PRIVACY AND THE UNNECESSARY EXPANSION OF IP PROTECTION

-- By ScottMcKinney - 16 Nov 2009

INTRODUCTION

How can we account for the current state of affairs, in which privacy (anonymity and autonomy) is being swept out from under a naïve public's feet, while intellectual property laws are being used to strengthen monopolies over proprietary software and technology? Furthermore, how can we improve our situation in the short term, living in a world of intellectual monopoly and Orwellian surveillance? I attempt to answer these questions below.

GOVERNMENT, CORPORATIONS, AND THE EXPANSION OF IP PROTECTION

As Eben discussed in class, intellectual monopoly does not necessarily promote innovation (for an economic professor's fascinating historical perspective of the subject, see Against Intellectual Monopoly–which, unsurprisingly, is available for free download). Unfortunately, instead of preserving the status quo of intellectual property protection, the government has extended protection wholesale. Disney led a crusade to retroactively increase copyright protection, and the U.S. bowed to the mouse. Although copyright protection is automatically granted once a computer program's source code is placed in a fixed medium (the signing of the Berne Convention eliminated the need for formalities), there are still many benefits to registering a copyright. Yet, the copyright office does not require a computer program to register all of the source code, allowing software companies to hide meaningful code. For a long time, it was assumed that computer programs were unpatentable. However, misinterpretation of the Supreme Court's decision in Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981), by the newly-created U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opened the patent floodgates. Since 1982, the CAFC oversaw an explosion of patents that included granting broad protection for the pharmaceutical industry, patenting thousands upon thousands of computer programs, and allowing the infamous “business method” patents now at issue in Bilski. Computer patents are not required to disclose their source code, which would allow innovative programmers to improve upon these discoveries—just as they do in an anarchical production environment.

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the 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.” The current state of IP protection in America does not promote science or the arts–instead it stifles them and simultaneously increases the ability of corporations to maintain monopolistic control over the marketplace. Copyright and patent laws should be revised and enforced towards fulfilling their constitutional purpose of "promoting science"—not "promoting corporate dominance."

GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER PRIVACY IN BRITAIN

Just as corporations within a capitalist system naturally grow more powerful and garner more control over the marketplace, governments naturally trend towards procuring greater control over society. Thankfully, America has the benefit of a written constitution, which in theory limits the ability of the government to take complete control over people's lives. Despite the existence of the Patriot Act, the constitution and the American system of checks and balances has acted to remind the U.S. Government that it was created by the people, not to control them. As technology has progressed over the past 30 years, privacy in America has regressed. However, things could be worse: you could live in Britain.

The UK possesses no written constitution and instead operates under the dominion of parliamentary supremacy. There is nothing to check the power of Parliament, and as a result privacy in the UK has gone the way of the dodo. Parliament can overturn itself, but governments rarely take power away from themselves. Using “defending national security”, “deterring crime”, and “protecting societal harmony” as justifications, Britain has installed over 4.2 million CCTV surveillance cameras. George Orwell would be impressed. This figure averages out to one surveillance camera for ever fourteen people. For comparison, China has one camera for every 472,000 citizens. Recently, Britain added facial recognition software to its surveillance system. To add to the mix, Britain is compiling the largest DNA database in the world—the government has DNA records on 7% of the population and counting. Police in Britain can take DNA samples from anyone arrested on suspicion of an offense. Furthermore, private CCTV and surveillance systems are pervasive in Britain, with the specter of selling the data trail to interested third parties looming large. Recently, it has been proposed that everyone in Britain be issued a unique carbon footprint number. Each citizen would be required to use this number when purchasing things that have a negative carbon impact, such as airline tickets, electricity, and fuel. As discussed in class, Britain has a centralized “camera grid,” which is able to track vehicle movements throughout the island. Most recently, Britain is considering implementing a home database, which would track family households and allow safety inspectors to monitor and gain access to homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from accidents.

Although “limiting carbon emissions,” “preventing crime,” and “fighting terrorism,” all seem like fine justifications, they are not sufficient reasons to diminish the right to anonymity and autonomy. Interestingly, the surveillance systems have not proven to deter crime.

CONCLUSION

The proper role of government is not to control the people, but to be controlled by the people. However, it is government's job to prevent unfair, insidious monopolies. It is up to us to combat the loss of our privacy, by educating the naïve public about the dangers and consequences of the loss of privacy, by influencing the government to serve its proper purpose—providing a check to monopolistic corporations, not assisting them—and by providing the public with favorable private technological alternatives. Furthermore, we must work to eliminate legal devices such as unnecessary and uninformative software patents and return the IP system to its proper place. The more personal information that government and corporate entities stockpile, the less control individuals have over their daily decisions. If we do not act soon, the U.S. will continue down the road towards Britain’s Orwellian state of existence.

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