Pirates in the Family Room: How Performances from Abroad, to U.S. Consumers, Might Evade Copyright Law

Abstract

What will international copyright law look like in ten years? It will doubtless offer many different facets and will, as at present, elude any comprehensive portrait. This brief paper thus focuses on just one plausible and interesting scenario: Parties overseas will come to offer unauthorized performances of copyrighted works to consumers in the United States, a practice that will rouse the ire of copyright holders but that the Copyright Act will do little to stop. Depending on where the transmitted performances take place, legally speaking, they might not qualify as infringing under the Act. Even if they do qualify as infringing, moreover, unauthorized cross-border performances will in practice prove very hard to stop. Technological advances in media devices and growth in bandwidth will soon bring pirated performances to every family room - indeed, to every laptop, digital tablet, and smartphone. This prospect of unauthorized performances from abroad, to domestic consumers, stands to teach us about both the present and future of copyright law.