Essay - Intellectual Property Law There Has Been Much Controversy Surrounding the...

Intellectual Property Law

***** has been much controversy surrounding the European Union copyright directive, especially as this relates to ***** music industry. There have ***** several arguments that these laws are inadequate when taking into account new technological developments, especially with regard to the Internet. Indeed, when ***** media ***** in general is taken into *****, the rapid developments require adjustments in legislation. While the copyright ***** is an attempt at such adjustments, it however falls short of the all-encomp*****s*****g clarity required in specific situations, ***** as certain cases within the music industry.

***** Changing Music Industry and EU Competition Law

Current digital ***** advances ***** significantly changed the music industry in conjunction with other media. Digital technology has made possible the sale of *****, on occasi***** comb*****ed with o*****r creative media such as film and text, in a variety of different forms. Previously music was for sale exclusively in the physical form of tapes or CD's (Pereira). The fact that music is now also available as digital data, means that a large amount ***** users have access to ***** through these netw*****ks.

***** problem for music producers and sellers, according to Pareira, is that music distribution in ***** format is expensive in terms of infrastructure and conversion equipment. There is however also a need to distribute the product in as many ways as possible to ***** many people as possible in order to ensure ***** largest possible sales figures. This is why mergers such ***** jo*****t ventures such as Vizzavi, and ***** such as the one of AOL ***** Time Warner occur. Through mergers, companies possessing s*****tware can join with large creative ***** in order ***** d*****tribute and profit from the music industry. This is where ***** EU ***** law plays a part. With ***** to th*****, Pareira identifies *****ree issues that impact the music ***** when mergers between ***** companies ***** as the ones above are considered in terms of competition law. These include the gate-keeper issue, the source issue and the path *****.

The Gate-Keeper Issue

***** issue relates to technology available to a certain company that allows this company ***** exercise a significant amount of market control and *****. In terms of the ***** industry, mergers between large technological ***** music ***** potentially possess a large amount of the Internet market. The technology to produce and allow ***** to access recorded music can potentially be in possession ***** a few powerful companies, allow*****g them control of the entire market. All other competitors would then be obliged to ***** their product according to the controlling company's standards. A single ***** entity in the market would then lead to price inflation and encourage piracy problems.

***** Source Issue

At the heart ***** ***** source issue lies ***** ***** *****. According to P*****ira, ***** is an ********** giving the producing country control of corresponding copyrights, ***** thus prohibiting competitors from selling the same *****s, or requiring fees for selling ***** products. IOL/Time ***** for example, while possessing one of