Question: since many of the nominees seem to be involved in intellectual property right issues, i would like to get your views on something like, to take a concrete example, napster.

Nominee Replies

Johannes Chiang - posted on 2000-10-09 18:18:33 Naspter is a typical example of what I call the dispute between intellectual properties of two kinds of worlds, the physical one and the cyberpace. It is not a case where a songwriter fade in his own product a period of music made by his colleague. Nor is this a case where a programmer steals few lines of codes from his colleague. Distributed computing software is a creature from human intelligence and the music comes from human wisdom and feeling. Which has the higher priority? An ideal solution could be further development of a mechanism to check the copyright. Nevertheless; it left the case in disputing of infringement facts and a negotiation of both parties is needed to solve the problem. As Mr. Katoh said, this is an example where conventional laws such as copyright law may need to be reviewed. And, I believe the review should lead to preventive strategy and method that enable us really getting rid of similar cases. (ref. My web site:http://myicann.net) Sureswaran Ramadass - posted on 2000-09-29 06:52:21 In a question earlier, there is a need for a global e-commerce law. This law will have to study the needs of industry but protect the individual users as well. And these rules should be the ones that should be used by courts worldwide to address Internet related issues, like Napster. Masanobu Katoh - posted on 2000-09-26 14:21:42 Napster is a case where the scope of fair use (under the U.S. Copyright Law) and the definition of contributory infringement are disputed. Here is an example where conventional laws such as copyright law may need to be reviewed. Please refer to my website (www.mkatoh.net) for my general views on copyright protection.