1 # SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
2 # Copyright (C) YEAR Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 # This file is distributed under the same license as the PACKAGE package.
4 # FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.
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34 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
36 msgid "<abbrev>\"freeculture\"</abbrev>"
39 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subtitle>
42 "HOW BIG MEDIA USES TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW TO LOCK DOWN CULTURE AND CONTROL "
46 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
48 msgid "<pubdate>2004-03-25</pubdate>"
51 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><releaseinfo>
53 msgid "Version 2004-02-10"
56 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><firstname>
61 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><surname>
66 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
68 msgid "Intellectual property—United States."
71 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
73 msgid "Mass media—United States."
76 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
78 msgid "Technological innovations—United States."
81 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
83 msgid "Art—United States."
86 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><publisher><address>
89 msgid "<city>New York</city>"
92 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
95 "<publisher> <publishername>The Penguin Press</publishername> <placeholder "
96 "type=\"address\" id=\"0\"/> </publisher> <copyright> <year>2004</year> "
97 "<holder>Lawrence Lessig</holder> </copyright>"
100 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject>
101 #: freeculture.xml:66
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106 "align=\"center\"/> </imageobject>"
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110 #: freeculture.xml:73
111 msgid "Creative Commons, Some rights reserved"
114 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
115 #: freeculture.xml:65
116 msgid "<placeholder type=\"inlinemediaobject\" id=\"0\"/>"
119 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
120 #: freeculture.xml:79
122 "This version of <citetitle>Free Culture</citetitle> is licensed under a "
123 "Creative Commons license. This license permits non-commercial use of this "
124 "work, so long as attribution is given. For more information about the "
125 "license, click the icon above, or visit <ulink "
126 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/\">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/</ulink>"
129 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><title>
130 #: freeculture.xml:88
131 msgid "ABOUT THE AUTHOR"
134 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><para>
135 #: freeculture.xml:90
137 "LAWRENCE LESSIG (<ulink "
138 "url=\"http://www.lessig.org\">http://www.lessig.org</ulink>), professor of "
139 "law and a John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law "
140 "School, is founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society and is "
141 "chairman of the Creative Commons (<ulink "
142 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org\">http://creativecommons.org</ulink>). The "
143 "author of The Future of Ideas (Random House, 2001) and Code: And Other Laws "
144 "of Cyberspace (Basic Books, 1999), Lessig is a member of the boards of the "
145 "Public Library of Science, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public "
146 "Knowledge. He was the winner of the Free Software Foundation's Award for the "
147 "Advancement of Free Software, twice listed in BusinessWeek's <quote>e.biz "
148 "25,</quote> and named one of Scientific American's <quote>50 "
149 "visionaries.</quote> A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge "
150 "University, and Yale Law School, Lessig clerked for Judge Richard Posner of "
151 "the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals."
154 #. testing different ways to tag the cover page
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168 #: freeculture.xml:111
170 "<imageobject remap=\"lrg\" role=\"front-large\"> <imagedata "
171 "fileref=\"images/cover.png\" format=\"PNG\" width=\"444\" /> </imageobject>"
175 #. http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v3=1&DB=local&CMD=010a+2003063276&CNT=10+records+per+page
177 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
178 #: freeculture.xml:109
180 " <placeholder type=\"mediaobject\" id=\"0\"/> <biblioid "
181 "class=\"isbn\">1-59420-006-8</biblioid> <biblioid "
182 "class=\"libraryofcongress\">2003063276</biblioid>"
185 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
186 #: freeculture.xml:139
187 msgid "You can buy a copy of this book by clicking on one of the links below:"
190 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
191 #: freeculture.xml:142
192 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.amazon.com/\">Amazon</ulink>"
195 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
196 #: freeculture.xml:143
197 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/\">B&N</ulink>"
200 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
201 #: freeculture.xml:144
202 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.penguin.com/\">Penguin</ulink>"
205 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
206 #: freeculture.xml:153
207 msgid "ALSO BY LAWRENCE LESSIG"
210 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
211 #: freeculture.xml:156
212 msgid "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World"
215 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
216 #: freeculture.xml:159
217 msgid "Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace"
220 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
221 #: freeculture.xml:167
223 "THE PENGUIN PRESS, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street "
227 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
228 #: freeculture.xml:171
229 msgid "Copyright © Lawrence Lessig. All rights reserved."
232 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
233 #: freeculture.xml:174
235 "Excerpt from an editorial titled <quote>The Coming of Copyright "
236 "Perpetuity,</quote> <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, January 16, "
237 "2003. Copyright © 2003 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with "
241 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
242 #: freeculture.xml:179
244 "Cartoon in <xref linkend=\"fig-1711-vcr-handgun-cartoonfig\"/> by Paul "
245 "Conrad, copyright Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights "
246 "reserved. Reprinted with permission."
249 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
250 #: freeculture.xml:183
252 "Diagram in <xref linkend=\"fig-1761-pattern-modern-media-ownership\"/> "
253 "courtesy of the office of FCC Commissioner, Michael J. Copps."
256 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
257 #: freeculture.xml:187
258 msgid "Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data"
261 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
262 #: freeculture.xml:190
264 "Lessig, Lawrence. Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law "
265 "to lock down culture and control creativity / Lawrence Lessig."
268 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
269 #: freeculture.xml:195
273 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
274 #: freeculture.xml:198
275 msgid "Includes index."
278 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
279 #: freeculture.xml:201
280 msgid "ISBN 1-59420-006-8 (hardcover)"
283 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
284 #: freeculture.xml:205
286 "1. Intellectual property—United States. 2. Mass media—United "
290 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
291 #: freeculture.xml:208
293 "3. Technological innovations—United States. 4. Art—United "
297 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
298 #: freeculture.xml:211
302 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
303 #: freeculture.xml:214
304 msgid "343.7309'9—dc22"
307 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
308 #: freeculture.xml:217
309 msgid "This book is printed on acid-free paper."
312 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
313 #: freeculture.xml:220
314 msgid "Printed in the United States of America"
317 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
318 #: freeculture.xml:223
319 msgid "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4"
322 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
323 #: freeculture.xml:226
324 msgid "Designed by Marysarah Quinn"
327 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
328 #: freeculture.xml:230
329 msgid "&translationblock;"
332 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
333 #: freeculture.xml:234
335 "Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this "
336 "publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval "
337 "system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, "
338 "photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission "
339 "of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book."
342 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
343 #: freeculture.xml:242
345 "The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or "
346 "via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and "
347 "punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and "
348 "do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted "
349 "materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated."
352 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
353 #: freeculture.xml:254
355 "To Eric Eldred—whose work first drew me to this cause, and for whom it "
359 #. type: Content of: <book><lot><title>
360 #: freeculture.xml:262
361 msgid "List of figures"
364 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><title>
365 #: freeculture.xml:324
369 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
370 #: freeculture.xml:325
374 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
375 #: freeculture.xml:327
377 "<emphasis role=\"bold\">At the end</emphasis> of his review of my first "
378 "book, <citetitle>Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle>, David "
379 "Pogue, a brilliant writer and author of countless technical and "
380 "computer-related texts, wrote this:"
383 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
384 #: freeculture.xml:338
386 "David Pogue, <quote>Don't Just Chat, Do Something,</quote> <citetitle>New "
387 "York Times</citetitle>, 30 January 2000."
390 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
391 #: freeculture.xml:334
393 "Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn't "
394 "affect people who aren't online (and only a tiny minority of the world "
395 "population is). And if you don't like the Internet's system, you can always "
396 "flip off the modem.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
399 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
400 #: freeculture.xml:343
402 "Pogue was skeptical of the core argument of the book—that software, or "
403 "<quote>code,</quote> functioned as a kind of law—and his review "
404 "suggested the happy thought that if life in cyberspace got bad, we could "
405 "always <quote>drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome</quote>-like simply flip a "
406 "switch and be back home. Turn off the modem, unplug the computer, and any "
407 "troubles that exist in <emphasis>that</emphasis> space wouldn't "
408 "<quote>affect</quote> us anymore."
412 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
413 #: freeculture.xml:352
415 "Pogue might have been right in 1999—I'm skeptical, but maybe. But "
416 "even if he was right then, the point is not right now: <citetitle>Free "
417 "Culture</citetitle> is about the troubles the Internet causes even after the "
418 "modem is turned off. It is an argument about how the battles that now rage "
419 "regarding life on-line have fundamentally affected <quote>people who aren't "
420 "online.</quote> There is no switch that will insulate us from the Internet's "
424 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
425 #: freeculture.xml:363
427 "But unlike <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, the argument here is not much about "
428 "the Internet itself. It is instead about the consequence of the Internet to "
429 "a part of our tradition that is much more fundamental, and, as hard as this "
430 "is for a geek-wanna-be to admit, much more important."
433 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para><footnote><para>
434 #: freeculture.xml:375
436 "Richard M. Stallman, <citetitle>Free Software, Free Societies</citetitle> 57 "
437 "(Joshua Gay, ed. 2002)."
440 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
441 #: freeculture.xml:370
443 "That tradition is the way our culture gets made. As I explain in the pages "
444 "that follow, we come from a tradition of <quote>free "
445 "culture</quote>—not <quote>free</quote> as in <quote>free beer</quote> "
446 "(to borrow a phrase from the founder of the free software "
447 "movement<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), but <quote>free</quote> "
448 "as in <quote>free speech,</quote> <quote>free markets,</quote> <quote>free "
449 "trade,</quote> <quote>free enterprise,</quote> <quote>free will,</quote> and "
450 "<quote>free elections.</quote> A free culture supports and protects creators "
451 "and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual property "
452 "rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those rights, to "
453 "guarantee that follow-on creators and innovators remain <emphasis>as free as "
454 "possible</emphasis> from the control of the past. A free culture is not a "
455 "culture without property, just as a free market is not a market in which "
456 "everything is free. The opposite of a free culture is a <quote>permission "
457 "culture</quote>—a culture in which creators get to create only with "
458 "the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past."
461 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
462 #: freeculture.xml:390
464 "If we understood this change, I believe we would resist it. Not "
465 "<quote>we</quote> on the Left or <quote>you</quote> on the Right, but we who "
466 "have no stake in the particular industries of culture that defined the "
467 "twentieth century. Whether you are on the Left or the Right, if you are in "
468 "this sense disinterested, then the story I tell here will trouble you. For "
469 "the changes I describe affect values that both sides of our political "
470 "culture deem fundamental."
473 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
474 #: freeculture.xml:398 freeculture.xml:1048
475 msgid "power, concentration of"
478 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
479 #: freeculture.xml:399 freeculture.xml:13268
480 msgid "CodePink Women in Peace"
483 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
484 #: freeculture.xml:400 freeculture.xml:421 freeculture.xml:13269
485 msgid "Safire, William"
488 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
489 #: freeculture.xml:401
493 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
494 #: freeculture.xml:403
496 "We saw a glimpse of this bipartisan outrage in the early summer of 2003. As "
497 "the FCC considered changes in media ownership rules that would relax limits "
498 "on media concentration, an extraordinary coalition generated more than "
499 "700,000 letters to the FCC opposing the change. As William Safire described "
500 "marching <quote>uncomfortably alongside CodePink Women for Peace and the "
501 "National Rifle Association, between liberal Olympia Snowe and conservative "
502 "Ted Stevens,</quote> he formulated perhaps most simply just what was at "
503 "stake: the concentration of power. And as he asked,"
506 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
507 #: freeculture.xml:419
509 "William Safire, <quote>The Great Media Gulp,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
510 "Times</citetitle>, 22 May 2003. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
513 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
514 #: freeculture.xml:415
516 "Does that sound unconservative? Not to me. The concentration of "
517 "power—political, corporate, media, cultural—should be anathema "
518 "to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby "
519 "encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the "
520 "greatest expression of democracy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
523 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
524 #: freeculture.xml:426
526 "This idea is an element of the argument of <citetitle>Free "
527 "Culture</citetitle>, though my focus is not just on the concentration of "
528 "power produced by concentrations in ownership, but more importantly, if "
529 "because less visibly, on the concentration of power produced by a radical "
530 "change in the effective scope of the law. The law is changing; that change "
531 "is altering the way our culture gets made; that change should worry "
532 "you—whether or not you care about the Internet, and whether you're on "
533 "Safire's left or on his right."
536 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
537 #: freeculture.xml:437
539 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">The inspiration</emphasis> for the title and for "
540 "much of the argument of this book comes from the work of Richard Stallman "
541 "and the Free Software Foundation. Indeed, as I reread Stallman's own work, "
542 "especially the essays in <citetitle>Free Software, Free Society</citetitle>, "
543 "I realize that all of the theoretical insights I develop here are insights "
544 "Stallman described decades ago. One could thus well argue that this work is "
545 "<quote>merely</quote> derivative."
549 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
550 #: freeculture.xml:446
552 "I accept that criticism, if indeed it is a criticism. The work of a lawyer "
553 "is always derivative, and I mean to do nothing more in this book than to "
554 "remind a culture about a tradition that has always been its own. Like "
555 "Stallman, I defend that tradition on the basis of values. Like Stallman, I "
556 "believe those are the values of freedom. And like Stallman, I believe those "
557 "are values of our past that will need to be defended in our future. A free "
558 "culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the "
559 "path we are on right now. Like Stallman's arguments for free software, an "
560 "argument for free culture stumbles on a confusion that is hard to avoid, and "
561 "even harder to understand. A free culture is not a culture without property; "
562 "it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid. A culture without "
563 "property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not "
564 "freedom. Anarchy is not what I advance here."
567 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
568 #: freeculture.xml:464
570 "Instead, the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance between "
571 "anarchy and control. A free culture, like a free market, is filled with "
572 "property. It is filled with rules of property and contract that get enforced "
573 "by the state. But just as a free market is perverted if its property becomes "
574 "feudal, so too can a free culture be queered by extremism in the property "
575 "rights that define it. That is what I fear about our culture today. It is "
576 "against that extremism that this book is written."
579 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
580 #: freeculture.xml:479
584 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
585 #: freeculture.xml:480 freeculture.xml:583 freeculture.xml:1037
586 msgid "Wright brothers"
589 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
590 #: freeculture.xml:482
592 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">On December 17</emphasis>, 1903, on a windy North "
593 "Carolina beach for just shy of one hundred seconds, the Wright brothers "
594 "demonstrated that a heavier-than-air, self-propelled vehicle could fly. The "
595 "moment was electric and its importance widely understood. Almost "
596 "immediately, there was an explosion of interest in this newfound technology "
597 "of manned flight, and a gaggle of innovators began to build upon it."
600 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
601 #: freeculture.xml:489
602 msgid "air traffic, land ownership vs."
605 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
606 #: freeculture.xml:490 freeculture.xml:14262
607 msgid "land ownership, air traffic and"
610 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
611 #: freeculture.xml:491 freeculture.xml:14263
612 msgid "property rights"
615 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
616 #: freeculture.xml:491 freeculture.xml:14263
617 msgid "air traffic vs."
620 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
621 #: freeculture.xml:497
623 "St. George Tucker, <citetitle>Blackstone's Commentaries</citetitle> 3 (South "
624 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1969), 18."
627 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
628 #: freeculture.xml:493
630 "At the time the Wright brothers invented the airplane, American law held "
631 "that a property owner presumptively owned not just the surface of his land, "
632 "but all the land below, down to the center of the earth, and all the space "
633 "above, to <quote>an indefinite extent, upwards.</quote><placeholder "
634 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> For many years, scholars had puzzled about how "
635 "best to interpret the idea that rights in land ran to the heavens. Did that "
636 "mean that you owned the stars? Could you prosecute geese for their willful "
637 "and regular trespass?"
640 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
641 #: freeculture.xml:507
643 "Then came airplanes, and for the first time, this principle of American "
644 "law—deep within the foundations of our tradition, and acknowledged by "
645 "the most important legal thinkers of our past—mattered. If my land "
646 "reaches to the heavens, what happens when United flies over my field? Do I "
647 "have the right to banish it from my property? Am I allowed to enter into an "
648 "exclusive license with Delta Airlines? Could we set up an auction to decide "
649 "how much these rights are worth?"
652 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
653 #: freeculture.xml:515 freeculture.xml:528 freeculture.xml:561 freeculture.xml:581 freeculture.xml:1017 freeculture.xml:1035 freeculture.xml:1083 freeculture.xml:9174 freeculture.xml:12637 freeculture.xml:13372
654 msgid "Causby, Thomas Lee"
657 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
658 #: freeculture.xml:516 freeculture.xml:529 freeculture.xml:562 freeculture.xml:582 freeculture.xml:1018 freeculture.xml:1036 freeculture.xml:1084 freeculture.xml:9175 freeculture.xml:12638 freeculture.xml:13373
659 msgid "Causby, Tinie"
662 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
663 #: freeculture.xml:518
665 "In 1945, these questions became a federal case. When North Carolina farmers "
666 "Thomas Lee and Tinie Causby started losing chickens because of low-flying "
667 "military aircraft (the terrified chickens apparently flew into the barn "
668 "walls and died), the Causbys filed a lawsuit saying that the government was "
669 "trespassing on their land. The airplanes, of course, never touched the "
670 "surface of the Causbys' land. But if, as Blackstone, Kent, and Coke had "
671 "said, their land reached to <quote>an indefinite extent, upwards,</quote> "
672 "then the government was trespassing on their property, and the Causbys "
676 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
677 #: freeculture.xml:530
678 msgid "Douglas, William O."
681 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
682 #: freeculture.xml:531
683 msgid "Supreme Court, U.S."
686 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
687 #: freeculture.xml:531
688 msgid "on airspace vs. land rights"
691 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
692 #: freeculture.xml:533
694 "The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Causbys' case. Congress had declared "
695 "the airways public, but if one's property really extended to the heavens, "
696 "then Congress's declaration could well have been an unconstitutional "
697 "<quote>taking</quote> of property without compensation. The Court "
698 "acknowledged that <quote>it is ancient doctrine that common law ownership of "
699 "the land extended to the periphery of the universe.</quote> But Justice "
700 "Douglas had no patience for ancient doctrine. In a single paragraph, "
701 "hundreds of years of property law were erased. As he wrote for the Court,"
704 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
705 #: freeculture.xml:553
707 "United States v. Causby, U.S. 328 (1946): 256, 261. The Court did find that "
708 "there could be a <quote>taking</quote> if the government's use of its land "
709 "effectively destroyed the value of the Causbys' land. This example was "
710 "suggested to me by Keith Aoki's wonderful piece, <quote>(Intellectual) "
711 "Property and Sovereignty: Notes Toward a Cultural Geography of "
712 "Authorship,</quote> <citetitle>Stanford Law Review</citetitle> 48 (1996): "
713 "1293, 1333. See also Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Real Property</citetitle> "
714 "(Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press, 1984), 1112–13. <placeholder "
715 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
718 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
719 #: freeculture.xml:544
721 "[The] doctrine has no place in the modern world. The air is a public "
722 "highway, as Congress has declared. Were that not true, every "
723 "transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass "
724 "suits. Common sense revolts at the idea. To recognize such private claims to "
725 "the airspace would clog these highways, seriously interfere with their "
726 "control and development in the public interest, and transfer into private "
727 "ownership that to which only the public has a just claim.<placeholder "
728 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
731 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
732 #: freeculture.xml:567
733 msgid "<quote>Common sense revolts at the idea.</quote>"
737 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
738 #: freeculture.xml:571
740 "This is how the law usually works. Not often this abruptly or impatiently, "
741 "but eventually, this is how it works. It was Douglas's style not to "
742 "dither. Other justices would have blathered on for pages to reach the "
743 "conclusion that Douglas holds in a single line: <quote>Common sense revolts "
744 "at the idea.</quote> But whether it takes pages or a few words, it is the "
745 "special genius of a common law system, as ours is, that the law adjusts to "
746 "the technologies of the time. And as it adjusts, it changes. Ideas that were "
747 "as solid as rock in one age crumble in another."
750 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
751 #: freeculture.xml:585
753 "Or at least, this is how things happen when there's no one powerful on the "
754 "other side of the change. The Causbys were just farmers. And though there "
755 "were no doubt many like them who were upset by the growing traffic in the "
756 "air (though one hopes not many chickens flew themselves into walls), the "
757 "Causbys of the world would find it very hard to unite and stop the idea, and "
758 "the technology, that the Wright brothers had birthed. The Wright brothers "
759 "spat airplanes into the technological meme pool; the idea then spread like a "
760 "virus in a chicken coop; farmers like the Causbys found themselves "
761 "surrounded by <quote>what seemed reasonable</quote> given the technology "
762 "that the Wrights had produced. They could stand on their farms, dead "
763 "chickens in hand, and shake their fists at these newfangled technologies all "
764 "they wanted. They could call their representatives or even file a "
765 "lawsuit. But in the end, the force of what seems <quote>obvious</quote> to "
766 "everyone else—the power of <quote>common sense</quote>—would "
767 "prevail. Their <quote>private interest</quote> would not be allowed to "
768 "defeat an obvious public gain."
771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
772 #: freeculture.xml:606 freeculture.xml:9182 freeculture.xml:9837
773 msgid "Armstrong, Edwin Howard"
776 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
777 #: freeculture.xml:607
778 msgid "Bell, Alexander Graham"
781 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
782 #: freeculture.xml:608
783 msgid "Edison, Thomas"
786 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
787 #: freeculture.xml:609
788 msgid "Faraday, Michael"
791 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
792 #: freeculture.xml:610
796 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
797 #: freeculture.xml:610
798 msgid "FM spectrum of"
802 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
803 #: freeculture.xml:612
805 "<emphasis role='strong'>Edwin Howard Armstrong</emphasis> is one of "
806 "America's forgotten inventor geniuses. He came to the great American "
807 "inventor scene just after the titans Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham "
808 "Bell. But his work in the area of radio technology was perhaps the most "
809 "important of any single inventor in the first fifty years of radio. He was "
810 "better educated than Michael Faraday, who as a bookbinder's apprentice had "
811 "discovered electric induction in 1831. But he had the same intuition about "
812 "how the world of radio worked, and on at least three occasions, Armstrong "
813 "invented profoundly important technologies that advanced our understanding "
817 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
818 #: freeculture.xml:625
820 "On the day after Christmas, 1933, four patents were issued to Armstrong for "
821 "his most significant invention—FM radio. Until then, consumer radio "
822 "had been amplitude-modulated (AM) radio. The theorists of the day had said "
823 "that frequency-modulated (FM) radio could never work. They were right about "
824 "FM radio in a narrow band of spectrum. But Armstrong discovered that "
825 "frequency-modulated radio in a wide band of spectrum would deliver an "
826 "astonishing fidelity of sound, with much less transmitter power and static."
829 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
830 #: freeculture.xml:635
832 "On November 5, 1935, he demonstrated the technology at a meeting of the "
833 "Institute of Radio Engineers at the Empire State Building in New York "
834 "City. He tuned his radio dial across a range of AM stations, until the radio "
835 "locked on a broadcast that he had arranged from seventeen miles away. The "
836 "radio fell totally silent, as if dead, and then with a clarity no one else "
837 "in that room had ever heard from an electrical device, it produced the sound "
838 "of an announcer's voice: <quote>This is amateur station W2AG at Yonkers, New "
839 "York, operating on frequency modulation at two and a half meters.</quote>"
842 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
843 #: freeculture.xml:646
844 msgid "The audience was hearing something no one had thought possible:"
847 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
848 #: freeculture.xml:657
850 "Lawrence Lessing, <citetitle>Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard "
851 "Armstrong</citetitle> (Philadelphia: J. B. Lipincott Company, 1956), 209."
854 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
855 #: freeculture.xml:650
857 "A glass of water was poured before the microphone in Yonkers; it sounded "
858 "like a glass of water being poured. … A paper was crumpled and torn; "
859 "it sounded like paper and not like a crackling forest fire. … Sousa "
860 "marches were played from records and a piano solo and guitar number were "
861 "performed. … The music was projected with a live-ness rarely if ever "
862 "heard before from a radio <quote>music box.</quote><placeholder "
863 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
866 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
867 #: freeculture.xml:662
871 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
872 #: freeculture.xml:663
876 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
877 #: freeculture.xml:663
878 msgid "ownership concentration in"
882 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
883 #: freeculture.xml:665
885 "As our own common sense tells us, Armstrong had discovered a vastly superior "
886 "radio technology. But at the time of his invention, Armstrong was working "
887 "for RCA. RCA was the dominant player in the then dominant AM radio "
888 "market. By 1935, there were a thousand radio stations across the United "
889 "States, but the stations in large cities were all owned by a handful of "
893 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
894 #: freeculture.xml:673 freeculture.xml:695
895 msgid "Sarnoff, David"
898 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
899 #: freeculture.xml:675
901 "RCA's president, David Sarnoff, a friend of Armstrong's, was eager that "
902 "Armstrong discover a way to remove static from AM radio. So Sarnoff was "
903 "quite excited when Armstrong told him he had a device that removed static "
904 "from <quote>radio.</quote> But when Armstrong demonstrated his invention, "
905 "Sarnoff was not pleased."
908 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
909 #: freeculture.xml:686
911 "See <quote>Saints: The Heroes and Geniuses of the Electronic Era,</quote> "
912 "First Electronic Church of America, at www.webstationone.com/fecha, "
913 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #1</ulink>."
916 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
917 #: freeculture.xml:683
919 "I thought Armstrong would invent some kind of a filter to remove static from "
920 "our AM radio. I didn't think he'd start a revolution— start up a whole "
921 "damn new industry to compete with RCA.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
925 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
926 #: freeculture.xml:694
930 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
931 #: freeculture.xml:697
933 "Armstrong's invention threatened RCA's AM empire, so the company launched a "
934 "campaign to smother FM radio. While FM may have been a superior technology, "
935 "Sarnoff was a superior tactician. As one author described,"
938 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
939 #: freeculture.xml:702
940 msgid "Lessing, Lawrence"
943 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
944 #: freeculture.xml:710
945 msgid "Lessing, 226."
948 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
949 #: freeculture.xml:705
951 "The forces for FM, largely engineering, could not overcome the weight of "
952 "strategy devised by the sales, patent, and legal offices to subdue this "
953 "threat to corporate position. For FM, if allowed to develop unrestrained, "
954 "posed … a complete reordering of radio power … and the "
955 "eventual overthrow of the carefully restricted AM system on which RCA had "
956 "grown to power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
959 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
960 #: freeculture.xml:714
964 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
965 #: freeculture.xml:714
969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
970 #: freeculture.xml:716
972 "RCA at first kept the technology in house, insisting that further tests were "
973 "needed. When, after two years of testing, Armstrong grew impatient, RCA "
974 "began to use its power with the government to stall FM radio's deployment "
975 "generally. In 1936, RCA hired the former head of the FCC and assigned him "
976 "the task of assuring that the FCC assign spectrum in a way that would "
977 "castrate FM—principally by moving FM radio to a different band of "
978 "spectrum. At first, these efforts failed. But when Armstrong and the nation "
979 "were distracted by World War II, RCA's work began to be more "
980 "successful. Soon after the war ended, the FCC announced a set of policies "
981 "that would have one clear effect: FM radio would be crippled. As Lawrence "
982 "Lessing described it,"
985 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
986 #: freeculture.xml:735
987 msgid "Lessing, 256."
990 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
991 #: freeculture.xml:731
993 "The series of body blows that FM radio received right after the war, in a "
994 "series of rulings manipulated through the FCC by the big radio interests, "
995 "were almost incredible in their force and deviousness.<placeholder "
996 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
999 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1000 #: freeculture.xml:740
1004 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1005 #: freeculture.xml:742
1007 "To make room in the spectrum for RCA's latest gamble, television, FM radio "
1008 "users were to be moved to a totally new spectrum band. The power of FM radio "
1009 "stations was also cut, meaning FM could no longer be used to beam programs "
1010 "from one part of the country to another. (This change was strongly "
1011 "supported by AT&T, because the loss of FM relaying stations would mean "
1012 "radio stations would have to buy wired links from AT&T.) The spread of "
1013 "FM radio was thus choked, at least temporarily."
1016 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1017 #: freeculture.xml:754
1019 "Armstrong resisted RCA's efforts. In response, RCA resisted Armstrong's "
1020 "patents. After incorporating FM technology into the emerging standard for "
1021 "television, RCA declared the patents invalid—baselessly, and almost "
1022 "fifteen years after they were issued. It thus refused to pay him "
1023 "royalties. For six years, Armstrong fought an expensive war of litigation to "
1024 "defend the patents. Finally, just as the patents expired, RCA offered a "
1025 "settlement so low that it would not even cover Armstrong's lawyers' "
1026 "fees. Defeated, broken, and now broke, in 1954 Armstrong wrote a short note "
1027 "to his wife and then stepped out of a thirteenth-story window to his death."
1031 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1032 #: freeculture.xml:768
1034 "This is how the law sometimes works. Not often this tragically, and rarely "
1035 "with heroic drama, but sometimes, this is how it works. From the beginning, "
1036 "government and government agencies have been subject to capture. They are "
1037 "more likely captured when a powerful interest is threatened by either a "
1038 "legal or technical change. That powerful interest too often exerts its "
1039 "influence within the government to get the government to protect it. The "
1040 "rhetoric of this protection is of course always public spirited; the reality "
1041 "is something different. Ideas that were as solid as rock in one age, but "
1042 "that, left to themselves, would crumble in another, are sustained through "
1043 "this subtle corruption of our political process. RCA had what the Causbys "
1044 "did not: the power to stifle the effect of technological change."
1047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1048 #: freeculture.xml:785 freeculture.xml:1156 freeculture.xml:2382 freeculture.xml:2394 freeculture.xml:2478
1052 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1053 #: freeculture.xml:785
1054 msgid "development of"
1057 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1058 #: freeculture.xml:793
1060 "Amanda Lenhart, <quote>The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at "
1061 "Internet Access and the Digital Divide,</quote> Pew Internet and American "
1062 "Life Project, 15 April 2003: 6, available at <ulink "
1063 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #2</ulink>."
1066 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1067 #: freeculture.xml:787
1069 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">There's no</emphasis> single inventor of the "
1070 "Internet. Nor is there any good date upon which to mark its birth. Yet in a "
1071 "very short time, the Internet has become part of ordinary American "
1072 "life. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 58 percent of "
1073 "Americans had access to the Internet in 2002, up from 49 percent two years "
1074 "before.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That number could well "
1075 "exceed two thirds of the nation by the end of 2004."
1078 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1079 #: freeculture.xml:802
1081 "As the Internet has been integrated into ordinary life, it has changed "
1082 "things. Some of these changes are technical—the Internet has made "
1083 "communication faster, it has lowered the cost of gathering data, and so "
1084 "on. These technical changes are not the focus of this book. They are "
1085 "important. They are not well understood. But they are the sort of thing that "
1086 "would simply go away if we all just switched the Internet off. They don't "
1087 "affect people who don't use the Internet, or at least they don't affect them "
1088 "directly. They are the proper subject of a book about the Internet. But this "
1089 "is not a book about the Internet."
1092 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1093 #: freeculture.xml:813
1095 "Instead, this book is about an effect of the Internet beyond the Internet "
1096 "itself: an effect upon how culture is made. My claim is that the Internet "
1097 "has induced an important and unrecognized change in that process. That "
1098 "change will radically transform a tradition that is as old as the Republic "
1099 "itself. Most, if they recognized this change, would reject it. Yet most "
1100 "don't even see the change that the Internet has introduced."
1103 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1104 #: freeculture.xml:822
1105 msgid "Barlow, Joel"
1108 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1109 #: freeculture.xml:823
1113 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1114 #: freeculture.xml:823
1115 msgid "commercial vs. noncommercial"
1118 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1119 #: freeculture.xml:824
1120 msgid "Webster, Noah"
1124 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1125 #: freeculture.xml:826
1127 "We can glimpse a sense of this change by distinguishing between commercial "
1128 "and noncommercial culture, and by mapping the law's regulation of each. By "
1129 "<quote>commercial culture</quote> I mean that part of our culture that is "
1130 "produced and sold or produced to be sold. By <quote>noncommercial "
1131 "culture</quote> I mean all the rest. When old men sat around parks or on "
1132 "street corners telling stories that kids and others consumed, that was "
1133 "noncommercial culture. When Noah Webster published his "
1134 "<quote>Reader,</quote> or Joel Barlow his poetry, that was commercial "
1138 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1139 #: freeculture.xml:838
1141 "At the beginning of our history, and for just about the whole of our "
1142 "tradition, noncommercial culture was essentially unregulated. Of course, if "
1143 "your stories were lewd, or if your song disturbed the peace, then the law "
1144 "might intervene. But the law was never directly concerned with the creation "
1145 "or spread of this form of culture, and it left this culture "
1146 "<quote>free.</quote> The ordinary ways in which ordinary individuals shared "
1147 "and transformed their culture—telling stories, reenacting scenes from "
1148 "plays or TV, participating in fan clubs, sharing music, making "
1149 "tapes—were left alone by the law."
1152 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1153 #: freeculture.xml:848
1154 msgid "Copyright infringement lawsuits"
1157 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1158 #: freeculture.xml:848
1159 msgid "commercial creativity as primary purpose of"
1162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1163 #: freeculture.xml:864 freeculture.xml:1998 freeculture.xml:2010
1164 msgid "Brandeis, Louis D."
1167 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1168 #: freeculture.xml:856
1170 "This is not the only purpose of copyright, though it is the overwhelmingly "
1171 "primary purpose of the copyright established in the federal constitution. "
1172 "State copyright law historically protected not just the commercial interest "
1173 "in publication, but also a privacy interest. By granting authors the "
1174 "exclusive right to first publication, state copyright law gave authors the "
1175 "power to control the spread of facts about them. See Samuel D. Warren and "
1176 "Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> Harvard Law Review 4 "
1177 "(1890): 193, 198–200. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1180 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1181 #: freeculture.xml:850
1183 "The focus of the law was on commercial creativity. At first slightly, then "
1184 "quite extensively, the law protected the incentives of creators by granting "
1185 "them exclusive rights to their creative work, so that they could sell those "
1186 "exclusive rights in a commercial marketplace.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
1187 "id=\"0\"/> This is also, of course, an important part of creativity and "
1188 "culture, and it has become an increasingly important part in America. But in "
1189 "no sense was it dominant within our tradition. It was instead just one part, "
1190 "a controlled part, balanced with the free."
1193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1194 #: freeculture.xml:871 freeculture.xml:1757
1195 msgid "free culture"
1198 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1199 #: freeculture.xml:871
1200 msgid "permission culture vs."
1203 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1204 #: freeculture.xml:872
1205 msgid "permission culture"
1208 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1209 #: freeculture.xml:872
1210 msgid "free culture vs."
1213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1214 #: freeculture.xml:878 freeculture.xml:9730
1215 msgid "Litman, Jessica"
1218 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1219 #: freeculture.xml:876
1221 "See Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (New York: "
1222 "Prometheus Books, 2001), ch. 13. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1225 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1226 #: freeculture.xml:874
1228 "This rough divide between the free and the controlled has now been "
1229 "erased.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Internet has set the "
1230 "stage for this erasure and, pushed by big media, the law has now affected "
1231 "it. For the first time in our tradition, the ordinary ways in which "
1232 "individuals create and share culture fall within the reach of the regulation "
1233 "of the law, which has expanded to draw within its control a vast amount of "
1234 "culture and creativity that it never reached before. The technology that "
1235 "preserved the balance of our history—between uses of our culture that "
1236 "were free and uses of our culture that were only upon permission—has "
1237 "been undone. The consequence is that we are less and less a free culture, "
1238 "more and more a permission culture."
1241 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1242 #: freeculture.xml:892
1243 msgid "protection of artists vs. business interests"
1246 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1247 #: freeculture.xml:894
1249 "This change gets justified as necessary to protect commercial creativity. "
1250 "And indeed, protectionism is precisely its motivation. But the protectionism "
1251 "that justifies the changes that I will describe below is not the limited and "
1252 "balanced sort that has defined the law in the past. This is not a "
1253 "protectionism to protect artists. It is instead a protectionism to protect "
1254 "certain forms of business. Corporations threatened by the potential of the "
1255 "Internet to change the way both commercial and noncommercial culture are "
1256 "made and shared have united to induce lawmakers to use the law to protect "
1257 "them. It is the story of RCA and Armstrong; it is the dream of the Causbys."
1260 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1261 #: freeculture.xml:908
1263 "For the Internet has unleashed an extraordinary possibility for many to "
1264 "participate in the process of building and cultivating a culture that "
1265 "reaches far beyond local boundaries. That power has changed the marketplace "
1266 "for making and cultivating culture generally, and that change in turn "
1267 "threatens established content industries. The Internet is thus to the "
1268 "industries that built and distributed content in the twentieth century what "
1269 "FM radio was to AM radio, or what the truck was to the railroad industry of "
1270 "the nineteenth century: the beginning of the end, or at least a substantial "
1271 "transformation. Digital technologies, tied to the Internet, could produce a "
1272 "vastly more competitive and vibrant market for building and cultivating "
1273 "culture; that market could include a much wider and more diverse range of "
1274 "creators; those creators could produce and distribute a much more vibrant "
1275 "range of creativity; and depending upon a few important factors, those "
1276 "creators could earn more on average from this system than creators do "
1277 "today—all so long as the RCAs of our day don't use the law to protect "
1278 "themselves against this competition."
1281 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1282 #: freeculture.xml:927
1284 "Yet, as I argue in the pages that follow, that is precisely what is "
1285 "happening in our culture today. These modern-day equivalents of the early "
1286 "twentieth-century radio or nineteenth-century railroads are using their "
1287 "power to get the law to protect them against this new, more efficient, more "
1288 "vibrant technology for building culture. They are succeeding in their plan "
1289 "to remake the Internet before the Internet remakes them."
1292 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1293 #: freeculture.xml:936
1294 msgid "Valenti, Jack"
1297 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1298 #: freeculture.xml:936
1299 msgid "on creative property rights"
1302 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1303 #: freeculture.xml:946
1305 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Black Hawk Download: Moving Beyond Music, Pirates Use New "
1306 "Tools to Turn the Net into an Illicit Video Club,</quote> <citetitle>New "
1307 "York Times</citetitle>, 17 January 2002."
1310 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1311 #: freeculture.xml:938
1313 "It doesn't seem this way to many. The battles over copyright and the "
1314 "Internet seem remote to most. To the few who follow them, they seem mainly "
1315 "about a much simpler brace of questions—whether <quote>piracy</quote> "
1316 "will be permitted, and whether <quote>property</quote> will be "
1317 "protected. The <quote>war</quote> that has been waged against the "
1318 "technologies of the Internet—what Motion Picture Association of "
1319 "America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti calls his <quote>own terrorist "
1320 "war</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—has been framed "
1321 "as a battle about the rule of law and respect for property. To know which "
1322 "side to take in this war, most think that we need only decide whether we're "
1323 "for property or against it."
1326 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1327 #: freeculture.xml:955
1329 "If those really were the choices, then I would be with Jack Valenti and the "
1330 "content industry. I, too, am a believer in property, and especially in the "
1331 "importance of what Mr. Valenti nicely calls <quote>creative "
1332 "property.</quote> I believe that <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong, and that "
1333 "the law, properly tuned, should punish <quote>piracy,</quote> whether on or "
1337 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1338 #: freeculture.xml:963
1340 "But those simple beliefs mask a much more fundamental question and a much "
1341 "more dramatic change. My fear is that unless we come to see this change, the "
1342 "war to rid the world of Internet <quote>pirates</quote> will also rid our "
1343 "culture of values that have been integral to our tradition from the start."
1346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1347 #: freeculture.xml:968 freeculture.xml:10962
1348 msgid "Constitution, U.S."
1351 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1352 #: freeculture.xml:968
1353 msgid "First Amendment to"
1356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1357 #: freeculture.xml:969 freeculture.xml:1134
1358 msgid "Copyright law"
1361 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1362 #: freeculture.xml:969
1363 msgid "as protection of creators"
1366 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1367 #: freeculture.xml:970
1368 msgid "First Amendment"
1371 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1372 #: freeculture.xml:971 freeculture.xml:981 freeculture.xml:14661
1373 msgid "Netanel, Neil Weinstock"
1376 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1377 #: freeculture.xml:979
1379 "Neil W. Netanel, <quote>Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society,</quote> "
1380 "<citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 106 (1996): 283. <placeholder "
1381 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1384 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1385 #: freeculture.xml:973
1387 "These values built a tradition that, for at least the first 180 years of our "
1388 "Republic, guaranteed creators the right to build freely upon their past, and "
1389 "protected creators and innovators from either state or private control. The "
1390 "First Amendment protected creators against state control. And as Professor "
1391 "Neil Netanel powerfully argues,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1392 "copyright law, properly balanced, protected creators against private "
1393 "control. Our tradition was thus neither Soviet nor the tradition of "
1394 "patrons. It instead carved out a wide berth within which creators could "
1395 "cultivate and extend our culture."
1398 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1399 #: freeculture.xml:989
1401 "Yet the law's response to the Internet, when tied to changes in the "
1402 "technology of the Internet itself, has massively increased the effective "
1403 "regulation of creativity in America. To build upon or critique the culture "
1404 "around us one must ask, Oliver Twist–like, for permission first. "
1405 "Permission is, of course, often granted—but it is not often granted to "
1406 "the critical or the independent. We have built a kind of cultural nobility; "
1407 "those within the noble class live easily; those outside it don't. But it is "
1408 "nobility of any form that is alien to our tradition."
1411 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1412 #: freeculture.xml:1001
1414 "The story that follows is about this war. Is it not about the "
1415 "<quote>centrality of technology</quote> to ordinary life. I don't believe in "
1416 "gods, digital or otherwise. Nor is it an effort to demonize any individual "
1417 "or group, for neither do I believe in a devil, corporate or otherwise. It is "
1418 "not a morality tale. Nor is it a call to jihad against an industry."
1421 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1422 #: freeculture.xml:1009
1424 "It is instead an effort to understand a hopelessly destructive war inspired "
1425 "by the technologies of the Internet but reaching far beyond its code. And by "
1426 "understanding this battle, it is an effort to map peace. There is no good "
1427 "reason for the current struggle around Internet technologies to "
1428 "continue. There will be great harm to our tradition and culture if it is "
1429 "allowed to continue unchecked. We must come to understand the source of this "
1430 "war. We must resolve it soon."
1433 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1434 #: freeculture.xml:1019
1435 msgid "intellectual property rights"
1438 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1439 #: freeculture.xml:1021
1441 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Like the Causbys'</emphasis> battle, this war is, "
1442 "in part, about <quote>property.</quote> The property of this war is not as "
1443 "tangible as the Causbys', and no innocent chicken has yet to lose its "
1444 "life. Yet the ideas surrounding this <quote>property</quote> are as obvious "
1445 "to most as the Causbys' claim about the sacredness of their farm was to "
1446 "them. We are the Causbys. Most of us take for granted the extraordinarily "
1447 "powerful claims that the owners of <quote>intellectual property</quote> now "
1448 "assert. Most of us, like the Causbys, treat these claims as obvious. And "
1449 "hence we, like the Causbys, object when a new technology interferes with "
1450 "this property. It is as plain to us as it was to them that the new "
1451 "technologies of the Internet are <quote>trespassing</quote> upon legitimate "
1452 "claims of <quote>property.</quote> It is as plain to us as it was to them "
1453 "that the law should intervene to stop this trespass."
1457 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1458 #: freeculture.xml:1039
1460 "And thus, when geeks and technologists defend their Armstrong or Wright "
1461 "brothers technology, most of us are simply unsympathetic. Common sense does "
1462 "not revolt. Unlike in the case of the unlucky Causbys, common sense is on "
1463 "the side of the property owners in this war. Unlike the lucky Wright "
1464 "brothers, the Internet has not inspired a revolution on its side."
1467 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1468 #: freeculture.xml:1050
1470 "My hope is to push this common sense along. I have become increasingly "
1471 "amazed by the power of this idea of intellectual property and, more "
1472 "importantly, its power to disable critical thought by policy makers and "
1473 "citizens. There has never been a time in our history when more of our "
1474 "<quote>culture</quote> was as <quote>owned</quote> as it is now. And yet "
1475 "there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the "
1476 "<emphasis>uses</emphasis> of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as "
1480 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1481 #: freeculture.xml:1060
1483 "The puzzle is, Why? Is it because we have come to understand a truth about "
1484 "the value and importance of absolute property over ideas and culture? Is it "
1485 "because we have discovered that our tradition of rejecting such an absolute "
1489 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1490 #: freeculture.xml:1066
1492 "Or is it because the idea of absolute property over ideas and culture "
1493 "benefits the RCAs of our time and fits our own unreflective intuitions?"
1496 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1497 #: freeculture.xml:1070
1499 "Is the radical shift away from our tradition of free culture an instance of "
1500 "America correcting a mistake from its past, as we did after a bloody war "
1501 "with slavery, and as we are slowly doing with inequality? Or is the radical "
1502 "shift away from our tradition of free culture yet another example of a "
1503 "political system captured by a few powerful special interests?"
1506 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1507 #: freeculture.xml:1077
1509 "Does common sense lead to the extremes on this question because common sense "
1510 "actually believes in these extremes? Or does common sense stand silent in "
1511 "the face of these extremes because, as with Armstrong versus RCA, the more "
1512 "powerful side has ensured that it has the more powerful view?"
1516 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1517 #: freeculture.xml:1086
1519 "I don't mean to be mysterious. My own views are resolved. I believe it was "
1520 "right for common sense to revolt against the extremism of the Causbys. I "
1521 "believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme "
1522 "claims made today on behalf of <quote>intellectual property.</quote> What "
1523 "the law demands today is increasingly as silly as a sheriff arresting an "
1524 "airplane for trespass. But the consequences of this silliness will be much "
1528 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1529 #: freeculture.xml:1097
1531 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">The struggle</emphasis> that rages just now "
1532 "centers on two ideas: <quote>piracy</quote> and <quote>property.</quote> My "
1533 "aim in this book's next two parts is to explore these two ideas."
1536 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1537 #: freeculture.xml:1102
1539 "My method is not the usual method of an academic. I don't want to plunge you "
1540 "into a complex argument, buttressed with references to obscure French "
1541 "theorists—however natural that is for the weird sort we academics have "
1542 "become. Instead I begin in each part with a collection of stories that set a "
1543 "context within which these apparently simple ideas can be more fully "
1547 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1548 #: freeculture.xml:1110
1550 "The two sections set up the core claim of this book: that while the Internet "
1551 "has indeed produced something fantastic and new, our government, pushed by "
1552 "big media to respond to this <quote>something new,</quote> is destroying "
1553 "something very old. Rather than understanding the changes the Internet might "
1554 "permit, and rather than taking time to let <quote>common sense</quote> "
1555 "resolve how best to respond, we are allowing those most threatened by the "
1556 "changes to use their power to change the law—and more importantly, to "
1557 "use their power to change something fundamental about who we have always "
1561 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1562 #: freeculture.xml:1121
1564 "We allow this, I believe, not because it is right, and not because most of "
1565 "us really believe in these changes. We allow it because the interests most "
1566 "threatened are among the most powerful players in our depressingly "
1567 "compromised process of making law. This book is the story of one more "
1568 "consequence of this form of corruption—a consequence to which most of "
1569 "us remain oblivious."
1572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
1573 #: freeculture.xml:1131
1574 msgid "<quote>PIRACY</quote>"
1577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1578 #: freeculture.xml:1134
1582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1583 #: freeculture.xml:1135 freeculture.xml:4985
1584 msgid "Mansfield, William Murray, Lord"
1587 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1588 #: freeculture.xml:1136
1589 msgid "music publishing"
1592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1593 #: freeculture.xml:1137 freeculture.xml:3184
1597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1598 #: freeculture.xml:1139
1600 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Since the inception</emphasis> of the law "
1601 "regulating creative property, there has been a war against "
1602 "<quote>piracy.</quote> The precise contours of this concept, "
1603 "<quote>piracy,</quote> are hard to sketch, but the animating injustice is "
1604 "easy to capture. As Lord Mansfield wrote in a case that extended the reach "
1605 "of English copyright law to include sheet music,"
1609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1610 #: freeculture.xml:1151
1612 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
1613 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777) (Mansfield)."
1616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1617 #: freeculture.xml:1147
1619 "A person may use the copy by playing it, but he has no right to rob the "
1620 "author of the profit, by multiplying copies and disposing of them for his "
1621 "own use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1625 #: freeculture.xml:1156
1626 msgid "efficient content distribution on"
1629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1630 #: freeculture.xml:1157
1631 msgid "peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing"
1634 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1635 #: freeculture.xml:1157
1636 msgid "efficiency of"
1640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1641 #: freeculture.xml:1159
1643 "Today we are in the middle of another <quote>war</quote> against "
1644 "<quote>piracy.</quote> The Internet has provoked this war. The Internet "
1645 "makes possible the efficient spread of content. Peer-to-peer (p2p) file "
1646 "sharing is among the most efficient of the efficient technologies the "
1647 "Internet enables. Using distributed intelligence, p2p systems facilitate the "
1648 "easy spread of content in a way unimagined a generation ago."
1651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1652 #: freeculture.xml:1168
1654 "This efficiency does not respect the traditional lines of copyright. The "
1655 "network doesn't discriminate between the sharing of copyrighted and "
1656 "uncopyrighted content. Thus has there been a vast amount of sharing of "
1657 "copyrighted content. That sharing in turn has excited the war, as copyright "
1658 "owners fear the sharing will <quote>rob the author of the profit.</quote>"
1661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1662 #: freeculture.xml:1177
1664 "The warriors have turned to the courts, to the legislatures, and "
1665 "increasingly to technology to defend their <quote>property</quote> against "
1666 "this <quote>piracy.</quote> A generation of Americans, the warriors warn, is "
1667 "being raised to believe that <quote>property</quote> should be "
1668 "<quote>free.</quote> Forget tattoos, never mind body piercing—our kids "
1669 "are becoming <emphasis>thieves</emphasis>!"
1672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1673 #: freeculture.xml:1185
1675 "There's no doubt that <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong, and that pirates "
1676 "should be punished. But before we summon the executioners, we should put "
1677 "this notion of <quote>piracy</quote> in some context. For as the concept is "
1678 "increasingly used, at its core is an extraordinary idea that is almost "
1682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1683 #: freeculture.xml:1191
1684 msgid "The idea goes something like this:"
1687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1688 #: freeculture.xml:1195
1690 "Creative work has value; whenever I use, or take, or build upon the creative "
1691 "work of others, I am taking from them something of value. Whenever I take "
1692 "something of value from someone else, I should have their permission. The "
1693 "taking of something of value from someone else without permission is "
1694 "wrong. It is a form of piracy."
1697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1698 #: freeculture.xml:1203
1702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1703 #: freeculture.xml:1204
1704 msgid "Dreyfuss, Rochelle"
1707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1708 #: freeculture.xml:1205
1712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1713 #: freeculture.xml:1206
1714 msgid "creative property"
1717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1718 #: freeculture.xml:1206
1719 msgid "<quote>if value, then right</quote> theory of"
1722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1723 #: freeculture.xml:1207 freeculture.xml:2993
1724 msgid "<quote>if value, then right</quote> theory"
1728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1729 #: freeculture.xml:1213
1731 "See Rochelle Dreyfuss, <quote>Expressive Genericity: Trademarks as Language "
1732 "in the Pepsi Generation,</quote> <citetitle>Notre Dame Law "
1733 "Review</citetitle> 65 (1990): 397."
1736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1737 #: freeculture.xml:1226 freeculture.xml:7141
1738 msgid "Zittrain, Jonathan"
1741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1742 #: freeculture.xml:1221
1744 "Lisa Bannon, <quote>The Birds May Sing, but Campers Can't Unless They Pay "
1745 "Up,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 21 August 1996, "
1746 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #3</ulink>; "
1747 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>Calling Off the Copyright War: In Battle of "
1748 "Property vs. Free Speech, No One Wins,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
1749 "Globe</citetitle>, 24 November 2002. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
1753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1754 #: freeculture.xml:1209
1756 "This view runs deep within the current debates. It is what NYU law professor "
1757 "Rochelle Dreyfuss criticizes as the <quote>if value, then right</quote> "
1758 "theory of creative property<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1759 "—if there is value, then someone must have a right to that value. It "
1760 "is the perspective that led a composers' rights organization, ASCAP, to sue "
1761 "the Girl Scouts for failing to pay for the songs that girls sang around Girl "
1762 "Scout campfires.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> There was "
1763 "<quote>value</quote> (the songs) so there must have been a "
1764 "<quote>right</quote>—even against the Girl Scouts."
1768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1769 #: freeculture.xml:1233
1771 "This idea is certainly a possible understanding of how creative property "
1772 "should work. It might well be a possible design for a system of law "
1773 "protecting creative property. But the <quote>if value, then right</quote> "
1774 "theory of creative property has never been America's theory of creative "
1775 "property. It has never taken hold within our law."
1778 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1779 #: freeculture.xml:1241 freeculture.xml:1266 freeculture.xml:1610 freeculture.xml:1654 freeculture.xml:1768
1780 msgid "copyright law"
1783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1784 #: freeculture.xml:1241
1785 msgid "on republishing vs. transformation of original work"
1788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1789 #: freeculture.xml:1242 freeculture.xml:1424 freeculture.xml:1581
1793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1794 #: freeculture.xml:1242
1795 msgid "legal restrictions on"
1798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1799 #: freeculture.xml:1244
1801 "Instead, in our tradition, intellectual property is an instrument. It sets "
1802 "the groundwork for a richly creative society but remains subservient to the "
1803 "value of creativity. The current debate has this turned around. We have "
1804 "become so concerned with protecting the instrument that we are losing sight "
1808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1809 #: freeculture.xml:1251
1811 "The source of this confusion is a distinction that the law no longer takes "
1812 "care to draw—the distinction between republishing someone's work on "
1813 "the one hand and building upon or transforming that work on the "
1814 "other. Copyright law at its birth had only publishing as its concern; "
1815 "copyright law today regulates both."
1818 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1819 #: freeculture.xml:1259
1821 "Before the technologies of the Internet, this conflation didn't matter all "
1822 "that much. The technologies of publishing were expensive; that meant the "
1823 "vast majority of publishing was commercial. Commercial entities could bear "
1824 "the burden of the law—even the burden of the Byzantine complexity that "
1825 "copyright law has become. It was just one more expense of doing business."
1828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1829 #: freeculture.xml:1266
1830 msgid "creativity impeded by"
1833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1834 #: freeculture.xml:1267 freeculture.xml:1298
1835 msgid "Florida, Richard"
1838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1839 #: freeculture.xml:1268 freeculture.xml:1299
1840 msgid "Rise of the Creative Class, The (Florida)"
1843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1844 #: freeculture.xml:1290
1846 "In <citetitle>The Rise of the Creative Class</citetitle> (New York: Basic "
1847 "Books, 2002), Richard Florida documents a shift in the nature of labor "
1848 "toward a labor of creativity. His work, however, doesn't directly address "
1849 "the legal conditions under which that creativity is enabled or stifled. I "
1850 "certainly agree with him about the importance and significance of this "
1851 "change, but I also believe the conditions under which it will be enabled are "
1852 "much more tenuous. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
1853 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
1856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1857 #: freeculture.xml:1270
1859 "But with the birth of the Internet, this natural limit to the reach of the "
1860 "law has disappeared. The law controls not just the creativity of commercial "
1861 "creators but effectively that of anyone. Although that expansion would not "
1862 "matter much if copyright law regulated only <quote>copying,</quote> when the "
1863 "law regulates as broadly and obscurely as it does, the extension matters a "
1864 "lot. The burden of this law now vastly outweighs any original "
1865 "benefit—certainly as it affects noncommercial creativity, and "
1866 "increasingly as it affects commercial creativity as well. Thus, as we'll see "
1867 "more clearly in the chapters below, the law's role is less and less to "
1868 "support creativity, and more and more to protect certain industries against "
1869 "competition. Just at the time digital technology could unleash an "
1870 "extraordinary range of commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law "
1871 "burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the "
1872 "threat of obscenely severe penalties. We may be seeing, as Richard Florida "
1873 "writes, the <quote>Rise of the Creative Class.</quote><placeholder "
1874 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Unfortunately, we are also seeing an "
1875 "extraordinary rise of regulation of this creative class."
1878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1879 #: freeculture.xml:1306
1881 "These burdens make no sense in our tradition. We should begin by "
1882 "understanding that tradition a bit more and by placing in their proper "
1883 "context the current battles about behavior labeled <quote>piracy.</quote>"
1886 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
1887 #: freeculture.xml:1314
1888 msgid "CHAPTER ONE: Creators"
1891 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1892 #: freeculture.xml:1315
1893 msgid "animated cartoons"
1896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1897 #: freeculture.xml:1316
1898 msgid "cartoon films"
1901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1902 #: freeculture.xml:1317 freeculture.xml:5858 freeculture.xml:5901
1906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1907 #: freeculture.xml:1317
1911 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1912 #: freeculture.xml:1318
1913 msgid "Steamboat Willie"
1916 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1917 #: freeculture.xml:1319 freeculture.xml:7165
1918 msgid "Mickey Mouse"
1921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1922 #: freeculture.xml:1321
1924 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">In 1928</emphasis>, a cartoon character was "
1925 "born. An early Mickey Mouse made his debut in May of that year, in a silent "
1926 "flop called <citetitle>Plane Crazy</citetitle>. In November, in New York "
1927 "City's Colony Theater, in the first widely distributed cartoon synchronized "
1928 "with sound, <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle> brought to life the "
1929 "character that would become Mickey Mouse."
1932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1933 #: freeculture.xml:1327 freeculture.xml:1544 freeculture.xml:1598 freeculture.xml:1739 freeculture.xml:1985 freeculture.xml:4470 freeculture.xml:6033 freeculture.xml:7164 freeculture.xml:10584 freeculture.xml:10965
1934 msgid "Disney, Walt"
1937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1938 #: freeculture.xml:1329
1940 "Synchronized sound had been introduced to film a year earlier in the movie "
1941 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle>. That success led Walt Disney to copy "
1942 "the technique and mix sound with cartoons. No one knew whether it would work "
1943 "or, if it did work, whether it would win an audience. But when Disney ran a "
1944 "test in the summer of 1928, the results were unambiguous. As Disney "
1945 "describes that first experiment,"
1949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1950 #: freeculture.xml:1338
1952 "A couple of my boys could read music, and one of them could play a mouth "
1953 "organ. We put them in a room where they could not see the screen and "
1954 "arranged to pipe their sound into the room where our wives and friends were "
1955 "going to see the picture."
1958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1959 #: freeculture.xml:1345
1961 "The boys worked from a music and sound-effects score. After several false "
1962 "starts, sound and action got off with the gun. The mouth organist played the "
1963 "tune, the rest of us in the sound department bammed tin pans and blew slide "
1964 "whistles on the beat. The synchronization was pretty close."
1968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1969 #: freeculture.xml:1358
1971 "Leonard Maltin, <citetitle>Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated "
1972 "Cartoons</citetitle> (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), 34–35."
1975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1976 #: freeculture.xml:1352
1978 "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They "
1979 "responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought "
1980 "they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action "
1981 "again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something "
1982 "new!<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1986 #: freeculture.xml:1363
1990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1991 #: freeculture.xml:1365
1993 "Disney's then partner, and one of animation's most extraordinary talents, Ub "
1994 "Iwerks, put it more strongly: <quote>I have never been so thrilled in my "
1995 "life. Nothing since has ever equaled it.</quote>"
1998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1999 #: freeculture.xml:1370
2001 "Disney had created something very new, based upon something relatively "
2002 "new. Synchronized sound brought life to a form of creativity that had "
2003 "rarely—except in Disney's hands—been anything more than filler "
2004 "for other films. Throughout animation's early history, it was Disney's "
2005 "invention that set the standard that others struggled to match. And quite "
2006 "often, Disney's great genius, his spark of creativity, was built upon the "
2010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2011 #: freeculture.xml:1379 freeculture.xml:1741
2012 msgid "Keaton, Buster"
2015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2016 #: freeculture.xml:1380 freeculture.xml:1611 freeculture.xml:1999
2017 msgid "Steamboat Bill, Jr."
2020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2021 #: freeculture.xml:1382
2023 "This much is familiar. What you might not know is that 1928 also marks "
2024 "another important transition. In that year, a comic (as opposed to cartoon) "
2025 "genius created his last independently produced silent film. That genius was "
2026 "Buster Keaton. The film was <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>."
2029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2030 #: freeculture.xml:1388
2032 "Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in 1895. In the era of silent film, "
2033 "he had mastered using broad physical comedy as a way to spark uncontrollable "
2034 "laughter from his audience. <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. was a "
2035 "classic of this form, famous among film buffs for its incredible stunts. "
2036 "The film was classic Keaton—wildly popular and among the best of its "
2040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2041 #: freeculture.xml:1395 freeculture.xml:1552
2042 msgid "derivative works"
2045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2046 #: freeculture.xml:1395 freeculture.xml:1552
2050 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
2051 #: freeculture.xml:1396 freeculture.xml:1555 freeculture.xml:3672 freeculture.xml:14727
2055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2056 #: freeculture.xml:1396 freeculture.xml:1555
2057 msgid "derivative work vs."
2061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2062 #: freeculture.xml:1404
2064 "I am grateful to David Gerstein and his careful history, described at <ulink "
2065 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #4</ulink>. According to Dave "
2066 "Smith of the Disney Archives, Disney paid royalties to use the music for "
2067 "five songs in <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle>: <quote>Steamboat "
2068 "Bill,</quote> <quote>The Simpleton</quote> (Delille), <quote>Mischief "
2069 "Makers</quote> (Carbonara), <quote>Joyful Hurry No. 1</quote> (Baron), and "
2070 "<quote>Gawky Rube</quote> (Lakay). A sixth song, <quote>The Turkey in the "
2071 "Straw,</quote> was already in the public domain. Letter from David Smith to "
2072 "Harry Surden, 10 July 2003, on file with author."
2075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2076 #: freeculture.xml:1398
2078 "<citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. appeared before Disney's cartoon "
2079 "Steamboat Willie. The coincidence of titles is not coincidental. Steamboat "
2080 "Willie is a direct cartoon parody of Steamboat Bill,<placeholder "
2081 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and both are built upon a common song as a "
2082 "source. It is not just from the invention of synchronized sound in "
2083 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle> that we get <citetitle>Steamboat "
2084 "Willie</citetitle>. It is also from Buster Keaton's invention of Steamboat "
2085 "Bill, Jr., itself inspired by the song <quote>Steamboat Bill,</quote> that "
2086 "we get Steamboat Willie, and then from Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse."
2089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2090 #: freeculture.xml:1424 freeculture.xml:1581
2091 msgid "by transforming previous works"
2094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2095 #: freeculture.xml:1425 freeculture.xml:6074
2096 msgid "Disney, Inc."
2100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2101 #: freeculture.xml:1431
2103 "He was also a fan of the public domain. See Chris Sprigman, <quote>The Mouse "
2104 "that Ate the Public Domain,</quote> Findlaw, 5 March 2002, at <ulink "
2105 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #5</ulink>."
2108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2109 #: freeculture.xml:1427
2111 "This <quote>borrowing</quote> was nothing unique, either for Disney or for "
2112 "the industry. Disney was always parroting the feature-length mainstream "
2113 "films of his day.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> So did many "
2114 "others. Early cartoons are filled with knockoffs—slight variations on "
2115 "winning themes; retellings of ancient stories. The key to success was the "
2116 "brilliance of the differences. With Disney, it was sound that gave his "
2117 "animation its spark. Later, it was the quality of his work relative to the "
2118 "production-line cartoons with which he competed. Yet these additions were "
2119 "built upon a base that was borrowed. Disney added to the work of others "
2120 "before him, creating something new out of something just barely old."
2123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2124 #: freeculture.xml:1445 freeculture.xml:1740 freeculture.xml:10585
2125 msgid "Grimm fairy tales"
2128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2129 #: freeculture.xml:1447
2131 "Sometimes this borrowing was slight. Sometimes it was significant. Think "
2132 "about the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. If you're as oblivious as I "
2133 "was, you're likely to think that these tales are happy, sweet stories, "
2134 "appropriate for any child at bedtime. In fact, the Grimm fairy tales are, "
2135 "well, for us, grim. It is a rare and perhaps overly ambitious parent who "
2136 "would dare to read these bloody, moralistic stories to his or her child, at "
2137 "bedtime or anytime."
