A very different form of voluntary disinformation are the calls for donations. Donations offer the possibility to do something good, to help the poor. Afterwards one does no longer have to feel guilty for being luckier than those "others". The same pictures of starving and desperate children for decades, of starving babies with big sad eyes. The pictures show a terrible life. But the idea that contributing money would change the destiny of those children and other people is a lie. States use their population for paying money to make the states' policy less unjust. In fact the money of the Western donators perpetuates the dependence and because of this prolongs the misery into a vicious circle of disinformation on both sides, but it is clever to have one's people believing that they can change the world.
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Prices of products get changed all the time, also depending on the website where one starts his/her search for a certain product. The difference between the prices even for the same product vary up till 200% and more. Some search machines in the internet do not show certain several enterprises whereas others (mostly national ones) get preference in the lists.
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Globalization is another disinformation we are not doing anything against; and it has a system. It pretends that the entire world is one, but in reality it seems that there exist various lifestyles, chosen or not, that do not connect to each other. The idea of globalization undermines the fight for one world as it suggests that this one world, where all fight for the same ideals and belong together, has already come into existence. We should rather doubt that it ever will.
The disinformation in this case has worked so perfectly that in the meantime even the profoundest skeptics seem to no longer doubt the existence of globalization.
Globalization of course is a very important part of modern mass-media, too. They associate. Through globalization the access to the news gets easier. People cannot only watch the national news but also others. And this means an opening, one would think. But as the media tend to associate their reports as well, homogenization of the messages is the consequence; disinformation?
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Disinformation's tools emerged from science and art.
And furthermore: disinformation can happen in politics of course, but also in science:
for example by launching ideas which have not been proven exactly until the moment of publication. e.g. the thought that time runs backwards in parts of the universe:
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The magic word is credibility.
Disinformation can mean leaving out important informations. Telling lies is not the only method of disinformation. The not telling also creates thoughts and delegates them into certain directions, whereas other models of thinking are left out.
Like this, the deaths on the own side are adjusted downwards whereas the victims of the enemy are counted proudly - as long as they are not civilians. The post-Gulf War period demonstrated how the population reacts if the number of innocent victims is much higher than expected. It was the fact of those numbers that provoked the biggest part of the post-war critique.
The media in democratic states tend to criticize this, which does not mean that they always want to be free of governmental influence. They can choose to help the government in a single case by not writing anything against it or by writing pro-government stories.
At the same time every democracy has undemocratic parts in it - which is already part of democracy itself. There are situations when a democratic government may find it essential to put pressure on the media to inform the population in a certain way; and also censorship is nothing that can only be connected to dictatorship; just think of the Falkland War, the Gulf-War or the Kosovo-War.
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During the Kosovo Crisis and during the war that followed, and probably also after it, all sides of the conflict were manipulating their people and others as well, whenever they could. Some of the propaganda shown on TV was as primitive as in World War II, others were subtler. This propaganda started by telling the history of the geographic point of discussion from the own point of view, it went on with the interpretation of the motives of the enemy and finally came to censorship, manipulation of the number of victims ( for more information see:
http://www.oneworld.org/index_oc/kosovo/kadare.html , spreading of atrocity stories and so on.Many journalists and scientists are still working to detect more propaganda and disinformation stories.
An interesting detail about this war was that more people than ever before took their information about the war out of the internet. In part this had to do with the biased TV-reports on all sides. All parties put their ideas and perspectives in the net, so one could get an overview of the different thoughts and types of disinformation.
One of the big lies of
The Serbs were not better than Western governments and media, which worked together closely. Serb TV showed the bombed targets and compared persons like
More:
http://www.voa.gov/editorials/08261.htm (91)http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/progresp/vol3/prog3n22.html (92)http://www.serbia-info.com/news (93)http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/Belgrade041399.html (94)http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1999/08/SAID/12320.html (95)TEXTBLOCK 6/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611661/100438658714
Art has always contributed a lot to disinformation.
Many modern tools for disinformation are used in art/photography.
Trillions of photographs have been taken in the 20th century. Too many to look at, too many to control them and their use. A paradise for manipulation.
We have to keep in mind: There is the world, and there exist pictures of the world, which does not mean that both are the same thing. Photographs are not objective, because the photographer selects the part of the world which is becoming a picture. The rest is left out.
Some tools for manipulation of photography are:
morphing (71)
wet operation (73)
neutralizing (74)
masks (75)
damnatio memoriae (78)
Some of those are digital ways of manipulation, which helps to change pictures in many ways without showing the manipulation.
Pictures taken from the internet could be anything and come from anywhere. To proof the source is nearly impossible. Therefore scientists created on watermarks for pictures, which make it impossible to "steal" or manipulate a picture out of the net.
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By the end of our century a new method of disinformation is gaining importance: disinformation by an overflow of information.
In the Gulf War, similar to the Vietnam War, journalists had little chance to report neutrally and correctly from the battlefields. Many times they staid in places far from the actual fightings - due to censorship.
In many ways the so-called video-war reminded of a series of commercials. No wonder, the Gulf War was the first war to have a commercial advertisement agency to do the war-propaganda for the USA. They worked hard in preventing the government from a destiny like the one of the Vietnam War, when the war most of all was lost in the American homes because of anti-war propaganda.
In an interview,
And this is true for both sides:
the baby milk plant:
Western bombs had destroyed a chemical weapon factory - that's what they claimed.
(
the life guard:
In December 1990, the French newspaper Nouvel Observateur published the story of Karim Abdallah al-Jabouri, Saddam Hussein's Life Guard who had fled from Iraq right after Iraq's invasion in Kuwait. Soon afterwards he was in a French TV-show, where he told atrocity stories about
the baby-incubator-story of Najirah
On the 10th of October 1991 a young refugee, called Najirah, from Kuwait spoke in front of the U.S.-congress. With a lot of tears she told that she had been working in a Kuwaiti hospital, when Iraqi soldiers came in, tore the babies out of the incubators and let them die on the floor. The pictures of this declaration went around the world and were one of the reasons why the U.S.-population wanted an intervention. In 1992 the journalist R. MacArthur was able to proof that the presented witness had been the daughter of the Kuwait-ambassador in the USA and that she had not been in that hospital or in Kuwait at the mentioned time.
By then the war was over and the manipulation of the population had taken place long ago.
For reading about the U.S.-propaganda tools during that war, like surrender passes, balloons, fake banknotes, threats and many more visit:
http://www.btinternet.com/~rrnotes/psywarsoc/fleaf/gulfapp.htm (84)http://www.fair.org/extra/best-of-extra/gulf-war-not-true.html (85)TEXTBLOCK 8/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611661/100438658741
Double bind messages are extremely effective.
For example in Nicaragua the
By the end of the 1980s the USA even paid Nicaraguans for voting other parties than the Sandinistas.
El Salvador was a similar case. Again the guerrilla got demonized. The difference was the involvement of the Catholic Church, which was highly fought against by the ruling parties of El Salvador - and those again were financially and organizationally supported by the USA. The elections in the 1980s were more or less paid by the USA.
U.S.-politicians were afraid El Salvador could end up being a second Cuba or Nicaragua. Every means was correct to fight this tendency, no matter what it cost.
On the 21st of September 1996, the
Washington Post published several documents proofing an old rumor: not only that Central American soldiers had been educated in a U.S.-army school (the TEXTBLOCK 9/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611661/100438658752
As we have seen in the latest wars and in art, propaganda and disinformation are taking place on all sides. No contemporary political system is immune against those two. All of them utilize them if it seems to be useful and appropriate. Democracy, always pretending to be the most liberal and most human system is no exception in that - especially not a good one.
Democracy might give us more chances to escape censorship - but only as long as the national will is not disturbed. Then disinformation and propaganda come in ...
NATO-members gave us a very sad example for this during the Kosovo crisis.
It is our hunger for sensations and glory, for rumors and shows which makes disinformation so powerful. Many books and WebPages give informations about how to overcome disinformation and propaganda - but in vain. We somehow seem to like it - or at least we need it for getting through our interests.
There is a lot what we could try to do, but very little that will succeed as people prefer to believe that disinformation is an issue of the past.
At this moment the only appropriate measure to get rid of disinformation's influence seems to be the putting side by side of different aspects and ideas, especially of opinions telling the contrary, or are at least not the same. In any other case the model will probably commit the crime it is fighting against. Because how would we be able to know?
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One of the easiest tools for disinformation is to exchange the words written below a photograph. The entire meaning of the picture can be varied like this:
- The visit of a school-group at a former international camp can change into a camp, where children are imprisoned (which happened in the Russian city of Petroskoy in 1944).
- Victims of war can change nationality. The picture of the brutal German soldier in World War II that was shown in many newspapers to demonstrate the so-called typical face of a murderer, turned out to be French and a victim in other newspapers.
- In 1976 a picture of children in a day-nursery in the GDR is taken: The children, coming out of the shower, were dressed up in terry cloth suits with stripes. The same year the photograph with the happily laughing boys and girls wins the contest "a beautiful picture". Two years later a small part of the photograph can be seen in a Christian magazine in West-Germany, supposedly showing children from a concentration camp in the USSR. The smiling faces now seem to scream. (source: Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ed.): Bilder, die lügen. Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung im Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Bonn 1998, p. 79)
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Is it art, is it a commercial or is it disinformation, when web-designers create a virtual model out of the so-called best parts of different top-models?
Kyoko data-project: the virtual model and pop-star is not only regarded as a virtual thing but "had" a biography, a family and everything else that a famous star would have. She was not even less reachable as any of them. For example she received tons of love-letters by Japanese teenagers. The question arising is whether she can be regarded as a product for making money or whether the media-enterprise
more:
http://www.wdirewolff.com/jkyoko.htmand
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With the development of modern computing, starting in the 1940s, the substitution of human abilities with technology obtained a new dimension. The focus shifted from the replacement of pure physical power to the substitution of mental faculties. Following the early 1980s personal computers started to attain widespread use in offices and quickly became indispensable tools for office workers. The development of powerful computers combined with progresses in
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The development of modern technologies, led by men's curiosity and inquiring mind as well as the desire to facilitate work processes has a long and complex history.
Already in prehistoric times tools made of stone were developed to expand men's physical power. In the following millenniums simple mechanical devices and machines such as the wheel, the lever and the pulley were invented. The next step was the development of powered machines. For example, windmills, waterwheels and simple steam-driven devices.
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The development of the steam engine in 1776 represented a major advance in the construction of powered machines and marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Powered engines and machines soon became common and led to the first extensive mechanization of manufacturing processes. The development of
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Realizing that he'd need to lower costs
The use of interchangeable parts meant making the individual pieces of the car the same every time. Therefore the machines had to be improved, but once they were adjusted, they could be operated by a low-skilled laborer. To reduce the time workers spent moving around Ford refined the flow of work in the manner that as one task was finished another began, with minimum time spent in set-up. Furthermore he divided the labor by breaking the assembly of the legendary Model T in 84 distinct steps.
