Advanced Copyright Law on the Internet

restrict use of the work in ways that are unclear or undesirable, and the applicability of the fair
use or implied license doctrines may become more uncertain in the face of such notices.

Third, the fact that browsing, an activity akin to reading in traditional media, potentially
constitutes literal infringement of so many copyright rights represents a significant shift in the
balance between the rights of purchasers and users on the one hand, and the interests of
copyright owners on the other. As one commentator recently stated:

The conflict here of perspective, policy, and technology may be a defining issue

in cyberspace. ... [T]he idea that reading a digital text entails a potential copyright

violation shifts policy. That shift, even if desirable, should occur because of an

express policy choice rather than because new technology technically triggers

concepts originally designed for a world of photocopy machines, recorders, and

the like.^1523

Such policy shift, and the details of it, may not be expressly defined in U.S. copyright law (and
perhaps in the copyright laws of other countries as well) until legislation implementing the
WIPO treaties is considered.

B. Caching

Caching is another activity that is, under current technology, virtually ubiquitous on the
Internet. Caching (sometimes known as “mirroring,” usually when it involves storage of an
entire site or other complete set of material from a source) means storing copies of material from
an original source site (such as a Web page) for later use when the same material is requested
again, thereby obviating the need to go back to the original source for the material. The purpose
of caching is to speed up repeated access to data and to reduce network congestion resulting from
repeated downloads of data. The cached material is generally stored at a site that is
geographically closer to the user, or on a more powerful computer or one that has a less
congested data path to the ultimate user. The cached information is usually stored only
temporarily, although the times may vary from a few seconds to a few days, weeks, or more.

1. Types of Caching

Caching may be of the following types:

• Local Caching: Caching generally occurs locally at the end user’s computer, either in
  RAM, on the hard disk, or some combination of both. Most browsers, for example,
  store recently visited Web pages in RAM or on the hard disk. When the user hits the
  “Back” key, for example, the browser will usually retrieve the previous page from the
  cache, rather than downloading the page again from the original site. This retrieval
  from cache is much faster and avoids burdening the network with an additional
  download.

(^1523) R. Nimmer, Information Law ¶ 4.08[1], at 4-30 (2001).