The most recent news is the editorial in the NYT for February 20, 1998
concerning copyright and public domain. While this discusses only the issue of
extending the period of copyright, it should awaken us to the need for a basic
change in copyright. We had a basic change when society moved from the epoch
of pen and parchment to the epoch of print and paper. That was the recognition
that intellectual property deserves protection reflected in the Statute of
Anne in 1710. The fundamental change needed today is one that recognizes the
need of society for the preservation of electronic information. The difference
between the print and paper epoch and the current one of bits and bandwidth
now makes that a feasible prospect. Under existing copyright law, copies of
material registered for copyright are supposed to be deposited with the
copyright office for public use in the Library of Congress. This is honored
more in breach than in practice. Now it is possible to store everything that
is copyrighted in the copyright office. It should, therefore, be required that
any digital material that desires copyright protection be deposited within six
months of public release otherwise it will be in the public domain. Upon
deposit, it would receive a unique numeric identifier.
This raises the issue of unique identification of all information in a
structured universal format in order that it may be retrieved anyplace in the
world. A 64-bit identifier could identify all documents and databases, all
words and phrases in all languages and all proper names as part of a six-
category index, all video programs for worldwide viewing, all communication
devices, all cards (for credit, debit, encryption-decryption, and smart card
transaction), all products, and all geographic segments as a universal postal
code for location and delivery. Using the same number of numeric characters,
companies and individuals could protect their confidential information while
integrating it with the public information.
Can a 64-bit identifier accomplish all of these tasks? Lesk estimates the
information in the world at a few thousand petabytes. Senders in "Science"
September 1963, estimated the number of items stored in the world's libraries
at less than a gigabyte with the capacity needed for storage at less than 4.6
x 10X15 bits and "increasing at 6.2 x 10X13 bits per year." Since the 64-bit
identifier can accommodate 1.8 x 10X19 items, the answer would seem to be
affirmative.
The dominant question concerns the means by which such an identifier can be
used for all public and private information. This is important as evidenced by
the shredding of valuable scientific government notebooks. Were such documents
in electronic form, identified and indexed as part of a government database,
they would have automatically been preserved. In the long run all private
information ultimately comes in the public domain or disappears. With unique
identification, indexing, and low cost, high density storage, the chance of
preservation is more likely.
Howard Hilton