Putting all those findings together in 1913 Ford installed the first moving
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Probably the most important contributor concerning the theoretical basis for the digital computers that were developed in the 1940s was
The onset of the Second World War led to an increased funding for computer projects, which hastened technical progress, as governments sought to develop computers to exploit their potential strategic importance.
By 1941 the German engineer Konrad Zuse had developed a computer, the Z3, to design airplanes and missiles. Two years later the British completed a secret code-breaking computer called Colossus to
Also spurred by the war the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), a general-purpose computer, was produced by a partnership between the U.S. government and the University of Pennsylvania (1943). Consisting of 18.000
Concepts in computer design that remained central to computer engineering for the next 40 years were developed by the Hungarian-American mathematician
Characteristic for first generation computers was the fact, that instructions were made-to-order for the specific task for which the computer was to be used. Each computer had a different
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During the 1940s and 1950s two major developments enabled the design of modern
Numerical control was invented during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It is a method of controlling machine tool axes by means of numbers that have been coded on media. The first numerical control machine was presented in 1952 at the
First teleoperators were developed in the early 1940s. Teleoperators are mechanical manipulators which are controlled by a human from a remote location. In its typical application a human moves a mechanical arm and hand with its moves being duplicated at another location.
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With the development of the electronic computer in 1941 and the stored program computer in 1949 the conditions for research in
A discovery that influenced much of the early development of AI was made by
The person who finally coined the term artificial intelligence and is regarded as the father of AI is John McCarthy. In 1956 he organized a conference "The Dartmouth summer research project on artificial intelligence" to draw the talent and expertise of others interested in machine intelligence for a month of brainstorming. In the following years AI research centers began forming at the Carnegie Mellon University as well as the
One of the results of the intensified research in AI was a novel program called The General Problem Solver, developed by Newell and Simon in 1957 (the same people who had created The Logic Theorist). It was an extension of Wiener's feedback principle and capable of solving a greater extent of common sense problems. While more programs were developed a major breakthrough in AI history was the creation of the LISP (LISt Processing) language by John McCarthy in 1958. It was soon adopted by many AI researchers and is still in use today.
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Eli Whitney's proposal for a simplification and standardization of component parts marked a further milestone in the advance of the
By the middle of the 19th century the general concepts of
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The invention of the steam engine by
In the England of the 18th century five important inventions in the textile industry advanced the
Large-scale machine production was soon applied in many manufacturing sectors and resulted in a reduction of production costs. Yet the widespread use of the novel work-slaves also led to new demands concerning the work force's qualifications. The utilization of machines enabled a differentiated kind of
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Already in early cultures men aimed at the expansion of their physical power in order to facilitate work processes. In prehistoric times first tools made of stone were developed and some thousand years later followed by the invention of simple mechanical devices and machines such as the wheel, the lever and the pulley.
Next came the construction of powered machines. Waterwheels, windmills and simple steam-driven devices did no longer require human strength to be operated. In China for example trip-hammers powered by flowing water and waterwheels were already used some 2,000 years ago.
Besides tools and machines, which helped to extend men's physical power also devices to support mental faculties, especially in the field of mathematics, were invented. As soon as 3000 BC the abacus was developed in Babylonia. By using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack early merchants could make computations, which helped them keep track of their trading transactions.
Also, early "industrial-
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The devices often considered the first "computers" in our understanding were rather
In 1642
Further improvements in the field of early computing devices were made by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar, a Frenchmen. His arithometer could not only add and multiply, but perform the four basic arithmetic functions and was widely used up until the First World War.
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Until the 19th century "early computers", probably better described as calculating machines, were basically mechanical devices and operated by hand. Early
Therefore
After working on the Difference Engine for ten years Babbage was inspired to build another machine, which he called Analytical Engine. Its invention was a major step towards the design of modern computers, as it was conceived the first general-purpose computer. Instrumental to the machine's design was his assistant, Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, the first female computer programmer.
The second major breakthrough in the design of computing machines in the 19th century may be attributed to the American inventor Herman Hollerith. He was concerned with finding a faster way to compute the U.S. census, which in 1880 had taken nearly seven years. Therefore Hollerith invented a method, which used cards to store data information which he fed into a machine that compiled the results automatically. The punch cards not only served as a storage method and helped reduce computational errors, but furthermore significantly increased speed.
Of extraordinary importance for the evolution of digital computers and
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An important change in the development of computers occurred in 1948 with the invention of the
Stretch by
Throughout the early 1960s there were a number of commercially successful computers (for example the IBM 1401) used in business, universities, and government and by 1965 most large firms routinely processed financial information by using computers. Decisive for the success of computers in business was the stored program concept and the development of sophisticated high-level
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Following the commercial success of
New technologies were being invented in Japan.
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Following the invention of the first
Also, ensuing the introduction of the minicomputer in the mid 1970s by the early 1980s a market for personal computers (PC) was established. As computers had become easier to use and cheaper they were no longer mainly utilized in offices and manufacturing, but also by the average consumer. Therefore the number of personal computers in use more than doubled from 2 million in 1981 to 5.5 million in 1982. Ten years later, 65 million PCs were being used.
Further developments included the creation of mobile computers (laptops and palmtops) and especially networking technology. While mainframes shared time with many terminals for many applications, networking allowed individual computers to form electronic co-operations.
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The concept of
Expert systems were designed to mimic the knowledge and reasoning capabilities of a human specialist in a given domain by using
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Research in
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Since the 1970s there had been a growing trend towards the use of computer programs in manufacturing companies. Especially functions related to design and production, but also business functions should be facilitated through the use of computers.
Accordingly the CAD/CAM technology, related to the use of computer systems for design and production, was developed. CAD (computer-aided design) was created to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, and optimization of design. CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) was designed to help with the planning, control, and management of production operations. CAD/CAM technology, since the 1970s, has been applied in many industries, including machined components, electronics products, equipment design and fabrication for chemical processing.
To enable a more comprehensive use of computers in firms the
CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing) technology, which also includes applications concerning the business functions of companies, was created. CIM systems can handle order entry, cost accounting, customer billing and employee time records and payroll. The scope of CIM technology includes all activities that are concerned with production. Therefore in many ways CIM represents the highest level of automation in manufacturing.TEXTBLOCK 31/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611663/100438659495
One of the most important advances in the development of computer hardware in the late 1960s and early 1970s was the invention of the
integrated circuit, a solid-state device containing hundreds of transistors, diodes, and resistors on a tiny silicon chip. It made possible the production of large-scale computers (mainframes) of higher operating speeds, capacity, and reliability at significantly lower costs.Another type of computer developed at the time was the minicomputer. It profited from the progresses in microelectronics and was considerably smaller than the standard mainframe, but, for instance, powerful enough to control the instruments of an entire scientific laboratory. Furthermore
operating systems, that allowed machines to run many different programs at once with a central program that monitored and coordinated the computer's memory, attained widespread use.TEXTBLOCK 32/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611663/100438659498
Founded in 1977, the institute is named for Cato's Letters, libertarian pamphlets that were widely read in the American Colonies since the early 18th century and played a major role in laying the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. Cato is a public policy research foundation seeking to "broaden the parameters of public policy debate" to allow consideration of more options that are consistent with the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and a special focus on deregulation issues.
In recent years, the Cato Institute has become one of the most cited and quoted think tanks in the U.S. news media, while also becoming a key resource for Republican leaders. Catos board of directors not only includes John C. Malone - president and CEO of Tele-Communicaitons Inc. (TCI), the largest cable operator in the United States - but, since autumn 1997, also media titan
Rupert Murdoch.Official Organizational Status: Independent Institute
Political Orientation: U.S. Conservative/Libertarian
Scope/Research Areas: Catos research areas include development studies, science and technology, economic issues, health and welfare, foreign relations and diplomacy. Priority issues are Social Security privatization, fundamental tax reform, limited constitutional government, free trade and term limits. Recent publications include: Kelley, David A.: Life of One's Own. Individual Rights and the Welfare State. (1998). Ferrara, P.J. and M. D. Tanner: A New Deal for Social Security. (1998).
Funding Sources: 1998 Budget US$ 11 million. Corporate and private donations (especially from corporations and executives in the highly regulated industries of financial services, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals industries) and sales of publications.
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Heritage was started to counter what it perceived as the liberal intellectual climate of Washington in the 1970s. The Heritage Foundations mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. Heritage pursues this mission by performing research addressing key policy issues and effectively marketing these findings to its primary audiences: members of Congress, key congressional staff, policymakers in the executive branch, the nation's news media, and the academic and policy communities.
Official Organizational Status: Independent research and educational institute.
Political Orientation: U.S. Conservative
Scope/Research Areas: The Heritage Foundation's research areas include: economic issues, health and welfare, education, culture and religion, security and defense, foreign policy and international relations/institutions. Priority is given to issues, such as: Social Security reform, fundamental tax reform, livable cities, ballistic missile defense, education reform, domestic and economic policy and foreign and defense policy. Recent publications include: Feulner, Edwin J.: The March of Freedom. (1998). Holmes, K. et.al.: 1999 Index of Economic Freedom. (1998).
Funding Sources: 1998 Budget: US$ 26 million. Private donations (47 %), foundations (21 %), investment income (21 %), corporate donations (4 %). Among others US$ 1 million from the Korea Foundation - funded by South Korea's foreign ministry.
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Think tanks are most common in the U.S. and also very widespread in Europe. Still they are an international phenomenon, with at least one or two such institutions in nearly every country of the world.
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To disseminate their respective ideologies think tanks produce vast amounts of publications, including research reports, newsletters, magazines and books. Although the quality of their "research findings" sometimes is of questionably scientific value their "experts" are regularly quoted in the print-media and also appear on television and radio.
Nevertheless, in most cases, when representatives of think tanks are used as experts on a topic, they are introduced as independent scholars, hiding the fact, that they are related to certain ideologies. "When a think tank representative is used as an expert on a topic, often that person's media-framed credibility may be measured by the ideological label attached to them. By failing to politically identify representatives of think tanks, or identify the financial base of think tanks, major media deprive their audiences of an important context for evaluating the opinions offered, implying that think tank "experts" are neutral sources without any ideological predispositions." (Michael Dolny)
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To make their work available to as wide a market as possible, the publication of newsletters, magazines and books forms one of the key elements of most think tanks. Therefore most of these institutions undertake extensive publishing programs and run their own periodicals. Mostly accessible by subscription or individual sale those publications aim at the widespread distribution of their respective ideology. Recently think tanks have also started to discover new media as useful tools for their purposes. A lot of the bigger institutions have set up websites, which provide general information as well as articles and research reports.
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Think tanks, usually not so much in the focus of public attention, but even more active behind the scenes are organizations dealing with political and/or public policy issues. Mostly labeled as independent (research) institutes, they differ from pure academia in that the research that is conducted is channeled towards certain fairly specific purposes.
Some think tanks are affiliated with universities, while also governments run think tanks. Within the private think tanks, most widely known are the ideological think tanks. These organizations aim to shape public opinion and government policy over a wide range of issues so as to advance the political ideologies or approaches to public policy making which are supported by their members.
