As part of my continuing efforts to explain — both to myself, and to others — why it is that copyright law as we know it is so grotesquely unsuited to the global network, I gave a talk recently at a joint meeting of the NYC chapters of the Copyright Society of the US and the Internet Society (and interesting combination for this purpose) on the subject, and the folks at ISOC have posted the video of the talk here. FYI, in case you’re interested (and with all the usual self-abnegating apologies for shameless self-promotion — hey, buy my book!)
[PS - if you want to see the Larry Lessig video that I displayed at the talk - the video within the video, as it were -- it's available here]
joly says:
Um, don’t you mean cont. ? :)
I thoroughly enjoyed the talk, and hope to one day read the book!
Afterwards we chatted with the gent who near the end was upset about his photograph being exploited. Turned out he is a criminal court judge. When we re-iterated the moral rights vs public good argument he suggested that, as far as he was concerned, the Internet itself was of dubious social value, insisting that it was well within the government’s power to shut it down – “They control the satellites!” I do see in recent news reports that he has sympathizers amongst the orthodox community.
December 13, 2009, 9:42 pmDavid Sanger says:
In the video, when asked why you book was not available for free online download, it seems you missed the obvious answer.
You say copyright exists as an incentive for authors. In this case you are the beneficiary of that incentive. Revenue from the book provides a reward and offsets your cost in time and effort to produce it. The book falls on the commercial side of the commercial/non-commercial distinction. You have indeed formally registered it. Therefore the book is exactly the kind of work you say copyright should properly protect.
In particular you don’t want another publisher to expropriate it and publish it on their own without your permission or any royalties paid to you. Simplified fair use terms, as you suggest, would clarify when and how it could be excerpted.
At the end of the copyright term, even if it was foreshortened as you propose, you could easily extend the copyright, and at some later time (presumably sooner than 70 years after your death) then, yes indeed, it would be available for download, remix etc..
December 14, 2009, 12:07 am