Intellectual property in the networked environment is bound up with how intellectual property protection should evolve to cover digital media generally. For example, copyright law applies to the multimedia environment as it applies to the print world, but some have raised questions about the application of intellectual property protections to the hybrid products made possible by digital convergence. How these questions are resolved will affect business development and process planning. The area of intellectual property rights represents one of the greatest areas of difference among the research and education and commercial communities.
Predictor: National Research Council
Prediction, in context:In 1994, the NRENaissance Committee, appointed by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council, produced a special report titled “Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond.” Among the committee members were Internet pioneers Leonard Kleinrock, David Clark, David Farber, Lawrence Landweber and Robert Kahn. The committee’s goal was to “study issues raised by the shift to a larger, more truly national networking capability.” Among its statements about the blossoming of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) is this: ”There is a broad public consensus that there should continue to be protection of copyrighted materials, and that the protection of copyrights of materials distributed in the networked environment should reflect the rights of both creators and users. There is also broad appreciation that a robust market for networked information and resources is fundamental to the success of the evolving NII. Much less certain is how intellectual property protection can or should evolve to fit the networked environment – observed legal scholar Thomas Dreier … Intellectual property in the networked environment is bound up with how intellectual property protection should evolve to cover digital media generally. For example, copyright law applies to the multimedia environment as it applies to the print world, but some have raised questions about the application of intellectual property protections to the hybrid products made possible by digital convergence. How these questions are resolved will affect business development and process planning. The area of intellectual property rights represents one of the greatest areas of difference among the research and education and commercial communities.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond
Title, headline, chapter name: Flow of Information
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://stills.nap.edu/html/rtif/
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney