The law of intellectual property, which includes the law of copyright, will have to adapt to a world in which advances in technology increasingly undercut one’s ability to enforce intellectual-property rights … decentralization of the Net makes billing for and tracking use of intellectual property very difficult, since there’s no central tracking mechanism, nor has any credible one been proposed … When a law’s requirements are so unrealistic that they are routinely broken by otherwise law-abiding citizens, it’s a sign that the law needs to be changed.
Predictor: Godwin, Mike
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Internet World, Mike Godwin, chief counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, outlines issues in regard to law and the Internet. Godwin writes: ”The law of intellectual property, which includes the law of copyright, will have to adapt to a world in which advances in technology increasingly undercut one’s ability to enforce intellectual-property rights. Only now has it become clear the extent to which copyright law has depended on the ‘bottleneck’ created by the costs of printing (and, later, of photocopying). As of today, it remains far easier simply to buy the magazine containing a short story than it is to photocopy that story, or to have a copy printed by a printshop at your own expense. But thanks to the growth of character recognition software, the dropping costs of computer hardware, and the increasing ubiquity of computer networks, the costs of reproducing all sorts of intellectual property are falling rapidly … It has been argued that the current copyright regime could be replaced by one based on usage fees, but that suggestion overlooks a couple of important obstacles. First of all, once someone acquires information from an online publisher, there’s little disincentive to spread that information around. (Why should you call up Nexis, for example, when I did a similar search last week and can forward my search results to you in e-mail?) The second problem is that both the Internet and the proposed infrastructural schemes that could replace it are highly decentralized. This decentralization of the Net makes billing for and tracking use of intellectual property very difficult, since there’s no central tracking mechanism, nor has any credible one been proposed. In the meantime, copyright violations on the Net are commonplace … I have long believed that, when a law’s requirements are so unrealistic that they are routinely broken by otherwise law-abiding citizens, it’s a sign that the law needs to be changed.”
Biography:Mike Godwin was an attorney specializing in Internet issues and the outspoken chief counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the cyber-liberties organization in the 1990s. (Legislator/Politician/Lawyer.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: Internet World
Title, headline, chapter name: The Law of the Net: Problems and Prospects
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.eff.org/Publications/Mike_Godwin/law_of_the_net_godwin.article
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney