Rights Of Copyright Holders Research Articles

Between Two Worlds: Australian Publishing on the Horns of an Import Dilemma

This article looks at the consequences of the 1991 amendment to the Australian Copyright Act, which meant that, for the copyright owner or authorised distributor to attain the right to control imports, it had to make the book available in Australia within 30 days of first publication overseas; and, to retain that right, it had to notify the retailer within 7 days of receiving an order whether it could be fulfilled within 90 days, and then in fact do so (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_act/caa1991213. Accessed 28 June 2008). The article discusses the background to that change, what has happened since and what arguments are marshalled by those in favour of the status quo (restrictions that must be qualified for), and those in favour of a completely open market. The arguments used say much about the current preoccupations of those in Australian publishing. The debate around whether booksellers should be free to import copies of a new book from any supplier willing to sell them boils down to four issues: the availability in Australia of books published overseas; the price of books in Australia; the preservation of Australian publishing; and the protection of the rights of copyright holders. Those in favour of the open market believe that it would improve the first two without diminishing the latter two; those who support the status quo, that changing would bring no substantial benefits, and hurt both publishing and the rights of copyright holders. In summary, the reasons for maintaining the status quo are that things work fine as they are; that Australian literature (authors, bookshops, publishers) would suffer if things changed; and that the publisher is entitled to protect its investment through territorial control of copyright. The reasons for going to a completely open market are that only an open market can determine market price; that booksellers are unfairly disadvantaged competing against online sellers, on whom parallel importing restrictions are effectively not imposed; that copyright holders lose their rights when they sell something, and shouldn’t get a secondary chance to protect their investment; there is already a de facto open market, which unfairly restricts those who obey the law; there is a narrow window of opportunity for selling a book, which the current restrictions don’t serve; and the current situation is a poor compromise that doesn’t achieve the benefits of the open market.

Finding copyright theory's future in its past: two books by Ronan Deazley

Copyright's history is one of continual expansion of the copyright-based industries and the laws on which they depend. Recently, they have grown exponentially in their economic and political importance and their impact on our daily lives. Copyright in the English-speaking world1 from the Statute of Anne in 17102 to today's statutes and treaties reflects this seemingly unending expansion of the rights of copyright holders. From a simple parliamentary grant of a right to exclusively print and reprint books for a maximum period of 28 years,3 copyright has grown almost beyond recognition. Copyright protection now encompasses not only books and printed material, but also music, drama, works of visual art (painting, sculpture, photography, etc.), audiovisual works (film, television, computer games), dance, databases, computer programs, architectural works, and recorded performances, to name only some of the works now included under the rubric of copyright and its neighbouring rights. The minimum duration of copyright protection under the Berne Convention4 is now the life of the author plus 50 years,5 and under the European Union's harmonization directive, the life of the author plus 70 years.6 The exclusive grant to the copyright holder has increased from merely printing and reprinting a book to include rights of adaptation, performance, and recording, and, in some cases a rental right and a right to control importation of legitimate copies. In addition to such original remedies as actions for damages and injunctive relief to stop further infringement, the copyright holder now can employ technological measures to encrypt their works and defeat copying with severe civil and criminal penalties levied against anyone who seeks to circumvent these restraints.7

Birth, Retreat and Renaissance: The Lifecycle of Balance under the Canadian Copyright Law

Currently, Canadian copyright law is not merely the law of authors. It acknowledges the rights of copyright holders and users as a means to a more valuable end, which is the public interest. The principle correlating such values is the principle of “balance”, which the Supreme Court of Canada has frequently endorsed as a purpose of the Copyright Act in many leading cases, namely Théberge, CCH, SOCAN and, very recently, Robertson. Because none of the mentioned cases discussed the origin or evolvement of balance, this article focuses on the lifecycle of this principle and the circumstances that have impacted its evolution. The article concludes that balance is not merely a contemporary judicial policy, but a doctrine rooted in Canadian copyright law that has gone through a lifecycle of birth, retreat and renaissance. Therefore, any prospective reform to the Canadian Copyright Act ought to consider articulating this principle explicitly as a legislative purpose. The article further concludes that legal reasons as well as a matrix of historical, economic, social, cultural and technological reasons are behind the recent emphasis on balance.

