Take a serious look at the mutual effects of computer technology and the law with this new reference. It shows you how applying traditional legal action to disputes in the computer industry is generating unpredictable and often bizarre results and suggests possible solutions, from changes in the law, to encryption and various other technical responses, to a fundamental shift in social and legal thinking to accommodate emerging technologies. Practicing attorneys involved in intellectual property and technology law can refer to the current legal doctrine on new and future technology - and explore possible improvements to today's policies. Computer professionals become more familiar with the legal issues involved in their business practice and better understand the potential legal implications of their actions.
Introduction: Law and Technology. Accelerated Technology. Legal Deliberations: Reasoning From the Past. Undermining the Power of Legal Analogies. Public and Private Law. Legal Assumptions ; The Reason of the Law - Community Meaning in the Conduct of the Legal System: The Role of Community-Based Standards. The Evisceration of a Cardinal Standard. The Law Unchecked by a Common Sense. Toward Community Standards. ; The Collision of Law and Technology: Trade Secrets. Patents. Trademarks. Copyright. ; Molten Media and the Infiltration of the Law: Intellectual Property: A Spectrum of Protection. Molten Media. The Reach to Reality. Owning Reality. The Infirm Law. Conclusions: Climbing Out of the Legal Pit. ; Technology Rights in the International Arena - The Fall of Public Law and the Rise of Private Fiat: The Global Content. Disparate Protection of Global Intellectual Property Rights. Global Products and Parochial Law. ; The Uneasy Treaty of Technology and Law - A Summary of Legal Issues for the Virtual Reality Industry: The Industry. VR: The Entertainment Launch. The Computer. VR: Rapidly Developing Technology. VR: Unique Problems. Conclusion: A Tale of Two Codes. ; Data Morphing - Ownership, Copyright, and Creation: Basic Propositions. Basic Problems. Copyrighting the Universe: Property Rights in Virtual Reality. ; Copyright Issues on the Net - A Sampler: The Mechanism of a Web Page. Law and Developing Technology: A Disjunction. Focus On Copyright. Ownership and Permissions. Joint Works. Fair Use. Implied Licenses. Web Link Liability. Contributory Infringement and Vicarious Liability. ; A Technical Interlude: Error in Computing Machinery ; Information Loss and Implicit Error in Complex Modeling Machines: A General Description of Systems. Problems of Typical Parallel Systems. General Problems of Hierarchical Systems. Turning to Cellular Gas Automata. Simulations and Models. Conclusion. ; Law at the Man/Machine Interface ; Alters ; Bringing Up Programs ; The Encrypted Self - Fleshing Out the Rights of Electronic Personalities: The Current Debate. Legal Fictions, New and Old. Residency: Cyberspace. The Exposure to Incursions. Predicates to Rights: Accountability and Identification. Epers in the Real World. Framing Rights to Illuminate the Public/Private Border in Cyberspace. Epers in the Virtual World. Epers, Persons, and Privacy. ; Liability for Distributed Artificial Intelligences: The Developing Technology. Causation in the Legal Domain. Causation in the Digital Domain. Turing, Where Angels Fear to Tread. ; Crime and Punishment ; Recombinant Culture - Crime in the Digital Network: Understanding Information. Parceling Out Information As Property. Faulty Transition to the New Network. Interlude: State of the Net. Crime in a Phantasmagorical Terrain. ; The Algorithm As Nuclear Weapon: Encryption and Export Laws ; Technology, Society, and the Law ; Review of Culture, Technology, and Creativity in the Late Twentieth Century ; Implementing the First Amendment in Cyberspace: Early Developments: Regulating the Actions of the Government. Present Circumstance: The Fusion of Public and Private. The Rationale of Restriction. Forward: Transitions for the First Amendment. ; Transfixed by the Electron Beam: Falling in Love With the Machine. Destroying the University in Order to Save It. Diamonds in the Rough. ; Terminus;