![handle is hein.journals/comlrtj10 and id is 1 raw text is: North American Anti-Circumvention:
Implementation of the WIPO Internet
Treaties in the United States,
Mexico and Canada
by
Heather A. Sapp*
In the mid-i 990s, Justice Stevens described the Internet as a unique
and wholly new medium of worldwide communication.' Indeed, the In-
ternet, and digital technology in general, has transformed the ways in which
information and expression are shared on a global scale. This transformation
often outpaces the law, forcing change. In particular, copyright law is driven
by technological change. Each major overhaul of the international regimes
harmonizing copyright has been the result of technology disturbing the bal-
ance between the rights of authors and the dissemination of expression to the
public.2 In fact, the most recent major international copyright treaties3
evolved as a result of increased usage of the Internet and emerging digital
AB, Political Science and French & European Studies, Duke University; JD,
The College of Law at Arizona State University; LLM, Intellectual Property,
The George Washington University Law School. The author is an attorney at
the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. She wishes to thank Professor Dawn
Nunziato of GW Law School, Marla Poor of the U.S. Copyright Office,
Michael Schlesinger of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, Kiyoshi
Tsuru of Bello, Guzman, Morales y Tsuru in Mexico, Professor Brad Morse of
the University of Ottawa, and Professor David Gantz of the University of Ari-
zona for their comments. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the
North American Consortium on Legal Education Conference at Dalhousie Uni-
versity, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 18-20, 2005. The views expressed
in this article are strictly those of the author and do not reflect in any way the
position of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, the Department of Commerce,
or the U.S. Copyright Office.
1. Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844, 850 (1997) (quoting ACLU v. Reno, 929 F.
Supp. 824, 844 (E.D. Pa. 1996)).
2. See generally PAUL GOLDSTEIN, COPYRIGHT'S HIGHWAY: FROM GUTENBERG
TO THE CELESTIAL JUKEBOX (Hill & Wang Publishing 1994).
3. World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty, Dec. 20, 1996,
http://www.wipo.int/clea/docs/en/wo/wo033en.htm (last visited Nov. 15, 2005)
[hereinafter WIPO Copyright Treaty]; World Intellectual Property Organiza-
tion Performances and Phonograms Treaty, Dec. 20, 1996, http://
www.wipo.int/clea/docs/en/wo/wo034en.htm (last visited Nov. 15, 2005)
[hereinafter WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty]. For background on
the treaties, see David Nimmer, A Tale of Two Treaties: Dateline: Geneva -
December 1996, 22 COLuM.-VLA J.L. & ARTS 1 (1997) [hereinafter Nimmer,
Two Treaties].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/comlrtj10&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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