CO-REACH-Workshop on IP Enforcement on the Internet
In the context of its project “Intellectual Property Rights in the New Media”, which is funded by the CO-REACH programme, the Hans Bredow Institute, together with its partners, hosted a workshop on IP enforcement on the internet from 17 to 19 May 2010.
The workshop emphasised possible actions and obligations for different types of internet providers when it comes to IP enforcement. To this aim, the different approaches by various jurisdictions were presented and compared: Solutions like the “3 strikes and out” – i.e. users will be sanctioned (disconnected from the internet or download/upload speed throttled) by their providers after three notices – which was recently introduced as an option in the United Kingdom copyright law, were discussed alongside (other) technical measures or options and initiatives of self- and co-regulation. Among the speakers and discussants were not only academics, but also representatives from the judiciary, the internet providers and multinational right holders.
There were two main conclusions that mark the impact of the workshop. Firstly, the role to be played by access providers varies significantly from one jurisdiction to another – generally speaking from a central “deputy sheriff” role under the new British legislation to an understanding of access providers as a neutral “post office” as in Austria or the Netherlands, with models like in Germany in between. The second observation is that in balancing the measures to minimise IP infringements the copyright systems shift from case-by-case decisions more and more to a regulatory mode; however, the role of different actors (courts, regulators, industry associations) again vary between the legal systems. As regards the debate on alternative resources of income like royalties to be paid by the providers, it is a salient issue in many countries, including China.
The CO-REACH workshop series will be continued this year with events in the United Kingdom and Austria; on top of that, the consortium will hold three summerschools on copyright and internet law in Xi’an, Nanjing and Shanghai during August and September.
The CO-REACH programme is managed by European governments’ research funding bodies and aims to support research cooperation with China. In addition to the Hans Bredow Institute, partners of the consortium include the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Strathclyde University, the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien and the Molengraaff Institute for Private Law at the University of Utrecht.