Readings

The readings for this week focus on intellectual property:

• WIPO - What is IP?

• The History of Software Patents: From Benson, Flook, and Diehr to Bilski and Mayo v. Prometheus

On patents:

• Patent Trolls

• Apple ordered to pay $502.6M to VirnetX after jury finds patent infringement

• Microsoft open-sources its patent portfolio

On open source:

• What is open source?

• Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software

• “Google’s use of the Java API packages was not fair,” appeals court rules

And DMCA:

• EFF - Digital Millennium Copyright Act

• What Is the DCMA, and Why Does It Take Down Web Pages?

On reverse engineering:

• Coders' Rights Project Reverse Engineering FAQ

• We Can't Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership

• ‘Right to repair’ advocates claim major victory in smartphone copyright exemption

On piracy:

• Trump Promises Copyright Crackdown as DoJ Takes Aim at Streaming Pirates

• The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent

• "DRM is Used to Lock in, Control and Spy on Users"

Optional: Patents

This podcast considers the pros and cons of patents:

• The Case Against Patents

These articles focus on software patents:

• When Patents Attack!

• The Supreme Court doesn't understand software, and that's a problem

These articles focus on patent trolls:

• Universities have turned over hundreds of patents to patent trolls

• Why patent trolls won’t give up

These articles focus on the recent Apple patent infringement case:

• Apple Must Pay $502.6 Million to VirnetX, Federal Jury Rules

• How Virnetx Beat Apple: The Strange Case of the Patent Trolls

Optional: Open Source

These articles explain open source:

• Open Source World

• Freeing the Source - The Story of Mozilla

These articles discuss the difference between open source and free software:

• What is free software?

• Why you should use a BSD style license for your Open Source Project

These articles attack the idea of open source:

• A Generation Lost in the Bazaar

• OpenSSL Heartbleed: Bloody nose for open-source bleeding hearts

These articles discuss the recent Oracle v Google case:

• Google Could Owe Oracle $8.8 Billion in Android Fight

• The Case That Never Ends: Oracle Wins Latest Round vs. Google

Optional: Digital Millennium Copyright Act

These article discuss the DMCA:

• 10 Years Later, Misunderstood DMCA is the Law That Saved the Web

• The Tyranny of Copyright?

Optional: Reverse Engineering

These articles discuss reverse engineering:

• Software, reverse engineering and the law

• No, You Really Can't

These articles discuss the right to repair things:

• It's Finally Legal To Hack Your Own Devices (Even Your Car)

• The US Government Wants to Permanently Legalize the Right to Repair

These articles consider the negative impacts of copyright:

• The Copyright Rule We Need to Repeal If We Want to Preserve Our Cultural Heritage

• "I Want to Know What Code Is Running Inside My Body"

Optional: Piracy

These articles discuss piracy:

• Music piracy is down but still very much in play

• Goodbye to Piracy

These articles discuss DRM:

• America's broken digital copyright law is about to be challenged in court

• Analog: The Last Defense Against DRM

These articles discuss the recent W3C controversy:

• The Fight Over DRM Standards for Streaming Video Is Over and Big Business Won

• HTML5 DRM finally makes it as an official W3C Recommendation

These articles discuss the use of DMCA:

• YouTube Are Criminal Piracy Racketeers, Grammy Winner Says

• RIAA still hates the DMCA, even as streaming revenues soar

Questions

Please write a response to one of the following questions:

1. From the readings, what exactly are patents? What are the ethical, moral, economic, or social reasons for granting patents?

   • In your opinion, should patents be granted at all? Are they really necessary or beneficial for society? Do the promote innovation or do they hinder it? Explain.

   • Additionally, should patents on software be granted or should patents be restricted to physical or more tangible artifacts? Explain.

   • Finally, is the existence of patent trolls evidence that the patent system is working or that the system is broken? Explain.

2. From the readings, what exactly is copyright? What are the ethical, moral, economic, or social reasons for granting copyrights?

   • When should an open source license be preferred over a proprietary license? Is open source software inherently better? If so, how do you explain things like HeartBleed and ShellShock?

   • Is the distinction between free software and open source meaningful? Between the GPL and BSD license, which one do you prefer? Which one is more free?

   • Finally, what do you make of the Oracle v Google case? Is the court correct in saying APIs are copyrightable? Is the court correct in ruling Google's use of Java's APIs as "fair use"? Explain.

3. From the readings, what exactly does the DMCA say about circumvention and reverse engineering? What limitations or restrictions does it impose on users of copyrighted artifacts?

   • Is it ethical for companies to use DRM schemes to protect their intellectual property? Conversely, is it ethical for end users to circumvent these DRM schemes? For instance, is it moral to rip a CD or DVD from the physical media to a portable audio or video file? Is it moral to remove the DRM from the files you get from iTunes or Audible?

   • Is it ethical to reverse engineer or build circumention tools that allow end users to fix, modify, or extend copyrighted work? For instance, should car or tractor owners be able to circumvent the protections on the software in their vehicles? Should phone owners have the right to unlock their phone? Should researchers and developers be allowed to probe and reverse engineer software for bugs and security flaws?

   • Finally, how much control should an inventor of manufacturer have over the use of their product? What does ownership really mean in a world of licensing and DMCA restrictions?

4. From the readings, what exactly the DMCA say about piracy? What provisions does it have for dealing with infringement? What exactly are the safe-harbor provisions?

   • Is it ethical or moral for users to download or share copyrighted material? What if they already own a version in another format? What if they were just "sampling" or "testing" the material?

   • Have you participated in the sharing of copyrighted material? If so, how did you justify your actions (or did you not care)? Moreover, why do you think so many people (regardless of whether or not you do) engage in this behavior even though it is against the law?

   • Does the emergence of streaming services such as Netflix or Spotify address the problem of piracy, or will are these services not sufficient? Is piracy a solvable problem? Is it a real problem?