Availability, Data Privacy and Copyrights – Opening Knowledge via Contracts and Pilots

Availability, Data Privacy and Copyrights – Opening Knowledge via Contracts and Pilots, discusses how in Aviisi-project of National Library of Finland, the digital contents, and their availability topics dealt together with pilot organizations

Tietoturvaohjelmiston kehitys ja immateriaalioikeus

Diplomityö kartoittaa yleisesti tietoturvaohjelmistokehityksessä huomioitavia immateriaalioikeudellisia näkökohtia ja selvittää yksityiskohtaisemmin niiden soveltamista ja vaikutusta erään tietoturvakomponentin suunnittelussa ja toteutuksessa Soneran TradeXpress-ohjelmistoon. Kyseinen komponentti mahdollistaa muun muassa autentikaation ja salauksen käytön sähköisessä tiedonsiirrossa. Työ käsittää myös perustiedot tietoturvasta ja TradeXpress-ohjelmistosta, jotta komponentin kehitystä käsittelevän osuuden ymmärtäminen olisi helpompaa. Immateriaalioikeutta käsitellään vain niiltä osin, joilla on vaikutusta tietokoneohjelmiin ja ohjelmistotuotantoon. Näitä ovat muun muassa tekijänoikeus, patenttioikeus ja tavaramerkkioikeus. Diplomityön tuloksena syntyi selvitys immateriaalioikeudesta ja sen vaikutuksesta ohjelmistotuotantoprosesseihin.

Factors Affecting Consumer’s Illicit Purchase of Copyrighted Digital Work

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology has revolutionized file exchange activities besides enhancing processing power distribution. As such, this technology which is nowadays made freely available to all internet users also imposes a threat as it enables the illegal distribution of copyrighted digital work. P2P technology continuously evolves in a greater pace than copyright legislation, leading to compatibility gaps between the applicability of copyright law and the illicit file sharing and downloading. Such issues give high incentives to consumers to practise piracy using P2P systems with a low perception of risk towards prosecution, leading to substantial losses for copyright owners. This study focuses on developing insights for content owners on consumer behaviour towards piracy in Finland, where quantitative analyses are assessed using a data set based on a survey conducted by the Helsinki Institute for IT. The research approach investigates the significance of three fundamental areas in relation to evaluate consumer behaviour as: environmental-related factors, innovation-related factors and consumer-related. each of these are integrates concepts derived in previous theoretical models such as the technology acceptance model, theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behaviour, the issue-risk-judgement model and the Hunt & Vitell’s model.

Digital Exhaustion in relation to Video Games – The Consumer Perspective

This thesis regards exhaustion of copyright’s distribution right in intangible transfers of video games. It analyses whether, under the current law of the European Union, the phenomenon of digital exhaustion, especially in relation to games exists. The thesis analyses the consumers’ position in the market for copyright protected goods. It uses video games market as an example of the wider phenomenon of the effect of latest technological developments on consumers. The research conducted for the thesis is mostly legal dogmatic, although also comparative analysis, law and economics and law and technology methods are utilised. The thesis evaluates the effects of the most recent case law of the European Court of Justice to analyse the current state of digital exhaustion. In the analysis of effects that the existence of digital exhaustion has, the thesis uses the consumers’ point of view. The thesis introduces the current state of technology in the field of video games from a legal perspective. Furthermore the thesis analyses the effects on consumers of a scenario that no digital exhaustion exists in the future. Such scenario under the recent European case law at the moment seems realistic. The conclusion of my research is most importantly that the consumer position in the market for digital goods has deteriorated and that the probable exclusion of the exhaustion for digital goods is another piece of evidence of this development. Most importantly however, the state of affairs where no certainty prevails on whether digital exhaustion exists, creates injustice from the consumers’ point of view. Accordingly, acts by EU legislators of the Court of Justice of the European Union are required to clarify the issue.