Digital Media Business: Law and Copyright Challenges

In this digital age, rapid progress in digital media, media market and information technologies pose a set of complicated questions for copyright law. new digital products and innovations which are replicated and distributed nationwide and/or worldwide through the internet deprive the copyright holder of revenue from licensed sales. intellectual property rights are granted to copyright holders under the national laws and regulations. despite this, practically, as in many cases, digital products are copied and distributed worldwide. there are several significant developments, reflected in particular in the development of existing instruments, the most important of which is the berne convention, and the adoption of new international agreements relating to intellectual property. this paper focuses on two main issues: first, the legislative and other appropriate and necessary measures with respect to the protection of creative works in iran, which include the application of international copyright principles, and second, the question as to whether the digital media files are covered by the berne convention; if not, what would be the solution? the purpose of this paper is to outline the main copyright gaps and questions regarding digital media products, as well as a summary of the basic new findings in this context. this paper concludes by presenting as a basis for future research, as well as for a possible development of national and international legal system in the field, some conclusions with respect to the copyright protection of digital media files. one important point is that the berne convention has not been enacted by iran yet. on the other hand, iran is intended to join the wto, the prerequisite of which is to accept by states the berne’s principles contained in article 9 of trips agreement adopted under the auspices of gatt in 1994. as a result, with the purpose of joining the wto, as well as preventing and deterring copying and other unauthorized uses of copyrighted works, including digital-media files, there is a need, first, to amend the relevant national laws in iran, and second, to adopt berne convention.

Digital Media Business: Law and Copyright Challenges

In this digital age, rapid progress in digital media, media market and information technologies pose a set of complicated questions for copyright law. New digital products and innovations which are replicated and distributed nationwide and/or worldwide through the internet deprive the copyright holder of revenue from licensed sales. Intellectual property rights are granted to copyright holders under the national laws and regulations. Despite this, practically, as in many cases, digital products are copied and distributed worldwide. There are several significant developments, reflected in particular in the development of existing instruments, the most important of which is the Berne Convention, and the adoption of new international agreements relating to intellectual property. This paper focuses on two main issues: first, the legislative and other appropriate and necessary measures with respect to the protection of creative works in Iran, which include the application of international copyright principles, and second, the question as to whether the digital media files are covered by the Berne Convention; if not, what would be the solution? The purpose of this paper is to outline the main copyright gaps and questions regarding digital media products, as well as a summary of the basic new findings in this context. This paper concludes by presenting as a basis for future research, as well as for a possible development of national and international legal system in the field, some conclusions with respect to the copyright protection of digital media files. One important point is that the Berne Convention has not been enacted by Iran yet. On the other hand, Iran is intended to join the WTO, the prerequisite of which is to accept by States the Berne’s principles contained in Article 9 of TRIPS Agreement adopted under the auspices of GATT in 1994. As a result, with the purpose of joining the WTO, as well as preventing and deterring copying and other unauthorized uses of copyrighted works, including digital-media files, there is a need, first, to amend the relevant national laws in Iran, and second, to adopt Berne Convention.