Especially the research of ideologically motivated think tanks sometimes is of questionable scholarly value and their policy prescriptions are politically motivated. The problem is compounded by links between think tanks and the media from which both parties benefit or influenced by corporate and other donors, which preclude critical assessment of the quality and objectivity of think tank research.
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In 1948 RAND was created at the urging of its original sponsor, the Air Force. After World War II, RAND focused especially on research in national security. Today RAND operates on a broad front, making its research available to public policy makers at all levels, private sector leaders in many industries, and the public at large. RANDs research and analysis aims to: provide practical guidance by making policy choices clear and by addressing barriers to policy implementation; develop solutions to complex problems by bringing researchers in all relevant academic specialities; dissemination of research findings. RAND has more than 500 employees.
Official Organizational Status: Independent Institute
Political Orientation: U.S. Center-right
Scope/Research Areas: RAND specializes in: Foreign relations and diplomacy, security and defense, economic issues, regional studies, science sand technology, labor and human resource development, social issues, education and health and welfare.
Funding Sources: 1998 Budget: US$ 113.5 million. National, local and state government (83 %) and private donations (17 %).
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Think tanks undertake research in very specific public policy areas. Which topics they cover mainly depends on their political and ideological orientation. In any case think tanks produce incredible amounts of "research findings". The crucial aspect usually is not their production, but their distribution. Therefore most think tanks have developed sophisticated dissemination strategies, whose main aim is the communication of their ideas to important audiences. These include members of governmental institutions, policymakers in the executive branch, news media, intellectuals, business men as well as academic and policy communities - in short, everybody, who is involved in shaping public opinion.
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Looking at the financial situation of think tanks, different funding patterns can be found. While financial contributions from foundations play an important role especially for conservative think tanks, also contributions from governments are made to certain institutions. Yet one of the most important funding sources are corporate donors and individual contributors. Although the extent to which - in most cases conservative - think tanks rely on corporate funding varies, from the US$ 158 million spent by the top 20 conservative think tanks, more than half of it was contributed by corporations or businessmen.
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One of the most violent attacks undertaken by conservative U.S. think tanks has been on the federal anti-poverty programs. Beginning in the 1980s the Manhattan Institute sponsored and promoted two publications that urged the elimination of the federal anti-poverty program. "Wealth and Poverty", concluded that poverty was the result of personal irresponsibility, while "Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950 - 1980", observed that anti-poverty programs reduced marriage incentives, discouraged workers form accepting low-wage jobs, and encouraged unintended births among low income teenage and adult women.
These books were followed by Lawrence Mead's "Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship", which blamed governments for perpetuating poverty by not requiring welfare recipients to work. Other conservative grantees have used their funds for more than a decade to spread this kind of conservative political rhetoric and policy opinion through major media and conservative-controlled print and broadcast outlets. The redefinition of the problem and the demonization of the poor finally culminated in the passage of the
welfare reform in 1996. The conservative anti-poor crusade not only led to cuts in federal anti-poverty spending, but also eliminated the only federal program guaranteeing cash assistance to poor women and their children.TEXTBLOCK 42/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658208
With a budget of US$ 23 million and assets worth US$ 192 million the
Brookings Institution, based in Washington D.C., in 1998 was funded by: Corporate and private donations (38 %), endowment (30 %), revenue from conferences and seminars (18 %), sales of publications (9 %), government support (2 %). Among the 138 corporate donors are: Bell Atlantic,
Citibank, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, NationsBank, Exxon, Chevron, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Toyota, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Dupont, Mobil and Lockheed Martin, and the foundations of companies like American Express, Travelers, AT&T and McDonnell Douglas. A few media conglomerates, like Time Warner and the Washington Post Co.. Contributions of individual donors include executives from Visa, Procter and Gamble, BankAmerica and U.S. Airways.TEXTBLOCK 43/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658213
The fact that corporate money is seeking to influence public policy is nothing unusual. From the different ways of how private money helps to shape politics the first, and most familiar is direct campaign contributions to political candidates and parties, which is especially widespread in the United States. While the second great river of money goes to underwrite lobbying apparatus in diverse state capitals, the third form of attempts to influence public policy making is less well-known, but nearly as wide and deep as the two others - it is money which underwrites a vast network of public policy think tanks and advocacy groups. Although tried to be labeled in another way, unmistakably, these donations are naked attempts by corporations and other donors, to influence the political process.
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Media have always been an important element in the cycle of shaping public opinion. They decide which topics are on the agenda or not and who is given broadcasting time or publishing space. By featuring certain points of view and neglecting others media have the ability to influence public opinion and thus also political decision-making to a significant extent.
Therefore, besides educational and publishing programs, media are an essential element in the dissemination strategy of think tanks. To spread their respective ideology they provide print media with masses of op-ed's and their top staff regularly appears on television and radio shows as political advisers or policy experts.
Table: Media Citations: Spectrum of Major U.S. Think Tanks
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As the dissemination of ideologies and ideas is crucial to think tanks they apply different strategies to reach as many audiences as possible. Therefore also the concept of education plays an important role. Educational and training programs are aimed at the influencers and future influencers of public opinion and shall lead to the acceptance of think tanks respective social, economical and political ideas. The label "educational activities" thus very often stands for nothing less than the dissemination of ideology.
Most think tanks regularly organize conferences, symposia and seminars to deliver their findings and ideas to a broader audience. RAND for example also runs a Ph.D. program at its Graduate School.
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Most think tanks describe themselves as independent institutions and usually deny any influence on their work from funding sources or other interests. Although some think tanks adhere to the concept of independent research, in several cases, albeit very often not visible at first sight, the influence of corporate money on the kind of issues picked up as well as the results presented can be noted. Corporate money so funds ideologically charged policy research with the aim to influence public policy making.
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The Manhattan Institute, founded by
William Casey, who later became President Reagan's CIA director, besides subsidies from a number of large conservative foundations has gained funding from such corporate sources as: The Chase Manhattan Bank, Citicorp, Time Warner, Procter & Gamble and State Farm Insurance, as well as the Lilly Endowment and philantropic arms of American Express, Bristol-Myers Squibb, CIGNA and Merrill Lynch. Boosted by major firms, the Manhattan Institute budget reached US$ 5 million a year by the early 1990s.TEXTBLOCK 49/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658245
The London-based Institute for Economic Affairs (AEI) from its beginning undertook an extensive publishing program to push forward its free-market ideology. Among its publications was one particular paper, which had a direct and immediate political impact. Published in 1960 "Resale Price Maintenance and Shoppers' Choice" by Basil Yamey argued for the abolition of Resale Price Maintenance, which by fixing prices in shops prevented large stores from necessarily under-cutting smaller shops. Yamey argued that a free market in shop prices would save the shoppers £180,000,000 a year, and prices would fall by five percent.
The publication of Yamey's paper was timed to coincide with a period of public debate on the subject to ensure maximum impact, and Yamey's suggestions were taken up by the incumbent Conservative Government. Although the Abolition of Resale Price Maintenance by
Edward Heath in 1964, can not only be attributed to Yamey's paper, it for sure had a substantial impact.TEXTBLOCK 50/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658247
Funded by foundations, corporate donors and individual contributors, think tanks are endowed with the financial and human resources which enable them to systematically influence public opinion, media agenda setting and policy discussion. From time to time, when evidence is not at hand, these institutions produce tailor-made arguments, backing their ideological concepts, with the aim to influence policy making. In some cases this construction of evidence has not only remained in the position of an attempt, but actually led to specific policy reforms.
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One of the most impressive examples of the dissemination of ideology through educational activities has been performed by the UK- based Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), founded in 1955. Dedicated to the idea of free-markets the IEA from the beginning saw the "education" of the public as a key element in the distribution of their ideology. "The philosophy of the market economy must be widely accepted; this requires a large programme of education ..."
Aiming at the wide acceptance of their ideas, the IEA undertook an extensive publishing program with the objective to make the fairly complex concepts of economic liberalism and monetarism available to a student or sixth-form audience. In the 1960s IEA papers normally reached the hands of students through the university Conservative Associations.
The work that the IEA did in this field reaped a rich harvest during the 1970s and 1980s, as many of the younger political activists who staffed the various free-market think-tanks, such as the
Center for Policy Studies, the Freedom Association an the Selsdon Group, received their education from the IEA. Especially at St. Andrews university, where Ralph Harris, the first director of the IEA, had been a lecturer, the IEA ideas had a strong impact. St. Andrews over the years did not only produce a generation of free-market Conservative MPs (Member of Parliament), but also influenced former St. Andrews students like Stuart and Eamonn Butler and Madsen Pirie, who went to set up the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) in London in 1976.TEXTBLOCK 52/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658264
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The political orientation of think tanks is as broad as in every other kind of institutions or organizations. It ranges from conservative over centrist to progressive. Still it can be noted, that there are considerable differences between the right and the left wing of think tanks, especially concerning funding sources and revenues as well as media relations, which have considerable consequences on their perception and influence on the public as well as on policy makers.
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Shortly after Microsoft was faced with federal antitrust charges, full-page newspaper ads supporting Microsoft's claim of innocence were run by the
Independent Institute. The ads took the form of a letter signed by 240 academic experts and purported to be a scholarly, unbiased view of why the government had gone overboard in its case against the company. According to an article published in the New York Times, Microsoft had not paid for the ads, but was in fact the single largest donor to the Independent Institute, a conservative organization, that has been a leading defender of the company since it first came under fire from federal prosecutors.TEXTBLOCK 55/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658281
Corporate funding for right-wing policy work has its roots in the 1970s, when leading conservative thinkers appealed to corporations to fund intellectuals who supported their economic interests. Irving Kristol, in his 1978 book "Two Cheers for Capitalism", argued that corporations should make "philantrophic contributions to scholars and institutions who are likely to advocate preservation of a strong private sector.". At the same time think tank entrepreneurs like Ed Feulner of Heritage and Edward Crane of CATO moved to cultivate corporate allies. At most conservative think tanks, corporate leaders now make up the overwhelming majority of board members.
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Founded in 1977 the Cato Institutes 1998 budget made up US$ 11 million. Its funding consists of corporate and private donations (especially from corporations and executives in the highly regulated industries of financial services, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals industries) and sales of publications.
Catos corporate donors include tobacco firms:
Philip Morris (Rupert Murdoch sits on Philip Morris board of directors) and R.J. Reynolds. Financial firms: American Express, Chase Manhattan Bank, Chemical Bank, Citicorp/Citibank, Commonwealth Fund, Prudential Securities and Salomon Brothers. Energy conglomerates: Chevron Companies, Exxon Company, Shell Oil Company and Tenneco Gas, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, Amoco Foundation and Atlantic Richfield Foundation. Furthermore the Cato Institute is funded by pharmaceutical firms: Eli Lilly & Company, Merck & Company and Pfizer, Inc., foundations, like Koch, Lambe and Sarah Scaife and companies from the telecommunications sector: Bell Atlantic Network Services, BellSouth Corporation, Microsoft, NYNEX Corporation, Sun Microsystems and Viacom.TEXTBLOCK 57/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658297
Another difference that can be noted between right and left-wing think tanks concerns their media appearance and media relations. While in 1997 53 % of the U.S. media references made to think tanks involved conservative institutions, progressive think tanks accounted for only16 % of the media citations made to think tanks (32 % centrist institutions). This suggests that the media agenda is markedly influenced by conservative issues and ideology, and therefore leads to a considerable imbalance within the spectrum of political views.
