COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

Copyright Protection

Copyright Protection

Overview

It may well seem that “new technological inventions such as the introduction of player pianos and perforated rolls of music in the 1910s and the introduction of radio in the 1920s have often led to changes” in order to tackle infringement of copyright law. “Copyright protection has grown over the centuries, from the term-implied right to control the copying of literary work to the right to control the internet transmission of digital recordings of all sorts of literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic materials”. Peer to Peer is the most recent area which copyright law was required to challenge. This text provides a brief statement of what is copyright law based on the United Kingdom legislation which is similar to the whole world and its relationship with internet law, examines how the copyright law has respond to the challenges of technological development with reference to the old and recent case law in US and Europe; and evaluate the way which copyright law has responded in this issue.

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Firstly, “copyright is a property right that subsists in certain specified types of works provided for by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA); the owner of the copyright subsisting in a work has the exclusive right to do certain acts in relation to the work, such as making a copy, broadcasting or selling copies to the public”. Literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works are the main protected works listed in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. However, under this Act a work is protected by copyright law only if it is original which means that it must be originated by the author, its creator, and that it was not copied from another work”. The Act also provides that copyright for a work exists for the life of the author plus 70 years.

Furthermore, under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 there are 3 ways of copyright infringement. Infringement occurs when a person commits any of the “restricted acts in the CPDA”. The 3 ways of infringement are the “primary infringement under the sections 16-21, authorising another person to do any of the restricted acts under the section 16(2) and various forms of secondary infringement under the sections 22-26”.

To continue, an essential point that you must be aware of it is that Copyright laws are similar in the whole world as Intellectual property law has taken an international form. The European law has been developed within the framework of International Treaties and Convention in order to make sure that same rights and protection will be enjoyed in each state for both nationals and non-nationals. This aim was succeeded by several treaties and conventions. The Berne Convention 1986 was the first convention in relation to copyright law. Further, in 1996 the introduction of, the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996 (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty 1996 (WPPT) (commonly referred to as the "Internet Treaties") which had been signed by 100 countries further harmonized the ...