NOTE: Failures of
formatting at this time are solely the responsibility of the instructor.
-- N.J., May 5, 2003
Copyright in a Digital Age
I. Introduction
With the advent of
digital data it is possible to make essentially perfect copies. The days
when each copy of a copy was worse than the copy before are now over.
They are all perfect renditions of the original. Moreover, with the
advent of the internet today it is possible to effortlessly distribute
perfect copies worldwide.
The ease of creating perfect
copies can become the ease of stealing perfect copies, and it has.
In 2000 the Recording Industry Association of America reports losses of
$4.1 billion due to piracy.i Overall, the IIPA estimates the U.S. copyright
industries worldwide losses to piracy at $22 billion.ii In 2001 and
in the first half of 2002 music sales fell, and only one album has sold
more than ten million copies worldwide.iii
The content industryiv has
responded in two ways. It has created technologies that prevent or
impair unlawful copying, and it has lobbied Congress for legislation to
protect their interests in copyrighted material.
As much as digitization
and the internet impact the content industry, their approach to protect
themselves impedes both fair use and the constitutionality of the current
copyright regime. Copyright, at its inception served to balance both the
public and private interests. Digitization and the content industries
response are dramatically changing the processes of information creation,
distribution, use, and preservation.
This paper will discuss
the current concept of digitization, and explain both the current technological
and statutory approaches to protecting the interest of the content industry.
While examining each approach the effects on the public interest and fair
use will be addressed. Finally, alternative approaches will be given
to the problems facing both the public and the content industry as digitization
develops.
II. Brief Overview of Copyright
Copyright is a set of exclusive
rights in literary, musical, choreographic, dramatic, and artistic works.
The individual holding a copyright has the exclusive rights of reproduction,
adaptation, public distribution, and performance.v The Constitution
guarantees this right, "Congress shall have Power: [t]o promote the
Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors
and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."vi
Congress codified the Copyright Clause in Title 17 of the U.S. Code.
Copyright attaches as soon as work is created and recorded in some medium.vii
Currently, most copyrighted works are protected for the life of the creator
plus seventy years.viii The framers intent was to strike a balance
between the interests of the creators in receiving compensation for their
works while allowing the public access to these works.ix
The limited scope of the
copyright holder's statutory monopoly, like the limited copyright duration
required by the Constitution, reflects a balance of competing claims upon
the public interest: Creative work is to be encouraged and rewarded, but
private motivation must ultimately serve the cause of promoting broad public
availability of literature, music, and the other arts. The immediate effect
of our copyright law is to secure a fair return for an 'author's' creative
labor. But the ultimate aim is, by this incentive, to stimulate artistic
creativity for the general public good.x
III. Digitization of Copyrighted
Work and Internet Piracy
Digitization has been around
since the advent of computers. Turning images and sounds into a series
of ones and zeros makes it less susceptible to errors or deterioration
and furnishes a higher quality of sound and picture.xi Not so long
ago computers able to handle these types of files were unavailable to the
public, today consumers do not only have the hardware and software available
to view and hear digital works now even a child can download, upload, distribute,
copy, create, and alter any digital copyrighted work. Unfortunately,
often these new activities amount to copyright infringement when they involve
copyrighted material. Infringement becomes internet piracy when uploading,
posting, emailing, transmitting or posting links to any copyrighted content.
The music industry has had the most visible blow to its copyrighted works
but television and film are also in danger of mass infringement.xii
Digitization along with
other technologiesxiii have facilitated the ease in which digitized content
may be used, distributed, and infringed upon. For example, music
in a digital format takes up a lot of space, and is not easily distributed.
However, MP3 technology allows the compression of music files without ruining
the quality.xiv It is this technology that allowed Napster to exist.
The Napster phenomenon and
the ensuing litigation that really brought internet copyright infringement
to the public eye. Napster is the story of an innovative college
student who wanted to share digital music with his friends. Shaun
Fanning created code that would allow anyone else using the code to access
his music files and he could access theirs. Eventually, he launched
an internet website that allowed anyone to use his software and download
music from other computers for free.xv It is reported that in the
first year, Napster had 20 million individual users, in other words hosted
20 million possible copyright infringers.xvi
Eighteen recording companies,
all members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), filed
suit against Napster Inc., on December 6, 1999, successfully alleging contributory
and vicarious copyright infringement.xvii Vicarious copyright infringement
allows the copyright owner to hold an individual accountable for the infringing
actions of another, similar to respondeat superior liability.xviii
In other words, Napster was found to have the right and ability to supervise
and control the infringing activities of its users, and that it had a direct
financial interest in these activities.xix In addition, Napster was
liable for contributory infringement, having directly contributed to another's
infringement of the copyrighted works.xx After establishing that
infringement took place, Napster was found to have known of the infringing
activity, and Napster induced, caused or materially contributed to the
infringing activity.xxi
Since Napster P2P file sharing
has grown, in spite of the possibility of vicarious and contributory infringement
claims. Although the music industry is also going after other makers
of swapping software, like Kazaa, it has been more difficult because the
newer sharing programs have no central server and there is no way for Kazaa
to monitor what types of files are traded.xxii "The industry plaintiffs
do not own the digital distribution technology that is rendering their
legacy businesses less valuable. That same technology... makes it easier
for consumers to share and copy files whether or not those files contain
copyrighted material The recording industry needs to drop its monopolistic
lawsuits, which merely serve to lower its status in the eyes of consumers
and the p2p providers, many of whom are trying to promote legitimate online
services.."..xxiii
Although, some consumers
do have a flawed sense of entitlement to copyrighted material, the content
industry does have some responsibility in creating this problem.
Consumers often pirate music or software because it is available.xxiv
Part of the problem with the public is that they view internet piracy as
a victimless crime.xxv "In a recent survey, 22% of people between
ages 12 and 44 agreed with the statement, "You no longer have to buy CDs,
as you can download the music for free from the Internet." Seventy-four
percent of teens said there is nothing morally wrong with downloading music
for free.xxvi
Yet, poor treatment of consumers
by the content industry also furthers internet piracy because even if consumers
recognize a victim of their crime, the content industry is seen as a deserving
one.xxvii Consumers do not like paying such high prices for content,
especially now that they know it is easy to access and create.xxviii
Furthermore, the industry should have been availing itself of online deliver
to cater to the publics needs. This approach could also offer a content
creator peace of mind that their work will not be pirated because it was
available.xxix Additionally, the music industry has certainly deprived
the consumers of what they want.
The record companies, in
particular, have refused to make their goods available online at prices
that reflect the vastly lower costs of online distribution, or in places
consumers find convenient. They have also refused to "unbundle" their content
to allow consumers to purchase a single song at a proportionate price rather
than an entire album. Consumers are now also faced with purchasing music
and visual media embedded with draconian DRM technology that, threatens
to become obsolete, and restrict their rights and expectations with regards
to time- and space-shifting. As a result, many otherwise honest consumers
have gravitated towards the flexible reproduction and distribution offered
by online file- sharing networks.xxx
It is unnerving to pay $20.00
for a CD only to find that the only good songs are the ones overplayed
on the radio. If consumers could purchase individual songs or download
directly from the recording company, exactly what they want at a reasonable
price, honest consumers would probably remain honest.
High definition television
(HDTV), movies, ebooks all potentially have the same fate as digital music.
