Abstract:
The main objective of providing legal protection for copyright under the Ethiopian copyright
system is to protect the author’s interests and that of the public. To strike a balance between
these interests, copyright law provides exclusive rights to the authors to exploit the fruit of
their works, while at the same time, putting some limitations and exceptions on these rights in
favour of public interest. The law forbids any interference with these rights beyond the
allowed limitations and exceptions. Copyright law is thus, meant to achieve the dual goals
embodied under copyright system of the country. However, revolution of internet and
digitalization process disrupted the founding principle of copyright system by giving rise to
new form of copyright violation on the internet generally termed as online copyright
infringement which is the very pressing problem worldwide and to be addressed urgently in
Ethiopia too. Internet technology, unquestionably, brought numerous advantages and
possibilities for the development of copyright industry thereby facilitating the author’s
intellectual creativity and widening markets for the exploitation of their works with much
more versatility than in the past. Nonetheless, it is also the attributes of the same platform
that posed the threat of piracy by allowing the illicit internet users to access, exploits or
disseminates, unlawfully and for free, a copyrighted work of others on the internet using
ISP’s platform. The key reason that renders online piracy so complex and problematic issue
is related to the nature of the internet itself; it facilitates the occurrence of large amount of
infringement so easily while making the controlling process extremely difficult task by
allowing anonymous privilege for the perpetrators under which they hide themselves from the
reach legal action for the purpose of liability. This in turn makes the involvement ISPs
inevitable in the strategy of online copyright protection as they have proven to be the best
and indispensable party to sanction piracy effectively.
The aim of this study is thus, to investigate whether the Ethiopian copyright legal regime
provide protection for copyright in cyberspace, particularly focusing on the liability of
Internet Service Providers to control online copyright infringement under the current
copyright law of the country. In doing so, the study applied doctrinal and comparative legal
research methods relaying on both primary and secondary sources of data. Accordingly, the
critical scrutiny made through this study reveals that, there is no any stipulation neither
regulating copyright in cyberspace nor attributing online copyright protection liability to
ISPs under the existent Ethiopian copyright legal regime. The absence of regulatory
compliance which oblige ISPs to assist online copyright protection strategy can be
considered as the main obstacle to scramble the aspiration of fighting piracy in Ethiopia.
Based on the findings of this study therefore, the researcher suggests that the Ethiopian
government should adopt a regulatory regime which impose online copyright protection
liability on ISPs so that the right holders would enlist ISP’s aid to control the unlawful
dissemination of their works on the internet and enforce their rights against the pirates. This
would also help to accommodate the shortfall of Ethiopian copyright law in this regard