Intellectual Property Rights in a Networked World: Theory and Practice

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2006), "Intellectual Property Rights in a Networked World: Theory and Practice", Library Review, Vol. 55 No. 5, pp. 326-328. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530610667611

Readers interested in keeping up with topical textbooks in the field of intellectual property rights and copyright will be pleased about this publication. It will be of relevance particularly to lecturers and students in higher education, above all where IPR and IT converge, and particularly, too, to those studying IPR in a US context. That said, the issues it raises about the robustness and interpretation of the law, and about connections between law and ethics, and between theory and practice, will have application anywhere.

Spinello (2000) is a gifted writer (clear and relevant) on law and ethics in this field, as works like Cyberethics : Morality and Law in Cyberspace confirm. Tavani is known for his work on computer ethics, and, together as contributing editors, they have assembled ten chapters (by themselves and other US academics and practitioners) which successfully capture the key issues and preoccupations of those who think of IPR in a networked world. This comes through, for example, when digital rights management and webcasting are examined, where website content is spider‐scanned by metasites and whether this is trespass, and whether a digital age can effectively negotiate and maintain an information commons. The work originated from the Sixth Annual Ethics and Technology Conference held at Boston College (USA, where Spinello (2002) works) in June 2003. Information Science Publishing is part of the Idea Group Inc (website http://www.idea‐group.com/) where further information can be obtained.

However over‐familiar we all are with the knowledge economy, the legal implications and drivers remain complex and controversial. Protections provided by the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998) and CTEA (Copyright Term Extension Act 1998) and UCITA (Uniform Computer and Information Transactions Act, enacted only in some US states) demonstrate how such issues as how far protections should extend, what happens when copyright term is changed, and whether uniformity of contractual transaction can be imposed across state borders hit any debate about IPR almost as soon as it starts. The issues exposed by these US‐specific laws are not unique to the USA, because in their various forms they present challenges of interpretation and practice globally (and not just with US copyrights, patents, and trademarks).

This is a very useful book for college and university use, with a clear survey chapter by Spinnello and Tavani identifying issues which students, and courses on IPR, cannot sidestep – what we mean by information and an intellectual object (ideas as such have to expressed in tangible forms), what we mean by personal property, who gains and loses in a networked world, and then implications for digitally networked music, cyberpatents, technical protections, and players in an IT world shaped by multi‐national players. An early section, helpfully for those interested in theoretical underpinnings, examine Locke's ideas about property and ask how far, and if, intellectual property is like other property. An interesting link is made between freeing up IPR and Stallman's Free Software Foundation advocacy, and, later, between the constraints imposed by DMCA and notions of an information commons (this second pragmatically argued).

A further issue of both US and international interest is whether software is copyright or patent, and US thinking is driving software into the patent camp. Bartow (University of South Carolina) contends that too much attention given to possible consumer confusion is, jurisprudentially, driving the law into being over‐protective (trademark holders win too many cases!). For anyone considering IPR and software and consumer law, this hits the spot rather well, especially when it takes off into domain names and cyber‐squatting, where there is a large amount of international interest.

Digital information, too, presents a key challenge to any traditionalist conception of copyright, as Tavani suggests in a thoughtful chapter giving ‘fair use’ a reality check. The cases cited by Spinello (2004) in his contribution of cyber‐trespass (Intel, Ticketmaster, and above all eBay versus Bidder's Edge (BE softbot‐searches auction sites like eBay, and that is where the trouble started) will provide good case‐studies for students, just as they have provided thought‐provoking precedents for those in the business. There is also a thoughtful piece by Mortensen (of Greenspoon Perrault of Montreal) on Canadian regulation, webcasting and law and ethics, where retransmission might be seen as piracy.

This is a topical and useful study of current issues, of particular use to readers teaching and studying IT‐related law and to those building collections to support such courses. Its US context does not exclude its ability to raise issues of relevance to readers elsewhere. Bibliographical sources are helpful too, and the short thematic index is good. Not the only one on the market but one which will certainly play its part in helping newcomers understand the issues better and see that what happens legally in the USA is, in fact, if you look hard, happening all around the world.