Crisis over copyrights

James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology

"Thousands of persons make unauthorized copies of cartoons with Xerox machines or for overhead slides, to decorate offices or assist in presentations. But when a few individuals post unauthorized copies of Far Side cartoons on their personal Web pages, the New York Times reports this in a page-one story as evidence that the Internet needs to be regulated," James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, said in a press briefing from the conference.

Possible results of "sui generis"
One controversial provision of the database treaty would make it possible to copyright facts. The idea has spawned a lot of speculation about its possible effects:
Students could copyright homework, which couldn't be altered without permission.
Sports scores and statistics couldn't be quoted without permission.
Stock exchanges could copyright quote tables and charge for access to them.
The contractor that maintains Congress's Thomas database could copyright it.
Nearly anyone could copyright the Internet's now public traffic-routing databases and charge for their use.

Opponents also expressed concern that the treaty's term of copyright for databases--25 years--could be extended infinitely, so long as the owner continued to update the database. Moreover, they note, the treaty included no provisions for "fair use," which lets people use copyrighted works for reporting, research, or educational purposes.

That criticism has been dismissed by U.S. Patents and Trademarks Commissioner Bruce Lehman as "ridiculous." And small wonder: Lehman introduced the concept of sui generis into the copyright debate in a paper he wrote two years ago.