Posts Tagged: "digital piracy"

Senate IP Subcommittee Examines Foreign Approaches to Digital Piracy in Second Hearing on U.S. Copyright Reform

Senate IP Subcommittee Chair, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), yesterday led the second in a series of Subcommittee hearings addressing the possibility of updating the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The hearing, titled “Copyright Law in Foreign Jurisdictions: How are other countries handling digital piracy?”, was aimed at examining foreign copyright laws in order to consider what may or may not be beneficial if adopted by the United States. The first of two panels included four witnesses from academia while the second panel included members of industry and a former member of EU Parliament.

With Congress Focused on Copyright, Industry Must Deliver Solutions to the Piracy Problem

A recently released report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) argues that while there is no easy solution to the ongoing scourge of digital content piracy on the Internet, voluntary agreements between copyright holders and payment processors, advertising networks, domain name registrars, search engines, and other stakeholders can serve as an important complement to legislative and other efforts by governments. Industry should come together and engage in a cooperative way to find mechanisms to stop copyright infringement. If we want original content creators to create original content, then copycats cannot be allowed to profit on the work done by others. Sadly, copyright infringement is rampant on the Internet, which is one of the reasons why there is so much duplicative content. And the industry hasn’t come together to provide a real solution for creators.

USTR: Counterfeit and pirated physical products valued at nearly half a trillion dollars

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, imports of counterfeit and pirated physical products are valued at about half a trillion dollars, or about 2.5 percent of all imports around the globe… The recent review of notorious markets by the USTR identifies 43 such markets offering counterfeit or pirated goods either through physical stores or online channels. A total of 25 notorious markets identified in the report operate in the online space as websites either facilitating infringing conduct or lacking consumer privacy safeguards, some of which even enable the installation of malware on consumer computers. This malware can include remote access Trojans (RATs) which can steal sensitive personal information, like bank account information, or gain control of computer hardware.

Achieving a balanced IP system to ensure content creators can keep creating in the digital age

I think the long-term benefits to authors are greater than the downsides or the risks. But, like any time there’s a shakeup of an industry, there are short-term and long-term winners and losers. I’ll even use the term “digital disruption,” although it is way overused these days (and too often used as a poor excuse for infringing copyright). Digital technology is disrupting the industry as a whole. We had the same business models for the better part of at least a century, and while things are starting to change, we’re still largely operating as we did in the past, based on old business models with just a few tweaks. We haven’t fully evolved yet, and as a result we’re mostly seeing a little bit of the downside. Whenever there’s a disruption in business models, someone is negatively affected. Unfortunately, here it is the authors, and creators generally. And that’s because creators in these industries tend to have the least bargaining power and they tend to be a line item in a budget where there is some discretion.

An Awareness Crusade Against the Online Piracy of Books

According to the Association of American Publishers, the publishing industry as a whole has lost $80 to $100 million dollars to online piracy annually. From 2009 to 2013, the number of e-book Internet piracy alerts that the Authors Guild of America has received from their membership had increased by 300%. During 2014, that number doubled. I’m certain that in 2016, the statistics will go even higher.