{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02686041391457508, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007045354469396741, 'mean_word_length': 5.258953168044077, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Changes in ACM's revised copyright policy

A CM’s Publications Board expects the environment of electronic publication to continue to evolve, although we could only have guessed the developments that occurred since Version 2. For that reason, ACM continues to call this an “interim” policy; changes continue. Though we all understand that promulgation and archiving of scientific research will soon use networked computers without any paper at all, and although one can envision policies for that future, we don’t exactly know how to get there. A major constraint on the policy at hand is to bridge present practice with the desired future, that is, to develop a strategy that will get us there. ACM is leading technical publications toward a future where access to significant research is fast, easy, and affordable; its policies have been studied and mimicked by other societies. The past few years have seen the launch and the acceptance of ACM’s Digital Library (DL). Several commercial publishers are also launching their own online libraries, but few have so complete a corpus in place (95% of magazines, journals, and proceedings since 1991). Furthermore, international copyright law has recognized the potential of computing and communications. In December 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) met in Geneva for this decade’s revision of the international copyright treaty, where European countries advanced controversial sui generis protections reserved to builders of databases that extended even to formerly non-copyrightable information [9]. Even while this policy was developing, ACM through its U.S. Public Policy Committee (USACM), and sister societies informed the U.S. Congress of its reservations on similar bills. The scholarly societies parried the more objectionable sui generis provisions, which eventually were dropped from the U.S. enabling legislation. They have already been reintroduced, however, in the new Congress. It is important to keep an international perspective on copyright policy because copyrights are more effective than contracts in many parts of the world. (Most of you are probably accustomed to a reversed This introduction to the third revision of ACM’s copyright policy updates the policy created in 1994