CyberRegs: A Business Guide to Web Property, Privacy, and Patents (paperback)

"Exceedingly well analyzed and thoughtfully presented. Bill Zoellick has skillfully set out the leading e-Business issues and pulls no punches in challenging the conventional wisdom underlying current law and policy. A great jumping off point for understanding--or changing--today's crucial business trends." --Sara Greenberg, e-Business Attorney at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP "The author has fully and admirably accomplished the stated purpose of examining the disruption and instability that the Web has introduced into the world of intellectual property." --Dan Carroll, Chairman, The Carroll Group "In this well-written, engaging book, Zoellick examines the technical, business, and political angles of complex issues facing the Web today. The issues raised in CyberRegs are ones that every organization doing business on the Web will face. Zoellick offers business managers fresh insight into coping with these challenges and makes a cogent argument for participating in the political debate over how we will regulate the Net economy." --Mark Walter, Senior Editor, The Seybold Report "The book cuts a clear, original, and insightful path through a set of timely controversial legal and business issues. It helps business people build successful strategies for today's Internet business climate, and provides useful and practical perspective for all citizens concerned about the future direction of Internet policy." --Adina Levin, Senior Director, Corporate Strategy, Vignette Corporation "Zoellick gets it. The author realizes that business is built on knowledge and trust, and he doesn't pander to his audience in getting that point across. This book will give nontechies background, and then some, to address emerging technology issues in business." --Sol Bermann, J.D. Legal Project Manager Technology Policy Ohio Supercomputer Center "Mr. Zoellick pulls from his own experience to provide an interesting look at some of the most important issues confronting business in the future--the nature of the digital economy and the forces that will shape its future growth and development. This is a debate that every business in America needs to join." --Jon Garon, Professor of Law, Franklin Pierce Law School "The book is the best one-volume survey for a generalist about the changing law of the Internet circa 2001." --Paul M. Schwartz, Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School "This is an excellent book.... I've not seen any books on intellectual property that come at the topics the same way." --Capers Jones III, Chief Scientist Emeritus of Artemis Management Systems and Software Productivity Research "Bill has provided a masterful overview of a complex area of the law, explained the legal precedents that have shaped part of patent and copyright law over the past years, and has wrapped it all in the thoughtful backdrop of the immature and rapidly changing e-business landscape." --Randolph Kahn, ESQ Government regulation and new legislation, coupled with technology, have the potential to dramatically change the nature of the World Wide Web. This thought-provoking book explains what effects regulation may have on business managers, their organizations, and the Web as we know it. CyberRegs brings you up to speed on current developments in patent, copyright, digital signature, and privacy policies. Taking an even-handed approach to the debate between greater and lesser control of the Internet, this book provides fascinating background on recent Web legislation. It discusses in depth the many complex policy issues now being hotly debated, and speculates on possible future legal outcomes.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. Acknowledgments. I. COPYRIGHT. 1. Creating and Resisting Change. Brief Background. Copyright and Policy. Setting the Stage for Napster. Infringement by Users? Contributory Infringement? Taking Care of Business in the Courts. Controlling the Market. An Alternative and a Threat to Control. Does Anyone Have the Time? Business Takes Care of Business. Postscript. Lessons from Napster. 2. Congress Asserts Control. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA in Action. Scope: The Question of Commercially Significant Purpose. Restriction of Access. Consequences and Causes. Making Problems Simple. Making Problems Simple. Keeping Up with Developments. 3. Control Put Into Practice. Electronic Distribution as Threat and Opportunity. Four Strategies. Technical Protection Services. Contracts and Licensing Agreements. Licenses as a Way to Constrain a User’s Rights. Digital Distribution and New Laws Make Use of Licensing Easier. Changing the Publishing and Distribution Model. From Specific to General. Changing the Business Model. Convergence: Complete Control. Technical Restriction. Licensing: The Second Side of the Triangle. Closing the Triangle: The DMCA. A Complex Message for a Complex Problem. 