2141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2142 #: freeculture.xml:1456
2144 "Disney took these stories and retold them in a way that carried them into a "
2145 "new age. He animated the stories, with both characters and light. Without "
2146 "removing the elements of fear and danger altogether, he made funny what was "
2147 "dark and injected a genuine emotion of compassion where before there was "
2148 "fear. And not just with the work of the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the catalog "
2149 "of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set "
2150 "together: <citetitle>Snow White</citetitle> (1937), "
2151 "<citetitle>Fantasia</citetitle> (1940), <citetitle>Pinocchio</citetitle> "
2152 "(1940), <citetitle>Dumbo</citetitle> (1941), <citetitle>Bambi</citetitle> "
2153 "(1942), <citetitle>Song of the South</citetitle> (1946), "
2154 "<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle> (1950), <citetitle>Alice in "
2155 "Wonderland</citetitle> (1951), <citetitle>Robin Hood</citetitle> (1952), "
2156 "<citetitle>Peter Pan</citetitle> (1953), <citetitle>Lady and the "
2157 "Tramp</citetitle> (1955), <citetitle>Mulan</citetitle> (1998), "
2158 "<citetitle>Sleeping Beauty</citetitle> (1959), <citetitle>101 "
2159 "Dalmatians</citetitle> (1961), <citetitle>The Sword in the Stone</citetitle> "
2160 "(1963), and <citetitle>The Jungle Book</citetitle> (1967)—not to "
2161 "mention a recent example that we should perhaps quickly forget, "
2162 "<citetitle>Treasure Planet</citetitle> (2003). In all of these cases, Disney "
2163 "(or Disney, Inc.) ripped creativity from the culture around him, mixed that "
2164 "creativity with his own extraordinary talent, and then burned that mix into "
2165 "the soul of his culture. Rip, mix, and burn."
2168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2169 #: freeculture.xml:1479
2171 "This is a kind of creativity. It is a creativity that we should remember and "
2172 "celebrate. There are some who would say that there is no creativity except "
2173 "this kind. We don't need to go that far to recognize its importance. We "
2174 "could call this <quote>Disney creativity,</quote> though that would be a bit "
2175 "misleading. It is, more precisely, <quote>Walt Disney "
2176 "creativity</quote>—a form of expression and genius that builds upon "
2177 "the culture around us and makes it something different."
2180 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2181 #: freeculture.xml:1490 freeculture.xml:10963 freeculture.xml:10964
2185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2186 #: freeculture.xml:1490 freeculture.xml:10964
2190 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2191 #: freeculture.xml:1491 freeculture.xml:1492 freeculture.xml:12929
2192 msgid "public domain"
2195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2196 #: freeculture.xml:1491
2200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2201 #: freeculture.xml:1492
2202 msgid "traditional term for conversion to"
2206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2207 #: freeculture.xml:1499
2209 "Until 1976, copyright law granted an author the possibility of two terms: an "
2210 "initial term and a renewal term. I have calculated the "
2211 "<quote>average</quote> term by determining the weighted average of total "
2212 "registrations for any particular year, and the proportion renewing. Thus, if "
2213 "100 copyrights are registered in year 1, and only 15 are renewed, and the "
2214 "renewal term is 28 years, then the average term is 32.2 years. For the "
2215 "renewal data and other relevant data, see the Web site associated with this "
2216 "book, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
2220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2221 #: freeculture.xml:1493
2223 "In 1928, the culture that Disney was free to draw upon was relatively "
2224 "fresh. The public domain in 1928 was not very old and was therefore quite "
2225 "vibrant. The average term of copyright was just around thirty "
2226 "years—for that minority of creative work that was in fact "
2227 "copyrighted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That means that for "
2228 "thirty years, on average, the authors or copyright holders of a creative "
2229 "work had an <quote>exclusive right</quote> to control certain uses of the "
2230 "work. To use this copyrighted work in limited ways required the permission "
2231 "of the copyright owner."
2234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2235 #: freeculture.xml:1516
2237 "At the end of a copyright term, a work passes into the public domain. No "
2238 "permission is then needed to draw upon or use that work. No permission and, "
2239 "hence, no lawyers. The public domain is a <quote>lawyer-free zone.</quote> "
2240 "Thus, most of the content from the nineteenth century was free for Disney to "
2241 "use and build upon in 1928. It was free for anyone— whether connected "
2242 "or not, whether rich or not, whether approved or not—to use and build "
2247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2248 #: freeculture.xml:1527
2250 "This is the ways things always were—until quite recently. For most of "
2251 "our history, the public domain was just over the horizon. From until 1978, "
2252 "the average copyright term was never more than thirty-two years, meaning "
2253 "that most culture just a generation and a half old was free for anyone to "
2254 "build upon without the permission of anyone else. Today's equivalent would "
2255 "be for creative work from the 1960s and 1970s to now be free for the next "
2256 "Walt Disney to build upon without permission. Yet today, the public domain "
2257 "is presumptive only for content from before the Great Depression."
2260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2261 #: freeculture.xml:1546
2263 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Of course</emphasis>, Walt Disney had no monopoly "
2264 "on <quote>Walt Disney creativity.</quote> Nor does America. The norm of free "
2265 "culture has, until recently, and except within totalitarian nations, been "
2266 "broadly exploited and quite universal."
2269 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2270 #: freeculture.xml:1551 freeculture.xml:1655 freeculture.xml:1769
2271 msgid "comics, Japanese"
2274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2275 #: freeculture.xml:1553 freeculture.xml:1771
2276 msgid "Japanese comics"
2279 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2280 #: freeculture.xml:1554 freeculture.xml:1772
2284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2285 #: freeculture.xml:1557
2287 "Consider, for example, a form of creativity that seems strange to many "
2288 "Americans but that is inescapable within Japanese culture: "
2289 "<citetitle>manga</citetitle>, or comics. The Japanese are fanatics about "
2290 "comics. Some 40 percent of publications are comics, and 30 percent of "
2291 "publication revenue derives from comics. They are everywhere in Japanese "
2292 "society, at every magazine stand, carried by a large proportion of commuters "
2293 "on Japan's extraordinary system of public transportation."
2296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2297 #: freeculture.xml:1566
2299 "Americans tend to look down upon this form of culture. That's an "
2300 "unattractive characteristic of ours. We're likely to misunderstand much "
2301 "about manga, because few of us have ever read anything close to the stories "
2302 "that these <quote>graphic novels</quote> tell. For the Japanese, manga cover "
2303 "every aspect of social life. For us, comics are <quote>men in "
2304 "tights.</quote> And anyway, it's not as if the New York subways are filled "
2305 "with readers of Joyce or even Hemingway. People of different cultures "
2306 "distract themselves in different ways, the Japanese in this interestingly "
2310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2311 #: freeculture.xml:1577
2313 "But my purpose here is not to understand manga. It is to describe a variant "
2314 "on manga that from a lawyer's perspective is quite odd, but from a Disney "
2315 "perspective is quite familiar."
2318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2319 #: freeculture.xml:1582 freeculture.xml:1770
2320 msgid "doujinshi comics"
2324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2325 #: freeculture.xml:1584
2327 "This is the phenomenon of <citetitle>doujinshi</citetitle>. Doujinshi are "
2328 "also comics, but they are a kind of copycat comic. A rich ethic governs the "
2329 "creation of doujinshi. It is not doujinshi if it is "
2330 "<emphasis>just</emphasis> a copy; the artist must make a contribution to the "
2331 "art he copies, by transforming it either subtly or significantly. A "
2332 "doujinshi comic can thus take a mainstream comic and develop it "
2333 "differently—with a different story line. Or the comic can keep the "
2334 "character in character but change its look slightly. There is no formula for "
2335 "what makes the doujinshi sufficiently <quote>different.</quote> But they "
2336 "must be different if they are to be considered true doujinshi. Indeed, there "
2337 "are committees that review doujinshi for inclusion within shows and reject "
2338 "any copycat comic that is merely a copy."
2341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2342 #: freeculture.xml:1600
2344 "These copycat comics are not a tiny part of the manga market. They are "
2345 "huge. More than 33,000 <quote>circles</quote> of creators from across Japan "
2346 "produce these bits of Walt Disney creativity. More than 450,000 Japanese "
2347 "come together twice a year, in the largest public gathering in the country, "
2348 "to exchange and sell them. This market exists in parallel to the mainstream "
2349 "commercial manga market. In some ways, it obviously competes with that "
2350 "market, but there is no sustained effort by those who control the commercial "
2351 "manga market to shut the doujinshi market down. It flourishes, despite the "
2352 "competition and despite the law."
2355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2356 #: freeculture.xml:1610 freeculture.xml:1654 freeculture.xml:1768
2360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2361 #: freeculture.xml:1613
2363 "The most puzzling feature of the doujinshi market, for those trained in the "
2364 "law, at least, is that it is allowed to exist at all. Under Japanese "
2365 "copyright law, which in this respect (on paper) mirrors American copyright "
2366 "law, the doujinshi market is an illegal one. Doujinshi are plainly "
2367 "<quote>derivative works.</quote> There is no general practice by doujinshi "
2368 "artists of securing the permission of the manga creators. Instead, the "
2369 "practice is simply to take and modify the creations of others, as Walt "
2370 "Disney did with <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. Under both "
2371 "Japanese and American law, that <quote>taking</quote> without the permission "
2372 "of the original copyright owner is illegal. It is an infringement of the "
2373 "original copyright to make a copy or a derivative work without the original "
2374 "copyright owner's permission."
2377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2378 #: freeculture.xml:1627
2379 msgid "Winick, Judd"
2383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2384 #: freeculture.xml:1639
2386 "For an excellent history, see Scott McCloud, <citetitle>Reinventing "
2387 "Comics</citetitle> (New York: Perennial, 2000)."
2390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2391 #: freeculture.xml:1629
2393 "Yet this illegal market exists and indeed flourishes in Japan, and in the "
2394 "view of many, it is precisely because it exists that Japanese manga "
2395 "flourish. As American graphic novelist Judd Winick said to me, <quote>The "
2396 "early days of comics in America are very much like what's going on in Japan "
2397 "now. … American comics were born out of copying each other. … "
2398 "That's how [the artists] learn to draw—by going into comic books and "
2399 "not tracing them, but looking at them and copying them</quote> and building "
2400 "from them.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2404 #: freeculture.xml:1644
2405 msgid "Superman comics"
2408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2409 #: freeculture.xml:1646
2411 "American comics now are quite different, Winick explains, in part because of "
2412 "the legal difficulty of adapting comics the way doujinshi are "
2413 "allowed. Speaking of Superman, Winick told me, <quote>there are these rules "
2414 "and you have to stick to them.</quote> There are things Superman "
2415 "<quote>cannot</quote> do. <quote>As a creator, it's frustrating having to "
2416 "stick to some parameters which are fifty years old.</quote>"
2419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2420 #: freeculture.xml:1656
2421 msgid "Mehra, Salil"
2425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2426 #: freeculture.xml:1666
2428 "See Salil K. Mehra, <quote>Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain "
2429 "Why All the Comics My Kid Watches Are Japanese Imports?</quote> "
2430 "<citetitle>Rutgers Law Review</citetitle> 55 (2002): 155, "
2431 "182. <quote>[T]here might be a collective economic rationality that would "
2432 "lead manga and anime artists to forgo bringing legal actions for "
2433 "infringement. One hypothesis is that all manga artists may be better off "
2434 "collectively if they set aside their individual self-interest and decide not "
2435 "to press their legal rights. This is essentially a prisoner's dilemma "
2439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2440 #: freeculture.xml:1658
2442 "The norm in Japan mitigates this legal difficulty. Some say it is precisely "
2443 "the benefit accruing to the Japanese manga market that explains the "
2444 "mitigation. Temple University law professor Salil Mehra, for example, "
2445 "hypothesizes that the manga market accepts these technical violations "
2446 "because they spur the manga market to be more wealthy and "
2447 "productive. Everyone would be worse off if doujinshi were banned, so the law "
2448 "does not ban doujinshi.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2451 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2452 #: freeculture.xml:1680
2454 "The problem with this story, however, as Mehra plainly acknowledges, is that "
2455 "the mechanism producing this laissez faire response is not clear. It may "
2456 "well be that the market as a whole is better off if doujinshi are permitted "
2457 "rather than banned, but that doesn't explain why individual copyright owners "
2458 "don't sue nonetheless. If the law has no general exception for doujinshi, "
2459 "and indeed in some cases individual manga artists have sued doujinshi "
2460 "artists, why is there not a more general pattern of blocking this "
2461 "<quote>free taking</quote> by the doujinshi culture?"
2464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2465 #: freeculture.xml:1693
2467 "I spent four wonderful months in Japan, and I asked this question as often "
2468 "as I could. Perhaps the best account in the end was offered by a friend from "
2469 "a major Japanese law firm. <quote>We don't have enough lawyers,</quote> he "
2470 "told me one afternoon. There <quote>just aren't enough resources to "
2471 "prosecute cases like this.</quote>"
2475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2476 #: freeculture.xml:1700
2478 "This is a theme to which we will return: that regulation by law is a "
2479 "function of both the words on the books and the costs of making those words "
2480 "have effect. For now, focus on the obvious question that is begged: Would "
2481 "Japan be better off with more lawyers? Would manga be richer if doujinshi "
2482 "artists were regularly prosecuted? Would the Japanese gain something "
2483 "important if they could end this practice of uncompensated sharing? Does "
2484 "piracy here hurt the victims of the piracy, or does it help them? Would "
2485 "lawyers fighting this piracy help their clients or hurt them?"
2488 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2489 #: freeculture.xml:1713
2490 msgid "<emphasis role='strong'>Let's pause</emphasis> for a moment."
2493 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2494 #: freeculture.xml:1716
2496 "If you're like I was a decade ago, or like most people are when they first "
2497 "start thinking about these issues, then just about now you should be puzzled "
2498 "about something you hadn't thought through before."
2501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2502 #: freeculture.xml:1726 freeculture.xml:3010 freeculture.xml:4686 freeculture.xml:4911 freeculture.xml:7527 freeculture.xml:8634
2503 msgid "Vaidhyanathan, Siva"
2506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2507 #: freeculture.xml:1726
2509 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The term <citetitle>intellectual "
2510 "property</citetitle> is of relatively recent origin. See Siva Vaidhyanathan, "
2511 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 11 (New York: New York "
2512 "University Press, 2001). See also Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>The Future of "
2513 "Ideas</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2001), 293 n. 26. The term "
2514 "accurately describes a set of <quote>property</quote> "
2515 "rights—copyright, patents, trademark, and trade-secret—but the "
2516 "nature of those rights is very different."
2519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2520 #: freeculture.xml:1721
2522 "We live in a world that celebrates <quote>property.</quote> I am one of "
2523 "those celebrants. I believe in the value of property in general, and I also "
2524 "believe in the value of that weird form of property that lawyers call "
2525 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2526 "id=\"0\"/> A large, diverse society cannot survive without property; a "
2527 "large, diverse, and modern society cannot flourish without intellectual "
2531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2532 #: freeculture.xml:1743
2534 "But it takes just a second's reflection to realize that there is plenty of "
2535 "value out there that <quote>property</quote> doesn't capture. I don't mean "
2536 "<quote>money can't buy you love,</quote> but rather, value that is plainly "
2537 "part of a process of production, including commercial as well as "
2538 "noncommercial production. If Disney animators had stolen a set of pencils "
2539 "to draw Steamboat Willie, we'd have no hesitation in condemning that taking "
2540 "as wrong— even though trivial, even if unnoticed. Yet there was "
2541 "nothing wrong, at least under the law of the day, with Disney's taking from "
2542 "Buster Keaton or from the Brothers Grimm. There was nothing wrong with the "
2543 "taking from Keaton because Disney's use would have been considered "
2544 "<quote>fair.</quote> There was nothing wrong with the taking from the Grimms "
2545 "because the Grimms' work was in the public domain."
2548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2549 #: freeculture.xml:1757
2550 msgid "derivative works based on"
2554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2555 #: freeculture.xml:1759
2557 "Thus, even though the things that Disney took—or more generally, the "
2558 "things taken by anyone exercising Walt Disney creativity—are valuable, "
2559 "our tradition does not treat those takings as wrong. Some things remain free "
2560 "for the taking within a free culture, and that freedom is good."
2563 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2564 #: freeculture.xml:1774
2566 "The same with the doujinshi culture. If a doujinshi artist broke into a "
2567 "publisher's office and ran off with a thousand copies of his latest "
2568 "work—or even one copy—without paying, we'd have no hesitation in "
2569 "saying the artist was wrong. In addition to having trespassed, he would have "
2570 "stolen something of value. The law bans that stealing in whatever form, "
2571 "whether large or small."
2574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2575 #: freeculture.xml:1783
2577 "Yet there is an obvious reluctance, even among Japanese lawyers, to say that "
2578 "the copycat comic artists are <quote>stealing.</quote> This form of Walt "
2579 "Disney creativity is seen as fair and right, even if lawyers in particular "
2580 "find it hard to say why."
2583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2584 #: freeculture.xml:1794 freeculture.xml:5071
2585 msgid "Shakespeare, William"
2588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2589 #: freeculture.xml:1796
2591 "It's the same with a thousand examples that appear everywhere once you begin "
2592 "to look. Scientists build upon the work of other scientists without asking "
2593 "or paying for the privilege. (<quote>Excuse me, Professor Einstein, but may "
2594 "I have permission to use your theory of relativity to show that you were "
2595 "wrong about quantum physics?</quote>) Acting companies perform adaptations "
2596 "of the works of Shakespeare without securing permission from anyone. (Does "
2597 "<emphasis>anyone</emphasis> believe Shakespeare would be better spread "
2598 "within our culture if there were a central Shakespeare rights clearinghouse "
2599 "that all productions of Shakespeare must appeal to first?) And Hollywood "
2600 "goes through cycles with a certain kind of movie: five asteroid films in the "
2601 "late 1990s; two volcano disaster films in 1997."
2605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2606 #: freeculture.xml:1810
2608 "Creators here and everywhere are always and at all times building upon the "
2609 "creativity that went before and that surrounds them now. That building is "
2610 "always and everywhere at least partially done without permission and without "
2611 "compensating the original creator. No society, free or controlled, has ever "
2612 "demanded that every use be paid for or that permission for Walt Disney "
2613 "creativity must always be sought. Instead, every society has left a certain "
2614 "bit of its culture free for the taking—free societies more fully than "
2615 "unfree, perhaps, but all societies to some degree."
2618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2619 #: freeculture.xml:1822
2621 "The hard question is therefore not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> a culture is "
2622 "free. All cultures are free to some degree. The hard question instead is "
2623 "<quote><emphasis>How</emphasis> free is this culture?</quote> How much, and "
2624 "how broadly, is the culture free for others to take and build upon? Is that "
2625 "freedom limited to party members? To members of the royal family? To the top "
2626 "ten corporations on the New York Stock Exchange? Or is that freedom spread "
2627 "broadly? To artists generally, whether affiliated with the Met or not? To "
2628 "musicians generally, whether white or not? To filmmakers generally, whether "
2629 "affiliated with a studio or not?"
2632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2633 #: freeculture.xml:1834
2635 "Free cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build "
2636 "upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free "
2637 "culture. It is becoming much less so."
2640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
2641 #: freeculture.xml:1843
2642 msgid "CHAPTER TWO: <quote>Mere Copyists</quote>"
2645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2646 #: freeculture.xml:1844
2647 msgid "Daguerre, Louis"
2650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2651 #: freeculture.xml:1845 freeculture.xml:6561
2652 msgid "camera technology"
2655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2656 #: freeculture.xml:1846
2660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2661 #: freeculture.xml:1848
2663 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1839</emphasis>, Louis Daguerre invented the "
2664 "first practical technology for producing what we would call "
2665 "<quote>photographs.</quote> Appropriately enough, they were called "
2666 "<quote>daguerreotypes.</quote> The process was complicated and expensive, "
2667 "and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and "
2668 "wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that "
2669 "helped regulate the industry, as do all such associations, by keeping "
2670 "competition down so as to keep prices up.)"
2673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2674 #: freeculture.xml:1857
2675 msgid "Talbot, William"
2678 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2679 #: freeculture.xml:1859
2681 "Yet despite high prices, the demand for daguerreotypes was strong. This "
2682 "pushed inventors to find simpler and cheaper ways to make <quote>automatic "
2683 "pictures.</quote> William Talbot soon discovered a process for making "
2684 "<quote>negatives.</quote> But because the negatives were glass, and had to "
2685 "be kept wet, the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the "
2686 "1870s, dry plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of "
2687 "a picture from its developing. These were still plates of glass, and thus it "
2688 "was still not a process within reach of most amateurs."
2691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2692 #: freeculture.xml:1869
2693 msgid "Eastman, George"
2697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2698 #: freeculture.xml:1871
2700 "The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen "
2701 "until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an "
2702 "amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made "
2703 "with plates. In a flash of insight (so to speak), Eastman saw that if the "
2704 "film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single "
2705 "spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of "
2706 "photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he "
2707 "could dramatically broaden the population of photographers."
2710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2711 #: freeculture.xml:1882
2712 msgid "Kodak cameras"
2715 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2716 #: freeculture.xml:1883
2717 msgid "Kodak Primer, The (Eastman)"
2721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2722 #: freeculture.xml:1890
2724 "Reese V. Jenkins, <citetitle>Images and Enterprise</citetitle> (Baltimore: "
2725 "Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 112."
2728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2729 #: freeculture.xml:1885
2731 "Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of "
2732 "it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis "
2733 "of its simplicity. <quote>You press the button and we do the "
2734 "rest.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As he described in "
2735 "<citetitle>The Kodak Primer</citetitle>:"
2738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2739 #: freeculture.xml:1906 freeculture.xml:1932
2743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
2744 #: freeculture.xml:1906
2746 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Brian Coe, <citetitle>The Birth "
2747 "of Photography</citetitle> (New York: Taplinger Publishing, 1977), 53."
2750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2751 #: freeculture.xml:1895
2753 "The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any "
2754 "person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an "
2755 "expert can do. … We furnish anybody, man, woman or child, who has "
2756 "sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button, with an "
2757 "instrument which altogether removes from the practice of photography the "
2758 "necessity for exceptional facilities or, in fact, any special knowledge of "
2759 "the art. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom "
2760 "and without chemicals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2764 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2765 #: freeculture.xml:1925
2766 msgid "Jenkins, 177."
2770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2771 #: freeculture.xml:1929
2772 msgid "Based on a chart in Jenkins, p. 178."
2775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2776 #: freeculture.xml:1914
2778 "For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came preloaded with film, "
2779 "and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, "
2780 "where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera "
2781 "and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus "
2782 "became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography. Eastman's "
2783 "camera first went on sale in 1888; one year later, Kodak was printing more "
2784 "than six thousand negatives a day. From 1888 through 1909, while industrial "
2785 "production was rising by 4.7 percent, photographic equipment and material "
2786 "sales increased by 11 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
2787 "Eastman Kodak's sales during the same period experienced an average annual "
2788 "increase of over 17 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2793 #: freeculture.xml:1947
2797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2798 #: freeculture.xml:1936
2800 "The real significance of Eastman's invention, however, was not economic. It "
2801 "was social. Professional photography gave individuals a glimpse of places "
2802 "they would never otherwise see. Amateur photography gave them the ability to "
2803 "record their own lives in a way they had never been able to do before. As "
2804 "author Brian Coe notes, <quote>For the first time the snapshot album "
2805 "provided the man on the street with a permanent record of his family and its "
2806 "activities. … For the first time in history there exists an authentic "
2807 "visual record of the appearance and activities of the common man made "
2808 "without [literary] interpretation or bias.</quote><placeholder "
2809 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2813 #: freeculture.xml:1950 freeculture.xml:2052 freeculture.xml:2409 freeculture.xml:2427
2817 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2818 #: freeculture.xml:1950 freeculture.xml:2052 freeculture.xml:2409
2819 msgid "in technologies of expression"
2822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2823 #: freeculture.xml:1951 freeculture.xml:2053 freeculture.xml:2411
2824 msgid "expression, technologies of"
2827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2828 #: freeculture.xml:1951 freeculture.xml:2053 freeculture.xml:2411
2832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2833 #: freeculture.xml:1953
2835 "In this way, the Kodak camera and film were technologies of expression. The "
2836 "pencil or paintbrush was also a technology of expression, of course. But it "
2837 "took years of training before they could be deployed by amateurs in any "
2838 "useful or effective way. With the Kodak, expression was possible much sooner "
2839 "and more simply. The barrier to expression was lowered. Snobs would sneer at "
2840 "its <quote>quality</quote>; professionals would discount it as "
2841 "irrelevant. But watch a child study how best to frame a picture and you get "
2842 "a sense of the experience of creativity that the Kodak enabled. Democratic "
2843 "tools gave ordinary people a way to express themselves more easily than any "
2844 "tools could have before."
2847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2848 #: freeculture.xml:1966
2852 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2853 #: freeculture.xml:1966
2854 msgid "photography exempted from"
2858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2859 #: freeculture.xml:1977
2861 "For illustrative cases, see, for example, <citetitle>Pavesich</citetitle> "
2862 "v. <citetitle>N.E. Life Ins. Co</citetitle>., 50 S.E. 68 (Ga. 1905); "
2863 "<citetitle>Foster-Milburn Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Chinn</citetitle>, "
2864 "123090 S.W. 364, 366 (Ky. 1909); <citetitle>Corliss</citetitle> "
2865 "v. <citetitle>Walker</citetitle>, 64 F. 280 (Mass. Dist. Ct. 1894)."
2868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2869 #: freeculture.xml:1968
2871 "What was required for this technology to flourish? Obviously, Eastman's "
2872 "genius was an important part. But also important was the legal environment "
2873 "within which Eastman's invention grew. For early in the history of "
2874 "photography, there was a series of judicial decisions that could well have "
2875 "changed the course of photography substantially. Courts were asked whether "
2876 "the photographer, amateur or professional, required permission before he "
2877 "could capture and print whatever image he wanted. Their answer was "
2878 "no.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2882 #: freeculture.xml:1986 freeculture.xml:9324
2883 msgid "images, ownership of"
2887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2888 #: freeculture.xml:1988
2890 "The arguments in favor of requiring permission will sound surprisingly "
2891 "familiar. The photographer was <quote>taking</quote> something from the "
2892 "person or building whose photograph he shot—pirating something of "
2893 "value. Some even thought he was taking the target's soul. Just as Disney was "
2894 "not free to take the pencils that his animators used to draw Mickey, so, "
2895 "too, should these photographers not be free to take images that they thought "
2899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2900 #: freeculture.xml:2011
2901 msgid "Warren, Samuel D."
2904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2905 #: freeculture.xml:2008
2907 "Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> "
2908 "<citetitle>Harvard Law Review</citetitle> 4 (1890): 193. <placeholder "
2909 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2913 #: freeculture.xml:2001
2915 "On the other side was an argument that should be familiar, as well. Sure, "
2916 "there may be something of value being used. But citizens should have the "
2917 "right to capture at least those images that stand in public view. (Louis "
2918 "Brandeis, who would become a Supreme Court Justice, thought the rule should "
2919 "be different for images from private spaces.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2920 "id=\"0\"/>) It may be that this means that the photographer gets something "
2921 "for nothing. Just as Disney could take inspiration from <citetitle>Steamboat "
2922 "Bill, Jr</citetitle>. or the Brothers Grimm, the photographer should be free "
2923 "to capture an image without compensating the source."
2927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2928 #: freeculture.xml:2029
2930 "See Melville B. Nimmer, <quote>The Right of Publicity,</quote> "
2931 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 19 (1954): 203; William "
2932 "L. Prosser, <quote>Privacy,</quote> <citetitle>California Law "
2933 "Review</citetitle> 48 (1960) 398–407; <citetitle>White</citetitle> "
2934 "v. <citetitle>Samsung Electronics America, Inc</citetitle>., 971 F. 2d 1395 "
2935 "(9th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 951 (1993)."
2938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2939 #: freeculture.xml:2019
2941 "Fortunately for Mr. Eastman, and for photography in general, these early "
2942 "decisions went in favor of the pirates. In general, no permission would be "
2943 "required before an image could be captured and shared with others. Instead, "
2944 "permission was presumed. Freedom was the default. (The law would eventually "
2945 "craft an exception for famous people: commercial photographers who snap "
2946 "pictures of famous people for commercial purposes have more restrictions "
2947 "than the rest of us. But in the ordinary case, the image can be captured "
2948 "without clearing the rights to do the capturing.<placeholder "
2949 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>)"
2952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2953 #: freeculture.xml:2036
2957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2958 #: freeculture.xml:2038
2960 "We can only speculate about how photography would have developed had the law "
2961 "gone the other way. If the presumption had been against the photographer, "
2962 "then the photographer would have had to demonstrate permission. Perhaps "
2963 "Eastman Kodak would have had to demonstrate permission, too, before it "
2964 "developed the film upon which images were captured. After all, if permission "
2965 "were not granted, then Eastman Kodak would be benefiting from the "
2966 "<quote>theft</quote> committed by the photographer. Just as Napster "
2967 "benefited from the copyright infringements committed by Napster users, Kodak "
2968 "would be benefiting from the <quote>image-right</quote> infringement of its "
2969 "photographers. We could imagine the law then requiring that some form of "
2970 "permission be demonstrated before a company developed pictures. We could "
2971 "imagine a system developing to demonstrate that permission."
2975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2976 #: freeculture.xml:2057
2978 "But though we could imagine this system of permission, it would be very hard "
2979 "to see how photography could have flourished as it did if the requirement "
2980 "for permission had been built into the rules that govern it. Photography "
2981 "would have existed. It would have grown in importance over "
2982 "time. Professionals would have continued to use the technology as they "
2983 "did—since professionals could have more easily borne the burdens of "
2984 "the permission system. But the spread of photography to ordinary people "
2985 "would not have occurred. Nothing like that growth would have been "
2986 "realized. And certainly, nothing like that growth in a democratic technology "
2987 "of expression would have been realized."
2990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2991 #: freeculture.xml:2074
2993 "<emphasis role='strong'>If you drive</emphasis> through San Francisco's "
2994 "Presidio, you might see two gaudy yellow school buses painted over with "
2995 "colorful and striking images, and the logo <quote>Just Think!</quote> in "
2996 "place of the name of a school. But there's little that's <quote>just</quote> "
2997 "cerebral in the projects that these busses enable. These buses are filled "
2998 "with technologies that teach kids to tinker with film. Not the film of "
2999 "Eastman. Not even the film of your VCR. Rather the <quote>film</quote> of "
3000 "digital cameras. Just Think! is a project that enables kids to make films, "
3001 "as a way to understand and critique the filmed culture that they find all "
3002 "around them. Each year, these busses travel to more than thirty schools and "
3003 "enable three hundred to five hundred children to learn something about media "
3004 "by doing something with media. By doing, they think. By tinkering, they "
3009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3010 #: freeculture.xml:2096
3012 "H. Edward Goldberg, <quote>Essential Presentation Tools: Hardware and "
3013 "Software You Need to Create Digital Multimedia Presentations,</quote> "
3014 "cadalyst, February 2002, available at <ulink "
3015 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #7</ulink>."
3018 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3019 #: freeculture.xml:2090
3021 "These buses are not cheap, but the technology they carry is increasingly "
3022 "so. The cost of a high-quality digital video system has fallen "
3023 "dramatically. As one analyst puts it, <quote>Five years ago, a good "
3024 "real-time digital video editing system cost $25,000. Today you can get "
3025 "professional quality for $595.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3026 "id=\"0\"/> These buses are filled with technology that would have cost "
3027 "hundreds of thousands just ten years ago. And it is now feasible to imagine "
3028 "not just buses like this, but classrooms across the country where kids are "
3029 "learning more and more of something teachers call <quote>media "
3033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3034 #: freeculture.xml:2106
3035 msgid "Yanofsky, Dave"
3039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3040 #: freeculture.xml:2109
3042 "<quote>Media literacy,</quote> as Dave Yanofsky, the executive director of "
3043 "Just Think!, puts it, <quote>is the ability … to understand, analyze, "
3044 "and deconstruct media images. Its aim is to make [kids] literate about the "
3045 "way media works, the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and the "
3046 "way people access it.</quote>"
3049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3050 #: freeculture.xml:2116
3052 "This may seem like an odd way to think about <quote>literacy.</quote> For "
3053 "most people, literacy is about reading and writing. Faulkner and Hemingway "
3054 "and noticing split infinitives are the things that <quote>literate</quote> "
3055 "people know about."
3058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3059 #: freeculture.xml:2121 freeculture.xml:2645 freeculture.xml:6560 freeculture.xml:7396 freeculture.xml:8468 freeculture.xml:8539
3064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3065 #: freeculture.xml:2127
3067 "Judith Van Evra, <citetitle>Television and Child Development</citetitle> "
3068 "(Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990); <quote>Findings on "
3069 "Family and TV Study,</quote> <citetitle>Denver Post</citetitle>, 25 May "
3073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3074 #: freeculture.xml:2123
3076 "Maybe. But in a world where children see on average 390 hours of television "
3077 "commercials per year, or between 20,000 and 45,000 commercials "
3078 "generally,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it is increasingly "
3079 "important to understand the <quote>grammar</quote> of media. For just as "
3080 "there is a grammar for the written word, so, too, is there one for "
3081 "media. And just as kids learn how to write by writing lots of terrible "
3082 "prose, kids learn how to write media by constructing lots of (at least at "
3083 "first) terrible media."
3086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3087 #: freeculture.xml:2138
3089 "A growing field of academics and activists sees this form of literacy as "
3090 "crucial to the next generation of culture. For though anyone who has written "
3091 "understands how difficult writing is—how difficult it is to sequence "
3092 "the story, to keep a reader's attention, to craft language to be "
3093 "understandable—few of us have any real sense of how difficult media "
3094 "is. Or more fundamentally, few of us have a sense of how media works, how it "
3095 "holds an audience or leads it through a story, how it triggers emotion or "
3099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3100 #: freeculture.xml:2148
3102 "It took filmmaking a generation before it could do these things well. But "
3103 "even then, the knowledge was in the filming, not in writing about the "
3104 "film. The skill came from experiencing the making of a film, not from "
3105 "reading a book about it. One learns to write by writing and then reflecting "
3106 "upon what one has written. One learns to write with images by making them "
3107 "and then reflecting upon what one has created."
3110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3111 #: freeculture.xml:2155
3112 msgid "Crichton, Michael"
3115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3116 #: freeculture.xml:2169 freeculture.xml:2229 freeculture.xml:2236 freeculture.xml:2708
3117 msgid "Barish, Stephanie"
3120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3121 #: freeculture.xml:2170
3122 msgid "Daley, Elizabeth"
3125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3126 #: freeculture.xml:2167
3128 "Interview with Elizabeth Daley and Stephanie Barish, 13 December 2002. "
3129 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3135 #: freeculture.xml:2181
3137 "See Scott Steinberg, <quote>Crichton Gets Medieval on PCs,</quote> E!online, "
3138 "4 November 2000, available at <ulink "
3139 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #8</ulink>; "
3140 "<quote>Timeline,</quote> 22 November 2000, available at <ulink "
3141 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #9</ulink>."
3144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3145 #: freeculture.xml:2157
3147 "This grammar has changed as media has changed. When it was just film, as "
3148 "Elizabeth Daley, executive director of the University of Southern "
3149 "California's Annenberg Center for Communication and dean of the USC School "
3150 "of Cinema-Television, explained to me, the grammar was about <quote>the "
3151 "placement of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and "
3152 "texture.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But as computers "
3153 "open up an interactive space where a story is <quote>played</quote> as well "
3154 "as experienced, that grammar changes. The simple control of narrative is "
3155 "lost, and so other techniques are necessary. Author Michael Crichton had "
3156 "mastered the narrative of science fiction. But when he tried to design a "
3157 "computer game based on one of his works, it was a new craft he had to "
3158 "learn. How to lead people through a game without their feeling they have "
3159 "been led was not obvious, even to a wildly successful author.<placeholder "
3160 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3164 #: freeculture.xml:2188
3165 msgid "computer games"
3168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3169 #: freeculture.xml:2190
3171 "This skill is precisely the craft a filmmaker learns. As Daley describes, "
3172 "<quote>people are very surprised about how they are led through a film. [I]t "
3173 "is perfectly constructed to keep you from seeing it, so you have no idea. If "
3174 "a filmmaker succeeds you do not know how you were led.</quote> If you know "
3175 "you were led through a film, the film has failed."
3178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3179 #: freeculture.xml:2197
3181 "Yet the push for an expanded literacy—one that goes beyond text to "
3182 "include audio and visual elements—is not about making better film "
3183 "directors. The aim is not to improve the profession of filmmaking at all. "
3184 "Instead, as Daley explained,"
3187 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3188 #: freeculture.xml:2204
3190 "From my perspective, probably the most important digital divide is not "
3191 "access to a box. It's the ability to be empowered with the language that "
3192 "that box works in. Otherwise only a very few people can write with this "
3193 "language, and all the rest of us are reduced to being read-only."
3196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3197 #: freeculture.xml:2212
3199 "<quote>Read-only.</quote> Passive recipients of culture produced elsewhere. "
3200 "Couch potatoes. Consumers. This is the world of media from the twentieth "
3204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3205 #: freeculture.xml:2228
3206 msgid "Interview with Daley and Barish. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3211 #: freeculture.xml:2233 freeculture.xml:4036 freeculture.xml:5103 freeculture.xml:8357
3215 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3216 #: freeculture.xml:2217
3218 "The twenty-first century could be different. This is the crucial point: It "
3219 "could be both read and write. Or at least reading and better understanding "
3220 "the craft of writing. Or best, reading and understanding the tools that "
3221 "enable the writing to lead or mislead. The aim of any literacy, and this "
3222 "literacy in particular, is to <quote>empower people to choose the "
3223 "appropriate language for what they need to create or "
3224 "express.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It is to enable "
3225 "students <quote>to communicate in the language of the twenty-first "
3226 "century.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3230 #: freeculture.xml:2238
3232 "As with any language, this language comes more easily to some than to "
3233 "others. It doesn't necessarily come more easily to those who excel in "
3234 "written language. Daley and Stephanie Barish, director of the Institute for "
3235 "Multimedia Literacy at the Annenberg Center, describe one particularly "
3236 "poignant example of a project they ran in a high school. The high school "
3237 "was a very poor inner-city Los Angeles school. In all the traditional "
3238 "measures of success, this school was a failure. But Daley and Barish ran a "
3239 "program that gave kids an opportunity to use film to express meaning about "
3240 "something the students know something about—gun violence."
3243 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3244 #: freeculture.xml:2250
3246 "The class was held on Friday afternoons, and it created a relatively new "
3247 "problem for the school. While the challenge in most classes was getting the "
3248 "kids to come, the challenge in this class was keeping them away. The "
3249 "<quote>kids were showing up at 6 A.M. and leaving at 5 at night,</quote> "
3250 "said Barish. They were working harder than in any other class to do what "
3251 "education should be about—learning how to express themselves."
3254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3255 #: freeculture.xml:2258
3257 "Using whatever <quote>free web stuff they could find,</quote> and relatively "
3258 "simple tools to enable the kids to mix <quote>image, sound, and "
3259 "text,</quote> Barish said this class produced a series of projects that "
3260 "showed something about gun violence that few would otherwise "
3261 "understand. This was an issue close to the lives of these students. The "
3262 "project <quote>gave them a tool and empowered them to be able to both "
3263 "understand it and talk about it,</quote> Barish explained. That tool "
3264 "succeeded in creating expression—far more successfully and powerfully "
3265 "than could have been created using only text. <quote>If you had said to "
3266 "these students, `you have to do it in text,' they would've just thrown their "
3267 "hands up and gone and done something else,</quote> Barish described, in "
3268 "part, no doubt, because expressing themselves in text is not something these "
3269 "students can do well. Yet neither is text a form in which "
3270 "<emphasis>these</emphasis> ideas can be expressed well. The power of this "
3271 "message depended upon its connection to this form of expression."
3275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3276 #: freeculture.xml:2277
3278 "<quote>But isn't education about teaching kids to write?</quote> I asked. In "
3279 "part, of course, it is. But why are we teaching kids to write? Education, "
3280 "Daley explained, is about giving students a way of <quote>constructing "
3281 "meaning.</quote> To say that that means just writing is like saying teaching "
3282 "writing is only about teaching kids how to spell. Text is one part—and "
3283 "increasingly, not the most powerful part—of constructing meaning. As "
3284 "Daley explained in the most moving part of our interview,"
3287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3288 #: freeculture.xml:2288
3290 "What you want is to give these students ways of constructing meaning. If all "
3291 "you give them is text, they're not going to do it. Because they can't. You "
3292 "know, you've got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, "
3293 "he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he "
3294 "can do all sorts of other things. He just can't read your text. So Johnny "
3295 "comes to school and you say, <quote>Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you "
3296 "can do matters.</quote> Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss "
3297 "you or he [can] dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he's going to "
3298 "dismiss you. [But i]nstead, if you say, <quote>Well, with all these things "
3299 "that you can do, let's talk about this issue. Play for me music that you "
3300 "think reflects that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw "
3301 "for me something that reflects that.</quote> Not by giving a kid a video "
3302 "camera and … saying, <quote>Let's go have fun with the video camera "
3303 "and make a little movie.</quote> But instead, really help you take these "
3304 "elements that you understand, that are your language, and construct meaning "
3305 "about the topic.…"
3308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3309 #: freeculture.xml:2307
3311 "That empowers enormously. And then what happens, of course, is eventually, "
3312 "as it has happened in all these classes, they bump up against the fact, "
3313 "<quote>I need to explain this and I really need to write something.</quote> "
3314 "And as one of the teachers told Stephanie, they would rewrite a paragraph 5, "
3315 "6, 7, 8 times, till they got it right."
3319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3320 #: freeculture.xml:2314
3322 "Because they needed to. There was a reason for doing it. They needed to say "
3323 "something, as opposed to just jumping through your hoops. They actually "
3324 "needed to use a language that they didn't speak very well. But they had come "
3325 "to understand that they had a lot of power with this language."
3328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3329 #: freeculture.xml:2324
3330 msgid "World Trade Center"
3333 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3334 #: freeculture.xml:2326
3336 "<emphasis role='strong'>When two planes</emphasis> crashed into the World "
3337 "Trade Center, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania "
3338 "field, all media around the world shifted to this news. Every moment of just "
3339 "about every day for that week, and for weeks after, television in "
3340 "particular, and media generally, retold the story of the events we had just "
3341 "witnessed. The telling was a retelling, because we had seen the events that "
3342 "were described. The genius of this awful act of terrorism was that the "
3343 "delayed second attack was perfectly timed to assure that the whole world "
3344 "would be watching."
3347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3348 #: freeculture.xml:2338
3350 "These retellings had an increasingly familiar feel. There was music scored "
3351 "for the intermissions, and fancy graphics that flashed across the "
3352 "screen. There was a formula to interviews. There was <quote>balance,</quote> "
3353 "and seriousness. This was news choreographed in the way we have increasingly "
3354 "come to expect it, <quote>news as entertainment,</quote> even if the "
3355 "entertainment is tragedy."
3358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3359 #: freeculture.xml:2345 freeculture.xml:8296 freeculture.xml:8533
3363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3364 #: freeculture.xml:2346
3368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3369 #: freeculture.xml:2348
3371 "But in addition to this produced news about the <quote>tragedy of September "
3372 "11,</quote> those of us tied to the Internet came to see a very different "
3373 "production as well. The Internet was filled with accounts of the same "
3374 "events. Yet these Internet accounts had a very different flavor. Some people "
3375 "constructed photo pages that captured images from around the world and "
3376 "presented them as slide shows with text. Some offered open letters. There "
3377 "were sound recordings. There was anger and frustration. There were attempts "
3378 "to provide context. There was, in short, an extraordinary worldwide barn "
3379 "raising, in the sense Mike Godwin uses the term in his book <citetitle>Cyber "
3380 "Rights</citetitle>, around a news event that had captured the attention of "
3381 "the world. There was ABC and CBS, but there was also the Internet."
3385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3386 #: freeculture.xml:2362
3388 "I don't mean simply to praise the Internet—though I do think the "
3389 "people who supported this form of speech should be praised. I mean instead "
3390 "to point to a significance in this form of speech. For like a Kodak, the "
3391 "Internet enables people to capture images. And like in a movie by a student "
3392 "on the <quote>Just Think!</quote> bus, the visual images could be mixed with "
3396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3397 #: freeculture.xml:2372
3399 "But unlike any technology for simply capturing images, the Internet allows "
3400 "these creations to be shared with an extraordinary number of people, "
3401 "practically instantaneously. This is something new in our "
3402 "tradition—not just that culture can be captured mechanically, and "
3403 "obviously not just that events are commented upon critically, but that this "
3404 "mix of captured images, sound, and commentary can be widely spread "
3405 "practically instantaneously."
3408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3409 #: freeculture.xml:2380 freeculture.xml:5887
3410 msgid "September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks of"
3413 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3414 #: freeculture.xml:2381 freeculture.xml:2476 freeculture.xml:2604
3415 msgid "blogs (Web-logs)"
3418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3419 #: freeculture.xml:2382 freeculture.xml:2478
3423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3424 #: freeculture.xml:2383 freeculture.xml:2479
3425 msgid "Web-logs (blogs)"
3428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3429 #: freeculture.xml:2385
3431 "September 11 was not an aberration. It was a beginning. Around the same "
3432 "time, a form of communication that has grown dramatically was just beginning "
3433 "to come into public consciousness: the Web-log, or blog. The blog is a kind "
3434 "of public diary, and within some cultures, such as in Japan, it functions "
3435 "very much like a diary. In those cultures, it records private facts in a "
3436 "public way—it's a kind of electronic <citetitle>Jerry "
3437 "Springer</citetitle>, available anywhere in the world."
3440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3441 #: freeculture.xml:2393 freeculture.xml:2462
3442 msgid "political discourse"
3445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3446 #: freeculture.xml:2394
3447 msgid "public discourse conducted on"
3450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3451 #: freeculture.xml:2396
3453 "But in the United States, blogs have taken on a very different character. "
3454 "There are some who use the space simply to talk about their private "
3455 "life. But there are many who use the space to engage in public "
3456 "discourse. Discussing matters of public import, criticizing others who are "
3457 "mistaken in their views, criticizing politicians about the decisions they "
3458 "make, offering solutions to problems we all see: blogs create the sense of a "
3459 "virtual public meeting, but one in which we don't all hope to be there at "
3460 "the same time and in which conversations are not necessarily linked. The "
3461 "best of the blog entries are relatively short; they point directly to words "
3462 "used by others, criticizing with or adding to them. They are arguably the "
3463 "most important form of unchoreographed public discourse that we have."
3466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3467 #: freeculture.xml:2410
3472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3473 #: freeculture.xml:2413
3475 "That's a strong statement. Yet it says as much about our democracy as it "
3476 "does about blogs. This is the part of America that is most difficult for "
3477 "those of us who love America to accept: Our democracy has atrophied. Of "
3478 "course we have elections, and most of the time the courts allow those "
3479 "elections to count. A relatively small number of people vote in those "
3480 "elections. The cycle of these elections has become totally professionalized "
3481 "and routinized. Most of us think this is democracy."
3484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3485 #: freeculture.xml:2426
3486 msgid "Tocqueville, Alexis de"
3489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3490 #: freeculture.xml:2427
3491 msgid "public discourse in"
3494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3495 #: freeculture.xml:2428
3500 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3501 #: freeculture.xml:2445
3503 "See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville, <citetitle>Democracy in "
3504 "America</citetitle>, bk. 1, trans. Henry Reeve (New York: Bantam Books, "
3508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3509 #: freeculture.xml:2430
3511 "But democracy has never just been about elections. Democracy means rule by "
3512 "the people, but rule means something more than mere elections. In our "
3513 "tradition, it also means control through reasoned discourse. This was the "
3514 "idea that captured the imagination of Alexis de Tocqueville, the "
3515 "nineteenth-century French lawyer who wrote the most important account of "
3516 "early <quote>Democracy in America.</quote> It wasn't popular elections that "
3517 "fascinated him—it was the jury, an institution that gave ordinary "
3518 "people the right to choose life or death for other citizens. And most "
3519 "fascinating for him was that the jury didn't just vote about the outcome "
3520 "they would impose. They deliberated. Members argued about the "
3521 "<quote>right</quote> result; they tried to persuade each other of the "
3522 "<quote>right</quote> result, and in criminal cases at least, they had to "
3523 "agree upon a unanimous result for the process to come to an end.<placeholder "
3524 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3529 #: freeculture.xml:2455
3531 "Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, <quote>Deliberation Day,</quote> "
3532 "<citetitle>Journal of Political Philosophy</citetitle> 10 (2) (2002): 129."
3535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3536 #: freeculture.xml:2451
3538 "Yet even this institution flags in American life today. And in its place, "
3539 "there is no systematic effort to enable citizen deliberation. Some are "
3540 "pushing to create just such an institution.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3541 "id=\"0\"/> And in some towns in New England, something close to deliberation "
3542 "remains. But for most of us for most of the time, there is no time or place "
3543 "for <quote>democratic deliberation</quote> to occur."
3547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3548 #: freeculture.xml:2471
3550 "Cass Sunstein, <citetitle>Republic.com</citetitle> (Princeton: Princeton "
3551 "University Press, 2001), 65–80, 175, 182, 183, 192."
3554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3555 #: freeculture.xml:2464
3557 "More bizarrely, there is generally not even permission for it to occur. We, "
3558 "the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm "
3559 "against talking about politics. It's fine to talk about politics with people "
3560 "you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you "
3561 "disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse "
3562 "becomes more extreme.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We say what "
3563 "our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say."
3566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3567 #: freeculture.xml:2477
3572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3573 #: freeculture.xml:2484
3575 "Enter the blog. The blog's very architecture solves one part of this "
3576 "problem. People post when they want to post, and people read when they want "
3577 "to read. The most difficult time is synchronous time. Technologies that "
3578 "enable asynchronous communication, such as e-mail, increase the opportunity "
3579 "for communication. Blogs allow for public discourse without the public ever "
3580 "needing to gather in a single public place."
3583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3584 #: freeculture.xml:2495
3586 "But beyond architecture, blogs also have solved the problem of "
3587 "norms. There's no norm (yet) in blog space not to talk about politics. "
3588 "Indeed, the space is filled with political speech, on both the right and the "
3589 "left. Some of the most popular sites are conservative or libertarian, but "
3590 "there are many of all political stripes. And even blogs that are not "
3591 "political cover political issues when the occasion merits."
3594 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3595 #: freeculture.xml:2502
3596 msgid "Dean, Howard"
3599 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3600 #: freeculture.xml:2504
3602 "The significance of these blogs is tiny now, though not so tiny. The name "
3603 "Howard Dean may well have faded from the 2004 presidential race but for "
3604 "blogs. Yet even if the number of readers is small, the reading is having an "
3608 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3609 #: freeculture.xml:2509
3613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3614 #: freeculture.xml:2510
3615 msgid "Thurmond, Strom"
3619 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3620 #: freeculture.xml:2523
3622 "Noah Shachtman, <quote>With Incessant Postings, a Pundit Stirs the "
3623 "Pot,</quote> New York Times, 16 January 2003, G5."
3626 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3627 #: freeculture.xml:2512
3629 "One direct effect is on stories that had a different life cycle in the "
3630 "mainstream media. The Trent Lott affair is an example. When Lott "
3631 "<quote>misspoke</quote> at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond, essentially "
3632 "praising Thurmond's segregationist policies, he calculated correctly that "
3633 "this story would disappear from the mainstream press within forty-eight "
3634 "hours. It did. But he didn't calculate its life cycle in blog space. The "
3635 "bloggers kept researching the story. Over time, more and more instances of "
3636 "the same <quote>misspeaking</quote> emerged. Finally, the story broke back "
3637 "into the mainstream press. In the end, Lott was forced to resign as senate "
3638 "majority leader.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3642 #: freeculture.xml:2528
3644 "This different cycle is possible because the same commercial pressures don't "
3645 "exist with blogs as with other ventures. Television and newspapers are "
3646 "commercial entities. They must work to keep attention. If they lose "
3647 "readers, they lose revenue. Like sharks, they must move on."
3650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3651 #: freeculture.xml:2535
3653 "But bloggers don't have a similar constraint. They can obsess, they can "
3654 "focus, they can get serious. If a particular blogger writes a particularly "
3655 "interesting story, more and more people link to that story. And as the "
3656 "number of links to a particular story increases, it rises in the ranks of "
3657 "stories. People read what is popular; what is popular has been selected by a "
3658 "very democratic process of peer-generated rankings."
3661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3662 #: freeculture.xml:2543
3667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3668 #: freeculture.xml:2545
3670 "There's a second way, as well, in which blogs have a different cycle from "
3671 "the mainstream press. As Dave Winer, one of the fathers of this movement and "
3672 "a software author for many decades, told me, another difference is the "
3673 "absence of a financial <quote>conflict of interest.</quote> <quote>I think "
3674 "you have to take the conflict of interest</quote> out of journalism, Winer "
3675 "told me. <quote>An amateur journalist simply doesn't have a conflict of "
3676 "interest, or the conflict of interest is so easily disclosed that you know "
3677 "you can sort of get it out of the way.</quote>"
3680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3681 #: freeculture.xml:2555 freeculture.xml:2601
3685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3686 #: freeculture.xml:2556 freeculture.xml:2602 freeculture.xml:5752
3691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3692 #: freeculture.xml:2564
3693 msgid "Telephone interview with David Winer, 16 April 2003."
3696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3697 #: freeculture.xml:2558
3699 "These conflicts become more important as media becomes more concentrated "
3700 "(more on this below). A concentrated media can hide more from the public "
3701 "than an unconcentrated media can—as CNN admitted it did after the Iraq "
3702 "war because it was afraid of the consequences to its own "
3703 "employees.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It also needs to sustain "
3704 "a more coherent account. (In the middle of the Iraq war, I read a post on "
3705 "the Internet from someone who was at that time listening to a satellite "
3706 "uplink with a reporter in Iraq. The New York headquarters was telling the "
3707 "reporter over and over that her account of the war was too bleak: She needed "
3708 "to offer a more optimistic story. When she told New York that wasn't "
3709 "warranted, they told her that <emphasis>they</emphasis> were writing "
3710 "<quote>the story.</quote>)"
3714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3715 #: freeculture.xml:2582
3717 "John Schwartz, <quote>Loss of the Shuttle: The Internet; A Wealth of "
3718 "Information Online,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 2 "
3719 "February 2003, A28; Staci D. Kramer, <quote>Shuttle Disaster Coverage Mixed, "
3720 "but Strong Overall,</quote> Online Journalism Review, 2 February 2003, "
3721 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #10</ulink>."
3724 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3725 #: freeculture.xml:2574
3727 "Blog space gives amateurs a way to enter the "
3728 "debate—<quote>amateur</quote> not in the sense of inexperienced, but "
3729 "in the sense of an Olympic athlete, meaning not paid by anyone to give their "
3730 "reports. It allows for a much broader range of input into a story, as "
3731 "reporting on the Columbia disaster revealed, when hundreds from across the "
3732 "southwest United States turned to the Internet to retell what they had "
3733 "seen.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And it drives readers to read "
3734 "across the range of accounts and <quote>triangulate,</quote> as Winer puts "
3735 "it, the truth. Blogs, Winer says, are <quote>communicating directly with our "
3736 "constituency, and the middle man is out of it</quote>—with all the "
3737 "benefits, and costs, that might entail."
3740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3741 #: freeculture.xml:2603
3742 msgid "Olafson, Steve"
3745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3746 #: freeculture.xml:2601
3748 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3749 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
3750 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> See Michael Falcone, <quote>Does an Editor's "
3751 "Pencil Ruin a Web Log?</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 29 "
3752 "September 2003, C4. (<quote>Not all news organizations have been as "
3753 "accepting of employees who blog. Kevin Sites, a CNN correspondent in Iraq "
3754 "who started a blog about his reporting of the war on March 9, stopped "
3755 "posting 12 days later at his bosses' request. Last year Steve Olafson, a "
3756 "<citetitle>Houston Chronicle</citetitle> reporter, was fired for keeping a "
3757 "personal Web log, published under a pseudonym, that dealt with some of the "
3758 "issues and people he was covering.</quote>)"
3762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3763 #: freeculture.xml:2594
3765 "Winer is optimistic about the future of journalism infected with "
3766 "blogs. <quote>It's going to become an essential skill,</quote> Winer "
3767 "predicts, for public figures and increasingly for private figures as "
3768 "well. It's not clear that <quote>journalism</quote> is happy about "
3769 "this—some journalists have been told to curtail their "
3770 "blogging.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is clear that we "
3771 "are still in transition. <quote>A lot of what we are doing now is warm-up "
3772 "exercises,</quote> Winer told me. There is a lot that must mature before "
3773 "this space has its mature effect. And as the inclusion of content in this "
3774 "space is the least infringing use of the Internet (meaning infringing on "
3775 "copyright), Winer said, <quote>we will be the last thing that gets shut "
3779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3780 #: freeculture.xml:2624
3782 "This speech affects democracy. Winer thinks that happens because <quote>you "
3783 "don't have to work for somebody who controls, [for] a gatekeeper.</quote> "
3784 "That is true. But it affects democracy in another way as well. As more and "
3785 "more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will "
3786 "change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and "
3787 "misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be "
3788 "criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has "
3789 "been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore "
3790 "when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and "
3791 "criticism improves democracy. Today there are probably a couple of million "
3792 "blogs where such writing happens. When there are ten million, there will be "
3793 "something extraordinary to report."
3796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3797 #: freeculture.xml:2644
3798 msgid "Brown, John Seely"
3801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3802 #: freeculture.xml:2647
3804 "<emphasis role='strong'>John Seely Brown</emphasis> is the chief scientist "
3805 "of the Xerox Corporation. His work, as his Web site describes it, is "
3806 "<quote>human learning and … the creation of knowledge ecologies for "
3807 "creating … innovation.</quote>"
3810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3811 #: freeculture.xml:2653
3813 "Brown thus looks at these technologies of digital creativity a bit "
3814 "differently from the perspectives I've sketched so far. I'm sure he would be "
3815 "excited about any technology that might improve democracy. But his real "
3816 "excitement comes from how these technologies affect learning."
3820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3821 #: freeculture.xml:2660
3823 "As Brown believes, we learn by tinkering. When <quote>a lot of us grew "
3824 "up,</quote> he explains, that tinkering was done <quote>on motorcycle "
3825 "engines, lawnmower engines, automobiles, radios, and so on.</quote> But "
3826 "digital technologies enable a different kind of tinkering—with "
3827 "abstract ideas though in concrete form. The kids at Just Think! not only "
3828 "think about how a commercial portrays a politician; using digital "
3829 "technology, they can take the commercial apart and manipulate it, tinker "
3830 "with it to see how it does what it does. Digital technologies launch a kind "
3831 "of bricolage, or <quote>free collage,</quote> as Brown calls it. Many get to "
3832 "add to or transform the tinkering of many others."
3835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3836 #: freeculture.xml:2673
3838 "The best large-scale example of this kind of tinkering so far is free "
3839 "software or open-source software (FS/OSS). FS/OSS is software whose source "
3840 "code is shared. Anyone can download the technology that makes a FS/OSS "
3841 "program run. And anyone eager to learn how a particular bit of FS/OSS "
3842 "technology works can tinker with the code."
3845 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3846 #: freeculture.xml:2680
3848 "This opportunity creates a <quote>completely new kind of learning "
3849 "platform,</quote> as Brown describes. <quote>As soon as you start doing "
3850 "that, you … unleash a free collage on the community, so that other "
3851 "people can start looking at your code, tinkering with it, trying it out, "
3852 "seeing if they can improve it.</quote> Each effort is a kind of "
3853 "apprenticeship. <quote>Open source becomes a major apprenticeship "
3857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3858 #: freeculture.xml:2688
3860 "In this process, <quote>the concrete things you tinker with are abstract. "
3861 "They are code.</quote> Kids are <quote>shifting to the ability to tinker in "
3862 "the abstract, and this tinkering is no longer an isolated activity that "
3863 "you're doing in your garage. You are tinkering with a community "
3864 "platform. … You are tinkering with other people's stuff. The more you "
3865 "tinker the more you improve.</quote> The more you improve, the more you "
3869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3870 #: freeculture.xml:2697
3872 "This same thing happens with content, too. And it happens in the same "
3873 "collaborative way when that content is part of the Web. As Brown puts it, "
3874 "<quote>the Web [is] the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of "
3875 "intelligence.</quote> Earlier technologies, such as the typewriter or word "
3876 "processors, helped amplify text. But the Web amplifies much more than "
3877 "text. <quote>The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, "
3878 "if you are visual, if you are interested in film … [then] there is a "
3879 "lot you can start to do on this medium. [It] can now amplify and honor these "
3880 "multiple forms of intelligence.</quote>"
3884 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3885 #: freeculture.xml:2710
3887 "Brown is talking about what Elizabeth Daley, Stephanie Barish, and Just "
3888 "Think! teach: that this tinkering with culture teaches as well as "
3889 "creates. It develops talents differently, and it builds a different kind of "
3893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3894 #: freeculture.xml:2718
3896 "Yet the freedom to tinker with these objects is not guaranteed. Indeed, as "
3897 "we'll see through the course of this book, that freedom is increasingly "
3898 "highly contested. While there's no doubt that your father had the right to "
3899 "tinker with the car engine, there's great doubt that your child will have "
3900 "the right to tinker with the images she finds all around. The law and, "
3901 "increasingly, technology interfere with a freedom that technology, and "
3902 "curiosity, would otherwise ensure."
3906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3907 #: freeculture.xml:2734
3909 "See, for example, Edward Felten and Andrew Appel, <quote>Technological "
3910 "Access Control Interferes with Noninfringing Scholarship,</quote> "
3911 "<citetitle>Communications of the Association for Computer "
3912 "Machinery</citetitle> 43 (2000): 9."
3915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3916 #: freeculture.xml:2727
3918 "These restrictions have become the focus of researchers and scholars. "
3919 "Professor Ed Felten of Princeton (whom we'll see more of in chapter <xref "
3920 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>) has developed a "
3921 "powerful argument in favor of the <quote>right to tinker</quote> as it "
3922 "applies to computer science and to knowledge in general.<placeholder "
3923 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But Brown's concern is earlier, or younger, or "
3924 "more fundamental. It is about the learning that kids can do, or can't do, "
3925 "because of the law."
3928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3929 #: freeculture.xml:2742
3931 "<quote>This is where education in the twenty-first century is going,</quote> "
3932 "Brown explains. We need to <quote>understand how kids who grow up digital "
3933 "think and want to learn.</quote>"
3936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3937 #: freeculture.xml:2747
3939 "<quote>Yet,</quote> as Brown continued, and as the balance of this book will "
3940 "evince, <quote>we are building a legal system that completely suppresses the "
3941 "natural tendencies of today's digital kids. … We're building an "
3942 "architecture that unleashes 60 percent of the brain [and] a legal system "
3943 "that closes down that part of the brain.</quote>"
3946 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3947 #: freeculture.xml:2755
3949 "We're building a technology that takes the magic of Kodak, mixes moving "
3950 "images and sound, and adds a space for commentary and an opportunity to "
3951 "spread that creativity everywhere. But we're building the law to close down "
3955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3956 #: freeculture.xml:2761
3958 "<quote>No way to run a culture,</quote> as Brewster Kahle, whom we'll meet "
3959 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"collectors\"/>, "
3960 "quipped to me in a rare moment of despondence."
