~ALIBER-2000. 16-18 February, 2000 Chenna~ - 600 005
@ INFLll3NET Centre, Ahmedebad
-
380 C09C O P Y ' G H T
IN
NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT
A.
LAKSHMANA
MOORTHY
Defence Scientist 'E'
DESIDOC, Metcalfe House, Delhi-110 05.4. E-mail: [email protected]
C
.R. KARISIDDAPPA
Prof & HeadDept. of Lib & inf Science, Karnatak University, Dhaiwad-580 003
Abstract
The developments in the Information Technology have much helped libraries in their day to day opera- tion. However; they also brought with them a number of issues and concerns. One ofthe major issue which concerns publishers, authors and librarians alike is the copyright. The developments in the electronic publishing, computers and communications fields have firther complicated the situation. The vulnerability of digital information for manipulationsmakes the problem aN the more serious. The issue hasprompted many conferences andsymposia, particularly with reference to electronic informa- tion. This paper discusses various issues relating to copyright in the networked environment. Problems relating to copyright oJ electronic information resources on Internet, multimedia works, computer soJhvare, databases, and copyright enforcement have been dealt. Security of information including usage ofcryptography, digitaljnger prints and watermarks to prevent illegal copying over networks has also been discussed
1
INTRODUCTION
In recent times the local, city, regional and the national networks have been growing steadily. The latest additions to this field are the Internet and intranets. Millions of people are connected through these networks and many more millions are expected to join. Plans are on the anvil to introduce a wide varieQ of commercial and other information services over these networks. Already users of electronic information experienced some disputes relating to intellectual property rights (IPRs) and as the computer networks expand, such problems would increase further. This is only because most of the content dstributed over the networks is copyrighted or is under some sort of control regime including contractual licensing. The users, especially in third world countries, do not as yet recognised the implications of these regimes.
Although some recognise copyrighted material, they tend to think that non-con~rnercial distribution is fair
A LAKSHMANA MOORTHY & C R. KARISIDDAPPA 4.19
Networked environment poses a number of problems with respect to the protection of rights. Copyright is the most important of them. Publishers ofelectronic databases protect their rights through contractual and legal licensing agreements. Some publishers like Elsevier offer special packages for a group or con- sortium of libraries. In recent times, Internet saw the emergence and popular acceptance of e-commerce. This pllenomenon is slowly entering developing economies like India. There are many avenues where libraries too can meaningfidly participate in e-commerce. However, caution is to be observed since busi- ness over the Net is wrought with a number of problems. For example, there will be no written chntracts (or written licensing agreements) and the purchases are made on mutual trust. digital/electronic documents are not valid under the present laws.
2
COPYRIGHT IN CYBERSPACE
Already thsre is considerable disagreement between the developed (haves) and developing (have-nots) countries on many issues of IPRs. The ieality is, even the developed countries, when they were in thc category of developing countries, have not respected the copyright interests of authors other than their own. This is true even in the case of the United States, from where Charles Dickens could not get anything out of the publication of his works, when the country was a net importer of intellectual property. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the TRIPS, the GqTT, and the various other organisa- tions are making headway towards creating an environment cond6cive for the export of intellectual property from the technology-rich countries to the developing and iechnology-poor nations.
Cyber laws can include individual laws pertaining to the use of digtal signatures, cryptography law, priva@ law, digital IPRs, digital money laundering, etc. As a first step towards enacting cyber laws, the United Nations International Trade Law in December 1996 drafted a Model Law on Electronic Commerce. This has become the basis for the adoption of cyber laws by many countries. USA, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore have already started the process of enacting such laws (Verma, 1999). A Consumer Protec- tion Act for Digital Products has been proposed in USA to support e-commerce and to control the increasing abuse and lack of security over information highways (Hampel, 1996). Recently UK introduced the Electronics Communications Bill under which the police can denland decryption keys that alloSv encoded material to be read, to bring criminal prosecution against those who use e-mail and Internet for illegal and criminal activities. UK is contemplating an aggressive e-mail surveillance and interception policy to restrict the growing use of Internet by criminals and terroris organisations (The Indian Express, 1 November 1999, p.9). Some countries' policies deny export approvals of secure encryption products to other countries (for example, the USA); some do not allow usage of encryption techniques. Unless the encryption key and algorithm is provided to the authorities, encryption of civilian communications in France is prohibited. Taiwan and South Korea request companies to remove encryption from voice, data, and facsimile telephone connections (Schneiner, 1997, p. 277).
