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Intellectual property issues...

Intellectual property issues in the digital age have been important to this writer since the mid 1970's. These are some pointers / pieces relating to some of these issues...

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Senator Hatch presented this very broad copyright bill. We've presented the summary his office originally made available. This bill would have VERY significant affects covering not only WIPO (databases), but also lots of Internet-related aspects --- some which may have a long-term and potentially negative affect on online users.

Some links about the proposed UCC changes re: shrinkwraps and clickwraps!

The IEEE USA's Intellectual Property Committee

Some interesting reports

Some interesting links to other sites

Model Jury Instructions

These are the 1993 version of the Model Civil Jury Instructions developed by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court. There is a wealth of legal information here -- mainly related to intellectual property!

The UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) is being re-written. This will have a dramatic impact on things... e.g. making shrinkwrap licenses binding. A nice background piece is Article 2B Issues: Meeting the Information Age and the site with the current revision is UCC 2B Revision Home Page

Here are some personal comments on the UCC 2B rewrite by Glenn Tenney. If you think that this doesn't affect you, then please consider... More and more companies and government agencies are publishing their manuals, forms, and documents in PDF files. Yet the only program you can get to view or print these PDF files requires you to agree to a "clickwrap". Do you really want that clickwrap to become the "law of the land"?

The University of California Berkeley is hosting a conference on UCC 2B issues 23-25 April 1998.

A trade association of software publishers provides space for a site with a variety of UCC 2B resources: The 2B Guide

Where to send comments:

Professor Raymond T. Nimmer (rnimmer@uh.edu)
Leonard Childs Professor of Law
University of Houston Law Center
Houston, TX 77204-6370
1-713-743-2152

and

National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws
676 North St. Clair St. #1700
Chicago, IL 60611

The IEEE-USA has an Intellectual Property Committee (the IPC) that is very active in IP related issues (and I'm the vice-chair of this committee). The following are a few papers from that site.

IEEE-USA Position/University Intellectual Property Policy

IEEE-USA Testimony: The Patent System and Modern Technology Needs

I've got a few pictures and other notes with a personal view of this committee. See what the IEEE-USA office in DC looks like... IPC member Robert Ledley won the National Medal of Technology in 1997 and you can find a picture of him there too.

The GAO issued a report on patent application pendency and delays. Here's a summary of the GAO report and you'll find the link there to the full report.

The AIPLA generated a survey report on the costs of obtaining and enforcing intellectual property rights. Here's a summary of the AIPLA survey report.

Newspapers are asking their freelance writers to sign new contracts that ask them to sign-over republication and new media rights. Here are two pieces on this that should make everyone (publishers, writers, even freelance programmers) think... A piece about the Chicago Tribune and a piece about the Boston Globe.

Here are some related sites. Some we agree with, some we don't... but they're all interesting.

On Intellectual Property Issues

The Digital Future Coalition

Software Industry Issues

The EFF's Intellectual Property Page

Specifically on Copyrights

The Library of Congress -- All about copyrights

Telnet to the Library of Congress for searches

The Library of Congress -- pending legislation re: Intellectual Property

Terry Carroll's FAQ on Copyrights

Hal Abelson's list of readings on Intellectual Property

Specifically on Patents