Current Situation
Illegal Downloading
Since the Internet began, people have been sharing files with each other around the world. Many of these files are music, video, and other forms of media. But these files are illegal copies of intellectual properties, which are being given away without compensation to the IP owners. This has become a large problem for the music industry and other digital formats of media.
File sharing websites have been around the Internet for years, but the former world largest was shut down in 2012 by the US Department of Justice. The website was Megaupload.com, a file sharing website that allowed people to illegally download any form of digital media. Megaupload was considered to be “running an international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous …show more content…
With people able to create an object with a program or use a special 3D scanning camera, a person can take an action figure, scan it and upload the information for that action figure to the Internet for anyone to freely download. This information can then be used to print an exact replica of that action figure and if the person chooses, they can give it away or sell it for a profit. The issue here is that the object is an intellectual property.
In the case of Inhale, Inc. v. Starbuzz Tobacco, Inc., Inhale created a hookah water container in a particular shape that had skull-and-crossbones images on the outside of the container. The containers that Inhale makes were registered with the US Copyright Office in April of 2011. Inhale discovered a competing company Starbuzz Tobacco of selling the identical container and filed a claim of copyright infringement. Starbuzz Tobacco was using a 3D camera and printer to copy Inhales container shape exactly, except for the descriptive skull-and-crossbones
Illegal Downloading
Since the Internet began, people have been sharing files with each other around the world. Many of these files are music, video, and other forms of media. But these files are illegal copies of intellectual properties, which are being given away without compensation to the IP owners. This has become a large problem for the music industry and other digital formats of media.
File sharing websites have been around the Internet for years, but the former world largest was shut down in 2012 by the US Department of Justice. The website was Megaupload.com, a file sharing website that allowed people to illegally download any form of digital media. Megaupload was considered to be “running an international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous …show more content…
With people able to create an object with a program or use a special 3D scanning camera, a person can take an action figure, scan it and upload the information for that action figure to the Internet for anyone to freely download. This information can then be used to print an exact replica of that action figure and if the person chooses, they can give it away or sell it for a profit. The issue here is that the object is an intellectual property.
In the case of Inhale, Inc. v. Starbuzz Tobacco, Inc., Inhale created a hookah water container in a particular shape that had skull-and-crossbones images on the outside of the container. The containers that Inhale makes were registered with the US Copyright Office in April of 2011. Inhale discovered a competing company Starbuzz Tobacco of selling the identical container and filed a claim of copyright infringement. Starbuzz Tobacco was using a 3D camera and printer to copy Inhales container shape exactly, except for the descriptive skull-and-crossbones