I want my MP3! Creating a legal and practical scheme to combat copyright infringement on peer-to-peer Internet applications

Georgetown Law Journal, Jun 2002 by Jacover, Aric

However, it is perfectly reasonable to promote strong copyright protection without endorsing the music industry's current power structure. Imagine a world where there are no record companies and artists own the rights to their entire catalog. In this world, the same incentive structure exists in which copyright holders, now the artists themselves, will seek to enforce their rights to make a living. Therefore, the identity of the copyright owner is irrelevant. What is important is to retain traditional copyright principles that seek to compensate the copyright holders, so that if artists are able to regain their rights, they are able to enforce them as well. Because the only way to retain the revenue stream from sound recordings is to ensure the protection of copyright principles, it is necessary to explore the legal ramifications of peer-to-peer technology on the Internet.

II. OVERVIEW OF PEER-TO-PEER TECHNOLOGY

A. DESCRIPTION OF PEER-TO-PEER TECHNOLOGY

Alexander Graham Bell was, in a sense, the first peer-to-peer pioneer. Unlike the telephone, however, which provided people with the capability to talk to just one other person, peer-to-peer allows users to participate in a virtual conference call with a vast community of participants. Users not only talk to each other but can also exchange computer files.25 Peer-to-peer technology is a broad term used to describe the architecture of computers in a system.26 Generally, peer-to-- peer architecture allows a computer user to communicate directly with the computers of other Internet users. Once the connection is established, the users may communicate in various ways. They may, for example, exchange files, chat, or participate in online games. Of course, the Internet allows these activities without peer-to-peer. One can log on to the Internet, visit the United States Copyright Office website, and download copyright registration forms onto a hard drive; yet, this is not a true peer-to-peer network because it requires centralized servers to store information. Peer-to-peer, conversely, pools the resources of those connected to the Internet and makes those resources available to whomever is connected to that particular peer-to-peer network.

To understand the distinction better, a brief over-view of how the Internet functions is helpful.27 The Internet works mainly through servers and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, a standard set of guidelines that allows computers to communicate with each other. Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are numbered codes that identify each computer on the Internet.28 A domain name system (DNS) facilitates connections on the Internet by converting IP addresses into memorable, alphabetic names, such as www.yahoo.com.29 These websites usually are stored on servers that allow other computers connected to the Internet to access them with special software.30 This is called a server/client relationship. In a non-peer-to-peer environment, client computers cannot exchange files with other client computers. A key characteristic of peer-to-peer is that it essentially allows any computer connected to the Internet to identify itself as both a client and a server. Thus, peer-to-peer enables potentially any computer on the Internet to communicate directly with any other to exchange files.