Intellectual property in cyberspace: The use of protected images on the World Wide Web

Abstract

The growth of the Internet has created a host of thorny legal issues that range from defamatory postings on computer bulletin boards to “spamming”; (unwanted email) and invasion of privacy rights. This study reviewed 400 student‐authored World Wide Web pages to assess the use of intellectual property. A review of these pages found that 43.8 percent appropriated images that would likely qualify as protected intellectual property, and that the students who used images averaged three such uses per page. The final section briefly discusses three of the more troublesome implications of these findings.