Piracy: At times we have seen copyright infringement confused with the terms “piracy” but also “theft”.
Why Ask the copyright owners who launched campaigns that equalize the terms above.
Piracy, lest we forget our Greek, refers to some open robbery sea, but is also often used as a synonym for copyright infringement.
The bills SOUP Stop Online Piracy Act PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) for those who remember, aimed to combat online piracy in websites based outside the US.
In essence, the two bills allowed copyright holders to seek convictions for websites that violate or even facilitate infringement of copyright law.
The US Department of Justice (and not only, as we have seen recently) may seek judicial rulings that bind search engines and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block any pages accused of violating the law.
The above-mentioned bills give copyright holders every right to seek a legal injunction to stop any advertising activity on websites that violate the law.
We will not mention the above. But we will look in more detail at the use of the term "theft" or "piracy" which is clearly excessive. The term theft as well as the term piracy emphasizes the potential commercial damage of any copyright infringement. But all cases of violations do not necessarily mean commercial damage.
Let's talk about Piracy:
The designation of Piracy to describe any infringement of exclusive rights began before the concept of intellectual property was legalized.
In accordance with Wikipedia prior to Queen Anne of England's first copyright law (1709 - 1710), the London Honorable Union of Charterers and Newspapers had obtained, 1557, a Royal Charter granting her monopoly and monopoly enforcing this map. The map-breakers were already called pirates by 1603, and the term "piracy" was used at that time instead of unauthorized copying, distribution and sale of copyrighted works.[
Article 12 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works uses the term "piracy" to infringe copyright, stating that: "Pirate works may be confiscated upon importation into those countries of the Union where the original work is enjoys legal protection.
Article 61 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights, known as TRIPs, provides for criminal proceedings and penalties in cases of "unlawful infringement or piracy of commercial property".
Piracy traditionally refers to acts of copyright infringement done with intent and financial gain, although today intellectual property owners describe online copyright infringement like "piracy".
Richard Stallman and the GNU Project they have criticized the use of the term piracy in these cases, indicating that publishers use this word to refer to “copy cases that they do not approve of" and that "imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships offshore, abducting and killing people".
Is the term finally theft?
As mentioned above, copyright owners often use the term "theft" for any infringement.
Is this true? In copyright law, the infringement does not refer to the theft of natural objects that the thief removes from the possession of the owner. It refers to a case where a person uses the copyright owner's exclusive rights without his consent.
Older courts around the world have differentiated concepts. For example, the US Supreme Court, in the trial Dowling v United States (1985), has ruled that illegal audio recordings are not stolen property.
The court said: "Interference with copyright is not easily equated with theft, usurpation or fraud."
The Intellectual Property Act even uses a different terminology to identify someone who is abusing intellectual property and simply refers to it as: "[...] infringer of intellectual property".
The court (United States Supreme Court) held that, in the case of copyright infringement, the copyright owner's jurisdiction is violated, but no control, physical or otherwise, is exercised over the intellectual property, nor is the owner completely deprived of the use of the work or the exercise of the rights. exclusive rights.
