inf 128: principles of informatics who controls information? inf 128: principles of informatics

INF 128: Principles of Informatics

Who Controls Information?



LICRA v. Yahoo!


Wang Xiaoning


The Problem

Anyone can put information on the Internet that people in any country can access.

Which country’s laws apply?– Copyright– Racist speech– Pornography– Cybercrime


Topics

1. Copyright and patents2. DMCA and DRM3. Geography and Information4. Whose laws apply to the Internet?5. How can countries govern the net?6. Network neutrality


If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.- Thomas Jefferson

Non-exclusionary

Non-rivalrous


Public and Private Goods


Patents

A patent enables the holder to prohibit others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention for a period of 20 years from the filing date.


Patent Growth


Patent Lawsuits


CopyrightStatue of Anne 1710 Copyright Act of 1790

US Constitution Article I Section 8 Clause 8 grants Congress the power “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

U.S. copyright law generally gives the author/creator or owner of an original creative work a limited term monopoly on

1. Reproduction or distribution of the original work to the public2. Creation of new works based upon the original work 3. Performance or other public displays of the work

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Copyright.svg


What’s Protected by Copyright

What’s Protected• Literary works• Music and lyrics• Dramatic works and music• Photographs and paintings• Sculptures• Movies• Computer software• Audio recordings• Architectural works• Any of these since 1978

without a copyright notice

What’s Not Protected• Titles, names, short phrases• Numbers• Ideas and facts• Works that are not in a fixed

form, i.e. a song you just made up but not recorded

• Processes and systems• Federal government works• Public domain works• Works before 1978 without a

copyright notice


Plagiarism ≠ Copyright

Plagiarism is a moral concept– Use of a work without giving credit– Focuses on reputation of author and plagiarist

Copyright is a legal concept– Use of a work without receiving permission– Focuses on monetary loss or criminal damages

Plagiarism can occur without copyright infringement– Quoting small pieces without attribution may not violate copyright

but is still plagiarism– Hiring someone to create a work for you and grant you the copyright

so you can legally submit it was your own work is still plagiarism


Copyright is a Balance

Copyright limits free speech and free markets– So that authors can receive compensation in a market where

supply is effectively infinite since goods are non-rivalrous and non-exclusionary, driving prices to zero

If copyright provides too much protection– Authors can squash criticism of their works as derivative works

or prevent use of quotes/clips– New works cannot be built on older works, as current English

literature is built on Bible, Shakespeare, and other prior authors

– Secondary liability for contributory infringement may prevent creation of copying devices like computers


Expansion of US Copyright Terms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Copyright_term.svg


Does © stop you from taking notes?

http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/lectures.htm


Fair UseThe purpose and character of the use of copyrighted work

Transformative quality - Use work in new way (criticism, parody)Commercial or noncommercial - Noncommercial more likely fair

The nature of the copyrighted workMore likely fair when work is factual rather than creative.

The amount of portion used in relation to the whole work

How much of copyrighted work did you use in the new work?

Effect of use upon potential market for the copyrighted workUses of copyrighted material that serve a different audience or purpose are more likely to be considered fair.


Copyright Legislation

Congress referees writing of legislationActual laws written by committees of organizations impacted by legislation

Publishers Distributors American Library Association Others as specified by Congress


Sony Safe Harbor

“…the sale of copying equipment, like the sale of other articles of commerce, does not constitute contributory infringement if the product is widely used for legitimate, unobjectionable purposes. Indeed, it need merely be capable of substantial non-infringing uses.”

“I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.” – MPAA head Jack Valenti to US Congress, 1982


Peer to Peer

While Napster did not directly infringe on music copyrights, contributory infringement (providing an index to copyrighted works) is also against the law.


DRMTechnology to restrict users access to digital media.Restrictions can go far beyond those of copyright to impose:

Region coding Limited number of views Expiration of media

and to prevent: Time shifting Fair use clips and quotes Text to speech Unauthorized hardware


DMCA

Since DVDs are encrypted, DMCA violations include: Writing a DVD player program without licensing the

encryption technology, even if you could figure out how to decrypt on your own or use an open source decrypter.

Extracting snippets of video for criticism or parody that would be permitted under fair use.

Copying a DVD whose copyright had expired.

1201(a)(2): No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that—is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;


DMCA Consequences

Censorware research obstructed– Censorware encrypts list of censored sites, so to determine which

sites are blocked requires circumvention

File format conversions lead to jail– Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was detained for 5 months

for writing software to translate Adobe e-books to PDFs without DRM to allow fair use such as speech, printing.

Security research suppressed– Princeton researchers threatened over watermark paper; only a

lawsuit allows eventual publication.– Blackboard got court order to stop security presentation.– Some researchers stop publishing or travel to U.S.


Does the DMCA ban these?

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/Stego/dietrich-dna.txt


Whose laws apply on the Internet?


Whose laws apply?


Where to Regulate the Internet?


Internet Censorship Map


Sealand


How can countries govern the net?

• Sender (or assets) in jurisdiction.• Receiver (or assets) in jurisdiction.• Sender or receiver ISP in jurisdiction.• Third party in jurisdiction.– Ex: banks, credit card companies.

