The intellectual property industries and the new tech world

Abstract

The relevance of copyright and other current forms of intellectual property protection is discussed in the light of current methods of information communication via the Internet and World Wide Web. The issues involved are illustrated with particular reference to the music industry. Recent US legal rulings regarding Web sites set up to allow users to exchange music files, including the Napster (www.napster.com) and MP3 (www.www.mp3.com) cases, have shown the inadequacies of trying to fit the US Copyright Act into a communication model that fails to allow it to function as it has in the past. It is argued that these resources form part of the open source movement, are made freely available on the Internet and are almost impossible to control from the copyright viewpoint. The case both for and against the industry’s position is considered. The way in which some artists and publishers, including authors of books, are already turning directly to the Web shows that the new publishing paradigm is likely to become dominant. Concludes that the music and print-based publishing industries must develop a taste for the new markets offered by the Web if they are to survive and prosper. They need to organize themselves to create or buy the infrastructure upon which to offer their products commercially. Although authorities are willing to protect the publishers’ interests, the ingenuity of the developers of information and communications technologies (ICT) have clearly illustrated that the legislators will always be one step behind. New business models are arising almost daily and one of them should prove to be viable.