International intellectual property treaties and online piracy

International intellectual property treaties and online piracy 1. Intellectual property infringement in digital age Computers represent one of the most important technological developments of the 20th century. You can use a computer to do work, play games, communicate, and--unfortunately--break the law. Computer crimes range over a wide area from fraud and embezzlement, to electronic attacks on corporations and government. But the most common and damaging crime is online piracy. In the digital age, the rapid evolution of new technologies such as personal home computers and the Internet, threaten the value of Intellectual Property through the increase of unlawful distribution of information. As we have already heard, the rapid development of e-commerce is truly astonishing. The Internet is the greatest communications medium of our time, but it is also the world's largest copy machine. Two hundred years ago the decision by a reader to make a handwritten copy of a book generally did not have much impact on the publisher. In 2002 a personal copy of a sound recording can be added to a 'swapping' service for global access with a few keystrokes, something that allegedly does have a real impact on markets and has lead to proposals for substantial legal and technological restrictions. Uptake of broadband across the world is likely to lead to increased abuse of software and video. The digital era, in which we all live, provides intellectual property rights holders with unprecedented opportunities to distribute their works to a worldwide audience. Unfortunately, these same technologies that provide the benefits of increased public exposure and access to protected works also have a down side. They have greatly expanded the opportunity to commit piracy and widespread copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting. Millions of copyrighted songs and hundreds of thousands of copyrighted movies are illegally copied every day. Those who create software and games suffer significant losses from illegal copying. Trademark counterfeiters who create near perfect or perfect replicas of well-known trademarks and append them to shabby knock-offs are also misusing technology. In many instances, resourceful criminals use technology to violate both trademark and copyright, creating and selling products, such as software, which to the average consumer appear legitimate when in fact they are not. Because of the nature of the theft, the damage is difficult to calculate but not hard to envision. Millions of dollars are at stake. Many individuals see nothing wrong with downloading an occasional song or even an entire CD off the Internet,