Recordings and Images Also Protected by Law

Concerns about copyrights as they apply on the Internet extend beyond software. Action is being taken in the area of sound recordings and images as well, reports Edupage, a weekly electronic publication of Educom (a nonprofit consortium of higher education institutions involved in information technology; www.educom.edu/).

Lawsuits Over Songs

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is taking legal action to protect its members' copyrights. It has filed lawsuits against Web site operators allegedly involved in illegal distribution of sound recordings over the Internet. RIAA's anti-piracy unit also is involved in looking for personal Web sites, particularly at universities, with unauthorized use of music.

Watermarks on Photographs

Playboy magazine will be placing invisible digital "watermarks" on the images it posts on the Internet, the New York Times reported in June. A pattern of pixels concealed in the image are coded with information about copyright restrictions and the image's owner. Playboy will then use a special webcrawler to look for its watermarked images appearing on other Web sites.

University of Washington Computing & Communications
Windows on Computing, No. 20, Autumn 1997
newsltr@cac.washington.edu