eBooks, libraries and peer-to-peer file-sharing.

eBooks, libraries and peer-to-peer file-sharing. NAPSTER SHUT ITS ELECTRONIC DOORS IN MAY 2002, after an intenselegal battle in the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . It has left a lasting legacy however.While music industry lawyers ponder the question of copyright in musicalworks, the 81 Napster clones such as XoloX, KaZaA and eDonkey arefacilitating the transfer of music, DVDs, computer programs and eBooks.The early skirmishes in the file-sharing wars have centered on music;this article discusses whether academic eBooks will become the nextcasualty. Napster's history There is a lesson about human nature that Napster's legacy will firmly write into web history: people will freely steal content when given the opportunity. Napster provided and people stole, quite a lot in fact. File swapping naturally causes anyone who has digital assets that can be stolen [to be] very nervous. (Peek, 2001). Napster, created by 19-year-old college dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human , Shawn Fanning Shawn "Napster" Fanning (born November 22, 1980, Brockton, Massachusetts[1]), is a computer programmer. He is best known for developing Napster, the first popular peer-to-peer filesharing platform, in 1998. , wasconstructed around a simple guiding premise: to facilitate the sharingof computer files through the internet. Napster's server acceptedrequests for certain MP3 (digital music) files, searched MP3 listings onother computers, and made the connection that assisted the transfer.Napster opened its online doors in the summer of 1999: since thenmillions of MP3 files have migrated across the web. Users suddenly nolonger needed the music industry's middlemen, the packagers,(companies like Time Warner and Sony) and the promoters: (companies likeVirgin and Tower Records). The network grew exponentially, as friendstold friends. In the computer world, word of mouth is of immenseimportance and Napster was suddenly the internet's hottest topic.As more people logged on, more music became available. At its peak Napster provided as many as one billion music filesavailable on computers around the world. The recording industry reacted,not by providing its own version of Napster but through the courts. TheRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) launched legalproceedings All actions that are authorized or sanctioned by law and instituted in a court or a tribunal for the acquisition of rights or the enforcement of remedies. in December 1999 (King, 2002). It did not, however, have theexpected effect: word of mouth and a high profile court case combinedand turned Napster into a global phenomenon. Napster's legacy: how the mighty are fallen The music companies were forced to respond and did so quickly, not by getting their own product to market, but by suing Napster and similar upstart companies into the ground. Music companies say they plan to roll out a digital distribution system soon, but consumers are still waiting to see a new paradigm that they like. (Godwin, 2001). Napster, for a while at least, held the promise of being somethingspecial: Fanning injected youthful confidence and a radically differentplatform to the computer industry. However, the free exchange ofintellectual property belonging to others could not last long. The musicindustry brought in its heavy artillery See: field artillery. and placed a bull's-eyesquarely on Napster. Companies on the edge of copyright legality have felt safe since1984, when the US Supreme Court ruled that people could recordtelevision and movies in their homes. Other storage devices are affordedsimilar protection from legal proceedings. This approach has recentlybeen confirmed in the European Community by European Legislation(Osbourne, 2001). Napster changed that thinking, at least in theAmerican courts. The RIAA successfully argued that laws governing analogtaping devices, such as VCRs, shouldn't apply in a digital age,when copies of music or movies are perfect. Ninth Circuit US DistrictJudge Marilyn Hall Patel Judge Marilyn Hall Patel (b. 1938) is an active judge presiding in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She was Chief District Judge of that jurisdiction from 1997 until 2004, and heard several notable cases during that time. produced a brutal verdict in July 2000, inwhich she called Napster 'a monster' and issued the first oftwo injunctions that proved to be the beginning of the end (Osborne,2001). The legal battle became drawn out and complex but the company thatdeveloped the most innovative internet program ever came to an end whenfounder Shawn Fanning and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Konrad Hilbers abruptly resigned in May2002. Millions of users are still able to trade thousands of compresseddigital music files in MP3 format as clones carry on Napster'swork. The second-generation file-trading services allow users to swapall types of files, something they didn't even know they could dojust four years ago. To date there are eighty-one commercial-qualitydownload programs like KaZaA, XoloX, Gnutella and iMesh, available tothe public. The quantity of these download programs has been staggering:KaZaA has been downloaded over 100 million times. Napster may have beenshut down though legal channels but other more sophisticated programshave quickly