Research On The Issues Of The Scope Of The Right Of Communication Through Information Network

The right of communication through information network is a new exclusive rightwhich is given to copyright owners, performers, and producers of sound and videorecordings in order to conform to the development of computer and Internet technologyin2001. But the judicial practice in the past11years shows that there is a lack ofuniform understanding on the scope of the right of communication through informationnetwork. Undoubtedly, this prevents the protection of copyright in the networkenvironment. So it is of great importance to specify the scope of the right ofcommunication through information network for the court to comprehend and apply thelaw, and thus to crack down on the real infringers and protect the right of copyrightowners.This paper researches the scope of the right of communication through informationnetwork by using the historical investigation, comparative analysis and cases analysisand other research methods, then proposes some viewpoints. There are four parts in thisarticle:The first part introduces the background of the information network transmissionright. Specifically, it analyzes the technical background of the right of communicationthrough information network, and then describes the legislation of the right in aninternational context. Meanwhile, it describes the establishment of the right ofcommunication through information network in China. The second part is the focus ofthe article and discusses the connotation of the three concepts in detail:"interactivecommunication","make available" and "public", to clear the scope of the right ofcommunication through information network. The third part analyzes whether the actsof Internet users shall fall into the scope of the right of communication throughinformation network.Those acts mainly include upload、download and the use of P2P. The fourth Part focuses on the nature of the act of the Internet services providers,especially the act of the Internet content providers, the linking services providers andthe information storage services providers.