Storing a work in electronic fonn by anyone other than the rights owner is infringement. It is not permitted under the copyright laws of UK, USA or India even for research purposes or private use. Electronic storage and copylng are not explicitly forbidden by some national copyright laws. For example, the French Copyright Law does not prevent the electronic copying and storing of information although it prevents electronic delivery to third parties (Norman, 1995). Some harmonisation in the intellectual property right laws is hecessary to make them universally applicable, as such disparities affect transborder flow of
4.31 COPYRIGHT IN NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT
such soffware is designated as non-exportable. It is also unlawful to damage or threaten to damage electronically or digitally stored data (Wilf, 1994).
Protection of copyright in cyberspace is the most important problem in digital information environment. Existing copyright laws have not been able to catch up with the technological developments in cyberspace At present there is no clarity whether the content of electronic resources on Internet is free or priced. Copyright statements appear in many cases, but are elusive to locate in some cases. It is common to observe copyright notices on advertising and marketing material. Is it necessary that advertising material to be protected by copyright? It can be assumed that publishers of promotional material on the Web, especially advertising and marketing material, implicitly encourage downloading, printing and copying the material for redistribution to more than one for pubIicity (Ardito and Eiblum, 1998).
Even if an electronic resource is free, the present laws do not allow forwarding these items to third parties (colleagues, friends) through e-mail or listservs. Many electronic papers on Internet allow personal and fair use many more lack explicit statements whether they are free or priced. Sending Web pages by e-mail by an intermediary to a colleague or a user amounts to copyright infringement even though no financial gain is involve-d. One can only provide information about the URL where the piece of information appears. Downloading e-mail by tlurd parties is an offence under copyright law. As we move further towards virtual libraries, we may see more and more users, authors and publishers turning to legal redressal. This is one reason that the copyrighted books and other material are expected to be readily available in traditional libraries and not in cyber libraries.
3
CHARACTERISTICS OF DIGITAL INFORMATION
Over the past decade, there has been a steady growth in the e-publications in general and CD-ROM titles in particular. This led to a gradual increase in the electroniddigital information component in the libraries all over the world. There is a growing dependency on electronic resources in the S&T as well as the academic libraries. CD-ROM, the electronic publishing medium, has become an acceptable medium for storage and dissemination of information. More and more academic, R&D and other institutions are turning to CD-ROM technology replacing some of the conventional publications and also entering into license agreements which were not necessary till recently. As the number electronic databases of second-
ary periodicals is growing and almost all of them are available on CD-ROMs, the retrospective and bibliographic searches and reference queries are exclusively conducted using them. Also, during the past few years, there was a
quantum
jump in the electronic/dlgital information resources made available through networks. The various concerns and problems posed by digital information have been discussed else- where (Lakshmana Moorthy and Karisiddappa, 1996,1997,1998a and 1998b). Issues like copyright ofelectronic information including changing electronic environment, the role of electronic information net- works, building local databases and license agreements for electronic information, printing multiple cop- les of copyrighted electronic information, downloadmg, local networking of electronic information on CD- ROMs, and electronic transmission of copyrighted material have been dealt by Duggan (1991). Rutstein,
et a1 (1 993) dealt the impact of copyright law on the electronic environment and the latter's impact on libraries.
A. LAKSHMANA MOORTHY & C.R. KARISIDDAPPA
The electronic transmission of copyrighted material is illegal if done by anyone other than the copyright owner. Even browsing
an
electronic document is a violationof
fair use as the existing fairuse
is applicable only to printed works and amounts to infringement. The online service providers are liable for all usel infringements irrespective of whether they knew it or took preventive steps against it. It is illegal to q 1 j equipment,software,
or services that are capable of circumventing protection of IPRs. This puts manufac- turers atrisk
even if they have no ulterior motive in developing a system or device which can be used by some 'ingenious' users for decryption or circumventing the copyright mechanism. Search engines (like Alta V~sta,Yahoo!)
help in locating tlle relevant information. Similarly, image and photograph search engines can provide details of the images, but they cannot display digital pictures even though for merely helping the users to assess their usefulness. E-mail is a co~nmunication between tlle sender and receiver which may be directed to a single user or many users. Ineither case, access to e-mail by anyone other than those for whom it is meant, is infnngement.Copyright issues are the most important concerns in the digital envirownent. The ease with which digital works can be duplicated, copied, re-distributed and used by multiple users coupled with their compact- ness and relative invisibility have made the producers of digital media products to focus their attention on controlling the use of digital works. Some control through licensing agreements. Digitised documents. especially the multimedia products are prone to rights violations. Many countries are reviewing the current copyright laws to protect the digital media from infringements. Many developed countries such as the USA, Japan, European Commission, Canada, Australia, etc have already enacted tough regulations to overcome the challenges posed by the digital technologies. In
UK,
the e-Lib programme envisages spending of 16 million pounds (US$25 million) over 3 years on a series ofprojects concerning copyright and rights management, usage of electronic resources, multimedia electronic journals, etc.USA has already taken initiative in this direction. The Digital Era Copyright Act and the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act being enacted by the USA, aims at curbing rights violations on Internet. The latter (NET Act) proposes a penalty of US$ 25.000 with a five-year imprisonment for those who distribute illegal copies of material greater than the value of US$2,500. WIPO is also taking steps to cope up with the creation, adoption, transmission and distribution of digital media. Three draft treaties of WIPO were discussed by the member countries and would come into force after ratification by them (Vertna, 1999).
