Developing effective policy responses to online copyright infringement
remains a challenge in many countries. In the UK, for example, the
Digital Economy Act (2010) provides a process that seeks to identify
‘repeat offenders’ who download copyrighted material without a
license, and then to degrade or terminate their internet connection.
Concerns have been raised about the technical feasibility of the
proposed technical measures for identifying users and generally about
the scale of the problem that would justify the Act in the first
place.
The goal of this Special Issue is to provide a sound technical basis
for understanding the scale and magnitude of copyright infringement on
the internet, as well as potential countermeasures that may arise from
emerging technologies, such as the trusted computing platform. Papers
should either deal with methodologies for measuring copyright
infringement or develop new technical countermeasures that deal with
the problem. Papers may be empirical or theoretical, and topics might
include:

• large-scale studies of copyright infringement on P2P networks;
• models for sampling and population estimates on very large
(degree/diameter) graphs;
• systems and models for managing online delivery and licensing for
digital content;
• networked media viewers using trusted computing;
• protecting digital content using cryptography.

Studies must be rigorous, objective and evidence-based. Papers
presenting political or moral arguments about copyright infringement
will not be considered.

**Instructions to authors**

Only high quality original papers that are not being considered for
publication elsewhere will be considered. Instructions for submission
can be found here.

The submitted papers should be formatted according to the journal
style and submitted via the journal web-based submission route at
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/compj. Each paper should be
accompanied by a cover letter indicating that the submission is for
“the Special Issue on Software, Music and Movie Piracy on the
Internet”.
All submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of originality,
quality and relevance to this Special Issue and the journal.

**Important dates**

Submission deadline: 1 June 2011
Acceptance notification: 1 October 2011
Final papers due: 1 November 2011
Publication: 2012

**Special issue editors**

Prof. Chris Mitchell
Member, Editorial Board, The Computer Journal


Prof. Vijay Varadharajan
Microsoft Chair of Innovation, Macquarie University


A/Prof. Paul A. Watters
Director, Internet Commerce Security Laboratory (ICSL), University of Ballarat