By 2007 television broadcasters will be required to go digital.xxxi
HDTV, unlike a DVD, is not encrypted, and therefore is a concern for the
content industry. The FCC has been trying to free up a bunch of unused
spectrum for wireless services by coaxing the nation's TV broadcasters
to move from analog to digital broadcasts.xxxii Once a digital broadcast
is copied it can be downloaded and widely distributed via the internet.
There are several ways for
internet piracy to affect the revenue of the television industry.
First, cable and satellite allow access to hundreds of televisions channels.
This has created a large market for old television shows because there
is so much airtime to fill.xxxiii However, why would a consumer watch
Seinfeld on TBS, when she could download it for free (and without commercials)
and choose which episodes she prefers to watch? Second, successful
television shows are now being sold on DVD or tape, but if the consumer
can download it for free, why bother purchasing it?xxxiv Finally,
if Neilson ratings go down because people are not watching television,
what happens to advertising revenue?xxxv
The film industry also fears
the financial burden of internet piracy. The film industry has been
slow to enter the digital market. Not only would televised movies
suffer the same fate as digitized television shows, but the cost of transitioning
from the current analog system to a digital system is billions of dollars
combined for networks, production studios, local television stations, and
major cable companies.xxxvi Why would the film industry spend that
much if it could cause the loss of billions of dollars? Therefore
like the music and television industries, the music industry needs to protect
itself.
IV. Technological Protections
The content industry generates
so much money, and deserves protection from piracy, especially internet
piracy.
According to a 1999 report,
prepared for the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), the
core copyright industries accounted for $348.4 billion in value added to
the U.S. economy, or approximately 4.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) in 1997. The total copyright industries accounted in 1997 for $529.3
billion in value added, or approximately 6.53 percent of GDP. Employment
in the core copyright industries grew three times the rate of national
employment growth between 1977 and 1997, and more than 6.9 million workers
were employed by the total copyright industries, about 5.3 percent of the
total U.S. work force. The core copyright industries generated an estimated
$66.85 billion in foreign sales and exports in 1997 and preliminary estimates
for foreign sales and exports for 1998 is $71.0 billion.xxxvii
Although the content industry
does expect help from Congress to protect their interests, they are also
using technology, to prevent infringement because even with strict statutory
penalties copyright infringement abounds.
The technologies the
content industry has turned to in order to protect copyright are called
digital rights management (DRM). These technologies limit the duplication,
transfer or any use of content the copyright holders do not desire.
"This means of controlling content rights with technology comes in various
forms and supports various business models. For example, forms of DRM are
used in (1) DVDs (which use the Content Scrambling System), (2) dedicated
DSL set top boxes, (3) digital encryption encoding of satellite signals,
and (4) video- cassettes (which use Macrovision)."xxxviii
Digital television broadcasts
are higher in quality; they provide viewers with both a better picture
and better sound. Further, digital programming has the potential
to be interactive and give viewers more choices on a single channel.xxxix
Yet, fewer than 3% of American households have digital television.xl
Digital television has been incredibly expensive, but the costs are going
down, and consumers still will not invest in the technology unless they
know they are getting quality broadcasting in return, like blockbuster
Hollywood movies.xli But, Hollywood will not allow its films to be
digitally broadcast until there is better protection against piracy.xlii
Broadcast flag is a DRM
technology that offers one viable solution to this problem. Broadcast
flags are signals attached to the digital broadcast that prevents the show
from being copied. The coding does not affect the quality of the
broadcast and in some forms does not prevent the copying of digital programming,
just the internet distribution of it.xliii
"The 'broadcast flag' as
such is no more than a few bytes of information appended to a digital-television
signal. It performs no work, contains no 'intelligence.' It is simply notice
that tells a compliant device that the broadcast is copyrighted. The flag
indicates the creator's wishes as to whether it may be copied, and how
it may be used. There is no controversy as to the form or essential function
of this flag, and the flag is already part of the ATSC standards for digital
television.xliv
Once digital content has
a broadcast flag encoded into it, the code remains with the content.
Therefore when a television broadcast converts digital images back to analogue
for our television sets, a digital recording will still have the broadcast
flag attached, which will prevent the making of later copies.xlv
The Motion Picture Association
of America supports the broadcast flag technology.xlvi In addition,
the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG), a private industry group
consisting of over 70 representatives from the consumer electronics, information
technology, motion picture, cable and broadcast industries, has approved
broadcast flag technology for protecting, and based on their approval the
FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the use of broadcast
flags.xlvii It is questionable what role the FCC should play in protecting
copyright, especially when the industries woes have not been proven.xlviii
The film industry has not proven that the same perils exist as with the
music industry, especially since 2002 was their largest and most profitable
sales year in history.xlix
One problem with broadcast
flags is that they will not work unless all forms of hardware are able
to see it. Another concern is that the flags will be removable without
affecting the content. This would mean that the hardware would need
to be designed only to play works with digital flags, but then what happens
to the DVDs and MP3s consumers already have? They will not be able
to use them on their new equipment.l
Other DRM measures include
spoofing wherein decoy files are created to hinder file swappers searches
for a particular song. li Interdiction "creates an online traffic
jam that blocks others on the network from accessing a work offered for
copying. For example, last year Eminem's record label allegedly flooded
the file-swapping networks with bogus copies of songs from his recently
released album. These decoy files played the same short segment of the
song over and over again. As individuals could not distinguish between
real songs and decoys, their efforts to access pirated files were frustrated."
lii Other technologies on the horizon will allow search queries to
be scrambled and slowing down the download process.liii
The Music industry has had
some problems with some of the DRM measures they have recently taken.
One approach to protecting CDs is to release CDs with errors on them.
This prevents the consumer from copying CDs for personal use or from playing
them on computerized devices (computers, DVD players, game consoles like
PlayStation, MP3 players, consumer CD duplicators, high-end stereo equipment
and car CD players). How this works is that a traditional CD player
can decipher a signal even if there are errors or scratches on the CD.
The computerized devices are much more sensitive and cannot compensate
for these errors.liv Often these CDs cannot be played on Macintosh
computers or are so corrupt they make any computer crash.lv
DRM can effectively manage
consumer access to digital works. "These technologies have advanced
from passive password or IP domain models to more active encryption, invasive
self-help, and digital rights management (DRM) systems."lvi DRM technology
tracks and limits the use of digital works by encoding controls into products
that can serve to prevent copyright infringement but also reach further
and prevent use that is non-infringing.lvii
V. The Impact of Technological
Protections of
Copyright on Fair Use
The various technologies
the content industry uses to prevent copying impedes on consumer use (as
with the errors on CDs) and fair use of copyrighted material. The
fair use doctrine confers privileges on people other than those that hold
the copyright. Reasonable use of copyrighted material is allowable,
notwithstanding monopoly grant to the owner."lviii Fair use includes
such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by some other permissible
means, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
(including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research,
is not an infringement of copyright.lix
Courts look to four factors
in determining if a use of copyrighted works falls within the fair use
doctrine:lx (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether
such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality
of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; (4)
the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted
work.lxi The Supreme Court held that as long as users are entitled
to fair use of a form of expression, then the Copyright Term Extension
Act survives a First Amendment Constitutional challenge.lxii Although,
fair use is not a right the public has, it is simply a defense to a copyright
infringement claim.
