Network Service Provider Copyright

In the 20th century, internet is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. In 1998, on the annual mission the United Nation Press commission formally called the information highway "the fourth media". It is a newly-emerged media following journalism, broadcasting and TV. Along with the quick development of internet, the way we collect and transmit information has greatly changed, thus, impacting human living on every aspect. Its growth inevitably riggers some law level thinking. Intellectual Property law having close relationship with technology, especially copyright law having close relationship with information network transmission, is greatly influenced. As a whole, every progress of technology will be reflected in copyright legal system, conversely, influencing the growth of technology.Internet provides totally new chance for the use and transmission of information, making the copy cost very low. This brings great shock to the copyright protection. In the digital era, how to protect the copyright owner's interests gradually becomes the hot topic in the copyright and judicial circle. Most of the treaties claim the protection of traditional copyright owner's rights on the internet. Unconsciously view the Internet Service Provider (ISP) as the infringer. The reason may be that network copyright infringement always involves ISP. Investigating the history of copyright, along with the progress of technology, it realizes the social function through balancing the interests of the works' creator, disseminator and user. The overall social interests will be promoted on the basis of ensuring the legal interests of the copyright owner. While in the internet era, the ISP is not always appearing as an infringer. Owing to the special status, the ISP is possibly the works' creator or user besides the disseminator. The legal right of the ISP should not be neglected, otherwise, the growth of copyright in the digital era will be greatly affected. "No dissemination, no right". Therefore, the author analyses several copyright issues relating to the ISP in the process of providing service, and puts forward several suggestions about how to protect, manage and restrict the right of the ISP. From this aspect, the author hopes there is a properattitude and reasonable definition about the ISP. The author hopes this article will give some contributions to the research of the network copyright. This is the reason for and the purpose of selecting the subject.This article is divided into five parts:Part I : This is the generality of the article. In this part, the author gives a simple explanation about the network, copyright and ISP and a brief sketch about the present legal status quo of network copyright.Part II: The author details the copyright issues concerning ISP in the course of resource construction, interprets the copyright issues about information processing, and organization, emphasizes the database copyright protection and anti-unfair competition contest protection, moreover, gives an abstract investigation on the character of information network transmission and copyright issues concerned.PartIII: In this part, the copyright issue about user service is researched. Firstly, the intellectual property issue on the user interface is introduced. Secondly, the copyright issue with regard to internet Navigation service is analyzed. Finally, the copyright issue about BBS is explained.Part: This part mainly investigates the copyright collective management system and technology protection measures. The author thinks that the copyright collective management agency should be a folk agency and puts forward relevant protection strategies of network copyright.Part V: In this part, the author gives an overall study on the rights and duties of copyright of the ISP, analyses the principle on the infringement definition and the specific infringement forms. The author considers the tort duty of the ISP is an offence duty. The author also puts forward some legal protection measures about network copyright. Finally, the author inves...