Intellectual Property and

Copy Right Law

Lecture Video Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X_ebcary0w&list=PLVEVLI2v6thWm7Ln3x_vpDA
Qy5HoHmERO&index=16
 Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property and Changing Technology

Copyright Law

Copying Music, Movies, Software, and Books

Solutions (Good and Bad)

Free-Speech Issues

Free Software

Issues for Software Developers

 Intellectual property

Intellectual property refers to the ownership of

an idea or design by the person who came up
with it. It is a term used in property law. It
gives a person certain exclusive rights to a
distinct type of creative design, meaning that
nobody else can copy or reuse that creation
without the owner's permission.
 Intellectual Property and
Changing Technology

What Is Intellectual Property?:

– Have you ever given a CD to a friend that contained a copy of a computer
game or a program?
– Have you ever recorded a televised movie to watch later in the week?
– Have you downloaded music or a movie from the Web without paying for it?
– Have you e-mailed a copy of an online newspaper or magazine article to a
dozen friends?
– Have you set up a Web site about your favorite band or actor, with short
videos from performances?
 Intellectual Property Types

Intellectual Property Is:

• Intangible creative work—not necessarily the physical form on
which it is stored or delivered.
• Given legal protection in the form of four intellectual property
types.
1. Copyright
2. Patent
3. Trademark
4. Trade secret laws.
 Intellectual Property Types
1. Copyright
A copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it,
usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a wide range of
creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works". Copyright does not
cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in
which they are expressed.
2. Patent
A patent is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor
or their successor-in-title, giving the owner the right to exclude others
from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing
an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public
disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific
technological problem, which may be a product or a process and
generally has to fulfill three main requirements: it has to be new, not
obvious and there needs to be an industrial applicability. To enrich
the body of knowledge and stimulate innovation, it is an obligation
for patent owners to disclose valuable information about their
inventions to the public
 Intellectual Property Types
3. Trademark
A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which
distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from similar
products or services of other traders
4. Trade secret
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design,
instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally
known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an
economic advantage over competitors and customers. There is no
formal government protection granted; each business must take
measures to guard its own trade secrets (e.g., Formula of its soft drinks
is a trade secret for Coca-Cola.)
 Intellectual Property and
Changing Technology
New Technologies That Affect Intellectual Property Owners
– Storage of all sorts of information (text, sound, graphics) in standard digitized
formats;
– High-volume, relatively inexpensive digital storage media, such as hard disks,
CD-ROMs, and DVDs (digital versatile disks, also called digital video disks);
– Character scanners and image scanners, which simplify converting printed
text, photos, and artwork to digitized electronic form;
– Compression formats, such as MP3 and DivX, that make music and movie
files small enough to download, copy, and store;
 Intellectual Property and
Changing Technology
New Technologies That Affect Intellectual Property Owners
– The ease of copying digitized material and the fact that each copy is a
“perfect” copy;
– The ease of distributing digitized material over computer networks;
– The World Wide Web, which makes it easy to find and download material;
– Peer-to-peer technology, which permits easy transfer of files by large
numbers of strangers over the Internet without any centralized system or
service.
 U.S. Copyright Law
New technologies require changes or clarifications in law.
The United States copyright law protects "original works of
authorship," fixed in a tangible medium including literary,
dramatic, musical, artistic, and other intellectual works. This
protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
History
1790: First U.S. copyright law; covered printed material. Later,
newer technologies (photography, sound recordings, etc.)
were added.
1909: Definition of unauthorized copy formed.
1960s: Some software and databases receive protection.
1992: Making copies for personal gain became a crime.
1997: Illegal to make copies regardless of financial gain.
1998: Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) - Illegal to avoid
copy protection schemes.
 Copyright Law

