Striking the balance between copyright and privacy with the online environment
Stavrou, Aikaterini
Copyright, technology and privacy; three notions which during the course of time have been subject to evolution, interaction and, ultimately, collision. It is an undisputable fact that technological developments have been affecting the copyright legal regime ever since typography introduced itself to the world of knowledge by providing the unique gift of reproduction. And, thus, the journey to the world of massive copyright infringements begins…With the advent of the Internet, however, and the innovative and advanced technologies the latter employed, copyright community faced an unprecedented challenge: the birth of online piracy. Combating online piracy has proven to be a difficult task as the copyright “offenders” at issue are protected under the anonymity veil governing the online environment. The present study ventures to give a thorough investigation of the European legal landscape with regard to the interaction established between the enforcement of intellectual property rights, and especially copyright, and personal data protection within the digital information environment by revealing the crucial role of Internet Service Providers in copyright infringement cases.
