Copyright in Digital Age - Part 2

<< Copyright in Digital Age - Part 1

The firm Adobe sold electronic books through the Internet. In order no one could copy and replicate the books illegally, the firm Adobe set up the electronic protection, which allowed to read books only on the computer, that was connected with the Internet in the moment of purchasing. Agree, that was very uncomfortable. Sometimes you want to read on your laptop, sprawling in your comfortable armchair, or to take the book for the journey. Or you have to drive your household out of this computer, though they also need work on it. Dmitriy Sklyarov was one of the authors of this programme, which allowed purchasers of Adobe electronic books to alter the protection, so that it was also possible to read the book on other computers.

Only that person could use this programme, who bought it legally, and nobody else. This contradicted neither the legislation of Russia (where Dmitriy lived and worked), nor the legislation of the USA , where the firm Adobe lives and works, as well as the majority of its buyers. The programme just made it more comfortable to use the book, and that’s why the purchasers, who tried this programme of protection alternation, not only didn’t break the law, but also had the legal right to alter it.

The paradox of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) lies in the fact that though the purchasers altering the protection of their books did nothing illegal, the creation of this programme, which allowed them to perform this legal action, was according to this act illegal. Very this fact aroused universal perplexity: that the programme, with the help of which the purchasers realized their legal rights, was illegal. However, very this fact, according to those who worked out DMCA, allowed to support the reasonable balance between the observance of the rights of the members of society and the owners of copyright: the rights of a person are not limited (it’s illegal), but the access to the rights, which you needn’t abuse, is made difficult.

An extract from DMCA

Contracting Parties shall provide adequate and effective legal remedies against any person knowingly performing any of the following acts knowing, or with respect to civil remedies having reasonable grounds to know that it will induce, enable, facilitate or conceal an infringement of any right covered by this Treaty or the Berne Convention:

(i) to remove or alter any electronic rights management information without authority;

(ii) to distribute, import for distribution, broadcast or communicate to the public, without authority, works or copies of works knowing that electronic rights management information has been removed or altered without authority.

Actually, this principle is not new, it’s used in the other spheres of human life for a long time. Let’s take such an example as selling of tobacco goods. A teenager, smoking a cigarette, does nothing illegal (though it is not approved). However, the shop assistant, who sold him this cigarette, broke the law and can be made answer for this.

This example is just an illustration of those horrors that rage about the problem of copyright on digital works. Even after the application of the laws like DMCA the state of “digital” law owners is highly pitiful, they have only two alternatives.

The first one is to wait until the legislation in the sphere of copyright will change so that it will reasonably and effectively protect their interests.

The second one is to undertake measures now in order to pull their works into existing legal space. It is rather laborious, but quite possible.

Copyright in Digital Age - Part 3 >>

Copyright in Digital Age - Part 4
Copyright in Digital Age - Part 5
Copyright in Digital Age - Part 6
Copyright in Digital Age - Part 7


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	Copyright in Digital Age - Part 2 << Copyright in Digital Age - Part 1 The firm Adobe sold electronic books through the Internet. In order no one could copy and replicate the books illegally, the firm Adobe set up the electronic protection, which allowed to read books only on the computer, that was connected with the Internet in the moment of purchasing. Agree, that was very uncomfortable. Sometimes you want to read on your laptop, sprawling in your comfortable armchair, or to take the book for the journey. Or you have to drive your household out of this computer, though they also need work on it. Dmitriy Sklyarov was one of the authors of this programme, which allowed purchasers of Adobe electronic books to alter the protection, so that it was also possible to read the book on other computers. Only that person could use this programme, who bought it legally, and nobody else. This contradicted neither the legislation of Russia (where Dmitriy lived and worked), nor the legislation of the USA , where the firm Adobe lives and works, as well as the majority of its buyers. The programme just made it more comfortable to use the book, and that’s why the purchasers, who tried this programme of protection alternation, not only didn’t break the law, but also had the legal right to alter it. The paradox of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) lies in the fact that though the purchasers altering the protection of their books did nothing illegal, the creation of this programme, which allowed them to perform this legal action, was according to this act illegal. Very this fact aroused universal perplexity: that the programme, with the help of which the purchasers realized their legal rights, was illegal. However, very this fact, according to those who worked out DMCA, allowed to support the reasonable balance between the observance of the rights of the members of society and the owners of copyright: the rights of a person are not limited (it’s illegal), but the access to the rights, which you needn’t abuse, is made difficult. An extract from DMCA Contracting Parties shall provide adequate and effective legal remedies against any person knowingly performing any of the following acts knowing, or with respect to civil remedies having reasonable grounds to know that it will induce, enable, facilitate or conceal an infringement of any right covered by this Treaty or the Berne Convention: (i) to remove or alter any electronic rights management information without authority; (ii) to distribute, import for distribution, broadcast or communicate to the public, without authority, works or copies of works knowing that electronic rights management information has been removed or altered without authority. Actually, this principle is not new, it’s used in the other spheres of human life for a long time. Let’s take such an example as selling of tobacco goods. A teenager, smoking a cigarette, does nothing illegal (though it is not approved). However, the shop assistant, who sold him this cigarette, broke the law and can be made answer for this. This example is just an illustration of those horrors that rage about the problem of copyright on digital works. Even after the application of the laws like DMCA the state of “digital” law owners is highly pitiful, they have only two alternatives. The first one is to wait until the legislation in the sphere of copyright will change so that it will reasonably and effectively protect their interests. The second one is to undertake measures now in order to pull their works into existing legal space. It is rather laborious, but quite possible. Copyright in Digital Age - Part 3 >> Copyright in Digital Age - Part 4 Copyright in Digital Age - Part 5 Copyright in Digital Age - Part 6 Copyright in Digital Age - Part 7