IT 6643 Lab 3 – Copyright and the Law

 

 

1.    Find an article on copyright dealing with internet/web issues.  Give your 1-2 paragraph synopsis of the article.

 

1.1)     This article came from the Galileo business source complete database.  The title of the scholarly article is “The Yin and Yang of Copyright and Technology”.  Within this document you can find out that there is pressure from technology and Internet service providers stressing on the United States copyright law.  New technology today must ask the question that whether it might be liable for inducing copyright infringement.   Copyright holders reserve the right to make copies of their work; however, new technology rarely asks permission to make copies and there have been several clashes. “Technology has changed the integrity associated with distributing copies of copyrighted works by making copying easy and worldwide distribution instantaneous” (Picker).

            Congress passed the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008; this act is also known as the PRO IP Act.  This act gave the federal government the power to seize Internet domain names that had allegedly infringing behavior being conducted.  On February 1, 2011 the government seized the website rojadirecta.com that streamed soccer games.  The website was infringing upon broadcast stations that were not receiving their viewing ratings. 

Picker, Randal C. "The Yin And Yang Of Copyright And Technology."Communications Of The ACM 55.1 (2012): 30-32. Business Source Complete. Web. 17 Feb. 2013. < http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=3&sid=07a2c495-6025-4acb-b041-7f83c4ac9c78%40sessionmgr114&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=71677733>.

 

2.    Find an article on the new copyright bill (either the Digital Millennium Act or the Teach Act).  Give a 1 page synopsis of how you think this bill might change copyright issues on the web

 

2.1)     This article is about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  In 1998, the United States government signed into law the DMCA; the Act is a Public Law 105-304, passed by the 105th Congress.  The DMCA Law implements the two 1996 WIPO treatises: (1) the WIPO Copyright Treaty and (2) the WIPO Performances and Phonogram Treaty (Stamatellos).  The DMCA poses a number of central copyright issues related to computer technology and information systems.

            The appropriate vehicle to control software intellectual property protection may not be to copyright it.  The nature of the computer program and what new services the program can bring to the people should be copyrighted.  The bill can warn off potential threats by following the safe harbor jurisprudence of the law.

            When an adversary is being convicted of breaking the DMCA law, the person pressing charges must not have actual knowledge of the infringement on a specific case.  The charger must not receive a financial benefit from the infringing activity.  The party pressing charges must not edit or otherwise control the content of the material submitted by the public to the website.  The charging party must advise the Copyright Office and users in writing of the appropriate contact agent to receive notice from the copyright holders of claimed infringement with a take down notice.  Next, the plaintiff is to remove the infringement material and post on the site with a notice indicating that it will terminate the access of repeat infringers and comply with such policy. 

If and only if the charging party followed the safe harbor then they are protected and in the right to press charges to adversaries that are guilty of infringement.  The DMCA law will only protect website domains, but this is the wrong law for software protection.

Robins, Martin B. "A Good Idea At The Time: Recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act § 512(C) Safe Harbor Jurisprudence--Analysis And Critique Of Current Applications And Implications." Tulane Journal Of Technology & Intellectual Property 15.(2012): 1-29.Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Feb. 2013. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a3fe8153-bb23-4929-a1b5-4c435f02d62b%40sessionmgr10&vid=4&hid=8>.

 

Stamatellos, Giannis. "Intellectual Property." Computer Ethics: A Global Perspective. Sudbury, MA: BOSTON, 2007. 44. Print.

 

3.    After reading Chapter 7, 8 and 9, write a ½ page synopsis of EACH chapter.

 

3.1)     Chapter seven involves examining crimes in cybertechnology.  The typical cybercriminal is that of a hacker that has an intent to destroy data with malicious activities.  Cybercriminals are known to possess the same skills as that of an expert computer scientist; however, the malicious hacker does not possess outstanding skills but are knowledgeable in using computer tools to destroy data. 

            There are hackers that crack code for a justifiable cause to catch criminal and help out companies, they are the white hat hackers.  Hacking can be creditable if there is something good to come of it.  The hacking criminal is the one who can unleash a program to disrupt transmissions of data across a network.  The Conficker virus was started by a cybercriminal.  Cybercrimes are specific to privacy, trespassing, and vandalism.  Cyber-related crimes can be exacerbated by cyberstalking and internet pornography.  The criminal can be assisted in a cybercrime by online tax fraud.

 

3.2)     Chapter eight describes the criminal aspects of software piracy and gives an in depth perspective of intellectual property.  There are copyright laws, patents, trademarks, and secrets that protect digital media by protecting intellectual property dealing with software production.  A patent is a great vehicle to protect intellectual property and protects an invention or process.  A patent can protect intellectual property for up to 20 years. 

            A trademark is a word, name, phrase, or symbol that identifies a company’s product and services.  A trade secret is considered highly valuable for a company.  A trade secret is used to protect Coca-Cola’s formula for the soft drink.  Coca-Cola’s formula will remain protected as long as the formula remains a secret.  The DMCA law protects websites from being infringed by adversaries and keeps peer to peer network sharing off the internet. 

 

3.3)     Chapter nine gets more in depth of crimes involving cybertechnology such as spam, child pornography, and sexting.  This chapter involves regulating commerce and speech in cyberspace.  The main question to be answered was, “Can cyberspace be regulated?”  Cyberspace should be regulated to protect intellectual property learned from chapter seven, and catch cybercriminals learned from chapter eight.