evolved and established themselves. Napster clones have fully decentralised Adj. 1. decentralised - withdrawn from a center or place of concentration; especially having power or function dispersed from a central to local authorities; "a decentralized school administration"decentralized the file-sharing world andthis will affect all forms of intellectual property. The film industry,for example, is already worried about films lifted from DVDs travelingon high-speed broadband lines. The publishing industry shares thisconcern over the fate of eBooks. eBooks Book publishers ... are convinced they won't be spared, and unlike the music industry--which spent much of the 1990s in a defensive crouch--they are busily preparing for the inevitable. From Random House to McGraw-Hill to Simon & Schuster, publishing houses are racing to digitise their valuable backlists. (Lynch, 2001). A recent report from Envisional, a British digital rightsmanagement company believes that online trading Online TradingMaking trades via the Internet.Notes:The use of online trading increased dramatically in the mid to late 1990's with the advent of high-speed computers and Internet connections. Stocks, bonds, options, futures, and currencies can all be traded online. of best-sellers isaccelerating even as the industry's own efforts to get a digitalproduct out of the door are slowing to a crawl (Godwin, 2001). Atpresent books can be turned into digital form in two main ways: thefirst is to scan the book onto a computer. The second is to crack theprotection of a commercial eBook thus allowing it to be traded. As thereis no precedent for complete copyright security in any media, publishinghouses look forward to an uncertain future. Scanning eBooks While publishers have been pondering the prospect of thousands ofusers trading copyrighted works over the internet, the Internet, the,international computer network linking together thousands of individual networks at military and government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, industrial and financial corporations of all sizes, and commercial enterprises book pirates haveset sail in a different direction. They have side-stepped commercialeBooks, choosing to scan the text of traditional paper editions and makethe results available on the internet, often through Napster-like filesharing Copying files from one computer to another. See peer-to-peer network, file sharing protocol and file and printer sharing. devices. (Rawlins, 1998). In an exhaustive survey in August 2001 Envisional claimed that asmany as 7300 paper editions of popular books have been scanned and madeavailable on the internet through Napster clones. Among the mostcommonly traded books are titles from best-selling authors such asStephen King <noinclude></noinclude> For other people named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation).Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror and , Tom Clancy, JK Rowling and JRR JRR John Ronald Reuel (Tolkien)JRR John Ross Robertson (Toronto, Ontario school)JRR Japanese Research Reactor Tolkien (Godwin, 2001). In the short term, increasing piracy in the shape ofscanner-produced eBooks seems a certainty. Doorstop doorstop - Used to describe equipment that is non-functional and halfway expected to remain so, especially obsolete equipment kept around for political reasons or ostensibly as a backup. "When we get another Wyse-50 in here, that ADM 3 will turn into a doorstop."Compare boat anchor. tomes can be scannedas files ranging from two to three megabytes in size. The complete worksof Isaac Asimov comprising twenty-five books fit into eight megabytes,the approximate size of one MP3 music file. For the moment, publishinghouses have a certain amount of breathing room because the readingpublic has not yet shown any deep interest in obtaining books in digitalform from the net (Godwin, 2001). This may not last. Cracking the code of commercial eBooks If eBooks take off, the number of titles available online could multiply dramatically. All it would entail would be for some hacker to crack the code on a new eBook, put the text on a peer-to-peer service and launch it widely into cyberspace. A valid objection UK trade publishers ... have against eBooks is lack of security. There is huge skepticism that this can be resolved satisfactorily. (Curtis, 2002). On 28 August 2001 a federal grand jury in the US indicted INDICTED, practice. When a man is accused by a bill of indictment preferred by a grand jury, he is said to be indicted. theRussian company Elcomsoft and programmer Dmitry Sklyarov Dmitry Sklyarov (Дмитрий Скляров) (born December 18, 1974) is a Russian computer programmer known for his 2001 arrest by American law enforcement over software copyright restrictions. on charges oftrafficking and conspiracy to traffic in a copyright circumventiondevice. The charges were brought for violations of provisions of theDigital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law which implements two 1996 WIPO treaties. It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services that are used to measures that control access to copyrighted works (commonly (DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) A U.S. law enacted in late 1998 that provides penalties for developing hardware or software that overrides copy protection schemes for digital media. ). This