Jurisdiction Over Copyright Infringements In The Cloud

Copyright infringement disputes arising from the jurisdiction is an old problem in the traditional Internet era, but also a new problem in the era of cloud computing. As a new mode of information services, the development of cloud computing brings great changes in the way and efficiency when people create works, obtain and spread information, and to a certain extent, it has gradually changed people’s thinking mode, life style and business model. Cloud computing has completely broken the limit of the geographical boundary for the information transmission under the traditional social form, and gradually become the main way for individuals or enterprises to deal with information. However, the wide application of cloud computing have a serious impact to the existing intellectual property protection system, the challenge for copyright law system is particularly severe, which not only affect the copyright owner’s creative passion and scientific and cultural prosperity, but also related to the healthy development of the network industry and the information industry.With the deepening of the economic and trade exchanges and information sharing, different kinds of disputes arising from copyright infringement is increasing. Intangibility of copyright and ubiquity of cloud computing makes the jurisdiction of copyright infringement cases become a thorny issue. The determination of the jurisdiction of the court is the first key to get the judicial relief, and it will affect the results of the trial and the recognition and enforcement of the judgment. The determination of the jurisdiction of copyright infringement cases in cloud environment is very important, it is not only the inevitable requirement of procedural justice, but also the basic guarantee of substantive justice. Cloud computing has a significant impact on the copyright infringement jurisdiction: firstly, the infringer has dual nature, including users and cloud service provider, secondly, copyright infringement without borders conflicts with the regional of copyright protection; thirdly, the uncertainty of the tort action makes the boundary of jurisdiction area is blurred. Jurisdiction of copyright infringement cases in the cloud, need to comply with some basic principles of jurisdiction. The traditional jurisdiction rules, such as ordinary jurisdiction, special jurisdiction and jurisdiction by agreement, in suitable facing difficulties, should be a reasonable adjustment to be flexible in application. Cloud environment in our country copyright infringement judicial jurisdiction legislation is not perfect, there are many problems, proposes three suggestions for improvement to the legislation of our country: increase the jurisdiction of the court of plaintiff’s domicile; the determination of the place where damages happened should take “targeting approach” into consideration and the introduction of the doctrine of “forum non convenience”. In respect for national sovereignty and judicial authority based on strengthen cloud environment under copyright infringement jurisdiction of international collaboration has its necessity and feasibility, the international community made a lot of effort, including Convention on Choice of Court Agreements of Hague Conference on private international law, ALI principles of American Law Institute, CLIP principles of European Max Planck Group on Conflict of Laws in Intellectual Property and Co-proposal of Japan and South Korea. These legislative proposals has positive significance, but the application of the situation is not ideal. Cloud environment copyright infringement cases in multinational accused of all damage claims have focused on the jurisdiction of the trend, but specific jurisdiction court to determine the methods, standards and procedures, worthy of further study.