Piracy (copyright)

“ I say that the present law will protect these gentlemen from that piracy—because it is the ultimate form of piracy. It goes further than the reproduction of the composer's music sheet. It reproduces the sound. So that they have taken everything from the music man when they reproduce it on the disk. Therefore I say leave this provision in the bill: "And all matter reproduced therein in which copyright is already subsisting." ”

“ Quite obviously the question at stake is not whether or not the RIAA is allowed to aggressively combat piracy. What Lessig and other "copyfighters" take issue with is the fact that potentially liberating technology is being crippled by the assumption that everyone using it will exploit it to steal, pirate, and otherwise compromise the commercial endeavours of copyright holders. ”

“ However, we are concerned with the explosion of copyright piracy within its borders. U.S. industry continues to raise concerns about the overall environment for production, sale, and export of a wide range of infringing products and the impunity accorded well-connected figures involved in infringement. Optical media piracy, including business and entertainment software, and increasing production and export of pirate CDs remains a particularly acute problem. Signal theft/cable piracy continues to be widespread. ”

“ Finally, the third market-harm concern is that digital distribution raises greatly increased risks of piracy. In its 2001 report addressing digital first sale, the U.S. Copyright Office concluded that “the concerns about expanding first sale to limit the reproduction right, harm to the market as a result of the ease of distribution, and the lessened deterrent effect of the law that could promote piracy, outweigh the pro-competitive gains that might be realized from the creation of a digital first sale doctrine.” ”

“ Despite the continued implementation of the 2000 Copyright Law and increased enforcement actions in 2003, piracy and counterfeiting rates in Italy remain among the highest in Western Europe. Widespread piracy continues in virtually all copyright-based sectors. ”

“ The repression of such a system of piracy in America, would benefit alike the foreigner, whose copyright is thus pilfered, and the American man of letters whose talent is borne down by so disadvantageous a competition.
The publishers of the Magazine had for many years been aware that a cheap American reprint of the work was in regular circulation to a very large extent and they were naturally desirous to put an end to such an injustice. ”

“ Let us skip the standard arguments that piracy deprives rightsholders of earned income. It is clear that many users of academic pirate websites cannot afford to purchase access legally so are not lowering the amount of money paid to rightsholders. And since the rightsholders (publishers) do not create the works themselves – they may contribute labour and add value in the production process, but they do not generate the copyrighted intellectual content – copyright’s supposed role as an incentive to creativity is null and void. ”

“ The Internet has undergone explosive growth and, coupled with increased availability of broadband connections, serves as an extremely efficient global distribution network for pirate products. The explosive growth of copyright piracy on the Internet is a serious problem. ”

“ Infringement is commonly taken to mean specific invasion of the author's rights rather than wholesale piracy; and the question of what is infringement or "literary larceny" is more often a question of the interpretation of the facts than the construction of the statute. The legal cases arising under infringement constitute a very large proportion of copyright litigation, demanding as they do judicial determination as to the acts complained of in each particular case. ”

“ If he elects for American publication he must forgo the chance of the immediate market at home, and if he elects for immediate publication at home he must forgo the protection of American copyright.
Such an ingenious device for Dick-Turpining European authors cannot have been invented and enforced without some presumed moral justification. America cannot be conceived as a willing party to the legislation of literary piracy, and it was and is, no doubt, under some cover of justification that the law was enacted and now runs. ”

“ The law lapsed because of the indignation of the Commons against the arbitrary power of the license, but the result was the abolition of statutory penalties, [Pg 23] which left the punishment of piracy a matter of damages at common law, requiring a separate action for each copy sold, usually against irresponsible people. Piracy again flourished. The right at common law seems, however, to have been unquestioned, and the Court of Common Pleas held that a plaintiff who had purchased from the executors of an author was owner of the property at common law. ”

“ High rates of copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting continue to be of serious concern. In 1998 Ambassador Barshefsky announced the initiation of WTO dispute settlement consultations with Greece and the European Union regarding the high rates of television piracy in Greece. ”

“ Legitimate producers constantly face illicit competition from trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy operations that diminish their profits and risk harm to consumers who may purchase fraudulent, potentially dangerous products. Where there is rampant counterfeiting and piracy, governments may lose tax revenue, and may find it more difficult to attract investment. ”

“ To prevent fraudulent changes in a book after licensing, it was further required that a copy be deposited with the licenser at the time of application — apparently the origin of our record-deposit. With the expiration of these acts in 1679, legislative penalties lapsed and piracy became common. Charles II in 1684 renewed the charter of the Stationers' Company, approved its register, and confirmed to proprietors of books "the sole right, power, and privilege and authority of printing, as has been usual heretofore." ”

“ While optical disc piracy continues in many countries, including in China, India, Paraguay, and Vietnam, piracy over the Internet has become the priority copyright enforcement issue in many trading partner markets. For example, the unauthorized retransmission of live sports programming over the Internet continues to grow in a number of countries and regions, particularly in China, and in Latin America, the Middle East, and the Caribbean region. ”

“ No fault can be found with this legislation on the score of justice. The value of anything produced by a citizen of the United States fell at once as a necessary consequence of the want of protection against piracy. The British publisher, not from any motive of mere personal gain, but from an unselfish desire by retaliatory proceedings to bring about a better state of things, went speedily to work to plunder the American author who favored international copyright in order to show his disgust at the conduct of the American publisher who opposed it. ”