Act prohibits companiesfrom creating and selling technologies that circumvent protectionsplaced on copyrighted works. ElcomSoft employees allegedly violated USlaw when, in June 2001, they began selling a program that disabled theencryption of Adobe eBook documents. Vladimir Katalov, managing director of ElcomSoft, released methodsof breaking security features on Adobe's eBook library system(Rosie, 2001). The eBook Library is designed to be a secure repositoryfor eBooks and allows users to 'borrow' titles for a specifiednumber of days. Katalov identified a method of borrowing all the booksin the library for an unlimited time period. The acquittal The legal and formal certification of the innocence of a person who has been charged with a crime.Acquittals in fact take place when a jury finds a verdict of not guilty. , announced ina federal district court in California, brought to a close the firstcriminal trial of a company accused of violating the DMCA. By favouringElcomSoft, the jury showed a reluctance to prosecute a company orprogrammer for creating a program that others might use to commit actsof infringement (Glasner, 2002). Piracy control In spite of the disillusionment some publishers now feel about whether there will be a significant market for eBooks in the near future, the American Association of Publishers is adamant about the need to advance eBook anti-piracy technology.' (Godwin, 2001). Two methods of control are available: Firstly, there's thelegal code, or set of laws, that could end up legalising file-sharing ormaking it a criminal activity. Secondly, piracy can be combated bycomputer programs that can create programs for sharing securedcopyrighted information or encrypt files so they can never be shared.Both still seem to have inherent flaws as there is no precedent forabsolute security in any digital media. The encryption method is a complex and difficult task; as soon asone programmer creates a new software encryption device, theprogrammer's wits are matched against the countless users of theinternet who can, by conversing in chat rooms, work together to crackthe code. A few days after eBooks are released hackers break the codeand post a copy on the internet. What is the law relating to relating torelate prep → concernantrelating torelate prep → bez��glich +gen, mit Bezug auf +accthis area? There is no such thing as an 'international copyright'that will automatically protect an author's writings throughout theentire world. Protection against unauthorised use in a particularcountry depends on the national laws of that country Countries do offerprotection to foreign works under certain circumstances and theseconditions have been simplified by international copyright treaties,although copyright laws are clear and well established in both the USand in Europe. The legal systems seem likely to back the music industry. JudgePatel's verdict in July 2000 all but shut Napster down. In themeantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified"meantime, meanwhile , a federal judge in New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of slammed a crippling fine onMP3.com, a company that was trying to operate within the rules ofcopyright. Judge Jed Rakoff awarded Universal Music Group damages of $25000 for each copyrighted CD stored on the popular My.MP3.com service, atotal that could reach $250 million. Legal problems of determining liability arise when a central servercannot be identified, due to the software being untraceable. Where thereis no need for a central server, the sheer volume of participants makesany type of legislation impotent im��po��tentadj.1. Incapable of sexual intercourse, often because of an inability to achieve or sustain an erection.2. Sterile. Used of males. . This theme has been mirrored in recent European legislation: Music lovers and film buffs will continue to be allowed to make private copies of their favorite songs or movies after the European parliament yesterday agreed Europe-wide internet piracy legislation ... MEPs [Ministers of the European Parliament] approved a copyright directive that will ensure European clones of song-swapping website Napster can be swiftly shut down through legal action. (Osborn, 2001). This might prove to be problematic, because the eighty-one Napsterclones presently available are easily modified and have been downloadedonto millions of computers already. A case of closing the website doorafter the eHorse has bolted. The MEPs rejected calls from the musicindustry to outlaw reasonable private copying for personal use and optedto strike a balance between the interests of the entertainment industryand consumers. British MEPs successfully defended their current domesticsituation regarding private copying. Certain countries and companieswere keen to impose a levy on blank video, audiotapes and blank CDs.Libraries, schools, universities and other educational and charitableinstitutions will be allowed to copy intellectual property foreducational purposes (Osborn, 2001). Academic eBooks In February 2001, Harper Collins with its e-imprint PerfectBound was the first major [publisher] in the UK to release e-titles. Penguin and Warner Books UK followed in the Autumn. PerfectBound initially priced books at a twenty per cent discount to the hardcover. Their most successful e-title sold in the low hundreds. Compared to around thirty