NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/news/announce/conferen/1361

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 7.0 KB | 181 lines

Newsgroups: news.announce.conferences
Path: sparky!uunet!tekbspa!denny
From: [e-mail] ()
Subject: Technological Strategies for Protecting Intellectual Property....
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Sender: [e-mail] (Denny Page)
Organization: Harvard University Science Center
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 01:00:11 GMT
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Expires: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 08:00:00 GMT
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       Final Call for Papers and Notice of Schedule Change


 "Technological Strategies for Protecting Intellectual Property
            in the Networked Multimedia Environment"


              John F. Kennedy School of Government
                     79 John F. Kennedy St.
            Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 2-3, 1993

 [note: this workshop was originally scheduled for February 3-5]


                          sponsored by:

               Coalition for Networked Information

               Information Infrastructure Project
          Science, Technology and Public Policy Program
    John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

               Interactive Multimedia Association

         Program on Digital Open High-Resolution Systems
    Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development
              Massachusetts Institute of Technology


This workshop will:

*  map the territory between security issues and the need for
practical, user-friendly systems for marketing information
resources and services;

*  survey the technological landscape, evaluate the potential
benefits and risks of different mechanisms, define a research
agenda, and frame related implementation and policy issues;

*  consider how and where within the overall infrastructure
different technologies are best implemented; and

*  present and analyze models for explaining protection systems
and strategies.


Papers are invited on the foregoing issues and on the
capabilities and relationship of the following technologies and
strategies:

     -- billing servers
     -- type of service identifiers, header descriptors, and
          other forms of labeling and tagging
     -- fingerprinting
     -- digital signatures
     -- contracting mechanisms and EDI licensing of intellectual
          property
     -- copy protection and serial copy management
     -- authentication servers and site licensing
     -- software envelopes
     -- encryption
     -- display-only systems
     -- concurrent use limitations
     -- structured charging
     -- technology assessment and risk analysis

The workshop will be held at Harvard on April 2-3, 1993.
Participation at the two-day event is limited, but the
proceedings will be published.

Abstracts for proposed papers should be submitted by January 18,
1993, to:

Thomas Lee
DOHRS/CTPID
MIT
E40-218
Cambridge, MA 02139
[e-mail]
617-253-6828
Fax: [phone] or 617-253-7140
________________________________________________________________

Background:

The global Internet offers the beginning of a networked,
multifunctional, multimedia environment for both resource-sharing
and marketing information products and services.  Although
underlying technologies may change, the applications and
practices developed now are shaping the universal broadband
infrastructure of the future.

However, concern for copyright protection remains a major
impediment to private investment in information resources and
services.  Owners of information resources are fearful of
releasing proprietary information to an environment which appears
lacking in security and has no accepted means of accounting for
use and copying.  Complex network-accessible library systems may
be designed and developed for disseminating nonproprietary
information, but until there are safeguards for proprietary
information, the utility of such systems will be limited.

Mindful of this problem, Congress directed that the National
Research and Education Network (the follow-on to the federally
funded portion of the Internet) --

     (1) be developed and deployed with the computer,
     telecommunications, and information industries....

     (5) be designed and operated so as to ensure the
     continued application of laws that provide network and
     information resources security measures, including
     those that protect copyright and other intellectual
     property rights....

     (6) have accounting mechanisms which allow users or
     groups of users to be charged for their usage of
     copyrighted materials available over the Network....
     [15 USC 5512(c)]

The Act also requires the Director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy to report to Congress by the anniversary of the
Act (i.e., December 9, 1992) on "how to protect the copyrights of
material distributed over the Network...." [15 USC 5512(g)(5)]

However, federal agencies have yet to address these issues in
depth.  Many believe that the protection of intellectual property
on the NREN as on any network is a private sector problem which
needs to be addressed at an applications level, not within the
design of the network.  Indeed, these intellectual property
problems are not new; to a large extent, they represent
traditional copyright problems which have been exacerbated by
electronic technology, digitization of information, personal
computers, and less advanced forms of networking.  But pervasive,
high-bandwidth, interconnected wide-area networks present the
worst case imaginable.

There is tension between the goals of protection, on the one
hand, and interoperation and usability, on the other, that has
defeated technological solutions in the past.  The hardware lock
proposed by ADAPSO failed to gain industry acceptance, and
software copy protection has been abandoned except in certain
high-value niche markets.  The microcomputer software industry
has come to rely on the threat of lawsuits in the vulnerable
corporate environment as the primary means of copyright
enforcement.  However, the Copyright Act has just been amended to
mandate a hardware-secured environment incorporating serial copy
management for the next generation of home audio technology.

In the emerging environment, the conventional distinction between
products and services breaks down.  Products are networked, and
network-accessible services are linked to products.  Rights must
be acquired to cover all forms of delivery, because multiple
delivery paths are possible and it is difficult to predict what
technologies will prevail or how markets will be structured.  On
the other hand, the control and security offered by different
technologies may also determine the choice of distribution paths.
For these reasons, the workshop will look at the networked
multimedia environment as a whole, from mass-market products to
specialized network-based services.
______________________________________________________________

Note:  This is a small workshop designed to maximize exchange
among invited presenters and discussants.  A few seats are open to
the public on a fee basis (with a discount to members of sponsor
organizations).  Please contact the Interactive Multimedia
Association for information at 410-626-1380.