A & M Record V Napster Case

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“Creativity is impossible without a rich public domain. Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the very creative forces it is supposed to nurture”. Digital technology, along with sharing of knowledge and information, has also enabled unauthorized easy, convenient and efficient copying of digitized works at virtually no cost at a large scale, which has given rise to several movements to mitigate such copyright infringement on the internet. One of them involves use of digital tools and technology to prohibit and punish copyright infringement. The increasing expansion of copyright, enforcement measures strengthened using technologies like …show more content…
This power of exclusion is not absolute as copyright is for a limited duration , limited extent and allows certain uses as privileges . However the rampant propertization of intellectual property rights in a profit-oriented mode and digital technology has resulted in the policymakers as well as the judicial enforcers stretching the copyright law beyond its original framework or interpreting the existing provisions literally leading to absurd …show more content…
Napster Inc., ,the court ruled that the music file sharing system known as “Napster” committed repeated infringements of copyright law as millions of users uploaded and downloaded copyright protected sound recordings. While Napster represents an innovative tool for sharing information, the copyright owners in the music industry argued that sharing of files on Napster would replace potential sales of compact disks and other media embodying same work. The right of reproduction of a work under copyright was the most contentious right in this case. It was determined that each request to download a music file from Napster resulted in the system making an additional ‘reproduction’ and the transmission to the requesting user amounted to ‘transmission’ of the work. If each request is a technological means for making a copy and transmitting it to an individual user, the essential functioning of Napster would create a copyright infringement with each