Digital rights management
gives the content creators more power to control what consumers read, how
many times they can read it and if it can be printed, copied, recorded,
transmitted. This will affect the fair use of these works, in fact
it may completely abate it.
In the not so distant future
books, newspaper and magazines will join the world of movies, music and
television and be available in a digital format. Text on the page
will change whenever the page is turned.lxiii As we are awed by these
advances in technology it will be possible to use this to preempt fair
use.
It is feasible that with
the distribution of an electronic book, the publisher might only permit
a certain number of viewings before the content becomes inaccessible.
There may be blocks on the software prohibiting printing of the text or
even a small portion of the text. Further, software can be coded
to work with only one device, after uploading something into your digital
book, you may not be able to loan it to a friend. "You're losing
freedom: to record a TV show and watch it later; to photocopy a page out
of a book; to e-mail a news article to a friend. And someday, the critics
say, you may no longer be able to check a book out of the library" with
the advent of digital rights management.lxiv
Someday copyright could
be used as an instrument of censorship. Once the content industry is able
to control how and when we access copyrighted information, they are able
to prevent our fair use of that information. Without fair use the
public has no way to comment, critique or parody without having to first
obtain permission and pay a price giving the copyright holder carte blanche
over the work.lxv
The impact of the
elimination of fair use can best be seen when examining how digital content
affects the lending library. Critics fear the new legal climate could
eventually kill off the public lending library, as well.lxvi Nancy
Kranich, former president of the American Library Association states that
the first sale doctrine allowed a library to buy a book and then do anything
they wanted with it.lxvii As books become digital, libraries have
to purchase licenses to use these materials.lxviii This becomes too
costly for the public library. In addition the licensing agreements
themselves restrict the libraries use of the digital copyrighted material,
and this includes how the libraries' patrons use the material.lxix
As more things become digital, everything we were once able to do in a
library will cost money each and every time it happens under these licensing
agreements. "During a budget crunch, a library might not be able
to pay the 'rent' on a digital book, so to speak. And so the book will
disappear from the library's collection."lxx
The American library community
is confronted by a copyright axis of evil. The combination of globalization,
extensive new laws and legislation, rampant licensing of information, and
new technological controls is making it increasingly difficult for libraries
to serve their users. Librarians must be at the frontlines of the intellectual
property wars. The opposition--the content owners--are well-financed and
well-organized. Under the guise of protecting copyrighted works from the
ravages of network piracy and digital abuse, some are committed to undermining
the copyright system that has developed over two centuries.lxxi
Libraries have reason to
fear these new measures.lxxii
Broadcast flags are
another technological advance that obstructs fair use. Broadcast
flags are a mark on digital programming that limit the improper use of
digital television programming. The mark also prevents fair use like
video taping a television show to watch it later, or play it in a different
device.lxxiii So, imagine a student who has created a PowerPoint presentation
for class and with video clips from a television show.lxxiv It might
work perfectly on her home computer, but the broadcast flags will prevent
her from e-mailing the work to her teacher or even showing it on a school
computer because she couldn't burn it to a CD.lxxv
The content
providers argue they need these extra legal and technological protections.
The music industry says it needs protection because of piracy and the advancements
in technology. Recent DRM technological developments lock each track
of music to a particular device. While proponents of DRM claim that
it merely helps keep honest users honest, in fact, argues Cory Doctorow
of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a lobby group, it "keeps honest
users in chains."lxxvi The elimination of fair use upsets the copyright
balance of public and private interests. "The more we limit fair
use, the less likely we will enjoy the benefits of the creativity and innovation
that are now possible under our intellectual property system. The more
we dictate standards, the less room we have for broad accommodation and
market-based solutions. Indeed, the broadcast flag proposal seems destined
to create a cartel of content and technology producers that will decide
who may prosper and who will not."lxxvii
VI. Statutory Protections
Congress is deeply
ensconced in aiding the content industry to protect copyright. The
Copyright Extension Act (CTEA), the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),
and the Audio Home Recording Act have all gone a long way to protect the
interests of the content industry generally and with respect to digitized
works.
A. The Copyright Extension
Act
The CTEA is the eleventh
congressionally mandated extension of copyright terms in 40 years. Copyright
terms were extended only twice in the first 120 year history of our republic
- once in 1831 and once more with the passage of the Copyright Act of 1909.lxxviii
Originally, under the Copyright Act of 1790, a copyright was granted an
initial term of 14 years which could be renewed a second 14 years.lxxix
It is this act that extended copyright to be the length of the creator's
life plus seventy years. This added twenty years to the prior act.
Before these extensions copyright was a fixed period of time. Although
the extension does not directly deal with digitized copyrighted works,
it is one way the content industry has been able to ensure stronger copyright
protection generally. Also, the CTEA shows how far Congress will
go to appease the content industry, even at the expense of the public interest,
fair use, and the Constitution.
B. The Digital Millennium
Copyright Act
In October 1998, Congress
passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The provisions
of the DCMA try to promote the distribution of copyrighted works over the
internet. For example, the DCMA prohibits the descrambling of any
encryption used to protect copyrighted works.lxxx Selling, manufacturing
and importing technology that is designed to circumvent copyright controls
is prohibited.lxxxi Also to promote digital copyrighted works the
DCMA prohibits the manufacturing or selling of devices that circumvent
access controlslxxxii "such as "black boxes" that illegally capture cable
signals, rather than conduct."lxxxiii
C. The Audio Home Recording
Act
In 1992 Congress created
the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA).lxxxiv The AHRA prevents the
content industry from going after consumers, manufactures, and distributors
for infringement when they make use of, create or sell home audio recording
equipment. Before digital technology the content industry was not
too worried about home recording because the original was always far superior
to the copies. However, the development of digital audiotape (DAT)
technology enabled perfect digital copying. "The AHRA allows consumer
electronics manufacturers to sell digital audio recorders and recording
media and allows consumers to use the recorders for home taping. This Act
also compensates affected parties, such as record companies, songwriters,
and music publishers, for revenues lost due to such home taping."lxxxv
In addition to getting royalties, the content industry is also guaranteed
that one of three copyright protection systems will be in the digital recording
devices.
VII. Constitutionality of
the Statutory
Protections of Copyright
Critics claim the most recent
extension to copyright, the Sonny Bono Term Extension Act (CTEAlxxxvi),
in 1998 (also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act)lxxxvii, unconstitutional
because it virtually eliminates the limited time for copyright, it violates
the First Amendment, and it does not promote the progress of science and
useful arts. The current copyright regime focuses its benefits on
big business/the content industry/mass media conglomerates and threatens
to dry up the public domain. Together with the DCMA and the AHRA,
Congress has created a copyright regime that favors the content industry
and neglects the rights of the public.
A. The CTEA and For a "Limited
Time"
Copyright attaches to a
work as soon as it is created and recorded in some medium.lxxxviii
For works created after January 1, 1978, copyright lasts for the life of
the creator plus seventy years.lxxxix Copyright easily protects for
more than 100 years. For example, the current life expectancy of
the average woman is 80.xc If she publishes something at 35 and lives
until 80, that's 115 years before the work enters the public domain, not
quite forever, but certainly a drain on the public domain.
