In the first significant case to deal the application of the copyright laws to file sharing over P2P networks, the Court ruled that NAPSTER could be held liable for contributory infringement of the copyrights held by the recording industry. The user of the network could get any tune or music that he wanted without breaking in to the music store. It was a new area, which is totally lawless. In this network, one peer can directly communicate with other peer, the peculiar thing is that there is no central server as it was in “Client/Server” model.
The only thing which a person had to do is to download the NAPSTER programmer, search for the thing he wanted, and then watch or listen to his favourite song, then download it in to his own system. It received an overwhelming response from eighty million registered users in short span of eighteen months after inception. when the file-sharing technique began in June, 1999 by a student, Shawn Fanning.
The NAPSTER Programming software brought P2P and file sharing into zenith place. However, when one ponders about sharing of files over a P2P network, NAPSTER is the Primary thing that strikes in the mind. Indeed, the Internet was actually developed in 1960s to be a peer-to-peer network system. Peer to Peer (herein after referred as P2P for brevity) systems are not that innovative things of a technology, as corporations and universities have been using these architectures for more than 50 years in what might today be named as P2P.
Through this article the researcher wants to accentuate the novel method of peer to peer networks with a special emphasis on convoluted BIT TORRENT program and to enumerate the legal framework subsisting in different countries and various suggestions in order to reduce the problems pertaining to this aspect. It is also apposite to mention that there is quite controversy pertaining to jurisdictional issues, in order to protect the interest of the copyright holders there is a need for appropriate legislation in conformity with the established principles of international law. As a result, copyright infringement, or piracy, is a pestilence running rampant across the Internet networks of the world. Today, programs such as BITTORRENT allow users to share or transfer everything. NAPSTER initially heralded a new process of acquiring music from numerous users gratis. To put it plainly, this technology allows users over the world to share or transfer any kind of file, regardless of its size, without incurring any expenses. In the present times, the latest technological progression that debilitates the equipoise between the incentive to create and public dispersal is peer to peer (P2P) networking. Enumerating numerous rights in statutes without enforcement is of no avail. Baker (1972) 1 All ER 997).Īccordingly, if the enacted laws fail to keep up with the novel technological developments, the rights of the public will get affected.
“Law should not sit limply, while those who defy it go free and those who seek its protection lose hope”
In this regard it is apposite to reproduce the statement made by Salmon LJ in an English Case i.e.,
However, in order to combat the evil consequences of these technological developments, the law must and ought to be in pace with the existing changes of the society. Hitherto, many laws have been framed by the nations in order to counter the problem of internet crimes. As the world increases its efforts to eliminate Internet piracy, pirates become more elusive in circumventing and their enforcement. The seemingly endless growth of cyberspace and its trademark characteristic of user anonymity is playing a significant role in making Internet piracy and other cybercrimes as an elusive enterprise. In other words, these inventions, discoveries and technologies not only widened scientific horizons but also posed new challenges for the legal world, such as internet piracy, cyber defamation, stalking etc. These new developments not only helped the mankind but also gave rise to new sort of crimes viz., cyber or Internet crimes, due to acts of unscrupulous elements by using this new technology. The advent of Internet coupled with information technology has virtually reduced the world in to a global village with no boundaries.
There is hardly any facet of our lives that is not touched by the Information technology revolution. computers and the networks have changed the way we live. In today’s world there is no one who is not touched by the Information technology revolution at least remotely. Sujin Kumar., LL.M (NALSAR), UGC-NET., Principal Junior Civil Judge, Yellamanchili