Copyright Talk

The problem of how to handle copyright enforcement on file sharing networks (P2P) is still evolving. A development this week underscores that continuing evolution.

Brief background first: Before digital (BD), when everything was hardcopy, tangible property you could hold in your hands, publishers were legally responsible for the material they published. The publisher was required to ensure that no one’s copyright was infringed when they published material, or they would be responsible to pay the consequences. When the P2P sites, including any ISP that hosted bulletin boards, started appearing, they said they were different from publishers, that they were more like a gathering place for individuals - a park, if you will - than they were like a book or music publisher, and therefore did not have either the ability nor the responsibility to monitor copyright infringement.

The courts began to say otherwise, and it looked as if the ISP’s would be treated the same as publishers for purposes of copyright laws.

Then the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed by Congress, which specifically said that ISP’s were not responsible for copyright monitoring if they met certain criteria. So ISP’s were generally off the hook for infringing material posted by their users.

The New Development: This week, a court in Belgium took the other approach. Because the ruling interprets a European Union law, it covers all EU countries. The ruling basically says that ISP’s are legally responsible for material appearing on their sites - and that they have a responsibility to take measures to prevent copyright infringment in the same way that non-digital publishers have.

With US and European ISP’s operating under radically different legal requirements, the issue is ripe for more discussion, legislation, and treaties.

Note: the ruling reference above is not available in English. My information is based on a summary of the ruling published by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).