technical threats to copyright & ipr talk at the talisman seminar on legal risks and the...

Technical Threats to Copyright & IPR

Talk at the Talisman seminar on Legal Risks and the Internet

Brian Kelly

UK Web FocusUKOLNUniversity of [email protected]

This presentation contains images of copyrighted resources.Any copyright holder who wishes their images removed should contact the author.

This presentation contains images of copyrighted resources.Any copyright holder who wishes their images removed should contact the author.

Contents

• Introduction

• Examples

• Solutions

• Conclusions

ExamplesIntroduction Solutions Conclusions

What Do We Want?A Quicker, More Reliable Web

We all know how slow the web can be

Protection For Our Intellectual PropertyAs web authors / developers we want to protect our intellectual property

Sensible Ways of Including Resources Avoiding delays and bureaucracy

Sensible Copyright Statements on our Pages Avoiding statements which show no understandings of web technologies

Clarification of ResponsibilitiesIs it my responsibility or the University?

What Are The Risks?

What legal risks do you think use of the Internet entails?

Introduction Examples Solutions Conclusions

ExamplesVarious examples are shown, including some which may not be legal issues

Copyright

Fraud

Plagiarism

Theft

Breach of confidentiality

Spamming

Defamation

Misrepresentation

Libel

Pornography

Unacceptable Use

Timewasting

Inappropriate linking

Introduction

Trademarks

Examples Solutions Conclusions

Where Do You Stand?

CLA had a copyright statement:A. It is not permitted to view the HTML

source of pages

B. It is not permitted to download the page for a period exceeding 30 days

C. It is not permitted to alter the contents of pages

Do you think:

A is acceptable? B is acceptable?

C is acceptable?

Introduction Examples Solutions Conclusions

Examples of Legal ThreatA student has a Teletubbies website:

• Images scanned from the Radio Times• The student’s comments on Teletubbies• Metadata (accessible to search robots but not

visible) containing 1,000 occurrences of word Teletubbies

• Metadata contains the words “Official Teletubbies Website”

What problems are there?

Whose problem?

Examples Solutions ConclusionsIntroduction

Example: Theft

Example 1• You notice a page on a website which

contains images you have created

Example 2• A student assignment contains text and

multimedia objects (video, images and sound) which the student is masquerading as his own work. You suspect the student is (a) in breach of copyright and (b) guilty of plagiarism


Examples: HyperlinkingIs use of hyperlinking a legal threat?

Use of ImagesA remote web page contains your logo

<IMG SRC="http://www.ox.ac.uk/logo.gif">

Use of FramesA remote website contains a link to your page.

The link causes users to miss your guidelines and advertising and mislead the reader as to the origin of the information.


Examples - Virtual Documents

What are the copyright implications for virtual documents?

Merseyworld provides access to Internet standards using a CGI program to retrieve a document and format it (using frames and embedded text / graphics)

http://www.merseyworld.com/control/techwatch.html

Content added to document


Example - TotalNewsTotalNews:

• a "framed" site which provides access to various news services

• News providers very concerned• Case settled out of court

How would you feel if this happened to your website?

TotalNews URL

TotalNews advertising

Somebody else's content

Example: Caching

• A web page states that the resource is copyright and it cannot be downloaded for a period greater than 30 days.

• A user downloads the page.• The user’s browser has been configured by

the Computing Service to use an organisational and national (JISC-funded) cache

• The browser has a client-side cache• Is this a problem? If so, whose?

ExamplesIntroduction ConclusionsSolutions

Examples - Off-Line Browsers

"WebWhacker, the ultimate offline browser. This powerful tool allows you to save Web pages - including text, graphics and HTML links - directly to your hard drive, so you can view them offline at highly accelerated speeds"


Example: Altering Content

• You are visually impaired and change the font settings and colours in your browser.

• You use a style sheet to hide the visibility of <P CLASS="example"> paragraphs

ExamplesIntroduction Conclusions

Is this "altering the contents of a page"?Is it acceptable?

Solutions

Example: Liability

• A first year medical student posts medical advice about an unusual disease to a national mailing list

• A user finds the page using a search engine and takes heed of the advice

• The user is then taken ill.• Is this a problem? If so, whose:

• The medical student?• The organisation hosting the mailing list?• The organisation running the search engine?


Example: Privacy

Example 1• You give your name and email address to

register for information on the Web• Shortly afterwards you receive email from a

third party

Example 2• You visit an electronic shopping mall. You

ignore messages about "cookies".• Shortly afterwards you receive mail about

shops you did not visit.


Solutions - Applications

Prevention• Java - prevent images being stolen• Prevent linking to images from off-server using

server configuration options

Detection• Search engines:

– Detect plagiarismSearch for image:domain.ac.uk using Alta Vista

– Spot trademark misuse• Digital signatures in multimedia objects


Solutions - W3C Work

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium):• Dedicated to 'Realizing the Full Potential of the Web'

• Technology & Society domain investigating IPR

• Addressing issues:– Does technology necessitate a change in copyright

legislation?– What rights should be associated with web content?– How to technically express the rights– Should rights be used for notification & enforcement


Solutions: Metadata

W3C feel that:• Machine-readable metadata formats can

be used for expressing rights declarations

• Deterministic, machine-readable declarations are key to automated operations

• Need to understand business & economic models to develop technical solutions


Solutions: Rights Management

• (Expired) Internet draft on Using PICS for Copyright Notice and Control

• Copyright scheme with values:0=disallowed, 1=conditionally allowed, 2=unconditionally allowed

• Example for use with web resource:(PICS-1.1 "http://www.wipo.org/v1.5" by "Mark Twain" labels on "1994.11.05T08:15-0500" for "http://www.twain.com/story.html" full "http://www.twain.com/IP-notice.html" ratings (print 1 save 1 quote 2))


Solutions: PrivacyPlatform for Privacy Preferences (P3P):

• Enables computer users to be informed and to make choices about collection, use and disclosure of personal information

• Sites with practices that fall within a user's preference will be accessed "seamlessly," Otherwise users will be notified of a site's practices and have the opportunity to agree to those terms.

• See http://www.w3.org/P3P/P3FAQ.html


Acceptable Use Policies

Why Have an Acceptable Use Policy?• If you don't say what is acceptable and

unacceptable, how is the user to know?• Needed if your organisations wishes to

have effective internal disciplinary measures

• May be valuable if a case goes to law• Potentially could be automated in the

future


What Could an AUP Cover?

An institutional AUP could cover:• Policies for end users (browsing policies) e.g.

covering access to porn, non-academic use• Policies for information providers (publishing

policies) e.g. covering use of copyrighted resources, linking policies

• Policies for service providers (service policies) e.g. covering privacy, use of log files, maintenance of resources, etc.

UK Web Focus to produce resource of AUPs used in UK HEIs


Conclusions• There are many legal risks which institutions may

face• It is important to have guidelines covering use of

Internet services• Technical developments may make the formulation

of guidelines difficult• Technical developments will also assist in

overcoming legal risks• Important to follow international standards

developments - avoid reinventing (square) wheels

Examples ConclusionsSolutionsIntroduction

technical threats to copyright & ipr talk at the talisman seminar on legal risks and the...

Documents

examples various examples

examples of legal threat

elses content slide

web pages

remote web page

theft example

example totalnews totalnews

web page states