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This paper presents results from a study on Unauthorized Software Copying among a group of professional computer end users. The magnitude of the practice is measured. Attitudes of users towards the issue are identified.

The important initiative from the Department of Health (Working Group on Copying Letters to Patients, 2002) to require that letters between clinicians should be copied to the patient has not been implemented as widely as was intended. There have been concerns about logistics and fears that patients might be confused or frightened by communications they are not equipped to understand. Yet, modifications of the system to allow patients the choice to receive or not receive such letters and suitable training for clinicians offer safeguards. There is no doubt that copying letters provides an inexpensive mechanism for involving patients in their own care and treatment, offering transparency and confirming respect for equality in the relationship between patient and clinician. This paper reports experience with copying letters to patients and families with dementia. The process was warmly received by patients and carers, including families in a black and minority ethnic (BME) community, and few adverse comments were made. The routine application of this initiative will have benefits for the quality of service experience for older people, including those with dementia.

With developments throughout the world, including the recent publication of the Report of the Register of Copyright in the USA on photocopying in libraries, a general overview of copyright as it relates to reprographic reproduction and interlending is appropriate. The European Community is in many ways a microcosm of the international scene as it brings together Continental Roman, Anglo‐Saxon and Scandinavian legal concepts. Whereas Belgium and France take a narrow view of copyright, in the Netherlands this has been broadened by the use of collecting societies, and in the UK the ‘fair dealing’ concept allows a certain latitude to librarians. The impact of British legislation is important because of its influence on many Third World and Commonwealth countries. British law is in the process of being scrutinized for revision. The economic problems associated with copyright are also important in the EC because of non‐discrimination clauses in the Treaty of Rome. In Scandinavia there is a general move towards fair dealing but licensing for multiple copying. In Canada legislation is in dire need of revision, the existing Act dating from 1921. Numerous studies and an attempt to define fair dealing have not yet led to legislation. In the USA the Copyright Amendment Act, which came into force in 1978, has just been reviewed and suggestions made that legislation should be further tightened and libraries and publishers enter into licensing arrangements. A series of legal disputes have further complicated the issue, including a judgement that suppliers of equipment used for infringement are liable for that infringement. In Australia the trend has been towards a more liberal approach to photocopying, which allows reasonable copying, including multiple copying for education, with compensation to the copyright owner where appropriate. The extent of fair dealing is defined in law. New Zealand has legislation based on the British law but with less strict regulations for declarations on the use of copies made. In the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe reproduction without compensation is permitted for specific purposes, namely those that further the well‐being of society as a whole. In China there is no formal legislation and only a glimmer of hope that it may come. Third World countries take a more pragmatic line, although their legislation is naturally influenced by those European countries that have had close links with them in the past. The main aim is to ensure reasonable compensation for their own nationals while not limiting the inflow of technical information, of which most Third World countries are net importers. A major influence in this area is Model Laws, which have been drafted by UNESCO and WIPO and accepted in many developing countries. In general such model laws allow copying, not necessarily only single copying, provided it is not for profit, is for the general welfare of the community and does not impinge on the copyright owner's economic expectations. Overall there is a general trend towards a greater definition of rights on both sides of the ownership controversy, coupled with a more realistic approach to what can and should be protected.

Purpose: Sustainable functionality development (FD) is decisive to firm's profitability in their new innovation in a competitive market. While functionality instills attractive values in innovative goods leading to a dramatic increase in profit through increasing demand and higher prices, it obsolesces immediately in a competitive market. Therefore, how to maintain sustainable FD trajectory is decisive to firm survival strategy within the context of mega‐competition in a globalizing economy. Notwithstanding an increasing significance of this subject, dynamism enabling a sustainable FD trajectory still remains inside a black box. The purpose of this paper, on the basis of an empirical comparative analysis of the diffusion trajectories for copying machines developed by Canon and Ricoh, is to attempt to elucidate this dynamism. Design/methodology/approach: This paper employed a bi‐logistic growth model utilizing patent data for copying machine technologies. Findings: It was found that early undertaking of 2nd generational copying machinery initiated by Canon played a more decisive role in terms of its higher level of sustainable FD than with its competitor. Originality/value: This paper provides significant insight to firm's management of technology strategy in a competitive market.

