This episode explores the coupling of software preservation to public accountability – and explore the role of community governance on the one hand and the design of information systems on the other as complements to formal legal mechanisms for ensuring long-term access to software. Are there ways to instantiate a collective action solution that treats software as an international shared resource among cultural stewardship and research organizations?
Discussion Questions:
- What is the role of software preservation and curation in addressing/understanding algorithmic transparency and algorithmic bias (e.g., training models, etc.)
- Addressing the popularity of public/private initiatives, (e.g. SmartCity initiatives), how can the public investment be protected in the longer term?
- What can digital preservation practitioners do in order to ensure that software dependency concerns are heard and taken in to consideration by law/policy makers?
- In a consortial approach to software preservation, sharing and reuse:
- What is the role of community governance (agreements between organizations around use and access) in filling gaps where there are no explicit legalities that address research and not-for-profit reuse needs?
- What is the role of technology (implemented governance/business rules into the software – like a form of technological protection measure to mediate access) where there are no explicit legalities that address research and not-for-profit reuse needs?
Facilitators:
- Jess Whyte (University of Toronto)
- Paula Jabloner (Computer History Museum)
- Jessica Meyerson (Educopia Institute)
Speakers:
- Andrew Charlesworth (University of Bristol)
- Brandon Butler (University of Virginia)
- Burkhard Schafer (University of Edinburgh)
Supplementary materials:
Websites & Blogs
United States Legal Context:
- Albert, Kendra. (2016). The Angry Birds in the Coal Mine . RIT MAGIC Invited Speaker Series, March 3rd, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB0hPZUMc1o&feature=youtu.be
- Intellectual Property Rights Issues for Software Emulation: An Interview with Euan Cochrane, Zach Vowell, and Jessica Meyerson, by Morgan McKeehan, The Signal, January 22, 2016
- The United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) 1201 Rulemaking (exemption to break technological protection measures in the service of software preservation)
- Copyright.gov/1201 – the U.S. Copyright Office homepage for the 1201 process for 2018
- Software Preservation Network/Library Copyright Alliance Petition, Comments, and Reply Comments(see Class 9) in support of an exemption for software preservation
- Software Preservation Network 1201 Additional Comments in support of Society of American Archivists “all lawful uses” proposal.
- Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation: Association for Research Libraries project landing page
- The Copyright Permissions Culture in Software Preservation and Its Implications for the Cultural Record—Best Practices Phase 1 Report
- How Is an App Like a Player Piano? And Does That Help the Fair Use Case for Software Preservation?—Brandon Butler, The Taper blog
- What’s Eating Software—Brandon Butler, The Taper blog
- Digital Preservation and Copyright, by Peter Hirtle
Canadian Legal Context:
- Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) Statutory Review of the Copyright Act: http://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/INDU/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=9897131,
- Link to submitted brief requesting an exception for circumventing technical protection measures (currently being translated to French): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PHQrINvwSeEao_rOEVmWjdCxsBid4UVxlIk5eI5jn7w/edit?usp=sharing
Articles & Reports
United Kingdom Legal Context:
- Charlesworth, Andrew. (2012) Intellectual Property Rights for Digital Preservation: DPC Technology Watch Report 12-02 2012, https://www.dpconline.org/docs/technology-watch-reports/796-dpctw12-02/file
- Kemper, Jakko; Kolkman, Daan. (2018) Transparent to whom? No algorithmic accountability without a critical audience, Information, Communication & Society, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2018.1477967
- Rowland, D., Kohl, U. & Charlesworth, A. (2016) Information Technology Law. 1 Aug 2016 5th ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Schafer, Burkhard; Edwards, Lilian. (2017). ‘“I spy, with my little sensor”: Fair data handling practices for robots between privacy, copyright and security’, Connection science, Vol 29, pp 200-209
- Schafer, Burkhard; Komuves, David; Zatarain, Jesus Niebla. Diver, Laurence. (2015). ‘A fourth law of robotics?: Copyright and the law and ethics of machine co-production’, Artificial Intelligence and Law, Vol 23, pp 217-240
- Schafer, Burkhard. (2015). ‘D-waste: Data disposal as challenge for waste management in the Internet of Things’, International Review for Information Ethics, Vol 22, pp 100-106
United States Legal Context:
- Whitt, Richard S. (2017). ‘Through a Glass, Darkly’ — Technical, Policy, and Financial Actions to Avert the Coming Digital Dark Ages. Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2016. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2742388