Comments of the Center for Democracy & Technology
Before
The United States Copyright Office
Submitted by Hand to:
Office of the General Counsel
U.S. Copyright Office
James Madison Memorial Building, Room LM-401
101 Independence Avenue, SE.,
Washington, DC 20559-6000
August 22, 2005
On behalf of the Center for Democracy and Technology, we respectfully submit the following comments to the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, on Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 2005-9. The Copyright Office asks whether persons filing the electronic-only preregistration form prescribed by the Copyright Office will experience difficulties if they are required to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser in order to preregister a work. CDT believes that all government agencies, including the Copyright Office should design their Web offerings not to the specifications of a particular browser, but rather to HTML 4.1 and other related Web standards. However, once compliant with the appropriate standards, making small tweaks to the code for usability of within a particular browser is understandable and should be encouraged.
A defining characteristic of the Internet is its end-to-end design.[1] The Internet protocol upon which all Internet applications rely is thin and does not distinguish between the contents of the packets that it transfers from point to point.[2] This basic open architecture has enabled the Internet to flourish with a variety of applications, including email, Web browsers, online games, VoiP, instant messaging, etc. This flexibility is arguably why the Internet has grown so dramatically over the past two decades to become asuch a powerful social and economic tool.
HTML, the standard Web browsers are built upon, operates on a similar principle. It is an open standard, and of particular concern to its creator was its interoperability.[3] HTML was designed to be compatible with many different platforms, including personal computers, Macintoshes, Unix machines and simple terminals.[4]
Government agencies have seen the benefits of tech neutrality, designing to the standard rather than a particular application. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has decided that as a general principle "[t]he availability of government information in diverse media, including electronic formats, permits agencies and the public greater flexibility in using the information."[5] In order to realize this principle, the OMB has instructed agencies that are a part of the executive branch to " [d]evelop information systems that facilitate interoperability, application portability, and scalability of electronic applications across networks of heterogeneous hardware, software, and telecommunications platforms[.]"[6] These policies are in place to ensure that the government takes reasonable steps to ensure a commitment to open, decentralized networks.
In conclusion, the Copyright Office should design its Web offerings to HTML and Web standards, rather than a particular browser. Once a Web site is compliant with Web standards, CDT would encourage the agency to make changes to the page based on usability with browsers. Given the time constraints presented, it would make sense to start with the most popular browser first -- Internet Explorer. While this may seem like merely a semantic difference to the proposed policy, it is important for the government -- and particularly the Copyright Office -- to actively promote open standards on the Internet.
Respectfully submitted,
Ari Schwartz, Associate Director, Center for Democracy & Technology
1 See Jeff Tyson, How Internet Infrastructure Works (2005), available at http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure.htm (last visited Aug. 17, 2005).
2 Id.
3 See ADDISON WESLEY LONGMAN, A HISTORY OF HTML (1998), available at http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/book4/ch02.html (last visited Aug. 17, 2005).
4 Id.
5 OMB Circular No. A-130, Revised, Transmittal Memorandum #4, Management of Federal Information Resources (11/28/2000), available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a130/a130trans4.html (last visited Aug. 17, 2005).
6 Id.