million paper backs Harper Collins sells annually, PerfectBound barely appears on the Harper Collins sales graph.' (Guthrie, 2002). eBooks, for all the hype, are still awkward and unappealing in anyformat. No one seems to want to read anything much longer than a fewparagraphs on a computer screen for pleasure (Epstein, 2001). Most ofthe discussion in this area has focused on the eBook novel: academicbooks may however pose a different problem. Academic textbooks are generally not bought for recreationalreading: they are expensive and typically have a short shelf life. Theymake ideal commercial eBooks, they also make excellent targets for eBookpirates. Most students have access to the internet, a conventionallibrary and a scanner, and scanning 'homemade' academic eBooksis not difficult. UK publishers like Cavendish command large revenuesfrom the sale of academic textbooks and have a lot to lose if scannerpiracy increases. UK law publishing has quietly gone digital and most of the largerpublishing houses offer law books in digital form. Academic law bookpublishers could be the first to feel the full effects of Napsterclones. As an example Cavendish uses the Sklyarov-cracked Adobetechnology for access to its library of eBooks, and obviously newprotection methods have been employed by Cavendish and Adobe. Thesemethods are already under scrutiny on certain websites. University libraries across the globe are beginning to amass asizable collection of digital materials that include eBooks (Jantz,2001). Digital publishers of eBooks are looking to libraries and theirpatrons to add to sales and to help offset the threat of piracy (Reid,2002). If a library pays a fee to a publishing house and then allows thestudent body access private piracy may be reduced, as the student canlawfully download the book. In this situation everybody wins, except theconventional, paper based academic book. Manuscript received January 2003 References Curtis, R (2002) 'Bullish on eBooks' Publishers Weekly 7January, pp10-11. Dillion, D (2001) 'eBooks: The University of Texas Experience:Part 2', Library Hi Tech, 19, [4] pp350-362. Epstein, J (2001) Book Business W W Norton, New York. Gibbons, S (2002) 'Computers in libraries' [Proceedingsof the] 17th Annual Conference and Exhibition USA: integration and useof eBooks at an academic library, March, pp104-107. Glasner, J (2002) 'Verdict seen as blow to DMCA.' WiredDecember. Available http://www.wired.com Godwin, M (2001) 'Napster for novels? Not even pirates likeeBooks', Reason 1.02, 33 [8] pp60-62 Guthrie, RG (2002) 'The eBook: Ahead of its time or a burstbubble?' LOGOS, The journal of the world book community 13 [1] pp9-17 Hane, PJ (2001) 'Rosetta Books publishes first selfdestructing eBook' Information Today 8 [9]. Jantz, R (2001) 'eBooks and new library service models: ananalysis of the impact of eBook technology on academic libraries.'Information Technology and Libraries 20 12] pp104-112. King, B (2002) 'The day the Napster died' Wired 15th May.Available http: //www.wired.com Lynch, C (2001) 'The battle to define the book in the digitalworld', First Monday First Monday is a short-lived U.S. television drama centered on the U.S. Supreme Court. Created by JAG creator Donald Bellisario, the show aired on CBS from January until May of 2002. : Journal of the Internet, 6, 6 June. Osborn, A (2001) 'In Brussels.' Thursday 15 February, TheGuardian. Peek, R (2001) 'Controlling the threat of eBook piracy.'Information Today 18 [6] June. pp42 Pike, GH (2001) 'A book is a book is an eBook, copyright,contract and technology are clashing in the digital age.'Information Today 18 [7] July/august. Available http://www.infotoday.com Rawlins, GJE GJE Gauss Jordan Elimination (1998) The new electronic book technology Departmentof Computer Science, Indiana University Indiana University,main campus at Bloomington; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1820 as a seminary, opened 1824. It became a college in 1828 and a university in 1838. The medical center (run jointly with Purdue Univ. . Reid, C. (2002) 'eBook vendors look to libraries forgrowth.' Publishers Weekly 7 October, pp12. Rosie MJ (2001) 'Throw the eBook at Sklyarov.' Wired 24July. Available http://www.wired.com Taylor, C (2001) 'Throwing the eBook at him.' Time 20August. The author says: 'I have worked at Sheffield University tawDepartment for eight years and at present I am looking at libraries andtechnology law. I am able to travel extensively with a research budget.The Australian work was completed as a visiting academic in Perth andSydney.' twomarky@msn.com Editor's note: As I was marking up the copy for this article,my ISP (1) See in-system programmable.(2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. sent me the following warning. It is passed on here for what itis worth: 'What do you really know about KaZaA? KaZaA is a popularprogram that, by file-sharing, networks computers worldwide to exchangemusic files. Users should be especially careful when accessing KaZaA,because it has built-in software that watches its users. KaZaA, with itspartner Brilliant Digital, monitors user activity with software that isdownloaded and invisibly installed with KaZaA Media Desktop. Thissoftware automatically links users into yet another network, Altnet,which can track behaviour, as well as store and retrieve banner ads andpop-ups.'