Walt Crawford of the excellent Cites & Insights has a new piece over @ EContent in which he updates the Constitution's copyright clause to reflect today's unfortunate reality:
Original: "The Congress shall have power...To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries."
Crawford's update: "Members of the MPAA, RIAA, and AAP shall have the right to control technological change in order to enforce perpetual rights to creative works. Congress shall ensure that the corporate right to control over and payment for every use of those creations takes precedence over outmoded notions such as freedom of speech, fair use, and the first purchase doctrine."
Nice. Or rather, not so.
Crawford notes that he's been writing a lot about copyright in Cites & Insights, and adds that there's no shortage of other sources on the Web -- but "no matter where you look you'd best be paying attention to the evolution of copyright as it hits closer and closer to rights you may have taken for granted." Spot on.
Category: IP Abuse
Thanks! I had no idea anyone at Copyfight (or Corante in general) was even aware of Cites & Insights. You're in my Bloglines list, along with Lessig, Felten, Finkelstein, Mary Minow, and others...
The current "disContent" you point to is one of those infrequent cases where my extensive unedited blather in C&I can turn into a nice 1,350-word piece (improved by expert editing) in "real print."
As I put together another too-many-words Copyright section for the next C&I (out next week, I suspect), I find the need to prepare another "why it matters" essay for my library audience--and, in the process, may split my copyright-related coverage into four overlapping areas. That essay and split, if it/they happen, will be in the November issue (out mid-October).
Permalink to CommentI had no idea you were aware of Copyfight -- thank *you.*
I personally discovered "Cites & Insights" some years ago here http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepw.htm, and was always frustrated because I wanted to link to individual pieces, but couldn't due to the PDF format -- so I was positively thrilled to see your work in linkable form. You have other fans at EFF, too -- people who appreciate the thoroughness and detail you bring to your analysis of the issues.
Permalink to CommentHmm. My work-for-money is linkable, my work-for-nothing isn't (but, then, I don't do the HTML markup or anything else on the work-for-money at EContent and American Libraries).
Hope EFF doesn't mind too much that I grouse about them from time to time. It comes with the territory.