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This landmark legislation has its origins in the 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization's Diplomatic conference in Geneva, attended by more than 160 nations. There, two new treaties were negotiated (see International Law section) that represent the most important overhaul of international copyright law in the last quarter century. The treaties raise the minimum standards for copyright protection worldwide and make it easier to fight piracy of American products overseas. Although U.S. copyright law already met the treaties’ standards, legislation was needed to meet the treaties’ prohibition of devices used to undermine electronic "locks." The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (among other things) does just that, among other things, by prohibiting the manufacture and distribution of devices designed for the sole purpose of undermining technology used to protect copyrighted works. The DMCA law also delineates the responsibilities of Internet service providers (ISPs) in cases of infringement online. For example, the law formalizes a notice and takedown procedure between ISPs and copyright owners. It is now clear that when an ISP is aware it is posting or transmitting infringing content, the ISP must act to remove the infringing works or it may be liable for any resulting damages. The DMCA also contains the key agreement reached between the RIAA and a coalition of webcasters and satellite audio delivery services. This section provides for a simplified licensing system for digital performances of sound recordings, such as those on the Internet and through satellite delivery. This part of the DMCA provides a statutory license for non-interactive non-subscription digital audio services with the primary purpose of entertainment, if terms of the license are met. Such a statutory licensing scheme guarantees webcasters and satellite services access to music without obtaining permission from each and every sound recording copyright owner individually and assures record companies an efficient means to receive compensation for sound recordings. For information on the specifics of offering DMCA-compliant digital broadcasts and the terms of the statutory license, see the Webcasting FAQ section. For information on obtaining a statutory license, see the Licensing section.

Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded) Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources) Along with few other cases. US Copyright Office

In spite of recent and for the many backs amazing Victoria judicial of the popular service of Kazaa rows-sharing, acquitted in appeal from one short Dutch, the society StreamCast Networks, that the service controls, has declared not to be able to face ulterior causes expensive lawyers much. If in fact the judges seem to have asserted not the punibilità of Kazaa for the violations to copyright the store clerks from its single utilizzatori, the defeat of the second generation of services of rows-sharing could happen because of the huge expenses that they must support in order to answer to the repeated accusations of the record and cinematographic industries. According to the declarations of the defense counsel of Kazaa, "if that had to happen, it would be a judicial triumph of one band of enormously rich and powerful enterprises, deriving simply from their connected force and for null to the legal merit of the issue". It goes in fact remembered as the evolution of the instruments of sharing peer-to-peer and the logons to wide band has allowed on one side multiplying itself of the tipologie of files scambiabili from the customers and the other have seen the reaction of the large ones major of Hollywood, taken care that the own films were exchange to you on the net as it they have been till now the songs.

From the song its StreamCast, fornitrice of the FastTrack technology, motor of the systems of rows-sharing of Kazaa and an increasing number of similar services, continues ribadire like the heart of the own creature and that one of Napster, considered by now from all like the symbol of the illicit sharing of files, is deeply various, since the second had serveur centers them that they acted as from the archives of the songs of the customers, while FastTrack is a pure system peer-to-peer, in which the customers connect one to other directly. The motivations to the base of the decision of the judge of the slid year to impose the suspension to Napster could not therefore be applied for analogy also to Kazaa.

