Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!pasteur!ic.Berkeley.EDU!faustus
From: faustus@ic.Berkeley.EDU (Wayne A. Christopher)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Digital Information Rights
Message-ID: <7776@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 26 Nov 88 21:53:34 GMT
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Lines: 13

I've seen discussion on the topic of copyrights as they apply to digital
information in a few places, and I'd like to know what newsgroup is most
appropriate for this sort of topic.  In particular, I'm interested in what
people think about how copyright laws must be modified to accomodate such
things as software and digital images, and how to enforce such laws.
Clearly, the current laws don't apply very well, and enforcement techniques
such as copy-protection on disks are becoming increasingly ineffective.

How about discussions of using public-key cryptography for identification?
Why hasn't this become more widespread?  Is there really not that much of
a need for reliable authentication?

	Wayne