The Nexus between Intellectual Property Piracy, International Law, the Internet, and Cultural Values

Authors

David J. Stephenson Jr., Enichen & Stephenson, LLC

First Page

315

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In a way similar to the dramatic transformation of mass into energy at the speed of light, intellectual property piracy disputes have compellingly special characteristics when multicultural values clash over the Internet. The sudden explosion of Internet use outside of Western Europe and North America, especially in Asia, is most apparent in Singapore, which has the highest per capita use of the Internet anywhere in the world. This rapid global expansion of Internet use has been accompanied by related claims of intellectual property piracy that frequently resemble disputes that have recently arisen in United States and European courts. For example, domain name misappropriation claims are popping up in China and Japan, and they are being resolved in similar, though not necessarily identical, ways as similar claims in both the United States and Europe. Greater cultural diversity in the non-Western world, and increasingly strident complaints by diverse, non-Western, cultural groups concerning assaults via the Internet and related international commerce on their cultural heritage, are forcing international and domestic governing bodies to reexamine, and potentially recast, the fundamental assumptions of Western intellectual property law.

Recommended Citation

David J. Stephenson Jr., The Nexus between Intellectual Property Piracy, International Law, the Internet, and Cultural Values, 14 St. Thomas L. Rev. 315 (2001).
Available at: https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol14/iss2/6