From the Editor's desktop

Included in this issue of the Bulletin are three articles that reflect a central concern with the disruptive impact of the digital age on areas that have always been controversial - copyright, fair use and protected speech. In the first of a two-part article Tom Lipinski discusses the recent Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., Supreme Court decision, beginning with a look at the legal background of the case. He then moves on to discuss the specifics of the decision that holds peer-to-peer software providers Grokster and Stream Cast contributorily liable for “massive” copyright infringement. From another perspective, Jim Campbell looks at the expansion of copyright protections in the United States created by recent legislation and the moves to counteract perceptions of an erosion of the traditional balance between the rights of copyright holders and fair use. Finally, in his International Column, Julian Warner, international liaison to the ASIS&T Board of Directors, considers the roles of democracy, responsibility and free speech in a Web environment. Elsewhere in this issue, we look at the recent history of information retrieval research, specifically the Text REtrieval Conferences (TREC) sponsored since 1990 by the National Institute of Science and Technology. TREC's current director, Ellen Voorhees, summarizes the history and results of the use of the TREC testbeds. And last, turning from the challenge of developing the retrieval algorithms that have been so essential to the success of the Web to-date, we look at the “Semantic Web” of the future. Jay ven Eman discusses how to export to or “wrap” a thesaurus for use by software agents on the Semantic Web using the Web Ontology tool (OWL). He also discusses what additional steps are needed if agents are to take advantage of the potential of the Semantic Web in processing documents that have been indexed using terms from an OWL thesaurus. Anyone seeking to understand the Semantic Web and its relationship to traditional information retrieval or those contemplating a Semantic Web project will find much of value here, including a sober assessment of the difficulties. Join us for high-quality, in-depth explorations of the intersection of research and practice in information science and technology 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science & Technology October 28 - November 2 Westin Charlotte Charlotte, North Carolina ERRATUM We apologize for some serious cut-and-paste confusion in the “What's New?” column in the August/September 2005 issue of the Bulletin in the summary of an article by Jeffrey Pomerantz. One of his articles did, in fact, appear in volume 56, number 7 of JASIS&T. However, the title of the article in the citation is that of a summary we had previously published by Christian Schloegl and Wolfgang Stock, while the summary itself belongs to one of Jeffrey Pomerantz's later JASIS&T articles, “A conceptual framework and open research questions for chat-based reference service.” That article will appear in JASIS&T volume 56, number 12. We do not have a summary for his earlier article, the correct title of which is “A linguistic analysis of question taxonomies.”

An Exploration of Rights Management Technologies Used in the Music Industry

In late October, 2005, a computer programmer discovered that Sony/BMG had been installing root kits on music CDs that rendered computers susceptible to viruses, prompted a warning from the Homeland Security Agency, resulted in lawsuits from several States Attorneys General, and eventually led to a recall of 4 million CDs. These cases mark the entry of Digital Rights Management into the courts system and legal parlance, inviting a thorough look at the history and possible consequences of Digital Rights Management systems. This article traces the history of rights management technologies starting with the player piano and the phonograph, through the era of Digital Audio Tapes and the Audio Home Recording Act, and culminating with discussions of the Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio, iTunes and modern technological protection measures used in the music industry. The article further discusses trends in music media distribution and suggests effects the music industry's issues with rights management technologies may yield for the movie, video, software, and publishing industries. Finally, this article provides a suggestion that would help preserve the rights of copyright holders and help encourage the growth of the intellectual property industries through a controlled, universal, and flexible Digital Rights Management System.

인터넷 카페와 홈페이지의 어문저작물 불법 전송 실태에 관한 연구

본 연구에서는 인터넷 카페와 홈페이지의 어문저작물 불법 전송 실태를 조사분석하였고, 이를 바탕으로 저작권자의 권리를 보호할 방안을 모색하는데 목적을 두었다. 이러한 연구목적을 달성하기 위해 구체적인 연구 내용은 각 사이트별로 어문저작물 불법 복제 및 불법 전송이 이루어질 수 있는 개연성을 지닌 카페나 홈페이지의 메뉴들을 조사하였고, 전체 자료수, 어문저작물 자료수, 최고조회수, 평균조회수를 파악한 후, 어문저작물의 유형을 시, 소설, 기타 등으로 구분하여 분석하였다. 이러한 분석 결과, 정부나 저작권 관련 기관이 이를 법제화하여 통제를 하는 경우에 국내 어문저작물에 대한 순기능적인 인식의 확산을 저해할 요소가 있다. 하지만, 카페 및 홈페이지 운영자와 여기에 올리는 이용자 모두가 저작권에 대한 인식이 거의 없는 상황이므로 법제화 이전에 국민 계도 차원에서 단계별 교육 및 대국민 홍보를 강화할 필요성이 있다. 즉, 각각의 포털서비스 사업자가 사이트별 카페 및 홈페이지 운영자 및 이용자에 대한 저작권 관련 교육 및 시스템적 지원을 강화할 수 있는 방안을 강구해야 할 것이다.

