Chapter 4 Intellectual Property

What is Intellectual Property The intangible creative work Value of intelligence and artistic work comes from creativity, ideas, research, skills, labor, non-material efforts and attributes that the creator provides Protected by copyright and patent law

Copyrights Copyright holders have exclusive rights:  To make copies  To produce derivative works, such as translations into other languages or movies based on books  To distribute copies  To perform the work in public (e.g. music, plays)  To display the work in public (e.g. artwork, movies, computer games, video on a Web site)

Changing Technology Digital technology and the Internet has made copyright infringement easier and cheaper New compression technologies have made copying large files (e.g. graphics, video and audio files) feasible New tools allow us to modify graphics, video and audio files to make derivative works Scanners allow us to change the media of a copyrighted work, converting printed text, photos, and artwork to electronic form

Significant Cases first copyright law passed Copyright Act of defined an unauthorized copy as a form that could be seen and read visually 1976 and copyright law revised to include software and databases (“Fair Use” was defined) high-volume copying became a felony making multiple copies for commercial advantage and private gain became a felony

Significant Cases No Electronic Theft Act - made it a felony to willfully infringe copyright by reproducing or distributing one or more copies of copyrighted work with a total value of more than $1,000 within a six-month period Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) - prohibits making, distributing or using tools to circumvent technological copyright protection systems; and included protection from some copyright lawsuits for Web sites where users post material Congress made it a felony to record a movie in a movie theater

Fair Use Doctrine Under some circumstances, it is legal to reproduce a copyrighted work without the permission of the copyright holder. Allows for use of copyrighted material that contributes to the creation of new work & uses that are not likely to deprive authors or publishers of income for their work

Fair Use Doctrine 4 Factors: 1.What is the purpose and character of the use? 2.What is the nature of the work being copied? 3.How much of the copyrighted work is being used? 4.How will this use affect the market for the copyrighted work? (this one generally is given more weight)

Significant Cases Sony v. Universal Studios Kinko’s Sega v. Accolade Atari v. Nintendo copies of CD made ok

Significant Cases Davy Jones Locker David LaMacchia Sony v. Connectix Corp Napster MGM v. Grokster

Napster Was the sharing of music via Napster fair use? Napster's arguments for fair use  The Sony decision allowed for entertainment use to be considered fair use  Did not hurt industry sales because users sampled the music on Napster and bought the CD if they liked it  The songs weren’t copied for commercial use RIAA's (Recording Industry Association of America) arguments against fair use  "Personal" meant very limited use, not trading with thousands of strangers  It wasn’t being used for educational, research, or news use  Songs and music are creative works and users were copying whole songs  Claimed Napster severely hurt sales

Napster Should Napster be responsible for copyright infringement?  Napster had legitimate uses in promoting new bands & artists who were willing to let users copy their songs  Napster did not keep copies of songs on its computers  It provided a means for users to infringe copyrights (like Betamax)  Courts said Napster was liable because it had the right & the ability to supervise its systems - in 2001, they ruled that Napster “knowingly encourages & assists in the infringement of copyrights”

Ethical Arguments About Copying Can’t afford to buy it The company is large, wealthy Wouldn’t buy it at retail price anyway so the company is not losing money Making a copy for a friend is an act of generosity This is a small violation compared to those who engage in large piracy outfits Everyone does it – you’d be foolish not to I don’t know how to get permission to use a song or video clip I’m posting this video as a public service

Protecting Software Expiration date encoded into the program Hardware dongle Copy protection on disks Activation or registration BSA

International Piracy Stolen Software: Piracy Hits More than Movies and Music Stolen Software: Piracy Hits More than Movies and Music PCMag.com article dated Jan 25, 2012 about piracy after all the news of SOPA & PIPA in January, and the take-down of MegaUpload Countries with lowest & highest rates in 2010: 20% U.S. 93% Georgia 20% Japan 91% Zimbabwe 20% Luxembourg90% Bangladesh 22% New Zealand90% Moldova 24% Australia90% Yemen 24% Austria89% Armenia 25% Sweden88% Venezuela 25% Belgium88% Belarus 25% Finland88% Libya 26% Switzerland88% Azerbaijan

International Piracy … so, even among the countries with the lowest piracy rates, 1/5 th to 1/4 th of all software is pirated. And these percentages don’t tell the story of which countries are responsible for the highest total dollar amount of pirated software: U.S. $9.5 billion China$7.8 billion Russia$2.8 billion India$2.7 billion Brazil$2.6 billion France$2.6 billion Germany$2.1 billion Italy$1.9 billion U.K.$1.8 billion Japan$1.6 billion

Threats to Innovation CD writers DVRs DVD players iPod Should we ban or restrict software, technology, a device, or research because it has the potential for illegal use, or should we ban only the illegal uses?

Criticisms of DRM Prevents or threatens fair uses Prevents or threatens use of material in the public domain Different types on different platforms Does it even work?

DMCA vs Fair Use, Freedom of Speech, & Innovation After DMCA, courts are less likely to protect technologies that have significant, legitimate, non-fringing uses

Video Sharing What are the responsibilities of sites on which people post videos? Safe-harbor provisions have resulted in putting the burden on copyright holders to find the infringing items and send take- down notices.

Search Engines Individuals and companies have sued Google for almost every search service it provides.

Types of Software Distribution Free software, open source  Copy-left  A few examples: Linux, Apache, MySQL, FireFox, Skype Freeware Shareware Proprietary software, commercial software