3963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3964 #: freeculture.xml:2768
3965 msgid "CHAPTER THREE: Catalogs"
3968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3969 #: freeculture.xml:2769
3973 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3974 #: freeculture.xml:2769 freeculture.xml:2770
3975 msgid "Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)"
3978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3979 #: freeculture.xml:2772
3981 "<emphasis role='strong'>In the fall</emphasis> of 2002, Jesse Jordan of "
3982 "Oceanside, New York, enrolled as a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic "
3983 "Institute, in Troy, New York. His major at RPI was information "
3984 "technology. Though he is not a programmer, in October Jesse decided to begin "
3985 "to tinker with search engine technology that was available on the RPI "
3989 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3990 #: freeculture.xml:2780
3992 "RPI is one of America's foremost technological research institutions. It "
3993 "offers degrees in fields ranging from architecture and engineering to "
3994 "information sciences. More than 65 percent of its five thousand "
3995 "undergraduates finished in the top 10 percent of their high school "
3996 "class. The school is thus a perfect mix of talent and experience to imagine "
3997 "and then build, a generation for the network age."
4000 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4001 #: freeculture.xml:2788
4003 "RPI's computer network links students, faculty, and administration to one "
4004 "another. It also links RPI to the Internet. Not everything available on the "
4005 "RPI network is available on the Internet. But the network is designed to "
4006 "enable students to get access to the Internet, as well as more intimate "
4007 "access to other members of the RPI community."
4011 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4012 #: freeculture.xml:2795
4014 "Search engines are a measure of a network's intimacy. Google brought the "
4015 "Internet much closer to all of us by fantastically improving the quality of "
4016 "search on the network. Specialty search engines can do this even better. The "
4017 "idea of <quote>intranet</quote> search engines, search engines that search "
4018 "within the network of a particular institution, is to provide users of that "
4019 "institution with better access to material from that institution. "
4020 "Businesses do this all the time, enabling employees to have access to "
4021 "material that people outside the business can't get. Universities do it as "
4025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4026 #: freeculture.xml:2807
4028 "These engines are enabled by the network technology itself. Microsoft, for "
4029 "example, has a network file system that makes it very easy for search "
4030 "engines tuned to that network to query the system for information about the "
4031 "publicly (within that network) available content. Jesse's search engine was "
4032 "built to take advantage of this technology. It used Microsoft's network file "
4033 "system to build an index of all the files available within the RPI network."
4036 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4037 #: freeculture.xml:2816
4039 "Jesse's wasn't the first search engine built for the RPI network. Indeed, "
4040 "his engine was a simple modification of engines that others had built. His "
4041 "single most important improvement over those engines was to fix a bug within "
4042 "the Microsoft file-sharing system that could cause a user's computer to "
4043 "crash. With the engines that existed before, if you tried to access a file "
4044 "through a Windows browser that was on a computer that was off-line, your "
4045 "computer could crash. Jesse modified the system a bit to fix that problem, "
4046 "by adding a button that a user could click to see if the machine holding the "
4047 "file was still on-line."
4050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4051 #: freeculture.xml:2828
4053 "Jesse's engine went on-line in late October. Over the following six months, "
4054 "he continued to tweak it to improve its functionality. By March, the system "
4055 "was functioning quite well. Jesse had more than one million files in his "
4056 "directory, including every type of content that might be on users' "
4061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4062 #: freeculture.xml:2835
4064 "Thus the index his search engine produced included pictures, which students "
4065 "could use to put on their own Web sites; copies of notes or research; copies "
4066 "of information pamphlets; movie clips that students might have created; "
4067 "university brochures—basically anything that users of the RPI network "
4068 "made available in a public folder of their computer."
4071 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4072 #: freeculture.xml:2844
4074 "But the index also included music files. In fact, one quarter of the files "
4075 "that Jesse's search engine listed were music files. But that means, of "
4076 "course, that three quarters were not, and—so that this point is "
4077 "absolutely clear—Jesse did nothing to induce people to put music files "
4078 "in their public folders. He did nothing to target the search engine to these "
4079 "files. He was a kid tinkering with a Google-like technology at a university "
4080 "where he was studying information science, and hence, tinkering was the "
4081 "aim. Unlike Google, or Microsoft, for that matter, he made no money from "
4082 "this tinkering; he was not connected to any business that would make any "
4083 "money from this experiment. He was a kid tinkering with technology in an "
4084 "environment where tinkering with technology was precisely what he was "
4088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4089 #: freeculture.xml:2859
4091 "On April 3, 2003, Jesse was contacted by the dean of students at RPI. The "
4092 "dean informed Jesse that the Recording Industry Association of America, the "
4093 "RIAA, would be filing a lawsuit against him and three other students whom he "
4094 "didn't even know, two of them at other universities. A few hours later, "
4095 "Jesse was served with papers from the suit. As he read these papers and "
4096 "watched the news reports about them, he was increasingly astonished."
4099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4100 #: freeculture.xml:2868
4102 "<quote>It was absurd,</quote> he told me. <quote>I don't think I did "
4103 "anything wrong. … I don't think there's anything wrong with the "
4104 "search engine that I ran or … what I had done to it. I mean, I hadn't "
4105 "modified it in any way that promoted or enhanced the work of pirates. I just "
4106 "modified the search engine in a way that would make it easier to "
4107 "use</quote>—again, a <emphasis>search engine</emphasis>, which Jesse "
4108 "had not himself built, using the Windows filesharing system, which Jesse had "
4109 "not himself built, to enable members of the RPI community to get access to "
4110 "content, which Jesse had not himself created or posted, and the vast "
4111 "majority of which had nothing to do with music."
4114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4115 #: freeculture.xml:2880
4116 msgid "statutory damages"
4120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4121 #: freeculture.xml:2882
4123 "But the RIAA branded Jesse a pirate. They claimed he operated a network and "
4124 "had therefore <quote>willfully</quote> violated copyright laws. They "
4125 "demanded that he pay them the damages for his wrong. For cases of "
4126 "<quote>willful infringement,</quote> the Copyright Act specifies something "
4127 "lawyers call <quote>statutory damages.</quote> These damages permit a "
4128 "copyright owner to claim $150,000 per infringement. As the RIAA alleged more "
4129 "than one hundred specific copyright infringements, they therefore demanded "
4130 "that Jesse pay them at least $15,000,000."
4133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4134 #: freeculture.xml:2892
4135 msgid "Princeton University"
4138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4139 #: freeculture.xml:2893
4140 msgid "Michigan Technical University"
4144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4145 #: freeculture.xml:2907
4147 "Tim Goral, <quote>Recording Industry Goes After Campus P-2-P Networks: Suit "
4148 "Alleges $97.8 Billion in Damages,</quote> <citetitle>Professional Media "
4149 "Group LCC</citetitle> 6 (2003): 5, available at 2003 WL 55179443."
4152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4153 #: freeculture.xml:2895
4155 "Similar lawsuits were brought against three other students: one other "
4156 "student at RPI, one at Michigan Technical University, and one at "
4157 "Princeton. Their situations were similar to Jesse's. Though each case was "
4158 "different in detail, the bottom line in each was exactly the same: huge "
4159 "demands for <quote>damages</quote> that the RIAA claimed it was entitled "
4160 "to. If you added up the claims, these four lawsuits were asking courts in "
4161 "the United States to award the plaintiffs close to $100 "
4162 "<emphasis>billion</emphasis>—six times the <emphasis>total</emphasis> "
4163 "profit of the film industry in 2001.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4168 #: freeculture.xml:2914
4170 "Jesse called his parents. They were supportive but a bit frightened. An "
4171 "uncle was a lawyer. He began negotiations with the RIAA. They demanded to "
4172 "know how much money Jesse had. Jesse had saved $12,000 from summer jobs and "
4173 "other employment. They demanded $12,000 to dismiss the case."
4176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4177 #: freeculture.xml:2920
4178 msgid "Oppenheimer, Matt"
4181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4182 #: freeculture.xml:2922
4184 "The RIAA wanted Jesse to admit to doing something wrong. He refused. They "
4185 "wanted him to agree to an injunction that would essentially make it "
4186 "impossible for him to work in many fields of technology for the rest of his "
4187 "life. He refused. They made him understand that this process of being sued "
4188 "was not going to be pleasant. (As Jesse's father recounted to me, the chief "
4189 "lawyer on the case, Matt Oppenheimer, told Jesse, <quote>You don't want to "
4190 "pay another visit to a dentist like me.</quote>) And throughout, the RIAA "
4191 "insisted it would not settle the case until it took every penny Jesse had "
4196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4197 #: freeculture.xml:2933
4199 "Jesse's family was outraged at these claims. They wanted to fight. But "
4200 "Jesse's uncle worked to educate the family about the nature of the American "
4201 "legal system. Jesse could fight the RIAA. He might even win. But the cost of "
4202 "fighting a lawsuit like this, Jesse was told, would be at least $250,000. If "
4203 "he won, he would not recover that money. If he won, he would have a piece of "
4204 "paper saying he had won, and a piece of paper saying he and his family were "
4208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4209 #: freeculture.xml:2943
4211 "So Jesse faced a mafia-like choice: $250,000 and a chance at winning, or "
4212 "$12,000 and a settlement."
4215 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4216 #: freeculture.xml:2946 freeculture.xml:3302 freeculture.xml:4237 freeculture.xml:5353 freeculture.xml:5402 freeculture.xml:9789 freeculture.xml:9887 freeculture.xml:10056 freeculture.xml:14626 freeculture.xml:14691
4220 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
4221 #: freeculture.xml:2946 freeculture.xml:3302 freeculture.xml:4237 freeculture.xml:9789 freeculture.xml:9887 freeculture.xml:10056 freeculture.xml:14626 freeculture.xml:14691
4222 msgid "recording industry payments to"
4226 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4227 #: freeculture.xml:2956
4229 "Occupational Employment Survey, U.S. Dept. of Labor (2001) "
4230 "(27–2042—Musicians and Singers). See also National Endowment for "
4231 "the Arts, <citetitle>More Than One in a Blue Moon</citetitle> (2000)."
4235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4236 #: freeculture.xml:2964
4238 "Douglas Lichtman makes a related point in <quote>KaZaA and "
4239 "Punishment,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 10 September "
4243 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4244 #: freeculture.xml:2948
4246 "The recording industry insists this is a matter of law and morality. Let's "
4247 "put the law aside for a moment and think about the morality. Where is the "
4248 "morality in a lawsuit like this? What is the virtue in scapegoatism? The "
4249 "RIAA is an extraordinarily powerful lobby. The president of the RIAA is "
4250 "reported to make more than $1 million a year. Artists, on the other hand, "
4251 "are not well paid. The average recording artist makes $45,900.<placeholder "
4252 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There are plenty of ways for the RIAA to affect "
4253 "and direct policy. So where is the morality in taking money from a student "
4254 "for running a search engine?<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
4257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4258 #: freeculture.xml:2969
4260 "On June 23, Jesse wired his savings to the lawyer working for the RIAA. The "
4261 "case against him was then dismissed. And with this, this kid who had "
4262 "tinkered a computer into a $15 million lawsuit became an activist:"
4265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
4266 #: freeculture.xml:2976
4268 "I was definitely not an activist [before]. I never really meant to be an "
4269 "activist. … [But] I've been pushed into this. In no way did I ever "
4270 "foresee anything like this, but I think it's just completely absurd what the "
4274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4275 #: freeculture.xml:2983
4277 "Jesse's parents betray a certain pride in their reluctant activist. As his "
4278 "father told me, Jesse <quote>considers himself very conservative, and so do "
4279 "I. … He's not a tree hugger. … I think it's bizarre that they "
4280 "would pick on him. But he wants to let people know that they're sending the "
4281 "wrong message. And he wants to correct the record.</quote>"
4284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
4285 #: freeculture.xml:2992
4286 msgid "CHAPTER FOUR: <quote>Pirates</quote>"
4289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4290 #: freeculture.xml:2995
4292 "<emphasis role='strong'>If <quote>piracy</quote> means</emphasis> using the "
4293 "creative property of others without their permission—if <quote>if "
4294 "value, then right</quote> is true—then the history of the content "
4295 "industry is a history of piracy. Every important sector of <quote>big "
4296 "media</quote> today—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born "
4297 "of a kind of piracy so defined. The consistent story is how last "
4298 "generation's pirates join this generation's country club—until now."
4301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4302 #: freeculture.xml:3006
4306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4307 #: freeculture.xml:3010
4309 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> I am grateful to Peter DiMauro "
4310 "for pointing me to this extraordinary history. See also Siva Vaidhyanathan, "
4311 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 87–93, which details "
4312 "Edison's <quote>adventures</quote> with copyright and patent."
4316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4317 #: freeculture.xml:3008
4319 "The film industry of Hollywood was built by fleeing pirates.<placeholder "
4320 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Creators and directors migrated from the East "
4321 "Coast to California in the early twentieth century in part to escape "
4322 "controls that patents granted the inventor of filmmaking, Thomas "
4323 "Edison. These controls were exercised through a monopoly "
4324 "<quote>trust,</quote> the Motion Pictures Patents Company, and were based on "
4325 "Thomas Edison's creative property—patents. Edison formed the MPPC to "
4326 "exercise the rights this creative property gave him, and the MPPC was "
4327 "serious about the control it demanded."
4330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4331 #: freeculture.xml:3026
4332 msgid "As one commentator tells one part of the story,"
4335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4336 #: freeculture.xml:3030
4338 "A January 1909 deadline was set for all companies to comply with the "
4339 "license. By February, unlicensed outlaws, who referred to themselves as "
4340 "independents protested the trust and carried on business without submitting "
4341 "to the Edison monopoly. In the summer of 1909 the independent movement was "
4342 "in full-swing, with producers and theater owners using illegal equipment and "
4343 "imported film stock to create their own underground market."
4346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
4347 #: freeculture.xml:3038
4348 msgid "Fox, William"
4351 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
4352 #: freeculture.xml:3039
4353 msgid "General Film Company"
4356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4357 #: freeculture.xml:3040 freeculture.xml:3320 freeculture.xml:4452 freeculture.xml:9929
4358 msgid "Picker, Randal C."
4361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4362 #: freeculture.xml:3064 freeculture.xml:4451 freeculture.xml:9663 freeculture.xml:9784
4363 msgid "broadcast flag"
4366 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4367 #: freeculture.xml:3053
4369 "J. A. Aberdeen, <citetitle>Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent "
4370 "Motion Picture Producers</citetitle> (Cobblestone Entertainment, 2000) and "
4371 "expanded texts posted at <quote>The Edison Movie Monopoly: The Motion "
4372 "Picture Patents Company vs. the Independent Outlaws,</quote> available at "
4373 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #11</ulink>. For a "
4374 "discussion of the economic motive behind both these limits and the limits "
4375 "imposed by Victor on phonographs, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison "
4376 "to the Broadcast Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the "
4377 "Propertization of Copyright</quote> (September 2002), University of Chicago "
4378 "Law School, James M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper "
4379 "No. 159. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4383 #: freeculture.xml:3042
4385 "With the country experiencing a tremendous expansion in the number of "
4386 "nickelodeons, the Patents Company reacted to the independent movement by "
4387 "forming a strong-arm subsidiary known as the General Film Company to block "
4388 "the entry of non-licensed independents. With coercive tactics that have "
4389 "become legendary, General Film confiscated unlicensed equipment, "
4390 "discontinued product supply to theaters which showed unlicensed films, and "
4391 "effectively monopolized distribution with the acquisition of all U.S. film "
4392 "exchanges, except for the one owned by the independent William Fox who "
4393 "defied the Trust even after his license was revoked.<placeholder "
4394 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4399 #: freeculture.xml:3075
4401 "Marc Wanamaker, <quote>The First Studios,</quote> <citetitle>The Silents "
4402 "Majority</citetitle>, archived at <ulink "
4403 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #12</ulink>."
4406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4407 #: freeculture.xml:3069
4409 "The Napsters of those days, the <quote>independents,</quote> were companies "
4410 "like Fox. And no less than today, these independents were vigorously "
4411 "resisted. <quote>Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and "
4412 "`accidents' resulting in loss of negatives, equipment, buildings and "
4413 "sometimes life and limb frequently occurred.</quote><placeholder "
4414 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That led the independents to flee the East "
4415 "Coast. California was remote enough from Edison's reach that filmmakers "
4416 "there could pirate his inventions without fear of the law. And the leaders "
4417 "of Hollywood filmmaking, Fox most prominently, did just that."
4421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4422 #: freeculture.xml:3085
4424 "Of course, California grew quickly, and the effective enforcement of federal "
4425 "law eventually spread west. But because patents grant the patent holder a "
4426 "truly <quote>limited</quote> monopoly (just seventeen years at that time), "
4427 "by the time enough federal marshals appeared, the patents had expired. A new "
4428 "industry had been born, in part from the piracy of Edison's creative "
4432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4433 #: freeculture.xml:3096
4434 msgid "Recorded Music"
4437 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4438 #: freeculture.xml:3098
4440 "The record industry was born of another kind of piracy, though to see how "
4441 "requires a bit of detail about the way the law regulates music."
4444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4445 #: freeculture.xml:3101
4446 msgid "Fourneaux, Henri"
4449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4450 #: freeculture.xml:3102
4451 msgid "Russel, Phil"
4454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4455 #: freeculture.xml:3104
4457 "At the time that Edison and Henri Fourneaux invented machines for "
4458 "reproducing music (Edison the phonograph, Fourneaux the player piano), the "
4459 "law gave composers the exclusive right to control copies of their music and "
4460 "the exclusive right to control public performances of their music. In other "
4461 "words, in 1900, if I wanted a copy of Phil Russel's 1899 hit <quote>Happy "
4462 "Mose,</quote> the law said I would have to pay for the right to get a copy "
4463 "of the musical score, and I would also have to pay for the right to perform "
4467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4468 #: freeculture.xml:3113 freeculture.xml:3264
4472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4473 #: freeculture.xml:3115
4475 "But what if I wanted to record <quote>Happy Mose,</quote> using Edison's "
4476 "phonograph or Fourneaux's player piano? Here the law stumbled. It was clear "
4477 "enough that I would have to buy any copy of the musical score that I "
4478 "performed in making this recording. And it was clear enough that I would "
4479 "have to pay for any public performance of the work I was recording. But it "
4480 "wasn't totally clear that I would have to pay for a <quote>public "
4481 "performance</quote> if I recorded the song in my own house (even today, you "
4482 "don't owe the Beatles anything if you sing their songs in the shower), or if "
4483 "I recorded the song from memory (copies in your brain are "
4484 "not—yet— regulated by copyright law). So if I simply sang the "
4485 "song into a recording device in the privacy of my own home, it wasn't clear "
4486 "that I owed the composer anything. And more importantly, it wasn't clear "
4487 "whether I owed the composer anything if I then made copies of those "
4488 "recordings. Because of this gap in the law, then, I could effectively "
4489 "pirate someone else's song without paying its composer anything."
4492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4493 #: freeculture.xml:3138 freeculture.xml:3155
4494 msgid "Kittredge, Alfred"
4497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4498 #: freeculture.xml:3134
4500 "The composers (and publishers) were none too happy about this capacity to "
4501 "pirate. As South Dakota senator Alfred Kittredge put it, <placeholder "
4502 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4505 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4506 #: freeculture.xml:3149
4508 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright: Hearings on S. 6330 "
4509 "and H.R. 19853 Before the ( Joint) Committees on Patents, 59th Cong. 59, 1st "
4510 "sess. (1906) (statement of Senator Alfred B. Kittredge, of South Dakota, "
4511 "chairman), reprinted in <citetitle>Legislative History of the Copyright "
4512 "Act</citetitle>, E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South "
4513 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1976). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4518 #: freeculture.xml:3142
4520 "Imagine the injustice of the thing. A composer writes a song or an opera. A "
4521 "publisher buys at great expense the rights to the same and copyrights "
4522 "it. Along come the phonographic companies and companies who cut music rolls "
4523 "and deliberately steal the work of the brain of the composer and publisher "
4524 "without any regard for [their] rights.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4529 #: freeculture.xml:3159
4530 msgid "Sousa, John Philip"
4534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4535 #: freeculture.xml:3165
4537 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 223 (statement of "
4538 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4543 #: freeculture.xml:3171
4545 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 226 (statement of "
4546 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4551 #: freeculture.xml:3178
4553 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 23 (statement of "
4554 "John Philip Sousa, composer)."
4557 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4558 #: freeculture.xml:3161
4560 "The innovators who developed the technology to record other people's works "
4561 "were <quote>sponging upon the toil, the work, the talent, and genius of "
4562 "American composers,</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and the "
4563 "<quote>music publishing industry</quote> was thereby <quote>at the complete "
4564 "mercy of this one pirate.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
4565 "As John Philip Sousa put it, in as direct a way as possible, <quote>When "
4566 "they make money out of my pieces, I want a share of it.</quote><placeholder "
4567 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
4570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4571 #: freeculture.xml:3182
4572 msgid "American Graphophone Company"
4575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4576 #: freeculture.xml:3183
4577 msgid "player pianos"
4581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4582 #: freeculture.xml:3194
4584 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 283–84 "
4585 "(statement of Albert Walker, representative of the Auto-Music Perforating "
4586 "Company of New York)."
4590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4591 #: freeculture.xml:3205
4593 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 376 (prepared "
4594 "memorandum of Philip Mauro, general patent counsel of the American "
4595 "Graphophone Company Association)."
4598 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4599 #: freeculture.xml:3186
4601 "These arguments have familiar echoes in the wars of our day. So, too, do the "
4602 "arguments on the other side. The innovators who developed the player piano "
4603 "argued that <quote>it is perfectly demonstrable that the introduction of "
4604 "automatic music players has not deprived any composer of anything he had "
4605 "before their introduction.</quote> Rather, the machines increased the sales "
4606 "of sheet music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In any case, the "
4607 "innovators argued, the job of Congress was <quote>to consider first the "
4608 "interest of [the public], whom they represent, and whose servants they "
4609 "are.</quote> <quote>All talk about `theft,'</quote> the general counsel of "
4610 "the American Graphophone Company wrote, <quote>is the merest claptrap, for "
4611 "there exists no property in ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as "
4612 "defined by statute.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
4616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4617 #: freeculture.xml:3211
4619 "The law soon resolved this battle in favor of the composer "
4620 "<emphasis>and</emphasis> the recording artist. Congress amended the law to "
4621 "make sure that composers would be paid for the <quote>mechanical "
4622 "reproductions</quote> of their music. But rather than simply granting the "
4623 "composer complete control over the right to make mechanical reproductions, "
4624 "Congress gave recording artists a right to record the music, at a price set "
4625 "by Congress, once the composer allowed it to be recorded once. This is the "
4626 "part of copyright law that makes cover songs possible. Once a composer "
4627 "authorizes a recording of his song, others are free to record the same song, "
4628 "so long as they pay the original composer a fee set by the law."
4631 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4632 #: freeculture.xml:3226
4634 "American law ordinarily calls this a <quote>compulsory license,</quote> but "
4635 "I will refer to it as a <quote>statutory license.</quote> A statutory "
4636 "license is a license whose key terms are set by law. After Congress's "
4637 "amendment of the Copyright Act in 1909, record companies were free to "
4638 "distribute copies of recordings so long as they paid the composer (or "
4639 "copyright holder) the fee set by the statute."
4642 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4643 #: freeculture.xml:3241 freeculture.xml:14322
4644 msgid "Grisham, John"
4647 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4648 #: freeculture.xml:3234
4650 "This is an exception within the law of copyright. When John Grisham writes a "
4651 "novel, a publisher is free to publish that novel only if Grisham gives the "
4652 "publisher permission. Grisham, in turn, is free to charge whatever he wants "
4653 "for that permission. The price to publish Grisham is thus set by Grisham, "
4654 "and copyright law ordinarily says you have no permission to use Grisham's "
4655 "work except with permission of Grisham. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4661 #: freeculture.xml:3258
4663 "Copyright Law Revision: Hearings on S. 2499, S. 2900, H.R. 243, and "
4664 "H.R. 11794 Before the ( Joint) Committee on Patents, 60th Cong., 1st sess., "
4665 "217 (1908) (statement of Senator Reed Smoot, chairman), reprinted in "
4666 "<citetitle>Legislative History of the 1909 Copyright Act</citetitle>, "
4667 "E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman "
4671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4672 #: freeculture.xml:3244
4674 "But the law governing recordings gives recording artists less. And thus, in "
4675 "effect, the law <emphasis>subsidizes</emphasis> the recording industry "
4676 "through a kind of piracy—by giving recording artists a weaker right "
4677 "than it otherwise gives creative authors. The Beatles have less control over "
4678 "their creative work than Grisham does. And the beneficiaries of this less "
4679 "control are the recording industry and the public. The recording industry "
4680 "gets something of value for less than it otherwise would pay; the public "
4681 "gets access to a much wider range of musical creativity. Indeed, Congress "
4682 "was quite explicit about its reasons for granting this right. Its fear was "
4683 "the monopoly power of rights holders, and that that power would stifle "
4684 "follow-on creativity.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4685 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4689 #: freeculture.xml:3267
4691 "While the recording industry has been quite coy about this recently, "
4692 "historically it has been quite a supporter of the statutory license for "
4693 "records. As a 1967 report from the House Committee on the Judiciary relates,"
4697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4698 #: freeculture.xml:3289
4700 "Copyright Law Revision: Report to Accompany H.R. 2512, House Committee on "
4701 "the Judiciary, 90th Cong., 1st sess., House Document no. 83, (8 March "
4702 "1967). I am grateful to Glenn Brown for drawing my attention to this report."
4705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4706 #: freeculture.xml:3274
4708 "the record producers argued vigorously that the compulsory license system "
4709 "must be retained. They asserted that the record industry is a "
4710 "half-billion-dollar business of great economic importance in the United "
4711 "States and throughout the world; records today are the principal means of "
4712 "disseminating music, and this creates special problems, since performers "
4713 "need unhampered access to musical material on nondiscriminatory "
4714 "terms. Historically, the record producers pointed out, there were no "
4715 "recording rights before 1909 and the 1909 statute adopted the compulsory "
4716 "license as a deliberate anti-monopoly condition on the grant of these "
4717 "rights. They argue that the result has been an outpouring of recorded music, "
4718 "with the public being given lower prices, improved quality, and a greater "
4719 "choice.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4723 #: freeculture.xml:3296
4725 "By limiting the rights musicians have, by partially pirating their creative "
4726 "work, the record producers, and the public, benefit."
4729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4730 #: freeculture.xml:3301 freeculture.xml:4416
4734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4735 #: freeculture.xml:3304
4736 msgid "Radio was also born of piracy."
4739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4740 #: freeculture.xml:3319
4741 msgid "Hand, Learned"
4744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4745 #: freeculture.xml:3310
4747 "See 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, sections 106 and 110. At "
4748 "the beginning, record companies printed <quote>Not Licensed for Radio "
4749 "Broadcast</quote> and other messages purporting to restrict the ability to "
4750 "play a record on a radio station. Judge Learned Hand rejected the argument "
4751 "that a warning attached to a record might restrict the rights of the radio "
4752 "station. See <citetitle>RCA Manufacturing "
4753 "Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Whiteman</citetitle>, 114 F. 2d 86 (2nd "
4754 "Cir. 1940). See also Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison to the Broadcast "
4755 "Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of "
4756 "Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> "
4757 "70 (2003): 281. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4758 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4762 #: freeculture.xml:3307
4764 "When a radio station plays a record on the air, that constitutes a "
4765 "<quote>public performance</quote> of the composer's work.<placeholder "
4766 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As I described above, the law gives the "
4767 "composer (or copyright holder) an exclusive right to public performances of "
4768 "his work. The radio station thus owes the composer money for that "
4772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4773 #: freeculture.xml:3337 freeculture.xml:8998 freeculture.xml:9457 freeculture.xml:12451
4774 msgid "Lovett, Lyle"
4778 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4779 #: freeculture.xml:3327
4781 "But when the radio station plays a record, it is not only performing a copy "
4782 "of the <emphasis>composer's</emphasis> work. The radio station is also "
4783 "performing a copy of the <emphasis>recording artist's</emphasis> work. It's "
4784 "one thing to have <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> sung on the radio by the "
4785 "local children's choir; it's quite another to have it sung by the Rolling "
4786 "Stones or Lyle Lovett. The recording artist is adding to the value of the "
4787 "composition performed on the radio station. And if the law were perfectly "
4788 "consistent, the radio station would have to pay the recording artist for his "
4789 "work, just as it pays the composer of the music for his work. <placeholder "
4790 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4794 #: freeculture.xml:3342
4796 "But it doesn't. Under the law governing radio performances, the radio "
4797 "station does not have to pay the recording artist. The radio station need "
4798 "only pay the composer. The radio station thus gets a bit of something for "
4799 "nothing. It gets to perform the recording artist's work for free, even if it "
4800 "must pay the composer something for the privilege of playing the song."
4803 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4804 #: freeculture.xml:3349 freeculture.xml:3854 freeculture.xml:6315
4808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4809 #: freeculture.xml:3351
4811 "This difference can be huge. Imagine you compose a piece of music. Imagine "
4812 "it is your first. You own the exclusive right to authorize public "
4813 "performances of that music. So if Madonna wants to sing your song in public, "
4814 "she has to get your permission."
4817 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4818 #: freeculture.xml:3357
4820 "Imagine she does sing your song, and imagine she likes it a lot. She then "
4821 "decides to make a recording of your song, and it becomes a top hit. Under "
4822 "our law, every time a radio station plays your song, you get some money. But "
4823 "Madonna gets nothing, save the indirect effect on the sale of her CDs. The "
4824 "public performance of her recording is not a <quote>protected</quote> "
4825 "right. The radio station thus gets to <emphasis>pirate</emphasis> the value "
4826 "of Madonna's work without paying her anything."
4829 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4830 #: freeculture.xml:3368
4832 "No doubt, one might argue that, on balance, the recording artists "
4833 "benefit. On average, the promotion they get is worth more than the "
4834 "performance rights they give up. Maybe. But even if so, the law ordinarily "
4835 "gives the creator the right to make this choice. By making the choice for "
4836 "him or her, the law gives the radio station the right to take something for "
4840 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4841 #: freeculture.xml:3378 freeculture.xml:4422
4845 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4846 #: freeculture.xml:3379 freeculture.xml:4250 freeculture.xml:8193 freeculture.xml:8232 freeculture.xml:14724
4847 msgid "cable television"
4850 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4851 #: freeculture.xml:3381
4852 msgid "Cable TV was also born of a kind of piracy."
4856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4857 #: freeculture.xml:3384
4859 "When cable entrepreneurs first started wiring communities with cable "
4860 "television in 1948, most refused to pay broadcasters for the content that "
4861 "they echoed to their customers. Even when the cable companies started "
4862 "selling access to television broadcasts, they refused to pay for what they "
4863 "sold. Cable companies were thus Napsterizing broadcasters' content, but more "
4864 "egregiously than anything Napster ever did— Napster never charged for "
4865 "the content it enabled others to give away."
4868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4869 #: freeculture.xml:3394
4870 msgid "Anello, Douglas"
4873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4874 #: freeculture.xml:3395
4875 msgid "Burdick, Quentin"
4878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4879 #: freeculture.xml:3396 freeculture.xml:3407
4880 msgid "Hyde, Rosel H."
4883 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4884 #: freeculture.xml:3402
4886 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV: Hearing on S. 1006 Before the "
4887 "Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Senate Committee "
4888 "on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 78 (1966) (statement of Rosel "
4889 "H. Hyde, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission). <placeholder "
4890 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4895 #: freeculture.xml:3414
4897 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 116 (statement of Douglas A. Anello, "
4898 "general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters)."
4901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4902 #: freeculture.xml:3398
4904 "Broadcasters and copyright owners were quick to attack this theft. Rosel "
4905 "Hyde, chairman of the FCC, viewed the practice as a kind of <quote>unfair "
4906 "and potentially destructive competition.</quote><placeholder "
4907 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There may have been a <quote>public "
4908 "interest</quote> in spreading the reach of cable TV, but as Douglas Anello, "
4909 "general counsel to the National Association of Broadcasters, asked Senator "
4910 "Quentin Burdick during testimony, <quote>Does public interest dictate that "
4911 "you use somebody else's property?</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4912 "id=\"1\"/> As another broadcaster put it,"
4916 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4917 #: freeculture.xml:3425
4919 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 126 (statement of Ernest W. Jennes, "
4920 "general counsel of the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters, Inc.)."
4923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4924 #: freeculture.xml:3421
4926 "The extraordinary thing about the CATV business is that it is the only "
4927 "business I know of where the product that is being sold is not paid "
4928 "for.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4932 #: freeculture.xml:3431
4933 msgid "Again, the demand of the copyright holders seemed reasonable enough:"
4937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4938 #: freeculture.xml:3440
4940 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 169 (joint statement of Arthur B. Krim, "
4941 "president of United Artists Corp., and John Sinn, president of United "
4942 "Artists Television, Inc.)."
4945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4946 #: freeculture.xml:3435
4948 "All we are asking for is a very simple thing, that people who now take our "
4949 "property for nothing pay for it. We are trying to stop piracy and I don't "
4950 "think there is any lesser word to describe it. I think there are harsher "
4951 "words which would fit it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4954 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4955 #: freeculture.xml:3446 freeculture.xml:3454
4956 msgid "Heston, Charlton"
4959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4960 #: freeculture.xml:3452
4962 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 209 (statement of Charlton Heston, "
4963 "president of the Screen Actors Guild). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4968 #: freeculture.xml:3448
4970 "These were <quote>free-ride[rs],</quote> Screen Actor's Guild president "
4971 "Charlton Heston said, who were <quote>depriving actors of "
4972 "compensation.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4976 #: freeculture.xml:3459
4978 "But again, there was another side to the debate. As Assistant Attorney "
4979 "General Edwin Zimmerman put it,"
4982 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
4983 #: freeculture.xml:3475 freeculture.xml:3477
4984 msgid "Zimmerman, Edwin"
4987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4988 #: freeculture.xml:3473
4990 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 216 (statement of Edwin M. Zimmerman, "
4991 "acting assistant attorney general). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4996 #: freeculture.xml:3464
4998 "Our point here is that unlike the problem of whether you have any copyright "
4999 "protection at all, the problem here is whether copyright holders who are "
5000 "already compensated, who already have a monopoly, should be permitted to "
5001 "extend that monopoly. … The question here is how much compensation "
5002 "they should have and how far back they should carry their right to "
5003 "compensation.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
5004 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5008 #: freeculture.xml:3481
5010 "Copyright owners took the cable companies to court. Twice the Supreme Court "
5011 "held that the cable companies owed the copyright owners nothing."
5014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5015 #: freeculture.xml:3485
5017 "It took Congress almost thirty years before it resolved the question of "
5018 "whether cable companies had to pay for the content they "
5019 "<quote>pirated.</quote> In the end, Congress resolved this question in the "
5020 "same way that it resolved the question about record players and player "
5021 "pianos. Yes, cable companies would have to pay for the content that they "
5022 "broadcast; but the price they would have to pay was not set by the copyright "
5023 "owner. The price was set by law, so that the broadcasters couldn't exercise "
5024 "veto power over the emerging technologies of cable. Cable companies thus "
5025 "built their empire in part upon a <quote>piracy</quote> of the value created "
5026 "by broadcasters' content."
5030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5031 #: freeculture.xml:3503
5033 "See, for example, National Music Publisher's Association, <citetitle>The "
5034 "Engine of Free Expression: Copyright on the Internet—The Myth of Free "
5035 "Information</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5036 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #13</ulink>. <quote>The threat of "
5037 "piracy—the use of someone else's creative work without permission or "
5038 "compensation—has grown with the Internet.</quote>"
5041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5042 #: freeculture.xml:3498
5044 "<emphasis role='strong'>These separate stories</emphasis> sing a common "
5045 "theme. If <quote>piracy</quote> means using value from someone else's "
5046 "creative property without permission from that creator—as it is "
5047 "increasingly described today<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
5048 "— then <emphasis>every</emphasis> industry affected by copyright today "
5049 "is the product and beneficiary of a certain kind of piracy. Film, records, "
5050 "radio, cable TV. … The list is long and could well be expanded. Every "
5051 "generation welcomes the pirates from the last. Every generation—until "
5055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
5056 #: freeculture.xml:3520
5057 msgid "CHAPTER FIVE: <quote>Piracy</quote>"
5060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5061 #: freeculture.xml:3522
5063 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is piracy</emphasis> of copyrighted "
5064 "material. Lots of it. This piracy comes in many forms. The most significant "
5065 "is commercial piracy, the unauthorized taking of other people's content "
5066 "within a commercial context. Despite the many justifications that are "
5067 "offered in its defense, this taking is wrong. No one should condone it, and "
5068 "the law should stop it."
5072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5073 #: freeculture.xml:3530
5075 "But as well as copy-shop piracy, there is another kind of "
5076 "<quote>taking</quote> that is more directly related to the Internet. That "
5077 "taking, too, seems wrong to many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before "
5078 "we paint this taking <quote>piracy,</quote> however, we should understand "
5079 "its nature a bit more. For the harm of this taking is significantly more "
5080 "ambiguous than outright copying, and the law should account for that "
5081 "ambiguity, as it has so often done in the past."
5084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
5085 #: freeculture.xml:3540
5089 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5090 #: freeculture.xml:3541 freeculture.xml:3621 freeculture.xml:3671 freeculture.xml:14726
5091 msgid "Asia, commercial piracy in"
5094 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5095 #: freeculture.xml:3542 freeculture.xml:3989 freeculture.xml:9458 freeculture.xml:10265 freeculture.xml:14117 freeculture.xml:14708
5099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5100 #: freeculture.xml:3542
5101 msgid "foreign piracy of"
5105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5106 #: freeculture.xml:3550
5108 "See IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), "
5109 "<citetitle>The Recording Industry Commercial Piracy Report 2003</citetitle>, "
5110 "July 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5111 "#14</ulink>. See also Ben Hunt, <quote>Companies Warned on Music Piracy "
5112 "Risk,</quote> <citetitle>Financial Times</citetitle>, 14 February 2003, 11."
5115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5116 #: freeculture.xml:3544
5118 "All across the world, but especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, there are "
5119 "businesses that do nothing but take others people's copyrighted content, "
5120 "copy it, and sell it—all without the permission of a copyright "
5121 "owner. The recording industry estimates that it loses about $4.6 billion "
5122 "every year to physical piracy<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> (that "
5123 "works out to one in three CDs sold worldwide). The MPAA estimates that it "
5124 "loses $3 billion annually worldwide to piracy."
5127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5128 #: freeculture.xml:3560
5130 "This is piracy plain and simple. Nothing in the argument of this book, nor "
5131 "in the argument that most people make when talking about the subject of this "
5132 "book, should draw into doubt this simple point: This piracy is wrong."
5135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5136 #: freeculture.xml:3566
5138 "Which is not to say that excuses and justifications couldn't be made for "
5139 "it. We could, for example, remind ourselves that for the first one hundred "
5140 "years of the American Republic, America did not honor foreign copyrights. We "
5141 "were born, in this sense, a pirate nation. It might therefore seem "
5142 "hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations "
5143 "treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, "
5147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5148 #: freeculture.xml:3575
5150 "That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the "
5151 "taking of foreign works. It explicitly limited itself to American "
5152 "works. Thus the American publishers who published foreign works without the "
5153 "permission of foreign authors were not violating any rule. The copy shops "
5154 "in Asia, by contrast, are violating Asian law. Asian law does protect "
5155 "foreign copyrights, and the actions of the copy shops violate that law. So "
5156 "the wrong of piracy that they engage in is not just a moral wrong, but a "
5157 "legal wrong, and not just an internationally legal wrong, but a locally "
5158 "legal wrong as well."
5162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5163 #: freeculture.xml:3586
5165 "True, these local rules have, in effect, been imposed upon these "
5166 "countries. No country can be part of the world economy and choose not to "
5167 "protect copyright internationally. We may have been born a pirate nation, "
5168 "but we will not allow any other nation to have a similar childhood."
5171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5172 #: freeculture.xml:3614
5173 msgid "agricultural patents"
5176 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5177 #: freeculture.xml:3615 freeculture.xml:12735 freeculture.xml:13188 freeculture.xml:13195
5178 msgid "Drahos, Peter"
5181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5182 #: freeculture.xml:3599
5184 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: "
5185 "<citetitle>Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New "
5186 "Press, 2003), 10–13, 209. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual "
5187 "Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement obligates member nations to create "
5188 "administrative and enforcement mechanisms for intellectual property rights, "
5189 "a costly proposition for developing countries. Additionally, patent rights "
5190 "may lead to higher prices for staple industries such as agriculture. Critics "
5191 "of TRIPS question the disparity between burdens imposed upon developing "
5192 "countries and benefits conferred to industrialized nations. TRIPS does "
5193 "permit governments to use patents for public, noncommercial uses without "
5194 "first obtaining the patent holder's permission. Developing nations may be "
5195 "able to use this to gain the benefits of foreign patents at lower "
5196 "prices. This is a promising strategy for developing nations within the TRIPS "
5197 "framework. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
5198 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5202 #: freeculture.xml:3594
5204 "If a country is to be treated as a sovereign, however, then its laws are its "
5205 "laws regardless of their source. The international law under which these "
5206 "nations live gives them some opportunities to escape the burden of "
5207 "intellectual property law.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In my "
5208 "view, more developing nations should take advantage of that opportunity, but "
5209 "when they don't, then their laws should be respected. And under the laws of "
5210 "these nations, this piracy is wrong."
5213 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5214 #: freeculture.xml:3636 freeculture.xml:3910 freeculture.xml:14874
5215 msgid "Liebowitz, Stan"
5218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5219 #: freeculture.xml:3629
5221 "For an analysis of the economic impact of copying technology, see Stan "
5222 "Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle> (New York: "
5223 "Amacom, 2002), 144–90. <quote>In some instances … the impact of "
5224 "piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the "
5225 "work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the "
5226 "individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if "
5227 "pirating were not an option.</quote> Ibid., 149. <placeholder "
5228 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5232 #: freeculture.xml:3623
5234 "Alternatively, we could try to excuse this piracy by noting that in any "
5235 "case, it does no harm to the industry. The Chinese who get access to "
5236 "American CDs at 50 cents a copy are not people who would have bought those "
5237 "American CDs at $15 a copy. So no one really has any less money than they "
5238 "otherwise would have had.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5242 #: freeculture.xml:3640
5244 "This is often true (though I have friends who have purchased many thousands "
5245 "of pirated DVDs who certainly have enough money to pay for the content they "
5246 "have taken), and it does mitigate to some degree the harm caused by such "
5247 "taking. Extremists in this debate love to say, <quote>You wouldn't go into "
5248 "Barnes & Noble and take a book off of the shelf without paying; why "
5249 "should it be any different with on-line music?</quote> The difference is, of "
5250 "course, that when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less "
5251 "book to sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, "
5252 "there is not one less CD that can be sold. The physics of piracy of the "
5253 "intangible are different from the physics of piracy of the tangible."
5257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5258 #: freeculture.xml:3654
5260 "This argument is still very weak. However, although copyright is a property "
5261 "right of a very special sort, it <emphasis>is</emphasis> a property "
5262 "right. Like all property rights, the copyright gives the owner the right to "
5263 "decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner "
5264 "doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important "
5265 "statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish "
5266 "of the copyright owner. Those licenses give people the right to "
5267 "<quote>take</quote> copyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner "
5268 "wants to sell. But where the law does not give people the right to take "
5269 "content, it is wrong to take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If "
5270 "we have a property system, and that system is properly balanced to the "
5271 "technology of a time, then it is wrong to take property without the "
5272 "permission of a property owner. That is exactly what <quote>property</quote> "
5276 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5277 #: freeculture.xml:3672 freeculture.xml:14727
5281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5282 #: freeculture.xml:3673
5283 msgid "free software/open-source software (FS/OSS)"
5286 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5287 #: freeculture.xml:3674 freeculture.xml:3704 freeculture.xml:11539 freeculture.xml:13034 freeculture.xml:13632
5288 msgid "GNU/Linux operating system"
5291 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5292 #: freeculture.xml:3675 freeculture.xml:3705 freeculture.xml:11541 freeculture.xml:13035 freeculture.xml:13633
5293 msgid "Linux operating system"
5296 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
5297 #: freeculture.xml:3676 freeculture.xml:3678 freeculture.xml:3679 freeculture.xml:5344 freeculture.xml:7832 freeculture.xml:13087
5301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5302 #: freeculture.xml:3676
5303 msgid "competitive strategies of"
5306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5307 #: freeculture.xml:3677
5311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5312 #: freeculture.xml:3678
5313 msgid "international software piracy of"
5316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5317 #: freeculture.xml:3679
5318 msgid "Windows operating system of"
5321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5322 #: freeculture.xml:3681
5324 "Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the "
5325 "piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese "
5326 "<quote>steal</quote> Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on "
5327 "Microsoft. Microsoft loses the value of the software that was taken. But it "
5328 "gains users who are used to life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the "
5329 "nation grows more wealthy, more and more people will buy software rather "
5330 "than steal it. And hence over time, because that buying will benefit "
5331 "Microsoft, Microsoft benefits from the piracy. If instead of pirating "
5332 "Microsoft Windows, the Chinese used the free GNU/Linux operating system, "
5333 "then these Chinese users would not eventually be buying Microsoft. Without "
5334 "piracy, then, Microsoft would lose."
5337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5338 #: freeculture.xml:3693
5342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5343 #: freeculture.xml:3693
5344 msgid "databases of case reports in"
5347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5348 #: freeculture.xml:3695
5350 "This argument, too, is somewhat true. The addiction strategy is a good "
5351 "one. Many businesses practice it. Some thrive because of it. Law students, "
5352 "for example, are given free access to the two largest legal databases. The "
5353 "companies marketing both hope the students will become so used to their "
5354 "service that they will want to use it and not the other when they become "
5355 "lawyers (and must pay high subscription fees)."
5358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5359 #: freeculture.xml:3702
5363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5364 #: freeculture.xml:3703
5365 msgid "Internet Explorer"
5368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5369 #: freeculture.xml:3707
5371 "Still, the argument is not terribly persuasive. We don't give the alcoholic "
5372 "a defense when he steals his first beer, merely because that will make it "
5373 "more likely that he will buy the next three. Instead, we ordinarily allow "
5374 "businesses to decide for themselves when it is best to give their product "
5375 "away. If Microsoft fears the competition of GNU/Linux, then Microsoft can "
5376 "give its product away, as it did, for example, with Internet Explorer to "
5377 "fight Netscape. A property right means giving the property owner the right "
5378 "to say who gets access to what—at least ordinarily. And if the law "
5379 "properly balances the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of "
5380 "access, then violating the law is still wrong."
5384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5385 #: freeculture.xml:3721
5387 "Thus, while I understand the pull of these justifications for piracy, and I "
5388 "certainly see the motivation, in my view, in the end, these efforts at "
5389 "justifying commercial piracy simply don't cut it. This kind of piracy is "
5390 "rampant and just plain wrong. It doesn't transform the content it steals; it "
5391 "doesn't transform the market it competes in. It merely gives someone access "
5392 "to something that the law says he should not have. Nothing has changed to "
5393 "draw that law into doubt. This form of piracy is flat out wrong."
5396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5397 #: freeculture.xml:3731
5399 "But as the examples from the four chapters that introduced this part "
5400 "suggest, even if some piracy is plainly wrong, not all <quote>piracy</quote> "
5401 "is. Or at least, not all <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong if that term is "
5402 "understood in the way it is increasingly used today. Many kinds of "
5403 "<quote>piracy</quote> are useful and productive, to produce either new "
5404 "content or new ways of doing business. Neither our tradition nor any "
5405 "tradition has ever banned all <quote>piracy</quote> in that sense of the "
5409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5410 #: freeculture.xml:3740
5412 "This doesn't mean that there are no questions raised by the latest piracy "
5413 "concern, peer-to-peer file sharing. But it does mean that we need to "
5414 "understand the harm in peer-to-peer sharing a bit more before we condemn it "
5415 "to the gallows with the charge of piracy."
5418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5419 #: freeculture.xml:3746
5421 "For (1) like the original Hollywood, p2p sharing escapes an overly "
5422 "controlling industry; and (2) like the original recording industry, it "
5423 "simply exploits a new way to distribute content; but (3) unlike cable TV, no "
5424 "one is selling the content that is shared on p2p services."
5427 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5428 #: freeculture.xml:3752
5430 "These differences distinguish p2p sharing from true piracy. They should push "
5431 "us to find a way to protect artists while enabling this sharing to survive."
5434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
5435 #: freeculture.xml:3758
5440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5441 #: freeculture.xml:3763
5443 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
5444 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777)."
5448 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5449 #: freeculture.xml:3760
5451 "The key to the <quote>piracy</quote> that the law aims to quash is a use "
5452 "that <quote>rob[s] the author of [his] profit.</quote><placeholder "
5453 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This means we must determine whether and how "
5454 "much p2p sharing harms before we know how strongly the law should seek to "
5455 "either prevent it or find an alternative to assure the author of his profit."
5458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5459 #: freeculture.xml:3771 freeculture.xml:3779
5463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5464 #: freeculture.xml:3772
5465 msgid "Fanning, Shawn"
5468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5469 #: freeculture.xml:3789 freeculture.xml:8426
5470 msgid "Christensen, Clayton M."
5473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5474 #: freeculture.xml:3779
5476 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Clayton M. Christensen, "
5477 "<citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary National Bestseller "
5478 "That Changed the Way We Do Business</citetitle> (New York: HarperBusiness, "
5479 "2000). Professor Christensen examines why companies that give rise to and "
5480 "dominate a product area are frequently unable to come up with the most "
5481 "creative, paradigm-shifting uses for their own products. This job usually "
5482 "falls to outside innovators, who reassemble existing technology in inventive "
5483 "ways. For a discussion of Christensen's ideas, see Lawrence Lessig, "
5484 "<citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 89–92, 139. <placeholder "
5485 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5488 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5489 #: freeculture.xml:3774
5491 "Peer-to-peer sharing was made famous by Napster. But the inventors of the "
5492 "Napster technology had not made any major technological innovations. Like "
5493 "every great advance in innovation on the Internet (and, arguably, off the "
5494 "Internet as well<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), Shawn Fanning "
5495 "and crew had simply put together components that had been developed "
5500 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5501 #: freeculture.xml:3799
5503 "See Carolyn Lochhead, <quote>Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood "
5504 "Nightmare,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 "
5505 "September 2002, A1; <quote>Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,</quote> <citetitle>New "
5506 "Scientist</citetitle>, 6 July 2002, 42; Benny Evangelista, <quote>Napster "
5507 "Names CEO, Secures New Financing,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
5508 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 23 May 2003, C1; <quote>Napster's Wake-Up "
5509 "Call,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 24 June 2000, 23; John "
5510 "Naughton, <quote>Hollywood at War with the Internet</quote> (London) "
5511 "<citetitle>Times</citetitle>, 26 July 2002, 18."
5514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5515 #: freeculture.xml:3794
5517 "The result was spontaneous combustion. Launched in July 1999, Napster "
5518 "amassed over 10 million users within nine months. After eighteen months, "
5519 "there were close to 80 million registered users of the system.<placeholder "
5520 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Courts quickly shut Napster down, but other "
5521 "services emerged to take its place. (Kazaa is currently the most popular p2p "
5522 "service. It boasts over 100 million members.) These services' systems are "
5523 "different architecturally, though not very different in function: Each "
5524 "enables users to make content available to any number of other users. With a "
5525 "p2p system, you can share your favorite songs with your best friend— "
5526 "or your 20,000 best friends."
5530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5531 #: freeculture.xml:3821
5533 "See Ipsos-Insight, <citetitle>TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Online Music "
5534 "Distribution</citetitle> (September 2002), reporting that 28 percent of "
5535 "Americans aged twelve and older have downloaded music off of the Internet "
5536 "and 30 percent have listened to digital music files stored on their "
5541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5542 #: freeculture.xml:3830
5544 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight,</quote> "
5545 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 6 June 2003, A1."
5548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5549 #: freeculture.xml:3815
5551 "According to a number of estimates, a huge proportion of Americans have "
5552 "tasted file-sharing technology. A study by Ipsos-Insight in September 2002 "
5553 "estimated that 60 million Americans had downloaded music—28 percent of "
5554 "Americans older than 12.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A survey "
5555 "by the NPD group quoted in <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> "
5556 "estimated that 43 million citizens used file-sharing networks to exchange "
5557 "content in May 2003.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The vast "
5558 "majority of these are not kids. Whatever the actual figure, a massive "
5559 "quantity of content is being <quote>taken</quote> on these networks. The "
5560 "ease and inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to "
5561 "enjoy music in a way that they hadn't before."
5564 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5565 #: freeculture.xml:3839
5567 "Some of this enjoying involves copyright infringement. Some of it does "
5568 "not. And even among the part that is technically copyright infringement, "
5569 "calculating the actual harm to copyright owners is more complicated than one "
5570 "might think. So consider—a bit more carefully than the polarized "
5571 "voices around this debate usually do—the kinds of sharing that file "
5572 "sharing enables, and the kinds of harm it entails."
5576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5577 #: freeculture.xml:3849
5579 "File sharers share different kinds of content. We can divide these different "
5580 "kinds into four types."
5584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5585 #: freeculture.xml:3857
5587 "There are some who use sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
5588 "content. Thus, when a new Madonna CD is released, rather than buying the CD, "
5589 "these users simply take it. We might quibble about whether everyone who "
5590 "takes it would actually have bought it if sharing didn't make it available "
5591 "for free. Most probably wouldn't have, but clearly there are some who "
5592 "would. The latter are the target of category A: users who download instead "
5597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5598 #: freeculture.xml:3867
5600 "There are some who use sharing networks to sample music before purchasing "
5601 "it. Thus, a friend sends another friend an MP3 of an artist he's not heard "
5602 "of. The other friend then buys CDs by that artist. This is a kind of "
5603 "targeted advertising, quite likely to succeed. If the friend recommending "
5604 "the album gains nothing from a bad recommendation, then one could expect "
5605 "that the recommendations will actually be quite good. The net effect of this "
5606 "sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased."
5610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5611 #: freeculture.xml:3878
5613 "There are many who use sharing networks to get access to copyrighted content "
5614 "that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the "
5615 "transaction costs off the Net are too high. This use of sharing networks is "
5616 "among the most rewarding for many. Songs that were part of your childhood "
5617 "but have long vanished from the marketplace magically appear again on the "
5618 "network. (One friend told me that when she discovered Napster, she spent a "
5619 "solid weekend <quote>recalling</quote> old songs. She was astonished at the "
5620 "range and mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is "
5621 "still technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright "
5622 "owner is not selling the content anymore, the economic harm is "
5623 "zero—the same harm that occurs when I sell my collection of 1960s "
5624 "45-rpm records to a local collector."
5629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5630 #: freeculture.xml:3895
5632 "Finally, there are many who use sharing networks to get access to content "
5633 "that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away."
5636 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5637 #: freeculture.xml:3901
5638 msgid "How do these different types of sharing balance out?"
5641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5642 #: freeculture.xml:3909
5644 "See Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle>, "
5645 "148–49. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5649 #: freeculture.xml:3904
5651 "Let's start with some simple but important points. From the perspective of "
5652 "the law, only type D sharing is clearly legal. From the perspective of "
5653 "economics, only type A sharing is clearly harmful.<placeholder "
5654 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Type B sharing is illegal but plainly "
5655 "beneficial. Type C sharing is illegal, yet good for society (since more "
5656 "exposure to music is good) and harmless to the artist (since the work is "
5657 "not otherwise available). So how sharing matters on balance is a hard "
5658 "question to answer—and certainly much more difficult than the current "
5659 "rhetoric around the issue suggests."
5662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5663 #: freeculture.xml:3920
5665 "Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful "
5666 "type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers "
5667 "complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and "
5668 "broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music industry complains that "
5669 "type A sharing is a kind of <quote>theft</quote> that is "
5670 "<quote>devastating</quote> the industry."
5673 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5674 #: freeculture.xml:3927 freeculture.xml:3936 freeculture.xml:4279 freeculture.xml:7992 freeculture.xml:8021 freeculture.xml:9719 freeculture.xml:14434
5675 msgid "cassette recording"
5678 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5679 #: freeculture.xml:3927 freeculture.xml:4279 freeculture.xml:7992 freeculture.xml:8021 freeculture.xml:9719 freeculture.xml:9720 freeculture.xml:14434 freeculture.xml:14435
5683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5684 #: freeculture.xml:3936
5686 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, "
5687 "<citetitle>Technology Evolution and the Music Industry's Business Model "
5688 "Crisis</citetitle> (2003), 3. This report describes the music industry's "
5689 "effort to stigmatize the budding practice of cassette taping in the 1970s, "
5690 "including an advertising campaign featuring a cassette-shape skull and the "
5691 "caption <quote>Home taping is killing music.</quote> At the time digital "
5692 "audio tape became a threat, the Office of Technical Assessment conducted a "
5693 "survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 percent of consumers older than ten "
5694 "had taped music to a cassette format. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology "
5695 "Assessment, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges the "
5696 "Law</citetitle>, OTA-CIT-422 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing "
5697 "Office, October 1989), 145–56."
5700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5701 #: freeculture.xml:3929
5703 "While the numbers do suggest that sharing is harmful, how harmful is harder "
5704 "to reckon. It has long been the recording industry's practice to blame "
5705 "technology for any drop in sales. The history of cassette recording is a "
5706 "good example. As a study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put it, "
5707 "<quote>Rather than exploiting this new, popular technology, the labels "
5708 "fought it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The labels "
5709 "claimed that every album taped was an album unsold, and when record sales "
5710 "fell by 11.4 percent in 1981, the industry claimed that its point was "
5711 "proved. Technology was the problem, and banning or regulating technology was "
5715 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5716 #: freeculture.xml:3954
5721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5722 #: freeculture.xml:3964
5723 msgid "U.S. Congress, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying</citetitle>, 4."
5726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5727 #: freeculture.xml:3956
5729 "Yet soon thereafter, and before Congress was given an opportunity to enact "
5730 "regulation, MTV was launched, and the industry had a record "
5731 "turnaround. <quote>In the end,</quote> Cap Gemini concludes, <quote>the "
5732 "`crisis' … was not the fault of the tapers—who did not [stop "
5733 "after MTV came into being]—but had to a large extent resulted from "
5734 "stagnation in musical innovation at the major labels.</quote><placeholder "
5735 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5739 #: freeculture.xml:3969
5741 "But just because the industry was wrong before does not mean it is wrong "
5742 "today. To evaluate the real threat that p2p sharing presents to the industry "
5743 "in particular, and society in general—or at least the society that "
5744 "inherits the tradition that gave us the film industry, the record industry, "
5745 "the radio industry, cable TV, and the VCR—the question is not simply "
5746 "whether type A sharing is harmful. The question is also "
5747 "<emphasis>how</emphasis> harmful type A sharing is, and how beneficial the "
5748 "other types of sharing are."
5751 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5752 #: freeculture.xml:3979
5754 "We start to answer this question by focusing on the net harm, from the "
5755 "standpoint of the industry as a whole, that sharing networks cause. The "
5756 "<quote>net harm</quote> to the industry as a whole is the amount by which "
5757 "type A sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records "
5758 "through sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks "
5759 "would actually benefit music companies on balance. They would therefore have "
5760 "little <emphasis>static</emphasis> reason to resist them."
5763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5764 #: freeculture.xml:3989
5765 msgid "sales levels of"
5768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5769 #: freeculture.xml:3991
5771 "Could that be true? Could the industry as a whole be gaining because of file "
5772 "sharing? Odd as that might sound, the data about CD sales actually suggest "
5773 "it might be close."
5777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5778 #: freeculture.xml:4000
5780 "See Recording Industry Association of America, <citetitle>2002 Yearend "
5781 "Statistics</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5782 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #15</ulink>. A later report "
5783 "indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of "
5784 "America, <citetitle>Some Facts About Music Piracy</citetitle>, 25 June 2003, "
5785 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #16</ulink>: "
5786 "<quote>In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen "
5787 "by 26 percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the "
5788 "United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are "
5789 "down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on "
5790 "U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from "
5791 "a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based "
5792 "on U.S. dollar value of shipments).</quote>"
5795 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5796 #: freeculture.xml:4027
5800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5801 #: freeculture.xml:4024
5803 "Jane Black, <quote>Big Music's Broken Record,</quote> BusinessWeek online, "
5804 "13 February 2003, available at <ulink "
5805 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #17</ulink>. <placeholder "
5806 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5810 #: freeculture.xml:3996
5812 "In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 "
5813 "million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent.<placeholder "
5814 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This confirms a trend over the past few "
5815 "years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many "
5816 "other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, "
5817 "reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since "
5818 "1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales. Rising "
5819 "prices could account for at least some of the loss. <quote>From 1999 to "
5820 "2001, the average price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to "
5821 "$14.19.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Competition from "
5822 "other forms of media could also account for some of the decline. As Jane "
5823 "Black of <citetitle>BusinessWeek</citetitle> notes, <quote>The soundtrack to "
5824 "the film <citetitle>High Fidelity</citetitle> has a list price of "
5825 "$18.98. You could get the whole movie [on DVD] for "
5826 "$19.99.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
5830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5831 #: freeculture.xml:4042
5833 "But let's assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is "
5834 "because of Internet sharing. Here's the rub: In the same period that the "
5835 "RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 "
5836 "billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total "
5837 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 "
5841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5842 #: freeculture.xml:4050
5844 "There are too many different things happening at the same time to explain "
5845 "these numbers definitively, but one conclusion is unavoidable: The recording "
5846 "industry constantly asks, <quote>What's the difference between downloading a "
5847 "song and stealing a CD?</quote>—but their own numbers reveal the "
5848 "difference. If I steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking "
5849 "is a lost sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is "
5850 "absolutely clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download "
5851 "were a lost sale—if every use of Kazaa <quote>rob[bed] the author of "
5852 "[his] profit</quote>—then the industry would have suffered a 100 "
5853 "percent drop in sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the "
5854 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped "
5855 "by just 6.7 percent, then there is a huge difference between "
5856 "<quote>downloading a song and stealing a CD.</quote>"
5859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5860 #: freeculture.xml:4066
5862 "These are the harms—alleged and perhaps exaggerated but, let's assume, "
5863 "real. What of the benefits? File sharing may impose costs on the recording "
5864 "industry. What value does it produce in addition to these costs?"
5868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5869 #: freeculture.xml:4078
5871 "By one estimate, 75 percent of the music released by the major labels is no "
5872 "longer in print. See Online Entertainment and Copyright Law—Coming "
5873 "Soon to a Digital Device Near You: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on "
5874 "the Judiciary, 107th Cong., 1st sess. (3 April 2001) (prepared statement of "
5875 "the Future of Music Coalition), available at <ulink "
5876 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #18</ulink>."
5879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5880 #: freeculture.xml:4072
5882 "One benefit is type C sharing—making available content that is "
5883 "technically still under copyright but is no longer commercially available. "
5884 "This is not a small category of content. There are millions of tracks that "
5885 "are no longer commercially available.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5886 "id=\"0\"/> And while it's conceivable that some of this content is not "
5887 "available because the artist producing the content doesn't want it to be "
5888 "made available, the vast majority of it is unavailable solely because the "
5889 "publisher or the distributor has decided it no longer makes economic sense "
5890 "<emphasis>to the company</emphasis> to make it available."
5893 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5894 #: freeculture.xml:4091 freeculture.xml:4099 freeculture.xml:4121 freeculture.xml:4143 freeculture.xml:4632 freeculture.xml:5961 freeculture.xml:5966 freeculture.xml:6018 freeculture.xml:6894 freeculture.xml:6895 freeculture.xml:7237 freeculture.xml:7299 freeculture.xml:7333 freeculture.xml:7542 freeculture.xml:13820 freeculture.xml:14546 freeculture.xml:14547
5898 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5899 #: freeculture.xml:4091 freeculture.xml:4099 freeculture.xml:6895 freeculture.xml:14547
5903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5904 #: freeculture.xml:4099
5906 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> While there are not good "
5907 "estimates of the number of used record stores in existence, in 2002, there "
5908 "were 7,198 used book dealers in the United States, an increase of 20 percent "
5909 "since 1993. See Book Hunter Press, <citetitle>The Quiet Revolution: The "
5910 "Expansion of the Used Book Market</citetitle> (2002), available at <ulink "
5911 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #19</ulink>. Used records "
5912 "accounted for $260 million in sales in 2002. See National Association of "
5913 "Recording Merchandisers, <quote>2002 Annual Survey Results,</quote> "
5914 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #20</ulink>."
