Law Enforcement in Copyright Infringement Cases (PDF)

Digital information, the Internet, and computer networks form a trio of recent technological developments profoundly impacting modern society: Digital information does not merely offer the possibility to produce perfect copies of original digital files. Its reproduction is also much easier, faster, and cheaper than is the reproduction of information in analog form. Furthermore the widespread use of the Internet as well as rapid advances in Internet connectivity and improvements in streaming media and compression technology facilitate the direct and instantaneous distribution of digital content, such as music, movies, and books across the World Wide Web to end-users. Finally, computer networks provide a platform allowing us to send digital information worldwide almost for free and hardly requiring any effort or time. These developments have created new markets and product opportunities, e.g. online music and movies. Nevertheless they also facilitate the production and distribution of unauthorized copies, which results in a significant evaporation of natural barriers to copyright infringement. The above-mentioned innovations, particularly the emergence of computer networks, foster easier sharing of files and have encouraged the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing software, which enables the sharing of many different file types as well as simultaneous download from multiple sources.