The National Health Service Plan (DoH, 2000) requires that patients receive copies of correspondence between health professionals about them, as of right. Patients with learning disabilities are not exempt from this rule. Copying letters to patients with learning disabilities is undoubtedly going to be challenging and complex for professionals working with them and, because of the heterogeneous nature of this group, specific guidelines need to be in place to support professionals in this task. The aim of the study was to ascertain the views of various professionals working in learning disability teams, on the copying of clinical letters to patients and their carers. The majority of respondents commented that, if letters are copied to patients with learning disabilities, then the persons may find it difficult to understand them, and a separate ‘simpler’ letter may need to be sent. Despite expressing concerns about this policy, the majority stated that they will be sending copies of letters regularly in their clinical practice in the future.

Looks at recent revisions of copyright in countries around the world. Discusses proposals in the European communities for harmonization of copyright law; member countries have introduced new laws of their own; the UK allows some copying freedom by individuals and libraries, but the allowances are much more carefully regulated. Details Spain′s new law which introduces fair dealing for the first time; new legislation in Singapore and Korea which allows library and private copying while protecting publications from other countries. Reviews changes in the United States, Canada and Australia and in some developing countries. Concludes that there is tremendous pressure on those countries outside the framework of international copyright treaties to reform or introduce law so that they can join.

The importance of copying processes ONE of the most frequently occurring requirements in all modern human activity, be it commerce, government, research, or any other sphere, is the need to obtain a true copy of a document. The efficiency of the method used for copying documents has a definite influence on the overall efficiency of the undertaking concerned. Executives are therefore always on the look‐out for improved methods for copying documents. By ‘document’ is meant any visual record of information. The information may be expressed by various media, such as language, numerical data, codes, graphs, diagrams, sketches, or photographs, which may be borne on various vehicles, such as letters, memoranda, reports, drawings, tracings, blue‐prints, pamphlets, patent specifications, periodicals, books, photographic film, index cards, and punched cards.

Controversy was aroused by the Whitford Report of 1977. Library professional bodies and others argued strongly against the Report and recommended alternative approaches to cover multiple copying. In respect of photocopying, the Whitford Report recommended ‘blanket licensing to cater for all user requirements for facsimile copies’ with payment of royalties to collecting societies for distribution to copyright owners. The licensing scheme envisaged would remove the right of an individual to the ‘fair dealing’ single copies which are allowed without royalties by the 1956 Copyright Act, though private researchers or students would be permitted to make their own manuscript copies. Owners of coin‐operated machines would require a special licence and responsibility for infringement would be transferred from the individual user to the machine owner.

In this paper, we bridge the gap between imitation and creativity, as we examine whether and how it is possible to succeed in imitation, understood here as the intentional creation of alikeness and, at the same time, the production of something novel and valuable. By distinguishing processes of copying, echoing, and eluding, we scrutinize how different imitation processes intended to create alikeness lead to the emergence of novelty. Using empirical data from two distinct empirical fields, music and pharmaceuticals, we discuss if and how these processes may even lead to emulation and thus the emergence of novelty superseding the imitated original. We find that novelty emerges during processes of imitation from the interplay of a guiding structure obtained from existing originals and the performative variation embedded in processes of imitation. We thereby identify performance enactment, translations between an imitated core and surrounding opportunities as well as the generative effects of intellectual property regulation as key ingredients to foster emulative novelty.

The purpose of this monograph is to examine the main elements of the Copyright Designs & Patents Act 1988 which received the Royal Assent on the 15th November 1988. The Act provided for a major overhaul of the law on copyright and on registered designs, as well as certain adjustments to patent and trademark law and two major new regimes on performers' rights and design rights. While this is a major domestic reform the law is unlikely to remain unaltered for long because of the move towards a single market within the E.E.C. by 1992. This will lead to the introduction of harmonised regimes on the various elements of intellectual property law such as copyright and industrial design which will no doubt require some readjustment to U.K. domestic law. Recently the E.E.C. Commission published a Green Paper on “Copyright and the Challenge of Technology” which suggests solutions to some questions such as the vexed problem of illegal home taping which are different to those adopted by the U.K. in the new Act. [On 21/12/88 a draft directive on Copyright & Computer Software which proposes a harmonised regime for the protection of computer programs and related matters was published]. It also has to be borne in mind that while Article 222 of the Treaty of Rome states that the treaty does not affect the existence of national intellectual property right regimes the “exercise” of these national rights may be found to infringe the provisions of the Treaty on free movement of goods (Arts. 30–36) or on competition law (Arts. 85–86).