On the other hand the financial resources of right- and left- wing media associated with think tanks also differ appreciably. While conservative foundations provided US$ 2,734,263 to four right-of-center magazines between 1990 and 1993 including The National Interest, The Public Interest, The New Criterion, and The American Spectator, over the same time period four left-of-center publications, namely The Nation, The Progressive, In These Times, and Mother Jones received only US$ 269,500 from foundations.
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As think tanks try to push policy making in their desired direction in such diverse fields as health, education, taxation, regulation and national security it is not surprising, that also the Internet has entered their issue list:
RAND, a center-right U.S. think tank not only argues for the usage of certain guidelines concerning the use of e-mail, but has also released a research report - sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense - entitled "Strategic Information Warfare: A New Face of War". In November 1999 RAND has furthermore launched a co-operation with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) aimed at combating the threat of cybercrime. ICCs practical expertise and RANDs research and analytical capacities shall aid at finding solutions to fight hackers, industrial spies, and other criminals who may exploit the Internet to attack commercial and public-sector systems.Another of the big players in the elite of think tanks, the conservative Washington D.C. based Cato Institute quite surprisingly has started to defend human rights in Cyberspace. Jonathan D. Wallace' "Nameless in Cyberspace: Anonymity on the Internet." sees the constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of speech and expression in the United States under attack by proposals to limit or restrict the use of anonymity on the Internet.
Yet another conservative think tank, the U.S. based
Center for Strategic and International Studies in June 1999 has initiated a Conference (Global Information Infrastructure Commission) to accelerate the development of E-Commerce in India. Among the Conferences participants were not only government representatives from India and the United States, but also the CEO of Global TeleSystems Group Inc., the vice chairman of Fujitsu and the executive president of Siemens A.G., as well as the World Bank and the World Intellectual Property Organization.TEXTBLOCK 59/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658373
Although advertising, public relations and think tanks at first seem to have nothing in common, after a closer look certain similarities arise.
The first thing which can be noted is that public relations and the advertising industry, as well as - especially conservative - think tanks like the Heritage Foundation or the Brookings Institute have strong ties to corporate firms. Whereas the connection between the advertising and public relations industry and corporations is based on a consultant - client relation many think tanks heavily rely on corporate funding to pursue their activities. Therefore the interests of corporate firms are to an - in some cases considerable - extent reflected in their activities.
Furthermore the aims of public relations and advertising firms and think tanks are not too different. Their main goal is to sell ideas and values. Albeit it sometimes makes the impression, as if only products, services and understanding (in the case of public relations) are sold, for the greater part the only thing being marketed is (political) ideology.
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While most progressive think tanks acquire their funding through many different sources, for conservative think tanks financing by corporations prevails. Among the think tanks receiving a considerable amount of corporate money are the Cato Institute (U.S. conservative/libertarian), the Brookings Institution (U.S. centrist), the Heritage Foundation (U.S. conservative), the American Enterprise Institute (U.S. conservative) and the
Competitive Enterprise Institute (U.S. conservative).Also, whereas the combined revenue base of such conservative multi-issue policy institutions as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, the Cato Institute, and
Citizens for a Sound Economy exceeded US$ 77 million in 1995, the roughly equivalent U.S. progressive Institute for Policy Studies, the Economic Policy Institute, Citizens for Tax Justice, and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities had only US$ 9 million at their collective disposal in 1995.TEXTBLOCK 61/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611704/100438658391
Formed in 1943 as a traditional think tank, after being criticized of being too centrist, the American Enterprise Institute moved right and took a more aggressive public-policy role in domestic and foreign policy affairs. The American Enterprise Institute is dedicated to "preserving and strengthening the foundations of freedom" - limited government, private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and a strong foreign policy and national defense.
Official Organizational Status: Independent institute
Political Orientation: U.S. Conservative
Scope/Research Areas: The American Enterprise Institutes research is conducted in three broad areas, namely economic policy studies, social and political studies and foreign and defense policy studies. Issues of priority are: Tax reform, Social Security and entitlements reform, environmental regulation, economic deregulation, culture and society, religion, intellectual foundations, reform of the U.S. defense structure and redefinition of American foreign policy. Some recent titles include: Income Inequality and IQ. (1998). Ethics of Human Cloning (1998). Calomiris, C. and J. Karceski: Is the Bank Merger Wave of the 1990s Efficient? Lessons from Nine Case Studies. (1998).
Funding Sources: 1998 Budget: US$ 14.3 million. Assets: US$ 24.5 million. Corporate donations (29 %), private donations (27 %), foundations (26 %), conferences, sales, and other revenues (18 %).
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Given the growing political importance of media most think tanks - especially conservative ones in the U.S. - have clearly stated the need for strong marketing and communications. The former president of the
American Enterprise Institute, William Baroody puts it that way "We pay as much attention to the dissemination of the product as we do to the content. ... We hire ghost writers for scholars to produce op-ed articles that are sent to the one hundred and one co-operating newspapers three pieces every two weeks ... The real test is getting your message out. ... Market your policy recommendations, market the principles and values behind them, market the tangible publications and events your organization is producing. Market the think tank concept itself. Then market your specific organization."Relations with the media form one of the most important element within the think tanks marketing strategies. The
Hoover Institution's public affairs office, for example, links to 900 media centers across the U.S. and 450 abroad. The Reason Foundation, a strong fighter for privatization, had 359 television and radio appearances in 1995 and more than 1,500 citations in national newspapers and magazines. Furthermore the Manhattan Institute has held more than 600 forums on briefings for journalists and policy makers on a broad range of public policy issues. Not to leave the distribution of their respective ideologies to chance, conservative institutions have created a variety of conservative-controlled media outlets and projects, as well as television and radio broadcasting networks. The Free Congress Foundation for instance, in addition to its National Empowerment Television, publishes NetNewsNow, a broadcast fax letter sent to more than 400 U.S. radio producers. Conservative foundations also spent US$ 2,734,263 on four right-of -center magazines between 1990 and 1993, providing publishing opportunities for conservative thinkers and policy advocates.
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The Brookings Institute, based in Washington DC traces its beginnings to 1916 with the founding of the Institute for Government Research, the first private organization devoted to public policy issues at a national level. In 1922 and 1924 , the Institute was joined by the Institute of Economics and the Robert Brookings Graduate School. In 1927 these three groups were consolidated into one institution, named after the businessman Robert Somers Brookings.
After World War II, the Brookings Institute fostered Republican support for the
Marshall Plan, which the Institute helped to develop. By the 1960s, Brookings was linked to the establishment wing of the Democratic Party, backing Keynesian economics. The Institutes influence on the operations of the federal government, at times, has been substantial. In the 1920s, Brookings was largely responsible for the creation of the federal budget. In the 1970s the Brookings Institute pushed for the creation of the Congressional Budget Office, and then provided its first head, former senior fellow Alice Rivlin.Official Organizational Status: Private, independent, non-profit Research Institute
Political Orientation: U.S. Centrist
Scope/Research Areas: The Brookings Institute seeks to "improve the performance of American institutions, the effectiveness of government programs, and the quality of U.S. public policies". Its research areas include political economy of market transitions, antitrust, banking, government reform, social norms and economic behavior, national security, budget politics and public administration. Some recent titles include: Eisinger, Peter: Toward an End to Hunger in America. (1998). Hess, Stephen: The Little Book of Campaign Etiquette. (1998). Jencks, C. and M. Phillips (eds.): The Black-White Test Score Gap. (1998). Douglas, A. R. et.al.: Framing the Social Security Debate. Values, Politics, and Economics. (1998).
Funding Sources: 1998 Budget: US$ 23 million. Assets: US$ 192 million. Corporate and private donations (38 %), endowment (30 %), revenue from conferences and seminars (18 %), sales of publications (9 %), government support (2 %).
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Copyright is not only about protecting the rights of creators, but has also become a major branch of industry with significant contributions to the global economy. According to the
International Intellectual Property Alliance the U.S. copyright industry has grown almost three times as fast as the economy as a whole for the past 20 years. In 1997, the total copyright industries contributed an estimated US$ 529.3 billion to the U.S. economy with the core copyright industries accounting for US$ 348.4 billion. Between 1977 and 1997, the absolute growth rate of value added to the U.S. GDP by the core copyright industries was 241 %. Also the copyright industry's foreign sales in 1997 (US$ 66.85 billion for the core copyright industries) were larger than the U.S. Commerce Department International Trade Administration's estimates of the exports of almost all other leading industry sectors. They exceeded even the combined automobile and automobile parts industries, as well as the agricultural sector.In an age where knowledge and information become more and more important and with the advancement of new technologies, transmission systems and distribution channels a further increase in the production of
intellectual property is expected. Therefore as copyright establishes ownership in intellectual property it is increasingly seen as the key to wealth in the future.TEXTBLOCK 65/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438658710
Only in Roman times the first rights referring to artistic works appeared. Regulations resembling a lasting exclusive right to copy did not occur until the 17th century. Before copyright was a private arrangement between guilds able to reproduce copies in commercial quantities.
In France and Western European countries "droits d'auteur" or author's rights is the core of what in the Anglo-American tradition is called copyright. Such rights are rooted in the republican revolution of the late 18th century, and the Rights of Man movement. Today in the European system the creator is front and center; later exploiters are only secondary players.
France
During the 18th century France gradually lost the ability to restrict
intellectual property. Before the Revolution, all books, printers and booksellers had to have a royal stamp of approval, called a "privilege". In return for their lucrative monopoly, the French guild of printers and booksellers helped the police to suppress anything that upset royal sensibilities or ran contrary to their interests. Still there were also a whole lot of underground printers who flooded the country with pirated, pornographic and seditious literature. And thousands of writers, most at the edge of starvation.In 1777 the King threatened the monopoly by reducing the duration of publisher's privileges to the lifetime of the authors. Accordingly a writer's work would go into the public domain after his death and could be printed by anyone. The booksellers fought back by argumenting that, no authority could take their property from them and give it to someone else. Seven months later, in August 1789, the revolutionary government ended the privilege system and from that time on anyone could print anything. Early in 1790 Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet proposed giving authors power over their own work lasting until ten years after their deaths. The proposal - the basis for France's first modern copyright law - passed in 1793.
