Creative protection. (Copyright).

Perhaps the thorniest legal issue of all for the Internet is that of copyright, which forbids unauthorized duplication of another's original work. The mere act of viewing a document on the Internet, however, offends against this principle because the document is literally copied to the viewer's screen. If the document is then copied onto a storage device such as a floppy disk, the viewer may alter the document and republish it in a form that may not be readily distinguishable from the work of the original author. Some writers and artists have greeted this situation as a new impetus for collective creativity, but for defenders of intellectual property rights it is a problem of enormous scale. Some have suggested that the very notion of copyright, which was unknown before the invention of printing, may not survive the advent of cyberspace.

But, if the creators of books, movies, music, etc. don't receive payment for their work where is the incentive to create these things in the first place? Napster turned the music world upside down. Using a technology called MP3, Internet users were able to swap their favourite music tracks. Then, with rewritable CD-ROMs and CD burners, they could transfer those files onto CDs to be played on their own sound systems. This was a technology that suited perfectly the rebellious culture of the Internet. You could copy the one good track on a CD for free. The alternative was to buy the whole CD for fifteen or twenty bucks and wade through all the filler songs the giant record labels packed onto their disks.

It hardly occurred to anyone swapping music on Napster that they were breaking the law. But, they were. The copyright laws protect the creators of music, books, movies, even articles such as this one from unauthorized copying.

But, some of the recording artists liked what was happening on the Internet. Here's Courtney Love in a speech in New York in 2000: "Record companies stand between artists and their fans. We signed terrible deals with them because they controlled access to the public. But, in a world of total connectivity record companies lose that control ... Artists can sell CDs directly to fans. We can make direct deals with thousands of other Websites and promote our music to millions of people that old record companies never touch."

The big record companies could not let Napster carry on; it was costing them millions. They got together and sued the company for copyright infringement. (Interestingly, at the same time as it was suing Napster, the German media giant Bertelsmann -- owner of the BMG label -- was negotiating to buy a half share in Napster). The big guys won. Effectively, Napster was shut down in the middle of 2001 by promising to post only copyright-free material, of which there was almost none. In February 2001, fans downloaded 2.8 billion songs through Napster; by May this had dropped to 360 million. (Again, while Napster was being shut down, Vivendi Universal Music paid $372 million U.S. to buy MP3.com.)

People can still download their favourite music on the Internet -- but, now they'll have to pay for it. Two music subscription services have been started by the industry giants -- MusicNet and Duet.

Or, fans can find other file-swapping sites that pop up all the time. By the time you read this Audiogalaxy, KaZaA, Gnutella, BearShare, and Morpheus may have been shut down. But, like dandelions in the spring, new file-sharing sites will sprout to replace the ones that are killed.

There is also the potential for artists to by-pass the big record companies and sell direct to fans. The financial barriers to entry into this means of marketing are very low; almost any garage band can now put its music on the Net for others to hear and, perhaps, even pay for.

The publishers of books have been watching the Napster story very closely. High-speed Broadband connections will enable Internet users to download books in the blink of an eye. Four hundred thousand people did just that in 24 hours when horror writer Stephen King posted a short novel on the Internet in March 2000. But, Mr. King's book was available free of charge and the novelty of being able to download a book attracted many enthusiasts.

The people who print and sell books are not sure electronic publishing would work commercially. That feeling was reinforced at the end of 2000. The same Stephen King who made such a splash in March was trying to sell a new novel over the Internet. Readers could buy the book for a dollar a chapter, but so few were willing to pony up the money that Mr. King abandoned the plan.

Consumers don't like reading books on computers, and it's unlikely people will want to print off hundreds of pages and carry them around in a plastic bag. Sales of hand-held devices into which books can be downloaded from the Net have been disappointing. However, technologies such as CoolType and ClearType are improving the readability of small screens. It seems to be only a matter of time before technology and the preferences of readers match up and e-books take off.

So, the potential for swapping electronic books in the same way that people exchanged music is looming. But, looming also is the ability of writers to sell their work directly to readers over the Internet. There would be virtually no production costs such as printing and binding, and no percentage going to publishers and booksellers; the author will get every penny of the selling price. He or she might get ripped off for the illegal copies made, but dealing directly with readers might be more appealing than going through a publisher. And, anybody could get published -- not just the established writers that big, commercial media companies tend to concentrate on.

FACT FILE

Five companies -- EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music, Vivendi Universal Music, and BMG -- control more than three quarters of the world's record market.

The Canadian Copyright Act became law in 1924.

websites

Copyright Board Canada http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/

Media Awareness Network - http:// www.media-awareness.ca/eng/med/ class/edissue/copyrigt.htm

Ten Copyright Myths Explained http://www.templetons.com/brad/ copymyths.html