3.1
Databases
COPYRIGHT IN NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT
By running a computer programme on one or more databases, a new database can be created. For example. an SDI profile of a user can be matched with a number of machine-readable databases and a subject- or
-
user-specific database can be created. The computer-generated database thus created can be original only ifthere exists sufficient skill and judgement in the programme and innovation in the database created. Although the contents of the constituent items are not original,because
a reasonable amount of judge- ment in the selection of itemshas
been used in creating it, the newly created database can be considered as compilations or directories for the purposes of copyright.There is difference of opinion with respect to originality and treating a database as intellectual property. The originality and intellectual work in databases include the content selection, internal coordination between the structural elements, the arrangement of all elements of a database, and the contents itself. The Indian and UK laws extend the copyright protection to computer databases, treating them as llterary works. Under Berne Convention, WIPO Copyright Treaty, TRTPS Agreement of World Trade Organisa- tion, and also in many countries including US. copyright rules are applicable to computer databases and
are treated as compilations for this purpose. The European Union Directive on Legal Protection of Databases (introduced from January 1998) extends protection to the structure of the database and covers non- electronic (printed) databases also. It also enables a database owner to forbid or control the extraction or re-use of material taken from a database. Besides copyright laws, the databases are protected under contracts and licensing agreements between the owner of the database and the subscriber (library or institution). In the Indian Copyright Act, compilations including datzbases are classified under literary works. Under the US Copyright Law, compilations of pre-existing material or data are non-copyrightable; the database copyright is provided for under collective works and derivative works. The GATT agree- ments include protection of computer software and databases under copyright laws. The intellectual 'inputs' for selection and arrangement of the contents in a database are the basic features which identi@ a database as original, and these are protected through copyright. However, the data or material included in a database is not copyrightable.
Many database producers and vendors allow users, through license agreements, to download a portion of the database on to a 'temporary file' for research purposes under fair use principle. However, there is no clear cut guidelines as to how much data can be downloaded at a time. In the case of printed documents, depending upon the size ofthe original, up to 5-10 per cent of the original document can be photocopied under fair use. The same fair use principle cannot be applied in the case of databases as even 5 per cent material would be large when cumulative and large databases are used. And, when such downloading is made regularly over a period. say 2-3 years, then the resulting database would be considerably large. Such issues would become more frequent since users would like to keep the useful downloaded data in their personal library, much the same way they retain and maintain photocopies of articles in areas of their interest for re-use.
A. LAKSHMANA MOORTHY & C.R. KARISIDDAPPA 4.23 Bibliographic databases contain abstracts of mostly copyrighted material which are already published articles or documents.
If
these abstracts are short and condensed, report the facts in and do not substitute the original articles, there can be no infringement of rights. If,on the other hand. the abstracts act as substitutes, to original text by reproducing them, then they are likeiy to be treated as copyright violation. In other words, abstracts should be surrogates leading the readers to the original articles to avoid copy- right infnngement.3.2
Multimedia
Works
Like their digital counterparts, multi~nedia works are also prone to the infringen~ent of copyright. as the lncreaslng availab~lity of high bandnldth networks makes ii too easy to illegally duplicate and dlsse1111- nate these documents without any loss of quality. The legal status of lnultlmed~a works is not clear Multimedia works are covered and classlfied under aud~o visual works by the USA. UK and Indian la\\s When ~~lultltnedia works are con~~niss~oned under contract, they are treated as works made for hlre where the copyright owner will be the perso~inst~tution who conlmiss~oned the work However, mere payment for the work does not amount to ownership unless it is clearly dishnguished in wrltlng as work made under contract This also applies to software developed by another subcontractor as a part of a multimedia work (Wilf, 1994)
The growth of networked multimedia calls for image copyright protection to make it conlnlercially viable and success. This is achieved using signal processing, data compression. encryption and system level security protection. Another way is the incorporation of an invisible watermark (or a digital signature). However, it is easily identified by a computer progranlme which decodes the key used to affix a watermark in a particular location on a page or part of the document and retrieves it. These invisible watermarks are of two types: those which are destroyed when subjected to manipulations and those which cannot be destroyed. V~sible watermarks
can
also be usedas