The framers sought to promote
the progress of science and art by creating a monopoly in the creator of
a work for a limited time. In addition, the framers endeavored to
strike a balance between the interests of the creators in receiving compensation
for their works while allowing the public access to these works.xci
Siva Vaidhyanathan describes this as the copyright bargain.xcii The
copyright holder is granted a monopoly in order to earn money, and in exchange
the public gets access to the copyrighted material and it eventually enters
the public domain.xciii
The extension altered copyright
laws, so they no longer resemble what the framers intended. Life
plus seventy years hardly seems limited, but is virtually limitless.xciv
The content industry lobbied Congress to extend copyright, so much so that
it does not necessarily promote the progress of arts and sciences, its
justifiable ends.
The content industry argues
that the extension allows publishers to make more money off of copyrighted
material.xcv This money can then used to publish more works.xcvi
Similarly, the industry finances the restoration of older works, especially
film, which is costly to restore.xcvii Yet, thousands of old movies,
records and books fade behind a legal blockade because copyright prevents
the public from accessing them.xcviii The vast majority of older
works whose copyright has been retrospectively extended are not even commercially
viable.xcix However, not being commercially viable does not mean
the public cannot benefit from these older works. Except, due to
the CTEA these works will remain unused.c
The Supreme Court recently
held the CTEA constitutional. In Eldred v. Ashcroftci the petitioners
challenged the CTEA on two Constitutional grounds. First, the CTEA
is not for a limited time as required by the Constitution. Second,
the CTEA violates the First Amendment's free speech guarantee.cii
Petitioners do not argue
that adding 20 years to the term for a copyright is the flaw with the extension,
but that the extension retroactively affects works with existing copyrights.ciii
For example, Gershwin's Concerto in F, written in 1925 would have entered
the public domain in approximately 1983. However, with the CTEA,
Gershwin's copyright will not expire until approximately 2025.civ
Petitioners claim this violates the limited time means in the Copyright
Clause.
The Court found that each
time Congress extended copyright it applied to existing works and future
works alike, and therefore noted the argument had little weight.cv
Furthermore, the extension was not in perpetuity and therefore copyright
still exists for a limited time. The Court also discerned that it
is persuasive that the American law is in line with both the Boerne Convention
and European law.cvi Yet, in the past the Court has held that complying
with foreign law is not a valid reason for creating unconstitutional laws.cvii
Ultimately, the Court's decision focused on the fact that it is Congress'
job to worry about copyrights, and it is not the Court's place to question
their actions.cviii
Both Justice Breyer and
Justice Stevens dissented to the Court's opinion. Breyer thought
the statute unconstitutional for falling outside the scope of the legislative
power in the Copyright Clause.cix Although the extension is not perpetual,
he finds that it virtually is.cx Justice Stevens agrees, under the
majority's analysis Congress may continually extend the length of copyright
retrospectively, thereby preventing works from ever entering the public
domain.cxi
Most importantly, Breyer
finds that the extension of time does not produce the wanted result - to
promote the progress of art and science. Breyer eventually turns
to the framers themselves to advance his argument. Madison warned
against monopolies, but found they were valuable for the authors of books
and inventions.cxii In those two instances the monopolies were temporary
and there was actually a community benefit.cxiii This idea should
carry through today, and Congress should not be extending copyright without
trying to strike a balance between the public and private interests.cxiv
Justice Stevens in his dissent
stressed the exchange of the grant of a limited monopoly for the later
contribution to the public domain, and he found Congress did not honor
this bargain by allowing the private interests a windfall.cxv
B. Promote the Progress of
Science and Useful Arts
As previously stated,
the purpose of extending a monopoly to the creators of useful arts and
science, for a limited time, is to promote progress -- stimulate
writing, creativity, learning, knowledge and invention. Precedent
shows that Congress' motivation to extend copyright should be to serve
the public and not the private interests.cxvi Justice Breyer is skeptical
of Congress' motive for enacting the CTEA, and he argues that it is not
for the promotion of the arts because the extension actually inhibits it.cxvii
Similarly, it could be argued that the DMCA and the AHRA, also were not
created to serve the public interests.
The costs associated
with someone or, more often, some corporation holds the copyright an interested
party pays to use of the work. According to a Congressional Research
Service report, approximately "2% of copyrights between 55 and 75 years
old retain commercial value--i.e., still generate royalties after that
time."cxviii In order to generate revenues from the multitude of
older works with copyrights, the few classics might have higher than necessary
royalties.cxix Another added cost is that of obtaining permission
to use copyrighted material. The need to locate copyright holders,
in order to obtain permission to use their work, deters potential users,
especially if the work has n o commercial value, and its intended user
is a scholar, historian, teacher or writer who may benefit from access
to historical information and works.cxx
It is not difficult to discern
what Congress' motive was when enacting the CTEA. Companies like
Disney, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP),
the American Motion Pictures Association, and others from the content industry
bought the CTEA.cxxi They spent millions lobbying Congress in order
to prevent images like Steamboat Willie (an early Mickey Mouse) from entering
the public domain.cxxii Copyright protection is supposed to balance
public and private interests but it cannot because it is impossible to
quantify those interests in order to identify a balance. Even if
we could, that's not what lawmakers respond to. Looking at this from
the perspective of public choice theory, Congress' behavior is hardly unreasonable.
Public choice theory hypothesizes that lawmakers cannot balance the public
and private interests in the case of copyrights.cxxiii Even with
all the available data and the knowledge of what effect this extension
will have on the public domain, lawmakers will not necessarily use that
information to make laws.cxxiv Lawmakers, like most humans, respond
to certain stimuli, and the money lobbyists throw at politicians to extend
copyright is a strong stimulus.cxxv The CTEA purposefully keeps works
of mass communications culture from entering the public domain on the schedule
copyright provided, so their owners could hoard them for as long as their
money could buy.cxxvi
In bowing down to these
corporations Congress negated the copyright bargain between the public
and the private interests, and Congress is no longer promoting the progress
of art and science. It is easy to see how continued royalties is
a major incentive for the content industry, but that is difficult to reconcile
with the empty promises and continued higher prices the public must pay
to access information that should have gone into the public domain.
Interestingly, it is important
to recognize that often it is not the artist that is benefiting from this
extension. Often, the artist signs a contract with some large corporation
giving away his rights in order to be produced/published/heard. Then
the artist earns mediocre royalties while the copyright holder earns more.cxxvii
Only an artist with enough clout or importance or that brings in tons of
money is able to negotiate these standard industry contracts that require
the creator to sign away most, if not all, of his/her copyrights.
This is interesting because it too seems a step removed from what the framers
originally intended. No longer does copyright simply protect the
creator, but instead has help create the colossal content industry we have
today, which also seems removed from promoting the progress of the arts
and sciences.cxxviii
However, maybe the
size and success of the content industry is reason enough to extend copyright.
An industry that generates so much revenue, supplies jobs and advances
technology should simply be able to do whatever it needs in order to maintain
its success. Without copyright Hollywood would not be able to make multi-million
dollar films, Jack Valenti, Chairman of the Motion Picture Association
of America, argues that without copyright expensive, high quality, high
budget material will not get produced.cxxix Pat Schroeder, a lobbyist
for the industry, argues that they export more goods than the car, agriculture
and aircraft industries, and it deserves the same kind of protection as
those other industries.cxxx The arguments advanced by the industry
are all well and good, but they do not explain the need for the extension
of copyright, and their arguments certainly do not justify the extension
in order to truly serve the public, but more likely their pocketbooks,
eventually negating the Constitution.