“ American Law Book Co., where the editor of the defendant's law encyclopædia had made a list of cases cited in complainant's work, which included material "pirated" by the complainant from copyright works, the Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing the lower court, held through Judge Coxe that there was no infringement, because the only use made of the list was to guide the defendant to the reports and because the complainant had no standing in equity. "If the defendant was guilty of piracy, so was the complainant; and equity will not protect a pirate from infringements of his piratical work." ”

“ Apart from clamping down on pirated optical discs activities at the manufacture, storage, retail and import/export levels, the C&ED strives to fight against corporate piracy, namely, the use of pirated software and copyright works for commercial purposes. Moreover, four Anti-Internet-Piracy Teams have been established to fight against piracy activities on the Internet. The Customs Computer Forensic Laboratory offers professional assistance in collecting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting digital evidence to law court in piracy cases. ”

“ If so much is taken that the value of the original is sensibly diminished, or the labours of the original author are substantially, to an injurious extent, appropriated by another, that is sufficient in point of law to constitute a piracy pro tanto. The entirety of the copyright is the property of the author and it is no defence that another person has appropriated a part and not the whole of any property. ”

“ Criminal Procedures and Penalties 1. Each Party shall provide for criminal procedures and penalties to be applied at least in cases of wilful trademark counterfeiting or copyright or related rights piracy on a commercial scale. ”

“ The question of piracy is determined by the application of the established principle that no one without authority shall take a material part of another's work to the injury of the person entitled to protection. It is settled that piracy may be committed by taking a few pages from a copyrighted book; to hold that the substance of the whole may be lawfully appropriated, if published in the form of an abridgment, is as absurd as it is inconsistent and unjust." Under the head of blasphemous publications, he considers the question whether a work hostile to religion is entitled to copyright. ”

“ In these days of an ever-increasing multitude of publications, the copyright proprietor should not be required to examine everything which is issued to see whether his works have possibly been pirated; nor should he be debarred from seeking a remedy if knowledge of piracy should come to him long after the offense has been committed. Unfairness is not always shown on the face of an infringing work, and direct evidence is often required to prove this even to the injured proprietor. ”

“ Paraguay and Uruguay, like Argentina, long protected intellectual property as general property. Paraguay's constitution of 1870 secures exclusive property to an author, and a new penal code, promulgated in 1910, assures copyright on all classes of intellectual property, on registration in the public registries with prescribed fees, and punishes piracy by fine of double the profit and imprisonment. Uruguay in its civil code of 1868 declared that the productions of talent or intellect are the property of their authors, to be regulated by special law, but no such law has been passed. ”

“ Many countries provide penalties that fail to deter criminal enterprises engaged in global copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting operations. Even when such enterprises are investigated and prosecuted, the penalties imposed on them in many countries are low, and therefore, rather than deter further infringements, such penalties only add to the cost of doing business. Online sales of pirated and counterfeit goods have the potential to surpass the volume of sales through traditional channels such as street vendors and other physical markets. ”

“ When the materials are thus in medio, as the phrase is, it is considered a fair test of piracy to examine whether the mistakes of both works are the same. If they are, piracy will be inferred. Translations stand to each other in the same relation as books constructed of materials in common. The animus furandi, mentioned above as a test of piracy, does not imply deliberate intention to steal; it may be quite compatible with ignorance even of the copyright work. ”

“ However, widespread counterfeiting and piracy, particularly book and optical disc piracy, continue to present serious concerns for U.S. industry. Pakistan should provide ex officio authority to its enforcement officials, and should provide for deterrent-level penalties for criminal IPR infringement. Pakistan should also take the necessary steps to reform its copyright law. ”

“ The penalty for piracy was the forfeiture of the plate and all prints, with a fine of 5s. for every pirated print.
In 1766, in the reign of George III., a second Engraving Copyright Act was passed “to amend and render more effectual” the first act, and “for vesting and securing to Jane Hogarth, widow, the property in certain prints,” which extended the protection beyond the designer, who was also engraver, to any person who, not being himself a designer, made, or caused to be made, an engraving from any picture or other work of art. ”

“ On October 9, 2003, the Paraguayan Government issued Decree 527, creating the Specialized Technical Unit, which conducts anti-piracy investigations and works with prosecutors to seize pirated goods. In Vietnam, an October 17, 2003 circular on copyright protection for import and export commodities at the border jointly issued by the Ministry of Culture and Information and the Ministry of Finance provided guidelines for registration to protect most goods subject to copyright according to the law on customs and relevant regulations. ”

“ Proposals by the United States within ongoing FTA negotiations will continue to include up-to-date copyright and enforcement obligations that reflect contemporary technological challenges.
Piracy Using New Technologies Piracy using new technologies is an emerging problem internationally. For example, the U.S. copyright industries report growing problems with piracy not only on the Internet, but also using cellular telephones, palm devices, flash drives, and other mobile technologies. ”

“ Prior to the enactment of state copyright laws, the first of which was passed by Connecticut in 1783 and the last of which were enacted by Georgia and New York in 1786, and the passage of a national copyright law by Congress in 1790, literary property had no protection whatever against piracy. Printers could help themselves ad lib. to books of12 all kinds turned out by other printers. Dr. Noah Webster, realizing the danger to an author arising from such piracy, labored diligently for many years to secure the enactment of a copyright law. ”