deterrents to nlultimedia piracy (Garofalakis, et al, 1997). Usage of watermarks can iden* the legal owner (for example the creator) of the rpultimedia work, the recipient of an authorised single user copy, and when it is modified or tampered (Civanlar and Reibnlan, 1997). The Multimedia Protection Protocol (MPP) is another convenient way of ensuring IPR for all types of digital data (Rump, 1997). Wolfgang andDelf (1996) described two techniques of invisible watermarking of inultilnedia images which can detect all but the most minute changes in the image.3.3
Computer Software
Computer software is an important component affecting every aspect of the day-to-day Iife of an infonna- tion conscious society. Downloading computer software, including free ware and share ware. is a common feature of nehvofked environment, The global computer software industty has been steadily growing and the global revenues of computer software for the year 1995 stood at US$ 285 billion: this is expected to reach US$ 530 billion by the year 2000. The software segment of the computer industry in India gained recognition with the formulatiqn of the computer software policy in 1986. Software sector is one of the fastest growing among the electronics industry. During 1991-92 and 1995-96, it has been growing with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55 per cent. Although, the exported software share in the global market is very low (less than 1 per cent), in the customized software sentices (OEM professional services), Indla com~nands more than 16.7 per cent share (NASSCOM, 1997, p.34). The software industry is expected to touch Rs 56300 crores by the end of Ninth Plan with a CAGR of 54 per cent (DOE, 1997. p. 105- 106)
4.24 COPYRIGHT IN NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT
particular task or achieve a particular result. Software can be copied any number of times. Unlike photo- copies, the second generation copies (i.e., illegal copies of illegal copies made from original) of s o h a r e can be used without any loss of 'quality'. One cannot distinguish between the pirated software that is illegally sold or freely distributed and could be used as original ones. Each year the software industry is losing billions due to theft or piracy or illegal copying of software.
A number of nations had interpreted their copyright laws to include computer programmes for protection. The European Commission and Council took a leading role to protect colllputer programmes. and deriva- tive and digital works. Prior to the adoption in 1991 of the European Directive on the protection of computer programmes, there was a general acceptance in Europe of copyright as a form legal protection of computer software. The Council Directive (91/250/EEC) of 1991 aimed at harmonising the legal protec- tlon throughout the European Community. The European Union 1992 Copyright Directive on Rental and Lending fights (921100lEEC) extends exclusive right to all copyrighted work: public library lendlng of computer software and CD-ROMs is an offence unless there is a permission or license for doing so. France protects computer software and categorises it under industrial art. Gennan law requires demon- stration of the software to satisfy the originality standard of copyright law. Japan is the first nation to consider adoption of a sui generis approach to the protection of cornputer programmes. The Indian law extends protection to computer software and computer-generated works and treats sto)ing of a work in any medium by electronic means as infringement. While some countries amended existing laws to extend copyright protection, a few countries provide patent protection computer software.
A number of methods have been in use for making computer software difficult to copy. These include hardware and software locks or dongles. A computer program is run only if the lock (or dongle) is in place. Some used the scrambling of program code on the magnetic disc or alterations to the disc directory. However, no sooner the protection nlechanisms appear in the market, than the devices designed to overcome these have appeared. Even the dongles have been defeated. But the law controls such acts as deliberate acts of designing devices to circumvent the copyright protection mechanisms adopted by the rights owners. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 of UK (section 296) provides protection from making, incorporation, sale or hire etc of devices or means specifically designed or adapted to
circumvent copy protection of works in electronic form by treating such acts as infringement of copyright (Bainbridge, 1993, p. 188).
4
SECURITY
OF INFORMATION OVER NETWORKS
It is easy to create digital or digitised copies of text, photographs, music and video. Further. digital infonnation is highly vulnerable to manipulatio~ls like additions, deletions, etc resulting in plagiarism.The most popular way to protect rights and provide secure access to electronic journals over networks such as Internet is through the usage of passwords. Many electronic journal publishers and vendors use this time-tested (by database vendors) mechanism. The Security and Rights Management System of IS1 Electronic Library Project (Anderson and Lotspiech, 1995) employs password for providing secure view- ing at the client level and digitally signed finger prints for authenticity. Blackwell offers Electronic Journal Navigator service and allows subscribers/end-users log on and browse journals regardless of the storage format or location. The access is through user name and password. Elsevier Science introduced ScienceDirect service, a full text electronic information resource service of nearly 1000 journals, which also is operated through user name and password.
A. LAKSHMANA MOORTHY & C.R KARISIDDAPPA
4 . 2 3
right Management System (Ercoms) of De Montford University, and the Electronic
Library
-1nfanna-tion Retrieval Online Project (ELINOR) of Milton Keynes (all
from
UK);
Project Cited of theCommission; RightPages
TM
Service of Bell Laboratories,TULIP
of Elsevier, Security andRights-.
agement System of the ISI, and OCLC and Copyright Clearance
Centre
(all from USA) (fbr a tion of some of these, see Lakshmana Moorthy and Karisiddappa, 1996,1997 and 1998b).Security of information in a network environment involves three different aspects: authentication, that
is,
knowledge of the identity of sender to the receiver (and vice versa); confidentiality, that is, the message sent has not been intercepted by a third person; and integrity that the message is not tampered during transmission. One way to discourage illegal and illicit copying and distribute over the networks is the electronic marking and identification technique. In this, the system automatically generates and puts a unique and indiscernible mark on each of the document copies and registers its recipient. If any one receives an illicit copy (by illegal copying), the systeni detects the unique mark froill the copy and identifies the illegal recipient. The marking is such that it is difficult for an illegal user to discover the unique marking pattern in the user's document. This technique can be used to protect copyright of electronic publishing where a document is printed, copied or faxed (Low, et al, 1995) through electronic means. Employment of encryption protocols (public, private and split-key) wherein every bit of informa- tion is encrypted at the server end and decrypted at the recipient's end is another technique. The mecha- nism is such that the cost of reverse engineering (unauthorised decryption of messages by others) is too high and uneconomical, thereby discouraging people from attempting it. Under these protocols the document server encodes, encrypts and compresses the electronic document before sending to a bonafide user. The copyright server authenticates the requests from the user for obtaining documents. A s o h a r e provided by the publisher at the user's terminal decrypts, displays and prints the document received from document server. The privacy of the user is ensured by encrypting the requests made by the user, and the document server authenticates the request with a variety of passwords, public encryption keys, etc (Choudhary, et al, 1995).
Effective protection of information resources requires on going analysis of computer and network re- sources. Networks operating in Unix environment pose a host of problems. Unix host- and network-based security products have to meet the increasing complexities and challenges in information security. Fur- ther, host-based information techniques and tools must be supported by network-based capabilities. Security Profile Inspector, a technique to perform real time static analyses of Unix-based clients and serves to clleck on their security configuration; and Network Intrusion Detector, a dynamic tool to identify weak links in a network of clients and servers, monitor and analyse activity on LAN segments and produce transcripts of suspicious user connections have been in use in the US (Feingold,et al, 1996). One of the oldest ways to ensure security and privacy of information in cyberspace is the usage of cryptograplly. This involves scrambling (or encryption) of the information to render it unreadable or ununderstandable language which only the legitimate user can unscramble (or decrypt). This technique can be used to protect confidential information from eavesdropping, preventing computer viruses and illegal copying of software etc. Cryptography can be used
as
an envelop for information sent via e-mail and file transfers. Digital signatures of information like buyerlseller identity numbers, date, time, unique transaction number etc can be added to digital products. By usingthis
technique it is possible to digitally mark and bind a software product for transferring to a specified customer. Some of the technologies including cryptography, digital watermarks and digital signatures for security of infonnation over networks and are discussed elsewhere (Lakshmana Moorthy and Karisiddappa, 1998a & 1998b).COPY RIGHT IN NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT
mcluded in
a
document, enables protectio~~ of ownership rights of digital information. Unlike encryption which warrants file transformation making it not understandable unless encrypted, digital watermarking leaves the original document intact and viewable. However, these watermarks persist during viewing, printing or retransmitting, thereby establishing ownership.These
watermarks can be removed by the legal user with a predetermined algorithm. When combined with new trackingservices
offered by some compa- nles that provide the watermarking technology, copyright ownerscan
find all illegal copies of their workson Internet and take legal action. Digital watermarKing technology is helpful for the Webmasters in that they can ensure only IawfUi image and audio files are used, thus protecting against copyright infringe- ment. Argent, Cognicity, Copysight, EIKONAnmk, Giovanni, JK-PGS, Musicode, Digimarc, PixelTag, StirMark, Suresign, SysCoR unZign, etc are some of the watennarking tools available in the market place for the purpose (Roy, 1999).
Apart from authentication. detection of unauthorised source of legal copies, the visible watermark also helps in discouraging illegal copying Invisible watermarks can also perform these tasks. A detailed account of watennarking technology including counterfeiting schemes is discussed by Berghel(1997). When an illegal copy bears watermark, the source of the piracy can be established. The Security and hghts Management System of IS1 Electronic Library Project einploys encryption and watermarks for secure printing, guaranteed document authenticity by means of a digitally signed finger print. Two types of watermarks are added to discourage ur~authorised copying : one hidden in the image file of each page of the electronic article, and the other, a visible water mark encoding one Kbyte information in a two- dimensional bar code placed on the first page of each article. The illegal copies will not have the bar code which means that copyright infringement has taken place.
5
INDIAN SCENARIO
The Copyright (Amendment) Act 1994 (came in to force from May 1995) enlarged the scope of the term 'author' to mean 'in relation to any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work wl~ich is computer generated, the person who causes the work to be created. ' The enlargement of the meaning of the term author makes the creators of the computer generated literary, artistic, dramatic and musical works cavered under the
alnbit of copyright. The definition of ' l i t e r q work' was amended to include the computer programnles, tables and compilations including computer databases. A computer programnte is defined as a set of instructions expressed in words. codes, scheines or in any other for111 i~tcluding
a
machine readable medium, capable ofcausing a computer to perform a particular task or achieve a particular result.The Act 1957 allows making of copies of colnputer software by the la~Yful buyer for fair use. It is not ~nfrtngement if tlie copies are made to utilise the computer software for the purpose for which it was supplied or to make back up copies purely as a tenlporary protection against loss, destruction or damage.
As per the Section 52 of the Act, if
a
person knowingly makes use of a copy ofa
co~~lputerprograrnrne for (personal) gain in the course of trade or business, it is treated as an infringement of copyright. The arl~ended Act also protects the creators of the computer-generated works and includes computer pro- gralnlnes. tables and compilations including computer databases.Section 14 of the Indian Cop-yright Act (amendment) prohibits the sale or hiring of (or offering for sale or hiring of) any copy of computer programme without the authorisation of the copyright holder. Even tl~ougl~ an organisatio~dinstitution purchases a legal copy of software, the law prohibits its duplication or ~naking multiple copies for use by different constituent divisions or units or users in tlie same organisa- tiold institution. If an infringement of copyright is established in a civil or criminal coua of law, the defaulter is liable for punishment 1vil11 imprisonment up to three years or
a
fine of an amount up to Rs 2 laid1A. LAKSHMANA MOORTHY 8 C.R. KARISIDDAPPA 4.27
'
holders. Although the procedure for W n g suitable action against the infringements has
been
simplifiedin the amended Act, a number of problems persist in enforcing the law (Kumar, 1997).
A few Bills are pending with the government for protection of various
IPRs.
These
include Patents (Amendment) Bill, Tradenlark's Bill and Designs Bill, and Geograplucal Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Bill. Apart from these bills, the government is also contemplating toenact
a law for protection of plant varieties and formers' rights. The Union Cabinet recently cleared the introduction of the GeographicaI Indication of Goods Bill. This Bill will protect Basmati rice, Darjeeling tea, andsuch
other goods that are native to India. Enactment of legislation in these areas will enable the nation to discharge the comn~itments under the trade-related IPRs(TRIPS)
agreement (The Indian Express, 20 November1999, p. 1 1). T l ~ e E-Commnerce Act of Ministry of Cotnn~erce is also pending with the government.
The government IS in the process of taking measures for t11e'~rowth of Internet and e-con~merce. It 1s
expected that by the end of fiscal year 2000-01. a major~e of districts will be able to access Internet througl~ fibre opt~cs. Despite the low penetration of PCs. poor co~n~nunication infrastructure, govern- ment's lnonopoly (till recently) over providing connectivity and other related hindrances, Internet has been steadily growing in the country. Within ayear of becoming the first private Internet service provider (ISP) in the country, S a w n Cnfoways
has
crossed the I lakh subscriber mark (The Deccan Chronicle, 2 I November 1999, p. 15). As more and more ISPs are joining the fray, this willsee
a steep growth. As per an estimate, there were 2.8 lakh Internet subscribers and 8 lakh users in May 1999. E-commerce also took roots in the country. A recent survey by NASSCOM put tlle e-business during the fiscal year 1999-2000 at Rs 300 crores which is expected to reach Rs 20,000 crore by the end of 2002 (The Hindustan 7imes, 23 September 1999, p. 15). But there is no legal framework as yet to govern cyber commerce in the country. The Union Cabinet has recently approved the Information Technology Bill proposed by the Department of Electronics (DOE) to facilitate electronic communications and e-commerce, and to curb computer crimes. The Bill proposes amendments to the Indian Evidence Act (Section 2); and the RBI Act 1934. Salient features of the Bill include,(a) Expressing acceptance of contract by electronic means ofconlmunications (unless otherwise agreed),
(b) Facilitating electronic recourse in trade and commerce,
(c) Eliminating barriers to e-commerce resulting from uncertainties over writing and signature requirements,
(d) Promoting the legal and business infrastructure development necessary to implement e-commerce,
(e) Proposing a legal framework for authentication electronic record or communication through digital signature, and
(f) Appointing certification authorities for licensing, certifying and monitoring.