Although both the
DCMA and the AHRA seem to work in the public's favor, they still clearly
are for the benefit of the content industry. The at home recording
protected by the AHRA, was already protected by the fair use doctrine.
The AHRA did not grant any new right onto the public, it merely charges
them (via royalties) for what they were already entitled to do. In
order to really serve the public, the AHRA should have codified the fair
use doctrine, as a right instead of as a defense to infringement like in
the Copyright Act of 1976. Had that been the case the public would
be able to stand up against the DRM technology that threatens to end fair
use.
Moreover, the DMCA
fails to promote the progress of arts and sciences when it denies scholars
and researchers the fair use defense when conducting research on copyrighted
works.cxxxi The DMCA bans all uses for technology like ebooks, regardless
if the uses are infringement or fair use.cxxxii So, when Russian
programmer, Dmitry Sklyarov created a program that allowed a user to make
copies of legally purchased ebooks and read their books on more than one
computer, he violated the DMCA.cxxxiii Sklyarov's criminal prosecution
by the FBI was the first under the DMCA.cxxxiv
C. First Amendment
Petitioners in Eldred
claimed the CTEA violated the First Amendment's free speech guarantee because
it is a content neutral regulation of speech.cxxxv There is a basic
conflict between copyright laws and the freedom of speech guaranteed in
the First Amendment. Principally, copyright is good for expression
and disseminating ideas, which is why it is allowed to conflict with the
1st Amendment.cxxxvi Finally, the Copyright Clause prevents people
from disseminating speech.
Judge Ginsberg, when first
hearing the Eldred v. Ashcroft case (in the district court) stated that
the copyright is "categorically immune from challenge under the first amendment."
cxxxvii In Harper & Row Publishers Inc. v. Nation Enterscxxxviii
the Court explained the relationship between copyright and the First Amendment.
"[C]opyright's idea/expression dichotomy 'strike[s] a definitional balance
between the First Amendment and the Copyright Act by permitting free communication
of facts while still protecting an author's expression.'"cxxxix Further,
copyright only protects the explicit expression, a creator may not copyright
ideas or facts.cxl Therefore, the Court has always seen copyright
as fostering the dissemination of speech, as opposed to inhibiting it.
Erwin Chemerinsky notes
the benefit of copyright to the dissemination of ideas, but explains that
extending copyright protections after the speech has occurred does nothing
to foster creativity or the dissemination of ideas.cxli Nothing in
the Court's history has ever given Copyright a blanket First Amendment
immunity, and yet recently the court keeps relying on it.cxlii
There are First Amendment
implications of the DMCA as well. The DMCA has a fair use exemption
for encryption researchcxliii, but in fact, in certain cases this provision
limits fair use and places encryption researchers in the realm of infringers.cxliv
The DMCA limits the traditional fair use doctrine because instead of applying
a test to be used on a case-by-case basis, the DMCA explicitly lists which
users are allowed the fair use defense.cxlv Many scholars will not
meet the requirements necessary to be able to legally conduct research
on copyright encryption.
Essentially, the DMCA
prohibits much speech regarding decrypting. For example, professor
Felten, along with some colleagues, entered a contest that invited to public
to decrypt four watermark technologies for digital audio files. After
successfully cracking the code, Professor Felton was going to present what
he found to the public. The RIAA stepped in and threatened enforcement
actions under the DMCA. Although, the RIAA denied this, and Felton
eventually presented his paper, he brought a cause of action against RIAA
seeking a declaratory judgment that the DMCA violated the First Amendment,
and the case was dismissed. Much of the recording industry has agreed
not to pursue academicians who research encryption flaws, however, the
law still gives them the opportunity to pursue scholars and researchers
who can show weaknesses and flaws in encryption technology. This
type of research is important for both the public and the content creators.
If a recording company relies on a weak encryption device, then it might
as well not be protected. It is very possible that researchers, not
tied to the device, could better find the flaws of an encryption device,
but then they cannot present their findings to each other for fear of prosecution.
A non-binding promise from the industry does not seem like enough to make
an unconstitutional violation of free speech constitutional, and there
is certainly no real guarantee that later prosecutions will not occur.
VIII. Alternative Approaches
to Copyright
A. Proposed Legislation
There are several
initiatives before Congress right now concerning copyright in a digital
age. Although most fit within the scope of this paper, only three
are addressed.
First is the Hollings Act.
In order to protect digital content this bill requires that digital devices
include FCC-approved copyright protection standards. Similar to the DMCA,
the Hollings Act prohibits circumvention of encryption devices. "There's
also a section of the bill designed to override the landmark court case
that made the Rio MP3 player legal." cxlvi Critics of the bill find
that it is too vague and that digital devices could encompass the entire
computer industry. cxlvii "The act would certainly affect the peer-to-peer
networks that are widely used for file distribution, and it might even
apply to more traditional file distribution protocols, such as FTP and
the Web. Hard disks, Zip drives, tape drives, and floppies are all capable
of reproducing digital media. Applied broadly, the Hollings Act would force
manufacturers to incorporate copyright protection standards into these
devices." cxlviii Another problem is that if the FCC incorporates
a standard fit for digital music or film, it may neglect the software industry
that can also distribute digital content. cxlix The software industry,
in the past, tried to use encryption code to prevent copying, but has found
requiring users to register their copies to be more successful. cl
In trying to protect the entertainment industry's interests, the federal
government would require software and hardware developers, network developers,
and protocol designers to comply with a mandated security standard or risk
prosecution.cli
Another bill before Congress
also requires the FCC to approve copy protections for digital broadcasting.
Essentially, the FCC would require HDTV, DVD players, VCRs and such to
use broadcast flag technology. Much of the content industry wants
broadcast flag technology, but it seems that the marketplace is where that
decision should be made, and not in Congress or by the FCC. If the
content industry is required to rely on an FCC standard, it may impair
other protections and the development of better protections.
A third bill would
allow the content industry to take action against those sharing their copyrighted
material. The bill mainly addresses the peer-to-peer file sharing
phenomenon. The bill fails to give an individual notice if the copyright
holder is hacking into their computer to see what files may have been shared,
and an individual should be able to defend herself, especially if the copyright
holder is wrong or has made a mistake.
The most consumer
friendly bill introduced to Congress seeks to prevent fair use. The
Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act seeks to codify fair use and requires
CDs to be labeled if they cannot be shared, especially since, the DRM technology
prohibiting CD copying also prevents CD playing in certain devices.clii
The content industry is worried about the scope of this bill and being
able to protect themselves because digital media are so easily copied and
distributed. Intel, Gateway, and Sun Microsystems joined a host of
companies and organizations representing the IT industry are behind the
bill because even some companies believe that protection measures should
still accommodate fair use of the content by consumers.cliii This
act modifies the DMCA, which allows the content industry to go after, not
only those who distribute large amounts of copyrighted works all over the
world, but the individual users. cliv
B. Altering the Copyright
Regime
Not everyone believes our
current copyright regime is bad. The content industry generates so
much money, and deserves protection from piracy, especially internet piracy.
