Censorship or fair balance: ISP’s liability for copyright infringement

The venue for copyright infringement has changed rapidly. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, one of the main avenues for copyright infringement was the flea market which has traditionally been a place where secondhand goods and unauthorised recordings of copyrighted music sold.The nature of the legal issues involved was very contentious at the time as it is today. It was easier to hold the individual sellers accountable for copyright infringement for pirated music. The difficulty was how to deal with the firms and the individuals who owned the markets where the infringement occurred . Can these individuals and firms be held liable for copyright infringement? One would argue that these individuals and firms only provide a space where buyers and sellers can meet and transact business. However, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion that the owners of the markets did benefit from the infringement in the sense that the draw to the market was the cheap pirated music that brought the buyers and the sellers together. It can also be argued that the owners could have done something to stop the illegal act of piracy by clamping down on the infringers.Today, the venue for this infringement has changed, and even easier for infringers. This has been made possible by, in many ways, access provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The basic legal issue remains and even more contentious than previously was: to what extent should copyright liability extend to those who provide the platform for the infringement to occur? For instance, should individuals and firms that produce and manufacture devices such as a personal computer or provide internet access should they be liable or partly liable for online music infringement?International treaties such as the Berne Convention require state parties to provide protection for copyright holders, including the right of communication to the public.The response to the ever-growing challenge of ISPs liability for copyright infringement has been met by a series of legislations.Could these legislations to make ISPs liable for third party liability for copyright infringement be seen as a form of censorship, or fair balance has been struck between rightsholder’s right of copyright protection and users’ right to have access to copyrighted materials?