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Topic 7 (Intellectual Property) - Coggle Diagram
Topic 7
(Intellectual Property)
4.2 Responses to Copyright Infringement
4.2.1 Defensive and Aggressive Responses From the Content Industries
ii) Banning, suing and taxing
They introduced special taxes on photocopiers and magnetic tape in the 1960s and later added taxes on personal computers, printers, scanners, blank DVDs, recorders, iPods, and cellphones
iii) Digital rights management
DRM includes hardware and software schemes using encryption and other tools
DRM prevents fair uses as well as infringing uses
Digital rights management technologies (DRM) are a collection of techniques that control access to and uses of intellectual property in digital formats
DRM differs in a fundamental way from the banning, suing, and taxing
i) Ideas from the software industry
Some software requires activation or registration with a special serial number.
Some of these systems were
“cracked”—that is, programmers found ways to thwart the protection mechanisms.
Diskettes containing consumer software had “copy protection” to ensure that you could not copy it (or that a copy would not run)
Software industry organizations, dubbed “software police,” were active in business offices before they began policing cyberspace.
4.2.2 The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Anticircumvention
Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998
This very important law has two significant parts.
i) The “anticircumvention” provisions prohibit circumventing technological access control
ii) Copy-prevention systems implemented by
copyright owners in intellectual property
The “anticircumvention” provisions of the DMCA prohibit making, distributing, or using tools (devices, software, or services) to circumvent DRM systems used by copyright holders
4.2.3 The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Safe Harbor
The “safe harbor” provisions of the DMCA protect websites from lawsuits and criminal charges for copyright infringement when users post infringing material.
The safe harbor provisions of the DMCA, along with technological advances in the next several years, encouraged the development of thousands of websites that host user-generated content
4.2.4 Evolving Business Models
Some entertainment companies and Web content-sharing sites negotiate contracts for the site to pay a share of its ad revenue to the entertainment companies
YouTube and Warner Music Group, for example, worked out such an arrangement for Warner music videos.
Between 2007 and 2009, a major shift occurred in music sales
i) EMI Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony (some of the largest music companies in the world) began selling music without DRM
ii) Apple eliminated DRM from
its iTunes store for music.
4.3 Search Engines and Online Libraries
The search engine practice of displaying copies of excerpts from Web pages seems easily to fit under the fair use guidelines
Search engines provide links to sites that might contain copyright infringing material
Search engine companies copy entire books so that they can search them and display segments in response to user queries
Most major operators of search engines are businesses
Web search services are a hugely valuable innovation and tool for the socially valuable goal of making information easily available
4.5 Patents for Inventions in Software
4.5.1 Patent Decisions, Confusion, and Consequences
Patents differ from copyrights in that they protect the invention, not just a particular expression or implementation of it
A patent holder can build and sell the patented device or devices using the patented element
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office evaluates patent applications and decides whether to grant them
Patents protect inventions by giving the inventor a monopoly for a specified period of time
Courts have made several attempts to clarify the conditions for innovations based in software to be patentable, often issuing decisions that reject prior criteria
4.5.2 To Patent or Not?
By protecting rights to the work, they encourage inventors to disclose their inventions so that others can build upon them
Patents help to reward
those people ethically and fairly and to encourage more innovation
The main arguments for allowing patents for software-based inventions and certain
business methods are similar to those for patents and copyright in general.
Patent protection is necessary to encourage the large investment often required to develop innovative systems and techniques
4.1 Principles, Laws and Cases
4.1.1 What is Intellectual Property
The key to understanding intellectual property protection is to understand that the thing protected is the intangible creative work—not its particular physical form
Copyright is a legal concept that defines rights to certain kinds of intellectual property.
Patent, another legal concept that defines rights to intellectual property, protects inventions, including some software-based inventions.
Intellectual property differs from physical property in this way
4.1.2 Challenges of New Technologies
The first category of intellectual property to face significant threats from digital media was computer software itself.
