|
Contact
Bill Hagen ??? 732 562 3966, w.hagen@ieee.org
M
arsha Longshore ??? 732 562 6824, m.longshore@ieee.org
PISCATAWAY, N.J., 22 April -- The IEEE will revise its copyright form amidst author concerns about a reference that requires authors to verify that their work does not violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
???The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has become a very sensitive subject among our authors. It???s intended to protect digital content, but its application in some specific cases appears to have alienated large segments of the research community,??? said Bill Hagen, manager of IEEE Intellectual Property Rights.
???We reevaluated our requirement that authors warrant their compliance because it has proven to be much more controversial than expected. We needed to respond to author objections to signing the form,??? he explained. When the copyright form was last revised in November 2001, the reference to the newly passed DMCA was added in order to alert authors to the law???s requirements.
Among its provisions, DMCA prohibits ???any technology, product, service, device component or part??? that circumvents digital copy protection systems. This has been perceived as a serious problem, by scientists and engineers who fear that this could prevent them from even publishing articles about digital protection, encryption, or cryptography technologies.
This concern stems largely from the case of Princeton University professor Edward Felton, who decided not to present research on copy protection technologies last year after entertainment industry officials warned him that he risked violating the DMCA with his presentation. The case was later dropped.
Although the DMCA reference will be dropped from the form, IEEE continues to expect its authors to adhere to all copyright laws. The revised form, which all authors are required to sign, will be available by the end of April.
The IEEE has more than 375,000 members in approximately 150 countries. Through its members, the organization is a leading authority on areas ranging from aerospace, computers and telecommunications to biomedicine, electric power and consumer electronics. The IEEE produces over 100 magazines, journals and transactions in electrical and electronics engineering, computing and information technology and related fields, and sponsors or cosponsors more than 300 technical conferences worldwide each year. Additional information about the IEEE can be found at http://www.ieee.org/about/.
# # #
??
|
