On the Internet, software should be milked, not brewed

The explosion of the Web raises many difficult legal and economic issues. One of the most controversial is this: how can we protect the intellectual property embedded in the computer software that gets distributed over the Internet? The Web hypertext platform, particularly hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and Java, should encourage the quick and ubiquitous delivery of novel, ground breaking ideas for interacting with computers. Innovative user interface software, whether in the form of Java byte codes or Web browsers, should be protected by law. But this is very difficult. Software products and ideas are too easily duplicated or cloned, and software's authors are often compelled to expose the technical details of their products in order to disseminate them and create a market for their ideas and services, indirectly encouraging such cloning. The use of time stamping software to solve the Internet intellectual property problem is discussed.