Copyright Lawsuits

Summary

Some people use the Internet to trade copyrighted works, particularly music, video and software. Copyright owners object to this and attempt to discourage the practice through highly public legal action against participants.

Mechanism

Because of legal threats by copyright holders, web sites do not usually permit the unlicensed distribution of copyrighted materials. Instead, most such distribution is done through peer to peer (P2P) applications such as KaZaA. These involve the user downloading some (usually free) software which makes contact with other users running the same software on the Internet. Users can then search each other's collections and swap files.

The original P2P service, Napster, was aimed at sharing music and was restricted to exchanging MP3s (a form of digitised music). Napster became very popular before being shut down by a court order obtained by representatives of music copyright owners. However, file trading continued to increase through newer services which, unlike Napster, were designed to have no central operations hub and thus be more resistant to legal attack.

When suing the later P2P services proved difficult or impossible, the RIAA (a body representing the music industry) started to sue individual users who were sharing copyrighted music files on P2P services. As part of their strategy they made these suits highly public, including supporting an advertisement featuring some of the children they had sued which was shown during the 2004 Superbowl final. [Pepsi ads wink at music downloading, USA Today, 23 January 2004.]

Comment

Peer to peer applications are not of themselves illegal or reprehensible. They can be, and are, used for everything from hosting materials found politically unacceptable in some countries, to distributing new releases of free software without a central high bandwidth server.

The strategy of copyright owners of public prosecution and humiliation may cause people to view the Internet negatively, especially parents who are not sure what their children do on the Internet.

Some argue that, according to current New Zealand copyright law, many activities which are widely pursued are unlawful. For instance, using an MP3 player requires one to make a digital copy of a CD or other music source. (This is lawful in the US under the so-called 'fair use' provisions of copyright, but no similar provision exists in New Zealand law.) Copyright owners or their representatives could sue end users for this activity, even in cases where the CD had been legitimately purchased and the music on it was played only by the purchaser.

Example Mitigations

Public education and awareness about copyright

Tools for parental control

Walled Gardens