The content industries claim that about one-quarter of Internet traffic worldwide consists of copyright-infringing material
To consumers, who get movies and music online, the problem is to get them cheaply and conveniently
To writers, singers, artists, actors—and to the people who work in production, marketing, and management—the problem is to ensure that they are paid for the time and effort they put in to create the intangible intellectual-property products we enjoy
To the entertainment industry, to publishers and software companies, the problem is to protect their investment and expected, or hoped-for, revenues
To the millions who post amateur works using the works of others, the problem is to continue to create without unreasonably burdensome requirements and threats of lawsuits
To scholars and various advocates, the problem is how to protect intellectual property, but also to protect fair use, reasonable public access
4.1.4 The Fair Use Doctrine
The law identifies possible fair uses, such as “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.
Court decisions about copyright must be consistent with the First Amendment
Copyright law and court decisions attempt to define the rights of authors and publishers consistent with two goals:
i) Promoting production of useful work
ii) Encouraging the use and flow of information
Law scholars say that results of fair use cases are often notoriously difficult to predict
4.1.3 A Bit of History
For most of the 20th century, the intellectual property industries drafted laws heavily weighted toward protecting their assets
In 1992, making a small number of copies of copyrighted work “willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private gain” became a felony
In 1982, high-volume copying of records and movies became a felony
The first U.S. copyright law, passed in 1790, covered books, maps, and charts. It protected them for 14 years.
In 1976 and 1980, Congress revised copyright law to cover software. “Literary works” protected by copyright include computer databases that exhibit creativity or originality 9 and computer programs that exhibit “authorship,”
In the 1990s, cybercitizens and organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation joined librarians and others to fight what they view as overly restrictive copyright law
4.1.5 Ethical Arguments About Copying
"Making a copy for a friend is just an act of generosity"
Philosopher Helen Nissenbaum argued that someone who copies software for a friend has a countervailing claim against the programmer’s right to prohibit making the copy: the “freedom to pursue the virtue of generosity"
"The company is a large, wealthy corporation"
The size and success of the company do not justify taking from it. Programmers, writers, and performing artists lose income too when copying is common
"I wouldn’t buy it at the retail price (or pay the required fee) anyway. The company is not really losing a sale or losing revenue"
The person is taking something of value without paying for it, even if the value to that person is less than the price the copyright owner would charge
"This violation is insignificant compared to the billions of dollars lost to piracy by
dishonest people making big profits"
Yes, large-scale commercial piracy is worse. That does not imply that individual copying is ethical. And, if the practice is widespread, the losses become significant
"I cannot afford to buy the software or movie or pay the royalty for use of a song in my video"
There are many things we cannot afford. Not being able to afford something
does not justify taking it
"Everyone does it. You would be foolish not to"
The number of people doing something does not determine whether it is right. A large number of people in one peer group could share similar incentives and experience (or lack thereof ) that affect their point of view
"I’m posting this video (or segment of a TV program) as a public service"
If the public service is entertainment (a gift to the public), the observations above about copying as a form of generosity are relevant here
"I want to use a song or video clip in my video, but I have no idea how to get permission"
This is a better argument than many others. Technology has outrun the business mechanisms for easily making agreements
4.1.6 Significant Legal Cases
The fair use doctrine is important for different contexts
i) It helps us figure out under what circumstances we as consumers can legally copy music, movies, software, and so on
ii) Developers of new software, recording devices, game players, and other products often must copy some or all of another company’s software as part of the process of developing the new product
Some of the cases also involve the degree of legal responsibility a company has for copyright violations by users of its products or services
i) Sony vs. Universal City Studios (1984)
ii) More file sharing: MGM v. Grokster
4.4 Free Software
4.4.1 What Is Free Software?
The free in free software means freedom, not necessarily lack of cost, though often there is no charge
Free software enthusiasts advocate allowing unrestricted copying of programs and making the source code (the human-readable form of a program) available to everyone
Software distributed or made public in source code is open source, and the open source movement is closely related to the free software movement
Free software is an idea, an ethic, advocated and supported by a large loose-knit group of computer programmers who allow and encourage people to copy, use, and modify their software
4.4.2 Should All Software Be Free?
For those who oppose copyright and proprietary software completely, the concept of copyleft and the GNU Public License provide an excellent device for protecting the freedom of free software within the current legal framework
For those who believe there are important roles for both free and proprietary software, they are an excellent device with which the two paradigms can coexist