The Global Battle over Copyrights

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the legal and regulatory conflicts between advocates of free use of the Internet for distributing, copying and use of digital music, versus industry associations including the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) who oppose use of the Internet for this purpose. The paper also includes a discussion of one such case that went to court.

Outline:
Introduction
The case of Record Industry vs. Jeffrey Howell
Digital Rights Management Goes Orwellian
A Confused Industry on Downloads' Effects

From the Paper:

"The legal and regulatory conflicts are intensifying between advocates of free use of the Internet for distributing, copying and use of digital music versus industry associations including the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). Further fueling the conflict that has escalated into hundreds of lawsuits and the issuance of en masse letter campaigns containing pre-lawsuit instructions from both the RIAA and NARAS to entire universities, the intention of using electronic surveillance to monitor music downloads has become increasingly Orwellian in tone, where traffic in and out of peer-to-peer music sites is now monitored (Banerjee, Faloutsos, Bhuyan, 2008). All of this legal and regulatory activity many argue isn't actually stopping any activity, merely diverting it to more organized and commercially-based pirates of digital music (Chang, Assane, 2007). In addition all these legal and regulatory efforts of the RIAA and NARAS are making attorneys the real financial winners, with one plaintiff sued by the RIAA remarking his case was managed by an incompetent attorney from an outsourced firm (Ward, 2007)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Anirban Banerjee, Michalis Faloutsos, Laxmi Bhuyan. (2008). The P2P war: Someone is monitoring your activities. Computer Networks, 52(6), 1272. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1459088171).
• Grant Buckler (2006, July). Bull from the entertainment industry. Computer Dealer News, 22(10), 11. Retrieved May 9, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry database. (Document ID: 1084819371).
• Eric P Chiang, Djeto Assane. (2007). Determinants of music copyright violations on the university campus. Journal of Cultural Economics, 31(3), 187-204. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1341325031).
• Ross Dannenberg (2006). Copyright Protection for Digitally Delivered Music: A Global Affair. Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, 18(2), 12-16. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 989434441).
• Stan J Liebowitz (2008). Testing File Sharing's Impact on Music Album Sales in Cities. Management Science, 54(4), 852-859. Retrieved May 11, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1466744981).

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