Sebastian Mahfood
580 California St., Suite 400
San Francisco, CA, 94104
Abstract
section devoted entirely to online copyright infringement, and the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002, which granted almost the same rights to distance learning environments as enjoyed by face-to-face learning environments. The American Library Association has a comprehensive report on this at , and the University Continuing Education Association provides a quick breakdown of it at .edu/salomon.htm. These latest interpretations of the WIPO treaties of 1996 seem to indicate that the trend of the 21st century will be in the direction of developing media forms to extend the ability of people to filter and interact with information that is already available to them. Laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 and the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002 serve as a new foundation for media as it shifts from analog to digital transmission. As far as teaching and learning is concerned, we may see the trend moving in the direction of greater reliance on the multimedia forms of three-dimensional imaging merging with audio and video. Students may see their online instructors as conversational holographic images in their own homes-the individualization of instruction moving from warehousing students in classrooms to enabling students to work with a multiplicity of experts in the implementation of their individual education plans. How far might a just society go in the preservation of privacy rights? "Each person," wrote John Rawls, "possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override " (1999, p. 3). With ever-increasing pressures from corporations to enforce copyright legislation, the trend is moving in the direction of encroaching on privacy rights. This right is all but abrogated in a climate where a corporate entity like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) can subpoena Internet service providers (ISPs) to turn over records that indicate where their subscribers have visited and what it was they did while there . Using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 as the vehicle to argue its case, the RIAA opened the door to the distributed monitoring of everyone's online activity before it was closed again by the U. S. Court of Appeals on December 19, 2003 (RIAA v. Verizon Internet Services, 2003). The important thing to note is that this is a swinging door-privacy issues based on the prosecution of intellectual property theft will con-tinue to play a significant role in the future of online mediated communication and data transfer. At the present time, almost every organization to which Internet users provide their contact information explicitly posts some form of privacy statement. The broadband DSL connection from SBC Global, used by the authors, assures in its privacy statement: We understand the value of keeping your personal information private, and we have designed this software to collect only the amount of information you disclose, and to use that information only for the purpose of supporting your Internet connection. This program does not monitor your activity on your computer and does not track your use of the Internet or any Web sites. Your provider asks that you register SmartConnect, and provide your e-mail address and telephone number so that we may verify you as a registered user to provide customized benefits and services. The identification information you provide is securely stored and will not be disclosed to third parties without your consent.