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Today the talk about the so-called "information society" is ubiquitous. By many it is considered as the successor of the industrial society and said to represent a new form of societal and economical organization. This claim is based on the argument, that the information society uses a new kind of resource, which fundamentally differentiates from that of its industrial counterpart. Whereas industrial societies focus on physical objects, the information society's raw material is said to be knowledge and information. Yet the conception of the capitalist system, which underlies industrial societies, also continues to exist in an information-based environment. Although there have been changes in the forms of manufacture, the relations of production remain organized on the same basis. The principle of property.
In the context of a capitalist system based on industrial production the term property predominantly relates to material goods. Still even as in an information society the raw materials, resources and products change, the concept of property persists. It merely is extended and does no longer solely consider physical objects as property, but also attempts to put information into a set of property relations. This new kind of knowledge-based property is widely referred to as "
intellectual property". Although intellectual property in some ways represents a novel form of property, it has quickly been integrated in the traditional property framework. Whether material or immaterial products, within the capitalist system they are both treated the same - as property.TEXTBLOCK 67/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659429
Intellectual property, very generally, relates to the output, which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Traditionally intellectual property is divided into two branches:
1) Industrial Property
a)
Inventionsb)
Marks (trademarks and service marks)c)
Industrial designsd) Unfair competition (trade secrets)
e) Geographical indications (indications of source and appellations of origin)
2) Copyright
The protection of intellectual property is guaranteed through a variety of laws, which grant the creators of intellectual goods, and services certain time-limited rights to control the use made of their products. Those rights apply to the intellectual creation as such, and not to the physical object in which the work may be embodied.
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In many traditional Southern countries awe and mystery surround the created object into which the creator projects spirit and soul. Also in contrast with the Western individual-based concept of intellectual property rights it is custom to recognize 'collective', 'communal' or 'folkloric' copyright. Folkloric copyright acknowledges rights to all kinds of knowledge, ideas and innovations produced in 'intellectual commons'. Such rights are not limited to the lifetime of an individual but rather exist in perpetuity with a specific group or an entire people.
Islamic Tradition
Already early Islamic jurists recognized a creator's right or copyright and offered protection against piracy. Traditional Islamic law treats infringement as a breach of ethics, not as a criminal act of theft. Punishment is carried out in the form of defamation of the infringer and the casting of shame on his tribe. Only in recent years many Islamic countries have adopted formal copyright statutes.
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With the introduction of the printing press into England in 1476 printing was made easier and faster and made copies less expensive. By the early 16th century two trades dominated the industry: independent printers and booksellers or stationers many of whom were vertically integrated as printers. At the time, the Crown was concerned about sedition and the Church about heresy. In 1557 by royal charter the Stationers' Company of London was created and exclusive rights granted. Approved printers were given the right to copy approved works. Accordingly the roots of copyright were censorship.
The Statute of Queen Ann, the first formal copyright law, was passed in 1710. Copyright was then conferred on the author of a work, but still the owner of copyright was nearly always the bookseller. Only in 1775 the House of Lords replaced the common law of printing rights in favor of the author.
In this tradition the underlying concept of copyright is monopoly, first granted to printers, then to booksellers and later to individual creators. Copyright is treated as a commodity to be bought and sold and inspired by a need to protect the public from the power of the artist.
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Following the communist revolutions of the 20th century all "means of production" became the property of the state as representative of "the masses". Private property ceased to exist. While moral rights of the creator were recognized and economic rights acknowledged with a one-time cash award, all subsequent rights reverted to the state.
With the transformation of many communist countries to a market system most of them have now introduced laws establishing markets in intellectual property rights. Still the high rate of piracy reflects a certain lack of legal tradition.
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Traditional copyright and the practice of paying
royalties to the creators of intellectual property have emerged with the introduction of the printing press (1456). Therefore early copyright law has been tailored to the technology of print and the (re) production of works in analogue form. Over the centuries legislation concerning the protection of intellectual property has been adapted several times in order to respond to the technological changes in the production and distribution of information. Yet again new technologies have altered the way of how (copyrighted) works are produced, copied, made obtainable and distributed. The emergence of global electronic networks and the increased availability of digitalized intellectual property confront existing copyright with a variety of questions and challenges. Although the combination of several types of works within one larger work or on one data carrier, and the digital format (although this may be a recent development it has been the object of detailed legal scrutiny), as well as networking (telephone and cable networks have been in use for a long time, although they do not permit interactivity) are nothing really new, the circumstance that recent technologies allow the presentation and storage of text, sound and visual information in digital form indeed is a novel fact. Like that the entire information can be generated, altered and used by and on one and the same device, irrespective of whether it is provided online or offline.
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Copyright law is a branch of
intellectual property law and deals with the rights of intellectual creators in their works. The scope of copyright protection as laid down in Article 2 of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty "... extends to expressions and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such." Copyright law protects the creativity concerning the choice and arrangement of words, colors, musical notes etc. It grants the creators of certain specified works exclusive rights relating to the "copying" and use of their original creation.TEXTBLOCK 73/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659520
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
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Generally copyright vests in the author of the work. Certain national laws provide for exceptions and, for example, regard the employer as the original owner of a copyright if the author was, when the work was created, an employee and employed for the purpose of creating that work. In the case of some types of creations, particularly audiovisual works, several national laws provide for different solutions to the question that should be the first holder of copyright in such works.
Many countries allow copyright to be assigned, which means that the owner of the copyright transfers it to another person or entity, which then becomes its holder. When the national law does not permit assignment it usually provides the possibility to license the work to someone else. Then the owner of the copyright remains the holder, but authorizes another person or entity to exercise all or some of his rights subject to possible limitations. Yet in any case the "
moral rights" always belong to the author of the work, whoever may be the owner of the copyright (and therefore of the "economic rights").TEXTBLOCK 75/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659527
Until recent years, the problem of piracy (the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of copyrighted works (for commercial purposes)) was largely confined to the copying and physical distribution of tapes, disks and CDs. Yet the emergence and increased use of global data networks and the WWW has added a new dimension to the piracy of
intellectual property by permitting still easier copying, electronic sales and transmissions of illegally reproduced copyrighted works on a grand scale.This new development, often referred to as Internet piracy, broadly relates to the use of global data networks to 1) transmit and download digitized copies of pirated works, 2) advertise and market pirated intellectual property that is delivered on physical media through the mails or other traditional means, and 3) offer and transmit codes or other technologies which can be used to circumvent
copy-protection security measures. Lately the
International Intellectual Property Alliance has published a new report on the estimated trade losses due to piracy. (The IIPA assumes that their report actually underestimates the loss of income due to the unlawful copying and distribution of copyrighted works. Yet it should be taken into consideration that the IIPA is the representative of the U.S. core copyright industries (business software, films, videos, music, sound recordings, books and journals, and interactive entertainment software).)Table: IIPA 1998 - 1999 Estimated Trade Loss due to Copyright Piracy (in millions of US$)
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Usually the subject matter of copyright is described as "literary and artistic works" - original creations in the fields of literature and arts. Such works may be expressed in words, symbols, pictures, music, three-dimensional objects, or combinations thereof. Practically all national copyright laws provide for the protection of the following types of works:
Literary works: novels, poems dramatic works and any other writings, whether published or unpublished; in most countries also computer programs and "oral works"
Musical works
Artistic works: whether two-dimensional or three-dimensional; irrespective of their content and destination
Maps and technical drawings
Photographic works: irrespective of the subject matter and the purpose for which made
Audiovisual works: irrespective of their purpose, genre, length, method employed or technical process used
Some copyright laws also provide for the protection of choreographic works, derivative works (translations, adaptions), collections (compilations) of works and mere data (data bases); collections where they, by reason of the selection and arrangement of the contents, constitute intellectual creations. Furthermore in some countries also "works of applied art" (furniture, wallpaper etc.) and computer programs (either as literary works or independently) constitute copyrightable matter.
Under certain national legislations the notion "copyright" has a wider meaning than "author's rights" and, in addition to literary and artistic works, also extends to the producers of sound recordings, the broadcasters of broadcasts and the creators of distinctive typographical arrangements of publications.
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Intellectual property - comprising industrial property and copyright - in general is protected by national legislation. Therefore those rights are limited territorially and can be exercised only within the jurisdiction of the country or countries under whose laws they are granted. TEXTBLOCK 78/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659540
ISPs (Internet Service Providers) (and to a certain extent also telecom operators) are involved in the copyright debate primarily because of their role in the transmission and storage of digital information. Problems arise particularly concerning
caching, information residing on systems or networks of ISPs at the directions of users and transitory communication.Caching
Caching it is argued could cause damage because the copies in the cache are not necessarily the most current ones and the delivery of outdated information to users could deprive website operators of accurate "hit" information (information about the number of requests for a particular material on a website) from which advertising revenue is frequently calculated. Similarly harms such as defamation or infringement that existed on the original page may propagate for years until flushed from each cache where they have been replicated.
Although different concepts, similar issues to caching arise with mirroring (establishing an identical copy of a website on a different server), archiving (providing a historical repository for information, such as with newsgroups and mailing lists), and full-text indexing (the copying of a document for loading into a full-text or nearly full-text database which is searchable for keywords or concepts).
Under a literal reading of some copyright laws caching constitutes an infringement of copyright. Yet recent legislation like the
DMCA or the proposed EU Directive on copyright and related rights in the information society (amended version) have provided exceptions for ISPs concerning particular acts of reproduction that are considered technical copies (caching). Nevertheless the exemption of liability for ISPs only applies if they meet a variety of specific conditions. In the course of the debate about caching also suggestions have been made to subject it to an implied license or fair use defense or make it (at least theoretically) actionable.Information Residing on Systems or Networks at the Direction of Users
ISPs may be confronted with problems if infringing material on websites (of users) is hosted on their systems. Although some copyright laws like the DMCA provide for limitations on the liability of ISPs if certain conditions are met, it is yet unclear if ISPs should generally be accountable for the storage of infringing material (even if they do not have actual knowledge) or exceptions be established under specific circumstances.
Transitory Communication
In the course of transmitting digital information from one point on a network to another ISPs act as a data conduit. If a user requests information ISPs engage in the transmission, providing of a connection, or routing thereof. In the case of a person sending infringing material over a network, and the ISP merely providing facilities for the transmission it is widely held that they should not be liable for infringement. Yet some copyright laws like the DMCA provide for a limitation (which also covers the intermediate and transient copies that are made automatically in the operation of a network) of liability only if the ISPs activities meet certain conditions.
