Electronic circulation of copyrighted information in CSCW environments

Summary form only given. Computing and communications technologies have revolutionized the methods for creation, reproduction, and dissemination of copyrighted multimedia information. The demand on this electronic information increases rapidly as developers and users migrate to computer supported cooperative work, or CSCW, environments. Central to CSCW environments is information sharing both at the intra- as well as the inter-group levels. The electronic circulation of copyrighted information among group members poses numerous problems. We can identify a set of requirements for the electronic circulation of copyrighted objects in CSCW environments. We present a novel approach to satisfy these requirements. Our approach is to commercialize autonomous inter-entity sharing in order to discourage unauthorized reproduction activities and promote autonomous sharing of copyrighted information in group activities.