Lex Cyberia

Cyber Glossary

Cyberlaw dictionary is an alphabetical reference guide to technical and legal terms related to the Internet. The site you are now browsing contains over 500 definitions of words drawn from Standard Internet English including technical terms and their meanings. Our aim is to explain basic technical jargon of cyberspace to those who are not familiar with its jargon. We've given preference to terms that are widely used, like modem or bandwidth, and to those that describe new concepts specific to the Internet experience such as phishing or sexting.

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AHRA

Short for the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, an amendment to the U.S. federal Copyright Act of 1976. According to the AHRA, the manufacturers and importers of digital audio recording devices and media must pay a royalty tax to the copyright holders of music that is presumably being copied in order to compensate them for lost royalties due to consumers copying audio recordings at home. The payments are made to the U.S. Copyright office, which then distributes the royalties accordingly. Digital audio recording devices also must include a system that prohibits serial copying. The most common system in use is the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS), which permits first-generation digital-to-digital copies of prerecorded music but prohibits serial copies of those copies. In exchange, the copyright holders waive the right to claim copyright infringement against consumers using audio recording devices in their homes for noncommercial use. The royalty requirements do not apply to computers as they are not considered digital audio recording devices.