Deep Fakes Accountability Act: Overbroad and Ineffective
Zachary Schapiro Improvements in technology have made it easy to create deep fakes: realistic false digital records depicting a person performing actions that did not occur. Although there are legitimate uses for deep fakes, like parodies or finishing a movie where a principal performer has died, they can inflict harm upon the individual depicted or the general public if, for example, used to influence the outcome of an election. Considering these detrimental uses, Congress has proposed the Defending Each and Every Person from False Appearances by Keeping Exploitation Subject to Accountability Act of 2019 (DEEP FAKES Act) to impose civil...
Blockchain and Copyright: Vain Hope for Photographers?
Jason Kim Blockchain technology has near unlimited application potential, and its influence could extend all the way to the copyright industry. For photographers, blockchain technology might serve as a safe and efficient tool to detect infringement. However, this notion must be treated with caution. Blockchain’s security applications are indeed a valuable prospect, but the technology has critical flaws that prevent it from becoming the panacea for photographer. Read Full Text Here
Digital Copyright, “Fair Access” and the Problem of DRM Misuse
Nicolo Zingales The advent of the digital age and the wide diffusion of copyrighted works over the Internet have brought about a drastic challenge to the pre-existing rules and legal standards governing the exchange of information. This article points out one of the ways the development of these new technologies has altered the boundaries of copyright, specifically by enabling copyright holders to strategically expand the scope of protection through the strategic use of Digital Rights Management (hereinafter, DRM). After a brief overview of these technologies and their contribution to the development of online markets for copyrighted works, the article discusses...
Geographical Indications: Which Way Should ASEAN Go?
Malobika Banerji “Geographical Indications‟ (hereafter GIs) under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (hereafter TRIPS) has been the subject of vigorous scholarly debate across the world in the last decade. The TRIPS is the first multilateral text providing for a comprehensive protection of GIs. It provides for (a) a base-level protection for geographic indications related to all products; (b) an additional protection for wines and spirits; and (c) an extra-additional protection only for wines. The “extra-additional‟ protection accorded to wines has generated significant controversy and discussion. The TRIPS mandates the need to accord protection for each GI for wines...
File Sharing: A Tool for Innovation, or a Criminal Instrument?
Andrew Eichner The dawn of peer-to-peer networks and the subsequent rise of file sharing over the Internet have proved to be a considerable threat to the revenues of the Recording Industry Association of America (“RIAA”) and the international music community. While early music downloading across peer-to-peer networks on the Internet was largely limited “to college students with access to fast pipes and techno geeks sufficiently driven to search the Net for the latest Phish bootlegs,” the market for illegally downloaded music taken from file sharing websites has expanded to astronomic proportions and continues to do so even at present. The...
Shooting the Messenger: ISP Liability for Contributory Copyright Infringement
David Ludwig Recent trends in judicial enforcement of contributory copyright infringement claims against ISPs and judicial interpretation of the DMCA safe harbor provisions undermine the balance sought by Congress in the DMCA by imposing excessive liability upon ISPs. The danger of this trend is that such enforcement will have a significant chilling effect on ISP investment in the internet, which fosters both the growth of e-commerce and the ability of a larger segment of the population to participate in the internet community– both of which ultimately benefit the holders of intellectual property rights. Shielding ISPs from liability for contributory copyright...
On-Line Copyright Infringement Liability for Internet Service Providers: Context, Cases & Recently Enacted Legislation
Mark E. Harrington How fast has the Internet grown? At the end of the Reagan-Bush era, just six years ago, the world of cyberspace consisted of fewer than 50 World Wide Web sites, most of them used by computer scientists and physicists. Today the Internet is no longer just for researchers, and it is expected that within five years international commerce on the Internet could reach $3.2 trillion. The fact is that in the past 72 months the number of Internet users has risen from hundreds to millions of users, and is estimated by some experts to reach perhaps a...