The government’s top copyright officer, Marybeth Peters … concedes … “The Internet is the world’s biggest copying machine.” But she says that doesn’t mean that copyright is useless, just that it needs to work differently in a world where “property” is evanescent as dots of light dancing on a computer screen. One way, suggest Peters, will be to provide access to data only to those who pay.
Predictor: Peters, Marybeth
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “The Information Revolution,” edited by Donald Altschiller, carries a reprint of the Jan. 23, 1995, U.S. News & World Report article “Policing Cyberspace” by Vince Sussman. Sussman explores First Amendment rights in cyberspace. Sussman writes: ”John Perry Barlow, an Internet visionary, kicked up controversy last year when he suggested in a widely read Wired magazine article that traditional notions of copyright were dead in cyberspace. ‘Digital technology is detaching information from the physical plane,’ he writes, ‘where property law of all sorts has always found definition.’ The government’s top copyright officer, Marybeth Peters, partially concedes the point, saying ‘The Internet is the world’s biggest copying machine.’ But she says that doesn’t mean that copyright is useless, just that it needs to work differently in a world where ‘property’ is evanescent as dots of light dancing on a computer screen. One way, suggest Peters, will be to provide access to data only to those who pay. An example is WestLaw, an online law database. Students use an electronic card that gives them access to the system, and their law school pays the fee. Other information systems now being developed used encryption, selling the access key to user. But once someone gets a first look at data, sound or graphics files, it is easy to make copies – an economic nightmare for software developers.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: The Information Revolution (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Policing Cyberspace
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 117, 118
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne