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Commercial vs. Independent Content: Power and Scope |
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Regarding the dimension of their financial and human resources commercial media companies are at any rate much more powerful players than their independent counterparts. Still those reply with an extreme multiplicity and diversity. Today thousands of newsgroups, mailing-list and e-zines covering a wide range of issues from the environment to politics, social and human rights, culture, art and democracy are run by alternative groups.
Moreover independent content provider have started to use digital media for communication, information and co-ordination long before they were discovered by corporate interest. They regularly use the Internet and other networks to further public discourse and put up civic resistance. And in many cases are very successful with their work, as initiatives like widerst@ndMUND's (AT) co-ordination of the critics of the participation of the Freedom Party in the Austrian government via mailing-lists, an online-magazine and discussion forums, show.
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1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT)
The
1996  WIPO
Copyright Treaty, which focused on taking steps to protect copyright
"in the digital age" among other provisions 1) makes clear
that computer programs are protected as literary works, 2) the
contracting parties must protect databases that constitute
intellectual creations, 3) affords authors with the new right of
making their works "available to the public", 4) gives
authors the exclusive right to authorize "any communication to
the public of their works, by wire or wireless means ... in such a
way that members of the public may access these works from a place
and at a time individually chosen by them." and 5) requires the
contracting states to protect anti-copying technology and copyright
management information that is embedded in any work covered by the
treaty. The WCT is available on:  http://www.wipo.int/documents/en/diplconf/distrib/94dc.htm
 http://www.wipo.int/documents/en/diplconf/dis...
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