            Digital rights management (DRM) can be used to enforce copyright law.  The digital rights helped protect the music industry by enforcing penalties for illegal copying of music.  The CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) was ruled in favor of the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2003 that protected children in school and library settings from viewing pornography. 

 

4.  After reading the Links for chapters 7, 8 and 9, write a ½ page synopsis of EACH link.

 

4.1)     This article is titled, “Straight Talk About Cyberstalking” and will go into detail about important facts that chapter seven in the textbook left out.  Cyberstalking includes taking action in false accusations, monitoring, threats, identity theft, and data manipulation and data destruction.  Then, there are several ways to prevent cyberstalking. Teach your children about cyberstalking by not providing their personal information online.  Keep watch over your computer and do not let others on your profile, also be sure to always log off.  Maintain good passwords that are not guessable and not related to your life.  Do research to see if anyone has leaked information about you or your family online.  Do not list events you plan to attend online to avoid stalkers following you in the world.  If you are being cyber stalked, report it and keep a copy of the text for proof.

 

4.1.1)  The second link for chapter seven is a Wikipedia ling defining computer crime.  Computer crime is any crime that involves a computer and a network.  Netcrime is a term that refers to criminal exploitation of the Internet.  Wikipedia stated that both governmental and non-state actors are involved in cybercrimes.  A cybercriminal may act in spamming, also coined as sending bulk email for commercial purposes.  To commit computer fraud, one would act in any dishonest misrepresentation intended to let another to refrain from creating malicious acts that causes a loss.  Harassment is a vehicle for cybercrime and is compiled of cyber bullying, stalking, hate crime, and online predators.  The cybercrime can occur in chat rooms, news groups and sending a hate e-mail to an interested party.

 

4.2)     The first link for chapter eight is titled “General Information Concerning Patents”.  A patent is held by the United States and Patent Trademark Office that can protect an individual’s intellectual property through documenting how an invention was created.  The patent can be held for up to 20 years, which is much longer than a copyright.  There are utility patents that can be granted to anyone who invents or discovers a new useful product for manufacture.  There are several rules for starting a patent.  One is that the invention must not have been known or sold to anyone for a year.  To apply for a patent, one must provide written documentation which comprises a description and claim for the invention.  There are to be drawings that illustrate how the invention looks if necessary.  The oath is to declare that there was no knowledge of any outside source for up to a year concerning the documented patent.   Then, the inventor is to pay fees for searching and examining if there are any patents that already exist on their invention. 

4.2.1)  The second link for chapter eight is titled “10 Big Myths about copyright explained”.  The myths are assuming that the reader knows at least what a copyright is and the article is not an essay.  Every one of the myths are false, this is why they are labeled myths.  The myth about if something doesn’t have a copyright notice then it is not copyrighted is a misinterpretation.  If someone types or writes something then it is automatically copyrighted.  If someone steals and reprints copyrighted information but doesn’t charge for the copies then it is still illegal.  If the intent of the posting was just fair use, it can still infringe upon copyright laws if the posting was quoted directly and no credit was given.  Copyright is effectively never lost and will not be lost if somebody doesn’t defend it.  You cannot use somebody’s trademark in a way that would devalue their mark or increase value for you.  If you create a new idea based from some other people’s ideas then it is not entirely your belongings.  Copyright law is mostly a civil law and can be sued for violating it.  Copyright violation is a crime and can be set in criminal law if there is a value lost over $2,500 it is a felony.

 

 

4.3)     The first link for chapter nine is a Wikipedia post defining digital rights management (DRM).  Digital rights management is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content and devices after sale.  DRM was used to help prevent piracy of music and stop illegal downloads because the music industry was not receiving profits for shared music.  DRM technologies attempt to give the original seller control of distributing the devices to the consumer.  The way DRM does this is by using some techniques.  The DRM techniques include: Restrictive Licensing Agreements and Encryption.  Encryption is set by scrambling the expressive material and embedding a tag.  This technology is designed to also control access and reproduction of online data.  The restrictive licensing agreements include access to digital materials where copyright and public domains are controlled.  The main intent of DRM is to prevent unauthorized copies being produced can lead to an increase in piracy.  When the DRM restrictions set privileges to legal buyers and hide some content unless more money is forked over can provoke a pirate to crack the DRM to use the digital media for its full potential instead of paying more money for a product they just bought. 

4.3.1)  The second link for chapter nine is from a Harvard Law Review and titled, “Developments in the Law – The Law of Cyberspace”.  The review reveals concepts concerning the realist, representational, postmodern conception and personal jurisdiction concerning the Internet.  States are seeking to regulate the Internet are relying on realist assumptions of the Internet.  The realist want to control the territorial aspect of the Internet by keeping USA made hardware and software from being accessible from surrounding countries.  Then the realist wants to rely on an effects principle of applying their domestic laws to out of state Internet activity for controlling the Internet. 

            The representational concept is that government officials have relied on the representational conception’s assumptions to support Internet regulations.  The postmodern conception combines several views about the dispersion of authority to control the Internet.  The post moderns want to lean the Internet toward a form of democratic government control.  The main scope of all parties for a source of control is to define personal jurisdiction.

            Personal jurisdiction and the Internet is a primary source of confusion for courts’ assessing the scope of all parties.  The courts attempt to connect jurisdiction to a state’s territorial authority has divided courts over the proper interpretation of personal jurisdiction.  The states may never be able to control the Internet because personal jurisdiction is difficult to pair with a scope.

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