Copyright Updates

The copyright law was written at a time when technology was not as advanced and accessible as it is today. Along with this advancement comes the increasing problem of how to enforce this law. The Web is one of the greatest risks to the creator and a great resource for the user. With millions of sites and viewers it is increasingly harder to control the use of ones works. Also, should databases have some laws to protect their contents? After all these are works too. The laws need to be updated with the times, so people know their rights and creators are better protected.
 
• What are the effects of technology on the copyright laws and what are the proposals for new laws?
• What are the users rights and misinterpretations?
• Should databases be protected by the law?

Electronic Copyright and Intellectual Property Issues 

Copyrights are laws to protect the originator, but the Web has many resources to break the security of any law. Hackers spend their time breaking the codes of protection and use the Web as a tool to show their work. The protection of the copyrights are being threatened by them because they publish these decoding programs to the general public. 
 
• The DeCss trial is a good example of a decoding program case.
• What are the ethical issues with using these programs?
• If these programs are readily available to the public what is wrong with using them? Do we have the right to use them?

Photocopying vs. Copying Electronic Documents 

A photocopy is a way of saving or using  the works of another in print. If this technique is used for unauthorized republishing or as a way to make money it is very costly and risky. On the other hand, copying electronic documents are easier and inexpensive with the technology we have today. Although, this is easier and harder to get caught, don't be overconfident. If you put them on your Web site, BEWARE. This is illegal unless permission has been granted by the creator and you could be sued.
 
• How can you use electronic documents safely?
• Print vs. Electronic

Trademarks and the Web

Trademarks are very similar to copyrights. Trademarks are designs which help us identify products. You may even love a product and how their trademarks appear. Even though it may seem innocent enough to put these trademarks on your web site, they are protected by law with exclusive rights given only to the creator. If you use these trademarks on your web site you should ask for permission. 
• Is it illegal to use a trademark on your web site?
• Can a Company find out that you are using their trademark?

Case Study: Lego Company

Database Copyright Protection

 Various international information conglomerates are pushing for restrictions on database accessibility, and scope of use, but also providing exclusionary circumstances. Particularly, databases of private sector or public-private partnerships are seeking access restrictions because of the increasing importance of the nature of this data. Further restrictions are being sought to limit the use of data collected to the initial inteded use thereby reducing the societal value of the origional data. 

 Legislation is now in the works in the US and the EU. With its passage, legislation is going to be drawn up in the United Nations through the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO. If this legislation is passed then over 171 countries will have database copyright legislations. Currently, 18 EU nations have some type of database copyright legislation. 

 An encryption algorithm known as CSS is used on DVD's to prevent illegal distribution of the media. This is a proprietary algorithm that must be licensed in order to legally decrypt DVDs. A group of individuals reverse-engineered this copy protection and started to distribute this decryption algorithm which they called DeCSS. DeCSS spread across the net showing up on many different sites that mirrored this algorithm for others to view. 

 DeCSS by itself is not very usefull, but it is the key component needed to copy the contents of the DVD to some other media. By extension, it is the key component to pirate movies, something the Movie Picture Association of America(MPAA) is very concerned about. In an effort to thwart the spread of this algorithm, the MPAA sought an injunction against 2600 The Hacker Quarterly, a newletter geared toward hackers and also a mirror of the DeCSS algorithm. Specifically, the MPAA sought action against the owner Emanuel Goldstein. 

 Goldstein argued for First Amendment protections citing that the code that represented the algorithm is a form of speach just like any other publication. After a drawn out trial, Judge Kaplan ruled against 2600 citing that its sole purpose was to break the copy protection efforts of the MPAA and thereby infringe on their rights. His order to cease all posting of this code has essentially been muted by the fact that enraged citizens have mirrored the code in servers outside of the United States jurisdiction, as well as getting it printed onto various "memorabilia" like t-shirts and coffe mugs. 

Also see the DeCSS section of the DMCA Study Guide

 Secure Digital Music Initiative is an attempt to protect digitally recorded music from being illegally distributed. This illegal distribution is blatantly apparent in the success of the Napster mp3 file trading system. The techniques being developed under this initiative are attempts to watermark the music file so that either the file can only be listened to for a given number of times or cannot be copied. 

 A challenge was made by SDMI.org to the hacker community to break these proposed copy protection techniques. The community responded by breaking at least two of the five proposed methods, other attempts are still in dispute.

Other Issues