Good news and bad news on the intellectual property front

Reviewer: Peter P. Mykytyn, Jr.

Samuelson briefly reviews three fairly current developments affecting intellectual property: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a bill by the US House of Representatives entitled the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act (the bill was not taken up by the US Senate), and proposed changes to Article 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code. Due to space limitations, I leave the details of this article to the reader. However, although the title contains the words “good news and bad news,” the information here should serve as a wake-up call to businesspeople and MIS researchers, and therefore should really be construed as good news. The nature of information processing and the conduct of business today, given the Internet, the Web, electronic commerce, and the like, continue to change extremely rapidly. The interrelationships between US businesses, their international counterparts, and the intellectual property laws and regulations existing in the US and other countries make it paramount that business executives remain especially watchful about what is occurring on the legal fronts and, more important, how these changes can affect them. As I was reading the article, one word seemed to be embedded in much of the discussion: uncertainty. As a businessperson, I would need to do all that I can to reduce the uncertainty that can confront me. For too long now, MIS researchers have tended to avoid in-depth research dealing with the intellectual property perspectives on information technology, computer software, and the like. While Samuelson's comments are not directed to this group, MIS researchers should, like the businesspeople addressed above, begin a richer treatment of the issues surrounding trade secrets, copyright, and patent protection. Attorneys and many businesses are aware of the issues ; it is time that MIS academics become more aware as well.