Research On Copyright Infringement Liability System Of Network Service Providers

Internet service provider is an indispensable component in the dissemination of works on the Internet. With the increasing of copyright infringement in the field of internet, the copyright infringement liability system for internet service provider has become increasingly important. But there are still many difficulties for its implementation because the criteria in judicial practice are still not unified. This article is divided into four sections:The first part gives a definition of the internet service provider and has a discussion of its classification. The internet service providers are composed of content providers, access service providers, cache service providers, search or link service providers and information storage service providers.The second part of the essay gives an introduction of the relevant provisions of copyright infringement liability for internet service providers from both home and abroad. The introduction was elaborated from both international and domestic aspects. The World Intellectual Property Organization adopted two treaties in 1996, namely the WCT and the WPPT, which China joined in 2007. Article 8 in the WCT provides for the right to play to the public, which is the orientation of China’s law of RCIN(short for right of communication of information through network. The USA "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" set detailed provisions on the internet service providers’ copyright infringement liability and the "safe harbor" rules set the restrictions where the internet service providers should take responsibilities. In the USA, the Sony case established a rule of "substantial non-infringing use", which provided a broad space for the development of technology and set the technology developers free from excessive tort liability. Therefore, the You Tube case further defined the application of the "safe harbor" rule in practice, which we can refer to in China. The EU also set some relevant provisions of the liabilities of internet service providers in the "E-commerce Directive", which is similar with the US "safe harbor" rule. This article also illustrates the establishment of China’s system of copyright infringement liability forinternet service providers in chronological order.The third part analyzes the criteria of copyright infringement liability for internet service providers. The components of infringement liability include tort, consequence of tort, causality and subjective fault. The author also elaborates the constituent elements of information network communication behavior, in which the criteria for the act of "offer" are mainly perceived by the user standards, server standards and legal standards. The article gives a comparative analysis of the above criteria, and introduces the different duty of care for internet service providers in different circumstances when the works and the type of service differ when it comes to indirect infringement.The fourth part of the article gives two suggestions on the system of copyright infringement liability for internet service providers. Firstly, the criteria for the behavior of "provide" should be the legal standards; secondly, we should give an overall judgment about the duty of care for the network providers when it comes to indirect infringement. After that, the author states the reason why we should tale these two proposals.In this paper, the author elaborates the system of copyright infringement for the internet service providers by adoptingthe method of comparative analysis, empirical analysis and interpretation methodology, and points out the deficiency of our system of copyright infringement liability for internet service providers, hoping that these opinions on this system will contribute to the improvement of China’s copyright infringement liability system for the internet service providers..