1. Impact of Computers on Society 6B. Intellectual Property

2. 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

3. 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

4. Possible Solutions to the Problem  Technology  Market Forces  Laws

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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?

14. Some Miscellaneous Issues  More free speech  Free software  Copyleft  Software patents and copyrights

15. 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 Pepsi.orgPepsi.net

16. 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

17. 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?

18. Free Software  Freeware, shareware, trial copies  Richard Stallman (1983) – Gnu, Emacs editor  Linus Torvald (1991) – Linux Apache Server  Red Hat Linux  SourceForge.net SourceForge.net

19. Copyleft  No subsequent modification can be used by someone else for profit  America Online purchased Netscape and later gave the code to the Mozilla ProjectMozilla Project  Be sure to read “about” Mozillaabout

20. Can software be patented?  Patent generally refers to physical devices or processes  Copyright refers to the expression of ideas  Some overlap

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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