4. Copyright Policy and Progress. The Perspective from Mars. Licensing. Implications for Business. Value Moves Downstream. Business Focuses on Licenses, Not Sale of Copies. Value Increases through Aggregation. Practice and Policy. Starting on the Wrong Foot. Moving Forward. 5. Copyright: Further Reading. II. Patents. 6. Subdividing the Internet Frontier. The Power of Patents. Why Have Patents at All? Basic Rules. Amazon’s 1-Click Patent. What’s So Obvious? Where’s Alice? Postscript. What to Make of All This. 7. Patent Sprawl. Some Recent Internet Patents. Concerns Raised by These Patents. High-Level Approach Rather Than Detailed Technology. Application of Traditional, Offline Approaches to the Internet. The “Obviousness” Problem. Impediment to Innovation. Not Necessary for Growth. Intellectual Property Time Bombs for Internet Businesses. Burdensome Expenses of Litigation Making Sense of the Dispute. 8. What is Patentable? Software. Adding a Computer to a Known Process. Software Patents at the Start of the Internet Boom. 9. Claiming More: Business Method Patents. An Initial Setback. Expanding the Scope of Patents. The Impact of State Street. Subject Matter and Breadth. State Street in a Nutshell A Market with Patent Protection A Market with Patent Protection 10. Predicting the Impact of Internet Patents. A Market without Patent Protection. What If? The Argument against Patenting. The Argument for Patenting. A Market with Patent Protection. A Potential Deal with Microsoft. The Deal Goes Sour. The Patent Works. Financial Outcome, Thanks to the Patent. Pros and Cons: Patent Policy. 11. The Business of Inventing. A Business Method Laboratory. Inventing from Value and Extending Value. Walker Digital’s Big Idea. Learning from Walker Digital’s Practices 12. Congress and Patents. Scope of the American Inventors Protection Act. Congress Meets State Street. A Limited, Adapted Response. Looking Forward. 13. Maximizing Benefit, Minimizing Cost. Who’s Behind the Change? 14. Patents: Further Reading. III. Electronic Signatures. 15. Matching the Legislation to the Problem. What the Legislation Does. What the Legislation Does Not Do. What Is the Problem to Be Solved? Unresolved Issues. Summary of the E-SIGN Act Approach. A Deeper Look Technical Background on Digital Signatures. Notes. 16. The Impact of the Legislation. Recognizing How Little We Understand. 17. Learning From the Electronic Signatures Act. Recognizing How Little We Understand. Restricting Government Action to What Is Necessary. Accepting the Fact That Markets Need Time to Work. The E-SIGN Act as Model. 18. Electronic Signatures: Further Reading. IV. Privacy. 19. A Market for Privacy. Putting a Price on Private Information. The Value of Aggregation. Developing a Framework for Privacy Policy. 20. The Right to Privacy. The Right to Be Let Alone. The Basis for Privacy Rights. The Nature of the Privacy Right. Conflict with Other Laws Adds to the Confusion. Recent Developments: Telemarketing. Summarizing the Nature of the Privacy Right. The Law and Privacy. 21. Consumer Concerns. The DoubleClick Story. Consumers and Web Privacy. Let's Make a Deal. Cede Some Control. Make It Easy. Expand. Broader Privacy Concerns. The Tone of the Concerns. Concern about Technology. Creating Fertile Soil for Web Business. A Deeper Look Technical Background on Cookies and Web Bugs. Cookies Web Bugs. More Information. A Deeper Look Technical Background on the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project. What Is in a P3P Privacy Policy Statement? User Agents and Services. What Bothers Privacy Activists. Encoding the Industry View of Privacy. Making Data Collection Easier. Distracting from Creation of Meaningful Privacy Regulations. P3P in the Business Context. Is P3P a Good Thing? 22. The Privacy Debate in Congress. Coverage. Consent. Access. State Laws. Enforcement. Safe Harbor. Notice of Change. Assembling the Pieces. 23. A Privacy Framework. Privacy as a Right. Monetizing Privacy. The Fallacy of the Powerless Customer. My View. 24. Privacy: Further Reading. Printed Resources. Web Sites.

About the Author :
Bill Zoellick is currently a partner in and founder of Fastwater LLP, a consultancy focusing on helping companies build effective web businesses. He frequently writes about the issues addressed in Web Engagement and speaks on them at user conferences such as Seybold and Internet World and at various user associations and seminars. He has been a software developer, business owner, executive in a $100 million software company, and, most recently, a management consultant and business analyst.