5917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5918 #: freeculture.xml:4093
5920 "In real space—long before the Internet—the market had a simple "
5921 "response to this problem: used book and record stores. There are thousands "
5922 "of used book and used record stores in America today.<placeholder "
5923 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These stores buy content from owners, then sell "
5924 "the content they buy. And under American copyright law, when they buy and "
5925 "sell this content, <emphasis>even if the content is still under "
5926 "copyright</emphasis>, the copyright owner doesn't get a dime. Used book and "
5927 "record stores are commercial entities; their owners make money from the "
5928 "content they sell; but as with cable companies before statutory licensing, "
5929 "they don't have to pay the copyright owner for the content they sell."
5932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5933 #: freeculture.xml:4120
5934 msgid "Bernstein, Leonard"
5937 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5938 #: freeculture.xml:4121 freeculture.xml:5961 freeculture.xml:5966 freeculture.xml:6894 freeculture.xml:14546
5939 msgid "out of print"
5942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5943 #: freeculture.xml:4123
5945 "Type C sharing, then, is very much like used book stores or used record "
5946 "stores. It is different, of course, because the person making the content "
5947 "available isn't making money from making the content available. It is also "
5948 "different, of course, because in real space, when I sell a record, I don't "
5949 "have it anymore, while in cyberspace, when someone shares my 1949 recording "
5950 "of Bernstein's <quote>Two Love Songs,</quote> I still have it. That "
5951 "difference would matter economically if the owner of the copyright were "
5952 "selling the record in competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the "
5953 "class of content that is not currently commercially available. The Internet "
5954 "is making it available, through cooperative sharing, without competing with "
5958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5959 #: freeculture.xml:4136
5961 "It may well be, all things considered, that it would be better if the "
5962 "copyright owner got something from this trade. But just because it may well "
5963 "be better, it doesn't follow that it would be good to ban used book "
5964 "stores. Or put differently, if you think that type C sharing should be "
5965 "stopped, do you think that libraries and used book stores should be shut as "
5969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5970 #: freeculture.xml:4143 freeculture.xml:13820
5971 msgid "free on-line releases of"
5975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5976 #: freeculture.xml:4145
5978 "Finally, and perhaps most importantly, file-sharing networks enable type D "
5979 "sharing to occur—the sharing of content that copyright owners want to "
5980 "have shared or for which there is no continuing copyright. This sharing "
5981 "clearly benefits authors and society. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow, "
5982 "for example, released his first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
5983 "Kingdom</citetitle>, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same "
5984 "day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution "
5985 "would be a great advertisement for the <quote>real</quote> book. People "
5986 "would read part on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or "
5987 "not. If they liked it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's "
5988 "content is type D content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, "
5989 "then both he and society are better off. (Actually, much better off: It is a "
5993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5994 #: freeculture.xml:4163
5996 "Likewise for work in the public domain: This sharing benefits society with "
5997 "no legal harm to authors at all. If efforts to solve the problem of type A "
5998 "sharing destroy the opportunity for type D sharing, then we lose something "
5999 "important in order to protect type A content."
6002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6003 #: freeculture.xml:4169
6005 "The point throughout is this: While the recording industry understandably "
6006 "says, <quote>This is how much we've lost,</quote> we must also ask, "
6007 "<quote>How much has society gained from p2p sharing? What are the "
6008 "efficiencies? What is the content that otherwise would be "
6009 "unavailable?</quote>"
6012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6013 #: freeculture.xml:4176
6015 "For unlike the piracy I described in the first section of this chapter, much "
6016 "of the <quote>piracy</quote> that file sharing enables is plainly legal and "
6017 "good. And like the piracy I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
6018 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"pirates\"/>, much of this piracy is motivated by a "
6019 "new way of spreading content caused by changes in the technology of "
6020 "distribution. Thus, consistent with the tradition that gave us Hollywood, "
6021 "radio, the recording industry, and cable TV, the question we should be "
6022 "asking about file sharing is how best to preserve its benefits while "
6023 "minimizing (to the extent possible) the wrongful harm it causes artists. The "
6024 "question is one of balance. The law should seek that balance, and that "
6025 "balance will be found only with time."
6028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6029 #: freeculture.xml:4190
6031 "<quote>But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the "
6032 "target just what you call type A sharing?</quote>"
6036 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6037 #: freeculture.xml:4207
6039 "See Transcript of Proceedings, In Re: Napster Copyright Litigation at 34- 35 "
6040 "(N.D. Cal., 11 July 2001), nos. MDL-00-1369 MHP, C 99-5183 MHP, available at "
6041 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #21</ulink>. For an "
6042 "account of the litigation and its toll on Napster, see Joseph Menn, "
6043 "<citetitle>All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's "
6044 "Napster</citetitle> (New York: Crown Business, 2003), 269–82."
6047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6048 #: freeculture.xml:4194
6050 "You would think. And we should hope. But so far, it is not. The effect of "
6051 "the war purportedly on type A sharing alone has been felt far beyond that "
6052 "one class of sharing. That much is obvious from the Napster case "
6053 "itself. When Napster told the district court that it had developed a "
6054 "technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing "
6055 "material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not "
6056 "good enough. Napster had to push the infringements <quote>down to "
6057 "zero.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6061 #: freeculture.xml:4218
6063 "If 99.4 percent is not good enough, then this is a war on file-sharing "
6064 "technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. There is no way to assure "
6065 "that a p2p system is used 100 percent of the time in compliance with the "
6066 "law, any more than there is a way to assure that 100 percent of VCRs or 100 "
6067 "percent of Xerox machines or 100 percent of handguns are used in compliance "
6068 "with the law. Zero tolerance means zero p2p. The court's ruling means that "
6069 "we as a society must lose the benefits of p2p, even for the totally legal "
6070 "and beneficial uses they serve, simply to assure that there are zero "
6071 "copyright infringements caused by p2p."
6074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6075 #: freeculture.xml:4229
6077 "Zero tolerance has not been our history. It has not produced the content "
6078 "industry that we know today. The history of American law has been a process "
6079 "of balance. As new technologies changed the way content was distributed, the "
6080 "law adjusted, after some time, to the new technology. In this adjustment, "
6081 "the law sought to ensure the legitimate rights of creators while protecting "
6082 "innovation. Sometimes this has meant more rights for creators. Sometimes "
6086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6087 #: freeculture.xml:4239
6089 "So, as we've seen, when <quote>mechanical reproduction</quote> threatened "
6090 "the interests of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers "
6091 "against the interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to "
6092 "composers, but also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but "
6093 "at a price set by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the "
6094 "recordings made by these recording artists, and they complained to Congress "
6095 "that their <quote>creative property</quote> was not being respected (since "
6096 "the radio station did not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), "
6097 "Congress rejected their claim. An indirect benefit was enough."
6100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6101 #: freeculture.xml:4252
6103 "Cable TV followed the pattern of record albums. When the courts rejected the "
6104 "claim that cable broadcasters had to pay for the content they rebroadcast, "
6105 "Congress responded by giving broadcasters a right to compensation, but at a "
6106 "level set by the law. It likewise gave cable companies the right to the "
6107 "content, so long as they paid the statutory price."
6111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6112 #: freeculture.xml:4262
6114 "This compromise, like the compromise affecting records and player pianos, "
6115 "served two important goals—indeed, the two central goals of any "
6116 "copyright legislation. First, the law assured that new innovators would have "
6117 "the freedom to develop new ways to deliver content. Second, the law assured "
6118 "that copyright holders would be paid for the content that was "
6119 "distributed. One fear was that if Congress simply required cable TV to pay "
6120 "copyright holders whatever they demanded for their content, then copyright "
6121 "holders associated with broadcasters would use their power to stifle this "
6122 "new technology, cable. But if Congress had permitted cable to use "
6123 "broadcasters' content for free, then it would have unfairly subsidized "
6124 "cable. Thus Congress chose a path that would assure "
6125 "<emphasis>compensation</emphasis> without giving the past (broadcasters) "
6126 "control over the future (cable)."
6129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6130 #: freeculture.xml:4278
6134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6135 #: freeculture.xml:4281
6137 "In the same year that Congress struck this balance, two major producers and "
6138 "distributors of film content filed a lawsuit against another technology, the "
6139 "video tape recorder (VTR, or as we refer to them today, VCRs) that Sony had "
6140 "produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was "
6141 "relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, "
6142 "that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the "
6143 "device that Sony built had a <quote>record</quote> button, the device could "
6144 "be used to record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore "
6145 "benefiting from the copyright infringement of its customers. It should "
6146 "therefore, Disney and Universal claimed, be partially liable for that "
6151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6152 #: freeculture.xml:4294
6154 "There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to "
6155 "design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It "
6156 "could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a "
6157 "television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the machine to copy "
6158 "only if there were a special <quote>copy me</quote> signal on the line. It "
6159 "was clear that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone "
6160 "permission to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of "
6161 "shows would not have authorized copying. And in the face of this obvious "
6162 "preference, Sony could have designed its system to minimize the opportunity "
6163 "for copyright infringement. It did not, and for that, Disney and Universal "
6164 "wanted to hold it responsible for the architecture it chose."
6168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6169 #: freeculture.xml:4316
6171 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders): Hearing on S. 1758 "
6172 "Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., "
6173 "459 (1982) (testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association "
6174 "of America, Inc.)."
6178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6179 #: freeculture.xml:4328
6180 msgid "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 475."
6184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6185 #: freeculture.xml:4333
6187 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
6188 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 480 F. Supp. 429, (C.D. Cal., 1979)."
6192 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6193 #: freeculture.xml:4344
6195 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 485 (testimony of Jack "
6199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6200 #: freeculture.xml:4309
6202 "MPAA president Jack Valenti became the studios' most vocal champion. Valenti "
6203 "called VCRs <quote>tapeworms.</quote> He warned, <quote>When there are 20, "
6204 "30, 40 million of these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of "
6205 "`tapeworms,' eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious "
6206 "asset the copyright owner has, his copyright.</quote><placeholder "
6207 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <quote>One does not have to be trained in "
6208 "sophisticated marketing and creative judgment,</quote> he told Congress, "
6209 "<quote>to understand the devastation on the after-theater marketplace caused "
6210 "by the hundreds of millions of tapings that will adversely impact on the "
6211 "future of the creative community in this country. It is simply a question of "
6212 "basic economics and plain common sense.</quote><placeholder "
6213 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Indeed, as surveys would later show, 45 percent "
6214 "of VCR owners had movie libraries of ten videos or more<placeholder "
6215 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> — a use the Court would later hold was "
6216 "not <quote>fair.</quote> By <quote>allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the "
6217 "means of an exemption from copyright infringement without creating a "
6218 "mechanism to compensate copyright owners,</quote> Valenti testified, "
6219 "Congress would <quote>take from the owners the very essence of their "
6220 "property: the exclusive right to control who may use their work, that is, "
6221 "who may copy it and thereby profit from its "
6222 "reproduction.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"3\"/>"
6226 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6227 #: freeculture.xml:4361
6229 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
6230 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 659 F. 2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981)."
6233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
6234 #: freeculture.xml:4364
6235 msgid "Kozinski, Alex"
6238 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6239 #: freeculture.xml:4349
6241 "It took eight years for this case to be resolved by the Supreme Court. In "
6242 "the interim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Hollywood in "
6243 "its jurisdiction—leading Judge Alex Kozinski, who sits on that court, "
6244 "refers to it as the <quote>Hollywood Circuit</quote>—held that Sony "
6245 "would be liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its "
6246 "machines. Under the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar "
6247 "technology—which Jack Valenti had called <quote>the Boston Strangler "
6248 "of the American film industry</quote> (worse yet, it was a "
6249 "<emphasis>Japanese</emphasis> Boston Strangler of the American film "
6250 "industry)—was an illegal technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6251 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6256 #: freeculture.xml:4367
6258 "But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit. And in "
6259 "its reversal, the Court clearly articulated its understanding of when and "
6260 "whether courts should intervene in such disputes. As the Court wrote,"
6264 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6265 #: freeculture.xml:4386
6267 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
6268 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984)."
6271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
6272 #: freeculture.xml:4376
6274 "Sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to "
6275 "Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for "
6276 "copyrighted materials. Congress has the constitutional authority and the "
6277 "institutional ability to accommodate fully the varied permutations of "
6278 "competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new "
6279 "technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6283 #: freeculture.xml:4391
6285 "Congress was asked to respond to the Supreme Court's decision. But as with "
6286 "the plea of recording artists about radio broadcasts, Congress ignored the "
6287 "request. Congress was convinced that American film got enough, this "
6288 "<quote>taking</quote> notwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a "
6292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6293 #: freeculture.xml:4402
6297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6298 #: freeculture.xml:4403
6299 msgid "WHOSE VALUE WAS <quote>PIRATED</quote>"
6302 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6303 #: freeculture.xml:4404
6304 msgid "RESPONSE OF THE COURTS"
6307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6308 #: freeculture.xml:4405
6309 msgid "RESPONSE OF CONGRESS"
6312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6313 #: freeculture.xml:4410
6317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6318 #: freeculture.xml:4411
6322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6323 #: freeculture.xml:4412 freeculture.xml:4424 freeculture.xml:4430
6324 msgid "No protection"
6327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6328 #: freeculture.xml:4413 freeculture.xml:4425
6329 msgid "Statutory license"
6332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6333 #: freeculture.xml:4417
6334 msgid "Recording artists"
6337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6338 #: freeculture.xml:4418
6342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6343 #: freeculture.xml:4419 freeculture.xml:4431
6347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6348 #: freeculture.xml:4423
6349 msgid "Broadcasters"
6352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6353 #: freeculture.xml:4428
6357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6358 #: freeculture.xml:4429
6359 msgid "Film creators"
6362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6363 #: freeculture.xml:4441
6365 "These are the most important instances in our history, but there are other "
6366 "cases as well. The technology of digital audio tape (DAT), for example, was "
6367 "regulated by Congress to minimize the risk of piracy. The remedy Congress "
6368 "imposed did burden DAT producers, by taxing tape sales and controlling the "
6369 "technology of DAT. See Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Title 17 of the "
6370 "<citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. "
6371 "4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. §1001. Again, however, this regulation did not "
6372 "eliminate the opportunity for free riding in the sense I've described. See "
6373 "Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 71. See also Picker, <quote>From "
6374 "Edison to the Broadcast Flag,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law "
6375 "Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 293–96. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6376 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6379 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6380 #: freeculture.xml:4438
6382 "In each case throughout our history, a new technology changed the way "
6383 "content was distributed.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In each "
6384 "case, throughout our history, that change meant that someone got a "
6385 "<quote>free ride</quote> on someone else's work."
6389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6390 #: freeculture.xml:4459
6392 "In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these cases did either the courts or "
6393 "Congress eliminate all free riding. In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these "
6394 "cases did the courts or Congress insist that the law should assure that the "
6395 "copyright holder get all the value that his copyright created. In every "
6396 "case, the copyright owners complained of <quote>piracy.</quote> In every "
6397 "case, Congress acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in the behavior of "
6398 "the <quote>pirates.</quote> In each case, Congress allowed some new "
6399 "technology to benefit from content made before. It balanced the interests at "
6403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6404 #: freeculture.xml:4472
6406 "When you think across these examples, and the other examples that make up "
6407 "the first four chapters of this section, this balance makes sense. Was Walt "
6408 "Disney a pirate? Would doujinshi be better if creators had to ask "
6409 "permission? Should tools that enable others to capture and spread images as "
6410 "a way to cultivate or criticize our culture be better regulated? Is it "
6411 "really right that building a search engine should expose you to $15 million "
6412 "in damages? Would it have been better if Edison had controlled film? Should "
6413 "every cover band have to hire a lawyer to get permission to record a song?"
6417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6418 #: freeculture.xml:4489
6420 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
6421 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, (1984)."
6424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6425 #: freeculture.xml:4484
6427 "We could answer yes to each of these questions, but our tradition has "
6428 "answered no. In our tradition, as the Supreme Court has stated, copyright "
6429 "<quote>has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all "
6430 "possible uses of his work.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
6431 "Instead, the particular uses that the law regulates have been defined by "
6432 "balancing the good that comes from granting an exclusive right against the "
6433 "burdens such an exclusive right creates. And this balancing has historically "
6434 "been done <emphasis>after</emphasis> a technology has matured, or settled "
6435 "into the mix of technologies that facilitate the distribution of content."
6438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6439 #: freeculture.xml:4500
6441 "We should be doing the same thing today. The technology of the Internet is "
6442 "changing quickly. The way people connect to the Internet (wires "
6443 "vs. wireless) is changing very quickly. No doubt the network should not "
6444 "become a tool for <quote>stealing</quote> from artists. But neither should "
6445 "the law become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or "
6446 "more accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the "
6447 "last chapter of this book, we should be securing income to artists while we "
6448 "allow the market to secure the most efficient way to promote and distribute "
6449 "content. This will require changes in the law, at least in the "
6450 "interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the "
6451 "law against the strong public interest that innovation continue."
6455 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6456 #: freeculture.xml:4524
6458 "John Schwartz, <quote>New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software "
6459 "Echoes Past Efforts,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 22 "
6460 "September 2003, C3."
6463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6464 #: freeculture.xml:4516
6466 "This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode "
6467 "of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally "
6468 "efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to "
6469 "develop, they could make the network vastly more efficient. Yet these "
6470 "<quote>potential public benefits,</quote> as John Schwartz writes in "
6471 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, <quote>could be delayed in the "
6472 "P2P fight.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6476 #: freeculture.xml:4529
6478 "<emphasis role='strong'>Yet when anyone</emphasis> begins to talk about "
6479 "<quote>balance,</quote> the copyright warriors raise a different "
6480 "argument. <quote>All this hand waving about balance and incentives,</quote> "
6481 "they say, <quote>misses a fundamental point. Our content,</quote> the "
6482 "warriors insist, <quote>is our <emphasis>property</emphasis>. Why should we "
6483 "wait for Congress to `rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait "
6484 "before calling the police when your car has been stolen? And why should "
6485 "Congress deliberate at all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether "
6486 "the car thief had a good use for the car before we arrest him?</quote>"
6489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6490 #: freeculture.xml:4541
6492 "<quote>It is <emphasis>our property</emphasis>,</quote> the warriors "
6493 "insist. <quote>And it should be protected just as any other property is "
6494 "protected.</quote>"
6497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
6498 #: freeculture.xml:4550
6499 msgid "<quote>PROPERTY</quote>"
6503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6504 #: freeculture.xml:4555
6506 "<emphasis role='strong'>The copyright warriors</emphasis> are right: A "
6507 "copyright is a kind of property. It can be owned and sold, and the law "
6508 "protects against its theft. Ordinarily, the copyright owner gets to hold out "
6509 "for any price he wants. Markets reckon the supply and demand that partially "
6510 "determine the price she can get."
6513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6514 #: freeculture.xml:4562
6516 "But in ordinary language, to call a copyright a <quote>property</quote> "
6517 "right is a bit misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of "
6518 "property. Indeed, the very idea of property in any idea or any expression "
6519 "is very odd. I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you "
6520 "put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I "
6521 "take it, you don't have it. But what am I taking when I take the good "
6522 "<emphasis>idea</emphasis> you had to put a picnic table in the "
6523 "backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting "
6524 "it in my backyard? What is the thing I am taking then?"
6528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6529 #: freeculture.xml:4587
6531 "Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (13 August 1813) in "
6532 "<citetitle>The Writings of Thomas Jefferson</citetitle>, vol. 6 (Andrew "
6533 "A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds., 1903), 330, 333–34."
6536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6537 #: freeculture.xml:4574
6539 "The point is not just about the thingness of picnic tables versus ideas, "
6540 "though that's an important difference. The point instead is that in the "
6541 "ordinary case—indeed, in practically every case except for a narrow "
6542 "range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take "
6543 "anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem "
6544 "weird if I did it every day, and especially weird if you are a "
6545 "woman. Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and as is especially true when I "
6546 "copy the way someone else dresses), <quote>He who receives an idea from me, "
6547 "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his "
6548 "taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.</quote><placeholder "
6549 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6553 #: freeculture.xml:4593
6555 "The exceptions to free use are ideas and expressions within the reach of the "
6556 "law of patent and copyright, and a few other domains that I won't discuss "
6557 "here. Here the law says you can't take my idea or expression without my "
6558 "permission: The law turns the intangible into property."
6562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6563 #: freeculture.xml:4606
6565 "As the legal realists taught American law, all property rights are "
6566 "intangible. A property right is simply a right that an individual has "
6567 "against the world to do or not do certain things that may or may not attach "
6568 "to a physical object. The right itself is intangible, even if the object to "
6569 "which it is (metaphorically) attached is tangible. See Adam Mossoff, "
6570 "<quote>What Is Property? Putting the Pieces Back Together,</quote> "
6571 "<citetitle>Arizona Law Review</citetitle> 45 (2003): 373, 429 n. 241."
6574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6575 #: freeculture.xml:4601
6577 "But how, and to what extent, and in what form—the details, in other "
6578 "words—matter. To get a good sense of how this practice of turning the "
6579 "intangible into property emerged, we need to place this "
6580 "<quote>property</quote> in its proper context.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6585 #: freeculture.xml:4616
6587 "My strategy in doing this will be the same as my strategy in the preceding "
6588 "part. I offer four stories to help put the idea of <quote>copyright material "
6589 "is property</quote> in context. Where did the idea come from? What are its "
6590 "limits? How does it function in practice? After these stories, the "
6591 "significance of this true statement—<quote>copyright material is "
6592 "property</quote>— will be a bit more clear, and its implications will "
6593 "be revealed as quite different from the implications that the copyright "
6594 "warriors would have us draw."
6597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6598 #: freeculture.xml:4629
6599 msgid "CHAPTER SIX: Founders"
6602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6603 #: freeculture.xml:4630
6607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6608 #: freeculture.xml:4631 freeculture.xml:4776
6609 msgid "Branagh, Kenneth"
6612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
6613 #: freeculture.xml:4632
6614 msgid "English copyright law developed for"
6617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6618 #: freeculture.xml:4634
6620 "<emphasis role='strong'>William Shakespeare</emphasis> wrote "
6621 "<citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> in 1595. The play was first "
6622 "published in 1597. It was the eleventh major play that Shakespeare had "
6623 "written. He would continue to write plays through 1613, and the plays that "
6624 "he wrote have continued to define Anglo-American culture ever since. So "
6625 "deeply have the works of a sixteenth-century writer seeped into our culture "
6626 "that we often don't even recognize their source. I once overheard someone "
6627 "commenting on Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Henry V: <quote>I liked it, "
6628 "but Shakespeare is so full of clichés.</quote>"
6631 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6632 #: freeculture.xml:4650
6636 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6637 #: freeculture.xml:4651
6638 msgid "Dryden, John"
6641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6642 #: freeculture.xml:4650
6644 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6645 "id=\"1\"/> Jacob Tonson is typically remembered for his associations with "
6646 "prominent eighteenth-century literary figures, especially John Dryden, and "
6647 "for his handsome <quote>definitive editions</quote> of classic works. In "
6648 "addition to <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle>, he published an "
6649 "astonishing array of works that still remain at the heart of the English "
6650 "canon, including collected works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, "
6651 "and John Dryden. See Keith Walker, <quote>Jacob Tonson, Bookseller,</quote> "
6652 "<citetitle>American Scholar</citetitle> 61:3 (1992): 424–31."
6656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6657 #: freeculture.xml:4663
6659 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
6660 "Perspective</citetitle> (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968), "
6665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6666 #: freeculture.xml:4646
6668 "In 1774, almost 180 years after <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> was "
6669 "written, the <quote>copy-right</quote> for the work was still thought by "
6670 "many to be the exclusive right of a single London publisher, Jacob "
6671 "Tonson.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Tonson was the most "
6672 "prominent of a small group of publishers called the Conger<placeholder "
6673 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> who controlled bookselling in England during "
6674 "the eighteenth century. The Conger claimed a perpetual right to control the "
6675 "<quote>copy</quote> of books that they had acquired from authors. That "
6676 "perpetual right meant that no one else could publish copies of a book to "
6677 "which they held the copyright. Prices of the classics were thus kept high; "
6678 "competition to produce better or cheaper editions was eliminated."
6681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6682 #: freeculture.xml:4675
6683 msgid "British Parliament"
6686 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6687 #: freeculture.xml:4686
6689 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> As Siva Vaidhyanathan nicely "
6690 "argues, it is erroneous to call this a <quote>copyright law.</quote> See "
6691 "Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 40."
6694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6695 #: freeculture.xml:4677
6697 "Now, there's something puzzling about the year 1774 to anyone who knows a "
6698 "little about copyright law. The better-known year in the history of "
6699 "copyright is 1710, the year that the British Parliament adopted the first "
6700 "<quote>copyright</quote> act. Known as the Statute of Anne, the act stated "
6701 "that all published works would get a copyright term of fourteen years, "
6702 "renewable once if the author was alive, and that all works already published "
6703 "by 1710 would get a single term of twenty-one additional years.<placeholder "
6704 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Under this law, <citetitle>Romeo and "
6705 "Juliet</citetitle> should have been free in 1731. So why was there any issue "
6706 "about it still being under Tonson's control in 1774?"
6709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6710 #: freeculture.xml:4693
6711 msgid "Licensing Act (1662)"
6714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6715 #: freeculture.xml:4695
6717 "The reason is that the English hadn't yet agreed on what a "
6718 "<quote>copyright</quote> was—indeed, no one had. At the time the "
6719 "English passed the Statute of Anne, there was no other legislation governing "
6720 "copyrights. The last law regulating publishers, the Licensing Act of 1662, "
6721 "had expired in 1695. That law gave publishers a monopoly over publishing, as "
6722 "a way to make it easier for the Crown to control what was published. But "
6723 "after it expired, there was no positive law that said that the publishers, "
6724 "or <quote>Stationers,</quote> had an exclusive right to print books."
6727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6728 #: freeculture.xml:4706
6730 "There was no <emphasis>positive</emphasis> law, but that didn't mean that "
6731 "there was no law. The Anglo-American legal tradition looks to both the words "
6732 "of legislatures and the words of judges to know the rules that are to govern "
6733 "how people are to behave. We call the words from legislatures "
6734 "<quote>positive law.</quote> We call the words from judges <quote>common "
6735 "law.</quote> The common law sets the background against which legislatures "
6736 "legislate; the legislature, ordinarily, can trump that background only if it "
6737 "passes a law to displace it. And so the real question after the licensing "
6738 "statutes had expired was whether the common law protected a copyright, "
6739 "independent of any positive law."
6743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6744 #: freeculture.xml:4718
6746 "This question was important to the publishers, or "
6747 "<quote>booksellers,</quote> as they were called, because there was growing "
6748 "competition from foreign publishers. The Scottish, in particular, were "
6749 "increasingly publishing and exporting books to England. That competition "
6750 "reduced the profits of the Conger, which reacted by demanding that "
6751 "Parliament pass a law to again give them exclusive control over "
6752 "publishing. That demand ultimately resulted in the Statute of Anne."
6755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6756 #: freeculture.xml:4730
6758 "The Statute of Anne granted the author or <quote>proprietor</quote> of a "
6759 "book an exclusive right to print that book. In an important limitation, "
6760 "however, and to the horror of the booksellers, the law gave the bookseller "
6761 "that right for a limited term. At the end of that term, the copyright "
6762 "<quote>expired,</quote> and the work would then be free and could be "
6763 "published by anyone. Or so the legislature is thought to have believed."
6766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6767 #: freeculture.xml:4739
6769 "Now, the thing to puzzle about for a moment is this: Why would Parliament "
6770 "limit the exclusive right? Not why would they limit it to the particular "
6771 "limit they set, but why would they limit the right <emphasis>at "
6775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6776 #: freeculture.xml:4745
6778 "For the booksellers, and the authors whom they represented, had a very "
6779 "strong claim. Take <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> as an example: "
6780 "That play was written by Shakespeare. It was his genius that brought it into "
6781 "the world. He didn't take anybody's property when he created this play "
6782 "(that's a controversial claim, but never mind), and by his creating this "
6783 "play, he didn't make it any harder for others to craft a play. So why is it "
6784 "that the law would ever allow someone else to come along and take "
6785 "Shakespeare's play without his, or his estate's, permission? What reason is "
6786 "there to allow someone else to <quote>steal</quote> Shakespeare's work?"
6789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6790 #: freeculture.xml:4756
6792 "The answer comes in two parts. We first need to see something special about "
6793 "the notion of <quote>copyright</quote> that existed at the time of the "
6794 "Statute of Anne. Second, we have to see something important about "
6795 "<quote>booksellers.</quote>"
6799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6800 #: freeculture.xml:4762
6802 "First, about copyright. In the last three hundred years, we have come to "
6803 "apply the concept of <quote>copyright</quote> ever more broadly. But in "
6804 "1710, it wasn't so much a concept as it was a very particular right. The "
6805 "copyright was born as a very specific set of restrictions: It forbade others "
6806 "from reprinting a book. In 1710, the <quote>copy-right</quote> was a right "
6807 "to use a particular machine to replicate a particular work. It did not go "
6808 "beyond that very narrow right. It did not control any more generally how a "
6809 "work could be <emphasis>used</emphasis>. Today the right includes a large "
6810 "collection of restrictions on the freedom of others: It grants the author "
6811 "the exclusive right to copy, the exclusive right to distribute, the "
6812 "exclusive right to perform, and so on."
6815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6816 #: freeculture.xml:4778
6818 "So, for example, even if the copyright to Shakespeare's works were "
6819 "perpetual, all that would have meant under the original meaning of the term "
6820 "was that no one could reprint Shakespeare's work without the permission of "
6821 "the Shakespeare estate. It would not have controlled anything, for example, "
6822 "about how the work could be performed, whether the work could be translated, "
6823 "or whether Kenneth Branagh would be allowed to make his films. The "
6824 "<quote>copy-right</quote> was only an exclusive right to print—no "
6825 "less, of course, but also no more."
6828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6829 #: freeculture.xml:4787
6830 msgid "Henry VIII, King of England"
6833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6834 #: freeculture.xml:4788
6835 msgid "Statute of Monopolies (1656)"
6838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6839 #: freeculture.xml:4790
6841 "Even that limited right was viewed with skepticism by the British. They had "
6842 "had a long and ugly experience with <quote>exclusive rights,</quote> "
6843 "especially <quote>exclusive rights</quote> granted by the Crown. The English "
6844 "had fought a civil war in part about the Crown's practice of handing out "
6845 "monopolies—especially monopolies for works that already existed. King "
6846 "Henry VIII granted a patent to print the Bible and a monopoly to Darcy to "
6847 "print playing cards. The English Parliament began to fight back against this "
6848 "power of the Crown. In 1656, it passed the Statute of Monopolies, limiting "
6849 "monopolies to patents for new inventions. And by 1710, Parliament was eager "
6850 "to deal with the growing monopoly in publishing."
6853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6854 #: freeculture.xml:4803
6856 "Thus the <quote>copy-right,</quote> when viewed as a monopoly right, was "
6857 "naturally viewed as a right that should be limited. (However convincing the "
6858 "claim that <quote>it's my property, and I should have it forever,</quote> "
6859 "try sounding convincing when uttering, <quote>It's my monopoly, and I should "
6860 "have it forever.</quote>) The state would protect the exclusive right, but "
6861 "only so long as it benefited society. The British saw the harms from "
6862 "specialinterest favors; they passed a law to stop them."
6865 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6866 #: freeculture.xml:4811
6867 msgid "booksellers, English"
6871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6872 #: freeculture.xml:4828
6874 "Philip Wittenberg, <citetitle>The Protection and Marketing of Literary "
6875 "Property</citetitle> (New York: J. Messner, Inc., 1937), 31."
6878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6879 #: freeculture.xml:4813
6881 "Second, about booksellers. It wasn't just that the copyright was a "
6882 "monopoly. It was also that it was a monopoly held by the booksellers. "
6883 "Booksellers sound quaint and harmless to us. They were not viewed as "
6884 "harmless in seventeenth-century England. Members of the Conger were "
6885 "increasingly seen as monopolists of the worst kind—tools of the "
6886 "Crown's repression, selling the liberty of England to guarantee themselves a "
6887 "monopoly profit. The attacks against these monopolists were harsh: Milton "
6888 "described them as <quote>old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of "
6889 "book-selling</quote>; they were <quote>men who do not therefore labour in an "
6890 "honest profession to which learning is indetted.</quote><placeholder "
6891 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6895 #: freeculture.xml:4833
6897 "Many believed the power the booksellers exercised over the spread of "
6898 "knowledge was harming that spread, just at the time the Enlightenment was "
6899 "teaching the importance of education and knowledge spread generally. The "
6900 "idea that knowledge should be free was a hallmark of the time, and these "
6901 "powerful commercial interests were interfering with that idea."
6904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6905 #: freeculture.xml:4841
6907 "To balance this power, Parliament decided to increase competition among "
6908 "booksellers, and the simplest way to do that was to spread the wealth of "
6909 "valuable books. Parliament therefore limited the term of copyrights, and "
6910 "thereby guaranteed that valuable books would become open to any publisher to "
6911 "publish after a limited time. Thus the setting of the term for existing "
6912 "works to just twenty-one years was a compromise to fight the power of the "
6913 "booksellers. The limitation on terms was an indirect way to assure "
6914 "competition among publishers, and thus the construction and spread of "
6918 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6919 #: freeculture.xml:4853
6921 "When 1731 (1710 + 21) came along, however, the booksellers were getting "
6922 "anxious. They saw the consequences of more competition, and like every "
6923 "competitor, they didn't like them. At first booksellers simply ignored the "
6924 "Statute of Anne, continuing to insist on the perpetual right to control "
6925 "publication. But in 1735 and 1737, they tried to persuade Parliament to "
6926 "extend their terms. Twenty-one years was not enough, they said; they needed "
6930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6931 #: freeculture.xml:4862
6933 "Parliament rejected their requests. As one pamphleteer put it, in words that "
6938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6939 #: freeculture.xml:4877
6941 "A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill now depending in the "
6942 "House of Commons, for making more effectual an Act in the Eighth Year of the "
6943 "Reign of Queen Anne, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by "
6944 "Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such "
6945 "Copies, during the Times therein mentioned (London, 1735), in Brief Amici "
6946 "Curiae of Tyler T. Ochoa et al., 8, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
6947 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618)."
6950 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6951 #: freeculture.xml:4867
6953 "I see no Reason for granting a further Term now, which will not hold as well "
6954 "for granting it again and again, as often as the Old ones Expire; so that "
6955 "should this Bill pass, it will in Effect be establishing a perpetual "
6956 "Monopoly, a Thing deservedly odious in the Eye of the Law; it will be a "
6957 "great Cramp to Trade, a Discouragement to Learning, no Benefit to the "
6958 "Authors, but a general Tax on the Publick; and all this only to increase the "
6959 "private Gain of the Booksellers.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6963 #: freeculture.xml:4888
6965 "Having failed in Parliament, the publishers turned to the courts in a series "
6966 "of cases. Their argument was simple and direct: The Statute of Anne gave "
6967 "authors certain protections through positive law, but those protections were "
6968 "not intended as replacements for the common law. Instead, they were "
6969 "intended simply to supplement the common law. Under common law, it was "
6970 "already wrong to take another person's creative <quote>property</quote> and "
6971 "use it without his permission. The Statute of Anne, the booksellers argued, "
6972 "didn't change that. Therefore, just because the protections of the Statute "
6973 "of Anne expired, that didn't mean the protections of the common law expired: "
6974 "Under the common law they had the right to ban the publication of a book, "
6975 "even if its Statute of Anne copyright had expired. This, they argued, was "
6976 "the only way to protect authors."
6979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6980 #: freeculture.xml:4902 freeculture.xml:4910 freeculture.xml:4957
6981 msgid "Patterson, Raymond"
6984 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6985 #: freeculture.xml:4910
6987 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6988 "id=\"1\"/> Lyman Ray Patterson, <quote>Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair "
6989 "Use,</quote> <citetitle>Vanderbilt Law Review</citetitle> 40 (1987): 28. For "
6990 "a wonderfully compelling account, see Vaidhyanathan, 37–48."
6993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6994 #: freeculture.xml:4904
6996 "This was a clever argument, and one that had the support of some of the "
6997 "leading jurists of the day. It also displayed extraordinary chutzpah. Until "
6998 "then, as law professor Raymond Patterson has put it, <quote>The publishers "
6999 "… had as much concern for authors as a cattle rancher has for "
7000 "cattle.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The bookseller "
7001 "didn't care squat for the rights of the author. His concern was the "
7002 "monopoly profit that the author's work gave."
7006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7007 #: freeculture.xml:4924
7009 "For a compelling account, see David Saunders, <citetitle>Authorship and "
7010 "Copyright</citetitle> (London: Routledge, 1992), 62–69."
7013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7014 #: freeculture.xml:4920
7016 "The booksellers' argument was not accepted without a fight. The hero of "
7017 "this fight was a Scottish bookseller named Alexander Donaldson.<placeholder "
7018 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7022 #: freeculture.xml:4928
7023 msgid "Boswell, James"
7026 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7027 #: freeculture.xml:4929
7028 msgid "Erskine, Andrew"
7031 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7032 #: freeculture.xml:4938 freeculture.xml:14970
7036 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7037 #: freeculture.xml:4936
7039 "Mark Rose, <citetitle>Authors and Owners</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard "
7040 "University Press, 1993), 92. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7045 #: freeculture.xml:4947
7049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7050 #: freeculture.xml:4931
7052 "Donaldson was an outsider to the London Conger. He began his career in "
7053 "Edinburgh in 1750. The focus of his business was inexpensive reprints "
7054 "<quote>of standard works whose copyright term had expired,</quote> at least "
7055 "under the Statute of Anne.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
7056 "Donaldson's publishing house prospered and became <quote>something of a "
7057 "center for literary Scotsmen.</quote> <quote>[A]mong them,</quote> Professor "
7058 "Mark Rose writes, was <quote>the young James Boswell who, together with his "
7059 "friend Andrew Erskine, published an anthology of contemporary Scottish poems "
7060 "with Donaldson.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
7063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7064 #: freeculture.xml:4957
7066 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Lyman Ray Patterson, "
7067 "<citetitle>Copyright in Historical Perspective</citetitle>, 167 (quoting "
7071 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7072 #: freeculture.xml:4951
7074 "When the London booksellers tried to shut down Donaldson's shop in Scotland, "
7075 "he responded by moving his shop to London, where he sold inexpensive "
7076 "editions <quote>of the most popular English books, in defiance of the "
7077 "supposed common law right of Literary Property.</quote><placeholder "
7078 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His books undercut the Conger prices by 30 to "
7079 "50 percent, and he rested his right to compete upon the ground that, under "
7080 "the Statute of Anne, the works he was selling had passed out of protection."
7083 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7084 #: freeculture.xml:4966
7086 "The London booksellers quickly brought suit to block <quote>piracy</quote> "
7087 "like Donaldson's. A number of actions were successful against the "
7088 "<quote>pirates,</quote> the most important early victory being "
7089 "<citetitle>Millar</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Taylor</citetitle>."
7092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7093 #: freeculture.xml:4970
7094 msgid "Seasons, The (Thomson)"
7097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7098 #: freeculture.xml:4971
7099 msgid "Taylor, Robert"
7103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7104 #: freeculture.xml:4980
7106 "Howard B. Abrams, <quote>The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: "
7107 "Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Wayne Law "
7108 "Review</citetitle> 29 (1983): 1152."
7111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7112 #: freeculture.xml:4973
7114 "Millar was a bookseller who in 1729 had purchased the rights to James "
7115 "Thomson's poem <quote>The Seasons.</quote> Millar complied with the "
7116 "requirements of the Statute of Anne, and therefore received the full "
7117 "protection of the statute. After the term of copyright ended, Robert Taylor "
7118 "began printing a competing volume. Millar sued, claiming a perpetual common "
7119 "law right, the Statute of Anne notwithstanding.<placeholder "
7120 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7124 #: freeculture.xml:4987
7126 "Astonishingly to modern lawyers, one of the greatest judges in English "
7127 "history, Lord Mansfield, agreed with the booksellers. Whatever protection "
7128 "the Statute of Anne gave booksellers, it did not, he held, extinguish any "
7129 "common law right. The question was whether the common law would protect the "
7130 "author against subsequent <quote>pirates.</quote> Mansfield's answer was "
7131 "yes: The common law would bar Taylor from reprinting Thomson's poem without "
7132 "Millar's permission. That common law rule thus effectively gave the "
7133 "booksellers a perpetual right to control the publication of any book "
7138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7139 #: freeculture.xml:4998
7141 "Considered as a matter of abstract justice—reasoning as if justice "
7142 "were just a matter of logical deduction from first "
7143 "principles—Mansfield's conclusion might make some sense. But what it "
7144 "ignored was the larger issue that Parliament had struggled with in 1710: How "
7145 "best to limit the monopoly power of publishers? Parliament's strategy was to "
7146 "offer a term for existing works that was long enough to buy peace in 1710, "
7147 "but short enough to assure that culture would pass into competition within a "
7148 "reasonable period of time. Within twenty-one years, Parliament believed, "
7149 "Britain would mature from the controlled culture that the Crown coveted to "
7150 "the free culture that we inherited."
7153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7154 #: freeculture.xml:5013
7156 "The fight to defend the limits of the Statute of Anne was not to end there, "
7157 "however, and it is here that Donaldson enters the mix."
7160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7161 #: freeculture.xml:5016
7162 msgid "Beckett, Thomas"
7166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7167 #: freeculture.xml:5022
7168 msgid "Ibid., 1156."
7171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7172 #: freeculture.xml:5018
7174 "Millar died soon after his victory, so his case was not appealed. His estate "
7175 "sold Thomson's poems to a syndicate of printers that included Thomas "
7176 "Beckett.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson then released an "
7177 "unauthorized edition of Thomson's works. Beckett, on the strength of the "
7178 "decision in <citetitle>Millar</citetitle>, got an injunction against "
7179 "Donaldson. Donaldson appealed the case to the House of Lords, which "
7180 "functioned much like our own Supreme Court. In February of 1774, that body "
7181 "had the chance to interpret the meaning of Parliament's limits from sixty "
7185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7186 #: freeculture.xml:5032
7188 "As few legal cases ever do, <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
7189 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle> drew an enormous amount of attention "
7190 "throughout Britain. Donaldson's lawyers argued that whatever rights may have "
7191 "existed under the common law, the Statute of Anne terminated those "
7192 "rights. After passage of the Statute of Anne, the only legal protection for "
7193 "an exclusive right to control publication came from that statute. Thus, they "
7194 "argued, after the term specified in the Statute of Anne expired, works that "
7195 "had been protected by the statute were no longer protected."
7198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7199 #: freeculture.xml:5042
7201 "The House of Lords was an odd institution. Legal questions were presented to "
7202 "the House and voted upon first by the <quote>law lords,</quote> members of "
7203 "special legal distinction who functioned much like the Justices in our "
7204 "Supreme Court. Then, after the law lords voted, the House of Lords generally "
7209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7210 #: freeculture.xml:5049
7212 "The reports about the law lords' votes are mixed. On some counts, it looks "
7213 "as if perpetual copyright prevailed. But there is no ambiguity about how the "
7214 "House of Lords voted as whole. By a two-to-one majority (22 to 11) they "
7215 "voted to reject the idea of perpetual copyrights. Whatever one's "
7216 "understanding of the common law, now a copyright was fixed for a limited "
7217 "time, after which the work protected by copyright passed into the public "
7221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7222 #: freeculture.xml:5067
7223 msgid "Bacon, Francis"
7226 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7227 #: freeculture.xml:5068
7228 msgid "Bunyan, John"
7231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7232 #: freeculture.xml:5069
7233 msgid "Johnson, Samuel"
7236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7237 #: freeculture.xml:5070
7238 msgid "Milton, John"
7241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7242 #: freeculture.xml:5059
7244 "<quote>The public domain.</quote> Before the case of "
7245 "<citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle>, there "
7246 "was no clear idea of a public domain in England. Before 1774, there was a "
7247 "strong argument that common law copyrights were perpetual. After 1774, the "
7248 "public domain was born. For the first time in Anglo-American history, the "
7249 "legal control over creative works expired, and the greatest works in English "
7250 "history—including those of Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Johnson, and "
7251 "Bunyan—were free of legal restraint. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7252 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
7253 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> "
7254 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/>"
7258 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7259 #: freeculture.xml:5084
7263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7264 #: freeculture.xml:5074
7266 "It is hard for us to imagine, but this decision by the House of Lords fueled "
7267 "an extraordinarily popular and political reaction. In Scotland, where most "
7268 "of the <quote>pirate publishers</quote> did their work, people celebrated "
7269 "the decision in the streets. As the <citetitle>Edinburgh "
7270 "Advertiser</citetitle> reported, <quote>No private cause has so much "
7271 "engrossed the attention of the public, and none has been tried before the "
7272 "House of Lords in the decision of which so many individuals were "
7273 "interested.</quote> <quote>Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon victory over "
7274 "literary property: bonfires and illuminations.</quote><placeholder "
7275 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7279 #: freeculture.xml:5088
7281 "In London, however, at least among publishers, the reaction was equally "
7282 "strong in the opposite direction. The <citetitle>Morning "
7283 "Chronicle</citetitle> reported:"
7286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7287 #: freeculture.xml:5094
7289 "By the above decision … near 200,000 pounds worth of what was "
7290 "honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought property "
7291 "is now reduced to nothing. The Booksellers of London and Westminster, many "
7292 "of whom sold estates and houses to purchase Copy-right, are in a manner "
7293 "ruined, and those who after many years industry thought they had acquired a "
7294 "competency to provide for their families now find themselves without a "
7295 "shilling to devise to their successors.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
7300 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7301 #: freeculture.xml:5109
7303 "<quote>Ruined</quote> is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not an "
7304 "exaggeration to say that the change was profound. The decision of the House "
7305 "of Lords meant that the booksellers could no longer control how culture in "
7306 "England would grow and develop. Culture in England was thereafter "
7307 "<emphasis>free</emphasis>. Not in the sense that copyrights would not be "
7308 "respected, for of course, for a limited time after a work was published, the "
7309 "bookseller had an exclusive right to control the publication of that "
7310 "book. And not in the sense that books could be stolen, for even after a "
7311 "copyright expired, you still had to buy the book from someone. But "
7312 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> in the sense that the culture and its growth would "
7313 "no longer be controlled by a small group of publishers. As every free market "
7314 "does, this free market of free culture would grow as the consumers and "
7315 "producers chose. English culture would develop as the many English readers "
7316 "chose to let it develop— chose in the books they bought and wrote; "
7317 "chose in the memes they repeated and endorsed. Chose in a "
7318 "<emphasis>competitive context</emphasis>, not a context in which the choices "
7319 "about what culture is available to people and how they get access to it are "
7320 "made by the few despite the wishes of the many."
7323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7324 #: freeculture.xml:5131
7326 "At least, this was the rule in a world where the Parliament is antimonopoly, "
7327 "resistant to the protectionist pleas of publishers. In a world where the "
7328 "Parliament is more pliant, free culture would be less protected."
7331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7332 #: freeculture.xml:5141
7333 msgid "CHAPTER SEVEN: Recorders"
7336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7337 #: freeculture.xml:5143
7339 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jon Else</emphasis> is a filmmaker. He is best known "
7340 "for his documentaries and has been very successful in spreading his art. He "
7341 "is also a teacher, and as a teacher myself, I envy the loyalty and "
7342 "admiration that his students feel for him. (I met, by accident, two of his "
7343 "students at a dinner party. He was their god.)"
7346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7347 #: freeculture.xml:5150
7349 "Else worked on a documentary that I was involved in. At a break, he told me "
7350 "a story about the freedom to create with film in America today."
7353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7354 #: freeculture.xml:5161 freeculture.xml:5224
7355 msgid "San Francisco Opera"
7358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7359 #: freeculture.xml:5155
7361 "In 1990, Else was working on a documentary about Wagner's Ring Cycle. The "
7362 "focus was stagehands at the San Francisco Opera. Stagehands are a "
7363 "particularly funny and colorful element of an opera. During a show, they "
7364 "hang out below the stage in the grips' lounge and in the lighting loft. They "
7365 "make a perfect contrast to the art on the stage. <placeholder "
7366 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7371 #: freeculture.xml:5164
7373 "During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing "
7374 "checkers. In one corner of the room was a television set. Playing on the "
7375 "television set, while the stagehands played checkers and the opera company "
7376 "played Wagner, was <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. As Else judged it, "
7377 "this touch of cartoon helped capture the flavor of what was special about "
7381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7382 #: freeculture.xml:5173
7384 "Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else "
7385 "attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of <citetitle>The "
7386 "Simpsons</citetitle>. For of course, those few seconds are copyrighted; and "
7387 "of course, to use copyrighted material you need the permission of the "
7388 "copyright owner, unless <quote>fair use</quote> or some other privilege "
7392 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7393 #: freeculture.xml:5179 freeculture.xml:5187
7394 msgid "Gracie Films"
7397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7398 #: freeculture.xml:5181
7400 "Else called <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> creator Matt Groening's office "
7401 "to get permission. Groening approved the shot. The shot was a "
7402 "four-and-a-halfsecond image on a tiny television set in the corner of the "
7403 "room. How could it hurt? Groening was happy to have it in the film, but he "
7404 "told Else to contact Gracie Films, the company that produces the program."
7407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7408 #: freeculture.xml:5189
7410 "Gracie Films was okay with it, too, but they, like Groening, wanted to be "
7411 "careful. So they told Else to contact Fox, Gracie's parent company. Else "
7412 "called Fox and told them about the clip in the corner of the one room shot "
7413 "of the film. Matt Groening had already given permission, Else said. He was "
7414 "just confirming the permission with Fox."
7417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7418 #: freeculture.xml:5196
7420 "Then, as Else told me, <quote>two things happened. First we discovered "
7421 "… that Matt Groening doesn't own his own creation—or at least "
7422 "that someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation.</quote> And "
7423 "second, Fox <quote>wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to "
7424 "use this four-point-five seconds of … entirely unsolicited "
7425 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> which was in the corner of the shot.</quote>"
7428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7429 #: freeculture.xml:5203
7430 msgid "Herrera, Rebecca"
7433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7434 #: freeculture.xml:5205
7436 "Else was certain there was a mistake. He worked his way up to someone he "
7437 "thought was a vice president for licensing, Rebecca Herrera. He explained "
7438 "to her, <quote>There must be some mistake here. … We're asking for "
7439 "your educational rate on this.</quote> That was the educational rate, "
7440 "Herrera told Else. A day or so later, Else called again to confirm what he "
7445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7446 #: freeculture.xml:5213
7448 "<quote>I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight,</quote> he told "
7449 "me. <quote>Yes, you have your facts straight,</quote> she said. It would "
7450 "cost $10,000 to use the clip of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle> in the "
7451 "corner of a shot in a documentary film about Wagner's Ring Cycle. And then, "
7452 "astonishingly, Herrera told Else, <quote>And if you quote me, I'll turn you "
7453 "over to our attorneys.</quote> As an assistant to Herrera told Else later "
7454 "on, <quote>They don't give a shit. They just want the money.</quote>"
7457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7458 #: freeculture.xml:5225
7459 msgid "Day After Trinity, The"
7462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7463 #: freeculture.xml:5227
7465 "Else didn't have the money to buy the right to replay what was playing on "
7466 "the television backstage at the San Francisco Opera. To reproduce this "
7467 "reality was beyond the documentary filmmaker's budget. At the very last "
7468 "minute before the film was to be released, Else digitally replaced the shot "
7469 "with a clip from another film that he had worked on, <citetitle>The Day "
7470 "After Trinity</citetitle>, from ten years before."
7473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7474 #: freeculture.xml:5235
7476 "There's no doubt that someone, whether Matt Groening or Fox, owns the "
7477 "copyright to <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. That copyright is their "
7478 "property. To use that copyrighted material thus sometimes requires the "
7479 "permission of the copyright owner. If the use that Else wanted to make of "
7480 "the <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> copyright were one of the uses "
7481 "restricted by the law, then he would need to get the permission of the "
7482 "copyright owner before he could use the work in that way. And in a free "
7483 "market, it is the owner of the copyright who gets to set the price for any "
7484 "use that the law says the owner gets to control."
7487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7488 #: freeculture.xml:5246
7490 "For example, <quote>public performance</quote> is a use of <citetitle>The "
7491 "Simpsons</citetitle> that the copyright owner gets to control. If you take a "
7492 "selection of favorite episodes, rent a movie theater, and charge for tickets "
7493 "to come see <quote>My Favorite <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>,</quote> then "
7494 "you need to get permission from the copyright owner. And the copyright owner "
7495 "(rightly, in my view) can charge whatever she wants—$10 or "
7496 "$1,000,000. That's her right, as set by the law."
7500 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7501 #: freeculture.xml:5258
7503 "For an excellent argument that such use is <quote>fair use,</quote> but that "
7504 "lawyers don't permit recognition that it is <quote>fair use,</quote> see "
7505 "Richard A. Posner with William F. Patry, <quote>Fair Use and Statutory "
7506 "Reform in the Wake of <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle></quote> (draft on file "
7507 "with author), University of Chicago Law School, 5 August 2003."
7510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7511 #: freeculture.xml:5255
7513 "But when lawyers hear this story about Jon Else and Fox, their first thought "
7514 "is <quote>fair use.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Else's "
7515 "use of just 4.5 seconds of an indirect shot of a "
7516 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> episode is clearly a fair use of "
7517 "<citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>—and fair use does not require the "
7518 "permission of anyone."
7522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7523 #: freeculture.xml:5270
7525 "So I asked Else why he didn't just rely upon <quote>fair use.</quote> Here's "
7529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7530 #: freeculture.xml:5274
7532 "The <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> fiasco was for me a great lesson in the "
7533 "gulf between what lawyers find irrelevant in some abstract sense, and what "
7534 "is crushingly relevant in practice to those of us actually trying to make "
7535 "and broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it was "
7536 "<quote>clearly fair use</quote> in an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't "
7537 "rely on the concept in any concrete way. Here's why:"
7541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7542 #: freeculture.xml:5284
7544 "Before our films can be broadcast, the network requires that we buy Errors "
7545 "and Omissions insurance. The carriers require a detailed <quote>visual cue "
7546 "sheet</quote> listing the source and licensing status of each shot in the "
7547 "film. They take a dim view of <quote>fair use,</quote> and a claim of "
7548 "<quote>fair use</quote> can grind the application process to a halt."
7551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7552 #: freeculture.xml:5291
7553 msgid "<citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle>"
7556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7557 #: freeculture.xml:5292
7558 msgid "Lucas, George"
7562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7563 #: freeculture.xml:5295
7565 "I probably never should have asked Matt Groening in the first place. But I "
7566 "knew (at least from folklore) that Fox had a history of tracking down and "
7567 "stopping unlicensed <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> usage, just as George "
7568 "Lucas had a very high profile litigating <citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle> "
7569 "usage. So I decided to play by the book, thinking that we would be granted "
7570 "free or cheap license to four seconds of <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>. As "
7571 "a documentary producer working to exhaustion on a shoestring, the last thing "
7572 "I wanted was to risk legal trouble, even nuisance legal trouble, and even to "
7573 "defend a principle."
7578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7579 #: freeculture.xml:5307
7581 "I did, in fact, speak with one of your colleagues at Stanford Law School "
7582 "… who confirmed that it was fair use. He also confirmed that Fox "
7583 "would <quote>depose and litigate you to within an inch of your life,</quote> "
7584 "regardless of the merits of my claim. He made clear that it would boil down "
7585 "to who had the bigger legal department and the deeper pockets, me or them."
7589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7590 #: freeculture.xml:5317
7592 "The question of fair use usually comes up at the end of the project, when we "
7593 "are up against a release deadline and out of money."
7596 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7597 #: freeculture.xml:5324
7599 "In theory, fair use means you need no permission. The theory therefore "
7600 "supports free culture and insulates against a permission culture. But in "
7601 "practice, fair use functions very differently. The fuzzy lines of the law, "
7602 "tied to the extraordinary liability if lines are crossed, means that the "
7603 "effective fair use for many types of creators is slight. The law has the "
7604 "right aim; practice has defeated the aim."
7607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7608 #: freeculture.xml:5332
7610 "This practice shows just how far the law has come from its "
7611 "eighteenth-century roots. The law was born as a shield to protect "
7612 "publishers' profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. It has "
7613 "matured into a sword that interferes with any use, transformative or not."
7616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7617 #: freeculture.xml:5341
7618 msgid "CHAPTER EIGHT: Transformers"
7621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7622 #: freeculture.xml:5342
7626 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
7627 #: freeculture.xml:5343 freeculture.xml:5403 freeculture.xml:5588 freeculture.xml:10034 freeculture.xml:14337
7631 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7632 #: freeculture.xml:5346
7634 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1993</emphasis>, Alex Alben was a lawyer working "
7635 "at Starwave, Inc. Starwave was an innovative company founded by Microsoft "
7636 "cofounder Paul Allen to develop digital entertainment. Long before the "
7637 "Internet became popular, Starwave began investing in new technology for "
7638 "delivering entertainment in anticipation of the power of networks."
7641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7642 #: freeculture.xml:5353
7643 msgid "retrospective compilations on"
7646 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7647 #: freeculture.xml:5354
7648 msgid "CD-ROMs, film clips used in"
7651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7652 #: freeculture.xml:5356
7654 "Alben had a special interest in new technology. He was intrigued by the "
7655 "emerging market for CD-ROM technology—not to distribute film, but to "
7656 "do things with film that otherwise would be very difficult. In 1993, he "
7657 "launched an initiative to develop a product to build retrospectives on the "
7658 "work of particular actors. The first actor chosen was Clint Eastwood. The "
7659 "idea was to showcase all of the work of Eastwood, with clips from his films "
7660 "and interviews with figures important to his career."
7663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7664 #: freeculture.xml:5366
7666 "At that time, Eastwood had made more than fifty films, as an actor and as a "
7667 "director. Alben began with a series of interviews with Eastwood, asking him "
7668 "about his career. Because Starwave produced those interviews, it was free to "
7669 "include them on the CD."
7673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7674 #: freeculture.xml:5373
7676 "That alone would not have made a very interesting product, so Starwave "
7677 "wanted to add content from the movies in Eastwood's career: posters, "
7678 "scripts, and other material relating to the films Eastwood made. Most of his "
7679 "career was spent at Warner Brothers, and so it was relatively easy to get "
7680 "permission for that content."
7683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7684 #: freeculture.xml:5380
7686 "Then Alben and his team decided to include actual film clips. <quote>Our "
7687 "goal was that we were going to have a clip from every one of Eastwood's "
7688 "films,</quote> Alben told me. It was here that the problem arose. <quote>No "
7689 "one had ever really done this before,</quote> Alben explained. <quote>No one "
7690 "had ever tried to do this in the context of an artistic look at an actor's "
7694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7695 #: freeculture.xml:5388
7697 "Alben brought the idea to Michael Slade, the CEO of Starwave. Slade asked, "
7698 "<quote>Well, what will it take?</quote>"
7701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><secondary>
7702 #: freeculture.xml:5402
7703 msgid "publicity rights on images of"
7706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7707 #: freeculture.xml:5398
7709 "Technically, the rights that Alben had to clear were mainly those of "
7710 "publicity—rights an artist has to control the commercial exploitation "
7711 "of his image. But these rights, too, burden <quote>Rip, Mix, Burn</quote> "
7712 "creativity, as this chapter evinces. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7713 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
7716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7717 #: freeculture.xml:5392
7719 "Alben replied, <quote>Well, we're going to have to clear rights from "
7720 "everyone who appears in these films, and the music and everything else that "
7721 "we want to use in these film clips.</quote> Slade said, <quote>Great! Go for "
7722 "it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7726 #: freeculture.xml:5407
7728 "The problem was that neither Alben nor Slade had any idea what clearing "
7729 "those rights would mean. Every actor in each of the films could have a claim "
7730 "to royalties for the reuse of that film. But CD- ROMs had not been specified "
7731 "in the contracts for the actors, so there was no clear way to know just what "
7732 "Starwave was to do."
7735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7736 #: freeculture.xml:5414
7738 "I asked Alben how he dealt with the problem. With an obvious pride in his "
7739 "resourcefulness that obscured the obvious bizarreness of his tale, Alben "
7740 "recounted just what they did:"
7743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7744 #: freeculture.xml:5420
7746 "So we very mechanically went about looking up the film clips. We made some "
7747 "artistic decisions about what film clips to include—of course we were "
7748 "going to use the <quote>Make my day</quote> clip from <citetitle>Dirty "
7749 "Harry</citetitle>. But you then need to get the guy on the ground who's "
7750 "wiggling under the gun and you need to get his permission. And then you "
7751 "have to decide what you are going to pay him."
7755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7756 #: freeculture.xml:5429
7758 "We decided that it would be fair if we offered them the dayplayer rate for "
7759 "the right to reuse that performance. We're talking about a clip of less than "
7760 "a minute, but to reuse that performance in the CD-ROM the rate at the time "
7761 "was about $600. So we had to identify the people—some of them were "
7762 "hard to identify because in Eastwood movies you can't tell who's the guy "
7763 "crashing through the glass—is it the actor or is it the stuntman? And "
7764 "then we just, we put together a team, my assistant and some others, and we "
7765 "just started calling people."
7768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7769 #: freeculture.xml:5440
7770 msgid "Sutherland, Donald"
7773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7774 #: freeculture.xml:5442
7776 "Some actors were glad to help—Donald Sutherland, for example, followed "
7777 "up himself to be sure that the rights had been cleared. Others were "
7778 "dumbfounded at their good fortune. Alben would ask, <quote>Hey, can I pay "
7779 "you $600 or maybe if you were in two films, you know, $1,200?</quote> And "
7780 "they would say, <quote>Are you for real? Hey, I'd love to get "
7781 "$1,200.</quote> And some of course were a bit difficult (estranged ex-wives, "
7782 "in particular). But eventually, Alben and his team had cleared the rights to "
7783 "this retrospective CD-ROM on Clint Eastwood's career."
7786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7787 #: freeculture.xml:5453
7789 "It was one <emphasis>year</emphasis> later—<quote>and even then we "
7790 "weren't sure whether we were totally in the clear.</quote>"
7793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7794 #: freeculture.xml:5457
7796 "Alben is proud of his work. The project was the first of its kind and the "
7797 "only time he knew of that a team had undertaken such a massive project for "
7798 "the purpose of releasing a retrospective."
7801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7802 #: freeculture.xml:5463
7804 "Everyone thought it would be too hard. Everyone just threw up their hands "
7805 "and said, <quote>Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's the "
7806 "music, there's the screenplay, there's the director, there's the "
7807 "actors.</quote> But we just broke it down. We just put it into its "
7808 "constituent parts and said, <quote>Okay, there's this many actors, this many "
7809 "directors, … this many musicians,</quote> and we just went at it very "
7810 "systematically and cleared the rights."
7814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7815 #: freeculture.xml:5475
7817 "And no doubt, the product itself was exceptionally good. Eastwood loved it, "
7818 "and it sold very well."
7821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7822 #: freeculture.xml:5478
7823 msgid "Drucker, Peter"
7827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7828 #: freeculture.xml:5486
7830 "U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Acquisition Management, "
7831 "<citetitle>Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services "
7832 "Acquisition</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
7833 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #22</ulink>."
7836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7837 #: freeculture.xml:5480
7839 "But I pressed Alben about how weird it seems that it would have to take a "
7840 "year's work simply to clear rights. No doubt Alben had done this "
7841 "efficiently, but as Peter Drucker has famously quipped, <quote>There is "
7842 "nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at "
7843 "all.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Did it make sense, I "
7844 "asked Alben, that this is the way a new work has to be made?"
