How does technology affect us as individuals?
Is legislation keeping up or falling behind technology?
Is it imperative that those people making these legislative decisions be informed or not?

Have you ever done the following:
- made a tape of a CD
- burned a CD for a friend
- shared a mixtape
- recorded a sports event from TV?
- used a copy of software that you didn't pay for?
- used a trial version of something and never uninstalled it after the trial period?

Do you know which are illegal and which are legal?
You own your computer, do you own the programs on it or are you using them with permission from the manufacturer?


The importance of technology has been a part of public policy since the 1787 to present day America.
1787: U.S. Constitution

According to Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution, "the Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

Since then, the road to copyright protection has progressed with the times although sometimes the cart and buggy have switched positions and morphed into a hybrid technology automobile.
Copyright protections are just one area in which public policy affects citizens.


Other technologies that we aren't as aware of but still do affect us include stem cell technology, cloning, and biotechnology.
Technology isn't just telecommunications, although telecommunications technology affects us all in the most obvious ways.
Most americans have access to phones, tvs, cellular phones, internet technology and computers
With every new technology comes new legal issues.

- The case of Betamax Technology ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television shows for personal use does not constitute copyright infringement, but is fair use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Corp._v._Universal_City_Studios

- Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act did just what it's name suggests, it extended the duration of copyright protection.
http://www.keytlaw.com/Copyrights/sonybono.htm

- The DMCA http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm
Makes it a crime to circumvent anti-piracy measures built into most commercial software.

Outlaws the manufacture, sale, or distribution of code-cracking devices used to illegally copy software.

Does permit the cracking of copyright protection devices, however, to conduct encryption research, assess product interoperability, and test computer security systems.

Provides exemptions from anti-circumvention provisions for nonprofit libraries, archives, and educational institutions under certain circumstances.

In general, limits Internet service providers from copyright infringement liability for simply transmitting information over the Internet.

Service providers, however, are expected to remove material from users' web sites that appears to constitute copyright infringement.

Limits liability of nonprofit institutions of higher education -- when they serve as online service providers and under certain circumstances -- for copyright infringement by faculty members or graduate students.

Requires that "webcasters" pay licensing fees to record companies.

Requires that the Register of Copyrights, after consultation with relevant parties, submit to Congress recommendations regarding how to promote distance education through digital technologies while "maintaining an appropriate balance between the rights of copyright owners and the needs of users."

States explicitly that "[n]othing in this section shall affect rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright infringement, including fair use..."

- Metallica won a case against Napster, but Verizon won a case against the MPAA.

-Verizon refused to divulge the subscriber's identity, claiming that the provision didn't cover alleged copyright-infringing material that resides on individuals' own computers, only material that resides on an ISP's (internet service providers) own computer.

The PITAC report addresses issues that affect us all. Much like the California 2025, PITACs report to the President offers up suggestions on how we as a nation can remain a vital force in technology in a world becoming increasingly smaller thanks to telecommunications. Just recently, a 9 year old girl from Pakistan became a Microsoft Certified Professional. If a girl from a third world country can achieve this, what do we have to do in order to get our youth to take that initiative? Can the government do it on it's own?