Adjusting the right to privacy to Virtual Reality : example of copyright enforcement policies

Abstract

Every significant progress or shift in human history has been triggered by innovation – fire, wheel, electricity. The challenge of these discourses is the ways in which human species adopt to the changes. These technological changes also change the discourse of the society. Hence, if applying old behaviours to new challenges, no progress is encouraged. All of these shifts have taken place in the field of human interaction and knowledge. Either indirectly, such as fire and electricity; or directly, such as language and internet. The shift that has been encouraged by the invention of internet is evident in the digital divide between generations and encouragement to create a new sphere of social life online. The online openness of internet generation is triggered by not having to adapt, as such, to the changes in their daily lives. The problems of privacy online different from offline, as the understanding of space and time is blurred and private versus public actions can take place simultaneously, such as in social networks. The philosophy of privacy comes in here. Firstly, the concerns, cases, frustrations over privacy issues mainly arise from social moral judgement. By creating a public sphere which does not have limits in space and time and opening up to that sphere, subjects individuals to increased judgements. The conscious voluntary act of sharing personal information is viewed as a problem only when the information cannot be erased and does not allow the ´forgetting´ but the being subjected to prejudice continues in present in terms of ´big data´. This awareness of being subjected to judgement creates extended sensitivity of individuals. Copyright viewed as an expression of private thoughts to encourage the exchange of information, knowledge and progress. This paper attempts to analyse the impact of cyberspace and copyright enforcement on human rights. The first chapter deals with the traditional approach to right to privacy as guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The second chapter identifies specific features of cyberspace and how it shapes the ways in which people experience life. Third chapter looks at how these changes of life experience that happen in online world, affect the reasonable expectation of privacy that individuals have. Final chapter focuses on problematic areas in policies of copyright enforcement, which emphasises the need to adapt the right to privacy to characteristics of cyberspace.