KEI comments to Copyright Office on software-enabled consumer products

Submission of Knowledge Ecology International
U.S. Copyright Office Docket No. 2015-6

This is the submission of Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) in response to the U.S. Copyright Office request for public comment on “software-enabled consumer products” (U.S. Copyright Office Docket No. 2015-6).

Introduction

Knowledge Ecology International is a non-governmental organization with offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, that searches for better outcomes, including new solutions, to the management of knowledge resources.

This submission covers these topics:

  1. Privacy and informed consent in end user agreements for the use of copyrighted software in consumer products.
  2. The use of copyright protections and additional measures in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to block access to imported software source code.
  3. The impact of copyright law on the ability to audit artificial intelligence and other software in consumer products that may present national or global security risks.

The status of software as an expression protected by copyright law was not settled immediately. Some experts have proposed a sui generis regime of protection may be more appropriate. It is not surprising that the legal framework for copyright has at times been an uncomfortable fit for software.

It is of course true that copyright law was not initially designed to address the advent of mass-market consumer products that are functional only when installed with proper software.

Consumers often do not know how the software functions, what information it collects, what rights they have to restrict access to that information, and they are often unaware or in fundamental disagreement about the nature of the rights. The legal regimes associated with software, including importantly the enforcement of non-negotiated mass market licenses associated with its use, and the DMCA protections for technical protection measures and digital rights management, create a number of risks to consumers, including those highlighted by the Copyright Office in the request for comment.


…. The full submission is here: KEI-submission-Feb-16-2016-USCO-docket-2015-6.pdf

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