For more information on copyright (
intellectual property) related problems of ISPs (BBSs (Bulletin Board Service Operators), systems operators and other service providers) see:Harrington, Mark E.: On-line Copyright Infringement Liability for Internet Service Providers: Context, Cases & Recently Enacted Legislation. In:
Intellectual Property and Technology Forum. June 4, 1999.Teran, G.:
Who is Vulnerable to Suit? ISP Liability for Copyright Infringement. November 2, 1999.TEXTBLOCK 79/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659550
In preliterate societies the association of rhythmic or repetitively patterned utterances with supernatural knowledge endures well into historic times. Knowledge is passed from one generation to another. Similar as in the Southern tradition
intellectual property rights are rooted in a concept of 'collective' or 'communal' intellectual property existing in perpetuity and not limited to the life of an individual creator plus some number of years after his or her death. Often rights are exercised by only one individual in each generation, often through matrilineal descent.TEXTBLOCK 80/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659557
The
rights of a copyright holder are infringed when one of the acts requiring the authorization of the owner is done by someone else without his consent. In the case of copyright infringement or the violation of neighboring rights the remedies for the copyright owner consist of civil redress. The unauthorized copying of protected works for commercial purposes and the unauthorized commercial dealing in copied material is usually referred to as "piracy".Yet copyright laws also provide that the rights of copyright owners are subject to the doctrine of "
fair use". That allows the reproduction and use of a work, notwithstanding the rights of the author, for limited purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and research. Fair use may be described as the privilege to use the copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without the owner's consent. To determine whether a use is fair or not most copyright laws consider:- the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes (usually certain types of educational copying are allowed)
- the nature of the copyrighted work (mostly originals made for commercial reasons are less protected than their purely artistic counterparts)
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work (as a general rule copying may be permitted if it is unlikely to cause economic harm to the original author)
Examples of activities that may be excused as fair use include: providing a quotation in a book review; distributing copies of a section of an article in class for educational purposes; and imitating a work for the purpose of parody or social commentary.
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With the rise of a global economic system a desire to establish agreements, which protect works not only within national borders, but also within a "Union" of countries or on an international level, has been expressed. As a consequence a variety of multilateral treaties have been negotiated and adopted by governments. Those shall simplify practice through international standardization and mutual recognition of rights and duties among nations.
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Within the EU's goal of establishing a European single market also
intellectual property rights are of significance. Therefore the European Commission aims at the harmonization of the respective national laws of the EU member states and for a generally more effective protection of intellectual property on an international level. Over the years it has adopted a variety of Conventions and Directives concerned with different aspects of the protection of industrial property as well as copyright and neighboring rights.An overview of EU activities relating to intellectual property protection is available on the website of the European Commission (DG Internal Market):
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The laws of almost all countries provide that protection is independent of any formalities. Copyright protection then starts as soon as the work is created.
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Copyright protection generally means that certain uses of a work are lawful only if they are done with the authorization of the owner of the copyright. The most typical are the following:
- copying or reproducing a work
- performing a work in public
- making a sound recording of a work
- making a motion picture of a work
- broadcasting a work
- translating a work
- adapting a work
Under certain national laws, some of these rights, which are referred to, as "economic rights'" are not exclusive rights of authorization but in specific cases, merely rights to remuneration. Some strictly determined uses (for example quotations or the use of works by way of illustration for teaching) are completely free, that is, they require neither authorization of, nor remuneration for, the owner of the copyright. This practice is described as
fair use.In addition to economic rights, authors enjoy "moral rights" on the basis of which they have the right to claim their authorship and require that their names be indicated on the copies of the work and in connection with other uses thereof. They also have the right to oppose the mutilation or deformation of their creations.
The owner of a copyright may usually transfer his right or may license certain uses of his work. Moral rights are generally inalienable and remain with the creator even after he has transferred his economic rights, although the author may waive their exercise.
Furthermore there exist rights related to copyright that are referred to as "neighboring rights". In general there are three kinds of neighboring rights: 1) the rights of performing artists in their performances, 2) the rights of producers of phonograms in their phonograms, and 3) the rights of broadcasting organizations in their radio and television programs. Neighboring rights attempt to protect those who assist intellectual creators to communicate their message and to disseminate their works to the public at large.
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Presumably the major player in the field of international
intellectual property protection and administrator of various multilateral treaties dealing with the legal and administrative aspects of intellectual property is the WIPO.Information on WIPO administered agreements in the field of industrial property (Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883), Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (1891) etc.) can be found on:
http://www.wipo.org/eng/general/index3.htmInformation on treaties concerning copyright and neighboring rights (Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) etc.) is published on:
http://www.wipo.org/eng/general/index5.htmThe most recent multilateral agreement on copyright is the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty. Among other things it provides that computer programs are protected as literary works and also introduces the protection of databases, which "... by reason of the selection or arrangement of their content constitute intellectual creations." Furthermore the
1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty contains provisions concerning technological measures, rights management information and establishes a new "right of communication to the public". It is available on: http://www.wipo.org/eng/diplconf/distrib/treaty01.htmTEXTBLOCK 86/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659588
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.
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Temporal
Copyright protection is limited in time. Many countries have adopted a term of protection that starts at the time of the creation of the work and ends 50 years (in some cases 70 years) after the death of the author. Under some national laws exist exceptions either for certain kinds of creations or for certain uses. After the protection has expired works pass into the public domain. In recent years a tendency towards the lengthening of the term of protection has emerged.
Geographic
The owner of a copyrighted work is protected against acts restricted by copyright under the law of a certain country. To gain protection against such acts in other countries he must refer to the respective national legislation. If both countries are members of one of the international conventions on copyright, the practical problems arising from this geographical limitation are eased.
Non-Material Works
In some countries works that are not fixed in some material form are excluded from copyright protection. Also under certain national legislations, the texts of laws and decisions of courts and administrative bodies cannot be copyrighted (which is possible in several countries; then the government is the owner of the copyright in such works and can exercise his rights in accordance with the public interest).
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Directive on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society
In November 1996 the European Commission adopted a communication concerning the follow-up to the Green Paper on
copyright and related rights in the information society. The proposed Directive aims at transposing into Community law the main international obligations arising from the two treaties on copyright and related rights adopted within the framework of the WIPO in December 1996 (WIPO Performances and Phonogram Treaty and WIPO Copyright Treaty). It applies to provisions relating to:- the legal protection of computer programs
- rental right, lending right and certain rights related to copyright in the field of
intellectual property- copyright and related rights applicable to broadcasting of programs by satellite and cable retransmission
- the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights
- the legal protection of databases
The proposal was first presented by the Commission in January 1998, amended in May 1999 and currently is at second reading before the Parliament. Final adoption of the Directive could take place at the end of 2000 or the beginning of 2001 respectively.
A full-text version for download (pdf file) of the amended proposal for a Directive on copyright and related rights in the Information Society is available on the website of the European Commission (DG Internal Market):
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/intprop/intprop/docs/index.htmGeneral critique concerning the proposed EU Directive includes:
- Open networks
The new law could require (technological) surveillance of communications to ensure enforcement. Also because Service Providers might be legally liable for transmitting unauthorized copies, the might in turn have to deny access to anybody who could not provide them with financial guaranties or insurance.
- Interoperable systems
The draft could negate the already established right in EU law for software firms to make their systems interoperable with the dominant copyright protected systems. This would be a threat to the democratic and economic rights of users.
- Publicly available information
It is yet unclear whether new legal protections against the bypassing of
conditional access technology apply only for content with an exclusive right. If the content is already in the public domain, then there can be no possible violation of copyright law just from gaining access to it. Comments from the library, archives and documentation community on the amended Directive embrace:
The Library Association
http://www.la-hq.org.uk/directory/prof_issues/dcrris2.htmlEBLIDA (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations)
http://www.eblida.org/lobby/position/ampos2fi.htmSociety of Archivists (U.K.) and Public Record Office (U.K.)
http://www.pro.gov.uk/about/copyright/copyrightdraft.htmEFPICC (European Fair Practices In Copyright Campaign)
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DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
The debates in the House and Senate preceding the signing into law of the DMCA by U.S. President Clinton in October 1998 indicated that the principal object of the Act is to promote the U.S. economy by establishing an efficient Internet marketplace in copyrighted works. The DMCA implements the two 1996
WIPO treaties (WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty and WIPO Copyright Treaty) and addresses a variety of issues that arose with the increased availability of content in digital form. The Act 1) creates a series of "safe harbor" defenses (which are subject to a variety of conditions that must be met) for certain common activities of ISPs (Internet Service Provider), 2) bars the circumvention of technological protection measures that protect copyrighted works, 3) prohibits the distribution or provision of false copyright management information with the intent to induce or conceal infringement, 4) establishes an exemption for making a copy of a computer program for purposes of maintenance or repair, and 5) contains provisions concerning the "webcasting" of sound recordings on the Internet and the making of (digital) copies of copyrighted works by nonprofit libraries and archives.A full-text version of the DMCA is available from:
The Library of Congress: Thomas (Legislative Information on the Internet):
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/z?cp105:hr796:Moreover the U.S. Copyright Office provides a memorandum, which briefly summarizes each of the five titles of the DMCA (pdf format):
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdfThe DMCA has been criticized for not clarifying the range of legal principles on the liability of ISPs and creating exceptions to only some of the provisions; therefore giving copyright owners even more rights.
Among the variety of comments on the DMCA are:
Lutzker, Arnold P.: Primer on the Digital Millennium: What the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Copyright Term Extension Act Mean for the Library Community.
http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/primer.htmlLutzker & Lutzker law firm and the Association of Research Libraries: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Highlights of New Copyright Provision Establishing Limitation of Liability for Online Service Providers.
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Metering systems allow copyright owners to ensure payment to or at the time of a consumer's use of the work. Those technologies include:Hardware Devices
Those have to be acquired and installed by the user. For example under a debit card approach, the user purchases a debit card that is pre-loaded with a certain amount of value. After installation, the debit card is debited automatically as the user consumes copyrighted works.
Digital Certificates
Hereby a certification authority issues to a user an electronic file that identifies the user as the owner of a public key. Those digital certificates, besides
information on the identity of the holder can also include rights associated with a particular person. Vendors can so control access system resources, including copyrighted files, by making them available only to users who can provide a digital certificate with specified rights (e.g. access, use, downloading).Centralized Computing
Under this approach all of the executables remain at the server. Each time the executable is used, the user's computer must establish contact with the server, allowing the central computer to meter access.
Access Codes
Access code devices permit users to "unlock" protective mechanisms (e.g. date bombs or functional limitations) embedded in copyrighted works. Copyright owners can meter the usage of their works, either by unlocking the
intellectual property for a one-time license fee or by requiring periodic procurement of access codes.Copyright Clearinghouses
Under this approach copyright owners would commission "clearinghouses" with the ability to license the use of their works. A user would pay a license fee to obtain rights concerning the intellectual property.
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Pre-infringement
copyright management and control systems that inhibit or control infringement of intellectual property may be put into place by copyright owners before distributing their works. Examples are:Contracts
Contracts are a pre-infringement control method, which very often is underestimated. Properly formed contracts enable copyright holders to restrict the use of their works in excess of the rights granted under copyright laws.
Copy Protection
This approach was standard in the 1980s, but rejected by consumers and relatively easy to break. Still copy protection, whereby the vendor limits the number of times a file can be copied, is used in certain situations.
Limited Functionality
This method allows copyright owners to provide a copy of the work, which is functionally limited. Software creators, for example, can distribute software that cannot print or save. A fully functional version has to be bought from the vendor.
Date Bombs
Here the intellectual property holder distributes a fully functional copy but locks off access at a pre-specified date or after a certain number of uses.
