roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (01/13/87)
I happened upon an interesting publication just now. It's a study
produced by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment which deals with such
questions as "can you copyright a computer program?" Since it doesn't seem
to be copyrighted, I'll quote the first paragraph from the Forward:
This report examines the impact of recent and anticipated
advances in communication and information technologies on the
intellectual property system. It focuses primarily on the Federal
copyright system, and on the continuing effectiveness of copyright
law as a policy tool in the light of technologies such as audio-
and videorecorders, computer programs, electronic databases, and
telecommunications networks. To obtain a comprehensive view, the
study examined the intellectual property system from a number of
perspectives: the constitutional basis of intellectual property
policy; the system's goals, laws, and economics; the creative
environment; problems of enforcement; the international context;
and the Federal role in administering intellectual property rights.
Discussions about copyrights have been floating around the network
for as long as I've been around, usually chock full of misinformation. The
new Electronic Communications Privacy Act has prompted lots of network
discussion as well, and a certain amount of flamage. It would be a good
idea if people interested in these topics got a copy of the report and read
it (or at least skim it; it's about 300 pages long). You're looking for:
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Intellectual
Property Rights in an Age of Electronics and Information,
OTA-CIT-302 (Washington, DC: U.S. Governmment Printing Office,
April, 1986). Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 86-600522.
If you can't find it in your library, you can buy a copy from the
Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
DC 20402. They didn't mention the price.
--
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
"you can't spell deoxyribonucleic without unix!"