Litigation is not the solution to author-revenue protection. Indeed, litigation will do nothing but slow the pace of any technological developments. Currently, the cry of copyright infringement on the web prevents individual developers from pursuing some interesting work. This tendency to threaten others with litigation is both irresponsible and, in some jurisdictions, illegal. Unfortunately, lawsuits will be filed and judges with limited knowledge or understanding of technology will make rulings that impact the future. Technologists must take action now to prevent improper precedent. Do not depend on the legislators to create new law: there is no great movement under way to radically rewrite current copyright laws.
Predictor: Norderhaug, Terje
Prediction, in context:In a paper presented at the third annual WWW Conference in 1995, Terje Norderhaug and Juliet M. Oberding of Media Design inProgress presented research titled, ÒDesigning a Web of Intellectual Property,Ó in which they assert that web technology undermines the protection of intellectual property. They write: ÒLitigation is not the solution to author-revenue protection. Indeed, litigation will do nothing but slow the pace of any technological developments. Currently, the cry of copyright infringement on the web prevents individual developers from pursuing some interesting work. This tendency to threaten others with litigation is both irresponsible and, in some jurisdictions, illegal. Unfortunately, lawsuits will be filed and judges with limited knowledge or understanding of technology will make rulings that impact the future. Technologists must take action now to prevent improper precedent. Do not depend on the legislators to create new law: there is no great movement under way to radically rewrite current copyright laws.Ó
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: WWW Conference '95
Title, headline, chapter name: Designing a Web of Intellectual Property
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
www.igd.fhg.de/archive/1995_www95/proceedings/papers/95/webip.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne