Abstract

In this paper, we consider legal protection of copyright items in the Internet. The subject of the research is copyright protection of potential heirs on the Internet with the help of modern computer technologies. The purpose of the research is development of a system for copyright protection on the Internet in the case of inheritance. Use of copyright protected intellectual property in computer networks positively differs from any known types of copyright item use, including over-the-air transmission or a message for universal information across the wire. This is due to information physical properties change within digital media, new law features and properties of intellectual product as an object of legal relationship appear, emerges brand new system of public relations, connected with high technology application suggesting copyright dualism. In spite of this fact, many researches propose to inherit works of authorship posted in the Internet in a traditional way by means of will or law. This can be explained by a relatively narrow approach to the understanding of copyright. This understanding is based on the current beliefs about it solely as about an institution of civil law. We believe it necessary to abandon the industry isolationism and, instead, use an integrated approach in the scientific search on the problems of copyright protection on the Internet, and to see the concept of copyright as a complex one at the intersection of different branches of law. The development of modern, including computer technologies exacerbates the problem of protecting the rights of creators of literary, artistic, and scientific works. We propose new approach applicable only to digitized works published in the Internet. For this reason it is necessary to legalize heirship in international free and constrained licenses of Creative Commons and alike, in case of the testator’s death, through specifying a potential heir in the will at that (electronic testament). We also propose legislating the electronic form of work as an objective form of expression in international conventions, contracts, and agreements in the area of copyright protection, what will make it possible to give equal rights to printed and electronic copies.

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