The Bill also proposes penalties for computer crimes such as unauthorised access to computer networks and databases, damaging or disruption of conlputer systems and services, illegal copying of software and tampering with computer source documents, electronic forgery, spreading computer virus, etc. In the interest of sovereignty, integrity and security of tlle state, the Bill proposes to enlpower the government to prevent acts of inciting (The Indian Express, 5 November 1999, p. 1 1).
6
CONCLUSION
4.28 COPYRIGHT IN NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT
-
accepted
as
a
part of fair use for at least some more time. Also, the current copyright laws have to beheavily modified to suit to the digital and networked environment. It is envisaged that the electronic file transfer would replace interlibrary loan and photoduplication in near future (Basch, 199 1). This
can
lead tomany
issues asin
a
networked environment a digital document can potentially replace all printed copies and stillcan
be accessed by multiple users simultaneously. Remote access and downloading can virtually make one single document enough for all the libraries and users of the network.Copyright owners of digital media will be against the proliferation of derivative works. They would also resist otliers getting benefit out of the derived works. However, for a niche in the market, the value-added providers of derivative works and information services and products would be competing with each other and also with their lawfid owners. At the moment, unless a sizeable portion ofthe digital work is incorpo- rated in a derivative work, the latter is not regarded as an infringement of copyright (Samuelson, 1993, p.316).
The library professionals in India have not yet been able to appreciate the h l l ramifications of copyright and other IPRs in the fast changing technological developments. While networks in general and Internet in specific are perceived
as
panacea for all information-related problems, their implications on copyright- related aspects are little understood. It is therefore necessary to that all library scl~ools include at least some aspects of intellectual property rights, their relevance, and protection to make the library profes- sionals discharge their duties more efficiently.7
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are thaddiil to Dr Mohinder Singh, Director, DESIDOC for providing facilities and for permis- sion to present this paper in the Convention. Thanks are also due to Smt K Shailaja Reddy for her secretarial assistance.
8
REFERENCES
1. Anderson, Laura Challman and Lotspiech, Jeffrey B. Rights management and security in the electronic library. Bulletin of the American Societyfor Information Science, 1995,22(1), 2 1-23.
2. Ardito, Stephanie C and Eiblum, Paula. Conflicted copyrights
-
inevitability : Death, taxes and copy- right. Online, January-February 1998,22(1), 81-85.3. Bainbridge, David I. Intellectual property. London, Pitman, 1993.446 p. Chapter 8: New technology and copyright, pp. 158-1 92.
4. Barrett, Neil. Digital crime: Policing the cybernation. London, Kogan Page, 1997.224
p.
5. Basch, Reva. Books online: Visions, plans and perspectives for electronic text. Online, 1991,15(3), 13- 23.
6. Berghel, Hal. Digital village: watennarking cyberspace. Con2rnunicatrons of the AChf, N~cvellkr 1997, 40(1 l), 19-24.
7. Choudhary. Ablujit K.; Maxemchuk, Nicholas F. Paul, Sanjay and Schulzrinne, Henning G. Copyright protection for electronic publishing over computer networks. IEEE Nehvork, May-June 1995,9(3), 12-20.
8. Civanlar, Reha and Reibman, Amy. Signal processing for networked multimedia. IEEE Signal Pmcess-
A. LAKSHMANA MOORTHY & C.R. KARISIDDAPPA 4.29
9. The Deccan Chronicle, 2 1 November 1999, p. 15.
10. DOE. Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002): Electronic Industry. New Delh, DOE, 1997. 174 p.
11. Duggan, Mary Kay. Copyright of electronic information: Issues and questions. Online, 1991,15(3), 20-26.
12. Feingold, Richard; Bruestle, Harry R.; Bartoletti; Tony; Saroyan, Allyn and Fischer, John. Verifying the secure setup of Unix clientlserver and detection of network intrusion. In Proceedings of the Conference on Information Protection and Network Security, 24-26 October 1995, Philadelphia. V i o r E. Hampel and CliffordBarlow Neumann (Eds). SPlE proceedings, Vol. 2616. Waslington, D.C., SPIE,
1996. p ~ . 55-64.
13. Gapen, D. Kayne. Virtual library : An information kit. Waslungton, D.C., SLA, 1994. 54 p.
I
14. Garofalakis, John; Kappos, Panagiotis; Sirmakessis, Spiros and Tzirnas, G~annis. Digtal data process- ing for intellectual property rights protection over World Wide Web. In Proceedings of Thirteenth International Conference on Digital Signal Processing (DSP 97), 2-4 July 1997. New York, IEEE, 1997. Vol. 2, pp. 833-836.
