Intellectual Property Rights and the Global Information Economy.

Challenges that digital technologies pose for national and international regulation of intellectual property rights are receiving considerable attention these days from governmental commissions. This article urges members of the technical community to become more involved in intellectual property policy-making, not only because government policies in this area affect their lives, but also to provide expertise to government officials who are largely ignorant about digital technologies. Left to their own devices and heavy lobbying by the established copyright industries who feel threatened by digital technologies, government officials may inadvertently smother the new opportunities that information technologies are capable of opening up to enhance public access to knowledge and to foster new markets. Although copyright laws around the world are similar in some important respects, a plethora of differences nonetheless exists in copyright traditions of various nations. Very little technical sophistication can be found in the various Green papers and White Papers on copyright.