Piracy: At times we have seen copyright infringement confused with the terms "piracy" and "theft".
Why Ask the copyright owners who launched campaigns that equalize the terms above.
Piracy, so as not to forget our Greek, refers to some offshore robbery, but is 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 on websites based outside of USA.
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 court rulings binding on the machines search but also internet service providers (ISPs) to block any pages accused of violating the law.
The bills we mention above give copyright holders every right to seek a court order for the vacation 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 before the first Copyright Act of Queen Anne of England (1709 – 1710), the Honorable Union of Stationers and Stationers of London had received, in 1557, a Royal Charter (Charter) granting it the monopoly of publishing and the responsibility of enforcement of this charter. Violators of the charter were called pirates as early as 1603, and the term "piracy" was used from then on instead of unauthorized copys, distribution and sale of works that are under copyright.[
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 Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, known as TRIPs (Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), provides for criminal proceedings and penalties in cases of "willful falsification or piracy of intellectual property in commercial level".
Piracy has traditionally referred to acts of copyright infringement that are done with intent and for financial gain, although today copyright owners describe online copyright infringement as "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 United States Supreme Court has held that, in the case of copyright infringement, the copyright owner's jurisdiction is infringed, but no control, physical or non-physical, is exercised on the copyright, nor is the copyright owner completely deprived of its use. work or exercise of its exclusive rights.