15. Gupta, V.K. Database protection. Current trends and issues. Information Today and Tomorrow, July- September 1996,15(3), 8-16.
16. Hainpel, V~ktor E. A Consumer Protection Act for Digital Products. In Proceedings of the Conference on Information Protection and Network Security, 24-26 October 1995, Philadelphia. Viktor E. Hampel and ClBordBarlow Neumann
(Eds).
SPlE prooxdings, V. 26 16. Washington, D.C., SPIE, 1996. pp. 145-158.17. The Hindustan Times, 23 September 1999, p.15.
18. The Indian Express, 1 November 1999, p. 9; 5 November 1999, p. 11; 20 November 1999, p. 1 1.
19. Kumar, Arvind. Problems of copyright enforcement in India. Information Today and Tomorrow, April- June 1997,16(2), 8- 16 (reproduced fiom Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, January 1997,2(1)).
20. Lakshmana Moorthy, A. and Karisiddappa, C.R. Copyright and electronic information. In Access to Electronic Information: Papers presented at Sixteenth Annual Convention and Conference on Access toElectronic Information, 25-29 January 1997, Bhubaneswar. M. Mahaptra, et al. (Eds). New Delhi. SIS, 1997. pp. 403-416.
21. Lakshmana Moorthy, A. and Karisiddappa, C.R. Electronic publishing: Impact and implications on library and information centres. In Digital libraries: Dynamic store house of digitized information. Papers presented at the SIS 96: Fifteenth Annual Convention and Conference, 18-20 January 1996, Bangalore. N.M. Malwaaet al. (Eds). New Delhi, New Age International Publishers, 1996. pp. 15-35.
22. Lakshmana Moorthy, A. and Karisiddappa, C.R. Intellectual property rights and virtual libraries. In Towards the new information society of tomorrow : Innovations, challenges and impact. Papers pre- sented at the 49th FID conference and Congress, New Delh, 1 1-17 October 1998. N.M. Malwad, el a1
(Eds). New Delhi, INSDOC, 1998a. pp. IV5 1 - 6 1 , FID Publication No. 719.
COPYRIGHT IN NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT
24. Losey, Ralph C.; Subin, Shams and Rosenbluth, Moran. Practical and legal protection of computer databases. [email protected]
25. Low, Steven H. ; Lapore, Aleta M. and Maxernchuk, Nicholas F. Document identification to discourage illicit copying. In Proceedings of GLOBECOM 95,13-17 November 1995, Singapore. New York, IEEE, 1995. M12, pp 1203-1208.
26. NASSCOM. NASSCOM's guide to IPR law in India : A guide for copyrighting software. Mumbai, NASSCOM, 1996.42 p.
27. Norman, Sandy. Electronic copyright -a time to act. LibraryAssociation Record, 1995,97(4), 209. 28. Roy. Atanu. Techtrends : The copyright crawlers : Digital atermarking. Computers Today, 16-30 April
1999,15(177), 90-92.
29. Rump, Neils. Copyright protection of multimedia data : The multimedia Protection Protocol (MMP)
(http:llwww.its.fhg.deJdeparts/ amm/layer3/mmp/).
30. Rutstein, Joel S.; DeMiller, Anna L. and Fuseler, Elizabeth A. Ownership versus access: Shifting perspectives for libraries. In Advances in librarianship, Vo1.17. Irene
P.
Godden (Ed). New York, Aca- demic Press, 4993. pp. 3 3.
-60.31. Samuelson, Pamela. A case study on computer programs. In Global dimensions of intellectual prop- erty rights in science and technology. Wallerstein, Michael B. et a1 (Eds). Washington, D.C., National Academy press, 1993. Chapter 12, pp. 284-3 18.
32. Samuelson, Pamela. Copyright and digital libraries. Communications of the ACM, 1995,38(4), 15- 21,110.
33. Schneiner, Bruce. E-mail security. In The electronic privacy papers : Documents on the battle for privacy in the age of surveillance. Bruce Schneiner and David Banisar (Eds). New York, John Wiley, 1997. pp. 275-284.
31. k r m a , Yograj. Talking their own course. Dataquest, 3 1 May 1999,17 (lo), 48-53.
Wilf, Frederic M. Legal aspects of multimedia productions. In The McGraw-Hill multimedia handbook, Jessica Keyes (Ed). New York, McGraw-Hill, 1994. Chapter 17.
35. Wolfgang, Raymond B and Delp, Edward J. A watermark for digtal images. In Proceedings of the third
