Download Legal Risks and the Internet

Technical Threats to
Copyright & IPR
Talk at the Talisman seminar on
Legal Risks and the Internet
This presentation contains
Brian Kelly
images of copyrighted
UK Web Focus
resources.
UKOLN
Any copyright holder who
wishes their images removed
University of Bath
should contact the author.
Bath
[email protected]
Contents
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Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
What Do We Want?
A Quicker, More Reliable Web
We all know how slow the web can be
Protection For Our Intellectual Property
As web authors / developers we want to protect our
intellectual property
Sensible Ways of Including Resources
Avoiding delays and bureaucracy
Sensible Copyright Statements on our Pages
Avoiding statements which show no understandings of
web technologies
Clarification of Responsibilities
Is it my responsibility or the University?
What Are The Risks?
What legal risks do you think use of
the Internet entails?
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Examples
Various examples are shown, including
some which may not be legal issues
Trademarks
Plagiarism
Copyright
Defamation
Timewasting
Libel
Unacceptable Use
Spamming
Pornography
Breach of
confidentiality
Inappropriate
linking
Introduction
Fraud Misrepresentation
Theft
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Where Do You Stand?
CLA had a copyright statement:
A. It is not permitted to view the HTML
source of pages
B. It is not permitted to download the page
for a period exceeding 30 days
C. It is not permitted to alter the contents
of pages
Do you think:
A is acceptable?
C is acceptable?
Introduction
Examples
B is acceptable?
Solutions
Conclusions
Examples of Legal Threat
A student has a Teletubbies website:
• Images scanned from the Radio Times
• The student’s comments on Teletubbies
• Metadata (accessible to search robots
but not visible) containing 1,000
occurrences of word Teletubbies
• Metadata contains the words “Official
Teletubbies Website”
What problems are there?
Whose problem?
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Example: Theft
Example 1
• You notice a page on a website which
contains images you have created
Example 2
• A student assignment contains text and
multimedia objects (video, images and
sound) which the student is masquerading
as his own work. You suspect the student
is (a) in breach of copyright and (b) guilty
of plagiarism
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Examples: Hyperlinking
Is use of hyperlinking a legal threat?
Use of Images
A remote web page contains your logo
<IMG SRC="http://www.ox.ac.uk/logo.gif">
Use of Frames
A remote website contains a link to your page.
The link causes users to miss your guidelines
and advertising and mislead the reader as to
the origin of the information.
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Examples - Virtual Documents
What are the copyright
implications for virtual
documents?
Merseyworld provides
access to Internet
standards using a CGI
program to retrieve a
document and format
it (using frames and
embedded text /
graphics)
Introduction
Examples
Content added to document
http://www.merseyworld.com/
control/techwatch.html
Solutions
Conclusions
Example - TotalNews
TotalNews:
TotalNews URL
• a "framed" site
which provides
access to various
news services
• News providers
very concerned
• Case settled out of
court
How would you feel if
this happened to your
Somebody
website?
else's content
TotalNews
advertising
Example: Caching
• A web page states that the resource is
copyright and it cannot be downloaded for
a period greater than 30 days.
• A user downloads the page.
• The user’s browser has been configured by
the Computing Service to use an
organisational and national (JISC-funded)
cache
• The browser has a client-side cache
• Is this a problem? If so, whose?
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Examples - Off-Line Browsers
"WebWhacker, the
ultimate offline
browser. This
powerful tool allows
you to save Web
pages - including
text, graphics and
HTML links - directly
to your hard drive,
so you can view
them offline at highly
accelerated speeds"
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Example: Altering Content
• You are visually impaired
and change the font
settings and colours in
your browser.
• You use a style sheet to
hide the visibility of
<P CLASS="example">
paragraphs
Is this "altering the contents of a page"?
Is it acceptable?
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Example: Liability
• A first year medical student posts medical
advice about an unusual disease to a
national mailing list
• A user finds the page using a search
engine and takes heed of the advice
• The user is then taken ill.
• Is this a problem? If so, whose:
• The medical student?
• The organisation hosting the mailing list?
• The organisation running the search engine?
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Example: Privacy
Example 1
• You give your name and email address to
register for information on the Web
• Shortly afterwards you receive email from
a third party
Example 2
• You visit an electronic shopping mall. You
ignore messages about "cookies".
• Shortly afterwards you receive mail about
shops you did not visit.
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Solutions - Applications
Prevention
• Java - prevent images being stolen
• Prevent linking to images from off-server using
server configuration options
Detection
• Search engines:
– Detect plagiarism
Search for image:domain.ac.uk using
Alta Vista
– Spot trademark misuse
• Digital signatures in multimedia objects
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Solutions - W3C Work
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium):
• Dedicated to 'Realizing the Full Potential of the Web'
• Technology & Society domain investigating IPR
• Addressing issues:
– Does technology necessitate a change in
copyright legislation?
– What rights should be associated with web
content?
– How to technically express the rights
– Should rights be used for notification &
enforcement
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Solutions: Metadata
W3C feel that:
• Machine-readable metadata formats can
be used for expressing rights
declarations
• Deterministic, machine-readable
declarations are key to automated
operations
• Need to understand business &
economic models to develop technical
solutions
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Solutions: Rights Management
• (Expired) Internet draft on Using PICS for
Copyright Notice and Control
• Copyright scheme with values:
0=disallowed, 1=conditionally allowed,
2=unconditionally allowed
• Example for use with web resource:
(PICS-1.1 "http://www.wipo.org/v1.5" by "Mark Twain"
labels on "1994.11.05T08:15-0500" for
"http://www.twain.com/story.html" full
"http://www.twain.com/IP-notice.html"
ratings (print 1 save 1 quote 2))
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Solutions: Privacy
Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P):
• Enables computer users to be informed
and to make choices about collection, use
and disclosure of personal information
• Sites with practices that fall within a user's
preference will be accessed "seamlessly,"
Otherwise users will be notified of a site's
practices and have the opportunity to
agree to those terms.
• See http://www.w3.org/P3P/P3FAQ.html
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Acceptable Use Policies
Why Have an Acceptable Use Policy?
• If you don't say what is acceptable and
unacceptable, how is the user to know?
• Needed if your organisations wishes to
have effective internal disciplinary
measures
• May be valuable if a case goes to law
• Potentially could be automated in the
future
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
What Could an AUP Cover?
An institutional AUP could cover:
• Policies for end users (browsing policies) e.g.
covering access to porn, non-academic use
• Policies for information providers (publishing
policies) e.g. covering use of copyrighted
resources, linking policies
• Policies for service providers (service policies)
e.g. covering privacy, use of log files,
maintenance of resources, etc.
UK Web Focus to produce resource of AUPs
used in UK HEIs
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions
Conclusions
• There are many legal risks which institutions may
face
• It is important to have guidelines covering use of
Internet services
• Technical developments may make the formulation
of guidelines difficult
• Technical developments will also assist in
overcoming legal risks
• Important to follow international standards
developments - avoid reinventing (square) wheels
Introduction
Examples
Solutions
Conclusions