Fair-Use policy
• Allows uses of copyrighted material that contribute to the creation
of new work and do not significantly affect sales of the material,
thus depriving copyright holders of their income.
• Allows some research and educational uses as well as news
reporting and critiquing.
• Guidelines for determining Fair Use are found in law.
 Copying Music, Movies,
Software, and Books
Music
• Improved technology allows for easy, fast, cheap, and
ubiquitous copying of music on the Web.
• Entrepreneurs create businesses to facilitate storing and
sharing of music files. Many individuals set up free sites for
music sharing, too.
• The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
continues to fight unauthorized copying of music.
 Copying Music, Movies,
Software, and Books
Movies and TV Programs
• Improved digital technologies and greater bandwidth on the
Net also allows for copying and transferring of movies and
TV programs.
• Businesses such as RecordTV.com and Scour provided free
services to facilitate copying of broadcast intellectual
material.
• The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and
other entertainment companies continue to fight
unauthorized copying of their intellectual property.
 Copying Music, Movies,
Software, and Books
Software
• Improved digital technologies contribute to unauthorized
(commercial and non-commercial) copying of software.
• Individuals and whole businesses, here and overseas,
continue to produce, transport, and sell (or give away)
copies of software, manuals and supporting material.
• Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) as well as
other software industry organizations and companies battle
software piracy in the U.S. and abroad.
 Copying Music, Movies,
Software, and Books
Books
• Improved technology allows for simple, quick, and cheap
copying of books.
• Counterfeiters of textbooks, novels, and other printed
matter, profit by not paying publishers and/or authors for
their intellectual property.
• Electronic books use encryption to reduce copying, but
some e-book protection schemes have been cracked.
 Copying Music, Movies,
Software, and Books
The Napster Case
Benefits of Napster (aside from being free):
• Share music with other users; obtain individual songs from a CD;
sample songs on a CD; access more songs; access commercially
unavailable songs; and enjoy other features that made Napster
popular.
Legal Issues:
• Was copying and distributing music through Napster within the fair-use
guidelines? If not, was Napster responsible for user actions?
The Court Decision:
• Napster was guilty of encouraging and assisting copyright violation.
 Solutions (Good and Bad)

Technology, Markets and Management, and

Regulations and Enforcement
Technological Solutions:
• Expiration date encoded.
• Hardware dongle required.
• Copy-protection schemes.
• “Activation” features.
• Encryption schemes; digital-rights management (DRM).
 Solutions (Good and Bad)

Technology, Markets and Management, and

Regulations and Enforcement (cont’d)
Markets and Management:
• Subscribe to services.
• Collect fees from users and large organizations.
• Meter usage of intellectual property on a network.
• Offer discounts to educational users.
• Educate the public about the value of intellectual property belonging to
creators and publishers.
 Solutions (Good and Bad)

Restrictions and Bans on Technology

In the past, lawsuits have delayed, restricted, or banned the
release of new technologies, including:
• CD-recording devices.
• Digital Audio Tape (DAT) systems.
• DVD recorders.
• DVD players.
• MP3 players.
 Free-Speech Issues

Intellectual Property Protection or Violation of

Free Speech?
Copyright:
• Unauthorized posting of copyrighted documents for the purpose of
criticizing an organization.
Trademark:
• Domain names that disobey upon trademark claims.
Trade Secret:
• Posting internal documents to expose unfair labor or business
practices.
 Free Software

Free Software (or Open Source) Means Free

From Copyright Restrictions
The notion of free software was created by Richard Stallman.
Examples:
• Stallman created the GNU project.
• Emacs.
• “Free” compilers and utilities.
• Linus Torvalds created Linux.
• Many others.
 Issues For Software Developers

Should You Copyright or Patent Software?

Copyrights:
• Protect the expression of an idea in a fixed and tangible form.
• Are cheap, easy to obtain, and last a long time.
• Allow fair-use of the intellectual property.
Patents:
• Protect new, non-obvious, and useful processes.
• Are expensive, difficult to obtain, and last for short periods of time.
• Allow licensing to other developers.