Further, both consumers and copyright owners have committed offenses in
this battle.clv The consumers behave as if they are entitled to free
access to copyright material, or at least they do not realize they are
committing a wrong, and the industry charges too much and keeps lobbying
Congress for laws that impair fair use. On the other hand, others
demand change because currently Congress is drafting laws that forget about
the public.clvi
There are others, though,
that believe copyright should be eliminated entirely. The framers
were motivated to include the Copyright Clause in order to help disseminate
ideas. With the internet ideas can be widely distributed with little
cost to the creator. The creator will still have a limited time to
profit solely from the creation before others pick it up, and for many
going to a concert and hearing the Beatles perform Sgt. Peppers would be
worth a lot more than hearing the Backbeat Boys cover the album.
Additionally, technological developments on the Internet, especially peer-to-peer
networking, have made the effective enforcement of copyright a virtual
impossibility.clvii If copyright cannot be effectively enforced,
for instance in the music industry, due to the internet, than their should
be no copyright laws and artists should find other ways of making money,
recordings can be used as advertisements for their live performances etc.clviii
Even with DRM technology, hackers still hack and will find away around
it.
Another view suggests
we treat copyrights like patents. J.A. Lorengo argues this.
Interestingly it is points out that "to be granted a limited monopoly in
the form of a patent, must prove that her invention promoted the progress
of the useful arts through a showing of utility, novelty and non- obviousness."clix
This seems a dangerous suggestion because who determines whether a work
promotes the progress of art. However, this scheme would justify
the extra protections afforded copyright, especially to prevent internet
piracy because we are protecting more than mere words but a work that can
potentially benefit society.
Copyright was originally
the grant of a temporary government-sponsored monopoly on copying a work.
Its sole purpose was to encourage the circulation of ideas by giving creators
and publishers a short-term incentive to disseminate their work.
There is no reason to believe that copyright was not meeting its intended
purpose when it was for a specified amount of time, and renewable once.
A specified duration of copyright allows an easier determination when something
has entered the public domain, it generates a stronger incentive to create
and requiring the creator to renew the copyright term allows works that
are no longer commercially viable to enter the public domain. Further,
with DRM like broadcast flags the content industry is able to protect itself
from infringement while it holds the copyright.
IX. Conclusion
Shorter copyright terms
and tougher enforcement of owners' rights better serve the constitutional
purposes of the copyright laws in a digital age. The current copyright
extension benefits the culture industry without looking to see how it promotes
the progress of science and useful arts. Additionally, with the new
technology the content industry is protecting itself from copyright violations,
with the CTEA and the DMCA the law is on their side, but before fair use
is impossible Congress needs to take a step back and find a copyright regime
that goes back to trying to balance both the public and the private interests.
In the past, this balance seemed to have been reached with a specified
duration for copyright and a one-time renewal.
It is time to reevaluate
copyright and determine whether the content industry is about our culture
and creativity or is it just another form of commerce. Today it is
the copyright holders that are controlling how we deal with copyrighted
material; it is a commodity Congress has sold to the detriment of the public
interest. Although the content industry should be able to protect
itself from internet piracy, it should not be able to do it at the expense
of fair use, a necessary part of the copyright regime that enables the
promotion of arts and sciences. Furthermore, the marketplace should
govern which protective measures are best and most effect, especially since
as hackers hack the protective measures will need to evolve to keep them
out.
i Q. Todd Dickinson, The
Costs of Internet Piracy for the Music and Software Industries, Statement
before the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade of the
U.S. House International Relations Committee (July 19, 2000) available
at http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/econ/ipr/ipr-ectodd.htm; Although the
music industry often blames internet piracy for its losses there are other
ways to account for falling sales, "the current economic slowdown, the
industry's release of far fewer titles and their elimination of singles,
the end of cassette production, broadcast media consolidation, and less
grooming of new talent." Edward J. Black, The Internet and Intellectual
Property Copyright Piracy Prevention and the 'Broadcast Flag' Congressional
Testimony (March 6, 2003).
ii Dickinson Supra note
i.
iii Unexpected Harmony,
THE ECONOMIST (Jan. 23, 2003) available at http://www.economist.com/opinion/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=1549398.
iv The content industry
includes copyright holders such as movie and TV studios, record companies
and book publishers.
v Independently produced
same or similar works, Ideas are not copyrighted Facts and systems explained
are not copyrighted. Hoehling v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 618
F.2d 972 (2d Cir. 1980) (Author did not infringe another's copyright by
using the same theory for the Hindenberg explosion); Feist Pubs., Inc.
v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991) (Phone book entries are facts
and therefore not copyrightable).
vi U.S. CONST. art. I, §
8, cl. 8.
vii 17 U.S.C. §102(a)
(2000).
viii Id.
ix Kevin Davis, Fair Use
on the Internet: A Fine Line Between Fair and Foul, 34 U.S.F. L. REV. 129,
132 (1999).
x Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal
City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 432 (1984) citing, Twentieth Century
Music Corp. v. Aiken, 422 U.S. 151, 156, 95 S.Ct. 2040, 2043, 45 L.Ed.2d
84
xi Irini A. Stamatoudi,
COPYRIGHT AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS 22 (2002).
xii Peter S. Menell, Envisioning
Copyright Law's Digital Future 46 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 63 (2002) (Other
technology aiding infringement of digital copyrighted works are high speed
internet access and increased bandwidth, innovations in computer storage
capacity, processor speed, data compression, MP3 players, CD and DVD burner);
The US Internet Industry Association (USIIA), the leading North American
trade association for Internet commerce, content and connectivity, challenges
the motion picture industries claim that they have suffered large losses
due to internet piracy. The USIIA does not believe that the technology
is available to make downloading an entire feature film, even in digital
format, worth it to the consumer. It would take days to download,
and the end result would be a dark, two inch square. US INTERNET
INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION, Hollywood's Hysteria Over The Internet: Leading Internet
Trade Association Challenges (May 13, 1999) at www.usiia.org/pubs/menace.html;
Although internet copyright infringement might not be pervasive, the USIIA
negates that the technology still exists to copy DVDs, leaving the consumer
with a perfect rendition to sell or give to a friend. Therefore,
digital piracy still may be a problem for the movie industry.
xiii It would seem that
high-speed internet access has also aided in internet piracy. Individuals
can get T-1 speeds through SDSL in their own homes, and even cable modems
and ADSL are so much faster than dial up lines, that most users would take
advantage of the ease of piracy.
xiv FRAUNHOFER INSTITUT
INTERGRIERTE SCHALTUNGEN, Audio & Multimedia MPEG Audio Layer-3 (last
visited April 15, 2003) at http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm/techinf/layer3/index.html;
It is arguable that MP3 quality is inferior to CDs, and difference is apparent
on almost any stereo. This explains why most MP3 players come as
portable devices, where the consumer is most likely going to accept inferior
sound quality. Black supra note i.
xv Alan Lewine, Mudwrestling
Copyright Lawyers: Napster, the RIAA and The Pig Encoder, 20 TEMP. ENVTL.
L. & TECH. J. 11, (2001) ("Napster maintains on its server a directory
and index of the names of MP3 music files. Users who have downloaded
Napster's free Musicshare software can access the directory and add their
own files. When the requesting user clicks on a file name, the Napster
server communicates with the Musicshare programs of the requesting user
and of the host user, who makes the file available for download. Note that
the MP3 file is actually transmitted directly from one user to another
over the Internet, although the Napster server acts as a necessary intermediary").
xvi Id.
xviiA & M Records, Inc.
v. Napster, Inc., 284 F.3d 1091, 1096 (9th Cir.2002).
xviii Fonovisa, Inc. v.
