HOW ELECTRONIC PUBLISHERS ARE PROTECTING AGAINST PIRACY - DOUBTS ABOUT TECHNICAL SYSTEMS OF PROTECTION

The increasing prospects of digital piracy has prompted the perceived need by electronic publishers to adopt technical systems of protection , and governments to reform their copyright laws. This article is a pr eliminary study of the management of intellectual property by electron ic publishers, defined as those involved in the production of online d atabases, and CD-ROMs. It focuses on three main issues: (1) how electr onic publishers view the increasing threat of piracy; (2) the methods of protection employed to protect intellectual property in digital for mat; and (3) the importance of technological protection of intellectua l property in electronic publications. The analysis is based on a samp le of 23 UK electronic publishers. The interviews revealed an interest ing assortment of protection methods and did not show that technologic al protection was a preferred way. Instead, the means of protection, i n addition to copyright law, comprised niche markets, pricing, trust, bad publicity, and nontechnical and technical means.