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Copyright,
Intellectual Property and Open Source
Copyright
is one of the few controversies surrounding the use of the
Internet that is explicitly mentioned in the U.S.
Constitution. However, the digital age is making the concept
of copyright increasingly problematic. As some people have
pointed out, the Internet can be viewed as a giant copying
machine, compromising the very concept of copyright. The new
surge in interest in technologies like MP3s, for copying and
distributing music, or even newer technologies for copying
and distributing video, are worrisome to some copyright
holders, while their use is rampant among some Internet
users, particularly teenagers and college-age people. It is
said that "MP3" is now the most commonly used Internet
search term, having surpassed "sex."
In
1998 Congress passed a new Digital Millennium Copyright Act
that helped clear up some controversies, but which created
others. A great deal of controversy was left to others to
sort out, such as the future of "fair use." At the same
time, new technologies are emerging every day that even make
the powers of the new legislation uncertain.
Over the past
few years, a new concept of software has emerged, called "Open Source." This new concept of how software is developed and protected has taken
the computing world by storm, chiefly through the spread of the popular
operating system Linux. We'll take a look at the impact of this new phenomenon
on the software industry and on the role of copyright.
Readings:
Lessig, Chapter
10
Copyright
Basics, U.S. Government Copyright Office, at http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html.
"Why
Software Should Not Have Owners," by Richard Stallman, at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html.
"The
Concept of Copyright Fights for Internet Survival," by John Markoff, The New York Times, May 10, 2000, at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/biztech/articles/10digital.html.
"A
Summary of S.2037, The Digital Millenium Copyright Act," prepared by
the The UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy at http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm.
"Time
to Rewrite the DMCA," by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), in CNet's News.com,
at http://news.com.com/2010-1078-825335.html.
"Unintended Consequences: Seven Years under the DMCA," by
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, at http://www.eff.org/wp/unintended-consequences-seven-years-under-dmca.
Summary
of the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act, by the Congressional
Research Service, at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR00107:@@@D&summ2=m&.
"Justice
Department Wants New Anti-Piracy Powers," by Declan McCullagh, CNet
News.com, October 12, 2004, at http://news.com.com/Justice+Dept.+wants+new+antipiracy+powers/2100-1028_3-5406654.html.
"Supreme
Court to Hear P2P Case," by John Borland, CNet News.com, December
10, 2004, at http://news.com.com/Supreme+Court+to+hear+P2P+case/2100-1027_3-5487491.html?tag=nl.
Scan the
Web site and links on the Web site of the Recording Industry Association
of America, at http://www.riaa.com/.
"What
is Free Software?" prepared by the Free Software
Foundation, at
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.
"The
Open Source Definition," prepared by the Open Source Initiative, at
http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.html.
"What
is Linux?" at
http://www.linux.org/info/index.html.
Why
Open Source Free Software? Look at the Numbers, by David Wheeler,
at http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html
"The
Linux Marketplace: From Niche to Mainstream," by IDC, December
2004, at http://www.osdl.org/docs/linux_market_overview.pdf.
(PDF document requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or other PDF-compatible
file reading program.)
Further
optional reading:
Who
Owns Information?: From Privacy to Public Access,
by Anne Wells Branscomb, Basic Books, 1995.
The
Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the
Information Age, National Research Council,
February 2000.
Owning
the Future, by Seth Shulman, Houghton-Mifflin,
1999.
Intellectual
Property in the Age of Universal Access, Pamela
Sameulson, Peter G. Neumann (eds.), Association for
Computing Machinery, 1999.
The
Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open
Source by an Accidental Revolutionary, by Eric S.
Raymond, O'Reilly and Associates, 1999.
Free For
All: How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut
the High-Tech Titans, by Peter Wayner, Harper
Business, 2000.
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