ABSTRACT
It has been said that we live in the era of globalization. If that is the case, then the slogan for that era is undoubtedly “The world is flat.” And with each passing day, we are reminded of how new technologies are leveling the old barriers of time and distance to open a newer, flatter geography of global communication. It is a context in which individuals located on different continents can collaborate on project teams. It is a context in which music recorded in New York can be accessed in New Delhi within seconds of its creation. It is a context in which the very word “barrier” seems on the verge of becoming an anachronism. Or is it? Oddly, as real barriers of physical space have been flattened by the human construct of cyberspace, another human-made barrier has emerged to limit inter - actions in that space. That new barrier? Law. In this new context, just because one can send information instantaneously across the globe does not mean the intended recipient will be allowed to access or to use that information. These legal impediments force us to reconsider the idea of the flat earth as not a uniformly smooth landscape. Rather, it is a surface covered by friction points-areas in which something can slow, or even stop, the flow of ideas and information. Thus, exchanging information over the flat earth is akin to sliding a disk across the surface of a frozen pond. One needs to know where the friction points are in order to avoid them and get the object from point A to point B as quickly and easily as possible. This situation is particularly the case in technical communication. As the field is based on the exchange of infor - mation, these friction points will markedly affect how technical communicators
participate in the modern global economy. And in the end, it all comes down to one central issue: content. To begin, the friction points that impede the global flow of online information are not random. Rather, they often reflect deep-seated cultural attitudes con - cerning appropriate behavior. National laws, in turn, represent the codifi cation of a particular culture’s or group’s attitude concerning what is and what is not acceptable content to create, access, or exchange. In the age of globalization, these legal differences can create barriers as real and as effective as any fence or wall. In the United States, for example, national law allows citizens to access and exchange a wide range of content, including critiques of the government or of public figures. In other nations, however, laws might greatly restrict or prohibit the creation of or access to such content. As a result, variations in national laws can affect how easily and effectively certain content can move from point to point across the flat earth. This factor has profound implications for technical communicators working in global contexts. Increasingly, many of the international legal differences that generate friction involve the creation and the management of content. Copyright law, for example, is one of the greatest friction points affecting the free and open flow of ideas and information across the flat earth, for it stipulates who has the right to replicate or to share certain kinds of content. Similarly, perspectives on privacy rightsand who can legally access and copy an individual’s personal information (i.e., content)—can differ from nation-state to nation-state. As a result, when indi - viduals try to share different kinds of content/information across borders, legal systems can intervene to create friction that slows or stops that exchange. Different national laws can also determine the language in which content can be provided or exchanged in different geopolitical regions. The European Union (EU), for example, requires that much of the content distributed across its member nations be translated into the languages of those member states (Language requirements, 2012; Walmer, 1999). Such legislation, moreover, can affect the creation and distribution of content within nations themselves. To distribute information/content in the Canadian province of Quebec, for example, organization are often legally required to provide that content in the province’s official language of French (Medical device regulations, 1998). More recently, demographic shifts have created new legal contexts affecting the language in which technical information (content) must be provided to individuals within a specific nation, as is currently the case of providing medical-related infor - mation within the United States (St. Germaine, 2010). All of these factors have important implications for technical communicators whose primary job is to create and manage content. For these reasons, today’s technical communicators need to understand these legal friction points if they wish to work effectively in global contexts. To address these global friction points, technical communicators must combine their knowledge of content creation and content management with an
understanding of the international legal issues affecting those practices. The objective of this collection is to provide an overview of the different legal aspects that can be friction points one might encounter when working with content in international environments. Through examining these topics, this collection provides readers with an initial and a relatively broad-based review of legal issues affecting technical communication practices in global contexts. The entries in the book’s first section, “Challenges and Considerations,” provide an overview of the new and unique situations created by extending legal concepts and practices into global contexts. In this section’s first entry, Wendy L. Kraglund-Gauthier and David C. Young examine how technical com - municators should rethink the notion of privacy-both what it is and how it is protected-when interacting in international situations. To do so, the authors use a case study that examines the often misunderstood issue of privacy laws in online education. Through this case study, Kraglund-Gauthier and Young discuss how individuals and institutions might rethink the idea of protecting the rights of online users. They also make recommendations for how such issues could be addressed within international online interactions. In the section’s second entry, Brett Lunceford reviews the debate surrounding network neutrality, a situation in which technical details have been largely over - looked in favor of slogans and arguments that appeal to heuristics. Lunceford notes that, despite the complexity of the issues surrounding Internet traffic in international contexts, proponents of network neutrality have centered the debate on the master term of neutrality. He also examines how the rhetoric surrounding net neutrality can provide technical communicators with insights into how tech - nology issues are rhetorically constructed in the public sphere. In so doing, he notes how such constructions affect