Intellectual Property Rights Overview |
What is new, where are related resources, etc.
Version 0.0: June 4, 1997
Introduction
Does the nature of the technology require us to change the legal understanding or status of copyright as it stands now? What rights should be associated with Web content? How should the rights be expressed, and should the expression of the rights be used for notification, enforcement, or payment negotiation? We expect the answer to these questions does not lie solely in technology nor policy, but the rational combination of both.
The W3C Intellectual Property Rights Activity Page describes how the W3C is addressing these questions.
Drafts, White-papers, and Presentations
- draft-reagle-pics-copyright-00.txt demonstrates the use of the PICS protocol as a mechanism for expressing intellectual property rights.
- A position paper on Intellectual Property Rights Management for a NRC/CSTB/Trustworthiness Panel.
In the News
Intellectual property rights (IPR) and the Web are newsworthy topics, such stories from 1996 include:
- Proposals from many countries (EU and US) on IPR reform in the context of digital networks are hotly contested.
- Content companies fear new technologies will result in lost revenue, and technology companies fear IPR reform proposals will cripple the Net. "Online giants accused of copyright scaremongering," GENEVA (Reuter), Tuesday, 12/17/96.
- National representatives from all over the world met in December of 1996 at a WIPO conference to update the international framework for the protection of music, literary works, and databases.
- A number of significant lawsuits have been filed against users and ISPs on the basis of contributory infringement (where an ISP allows its users to publish pirated software, serial numbers, and cracking utilities, or even links to other sites with such material!)
- Cases of newspapers suing others that link to them, or news services that link to others while keeping their own banner-laden frames on the screen are pressing our understanding of the technology and the related policy beyond the scope of what their originators' conceived.
IPR Products/Projects
IDDN - Inter Deposit Digital Number
IPR Issues and Resources
Copyright Infringement
Issues |
Copyright has been the focus of protecting intellectual property on the Internet. As such, there have been both technological (IPR/encryption wrappers) and legislative efforts to continue incentives for authors to create useful works. Recent initiatives have been at the international level include at the OECD, and a conference (Dec. 96) hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). |
Resources |
Basics of Copyright Copyright Resource Page INTERNATIONAL LAW Government Agencies The EU Green Paper in IPR EFG Intellectual Property Page Cryptolopes Liability Based on Traditional Forum Analogy Intellectual Property Implications of WTO and NAFTA Online Service Operator and Provider Liability for Contributory Infringement Is Still Uncertain |
Link Liability (Contributory Copyright Infringement)
Issues |
Contributory infringement (and the consequential liability) is one of the most contentious areas of the copyright debate. For instance, is an ISP liable for contributory infringement when it allows its users to link to hacker sites? If an ISP closed a user's account when informed by an IP owner, would the ISP be liable for the violation of civil rights or breach of contract? |
Resources |
Ausweb97-Culture-Trapping
the Web. Battle Sites: Online Service Operator and Provider Liability for Contributory Infringement Is Still Uncertain Computer Information Systems Law and System Operator Liability in 1995 War in the Shetlands! - Internet Style (Shetland News and. Shetland Times) Christian Science Monitor Op-Ed on Links (Shetland News and Shetland Times) The Shetland News Appeal on Links and Copyright and Shetland Times Statement on Links and Copyright (Shetland News and Shetland Times) 'Hot Link' Lawsuit Worries High-Tech Industry (Ticketmaster and Microsoft) CNNfn - Titans battle over content (Ticketmaster and Microsoft) Para-Site Draws Ire, Suit from News Giants (CNN, Dow Jones, Time Warner, Times-Mirror, The Washington Post Company, Reuters and TotalNEWS) Media, sue thyself (CNN and TotalNEWS) SPA Files Copyright Suits Against ISPs and End Users Lawsuit Dropped: SPA Still Demands Monitoring |
Domain Name Registration (Trademarks)
Issues |
The issuance of trade marks was not conceived of in the context of a global view. Hence, a number of recent controversies have occurred with respect to large trademark holders pursuing smaller pre-existing "ma & pa" sites. Also, some companies have purchased domain names related to competitor's names in order to make it more difficult for the competitor to enter the online market. Others are purchasing domain names for their resale value (stockpiling). |
Resources |
InterNIC is not a Net cop
Trademarks and DNS Domain Name Legal Bibliography Remedies in Internet Domain Name Trademark Lawsuits |
Font Protection
Issues |
Owners of fonts want to distribute them for different purposes at different prices. They fear that freely distributing fonts for reading documents might allow people to author documents without paying for additional rights such as redistribution. Neither a purely legal nor purely technical solution is likely to be successful. |
Resources |
Are
Fonts Copyrightable - Copyright FAQ Font Discussion and Protecting Embedded Fonts OpenType Initiative The Font Meeting at W5, Paris |
Caching
Issues |
Bandwidth on the network is limited, and continues to be so. The traditional technical solution , caching, is to allow copies to be saved at distributed points throughout the network. However, caching raises two issues. First, cached copies can be out of date yet still contain information which is time sensitive (such as prices or stock quotes). Second, some Web sites derive revenue based on the amount and kind of access to their servers, and they currently have no verifiable way of counting the number of accesses to their documents cached elsewhere on the network. |
Resources |
CACHING ON THE INTERNET |
reagle
4 June 1997 (Touched 12/15/97, no substantive changes.)