made it? For sure he should be paid something but not earn money for 70 years doing nothing more!
2 Prevent the entertainment industry exploiting the copyright laws to make a huge business simply based on monopoly. Slicing and dicing (geographical and medium specific) release of works to maximise their income. Why should they be allowed to release a new film in USA, 3-6 months before the UK? Why should they be allowed to release a film for viewing on a DVD player (which legally decodes the DRM) but not provide it for transfer to my hard disk on my computer?
Come on guys, experts, get together on this one. Stop doing stupid things like Hadoopi (France), Digital Economy Act (UK), and even worse the ACTA international treaty. All aimed at stopping distribution of copies of works, not specifically at infringement, all forcing innocent ISPs into monitoring our downloads and checking for infringement… And laws or treaties which also prevent the breaking of "Technological Measures - or DRM" being broken in a truly innocent way when I copy a DVD I purchased to my media centre hard disk.
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