Challenging Intellectual Property Law in the Internet: An Overview of the Legal Implications of the MP3 Technology

This paper attempts to provide an understanding of the contrast between the fundamental notion surrounding the Internet that global society should benefit from access to free flow of information, whilst unauthorised copying of material normally protected by copyright can be facilitated. The paper focuses on the legal implications of the emergence and widespread use of the MP3 technology for the digital compression and distribution of audio music files over the Internet. The analysis explores issues of copyright infringement and unauthorised reproduction and distribution of copyrighted music over the Internet as highlighted in two separate cases concerning two start-up Internet companies, MP3.com and Napster. Additionally, to the extent that the outcome of the aforementioned cases are likely to influence the future of copyright protection in the online environment, the paper addresses the legal implications of the MP3 technology in relation to the applicability, adequacy and effectiveness of the existing legal framework to reach to a fair balance between the rights of the users of the Internet to free access to information and the protection of the rights of copyright holders thus providing us with the opportunity to question the fundamentals of copyright protection in the electronic environment.

Educational implications for copyright in a digital world

Statutory law and court cases currently leave fair use of copyrighted material poorly defined and fail to provide effective guidance for the use of others' work. Copyright legislation is undergoing significant change, accelerated by the evolution of computing and communication technologies. This paper reviews copyright issues, fair use guidelines, and applicable laws and statutes to help administrators and educators understand and comply with copyright regulations. The paper describes principles of copyright and ownership, the rights of copyright holders, and the conditions under which copyrighted material can be used by others. Recently introduced legislation, such as the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, may significantly affect how educators can use copyrighted material in the future. The integration of computer and communication technology into education raises a number of intellectual property issues for dental schools. This paper provides some general guidelines regarding copyright issues in academic environments.

Canada's Cultural Trade Quandry

CULTURE TRADE ISSUES HAVE BEEN A BURR under the saddle of Canada-United States trade relations for well over a decade. Notwithstanding the claims of politicians that 'culture was not on the table,' the bilateral free trade agreement negotiated in the latter half of the 1980s specifically addressed some of the problems then outstanding. In addition to eventually removing all tariffs on cultural products imported from the United States, Canada was required to recognize the intellectual property rights of copyright holders of United States television signals re-transmitted in Canada through cable networks and to remove the 'printed-in-Canada' requirement relating to deductions for advertising in Canada's Income Tax Act.(f.1) Canada also had to ensure fair compensation to United States companies facing forced divestiture of Canadian cultural businesses indirectly acquired by them, through government purchase if necessary.(f.2) Canada and the United States also agreed to co-operate in the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and in other international forums to improve protection of intellectual property rights.(f.3)Otherwise, cultural industries were exempt from the provisions of the agreement. But if one party took actions under the umbrella of the exemption, the other had the right to retaliate with measures of equivalent commercial effect.(f.4) Thus, Canada was free to take measures to protect its cultural industries so long as it was willing to pay the price. And the price might well be paid by Canadians engaged in some other sector, as we saw in the threatened retaliation list suggested informally by the Americans in the context of the magazine advertising dispute.Canada claims to have one of the most open markets in the world for imported cultural products. Levels of foreign penetration into various cultural market segments are frequently cited as justification for this claim. For example, 'foreign firms and products account for: 34% of book sales in Canada; 81% of English-language consumer magazines on Canadian newsstands and over 63% of magazine circulation revenue; 79% (over $910 million) of retail sales of tapes, CDs, concerts, merchandise and sheet music; 85% ($165 million) of the revenues from film distribution in Canada; and between 94 and 97% of screen time in Canadian theatres.'(f.5) In light of these high levels of domestic market penetration by foreign cultural products (mostly from the United States) and the potentially overwhelming presence of our enormous neighbour to the south, Canada has, over the years, put in place a wide variety of measures to foster or protect Canadian cultural expression and Canadian cultural products. The objective of these measures is to ensure that Canadians have a wide range of choice in cultural products, and that the choice includes Canadian products in each market segment. The measures differ from segment to segment as there is no workable 'one-size-fits-all' approach for all cultural product sectors.Even though they have a very high share of Canada's market for almost all cultural products, Americans frequently claim that Canadian cultural trade policies are inappropriately protectionist and exclusionary, a claim that is difficult to credit in light of the statistics just quoted. Nonetheless, the Americans are very concerned about unhelpful precedents in culture trade policies, and the applicable test in international trade law is not market share but the negative impacts government measures may have on conditions of competition in a given market segment.There are basically two reasons for Canadians to be concerned about the international regulation of trade in cultural products. One is the socio-political importance of national cultural expression; the other is the special characteristics of the production and distribution of cultural products.THE SOCIO-POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL EXPRESSIONA mantra popular among cultural nationalists is that Canadians must have opportunities to hear themselves speak in their own voices. …

