Challenges for copyright holders on the Internet : a Turkish case study

In September 2004, scientists from the California Institute of Technology and the European Organization for Nuclear Research succeeded in sending 859 gigabytes of data from California to Switzerland in less than 17 minutes. At such speed, a full-length feature film can be downloaded in 4 seconds. In those 4 seconds, the copyright of a piece of work can easily be infringed on the internet. In recent years, with the improvement of the technology, it has become possible to convert analogue work into digital work through a simple process: it can then be distributed to millions of people from all over the world in a few minutes, using the Internet. In the 1990s, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing networks exploited this new technology. Using file sharing networks, users started to download songs and movies without paying for them. As a result, the music and movie industry suffered great financial losses. While courts are still dealing with the legal issues caused by P2P networks, an even greater issue has materialised, that of transnational digital copyright infringement through websites. Traditional copyright laws operate territorially and some websites use this territoriality, by going beyond national boundaries and operating abroad. They sometimes use the loophole-ridden copyright laws of foreign countries. Therefore, copyright infringements on the Internet have become an international problem and this situation poses a new challenge for copyright holders. The principle of territoriality is not sufficient anymore. It is obvious that those infringements on the Internet are a global problem, affecting all nations. International issues are usually best solved through international cooperation. The solution clearly lies in the reform and harmonisation of International Private Law (IPL) of copyright at global level. In this Ph. D. thesis, three different scenarios have been examined to show the challenges encountered by copyright holders on the Internet. Jurisdiction and applicable law issues have been identified in these scenarios. The aim of this study is to examine the IPL of copyright on the internet.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo