THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 12, 1995 TAG: 9509120008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Piracy seems like something out of the history books, but it isn't. It's a thriving business today, but what's stolen isn't bullion. In an information age, the cyber-pirates hijack information. Billions are at stake.
In the 19th century, a lack of international agreements led to pirated editions of Dickens and Mark Twain. Today, a similar lack means software piracy is big business. The Chinese have been gross offenders and the issue of intellectual-property rights has stalled several trade agreements.
Authors and publishers have also begun to realize that if their products find their way onto the Internet, they are instantly available to all comers and royalties aren't a part of the deal.
American entertainment products - movies and videos, CDs and computer programs - are hugely popular worldwide and therefore the potential losses to this country and its creative community are astronomical.
A presidential task force on the subject has now concluded that, with minor modifications, existing copyright laws ought to be adequate to cover material published electronically, that a copy sent over the Internet is indeed the same as a copy of a book printed and sold over the counter for legal purposes.
Present law requires anyone who distributes protected material to obtain permission from the holder of the copyright. The task force says that same protection should apply to electronic copies. So before copyrighted material can be zipped hither and yon, permission needs to be obtained and royalties paid.
In practice, that isn't happening. And until an enforcement method is found, the on-line world won't really thrive. If the choice is traditional publication and payment or electronic publication and no fee, few will choose the latter.
Help may be on the way. A number of software designers are working on virtual cash registers that, according to The Washington Post, ``would ring up tiny charges'' each time an on-line book or film was called up or downloaded.
The presidential report lays out a legislative agenda to protect publishing in cyberspace from piracy. Language making existing laws applicable to new transmission methods is needed, an electronic copy needs to be defined as equivalent to a hard copy, and the report also recommends heavy criminal penalties for infringing copyrights and reproducing or distributing material with a value over $5,000. Some exceptions would be granted for libraries and archives.
As this agenda suggests, huge publishing, software and entertainment companies that can afford to police cyberspace and prosecute will have less to fear than smaller entrepreneurs who may still be easy prey for pirates. It will take time to devise methods to fully protect the fruits of our best minds from theft, but it is well worth doing.
Congress can make a useful start by taking up the challenge and adopting proposals made in the report. Protecting the intellectual property that America produces and the rest of the world wants should be a top priority. by CNB