7847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7848 #: freeculture.xml:5494
7850 "For, as he acknowledged, <quote>very few … have the time and "
7851 "resources, and the will to do this,</quote> and thus, very few such works "
7852 "would ever be made. Does it make sense, I asked him, from the standpoint of "
7853 "what anybody really thought they were ever giving rights for originally, "
7854 "that you would have to go clear rights for these kinds of clips?"
7857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7858 #: freeculture.xml:5502
7860 "I don't think so. When an actor renders a performance in a movie, he or she "
7861 "gets paid very well. … And then when 30 seconds of that performance "
7862 "is used in a new product that is a retrospective of somebody's career, I "
7863 "don't think that that person … should be compensated for that."
7866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7867 #: freeculture.xml:5510
7869 "Or at least, is this <emphasis>how</emphasis> the artist should be "
7870 "compensated? Would it make sense, I asked, for there to be some kind of "
7871 "statutory license that someone could pay and be free to make derivative use "
7872 "of clips like this? Did it really make sense that a follow-on creator would "
7873 "have to track down every artist, actor, director, musician, and get explicit "
7874 "permission from each? Wouldn't a lot more be created if the legal part of "
7875 "the creative process could be made to be more clean?"
7879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7880 #: freeculture.xml:5521
7882 "Absolutely. I think that if there were some fair-licensing "
7883 "mechanism—where you weren't subject to hold-ups and you weren't "
7884 "subject to estranged former spouses—you'd see a lot more of this work, "
7885 "because it wouldn't be so daunting to try to put together a retrospective of "
7886 "someone's career and meaningfully illustrate it with lots of media from that "
7887 "person's career. You'd build in a cost as the producer of one of these "
7888 "things. You'd build in a cost of paying X dollars to the talent that "
7889 "performed. But it would be a known cost. That's the thing that trips "
7890 "everybody up and makes this kind of product hard to get off the ground. If "
7891 "you knew I have a hundred minutes of film in this product and it's going to "
7892 "cost me X, then you build your budget around it, and you can get investments "
7893 "and everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say, <quote>Oh, "
7894 "I want a hundred minutes of something and I have no idea what it's going to "
7895 "cost me, and a certain number of people are going to hold me up for "
7896 "money,</quote> then it becomes difficult to put one of these things "
7900 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7901 #: freeculture.xml:5541
7903 "Alben worked for a big company. His company was backed by some of the "
7904 "richest investors in the world. He therefore had authority and access that "
7905 "the average Web designer would not have. So if it took him a year, how long "
7906 "would it take someone else? And how much creativity is never made just "
7907 "because the costs of clearing the rights are so high?"
7910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7911 #: freeculture.xml:5550
7913 "These costs are the burdens of a kind of regulation. Put on a Republican hat "
7914 "for a moment, and get angry for a bit. The government defines the scope of "
7915 "these rights, and the scope defined determines how much it's going to cost "
7916 "to negotiate them. (Remember the idea that land runs to the heavens, and "
7917 "imagine the pilot purchasing flythrough rights as he negotiates to fly from "
7918 "Los Angeles to San Francisco.) These rights might well have once made "
7919 "sense; but as circumstances change, they make no sense at all. Or at least, "
7920 "a well-trained, regulationminimizing Republican should look at the rights "
7921 "and ask, <quote>Does this still make sense?</quote>"
7925 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7926 #: freeculture.xml:5563
7928 "I've seen the flash of recognition when people get this point, but only a "
7929 "few times. The first was at a conference of federal judges in California. "
7930 "The judges were gathered to discuss the emerging topic of cyber-law. I was "
7931 "asked to be on the panel. Harvey Saferstein, a well-respected lawyer from an "
7932 "L.A. firm, introduced the panel with a video that he and a friend, Robert "
7933 "Fairbank, had produced."
7936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7937 #: freeculture.xml:5573
7939 "The video was a brilliant collage of film from every period in the twentieth "
7940 "century, all framed around the idea of a <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> "
7941 "episode. The execution was perfect, down to the sixty-minute stopwatch. The "
7942 "judges loved every minute of it."
7945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7946 #: freeculture.xml:5578
7947 msgid "Nimmer, David"
7950 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7951 #: freeculture.xml:5580
7953 "When the lights came up, I looked over to my copanelist, David Nimmer, "
7954 "perhaps the leading copyright scholar and practitioner in the nation. He had "
7955 "an astonished look on his face, as he peered across the room of over 250 "
7956 "well-entertained judges. Taking an ominous tone, he began his talk with a "
7957 "question: <quote>Do you know how many federal laws were just violated in "
7958 "this room?</quote>"
7961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7962 #: freeculture.xml:5587
7963 msgid "Boies, David"
7966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7967 #: freeculture.xml:5590
7969 "For of course, the two brilliantly talented creators who made this film "
7970 "hadn't done what Alben did. They hadn't spent a year clearing the rights to "
7971 "these clips; technically, what they had done violated the law. Of course, "
7972 "it wasn't as if they or anyone were going to be prosecuted for this "
7973 "violation (the presence of 250 judges and a gaggle of federal marshals "
7974 "notwithstanding). But Nimmer was making an important point: A year before "
7975 "anyone would have heard of the word Napster, and two years before another "
7976 "member of our panel, David Boies, would defend Napster before the Ninth "
7977 "Circuit Court of Appeals, Nimmer was trying to get the judges to see that "
7978 "the law would not be friendly to the capacities that this technology would "
7979 "enable. Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you "
7980 "couldn't easily do them legally."
7983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7984 #: freeculture.xml:5605
7986 "We live in a <quote>cut and paste</quote> culture enabled by "
7987 "technology. Anyone building a presentation knows the extraordinary freedom "
7988 "that the cut and paste architecture of the Internet created—in a "
7989 "second you can find just about any image you want; in another second, you "
7990 "can have it planted in your presentation."
7993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7994 #: freeculture.xml:5611
7999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8000 #: freeculture.xml:5613
8002 "But presentations are just a tiny beginning. Using the Internet and its "
8003 "archives, musicians are able to string together mixes of sound never before "
8004 "imagined; filmmakers are able to build movies out of clips on computers "
8005 "around the world. An extraordinary site in Sweden takes images of "
8006 "politicians and blends them with music to create biting political "
8007 "commentary. A site called Camp Chaos has produced some of the most biting "
8008 "criticism of the record industry that there is through the mixing of Flash! "
8012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8013 #: freeculture.xml:5624
8015 "All of these creations are technically illegal. Even if the creators wanted "
8016 "to be <quote>legal,</quote> the cost of complying with the law is impossibly "
8017 "high. Therefore, for the law-abiding sorts, a wealth of creativity is never "
8018 "made. And for that part that is made, if it doesn't follow the clearance "
8019 "rules, it doesn't get released."
8022 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8023 #: freeculture.xml:5631
8025 "To some, these stories suggest a solution: Let's alter the mix of rights so "
8026 "that people are free to build upon our culture. Free to add or mix as they "
8027 "see fit. We could even make this change without necessarily requiring that "
8028 "the <quote>free</quote> use be free as in <quote>free beer.</quote> Instead, "
8029 "the system could simply make it easy for follow-on creators to compensate "
8030 "artists without requiring an army of lawyers to come along: a rule, for "
8031 "example, that says <quote>the royalty owed the copyright owner of an "
8032 "unregistered work for the derivative reuse of his work will be a flat 1 "
8033 "percent of net revenues, to be held in escrow for the copyright "
8034 "owner.</quote> Under this rule, the copyright owner could benefit from some "
8035 "royalty, but he would not have the benefit of a full property right (meaning "
8036 "the right to name his own price) unless he registers the work."
8039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8040 #: freeculture.xml:5646
8042 "Who could possibly object to this? And what reason would there be for "
8043 "objecting? We're talking about work that is not now being made; which if "
8044 "made, under this plan, would produce new income for artists. What reason "
8045 "would anyone have to oppose it?"
8049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8050 #: freeculture.xml:5652
8052 "<emphasis role='strong'>In February 2003</emphasis>, DreamWorks studios "
8053 "announced an agreement with Mike Myers, the comic genius of "
8054 "<citetitle>Saturday Night Live</citetitle> and Austin Powers. According to "
8055 "the announcement, Myers and Dream-Works would work together to form a "
8056 "<quote>unique filmmaking pact.</quote> Under the agreement, DreamWorks "
8057 "<quote>will acquire the rights to existing motion picture hits and classics, "
8058 "write new storylines and—with the use of stateof-the-art digital "
8059 "technology—insert Myers and other actors into the film, thereby "
8060 "creating an entirely new piece of entertainment.</quote>"
8063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8064 #: freeculture.xml:5665
8066 "The announcement called this <quote>film sampling.</quote> As Myers "
8067 "explained, <quote>Film Sampling is an exciting way to put an original spin "
8068 "on existing films and allow audiences to see old movies in a new light. Rap "
8069 "artists have been doing this for years with music and now we are able to "
8070 "take that same concept and apply it to film.</quote> Steven Spielberg is "
8071 "quoted as saying, <quote>If anyone can create a way to bring old films to "
8072 "new audiences, it is Mike.</quote>"
8075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8076 #: freeculture.xml:5674
8078 "Spielberg is right. Film sampling by Myers will be brilliant. But if you "
8079 "don't think about it, you might miss the truly astonishing point about this "
8080 "announcement. As the vast majority of our film heritage remains under "
8081 "copyright, the real meaning of the DreamWorks announcement is just this: It "
8082 "is Mike Myers and only Mike Myers who is free to sample. Any general freedom "
8083 "to build upon the film archive of our culture, a freedom in other contexts "
8084 "presumed for us all, is now a privilege reserved for the funny and "
8085 "famous—and presumably rich."
8088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8089 #: freeculture.xml:5684
8091 "This privilege becomes reserved for two sorts of reasons. The first "
8092 "continues the story of the last chapter: the vagueness of <quote>fair "
8093 "use.</quote> Much of <quote>sampling</quote> should be considered "
8094 "<quote>fair use.</quote> But few would rely upon so weak a doctrine to "
8095 "create. That leads to the second reason that the privilege is reserved for "
8096 "the few: The costs of negotiating the legal rights for the creative reuse of "
8097 "content are astronomically high. These costs mirror the costs with fair "
8098 "use: You either pay a lawyer to defend your fair use rights or pay a lawyer "
8099 "to track down permissions so you don't have to rely upon fair use "
8100 "rights. Either way, the creative process is a process of paying "
8101 "lawyers—again a privilege, or perhaps a curse, reserved for the few."
8104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
8105 #: freeculture.xml:5699
8106 msgid "CHAPTER NINE: Collectors"
8109 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8110 #: freeculture.xml:5700 freeculture.xml:8832 freeculture.xml:11052 freeculture.xml:11297
8111 msgid "archives, digital"
8114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8115 #: freeculture.xml:5701 freeculture.xml:8131
8119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8120 #: freeculture.xml:5703
8122 "<emphasis role='strong'>In April 1996</emphasis>, millions of "
8123 "<quote>bots</quote>—computer codes designed to <quote>spider,</quote> "
8124 "or automatically search the Internet and copy content—began running "
8125 "across the Net. Page by page, these bots copied Internet-based information "
8126 "onto a small set of computers located in a basement in San Francisco's "
8127 "Presidio. Once the bots finished the whole of the Internet, they started "
8128 "again. Over and over again, once every two months, these bits of code took "
8129 "copies of the Internet and stored them."
8132 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8133 #: freeculture.xml:5713 freeculture.xml:5744 freeculture.xml:5806
8134 msgid "Way Back Machine"
8137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8138 #: freeculture.xml:5715
8140 "By October 2001, the bots had collected more than five years of copies. And "
8141 "at a small announcement in Berkeley, California, the archive that these "
8142 "copies created, the Internet Archive, was opened to the world. Using a "
8143 "technology called <quote>the Way Back Machine,</quote> you could enter a Web "
8144 "page, and see all of its copies going back to 1996, as well as when those "
8148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8149 #: freeculture.xml:5722
8150 msgid "Orwell, George"
8153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8154 #: freeculture.xml:5724
8156 "This is the thing about the Internet that Orwell would have appreciated. In "
8157 "the dystopia described in <citetitle>1984</citetitle>, old newspapers were "
8158 "constantly updated to assure that the current view of the world, approved of "
8159 "by the government, was not contradicted by previous news reports."
8163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8164 #: freeculture.xml:5732
8166 "Thousands of workers constantly reedited the past, meaning there was no way "
8167 "ever to know whether the story you were reading today was the story that was "
8168 "printed on the date published on the paper."
8171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8172 #: freeculture.xml:5737
8174 "It's the same with the Internet. If you go to a Web page today, there's no "
8175 "way for you to know whether the content you are reading is the same as the "
8176 "content you read before. The page may seem the same, but the content could "
8177 "easily be different. The Internet is Orwell's library—constantly "
8178 "updated, without any reliable memory."
8181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8182 #: freeculture.xml:5753
8183 msgid "White House press releases"
8186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8187 #: freeculture.xml:5752
8189 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
8190 "id=\"1\"/> The temptations remain, however. Brewster Kahle reports that the "
8191 "White House changes its own press releases without notice. A May 13, 2003, "
8192 "press release stated, <quote>Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.</quote> "
8193 "That was later changed, without notice, to <quote>Major Combat Operations in "
8194 "Iraq Have Ended.</quote> E-mail from Brewster Kahle, 1 December 2003."
8197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8198 #: freeculture.xml:5746
8200 "Until the Way Back Machine, at least. With the Way Back Machine, and the "
8201 "Internet Archive underlying it, you can see what the Internet was. You have "
8202 "the power to see what you remember. More importantly, perhaps, you also have "
8203 "the power to find what you don't remember and what others might prefer you "
8204 "forget.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8208 #: freeculture.xml:5761
8209 msgid "history, records of"
8212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8213 #: freeculture.xml:5763
8215 "<emphasis role='strong'>We take it</emphasis> for granted that we can go "
8216 "back to see what we remember reading. Think about newspapers. If you wanted "
8217 "to study the reaction of your hometown newspaper to the race riots in Watts "
8218 "in 1965, or to Bull Connor's water cannon in 1963, you could go to your "
8219 "public library and look at the newspapers. Those papers probably exist on "
8220 "microfiche. If you're lucky, they exist in paper, too. Either way, you are "
8221 "free, using a library, to go back and remember—not just what it is "
8222 "convenient to remember, but remember something close to the truth."
8225 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8226 #: freeculture.xml:5774
8228 "It is said that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat "
8229 "it. That's not quite correct. We <emphasis>all</emphasis> forget "
8230 "history. The key is whether we have a way to go back to rediscover what we "
8231 "forget. More directly, the key is whether an objective past can keep us "
8232 "honest. Libraries help do that, by collecting content and keeping it, for "
8233 "schoolchildren, for researchers, for grandma. A free society presumes this "
8238 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8239 #: freeculture.xml:5783
8241 "The Internet was an exception to this presumption. Until the Internet "
8242 "Archive, there was no way to go back. The Internet was the quintessentially "
8243 "transitory medium. And yet, as it becomes more important in forming and "
8244 "reforming society, it becomes more and more important to maintain in some "
8245 "historical form. It's just bizarre to think that we have scads of archives "
8246 "of newspapers from tiny towns around the world, yet there is but one copy of "
8247 "the Internet—the one kept by the Internet Archive."
8250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8251 #: freeculture.xml:5794
8253 "Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive. He was a very "
8254 "successful Internet entrepreneur after he was a successful computer "
8255 "researcher. In the 1990s, Kahle decided he had had enough business "
8256 "success. It was time to become a different kind of success. So he launched "
8257 "a series of projects designed to archive human knowledge. The Internet "
8258 "Archive was just the first of the projects of this Andrew Carnegie of the "
8259 "Internet. By December of 2002, the archive had over 10 billion pages, and it "
8260 "was growing at about a billion pages a month."
8263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8264 #: freeculture.xml:5803 freeculture.xml:5857
8265 msgid "Library of Congress"
8268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8269 #: freeculture.xml:5804
8270 msgid "Television Archive"
8273 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8274 #: freeculture.xml:5805
8275 msgid "Vanderbilt University"
8278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8279 #: freeculture.xml:5807
8283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8284 #: freeculture.xml:5807
8285 msgid "archival function of"
8288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8289 #: freeculture.xml:5809
8291 "The Way Back Machine is the largest archive of human knowledge in human "
8292 "history. At the end of 2002, it held <quote>two hundred and thirty terabytes "
8293 "of material</quote>—and was <quote>ten times larger than the Library "
8294 "of Congress.</quote> And this was just the first of the archives that Kahle "
8295 "set out to build. In addition to the Internet Archive, Kahle has been "
8296 "constructing the Television Archive. Television, it turns out, is even more "
8297 "ephemeral than the Internet. While much of twentieth-century culture was "
8298 "constructed through television, only a tiny proportion of that culture is "
8299 "available for anyone to see today. Three hours of news are recorded each "
8300 "evening by Vanderbilt University—thanks to a specific exemption in the "
8301 "copyright law. That content is indexed, and is available to scholars for a "
8302 "very low fee. <quote>But other than that, [television] is almost "
8303 "unavailable,</quote> Kahle told me. <quote>If you were Barbara Walters you "
8304 "could get access to [the archives], but if you are just a graduate "
8305 "student?</quote> As Kahle put it,"
8308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
8309 #: freeculture.xml:5826
8313 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
8314 #: freeculture.xml:5827
8319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8320 #: freeculture.xml:5829
8322 "Do you remember when Dan Quayle was interacting with Murphy Brown? Remember "
8323 "that back and forth surreal experience of a politician interacting with a "
8324 "fictional television character? If you were a graduate student wanting to "
8325 "study that, and you wanted to get those original back and forth exchanges "
8326 "between the two, the <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> episode that came out "
8327 "after it … it would be almost impossible. … Those materials "
8328 "are almost unfindable. …"
8331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8332 #: freeculture.xml:5840
8336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8337 #: freeculture.xml:5840
8341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8342 #: freeculture.xml:5842
8344 "Why is that? Why is it that the part of our culture that is recorded in "
8345 "newspapers remains perpetually accessible, while the part that is recorded "
8346 "on videotape is not? How is it that we've created a world where researchers "
8347 "trying to understand the effect of media on nineteenthcentury America will "
8348 "have an easier time than researchers trying to understand the effect of "
8349 "media on twentieth-century America?"
8352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8353 #: freeculture.xml:5850
8355 "In part, this is because of the law. Early in American copyright law, "
8356 "copyright owners were required to deposit copies of their work in "
8357 "libraries. These copies were intended both to facilitate the spread of "
8358 "knowledge and to assure that a copy of the work would be around once the "
8359 "copyright expired, so that others might access and copy the work."
8362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8363 #: freeculture.xml:5858 freeculture.xml:5901
8368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8369 #: freeculture.xml:5869
8371 "Doug Herrick, <quote>Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at "
8372 "the Library of Congress,</quote> <citetitle>Film Library "
8373 "Quarterly</citetitle> 13 nos. 2–3 (1980): 5; Anthony Slide, "
8374 "<citetitle>Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United "
8375 "States</citetitle> ( Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1992), 36."
8378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8379 #: freeculture.xml:5860
8381 "These rules applied to film as well. But in 1915, the Library of Congress "
8382 "made an exception for film. Film could be copyrighted so long as such "
8383 "deposits were made. But the filmmaker was then allowed to borrow back the "
8384 "deposits—for an unlimited time at no cost. In 1915 alone, there were "
8385 "more than 5,475 films deposited and <quote>borrowed back.</quote> Thus, when "
8386 "the copyrights to films expire, there is no copy held by any library. The "
8387 "copy exists—if it exists at all—in the library archive of the "
8388 "film company.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8392 #: freeculture.xml:5877
8394 "The same is generally true about television. Television broadcasts were "
8395 "originally not copyrighted—there was no way to capture the broadcasts, "
8396 "so there was no fear of <quote>theft.</quote> But as technology enabled "
8397 "capturing, broadcasters relied increasingly upon the law. The law required "
8398 "they make a copy of each broadcast for the work to be "
8399 "<quote>copyrighted.</quote> But those copies were simply kept by the "
8400 "broadcasters. No library had any right to them; the government didn't demand "
8401 "them. The content of this part of American culture is practically invisible "
8402 "to anyone who would look."
8406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8407 #: freeculture.xml:5889
8409 "Kahle was eager to correct this. Before September 11, 2001, he and his "
8410 "allies had started capturing television. They selected twenty stations from "
8411 "around the world and hit the Record button. After September 11, Kahle, "
8412 "working with dozens of others, selected twenty stations from around the "
8413 "world and, beginning October 11, 2001, made their coverage during the week "
8414 "of September 11 available free on-line. Anyone could see how news reports "
8415 "from around the world covered the events of that day."
8418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8419 #: freeculture.xml:5899
8420 msgid "Movie Archive"
8423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8424 #: freeculture.xml:5900
8428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8429 #: freeculture.xml:5900 freeculture.xml:5902
8430 msgid "Internet Archive"
8433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8434 #: freeculture.xml:5903
8435 msgid "Duck and Cover film"
8438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8439 #: freeculture.xml:5904
8440 msgid "ephemeral films"
8443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8444 #: freeculture.xml:5905
8445 msgid "Prelinger, Rick"
8448 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8449 #: freeculture.xml:5907
8451 "Kahle had the same idea with film. Working with Rick Prelinger, whose "
8452 "archive of film includes close to 45,000 <quote>ephemeral films</quote> "
8453 "(meaning films other than Hollywood movies, films that were never "
8454 "copyrighted), Kahle established the Movie Archive. Prelinger let Kahle "
8455 "digitize 1,300 films in this archive and post those films on the Internet to "
8456 "be downloaded for free. Prelinger's is a for-profit company. It sells copies "
8457 "of these films as stock footage. What he has discovered is that after he "
8458 "made a significant chunk available for free, his stock footage sales went up "
8459 "dramatically. People could easily find the material they wanted to use. Some "
8460 "downloaded that material and made films on their own. Others purchased "
8461 "copies to enable other films to be made. Either way, the archive enabled "
8462 "access to this important part of our culture. Want to see a copy of the "
8463 "<quote>Duck and Cover</quote> film that instructed children how to save "
8464 "themselves in the middle of nuclear attack? Go to archive.org, and you can "
8465 "download the film in a few minutes—for free."
8468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8469 #: freeculture.xml:5925
8471 "Here again, Kahle is providing access to a part of our culture that we "
8472 "otherwise could not get easily, if at all. It is yet another part of what "
8473 "defines the twentieth century that we have lost to history. The law doesn't "
8474 "require these copies to be kept by anyone, or to be deposited in an archive "
8475 "by anyone. Therefore, there is no simple way to find them."
8478 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8479 #: freeculture.xml:5933
8481 "The key here is access, not price. Kahle wants to enable free access to this "
8482 "content, but he also wants to enable others to sell access to it. His aim is "
8483 "to ensure competition in access to this important part of our culture. Not "
8484 "during the commercial life of a bit of creative property, but during a "
8485 "second life that all creative property has—a noncommercial life."
8489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8490 #: freeculture.xml:5941
8492 "For here is an idea that we should more clearly recognize. Every bit of "
8493 "creative property goes through different <quote>lives.</quote> In its first "
8494 "life, if the creator is lucky, the content is sold. In such cases the "
8495 "commercial market is successful for the creator. The vast majority of "
8496 "creative property doesn't enjoy such success, but some clearly does. For "
8497 "that content, commercial life is extremely important. Without this "
8498 "commercial market, there would be, many argue, much less creativity."
8501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8502 #: freeculture.xml:5953
8504 "After the commercial life of creative property has ended, our tradition has "
8505 "always supported a second life as well. A newspaper delivers the news every "
8506 "day to the doorsteps of America. The very next day, it is used to wrap fish "
8507 "or to fill boxes with fragile gifts or to build an archive of knowledge "
8508 "about our history. In this second life, the content can continue to inform "
8509 "even if that information is no longer sold."
8512 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8513 #: freeculture.xml:5966
8515 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Dave Barns, <quote>Fledgling "
8516 "Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, Bar Owner Starts a New Chapter "
8517 "by Adopting Business,</quote> <citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 5 "
8518 "September 1997, at Metro Lake 1L. Of books published between 1927 and 1946, "
8519 "only 2.2 percent were in print in 2002. R. Anthony Reese, <quote>The First "
8520 "Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
8521 "College Law Review</citetitle> 44 (2003): 593 n. 51."
8524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8525 #: freeculture.xml:5963
8527 "The same has always been true about books. A book goes out of print very "
8528 "quickly (the average today is after about a year<placeholder "
8529 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>). After it is out of print, it can be sold in "
8530 "used book stores without the copyright owner getting anything and stored in "
8531 "libraries, where many get to read the book, also for free. Used book stores "
8532 "and libraries are thus the second life of a book. That second life is "
8533 "extremely important to the spread and stability of culture."
8536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8537 #: freeculture.xml:5981
8539 "Yet increasingly, any assumption about a stable second life for creative "
8540 "property does not hold true with the most important components of popular "
8541 "culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For "
8542 "these—television, movies, music, radio, the Internet—there is no "
8543 "guarantee of a second life. For these sorts of culture, it is as if we've "
8544 "replaced libraries with Barnes & Noble superstores. With this culture, "
8545 "what's accessible is nothing but what a certain limited market demands. "
8546 "Beyond that, culture disappears."
8550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8551 #: freeculture.xml:5992
8553 "<emphasis role='strong'>For most of</emphasis> the twentieth century, it was "
8554 "economics that made this so. It would have been insanely expensive to "
8555 "collect and make accessible all television and film and music: The cost of "
8556 "analog copies is extraordinarily high. So even though the law in principle "
8557 "would have restricted the ability of a Brewster Kahle to copy culture "
8558 "generally, the real restriction was economics. The market made it impossibly "
8559 "difficult to do anything about this ephemeral culture; the law had little "
8563 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8564 #: freeculture.xml:6004
8566 "Perhaps the single most important feature of the digital revolution is that "
8567 "for the first time since the Library of Alexandria, it is feasible to "
8568 "imagine constructing archives that hold all culture produced or distributed "
8569 "publicly. Technology makes it possible to imagine an archive of all books "
8570 "published, and increasingly makes it possible to imagine an archive of all "
8571 "moving images and sound."
8574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8575 #: freeculture.xml:6012
8577 "The scale of this potential archive is something we've never imagined "
8578 "before. The Brewster Kahles of our history have dreamed about it; but we are "
8579 "for the first time at a point where that dream is possible. As Kahle "
8583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><secondary>
8584 #: freeculture.xml:6018
8585 msgid "total number of"
8588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8589 #: freeculture.xml:6020
8591 "It looks like there's about two to three million recordings of music. "
8592 "Ever. There are about a hundred thousand theatrical releases of movies, "
8593 "… and about one to two million movies [distributed] during the "
8594 "twentieth century. There are about twenty-six million different titles of "
8595 "books. All of these would fit on computers that would fit in this room and "
8596 "be able to be afforded by a small company. So we're at a turning point in "
8597 "our history. Universal access is the goal. And the opportunity of leading a "
8598 "different life, based on this, is … thrilling. It could be one of the "
8599 "things humankind would be most proud of. Up there with the Library of "
8600 "Alexandria, putting a man on the moon, and the invention of the printing "
8605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8606 #: freeculture.xml:6035
8608 "Kahle is not the only librarian. The Internet Archive is not the only "
8609 "archive. But Kahle and the Internet Archive suggest what the future of "
8610 "libraries or archives could be. <emphasis>When</emphasis> the commercial "
8611 "life of creative property ends, I don't know. But it does. And whenever it "
8612 "does, Kahle and his archive hint at a world where this knowledge, and "
8613 "culture, remains perpetually available. Some will draw upon it to understand "
8614 "it; some to criticize it. Some will use it, as Walt Disney did, to re-create "
8615 "the past for the future. These technologies promise something that had "
8616 "become unimaginable for much of our past—a future "
8617 "<emphasis>for</emphasis> our past. The technology of digital arts could make "
8618 "the dream of the Library of Alexandria real again."
8621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8622 #: freeculture.xml:6050
8624 "Technologists have thus removed the economic costs of building such an "
8625 "archive. But lawyers' costs remain. For as much as we might like to call "
8626 "these <quote>archives,</quote> as warm as the idea of a "
8627 "<quote>library</quote> might seem, the <quote>content</quote> that is "
8628 "collected in these digital spaces is also someone's <quote>property.</quote> "
8629 "And the law of property restricts the freedoms that Kahle and others would "
8633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
8634 #: freeculture.xml:6061
8635 msgid "CHAPTER TEN: <quote>Property</quote>"
8638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8639 #: freeculture.xml:6062
8640 msgid "Johnson, Lyndon"
8643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8644 #: freeculture.xml:6063 freeculture.xml:9790
8645 msgid "Kennedy, John F."
8648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8649 #: freeculture.xml:6065
8651 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jack Valenti</emphasis> has been the president of "
8652 "the Motion Picture Association of America since 1966. He first came to "
8653 "Washington, D.C., with Lyndon Johnson's administration—literally. The "
8654 "famous picture of Johnson's swearing-in on Air Force One after the "
8655 "assassination of President Kennedy has Valenti in the background. In his "
8656 "almost forty years of running the MPAA, Valenti has established himself as "
8657 "perhaps the most prominent and effective lobbyist in Washington."
8660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8661 #: freeculture.xml:6075
8662 msgid "Sony Pictures Entertainment"
8665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8666 #: freeculture.xml:6076
8670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8671 #: freeculture.xml:6077
8672 msgid "Paramount Pictures"
8675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8676 #: freeculture.xml:6078
8677 msgid "Twentieth Century Fox"
8680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8681 #: freeculture.xml:6079
8682 msgid "Universal Pictures"
8685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8686 #: freeculture.xml:6080 freeculture.xml:7508
8687 msgid "Warner Brothers"
8690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8691 #: freeculture.xml:6082
8693 "The MPAA is the American branch of the international Motion Picture "
8694 "Association. It was formed in 1922 as a trade association whose goal was to "
8695 "defend American movies against increasing domestic criticism. The "
8696 "organization now represents not only filmmakers but producers and "
8697 "distributors of entertainment for television, video, and cable. Its board is "
8698 "made up of the chairmen and presidents of the seven major producers and "
8699 "distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States: "
8700 "Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth "
8701 "Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers."
8705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8706 #: freeculture.xml:6095
8708 "Valenti is only the third president of the MPAA. No president before him has "
8709 "had as much influence over that organization, or over Washington. As a "
8710 "Texan, Valenti has mastered the single most important political skill of a "
8711 "Southerner—the ability to appear simple and slow while hiding a "
8712 "lightning-fast intellect. To this day, Valenti plays the simple, humble "
8713 "man. But this Harvard MBA, and author of four books, who finished high "
8714 "school at the age of fifteen and flew more than fifty combat missions in "
8715 "World War II, is no Mr. Smith. When Valenti went to Washington, he mastered "
8716 "the city in a quintessentially Washingtonian way."
8719 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8720 #: freeculture.xml:6107
8722 "In defending artistic liberty and the freedom of speech that our culture "
8723 "depends upon, the MPAA has done important good. In crafting the MPAA rating "
8724 "system, it has probably avoided a great deal of speech-regulating harm. But "
8725 "there is an aspect to the organization's mission that is both the most "
8726 "radical and the most important. This is the organization's effort, "
8727 "epitomized in Valenti's every act, to redefine the meaning of "
8728 "<quote>creative property.</quote>"
8731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8732 #: freeculture.xml:6116
8733 msgid "In 1982, Valenti's testimony to Congress captured the strategy perfectly:"
8737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
8738 #: freeculture.xml:6130
8740 "Home Recording of Copyrighted Works: Hearings on H.R. 4783, H.R. 4794, "
8741 "H.R. 4808, H.R. 5250, H.R. 5488, and H.R. 5705 Before the Subcommittee on "
8742 "Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee "
8743 "on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, 97th Cong., 2nd "
8744 "sess. (1982): 65 (testimony of Jack Valenti)."
8747 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8748 #: freeculture.xml:6121
8750 "No matter the lengthy arguments made, no matter the charges and the "
8751 "counter-charges, no matter the tumult and the shouting, reasonable men and "
8752 "women will keep returning to the fundamental issue, the central theme which "
8753 "animates this entire debate: <emphasis>Creative property owners must be "
8754 "accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other property "
8755 "owners in the nation</emphasis>. That is the issue. That is the "
8756 "question. And that is the rostrum on which this entire hearing and the "
8757 "debates to follow must rest.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8762 #: freeculture.xml:6140
8764 "The strategy of this rhetoric, like the strategy of most of Valenti's "
8765 "rhetoric, is brilliant and simple and brilliant because simple. The "
8766 "<quote>central theme</quote> to which <quote>reasonable men and "
8767 "women</quote> will return is this: <quote>Creative property owners must be "
8768 "accorded the same rights and protections resident in all other property "
8769 "owners in the nation.</quote> There are no second-class citizens, Valenti "
8770 "might have continued. There should be no second-class property owners."
8773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8774 #: freeculture.xml:6151
8776 "This claim has an obvious and powerful intuitive pull. It is stated with "
8777 "such clarity as to make the idea as obvious as the notion that we use "
8778 "elections to pick presidents. But in fact, there is no more extreme a claim "
8779 "made by <emphasis>anyone</emphasis> who is serious in this debate than this "
8780 "claim of Valenti's. Jack Valenti, however sweet and however brilliant, is "
8781 "perhaps the nation's foremost extremist when it comes to the nature and "
8782 "scope of <quote>creative property.</quote> His views have "
8783 "<emphasis>no</emphasis> reasonable connection to our actual legal tradition, "
8784 "even if the subtle pull of his Texan charm has slowly redefined that "
8785 "tradition, at least in Washington."
8789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8790 #: freeculture.xml:6166
8792 "Lawyers speak of <quote>property</quote> not as an absolute thing, but as a "
8793 "bundle of rights that are sometimes associated with a particular "
8794 "object. Thus, my <quote>property right</quote> to my car gives me the right "
8795 "to exclusive use, but not the right to drive at 150 miles an hour. For the "
8796 "best effort to connect the ordinary meaning of <quote>property</quote> to "
8797 "<quote>lawyer talk,</quote> see Bruce Ackerman, <citetitle>Private Property "
8798 "and the Constitution</citetitle> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), "
8802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8803 #: freeculture.xml:6163
8805 "While <quote>creative property</quote> is certainly <quote>property</quote> "
8806 "in a nerdy and precise sense that lawyers are trained to "
8807 "understand,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it has never been the "
8808 "case, nor should it be, that <quote>creative property owners</quote> have "
8809 "been <quote>accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other "
8810 "property owners.</quote> Indeed, if creative property owners were given the "
8811 "same rights as all other property owners, that would effect a radical, and "
8812 "radically undesirable, change in our tradition."
8815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8816 #: freeculture.xml:6181
8818 "Valenti knows this. But he speaks for an industry that cares squat for our "
8819 "tradition and the values it represents. He speaks for an industry that is "
8820 "instead fighting to restore the tradition that the British overturned in "
8821 "1710. In the world that Valenti's changes would create, a powerful few would "
8822 "exercise powerful control over how our creative culture would develop."
8826 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8827 #: freeculture.xml:6189
8829 "I have two purposes in this chapter. The first is to convince you that, "
8830 "historically, Valenti's claim is absolutely wrong. The second is to convince "
8831 "you that it would be terribly wrong for us to reject our history. We have "
8832 "always treated rights in creative property differently from the rights "
8833 "resident in all other property owners. They have never been the same. And "
8834 "they should never be the same, because, however counterintuitive this may "
8835 "seem, to make them the same would be to fundamentally weaken the opportunity "
8836 "for new creators to create. Creativity depends upon the owners of "
8837 "creativity having less than perfect control."
8840 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8841 #: freeculture.xml:6204
8843 "Organizations such as the MPAA, whose board includes the most powerful of "
8844 "the old guard, have little interest, their rhetoric notwithstanding, in "
8845 "assuring that the new can displace them. No organization does. No person "
8846 "does. (Ask me about tenure, for example.) But what's good for the MPAA is "
8847 "not necessarily good for America. A society that defends the ideals of free "
8848 "culture must preserve precisely the opportunity for new creativity to "
8852 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8853 #: freeculture.xml:6213
8855 "<emphasis role='strong'>To get</emphasis> just a hint that there is "
8856 "something fundamentally wrong in Valenti's argument, we need look no further "
8857 "than the United States Constitution itself."
8860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8861 #: freeculture.xml:6218
8863 "The framers of our Constitution loved <quote>property.</quote> Indeed, so "
8864 "strongly did they love property that they built into the Constitution an "
8865 "important requirement. If the government takes your property—if it "
8866 "condemns your house, or acquires a slice of land from your farm—it is "
8867 "required, under the Fifth Amendment's <quote>Takings Clause,</quote> to pay "
8868 "you <quote>just compensation</quote> for that taking. The Constitution thus "
8869 "guarantees that property is, in a certain sense, sacred. It cannot "
8870 "<emphasis>ever</emphasis> be taken from the property owner unless the "
8871 "government pays for the privilege."
8875 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8876 #: freeculture.xml:6229
8878 "Yet the very same Constitution speaks very differently about what Valenti "
8879 "calls <quote>creative property.</quote> In the clause granting Congress the "
8880 "power to create <quote>creative property,</quote> the Constitution "
8881 "<emphasis>requires</emphasis> that after a <quote>limited time,</quote> "
8882 "Congress take back the rights that it has granted and set the "
8883 "<quote>creative property</quote> free to the public domain. Yet when "
8884 "Congress does this, when the expiration of a copyright term "
8885 "<quote>takes</quote> your copyright and turns it over to the public domain, "
8886 "Congress does not have any obligation to pay <quote>just "
8887 "compensation</quote> for this <quote>taking.</quote> Instead, the same "
8888 "Constitution that requires compensation for your land requires that you lose "
8889 "your <quote>creative property</quote> right without any compensation at all."
8892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8893 #: freeculture.xml:6244
8895 "The Constitution thus on its face states that these two forms of property "
8896 "are not to be accorded the same rights. They are plainly to be treated "
8897 "differently. Valenti is therefore not just asking for a change in our "
8898 "tradition when he argues that creative-property owners should be accorded "
8899 "the same rights as every other property-right owner. He is effectively "
8900 "arguing for a change in our Constitution itself."
8903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8904 #: freeculture.xml:6253
8906 "Arguing for a change in our Constitution is not necessarily wrong. There "
8907 "was much in our original Constitution that was plainly wrong. The "
8908 "Constitution of 1789 entrenched slavery; it left senators to be appointed "
8909 "rather than elected; it made it possible for the electoral college to "
8910 "produce a tie between the president and his own vice president (as it did in "
8911 "1800). The framers were no doubt extraordinary, but I would be the first to "
8912 "admit that they made big mistakes. We have since rejected some of those "
8913 "mistakes; no doubt there could be others that we should reject as well. So "
8914 "my argument is not simply that because Jefferson did it, we should, too."
8917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8918 #: freeculture.xml:6265
8920 "Instead, my argument is that because Jefferson did it, we should at least "
8921 "try to understand <emphasis>why</emphasis>. Why did the framers, fanatical "
8922 "property types that they were, reject the claim that creative property be "
8923 "given the same rights as all other property? Why did they require that for "
8924 "creative property there must be a public domain?"
8927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8928 #: freeculture.xml:6273
8930 "To answer this question, we need to get some perspective on the history of "
8931 "these <quote>creative property</quote> rights, and the control that they "
8932 "enabled. Once we see clearly how differently these rights have been "
8933 "defined, we will be in a better position to ask the question that should be "
8934 "at the core of this war: Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> creative property "
8935 "should be protected, but how. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> we will "
8936 "enforce the rights the law gives to creative-property owners, but what the "
8937 "particular mix of rights ought to be. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> "
8938 "artists should be paid, but whether institutions designed to assure that "
8939 "artists get paid need also control how culture develops."
8943 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8944 #: freeculture.xml:6288
8946 "To answer these questions, we need a more general way to talk about how "
8947 "property is protected. More precisely, we need a more general way than the "
8948 "narrow language of the law allows. In <citetitle>Code and Other Laws of "
8949 "Cyberspace</citetitle>, I used a simple model to capture this more general "
8950 "perspective. For any particular right or regulation, this model asks how "
8951 "four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken the "
8952 "right or regulation. I represented it with this diagram:"
8955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8956 #: freeculture.xml:6297
8958 "How four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken "
8959 "the right or regulation."
8962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8963 #: freeculture.xml:6298 freeculture.xml:6482 freeculture.xml:6789
8964 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1331.png\"></graphic>"
8967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8968 #: freeculture.xml:6301
8970 "At the center of this picture is a regulated dot: the individual or group "
8971 "that is the target of regulation, or the holder of a right. (In each case "
8972 "throughout, we can describe this either as regulation or as a right. For "
8973 "simplicity's sake, I will speak only of regulations.) The ovals represent "
8974 "four ways in which the individual or group might be regulated— either "
8975 "constrained or, alternatively, enabled. Law is the most obvious constraint "
8976 "(to lawyers, at least). It constrains by threatening punishments after the "
8977 "fact if the rules set in advance are violated. So if, for example, you "
8978 "willfully infringe Madonna's copyright by copying a song from her latest CD "
8979 "and posting it on the Web, you can be punished with a $150,000 fine. The "
8980 "fine is an ex post punishment for violating an ex ante rule. It is imposed "
8981 "by the state. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8984 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8985 #: freeculture.xml:6317 freeculture.xml:6376 freeculture.xml:6485
8986 msgid "norms, regulatory influence of"
8989 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8990 #: freeculture.xml:6319
8992 "Norms are a different kind of constraint. They, too, punish an individual "
8993 "for violating a rule. But the punishment of a norm is imposed by a "
8994 "community, not (or not only) by the state. There may be no law against "
8995 "spitting, but that doesn't mean you won't be punished if you spit on the "
8996 "ground while standing in line at a movie. The punishment might not be harsh, "
8997 "though depending upon the community, it could easily be more harsh than many "
8998 "of the punishments imposed by the state. The mark of the difference is not "
8999 "the severity of the rule, but the source of the enforcement."
9002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9003 #: freeculture.xml:6329 freeculture.xml:6375 freeculture.xml:6465 freeculture.xml:6484 freeculture.xml:9415 freeculture.xml:9614
9004 msgid "market constraints"
9007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9008 #: freeculture.xml:6331
9010 "The market is a third type of constraint. Its constraint is effected through "
9011 "conditions: You can do X if you pay Y; you'll be paid M if you do N. These "
9012 "constraints are obviously not independent of law or norms—it is "
9013 "property law that defines what must be bought if it is to be taken legally; "
9014 "it is norms that say what is appropriately sold. But given a set of norms, "
9015 "and a background of property and contract law, the market imposes a "
9016 "simultaneous constraint upon how an individual or group might behave."
9019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9020 #: freeculture.xml:6340 freeculture.xml:6374 freeculture.xml:6423 freeculture.xml:6464
9021 msgid "architecture, constraint effected through"
9024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9025 #: freeculture.xml:6342
9027 "Finally, and for the moment, perhaps, most mysteriously, "
9028 "<quote>architecture</quote>—the physical world as one finds "
9029 "it—is a constraint on behavior. A fallen bridge might constrain your "
9030 "ability to get across a river. Railroad tracks might constrain the ability "
9031 "of a community to integrate its social life. As with the market, "
9032 "architecture does not effect its constraint through ex post "
9033 "punishments. Instead, also as with the market, architecture effects its "
9034 "constraint through simultaneous conditions. These conditions are imposed not "
9035 "by courts enforcing contracts, or by police punishing theft, but by nature, "
9036 "by <quote>architecture.</quote> If a 500-pound boulder blocks your way, it "
9037 "is the law of gravity that enforces this constraint. If a $500 airplane "
9038 "ticket stands between you and a flight to New York, it is the market that "
9039 "enforces this constraint."
9043 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9044 #: freeculture.xml:6359
9046 "So the first point about these four modalities of regulation is obvious: "
9047 "They interact. Restrictions imposed by one might be reinforced by "
9048 "another. Or restrictions imposed by one might be undermined by another."
9051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9052 #: freeculture.xml:6365
9054 "The second point follows directly: If we want to understand the effective "
9055 "freedom that anyone has at a given moment to do any particular thing, we "
9056 "have to consider how these four modalities interact. Whether or not there "
9057 "are other constraints (there may well be; my claim is not about "
9058 "comprehensiveness), these four are among the most significant, and any "
9059 "regulator (whether controlling or freeing) must consider how these four in "
9060 "particular interact."
9063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9064 #: freeculture.xml:6373
9065 msgid "driving speed, constraints on"
9068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9069 #: freeculture.xml:6378
9071 "So, for example, consider the <quote>freedom</quote> to drive a car at a "
9072 "high speed. That freedom is in part restricted by laws: speed limits that "
9073 "say how fast you can drive in particular places at particular times. It is "
9074 "in part restricted by architecture: speed bumps, for example, slow most "
9075 "rational drivers; governors in buses, as another example, set the maximum "
9076 "rate at which the driver can drive. The freedom is in part restricted by the "
9077 "market: Fuel efficiency drops as speed increases, thus the price of gasoline "
9078 "indirectly constrains speed. And finally, the norms of a community may or "
9079 "may not constrain the freedom to speed. Drive at 50 mph by a school in your "
9080 "own neighborhood and you're likely to be punished by the neighbors. The same "
9081 "norm wouldn't be as effective in a different town, or at night."
9085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
9086 #: freeculture.xml:6396
9088 "By describing the way law affects the other three modalities, I don't mean "
9089 "to suggest that the other three don't affect law. Obviously, they do. Law's "
9090 "only distinction is that it alone speaks as if it has a right "
9091 "self-consciously to change the other three. The right of the other three is "
9092 "more timidly expressed. See Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Code: And Other "
9093 "Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle> (New York: Basic Books, 1999): 90–95; "
9094 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>The New Chicago School,</quote> <citetitle>Journal "
9095 "of Legal Studies</citetitle>, June 1998."
9099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9100 #: freeculture.xml:6392
9102 "The final point about this simple model should also be fairly clear: While "
9103 "these four modalities are analytically independent, law has a special role "
9104 "in affecting the three.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The law, in "
9105 "other words, sometimes operates to increase or decrease the constraint of a "
9106 "particular modality. Thus, the law might be used to increase taxes on "
9107 "gasoline, so as to increase the incentives to drive more slowly. The law "
9108 "might be used to mandate more speed bumps, so as to increase the difficulty "
9109 "of driving rapidly. The law might be used to fund ads that stigmatize "
9110 "reckless driving. Or the law might be used to require that other laws be "
9111 "more strict—a federal requirement that states decrease the speed "
9112 "limit, for example—so as to decrease the attractiveness of fast "
9116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
9117 #: freeculture.xml:6420
9118 msgid "Law has a special role in affecting the three."
9121 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
9122 #: freeculture.xml:6421
9123 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1361.png\"></graphic>"
9126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9127 #: freeculture.xml:6462
9128 msgid "Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)"
9131 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9132 #: freeculture.xml:6463
9133 msgid "Commons, John R."
9136 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
9137 #: freeculture.xml:6433
9139 "Some people object to this way of talking about <quote>liberty.</quote> They "
9140 "object because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at "
9141 "any particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the "
9142 "government. For instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people think "
9143 "it is meaningless to say that one's liberty has been restrained. A bridge "
9144 "has washed out, and it's harder to get from one place to another. To talk "
9145 "about this as a loss of freedom, they say, is to confuse the stuff of "
9146 "politics with the vagaries of ordinary life. I don't mean to deny the value "
9147 "in this narrower view, which depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, "
9148 "however, mean to argue against any insistence that this narrower view is the "
9149 "only proper view of liberty. As I argued in <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, we "
9150 "come from a long tradition of political thought with a broader focus than "
9151 "the narrow question of what the government did when. John Stuart Mill "
9152 "defended freedom of speech, for example, from the tyranny of narrow minds, "
9153 "not from the fear of government prosecution; John Stuart Mill, <citetitle>On "
9154 "Liberty</citetitle> (Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19. John "
9155 "R. Commons famously defended the economic freedom of labor from constraints "
9156 "imposed by the market; John R. Commons, <quote>The Right to Work,</quote> in "
9157 "Malcom Rutherford and Warren J. Samuels, eds., <citetitle>John R. Commons: "
9158 "Selected Essays</citetitle> (London: Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans "
9159 "with Disabilities Act increases the liberty of people with physical "
9160 "disabilities by changing the architecture of certain public places, thereby "
9161 "making access to those places easier; 42 <citetitle>United States "
9162 "Code</citetitle>, section 12101 (2000). Each of these interventions to "
9163 "change existing conditions changes the liberty of a particular group. The "
9164 "effect of those interventions should be accounted for in order to understand "
9165 "the effective liberty that each of these groups might face. <placeholder "
9166 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
9167 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
9171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9172 #: freeculture.xml:6425
9174 "These constraints can thus change, and they can be changed. To understand "
9175 "the effective protection of liberty or protection of property at any "
9176 "particular moment, we must track these changes over time. A restriction "
9177 "imposed by one modality might be erased by another. A freedom enabled by one "
9178 "modality might be displaced by another.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9183 #: freeculture.xml:6469
9184 msgid "Why Hollywood Is Right"
9187 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9188 #: freeculture.xml:6471
9190 "The most obvious point that this model reveals is just why, or just how, "
9191 "Hollywood is right. The copyright warriors have rallied Congress and the "
9192 "courts to defend copyright. This model helps us see why that rallying makes "
9196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9197 #: freeculture.xml:6477
9198 msgid "Let's say this is the picture of copyright's regulation before the Internet:"
9201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9202 #: freeculture.xml:6481 freeculture.xml:6788
9203 msgid "Copyright's regulation before the Internet."
9207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9208 #: freeculture.xml:6488
9210 "There is balance between law, norms, market, and architecture. The law "
9211 "limits the ability to copy and share content, by imposing penalties on those "
9212 "who copy and share content. Those penalties are reinforced by technologies "
9213 "that make it hard to copy and share content (architecture) and expensive to "
9214 "copy and share content (market). Finally, those penalties are mitigated by "
9215 "norms we all recognize—kids, for example, taping other kids' "
9216 "records. These uses of copyrighted material may well be infringement, but "
9217 "the norms of our society (before the Internet, at least) had no problem with "
9218 "this form of infringement."
9221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9222 #: freeculture.xml:6500
9224 "Enter the Internet, or, more precisely, technologies such as MP3s and p2p "
9225 "sharing. Now the constraint of architecture changes dramatically, as does "
9226 "the constraint of the market. And as both the market and architecture relax "
9227 "the regulation of copyright, norms pile on. The happy balance (for the "
9228 "warriors, at least) of life before the Internet becomes an effective state "
9229 "of anarchy after the Internet."
9233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9234 #: freeculture.xml:6508
9236 "Thus the sense of, and justification for, the warriors' response. "
9237 "Technology has changed, the warriors say, and the effect of this change, "
9238 "when ramified through the market and norms, is that a balance of protection "
9239 "for the copyright owners' rights has been lost. This is Iraq after the fall "
9240 "of Saddam, but this time no government is justifying the looting that "
9244 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9245 #: freeculture.xml:6518
9246 msgid "effective state of anarchy after the Internet."
9249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9250 #: freeculture.xml:6519
9251 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1381.png\"></graphic>"
9254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9255 #: freeculture.xml:6522
9257 "Neither this analysis nor the conclusions that follow are new to the "
9258 "warriors. Indeed, in a <quote>White Paper</quote> prepared by the Commerce "
9259 "Department (one heavily influenced by the copyright warriors) in 1995, this "
9260 "mix of regulatory modalities had already been identified and the strategy to "
9261 "respond already mapped. In response to the changes the Internet had "
9262 "effected, the White Paper argued (1) Congress should strengthen intellectual "
9263 "property law, (2) businesses should adopt innovative marketing techniques, "
9264 "(3) technologists should push to develop code to protect copyrighted "
9265 "material, and (4) educators should educate kids to better protect copyright."
9268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9269 #: freeculture.xml:6533
9270 msgid "steel industry"
9274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9275 #: freeculture.xml:6535
9277 "This mixed strategy is just what copyright needed—if it was to "
9278 "preserve the particular balance that existed before the change induced by "
9279 "the Internet. And it's just what we should expect the content industry to "
9280 "push for. It is as American as apple pie to consider the happy life you have "
9281 "as an entitlement, and to look to the law to protect it if something comes "
9282 "along to change that happy life. Homeowners living in a flood plain have no "
9283 "hesitation appealing to the government to rebuild (and rebuild again) when a "
9284 "flood (architecture) wipes away their property (law). Farmers have no "
9285 "hesitation appealing to the government to bail them out when a virus "
9286 "(architecture) devastates their crop. Unions have no hesitation appealing to "
9287 "the government to bail them out when imports (market) wipe out the "
9288 "U.S. steel industry."
9291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9292 #: freeculture.xml:6552
9294 "Thus, there's nothing wrong or surprising in the content industry's campaign "
9295 "to protect itself from the harmful consequences of a technological "
9296 "innovation. And I would be the last person to argue that the changing "
9297 "technology of the Internet has not had a profound effect on the content "
9298 "industry's way of doing business, or as John Seely Brown describes it, its "
9299 "<quote>architecture of revenue.</quote>"
9302 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9303 #: freeculture.xml:6559
9304 msgid "railroad industry"
9308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9309 #: freeculture.xml:6571
9311 "See Geoffrey Smith, <quote>Film vs. Digital: Can Kodak Build a "
9312 "Bridge?</quote> BusinessWeek online, 2 August 1999, available at <ulink "
9313 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #23</ulink>. For a more recent "
9314 "analysis of Kodak's place in the market, see Chana R. Schoenberger, "
9315 "<quote>Can Kodak Make Up for Lost Moments?</quote> Forbes.com, 6 October "
9316 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
9320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9321 #: freeculture.xml:6563
9323 "But just because a particular interest asks for government support, it "
9324 "doesn't follow that support should be granted. And just because technology "
9325 "has weakened a particular way of doing business, it doesn't follow that the "
9326 "government should intervene to support that old way of doing "
9327 "business. Kodak, for example, has lost perhaps as much as 20 percent of "
9328 "their traditional film market to the emerging technologies of digital "
9329 "cameras.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Does anyone believe the "
9330 "government should ban digital cameras just to support Kodak? Highways have "
9331 "weakened the freight business for railroads. Does anyone think we should ban "
9332 "trucks from roads <emphasis>for the purpose of</emphasis> protecting the "
9333 "railroads? Closer to the subject of this book, remote channel changers have "
9334 "weakened the <quote>stickiness</quote> of television advertising (if a "
9335 "boring commercial comes on the TV, the remote makes it easy to surf ), and "
9336 "it may well be that this change has weakened the television advertising "
9337 "market. But does anyone believe we should regulate remotes to reinforce "
9338 "commercial television? (Maybe by limiting them to function only once a "
9339 "second, or to switch to only ten channels within an hour?)"
9342 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
9343 #: freeculture.xml:6592 freeculture.xml:14913
9344 msgid "Brezhnev, Leonid"
9347 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9348 #: freeculture.xml:6593 freeculture.xml:13149
9353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9354 #: freeculture.xml:6605
9356 "Fred Warshofsky, <citetitle>The Patent Wars</citetitle> (New York: Wiley, "
9357 "1994), 170–71."
9360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9361 #: freeculture.xml:6595
9363 "The obvious answer to these obviously rhetorical questions is no. In a free "
9364 "society, with a free market, supported by free enterprise and free trade, "
9365 "the government's role is not to support one way of doing business against "
9366 "others. Its role is not to pick winners and protect them against loss. If "
9367 "the government did this generally, then we would never have any progress. As "
9368 "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates wrote in 1991, in a memo criticizing software "
9369 "patents, <quote>established companies have an interest in excluding future "
9370 "competitors.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And relative "
9371 "to a startup, established companies also have the means. (Think RCA and FM "
9372 "radio.) A world in which competitors with new ideas must fight not only the "
9373 "market but also the government is a world in which competitors with new "
9374 "ideas will not succeed. It is a world of stasis and increasingly "
9375 "concentrated stagnation. It is the Soviet Union under Brezhnev."
9378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9379 #: freeculture.xml:6616
9381 "Thus, while it is understandable for industries threatened with new "
9382 "technologies that change the way they do business to look to the government "
9383 "for protection, it is the special duty of policy makers to guarantee that "
9384 "that protection not become a deterrent to progress. It is the duty of policy "
9385 "makers, in other words, to assure that the changes they create, in response "
9386 "to the request of those hurt by changing technology, are changes that "
9387 "preserve the incentives and opportunities for innovation and change."
9390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9391 #: freeculture.xml:6626
9393 "In the context of laws regulating speech—which include, obviously, "
9394 "copyright law—that duty is even stronger. When the industry "
9395 "complaining about changing technologies is asking Congress to respond in a "
9396 "way that burdens speech and creativity, policy makers should be especially "
9397 "wary of the request. It is always a bad deal for the government to get into "
9398 "the business of regulating speech markets. The risks and dangers of that "
9399 "game are precisely why our framers created the First Amendment to our "
9400 "Constitution: <quote>Congress shall make no law … abridging the "
9401 "freedom of speech.</quote> So when Congress is being asked to pass laws that "
9402 "would <quote>abridge</quote> the freedom of speech, it should ask— "
9403 "carefully—whether such regulation is justified."
9407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9408 #: freeculture.xml:6640
9410 "My argument just now, however, has nothing to do with whether the changes "
9411 "that are being pushed by the copyright warriors are "
9412 "<quote>justified.</quote> My argument is about their effect. For before we "
9413 "get to the question of justification, a hard question that depends a great "
9414 "deal upon your values, we should first ask whether we understand the effect "
9415 "of the changes the content industry wants."
9418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9419 #: freeculture.xml:6649
9420 msgid "Here's the metaphor that will capture the argument to follow."
9423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9424 #: freeculture.xml:6651
9428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9429 #: freeculture.xml:6652
9430 msgid "Müller, Paul Hermann"
9433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9434 #: freeculture.xml:6654
9436 "In 1873, the chemical DDT was first synthesized. In 1948, Swiss chemist Paul "
9437 "Hermann Müller won the Nobel Prize for his work demonstrating the "
9438 "insecticidal properties of DDT. By the 1950s, the insecticide was widely "
9439 "used around the world to kill disease-carrying pests. It was also used to "
9440 "increase farm production."
9443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9444 #: freeculture.xml:6661
9446 "No one doubts that killing disease-carrying pests or increasing crop "
9447 "production is a good thing. No one doubts that the work of Müller was "
9448 "important and valuable and probably saved lives, possibly millions."
9451 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9452 #: freeculture.xml:6665
9453 msgid "Carson, Rachel"
9456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9457 #: freeculture.xml:6666
9458 msgid "Silent Sprint (Carson)"
9461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9462 #: freeculture.xml:6668
9464 "But in 1962, Rachel Carson published <citetitle>Silent Spring</citetitle>, "
9465 "which argued that DDT, whatever its primary benefits, was also having "
9466 "unintended environmental consequences. Birds were losing the ability to "
9467 "reproduce. Whole chains of the ecology were being destroyed."
9470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9471 #: freeculture.xml:6674
9473 "No one set out to destroy the environment. Paul Müller certainly did not aim "
9474 "to harm any birds. But the effort to solve one set of problems produced "
9475 "another set which, in the view of some, was far worse than the problems that "
9476 "were originally attacked. Or more accurately, the problems DDT caused were "
9477 "worse than the problems it solved, at least when considering the other, more "
9478 "environmentally friendly ways to solve the problems that DDT was meant to "
9482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9483 #: freeculture.xml:6682
9484 msgid "Boyle, James"
9488 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9489 #: freeculture.xml:6688
9491 "See, for example, James Boyle, <quote>A Politics of Intellectual Property: "
9492 "Environmentalism for the Net?</quote> <citetitle>Duke Law "
9493 "Journal</citetitle> 47 (1997): 87."
9497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9498 #: freeculture.xml:6684
9500 "It is to this image precisely that Duke University law professor James Boyle "
9501 "appeals when he argues that we need an <quote>environmentalism</quote> for "
9502 "culture.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His point, and the point I "
9503 "want to develop in the balance of this chapter, is not that the aims of "
9504 "copyright are flawed. Or that authors should not be paid for their work. Or "
9505 "that music should be given away <quote>for free.</quote> The point is that "
9506 "some of the ways in which we might protect authors will have unintended "
9507 "consequences for the cultural environment, much like DDT had for the natural "
9508 "environment. And just as criticism of DDT is not an endorsement of malaria "
9509 "or an attack on farmers, so, too, is criticism of one particular set of "
9510 "regulations protecting copyright not an endorsement of anarchy or an attack "
9511 "on authors. It is an environment of creativity that we seek, and we should "
9512 "be aware of our actions' effects on the environment."
9515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9516 #: freeculture.xml:6705
9518 "My argument, in the balance of this chapter, tries to map exactly this "
9519 "effect. No doubt the technology of the Internet has had a dramatic effect on "
9520 "the ability of copyright owners to protect their content. But there should "
9521 "also be little doubt that when you add together the changes in copyright law "
9522 "over time, plus the change in technology that the Internet is undergoing "
9523 "just now, the net effect of these changes will not be only that copyrighted "
9524 "work is effectively protected. Also, and generally missed, the net effect of "
9525 "this massive increase in protection will be devastating to the environment "
9529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9530 #: freeculture.xml:6716
9532 "In a line: To kill a gnat, we are spraying DDT with consequences for free "
9533 "culture that will be far more devastating than that this gnat will be lost."
9536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9537 #: freeculture.xml:6723
9541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9542 #: freeculture.xml:6725
9544 "America copied English copyright law. Actually, we copied and improved "
9545 "English copyright law. Our Constitution makes the purpose of <quote>creative "
9546 "property</quote> rights clear; its express limitations reinforce the English "
9547 "aim to avoid overly powerful publishers."
9550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9551 #: freeculture.xml:6731
9553 "The power to establish <quote>creative property</quote> rights is granted to "
9554 "Congress in a way that, for our Constitution, at least, is very odd. Article "
9555 "I, section 8, clause 8 of our Constitution states that:"
9559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9560 #: freeculture.xml:6736
9562 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, "
9563 "by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right "
9564 "to their respective Writings and Discoveries. We can call this the "
9565 "<quote>Progress Clause,</quote> for notice what this clause does not say. It "
9566 "does not say Congress has the power to grant <quote>creative property "
9567 "rights.</quote> It says that Congress has the power <emphasis>to promote "
9568 "progress</emphasis>. The grant of power is its purpose, and its purpose is a "
9569 "public one, not the purpose of enriching publishers, nor even primarily the "
9570 "purpose of rewarding authors."
9573 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9574 #: freeculture.xml:6749
9576 "The Progress Clause expressly limits the term of copyrights. As we saw in "
9577 "chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"founders\"/>, the "
9578 "English limited the term of copyright so as to assure that a few would not "
9579 "exercise disproportionate control over culture by exercising "
9580 "disproportionate control over publishing. We can assume the framers followed "
9581 "the English for a similar purpose. Indeed, unlike the English, the framers "
9582 "reinforced that objective, by requiring that copyrights extend <quote>to "
9583 "Authors</quote> only."
9586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9587 #: freeculture.xml:6759
9589 "The design of the Progress Clause reflects something about the "
9590 "Constitution's design in general. To avoid a problem, the framers built "
9591 "structure. To prevent the concentrated power of publishers, they built a "
9592 "structure that kept copyrights away from publishers and kept them short. To "
9593 "prevent the concentrated power of a church, they banned the federal "
9594 "government from establishing a church. To prevent concentrating power in the "
9595 "federal government, they built structures to reinforce the power of the "
9596 "states—including the Senate, whose members were at the time selected "
9597 "by the states, and an electoral college, also selected by the states, to "
9598 "select the president. In each case, a <emphasis>structure</emphasis> built "
9599 "checks and balances into the constitutional frame, structured to prevent "
9600 "otherwise inevitable concentrations of power."
9603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9604 #: freeculture.xml:6774
9606 "I doubt the framers would recognize the regulation we call "
9607 "<quote>copyright</quote> today. The scope of that regulation is far beyond "
9608 "anything they ever considered. To begin to understand what they did, we need "
9609 "to put our <quote>copyright</quote> in context: We need to see how it has "
9610 "changed in the 210 years since they first struck its design."
