Copyright Protection on the Internet and the Issue of Jurisdiction

The protection of intellectual property in the virtual space faces a number of systemic Internet problems, including the problems of jurisdiction, peer-to-peer technologies, the problem of responsibility of information intermediaries, user identification, etc. The reason for the accumulation of these problems is that the Internet is a dynamically developing space in which new processes and phenomena are constantly formed, and the law, due to its conservatism, often simply does not keep pace with changes in the IT field. At the same time, the current state of technology allows for instantaneous copying and distribution of copyrighted items, making any online infringement instantaneous and multiple. The determination of jurisdiction in relation to the protection of copyright on the Internet is a complex issue. The problem is the lack of unified approaches to solving the problem of jurisdiction in different countries, as well as the contradictions between the territorial principle of copyright protection and the supranational nature of the Internet. The active use of conflict of laws rules to cross-border copyright relations creates the problems that are traditional in international private law: vagueness of the connecting factors, conflict of qualifications, possible renvoi situations. In practice, there may also be cases where differences in substantive law between countries may be the cause of diametrically opposed decisions in copyright disputes on the Internet. This article considers the above problems.