Week 12 Articles
TThe following article statements tie in to our recent class 22 and 23 discussions on digital rights and copyright issues.
Top 10 Most Pirated Softwares
The trade association for the software & digital content industry recently claimed it received 427 reports claiming corporate end-user piracy & 17% of the tips were “judged sufficiently reliable to pursue.” Under its Corporate Content Anti-Piracy Program, SIIA settled its 1st case while advocating for the Associated Press, Dow Jones & Co., “As we continued to aggressively pursue those who illegally sell or distribute pirated software & content, we also increased our educational outreach efforts in 2007,” Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA senior VP of Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement, said in a statement.
DVD Ripping legality in a new context
On the audio-file front, the record companies have long claimed that people who rip their own CDs are stealing. In reality, the MPAA is far more concerned with catching the big-time movie pirates who supply the thriving business of $5 DVDs of first-run movies. Even though you’re technically breaking the law when DVD ripping, the amount of decryption software available makes an incredible amount of material free.
EU backs ISPs
Europe’s highest court recently ruled that ISPs don’t have to disclose identities of users accused in civil law suits having to do with file sharing. Like their counterparts in the United States, music industry groups in Europe have conducted their own investigations when they suspect Net users of illegally downloading music. The court stated that E.U. member states can create their own rules, but added that they aren’t obligated to either withhold or release information for civil lawsuits over copyright infringement. The court stated that the rules should protect personal data as well as copyrighted material.