9614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9615 #: freeculture.xml:6781
9617 "Some of these changes come from the law: some in light of changes in "
9618 "technology, and some in light of changes in technology given a particular "
9619 "concentration of market power. In terms of our model, we started here:"
9622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9623 #: freeculture.xml:6792
9624 msgid "We will end here:"
9627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9628 #: freeculture.xml:6795
9629 msgid "<quote>Copyright</quote> today."
9632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9633 #: freeculture.xml:6796
9634 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1442.png\"></graphic>"
9638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9639 #: freeculture.xml:6799
9640 msgid "Let me explain how."
9643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9644 #: freeculture.xml:6804
9645 msgid "Law: Duration"
9648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9649 #: freeculture.xml:6820
9650 msgid "Crosskey, William W."
9653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9654 #: freeculture.xml:6814
9656 "William W. Crosskey, <citetitle>Politics and the Constitution in the History "
9657 "of the United States</citetitle> (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953), "
9658 "vol. 1, 485–86: <quote>extinguish[ing], by plain implication of `the "
9659 "supreme Law of the Land,' <emphasis>the perpetual rights which authors had, "
9660 "or were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law</emphasis></quote> "
9661 "(emphasis added). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9665 #: freeculture.xml:6806
9667 "When the first Congress enacted laws to protect creative property, it faced "
9668 "the same uncertainty about the status of creative property that the English "
9669 "had confronted in 1774. Many states had passed laws protecting creative "
9670 "property, and some believed that these laws simply supplemented common law "
9671 "rights that already protected creative authorship.<placeholder "
9672 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This meant that there was no guaranteed public "
9673 "domain in the United States in 1790. If copyrights were protected by the "
9674 "common law, then there was no simple way to know whether a work published in "
9675 "the United States was controlled or free. Just as in England, this lingering "
9676 "uncertainty would make it hard for publishers to rely upon a public domain "
9677 "to reprint and distribute works."
9680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9681 #: freeculture.xml:6830
9683 "That uncertainty ended after Congress passed legislation granting "
9684 "copyrights. Because federal law overrides any contrary state law, federal "
9685 "protections for copyrighted works displaced any state law protections. Just "
9686 "as in England the Statute of Anne eventually meant that the copyrights for "
9687 "all English works expired, a federal statute meant that any state copyrights "
9691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9692 #: freeculture.xml:6838
9694 "In 1790, Congress enacted the first copyright law. It created a federal "
9695 "copyright and secured that copyright for fourteen years. If the author was "
9696 "alive at the end of that fourteen years, then he could opt to renew the "
9697 "copyright for another fourteen years. If he did not renew the copyright, his "
9698 "work passed into the public domain."
9702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9703 #: freeculture.xml:6853
9705 "Although 13,000 titles were published in the United States from 1790 to "
9706 "1799, only 556 copyright registrations were filed; John Tebbel, <citetitle>A "
9707 "History of Book Publishing in the United States</citetitle>, vol. 1, "
9708 "<citetitle>The Creation of an Industry, 1630–1865</citetitle> (New "
9709 "York: Bowker, 1972), 141. Of the 21,000 imprints recorded before 1790, only "
9710 "twelve were copyrighted under the 1790 act; William J. Maher, "
9711 "<citetitle>Copyright Term, Retrospective Extension and the Copyright Law of "
9712 "1790 in Historical Context</citetitle>, 7–10 (2002), available at "
9713 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #25</ulink>. Thus, the "
9714 "overwhelming majority of works fell immediately into the public domain. Even "
9715 "those works that were copyrighted fell into the public domain quickly, "
9716 "because the term of copyright was short. The initial term of copyright was "
9717 "fourteen years, with the option of renewal for an additional fourteen "
9718 "years. Copyright Act of May 31, 1790, §1, 1 stat. 124."
9721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9722 #: freeculture.xml:6845
9724 "While there were many works created in the United States in the first ten "
9725 "years of the Republic, only 5 percent of the works were actually registered "
9726 "under the federal copyright regime. Of all the work created in the United "
9727 "States both before 1790 and from 1790 through 1800, 95 percent immediately "
9728 "passed into the public domain; the balance would pass into the pubic domain "
9729 "within twenty-eight years at most, and more likely within fourteen "
9730 "years.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9735 #: freeculture.xml:6869
9737 "This system of renewal was a crucial part of the American system of "
9738 "copyright. It assured that the maximum terms of copyright would be granted "
9739 "only for works where they were wanted. After the initial term of fourteen "
9740 "years, if it wasn't worth it to an author to renew his copyright, then it "
9741 "wasn't worth it to society to insist on the copyright, either."
9745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9746 #: freeculture.xml:6884
9748 "Few copyright holders ever chose to renew their copyrights. For instance, of "
9749 "the 25,006 copyrights registered in 1883, only 894 were renewed in 1910. For "
9750 "a year-by-year analysis of copyright renewal rates, see Barbara A. Ringer, "
9751 "<quote>Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Studies on "
9752 "Copyright</citetitle>, vol. 1 (New York: Practicing Law Institute, 1963), "
9753 "618. For a more recent and comprehensive analysis, see William M. Landes and "
9754 "Richard A. Posner, <quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> "
9755 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 471, "
9756 "498–501, and accompanying figures."
9759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9760 #: freeculture.xml:6878
9762 "Fourteen years may not seem long to us, but for the vast majority of "
9763 "copyright owners at that time, it was long enough: Only a small minority of "
9764 "them renewed their copyright after fourteen years; the balance allowed their "
9765 "work to pass into the public domain.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9771 #: freeculture.xml:6901
9772 msgid "See Ringer, ch. 9, n. 2."
9775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9776 #: freeculture.xml:6897
9778 "Even today, this structure would make sense. Most creative work has an "
9779 "actual commercial life of just a couple of years. Most books fall out of "
9780 "print after one year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When that "
9781 "happens, the used books are traded free of copyright regulation. Thus the "
9782 "books are no longer <emphasis>effectively</emphasis> controlled by "
9783 "copyright. The only practical commercial use of the books at that time is to "
9784 "sell the books as used books; that use—because it does not involve "
9785 "publication—is effectively free."
9788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9789 #: freeculture.xml:6909
9791 "In the first hundred years of the Republic, the term of copyright was "
9792 "changed once. In 1831, the term was increased from a maximum of 28 years to "
9793 "a maximum of 42 by increasing the initial term of copyright from 14 years to "
9794 "28 years. In the next fifty years of the Republic, the term increased once "
9795 "again. In 1909, Congress extended the renewal term of 14 years to 28 years, "
9796 "setting a maximum term of 56 years."
9799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9800 #: freeculture.xml:6917
9802 "Then, beginning in 1962, Congress started a practice that has defined "
9803 "copyright law since. Eleven times in the last forty years, Congress has "
9804 "extended the terms of existing copyrights; twice in those forty years, "
9805 "Congress extended the term of future copyrights. Initially, the extensions "
9806 "of existing copyrights were short, a mere one to two years. In 1976, "
9807 "Congress extended all existing copyrights by nineteen years. And in 1998, "
9808 "in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Congress extended the term "
9809 "of existing and future copyrights by twenty years."
9813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9814 #: freeculture.xml:6927
9816 "The effect of these extensions is simply to toll, or delay, the passing of "
9817 "works into the public domain. This latest extension means that the public "
9818 "domain will have been tolled for thirty-nine out of fifty-five years, or 70 "
9819 "percent of the time since 1962. Thus, in the twenty years after the Sonny "
9820 "Bono Act, while one million patents will pass into the public domain, zero "
9821 "copyrights will pass into the public domain by virtue of the expiration of a "
9825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9826 #: freeculture.xml:6938
9828 "The effect of these extensions has been exacerbated by another, "
9829 "little-noticed change in the copyright law. Remember I said that the framers "
9830 "established a two-part copyright regime, requiring a copyright owner to "
9831 "renew his copyright after an initial term. The requirement of renewal meant "
9832 "that works that no longer needed copyright protection would pass more "
9833 "quickly into the public domain. The works remaining under protection would "
9834 "be those that had some continuing commercial value."
9837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9838 #: freeculture.xml:6948
9840 "The United States abandoned this sensible system in 1976. For all works "
9841 "created after 1978, there was only one copyright term—the maximum "
9842 "term. For <quote>natural</quote> authors, that term was life plus fifty "
9843 "years. For corporations, the term was seventy-five years. Then, in 1992, "
9844 "Congress abandoned the renewal requirement for all works created before "
9845 "1978. All works still under copyright would be accorded the maximum term "
9846 "then available. After the Sonny Bono Act, that term was ninety-five years."
9849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9850 #: freeculture.xml:6958
9852 "This change meant that American law no longer had an automatic way to assure "
9853 "that works that were no longer exploited passed into the public domain. And "
9854 "indeed, after these changes, it is unclear whether it is even possible to "
9855 "put works into the public domain. The public domain is orphaned by these "
9856 "changes in copyright law. Despite the requirement that terms be "
9857 "<quote>limited,</quote> we have no evidence that anything will limit them."
9861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9862 #: freeculture.xml:6975
9864 "These statistics are understated. Between the years 1910 and 1962 (the first "
9865 "year the renewal term was extended), the average term was never more than "
9866 "thirty-two years, and averaged thirty years. See Landes and Posner, "
9867 "<quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> loc. cit."
9870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9871 #: freeculture.xml:6967
9873 "The effect of these changes on the average duration of copyright is "
9874 "dramatic. In 1973, more than 85 percent of copyright owners failed to renew "
9875 "their copyright. That meant that the average term of copyright in 1973 was "
9876 "just 32.2 years. Because of the elimination of the renewal requirement, the "
9877 "average term of copyright is now the maximum term. In thirty years, then, "
9878 "the average term has tripled, from 32.2 years to 95 years.<placeholder "
9879 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9883 #: freeculture.xml:6984
9887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9888 #: freeculture.xml:6986
9890 "The <quote>scope</quote> of a copyright is the range of rights granted by "
9891 "the law. The scope of American copyright has changed dramatically. Those "
9892 "changes are not necessarily bad. But we should understand the extent of the "
9893 "changes if we're to keep this debate in context."
9896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9897 #: freeculture.xml:6992
9899 "In 1790, that scope was very narrow. Copyright covered only <quote>maps, "
9900 "charts, and books.</quote> That means it didn't cover, for example, music or "
9901 "architecture. More significantly, the right granted by a copyright gave the "
9902 "author the exclusive right to <quote>publish</quote> copyrighted works. That "
9903 "means someone else violated the copyright only if he republished the work "
9904 "without the copyright owner's permission. Finally, the right granted by a "
9905 "copyright was an exclusive right to that particular book. The right did not "
9906 "extend to what lawyers call <quote>derivative works.</quote> It would not, "
9907 "therefore, interfere with the right of someone other than the author to "
9908 "translate a copyrighted book, or to adapt the story to a different form "
9909 "(such as a drama based on a published book)."
9912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9913 #: freeculture.xml:7005
9915 "This, too, has changed dramatically. While the contours of copyright today "
9916 "are extremely hard to describe simply, in general terms, the right covers "
9917 "practically any creative work that is reduced to a tangible form. It covers "
9918 "music as well as architecture, drama as well as computer programs. It gives "
9919 "the copyright owner of that creative work not only the exclusive right to "
9920 "<quote>publish</quote> the work, but also the exclusive right of control "
9921 "over any <quote>copies</quote> of that work. And most significant for our "
9922 "purposes here, the right gives the copyright owner control over not only his "
9923 "or her particular work, but also any <quote>derivative work</quote> that "
9924 "might grow out of the original work. In this way, the right covers more "
9925 "creative work, protects the creative work more broadly, and protects works "
9926 "that are based in a significant way on the initial creative work."
9930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9931 #: freeculture.xml:7020
9933 "At the same time that the scope of copyright has expanded, procedural "
9934 "limitations on the right have been relaxed. I've already described the "
9935 "complete removal of the renewal requirement in 1992. In addition to the "
9936 "renewal requirement, for most of the history of American copyright law, "
9937 "there was a requirement that a work be registered before it could receive "
9938 "the protection of a copyright. There was also a requirement that any "
9939 "copyrighted work be marked either with that famous © or the word "
9940 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis>. And for most of the history of American "
9941 "copyright law, there was a requirement that works be deposited with the "
9942 "government before a copyright could be secured."
9945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9946 #: freeculture.xml:7034
9948 "The reason for the registration requirement was the sensible understanding "
9949 "that for most works, no copyright was required. Again, in the first ten "
9950 "years of the Republic, 95 percent of works eligible for copyright were never "
9951 "copyrighted. Thus, the rule reflected the norm: Most works apparently didn't "
9952 "need copyright, so registration narrowed the regulation of the law to the "
9953 "few that did. The same reasoning justified the requirement that a work be "
9954 "marked as copyrighted—that way it was easy to know whether a copyright "
9955 "was being claimed. The requirement that works be deposited was to assure "
9956 "that after the copyright expired, there would be a copy of the work "
9957 "somewhere so that it could be copied by others without locating the original "
9961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9962 #: freeculture.xml:7048
9964 "All of these <quote>formalities</quote> were abolished in the American "
9965 "system when we decided to follow European copyright law. There is no "
9966 "requirement that you register a work to get a copyright; the copyright now "
9967 "is automatic; the copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with a "
9968 "©; and the copyright exists whether or not you actually make a copy "
9969 "available for others to copy."
9972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9973 #: freeculture.xml:7056
9974 msgid "Consider a practical example to understand the scope of these differences."
9978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9979 #: freeculture.xml:7067
9981 "See Thomas Bender and David Sampliner, <quote>Poets, Pirates, and the "
9982 "Creation of American Literature,</quote> 29 <citetitle>New York University "
9983 "Journal of International Law and Politics</citetitle> 255 (1997), and James "
9984 "Gilraeth, ed., Federal Copyright Records, 1790–1800 (U.S. G.P.O., "
9988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9989 #: freeculture.xml:7060
9991 "If, in 1790, you wrote a book and you were one of the 5 percent who actually "
9992 "copyrighted that book, then the copyright law protected you against another "
9993 "publisher's taking your book and republishing it without your "
9994 "permission. The aim of the act was to regulate publishers so as to prevent "
9995 "that kind of unfair competition. In 1790, there were 174 publishers in the "
9996 "United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Copyright Act "
9997 "was thus a tiny regulation of a tiny proportion of a tiny part of the "
9998 "creative market in the United States—publishers."
10002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10003 #: freeculture.xml:7079
10005 "The act left other creators totally unregulated. If I copied your poem by "
10006 "hand, over and over again, as a way to learn it by heart, my act was totally "
10007 "unregulated by the 1790 act. If I took your novel and made a play based upon "
10008 "it, or if I translated it or abridged it, none of those activities were "
10009 "regulated by the original copyright act. These creative activities remained "
10010 "free, while the activities of publishers were restrained."
10013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10014 #: freeculture.xml:7088
10016 "Today the story is very different: If you write a book, your book is "
10017 "automatically protected. Indeed, not just your book. Every e-mail, every "
10018 "note to your spouse, every doodle, <emphasis>every</emphasis> creative act "
10019 "that's reduced to a tangible form—all of this is automatically "
10020 "copyrighted. There is no need to register or mark your work. The protection "
10021 "follows the creation, not the steps you take to protect it."
10024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10025 #: freeculture.xml:7097
10027 "That protection gives you the right (subject to a narrow range of fair use "
10028 "exceptions) to control how others copy the work, whether they copy it to "
10029 "republish it or to share an excerpt."
10032 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10033 #: freeculture.xml:7102
10035 "That much is the obvious part. Any system of copyright would control "
10036 "competing publishing. But there's a second part to the copyright of today "
10037 "that is not at all obvious. This is the protection of <quote>derivative "
10038 "rights.</quote> If you write a book, no one can make a movie out of your "
10039 "book without permission. No one can translate it without permission. "
10040 "CliffsNotes can't make an abridgment unless permission is granted. All of "
10041 "these derivative uses of your original work are controlled by the copyright "
10042 "holder. The copyright, in other words, is now not just an exclusive right to "
10043 "your writings, but an exclusive right to your writings and a large "
10044 "proportion of the writings inspired by them."
10047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10048 #: freeculture.xml:7116
10050 "It is this derivative right that would seem most bizarre to our framers, "
10051 "though it has become second nature to us. Initially, this expansion was "
10052 "created to deal with obvious evasions of a narrower copyright. If I write a "
10053 "book, can you change one word and then claim a copyright in a new and "
10054 "different book? Obviously that would make a joke of the copyright, so the "
10055 "law was properly expanded to include those slight modifications as well as "
10056 "the verbatim original work."
10059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10060 #: freeculture.xml:7138
10062 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>The Copyright Cage,</quote> <citetitle>Legal "
10063 "Affairs</citetitle>, July/August 2003, available at <ulink "
10064 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #26</ulink>. <placeholder "
10065 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10069 #: freeculture.xml:7128
10071 "In preventing that joke, the law created an astonishing power within a free "
10072 "culture—at least, it's astonishing when you understand that the law "
10073 "applies not just to the commercial publisher but to anyone with a "
10074 "computer. I understand the wrong in duplicating and selling someone else's "
10075 "work. But whatever <emphasis>that</emphasis> wrong is, transforming someone "
10076 "else's work is a different wrong. Some view transformation as no wrong at "
10077 "all—they believe that our law, as the framers penned it, should not "
10078 "protect derivative rights at all.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
10079 "Whether or not you go that far, it seems plain that whatever wrong is "
10080 "involved is fundamentally different from the wrong of direct piracy."
10083 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10084 #: freeculture.xml:7160
10085 msgid "Rubenfeld, Jeb"
10088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10089 #: freeculture.xml:7153
10091 "Professor Rubenfeld has presented a powerful constitutional argument about "
10092 "the difference that copyright law should draw (from the perspective of the "
10093 "First Amendment) between mere <quote>copies</quote> and derivative "
10094 "works. See Jed Rubenfeld, <quote>The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright's "
10095 "Constitutionality,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 112 "
10096 "(2002): 1–60 (see especially pp. 53–59). <placeholder "
10097 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10101 #: freeculture.xml:7148
10103 "Yet copyright law treats these two different wrongs in the same way. I can "
10104 "go to court and get an injunction against your pirating my book. I can go to "
10105 "court and get an injunction against your transformative use of my "
10106 "book.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These two different uses of "
10107 "my creative work are treated the same."
10110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10111 #: freeculture.xml:7167
10113 "This again may seem right to you. If I wrote a book, then why should you be "
10114 "able to write a movie that takes my story and makes money from it without "
10115 "paying me or crediting me? Or if Disney creates a creature called "
10116 "<quote>Mickey Mouse,</quote> why should you be able to make Mickey Mouse "
10117 "toys and be the one to trade on the value that Disney originally created?"
10120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10121 #: freeculture.xml:7175
10123 "These are good arguments, and, in general, my point is not that the "
10124 "derivative right is unjustified. My aim just now is much narrower: simply to "
10125 "make clear that this expansion is a significant change from the rights "
10126 "originally granted."
10129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10130 #: freeculture.xml:7182
10131 msgid "Law and Architecture: Reach"
10135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10136 #: freeculture.xml:7189
10138 "This is a simplification of the law, but not much of one. The law certainly "
10139 "regulates more than <quote>copies</quote>—a public performance of a "
10140 "copyrighted song, for example, is regulated even though performance per se "
10141 "doesn't make a copy; 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section "
10142 "106(4). And it certainly sometimes doesn't regulate a <quote>copy</quote>; "
10143 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 112(a). But the "
10144 "presumption under the existing law (which regulates <quote>copies;</quote> "
10145 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 102) is that if there "
10146 "is a copy, there is a right."
10149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10150 #: freeculture.xml:7184
10152 "Whereas originally the law regulated only publishers, the change in "
10153 "copyright's scope means that the law today regulates publishers, users, and "
10154 "authors. It regulates them because all three are capable of making copies, "
10155 "and the core of the regulation of copyright law is copies.<placeholder "
10156 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10161 #: freeculture.xml:7201
10163 "<quote>Copies.</quote> That certainly sounds like the obvious thing for "
10164 "<emphasis>copy</emphasis>right law to regulate. But as with Jack Valenti's "
10165 "argument at the start of this chapter, that <quote>creative property</quote> "
10166 "deserves the <quote>same rights</quote> as all other property, it is the "
10167 "<emphasis>obvious</emphasis> that we need to be most careful about. For "
10168 "while it may be obvious that in the world before the Internet, copies were "
10169 "the obvious trigger for copyright law, upon reflection, it should be obvious "
10170 "that in the world with the Internet, copies should <emphasis>not</emphasis> "
10171 "be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not "
10172 "<emphasis>always</emphasis> be the trigger for copyright law."
10176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10177 #: freeculture.xml:7219
10179 "Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we "
10180 "should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for its "
10181 "extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of "
10182 "arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology."
10185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10186 #: freeculture.xml:7214
10188 "This is perhaps the central claim of this book, so let me take this very "
10189 "slowly so that the point is not easily missed. My claim is that the Internet "
10190 "should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of "
10191 "copyright automatically applies,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
10192 "because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never "
10193 "contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright "
10197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10198 #: freeculture.xml:7230
10200 "We can see this point abstractly by beginning with this largely empty "
10204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10205 #: freeculture.xml:7234
10206 msgid "All potential uses of a book."
10209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10210 #: freeculture.xml:7235
10211 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1521.png\"></graphic>"
10214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10215 #: freeculture.xml:7237
10216 msgid "three types of uses of"
10220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10221 #: freeculture.xml:7240
10223 "Think about a book in real space, and imagine this circle to represent all "
10224 "its potential <emphasis>uses</emphasis>. Most of these uses are unregulated "
10225 "by copyright law, because the uses don't create a copy. If you read a book, "
10226 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you give someone the book, "
10227 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you resell a book, that act "
10228 "is not regulated (copyright law expressly states that after the first sale "
10229 "of a book, the copyright owner can impose no further conditions on the "
10230 "disposition of the book). If you sleep on the book or use it to hold up a "
10231 "lamp or let your puppy chew it up, those acts are not regulated by copyright "
10232 "law, because those acts do not make a copy."
10235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10236 #: freeculture.xml:7253
10237 msgid "Examples of unregulated uses of a book."
10240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10241 #: freeculture.xml:7254
10242 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1531.png\"></graphic>"
10245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10246 #: freeculture.xml:7257
10248 "Obviously, however, some uses of a copyrighted book are regulated by "
10249 "copyright law. Republishing the book, for example, makes a copy. It is "
10250 "therefore regulated by copyright law. Indeed, this particular use stands at "
10251 "the core of this circle of possible uses of a copyrighted work. It is the "
10252 "paradigmatic use properly regulated by copyright regulation (see first "
10253 "diagram on next page)."
10256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10257 #: freeculture.xml:7265
10259 "Finally, there is a tiny sliver of otherwise regulated copying uses that "
10260 "remain unregulated because the law considers these <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
10263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10264 #: freeculture.xml:7270
10266 "Republishing stands at the core of this circle of possible uses of a "
10267 "copyrighted work."
10270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10271 #: freeculture.xml:7271
10272 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1541.png\"></graphic>"
10275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10276 #: freeculture.xml:7274
10278 "These are uses that themselves involve copying, but which the law treats as "
10279 "unregulated because public policy demands that they remain unregulated. You "
10280 "are free to quote from this book, even in a review that is quite negative, "
10281 "without my permission, even though that quoting makes a copy. That copy "
10282 "would ordinarily give the copyright owner the exclusive right to say whether "
10283 "the copy is allowed or not, but the law denies the owner any exclusive right "
10284 "over such <quote>fair uses</quote> for public policy (and possibly First "
10285 "Amendment) reasons."
10288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10289 #: freeculture.xml:7284
10290 msgid "Unregulated copying considered <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
10293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10294 #: freeculture.xml:7285
10295 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1542.png\"></graphic>"
10298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10299 #: freeculture.xml:7289
10301 "Uses that before were presumptively unregulated are now presumptively "
10305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10306 #: freeculture.xml:7290
10307 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1551.png\"></graphic>"
10311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10312 #: freeculture.xml:7294
10314 "In real space, then, the possible uses of a book are divided into three "
10315 "sorts: (1) unregulated uses, (2) regulated uses, and (3) regulated uses that "
10316 "are nonetheless deemed <quote>fair</quote> regardless of the copyright "
10320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10321 #: freeculture.xml:7299 freeculture.xml:7333 freeculture.xml:7542
10322 msgid "on Internet"
10326 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10327 #: freeculture.xml:7304
10329 "I don't mean <quote>nature</quote> in the sense that it couldn't be "
10330 "different, but rather that its present instantiation entails a copy. Optical "
10331 "networks need not make copies of content they transmit, and a digital "
10332 "network could be designed to delete anything it copies so that the same "
10333 "number of copies remain."
10336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10337 #: freeculture.xml:7301
10339 "Enter the Internet—a distributed, digital network where every use of a "
10340 "copyrighted work produces a copy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
10341 "And because of this single, arbitrary feature of the design of a digital "
10342 "network, the scope of category 1 changes dramatically. Uses that before were "
10343 "presumptively unregulated are now presumptively regulated. No longer is "
10344 "there a set of presumptively unregulated uses that define a freedom "
10345 "associated with a copyrighted work. Instead, each use is now subject to the "
10346 "copyright, because each use also makes a copy—category 1 gets sucked "
10347 "into category 2. And those who would defend the unregulated uses of "
10348 "copyrighted work must look exclusively to category 3, fair uses, to bear the "
10349 "burden of this shift."
10353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10354 #: freeculture.xml:7322
10356 "So let's be very specific to make this general point clear. Before the "
10357 "Internet, if you purchased a book and read it ten times, there would be no "
10358 "plausible <emphasis>copyright</emphasis>-related argument that the copyright "
10359 "owner could make to control that use of her book. Copyright law would have "
10360 "nothing to say about whether you read the book once, ten times, or every "
10361 "night before you went to bed. None of those instances of "
10362 "use—reading— could be regulated by copyright law because none of "
10363 "those uses produced a copy."
10366 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10367 #: freeculture.xml:7335
10369 "But the same book as an e-book is effectively governed by a different set of "
10370 "rules. Now if the copyright owner says you may read the book only once or "
10371 "only once a month, then <emphasis>copyright law</emphasis> would aid the "
10372 "copyright owner in exercising this degree of control, because of the "
10373 "accidental feature of copyright law that triggers its application upon there "
10374 "being a copy. Now if you read the book ten times and the license says you "
10375 "may read it only five times, then whenever you read the book (or any portion "
10376 "of it) beyond the fifth time, you are making a copy of the book contrary to "
10377 "the copyright owner's wish."
10380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10381 #: freeculture.xml:7347
10383 "There are some people who think this makes perfect sense. My aim just now is "
10384 "not to argue about whether it makes sense or not. My aim is only to make "
10385 "clear the change. Once you see this point, a few other points also become "
10389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10390 #: freeculture.xml:7353
10392 "First, making category 1 disappear is not anything any policy maker ever "
10393 "intended. Congress did not think through the collapse of the presumptively "
10394 "unregulated uses of copyrighted works. There is no evidence at all that "
10395 "policy makers had this idea in mind when they allowed our policy here to "
10396 "shift. Unregulated uses were an important part of free culture before the "
10400 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10401 #: freeculture.xml:7361
10403 "Second, this shift is especially troubling in the context of transformative "
10404 "uses of creative content. Again, we can all understand the wrong in "
10405 "commercial piracy. But the law now purports to regulate "
10406 "<emphasis>any</emphasis> transformation you make of creative work using a "
10407 "machine. <quote>Copy and paste</quote> and <quote>cut and paste</quote> "
10408 "become crimes. Tinkering with a story and releasing it to others exposes the "
10409 "tinkerer to at least a requirement of justification. However troubling the "
10410 "expansion with respect to copying a particular work, it is extraordinarily "
10411 "troubling with respect to transformative uses of creative work."
10415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10416 #: freeculture.xml:7373
10418 "Third, this shift from category 1 to category 2 puts an extraordinary burden "
10419 "on category 3 (<quote>fair use</quote>) that fair use never before had to "
10420 "bear. If a copyright owner now tried to control how many times I could read "
10421 "a book on-line, the natural response would be to argue that this is a "
10422 "violation of my fair use rights. But there has never been any litigation "
10423 "about whether I have a fair use right to read, because before the Internet, "
10424 "reading did not trigger the application of copyright law and hence the need "
10425 "for a fair use defense. The right to read was effectively protected before "
10426 "because reading was not regulated."
10429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10430 #: freeculture.xml:7387
10432 "This point about fair use is totally ignored, even by advocates for free "
10433 "culture. We have been cornered into arguing that our rights depend upon fair "
10434 "use—never even addressing the earlier question about the expansion in "
10435 "effective regulation. A thin protection grounded in fair use makes sense "
10436 "when the vast majority of uses are <emphasis>unregulated</emphasis>. But "
10437 "when everything becomes presumptively regulated, then the protections of "
10438 "fair use are not enough."
10441 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10442 #: freeculture.xml:7398
10444 "The case of Video Pipeline is a good example. Video Pipeline was in the "
10445 "business of making <quote>trailer</quote> advertisements for movies "
10446 "available to video stores. The video stores displayed the trailers as a way "
10447 "to sell videos. Video Pipeline got the trailers from the film distributors, "
10448 "put the trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores."
10451 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
10452 #: freeculture.xml:7404 freeculture.xml:7464 freeculture.xml:13500
10456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10457 #: freeculture.xml:7406
10459 "The company did this for about fifteen years. Then, in 1997, it began to "
10460 "think about the Internet as another way to distribute these previews. The "
10461 "idea was to expand their <quote>selling by sampling</quote> technique by "
10462 "giving on-line stores the same ability to enable <quote>browsing.</quote> "
10463 "Just as in a bookstore you can read a few pages of a book before you buy the "
10464 "book, so, too, you would be able to sample a bit from the movie on-line "
10465 "before you bought it."
10469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10470 #: freeculture.xml:7415
10472 "In 1998, Video Pipeline informed Disney and other film distributors that it "
10473 "intended to distribute the trailers through the Internet (rather than "
10474 "sending the tapes) to distributors of their videos. Two years later, Disney "
10475 "told Video Pipeline to stop. The owner of Video Pipeline asked Disney to "
10476 "talk about the matter—he had built a business on distributing this "
10477 "content as a way to help sell Disney films; he had customers who depended "
10478 "upon his delivering this content. Disney would agree to talk only if Video "
10479 "Pipeline stopped the distribution immediately. Video Pipeline thought it "
10480 "was within their <quote>fair use</quote> rights to distribute the clips as "
10481 "they had. So they filed a lawsuit to ask the court to declare that these "
10482 "rights were in fact their rights."
10485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10486 #: freeculture.xml:7430
10488 "Disney countersued—for $100 million in damages. Those damages were "
10489 "predicated upon a claim that Video Pipeline had <quote>willfully "
10490 "infringed</quote> on Disney's copyright. When a court makes a finding of "
10491 "willful infringement, it can award damages not on the basis of the actual "
10492 "harm to the copyright owner, but on the basis of an amount set in the "
10493 "statute. Because Video Pipeline had distributed seven hundred clips of "
10494 "Disney movies to enable video stores to sell copies of those movies, Disney "
10495 "was now suing Video Pipeline for $100 million."
10498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10499 #: freeculture.xml:7440
10501 "Disney has the right to control its property, of course. But the video "
10502 "stores that were selling Disney's films also had some sort of right to be "
10503 "able to sell the films that they had bought from Disney. Disney's claim in "
10504 "court was that the stores were allowed to sell the films and they were "
10505 "permitted to list the titles of the films they were selling, but they were "
10506 "not allowed to show clips of the films as a way of selling them without "
10507 "Disney's permission."
10510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10511 #: freeculture.xml:7450
10513 "Now, you might think this is a close case, and I think the courts would "
10514 "consider it a close case. My point here is to map the change that gives "
10515 "Disney this power. Before the Internet, Disney couldn't really control how "
10516 "people got access to their content. Once a video was in the marketplace, the "
10517 "<quote>first-sale doctrine</quote> would free the seller to use the video as "
10518 "he wished, including showing portions of it in order to engender sales of "
10519 "the entire movie video. But with the Internet, it becomes possible for "
10520 "Disney to centralize control over access to this content. Because each use "
10521 "of the Internet produces a copy, use on the Internet becomes subject to the "
10522 "copyright owner's control. The technology expands the scope of effective "
10523 "control, because the technology builds a copy into every transaction."
10526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10527 #: freeculture.xml:7463
10528 msgid "Barnes & Noble"
10532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10533 #: freeculture.xml:7467
10535 "No doubt, a potential is not yet an abuse, and so the potential for control "
10536 "is not yet the abuse of control. Barnes & Noble has the right to say you "
10537 "can't touch a book in their store; property law gives them that right. But "
10538 "the market effectively protects against that abuse. If Barnes & Noble "
10539 "banned browsing, then consumers would choose other bookstores. Competition "
10540 "protects against the extremes. And it may well be (my argument so far does "
10541 "not even question this) that competition would prevent any similar danger "
10542 "when it comes to copyright. Sure, publishers exercising the rights that "
10543 "authors have assigned to them might try to regulate how many times you read "
10544 "a book, or try to stop you from sharing the book with anyone. But in a "
10545 "competitive market such as the book market, the dangers of this happening "
10546 "are quite slight."
10549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10550 #: freeculture.xml:7482
10552 "Again, my aim so far is simply to map the changes that this changed "
10553 "architecture enables. Enabling technology to enforce the control of "
10554 "copyright means that the control of copyright is no longer defined by "
10555 "balanced policy. The control of copyright is simply what private owners "
10556 "choose. In some contexts, at least, that fact is harmless. But in some "
10557 "contexts it is a recipe for disaster."
10560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10561 #: freeculture.xml:7491
10562 msgid "Architecture and Law: Force"
10565 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10566 #: freeculture.xml:7493
10568 "The disappearance of unregulated uses would be change enough, but a second "
10569 "important change brought about by the Internet magnifies its "
10570 "significance. This second change does not affect the reach of copyright "
10571 "regulation; it affects how such regulation is enforced."
10574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10575 #: freeculture.xml:7499
10577 "In the world before digital technology, it was generally the law that "
10578 "controlled whether and how someone was regulated by copyright law. The law, "
10579 "meaning a court, meaning a judge: In the end, it was a human, trained in the "
10580 "tradition of the law and cognizant of the balances that tradition embraced, "
10581 "who said whether and how the law would restrict your freedom."
10584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10585 #: freeculture.xml:7506
10589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10590 #: freeculture.xml:7507 freeculture.xml:7676
10591 msgid "Marx Brothers"
10595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10596 #: freeculture.xml:7518
10598 "See David Lange, <quote>Recognizing the Public Domain,</quote> "
10599 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 44 (1981): "
10603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10604 #: freeculture.xml:7510
10606 "There's a famous story about a battle between the Marx Brothers and Warner "
10607 "Brothers. The Marxes intended to make a parody of "
10608 "<citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>. Warner Brothers objected. They wrote a "
10609 "nasty letter to the Marxes, warning them that there would be serious legal "
10610 "consequences if they went forward with their plan.<placeholder "
10611 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10615 #: freeculture.xml:7527
10617 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Ibid. See also Vaidhyanathan, "
10618 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 1–3."
10621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10622 #: freeculture.xml:7523
10624 "This led the Marx Brothers to respond in kind. They warned Warner Brothers "
10625 "that the Marx Brothers <quote>were brothers long before you "
10626 "were.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Marx Brothers "
10627 "therefore owned the word <citetitle>brothers</citetitle>, and if Warner "
10628 "Brothers insisted on trying to control <citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>, "
10629 "then the Marx Brothers would insist on control over "
10630 "<citetitle>brothers</citetitle>."
10633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10634 #: freeculture.xml:7537
10636 "An absurd and hollow threat, of course, because Warner Brothers, like the "
10637 "Marx Brothers, knew that no court would ever enforce such a silly "
10638 "claim. This extremism was irrelevant to the real freedoms anyone (including "
10639 "Warner Brothers) enjoyed."
10642 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10643 #: freeculture.xml:7544
10645 "On the Internet, however, there is no check on silly rules, because on the "
10646 "Internet, increasingly, rules are enforced not by a human but by a machine: "
10647 "Increasingly, the rules of copyright law, as interpreted by the copyright "
10648 "owner, get built into the technology that delivers copyrighted content. It "
10649 "is code, rather than law, that rules. And the problem with code regulations "
10650 "is that, unlike law, code has no shame. Code would not get the humor of the "
10651 "Marx Brothers. The consequence of that is not at all funny."
10654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10655 #: freeculture.xml:7556
10656 msgid "Adobe eBook Reader"
10659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10660 #: freeculture.xml:7558
10661 msgid "Consider the life of my Adobe eBook Reader."
10664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10665 #: freeculture.xml:7561
10667 "An e-book is a book delivered in electronic form. An Adobe eBook is not a "
10668 "book that Adobe has published; Adobe simply produces the software that "
10669 "publishers use to deliver e-books. It provides the technology, and the "
10670 "publisher delivers the content by using the technology."
10673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10674 #: freeculture.xml:7568
10675 msgid "On the next page is a picture of an old version of my Adobe eBook Reader."
10679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10680 #: freeculture.xml:7572
10682 "As you can see, I have a small collection of e-books within this e-book "
10683 "library. Some of these books reproduce content that is in the public domain: "
10684 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, for example, is in the public domain. "
10685 "Some of them reproduce content that is not in the public domain: My own book "
10686 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> is not yet within the public "
10687 "domain. Consider <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> first. If you click on "
10688 "my e-book copy of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, you'll see a fancy "
10689 "cover, and then a button at the bottom called Permissions."
10692 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10693 #: freeculture.xml:7585
10694 msgid "Picture of an old version of Adobe eBook Reader"
10697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10698 #: freeculture.xml:7586
10699 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1611.png\"></graphic>"
10702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10703 #: freeculture.xml:7589
10705 "If you click on the Permissions button, you'll see a list of the permissions "
10706 "that the publisher purports to grant with this book."
10709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10710 #: freeculture.xml:7593
10711 msgid "List of the permissions that the publisher purports to grant."
10714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10715 #: freeculture.xml:7594
10716 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1612.png\"></graphic>"
10720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10721 #: freeculture.xml:7598
10723 "According to my eBook Reader, I have the permission to copy to the clipboard "
10724 "of the computer ten text selections every ten days. (So far, I've copied no "
10725 "text to the clipboard.) I also have the permission to print ten pages from "
10726 "the book every ten days. Lastly, I have the permission to use the Read Aloud "
10727 "button to hear <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> read aloud through the "
10731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10732 #: freeculture.xml:7605
10736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10737 #: freeculture.xml:7606
10738 msgid "<citetitle>Politics</citetitle>, (Aristotle)"
10741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10742 #: freeculture.xml:7608
10744 "Here's the e-book for another work in the public domain (including the "
10745 "translation): Aristotle's <citetitle>Politics</citetitle>."
10748 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10749 #: freeculture.xml:7612
10750 msgid "E-book of Aristotle;s <quote>Politics</quote>"
10753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10754 #: freeculture.xml:7613
10755 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1621.png\"></graphic>"
10758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10759 #: freeculture.xml:7616
10761 "According to its permissions, no printing or copying is permitted at "
10762 "all. But fortunately, you can use the Read Aloud button to hear the book."
10765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10766 #: freeculture.xml:7621
10767 msgid "List of the permissions for Aristotle;s <quote>Politics</quote>."
10770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10771 #: freeculture.xml:7622
10772 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1622.png\"></graphic>"
10775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10776 #: freeculture.xml:7625
10778 "Finally (and most embarrassingly), here are the permissions for the original "
10779 "e-book version of my last book, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>:"
10782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10783 #: freeculture.xml:7631
10784 msgid "List of the permissions for <quote>The Future of Ideas</quote>."
10787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10788 #: freeculture.xml:7632
10789 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1631.png\"></graphic>"
10792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10793 #: freeculture.xml:7635
10794 msgid "No copying, no printing, and don't you dare try to listen to this book!"
10798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10799 #: freeculture.xml:7645
10801 "In principle, a contract might impose a requirement on me. I might, for "
10802 "example, buy a book from you that includes a contract that says I will read "
10803 "it only three times, or that I promise to read it three times. But that "
10804 "obligation (and the limits for creating that obligation) would come from the "
10805 "contract, not from copyright law, and the obligations of contract would not "
10806 "necessarily pass to anyone who subsequently acquired the book."
10809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10810 #: freeculture.xml:7638
10812 "Now, the Adobe eBook Reader calls these controls "
10813 "<quote>permissions</quote>— as if the publisher has the power to "
10814 "control how you use these works. For works under copyright, the copyright "
10815 "owner certainly does have the power—up to the limits of the copyright "
10816 "law. But for work not under copyright, there is no such copyright "
10817 "power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When my e-book of "
10818 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> says I have the permission to copy only "
10819 "ten text selections into the memory every ten days, what that really means "
10820 "is that the eBook Reader has enabled the publisher to control how I use the "
10821 "book on my computer, far beyond the control that the law would enable."
10824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10825 #: freeculture.xml:7660
10827 "The control comes instead from the code—from the technology within "
10828 "which the e-book <quote>lives.</quote> Though the e-book says that these are "
10829 "permissions, they are not the sort of <quote>permissions</quote> that most "
10830 "of us deal with. When a teenager gets <quote>permission</quote> to stay out "
10831 "till midnight, she knows (unless she's Cinderella) that she can stay out "
10832 "till 2 A.M., but will suffer a punishment if she's caught. But when the "
10833 "Adobe eBook Reader says I have the permission to make ten copies of the text "
10834 "into the computer's memory, that means that after I've made ten copies, the "
10835 "computer will not make any more. The same with the printing restrictions: "
10836 "After ten pages, the eBook Reader will not print any more pages. It's the "
10837 "same with the silly restriction that says that you can't use the Read Aloud "
10838 "button to read my book aloud—it's not that the company will sue you if "
10839 "you do; instead, if you push the Read Aloud button with my book, the machine "
10840 "simply won't read aloud."
10844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10845 #: freeculture.xml:7679
10847 "These are <emphasis>controls</emphasis>, not permissions. Imagine a world "
10848 "where the Marx Brothers sold word processing software that, when you tried "
10849 "to type <quote>Warner Brothers,</quote> erased <quote>Brothers</quote> from "
10853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10854 #: freeculture.xml:7685
10856 "This is the future of copyright law: not so much copyright "
10857 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> as copyright <emphasis>code</emphasis>. The "
10858 "controls over access to content will not be controls that are ratified by "
10859 "courts; the controls over access to content will be controls that are coded "
10860 "by programmers. And whereas the controls that are built into the law are "
10861 "always to be checked by a judge, the controls that are built into the "
10862 "technology have no similar built-in check."
10865 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10866 #: freeculture.xml:7694
10868 "How significant is this? Isn't it always possible to get around the controls "
10869 "built into the technology? Software used to be sold with technologies that "
10870 "limited the ability of users to copy the software, but those were trivial "
10871 "protections to defeat. Why won't it be trivial to defeat these protections "
10875 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10876 #: freeculture.xml:7701
10878 "We've only scratched the surface of this story. Return to the Adobe eBook "
10882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10883 #: freeculture.xml:7704
10884 msgid "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)"
10887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10888 #: freeculture.xml:7706
10890 "Early in the life of the Adobe eBook Reader, Adobe suffered a public "
10891 "relations nightmare. Among the books that you could download for free on the "
10892 "Adobe site was a copy of <citetitle>Alice's Adventures in "
10893 "Wonderland</citetitle>. This wonderful book is in the public domain. Yet "
10894 "when you clicked on Permissions for that book, you got the following report:"
10897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10898 #: freeculture.xml:7714
10899 msgid "List of the permissions for <quote>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</quote>."
10902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10903 #: freeculture.xml:7716
10904 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1641.png\"></graphic>"
10907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10908 #: freeculture.xml:7720
10910 "Here was a public domain children's book that you were not allowed to copy, "
10911 "not allowed to lend, not allowed to give, and, as the "
10912 "<quote>permissions</quote> indicated, not allowed to <quote>read "
10916 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10917 #: freeculture.xml:7725
10919 "The public relations nightmare attached to that final permission. For the "
10920 "text did not say that you were not permitted to use the Read Aloud button; "
10921 "it said you did not have the permission to read the book aloud. That led "
10922 "some people to think that Adobe was restricting the right of parents, for "
10923 "example, to read the book to their children, which seemed, to say the least, "
10927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10928 #: freeculture.xml:7733
10930 "Adobe responded quickly that it was absurd to think that it was trying to "
10931 "restrict the right to read a book aloud. Obviously it was only restricting "
10932 "the ability to use the Read Aloud button to have the book read aloud. But "
10933 "the question Adobe never did answer is this: Would Adobe thus agree that a "
10934 "consumer was free to use software to hack around the restrictions built into "
10935 "the eBook Reader? If some company (call it Elcomsoft) developed a program to "
10936 "disable the technological protection built into an Adobe eBook so that a "
10937 "blind person, say, could use a computer to read the book aloud, would Adobe "
10938 "agree that such a use of an eBook Reader was fair? Adobe didn't answer "
10939 "because the answer, however absurd it might seem, is no."
10942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10943 #: freeculture.xml:7746
10945 "The point is not to blame Adobe. Indeed, Adobe is among the most innovative "
10946 "companies developing strategies to balance open access to content with "
10947 "incentives for companies to innovate. But Adobe's technology enables "
10948 "control, and Adobe has an incentive to defend this control. That incentive "
10949 "is understandable, yet what it creates is often crazy."
10952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10953 #: freeculture.xml:7756
10955 "To see the point in a particularly absurd context, consider a favorite story "
10956 "of mine that makes the same point."
10959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10960 #: freeculture.xml:7759 freeculture.xml:7903 freeculture.xml:7968 freeculture.xml:8076
10961 msgid "Aibo robotic dog"
10964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10965 #: freeculture.xml:7760 freeculture.xml:7904 freeculture.xml:7969 freeculture.xml:8077
10966 msgid "robotic dog"
10969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10970 #: freeculture.xml:7761 freeculture.xml:7905 freeculture.xml:7970 freeculture.xml:8078
10974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10975 #: freeculture.xml:7761 freeculture.xml:7905 freeculture.xml:7970 freeculture.xml:8078
10976 msgid "Aibo robotic dog produced by"
10979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10980 #: freeculture.xml:7763
10982 "Consider the robotic dog made by Sony named <quote>Aibo.</quote> The Aibo "
10983 "learns tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity and "
10984 "that doesn't leave that much of a mess (at least in your house)."
10988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10989 #: freeculture.xml:7768
10991 "The Aibo is expensive and popular. Fans from around the world have set up "
10992 "clubs to trade stories. One fan in particular set up a Web site to enable "
10993 "information about the Aibo dog to be shared. This fan set up aibopet.com "
10994 "(and aibohack.com, but that resolves to the same site), and on that site he "
10995 "provided information about how to teach an Aibo to do tricks in addition to "
10996 "the ones Sony had taught it."
10999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11000 #: freeculture.xml:7777
11002 "<quote>Teach</quote> here has a special meaning. Aibos are just cute "
11003 "computers. You teach a computer how to do something by programming it "
11004 "differently. So to say that aibopet.com was giving information about how to "
11005 "teach the dog to do new tricks is just to say that aibopet.com was giving "
11006 "information to users of the Aibo pet about how to hack their computer "
11007 "<quote>dog</quote> to make it do new tricks (thus, aibohack.com)."
11010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11011 #: freeculture.xml:7784
11015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11016 #: freeculture.xml:7786
11018 "If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the word "
11019 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly "
11020 "connotation. Nonprogrammers hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in horror "
11021 "movies do even worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call them, "
11022 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much more positive "
11023 "term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the program "
11024 "to do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to do. If you buy a "
11025 "new printer for an old computer, you might find the old computer doesn't "
11026 "run, or <quote>drive,</quote> the printer. If you discovered that, you'd "
11027 "later be happy to discover a hack on the Net by someone who has written a "
11028 "driver to enable the computer to drive the printer you just bought."
11031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11032 #: freeculture.xml:7800
11034 "Some hacks are easy. Some are unbelievably hard. Hackers as a community like "
11035 "to challenge themselves and others with increasingly difficult "
11036 "tasks. There's a certain respect that goes with the talent to hack "
11037 "well. There's a well-deserved respect that goes with the talent to hack "
11041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11042 #: freeculture.xml:7807
11044 "The Aibo fan was displaying a bit of both when he hacked the program and "
11045 "offered to the world a bit of code that would enable the Aibo to dance "
11046 "jazz. The dog wasn't programmed to dance jazz. It was a clever bit of "
11047 "tinkering that turned the dog into a more talented creature than Sony had "
11052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11053 #: freeculture.xml:7817
11055 "I've told this story in many contexts, both inside and outside the United "
11056 "States. Once I was asked by a puzzled member of the audience, is it "
11057 "permissible for a dog to dance jazz in the United States? We forget that "
11058 "stories about the backcountry still flow across much of the world. So let's "
11059 "just be clear before we continue: It's not a crime anywhere (anymore) to "
11060 "dance jazz. Nor is it a crime to teach your dog to dance jazz. Nor should it "
11061 "be a crime (though we don't have a lot to go on here) to teach your robot "
11062 "dog to dance jazz. Dancing jazz is a completely legal activity. One imagines "
11063 "that the owner of aibopet.com thought, <emphasis>What possible problem could "
11064 "there be with teaching a robot dog to dance?</emphasis>"
11067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11068 #: freeculture.xml:7832
11069 msgid "government case against"
11072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11073 #: freeculture.xml:7834
11075 "Let's put the dog to sleep for a minute, and turn to a pony show— not "
11076 "literally a pony show, but rather a paper that a Princeton academic named Ed "
11077 "Felten prepared for a conference. This Princeton academic is well known and "
11078 "respected. He was hired by the government in the Microsoft case to test "
11079 "Microsoft's claims about what could and could not be done with its own "
11080 "code. In that trial, he demonstrated both his brilliance and his "
11081 "coolness. Under heavy badgering by Microsoft lawyers, Ed Felten stood his "
11082 "ground. He was not about to be bullied into being silent about something he "
11086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11087 #: freeculture.xml:7857 freeculture.xml:10346
11088 msgid "Electronic Frontier Foundation"
11091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11092 #: freeculture.xml:7847
11094 "See Pamela Samuelson, <quote>Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to "
11095 "Science,</quote> <citetitle>Science</citetitle> 293 (2001): 2028; Brendan "
11096 "I. Koerner, <quote>Play Dead: Sony Muzzles the Techies Who Teach a Robot Dog "
11097 "New Tricks,</quote> <citetitle>American Prospect</citetitle>, January 2002; "
11098 "<quote>Court Dismisses Computer Scientists' Challenge to DMCA,</quote> "
11099 "<citetitle>Intellectual Property Litigation Reporter</citetitle>, 11 "
11100 "December 2001; Bill Holland, <quote>Copyright Act Raising Free-Speech "
11101 "Concerns,</quote> <citetitle>Billboard</citetitle>, May 2001; Janelle Brown, "
11102 "<quote>Is the RIAA Running Scared?</quote> Salon.com, April 2001; Electronic "
11103 "Frontier Foundation, <quote>Frequently Asked Questions about "
11104 "<citetitle>Felten and USENIX</citetitle> v. <citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> "
11105 "Legal Case,</quote> available at <ulink "
11106 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #27</ulink>. <placeholder "
11107 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11111 #: freeculture.xml:7845
11113 "But Felten's bravery was really tested in April 2001.<placeholder "
11114 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> He and a group of colleagues were working on a "
11115 "paper to be submitted at conference. The paper was intended to describe the "
11116 "weakness in an encryption system being developed by the Secure Digital Music "
11117 "Initiative as a technique to control the distribution of music."
11120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11121 #: freeculture.xml:7865
11123 "The SDMI coalition had as its goal a technology to enable content owners to "
11124 "exercise much better control over their content than the Internet, as it "
11125 "originally stood, granted them. Using encryption, SDMI hoped to develop a "
11126 "standard that would allow the content owner to say <quote>this music cannot "
11127 "be copied,</quote> and have a computer respect that command. The technology "
11128 "was to be part of a <quote>trusted system</quote> of control that would get "
11129 "content owners to trust the system of the Internet much more."
11132 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11133 #: freeculture.xml:7875
11135 "When SDMI thought it was close to a standard, it set up a competition. In "
11136 "exchange for providing contestants with the code to an SDMI-encrypted bit of "
11137 "content, contestants were to try to crack it and, if they did, report the "
11138 "problems to the consortium."
11142 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11143 #: freeculture.xml:7882
11145 "Felten and his team figured out the encryption system quickly. He and the "
11146 "team saw the weakness of this system as a type: Many encryption systems "
11147 "would suffer the same weakness, and Felten and his team thought it "
11148 "worthwhile to point this out to those who study encryption."
11151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11152 #: freeculture.xml:7888
11154 "Let's review just what Felten was doing. Again, this is the United "
11155 "States. We have a principle of free speech. We have this principle not just "
11156 "because it is the law, but also because it is a really great idea. A "
11157 "strongly protected tradition of free speech is likely to encourage a wide "
11158 "range of criticism. That criticism is likely, in turn, to improve the "
11159 "systems or people or ideas criticized."
11162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11163 #: freeculture.xml:7896
11165 "What Felten and his colleagues were doing was publishing a paper describing "
11166 "the weakness in a technology. They were not spreading free music, or "
11167 "building and deploying this technology. The paper was an academic essay, "
11168 "unintelligible to most people. But it clearly showed the weakness in the "
11169 "SDMI system, and why SDMI would not, as presently constituted, succeed."
11172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11173 #: freeculture.xml:7907
11175 "What links these two, aibopet.com and Felten, is the letters they then "
11176 "received. Aibopet.com received a letter from Sony about the aibopet.com "
11177 "hack. Though a jazz-dancing dog is perfectly legal, Sony wrote:"
11180 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11181 #: freeculture.xml:7914
11183 "Your site contains information providing the means to circumvent AIBO-ware's "
11184 "copy protection protocol constituting a violation of the anti-circumvention "
11185 "provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
11188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11189 #: freeculture.xml:7923
11191 "And though an academic paper describing the weakness in a system of "
11192 "encryption should also be perfectly legal, Felten received a letter from an "
11193 "RIAA lawyer that read:"
11197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11198 #: freeculture.xml:7929
11200 "Any disclosure of information gained from participating in the Public "
11201 "Challenge would be outside the scope of activities permitted by the "
11202 "Agreement and could subject you and your research team to actions under the "
11203 "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (<quote>DMCA</quote>)."
11206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11207 #: freeculture.xml:7937
11209 "In both cases, this weirdly Orwellian law was invoked to control the spread "
11210 "of information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act made spreading such "
11211 "information an offense."
11214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11215 #: freeculture.xml:7942
11217 "The DMCA was enacted as a response to copyright owners' first fear about "
11218 "cyberspace. The fear was that copyright control was effectively dead; the "
11219 "response was to find technologies that might compensate. These new "
11220 "technologies would be copyright protection technologies— technologies "
11221 "to control the replication and distribution of copyrighted material. They "
11222 "were designed as <emphasis>code</emphasis> to modify the original "
11223 "<emphasis>code</emphasis> of the Internet, to reestablish some protection "
11224 "for copyright owners."
11227 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11228 #: freeculture.xml:7953
11230 "The DMCA was a bit of law intended to back up the protection of this code "
11231 "designed to protect copyrighted material. It was, we could say, "
11232 "<emphasis>legal code</emphasis> intended to buttress <emphasis>software "
11233 "code</emphasis> which itself was intended to support the <emphasis>legal "
11234 "code of copyright</emphasis>."
11237 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11238 #: freeculture.xml:7960
11240 "But the DMCA was not designed merely to protect copyrighted works to the "
11241 "extent copyright law protected them. Its protection, that is, did not end at "
11242 "the line that copyright law drew. The DMCA regulated devices that were "
11243 "designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. It was designed to ban "
11244 "those devices, whether or not the use of the copyrighted material made "
11245 "possible by that circumvention would have been a copyright violation."
11249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11250 #: freeculture.xml:7972
11252 "Aibopet.com and Felten make the point. The Aibo hack circumvented a "
11253 "copyright protection system for the purpose of enabling the dog to dance "
11254 "jazz. That enablement no doubt involved the use of copyrighted material. But "
11255 "as aibopet.com's site was noncommercial, and the use did not enable "
11256 "subsequent copyright infringements, there's no doubt that aibopet.com's hack "
11257 "was fair use of Sony's copyrighted material. Yet fair use is not a defense "
11258 "to the DMCA. The question is not whether the use of the copyrighted material "
11259 "was a copyright violation. The question is whether a copyright protection "
11260 "system was circumvented."
11263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11264 #: freeculture.xml:7984
11266 "The threat against Felten was more attenuated, but it followed the same line "
11267 "of reasoning. By publishing a paper describing how a copyright protection "
11268 "system could be circumvented, the RIAA lawyer suggested, Felten himself was "
11269 "distributing a circumvention technology. Thus, even though he was not "
11270 "himself infringing anyone's copyright, his academic paper was enabling "
11271 "others to infringe others' copyright."
11274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11275 #: freeculture.xml:7991 freeculture.xml:8026
11276 msgid "Rogers, Fred"
11279 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11280 #: freeculture.xml:8002 freeculture.xml:8039 freeculture.xml:8065
11281 msgid "Conrad, Paul"
11284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11285 #: freeculture.xml:7994
11287 "The bizarreness of these arguments is captured in a cartoon drawn in 1981 by "
11288 "Paul Conrad. At that time, a court in California had held that the VCR could "
11289 "be banned because it was a copyright-infringing technology: It enabled "
11290 "consumers to copy films without the permission of the copyright owner. No "
11291 "doubt there were uses of the technology that were legal: Fred Rogers, aka "
11292 "<quote><citetitle>Mr. Rogers</citetitle>,</quote> for example, had testified "
11293 "in that case that he wanted people to feel free to tape Mr. Rogers' "
11294 "Neighborhood. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11298 #: freeculture.xml:8021
11300 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <citetitle>Sony Corporation of "
11301 "America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>., "
11302 "464 U.S. 417, 455 fn. 27 (1984). Rogers never changed his view about the "
11303 "VCR. See James Lardner, <citetitle>Fast Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, "
11304 "and the Onslaught of the VCR</citetitle> (New York: W. W. Norton, 1987), "
11305 "270–71. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
11308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11309 #: freeculture.xml:8006
11311 "Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "
11312 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> at hours when some children cannot use it. I "
11313 "think that it's a real service to families to be able to record such "
11314 "programs and show them at appropriate times. I have always felt that with "
11315 "the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the "
11316 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "
11317 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> because that's what I produce, that they then "
11318 "become much more active in the programming of their family's television "
11319 "life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My "
11320 "whole approach in broadcasting has always been <quote>You are an important "
11321 "person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.</quote> Maybe "
11322 "I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to "
11323 "be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is "
11324 "important.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11329 #: freeculture.xml:8032
11331 "Even though there were uses that were legal, because there were some uses "
11332 "that were illegal, the court held the companies producing the VCR "
11336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11337 #: freeculture.xml:8037
11339 "This led Conrad to draw the cartoon below, which we can adopt to the DMCA. "
11340 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11343 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11344 #: freeculture.xml:8042
11345 msgid "No argument I have can top this picture, but let me try to get close."
11348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11349 #: freeculture.xml:8045
11351 "The anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA target copyright circumvention "
11352 "technologies. Circumvention technologies can be used for different "
11353 "ends. They can be used, for example, to enable massive pirating of "
11354 "copyrighted material—a bad end. Or they can be used to enable the use "
11355 "of particular copyrighted materials in ways that would be considered fair "
11356 "use—a good end."
11359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11360 #: freeculture.xml:8052
11365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11366 #: freeculture.xml:8054
11368 "A handgun can be used to shoot a police officer or a child. Most would agree "
11369 "such a use is bad. Or a handgun can be used for target practice or to "
11370 "protect against an intruder. At least some would say that such a use would "
11371 "be good. It, too, is a technology that has both good and bad uses."
11374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
11375 #: freeculture.xml:8062
11376 msgid "VCR/handgun cartoon."
11379 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11380 #: freeculture.xml:8063
11381 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1711.png\"></graphic>"
11384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11385 #: freeculture.xml:8067
11387 "The obvious point of Conrad's cartoon is the weirdness of a world where guns "
11388 "are legal, despite the harm they can do, while VCRs (and circumvention "
11389 "technologies) are illegal. Flash: <emphasis>No one ever died from copyright "
11390 "circumvention</emphasis>. Yet the law bans circumvention technologies "
11391 "absolutely, despite the potential that they might do some good, but permits "
11392 "guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do."
11395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11396 #: freeculture.xml:8080
11398 "The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are changing the "
11399 "balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright owners restrict "
11400 "fair use; using the DMCA, they punish those who would attempt to evade the "
11401 "restrictions on fair use that they impose through code. Technology becomes a "
11402 "means by which fair use can be erased; the law of the DMCA backs up that "
11406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11407 #: freeculture.xml:8088
11409 "This is how <emphasis>code</emphasis> becomes <emphasis>law</emphasis>. The "
11410 "controls built into the technology of copy and access protection become "
11411 "rules the violation of which is also a violation of the law. In this way, "
11412 "the code extends the law—increasing its regulation, even if the "
11413 "subject it regulates (activities that would otherwise plainly constitute "
11414 "fair use) is beyond the reach of the law. Code becomes law; code extends the "
11415 "law; code thus extends the control that copyright owners effect—at "
11416 "least for those copyright holders with the lawyers who can write the nasty "
11417 "letters that Felten and aibopet.com received."
11420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11421 #: freeculture.xml:8100
11423 "There is one final aspect of the interaction between architecture and law "
11424 "that contributes to the force of copyright's regulation. This is the ease "
11425 "with which infringements of the law can be detected. For contrary to the "
11426 "rhetoric common at the birth of cyberspace that on the Internet, no one "
11427 "knows you're a dog, increasingly, given changing technologies deployed on "
11428 "the Internet, it is easy to find the dog who committed a legal wrong. The "
11429 "technologies of the Internet are open to snoops as well as sharers, and the "
11430 "snoops are increasingly good at tracking down the identity of those who "
11431 "violate the rules."
11435 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11436 #: freeculture.xml:8119
11438 "For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, <quote>Legal "
11439 "Fictions, Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,</quote> "
11440 "<citetitle>Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal</citetitle> 17 "
11444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11445 #: freeculture.xml:8113
11447 "For example, imagine you were part of a <citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> fan "
11448 "club. You gathered every month to share trivia, and maybe to enact a kind of "
11449 "fan fiction about the show. One person would play Spock, another, Captain "
11450 "Kirk. The characters would begin with a plot from a real story, then simply "
11451 "continue it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11455 #: freeculture.xml:8125
11457 "Before the Internet, this was, in effect, a totally unregulated activity. "
11458 "No matter what happened inside your club room, you would never be interfered "
11459 "with by the copyright police. You were free in that space to do as you "
11460 "wished with this part of our culture. You were allowed to build on it as you "
11461 "wished without fear of legal control."
11464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11465 #: freeculture.xml:8133
11467 "But if you moved your club onto the Internet, and made it generally "
11468 "available for others to join, the story would be very different. Bots "
11469 "scouring the Net for trademark and copyright infringement would quickly find "
11470 "your site. Your posting of fan fiction, depending upon the ownership of the "
11471 "series that you're depicting, could well inspire a lawyer's threat. And "
11472 "ignoring the lawyer's threat would be extremely costly indeed. The law of "
11473 "copyright is extremely efficient. The penalties are severe, and the process "
11477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11478 #: freeculture.xml:8143
11480 "This change in the effective force of the law is caused by a change in the "
11481 "ease with which the law can be enforced. That change too shifts the law's "
11482 "balance radically. It is as if your car transmitted the speed at which you "
11483 "traveled at every moment that you drove; that would be just one step before "
11484 "the state started issuing tickets based upon the data you transmitted. That "
11485 "is, in effect, what is happening here."
