Cyberspace Law For Non-Lawyers

Front 1

Who is the author of Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

Back 1

Larry Lessig, David Post, and Eugene Volokh

Front 2

What are some examples that implicate copyright law?

Back 2

• You buy a piece of software and e-mail it to five friends.
• You download an article from a newspaper's Web page and post in on an electronic bulletin board.
• You take a post from one news group and forward it to another news group.
• You respond to someone's discussion list post, and quote part of his post in yours

Front 3

What do you need to do to get a copyright for something you’ve written?

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• You don’t need to send it in to the Library of Congress.
• You don’t need to put a copyright notice on it.
• Your work is copyrighted THE MOMENT IT´S WRITTEN DOWN.

Front 4

What are some examples of infringements?

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• If you download an article from a newspaper Web site and forward it to a news group, you've made copies, which might be infringements.
• If someone saves your e-mail in an archive, he's made copies, which might be infringements.
• If you quote someone's newsgroup post in your response to the post, you've made copies, which might be infringements.

Front 5

What does "copy" mean?

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• It covers copies of LESS THAN THE WHOLE thing: If you write an article and I make a copy of five pages that might violate your copyright.
• It covers PARAPHRASES, so long as they're close enough: If I translate your article into a foreign language, or make a movie based on your book that will probably violate your copyright.
• It covers MANUAL copies as well as mechanical copies: It doesn't matter whether you make an electronic copy of an electronic document, scan in a print document or hand-enter a document into the computer. All of this is copying.
• It covers PERSONAL copying as well as BUSINESS copying.

Front 6

Is it ok to copy Fact and Ideas?

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Yes, as long as you acknowledge your source.

Front 7

You post something to a discussion list. I quote your message in my response. Have I acted illegally?

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No, even though your message is copyrighted, and I copied it. Posting the message to a discussion list almost certainly gives others an "implied license" to quote it. When a copyright owner acts in such a way that *reasonable people would assume that he's allowing them to make copies*, the law interprets his conduct as creating an "implied license."

Front 8

What are the questions in Fair Use?

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1. Is your use noncommercial?
2. Is your use for purposes of criticism, comment, parody, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research?
3. Is the original work mostly fact (as opposed to mostly fiction or opinion)?
4. Has the original work been published (as opposed to sent out only to one or a few people)?
5. Are you copying only a small part of the original work?
6. Are you copying only a relatively insignificant part of the original work (as opposed to the most important part)?
7. Are you adding a lot new to the work (as opposed to just quoting parts of the original)?
8. Does your conduct leave unaffected any profits that the copyright owner can make (as opposed to displacing some potential sales OR potential licenses of reprint rights)?

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What are the few basic rules of thumb on when a use is fair?

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1. If you're copying only a LITTLE BIT - for text, this generally means no more than a couple of paragraphs here or there, but it could be less if you're copying from a work that's already quite short - your use is probably FAIR.We wish we could tell you how much is "a little bit," but we can't - there's no bright line. If someone tells you something like "It's OK to copy 20% of a newspaper article or 10% of a scholarly article," that's a COPYRIGHT MYTH.
2. If you're copying more than a little bit, but you're doing it for (a) SYSTEMATIC NEWS REPORTING, (b) CRITICAL COMMENTARY (whether positive or negative), or (c) PARODY, your use is probably FAIR.Note that it's not enough just to say "I'm reporting the news to the list" or "I'm commenting on this article just by quoting it." A little test: If pretty much any copier can make the same claim of "news reporting" or "commentary" that you're making, your claim is probably too ambitious.
3. If you're copying UNPUBLISHED work - work that the copyright owner hasn'

Front 10

Is it fair to copy unpublished works?

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It may be fair if the consent of the author is there.

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It is fair if you key in an article from a paper magazine that doesn't have a Web site and post it to a news group.

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Unfair, if the magazine is available on some online service or if the magazine is still on the newsstands for people to buy.

Front 12

What is the topic in Lesson 12 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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The liability of service providers

Front 13

What are two kinds of truths that the law might try to protect?

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1. truths about you that have revealed to the public, either by giving some information over to someone else, or by being observed in public; or
2. Truths about you that you have kept private.

Front 14

What is the topic in Lesson 14 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Informational privacy

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What is the topic in Lesson 15 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Informational privacy on the net

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What is the topic in Lesson 16 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Privacy and the Fourth Amendment, Part 1

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What is the topic in Lesson 17 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Privacy and the Fourth Amendment, Part 2

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What is the topic in Lesson 18 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Privacy and the Fourth Amendment, Part 3

Front 19

What are the four sysop exceptions?

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1. There are other parts of ECPA that explicitly give the sysop powers to intercept electronic communications - we discuss some of these below. These are obvious exceptions to the general protection ECPA gives.
2. If the sysop gets the consent either of the sender, or any of the intended recipients, then the sysop can disclose the content of the message.
3. If the sysop must look at the content to forward the message, then the interception is permitted.
4. If the message appears to pertain to the commission of a crime, then the sysop can disclose it, but only to law enforcement officials.

Front 20

What is Sysop?

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Specific exceptions to the protections against the "interception" of electronic communications that the Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA) provides.

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What does CFFA stands for?

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Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

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What is encryption?

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Encryption is a technique for turning your message into gibberish, readable only by the person intended to read the message -- someone else who has the proper key. The most powerful forms of encryption have two keys: one public, the other private.

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What is Anonymity?

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Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation at the hand of an intolerant society.

Front 24

What is the topic in Lesson 24 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Privacy: Self Help: Anonymity, Part 2

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What is the topic in Lesson 25 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Private Spaces

Front 26

What is a trademark?

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A trademark or trade mark is a distinctivesign or indicator used by an individual,business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services toconsumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities.

Front 27

How do you obtain a Trademark?

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Just as with copyright law, there is no registration requirement; you don't have to register a trademark with the Patent and Trademark Office in order to protect it. You get certain benefits if you do; in particular, your trademark is a lot easier to protect against confusingly similar use by others if you have registered it. But you're not required to do so, and can still stop others from infringing your trademark if you have not registered.

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Can I use someone else’s trademark?

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Generally speaking, you cannot use another person's trademark if that use would confuse the reasonable consumer about the identity of goods or services associated with that trademark.

Front 29

What does that little “tm” symbol mean?

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Anyone who has a trademark in a word or symbol is entitled to use the "tm" designation in connection with their use of the trademark.

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What is the topic in Lesson 30 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Are Domain Names trademarks

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What is the topic in Lesson 25 in Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers?

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Trademarks on the net II other uses of trademarks