Copyright in Digital Age - Part 3

<< Copyright in Digital Age - Part 2

The digital photo along with audio- and video records refers to the objects of copyright from the “heightened risk” group: it’s very simple to copy and distribute it out of author’s control. That’s why, according to my data, the quantity of “pirated copies” in the sphere of digital graphic images outnumbers now the quantity of counterfeit audio and video records taken together. Nowadays more than 90 % of all the sites in the Internet are built with illegal use of copies of author’s works, which are placed without author’s permission and without indicating his name. In the sphere of graphic advertisement this figure practically reaches 100%, and if to take into account that while copying digital images (as well as digital sound) the quality of copy doesn’t become worse in comparison with the original (as in case with analogous record), then it’s evident that the last natural threshold on the way of photo piracy disappears.

The distribution of means of communication, the Internet, the easiness of digital photo replicating and copying lead to the fact that often it’s very difficult to determine, according to laws of what country this or that situation should be qualified.

It seems a fantastic example: you, being a citizen of Germany , place your digital photos in the virtual digital archives in the Internet, which are physically situated on the territory of the state Nauru . The resident of Coco Islands sees your photos and makes arrangements with the administrator of the server on providing at a reasonable fee the access to the section, where your photos in high resolution are kept, and sets them for sale on the American site on his behalf. The Estonian publishing house buys them and publishes not in the form of virtual, but a real album. You come to a shop and find there your photo album, published under the strange name, being on sale. And who are you going to have legal proceedings with? Even if you have enough strength and money to follow all this chain?

The Estonian publishing house is an honest purchaser, the American Internet-auction will give the access to its logs (in order to find a malefactor), according to American court judgment, and when you get to know, who sold your photos, it will be found out that by laws of Coco Islands everything that lies in the Internet is public property, and the administrator of virtual photo archives, who sold your photos, is not possible to be found at all, because Nauru is offshore hosting zone with all ensuing consequences.

There are also international legal rules which, according to international juridical practice, have priority over local ones. So that in the ideal you have a chance to start up the machine of justice. But this is just in the ideal. You needn’t hope especially on international law. International legal conventions were concluded in those times when not only digital photo, but also a video film was rarity. Besides, however sad it is, less than half of all the countries of the world will recognize these very international legal rules. Daily in the world Internet thousands of such chains are formed sometimes quite consciously, sometimes by chance.


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	Copyright in Digital Age - Part 3 << Copyright in Digital Age - Part 2 The digital photo along with audio- and video records refers to the objects of copyright from the “heightened risk” group: it’s very simple to copy and distribute it out of author’s control. That’s why, according to my data, the quantity of “pirated copies” in the sphere of digital graphic images outnumbers now the quantity of counterfeit audio and video records taken together. Nowadays more than 90 % of all the sites in the Internet are built with illegal use of copies of author’s works, which are placed without author’s permission and without indicating his name. In the sphere of graphic advertisement this figure practically reaches 100%, and if to take into account that while copying digital images (as well as digital sound) the quality of copy doesn’t become worse in comparison with the original (as in case with analogous record), then it’s evident that the last natural threshold on the way of photo piracy disappears. The distribution of means of communication, the Internet, the easiness of digital photo replicating and copying lead to the fact that often it’s very difficult to determine, according to laws of what country this or that situation should be qualified. It seems a fantastic example: you, being a citizen of Germany , place your digital photos in the virtual digital archives in the Internet, which are physically situated on the territory of the state Nauru . The resident of Coco Islands sees your photos and makes arrangements with the administrator of the server on providing at a reasonable fee the access to the section, where your photos in high resolution are kept, and sets them for sale on the American site on his behalf. The Estonian publishing house buys them and publishes not in the form of virtual, but a real album. You come to a shop and find there your photo album, published under the strange name, being on sale. And who are you going to have legal proceedings with? Even if you have enough strength and money to follow all this chain? The Estonian publishing house is an honest purchaser, the American Internet-auction will give the access to its logs (in order to find a malefactor), according to American court judgment, and when you get to know, who sold your photos, it will be found out that by laws of Coco Islands everything that lies in the Internet is public property, and the administrator of virtual photo archives, who sold your photos, is not possible to be found at all, because Nauru is offshore hosting zone with all ensuing consequences. There are also international legal rules which, according to international juridical practice, have priority over local ones. So that in the ideal you have a chance to start up the machine of justice. But this is just in the ideal. You needn’t hope especially on international law. International legal conventions were concluded in those times when not only digital photo, but also a video film was rarity. Besides, however sad it is, less than half of all the countries of the world will recognize these very international legal rules. Daily in the world Internet thousands of such chains are formed sometimes quite consciously, sometimes by chance. Copyright in Digital Age - Part 4 >> Copyright in Digital Age - Part 5 Copyright in Digital Age - Part 6 Copyright in Digital Age - Part 7