• Block IP addresses• Remove their DNS names


DNS Name Seizures

IP address


Name ResolutionHow does your PC get to www.nku.edu?– IP only understands IP addresses as destinations– Solution: ask a server to map the name to an IP

Problems– Need lots of servers to serve entire Internet– What if NKU wants to change the IP address of

www.nku.edu? Who controls name mapping?

Solution– Use distributed database with servers in many locations– Let different parties control their own parts of database– Solution called Domain Name System (DNS)

http://www.nku.edu/

http://www.nku.edu/


DNS is Organized as a TreeRoot of the DNS tree

All searches start here


Name Resolution with DNS

www.nku.edu

ISPName Server

DNSCache

ww

w.n

ku.e

duch

eck

192.

122.

237.

7ye

sedu

Root name server(a.root-servers.net)

.edu name server(a.edu-servers.net)

.nku.edu name server(ns3.nku.edu)

nku.edu

www.nku.edu


DNS Delegation


Why does DNS matter?

Control over DNS = control over Internet– Bank Julius Baer v. Wikileaks lawsuit resulting in

injunction removing DNS entries for wikileaks.org– DNS cache poisoning attacks redirect connections

to your bank to a fake web site to capture logins

Who controls your DNS?– Your local DNS server owner (usually your ISP)– Owners of the root DNS servers


Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Non-profit organization at USC that– Manages root DNS servers– Allocates IP addresses

Originally created and run by US government– Controversial in EU, China, UN– Independent as of Sept 30, 2009

Alternative to ICANN– Multiple DNS trees with their own roots– Name resolution varies based on geography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ICANN.svg


Top Level DomainsSuffix Purpose Example

com Commercial organizations (businesses) intel.com

edu Educational organizations (universities) nku.edu

gov Government organizations kentucky.gov

mil Military organizations army.mil

net Networking organizations (ISPs) sprint.net

org Noncommercial organizations ietf.org

int International organizations nato.int

info Informational sites cat.info

at Country code for Austria austria.at

…

uk Country code for United Kingdom bbc.co.uk

us Country code for United States gov.state.ky.us

Gen

eric

TLD

scc

TLD

s


The Net: Place or Medium?

Metaphors change governance models– Publishing: responsible for content

Prodigy became a publisher, not a distributor, since they monitored and censored forum posts

– Broadcasting: no content responsibility, but FCA– Location: free speech, no FCA– Library: borrow documents– Bookstore: purchase documents– Telephone: VoIP


Reminder: What is the Internet?1. It’s not a thing; it’s an agreement.

The Internet Protocol is a definition specifying how different networks can intercommunicate.

2. The Internet is stupid.The Internet doesn’t know who you are, doesn’t care what applications you use; it just moves bits. It doesn’t know if the bits are email, IM, phone calls, video, web, etc.

3. Intelligence exists on the edges.Devices on the edges run programs that give meaning to bits: phone calls, web, email, IM, video, etc. Anyone can invent a new service since it’s just bits. Innovation happens at the edges.

4. No one owns it, but anyone can use it.Internet backbone lines and equipment owned by dozens of different companies around the world. Edge devices are yours.


Network Neutrality

No bit should be prioritized over another.– No matter what type of information is encoded.

Applies to other networks as well– Use of any appliance on the electrical network.– Applied to telegraph network before Internet.

The alternative: tiered Internet– People and companies pay for high or low speed.– OR people pay for specific services: VoIP, video, p2p.


Netflix comes out in favor of NN"The Commission must assure that specialized services do not, in effect, transform the public Internet into a private network in which access is not open but is controlled by the network operator, and innovative Internet-based enterprises are permitted effective access to their consumers only if the enterprises pay network operators unreasonable fees or are otherwise seen by such network operators as not threatening a competitive venture."

Netflix FCCcomments


Packet Discrimination

What happens when a packet arrives and the destination link is busy?

The packet is saved in a memory buffer.

What happens when the buffer is full?The router drops a packet.

Which packet do your drop?Drop oldest or newest.Drop lowest priority packet.


Types of Discrimination

Minimal discrimination– Only drop or delay packets based on priorities when

router’s buffer is full.

Non-minimal discrimination– Reserve percentage of bandwidth for high priority

packets even if there is buffer space or bandwidth to use for low priority packets.

– Ex: 80% high-priority, 20% low priority, so low priority packets will never get more than 20% of bandwidth.


Discrimination Consequences

• Innovation is harder at the edges.• Control moves to the center.• Discrimination hurts some applications more

than others; VoIP depends on small delays.• The Internet depends on voluntary congestion

control at TCP layer; discrimination will lead to people defecting from this control, leading to unpredictable effects on traffic.

• Anti-discrimination rules can be hard to enforce.


Key Points

1. DNS is a distributed db that maps names to IPs1. Tree structure with control delegated to branches2. ICANN controls root DNS servers (and thus TLDs)3. Your ISP controls your local DNS

2. Network neutrality1. Principle that no bit should be prioritized over another2. Keeps control and innovation at network edges

3. Copyright and patents1. Differences between property and “intellectual property”2. Expansion of copyrights and patents

4. DRM is technology that restricts your use of tech1. DMCA legally prevents people from bypassing DRM

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