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Profiling and Data Mining
At their most basic
copyright management and control technologies might simply be used to provide pricing information, negotiate the purchase transaction, and release a copy of a work for downloading to the customer's computer. Still, from a technological point of view, such systems also have the capacity to be employed for digital monitoring. Copyright owners could for example use the transaction records generated by their copyright management systems to learn more about their customers. Profiles, in their crudest form consisting of basic demographic information, about the purchasers of copyrighted material might be created. Moreover copyright owners could use search agents or complex data mining techniques to gather more information about their customers that could either be used to market other works or being sold to third parties.Fair Use
Through the widespread use of copyright management and control systems the balance of control could excessively be shifted in favor of the owners of
intellectual property. The currently by copyright law supported practice of fair use might potentially be restricted or even eliminated. While information in analogue form can easily be reproduced, the protection of digital works through copyright management systems might complicate or make impossible the copying of material for purposes, which are explicitly exempt under the doctrine of fair use.Provisions concerning technological protection measures and fair use are stated in the
DMCA, which provides that "Since copying of a work may be a fair use under appropriate circumstances, section 1201 does not prohibit the act of circumventing a technological measure that prevents copying. By contrast, since the fair use doctrine is not a defense e to the act of gaining unauthorized access to a work, the act of circumventing a technological measure in order to gain access is prohibited." Also the proposed EU Directive on copyright and related rights in the information society contains similar clauses. It distinguishes between the circumvention of technical protection systems for lawful purposes (fair use) and the circumvention to infringe copyright. Yet besides a still existing lack of legal clarity also very practical problems arise. Even if the circumvention of technological protection measures under fair use is allowed, how will an average user without specialized technological know-how be able to gain access or make a copy of a work? Will the producers of copyright management and control systems provide fair use versions that permit the reproduction of copyrighted material? Or will users only be able to access and copy works if they hold a digital "fair use license" ("fair use licenses" have been proposed by Mark Stefik, whereby holders of such licenses could exercise some limited "permissions" to use a digital work without a fee)?TEXTBLOCK 93/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659629
Mormon Church v. Sandra and Jerald Tanner
In a ruling of December 1999, a federal judge in Utah temporarily barred two critics of the Mormon Church from posting on their website the Internet addresses of other sites featuring pirated copies of a Mormon text. The Judge said that it was likely that Sandra and Jerald Tanner had engaged in contributory copyright infringement when they posted the addresses of three Web sites that they knew, or should have known, contained the copies.
Kaplan, Carl S.:
Copyright Decision Threatens Freedom to Link. In: New York Times. December 10, 1999. Universal Studios v. Movie-List
The website Movie-List, which features links to online, externally hosted movie trailers has been asked to completely refrain from linking to any of Universal Studio's servers containing the trailers as this would infringe copyright.
Cisneros, Oscar S.: Universal: Don't Link to Us. In:
Wired. July 27, 1999.More cases concerned with the issue of linking,
framing and the infringement of intellectual property are published in:Ross, Alexandra: Copyright Law and the Internet:
Selected Statutes and Cases.TEXTBLOCK 94/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659639
With the increased ease of the reproduction and transmission of unauthorized copies of digital works over electronic networks concerns among the copyright holder community have arisen. They fear a further growth of copyright piracy and demand adequate protection of their works. A development, which started in the mid 1990s and considers the copyright owner's apprehensions, is the creation of
copyright management systems. Technological protection for their works, the copyright industry argues, is necessary to prevent widespread infringement, thus giving them the incentive to make their works available online. In their view the ideal technology should be "capable of detecting, preventing, and counting a wide range of operations, including open, print, export, copying, modifying, excerpting, and so on." Additionally such systems could be used to maintain "records indicating which permissions have actually been granted and to whom".TEXTBLOCK 95/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659674
Post-infringement technologies allow the owners of copyrighted works to identify infringements and thus enhance enforcement of intellectual property rights and encompass systems such as:Steganography
Applied to electronic files, steganography refers to the process of hiding information in files that can not be easily detected by users. Steganography can be used by intellectual property owners in a variety of ways. One is to insert into the file a "digital watermark" which can be used to prove that an infringing file was the creation of the copyright holder and not the pirate. Other possibilities are to encode a unique serial number into each authorized copy or file, enabling the owner to trace infringing copies to a particular source, or to store
copyright management information.Agents
Agents are programs that can implement specified commands automatically. Copyright owners can use agents to search the public spaces of the Internet to find infringing copies. Although the technology is not yet very well developed full-text search engines allow similar uses.
Copyright Litigation
While not every infringement will be the subject of litigation, the threat of litigation helps keep large pirate operations in check. It helps copyright owners obtain relief for specific acts of infringement and publicly warns others of the dangers of infringement.
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With the development of new transmission, distribution and publishing technologies and the increasing digitalization of information copyright has become the subject of vigorous debate. Among the variety of attitudes towards the future of traditional copyright protection two main tendencies can be identified:
Eliminate Copyright
Anti-copyrightists believe that any
intellectual property should be in the public domain and available for all to use. "Information wants to be free" and copyright restricts people's possibilities concerning the utilization of digital content. An enforced copyright will lead to a further digital divide as copyright creates unjust monopolies in the basic commodity of the "information age". Also the increased ease of copying effectively obviates copyright, which is a relict of the past and should be expunged.Enlarge Copyright
Realizing the growing economic importance of intellectual property, especially the holders of copyright (in particular the big publishing, distribution and other
core copyright industries) - and therefore recipients of the royalties - adhere to the idea of enlarging copyright. In their view the basic foundation of copyright - the response to the need to provide protection to authors so as to give them an incentive to invest the time and effort required to produce creative works - is also relevant in a digital environment. TEXTBLOCK 97/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659711
Another important multilateral treaty concerned with
intellectual property rights is the TRIPS agreement, which was devised at the inauguration of the Uruguay Round negotiations of the WTO in January 1995. It sets minimum standards for the national protection of intellectual property rights and procedures as well as remedies for their enforcement (enforcement measures include the potential for trade sanctions against non-complying WTO members). The TRIPS agreement has been widely criticized for its stipulation that biological organisms be subject to intellectual property protection. In 1999, 44 nations considered it appropriate to treat plant varieties as intellectual property.The complete TRIPS agreement can be found on:
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It has become a commonplace observation that the history of modernity has been accompanied by what one might call a general weakening of identity, both as a theoretical concept and as a social and cultural reality. This blurring of identity has come to full fruition in the 20th century. As a theoretical concept, identity has lost its metaphysical foundation of "full correspondence" following the destruction of metaphysics by thinkers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Witgenstein or Davidson. Nietzsche's "dead god", his often-quoted metaphor for the demise of metaphysics, has left western cultures not only with the problem of having to learn how to think without permanent foundations; it has left them with both the liberty of constructing identities, and the structural obligation to do so. The dilemmas arising out of this ambivalent situation have given rise to the comment that "god is dead, and men is not doing so well himself". The new promise of freedom is accompanied by the threat of enslavement. Modern, technologically saturated cultures survive and propagate and emancipate themselves by acting as the gatekeepers of their own technological prisons.
On the social and cultural levels, traditional clear-cut identities have become weakened as traditional cultural belonging has been undermined or supplanted by modern socio-technological structures. The question as to "who one is" has become increasingly difficult to answer: hybrid identities are spreading, identities are multiple, temporary, fleeting rather than reflecting an inherited sense of belonging. The war cry of modern culture industry "be yourself" demands the impossible and offers a myriad of tools all outcompeting each other in their promise to fulfil the impossible.
For many, identity has become a matter of choice rather than of cultural or biological heritage, although being able to chose may not have been the result of a choice. A large superstructure of purchasable identification objects caters for an audience finding itself propelled into an ever accelerating and vertiginous spiral of identification and estrangement. In the supermarket of identities, what is useful and cool today is the waste of tomorrow. What is offered as the latest advance in helping you to "be yourself" is as ephemeral as your identification with it; it is trash in embryonic form.
Identity has become both problematic and trivial, causing modern subjects a sense of thrownness and uprootedness as well as granting them the opportunity of overcoming established authoritarian structures. In modern, technologically saturated societies, the general weakening of identities is a prerequisite for emancipation. The return to "strong" clear-cut "real" identities is the way of new fundamentalism demanding a rehabilitation of "traditional values" and protected zones for metaphysical thought, both of which are to be had only at the price of suppression and violence.
It has become difficult to know "who one is", but this difficulty is not merely a private problem. It is also a problem for the exercise of power, for the state and other power institutions also need to know "who you are". With the spread of weak identities, power is exercised in a different manner. Power cannot be exercised without being clear who it addresses; note the dual significance of "subject". A weakened, hybrid undefined subject (in the philosophical sense) cannot be a "good" subject (in the political sense), it is not easy to sub-ject. Without identification, power cannot be exercised. And while identification is itself not a sufficient precondition for authoritarianism, it is certainly a necessary one.
Identities are therefore reconstructed using technologies of identification in order to keep the weakened and hence evasive subjects "sub-jected". States have traditionally employed bureaucratic identification techniques and sanctioned those who trying to evade the grip of administration. Carrying several passports has been the privilege of spies and of dubious outlaws, and not possessing an "ID" at all is the fate of millions of refugees fleeing violence or economic destitution. Lack of identification is structurally sanctioned by placelessness.
The technisised acceleration of societies and the weakening of identities make identification a complicated matter. On the one hand, bureaucratic identification techniques can be technologically bypassed. Passports and signatures can be forged; data can be manipulated and played with. On the other hand, traditional bureaucratic methods are slow. The requirements resulting from these constraints are met by biometric technology.
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In biometric technology, the subject is reduced to its physical and therefore inseparable properties. The subject is a subject in so far as it is objectified; that is, in so far as is identified with its own res extensa, Descartes' "extended thing". The subject exists in so far as it can be objectified, if it resists the objectification that comes with measurement, it is rejected or punished. Biometrics therefore provides the ultimate tool for control; in it, the dream of hermetic identity control seems to become a reality, a modern technological reconstruction of traditional identification techniques such as the handshake or the look into somebody's eyes.
The use of identification by states and other institutions of authority is evidently not simply a modern phenomenon. The ancient Babylonians and Chinese already made use of finger printing on clay to identify authors of documents, while the Romans already systematically compared handwritings.
Body measurement has long been used by the military. One of the first measures after entering the military is the identification and appropriation of the body measurements of a soldier. These measurements are filed and combined with other data and make up what today we would call the soldier's data body. With his data body being in possession of the authority, a soldier is no longer able freely socialise and is instead dependent on the disciplinary structure of the military institution. The soldier's social being in the world is defined by the military institution.
However, the military and civilian spheres of modern societies are no longer distinct entities. The very ambivalence of advanced technology (dual use technologies) has meant that "good" and "bad" uses of technology can no longer be clearly distinguished. The measurement of physical properties and the creation of data bodies in therefore no longer a military prerogative, it has become diffused into all areas of modern societies.
