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IP Issues

Since the development of consumer recording technologies and even more so since the arrival of digital technologies, there has been increasing tension between the owners of copyrighted material and the users.

Before the advent of recoding technologies there was a rather simple and clear arrangement. The public lending library was a source of free or cheap access to information (books, magazines, journals, newspapers, etc.) for generations. Most people from literate societies are familiar with the simple process of borrowing a book. But behind this simplicity lie a number of subtle and complex elements involving law, public policy, economics, and technology. These elements have been handled relatively well in the past by legislation like the Public Lending Right and cooperation between authors, publishers and libraries. However these relationships are under threat because of the accelerating transformation of information into digital form.

The dilemma is straightforward: a printed book can be accessed usually by just one person and that person and the book must be in the same place. However, if that book was to be available digitally there is almost no technological limit to the number of people who could access it simultaneously, from anywhere on the planet where there was an Internet connection. This means, literally, that the number of copies of a work that needs to be published is just one. How many books (or movies, photographs, musical recordings) will be created and published online if the entire market can be extinguished by the sale of the first electronic copy?

Fearful of what copying and file-sharing can do, agencies involved in copyright protection are becoming more aggressive in protecting their rights and more litigious. Cases where young people are being prosecuted for downloading copyrighted material off the web or copying their purchased CDs or DVDs to share with friends are not uncommon. Some people think that the copyright system has got out of control with too much power in favour of private gain, as opposed to public interest. Not only are ordinary people being sued for sharing music on line, but companies are granted protection for patenting such rudimentary things as the ‘single click’ on line (Amazon.com’s one-click shopping) and then preventing others from using the technique

There is some argument that the whole purpose of copyright has been undermined. The concept began quite simply as the right to copy and it was intended to be used to extend knowledge. Patents were introduced to increase the transfer of knowledge at a time when secrets were shared on pain of death. Indeed, the term ‘patent’ is derived from Latin and means ‘openness’. Historically, the development of intellectual property rights was within the context of dismantling the monopolies of the guilds and curbing the fickleness of the Crown. After the hard-won battles to free up copyrights and patents, some argue that the current system is swinging in the other direction.

‘Intellectual property has become more important, and its scope and strength have increased; but the rules governing it have not evolved to keep up with the pace of technological change’.

(Kenneth Cukier, The RSA Journal, 2005).

In an attempt to rebalance the relationship between the rewarding of innovation and the sharing of knowledge, there have been a number of reactions which include:

  • The development of ‘open-source’, which applies particularly to computer programmes and software and provides for the underlying codes to be open to inspection and modification by others.
  • The development of the concept of the ‘creative commons,’ which distinguishes between the use of a work for commercial gain, or for public good or private use and charges accordingly.
  • The Royal Society of Arts development of The Adelphi Charter on creativity, innovation and intellectual property, which argues that the current intellectual property regime is radically out of step with modern technological, economic and social trends and suggests a radical restructuring of the law

Intellectual property rights is a vital yet hugely testing field of conflict and contention. The New Zealand Copyright Act (1994) is under review. The creation of a National Digital Strategy and a National Content Strategy in 2005 and a new Public Records Bill will all contribute to how it develops in this regard. As they say – watch this space!

Other Resources

Further Reading :

  • Goldstein, P. (2003) Copyright’s Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox, Stanford University Press
  • Ghosh, R.A. (Ed) (2005) CODE: Collaborative Ownership and the Digital Economy, The MIT Press
  • Theirer, A. & Crews C.W. Jr. (2002) The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age, Cato Institute


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