Copyright Law

The copyright law (last changed in 1988) gives automatic and exclusive ownership to the creator of a finished work. The work does not have to be formally registered, it is just automatically given copyright. This means the owner and the owner alone has the right to distribute and make profit from his/her work. If someone else tries to do so then he/she has violated the law and will be fined dependent on the severity and could be given jail time.
A problem that has arisen from the copyright law is that it was last edited when technology was still in its starting stages. The technological advance gives the means for a much easier way to copyright work. The internet provides a large audience for copyright material. It is incredibly hard to get caught now days as the leechers (down loaders) of material become seeders (up loaders of material) and this means there are so many people each giving away bits of a film/song/book so that it is hard to put the pieces back together and find the distributors. As it is so hard to get caught the penalty has to be large to try and slow down the amount of material being illegaly uploaded, and the moral message has to be emphasized even more if people are to listen.

Sources

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/uk_law_summary

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/copyright

http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Copyright_and_Technological_Change