Timeline BC

~ 1900 BC: Egyptian writers use non-standard Hieroglyphs in inscriptions of a royal tomb; supposedly this is not the first but the first documented example of written cryptography

1500 an enciphered formula for the production of pottery is done in Mesopotamia

parts of the Hebrew writing of Jeremiah's words are written down in "atbash", which is nothing else than a reverse alphabet and one of the first famous methods of enciphering

4th century Aeneas Tacticus invents a form of beacons, by introducing a sort of water-clock

487 the Spartans introduce the so called "skytale" for sending short secret messages to and from the battle field

170 Polybius develops a system to convert letters into numerical characters, an invention called the Polybius Chequerboard.

50-60 Julius Caesar develops an enciphering method, later called the Caesar Cipher, shifting each letter of the alphabet an amount which is fixed before. Like atbash this is a monoalphabetic substitution.

TEXTBLOCK 1/3 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611776/100438659084
 
Public Relations and the Advertising Industry

The public relations industry, the same as advertising, is concentrated in the hands of few dominant firms. Still, the striking element about corporate public relations is that PR firms are tightly related to advertising companies. Nine out of the ten biggest international PR agencies have close ties with the advertising industry. Also, looking at the largest acquisitions involving U.S. PR firms from 1997 to 1999 it is apparent that money coming from advertising agencies has played an important role.


Table: Top 10 PR Firms 1998


Rank 1998

PR Firm

Advertising Agency Related

1998 Net Fees (in U.S. $)

1997 - 1998 % Change

1

Burson-Marsteller

yes

258,417,000

4.2

2

Hill and Knowlton

yes

206,000,000

8.9

3

Porter Novelli Int.

yes

183,050,000

23.6

4

Shandwick

yes

170,300,000

7.3

5

Fleishman-Hillard

yes

160,692,000

19.1.

6

Edelman PR Worldwide

no

157,840,530

18.1

7

Ketchum

yes

125,248,000

29.6

8

BSMG Worldwide

yes

118,963,000

93.0

9

Weber PR Worldwide

yes

83,166,000

36.2

10

GCI/APCO

yes

79,667,957

28.4




With many PR agencies sold to advertising companies, the advertising industry's influence further increases; enabling them to offer their clients not only advertising services, but also know-how in marketing, public opinion, crisis and issues management and political lobbying.

Table: Acquisition of PR Agencies (1997 - 1999)

Acquired Company

Buyer

Buyers Industry

Estimated Purchase Price (in millions of U.S. $)

International PR

Interpublic Group of Cos.

Advertising

230

Fleishman-Hillard

Omicom Group

Advertising

85

Ketchum

Omnicom Group

Advertising

60

Dewe Rogerson

Incepta

Advertising

40

Financial Rel. Bd.

BSMG/TN

Public Relations

33

Weber PR

Interpublic Group of Cos.

Advertising

15

Alexander

WPP Group

Advertising

15

Charles Barker

BSMG/TN

Public Relations

15



Source: Odwyerpr.com.

TEXTBLOCK 2/3 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611652/100438658092
 
Challenges for Copyright by ICT: Digital Content Providers

Providers of digital information might be confronted with copyright related problems when using some of the special features of hypertext media like frames and hyperlinks (which both use third party content available on the Internet to enhance a webpage or CD ROM), or operate a search engine or online directory on their website.

Framing

Frames are often used to help define, and navigate within, a content provider's website. Still, when they are used to present (copyrighted) third party material from other sites issues of passing off and misleading or deceptive conduct, as well as copyright infringement, immediately arise.

Hyperlinking

It is generally held that the mere creation of a hyperlink does not, of itself, infringe copyright as usually the words indicating a link or the displayed URL are unlikely to be considered a "work". Nevertheless if a link is clicked on the users browser will download a full copy of the material at the linked address creating a copy in the RAM of his computer courtesy of the address supplied by the party that published the link. Although it is widely agreed that the permission to download material over the link must be part of an implied license granted by the person who has made the material available on the web in the first place, the scope of this implied license is still the subject of debate. Another option that has been discussed is to consider linking fair use.

Furthermore hyperlinks, and other "information location tools", like online directories or search engines could cause their operators trouble if they refer or link users to a site that contains infringing material. In this case it is yet unclear whether providers can be held liable for infringement.

TEXTBLOCK 3/3 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659590
 
Montage

Certain elements of two or more photographs can be put together, mixed, and the outcome is a new picture. Like this, people can appear in the same picture, even "sit at the same table" though they have never met in reality.

INDEXCARD, 1/3
 
DMCA

The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) was signed into law by U.S. President Clinton in 1998 and implements the two 1996 WIPO treaties (WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty and WIPO Copyright Treaty). Besides other issues the DMCA addresses the influence of new technologies on traditional copyright. Of special interest in the context of the digitalization of intellectual property are the titles no. 2, which refers to the limitation on the liability of online service providers for copyright infringement (when certain conditions are met), no. 3, that creates an exemption for making a copy of a computer program in case of maintenance and repair, and no. 4 which is concerned with the status of libraries and webcasting. The DCMA has been widely criticized for giving copyright-holders even more power and damage the rights and freedom of consumers, technological innovation, and the free market for information.

INDEXCARD, 2/3
 
Convergence, 2000-

Digital technologies are used to combine previously separated communication and media systems as telephony, audiovisual technologies and computing to new services and technologies, thus forming extensions of existing communication systems and resulting in fundamentally new communication systems. This is what is meant by today's new buzzwords "multimedia" and "convergence".

Classical dichotomies as the one of computing and telephony and traditional categorisations no longer apply, because these new services no longer fit traditional categories.

INDEXCARD, 3/3