Software Piracy and Copyright Laws: United States vs Vietnam

Despite copyright law 's prevalence in out everyday life, few are wary of the potential risks of its uncontested expansion. The law has been allowed to continuously expand with little or no opposition due to a lack of public awareness surrounding the issue. That was until the mufti-corporation sponsored bills SOPA and PIPA made headline news in 2011. These failed bills were an explicit attempt to increase the enforcement of copyright law over the internet.

Signed into law by President Clinton on October 28, 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) "was the foundation of an effort by Congress to implement United States treaty obligations and to move the nation's copyright law into the digital age." ("Executive Summary DMCA Report") While this seems a valid description of the law, perhaps a more accurate interpretation lies in the following statement: "The DMCA is a piece of legislation rushed through Congress by the entertainment industry lobbyists to protect its monopoly on commercially-developed digital content, cartels, price-fixing, and to maintain its status quo as the single entity that can direct what should be 'popular' or 'used' by

In the global market that we leave in companies are trying to find any and everyway that they can to get ahead in their respective markets. This most of the time brings out the most innovate thinkers that can come up with a way to keep it’s company on top of their market and sometimes we see that there are companies that like to take a short cut by using non legal and malicious methods. According to Lewis, (1985), Software piracy is the illicit copying of the operating instructions and applications programs, which make computers work, is a large and growing industry. The Pirate Bay is part of a European social and political movement that opposes copyrighted content and demands that music, videos, TV shows, and other digital content be free and unrestricted. In the words of the Pirate Party, “the Pirate Bay is a unique platform for distributing culture between regular people and independent artists, and that’s something we want to preserve.”

Video Game piracy is one of the biggest issues facing the video game industry, specifically PC gaming. It occurs every day, and is dramatically affecting the revenues earned by video game developers. Piracy can occur in a number of ways. The first possible method of video game piracy is burning content onto a disc. Someone can copy the contents of a game disc into a file on their computer and then burn those contents onto a blank disc. This disc can then be given or sold to someone as the full version of a game. Another technique that pirates use is called torrenting. This involves finding the code file for a video game and then transferring it into a playable version of the game. After this is done, the pirate can play the game for free and can even post this new playable file on the internet as a free download that anyone can access. Piracy is one of the biggest problems that video game developers have faced over the years.

Most of the software that is used today is purchased as a one-site license. This means that only one computer can have that software installed on in at a time. Copying or sharing this information without the use of multiple licences is seen as Software Piracy. There are many ways of preventing software piracy. Software piracy does not only affect one individual but also can affect a large group or company. Some of the effects of software piracy are; it reduces the funding for ongoing development efforts, it can limit the amount of jobs opportunities that are available to people, it also allows for other unauthorised copies of software that may contain bugs or viruses and lastly it prevents the user form getting any high quality technical support and product updates. There are too main factors/ways that can help to prevent software piracy. One way is hiding the users IP address therefor any traces of you being seen on that website are lost and therefor you cannot be hacked. You can also download software which will set up firewalls in order to prevent the user form getting hacked or getting a

One of the most common, yet controversial, issues of First Amendment law is the subject of copyright and infringement. Although the subject may not seem major at first, many different issues and controversies have risen and become more common than ever over the years. The issues that have become pertinent to this subject are endless, including trademark infringement, piracy, theft, fraud, plagiarism, and many more. With the coming of age and advancement of technology, these cases have become more common and appear more often than ever before. Government officials have always been strict about copyright rulings, and have tried to deliver fair and just rulings for both parties involved under First Amendment rules. Because the owner’s work and material is protected under the First Amendment, it gets tricky when involving another party that can claim the same work of art. In short, the definition of copyright has always been cut and dry: allowing owners of creative works the right to control and profit from their creations. It is basically recognized as a form of property ownership.

Unlicensed software use continued to be a major problem in 2013. Indeed, 43 percent of the software installed on PCs around the world was not properly licensed, an uptick from 42 percent in 2011. The commercial value of the unlicensed installations was $62.7 billion. (The Compliance Gap, 2014). As we can see piracy of software and other digital media is a global problem that adversely affects many businesses and the welfare of employees and consumers.

B. Relevance: The Internet has changed the way we all live. It is at our disposal with many advantages and some disadvantages, piracy being one of them. The Stop Online Piracy Act,

DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) is a part of the Copyright Law which prevents internet service providers to be held accountable for copyright infringement that was done by one of the users in their networks. The owners of the materials continuously monitor the internet; they identify individuals who seem to distribute their content without a license. These individuals who did commit the copyright infringement will be held responsible for the damages, not the service provider. DMCA is created to discourage users from freely distributing online creative content without permission from the owner or proper credits given to the owner.

Computer piracy has been a discussion point for a long time, but many people view piracy differently. I decided to find out how BSA defines piracy. BSA (The Software Alliance) is the leading advocate for the global software industry. BSA defines piracy as, “unauthorized use or distribution of copyrighted software. It includes downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies of licensed software. Unlicensed software use also includes license infringement – installing a piece of software more times than the license permits – as well as sharing software license codes, uploading software codes to websites so others can download and use it, sharing software license codes or activation keys, as well as user IDs and passwords for web-based software applications.” ("Compliance & Enforcement," n.d.)

To provide some background information, the creation of American copyright law dates back to the beginnings of the constitution of the United States. That is, the Copyright law was intended to promote science and useful arts by giving the author the right of protection from copy theft (art. I, sec 8). That means that the published work would be protected from being replicated; it cannot be used by anybody else without permission.

copyright laws with much of the rest of the world. DMCA criminalizes production and distribution of technology, devices, and or services that are intended to circumvent measures digital rights management or DRM that control access to copyrighted works. The act criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself downloading and/or sharing of copyrighted material. In addition, the DMCA increases the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet (Kankanala,2012). A case that in recent years that involved fair use and the enforcement of the DMCA was the case of A&M Records v. Napster,

However, things do not always go as people wish. “Takedowns often mask ulterior motives”, “such as business rivalry or religious bias. Copyright owners are sending takedown notifications by the millions”. “Lenz brought up a challenge to take down notifications by the support of fair use. This was the first successful, real claim attacking good-faith belief in ten years since the DMCA was enacted”.

With the advent of the Internet, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998 to address the obligations imposed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaty. Owners of copyright were concerned that their works would be pirated online, and the existing legal systems in place at the time were insufficient to protect individuals and the industry as a whole. The DMCA was passed in 1998 with the intention of stopping copyright infringers from circumventing anti-piracy protections that have been built into copyrighted works. Specifically, the “Section 1201(a)(1) prohibits the act of circumventing a technological measure used by copyright owners to control access to their works.” Although the DMCA was intended to bolster intellectual property law, it has had a deleterious impact to the industry in the aggregate.

Section 65A of the Indian Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012 provides legal protection to technological protection measures (or ‘TPM’ e.g. digital locks, encryption), such that the circumvention of such TPM is prohibited, while tools or devices aiding circumvention may be permitted for the purpose of fair use. Such use of TPM for the purpose of access control is classified as DRM and can take many forms- limiting number of installations and plays , limiting content to certain file types , limiting content to be played on particular software etc. We first analyze this provision in comparison with similar US and EU provisions and try to understand whether it is a favourable addition to Indian IP law, especially in the context of its political- economic background. We then try and analyze the problems with the provision, especially through the lens of an economic analysis as well as from a consumer point of view. Since, DRM is