Study Of Copyright Infringement Under P2P Technology

The transmission pattern in traditional networks has been changed dramatically by the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology, since centralized servers are no longer a must for end users to exchange and share files. Its convenience brings not only prosperity, but also a series of legal issues, especially copyright infringement. Large amount of products and works under protection being downloaded does great harm to the copyright owners, meanwhile challenges the authority of the existing law system. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the nowadays copyright system, particularly the civil liability of infringement, seeking a new balance between the benefits of the copyright owners and technology advance.In this work, details of P2P related copyright infringement liability are examined using case study and comparative analysis. Compared with classic P2P cases from United States, Chinese legal systems and judicial practices on such issues at present are fully analyzed, whose short comings and disadvantage concerns are pointed out, and a possible solution is proposed towards the end.The first chapter:Compared against the traditional Client/Server(C/S) architecture, the basic concepts and ideas behind P2P technology are introduced, especially its impact on copyright protection.The second chapter:Copyright infringement analysis under P2P technology. Given the legal nature of the user behaviors "download" and "upload", we point out that the abuse has gone beyond fair use, as well as the first sale doctrine, resulting in damage to the benefits of the copyright owners. We look into the legal nature of P2P network service provider behavior, and introduce briefly the US Secondary Liability for Online Services.The third chapter:Overseas case study. The classic Sony, Napster and Grokster cases are analyzed and summarized in detail. Several rules such as contributory infringement, vicarious infringement, inducement of Infringement are deeply discussed.The forth chapter:Legislation situation in China today. We introduce the judicial practices by examining the first P2P copyright case in mainland, conclude that in China at present, the theory of joint infringement and secondary liability fail to be well combined. We argue that, the newly published "Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China" article 36, cannot alter the dilemma fundamentally. At the end of this chapter, we try to seek the differences of legislation procedures between China and US, in the hope of better dealing with P2P copyright infringement problem.The fifth chapter:Possible solutions involving both legal and non-legal measures. The former refers to establishing P2P system of secondary liability. The latter mainly means digital rights management and copyright compensation system. We hope the diversity of measures could complement each other, solving P2P copyright infringement issue in a comprehensive manner, achieving the new balance of the copyright law under P2P technology.