[huridocs-tech] Can the World Be Copyrighted?

URL             :  http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,50658,00.html

Wired News
     Can the World Be Copyrighted?
     By Brad King

     2:00 a.m. Feb. 26, 2002 PST
     Two treaties taking effect this spring would expand the reach of
     controversial American legislation designed to regulate the Internet.

     The [4]World Intellectual Property Organization, an international body
     of government representatives that globalizes laws, announced new
     guidelines to crack down on digital piracy. The WIPO Copyright Treaty
     and the WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty, which go into effect
     over the next three months, extend copyright protection to computer
     programs, movies and music.

     The treaties, hammered out in 1996, give a general framework for
     countries to develop standard copyright laws.

     However, it took several years for each to be ratified by 30
     countries, the minimum required before they can formally take effect.
     In the interim, the agreements became the basis for America's Digital
     Millennium Copyright Act, the first legislation designed to protect
     intellectual property on the Internet.

     Several watchdog organizations believe the DMCA, which domestic media
     companies touted as the treaties' best practical application, give
     media conglomerates and copyright holders too much control over
     digital distribution.

     The [11]Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) primary beef with the
     DMCA is the legalization of rights management that gives copyright
     holders the ability to dictate how people can listen, read and watch
     digital files. Two prominent legal disputes drew the battle lines
     between the watchdog organization and media companies.

     2600 Magazine, a hacker publication, was barred from posting links to
     Jon Johansen's DeCSS decryption application, which allows computer
     users to watch DVDs on their PCs. The software breaks the digital
     security on the disks, an act that violates the DMCA's
     anti-circumvention provisions. Johansen, a Norwegian teenager, was
     charged with violating his country's copyright laws and faces two
     years in prison.

     Russian programmer Dimitri Sklyarov faced 25 years in prison after
     being arrested in Las Vegas last July. He was released six months
     later after being charged with distributing software that broke the
     copy protection on electronic books, an act that violated America's
     DMCA but not his own country's laws.

     The EFF has fought to dismantle the DMCA and now the group is taking
     the fight abroad, said Fred von Lohmann, EFF senior staff attorney.

     "There are some people that argue that American laws were already
     compliant with that law," von Lohmann said. "If you need to crack copy
     protected work, you need to make a copy of it first and those
     reproduction rights were already protected. But (DMCA author) Bruce
     Lehman and the other folks expanded the copyright owner's protections
     to make the U.S. the banner carrier for intellectual property.

     "The DMCA satisfies the WTC treaty and then goes way beyond its scope.
     The U.S. actually adopted the DMCA long before we were required to by
     international law and now we're going overseas and telling people they
     need to enact a DMCA-like law."

     The EFF hopes to head off legislation in other countries since the
     treaties offer a general framework that individual countries use to
     craft national laws. The EFF has teamed with [12]Electronic Frontier
     Canada, filed comments in New Zealand, and worked with England's
     [13]Eurorights.org as well as with German groups.

     Though 30 countries ratified the treaty, some of the world's biggest
     economies are not on board. The European Union (comprising 15
     countries, including Germany and Italy) Japan and China haven't agreed
     to adopt the framework.

     The large, international, media companies, however, urge that the
     treaties not only be ratified but also enforced.

     Companies, such as Japan's Sony and Germany's Bertelsmann, have a
     growing concern with the international flavor that these lawsuits have
     taken, said Neil Turkewitz, the [14]Recording Industry Association of
     America's executive vice president and the music industry's
     representation at the WIPO gathering in Geneva six years ago.

     "Right now, copyright is national," Turkewitz said. "There is no such
     thing as international copyright law. It's a little oversimplified,
     but these treaties help harmonize the laws and the protections as much
     as possible. It will take away the reasons for these companies to be
     moving around because there will be a consistent level. The Internet
     is only as strong as its weakest link."

     Sklyarov wasn't arrested until he came to America, but that could
     change if Russia adopts the two treaties. Then, copyright
     organizations in that country could go after a programmer like
     Sklyarov.

     The agreements would also make it easier to hunt down country hoppers
     such as Niklas Zennstrom, the Dutch entrepreneur who licensed
     decentralized, file-trading software to United States companies and
     later sold his company [15]Kazaa to an Australian investment firm.

     Zennstrom faces separate lawsuits in the Netherlands and the United
     States that were brought by national music copyright organizations.
     The Buma/Stemra, a Dutch copyright watchdog organization, is suing
     Kazaa for distributing a software application that allows people to
     connect to a file-trading network. In its suit, the RIAA named
     Consumer Empowerment, the licensing arm of Zennstrom's company, for
     selling the software to American companies.

     The reason these treaties need to be enacted, Turkewitz said, is that
     cases such as these leave U.S. and Dutch copyright holders with little
     recourse. The problem was exacerbated in January when Zennstrom sold
     Kazaa to Sharman Networks Limited, a small privately held Australian
     company.

     The new investors remain quiet, making it difficult for authorities to
     track them down. However, Internet users still downloaded 2.2 million
     applications through Kazaa last week, making it the leading
     file-trading service.

     That leaves copyright holders trying to coordinate lawsuits against at
     least five companies in three countries.

     This is a serious problem for record companies that claim piracy
     caused a massive decline in album shipments last year, costing the
     major labels $600 million in sales. The explosive growth of
     peer-to-peer services and the increase in CD-burning were the main
     culprits, said RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen.

     "This past year was a difficult year in the recording industry, and
     there is no simple explanation of the decrease in sales," Rosen said.
     "The economy was slow and 9/11 interrupted the fourth quarter plans,
     but a large factor contributing to the decrease in overall shipments
     last year is online piracy and CD burning."

     The problem looms much larger outside of America, where the industry
     estimates physical piracy siphons off between $2 and $4 billion each
     year. The advent of new technology is expected to increase that
     figure, Rosen said.

     Hollywood studios and the developers of video games and software are
     expected to support the treaties as well.


     [21]Copyright © 1994-2002 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.


References

     4. http://www.wipo.org/
    11. http://www.eff.org/
    12. http://www.efc.ca/
    13. http://www.eurorights.org/
    14. http://www.riaa.com/
    15. http://www.kazaa.com/
    21. http://hotwired.lycos.com/home/copyright.html




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