Intellectual Property in the Information Age
The Role of NSF. The National Science Foundation has commissioned
a report on the complexity of intellectual property (IP) with regard
to digital technology. Even though advances in information technology
get significant credit for the continued record expansion of the U.S.
economy, concerns over copyrights, patents and trademarks keep computers
and the Internet from reaching their full potential. What does it mean
to "own" information that any consumer can duplicate at practically no
cost? What if any user can with a keystroke make that duplicated information
available worldwide?
Reporting on "The Digital Dilemma." NSF provided about $500,000
to the National Academy of Sciences for a study by its Committee on Intellectual
Property Rights and the Emerging Information Infrastructure. The committee's Digital
Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age, now published
in book form, identifies pressing issues and recommends policies for
dealing with them. The committee's chair, Randall Davis, is a professor
of computer science at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. He
says that information infrastructure has the potential to be a "vast
leveler," providing new accessibility for millions of users. But he also
points out that this same technology can be a "stratifier," deepening
the divide between information "haves and have-nots."
Issues and Recommendations. The challenge facing the committee
was to protect IP but not jeopardize the "digital dividend," the societal
benefit derived from information technology. For instance, copyright
laws have held that authors and publishers cannot control an individual
copy of any work once that copy has been sold. Consumers can lend, rent
or resell purchased items thanks to this law, without which libraries
and used-book stores might not exist. The committee recommends that a
similar law be written to preserve rights for creators of digital property,
while ensuring public access.
The committee recommends that the entire concept of "publication" be
reevaluated and, if necessary, completely redefined. In the past, publication
meant that a fixed copy of any work had been made irrevocably public.
But that definition doesn't work on the Internet, where files can be
modified repeatedly without a trace, with access permitted for perhaps
only a segment of the public.
The report calls for research into the concept of "copying" as it varies
between communities. It also calls on policy makers not to focus only
on the latest copying devices - which are continually changing - but
to identify the underlying issues and broader implications.
"Public compliance with intellectual property law requires a high degree
of simplicity, clarity, straightforwardness and comprehensibility for
all aspects of copyright law that deal with individual behavior," the
committee writes. "New or revised IP laws should be drafted accordingly."
Making Policy Amidst Rapid Technological Change. With so many
IP questions still unanswered, the committee recommended that legislators
go slowly regarding changes to IP law. Because information often resides
on media with short lifetimes, the committee is asking Congress to pass
legislation that would permit permanent copying of digital information
for preservation and archival purposes.
The committee identified the following current methods of protecting
digital information:
- Encryption
- Digital Signatures
- Watermarking (an embedded signal that can be used to assert ownership)
- Time Stamps and Labels
- Cryptographic Envelopes (special hardware to make copying more difficult)
- Superdistribution (special rules for the resale of digital works)
Noting that such technologies are deployed and sometimes discarded "with
lightning speed," they suggest that decision makers monitor the evolution
to inform their future policy decisions. Apart from proposing minor changes
to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, the committee argues
for letting the marketplace work with minimal intrusion.
For more information, see: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309064996/html
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