If the emancipatory potential of weak identities is to be of use, it is therefore necessary to know how biometric technologies work and what uses they are put to.
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In order to be able to recognize a person, one commonly looks at this persons face, for it is there where the visual features which distinguish one person from another are concentrated. Eyes in particular seem to tell a story not only about who somebody is, but also about how that persons feel, where his / her attention is directed, etc. People who do not want to show who they are or what is going on inside of them must mask themselves. Consequently, face recognition is a kind of electronic unmasking.
"Real" face-to-face communication is a two-way process. Looking at somebody's face means exposing ones own face and allowing the other to look at oneself. It is a mutual process which is only suspended in extraordinary and voyeuristic situations. Looking at somebody without being looked at places the person who is visually exposed in a vulnerable position vis-à-vis the watcher.
In face recognition this extraordinary situation is normal. Looking at the machine, you only see yourself looking at the machine. Face biometrics are extracted anonymously and painlessly by a mask without a face.
Therefore the resistance against the mass appropriation of biometrical data through surveillance cameras is confronted with particular difficulties. The surveillance structure is largely invisible, it is not evident what the function of a particular camera is, nor whether it is connected to a face recognition system.
In a protest action against the face recognition specialist
Visionics, the Surveillance Camera Players therefor adopted the strategy of re-masking: in front of the cameras, they perfomed the play "The Masque of the Red Death" an adaption of Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story by Art Toad. According to
Visionics, whose slogan is "enabling technology with a mass appeal", there are alrady 1.1 bn digitised face images stored on identification data banks world wide. When combined with wide area surveillance camera networks, face recognition is capable of creating a transparent social space that can be controlled by a depersonalised, undetected and unaccountable centre. It is a technology, of which the surveillance engeneers of sunken totalitarian regimes may have dreamt, and one that today is being adopted by democratic governments. TEXTBLOCK 101/113 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611729/100438658118
In what follows there is a brief description of the principal biometric technologies, whose respective proponents - producers, research laboratories, think tanks - mostly tend to claim superiority over the others. A frequently used definition of "biometric" is that of a "unique, measurable characteristic or trait of a human being for automatically recognizing or verifying identity" (
http://www.icsa.net/services/consortia/cbdc/bg/introduction.shtml); biometrics is the study and application of such measurable characteristics. In IT environments, biometrics are categorised as "security" technologies meant to limit access to information, places and other resources to a specific group of people. All biometric technologies are made up of the same basic processes:
1. A sample of a biometric is first collected, then transformed into digital information and stored as the "biometric template" of the person in question.
2. At every new identification, a second sample is collected and its identity with the first one is examined.
3. If the two samples are identical, the persons identity is confirmed, i.e. the system knows who the person is.
This means that access to the facility or resource can be granted or denied. It also means that information about the persons behaviour and movements has been collected. The system now knows who passed a certain identification point at which time, at what distance from the previous time, and it can combine these data with others, thereby appropriating an individual's data body.
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The only biometric technology which does not measure the visual features of the human body. In voice recognition the sound vibrations of a person is measured and compared to an existing sample. The person to be identified is usually required to pronounce a designated password or phrase which facilitates the verification process. Voice recognition can be used on the phone, but has the weakness of technology is its susceptibility to interference by background noise.
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In palm recognition a 3-dimensional image of the hand is collected and compared to the stored sample. Palm recognition devices are cumbersome artefacts (unlike fingerprint and iris recognition devices) but can absorb perform a great amount of identification acts in a short time. They are therefore preferably installed in situations where a large number of people is identified, as in airports.
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The fact that an individual's identity is expressed not only by the way he/she looks or sounds, but also by the manner of walking is a relatively new discovery of in biometrics.
Unlike the more fully developed biometric technologies whose scrutiny is directed at stationary parts of the body, gait recognition has the added difficulty of having to sample and identify movement. Scientists at the University of Southampton, UK (
http://www.isis.ecs.soton.ac.uk/research/gait/) have developed a model which likens the movement of legs to those of a pendulum and uses hip inclination as a variable. Another model considers the shape and length of legs as well as the velocity of joint movements. The objective is to combine both models into one, which would make gait recognition a fully applicable biometric technology.
Given that gait recognition is applied to "moving preambulatory subjects" it is a particularly interesting technology for surveillance. People can no longer hide their identity by covering themselves or moving. Female shop lifters who pretend pregnancy will be detected because they walk differently than those who are really pregnant. Potential wrongdoers might resort walking techniques as developed in Monty Pythons legendary "Ministry of Silly Walks" (
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Other biometric technologies not specified here include ear recognition, signature dynamics, key stroke dynamics, vein pattern recognition, retinal scan, body odour recognition, and DNA recognition. These are technologies which are either in early stages of development or used in highly specialised and limited contexts.
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Biometric technologies are not surveillance technologies in themselves, but as identification technologies they provide an input into surveillance which can make such as face recognition are combined with camera systems and criminal data banks in order to supervise public places and single out individuals.
Another example is the use of biometrics technologies is in the supervision of probationers, who in this way can carry their special hybrid status between imprisonment and freedom with them, so that they can be tracked down easily.
Unlike biometric applications in access control, where one is aware of the biometric data extraction process, what makes biometrics used in surveillance a particularly critical issue is the fact that biometric samples are extracted routinely, unnoticed by the individuals concerned.
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Identity has to do with "place". In less mobile societies, the place where a person finds him/herself tells us something about his/her identity. In pre-industrial times, gatekeepers had the function to control access of people to particular places, i.e. the gatekeepers function was to identify people and then decide whether somebody's identity would allow that person to physically occupy another place - a town, a building, a vehicle, etc.
In modern societies, the unambiguous nature of place has been weakened. There is a great amount of physical mobility, and ever since the emergence and spread of electronic communication technologies there has been a "virtualisation" of places in what today we call "virtual space" (unlike place, space has been a virtual reality from the beginning, a mathematical formula) The question as to who one is no longer coupled to the physical abode. Highly mobile and virtualised social contexts require a new generation of gatekeepers which biometric technology aims to provide.
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Biometric technologies are increasingly used in order to control access to political rights, such as voting, welfare benefits, etc.
Identification cards with digitised fingerprints are being used in elector identification of voters in some countries (e.g. Mexico and Spain).
Biometric identification is also being introduced in national health care systems, as for example in the Canadian province of Ontario, in Los Angeles and Connecticut. Spain is developing a smart card for all welfare and pension benefits.
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All biometric technologies capture biometric data from individuals. Once these date have been captured by a system, they can, in principle, be forwarded to other locations and put to many different uses which are capable of compromising on an individuals privacy.
Technically it is easy to match biometric data with other personal data stored in government or corporate files, and to come a step closer to the counter-utopia of the transparent citizen and customer whose data body is under outside control.
While biometric technologies are often portrayed as protectors of personal data and safeguards against identity theft, they can thus contribute to an advance in "Big Brother" technology.
The combination of personalised data files with biometric data would amount to an enormous control potential. While nobody in government and industry would admit to such intentions, leading data systems companies such as EDS (Electronic Data Systems;
http://www.eds.com) are also suppliers of biometric systems to the intelligence agencies of government and industry. Biometric technologies have the function of identification. Historically, identification has been a prerequisite for the exercise of power and serves as a protection only to those who are in no conflict with this power. If the digitalisation of the body by biometric technologies becomes as widespread as its proponents hope, a new electronic feudal system could be emerging, in which people are reduced to subjects dispossessed of their to their bodies, even if these, unlike in the previous one, are data bodies. Unlike the gatekeepers of medieval towns, wear no uniforms by they might be identified; biometric technologies are pure masks.
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This is the largest area of application of biometric technologies, and the most direct lineage to the feudal gate keeping system. Initially mainly used in military and other "high security" territories, physical access control by biometric technology is spreading into a much wider field of application. Biometric access control technologies are already being used in schools, supermarkets, hospitals and commercial centres, where the are used to manage the flow of personnel.
Biometric technologies are also used to control access to political territory, as in immigration (airports, Mexico-USA border crossing). In this case, they can be coupled with camera surveillance systems and artificial intelligence in order to identify potential suspects at unmanned border crossings. Examples of such uses in remote video inspection systems can be found at
http://www.eds-ms.com/acsd/RVIS.htmA gate keeping system for airports relying on digital fingerprint and hand geometry is described at
http://www.eds-ms.com/acsd/INSPASS.htm. This is another technology which allows separating "low risk" travellers from "other" travellers. An electronic reconstruction of feudal gate keeping capable of singling out high-risk travellers from the rest is already applied at various border crossing points in the USA. "All enrolees are compared against national lookout databases on a daily basis to ensure that individuals remain low risk". As a side benefit, the economy of time generated by the inspection system has meant that "drug seizures ... have increased since Inspectors are able to spend more time evaluating higher risk vehicles".
However, biometric access control can not only prevent people from gaining access on to a territory or building, they can also prevent them from getting out of buildings, as in the
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During the last 20 years the old
Immanuel Wallerstein-paradigm of center - periphery and semi-periphery found a new costume: ICTs. After Colonialism, Neo-Colonialism and Neoliberalism a new method of marginalization is emerging: the digital divide. "Digital divide" describes the fact that the world can be divided into people who
do and people who do not have access to (or the education to handle with) modern information technologies, e.g. cellular telephone, television, Internet. This digital divide is concerning people all over the world, but as usually most of all people in the formerly so called third world countries and in rural areas suffer; the poor and less-educated suffer from that divide.
More than 80% of all computers with access to the Internet are situated in larger cities.
"The cost of the information today consists not so much of the creation of content, which should be the real value, but of the storage and efficient delivery of information, that is in essence the cost of paper, printing, transporting, warehousing and other physical distribution means, plus the cost of the personnel manpower needed to run these `extra' services ....Realizing an autonomous distributed networked society, which is the real essence of the Internet, will be the most critical issue for the success of the information and communication revolution of the coming century of millennium."
(Izumi Aizi)
for more information see:
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While the digital divide might bring up the idea that enterprises will be able to sell more and more computers during the next years another truth looks as if there was no hope for a certain percentage of the population to get out of their marginalization, their position of being "have nots".
Studies show that the issue of different colors of skin play a role in this, but more than "racial" issues it is income, age and education that decides about the have and have nots.
There exist ~ 103 million households in the USA.
~6 million do not even have telephone access. Why should they care about computers?
The digital divide cuts the world into centers and peripheries, not into nations, as it runs through the boarder between the North and the South as well as through nations.
http://www.digitaldivide.gov/http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/http://www.pbs.org/digitaldivide/http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-344552.htmlhttp://racerelations.about.com/newsissues/racerelations/msubdigdivide.htmhttp://www.techweek.com/articles/11-1-99/divide.htmhttp://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/falling.htmlThe most different institutions with various interests in their background work in that field; not rarely paid by governments, which are interested in inhabitants, connected to the net and economy.
see also:
http://www.washington.edu/wto/digital/Searching information about the digital divide one will find informations saying that it is growing all the time whereas other studies suggest the contrary, like this one
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