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Intellectual Property Rights |
There has been an explosion in the popularity of downloading and transmitting high- value digital content, triggered by the growth of the Internet and the evolution of peer-to-peer systems. At the same time, there is a substantial disconnect between public attitudes toward copyright and the letter of the law, and growing concern among copyright holders over the erosion of their rights.
The Digital Connections Council's (DCC) work on intellectual property rights explores the history of copyright law, revealing that legal protection of the rights of creators has always been explicitly balanced against protection of ongoing innovation. The DCC brings the perspective of the second innovator - the creator of new social value based on existing copyrighted works - to bear, noting that every creator owes a debt to what has come before.
The DCC's work also discusses current proposals for legislative and regulatory change, focusing on requests by the content distribution industries for technical copy protection mandates. Such mandates would have substantial effects on the information technology and consumer electronics industries in this country, on innovation, and on the economic growth that stems from the freedom to innovate.
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