Research On Private Use In Internet Environment

The forthcoming of Internet Era brings challenge to the Copyright law because the digitized information is quite easy to be reproduced and communicated to the public.Private copying and communicating to the public with non-commercial purpose are so usual that the profits of authors, phonogram producers and the producers of video recordings have been threatened.The focus of my thesis is on whether private use in Internet environment still belongs to a manner of right exception and how to regulate it.There are four chapters in my thesis:Chapter one "Introduction of private use in Internet environment". Private use in Internet environment is different from that in the traditional field.All kinds of private use in Internet environment can be classified into two kinds:Private copying and communicating to the public.Those activities influence the right owners a lot and the validity of private use based on fair use doctrine in the traditional copyright law is doubtful.Chapter two "Estimation of the validity of private use in different situations".The spread of private copying brings a hidden danger to the illegal communication through information network and it is a disaster for the markets of music,film,software and book.As a result,the law permits the right owners adding technological protection measures in their works or recordings.And it is a hint that private copying is not a manner of fair use any more.Anybody that circumvents the measure is illegal.If the right owners give up to add technical protection measure,private copying is legal because of the implied licenses from the right owners.However, free P2P file-swapping brings new problems.The users can get works free of charge and this manner is a kind of indirectly commercial use.So it is tortuous.The right of communication through information network is the exclusive right of authors and phonogram producers and the producers of video recordings.Private communication is forbidden because it is deathful to the right owners.Chapter three:"Regulation of private use in Internet environment".A lot of countries and areas have began to control or regulate private use.The methods in EU and in the USA can be used for reference.There are mainly four ways:request the individual users to bear the liability for infringement, request ISPs to bear the liability for contributory infringement or vicarious infringement,permit the right owners adding technological protection measures to limit private use,and tolerate private copying provided that the right holders receive fair compensation.But evey way has its own limit, and bright some problems,so it is necessary to distinguish different situations and give separate solutions.Those who circumvents the technological protection measure should bear civil liability.We can apply the rule of "Notice and Takedown" to regulate the activities of ISPs in order to control usual private communicating to the public.For P2P file-swapping,we can introduce the model of statutory license.In the long run,Digital Rights Management systems are necessary.Chapter four "suggestions for modification of copyright law in China":suggestions are about the articles regarding right Exceptions, technological protection measures,and file sharing.The last part is the conclusion of my thesis.