Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property Issues and Concerns

Bytes and bits, 1's and 0's. The digital lifestyle is becoming ever more present in everyone's lives, especially youthful students. All of us born before the digital revolution are trying to play catch-up to what comes naturally to younger generations. This brings to light the increasing importance of understanding the capabilities and limitations of computer hardware, software, and networking. From Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to Microsoft's new Smart Phone, life's tasks have become easier and more convenient for those who have the money to purchase these new gadgets. The price for the academician takes a more costly form, because they must find new ways to stem the increasing tide of cheating.

Unethical entrepreneurs, searching for new ways to exploit students, have begun to sell theses, book reports, and just about any other academic paper that a student might need online. It doesn't stop here either. Many students are using the fast bandwidth connections provided by their academic institutions for illegal file-sharing. These students are using free software provided by Grokster, Kazaa, and Morpheus in order to trade copyrighted music and movie files. The ability to copy compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs) has become almost common knowledge among most students, and the perfect copies they can make are easily shared with others over peer-to-peer networks, e-mail, or instant messaging software.

Unfortunately, for the bulk of us who do not condone or participate in illegal file-sharing, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Industry Association of America (MPAA) have increased lobbying efforts in Congress to combat piracy on the Internet. This has increased the efforts of lawmakers such as Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC), to introduce new legislation. The "Consumer Broadband & Digital Television Promotion Act" is a bill that would provide copyright protection mechanisms in pc’s, handhelds, cd players, and anything else that can play, record, or manipulate digital information. Senator Hollings has mentioned that the government might create and provide this new protection for the entertainment industries.

The RIAA and the MPAA are in favor of this new legislation because it gives them much more control over their products and a certain amount of power over the technology industry. However consumers have found allies in the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Digital Consumer.org organizations oppose these measures.

Rick Boucher (D - VA) and the Consumer Electronics Association are opposed to this proposed legislation because it infringes upon consumer's fair use. New types of copyright protected discs that are being created that cannot be played on computers or used to make copies of songs. If this bill passes, new standards used for digital copy-protection technology would be developed by the technology industry or government. Software companies, seeing the prospects of a new revenue stream, are jumping to create Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. The challenge is to find a way to control access to intellectual property so that these materials cannot be copied or distributed. These discs are already being distributed in Japan and Europe.

Companies such as Sony say they can’t guarantee music quality on these discs, and other companies like Apple, which makes the IPOD, and Sonicblue will suffer financially because of their investments into the portable MP3 player market.

Another negative side effect of the anticopying technology is that it prevents these discs from being played at all on some computer CD-ROM drives and DVD players that have been designed to play standard compact discs. The two web site, Boycott-riaa.com, has listings of which discs on the market have copy protection measures in place. If individuals bypass the protection technology, even for fair use, they’re breaking the law. If someone breaks the copyright protection so that she can play a CD or a DVD on a device or operating system that isn’t authorized by the publishing companies, then they would be considered a criminal. In 1999, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said consumers have a right to “space shift” music they owned.

The U.S.A. Patriot Act has given a vast amount of power to law enforcement and international intelligence agencies. At the same time, we have eliminated the stability that, up to this time, had given the courts the opportunity to ensure that these powers were not abused. Some of the problems that could ensue include:

• Opening student computer files without their permission;
• Reporting on the library books checked out by students and faculty;
• Collecting and analyzing e-mail data from around campus;
• Greater powers of surveillance but with limited checks and balances.