Determining Copyright Status for Preservation and Access: Defining Reasonable Effort

Alternative procedures were investigated for determining the copyright status of brittle monographs to be scanned as part of the national preservation plan for agricultural sciences literature. Copyright searches were conducted both in Washington in the files of the U.S. Copyright Office and at Cornell University in the printed Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE). Results were compared to determine the most efficient procedure. Search procedures (averaging 7 minutes per title) in the CCE were 97% in agreement overall with the results obtained from considerably more time consuming (13 minutes per title) searching at the Copyright Office. CCE searches were 100% in agreement concerning instances of renewal of copyright. This finding calls into question the assumption that it is necessary to conduct such searches at considerable cost in the complex files of the Copyright Office. The resulting CCE search procedure is suggested as a standard of reasonable effort for copyright searching, which demonstrates a legally responsible reasonable effort to respect the rights of copyright holders while advancing preservation aims and converting carefully selected print materials to build the digital library.

Libraries, copyright and the electronic environment

This paper was prepared for the International Publishers Association and adopted by its international committee in April 1996. The paper stresses that the new electronic environment will require mature international standards of copyright protection. Publishers have concerns over how copyrighted works should be protected and welcome the opportunity to work with libraries and library associations to consider the uses of digitized formats that will preserve the rights of copyright holders while ensuring that publishers reach their intended audience.

The Electronic Library: Implications for Librarians, Academics and Publishers

Components of the electronic library have existed for over a decade. Online databases have long since been a source of information for librarians and library users. Automated library housekeeping systems have been available for many years. Electronic networks are increasingly used in libraries and by remote users to satisfy information enquiries and provide an alternative publishing mechanism to the traditional publishing chain. Increases in journal prices make librarians consider alternatives to traditional library practices. While it is too soon to say how economically viable the electronic library will be, it is clear that it will make searching for items quicker and more convenient for the user. While academics aim to push back the frontiers of knowledge by experimenting with new technology, publishers are uncertain about the economics of electronic publishing and wish to protect the integrity of their publications and the rights of copyright holders. Librarians and academics are advised to work with publishers to find a new position within the technology framework so that publishers' organising abilities will flourish to the advantage of all. Many libraries, including the British Library, have many components of the electronic library in place but will not quickly be able to offer fully electronic library services because of political, social and economic constraints

Fair use versus fair return: copyright legislation and its consequences.

The purpose of this article is to examine the ramifications of legislative recognition of the concept of fair use in the Copyright Act of 1976. The fair use concept, while of small consequence in its normative origins, has turned out to be the foundation of the most perplexing and divisive issues in the new legislative guidelines governing copyright. Legislative recognition of the concept of fair use, coupled with enormous growth of a new technology--extending from xerography to on-line database systems--creates de facto exemptions to both the intent and content of new copyright guidelines. The issue is not one of limiting use or suppressing information, but of mechanisms for safeguarding the rights of copyright holders, be they authors or publishers, and insuring the free flow of information by providing a proper return on both intellectual creativity and capital expenditures. The authors argue that the elimination, or at least curtailment of fair use doctrine, coupled with an increase in technological approaches to reporting of secondary use of copyrighted material, will benefit all sections of the knowledge industry. Authors will receive proper royalties on use; publishers will be able to sell more books and journals at lower prices; and librarians will be liberated from extensive chores such as monitoring usage or determining fee schedules and transferences. The issue is one of fair return--an issue obscured and ultimately subverted by fair use.