Cyber Law – Many of the newer cyber laws are to protect businesses
Two decades ago there was really no cyber law at all. Today, we cannot read a newspaper without reading something about legal issues related to the Internet or the companies that do business there. The recording and film industry has been distressed by piracy, copyright infringement, and stolen intellectual property. And they have every right to be, but they are not taking it with their arms crossed.
In fact, we now see that many of the cyber laws on the books are there because the film and record industry has sent its lobbyists to Washington DC to pass laws to prevent this theft. It has worked? Yes and no, piracy is still going on and it is doubtful that it can be stopped. The European Union has just published a new law to protect companies from people who download movies and songs without paying.
Software companies are getting scammed too, and it’s not just in places like China where you might expect, there’s a lot going on in the US and the internet is global, as we cross the digital divide. Sometimes people can’t afford songs or movies, so they download them from a website that has pirated the songs and movies, and then there are the people who create websites that distribute this stuff and find ways to get it, usually yourself legally. .
There was a very interesting article on cyber law recently and one of the big issues in the Wall Street Journal. The article was titled “Warner Bros. Probes Online Leak of Potter” by Loren AE Schuker and was published on November 24, 2010.
It turns out that Warner Bros was robbed of their latest Harry Potter movie a full four days from its debut according to the article. Although the full movie was not available, the first 36 min. were, and people who love to play around with file sharing were able to get it for free. Now, I would like to express my opinion on this subject, and then ask some questions, philosophically, of course.
If movie companies can’t get a return on their investment because their movies and movies are stolen and given away, then they’re less likely to spend big budgets on big movies in the future, because they won’t be able to make a profit. In fact, this creates a great risk in the market, and the reward is not there, if the work is stolen.
This is to the detriment not only of the United States, but also of countries like Brazil and India, which are now making movies as well, along with China. How they protect their film industries as they will have the same problems as us here. How much is at stake: millions of billions of dollars per year. That is well above the gross domestic product of at least 300 of the world’s nations, stolen in cyberspace.
Although we have laws in the US, EU, and other countries, it is doubtful that cyber law alone can stop this problem. It seems that cyber law only keeps honest people honest, and criminals are moving too fast to stop them, even with recent domain name takeovers by law enforcement. Please consider all of this.