The authors argue that the right to control access to information is crucial in modern digital networks, but copyright law focuses on originality or expression. The authors posit that copyright laws significance in protecting information will decline substantially. The information superhighway is all the rage right now. Cable television and telephone companies merge. New regulations are proposed.
Current technology seems to become more and more outmoded each day.
Professor Fred Cate succinctly targets the key difficulties in producing a coherent set of laws, given the variety of constituencies, public and private, involved in the decision-making process. Moreover, Professor Cate notes several important goals ignored by current Administration communications initiatives. The journalism and entertainment industries, for example, rely heavily on copyright law to provide the incentive needed for the creation of works of authorship by protecting such works from infringers once created. But it is the digital nature of the information superhighway that will drive the radical break form the past of copyrighted expression. For instance, it will be difficult to limit access to the on-line newspaper of the future to its subscribers.