Where, for example, should a copyright or trademark claim involving in-game content created on a server in the U.S. by a player in Japan using software provided by a server owner in France be enforced?
The inventor is Todd Glassey, a 52-year-old Bay Area resident who describes himself as the Chief Scientist of network security firm Certichron and founder of the U.S. Time Server Foundation.
Mr. Lavinbuk explains that a person in the U.S. who downloads a song or movie from a server in Antigua without authorization from the copyright holder is reproducing that work in violation of U.S. copyright law.
Other e-tailers cite the high cost - some five to 10 times higher than in the U.S. - of leasing Net connections and maintaining "server" computers for managing online transactions.