Piracy, Bootlegging, and the Entertainment Industry
This paper will discuss the issue of piracy in the entertainment industry. The focus of this paper will be upon the international aspects of this problem. The first part of the paper will examine the various types of piracy in the film and music industries. The second part of the paper will discuss the protection of copyright under United States law. This section of the paper will include a discussion of the fair use exception with regard to parody. The third part of the paper will look at the international aspects of the piracy problem. This section will discuss the international agreements which have been drafted and signed in response to the problem. The last part of the paper will look at the situation in China as an illustration of the continuing problem. This section will examine Chinese law concerning copyright protection and the response of the Chinese government to pressure by the United States. This paper will not discuss the piracy problem with regard to computer software. The reason for this is that the copyright issues involving software are very complex and have raised questions which are different from those surrounding film and music copyrights.
The piracy of intellectual property has become a major business throughout the world. The use of digital technology in mass entertainment ironically has made the creation of high quality copies easier and less expensive than in previous years. In addition, the use of satellites in the transmission of television programs throughout the world has provided pirates with the opportunity to "capture" signals for the copying of programs on high quality video recording equipment. As a result, the entertainment industry in developed countries have lost the much of their ability to realize profits from the distribution of their products in developing countries.
It was estimated that the international piracy of co...