Conditional access to music: reducing copyright infringement without restricting cloud sharing

摘要

The seismic shift brought about by cloud technology has extended the way people share music, and encouraged copyright holders to fight against the trend using diverse legal weaponry. How could copyright law, built to regulate traditional music, apply in the digital realm? The safe harbour provision created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, intended as a compromise between the interests of copyright owners and online service providers, has also brought legal uncertainty to users' interests in cloud music sharing and allocated digital copyright enforcement inefficiently. Meanwhile, with the shutdown of several major cloud music websites by the US courts, the public continues to seek out new business models, and digital music copyright infringement is still at a high level. Focusing on four controversial music cloud storage sites, this article analyses the current state of copyright law as it relates to digital music, and suggests comprehensive, practical models aimed at reducing music copyright infringement without stilling music sharing via cloud lockers.