书城外语法律专业英语教程
7676100000066

第66章 Cyber Law 网络空间法(3)

1.ow is cyber law defined in this text?

2. Cyber law is a domain covering many areas of law and regulation. Can you list out some leading topics of cyber law?

3. Why could a user in the United States conducting a transaction with another user in Britain through a server in Canada theoretically be subject to the laws of all three countries as they relate to the transaction at hand?

4. According to thetext, whatkinds of problems exist as to jurisdiction and sovereignty of cyber law?

5. Why is net neutrality turning into one of the most critical aspects of cyber law?

6. Nowadays legal complexities relating to the freedom and regulation of speech in cyberspace have taken in many forms. Then what are the three notable forms mentioned in the text?

7. What solution do David Johnson and David Post offer to the problem of Internet governance in their essay Law and Borders—The Rise of Law in Cyberspace?

IIFill in the blanks with the words and expressions in the box.

criminalizes exemption infringement implements

signedcontrolheightensrequires

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA) is a United States copyright law that( 1)two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO) . It( 2)production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures ( commonly known as digital rights management or DRM)that( 3)access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual ( 4)of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA ( 5)the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998 by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and ( 6)into law by former President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of on-line services for copyright infringement by their users.

On May 22, 2001, the European Union passed the Copyright Directive or EUCD, which addresses someof the same issues as the DMCA. But the DMCA s principal innovation in the field of copyright, the ( 7)from direct and indirect liability of Internet service providers and other intermediaries ( Title II of the DMCA) , was separately addressed, and largely followed, in Europeby means of the separate Electronic Comm erceDirective. ( Unlike U.S. federal laws and regulations, the execution of European Union directives usually( 8)separate legislation by or within each of the Unions member states.)

III Paragraph translation from English into Chinese.

In comparison to traditional print-based media, the accessibility and relative anonymity of cyberspace has torn down traditional barriers between an individual and his or her ability to publish. Any person with an Internet connection has the potential to reach an audience of millions with little-to-no distribution costs. Yet this new formof highly-accessible authorship in cyberspace raises questions and perhaps magnifies legal complexities relating to the freedom and regulation of speech in cyberspace.

IV Paragraph translation from Chinese into English.

互联网,就像它的名字所表明的,是一种计算机的国际网络,它使得世界范围内任何连接到这个网络的人之间都能够进行交流。一台计算机为了使用任何在互联网上传送的材料,它就必须要产生一个该材料的复制品,即使这样一个复制品可能只是瞬间存在的。如果这个材料是一件受著作权保护的作品(或者实际上是受新的数据库权保护) ,这种复制则需要有著作权(或者数据库权)所有者的许可。

V Discussion.

How did United States of America achieve high degrees of success in regulating the online copyright protection?

Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: Regulation through Law

Despite the reported perplexities around the suitability of the current rules, which are still based on principles consolidated in a different technological context, rights holders and content providers are not prepared to revise, in the virtual world, the order that, in the real world, has been shaped for a long time.

When it comes to intellectual property rights, legal remedies and technological protection measures are promptly invoked and prepared at record speed. The first have been introduced to deal especially with the new problems connected with the virtual world and the digitization of contents. The technological protection measures are able to operate autonomously. Nevertheless, they are often avoidable using circumvention techniques ( or brute force) . For these reasons, the new intellectual property rules have included extraordinary legal protection especially for technological protection measures, resulting in a kind of reinforced double protection, one for the copyrighted content and one for the technological measure that protects it. Technological protection measures, in fact, require appropriate legislative and legal support to ensure that these measures are respected, and to prevent their circumvention by parties that might otherwise violate the rights of content owners.

The consequence is a complete and structured new legal tool able to prevent, check, and repress harmful actions against intellectual property rights.The most important decision in that direction has been made with the WIPO treaties, followed by national legislative initiatives. The official aim of these two treaties was to fix adequate legal protections and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures, especially after the advent of digital networks.