Linking and Framing: Cases

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.

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Copyright Management and Control Systems: Post-Infringement

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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The 19th Century: First Programmable Computing Devices

Until the 19th century "early computers", probably better described as calculating machines, were basically mechanical devices and operated by hand. Early calculators like the abacus worked with a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack and the centerpiece of Leibniz's multiplier was a stepped-drum gear design.

Therefore Charles Babbage's proposal of the Difference Engine (1822), which would have (it was never completed) a stored program and should perform calculations and print the results automatically, was a major breakthrough, as it for the first time suggested the automation of computers. The construction of the Difference Engine, which should perform differential equations, was inspired by Babbage's idea to apply the ability of machines to the needs of mathematics. Machines, he noted, were best at performing tasks repeatedly without mistakes, while mathematics often required the simple repetition of steps.

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 artificial intelligence have furthermore been the contributions of the English mathematician and logician George Boole. In his postulates concerning the Laws of Thought (1854) he started to theorize about the true/false nature of binary numbers. His principles make up what today is known as Boolean algebra, the collection of logic concerning AND, OR, NOT operands, on which computer switching theory and procedures are grounded. Boole also assumed that the human mind works according to these laws, it performs logical operations that could be reasoned. Ninety years later Boole's principles were applied to circuits, the blueprint for electronic computers, by Claude Shannon.

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The Copyright Industry

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.

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Private data bunkers

On the other hand are the data bunkers of the private sector, whose position is different. Although these are fast-growing engines of data collection with a much greater degree of dynamism, they may not have the same privileged position - although one has to differentiate among the general historical and social conditions into which a data bunker is embedded. For example, it can safely be assumed that the databases of a large credit card company or bank are more protected than the bureaucracies of small developing countries.

Private data bunkers include

    Banks

    Building societies

    Credit bureaus

    Credit card companies

    Direct marketing companies

    Insurance companies

    Telecom service providers

    Mail order stores

    Online stores


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Data bunkers

Personal data are collected, appropriated, processed and used for commercial purposes on a global scale. In order for such a global system to operate smoothly, there a server nodes at which the data streams converge. Among the foremost of these are the data bases of credit card companies, whose operation has long depended on global networking.

On top of credit card companies such as Visa, American Express, Master Card, and others. It would be erroneous to believe that the primary purpose of business of these companies is the provision of credit, and the facilitation of credit information for sale transactions. In fact, Information means much more than just credit information. In an advertisement of 1982, American Express described itself in these terms: ""Our product is information ...Information that charges airline tickets, hotel rooms, dining out, the newest fashions ...information that grows money funds buys and sells equities ...information that pays life insurance annuities ...information that schedules entertainment on cable television and electronically guards houses ...information that changes kroners into guilders and figures tax rates in Bermuda ..."

Information has become something like the gospel of the New Economy, a doctrine of salvation - the life blood of society, as Bill Gates expresses it. But behind information there are always data that need to be generated and collected. Because of the critical importance of data to the economy, their possession amounts to power and their loss can cause tremendous damage. The data industry therefore locates its data warehouses behind fortifications that bar physical or electronic access. Such structures are somewhat like a digital reconstruction of the medieval fortress

Large amounts of data are concentrated in fortress-like structures, in data bunkers. As the Critical Art Ensemble argue in Electronic Civil Disobedience: "The bunker is the foundation of homogeneity, and allows only a singular action within a given situation." All activities within data bunker revolve around the same principle of calculation. Calculation is the predominant mode of thinking in data-driven societies, and it reaches its greatest density inside data bunkers. However, calculation is not a politically neutral activity, as it provides the rational basis - and therefore the formal legitimisation most every decision taken. Data bunkers therefore have an essentially conservative political function, and function to maintain and strengthen the given social structures.

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Security Measures?

The more so-called security measures are taken the more control and the less freedom is granted. Whereas criminals are flexible in their computer work/digital existence, the average person cannot be. So it is her/him who gets punished with an increase of control.
Of course security can be in favor of the population as well - and this is the case if cryptography is legal so that everyone has access to it to protect his/her data. This one needs for e-commerce, secure payments and transmission of private data, mostly e-mails or access to websites where one needs a password. E-mails are nothing else than postcards, letters without envelopes. Without encryption they are easy to open, read and trace back, even without knowing the password. Rumors that Echelon works with a list of key-words, controlling any e-mail in the world and reacting to words of that list, led to actions like the Jam Eschelon Day, last time held on October 21st, 1999, to confuse the espionage system.

for more information on Jam Eschelon Day see:
http://www.hacktivism.org
http://www.echelon.wiretapped.net/
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/5358/1.html

But the respect for privacy stands for an essential values in democratic societies.
So, how can it be regarded a governmental risk?

At a conference:
"How many people here fear a greater risk
from government abuses of power
than from criminal activity?"
The majority raised their hands,
one participant shouted "What's the difference?"
(anonymous)

If governments really care for the people and want to fight against cybercriminality they should rather support the work on the latest technologies for encryption than to restrict their access. Or even better: they should not intervene at all - to make sure they do not build in any trapdoors. Though it is already too late for discussion like this one as the trapdoors are already part of most of the key-systems. Rumors about PGP and trapdoors do not help the confidence in cryptology.

for information about the risks of cryptography see:
http://www.cdt.org/crypto/risks98/

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plaintext

the original, legible text

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Sony Corporation

Japanese SONY KK, major Japanese manufacturer of consumer electronics products. Headquarters are in Tokyo. The company was incorporated in 1946 and spearheaded Japan's drive to become the world's dominant consumer electronics manufacturer in the late 20th century. The company was one of the first to recognize the potential of the consumer videotape market. In 1972 it formed an affiliate to market its Betamax colour videocassette system. In 1987-88 Sony purchased the CBS Records Group from CBS Inc., thus acquiring the world's largest record company. It followed that purchase with the purchase in 1989 of Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc.

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cryptoanalysis

the study of breaking others' codes to transform a message back into a legible form without knowing the key from the beginning

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codes

an algorithm for bringing a legible message into an illegible form. There has to exist some sort of code book to encode/decode it.

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ciphertext

the enciphered/encoded and primarily illegible text

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to encipher/encode

to put a word or text into ciphers/codes

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ciphers

the word "cipher" comes from the Hebrew word "saphar", meaning "to number". Ciphers are mere substitutions. Each letter of the alphabet gets substituted; maybe by one letter or two or more.

an example:
PLAINTEXT a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
CIPHERTEXT D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C

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Mass production

The term mass production refers to the application of the principles of specialization, division of labor, and standardization of parts to the manufacture of goods. The use of modern methods of mass production has brought such improvements in the cost, quality, quantity, and variety of goods available that the largest global population in history is now sustained at the highest general standard of living. A moving conveyor belt installed in a Dearborn, Michigan, automobile plant in 1913 cut the time required to produce flywheel magnetos from 18 minutes to 5 and was the first instance of the use of modern integrated mass production techniques.

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