An Analysis of the P2P Infringement of Internet Copyright

Sheng-Chen Tseng, Ling-Tung University

Abstract

On February 12, 2001, the Ninth Circuit Court gave a verdict on the case: Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued MP3 exchange system of Napster Inc., which infringed the record industry's copyright; all record companies with copyright filed an application, that Napster should stop the online music-swapping, was agreed; in June 2005, Supreme Court of the United States made a judgment on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., the Court held that Grokster must take the secondary liability, and this case was used to clarify and correct some legal opinions before from the lower courts.

In June 2005 at Taipei Shilin District Court, in the case that IFPI and other three major music groups sued ezPeer, which had a verdict of acquittal; later on September 9, Taipei District Court indicted kuro, this case was the first criminal case that Taiwan P2P operators had a violation of copyright law; however, the judgments of two cases were totally different, which arouse considerable controversy; recently, as to laws and regulations standardizing P2P transmission technology in Taiwan, only MP3 music-related platforms, compression and exchange have been involved in the rational use, reproduction, public transmission, copyright infringement and other related issues.

As network technology develops rapidly, even the United States Congress wants to cover the shortage of existing regulations and practices on P2P Infringement of internet copyright through legislation, the following explored related legal norms in US Copyright Law on the application of P2P technology, hoped to develop better business models for recording industry, so that users could afford the cost of software to solve legal issues arising from above, reducing the current infringement situation, and allowed real creators access to the best interests; apart from reference to the experience of the United States, reflection and suggestions of related issues in Taiwan were also covered.