Analysis On Legal Attribute And Infringement Of Content Aggregation

The content aggregation is a new kind of online services, which allows users to acquire the target information exactly and quickly by scrawling from various news and video websites, with the support of core technology, like framed links and transcoding. The aggregate platform accelerate the dissemination of information, however, its legal attribute raises disputes lies in weakening the link between users and the source by blocking many original website contents, including the copyright management information and advertisements. Objectively, the controversial service not only function as hyperlinks and search engines, but also makes the content in the linked website be available to a user directly on its platform. Is the aggregate platform service provider an Internet Content Provider or an Internet Platform Provider? As the source of information, the linked websites' benefits have been exposed to the strong impact of aggregation service. Which remedies should right holder adopt?This paper begins with the concept of and legal conflicts caused by content aggregation, analyses the legal nature and the legal standard of copyright infringement thereof, and make positive recommendations of the legislation regarding the protection of copyright holder. The first part is to conclude concepts and features of content aggregation. In addition, this part makes comparison between Internet Content Provider and Internet Platform Provider to provide conceptual support for follow-up study. The second part focuses on the relevant legislations and typical cases in US, Germany, Spain and others, and summarizes the legislation and the tendency of development to offer new thoughts regarding the study of content aggregation infringement. In the third part, I try to analyze in the current legal system context. Firstly, I make a research on the balance of interests in copyright law to demonstrate the necessity for restricting this aggregate behavior. Then, I start from the meaning of the right to communicate works to the public over information networks to have a clearer cognition on the scope of communication of information on the network. Finally, I do research into the representative criteria of infringement, like server standards, user standards, etc. aims to evaluate their feasibility. The last part is the introspection and perfection of relevant legislation regarding content aggregation. Specifically, making adjust to the current legal system by the principle of Non-substituted Link and Presentation is to find the most practicable legislation to ensure the protection for the copyright holders and the development of this new business model.