11488 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11489 #: freeculture.xml:8152
11490 msgid "Market: Concentration"
11494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11495 #: freeculture.xml:8154
11497 "So copyright's duration has increased dramatically—tripled in the past "
11498 "thirty years. And copyright's scope has increased as well—from "
11499 "regulating only publishers to now regulating just about everyone. And "
11500 "copyright's reach has changed, as every action becomes a copy and hence "
11501 "presumptively regulated. And as technologists find better ways to control "
11502 "the use of content, and as copyright is increasingly enforced through "
11503 "technology, copyright's force changes, too. Misuse is easier to find and "
11504 "easier to control. This regulation of the creative process, which began as a "
11505 "tiny regulation governing a tiny part of the market for creative work, has "
11506 "become the single most important regulator of creativity there is. It is a "
11507 "massive expansion in the scope of the government's control over innovation "
11508 "and creativity; it would be totally unrecognizable to those who gave birth "
11509 "to copyright's control."
11512 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11513 #: freeculture.xml:8172
11515 "Still, in my view, all of these changes would not matter much if it weren't "
11516 "for one more change that we must also consider. This is a change that is in "
11517 "some sense the most familiar, though its significance and scope are not well "
11518 "understood. It is the one that creates precisely the reason to be concerned "
11519 "about all the other changes I have described."
11522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11523 #: freeculture.xml:8179
11525 "This is the change in the concentration and integration of the media. In "
11526 "the past twenty years, the nature of media ownership has undergone a radical "
11527 "alteration, caused by changes in legal rules governing the media. Before "
11528 "this change happened, the different forms of media were owned by separate "
11529 "media companies. Now, the media is increasingly owned by only a few "
11530 "companies. Indeed, after the changes that the FCC announced in June 2003, "
11531 "most expect that within a few years, we will live in a world where just "
11532 "three companies control more than percent of the media."
11535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11536 #: freeculture.xml:8190
11537 msgid "These changes are of two sorts: the scope of concentration, and its nature."
11540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11541 #: freeculture.xml:8194
11545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11546 #: freeculture.xml:8195 freeculture.xml:9539
11550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11551 #: freeculture.xml:8196
11552 msgid "McCain, John"
11555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11556 #: freeculture.xml:8197 freeculture.xml:9540
11557 msgid "Universal Music Group"
11560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11561 #: freeculture.xml:8198
11562 msgid "Warner Music Group"
11566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11567 #: freeculture.xml:8204
11569 "FCC Oversight: Hearing Before the Senate Commerce, Science and "
11570 "Transportation Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (22 May 2003) (statement "
11571 "of Senator John McCain)."
11575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11576 #: freeculture.xml:8211
11578 "Lynette Holloway, <quote>Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to "
11579 "Slide,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 23 December 2002."
11583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11584 #: freeculture.xml:8217
11586 "Molly Ivins, <quote>Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped,</quote> "
11587 "<citetitle>Charleston Gazette</citetitle>, 31 May 2003."
11590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11591 #: freeculture.xml:8200
11593 "Changes in scope are the easier ones to describe. As Senator John McCain "
11594 "summarized the data produced in the FCC's review of media ownership, "
11595 "<quote>five companies control 85 percent of our media "
11596 "sources.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The five recording "
11597 "labels of Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music "
11598 "Group, and EMI control 84.8 percent of the U.S. music market.<placeholder "
11599 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The <quote>five largest cable companies pipe "
11600 "programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers "
11601 "nationwide.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
11605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11606 #: freeculture.xml:8222
11608 "The story with radio is even more dramatic. Before deregulation, the "
11609 "nation's largest radio broadcasting conglomerate owned fewer than "
11610 "seventy-five stations. Today <emphasis>one</emphasis> company owns more than "
11611 "1,200 stations. During that period of consolidation, the total number of "
11612 "radio owners dropped by 34 percent. Today, in most markets, the two largest "
11613 "broadcasters control 74 percent of that market's revenues. Overall, just "
11614 "four companies control 90 percent of the nation's radio advertising "
11618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11619 #: freeculture.xml:8234
11621 "Newspaper ownership is becoming more concentrated as well. Today, there are "
11622 "six hundred fewer daily newspapers in the United States than there were "
11623 "eighty years ago, and ten companies control half of the nation's "
11624 "circulation. There are twenty major newspaper publishers in the United "
11625 "States. The top ten film studios receive 99 percent of all film revenue. The "
11626 "ten largest cable companies account for 85 percent of all cable "
11627 "revenue. This is a market far from the free press the framers sought to "
11628 "protect. Indeed, it is a market that is quite well protected— by the "
11632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11633 #: freeculture.xml:8248 freeculture.xml:8265
11634 msgid "Fallows, James"
11637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11638 #: freeculture.xml:8245
11640 "Concentration in size alone is one thing. The more invidious change is in "
11641 "the nature of that concentration. As author James Fallows put it in a recent "
11642 "article about Rupert Murdoch, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11646 #: freeculture.xml:8263
11648 "James Fallows, <quote>The Age of Murdoch,</quote> <citetitle>Atlantic "
11649 "Monthly</citetitle> (September 2003): 89. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11654 #: freeculture.xml:8252
11656 "Murdoch's companies now constitute a production system unmatched in its "
11657 "integration. They supply content—Fox movies … Fox TV shows "
11658 "… Fox-controlled sports broadcasts, plus newspapers and books. They "
11659 "sell the content to the public and to advertisers—in newspapers, on "
11660 "the broadcast network, on the cable channels. And they operate the physical "
11661 "distribution system through which the content reaches the "
11662 "customers. Murdoch's satellite systems now distribute News Corp. content in "
11663 "Europe and Asia; if Murdoch becomes DirecTV's largest single owner, that "
11664 "system will serve the same function in the United States.<placeholder "
11665 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11669 #: freeculture.xml:8270
11671 "The pattern with Murdoch is the pattern of modern media. Not just large "
11672 "companies owning many radio stations, but a few companies owning as many "
11673 "outlets of media as possible. A picture describes this pattern better than a "
11674 "thousand words could do:"
11677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
11678 #: freeculture.xml:8276
11679 msgid "Pattern of modern media ownership."
11682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11683 #: freeculture.xml:8277
11684 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1761.png\"></graphic>"
11688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11689 #: freeculture.xml:8281
11691 "Does this concentration matter? Will it affect what is made, or what is "
11692 "distributed? Or is it merely a more efficient way to produce and distribute "
11696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11697 #: freeculture.xml:8286
11699 "My view was that concentration wouldn't matter. I thought it was nothing "
11700 "more than a more efficient financial structure. But now, after reading and "
11701 "listening to a barrage of creators try to convince me to the contrary, I am "
11702 "beginning to change my mind."
11705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11706 #: freeculture.xml:8292
11708 "Here's a representative story that begins to suggest how this integration "
11712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11713 #: freeculture.xml:8295
11714 msgid "Lear, Norman"
11717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11718 #: freeculture.xml:8297 freeculture.xml:8360
11719 msgid "All in the Family"
11722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11723 #: freeculture.xml:8299
11725 "In 1969, Norman Lear created a pilot for <citetitle>All in the "
11726 "Family</citetitle>. He took the pilot to ABC. The network didn't like it. It "
11727 "was too edgy, they told Lear. Make it again. Lear made a second pilot, more "
11728 "edgy than the first. ABC was exasperated. You're missing the point, they "
11729 "told Lear. We wanted less edgy, not more."
11733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11734 #: freeculture.xml:8311
11736 "Leonard Hill, <quote>The Axis of Access,</quote> remarks before Weidenbaum "
11737 "Center Forum, <quote>Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry,</quote> "
11738 "St. Louis, Missouri, 3 April 2003 (transcript of prepared remarks available "
11739 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #28</ulink>; for the "
11740 "Lear story, not included in the prepared remarks, see <ulink "
11741 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #29</ulink>)."
11744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11745 #: freeculture.xml:8306
11747 "Rather than comply, Lear simply took the show elsewhere. CBS was happy to "
11748 "have the series; ABC could not stop Lear from walking. The copyrights that "
11749 "Lear held assured an independence from network control.<placeholder "
11750 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11755 #: freeculture.xml:8322
11757 "The network did not control those copyrights because the law forbade the "
11758 "networks from controlling the content they syndicated. The law required a "
11759 "separation between the networks and the content producers; that separation "
11760 "would guarantee Lear freedom. And as late as 1992, because of these rules, "
11761 "the vast majority of prime time television—75 percent of it—was "
11762 "<quote>independent</quote> of the networks."
11766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11767 #: freeculture.xml:8341
11769 "NewsCorp./DirecTV Merger and Media Consolidation: Hearings on Media "
11770 "Ownership Before the Senate Commerce Committee, 108th Cong., 1st "
11771 "sess. (2003) (testimony of Gene Kimmelman on behalf of Consumers Union and "
11772 "the Consumer Federation of America), available at <ulink "
11773 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #30</ulink>. Kimmelman quotes "
11774 "Victoria Riskin, president of Writers Guild of America, West, in her Remarks "
11775 "at FCC En Banc Hearing, Richmond, Virginia, 27 February 2003."
11778 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11779 #: freeculture.xml:8331
11781 "In 1994, the FCC abandoned the rules that required this independence. After "
11782 "that change, the networks quickly changed the balance. In 1985, there were "
11783 "twenty-five independent television production studios; in 2002, only five "
11784 "independent television studios remained. <quote>In 1992, only 15 percent of "
11785 "new series were produced for a network by a company it controlled. Last "
11786 "year, the percentage of shows produced by controlled companies more than "
11787 "quintupled to 77 percent.</quote> <quote>In 1992, 16 new series were "
11788 "produced independently of conglomerate control, last year there was "
11789 "one.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In 2002, 75 percent of "
11790 "prime time television was owned by the networks that ran it. <quote>In the "
11791 "ten-year period between 1992 and 2002, the number of prime time television "
11792 "hours per week produced by network studios increased over 200%, whereas the "
11793 "number of prime time television hours per week produced by independent "
11794 "studios decreased 63%.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
11797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11798 #: freeculture.xml:8362
11800 "Today, another Norman Lear with another <citetitle>All in the "
11801 "Family</citetitle> would find that he had the choice either to make the show "
11802 "less edgy or to be fired: The content of any show developed for a network is "
11803 "increasingly owned by the network."
11806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11807 #: freeculture.xml:8367
11808 msgid "Diller, Barry"
11811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11812 #: freeculture.xml:8368
11813 msgid "Moyers, Bill"
11816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11817 #: freeculture.xml:8370
11819 "While the number of channels has increased dramatically, the ownership of "
11820 "those channels has narrowed to an ever smaller and smaller few. As Barry "
11821 "Diller said to Bill Moyers,"
11825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11826 #: freeculture.xml:8385
11828 "<quote>Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation,</quote> <citetitle>Now with "
11829 "Bill Moyers</citetitle>, Bill Moyers, 25 April 2003, edited transcript "
11830 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #31</ulink>."
11833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11834 #: freeculture.xml:8376
11836 "Well, if you have companies that produce, that finance, that air on their "
11837 "channel and then distribute worldwide everything that goes through their "
11838 "controlled distribution system, then what you get is fewer and fewer actual "
11839 "voices participating in the process. [We u]sed to have dozens and dozens of "
11840 "thriving independent production companies producing television programs. Now "
11841 "you have less than a handful.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11845 #: freeculture.xml:8392
11847 "This narrowing has an effect on what is produced. The product of such large "
11848 "and concentrated networks is increasingly homogenous. Increasingly "
11849 "safe. Increasingly sterile. The product of news shows from networks like "
11850 "this is increasingly tailored to the message the network wants to "
11851 "convey. This is not the communist party, though from the inside, it must "
11852 "feel a bit like the communist party. No one can question without risk of "
11853 "consequence—not necessarily banishment to Siberia, but punishment "
11854 "nonetheless. Independent, critical, different views are quashed. This is not "
11855 "the environment for a democracy."
11858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11859 #: freeculture.xml:8403
11860 msgid "Clark, Kim B."
11864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11865 #: freeculture.xml:8412
11867 "Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
11868 "Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do "
11869 "Business</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, "
11870 "1997). Christensen acknowledges that the idea was first suggested by Dean "
11871 "Kim Clark. See Kim B. Clark, <quote>The Interaction of Design Hierarchies "
11872 "and Market Concepts in Technological Evolution,</quote> <citetitle>Research "
11873 "Policy</citetitle> 14 (1985): 235–51. For a more recent study, see "
11874 "Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, <citetitle>Creative Destruction: Why "
11875 "Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—and How to "
11876 "Successfully Transform Them</citetitle> (New York: Currency/Doubleday, "
11880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11881 #: freeculture.xml:8405
11883 "Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration "
11884 "affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the "
11885 "<quote>Innovator's Dilemma</quote>: the fact that large traditional firms "
11886 "find it rational to ignore new, breakthrough technologies that compete with "
11887 "their core business. The same analysis could help explain why large, "
11888 "traditional media companies would find it rational to ignore new cultural "
11889 "trends.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Lumbering giants not only "
11890 "don't, but should not, sprint. Yet if the field is only open to the giants, "
11891 "there will be far too little sprinting. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11896 #: freeculture.xml:8429
11898 "I don't think we know enough about the economics of the media market to say "
11899 "with certainty what concentration and integration will do. The efficiencies "
11900 "are important, and the effect on culture is hard to measure."
11903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11904 #: freeculture.xml:8435
11906 "But there is a quintessentially obvious example that does strongly suggest "
11910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11911 #: freeculture.xml:8439
11913 "In addition to the copyright wars, we're in the middle of the drug "
11914 "wars. Government policy is strongly directed against the drug cartels; "
11915 "criminal and civil courts are filled with the consequences of this battle."
11919 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11920 #: freeculture.xml:8444
11922 "Let me hereby disqualify myself from any possible appointment to any "
11923 "position in government by saying I believe this war is a profound mistake. I "
11924 "am not pro drugs. Indeed, I come from a family once wrecked by "
11925 "drugs—though the drugs that wrecked my family were all quite legal. I "
11926 "believe this war is a profound mistake because the collateral damage from it "
11927 "is so great as to make waging the war insane. When you add together the "
11928 "burdens on the criminal justice system, the desperation of generations of "
11929 "kids whose only real economic opportunities are as drug warriors, the "
11930 "queering of constitutional protections because of the constant surveillance "
11931 "this war requires, and, most profoundly, the total destruction of the legal "
11932 "systems of many South American nations because of the power of the local "
11933 "drug cartels, I find it impossible to believe that the marginal benefit in "
11934 "reduced drug consumption by Americans could possibly outweigh these costs."
11937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11938 #: freeculture.xml:8463
11940 "You may not be convinced. That's fine. We live in a democracy, and it is "
11941 "through votes that we are to choose policy. But to do that, we depend "
11942 "fundamentally upon the press to help inform Americans about these issues."
11945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11946 #: freeculture.xml:8470
11948 "Beginning in 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched a "
11949 "media campaign as part of the <quote>war on drugs.</quote> The campaign "
11950 "produced scores of short film clips about issues related to illegal "
11951 "drugs. In one series (the Nick and Norm series) two men are in a bar, "
11952 "discussing the idea of legalizing drugs as a way to avoid some of the "
11953 "collateral damage from the war. One advances an argument in favor of drug "
11954 "legalization. The other responds in a powerful and effective way against the "
11955 "argument of the first. In the end, the first guy changes his mind (hey, it's "
11956 "television). The plug at the end is a damning attack on the pro-legalization "
11960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11961 #: freeculture.xml:8482
11963 "Fair enough. It's a good ad. Not terribly misleading. It delivers its "
11964 "message well. It's a fair and reasonable message."
11967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11968 #: freeculture.xml:8486
11970 "But let's say you think it is a wrong message, and you'd like to run a "
11971 "countercommercial. Say you want to run a series of ads that try to "
11972 "demonstrate the extraordinary collateral harm that comes from the drug "
11973 "war. Can you do it?"
11977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11978 #: freeculture.xml:8492
11980 "Well, obviously, these ads cost lots of money. Assume you raise the "
11981 "money. Assume a group of concerned citizens donates all the money in the "
11982 "world to help you get your message out. Can you be sure your message will be "
11986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11987 #: freeculture.xml:8534
11991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11992 #: freeculture.xml:8535
11993 msgid "Marijuana Policy Project"
11996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11997 #: freeculture.xml:8536
12001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12002 #: freeculture.xml:8537
12006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12007 #: freeculture.xml:8538
12011 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12012 #: freeculture.xml:8509
12014 "The Marijuana Policy Project, in February 2003, sought to place ads that "
12015 "directly responded to the Nick and Norm series on stations within the "
12016 "Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as <quote>against [their] "
12017 "policy.</quote> The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads without "
12018 "reviewing them. The local ABC affiliate, WJOA, originally agreed to run the "
12019 "ads and accepted payment to do so, but later decided not to run the ads and "
12020 "returned the collected fees. Interview with Neal Levine, 15 October 2003. "
12021 "These restrictions are, of course, not limited to drug policy. See, for "
12022 "example, Nat Ives, <quote>On the Issue of an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet "
12023 "with Rejection from TV Networks,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
12024 "Times</citetitle>, 13 March 2003, C4. Outside of election-related air time "
12025 "there is very little that the FCC or the courts are willing to do to even "
12026 "the playing field. For a general overview, see Rhonda Brown, <quote>Ad Hoc "
12027 "Access: The Regulation of Editorial Advertising on Television and "
12028 "Radio,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law and Policy Review</citetitle> 6 (1988): "
12029 "449–79, and for a more recent summary of the stance of the FCC and the "
12030 "courts, see <citetitle>Radio-Television News Directors "
12031 "Association</citetitle> v. <citetitle>FCC</citetitle>, 184 F. 3d 872 "
12032 "(D.C. Cir. 1999). Municipal authorities exercise the same authority as the "
12033 "networks. In a recent example from San Francisco, the San Francisco transit "
12034 "authority rejected an ad that criticized its Muni diesel buses. Phillip "
12035 "Matier and Andrew Ross, <quote>Antidiesel Group Fuming After Muni Rejects "
12036 "Ad,</quote> SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12037 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #32</ulink>. The ground was that "
12038 "the criticism was <quote>too controversial.</quote> <placeholder "
12039 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
12040 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12041 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder "
12042 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/>"
12045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12046 #: freeculture.xml:8499
12048 "No. You cannot. Television stations have a general policy of avoiding "
12049 "<quote>controversial</quote> ads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed "
12050 "uncontroversial; ads disagreeing with the government are controversial. "
12051 "This selectivity might be thought inconsistent with the First Amendment, but "
12052 "the Supreme Court has held that stations have the right to choose what they "
12053 "run. Thus, the major channels of commercial media will refuse one side of a "
12054 "crucial debate the opportunity to present its case. And the courts will "
12055 "defend the rights of the stations to be this biased.<placeholder "
12056 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12060 #: freeculture.xml:8543
12062 "I'd be happy to defend the networks' rights, as well—if we lived in a "
12063 "media market that was truly diverse. But concentration in the media throws "
12064 "that condition into doubt. If a handful of companies control access to the "
12065 "media, and that handful of companies gets to decide which political "
12066 "positions it will allow to be promoted on its channels, then in an obvious "
12067 "and important way, concentration matters. You might like the positions the "
12068 "handful of companies selects. But you should not like a world in which a "
12069 "mere few get to decide which issues the rest of us get to know about."
12072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12073 #: freeculture.xml:8556
12077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12078 #: freeculture.xml:8558
12080 "There is something innocent and obvious about the claim of the copyright "
12081 "warriors that the government should <quote>protect my property.</quote> In "
12082 "the abstract, it is obviously true and, ordinarily, totally harmless. No "
12083 "sane sort who is not an anarchist could disagree."
12087 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12088 #: freeculture.xml:8564
12090 "But when we see how dramatically this <quote>property</quote> has "
12091 "changed— when we recognize how it might now interact with both "
12092 "technology and markets to mean that the effective constraint on the liberty "
12093 "to cultivate our culture is dramatically different—the claim begins to "
12094 "seem less innocent and obvious. Given (1) the power of technology to "
12095 "supplement the law's control, and (2) the power of concentrated markets to "
12096 "weaken the opportunity for dissent, if strictly enforcing the massively "
12097 "expanded <quote>property</quote> rights granted by copyright fundamentally "
12098 "changes the freedom within this culture to cultivate and build upon our "
12099 "past, then we have to ask whether this property should be redefined."
12102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12103 #: freeculture.xml:8580
12105 "Not starkly. Or absolutely. My point is not that we should abolish copyright "
12106 "or go back to the eighteenth century. That would be a total mistake, "
12107 "disastrous for the most important creative enterprises within our culture "
12111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12112 #: freeculture.xml:8586
12114 "But there is a space between zero and one, Internet culture "
12115 "notwithstanding. And these massive shifts in the effective power of "
12116 "copyright regulation, tied to increased concentration of the content "
12117 "industry and resting in the hands of technology that will increasingly "
12118 "enable control over the use of culture, should drive us to consider whether "
12119 "another adjustment is called for. Not an adjustment that increases "
12120 "copyright's power. Not an adjustment that increases its term. Rather, an "
12121 "adjustment to restore the balance that has traditionally defined copyright's "
12122 "regulation—a weakening of that regulation, to strengthen creativity."
12125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12126 #: freeculture.xml:8598
12128 "Copyright law has not been a rock of Gibraltar. It's not a set of constant "
12129 "commitments that, for some mysterious reason, teenagers and geeks now "
12130 "flout. Instead, copyright power has grown dramatically in a short period of "
12131 "time, as the technologies of distribution and creation have changed and as "
12132 "lobbyists have pushed for more control by copyright holders. Changes in the "
12133 "past in response to changes in technology suggest that we may well need "
12134 "similar changes in the future. And these changes have to be "
12135 "<emphasis>reductions</emphasis> in the scope of copyright, in response to "
12136 "the extraordinary increase in control that technology and the market enable."
12140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12141 #: freeculture.xml:8610
12143 "For the single point that is lost in this war on pirates is a point that we "
12144 "see only after surveying the range of these changes. When you add together "
12145 "the effect of changing law, concentrated markets, and changing technology, "
12146 "together they produce an astonishing conclusion: <emphasis>Never in our "
12147 "history have fewer had a legal right to control more of the development of "
12148 "our culture than now</emphasis>."
12151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12152 #: freeculture.xml:8634
12154 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a "
12155 "similar point in his <quote>four surrenders</quote> of copyright law in the "
12156 "digital age. See Vaidhyanathan, 159–60."
12159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12160 #: freeculture.xml:8619
12162 "Not when copyrights were perpetual, for when copyrights were perpetual, they "
12163 "affected only that precise creative work. Not when only publishers had the "
12164 "tools to publish, for the market then was much more diverse. Not when there "
12165 "were only three television networks, for even then, newspapers, film "
12166 "studios, radio stations, and publishers were independent of the "
12167 "networks. <emphasis>Never</emphasis> has copyright protected such a wide "
12168 "range of rights, against as broad a range of actors, for a term that was "
12169 "remotely as long. This form of regulation—a tiny regulation of a tiny "
12170 "part of the creative energy of a nation at the founding—is now a "
12171 "massive regulation of the overall creative process. Law plus technology plus "
12172 "the market now interact to turn this historically benign regulation into the "
12173 "most significant regulation of culture that our free society has "
12174 "known.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12178 #: freeculture.xml:8640
12180 "<emphasis role='strong'>This has been</emphasis> a long chapter. Its point "
12181 "can now be briefly stated."
12184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12185 #: freeculture.xml:8644
12187 "At the start of this book, I distinguished between commercial and "
12188 "noncommercial culture. In the course of this chapter, I have distinguished "
12189 "between copying a work and transforming it. We can now combine these two "
12190 "distinctions and draw a clear map of the changes that copyright law has "
12191 "undergone. In 1790, the law looked like this:"
12194 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12195 #: freeculture.xml:8656 freeculture.xml:8693
12199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12200 #: freeculture.xml:8657 freeculture.xml:8694 freeculture.xml:8732 freeculture.xml:8764
12204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12205 #: freeculture.xml:8662 freeculture.xml:8699 freeculture.xml:8737 freeculture.xml:8769
12209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12210 #: freeculture.xml:8663 freeculture.xml:8700 freeculture.xml:8701 freeculture.xml:8738 freeculture.xml:8739 freeculture.xml:8770 freeculture.xml:8771 freeculture.xml:8775 freeculture.xml:8776
12214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12215 #: freeculture.xml:8664 freeculture.xml:8668 freeculture.xml:8669 freeculture.xml:8705 freeculture.xml:8706 freeculture.xml:8744
12219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12220 #: freeculture.xml:8667 freeculture.xml:8704 freeculture.xml:8742 freeculture.xml:8774
12221 msgid "Noncommercial"
12225 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12226 #: freeculture.xml:8676
12228 "The act of publishing a map, chart, and book was regulated by copyright "
12229 "law. Nothing else was. Transformations were free. And as copyright attached "
12230 "only with registration, and only those who intended to benefit commercially "
12231 "would register, copying through publishing of noncommercial work was also "
12235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12236 #: freeculture.xml:8685
12237 msgid "By the end of the nineteenth century, the law had changed to this:"
12240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12241 #: freeculture.xml:8713
12243 "Derivative works were now regulated by copyright law—if published, "
12244 "which again, given the economics of publishing at the time, means if offered "
12245 "commercially. But noncommercial publishing and transformation were still "
12246 "essentially free."
12249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12250 #: freeculture.xml:8719
12252 "In 1909 the law changed to regulate copies, not publishing, and after this "
12253 "change, the scope of the law was tied to technology. As the technology of "
12254 "copying became more prevalent, the reach of the law expanded. Thus by 1975, "
12255 "as photocopying machines became more common, we could say the law began to "
12259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12260 #: freeculture.xml:8731 freeculture.xml:8763
12264 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12265 #: freeculture.xml:8743
12266 msgid "©/Free"
12269 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12270 #: freeculture.xml:8751
12272 "The law was interpreted to reach noncommercial copying through, say, copy "
12273 "machines, but still much of copying outside of the commercial market "
12274 "remained free. But the consequence of the emergence of digital technologies, "
12275 "especially in the context of a digital network, means that the law now looks "
12280 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12281 #: freeculture.xml:8783
12283 "Every realm is governed by copyright law, whereas before most creativity was "
12284 "not. The law now regulates the full range of creativity— commercial or "
12285 "not, transformative or not—with the same rules designed to regulate "
12286 "commercial publishers."
12289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12290 #: freeculture.xml:8791
12292 "Obviously, copyright law is not the enemy. The enemy is regulation that does "
12293 "no good. So the question that we should be asking just now is whether "
12294 "extending the regulations of copyright law into each of these domains "
12295 "actually does any good."
12298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12299 #: freeculture.xml:8797
12301 "I have no doubt that it does good in regulating commercial copying. But I "
12302 "also have no doubt that it does more harm than good when regulating (as it "
12303 "regulates just now) noncommercial copying and, especially, noncommercial "
12304 "transformation. And increasingly, for the reasons sketched especially in "
12305 "chapters <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/> and "
12306 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"transformers\"/>, one "
12307 "might well wonder whether it does more harm than good for commercial "
12308 "transformation. More commercial transformative work would be created if "
12309 "derivative rights were more sharply restricted."
12312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12313 #: freeculture.xml:8821
12314 msgid "legal realist movement"
12317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12318 #: freeculture.xml:8815
12320 "It was the single most important contribution of the legal realist movement "
12321 "to demonstrate that all property rights are always crafted to balance public "
12322 "and private interests. See Thomas C. Grey, <quote>The Disintegration of "
12323 "Property,</quote> in <citetitle>Nomos XXII: Property</citetitle>, J. Roland "
12324 "Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds. (New York: New York University Press, "
12325 "1980). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12329 #: freeculture.xml:8809
12331 "The issue is therefore not simply whether copyright is property. Of course "
12332 "copyright is a kind of <quote>property,</quote> and of course, as with any "
12333 "property, the state ought to protect it. But first impressions "
12334 "notwithstanding, historically, this property right (as with all property "
12335 "rights<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>) has been crafted to "
12336 "balance the important need to give authors and artists incentives with the "
12337 "equally important need to assure access to creative work. This balance has "
12338 "always been struck in light of new technologies. And for almost half of our "
12339 "tradition, the <quote>copyright</quote> did not control <emphasis>at "
12340 "all</emphasis> the freedom of others to build upon or transform a creative "
12341 "work. American culture was born free, and for almost 180 years our country "
12342 "consistently protected a vibrant and rich free culture."
12346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12347 #: freeculture.xml:8834
12349 "We achieved that free culture because our law respected important limits on "
12350 "the scope of the interests protected by <quote>property.</quote> The very "
12351 "birth of <quote>copyright</quote> as a statutory right recognized those "
12352 "limits, by granting copyright owners protection for a limited time only (the "
12353 "story of chapter 6). The tradition of <quote>fair use</quote> is animated by "
12354 "a similar concern that is increasingly under strain as the costs of "
12355 "exercising any fair use right become unavoidably high (the story of chapter "
12356 "7). Adding statutory rights where markets might stifle innovation is another "
12357 "familiar limit on the property right that copyright is (chapter 8). And "
12358 "granting archives and libraries a broad freedom to collect, claims of "
12359 "property notwithstanding, is a crucial part of guaranteeing the soul of a "
12360 "culture (chapter 9). Free cultures, like free markets, are built with "
12361 "property. But the nature of the property that builds a free culture is very "
12362 "different from the extremist vision that dominates the debate today."
12365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12366 #: freeculture.xml:8853
12368 "Free culture is increasingly the casualty in this war on piracy. In response "
12369 "to a real, if not yet quantified, threat that the technologies of the "
12370 "Internet present to twentieth-century business models for producing and "
12371 "distributing culture, the law and technology are being transformed in a way "
12372 "that will undermine our tradition of free culture. The property right that "
12373 "is copyright is no longer the balanced right that it was, or was intended to "
12374 "be. The property right that is copyright has become unbalanced, tilted "
12375 "toward an extreme. The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened "
12376 "in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check "
12380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
12381 #: freeculture.xml:8870
12385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
12386 #: freeculture.xml:8874
12387 msgid "CHAPTER ELEVEN: Chimera"
12390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12391 #: freeculture.xml:8875
12395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12396 #: freeculture.xml:8876
12397 msgid "Wells, H. G."
12400 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12401 #: freeculture.xml:8877
12402 msgid "<quote>Country of the Blind, The</quote> (Wells)"
12406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
12407 #: freeculture.xml:8885
12409 "H. G. Wells, <quote>The Country of the Blind</quote> (1904, 1911). See "
12410 "H. G. Wells, <citetitle>The Country of the Blind and Other "
12411 "Stories</citetitle>, Michael Sherborne, ed. (New York: Oxford University "
12415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12416 #: freeculture.xml:8880
12418 "<emphasis role='strong'>In a well-known</emphasis> short story by "
12419 "H. G. Wells, a mountain climber named Nunez trips (literally, down an ice "
12420 "slope) into an unknown and isolated valley in the Peruvian "
12421 "Andes.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The valley is "
12422 "extraordinarily beautiful, with <quote>sweet water, pasture, an even "
12423 "climate, slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an "
12424 "excellent fruit.</quote> But the villagers are all blind. Nunez takes this "
12425 "as an opportunity. <quote>In the Country of the Blind,</quote> he tells "
12426 "himself, <quote>the One-Eyed Man is King.</quote> So he resolves to live "
12427 "with the villagers to explore life as a king."
12430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12431 #: freeculture.xml:8897
12433 "Things don't go quite as he planned. He tries to explain the idea of sight "
12434 "to the villagers. They don't understand. He tells them they are "
12435 "<quote>blind.</quote> They don't have the word "
12436 "<citetitle>blind</citetitle>. They think he's just thick. Indeed, as they "
12437 "increasingly notice the things he can't do (hear the sound of grass being "
12438 "stepped on, for example), they increasingly try to control him. He, in turn, "
12439 "becomes increasingly frustrated. <quote>`You don't understand,' he cried, in "
12440 "a voice that was meant to be great and resolute, and which broke. `You are "
12441 "blind and I can see. Leave me alone!'</quote>"
12445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12446 #: freeculture.xml:8909
12448 "The villagers don't leave him alone. Nor do they see (so to speak) the "
12449 "virtue of his special power. Not even the ultimate target of his affection, "
12450 "a young woman who to him seems <quote>the most beautiful thing in the whole "
12451 "of creation,</quote> understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's description of "
12452 "what he sees <quote>seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she "
12453 "listened to his description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet "
12454 "white-lit beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence.</quote> <quote>She "
12455 "did not believe,</quote> Wells tells us, and <quote>she could only half "
12456 "understand, but she was mysteriously delighted.</quote>"
12459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12460 #: freeculture.xml:8920
12462 "When Nunez announces his desire to marry his <quote>mysteriously "
12463 "delighted</quote> love, the father and the village object. <quote>You see, "
12464 "my dear,</quote> her father instructs, <quote>he's an idiot. He has "
12465 "delusions. He can't do anything right.</quote> They take Nunez to the "
12469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12470 #: freeculture.xml:8926
12472 "After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. <quote>His brain "
12473 "is affected,</quote> he reports."
12476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12477 #: freeculture.xml:8930
12479 "<quote>What affects it?</quote> the father asks. <quote>Those queer things "
12480 "that are called the eyes … are diseased … in such a way as to "
12481 "affect his brain.</quote>"
12484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12485 #: freeculture.xml:8935
12487 "The doctor continues: <quote>I think I may say with reasonable certainty "
12488 "that in order to cure him completely, all that we need to do is a simple and "
12489 "easy surgical operation—namely, to remove these irritant bodies [the "
12493 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12494 #: freeculture.xml:8941
12496 "<quote>Thank Heaven for science!</quote> says the father to the doctor. They "
12497 "inform Nunez of this condition necessary for him to be allowed his bride. "
12498 "(You'll have to read the original to learn what happens in the end. I "
12499 "believe in free culture, but never in giving away the end of a story.)"
12503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12504 #: freeculture.xml:8947
12506 "<emphasis role='strong'>It sometimes</emphasis> happens that the eggs of "
12507 "twins fuse in the mother's womb. That fusion produces a "
12508 "<quote>chimera.</quote> A chimera is a single creature with two sets of "
12509 "DNA. The DNA in the blood, for example, might be different from the DNA of "
12510 "the skin. This possibility is an underused plot for murder "
12511 "mysteries. <quote>But the DNA shows with 100 percent certainty that she was "
12512 "not the person whose blood was at the scene. …</quote>"
12515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12516 #: freeculture.xml:8961
12518 "Before I had read about chimeras, I would have said they were impossible. A "
12519 "single person can't have two sets of DNA. The very idea of DNA is that it is "
12520 "the code of an individual. Yet in fact, not only can two individuals have "
12521 "the same set of DNA (identical twins), but one person can have two different "
12522 "sets of DNA (a chimera). Our understanding of a <quote>person</quote> should "
12523 "reflect this reality."
12526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12527 #: freeculture.xml:8969
12529 "The more I work to understand the current struggle over copyright and "
12530 "culture, which I've sometimes called unfairly, and sometimes not unfairly "
12531 "enough, <quote>the copyright wars,</quote> the more I think we're dealing "
12532 "with a chimera. For example, in the battle over the question <quote>What is "
12533 "p2p file sharing?</quote> both sides have it right, and both sides have it "
12534 "wrong. One side says, <quote>File sharing is just like two kids taping each "
12535 "others' records—the sort of thing we've been doing for the last thirty "
12536 "years without any question at all.</quote> That's true, at least in "
12537 "part. When I tell my best friend to try out a new CD that I've bought, but "
12538 "rather than just send the CD, I point him to my p2p server, that is, in all "
12539 "relevant respects, just like what every executive in every recording company "
12540 "no doubt did as a kid: sharing music."
12543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12544 #: freeculture.xml:8983
12546 "But the description is also false in part. For when my p2p server is on a "
12547 "p2p network through which anyone can get access to my music, then sure, my "
12548 "friends can get access, but it stretches the meaning of "
12549 "<quote>friends</quote> beyond recognition to say <quote>my ten thousand best "
12550 "friends</quote> can get access. Whether or not sharing my music with my best "
12551 "friend is what <quote>we have always been allowed to do,</quote> we have not "
12552 "always been allowed to share music with <quote>our ten thousand best "
12556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12557 #: freeculture.xml:8992
12559 "Likewise, when the other side says, <quote>File sharing is just like walking "
12560 "into a Tower Records and taking a CD off the shelf and walking out with "
12561 "it,</quote> that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett (finally) "
12562 "releases a new album, rather than buying it, I go to Kazaa and find a free "
12563 "copy to take, that is very much like stealing a copy from Tower. "
12564 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12568 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12569 #: freeculture.xml:9003
12571 "But it is not quite stealing from Tower. After all, when I take a CD from "
12572 "Tower Records, Tower has one less CD to sell. And when I take a CD from "
12573 "Tower Records, I get a bit of plastic and a cover, and something to show on "
12574 "my shelves. (And, while we're at it, we could also note that when I take a "
12575 "CD from Tower Records, the maximum fine that might be imposed on me, under "
12576 "California law, at least, is $1,000. According to the RIAA, by contrast, if "
12577 "I download a ten-song CD, I'm liable for $1,500,000 in damages.)"
12580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12581 #: freeculture.xml:9013
12583 "The point is not that it is as neither side describes. The point is that it "
12584 "is both—both as the RIAA describes it and as Kazaa describes it. It is "
12585 "a chimera. And rather than simply denying what the other side asserts, we "
12586 "need to begin to think about how we should respond to this chimera. What "
12587 "rules should govern it?"
12590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12591 #: freeculture.xml:9029 freeculture.xml:9311 freeculture.xml:10347
12592 msgid "ISPs (Internet service providers), user identities revealed by"
12595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12596 #: freeculture.xml:9060
12597 msgid "Conyers, John, Jr."
12600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12601 #: freeculture.xml:9061 freeculture.xml:9782
12602 msgid "Berman, Howard L."
12605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
12606 #: freeculture.xml:9029
12608 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For an excellent summary, see the "
12609 "report prepared by GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society "
12610 "at Harvard Law School, <quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster "
12611 "World,</quote> 27 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12612 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #33</ulink>. Reps. John Conyers "
12613 "Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill that "
12614 "would treat unauthorized on-line copying as a felony offense with "
12615 "punishments ranging as high as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey, "
12616 "<quote>House Bill Aims to Up Stakes on Piracy,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
12617 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 17 July 2003, available at <ulink "
12618 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #34</ulink>. Civil penalties are "
12619 "currently set at $150,000 per copied song. For a recent (and unsuccessful) "
12620 "legal challenge to the RIAA's demand that an ISP reveal the identity of a "
12621 "user accused of sharing more than 600 songs through a family computer, see "
12622 "<citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Verizon Internet Services (In "
12623 "re. Verizon Internet Services)</citetitle>, 240 F. Supp. 2d 24 "
12624 "(D.D.C. 2003). Such a user could face liability ranging as high as $90 "
12625 "million. Such astronomical figures furnish the RIAA with a powerful arsenal "
12626 "in its prosecution of file sharers. Settlements ranging from $12,000 to "
12627 "$17,500 for four students accused of heavy file sharing on university "
12628 "networks must have seemed a mere pittance next to the $98 billion the RIAA "
12629 "could seek should the matter proceed to court. See Elizabeth Young, "
12630 "<quote>Downloading Could Lead to Fines,</quote> redandblack.com, August "
12631 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12632 "#35</ulink>. For an example of the RIAA's targeting of student file sharing, "
12633 "and of the subpoenas issued to universities to reveal student file-sharer "
12634 "identities, see James Collins, <quote>RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to "
12635 "Name Students,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 8 August 2003, "
12636 "D3, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12637 "#36</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
12638 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
12641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12642 #: freeculture.xml:9020
12644 "We could respond by simply pretending that it is not a chimera. We could, "
12645 "with the RIAA, decide that every act of file sharing should be a felony. We "
12646 "could prosecute families for millions of dollars in damages just because "
12647 "file sharing occurred on a family computer. And we can get universities to "
12648 "monitor all computer traffic to make sure that no computer is used to commit "
12649 "this crime. These responses might be extreme, but each of them has either "
12650 "been proposed or actually implemented.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12655 #: freeculture.xml:9067
12657 "Alternatively, we could respond to file sharing the way many kids act as "
12658 "though we've responded. We could totally legalize it. Let there be no "
12659 "copyright liability, either civil or criminal, for making copyrighted "
12660 "content available on the Net. Make file sharing like gossip: regulated, if "
12661 "at all, by social norms but not by law."
12664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12665 #: freeculture.xml:9074
12667 "Either response is possible. I think either would be a mistake. Rather than "
12668 "embrace one of these two extremes, we should embrace something that "
12669 "recognizes the truth in both. And while I end this book with a sketch of a "
12670 "system that does just that, my aim in the next chapter is to show just how "
12671 "awful it would be for us to adopt the zero-tolerance extreme. I believe "
12672 "<emphasis>either</emphasis> extreme would be worse than a reasonable "
12673 "alternative. But I believe the zero-tolerance solution would be the worse "
12674 "of the two extremes."
12678 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12679 #: freeculture.xml:9086
12681 "Yet zero tolerance is increasingly our government's policy. In the middle of "
12682 "the chaos that the Internet has created, an extraordinary land grab is "
12683 "occurring. The law and technology are being shifted to give content holders "
12684 "a kind of control over our culture that they have never had before. And in "
12685 "this extremism, many an opportunity for new innovation and new creativity "
12689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12690 #: freeculture.xml:9094
12692 "I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to <quote>steal</quote> "
12693 "music. My focus instead is the commercial and cultural innovation that this "
12694 "war will also kill. We have never seen the power to innovate spread so "
12695 "broadly among our citizens, and we have just begun to see the innovation "
12696 "that this power will unleash. Yet the Internet has already seen the passing "
12697 "of one cycle of innovation around technologies to distribute content. The "
12698 "law is responsible for this passing. As the vice president for global public "
12699 "policy at one of these new innovators, eMusic.com, put it when criticizing "
12700 "the DMCA's added protection for copyrighted material,"
12703 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12704 #: freeculture.xml:9107
12706 "eMusic opposes music piracy. We are a distributor of copyrighted material, "
12707 "and we want to protect those rights."
12710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12711 #: freeculture.xml:9111
12713 "But building a technology fortress that locks in the clout of the major "
12714 "labels is by no means the only way to protect copyright interests, nor is it "
12715 "necessarily the best. It is simply too early to answer that question. Market "
12716 "forces operating naturally may very well produce a totally different "
12721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12722 #: freeculture.xml:9128
12724 "WIPO and the DMCA One Year Later: Assessing Consumer Access to Digital "
12725 "Entertainment on the Internet and Other Media: Hearing Before the "
12726 "Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, House "
12727 "Committee on Commerce, 106th Cong. 29 (1999) (statement of Peter Harter, "
12728 "vice president, Global Public Policy and Standards, EMusic.com), available "
12729 "in LEXIS, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony File."
12732 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12733 #: freeculture.xml:9118
12735 "This is a critical point. The choices that industry sectors make with "
12736 "respect to these systems will in many ways directly shape the market for "
12737 "digital media and the manner in which digital media are distributed. This in "
12738 "turn will directly influence the options that are available to consumers, "
12739 "both in terms of the ease with which they will be able to access digital "
12740 "media and the equipment that they will require to do so. Poor choices made "
12741 "this early in the game will retard the growth of this market, hurting "
12742 "everyone's interests.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12746 #: freeculture.xml:9142 freeculture.xml:9500
12747 msgid "Vivendi Universal"
12750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12751 #: freeculture.xml:9139
12753 "In April 2001, eMusic.com was purchased by Vivendi Universal, one of "
12754 "<quote>the major labels.</quote> Its position on these matters has now "
12755 "changed. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12759 #: freeculture.xml:9145
12761 "Reversing our tradition of tolerance now will not merely quash piracy. It "
12762 "will sacrifice values that are important to this culture, and will kill "
12763 "opportunities that could be extraordinarily valuable."
12766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
12767 #: freeculture.xml:9153
12768 msgid "CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms"
12771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12772 #: freeculture.xml:9155
12774 "<emphasis role='strong'>To fight</emphasis> <quote>piracy,</quote> to "
12775 "protect <quote>property,</quote> the content industry has launched a "
12776 "war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have now brought the "
12777 "government into this war. As with any war, this one will have both direct "
12778 "and collateral damage. As with any war of prohibition, these damages will be "
12779 "suffered most by our own people."
12782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12783 #: freeculture.xml:9163
12785 "My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in "
12786 "particular, the consequences for <quote>free culture.</quote> But my aim now "
12787 "is to extend this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war "
12791 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12792 #: freeculture.xml:9169
12794 "In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the first "
12795 "time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the power of "
12796 "the property called <quote>intellectual property</quote> is at its greatest "
12800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12801 #: freeculture.xml:9177
12803 "Yet <quote>common sense</quote> does not see it this way. Common sense is "
12804 "still on the side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme "
12805 "claims of control in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical "
12806 "rejection of <quote>piracy</quote> still has play."
12810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12811 #: freeculture.xml:9185
12813 "There will be many consequences of continuing this war. I want to describe "
12814 "just three. All three might be said to be unintended. I am quite confident "
12815 "the third is unintended. I'm less sure about the first two. The first two "
12816 "protect modern RCAs, but there is no Howard Armstrong in the wings to fight "
12817 "today's monopolists of culture."
12820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12821 #: freeculture.xml:9192
12822 msgid "Constraining Creators"
12825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12826 #: freeculture.xml:9194
12828 "In the next ten years we will see an explosion of digital technologies. "
12829 "These technologies will enable almost anyone to capture and share "
12830 "content. Capturing and sharing content, of course, is what humans have done "
12831 "since the dawn of man. It is how we learn and communicate. But capturing and "
12832 "sharing through digital technology is different. The fidelity and power are "
12833 "different. You could send an e-mail telling someone about a joke you saw on "
12834 "Comedy Central, or you could send the clip. You could write an essay about "
12835 "the inconsistencies in the arguments of the politician you most love to "
12836 "hate, or you could make a short film that puts statement against "
12837 "statement. You could write a poem to express your love, or you could weave "
12838 "together a string—a mash-up— of songs from your favorite artists "
12839 "in a collage and make it available on the Net."
12842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12843 #: freeculture.xml:9209
12845 "This digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> is in part an extension of "
12846 "the capturing and sharing that has always been integral to our culture, and "
12847 "in part it is something new. It is continuous with the Kodak, but it "
12848 "explodes the boundaries of Kodak-like technologies. The technology of "
12849 "digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> promises a world of "
12850 "extraordinarily diverse creativity that can be easily and broadly "
12851 "shared. And as that creativity is applied to democracy, it will enable a "
12852 "broad range of citizens to use technology to express and criticize and "
12853 "contribute to the culture all around."
12857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12858 #: freeculture.xml:9220
12860 "Technology has thus given us an opportunity to do something with culture "
12861 "that has only ever been possible for individuals in small groups, isolated "
12862 "from others. Think about an old man telling a story to a collection of "
12863 "neighbors in a small town. Now imagine that same storytelling extended "
12864 "across the globe."
12867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12868 #: freeculture.xml:9230
12870 "Yet all this is possible only if the activity is presumptively legal. In the "
12871 "current regime of legal regulation, it is not. Forget file sharing for a "
12872 "moment. Think about your favorite amazing sites on the Net. Web sites that "
12873 "offer plot summaries from forgotten television shows; sites that catalog "
12874 "cartoons from the 1960s; sites that mix images and sound to criticize "
12875 "politicians or businesses; sites that gather newspaper articles on remote "
12876 "topics of science or culture. There is a vast amount of creative work spread "
12877 "across the Internet. But as the law is currently crafted, this work is "
12878 "presumptively illegal."
12881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12882 #: freeculture.xml:9240 freeculture.xml:9259
12886 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12887 #: freeculture.xml:9254
12889 "See Lynne W. Jeter, <citetitle>Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at "
12890 "WorldCom</citetitle> (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 176, 204; "
12891 "for details of the settlement, see MCI press release, <quote>MCI Wins "
12892 "U.S. District Court Approval for SEC Settlement</quote> (7 July 2003), "
12893 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #37</ulink>. "
12894 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12898 #: freeculture.xml:9275
12899 msgid "Bush, George W."
12902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12903 #: freeculture.xml:9266
12905 "The bill, modeled after California's tort reform model, was passed in the "
12906 "House of Representatives but defeated in a Senate vote in July 2003. For an "
12907 "overview, see Tanya Albert, <quote>Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be "
12908 "Back,' Say Tort Reformers,</quote> amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available at "
12909 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #38</ulink>, and "
12910 "<quote>Senate Turns Back Malpractice Caps,</quote> CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, "
12911 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12912 "#39</ulink>. President Bush has continued to urge tort reform in recent "
12913 "months. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12916 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12917 #: freeculture.xml:9242
12919 "That presumption will increasingly chill creativity, as the examples of "
12920 "extreme penalties for vague infringements continue to proliferate. It is "
12921 "impossible to get a clear sense of what's allowed and what's not, and at the "
12922 "same time, the penalties for crossing the line are astonishingly harsh. The "
12923 "four students who were threatened by the RIAA ( Jesse Jordan of chapter 3 "
12924 "was just one) were threatened with a $98 billion lawsuit for building search "
12925 "engines that permitted songs to be copied. Yet World-Com—which "
12926 "defrauded investors of $11 billion, resulting in a loss to investors in "
12927 "market capitalization of over $200 billion—received a fine of a mere "
12928 "$750 million.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And under legislation "
12929 "being pushed in Congress right now, a doctor who negligently removes the "
12930 "wrong leg in an operation would be liable for no more than $250,000 in "
12931 "damages for pain and suffering.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Can "
12932 "common sense recognize the absurdity in a world where the maximum fine for "
12933 "downloading two songs off the Internet is more than the fine for a doctor's "
12934 "negligently butchering a patient?"
12937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12938 #: freeculture.xml:9281
12939 msgid "art, underground"
12943 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12944 #: freeculture.xml:9302
12946 "See Danit Lidor, <quote>Artists Just Wanna Be Free,</quote> "
12947 "<citetitle>Wired</citetitle>, 7 July 2003, available at <ulink "
12948 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #40</ulink>. For an overview of "
12949 "the exhibition, see <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12954 #: freeculture.xml:9283
12956 "The consequence of this legal uncertainty, tied to these extremely high "
12957 "penalties, is that an extraordinary amount of creativity will either never "
12958 "be exercised, or never be exercised in the open. We drive this creative "
12959 "process underground by branding the modern-day Walt Disneys "
12960 "<quote>pirates.</quote> We make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a "
12961 "public domain, because the boundaries of the public domain are designed to "
12962 "be unclear. It never pays to do anything except pay for the right to create, "
12963 "and hence only those who can pay are allowed to create. As was the case in "
12964 "the Soviet Union, though for very different reasons, we will begin to see a "
12965 "world of underground art—not because the message is necessarily "
12966 "political, or because the subject is controversial, but because the very act "
12967 "of creating the art is legally fraught. Already, exhibits of <quote>illegal "
12968 "art</quote> tour the United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
12969 "In what does their <quote>illegality</quote> consist? In the act of mixing "
12970 "the culture around us with an expression that is critical or reflective."
12973 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12974 #: freeculture.xml:9313
12976 "Part of the reason for this fear of illegality has to do with the changing "
12977 "law. I described that change in detail in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
12978 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>. But an even bigger part has to do "
12979 "with the increasing ease with which infractions can be tracked. As users of "
12980 "file-sharing systems discovered in 2002, it is a trivial matter for "
12981 "copyright owners to get courts to order Internet service providers to reveal "
12982 "who has what content. It is as if your cassette tape player transmitted a "
12983 "list of the songs that you played in the privacy of your own home that "
12984 "anyone could tune into for whatever reason they chose."
12987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12988 #: freeculture.xml:9326
12990 "Never in our history has a painter had to worry about whether his painting "
12991 "infringed on someone else's work; but the modern-day painter, using the "
12992 "tools of Photoshop, sharing content on the Web, must worry all the "
12993 "time. Images are all around, but the only safe images to use in the act of "
12994 "creation are those purchased from Corbis or another image farm. And in "
12995 "purchasing, censoring happens. There is a free market in pencils; we needn't "
12996 "worry about its effect on creativity. But there is a highly regulated, "
12997 "monopolized market in cultural icons; the right to cultivate and transform "
12998 "them is not similarly free."
13001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13002 #: freeculture.xml:9337
13004 "Lawyers rarely see this because lawyers are rarely empirical. As I described "
13005 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/>, "
13006 "in response to the story about documentary filmmaker Jon Else, I have been "
13007 "lectured again and again by lawyers who insist Else's use was fair use, and "
13008 "hence I am wrong to say that the law regulates such a use."
13012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13013 #: freeculture.xml:9348
13015 "But fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer to defend "
13016 "your right to create. And as lawyers love to forget, our system for "
13017 "defending rights such as fair use is astonishingly bad—in practically "
13018 "every context, but especially here. It costs too much, it delivers too "
13019 "slowly, and what it delivers often has little connection to the justice "
13020 "underlying the claim. The legal system may be tolerable for the very rich. "
13021 "For everyone else, it is an embarrassment to a tradition that prides itself "
13022 "on the rule of law."
13025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13026 #: freeculture.xml:9358
13028 "Judges and lawyers can tell themselves that fair use provides adequate "
13029 "<quote>breathing room</quote> between regulation by the law and the access "
13030 "the law should allow. But it is a measure of how out of touch our legal "
13031 "system has become that anyone actually believes this. The rules that "
13032 "publishers impose upon writers, the rules that film distributors impose upon "
13033 "filmmakers, the rules that newspapers impose upon journalists— these "
13034 "are the real laws governing creativity. And these rules have little "
13035 "relationship to the <quote>law</quote> with which judges comfort themselves."
13038 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13039 #: freeculture.xml:9369
13041 "For in a world that threatens $150,000 for a single willful infringement of "
13042 "a copyright, and which demands tens of thousands of dollars to even defend "
13043 "against a copyright infringement claim, and which would never return to the "
13044 "wrongfully accused defendant anything of the costs she suffered to defend "
13045 "her right to speak—in that world, the astonishingly broad regulations "
13046 "that pass under the name <quote>copyright</quote> silence speech and "
13047 "creativity. And in that world, it takes a studied blindness for people to "
13048 "continue to believe they live in a culture that is free."
13051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13052 #: freeculture.xml:9380
13053 msgid "As Jed Horovitz, the businessman behind Video Pipeline, said to me,"
13057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13058 #: freeculture.xml:9384
13060 "We're losing [creative] opportunities right and left. Creative people are "
13061 "being forced not to express themselves. Thoughts are not being "
13062 "expressed. And while a lot of stuff may [still] be created, it still won't "
13063 "get distributed. Even if the stuff gets made … you're not going to "
13064 "get it distributed in the mainstream media unless you've got a little note "
13065 "from a lawyer saying, <quote>This has been cleared.</quote> You're not even "
13066 "going to get it on PBS without that kind of permission. That's the point at "
13067 "which they control it."
13070 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
13071 #: freeculture.xml:9397
13072 msgid "Constraining Innovators"
13075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13076 #: freeculture.xml:9399
13078 "The story of the last section was a crunchy-lefty story—creativity "
13079 "quashed, artists who can't speak, yada yada yada. Maybe that doesn't get you "
13080 "going. Maybe you think there's enough weird art out there, and enough "
13081 "expression that is critical of what seems to be just about everything. And "
13082 "if you think that, you might think there's little in this story to worry "
13086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13087 #: freeculture.xml:9407
13089 "But there's an aspect of this story that is not lefty in any sense. Indeed, "
13090 "it is an aspect that could be written by the most extreme promarket "
13091 "ideologue. And if you're one of these sorts (and a special one at that, 188 "
13092 "pages into a book like this), then you can see this other aspect by "
13093 "substituting <quote>free market</quote> every place I've spoken of "
13094 "<quote>free culture.</quote> The point is the same, even if the interests "
13095 "affecting culture are more fundamental."
13098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13099 #: freeculture.xml:9417
13101 "The charge I've been making about the regulation of culture is the same "
13102 "charge free marketers make about regulating markets. Everyone, of course, "
13103 "concedes that some regulation of markets is necessary—at a minimum, we "
13104 "need rules of property and contract, and courts to enforce both. Likewise, "
13105 "in this culture debate, everyone concedes that at least some framework of "
13106 "copyright is also required. But both perspectives vehemently insist that "
13107 "just because some regulation is good, it doesn't follow that more regulation "
13108 "is better. And both perspectives are constantly attuned to the ways in which "
13109 "regulation simply enables the powerful industries of today to protect "
13110 "themselves against the competitors of tomorrow."
13113 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13114 #: freeculture.xml:9429 freeculture.xml:9537
13115 msgid "Barry, Hank"
13119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13120 #: freeculture.xml:9431
13122 "This is the single most dramatic effect of the shift in regulatory strategy "
13123 "that I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13124 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>. The consequence of this massive threat of "
13125 "liability tied to the murky boundaries of copyright law is that innovators "
13126 "who want to innovate in this space can safely innovate only if they have the "
13127 "sign-off from last generation's dominant industries. That lesson has been "
13128 "taught through a series of cases that were designed and executed to teach "
13129 "venture capitalists a lesson. That lesson—what former Napster CEO Hank "
13130 "Barry calls a <quote>nuclear pall</quote> that has fallen over the "
13131 "Valley—has been learned."
13134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13135 #: freeculture.xml:9444
13137 "Consider one example to make the point, a story whose beginning I told in "
13138 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> and which has progressed in a way "
13139 "that even I (pessimist extraordinaire) would never have predicted."
13142 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13143 #: freeculture.xml:9448
13144 msgid "Roberts, Michael"
13147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13148 #: freeculture.xml:9450
13150 "In 1997, Michael Roberts launched a company called MP3.com. MP3.com was "
13151 "keen to remake the music business. Their goal was not just to facilitate new "
13152 "ways to get access to content. Their goal was also to facilitate new ways to "
13153 "create content. Unlike the major labels, MP3.com offered creators a venue to "
13154 "distribute their creativity, without demanding an exclusive engagement from "
13158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
13159 #: freeculture.xml:9458
13160 msgid "preference data on"
13163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13164 #: freeculture.xml:9460
13166 "To make this system work, however, MP3.com needed a reliable way to "
13167 "recommend music to its users. The idea behind this alternative was to "
13168 "leverage the revealed preferences of music listeners to recommend new "
13169 "artists. If you like Lyle Lovett, you're likely to enjoy Bonnie Raitt. And "
13173 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13174 #: freeculture.xml:9467
13176 "This idea required a simple way to gather data about user preferences. "
13177 "MP3.com came up with an extraordinarily clever way to gather this preference "
13178 "data. In January 2000, the company launched a service called "
13179 "my.mp3.com. Using software provided by MP3.com, a user would sign into an "
13180 "account and then insert into her computer a CD. The software would identify "
13181 "the CD, and then give the user access to that content. So, for example, if "
13182 "you inserted a CD by Jill Sobule, then wherever you were—at work or at "
13183 "home—you could get access to that music once you signed into your "
13184 "account. The system was therefore a kind of music-lockbox."
13188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13189 #: freeculture.xml:9479
13191 "No doubt some could use this system to illegally copy content. But that "
13192 "opportunity existed with or without MP3.com. The aim of the my.mp3.com "
13193 "service was to give users access to their own content, and as a by-product, "
13194 "by seeing the content they already owned, to discover the kind of content "
13198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13199 #: freeculture.xml:9489
13201 "To make this system function, however, MP3.com needed to copy 50,000 CDs to "
13202 "a server. (In principle, it could have been the user who uploaded the music, "
13203 "but that would have taken a great deal of time, and would have produced a "
13204 "product of questionable quality.) It therefore purchased 50,000 CDs from a "
13205 "store, and started the process of making copies of those CDs. Again, it "
13206 "would not serve the content from those copies to anyone except those who "
13207 "authenticated that they had a copy of the CD they wanted to access. So while "
13208 "this was 50,000 copies, it was 50,000 copies directed at giving customers "
13209 "something they had already bought."
13212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13213 #: freeculture.xml:9502
13215 "Nine days after MP3.com launched its service, the five major labels, headed "
13216 "by the RIAA, brought a lawsuit against MP3.com. MP3.com settled with four of "
13217 "the five. Nine months later, a federal judge found MP3.com to have been "
13218 "guilty of willful infringement with respect to the fifth. Applying the law "
13219 "as it is, the judge imposed a fine against MP3.com of $118 million. MP3.com "
13220 "then settled with the remaining plaintiff, Vivendi Universal, paying over "
13221 "$54 million. Vivendi purchased MP3.com just about a year later."
13224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13225 #: freeculture.xml:9512
13226 msgid "That part of the story I have told before. Now consider its conclusion."
13229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13230 #: freeculture.xml:9515
13232 "After Vivendi purchased MP3.com, Vivendi turned around and filed a "
13233 "malpractice lawsuit against the lawyers who had advised it that they had a "
13234 "good faith claim that the service they wanted to offer would be considered "
13235 "legal under copyright law. This lawsuit alleged that it should have been "
13236 "obvious that the courts would find this behavior illegal; therefore, this "
13237 "lawsuit sought to punish any lawyer who had dared to suggest that the law "
13238 "was less restrictive than the labels demanded."
13242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13243 #: freeculture.xml:9525
13245 "The clear purpose of this lawsuit (which was settled for an unspecified "
13246 "amount shortly after the story was no longer covered in the press) was to "
13247 "send an unequivocal message to lawyers advising clients in this space: It is "
13248 "not just your clients who might suffer if the content industry directs its "
13249 "guns against them. It is also you. So those of you who believe the law "
13250 "should be less restrictive should realize that such a view of the law will "
13251 "cost you and your firm dearly."
13254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13255 #: freeculture.xml:9536
13256 msgid "Hummer, John"
13259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13260 #: freeculture.xml:9538
13261 msgid "Hummer Winblad"
13265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13266 #: freeculture.xml:9548
13268 "See Joseph Menn, <quote>Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor,</quote> "
13269 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 23 April 2003. For a parallel "
13270 "argument about the effects on innovation in the distribution of music, see "
13271 "Janelle Brown, <quote>The Music Revolution Will Not Be Digitized,</quote> "
13272 "Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available at <ulink "
13273 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #42</ulink>. See also Jon "
13274 "Healey, <quote>Online Music Services Besieged,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
13275 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 28 May 2001."
13278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13279 #: freeculture.xml:9542
13281 "This strategy is not just limited to the lawyers. In April 2003, Universal "
13282 "and EMI brought a lawsuit against Hummer Winblad, the venture capital firm "
13283 "(VC) that had funded Napster at a certain stage of its development, its "
13284 "cofounder ( John Hummer), and general partner (Hank Barry).<placeholder "
13285 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The claim here, as well, was that the VC should "
13286 "have recognized the right of the content industry to control how the "
13287 "industry should develop. They should be held personally liable for funding a "
13288 "company whose business turned out to be beyond the law. Here again, the aim "
13289 "of the lawsuit is transparent: Any VC now recognizes that if you fund a "
13290 "company whose business is not approved of by the dinosaurs, you are at risk "
13291 "not just in the marketplace, but in the courtroom as well. Your investment "
13292 "buys you not only a company, it also buys you a lawsuit. So extreme has the "
13293 "environment become that even car manufacturers are afraid of technologies "
13294 "that touch content. In an article in <citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, "
13295 "Rafe Needleman describes a discussion with BMW:"
13298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
13299 #: freeculture.xml:9570
13303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
13304 #: freeculture.xml:9571
13305 msgid "cars, MP3 sound system in"
13308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13309 #: freeculture.xml:9586
13310 msgid "Needleman, Rafe"
13313 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
13314 #: freeculture.xml:9582
13316 "Rafe Needleman, <quote>Driving in Cars with MP3s,</quote> "
13317 "<citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
13318 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #43</ulink>. I am grateful to "
13319 "Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli for this example. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
13323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13324 #: freeculture.xml:9573
13326 "I asked why, with all the storage capacity and computer power in the car, "
13327 "there was no way to play MP3 files. I was told that BMW engineers in Germany "
13328 "had rigged a new vehicle to play MP3s via the car's built-in sound system, "
13329 "but that the company's marketing and legal departments weren't comfortable "
13330 "with pushing this forward for release stateside. Even today, no new cars are "
13331 "sold in the United States with bona fide MP3 players. … <placeholder "
13332 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13336 #: freeculture.xml:9591
13338 "This is the world of the mafia—filled with <quote>your money or your "
13339 "life</quote> offers, governed in the end not by courts but by the threats "
13340 "that the law empowers copyright holders to exercise. It is a system that "
13341 "will obviously and necessarily stifle new innovation. It is hard enough to "
13342 "start a company. It is impossibly hard if that company is constantly "
13343 "threatened by litigation."
