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Digital Technology and Copyright Law by Christopher D Digital Technology and Copyright Law by Christopher D. Beland SUBMITTED TO THE PROGRAM IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN HUMANITIES AND ENGINEERING AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2002 © 2002 Christopher D. Beland. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part. This document may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, and displayed in any medium, in whole or in part, provided this copyright notice is preserved, and provided any omissions, modifications, or annotations are clearly denoted as such. Signature of author: __________________________________________________________ Program in Science, Technology and Society Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 4 February 2002 Certified by: ________________________________________________________________ David I. Kaiser, Thesis Supervisor Leo Marx Career Development Assistant Professor of the History and Culture of Science Accepted by: _______________________________________________________________ Merritt Roe Smith Cutten Professor of the History of Technology and Director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society 1 Digital Technology and Copyright Law by Christopher D. Beland Submitted on 4 Feb. 2002, to the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Humanities and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Abstract Intellectual Property is an ideology of the late Twentieth Century which reserves property– like rights in information, so that creators may extract its economic value. Current American copyright law draws mainly from this concept; it has been constructed through history by negotiation between various established economic interests. Information Freedom is a competing ideology which has been successful in the software community. It emphasizes the dangers of over–propertization and the benefits of freely accessible resources, especially non–depletable information resources. Compromise must be reached in a practical (non–ideological) fashion in order to achieve the social goals of: production of creative content (encouraged by fair but not excessive compensation for creators); promotion of scientific, political, technical, artistic, cultural, and economic progress by removing obstacles to accessing content and taking advantage of innovations which change the status quo; protection of creative freedom; and ensuring quality and diversity in the content which is created. Civil disobedience as a means to achieve these goals may be counterproductive if it results in tighter technological restrictions on content availability or stricter legal mechanisms; legal reforms proposed by Lawrence Lessig and Jessica Litman are unlikely to be enacted. Internet–based technologies have strong potential to increase exposure to diversity, decrease costs, and improve the subjective experience for music consumers. Cheaper film–making equipment may have similar positive effects for motion pictures to a lesser degree. Internet bandwidth and other practical limitations suggest that immediate changes in video distribution and consumption patterns are more likely to be driven by the availability of Digital Video Recorders, or perhaps competing Video On Demand services. Different economic models which fund content creation may be appropriate for different applications, and may in some cases further social goals better than strong propertization. Alternative models include voluntary contributions (either from creators or consumers); indirect benefit by establishing reputation, selling related services, cross–promotion, or selling advertising; and public funding. The history of telecommunication, including the telegraph, radio, television, and the Internet, provides evidence that important uses for new technology may not be initially obvious, that the maturation of digital information technology and related economic models is just beginning. Thesis Supervisor: David I. Kaiser, Leo Marx Career Development Assistant Professor of the History and Culture of Science 2 Acknowledgements Prof. David Kaiser deserves a special word of thanks for going above and beyond the duty of a thesis advisor in helping me finish this thesis long after it was originally supposed to be completed, and to do so from the other end of the continent. Judy Spitzer in the STS department also deserves special thanks for her willingness to deal with every almost manner of administrative headache I could have possibly caused. This thesis would not have come together without their help and encouragement. I am also indebted to my partner, Clifton Leigh, for helping me to graduate in finite time, and for helping in the final proofreading. Thanks also to Sarah Mcdougal for sanity, encouragement, and assistance. I should also thank the people of Fenway House, Gale, and Kensington Manor for putting up with my babbling, and providing insight and engaging discussion on a variety of legal, economic, technical, and social issues. The inspiration for my interest in this topic was a unique class about collisions of law and digital technologies, taught jointly among the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society; MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and the Harvard Law School. Thanks in particular to Professors Hal Abelson, Lawrence Lessig, and Jonathan Zittrain for their engagement on these issues. It should be obvious that the works of Prof. Lessig and Prof. Jessica Litman have greatly advanced the study of the questions raised by this thesis. I am grateful for their scholarship, insights, and persistence. 3 Table of Contents 1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................6 Approach.....................................................................................................................................7 2 The People, Politics, and Ideology of Copyright.........................................................................10 2.1 Who Are the Stakeholders?...................................................................................................10 2.2 Lobbying and the Law...........................................................................................................13 2.3 Social Goals and Ideology.....................................................................................................16 2.3.1 Creative Content as Intellectual Property.....................................................................18 2.3.2 Information Freedom......................................................................................................20 2.4 Myth: The Internet Cannot Be Regulated.............................................................................24 3 Lessons of History — Mass Telecommunications.......................................................................28 3.1 Theory......................................................................................................................................28 3.2 Historical Evidence.................................................................................................................29 3.3 Expectations for Digital Technology................................................................................31 4 Case Study — Napster and Digital Music Distribution..............................................................35 4.1 U.S. Copyright Law as It Applies to Music.........................................................................35 4.1.1 Fair Use and Blanket Exemptions.................................................................................35 4.1.2 Creating and Publishing Music......................................................................................37 4.1.3 Performing Musical Works............................................................................................37 4.1.4 Making Recordings.........................................................................................................38 4.1.5 Transmission Rights.......................................................................................................39 4.1.6 Digital Audio Recordings..............................................................................................42 4.1.7 Implications and Questions............................................................................................42 4.2 The MP3 Revolution..............................................................................................................44 4.2.1 Early MP3 Technology and File Sharing.....................................................................44 4.2.2 The Napster Explosion...................................................................................................45 4.3 The Law Revisited: Digital Music Lawsuits........................................................................47 4.3.1 Fair Use...........................................................................................................................48 4.3.2. Shifting in Space and Time..........................................................................................49 4.3.3. Liability as a Service Provider.....................................................................................50
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