Certification - October 2008 - (Page 40)

Curbing Copyright Infringement DEANNA hARTLEY OK, so copyright violation isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, but it sure has been receiving its fair share of media buzz lately — especially with the now infamous Agarwalla brothers of Scrabulous fame. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, you’re probably not one of the millions of people — young and old, popular and reclusive — whose lives practically revolve around the virtual sphere where social networking meets online gaming. in shaping what our society dictates on the issue of copyright violation. It’s a catch-22 situation: The Web has opened up an array of resources designed to combat copyright offenders while simultaneously increasing the opportunity and temptation to step over to the dark side. For example, it’s probably safe to assume teenagers and young adults around the world comprised a good percentage of Scrabulous users. Their impressionable minds are attune to innovative yet borderline or blatantly unethical get-rich-quick, profit-making schemes. And illegally downloading a Rihanna song or Hollywood blockbuster today could escalate to more grievous practices down the road. How can our society expect the future leaders of the world to abide by trademark and copyright regulations when they’re exposed to their adult counterparts repeatedly giving in to the temptation of flouting the rules to make a quick buck? That doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a gray area. For instance, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, along with her publisher and the makers of the Harry Potter movies, sued a community group in India for allegedly creating a replica of the Hogwarts castle in papier mâché for a religious festival. (The court ruled in favor of the Indian community, in case you were wondering.) But in light of such copyright-related incidents, Microsoft decided to introduce a campaign, along with a series of measures earlier this year, to warn teens against ignorance of or blatant contempt for copyright laws. One such measure was a company-sponsored curriculum — titled “Intellectual Property Rights Education” — that was created for middle and high school teachers. The curriculum, complete with Web-based resources, lesson plans and case studies, was designed to raise awareness about issues related to the field of trademark and copyright regulations. Microsoft even supplemented this learning material with a Web site known as MyBytes, where students can learn everything there is to know about intellectual property rights, including the possible threat of jail time for copyright violation. Call it a scare tactic, but it just might work. In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for playing word games and enjoying music or videos the old-fashioned way. 8 – Deanna Hartley, dhartley@certmag.com The Web has opened up an array of resources designed to combat copyright offenders while simultaneously increasing the opportunity and temptation to step over to the dark side. The Agarwalla siblings are the creators of the free online Scrabble knockoff, a phenomenon that swept the world — even garnering the attention of as many as half a million players on any given day! That is, until they were forced to pull the plug on the game a few months ago after being sued for copyright infringement by Hasbro, the creators of the original Scrabble word game. Scrabulous fans in the United States and Canada were undoubtedly crushed by the news that they could no longer vie for the coveted title of best word generator. For me, well, I was never really in the running. In all seriousness, the incident might have left a bad taste in people’s mouths, but it nonetheless sheds some light on the state of international copyright law. After all, the game was only pulled on the North American continent — and not without leaving its makers with their pockets overflowing with cash. Perhaps you could say they gamed the system. The real issue here, however, is the fact that the Internet is playing an increasingly prominent role 0 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE October 2008 http://www.scrabulous.com/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7040191.stm http://www.ipreducation.com/ http://www.ipreducation.com/ http://www.hasbro.com/games/adult-games/scrabble/home.cfm?page=home http://www.mybytes.com/index.html

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Certification - October 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Virtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Troubleshooting Academic Connection What We Like Look Ahead Elect IT: Technology and the Democratic Process Managing Relationships in the Nonprofit Realm Interface VoIP Technician: Answering the Call of the Network Inside Certification Ad Index Endtag

Certification - October 2008

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