Application: Copyright and its Various Owner Rights
The Internet has facilitated exposure for a multitude of industries, artists, and products. However, inherent challenges exist when attempting to protect ownership. If users have access to someone else's media and documents, should they be able to copy, modify, or distribute them? This is a crucial question that individuals and legislators are attempting to answer in this digital age.
You have just passed the state bar exam and are now officially an attorney. As a reward, the junior partner has assigned you a case. Your client is a popular band named Pixel the Pony. The band's manager, Hub "The Hippo," and record producer, Mac "The Meerkat" are in your office. Hub explains that the band's new single "Pony Express" is being distributed illegally by music lovers on the Internet in mp3 format. He discusses at length the substantial time and costs the band incurred creating this original work.
Once he finishes, Mac shows you spreadsheets detailing costs, expenses, and projected profits. She feels that the illegal distribution (via peer-to-peer networks [P2P]) will result in the record label losing significant income. Hub and Mac want the distributions to stop immediately and those responsible held accountable. So far, the record label's investigators have determined that illegal distribution has occurred in the United States and abroad.
For this Assignment, write a 4- to 5-page paper in APA format that:
- Specifies which U.S. intellectual property, digital rights management, and/or property laws apply to this case
- Enables your case as a consideration in the purview of "fair use" under the law
- Proposes remedies the law provides for the enlisted violations
- Addresses how your client's expected revenues will be adversely impacted
- Discusses legal remedies that you will be seeking on behalf of your client
- Briefly addresses possible international jurisdictional problems