Napster and Hollywood: Controlling Intellectual Property in an Age of Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Digital Video Recorders.

Mondaq Business Briefing, December, 2002

by Mark F. Radcliffe and Jill Sazama

[c]2002

Summary: The Internet poses significant challenges of piracy to the movie and television industry. Napster has provided a preview of the problems awaiting these industries as broadband becomes more available. To avoid these problems, the industries need to adopt coordinated strategies of public relations, enforcement of existing laws, changes to the law and technological protection working with the consumer electronics manufacturers.

The increasing availability of broadband access to the Internet means that Hollywood now faces online piracy risks similar to those faced by the music industry. Broadband through satellite, DSL or cable modem significantly increases the risk of unauthorized distribution of...