Online copyright law moves one step closer

The US has moved a step closer to bringing full copyright protection to bear on the Internet.

The House of Representatives approved a bill based on 1996 World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) treaties. The bill, an amendment to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, would require Web broadcasters to pay license fees to recording companies for any material they offer on a site.

The bill will go to the President for approval after the US government reconvenes in September.

According to Niri Shanmuganathan, associate at law firm Taylor Joynson Garrett, copyright legislation is very different in the UK, and may not go down the same route as American law. To date, no substantive case has come forward to settle the issue in the UK.

The main difference between copyright law on the Internet and that which applies to other media is the question of whether or not a work is infringed in the UK. Content providers and users can be based anywhere.

Case law on Internet copyright may not be far off, especially if record companies feel their copyright is being infringed. "Record companies have a lot of money to bring these kinds of cases," Shanmuganathan noted. "With any new media like the Internet, it's always very complicated at the beginning."