Cherry Auction, Inc., 76 F.3d 259, 261 (9th Cir. 1996).
xix Id.
xx Id.
xxi Id.
xxii McGregor McCance, Congress
Takes Up File-Swaping, RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH Jan. 12, 2003, at D-1.
xxiii Internet Magazine
April 1, 2003 Pg. S10; ISSN: 1355-6428 Lawsuits threaten music sharing:
the record industry gets increasingly litigious; News.
xxiv Black supra note 1
(Stating that consumers will more often purchase software at reasonable
prices rather than pirate it).
xxv Lawrence Iser and James
Toma, Battling Digital Piracy Recording Industry has Taken a Multipronged
Response to Illegally Downloaded Music, NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, January 20,
at C1.
xxvi Id. citing Edison Media
Research, National Record Buyers Study II, June 10, 2002, at www.edisonresearch.com/recordbuyersiipress.htm
xxvii Black supra note 1.
xxviii Jane C. Ginsburg,
Essay -- How Copyright Got a Bad Name for Itself, 26 COLUM. J.L. &
ARTS 61 (2002).
xxix Vito Peaino, The Law
of Increasing Returns Memo to the music industry: penalizing the consumer
is the wrong answer. It's time to listen to the sound of the future WIRED,
August 1999 at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.08/dl_returns_pr.html
xxx Black supra note 1.
xxxi Elisa Batista, Digital
Experts Swap Talk, WIRED (January 13, 2003) available at http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57181,00.html
xxxii Sonia Arrison, Digital
Television and Copy Protection: Government Mandated Technology is a Bad
Idea (December 15, 2002) http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2226
xxxiii Mike Godwin, Hollywood
Vs. The Internet, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, September 21, 2002 at 8.
xxxiv Id.
xxxv Id.
xxxvi Mike Straka, DTV Is
Real ... and Ready to Suck You In, FOX NEWS, July 31, 2002 at http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,59164,00.html
xxxvii Dickinson Supra note
1.
xxxviii William Sloan Coats,
Vickie L. Feeman, David K. Boudreau, Hot Issues in Copyright and Trademark
Licensing, 20 NO. 2 Computer & Internet Law. 16 (2003).
xxxix Straka supra note
xxxvi.
xl Eileen Rivera, Hollywood
is hoping broadcast flags will help solve its copyright woes, but consumer
groups claim they violate fair use TECH LIVE August 6, 2002 available at
http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/story/0,24195,3394728,00.html
xli Sonia Arrison, Digital
Television and Copy Protection: Government Mandated Technology is a Bad
Idea (December 15, 2002) at http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2226
xlii Id.
xliii McCance supra note
xxii.
xliv Black supra note i.
xlv Mark F. Radcliffe and
Jill Sazama Hollywood confronts the Napster challenge; the Napster battle
revealed how vulnerable the music industry is to digital piracy, and the
movie and TV industries could be next, MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY,
October 1, 2002 at 73.
xlvi The Dallas Morning
News January 15, 2003, Wednesday K1846 Doug Bedell Truce reached in digital
piracy battle
xlvii Radcliffe supra note
xlv.
xlviii Black supra note
i.
xlix Id.
l Godwin supra note xxxiii.
li Iser supra note xxv.
lii Id.
liii Id.
liv Rachel Gader-Shafran,
Confessions of a Serial Infringer: Can the Audio Home Recording Act of
1992 Protect the Consumer from Copy-Protected CDs? 21 N0. 2 INTELL. PROP.
L. NEWSL. 10, 11 (2003).
lv Id.
lvi James G. Neal, Copyright
is dead ... long live copyright: American librarians must be concerned
over threats to users' traditional rights AMERICAN LIBRARIES December 1,
2002, at 48.
lvii Id.
lviii Hustler Magazine Inc.
v. Moral Majority Inc., C.A.9 (Cal.) 1986, 796 F.2d 1148.
lix 17 U.S.C. § 107
(2000).
lx Id.
lxi Id.; Single most
important element in determining "fair use" under copyright law is effect
of use upon potential market for or value of copyrighted work. National
Rifle Ass'n of America v. Handgun Control Federation of Ohio, C.A.6 (Ohio)
1994, 15 F.3d 559; See Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp., 280 F.3d 934 (9th
Cir.2002) For an in depth discussion of fair use and the internet.
lxii Eldred v. Ashcroft,
--U.S.--, 123 S.Ct. 769, 776, 777.
lxiii Now with Bill Moyers
(PBS television broadcast, Jan. 17, 2003).
lxiv Id.
lxv Id.
lxvi Id.
lxvii Id.
lxviii Now supra note lxiii.
lxix Id.
lxx Id.
lxxi Neal supra note lvi.
lxxii Id.
lxxiii Black supra note
1.
lxxiv Id.
lxxv Id.
lxxvi Unexpected Harmony
supra note iii.
lxxvii Black supra note
1.
lxxviii J.A. Lorengo, What's
Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander: An Argument for the Consistent
Interpretation of the Patent and Copyright Clause, 85 J. Pat. & Trademark
Off. Soc'y 51 Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society January,
(2003).
lxxix Id.
lxxx 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(3)
(1999).
lxxxi 17 U.S.C. § 1201(b)
(1999).
lxxxii 17 U.S.C. §
1201(a)(2) (1999).
lxxxiii Coats supra note
xxxviii.The DMCA also keeps internet service providers from liability for
infringement that their users engage in. However, it also creates
a subpoena power that allows anyone holding a copyright that has been infringed
to require the internet service provider to give the name of the alleged
infringer. The DMCA has a direct impact on privacy, although the
discussion is beyond the scope of this paper. See In re Verizon,
240 F.Supp.2d 24 (D.D.C. 2003).
lxxxiv 17 U.S.C. §§
1001-1010 (2000).
lxxxv Coats supra note xxxviii.
lxxxvi Lorengo supra note
lxxviii.
lxxxvii A Radical Rethink,
THE ECONOMIST, Jan. 23, 2003, available at http://www.economist.com/opinion/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=1547223
(the Extension stopped certain images, owned by Disney, from entering the
public domain).
lxxxviii 17 U.S.C.A. §102(a)
(2000).
lxxxix 17 U.S.C.A. §
302(a) (2000)
xc DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
AND HUMAN SERVICES, OFFICE ON WOMEN'S HEALTH, Women's Health Issues: An
Overview (May, 2001), available at http://www.4woman.gov/owh/pub/womhealth%20issues/.
xci Davis supra note ix;
The limited scope of the copyright holder's statutory monopoly, like the
limited copyright duration required by the Constitution, reflects a balance
of competing claims upon the public interest: Creative work is to be encouraged
and rewarded, but private motivation must ultimately serve the cause of
promoting broad public availability of literature, music, and the other
arts. The immediate effect of our copyright law is to secure a fair return
for an 'author's' creative labor. But the ultimate aim is, by this incentive,
to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good. 'The sole
interest of the United States and the primary object in conferring the
monopoly,' this Court has said, 'lie in the general benefits derived by
the public from the labors of authors.' Sony Corp. supra note x.
xcii Now supra note lxiii.
xciii Id.
xciv Eldred supra note lxii
at 800.
xcv Erwin Chemerinsky, Balancing
Copyright Protections and Freedom of Speech: Why the Copyright Extension
Act is Unconstitutional, 36 LOY. L.A. L. REV. 83, (2002).
xcvi Id.
xcvii Lawrence B. Solum,
Congress's Power to Promote the Progress of Science: Eldred v. Ashcroft,
36 LOY. L.A. L. REV. 1, 9 (2002).
xcviii A Radical Rethink
supra note lxxxvii (the Extension stopped certain images, owned by Disney,
from entering the public domain); In fact, the content industry spent
approximately $150 million in twelve years trying to buy political influence.
