A comparison of copyright law between the USA, Australia and Germany with particular reference to the capture of electronic music files for personal use

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Law - Media, Multimedia Law, Copyright, grade: 1,4, Bond University Australia, language: English, abstract: Copyright is the term for a bundle of exclusive rights given by law to the owner of the copyright. Basically the copyright Law is supposed to maintain a fair balance between providing users with reasonable access to the growing information economy on the one hand, and providing recognition and rewards for creators on the other. With the technological progress the importance of copyright Law increased. It became very easy and popular to infringe copyright by using the new technological inventions - such as CD-burner etc and Internet. The protection of copyright is nowadays not just a national issue anymore as the world becomes more addicted to the internet every day. Infringement of copyright in sound recordings is one of the most common infringements. Nowadays you can see the term 'mp3' everywhere. DVD-players can play mp3s, there is special software for your computer to play mp3s, there are special players like ipods or even smaller players which are just the size of a lighter and even your mobile phone can play mp3s now. But what is exactly is mp3? This paper compares copyright law between the USA, Australia and Germany with particular reference to the capture of electronic music files for personal use. There are many ways of capturing mp3s - such as downloading them from the internet, using filesharing software e.g. kazaa or converting music files from a CD into mp3s.