Document Type
Article
Abstract
In this paper, the balance between the rights of authors, publishers and users will be explored to see how the technology affects their particular interests, and how various laws tip the balance of their rights in different directions. This paper also includes an analysis of two recent proposals for adapting copyright law to the new technology. One is a report released in September 1995 by the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights, a subcommittee of the Clinton Administration’s Information Infrastructure Task Force, titled “Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure,” but more commonly referred to as the “White Paper.” The other is the “Green Paper on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society,” a report issued by the Commission of the European Communities, a governing body of the European Union, in July 1995. The scope of this paper includes traditional works of authorship such as books, articles, ect. However, copyright law covers many other forms of media including music, film, photography, sculpture, and computer software, and with developments in technology, multi-media works combining many of these forms, as well as things not yet imagined, will be included. Insofar as copyright issues applying to these areas are similar to those applied to text, the discussion will include them.
However, this analysis will not address the many issues specific to certain mediums, such as music, software, or databases. Of primary concern is the flow of information between creators and users. Although the ease of information transfer on such programs such as the Internet has made copyright an international issue, generating a great amount of concern over creating an international standard, the focus will be on the laws of the United States regarding specific legal proposals, both to allow for more specific suggestions, and because it is the legal framework within which this author was trained. Part II of this paper examines the current balance of rights among authors, publishers, and users under U.S. law and traditional technology. Part III looks at how the new technology affects the balance. Part IV evaluates the proposals made by the White and Green Papers and examine their probable effect. Part V explores what the balance should be. Part VI suggests that what laws are needed to achieve this.
Recommended Citation
Anne K. Fujita,
The Great Internet Panic: How Digitization is Deforming Copyright Law,
2 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(1996).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol2/iss1/2