Digital Millennium Copyright Act
It was in the year 1998, in the month of October that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed by the U.S. Congress after much deliberations and controversy. It would be another two weeks, October 28th to be exact, that the Act became a Law. The law was signed by the then President, Bill Clinton. The law was approved and also supported by the entertainment industry as well as the software industry. However, there was a lot of disapproval in the fields of academicians and scientists and other learned people, which was in fact unavoidable. The Law supports the treaty that had been signed in December 1996 at the World Intellectual Property Organization at Geneva but also contains further materials that were added on at a later date. (The Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
Some of the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act are as follows: It is considered a crime to circumvent the copyright or anti-piracy measures that are built into all commercial software of today. The fact that software can be illegally copied and distributed by a set of people who can actually crack the codes that protect this software is also dealt with. Those persons who manufacture or sell or copy and distribute these codes will be severely punished. However, in certain cases, like for example, when software has to be assessed or tested for the extent of security offered by the codes, or to conduct encryption research, cracking the code is legally allowed. Likewise, certain sets of people are allowed to circumvent copyright and anti-piracy laws. These people may be academicians, or be in charge of a free library, or run an educational institution. (The Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
Internet service providers are also exempted in certain cases from the same laws since they are required to simply provide information to large numbers of people who request such information over the Internet. The Internet service providers however, are permitted or even expected to remove such material as they find infringing on copyright laws from user's web sites. In cases where institutions of higher education serve as Internet service providers for their students and teachers, then they would be exempted from the anti-piracy and copyright laws too. 'Web casters' are required to pay a licensing fee to the record companies whose music is being used by them. The Register of Copyrights is expected to, after consultations with the relevant persons, submit a list of recommendations to the Congress about the possibility of promoting long distance education through the use of digital technology, while at the same time ensuring that the potential users do not infringe upon the rights of Copyright owners. (The Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
The concept of selling products using the Internet was created by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 when he launched his website 'Auction Web'. The consulting firm, Echo Bay Technology Group, owned this site and when Omidyar tried to launch the site under the name of 'Echobay.com' and found that there was a site of this name already in existence, he launched the most popular and most widely used website all over the world, the 'eBay'. This is essentially an online auction website where people from all over the world can buy or sell either their goods or their various services. The site has been referred to as a worldwide yard sale or a garage sale where all sorts of items like, for example, appliances, dolls, knick-knacks, and collectibles are all sold off with the ease of a backyard sale. However, all credit goes to the website eBay for it has served to bring together people who want to buy or sell anything and everything, from any corner of the world. Certain big Companies like the IBM also use this site to announce their latest products and offer them on auction to the highest bidder. (Ebay)
Large amounts of revenue are generated by the eBay, as sellers have to pay a 1.25% to a 5.25% premium on the final price of the item that they are selling, and also from Advertising. Risks taken by the site are at a minimum, since there is no direct handling of goods being bought or sold, and payments do not take place between the two parties anywhere at the site; payments are handled by eBay's subsidiary, PayPal, and every transaction is based on good faith alone, much like newspaper advertisements announcing sales where buyers depend on the sellers' good faith to get the goods...
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