GPS & Copyright Protection

CIO Insight has an article on Dorothy Denning's efforts (apparently successful) to tie copyright protection technologies to physical locations via the inclusion of GPS:

Working with a Hollywood movie executive and an Internet entrepreneur, Denning has invented a way to keep information scrambled until it reaches a precise location, as determined by GPS satellites. Armed with Denning's geo-encryption system, which she co-patented in 1998, only people in specified locations, such as movie theaters, living rooms or corporate conference rooms, would be able to unscramble the data.

Muddying the point here is that fact that Denning's invention is not copyright protection, but an endrun around copyright in the form of a high tech licensing agreement. Standard copyright notions like first sale and fair use could effectively be removed by preventing people in specific areas from even accessing content (even if it's content they've paid for). Says one of Denning's busines partners of the origins of the technology,

"I remember thinking that Napster is going to kill the entertainment business, and isn't there some way to encrypt by location?" says Seiler.

Although it's not stated explicitly in the article, a likely strategy would seem to be limiting the sales of media to locations (countries, cities, universities) that rigorously enforce copyright protection laws and deny access to those that don't. - goto