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Intellectual Property News
Users May Be Unaware Of Threats From Filesharing Programs
The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has released a report that concludes that the distributors of five popular filesharing programs repeatedly deployed features that they knew or should have known could cause users to share files inadvertently. The report, Filesharing Programs and “Technological Features to Induce Users to Share,” identifies five features in recent versions of five popular filesharing programs that could cause users to inadvertently distribute to others downloaded files or their own proprietary or sensitive files.
“Computer programs that can cause unintended filesharing contribute to copyright infringement, and they threaten the security of personal, corporate, and governmental data,” noted Jon Dudas, under secretary of commerce for intellectual property—the Bush Administration’s point person on copyright policy.
The report shows that distributors of filesharing programs deployed features that could cause inadvertent sharing even after repeated warnings that these features could facilitate identity theft and breaches of personal and national security. For example, in 2003, two Congressional hearings were prompted by research indicating inadvertent sharing could be caused by search-wizard and share-folder features. After the hearings, many distributors adopted a Code of Conduct that prohibited use of these features. Nevertheless, in 2004 and 2005, many of these same distributors kept deploying more aggressive versions of search-wizard or share-folder features. Many distributors also deployed other features, like partial-uninstall and coerced-sharing features, that also had a known or obvious potential to cause inadvertent sharing. Read more at uspto.gov.
The patent grant protects its inventors.
A patent grant right excludes others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the US.
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Definition:
Is one who knowingly reserves with a registrar a domain name consisting of the trademark or name of a company for the purpose of selling the right to that domain name back to the legitimate owner.
Joint work
Definition:
Two authors working on one piece with the intend that their contributions will be inseparable create joint work and are considered co-owners of the copyrighted piece.
Distribution Right
Definition:
Rights of copyright, the distribution right is infringed merely by a transfer of copies of the work, whether those copies were unlawfully or lawfully made, except under the First Sale Doctrine.
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