A Study On The Protection And Regulation Of Music Copyright In The Digital Age

The music is the common wealth of the mankind. While appreciating or using music,users need to give the authors of musical works and the creators or publisher of the sound recordings certain compensation, in order to encourage more good new works and then promote progress in culture and society. This is the ultimate goal of copyright protection. The development of digital technology and network has brought more convenient to users,and fundamentally changed the ways of using musical works.From another point of view , it is damaging interests of the copyright owners including the authors,performers and recording companies. Music industry is in crisis now and the copyright protection system of musical works has a series of problems.Based on the copyright law theories and information technology, viewed according to the characters and complexity of music copyright, the article analyze problems in music copyright legal system and the licensing mechanism by combining the cases related to the music copyright all over the world. On the basis of comparing with some countries'music copyright protection legislation and some international treaties' position, the author provide some advices in adjustment of the music copyright legal system and the licensing mechanism.This paper includes five parts:1. The content of the music copyright and historical complexity of it. Summarize the subject, object of music copyright protection, the content of every right, and take legislating in U.S.A. as the example to analyze the historical complexity of music copyright.2. New problem of music copyright in digital age. Expound the fact that with the development of digital technology and network, the copyright lawsuit related to music copyright is constant, music copyright protection difficult for responding to new technology and use, the transaction costs are too high in the music industry, the new rational royalty standard has not been set up yet, the laws of various countries differ, the rules of copyright law is indeterminate, etc.3. Legal analysis of the problem of music copyright. Analyze form three aspects that the factor influencing the rights of music copyright owners by digital technology, copyright infringment responsibility that digital technology causes , and influence on the copyright law principle on the right of reproducing, publishing, distributing to the public, protection of spirit, users' responsibility, network service providers' responsibility , interests balance, right overlap , licensing mechanism ,etc.4. Legislation and practising of various countries. According to the problems that the last chapter analysed, analyze laws and international treaties such as the AmericanWhite Paper, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, WCT,WPPT, EU Copyright Directive, U.K.Copyright Law, Australia Copyright Law, Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China.5. Suggestion of solving the problems in music. copyright protection system.According to the above problems, the author suggst that identify the goals , simplify the rights granded to the copyright owners, set up digital copyright collective licensing mechanism , set up music products platform ,etc.to adjust the existing music copyright protection system.