Candian Copyright Reform Likely to Follow U.S. Model

Earlier this month Canada suggested that they should adopt a new U.S. style amendment to improve their copyright law. People are arguing that this will improve the "protection of culture and intellectual rights in Canada," while others argue that it will harm some consumers if stricter laws are enforced. There are critics in Canada that are also arguing that the copyright laws that Canada have in place now do not protect certain peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and Bittorrent from circumventing their copyrighted files to different users illegally. People are not sure if this will be passed because recently, in 2005, Canada tried passing a copyright bill which was rejected.

As the article advances it basically just gives many different opinions of many different critics whether this law will be affective or if it will be worth passing. In my opinion I feel that the law should be passed because the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials is a big problem and should be stopped. There are many record companies and many movie distributers that are being hurt because the copyright laws are not strict enough. Some people in the article argue that it isn't the case that the law in place now isn't harsh enough, but it is that it isn't enforced enough. If this is the case then Canada really has to do a better job enforcing the law because this is a serious issue.

Major Pirate Website Shut Down

www.tv-links.co.uk was a website which was one the most used pirated movie websites. The website featured many TV shows such as 24 that people could watch online for no cost. After the investigation of the site, there were raids and arrests of the operators of the site for copyright infringement. Visitors of the site could also view movies that were hand recorded in cinemas and put online. People were able to access these movies online days after they were put in theaters. This was the first major target in a campaign to crack down on web piracy.

In my opinion this is a good step to take towards cracking down on web piracy. There are an websites on the Internet today that are breaking copyright laws. It is good that a campaign has begun to crack down on this. From my experience, I know about 4 websites where I can watch nearly unlimited TV shows and multiple movies for free. I know these sites are most likely not legitimate websites, but they are still in existence. With all of these websites still in existence it is hurting the television industry along with the movie industry because people are a lot less likely to go out and buy a movie if they already have access to it at any time.

Record Companies Win Music Sharing Trial

In the October 5th issue of the BNA Internet law news, there was a story about how record companies won a big trial against a 30 year old lady named Jammie Thomas. The record companies claimed that Thomas has been illegally sharing copyrights music through her Kazaa account. The record companies settled the case, making the final decision that Thomas is going to have to pay back $222,000. The record companies are also hoping this will send a message to others who share copyrighted material over the Internet. Record companies say that since 2003 file sharing of illegal copyrighted material has increased and it has had a negative impact on record companies sales because people are just downloading it for free instead of buying the CD's in stores.

I found this to be a very interesting story. Attending Umass, I know a lot about illegal downloading and illegal file sharing of copyrighted material because that is something that is common at Umass. Every year there has been a lot of people just at Umass that get in trouble for this, and record companies are not taking this issue easily. I feel that since this is the first case that actually made it to trial, that record companies were making a point also. They were very harsh in their demands so it will hopefully send a message to all of the people who do share and download illegal material. This is clearly a big issue in our society so record companies are not taking this lightly and are doing everything in their power to prevent this from happening more in the future.

With Video, Music Piracy on the Rise, NBC Chief Calls For Tougher Penalties

Recently Jeff Zucker took over one of the chief executive positions at NBC Universal, and his job is to get better ratings for the company and also to fight piracy. Piracy is defined as: The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material. Zucker spoke with the Us Chamber of Commerce to ask lawmakers to make harsher laws regarding piracy. Although the music industries method "sue and shut down" of illegal sharing websites and illegal DVD websites has been successful to a point, piracy is still on the rise. There are just too many sites that have been created that people can get copyrighted material for free. One of their arguments is saying that the once soaring DVD sales and CD sales have both plummeted in the past few years, and they say the reason for this is people are just pirating music and DVDs now. Zucker also released a study on the estimated economic impact of intellectual property piracy to the U.S. economy. "The study estimates that intellectual property piracy -- theft of music, movies, video games and software -- costs the U.S. economy $58 billion per year and s 350,000 lost jobs in the entertainment industry and its supplying industries".

Piracy is clearly an issue in today's society. Most of the pirated material comes from people between the ages of 18-24 years old. Umass is a prime example where piracy is an issue. There have been a high number of students who have been accused of illegally downloading music and videos illegally from websites such as Limewire and Bearshare. I feel that is there are much harsher laws regarding piracy that this problem will diminish. Also, I feel that people don't know what the piracy laws actually are, if harsher laws are enforced they should be publicized so everyone will know the extent of what could happen. Clearly something has to be done because many music company's and movie company's are being affected in a negative way so something has to be done to resolve this problem.

German Court Overturns eBay shopper's conviction

Two years ago a man was found guilty in Germany for purchasing a stolen object from eBay. Last Friday a German Court overturned this decision on the basis that the man did not know the item was stolen. The man was 47 years old and was purchasing a navigation system for about 1/3 of the actual price. The navigation system was posted as "brand new" although it was a fraction of the price. This is what triggered the German Police to investigate and accuse this man of buying the "stolen" object. The man was accused 2 years ago and the case was just overturned last friday.

I feel this is a very difficult situation to prove, whether a person knew or didn't know an item they were buying was stolen. How can you prove someone just didn't assume they are getting it for a bargain? People often buy items off eBay and many similar sites because of how low the prices actually are. I just think it would be real hard to prove that someone actually knew the item was stolen. Although there may be many fences who sell stolen items on these types of websites, they are hard to track. In my opinion, eBay and many sites that are similar should have more harsh rules guiding the objects that are being sold on their sites. Although i don't know the numbers, I'm sure there have to be a good amount of stolen objects being sold for cheap prices, and this is a problem.