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SAO PAULO, Brazil (May 4, 2002 10:05 p.m. EDT) - Edna Telma is a 26-year-old mother of two, has a stable job working as a maid in a hotel, makes decent pay for this country and like most people her age, enjoys meeting with friends on the weekends for a few drinks and dancing. The friends come free, the drinks can be had for a bargain depending on the venue and the music, well, the music comes cheap - and illegally, at the cost of international copyright laws. Telma, like people across Latin America, owns disc after disc of pirated music, which is sold on almost any street corner and for a good reason. "They're cheap," said Telma, who would have to sacrifice two days of pay - $11 - to buy a legal CD. A pirated disc sells for about $2. "I own a lot of them. We don't have jobs here like in the United States and hardly anyone can afford the originals." That is the root of the flourishing pirated music and software industry in Latin America, where bootleg discs can easily be had in any major city. The U.S. government released this week its annual "Super 301" survey of 51 of its trading partners and intellectual property protections within them. As for Latin America, it would be easier to name the countries not listed on the survey's various "watch lists" than to name those that are. "Losses suffered by the U.S. copyright industry in Brazil are the largest in the hemisphere, with industry estimates exceeding $700 million in the past year," the report said. "Piracy-driven losses suffered by the Brazilian music industry are particularly staggering." In downtown Sao Paulo, there is an area known for its number of vendors selling illegal copies of music and software, locally called "piratas." Rather than hawking these goods from some darkened alley, vendors commute into the city center just like office workers, setting up tables and signs indicating prices by 9 a.m. to catch the morning rush. Sergio Negron, 29, and a father of two, has been selling pirated music from a table on a main pedestrian walk in downtown Sao Paulo for four years. Like most of the vendors, he doesn't produce the discs, he buys them from a middleman for about 85 cents, thus giving himself a $1.15 profit on each disc sold. On a good day, he said he can net about $17, enough money to keep his kids fed and for him to stay current on rent and car payments. As he answers a reporter's questions, he constantly scans the streets, watching out for police who on any given day may stroll right by his stand or decide to write him up for a violation, apparently depending upon their mood. "I've been ticketed eight times," he said, noting that he learned early on to display just a few discs on his vending table at a time to keep the amount he must pay for citations at a minimum. "They say Brazil is No. 2," in the number of pirated discs sold in South America, he continued, not without a glint of pride. According to the U.S. survey, Brazil, the largest country in South America, is the biggest consumer of pirated music and software in the region. But Negron and other vendors interviewed all said that Paraguay is the gateway for the illegal discs. This is evident in the slang Brazilians use for the pirated music and software - "Paraguays." "Paraguay remains a key entry and distribution point for pirated goods destined for the Latin American market," the U.S. survey noted. Which brings up the question of how to crack down on the trade. It is a dilemma that has parallels with international efforts to combat the drug trade. Is it best to attack the problem at the street level, sending police out in force to write these small-time vendors? Or should the U.S. government and the entertainment industry pour money into finding a technological solution, bettering ways to prevent the copying of optical media goods - CD, DVDs and other digital entertainment? "It is necessary for a permanent fight against piracy," Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso said Thursday. The recent apprehension and destruction of 680 tons of pirated goods - the largest haul on record according to a local newspaper - is some evidence that Brazil is beginning to take this fight seriously. But Cardoso said the enforcement of copyright laws is not to be left to the destination countries alone, and namely that the U.S. needs to step up its own efforts. Asia is a well-known producer of pirated music and software. But many reports indicate that this music makes its way through the U.S. before it lands in Latin America. "If (the discs) came through the United States, they should be observing themselves," Cardoso said. Copyright infringement is a crime that doesn't really seem like a crime to those selling and buying the goods. Brazilians browsing through CDs and software at various tables simply shrugged their shoulders when asked what they thought about the musicians and software companies losing money with each illegal disc bought. Few expressed sympathy that a famous musician or chief executive officer is losing out. "I don't have any other options," said Marc Antonio, a 26-year-old vendor of software such as Microsoft Windows 98, a product which retails for upwards of $180 but goes for $4.35 at his table. "I sell these things because I have to, not because I want to. I have to pay my bills. And besides, the 'piratas' are good business." More from the WebSite

On a personal note: Having lived in Mexico, I have seen, first hand, the conditions in which some of these people live in every day. And it's no big surprise to me that many choose to both purchase and sell pirated music and software. To alot of people in these poor countries the $16.99 USD cost of a CD and the outrageous prices that some software makers charge for there products, costs them more than they can make in a month, and to the sellers of such items, it can/does feed their families and help them to survive with a lessened burden. It appears to me it really is a matter of Greed vs Ethics. These poor people don't care if someone with 100 million dollars loses a couple of hundred or even a few thousand dollars because they are feeding their kids. So where do you stand. Fatten the already filthy rich................ or feed the kids. I choose the Kids.