international law and public policy and overviews the difficulty of governing a global network that transcends national borders and jurisdictions. The section’s third entry, “The Rules of the Game: Real Legal and Economic Implications of Second Life,” takes the reader even deeper into the intersection of online media and global interactions by examining the online virtual world of Second Life. As the author Marco Antonio Chávez-Aguayo explains, these contemporary computer technologies now connect artists and producers with audiences around the world. However, such environments also pose new chal - lenges for technical communicators who must grapple with legal issues such as copyright, privacy, and the distribution of private information when using Second Life to participate in internationally distributed teams. Ronald L. Stone’s chapter, the final entry in this section, moves the discus - sion of representation in global contexts further toward the abstract as he examines how numeric representation has legal implications in international interactions. Specifically, Stone examines the legal difficulties created by using different systems of measurement in global contexts. He also examines how metrication-the use of the metric system-creates legal communication
challenges in international settings. In his analysis of these issues, Stone examines common problems technical communicators might experience in such situation and overviews prospective solutions to such problems. Entries in the book’s second section, “Language and Access,” examine the legal challenges technical communicators face when trying to create infor - mation that can be used effectively in global settings. This section begins with Tatiana Batova’s discussion of the idea of legal literacy and its connections to both technical communication and technical translation processes in global contexts. Specifically, Batova looks at how multilingual technical communication projects require a new emphasis on civic engagement in technical communication in order to better understand the legal contexts in which technical translation occurs. In so doing, she provides a framework for understanding the complex area in which law, technical communication, and technical translation intersect. In the section’s second entry, Nicole St. Germaine continues this examination of legal issues and language by reviewing how technical communicators are affected by Executive Order 13166. St. Germaine does so by presenting both the results of her research on the literature associated with this Executive Order and her interviews with technical writers and health communicators who are currently writing technical documentation for different cultural audiences. She then concludes her chapter by presenting recommendations-or best practicesfor how technical communicators might address specific issues relating to trans - lation and information sharing in cross-cultural contexts. Usability, from a global perspective, often involves more than just language. It also involves access to information. Such access, however, is often regulated by a patchwork of different national laws that affect who can access certain kinds of information when and where. Liza Potts examines this notion of access in global contexts by reviewing the concept of digital rights management and associated practices in global contexts. As Potts explains, while individuals around the world can use online media to access digital entertainment through various sources, locating, watching, and interacting with this content is riddled with usability issues that can create a deterrent to legal use. In her chapter, Potts traces these issues in order to reveal the different usability concerns involved in these situations. She then concludes by calling for improvements of the user experience and of industry policies regarding digital rights management and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Online media evolve continually and rapidly, but legal change is often slow and sporadic. As a result, the online environment seems to continually be one, if not one hundred, steps ahead of the legislation that tries to regulate it. The book’s third and final section, “Ownership and Authorship,” explores some of the emerging issues that can contribute to confusion with regard to law in global contexts. As Pavel Zemliansky and Traci A. Zimmerman explain in the section’s first entry, recent developments in technical communication theory and practice have yet to address the importance of understanding intellectual
property and authorship. In order to better comprehend the implications of this gap, Zemliansky and Zimmerman review major developments in copyright and intellectual property affecting the education of today’s technical communicators. They also examine how that education manifests itself in professional training and professional practice as well as provide suggestions for engaging effectively in such practices. Annette Vee continues this discussion of intellectual property in global contexts by analyzing the effects of patent law in writing studies. In so doing, she reviews how the monopoly rights granted through patents can affect compo - sition in, of, and with software. She also outlines some specific reasons patent law pertains to writing specialists, and explores the blurring boundaries between written text and computer code. Vee then concludes with an examination of controversies surrounding patent protection for software in international contexts. The section’s final entry combines ideas of copyright and access to examine the relatively overlooked area of orphan works. In this chapter, Martin S. Copenhaver overviews the legal concept of orphan works, or copyrighted works for which the copyright holder cannot be identified. Through this overview, Copenhaver discusses the implications such works have for accessing and using information in an age of the global Internet. He also reveals why such works should be seen as important to international technical communication practices and uses theoretical and practical considerations to explain the global legal and policy significance of orphan works. Copenhaver then concludes by providing technical com - municators with suggestions for how they can participate in the ongoing global dialogue on this important legal issue. Through examining these topics, the various chapters in this collection pro - vide readers with an initial and a relatively broad-based review of legal issues affecting technical communication practices in global contexts. The editors hope readers will use the ideas and information presented here as a foundation for creating best practices and engaging in future research in the area of legal issues in international settings. By working together to examine such issues, technical communicators can create methods for addressing friction points and improving the flow of content across the newer, flatter earth.
