Advanced Copyright Issues on the Internet - Fenwick & West LLP

ordinary activities on the Internet, such as browsing, caching, and access of information, may fallwithin the copyright holder’s monopoly rights.1. The Ubiquitous Nature of “Copies” on the InternetUnder current technology, information is transmitted through the Internet using atechnique known broadly as “packet switching.” Specifically, data to be transmitted through thenetwork is broken up into smaller units or “packets” of information, which are in effect labeledas to their proper order. The packets are then sent through the network as discrete units, oftenthrough multiple different paths and often at different times. As the packets are released andforwarded through the network, each “router” computer makes a temporary (ephemeral) copy ofeach packet and transmits it to the next router according to the best path available at that instant,until it arrives at its destination. The packets, which frequently do not arrive in sequential order,are then “reassembled” at the receiving end into proper order to reconstruct the data that wassent. 5 Thus, only certain subsets (packets) of the data being transmitted are passing through theRAM of a node computer at any given time, although a complete copy of the transmitted datamay be created and/or stored at the ultimate destination computer, either in the destinationcomputer’s RAM, on its hard disk, or in portions of both.To illustrate the number of interim “copies,” in whole or in part, that may be made whentransmitting a work through the Internet, consider the example of downloading a picture from awebsite. During the course of such transmission, no less than seven interim copies of the picturemay be made: the modem at the receiving and transmitting computers will buffer each byte ofdata, as will the router, the receiving computer itself (in RAM), the Web browser, the videodecompression chip, and the video display board. 6 These copies are in addition to the one thatmay be stored on the recipient computer’s hard disk. 72. Whether Images of Data Stored in RAM Qualify as “Copies”Do these interim and final copies of a work (many of which are only partial) beingtransmitted through the Internet qualify as “copies” within the meaning of United Statescopyright law? The copyright statute defines “copies” as:material objects, other than phonorecords, in which a work is fixed by any methodnow known or later developed, and from which the work can be perceived,reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a567If any packet is lost along the way, the originating computer automatically resends it, likely along a differentpath than the lost packet was originally sent.Mark A. Lemley, “Dealing with Overlapping <strong>Copyright</strong>s on the Internet,” 22 U. Dayton L. Rev. 547, 555(1997).Even if a complete copy of the picture is not intentionally stored on the recipient computer’s hard disk, mostcomputers enhance performance of their memory by swapping certain data loaded in RAM onto the hard diskto free up RAM for other data, and retrieving the swapped data from the hard disk when it is needed again.Some of this swapped data may be left on the hard disk when the computer is turned off, even though the copyin RAM has been destroyed.- 14 -