Computers and the Law
Copyright law has been around a long time. The basis for copyright is found in the constitutional injunction for the government to promote advances in the sciences and art. In the ‘classical’ (pre-computer) era, copyright was fairly straightforward: the creator of a work had the right to control reproduction of that work. The creator does not, however, control access to copies of his or her work. For example, the author of a book has the right to control publication and copying of that book. However, he or she does not have the right to restrict me from lending a copy of the book to a friend, or checking the book out from a library. In the digital age, things are different. Viewing data on a computer requires copying that data. The data resides primarily on a hard disk somewhere. When you access it through the internet, a copy is made to send over the wires to your computer, which caches the information into a local copy. Another copy is then made by the application that displays the data so that it can put it on the screen. From one viewing, several copies are made. Current copyright law is not equipped to handle this fundamental nature of digital works. Awareness must be raised and politicians must be educated so that we can protect the rights of the creator of a work without denying the public access to that work.