Now supra note lxiii.
xcix David G. Savage, Publish,
but Never Perish? 88-OCT A.B.A. J. 23 (2002).
c Id.
ci Eldred supra note lxii
at 769.
cii Discussed infra
ciii Eldred supra note lxii
at 775.
civ Dan T. Coenen and Paul
J. Heald, Means/Ends Analysis in Copyright Law: Eldred v. Ashcroft in One
Act 36 LOY. L.A. L. REV. 99.
cv Eldred supra note lxii
at 775.
cvi Id. at 780.
cvii Reid v. Covert, 354
U.S. 1 (1957).
cviii Eldred supra note
lxii at 784.
cix Id at 813.
cx Id. at 800.
cxi Id.
cxii Eldred supra note lxii
at 802.
cxiii Id.
cxiv Tom W. Bell, Indelicate
Imbalancing in Copyright and Patent Law in COPY FIGHTS: THE FUTURE
OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE INFORMATION AGE 1-16 (Adam Thierer and
Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr. eds., 2002).
cxv Eldred supra note lxii
at 802.
cxvi "The Clause exists
not to 'provide a special private benefit' Eldred supra note lxii at 802
citing Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S.
417, 429; "TheClause exists...'to stimulate artistic creativity for the
general public good'" Id. citing Twentieith Century Music Corp. v.Aiken,
422 U.S. 151, 156.
cxvii Eldred supra note
lxii at 801.
cxviii Id. at 804.
cxix Id.
cxx Id. "Thus, the
American Association of Law Libraries points out that the clearance process
associated with creating an electronic archive, Documenting the American
South, "consumed approximately a dozen man-hours" per work. Brief for American
Association of Law Libraries et al. as Amici Curiae 20. The College Art
Association says that the costs of obtaining permission for use of single
images, short excerpts, and other short works can become prohibitively
high; it describes the abandonment of efforts to include, e.g., campaign
songs, film excerpts, and documents exposing "horrors of the chain gang"
in historical works or archives; and it points to examples in which copyright
holders in effect have used their control of copyright to try to control
the content of historical or cultural works. Brief for College Art Association
et al. as Amici Curiae 7-13. The National Writers Union provides similar
examples. Brief for National Writers Union et al. as Amici Curiae 25-27.
Petitioners point to music fees that may prevent youth or community orchestras,
or church choirs, from performing early 20th-century music. Brief for Petitioners
3-5; see also App. 16-17 (Copyright extension caused abandonment of plans
to sell sheet music of Maurice Ravel's Alborada Del Gracioso). Amici for
petitioners describe how electronic databases tend to avoid adding to their
collections works whose copyright holders may prove difficult to contact,
see, e.g., Arms, Getting the Picture: Observations from the Library of
Congress on Providing Online Access to Pictorial Images, 48 Library Trends
379, 405 (1999) (describing how this tendency applies to the Library of
Congress' own digital archives)."
cxxi Coenen supra note civ.
cxxii Now supra note lxiii
(Mass media conglomerates spent nearly $150 million over the last 12 years
to buy influence in Washington).
cxxiii Bell supra note cxiv.
cxxiv Id.
cxxv Id.; Now supra note
lxiii (Disney and its employees contributed more than $1.2 million to federal
political campaigns; film, television and music companies gave more than
$16 million).
cxxvi Now supra note lxiii.
cxxvii For instance a band
like Hootie and the Blowfish only sees about $1.25 per album sold.
Whereas an artist like Ani Difranco earns higher royalties on her albums,
independently produced by her own record label, but she sells far fewer
albums. Letter from Ani DiFranco, recording artist and founder of
Righteous Babe Records, to Marcia Ann Gillespie, Editor in Chief, Ms. Magazine
(Nov. 5, 1997) at http://www.columbia.edu/~marg/ani/letter.html
cxxviii "The content industry
which consists of movies, television programming, home video, music publishing,
software, and computer games, generates more revenues internationally than
any other US industry. Copyright-based industries create jobs in the United
States at three times the rate of any other US industry, including such
giants as aircraft, agriculture, and automobiles." Coats supra note
xxxviii.; Ginsburg supra note xxviii (Copyrighted works make up a
large portion of both American exports and the gross national product).
cxxix Now supra note lxiii.
cxxx Id.
cxxxi Cassandra Imfeld,
Playing Fair with Fair Use? The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's Impact
on Encryption Researchers and Academicians 8COMM. L. & POL'Y 111 (2003).
cxxxii Id.
cxxxiii Id.
cxxxiv Id.
cxxxv Eldred supra note
lxii at 775(2003).
cxxxvi Chemerinsky supra
note xcv.
cxxxvii Solum supra note
xcvii.
cxxxviii 471 U.S. 539, 105
S.Ct. 2218 (1985).
cxxxix Eldred v. Reno, 239
F.3d 372, 375 (D.C. Cir. 2002).
cxl 17 U.S.C. § 102(b)
(2002). See e.g., New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713,
726 (1971); Hoehling supra note v; Feist supra note v.
cxli Chemerinsky supra note
xcv.
cxlii Id.
cxliii 17 U.S.C. 1201(c)(1)(2)
(1999).
cxliv 17 U.S.C. 1201(c)(1)(2)
(1999).
cxlv 17 U.S.C. 1201(c)(1)(2)
(1999).
cxlvi Lincoln D. Stein,
Keep Your Laws Off My Media Player -- The Hollings Act is too broad, NEW.ARCHITECT
November 1, 2002 at 56 available at http://www.newarchitectmag.com
cxlvii Id.
cxlviii Id.
cxlix Id.
cl Id.
cli Stein supra note
clii Nick Hanbidge, US Lawmakers
Risk Letting in the Pirates, NEW MEDIA AGE, December 5, 2002 at 19.
cliii Gretel Johnston, IT
companies show support for latest DRM bill INFOWORLD DAILY NEWS, October
3, 2002 at InfoWorld.com
cliv Id.
clv Ginsburg supra note
xxviii.
clvi Pamela Samuelson, Toward
a "New Deal" for Copyright in the Information Age, 100 Mich. L. Rev. 1488
(2002) summarizing Digital Copyright, Jessica Litman. Amherest, NY:
Prometheus Books. 2001.
clvii John Perry Barlow,
The Economy of Ideas: A Framework for Rethinking Patents and Copyrights
in the Digital Age, WIRED, Mar. 1994, at 84- 90, 126-29 (arguing that intellectual
property rights in the digital world must be rethought because of the way
information can be freely obtained and copied).
clviii Aric Jacover, I Want
My MP3! Creating a Legal and Practical scheme to Combat Copyright Infringement
on Peer-to-Peer Internet Applications, 90 Geo. L.J. 2207, 2209 (2002).
clix Lorengo supra note
lxxviii..
Cori Marx
Copyright in a Digital Age
Cyber Law Seminar Paper
- Johnson
April 18, 2003
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