Challenges for Copyright by ICT: Copyright Owners

The main concern of copyright owners as the (in terms of income generation) profiteers of intellectual property protection is the facilitation of pirate activities in digital environments.

Reproduction and Distribution

Unlike copies of works made using analog copiers (photocopy machines, video recorders etc.) digital information can be reproduced extremely fast, at low cost and without any loss in quality. Since each copy is a perfect copy, no quality-related limits inhibit pirates from making as many copies as they please, and recipients of these copies have no incentive to return to authorized sources to get another qualitatively equal product. Additionally the costs of making one extra copy of intellectual property online are insignificant, as are the distribution costs if the copy is moved to the end user over the Internet.

Control and Manipulation

In cross-border, global data networks it is almost impossible to control the exploitation of protected works. Particularly the use of anonymous remailers and other existing technologies complicates the persecution of pirates. Also digital files are especially vulnerable to manipulation, of the work itself, and of the (in some cases) therein-embedded copyright management information.

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Codices, 1th century B.C.

The transformation of writings from scrolls to codices, in basic the hardcover book as we know it today, is an essential event in European history. Quoting accurately by page number, browsing through pages and skipping chapters, all impossible while reading scrolls, become possible.

In the computer age we are witnesses to a kind of revival of the scrolls as we scroll upwards and downwards a document we just see a portion of. Maybe the introduction of hypertext is the beginning of a similar change as the replacement of scrolls by codices.

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