The Sony Legacy: Secondary Liability Perspectives

Sony seeded the ongoing conundrum of balancing protected intellectual property rights with the potential of technologies that enhance the use of intellectual content. New technologies that enable use also remove many copy limitations. Traditional remedies against individual infringers served their purpose of compensation and deterrence. These forms of action have been weakened where the jurisdictional, monetary and administrative underpinnings of legal administration are compromised. This complex of factors is further exacerbated by the clash between conflicting ends of protecting intellectual property rights while at the same time ensuring appropriate public beneficial use. Most enabling technologies have the potential for fundamental public benefit. The very power of these technologies facilitates unlawful activity. The traditional function of law has been to compensate those who have been injured by imposing liability on the wrongdoer who, by intention or through a failure of duty or negligence, occasions the harm. The unprecedented growth in value of intellectual property rights have shifted the primary focus of promot[ing] the progress of science and [the] useful arts to the protection of exclusive rights for limited times as an end unto themselves. The use of secondary liability doctrine to overcome diminished functionality of law is appropriate when it is premised on actual infringement based on demonstrable evidence of intent, inducement, and facilitating others to infringe. Secondary liability, however, is compromised where it is used to reduce the level of care required of the right holder, or permits the right holder to externalize costs and risks of doing business. Recent secondary liability cases have raised questions as to whether the judicial process is being used as a means of enhancing market returns otherwise unjustifiable. There have been occasions where direct evidence of intent was not available and inferences were based on use of the underlying technology.\u27 The adoption of the patent law staple article of commerce is inapposite to inferences from the use of technology for copyright infringement. It diverted utilization and development of common law tort doctrine and obscured the need for transparent means of technology readiness, utility and risk assessment in the determination of present and potential uses of technology. Recent cases have not bound themselves to the limitations of this doctrine and have adopted transparent rules regarding intentional behavior and reasonable standards of care recognizing the obligation of the right holder to remain vigilant as well the technology provider to minimize infringement and maximize the public good

Dynamic magical environments : engaging interaction based on the art of illusion

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1995.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-61).by Ishantha Joseph Lokuge.M.S

The Graduated Response

In the past few years, the entertainment industry has deployed aggressive tactics toward individual end-users, online service providers, and other third parties. One of the latest proposals that the industry has been exploring is the so-called “graduated response” or “three strikes” system, which threatens to suspend the service of internet users after they have received two warnings from their ISPs about potentially illegal online file-sharing activities. In December 2008, the RIAA made a formal public announcement of its change of focus toward greater cooperation with ISPs. This new collaborative effort seeks to replace the highly unpopular lawsuits the industry has filed against individual file-sharers in the past five years. To strengthen their legal positions, and to induce greater cooperation from ISPs, some industry groups have suggested that the graduated response system had already been built into the framework under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 -- a proposition that had been vehemently rejected by ISPs, civil liberties groups, consumer advocates, and academic commentators. This article explores the system\u27s effectiveness in addressing massive online copyright infringement. It then examines whether the system has been built into the so-called DMCA framework and highlights the problems and unintended consequences brought about by the system. The article concludes by outlining seven basic principles policymakers need to take into account if they choose to institute such a system despite its many shortcomings

Social networks for lonely objects

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-119).Visions of ubiquitous computing describe a network of devices that quietly supports human goals, but this may also add complexity to an already frustrating relationship between humans and their electronic objects. As we move from vision to reality, there is an opportunity to rethink how we interact with our objects and networks of objects, and close the communication gap between man and machine. 'This thesis defines social and super-mechanical affordances for products which may consist of many physical and digital objects. These new objects will not look like stripped-down contemporary computers, but augmented ordinary objects that are focused on input and output, exposed on Twitter. Apps in the cloud use Twitter to marshall the appropriate objects to execute human tasks. Using a social network as transport allows apps and their owners to manage a large network of computing objects with the same constructs that we use to manage many human relationships. From this direction, we take a step toward a consumer-amenable implementation of ubiquitous computing.by John Anthony Kestner.S.M

The Gamification Framework of Military Flight Simulator for Effective Learning and Training Environment

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a framework for the gamification of flight simulators to provide an active learning and training environment for military jet pilots. Currently, with the development of visual displays and computer processing capabilities, the modern simulator has made great progress in visual and auditory terms that is incomparable to the past. In addition, functions that were previously implemented through supercomputers and complex hardware devices are now available through desktop computers at an affordable cost. Despite these advances, the simulators so far are thought to have been negligent in building an active learning and training environment for users, focusing only on such things as sound and visual immersion and training requirements. On top of that, misbelief in the effectiveness of pilots\u27 flight simulators, old paradigms failing to keep up with computer technology, and lack of instructor manpower have not led to the progress of simulator training programs. Meanwhile, studies show that the gamified system, which has become an increasingly hot topic in business, health care, and education over the past decade, has made users more motivated and actively engaged in the use of specific platforms. And the resulting effect was also positive. This Research aimed: (1) to examine a research-based Gamification Framework to understand the concept of a gamified system, (2) to identify pilots\u27 flight training needs and motivations, (3) and finally to suggest evaluation tool with example. The Gamification Framework of Flight Simulator(GFFS) was designed on the basis of research and a survey conducted for Korean Air Force fighter pilots for detailed Gamified Flight Simulator(GFS) evaluation tool. GFFS was modified and applied from Kim\u27s gamification framework and the Octalysis framework was used to identify and compare pilots\u27 needs and motivation factors

Human Factors Considerations in System Design

Human factors considerations in systems design was examined. Human factors in automated command and control, in the efficiency of the human computer interface and system effectiveness are outlined. The following topics are discussed: human factors aspects of control room design; design of interactive systems; human computer dialogue, interaction tasks and techniques; guidelines on ergonomic aspects of control rooms and highly automated environments; system engineering for control by humans; conceptual models of information processing; information display and interaction in real time environments

Slow Design through Fast Technology: The Application of Socially Reflective Design Principles to Modern Mediated Technologies

abstract: This thesis describes research into the application of socially reflective, or "Slow", design principles to modern mediated systems, or "Fast" technology. The "information overload" caused by drastic changes in the nature of human communications in the last decade has become a serious problem, with many human-technology interactions creating mental confusion, personal discomfort and a sense of disconnection. Slow design principles aim to help create interactions that avoid these problems by increasing interaction richness, encouraging engagement with local communities, and promoting personal and communal reflection. Three major functional mediated systems were constructed to examine the application of Slow principles on multiple scales: KiteViz, Taskville and Your ____ Here. Each system was designed based on a survey of current research within the field and previous research results. KiteViz is a visually metaphorical display of Twitter activity within a small group, Taskville is a workplace game designed to support collaboration and group awareness in an enterprise, and Your ____ Here is a physical-digital projection system that augments built architecture with user-submitted content to promote discussion and reflection. Each system was tested with multiple users and user groups, the systems were evaluated for their effectiveness in supporting each of the tenets of Slow design, and the results were collected into a set of key findings. Each system was considered generally effective, with specific strengths varying. The thesis concludes with a framework of five major principles to be used in the design of modern, highly-mediated systems that still apply Slow design principles: design for fundamental understanding, handle complexity gracefully, Slow is a process of evolution and revelation, leverage groups and personal connections to encode value, and allow for participation across a widely distributed range of scales.Dissertation/ThesisM.S.D. Design 201

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 355)

This bibliography lists 147 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during October, 1991. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance