What is online infringement of copyright, and how does it work

What is online infringement of copyright, and how does it work

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What is online infringement of copyright, and how does it work

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Sciences et techniques

DIGITAL ECONOMY BILL

ONLINE INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT:

THE DETAILS

DECEMBER 2009

What is online infringement of copyright?

There are many forms of online infringement of copyright, including people unlawfully

swapping copyrighted music or films with friends or unlawfully downloading copyrighted

material from particular sites. The majority of the clauses in the Bill are particularly intended

to tackle unlawful many-to-many file sharing also known as unlawful file-sharing on peer-to-

peer (P2P). Details about copyright changes in the Bill are available in a separate factsheet

1

How is it used?

.

P2P technology has many legitimate uses – providing opportunities and benefits to Internet

users.

For example, Linux open source software is shared this way, and the music

streaming service Spotify is also based on P2P.

Academic and research institutions use it to

send very large files. It is not the intention to interfere with such use or to create barriers to

the legitimate use of this technology. However, it does enable users to share information that

they are not entitled to share – for example, by sharing software or audiovisual materials

without permission, in breach of copyright law.

How does it work?

The software typically used in file-sharing was developed in order to allow people to make

the most effective use of computer networks. Rather than relying on a central file server

(people going to a common source which holds millions of files in one place), a P2P

computer network has no central store of files. Instead, it uses a series of ad hoc connections

between participants in a network and the cumulative bandwidth of network participants. This

first took the form of a central file server which acted as “index” and introduced two users

together (one with the content; the other seeking the content). This was the original “Napster”

model (diagram 1). Later, the need for a central index was dropped and P2P networks

became de-centralised (diagram 2). Such networks are used for many purposes - sharing

files (i.e. file-sharing) containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very

common, and real-time data, such as telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology.

The advantage of a P2P network is that all users provide resources, including bandwidth,

storage space, and computing power. As additional users arrive, and demand on the system

increases, the total capacity of the system also increases. This is not the same for client-

server architecture with a fixed set of servers, where adding more clients could mean slower

data transfer for all users. As there is no one central server, P2P networks are typically more

robust.

Furthermore, as individuals use a number of different connections to download the

(same) information, this avoids bottlenecks.

Many of the most popular file-sharing sites (such as Limewire) use BitTorrent

TM

technology.

This is a protocol (a set of rules and a description of how to do things) which allows users to

download files by allowing those downloading the file to upload parts of it at the same time. It

1

http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/digitalbritain/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Factsheet-Copyright.pdf