Impact of Computers on Society 6B. Intellectual Property.

Impact of Computers on Society6B. Intellectual Property

Review: Fair Use Four guidelines for fair use

The nature of the work – fact or creative The amount used Not intended for personal gain Impact of use on marketability of the original

Software “contracts” You don’t buy it, you “license” it – not universally accepted

Is software like a book? Or is it the license of intellectual property?

Shrink-wrap agreements – by opening the package… Installation “I accept” or “I agree” check-offs Some of the provisions may not be applicable in all states One-sided – the consumer has no way to negotiate a better

deal Digital protection schemes often prevent recognized fair use

as well as illegal use The Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits

circumventing protection schemes

Possible Solutions to the Problem Technology

Market Forces

Laws

Technology The “dongle” Copy protection

Affects fair use Activation schemes

Sometimes your computer S/N is sent back to the software company to prevent installation on multiple machines

Hood’s VAX system grinds to a halt Preview copies that can be activated online for a fee Paying for critical updates – anti-virus software

Market Forces Trade groups set fees for use

For example Apple’s iTunes Fees negotiated by large organizations

For example, journals in the Hood Library Academic and other discount pricing schemes

MS Money was “free” along with the purchase of TaxCut

Discounts to large users

Laws and Enforcement An ongoing battle – laws cannot keep up with rapid

changes in technology Enforcement is expensive Every copy is an exact copy A balancing act, trying not to irritate the customers

too much Raids on businesses using illegal copies of software

Whistleblowers Law enforcement agencies Courts

Further Enforcement Perhaps impose fees or special taxes on

manufacturers of equipment that could be used to break copyright? This penalizes the law abiding user

Require manufacturers to incorporate copy protection into their equipment This also penalizes the law abiding user in the

form of increased cost

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Prohibits making tools to circumvent

copyright protection schemes

Immediately challenged Recall Zimmerman’s PGP and the Bernstein case

– freedom of speech

A Challenge to DMCA Eric Corley’s DeCSS

Cracked a wimpy scheme for protecting videos, the “Content Scrambling System” (CSS)

Difficult to distinguish between computer code and protected artistic expression

A freedom of speech case? Or a “digital crowbar”? This case produced conflicting court rulings

Another Challenge to DCMA Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)

challenged researchers to break the protection scheme

Researchers quickly found flaws Edward Felton of Princeton U threatened with

a lawsuit if he published a paper detailing the findings A chilling effect on research The government and industry backed down

Yet Another Challenge to DMCA Dmitry Sklyarov

Authored a program that cracked Adobe control software in electronic books

Arrested when he entered the US for a conference Returned home but company still being sued

What Do You Think? Should software that can be misused be

banned? If so, how do you maintain freedom of speech?

Should such software be allowed? If so, how would you insure compensation for the

loss of intellectual property?

Some Miscellaneous Issues More free speech

Free software

Copyleft

Software patents and copyrights

More Free Speech Can domain names be copyrighted? Critical names

Whitehouse.gov Whitehouse.com Whitehouse.org Whitehouse.edu Whitehouse.net

Domain name “camping” Names that contain commercial trademarks

Pepsi.com Pepsi.org Pepsi.net

Still More Free Speech Church of Scientology sues to for removal of

documents from the Web (1995 – 1996) Not for commercial use, but was it “fair use”? Attempt to prevent a critic of the church from

posting to a BBS “Sue the deepest pocket” strategy

Free Speech: What would you do? Hood students post a negative review of a

website in partial fulfillment of a Web design course A detailed list of shortcomings Some site material was quoted Hood pages were indexed by Google Owner of site complained that the Hood

comments would hurt his business. What would you do?

Free Software Freeware, shareware, trial copies Richard Stallman (1983) – Gnu, Emacs editor Linus Torvald (1991) – Linux

Apache Server Red Hat Linux SourceForge.net

Copyleft No subsequent modification can be used by

someone else for profit America Online purchased Netscape and later

gave the code to the Mozilla Project Be sure to read “about” Mozilla

Can software be patented? Patent generally refers to physical devices or

processes Copyright refers to the expression of ideas Some overlap

Supreme Court Not entirely clear Software is an abstraction, not a physical item

(1972) US Patent Office issues some patents (1980’s

and 90’s) Patent granted to a Y2K solution that was

trivial Challenged in court

How do you evaluate the novelty of software? Computer Associates, Intl. versus Atari

(1992) Identify the purpose of the program

Not as easy as it may seem Remove “public domain” components

Common practices in similar software Examine what remains

An Example: Look and Feel Lotus 123 versus Borland Quattro

Can you copyright or patent the idea of rows and columns? Apple versus Microsoft

Can you implement a window any other way? The idea did not originate with Apple

Some things simply cannot be done any other way

Compatibility and standardization are important in the marketplace Many menus have similar structure Some provide “help” for (hopefully) former users of a competitor’s

software