Copyright and the Internet
With the proliferation of electronic communications via the Internet, there has been a massive opportunity created for the infringement of copyright.
The Internet provides text and illustrations in electronic format, making it easy for the unscrupulous user to cut and paste web material into their own documents. You will already be familiar with copyright law restrictions on copying material from books and journals. Similar provisions apply to material from the Internet. It is important to make clients aware that they should check the legality of making multiple copies of textual material from Internet sites.
The greatest areas of commercial concern have been copyright infringements involving music files and still and moving images. It is clear to see that a digital file can be very easily and at virtually no cost copied and distributed anywhere in the World via the Internet. The creator of the original work is excluded from the process and thus receives no financial reward. Not surprisingly the media companies have been in the vanguard of creating means of prevention.
A number of defensive methods have been created to counter copyright infringement in the digital domain.
Let's take a look now at Digital Rights Management ...
