Chronology of Events - 1990s

The following is a chronological listing of significant events in the development of the field of Information Technology law during the 1990s.

1990
1990 &mdash; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is founded by Mitch Kapor.

1990 &mdash; The Federal Trade Commission begins its investigation of Microsoft.

November 12, 1990 &mdash; Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web; publishes a report titled "WorldWideWeb: Proposal for the HyperText Project."

December 1, 1990 &mdash; The Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990, title VIII of the Judicial Improvements Act of 1990, Pub. L. 101-650, 104 Stat. 5089, 5134 (Dec. 1, 1990) (codified at 17 U.S.C. §109) goes into effect. The Act grants the owner of the copyright in a computer program the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the rental, lease, or lending of the program for direct or indirect commercial purposes.

1991
1991 &mdash; Linux is introduced by Linus Torvald. Based on Minix, an open source Unix clone, Linux is released with full source code under the terms of the GNU Public License, guaranteeing that future developments would be accessible to all Linux users.

1991 &mdash; The Semiconductor International Protection Extension Act of 1991, Pub. L. 102-64, 105 Stat. 320 is enacted.

March 27, 1991 &mdash; U.S. Supreme Court decides Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991), where the Court rejected the copyright "sweat of the brow" doctrine.

August 6, 1991 &mdash; The World Wide Web is launched to the public. Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at the European Partial Physics Laboratory (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland develops the World Wide Web as a research tool.

1992
October 28, 1992 &mdash; The Digital Audio Home Recording Act becomes effective. The Act requires serial copy management systems in digital audio recorders and imposes royalties on the sale of digital audio recording devices and media. The royalties are collected, invested, and distributed among the owners of sound recordings and musical compositions, certain performing artists, and/or their representatives. The Act clarified legality of home taping of analog and digital sound recordings for private noncommercial use.

1993
1993 &mdash; The North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, Pub. L. No. 103-182, 107 Stat. 2057, 2114 and 2115 is enacted.

April 22, 1993 &mdash; Marc Andreessen's graphics-friendly, Mosaic browser is released. It helps to create the World Wide Web in its present form.

1994
1994 &mdash; Vice President Al Gore makes a speech in which he coins the term "Information Superhighway".

1994 &mdash; The World Wide Web Consortium is founded by Tim Bernes-Lee.

1994 &mdash; The Uruguay Round Agreements Act, Pub. L. 103-465, 108 Stat. 4809, 4973 is enacted.

1994 &mdash; The Arizona law firm of Canter & Siegel "spams" the Internet with an email advertising green card lottery services.

February 1994 &mdash; Yahoo! is launched.

October 1994 &mdash; The first banner ads appear on hotwired.com.

December 1994 &mdash; The Netscape Navigator browser is released.

December 1994 &mdash; Netscape releases the Secure Sockets Layer Protocol (SSL) to provide security for web browser and server communications.

December 8, 1994 &mdash; Congress repeals the sunset provisions of the Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990; and creates legal measures to prohibit the unauthorized fixation and trafficking in sound recordings of live musical performances and music videos.

1995
1995 &mdash; The Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995, Pub. L. No. 104-98, 109 Stat. 985 (eff. Jan. 16, 1996) (codified at 15 U.S.C. §1125) is enacted.

February 1995 &mdash; An Israeli company called VocalTec released the "Internet Phone" &mdash; the first commercial VoIP application for a desktop computer.

February 1995 &mdash; The first Internet radio station (Radio HK) is launched with a trial license from ASCAP.

March 24, 1995 &mdash; The Well is launched. It starts life as a BBS, but later migrates to the Web.

April 1995 &mdash; The Apache open-source HTTP server software is released.

July 1995 &mdash; Amazon.com launched.

November 1, 1995 &mdash; The Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995, Pub. L. 104-39, 109 Stat. 336 (Nov. 1, 1995) (amending 17 U.S.C. §§114-15) is enacted.

1996
1996 &mdash; Internet phones catch the attention of U.S. telecommunication companies, which ask Congress to ban the technology.

February 8, 1996 &mdash;  The  Communications Decency Act (CDA) goes into effect. The law was intended to protect children from obscenity on the Internet, but many critics argued that its language was too vague and that it violated the rights of free speech. A few months later a three-judge panel enjoins its enforcement. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules most of the CDA unconstitutional in 1997.

April 1996 &mdash; The Internet Archive is established to archive the entire content of the Internet, and to make it freely available.

June 1996 &mdash; ICQ, the first global, GUI-based instant messaging client, is launched.

October 1996 &mdash; The National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996 is enacted.

1997
1997 &mdash; The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is established to handle administration and registration of IP numbers to the geographical areas currently handled by Network Solutions (InterNIC) starting in March 1998.

June 26, 1997 &mdash; The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down as unconstitutional those provisions of the Communications Decency Act that sought to protect minors from harmful material on the Internet in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997).

December 16, 1997 &mdash; The No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 (“NET”), Pub. L. 105-147, 111 Stat. 2678 (Dec. 16, 1997) (amending 17 U.S.C. §506(a)) becomes effective. The Act defines “financial gain” in relation to copyright infringement and sets penalties for willfully infringing a copyright either for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain or by reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, of phonorecords of a certain value.

1998
January 30, 1998 &mdash; The U.S. Department of Commerce releases the Green Paper outlining its plan to privatize the Domain Name System.

June 5, 1998 &mdash; The U.S. Department of Commerce releases its White Paper outlining its plan to privatize the Domain Name System.

October 21, 1998 &mdash; A new version of the Communication Decency Act (CDA II) and a ban on Internet taxes are signed into law.

October 27, 1998  &mdash;  The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act becomes effective. The Act extends the term of copyright protection for most works to the life of the author plus 70 years after the author's death.

October 27, 1998 &mdash; The Fairness in Music Licensing Act of 1998, Pub. L. 105-298, Title II, 112 Stat. 2827, 2830 (Oct. 27, 1998) is enacted.

October 28, 1998  &mdash;  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998,  Pub. L. 105-304, 112 Stat. 2860 (Oct. 28, 1998) (17 U.S.C. §§512, 1201-05, 1301-22; 28 U.S.C. §4001) (DMCA) becomes effective. The Act provides for the implementation of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty; limits certain online infringement liability for Internet service providers; creates an exemption permitting a temporary reproduction of a computer program made by activating a computer in the course of maintenance or repair; clarifies the policy role of the Copyright Office; and creates a form of protection for vessel hulls.

November 25, 1998 &mdash; Department of Commerce enters into an agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to establish a process for transitioning the Domain Name System from U.S. Government to industry management.

1999
1999 &mdash; The European Parliament proposes banning the caching of Web pages by ISPs.

1999 &mdash; A U.S. state court rules that domain names are property that may be garnished.

June 1, 1999 &mdash; Napster begins operations.

November 29, 1999 &mdash; The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), Title III of the Intellectual Property and Communications Omnibus Reform Act of 1999, Pub. L. 106-113, 113 Stat. 1501, app. I 1501A-521 (Nov. 29, 1999) (codified at 15 U.S.C. §1125) is enacted.

December 7, 1999 &mdash; The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sues Napster for copyright infringement.