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RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR
In today's world, where
a manufacturing economy has given way to a radically restructured, decentralised information web, globally dispersed facts, knowledge
and ideas are not only principal products, but also much
sought-after rewards of economic life.
In other words,
facts and knowledge are now not tantamount to just wisdom.
They are, in more ways than one, clearly steps along the path.
The modern world is in a state of flux.
Yet, new communication networks such as the Internet have
introduced new paths: a huge graph with myriad sub-groups,
a potent and useful metaphor for our increasingly intertwined
world. So much so, the Information Superhighway is abuzz with
superlative technological advances, garnering more glory,
with everybody who's anybody joining the fold and hoping that
electronic nirvana is just around the corner -- through
multimedia, electronic publishing et al.
Which brings us to one big question: where
will the printed word find its place in the entirely new,
technological milieu of tomorrow? No need to push the panic
button, for the simple reason that print media experts think
newspapers and magazines would be ideally focused as covering
and magnifying the main avenues, and linking thoroughfares
of a section of the complex web that binds us all. The print
media will continue to provide a big window of opportunity
for electronic publishing, the very business of publishing,
and related avenues like intellectual property rights, copyright,
joint media ventures, marketing on the Internet, and so on.
According to Jan 'Chet' Grycz, a cognoscente
on electronic and Internet publishing, the evolution of electronic
publishing is but a take-off from the print medium. He says,
it's a pathway that facilitates and connects the creative
and intellectual processes through communication. He adds:
"More than that, it promotes and identifies excellence,
adding value, financing the efforts of disseminating and selling
useful packages to a paying clientele."
Grycz also thinks that the CD-ROM revolution,
with its remarkable technological razzmatazz, is more than
just a disc. It has more to it than just text, graphics, animation,
sound, navigation and edited pathways. "It's CD-ROM earlier;
it's cable modem now," he says with conventional finesse.
And, why not? Not only that. The concept of Distributed Network
Publishing [DNP], in the form of Bulletin Boards, the Internet,
Intranet etc., Grycz says, has opened up new channels to a
judicious print media publisher, if only s/he experiments
with different electronic formats and, in the process, masters
electronic data management skills, and responds to perceived
demands -- positively.
Grycz underscores the super-duper utility
value of CD-ROMs, which can store on just one disc a host
of encyclopaedias or compendiums, and even a plethora of volumes
of any given monumental work, in print. It's a great idea,
which can help one get rid of bookshelves. Yet, Grycz, with
all his "electronic" enthusiasm, does not miss the wood for
the trees, or the convenience of books for bytes. He says,
"Books will eventually survive. So will newspapers and
magazines." Be that as it may, he reckons that the best
of CD-ROMs is yet to come. CD-ROMs of the future would feel
like books, and even smell of leather -- something you'd read,
and add on, in the comfort of your bed.
The idea of distributing programmes via
the Internet through shareware has become a practical option.
The customer pays and downloads the software from the publisher's,
or retail, site on to his/her computer's hard drive. The idea
is cost-effective. Yet, it'd not be devoid of hiccups. Because
downloading an 8MB file from a CD-ROM encyclopaedia, for
some people, isn't
quick enough, yet. And, what about ownership? You guess. So,
as a way out, some companies, most notably Microsoft, began
to offer their products on a subscription basis -- something
that works quite well, with titles updated on a very regular
basis.
It'd be no tall claim to say that the
Web is a signal fact of a new paradigm shift, a new world,
a world without barriers. So, it has also been said that the
Web is the "Wild West" -- unregulated, or even uncontrolled.
Agreed that there's no central body that owns the Web; but,
the Web is not unregulated. The problem for users, especially
business users, is that the Web is potentially subject to
laws of every country. This conjures up a host of legal issues,
most notably copyright.
As there are more than just several hundred
million pages of information on the Web, most of us will be
very reluctant to place valuable information on it until there
is some mechanism to prevent wholesale copying without permission.
As of now, copyright protects the following:
- Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic
works
- Sound recording, films, broadcasts
or cable programmes
- Typographical arrangement of published
editions.
Realistically, however, copyright also
protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. That's
not all. The difficulty, as far as the Web is concerned, is
enforcement against an alleged infringer, who may not be traceable.
Worse, or better, still, you could even have your own Website,
and invite a few [un]troubled souls to the joy of joining
a weird cult "up there" through self-induced "euthanasia,"
or offer tips on how to make a deadly bomb.
Remember how 39 Heaven's Gate cult members
took their lives, thanks to their twisted belief in theology,
science fiction, UFOs, and the Internet -- or, some spooky
thing in-waiting next? The situation is no different for trademarks.
It is not uncommon for the same trademark to be owned by two
companies in different countries, or for it to be licenced
for use. The problem is yet to be solved, though several distinguished
bodies, including the World Intellectual Property Organisation,
are looking into such functional anomalies, and possible remedial
measures.
It goes without saying that the Web offers
undreamt-of opportunities to communicate and do business with
the world on a 24-hour basis at relatively low cost. This
is also a major obstacle in the search for a legal framework
to be put in place. Not that the creation of a Web Law isn't
possible. The only problem is: we are still quite a distance
away from this Legal Utopia.
Until such a law attains fruition and
universal acceptance, imposing a legal framework on functional
anarchy in Cyberspace would only be a mirage.
It's also a
dangerous situation, for who knows if there aren't any more
futuristic Marshall Herff 'Do' Applewhites with their cult
brand alchemy of "Follow Me" guffaw, waiting to take some
more impressionable voyagers into "supreme bliss" via the
'Net -- both in the glamorised Occidental, and the good,
old, or the now re-emerging, Oriental.
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