Research On ISP’s Copyright Indirect Infringement Under Internet Condition

The copyright under internet environment is easily to be infringed, the internet user is glad to copy others’ works onto internet and share the uploaded materials each others. The ISP is also always to be the infringers under internet environment; this is related to the ISPs’ role and function. The copyright infringement under internet environment exercised by ISP can be divided into two categories:direct infringement and indirect infringement. The former refers to the ISP infringe others’ copyright directly, the later refers to the ISP provides assistance for the internet users’ infringement to others’ copyright. With the rapid progress of China’s internet industries, the cases of ISP’s indirect infringement emerges these years, the Baidu Online Library case is the most typical one. these cases reflects that the interest conflicts between the ISP and the copyright holders become more sharp. The information network transmission right protection regulation and tort law contains some articles to regulate the indirect infringements exercised by ISP, and the preliminary legal system of internet copyright protection system has been established. However, the so called Safe Harbor Rules which is absorbed by the current law is hard to be applied in legal practice. This dissertation suggests that it is necessary to improve the laws about internet copyright protection to promote the development of internet industries and balance the different parties’ interest. The Safe Harbor Rules should be improved so it can be easily to be applied, and the Red Flag Test should also be adopted to determine the ISPs’liability fairly.