I. INTRODUCTION

II. INTERNET IS BOUNDLESS YET CONGESTED!!

III. WEBMASTERS JUST LOOKING AT THE BOTTOM LINE

IV. ARE YOU BEING VICTIMIZED ON THE WEB?

V. CONGRESS HAS ENACTED LAWS TO PROTECT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

I. INTRODUCTION

In the United States alone, over 83 million adults, representing 40 percent of the population over the age of 16, have access to the Internet. In 1997, United States Internet shopping grossed three billion dollars in sales, a figured that almost tripled in 1998 with world-wide Internet sales at twenty-one billion dollars. Internet shopping in the United States alone is expected to reach thirty billion dollars by the year 2000 and three hundred billion by 2002. Though Internet retail sales accounted for only 5% of all retail sales in 1998, its percentage is growing every year. For instance, the County of Los Angeles spends $627 million every year on office supplies and equipment – in 1999, 80% of that purchasing will be done via the Internet. By the year 2000, United States companies are expected to make 7.9 percent of their supply purchases online with high tech companies expecting to purchase 10.2 percent of their supplies online.

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Because of the Internet boom, by the year 2000, it is estimated that 56 percent of the United States firms will be selling online. Though the Internet is essentially boundless, it is already becoming congested. For instance, if you are searching for stereo speakers, Alta Vista will return 16,142 "matching" sites. If you limit your search to "Bose speakers," you are down to 668 matching sites and if you limit your search to "Bose stereo speaker" you are down to fourteen matching sites – none of which sell Bose speakers. Every day, as thousands of new websites enter the cyber-world, it becomes more and more difficult for your sites' voice to be heard over the growing din. As recently noted, "it's no fun spending thousands – or hundreds of thousands – of dollars developing a super-cutting-edge Web creation if no one shows up to see it." Thus, creative technical and non-technical methods are used to drive people to your website.

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Unfortunately, if you are a small business concern (or even in some cases a large business concern), the strategy of driving users to your website may not be reviewed by lawyers or even marketing people but rather handed over to the webmaster running your site. As anyone who has had close dealing with webmasters should understand, most webmasters not only have no appreciable knowledge regarding the applicable laws but also a large dose of disdain for the laws. These webmasters are handed one job: drive users to the corporate website. Unhampered by any knowledge of or belief in intellectual property laws, these webmasters can be creative and triumphant in their abilities to draw users.

There are three principal ways to locate things on the Internet: domain names, search engines and links. Webmasters have become proficient in using all three techniques to lure users to their sites. As will be examined herein, all three methods are replete with hazards for the unwary and the court system is strewn with bodies of webmasters and companies who have manipulated the technical underpinnings of the web without any regard for intellectual property rights of others.

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Moreover, most companies (and individuals) do not even realize that they are being victimized on the web as they have not developed any techniques for policing the web for trademark and copyright violations. As way of an example, Cyveillance, Inc. analyzed 75,000 Web pages containing pornographic material and found 19,000 pages contained one or more of the world's 120 most popular brand names, including Disney and Nintendo. Companies that are victims to these technical ploys to lure people to websites suffer not only from possible tarnishment or blurring of one's marks but from actual financial losses: "[t]he International Trademark Association estimates that brand name abuse [on the Internet] reduces a company's annual sales by over 22%."

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In response to this new economy and the commerce of intellectual property exploitation, a series of new laws have been enacted to empower intellectual property rights holders to protect their rights on the Internet. In the area of copyright infringement, Congress has enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that balances the rights of copyright owners against the needs of the Internet. Does this Act work and how can it best be used to create a fast and cost efficient anti-piracy program. Likewise, Congress has recently enacted the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act to deal with the registration of marks and names by Internet savvy pirates. How does this compare to the recently changed Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy and which procedure should you pursue?

In this digital age, it is imperative that companies and individuals create a cost-efficient system to police their intellectual property rights on the Internet.

VI. Here are some questions and answers. Your additional questions are welcome.

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A1. I would only use the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy if:

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A2: This is becoming a common problem on the Internet as smart cyberpirates are gravitating to such first level domain names such as ".to." I do not consider myself to be "hacker" (but some of my best friends are). In all my investigations, I associate myself with a "hacker" who can trace the website to the owner (usually a United States citizen). More likely than not, I use Lin Milano of Cybertracker or Steve Easton of A.P.I.C. Steve recently explained to me the process of locating the owner of a .to domain name as follows: If you go to your START menu, bottom right. Go to RUN and type COMMAND, hit enter. A black screen will appear DOS. The curser will be flashing. Type PING DEDICATED.TO. Wait and it will come back to you with a trace IP address. Go to http://www.arin.net/whois/arinwhois.html and enter the IP :) and you're a hacker.

Q3. How effective is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in cleaning up foreign sites?

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A3: The initials "DMCA" seem to have a certain amount of magic when sent to foreign ISPs and SYSOPS. Though they do not know the requirements for the DMCA and are not registrants under the DMCA, they all know that it relates to copyrights used on the Internet. Though my DMCA e-mails normally do not comply with the requirements of the act (for strategic reasons), I always cite it. In my experience, with one exception, I have found dealing with foreign entities to be fairly easy.

YADDA, YADDA, YADDA

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