Sergio Amadeu da Silveira - Cidadania e Redes Digitais

eng
c i t i z e n s h i p a n d d i g i t a l n e t w o r k s
ternet Law, reveals that, in October 2002, there were approximately 400 definite
legal sentences involving virtual problems. In this month [October, 2008], they
already amount to 17 thousand, counted since 2002. The exponential increase
of suits follows the crescent number of users and already began causing changes
of behavior in sites, companies, schools and even families.” (Diniz, 2008)
Thus, all pressure of the legal institutions and of the so-called justice operators
is now for the elimination of anonymity in network communications. Encouraging
such action are the big clients of law firms, i.e., the copyright industry — once these
companies consider punishing individuals who share music and videos without paying
royalties essential. Their main spokespersons claim to be losing billions of Dollars,
mainly after the expansion of digital communication, which facilitates its copy
and illegal distribution.
In the 2010 report of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, IIPA, one
can observe the view the copyright industry representatives defend of communication
in digital networks:
“‘Piracy’, as we know it nowadays, occurs in an increasingly sophisticated
manner, using or supplying to the users materials under copyrights protection
without authorization, instead of simply copying and selling contents in
physical media in the retail stores or on the streets. (…) Such piracy is made
in innumerous manners, from the P2P sharing of files, deeplinking sites,
BitTorrent sharing, cyberlockers, discussion forums in the web, and other
similar services.”
Page 13 of the same report makes clear the recurring speech in the copyright
industry that seeks to make file sharing responsible for the drop in the revenue of
sales of music and other intangible assets:
“In Spain, with one of the most elevated illegal file sharing rates in Europe, the
sales of the 50 most popular local artists are estimated to have dropped 65%,
from 2004 to 2009. In France, where one fourth of the Internet downloads is
illegal, the albums of the local artists had a drop in sales of 60%, from 2003 to
2009. The situation in Brazil, a culturally rich country, is similar.”
One of the most important solutions given by representatives of the copyright
industry is the repression and blocking of digital file sharing. For such, they seek
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