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Beshoy Sidrak 996008430

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Issue Analysis Brief:

** Copyright In Cyberspace: Protecting Intellectual Property Online **

The Copyright act was first introduced in 1976 as an attempt by the United States government to protect the rights of the creator of an original work. These include: literary works; musical works, including any accompanying words; dramatic works, including any accompanying music; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; sound recordings; and architectural works.The following exclusive rights are legally attached to a copyright holder: to produce copies or reproductions of the work and to sell/distribute them, the right to import or export the work, the right to perform or display the work publicly, to sell or assign these rights to others and the right to transmit or display by radio or video.The notion of property has gone from being material objects like land or gold to our creative output – protected by law. Same copyright laws apply to information on the internet, but things can get a little bit tricky here. ‘‘Copyright attaches when work is ‘fixed in a tangible medium,’’ information on the internet is not tangible. Or is it? Digital property: like software for example? Should it be protected as a literary work? After all ,its language just like that used to write a screenplay or publish research. With advances in modern technology, we have become increasingly dependant on computers for organization of EVERYTHING! We also rely on the Internet to distribute them or even just send them to one other person. Can be intercepted.Easier to attain unauthorized access to a copyrighted work if it is stored in virtual space (web/hard drives) than if it were stored in a physical space (home/bank vault).Once acquired (legally or illegally) can be reproduced and distributed at almost no cost and it will only take a moment to be accessible by an infinite number of people. B ecause of the intangible nature of the Internet laws may not be sufficient to fully ensure that Internet users and their information are protected against invasion of privacy a copyright infringement. Do we need a new system to protect rights? Or should we abolish property rights all together?

 To expand further on copyright concerns within the digital world, I will briefly mention the issue surrounding //Google Books//. A few years ago, //Google// was sued by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers as well as other authors or publishers (Google) for scanning and reproducing a vast number of books and making these copyrighted works available online. As Beshoy mentioned, the challenge of protecting intellectual property online is changing the peoples' perception that anything online is obtainable without paying a fee, since physical publishing restrictions do not apply. Many of //Google Book//'s online works were from out-of-print sources - meaning, these books were no longer published and an individual would have to go to great lengths to recover a particular work. //Google// must have perceived this as not a type of copyright infringement but rather as providing a valuable resource for researchers and the public for easy accessibility. Now, //Google// has changed their policy on displaying copyrighted books: authors and publishers can decide if //Google Books// can publish their works (Larson). It has also formed different sectors for publishing various types of books online with different agreements or policies with authors and publishers. The type of copyright policy issued depends on the type of book displayed online: (1) in-copyright and in-print books, (2) in-copyright but out-of-print-books, or (3) out-of-copyright books (Google). Furthermore, it has also created a Book Rights Registry to guarantee that the authors and publishers get their share of the profits when a person actually buys the book online. The authors and publishers who have sued //Google// feel their rights to protect their intellectual property have been broken and some scholars feel that //Google Books// might be in the process of making itself a monopoly since the Open Access Trust's policies do not clearly state copyright issues with respect to orphaned works (Medeiros). //Google// is taking the necessary steps to protect intellectual property online by creating new copyright infringement policies and by allowing the author or publisher to remove their works from the site, but this could mean that //Google// would be the sole handler of a massive amount copyrighted online publications.
 * Critical Analysis: Copyright Issues with the Advent of Google Books**
 * By Azarmeen Dastoor**

Works Cited

Google Inc. "Google Books Settlement Agreement." Google. Available online at: <__http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement__>, 26 Mar. 2010.

Larson, Erik (2008). "Google settles books lawsuit," The Washington Times 29 Oct. 2008. //WashingtonTimes.com//, 26 Mar. 2010. .

Medeiros, Norm. "Researching the research process: Information-seeking behaviour, Summon and //Google Books//." //OCLC Systems & Services// 25.3 (2009): 153-155. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.