Call for Papers "Technological Strategies for Protecting Intellectual Property in the Networked Multimedia Environment" Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 3-5, 1993 sponsored by: Coalition for Networked Information Information Infrastructure Project Science, Technology and Public Policy Program, Harvard University Interactive Multimedia Association Program on Digital Open High Resolution Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology This workshop will map the territory between security issues and the need for practical, user-friendly systems for marketing information resources and services. It will survey the technological landscape, evaluate the potential benefits and risks of different mechanisms, define a research agenda, and frame related implementation and policy issues. The workshop will give special attention to how and where within the overall infrastructure different technologies are best implemented. It will present and analyze models for explaining protection systems and strategies. Papers are invited on the foregoing and on the capabilities and relationship of the following technologies and strategies: -- billing servers -- type of service identifiers, header descriptors, and other forms of labeling and tagging -- fingerprinting -- digital signatures -- contracting mechanisms and EDI licensing of intellectual property -- copy protection and serial copy management -- authentication servers and site licensing -- software envelopes -- encryption -- display-only systems -- concurrent use limitations -- structured charging -- technology assessment and risk analysis The workshop will be held at MIT and Harvard on February 3-5, 1993. Participation at the two-day event would be limited to 35- 40 invitees, but the papers will be revised for publication as part of Information Infrastructure Project's publication program. Abstracts of proposed papers should be sent to: Thomas Lee DOHRS/CTPID MIT E40-218 Cambridge, MA 02139 tlee@farnsworth.mit.edu 617-253-6828 Fax: 617-253-7326 or 617-253-7140 ________________________________________________________________ The global Internet offers the beginning of a networked, multifunctional, multimedia environment for both resource-sharing and marketing information products and services. Although underlying technologies may change, the applications and practices developed now are shaping the universal broadband infrastructure of the future. However, concern for copyright protection remains a major impediment to private investment in information resources and services. Owners of information resources are fearful of releasing proprietary information to an environment which appears lacking in security and has no accepted means of accounting for use and copying. Complex library systems may be designed and developed around nonproprietary information, but until there are mechanisms to accommodate proprietary information, the utility of the systems will remain limited by the nature of the material made available. Information technology enables the vision of a distributed, interoperating multimedia environment in which information from a universe of different sources can be combined and recombined to meet specific user needs. Ironically, the vision is threatened by the absence of systematic controls. Mindful of this problem, Congress directed that the National Research and Education Network (the follow-on to the federally funded portion of the Internet) -- (1) be developed and deployed with the computer, telecommunications, and information industries.... (5) be designed and operated so as to ensure the continued application of laws that provide network and information resources security measures, including those that protect copyright and other intellectual property rights.... (6) have accounting mechanisms which allow users or groups of users to be charged for their usage of copyrighted materials available over the Network.... [15 USC 5512(c)] The Act also requires the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to report to Congress by the anniversary of the Act (i.e., December 9, 1992) on "how to protect the copyrights of material distributed over the Network...." [15 USC 5512(g)(5)] Despite this statutory language, federal agencies have yet to address these issues. Many believe that the protection of intellectual property on the NREN as on any network is a private sector problem which needs to be addressed at an applications level, not within the design of the network. Indeed, these intellectual property problems are not new; to a large extent, they represent traditional copyright problems which have been exacerbated by electronic technology, digitization of information, personal computers, and less advanced forms of networking. But the prospect of pervasive, high-bandwidth, interconnected wide-area networks presents the problems in the most complete context. There is a tension between the goals of protection, on the one hand, and interoperation and usability, on the other, that has defeated technological solutions in the past. ADAPSO's proposed hardware lock failed to gain industry acceptance, and software copy protection has been abandoned except in certain high-value niche markets. The microcomputer software industry has come to rely on the threat of lawsuits in the vulnerable corporate environment as a means of copyright enforcement. Nonetheless, a hardware-secured environment incorporating serial copy management has been mandated (as an amendment to the Copyright Act) for the next generation of digital audio technology. In the emerging environment, the conventional distinction between products and services breaks down. Products are networked, and network-accessible services are linked to products. Rights must be acquired to cover all forms of delivery, because multiple delivery paths are likely and the dominant technologies and markets cannot be predicted with confidence. On the other hand, the control and security offered by different technologies may also determine the choice of distribution paths. For these reasons, the workshop will look at the networked multimedia environment as a whole, from mass-market products to specialized services.