13347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13348 #: freeculture.xml:9601
13350 "The point is not that businesses should have a right to start illegal "
13351 "enterprises. The point is the definition of <quote>illegal.</quote> The law "
13352 "is a mess of uncertainty. We have no good way to know how it should apply to "
13353 "new technologies. Yet by reversing our tradition of judicial deference, and "
13354 "by embracing the astonishingly high penalties that copyright law imposes, "
13355 "that uncertainty now yields a reality which is far more conservative than is "
13356 "right. If the law imposed the death penalty for parking tickets, we'd not "
13357 "only have fewer parking tickets, we'd also have much less driving. The same "
13358 "principle applies to innovation. If innovation is constantly checked by this "
13359 "uncertain and unlimited liability, we will have much less vibrant innovation "
13360 "and much less creativity."
13363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13364 #: freeculture.xml:9616
13366 "The point is directly parallel to the crunchy-lefty point about fair "
13367 "use. Whatever the <quote>real</quote> law is, realism about the effect of "
13368 "law in both contexts is the same. This wildly punitive system of regulation "
13369 "will systematically stifle creativity and innovation. It will protect some "
13370 "industries and some creators, but it will harm industry and creativity "
13371 "generally. Free market and free culture depend upon vibrant competition. "
13372 "Yet the effect of the law today is to stifle just this kind of competition. "
13373 "The effect is to produce an overregulated culture, just as the effect of too "
13374 "much control in the market is to produce an overregulatedregulated market."
13378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13379 #: freeculture.xml:9628
13381 "The building of a permission culture, rather than a free culture, is the "
13382 "first important way in which the changes I have described will burden "
13383 "innovation. A permission culture means a lawyer's culture—a culture in "
13384 "which the ability to create requires a call to your lawyer. Again, I am not "
13385 "antilawyer, at least when they're kept in their proper place. I am certainly "
13386 "not antilaw. But our profession has lost the sense of its limits. And "
13387 "leaders in our profession have lost an appreciation of the high costs that "
13388 "our profession imposes upon others. The inefficiency of the law is an "
13389 "embarrassment to our tradition. And while I believe our profession should "
13390 "therefore do everything it can to make the law more efficient, it should at "
13391 "least do everything it can to limit the reach of the law where the law is "
13392 "not doing any good. The transaction costs buried within a permission culture "
13393 "are enough to bury a wide range of creativity. Someone needs to do a lot of "
13394 "justifying to justify that result."
13397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13398 #: freeculture.xml:9647
13400 "<emphasis role='strong'>The uncertainty</emphasis> of the law is one burden "
13401 "on innovation. There is a second burden that operates more directly. This is "
13402 "the effort by many in the content industry to use the law to directly "
13403 "regulate the technology of the Internet so that it better protects their "
13407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13408 #: freeculture.xml:9654
13410 "The motivation for this response is obvious. The Internet enables the "
13411 "efficient spread of content. That efficiency is a feature of the Internet's "
13412 "design. But from the perspective of the content industry, this feature is a "
13413 "<quote>bug.</quote> The efficient spread of content means that content "
13414 "distributors have a harder time controlling the distribution of content. "
13415 "One obvious response to this efficiency is thus to make the Internet less "
13416 "efficient. If the Internet enables <quote>piracy,</quote> then, this "
13417 "response says, we should break the kneecaps of the Internet."
13421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13422 #: freeculture.xml:9669
13424 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> "
13425 "GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law "
13426 "School (2003), 33–35, available at <ulink "
13427 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>."
13431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13432 #: freeculture.xml:9682
13433 msgid "GartnerG2, 26–27."
13436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13437 #: freeculture.xml:9665
13439 "The examples of this form of legislation are many. At the urging of the "
13440 "content industry, some in Congress have threatened legislation that would "
13441 "require computers to determine whether the content they access is protected "
13442 "or not, and to disable the spread of protected content.<placeholder "
13443 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Congress has already launched proceedings to "
13444 "explore a mandatory <quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would be required on "
13445 "any device capable of transmitting digital video (i.e., a computer), and "
13446 "that would disable the copying of any content that is marked with a "
13447 "broadcast flag. Other members of Congress have proposed immunizing content "
13448 "providers from liability for technology they might deploy that would hunt "
13449 "down copyright violators and disable their machines.<placeholder "
13450 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
13454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13455 #: freeculture.xml:9686
13457 "In one sense, these solutions seem sensible. If the problem is the code, why "
13458 "not regulate the code to remove the problem. But any regulation of technical "
13459 "infrastructure will always be tuned to the particular technology of the "
13460 "day. It will impose significant burdens and costs on the technology, but "
13461 "will likely be eclipsed by advances around exactly those requirements."
13464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
13465 #: freeculture.xml:9695 freeculture.xml:11540
13470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13471 #: freeculture.xml:9701
13473 "See David McGuire, <quote>Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy,</quote> "
13474 "Newsbytes, February 2002 (Entertainment)."
13477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13478 #: freeculture.xml:9697
13480 "In March 2002, a broad coalition of technology companies, led by Intel, "
13481 "tried to get Congress to see the harm that such legislation would "
13482 "impose.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Their argument was "
13483 "obviously not that copyright should not be protected. Instead, they argued, "
13484 "any protection should not do more harm than good."
13487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13488 #: freeculture.xml:9709
13490 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is one</emphasis> more obvious way in which "
13491 "this war has harmed innovation—again, a story that will be quite "
13492 "familiar to the free market crowd."
13495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13496 #: freeculture.xml:9714
13498 "Copyright may be property, but like all property, it is also a form of "
13499 "regulation. It is a regulation that benefits some and harms others. When "
13500 "done right, it benefits creators and harms leeches. When done wrong, it is "
13501 "regulation the powerful use to defeat competitors."
13504 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13505 #: freeculture.xml:9728
13507 "Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (Amherst, N.Y.: "
13508 "Prometheus Books, 2001). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13512 #: freeculture.xml:9722
13514 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13515 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, despite this feature of copyright as regulation, "
13516 "and subject to important qualifications outlined by Jessica Litman in her "
13517 "book <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle>,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13518 "id=\"0\"/> overall this history of copyright is not bad. As chapter 10 "
13519 "details, when new technologies have come along, Congress has struck a "
13520 "balance to assure that the new is protected from the old. Compulsory, or "
13521 "statutory, licenses have been one part of that strategy. Free use (as in the "
13522 "case of the VCR) has been another."
13525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13526 #: freeculture.xml:9739
13528 "But that pattern of deference to new technologies has now changed with the "
13529 "rise of the Internet. Rather than striking a balance between the claims of a "
13530 "new technology and the legitimate rights of content creators, both the "
13531 "courts and Congress have imposed legal restrictions that will have the "
13532 "effect of smothering the new to benefit the old."
13535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13536 #: freeculture.xml:9748
13537 msgid "Grokster, Ltd."
13540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13541 #: freeculture.xml:9748
13543 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The only circuit court exception "
13544 "is found in <citetitle>Recording Industry Association of America "
13545 "(RIAA)</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Diamond Multimedia Systems</citetitle>, 180 "
13546 "F. 3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). There the court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit "
13547 "reasoned that makers of a portable MP3 player were not liable for "
13548 "contributory copyright infringement for a device that is unable to record or "
13549 "redistribute music (a device whose only copying function is to render "
13550 "portable a music file already stored on a user's hard drive). At the "
13551 "district court level, the only exception is found in "
13552 "<citetitle>Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, "
13553 "Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Grokster, Ltd</citetitle>., 259 F. Supp. 2d "
13554 "1029 (C.D. Cal., 2003), where the court found the link between the "
13555 "distributor and any given user's conduct too attenuated to make the "
13556 "distributor liable for contributory or vicarious infringement liability."
13559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13560 #: freeculture.xml:9767
13561 msgid "Tauzin, Billy"
13564 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13565 #: freeculture.xml:9783
13566 msgid "Hollings, Fritz"
13569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13570 #: freeculture.xml:9767
13572 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For example, in July 2002, "
13573 "Representative Howard Berman introduced the Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention "
13574 "Act (H.R. 5211), which would immunize copyright holders from liability for "
13575 "damage done to computers when the copyright holders use technology to stop "
13576 "copyright infringement. In August 2002, Representative Billy Tauzin "
13577 "introduced a bill to mandate that technologies capable of rebroadcasting "
13578 "digital copies of films broadcast on TV (i.e., computers) respect a "
13579 "<quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would disable copying of that "
13580 "content. And in March of the same year, Senator Fritz Hollings introduced "
13581 "the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which mandated "
13582 "copyright protection technology in all digital media devices. See GartnerG2, "
13583 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> 27 June "
13584 "2003, 33–34, available at <ulink "
13585 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>. <placeholder "
13586 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
13587 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
13590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13591 #: freeculture.xml:9746
13593 "The response by the courts has been fairly universal.<placeholder "
13594 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It has been mirrored in the responses "
13595 "threatened and actually implemented by Congress. I won't catalog all of "
13596 "those responses here.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> But there is "
13597 "one example that captures the flavor of them all. This is the story of the "
13598 "demise of Internet radio."
13602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13603 #: freeculture.xml:9794
13605 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13606 "linkend=\"pirates\"/>, when a radio station plays a song, the recording "
13607 "artist doesn't get paid for that <quote>radio performance</quote> unless he "
13608 "or she is also the composer. So, for example if Marilyn Monroe had recorded "
13609 "a version of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote>—to memorialize her famous "
13610 "performance before President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden— then "
13611 "whenever that recording was played on the radio, the current copyright "
13612 "owners of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> would get some money, whereas "
13613 "Marilyn Monroe would not."
13616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13617 #: freeculture.xml:9805
13619 "The reasoning behind this balance struck by Congress makes some sense. The "
13620 "justification was that radio was a kind of advertising. The recording artist "
13621 "thus benefited because by playing her music, the radio station was making it "
13622 "more likely that her records would be purchased. Thus, the recording artist "
13623 "got something, even if only indirectly. Probably this reasoning had less to "
13624 "do with the result than with the power of radio stations: Their lobbyists "
13625 "were quite good at stopping any efforts to get Congress to require "
13626 "compensation to the recording artists."
13629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13630 #: freeculture.xml:9816
13632 "Enter Internet radio. Like regular radio, Internet radio is a technology to "
13633 "stream content from a broadcaster to a listener. The broadcast travels "
13634 "across the Internet, not across the ether of radio spectrum. Thus, I can "
13635 "<quote>tune in</quote> to an Internet radio station in Berlin while sitting "
13636 "in San Francisco, even though there's no way for me to tune in to a regular "
13637 "radio station much beyond the San Francisco metropolitan area."
13640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13641 #: freeculture.xml:9825
13643 "This feature of the architecture of Internet radio means that there are "
13644 "potentially an unlimited number of radio stations that a user could tune in "
13645 "to using her computer, whereas under the existing architecture for broadcast "
13646 "radio, there is an obvious limit to the number of broadcasters and clear "
13647 "broadcast frequencies. Internet radio could therefore be more competitive "
13648 "than regular radio; it could provide a wider range of selections. And "
13649 "because the potential audience for Internet radio is the whole world, niche "
13650 "stations could easily develop and market their content to a relatively large "
13651 "number of users worldwide. According to some estimates, more than eighty "
13652 "million users worldwide have tuned in to this new form of radio."
13656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13657 #: freeculture.xml:9841
13659 "Internet radio is thus to radio what FM was to AM. It is an improvement "
13660 "potentially vastly more significant than the FM improvement over AM, since "
13661 "not only is the technology better, so, too, is the competition. Indeed, "
13662 "there is a direct parallel between the fight to establish FM radio and the "
13663 "fight to protect Internet radio. As one author describes Howard Armstrong's "
13664 "struggle to enable FM radio,"
13668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
13669 #: freeculture.xml:9865
13670 msgid "Lessing, 239."
13673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13674 #: freeculture.xml:9851
13676 "An almost unlimited number of FM stations was possible in the shortwaves, "
13677 "thus ending the unnatural restrictions imposed on radio in the crowded "
13678 "longwaves. If FM were freely developed, the number of stations would be "
13679 "limited only by economics and competition rather than by technical "
13680 "restrictions. … Armstrong likened the situation that had grown up in "
13681 "radio to that following the invention of the printing press, when "
13682 "governments and ruling interests attempted to control this new instrument of "
13683 "mass communications by imposing restrictive licenses on it. This tyranny was "
13684 "broken only when it became possible for men freely to acquire printing "
13685 "presses and freely to run them. FM in this sense was as great an invention "
13686 "as the printing presses, for it gave radio the opportunity to strike off its "
13687 "shackles.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13692 #: freeculture.xml:9875
13693 msgid "Ibid., 229."
13696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13697 #: freeculture.xml:9870
13699 "This potential for FM radio was never realized—not because Armstrong "
13700 "was wrong about the technology, but because he underestimated the power of "
13701 "<quote>vested interests, habits, customs and legislation</quote><placeholder "
13702 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> to retard the growth of this competing "
13706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13707 #: freeculture.xml:9880
13709 "Now the very same claim could be made about Internet radio. For again, there "
13710 "is no technical limitation that could restrict the number of Internet radio "
13711 "stations. The only restrictions on Internet radio are those imposed by the "
13712 "law. Copyright law is one such law. So the first question we should ask is, "
13713 "what copyright rules would govern Internet radio?"
13717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13718 #: freeculture.xml:9889
13720 "But here the power of the lobbyists is reversed. Internet radio is a new "
13721 "industry. The recording artists, on the other hand, have a very powerful "
13722 "lobby, the RIAA. Thus when Congress considered the phenomenon of Internet "
13723 "radio in 1995, the lobbyists had primed Congress to adopt a different rule "
13724 "for Internet radio than the rule that applies to terrestrial radio. While "
13725 "terrestrial radio does not have to pay our hypothetical Marilyn Monroe when "
13726 "it plays her hypothetical recording of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> on the "
13727 "air, <emphasis>Internet radio does</emphasis>. Not only is the law not "
13728 "neutral toward Internet radio—the law actually burdens Internet radio "
13729 "more than it burdens terrestrial radio."
13732 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13733 #: freeculture.xml:9928
13734 msgid "CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel)"
13737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13738 #: freeculture.xml:9911
13740 "This example was derived from fees set by the original Copyright Arbitration "
13741 "Royalty Panel (CARP) proceedings, and is drawn from an example offered by "
13742 "Professor William Fisher. Conference Proceedings, iLaw (Stanford), 3 July "
13743 "2003, on file with author. Professors Fisher and Zittrain submitted "
13744 "testimony in the CARP proceeding that was ultimately rejected. See Jonathan "
13745 "Zittrain, Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings and Ephemeral "
13746 "Recordings, Docket No. 2000-9, CARP DTRA 1 and 2, available at <ulink "
13747 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #45</ulink>. For an excellent "
13748 "analysis making a similar point, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>Copyright as "
13749 "Entry Policy: The Case of Digital Distribution,</quote> <citetitle>Antitrust "
13750 "Bulletin</citetitle> (Summer/Fall 2002): 461: <quote>This was not confusion, "
13751 "these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are "
13752 "protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, "
13753 "this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, "
13754 "absent the play of powerful interests, that could have been done in a "
13755 "media-neutral way.</quote> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
13756 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
13759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13760 #: freeculture.xml:9904
13762 "This financial burden is not slight. As Harvard law professor William Fisher "
13763 "estimates, if an Internet radio station distributed adfree popular music to "
13764 "(on average) ten thousand listeners, twenty-four hours a day, the total "
13765 "artist fees that radio station would owe would be over $1 million a "
13766 "year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A regular radio station "
13767 "broadcasting the same content would pay no equivalent fee."
13770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13771 #: freeculture.xml:9936
13773 "The burden is not financial only. Under the original rules that were "
13774 "proposed, an Internet radio station (but not a terrestrial radio station) "
13775 "would have to collect the following data from <emphasis>every listening "
13776 "transaction</emphasis>:"
13779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13780 #: freeculture.xml:9944
13781 msgid "name of the service;"
13784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13785 #: freeculture.xml:9947
13786 msgid "channel of the program (AM/FM stations use station ID);"
13789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13790 #: freeculture.xml:9950
13791 msgid "type of program (archived/looped/live);"
13794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13795 #: freeculture.xml:9953
13796 msgid "date of transmission;"
13799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13800 #: freeculture.xml:9956
13801 msgid "time of transmission;"
13804 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13805 #: freeculture.xml:9959
13806 msgid "time zone of origination of transmission;"
13809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13810 #: freeculture.xml:9962
13811 msgid "numeric designation of the place of the sound recording within the program;"
13814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13815 #: freeculture.xml:9965
13816 msgid "duration of transmission (to nearest second);"
13819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13820 #: freeculture.xml:9968
13821 msgid "sound recording title;"
13824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13825 #: freeculture.xml:9971
13826 msgid "ISRC code of the recording;"
13829 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13830 #: freeculture.xml:9974
13832 "release year of the album per copyright notice and in the case of "
13833 "compilation albums, the release year of the album and copy- right date of "
13837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13838 #: freeculture.xml:9977
13839 msgid "featured recording artist;"
13842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13843 #: freeculture.xml:9980
13844 msgid "retail album title;"
13847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13848 #: freeculture.xml:9983
13849 msgid "recording label;"
13852 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13853 #: freeculture.xml:9986
13854 msgid "UPC code of the retail album;"
13857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13858 #: freeculture.xml:9989
13859 msgid "catalog number;"
13862 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13863 #: freeculture.xml:9992
13864 msgid "copyright owner information;"
13867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13868 #: freeculture.xml:9995
13869 msgid "musical genre of the channel or program (station format);"
13872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13873 #: freeculture.xml:9998
13874 msgid "name of the service or entity;"
13877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13878 #: freeculture.xml:10001
13879 msgid "channel or program;"
13882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13883 #: freeculture.xml:10004
13884 msgid "date and time that the user logged in (in the user's time zone);"
13887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13888 #: freeculture.xml:10007
13889 msgid "date and time that the user logged out (in the user's time zone);"
13892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13893 #: freeculture.xml:10010
13894 msgid "time zone where the signal was received (user);"
13897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13898 #: freeculture.xml:10013
13899 msgid "unique user identifier;"
13902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13903 #: freeculture.xml:10016
13904 msgid "the country in which the user received the transmissions."
13907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13908 #: freeculture.xml:10021
13910 "The Librarian of Congress eventually suspended these reporting requirements, "
13911 "pending further study. And he also changed the original rates set by the "
13912 "arbitration panel charged with setting rates. But the basic difference "
13913 "between Internet radio and terrestrial radio remains: Internet radio has to "
13914 "pay a <emphasis>type of copyright fee</emphasis> that terrestrial radio does "
13918 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13919 #: freeculture.xml:10029
13921 "Why? What justifies this difference? Was there any study of the economic "
13922 "consequences from Internet radio that would justify these differences? Was "
13923 "the motive to protect artists against piracy?"
13926 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
13927 #: freeculture.xml:10033 freeculture.xml:14707
13928 msgid "Real Networks"
13931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13932 #: freeculture.xml:10036
13934 "In a rare bit of candor, one RIAA expert admitted what seemed obvious to "
13935 "everyone at the time. As Alex Alben, vice president for Public Policy at "
13936 "Real Networks, told me,"
13940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13941 #: freeculture.xml:10042
13943 "The RIAA, which was representing the record labels, presented some testimony "
13944 "about what they thought a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller, and "
13945 "it was much higher. It was ten times higher than what radio stations pay to "
13946 "perform the same songs for the same period of time. And so the attorneys "
13947 "representing the webcasters asked the RIAA, … <quote>How do you come "
13948 "up with a rate that's so much higher? Why is it worth more than radio? "
13949 "Because here we have hundreds of thousands of webcasters who want to pay, "
13950 "and that should establish the market rate, and if you set the rate so high, "
13951 "you're going to drive the small webcasters out of business. …</quote>"
13954 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13955 #: freeculture.xml:10058
13957 "And the RIAA experts said, <quote>Well, we don't really model this as an "
13958 "industry with thousands of webcasters, <emphasis>we think it should be an "
13959 "industry with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate "
13960 "and it's a stable, predictable market</emphasis>.</quote> (Emphasis added.)"
13963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13964 #: freeculture.xml:10067
13966 "Translation: The aim is to use the law to eliminate competition, so that "
13967 "this platform of potentially immense competition, which would cause the "
13968 "diversity and range of content available to explode, would not cause pain to "
13969 "the dinosaurs of old. There is no one, on either the right or the left, who "
13970 "should endorse this use of the law. And yet there is practically no one, on "
13971 "either the right or the left, who is doing anything effective to prevent it."
13974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
13975 #: freeculture.xml:10077
13976 msgid "Corrupting Citizens"
13979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13980 #: freeculture.xml:10079
13982 "Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives "
13983 "dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity "
13984 "for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables."
13987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13988 #: freeculture.xml:10085
13990 "In addition to these important harms, there is one more that was important "
13991 "to our forebears, but seems forgotten today. Overregulation corrupts "
13992 "citizens and weakens the rule of law."
13996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13997 #: freeculture.xml:10094
13999 "Mike Graziano and Lee Rainie, <quote>The Music Downloading Deluge,</quote> "
14000 "Pew Internet and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at <ulink "
14001 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #46</ulink>. The Pew Internet "
14002 "and American Life Project reported that 37 million Americans had downloaded "
14003 "music files from the Internet by early 2001."
14007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14008 #: freeculture.xml:10090
14010 "The war that is being waged today is a war of prohibition. As with every war "
14011 "of prohibition, it is targeted against the behavior of a very large number "
14012 "of citizens. According to <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, 43 "
14013 "million Americans downloaded music in May 2002.<placeholder "
14014 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> According to the RIAA, the behavior of those 43 "
14015 "million Americans is a felony. We thus have a set of rules that transform 20 "
14016 "percent of America into criminals. As the RIAA launches lawsuits against not "
14017 "only the Napsters and Kazaas of the world, but against students building "
14018 "search engines, and increasingly against ordinary users downloading content, "
14019 "the technologies for sharing will advance to further protect and hide "
14020 "illegal use. It is an arms race or a civil war, with the extremes of one "
14021 "side inviting a more extreme response by the other."
14025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14026 #: freeculture.xml:10128
14028 "Alex Pham, <quote>The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA "
14029 "Case,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, "
14033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14034 #: freeculture.xml:10115
14036 "The content industry's tactics exploit the failings of the American legal "
14037 "system. When the RIAA brought suit against Jesse Jordan, it knew that in "
14038 "Jordan it had found a scapegoat, not a defendant. The threat of having to "
14039 "pay either all the money in the world in damages ($15,000,000) or almost all "
14040 "the money in the world to defend against paying all the money in the world "
14041 "in damages ($250,000 in legal fees) led Jordan to choose to pay all the "
14042 "money he had in the world ($12,000) to make the suit go away. The same "
14043 "strategy animates the RIAA's suits against individual users. In September "
14044 "2003, the RIAA sued 261 individuals—including a twelve-year-old girl "
14045 "living in public housing and a seventy-year-old man who had no idea what "
14046 "file sharing was.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As these "
14047 "scapegoats discovered, it will always cost more to defend against these "
14048 "suits than it would cost to simply settle. (The twelve year old, for "
14049 "example, like Jesse Jordan, paid her life savings of $2,000 to settle the "
14050 "case.) Our law is an awful system for defending rights. It is an "
14051 "embarrassment to our tradition. And the consequence of our law as it is, is "
14052 "that those with the power can use the law to quash any rights they oppose."
14055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14056 #: freeculture.xml:10139
14057 msgid "alcohol prohibition"
14061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14062 #: freeculture.xml:10151
14064 "Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, <quote>Alcohol Consumption During "
14065 "Prohibition,</quote> <citetitle>American Economic Review</citetitle> 81, "
14066 "no. 2 (1991): 242."
14070 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14071 #: freeculture.xml:10159
14073 "National Drug Control Policy: Hearing Before the House Government Reform "
14074 "Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (5 March 2003) (statement of John "
14075 "P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy)."
14079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14080 #: freeculture.xml:10169
14082 "See James Andreoni, Brian Erard, and Jonathon Feinstein, <quote>Tax "
14083 "Compliance,</quote> <citetitle>Journal of Economic Literature</citetitle> 36 "
14084 "(1998): 818 (survey of compliance literature)."
14087 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14088 #: freeculture.xml:10141
14090 "Wars of prohibition are nothing new in America. This one is just something "
14091 "more extreme than anything we've seen before. We experimented with alcohol "
14092 "prohibition, at a time when the per capita consumption of alcohol was 1.5 "
14093 "gallons per capita per year. The war against drinking initially reduced that "
14094 "consumption to just 30 percent of its preprohibition levels, but by the end "
14095 "of prohibition, consumption was up to 70 percent of the preprohibition "
14096 "level. Americans were drinking just about as much, but now, a vast number "
14097 "were criminals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We have launched a "
14098 "war on drugs aimed at reducing the consumption of regulated narcotics that 7 "
14099 "percent (or 16 million) Americans now use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14100 "id=\"1\"/> That is a drop from the high (so to speak) in 1979 of 14 percent "
14101 "of the population. We regulate automobiles to the point where the vast "
14102 "majority of Americans violate the law every day. We run such a complex tax "
14103 "system that a majority of cash businesses regularly cheat.<placeholder "
14104 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> We pride ourselves on our <quote>free "
14105 "society,</quote> but an endless array of ordinary behavior is regulated "
14106 "within our society. And as a result, a huge proportion of Americans "
14107 "regularly violate at least some law."
14110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14111 #: freeculture.xml:10177
14112 msgid "law schools"
14115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14116 #: freeculture.xml:10179
14118 "This state of affairs is not without consequence. It is a particularly "
14119 "salient issue for teachers like me, whose job it is to teach law students "
14120 "about the importance of <quote>ethics.</quote> As my colleague Charlie "
14121 "Nesson told a class at Stanford, each year law schools admit thousands of "
14122 "students who have illegally downloaded music, illegally consumed alcohol and "
14123 "sometimes drugs, illegally worked without paying taxes, illegally driven "
14124 "cars. These are kids for whom behaving illegally is increasingly the "
14125 "norm. And then we, as law professors, are supposed to teach them how to "
14126 "behave ethically—how to say no to bribes, or keep client funds "
14127 "separate, or honor a demand to disclose a document that will mean that your "
14128 "case is over. Generations of Americans—more significantly in some "
14129 "parts of America than in others, but still, everywhere in America "
14130 "today—can't live their lives both normally and legally, since "
14131 "<quote>normally</quote> entails a certain degree of illegality."
14134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14135 #: freeculture.xml:10196
14137 "The response to this general illegality is either to enforce the law more "
14138 "severely or to change the law. We, as a society, have to learn how to make "
14139 "that choice more rationally. Whether a law makes sense depends, in part, at "
14140 "least, upon whether the costs of the law, both intended and collateral, "
14141 "outweigh the benefits. If the costs, intended and collateral, do outweigh "
14142 "the benefits, then the law ought to be changed. Alternatively, if the costs "
14143 "of the existing system are much greater than the costs of an alternative, "
14144 "then we have a good reason to consider the alternative."
14148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14149 #: freeculture.xml:10209
14151 "My point is not the idiotic one: Just because people violate a law, we "
14152 "should therefore repeal it. Obviously, we could reduce murder statistics "
14153 "dramatically by legalizing murder on Wednesdays and Fridays. But that "
14154 "wouldn't make any sense, since murder is wrong every day of the week. A "
14155 "society is right to ban murder always and everywhere."
14158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14159 #: freeculture.xml:10216
14161 "My point is instead one that democracies understood for generations, but "
14162 "that we recently have learned to forget. The rule of law depends upon people "
14163 "obeying the law. The more often, and more repeatedly, we as citizens "
14164 "experience violating the law, the less we respect the law. Obviously, in "
14165 "most cases, the important issue is the law, not respect for the law. I don't "
14166 "care whether the rapist respects the law or not; I want to catch and "
14167 "incarcerate the rapist. But I do care whether my students respect the "
14168 "law. And I do care if the rules of law sow increasing disrespect because of "
14169 "the extreme of regulation they impose. Twenty million Americans have come "
14170 "of age since the Internet introduced this different idea of "
14171 "<quote>sharing.</quote> We need to be able to call these twenty million "
14172 "Americans <quote>citizens,</quote> not <quote>felons.</quote>"
14175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14176 #: freeculture.xml:10230
14178 "When at least forty-three million citizens download content from the "
14179 "Internet, and when they use tools to combine that content in ways "
14180 "unauthorized by copyright holders, the first question we should be asking is "
14181 "not how best to involve the FBI. The first question should be whether this "
14182 "particular prohibition is really necessary in order to achieve the proper "
14183 "ends that copyright law serves. Is there another way to assure that artists "
14184 "get paid without transforming forty-three million Americans into felons? "
14185 "Does it make sense if there are other ways to assure that artists get paid "
14186 "without transforming America into a nation of felons?"
14189 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14190 #: freeculture.xml:10242
14191 msgid "This abstract point can be made more clear with a particular example."
14195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14196 #: freeculture.xml:10245
14198 "We all own CDs. Many of us still own phonograph records. These pieces of "
14199 "plastic encode music that in a certain sense we have bought. The law "
14200 "protects our right to buy and sell that plastic: It is not a copyright "
14201 "infringement for me to sell all my classical records at a used record store "
14202 "and buy jazz records to replace them. That <quote>use</quote> of the "
14203 "recordings is free."
14206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14207 #: freeculture.xml:10256
14209 "But as the MP3 craze has demonstrated, there is another use of phonograph "
14210 "records that is effectively free. Because these recordings were made without "
14211 "copy-protection technologies, I am <quote>free</quote> to copy, or "
14212 "<quote>rip,</quote> music from my records onto a computer hard disk. Indeed, "
14213 "Apple Corporation went so far as to suggest that <quote>freedom</quote> was "
14214 "a right: In a series of commercials, Apple endorsed the <quote>Rip, Mix, "
14215 "Burn</quote> capacities of digital technologies."
14218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14219 #: freeculture.xml:10264
14223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
14224 #: freeculture.xml:10265
14225 msgid "mix technology and"
14228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14229 #: freeculture.xml:10267
14231 "This <quote>use</quote> of my records is certainly valuable. I have begun a "
14232 "large process at home of ripping all of my and my wife's CDs, and storing "
14233 "them in one archive. Then, using Apple's iTunes, or a wonderful program "
14234 "called Andromeda, we can build different play lists of our music: Bach, "
14235 "Baroque, Love Songs, Love Songs of Significant Others—the potential is "
14236 "endless. And by reducing the costs of mixing play lists, these technologies "
14237 "help build a creativity with play lists that is itself independently "
14238 "valuable. Compilations of songs are creative and meaningful in their own "
14242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14243 #: freeculture.xml:10278
14245 "This use is enabled by unprotected media—either CDs or records. But "
14246 "unprotected media also enable file sharing. File sharing threatens (or so "
14247 "the content industry believes) the ability of creators to earn a fair return "
14248 "from their creativity. And thus, many are beginning to experiment with "
14249 "technologies to eliminate unprotected media. These technologies, for "
14250 "example, would enable CDs that could not be ripped. Or they might enable spy "
14251 "programs to identify ripped content on people's machines."
14255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14256 #: freeculture.xml:10288
14258 "If these technologies took off, then the building of large archives of your "
14259 "own music would become quite difficult. You might hang in hacker circles, "
14260 "and get technology to disable the technologies that protect the "
14261 "content. Trading in those technologies is illegal, but maybe that doesn't "
14262 "bother you much. In any case, for the vast majority of people, these "
14263 "protection technologies would effectively destroy the archiving use of "
14264 "CDs. The technology, in other words, would force us all back to the world "
14265 "where we either listened to music by manipulating pieces of plastic or were "
14266 "part of a massively complex <quote>digital rights management</quote> system."
14269 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14270 #: freeculture.xml:10303
14272 "If the only way to assure that artists get paid were the elimination of the "
14273 "ability to freely move content, then these technologies to interfere with "
14274 "the freedom to move content would be justifiable. But what if there were "
14275 "another way to assure that artists are paid, without locking down any "
14276 "content? What if, in other words, a different system could assure "
14277 "compensation to artists while also preserving the freedom to move content "
14281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14282 #: freeculture.xml:10312
14284 "My point just now is not to prove that there is such a system. I offer a "
14285 "version of such a system in the last chapter of this book. For now, the only "
14286 "point is the relatively uncontroversial one: If a different system achieved "
14287 "the same legitimate objectives that the existing copyright system achieved, "
14288 "but left consumers and creators much more free, then we'd have a very good "
14289 "reason to pursue this alternative—namely, freedom. The choice, in "
14290 "other words, would not be between property and piracy; the choice would be "
14291 "between different property systems and the freedoms each allowed."
14294 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14295 #: freeculture.xml:10323
14297 "I believe there is a way to assure that artists are paid without turning "
14298 "forty-three million Americans into felons. But the salient feature of this "
14299 "alternative is that it would lead to a very different market for producing "
14300 "and distributing creativity. The dominant few, who today control the vast "
14301 "majority of the distribution of content in the world, would no longer "
14302 "exercise this extreme of control. Rather, they would go the way of the "
14303 "horse-drawn buggy."
14306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14307 #: freeculture.xml:10332
14309 "Except that this generation's buggy manufacturers have already saddled "
14310 "Congress, and are riding the law to protect themselves against this new form "
14311 "of competition. For them the choice is between fortythree million Americans "
14312 "as criminals and their own survival."
14316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14317 #: freeculture.xml:10338
14319 "It is understandable why they choose as they do. It is not understandable "
14320 "why we as a democracy continue to choose as we do. Jack Valenti is charming; "
14321 "but not so charming as to justify giving up a tradition as deep and "
14322 "important as our tradition of free culture."
14325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14326 #: freeculture.xml:10349
14328 "<emphasis role='strong'>There's one more</emphasis> aspect to this "
14329 "corruption that is particularly important to civil liberties, and follows "
14330 "directly from any war of prohibition. As Electronic Frontier Foundation "
14331 "attorney Fred von Lohmann describes, this is the <quote>collateral "
14332 "damage</quote> that <quote>arises whenever you turn a very large percentage "
14333 "of the population into criminals.</quote> This is the collateral damage to "
14334 "civil liberties generally."
14337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14338 #: freeculture.xml:10357 freeculture.xml:10457
14339 msgid "von Lohmann, Fred"
14342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14343 #: freeculture.xml:10359
14345 "<quote>If you can treat someone as a putative lawbreaker,</quote> von "
14346 "Lohmann explains,"
14349 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14350 #: freeculture.xml:10364
14352 "then all of a sudden a lot of basic civil liberty protections evaporate to "
14353 "one degree or another. … If you're a copyright infringer, how can you "
14354 "hope to have any privacy rights? If you're a copyright infringer, how can "
14355 "you hope to be secure against seizures of your computer? How can you hope to "
14356 "continue to receive Internet access? … Our sensibilities change as "
14357 "soon as we think, <quote>Oh, well, but that person's a criminal, a "
14358 "lawbreaker.</quote> Well, what this campaign against file sharing has done "
14359 "is turn a remarkable percentage of the American Internet-using population "
14360 "into <quote>lawbreakers.</quote>"
14363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14364 #: freeculture.xml:10376
14366 "And the consequence of this transformation of the American public into "
14367 "criminals is that it becomes trivial, as a matter of due process, to "
14368 "effectively erase much of the privacy most would presume."
14371 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14372 #: freeculture.xml:10381
14374 "Users of the Internet began to see this generally in 2003 as the RIAA "
14375 "launched its campaign to force Internet service providers to turn over the "
14376 "names of customers who the RIAA believed were violating copyright "
14377 "law. Verizon fought that demand and lost. With a simple request to a judge, "
14378 "and without any notice to the customer at all, the identity of an Internet "
14379 "user is revealed."
14383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14384 #: freeculture.xml:10399
14386 "See Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single "
14387 "Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> "
14388 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Chris Cobbs, "
14389 "<quote>Worried Parents Pull Plug on File `Stealing'; With the Music Industry "
14390 "Cracking Down on File Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs "
14391 "to Avoid Being Sued,</quote> <citetitle>Orlando Sentinel "
14392 "Tribune</citetitle>, 30 August 2003, C1; Jefferson Graham, <quote>Recording "
14393 "Industry Sues Parents,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 15 "
14394 "September 2003, 4D; John Schwartz, <quote>She Says She's No Music Pirate. No "
14395 "Snoop Fan, Either,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 25 "
14396 "September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, <quote>Is Brianna a Criminal?</quote> "
14397 "<citetitle>Toronto Star</citetitle>, 18 September 2003, P7."
14400 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14401 #: freeculture.xml:10390
14403 "The RIAA then expanded this campaign, by announcing a general strategy to "
14404 "sue individual users of the Internet who are alleged to have downloaded "
14405 "copyrighted music from file-sharing systems. But as we've seen, the "
14406 "potential damages from these suits are astronomical: If a family's computer "
14407 "is used to download a single CD's worth of music, the family could be liable "
14408 "for $2 million in damages. That didn't stop the RIAA from suing a number of "
14409 "these families, just as they had sued Jesse Jordan.<placeholder "
14410 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14414 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14415 #: freeculture.xml:10417
14417 "See <quote>Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses "
14418 "Some Methods Used,</quote> CNN.com, available at <ulink "
14419 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #47</ulink>."
14422 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14423 #: freeculture.xml:10413
14425 "Even this understates the espionage that is being waged by the RIAA. A "
14426 "report from CNN late last summer described a strategy the RIAA had adopted "
14427 "to track Napster users.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Using a "
14428 "sophisticated hashing algorithm, the RIAA took what is in effect a "
14429 "fingerprint of every song in the Napster catalog. Any copy of one of those "
14430 "MP3s will have the same <quote>fingerprint.</quote>"
14434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14435 #: freeculture.xml:10438
14437 "See Jeff Adler, <quote>Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not "
14438 "Penitent,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 18 May 2003, City "
14439 "Weekly, 1; Frank Ahrens, <quote>Four Students Sued over Music Sites; "
14440 "Industry Group Targets File Sharing at Colleges,</quote> "
14441 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 4 April 2003, E1; Elizabeth "
14442 "Armstrong, <quote>Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,</quote> "
14443 "<citetitle>Christian Science Monitor</citetitle>, 2 September 2003, 20; "
14444 "Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, <quote>Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; "
14445 "Two Students Names Are Handed Over; Lawsuit Possible,</quote> "
14446 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, "
14447 "<quote>RIAA Trains Antipiracy Guns on Universities,</quote> "
14448 "<citetitle>Internet News</citetitle>, 30 January 2003, available at <ulink "
14449 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #48</ulink>; Benny Evangelista, "
14450 "<quote>Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation This Fall to Include "
14451 "Record Industry Warnings Against File Sharing,</quote> <citetitle>San "
14452 "Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 11 August 2003, E11; <quote>Raid, Letters "
14453 "Are Weapons at Universities,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 26 "
14454 "September 2000, 3D."
14457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14458 #: freeculture.xml:10426
14460 "So imagine the following not-implausible scenario: Imagine a friend gives a "
14461 "CD to your daughter—a collection of songs just like the cassettes you "
14462 "used to make as a kid. You don't know, and neither does your daughter, where "
14463 "these songs came from. But she copies these songs onto her computer. She "
14464 "then takes her computer to college and connects it to a college network, and "
14465 "if the college network is <quote>cooperating</quote> with the RIAA's "
14466 "espionage, and she hasn't properly protected her content from the network "
14467 "(do you know how to do that yourself ?), then the RIAA will be able to "
14468 "identify your daughter as a <quote>criminal.</quote> And under the rules "
14469 "that universities are beginning to deploy,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14470 "id=\"0\"/> your daughter can lose the right to use the university's computer "
14471 "network. She can, in some cases, be expelled."
14475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14476 #: freeculture.xml:10459
14478 "Now, of course, she'll have the right to defend herself. You can hire a "
14479 "lawyer for her (at $300 per hour, if you're lucky), and she can plead that "
14480 "she didn't know anything about the source of the songs or that they came "
14481 "from Napster. And it may well be that the university believes her. But the "
14482 "university might not believe her. It might treat this "
14483 "<quote>contraband</quote> as presumptive of guilt. And as any number of "
14484 "college students have already learned, our presumptions about innocence "
14485 "disappear in the middle of wars of prohibition. This war is no different. "
14486 "Says von Lohmann,"
14489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14490 #: freeculture.xml:10474
14492 "So when we're talking about numbers like forty to sixty million Americans "
14493 "that are essentially copyright infringers, you create a situation where the "
14494 "civil liberties of those people are very much in peril in a general "
14495 "matter. [I don't] think [there is any] analog where you could randomly "
14496 "choose any person off the street and be confident that they were committing "
14497 "an unlawful act that could put them on the hook for potential felony "
14498 "liability or hundreds of millions of dollars of civil liability. Certainly "
14499 "we all speed, but speeding isn't the kind of an act for which we routinely "
14500 "forfeit civil liberties. Some people use drugs, and I think that's the "
14501 "closest analog, [but] many have noted that the war against drugs has eroded "
14502 "all of our civil liberties because it's treated so many Americans as "
14503 "criminals. Well, I think it's fair to say that file sharing is an order of "
14504 "magnitude larger number of Americans than drug use. … If forty to "
14505 "sixty million Americans have become lawbreakers, then we're really on a "
14506 "slippery slope to lose a lot of civil liberties for all forty to sixty "
14510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14511 #: freeculture.xml:10494
14513 "When forty to sixty million Americans are considered "
14514 "<quote>criminals</quote> under the law, and when the law could achieve the "
14515 "same objective— securing rights to authors—without these "
14516 "millions being considered <quote>criminals,</quote> who is the villain? "
14517 "Americans or the law? Which is American, a constant war on our own people or "
14518 "a concerted effort through our democracy to change our law?"
14521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
14522 #: freeculture.xml:10507
14526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14527 #: freeculture.xml:10512
14529 "<emphasis role='strong'>So here's</emphasis> the picture: You're standing at "
14530 "the side of the road. Your car is on fire. You are angry and upset because "
14531 "in part you helped start the fire. Now you don't know how to put it "
14532 "out. Next to you is a bucket, filled with gasoline. Obviously, gasoline "
14533 "won't put the fire out."
14536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14537 #: freeculture.xml:10519
14539 "As you ponder the mess, someone else comes along. In a panic, she grabs the "
14540 "bucket. Before you have a chance to tell her to stop—or before she "
14541 "understands just why she should stop—the bucket is in the air. The "
14542 "gasoline is about to hit the blazing car. And the fire that gasoline will "
14543 "ignite is about to ignite everything around."
14546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14547 #: freeculture.xml:10527
14549 "<emphasis role='strong'>A war</emphasis> about copyright rages all "
14550 "around—and we're all focusing on the wrong thing. No doubt, current "
14551 "technologies threaten existing businesses. No doubt they may threaten "
14552 "artists. But technologies change. The industry and technologists have "
14553 "plenty of ways to use technology to protect themselves against the current "
14554 "threats of the Internet. This is a fire that if let alone would burn itself "
14559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14560 #: freeculture.xml:10537
14562 "Yet policy makers are not willing to leave this fire to itself. Primed with "
14563 "plenty of lobbyists' money, they are keen to intervene to eliminate the "
14564 "problem they perceive. But the problem they perceive is not the real threat "
14565 "this culture faces. For while we watch this small fire in the corner, there "
14566 "is a massive change in the way culture is made that is happening all around."
14569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14570 #: freeculture.xml:10545
14572 "Somehow we have to find a way to turn attention to this more important and "
14573 "fundamental issue. Somehow we have to find a way to avoid pouring gasoline "
14577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14578 #: freeculture.xml:10550
14580 "We have not found that way yet. Instead, we seem trapped in a simpler, "
14581 "binary view. However much many people push to frame this debate more "
14582 "broadly, it is the simple, binary view that remains. We rubberneck to look "
14583 "at the fire when we should be keeping our eyes on the road."
14586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14587 #: freeculture.xml:10556
14589 "This challenge has been my life these last few years. It has also been my "
14590 "failure. In the two chapters that follow, I describe one small brace of "
14591 "efforts, so far failed, to find a way to refocus this debate. We must "
14592 "understand these failures if we're to understand what success will require."
14595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
14596 #: freeculture.xml:10566
14597 msgid "CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Eldred"
14600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14601 #: freeculture.xml:10567
14602 msgid "Hawthorne, Nathaniel"
14605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14606 #: freeculture.xml:10569
14608 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1995</emphasis>, a father was frustrated that his "
14609 "daughters didn't seem to like Hawthorne. No doubt there was more than one "
14610 "such father, but at least one did something about it. Eric Eldred, a retired "
14611 "computer programmer living in New Hampshire, decided to put Hawthorne on the "
14612 "Web. An electronic version, Eldred thought, with links to pictures and "
14613 "explanatory text, would make this nineteenth-century author's work come "
14617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14618 #: freeculture.xml:10578
14620 "It didn't work—at least for his daughters. They didn't find Hawthorne "
14621 "any more interesting than before. But Eldred's experiment gave birth to a "
14622 "hobby, and his hobby begat a cause: Eldred would build a library of public "
14623 "domain works by scanning these works and making them available for free."
14627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14628 #: freeculture.xml:10587
14630 "Eldred's library was not simply a copy of certain public domain works, "
14631 "though even a copy would have been of great value to people across the world "
14632 "who can't get access to printed versions of these works. Instead, Eldred was "
14633 "producing derivative works from these public domain works. Just as Disney "
14634 "turned Grimm into stories more accessible to the twentieth century, Eldred "
14635 "transformed Hawthorne, and many others, into a form more "
14636 "accessible—technically accessible—today."
14639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14640 #: freeculture.xml:10598
14642 "Eldred's freedom to do this with Hawthorne's work grew from the same source "
14643 "as Disney's. Hawthorne's <citetitle>Scarlet Letter</citetitle> had passed "
14644 "into the public domain in 1907. It was free for anyone to take without the "
14645 "permission of the Hawthorne estate or anyone else. Some, such as Dover Press "
14646 "and Penguin Classics, take works from the public domain and produce printed "
14647 "editions, which they sell in bookstores across the country. Others, such as "
14648 "Disney, take these stories and turn them into animated cartoons, sometimes "
14649 "successfully (<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle>), sometimes not "
14650 "(<citetitle>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</citetitle>, <citetitle>Treasure "
14651 "Planet</citetitle>). These are all commercial publications of public domain "
14656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14657 #: freeculture.xml:10623
14659 "There's a parallel here with pornography that is a bit hard to describe, but "
14660 "it's a strong one. One phenomenon that the Internet created was a world of "
14661 "noncommercial pornographers—people who were distributing porn but were "
14662 "not making money directly or indirectly from that distribution. Such a "
14663 "class didn't exist before the Internet came into being because the costs of "
14664 "distributing porn were so high. Yet this new class of distributors got "
14665 "special attention in the Supreme Court, when the Court struck down the "
14666 "Communications Decency Act of 1996. It was partly because of the burden on "
14667 "noncommercial speakers that the statute was found to exceed Congress's "
14668 "power. The same point could have been made about noncommercial publishers "
14669 "after the advent of the Internet. The Eric Eldreds of the world before the "
14670 "Internet were extremely few. Yet one would think it at least as important to "
14671 "protect the Eldreds of the world as to protect noncommercial pornographers."
14674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14675 #: freeculture.xml:10612
14677 "The Internet created the possibility of noncommercial publications of public "
14678 "domain works. Eldred's is just one example. There are literally thousands of "
14679 "others. Hundreds of thousands from across the world have discovered this "
14680 "platform of expression and now use it to share works that are, by law, free "
14681 "for the taking. This has produced what we might call the "
14682 "<quote>noncommercial publishing industry,</quote> which before the Internet "
14683 "was limited to people with large egos or with political or social "
14684 "causes. But with the Internet, it includes a wide range of individuals and "
14685 "groups dedicated to spreading culture generally.<placeholder "
14686 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14690 #: freeculture.xml:10640
14692 "As I said, Eldred lives in New Hampshire. In 1998, Robert Frost's collection "
14693 "of poems <citetitle>New Hampshire</citetitle> was slated to pass into the "
14694 "public domain. Eldred wanted to post that collection in his free public "
14695 "library. But Congress got in the way. As I described in chapter <xref "
14696 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, in 1998, for the "
14697 "eleventh time in forty years, Congress extended the terms of existing "
14698 "copyrights—this time by twenty years. Eldred would not be free to add "
14699 "any works more recent than 1923 to his collection until 2019. Indeed, no "
14700 "copyrighted work would pass into the public domain until that year (and not "
14701 "even then, if Congress extends the term again). By contrast, in the same "
14702 "period, more than 1 million patents will pass into the public domain."
14705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14706 #: freeculture.xml:10653 freeculture.xml:10663
14710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14711 #: freeculture.xml:10654 freeculture.xml:10664
14712 msgid "Bono, Sonny"
14715 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14716 #: freeculture.xml:10663
14718 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14719 "id=\"1\"/> The full text is: <quote>Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of "
14720 "copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a "
14721 "change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me "
14722 "to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you "
14723 "know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less "
14724 "one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress,</quote> 144 "
14725 "Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998)."
14728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14729 #: freeculture.xml:10658
14731 "This was the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), enacted in "
14732 "memory of the congressman and former musician Sonny Bono, who, his widow, "
14733 "Mary Bono, says, believed that <quote>copyrights should be "
14734 "forever.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14738 #: freeculture.xml:10676
14740 "Eldred decided to fight this law. He first resolved to fight it through "
14741 "civil disobedience. In a series of interviews, Eldred announced that he "
14742 "would publish as planned, CTEA notwithstanding. But because of a second law "
14743 "passed in 1998, the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act, his act of publishing "
14744 "would make Eldred a felon—whether or not anyone complained. This was a "
14745 "dangerous strategy for a disabled programmer to undertake."
14748 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14749 #: freeculture.xml:10685
14751 "It was here that I became involved in Eldred's battle. I was a "
14752 "constitutional scholar whose first passion was constitutional "
14753 "interpretation. And though constitutional law courses never focus upon the "
14754 "Progress Clause of the Constitution, it had always struck me as importantly "
14755 "different. As you know, the Constitution says,"
14758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
14759 #: freeculture.xml:10696
14761 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science … by "
14762 "securing for limited Times to Authors … exclusive Right to their "
14763 "… Writings. …"
14766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14767 #: freeculture.xml:10702
14769 "As I've described, this clause is unique within the power-granting clause of "
14770 "Article I, section 8 of our Constitution. Every other clause granting power "
14771 "to Congress simply says Congress has the power to do something—for "
14772 "example, to regulate <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> or "
14773 "<quote>declare War.</quote> But here, the <quote>something</quote> is "
14774 "something quite specific—to <quote>promote … "
14775 "Progress</quote>—through means that are also specific— by "
14776 "<quote>securing</quote> <quote>exclusive Rights</quote> (i.e., copyrights) "
14777 "<quote>for limited Times.</quote>"
14780 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14781 #: freeculture.xml:10711 freeculture.xml:12197
14782 msgid "Jaszi, Peter"
14786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14787 #: freeculture.xml:10713
14789 "In the past forty years, Congress has gotten into the practice of extending "
14790 "existing terms of copyright protection. What puzzled me about this was, if "
14791 "Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then the Constitution's "
14792 "requirement that terms be <quote>limited</quote> will have no practical "
14793 "effect. If every time a copyright is about to expire, Congress has the power "
14794 "to extend its term, then Congress can achieve what the Constitution plainly "
14795 "forbids—perpetual terms <quote>on the installment plan,</quote> as "
14796 "Professor Peter Jaszi so nicely put it."
14799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14800 #: freeculture.xml:10724
14802 "As an academic, my first response was to hit the books. I remember sitting "
14803 "late at the office, scouring on-line databases for any serious consideration "
14804 "of the question. No one had ever challenged Congress's practice of extending "
14805 "existing terms. That failure may in part be why Congress seemed so "
14806 "untroubled in its habit. That, and the fact that the practice had become so "
14807 "lucrative for Congress. Congress knows that copyright owners will be willing "
14808 "to pay a great deal of money to see their copyright terms extended. And so "
14809 "Congress is quite happy to keep this gravy train going."
14812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14813 #: freeculture.xml:10735
14815 "For this is the core of the corruption in our present system of "
14816 "government. <quote>Corruption</quote> not in the sense that representatives "
14817 "are bribed. Rather, <quote>corruption</quote> in the sense that the system "
14818 "induces the beneficiaries of Congress's acts to raise and give money to "
14819 "Congress to induce it to act. There's only so much time; there's only so "
14820 "much Congress can do. Why not limit its actions to those things it must "
14821 "do—and those things that pay? Extending copyright terms pays."
14824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14825 #: freeculture.xml:10744
14827 "If that's not obvious to you, consider the following: Say you're one of the "
14828 "very few lucky copyright owners whose copyright continues to make money one "
14829 "hundred years after it was created. The Estate of Robert Frost is a good "
14830 "example. Frost died in 1963. His poetry continues to be extraordinarily "
14831 "valuable. Thus the Robert Frost estate benefits greatly from any extension "
14832 "of copyright, since no publisher would pay the estate any money if the poems "
14833 "Frost wrote could be published by anyone for free."
14836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14837 #: freeculture.xml:10754
14839 "So imagine the Robert Frost estate is earning $100,000 a year from three of "
14840 "Frost's poems. And imagine the copyright for those poems is about to "
14841 "expire. You sit on the board of the Robert Frost estate. Your financial "
14842 "adviser comes to your board meeting with a very grim report:"
14846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14847 #: freeculture.xml:10761
14849 "<quote>Next year,</quote> the adviser announces, <quote>our copyrights in "
14850 "works A, B, and C will expire. That means that after next year, we will no "
14851 "longer be receiving the annual royalty check of $100,000 from the publishers "
14852 "of those works.</quote>"
14855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14856 #: freeculture.xml:10769
14858 "<quote>There's a proposal in Congress, however,</quote> she continues, "
14859 "<quote>that could change this. A few congressmen are floating a bill to "
14860 "extend the terms of copyright by twenty years. That bill would be "
14861 "extraordinarily valuable to us. So we should hope this bill passes.</quote>"
14864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14865 #: freeculture.xml:10775
14867 "<quote>Hope?</quote> a fellow board member says. <quote>Can't we be doing "
14868 "something about it?</quote>"
14871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14872 #: freeculture.xml:10779
14874 "<quote>Well, obviously, yes,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>We could "
14875 "contribute to the campaigns of a number of representatives to try to assure "
14876 "that they support the bill.</quote>"
14879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14880 #: freeculture.xml:10784
14882 "You hate politics. You hate contributing to campaigns. So you want to know "
14883 "whether this disgusting practice is worth it. <quote>How much would we get "
14884 "if this extension were passed?</quote> you ask the adviser. <quote>How much "
14885 "is it worth?</quote>"
14888 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14889 #: freeculture.xml:10790
14891 "<quote>Well,</quote> the adviser says, <quote>if you're confident that you "
14892 "will continue to get at least $100,000 a year from these copyrights, and you "
14893 "use the `discount rate' that we use to evaluate estate investments (6 "
14894 "percent), then this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate.</quote>"
14897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14898 #: freeculture.xml:10796
14900 "You're a bit shocked by the number, but you quickly come to the correct "
14904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14905 #: freeculture.xml:10800
14907 "<quote>So you're saying it would be worth it for us to pay more than "
14908 "$1,000,000 in campaign contributions if we were confident those "
14909 "contributions would assure that the bill was passed?</quote>"
14912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14913 #: freeculture.xml:10806
14915 "<quote>Absolutely,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>It is worth it to "
14916 "you to contribute up to the `present value' of the income you expect from "
14917 "these copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000.</quote>"
14921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14922 #: freeculture.xml:10812
14924 "You quickly get the point—you as the member of the board and, I trust, "
14925 "you the reader. Each time copyrights are about to expire, every beneficiary "
14926 "in the position of the Robert Frost estate faces the same choice: If they "
14927 "can contribute to get a law passed to extend copyrights, they will benefit "
14928 "greatly from that extension. And so each time copyrights are about to "
14929 "expire, there is a massive amount of lobbying to get the copyright term "
14933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14934 #: freeculture.xml:10823
14936 "Thus a congressional perpetual motion machine: So long as legislation can be "
14937 "bought (albeit indirectly), there will be all the incentive in the world to "
14938 "buy further extensions of copyright."
14942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14943 #: freeculture.xml:10835
14945 "Associated Press, <quote>Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey "
14946 "Mouse Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years,</quote> "
14947 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 17 October 1998, 22."
14951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14952 #: freeculture.xml:10842
14954 "See Nick Brown, <quote>Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information "
14955 "Age,</quote> available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
14960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14961 #: freeculture.xml:10850
14963 "Alan K. Ota, <quote>Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars,</quote> "
14964 "<citetitle>Congressional Quarterly This Week</citetitle>, 8 August 1990, "
14965 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #50</ulink>."
14968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14969 #: freeculture.xml:10828
14971 "In the lobbying that led to the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term "
14972 "Extension Act, this <quote>theory</quote> about incentives was proved "
14973 "real. Ten of the thirteen original sponsors of the act in the House received "
14974 "the maximum contribution from Disney's political action committee; in the "
14975 "Senate, eight of the twelve sponsors received contributions.<placeholder "
14976 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The RIAA and the MPAA are estimated to have "
14977 "spent over $1.5 million lobbying in the 1998 election cycle. They paid out "
14978 "more than $200,000 in campaign contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14979 "id=\"1\"/> Disney is estimated to have contributed more than $800,000 to "
14980 "reelection campaigns in the cycle.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
14983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14984 #: freeculture.xml:10857
14986 "<emphasis role='strong'>Constitutional law</emphasis> is not oblivious to "
14987 "the obvious. Or at least, it need not be. So when I was considering Eldred's "
14988 "complaint, this reality about the never-ending incentives to increase the "
14989 "copyright term was central to my thinking. In my view, a pragmatic court "
14990 "committed to interpreting and applying the Constitution of our framers would "
14991 "see that if Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then there "
14992 "would be no effective constitutional requirement that terms be "
14993 "<quote>limited.</quote> If they could extend it once, they would extend it "
14994 "again and again and again."
14998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14999 #: freeculture.xml:10869
15001 "It was also my judgment that <emphasis>this</emphasis> Supreme Court would "
15002 "not allow Congress to extend existing terms. As anyone close to the Supreme "
15003 "Court's work knows, this Court has increasingly restricted the power of "
15004 "Congress when it has viewed Congress's actions as exceeding the power "
15005 "granted to it by the Constitution. Among constitutional scholars, the most "
15006 "famous example of this trend was the Supreme Court's decision in 1995 to "
15007 "strike down a law that banned the possession of guns near schools."
15010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15011 #: freeculture.xml:10882
15013 "Since 1937, the Supreme Court had interpreted Congress's granted powers very "
15014 "broadly; so, while the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate "
15015 "only <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> (aka <quote>interstate "
15016 "commerce</quote>), the Supreme Court had interpreted that power to include "
15017 "the power to regulate any activity that merely affected interstate commerce."
15020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15021 #: freeculture.xml:10892
15023 "As the economy grew, this standard increasingly meant that there was no "
15024 "limit to Congress's power to regulate, since just about every activity, when "
15025 "considered on a national scale, affects interstate commerce. A Constitution "
15026 "designed to limit Congress's power was instead interpreted to impose no "
15030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15031 #: freeculture.xml:10898 freeculture.xml:11684
15032 msgid "Rehnquist, William H."
15035 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15036 #: freeculture.xml:10900
15038 "The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Rehnquist's command, changed that in "
15039 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The "
15040 "government had argued that possessing guns near schools affected interstate "
15041 "commerce. Guns near schools increase crime, crime lowers property values, "
15042 "and so on. In the oral argument, the Chief Justice asked the government "
15043 "whether there was any activity that would not affect interstate commerce "
15044 "under the reasoning the government advanced. The government said there was "
15045 "not; if Congress says an activity affects interstate commerce, then that "
15046 "activity affects interstate commerce. The Supreme Court, the government "
15047 "said, was not in the position to second-guess Congress."
15051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15052 #: freeculture.xml:10915
15054 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>, 514 "
15055 "U.S. 549, 564 (1995)."
15059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15060 #: freeculture.xml:10922
15062 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>, 529 "
15066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15067 #: freeculture.xml:10913
15069 "<quote>We pause to consider the implications of the government's "
15070 "arguments,</quote> the Chief Justice wrote.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
15071 "id=\"0\"/> If anything Congress says is interstate commerce must therefore "
15072 "be considered interstate commerce, then there would be no limit to "
15073 "Congress's power. The decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> was "
15074 "reaffirmed five years later in <citetitle>United States</citetitle> "
15075 "v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
15079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15080 #: freeculture.xml:10929
15082 "If it is a principle about enumerated powers, then the principle carries "
15083 "from one enumerated power to another. The animating point in the context of "
15084 "the Commerce Clause was that the interpretation offered by the government "
15085 "would allow the government unending power to regulate commerce—the "
15086 "limitation to interstate commerce notwithstanding. The same point is true in "
15087 "the context of the Copyright Clause. Here, too, the government's "
15088 "interpretation would allow the government unending power to regulate "
15089 "copyrights—the limitation to <quote>limited times</quote> "
15094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15095 #: freeculture.xml:10926
15097 "If a principle were at work here, then it should apply to the Progress "
15098 "Clause as much as the Commerce Clause.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
15099 "id=\"0\"/> And if it is applied to the Progress Clause, the principle should "
15100 "yield the conclusion that Congress can't extend an existing term. If "
15101 "Congress could extend an existing term, then there would be no "
15102 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power over terms, though the "
15103 "Constitution expressly states that there is such a limit. Thus, the same "
15104 "principle applied to the power to grant copyrights should entail that "
15105 "Congress is not allowed to extend the term of existing copyrights."
15108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15109 #: freeculture.xml:10950
15111 "<emphasis>If</emphasis>, that is, the principle announced in "
15112 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for a principle. Many believed the "
15113 "decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for politics—a "
15114 "conservative Supreme Court, which believed in states' rights, using its "
15115 "power over Congress to advance its own personal political preferences. But I "
15116 "rejected that view of the Supreme Court's decision. Indeed, shortly after "
15117 "the decision, I wrote an article demonstrating the <quote>fidelity</quote> "
15118 "in such an interpretation of the Constitution. The idea that the Supreme "
15119 "Court decides cases based upon its politics struck me as extraordinarily "
15120 "boring. I was not going to devote my life to teaching constitutional law if "
15121 "these nine Justices were going to be petty politicians."
15124 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
15125 #: freeculture.xml:10962
15126 msgid "copyright purpose established in"
15129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
15130 #: freeculture.xml:10963
15131 msgid "constitutional purpose of"
15134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15135 #: freeculture.xml:10967
15137 "<emphasis role='strong'>Now let's pause</emphasis> for a moment to make sure "
15138 "we understand what the argument in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was not "
15139 "about. By insisting on the Constitution's limits to copyright, obviously "
15140 "Eldred was not endorsing piracy. Indeed, in an obvious sense, he was "
15141 "fighting a kind of piracy—piracy of the public domain. When Robert "
15142 "Frost wrote his work and when Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, the maximum "
15143 "copyright term was just fifty-six years. Because of interim changes, Frost "
15144 "and Disney had already enjoyed a seventy-five-year monopoly for their "
15145 "work. They had gotten the benefit of the bargain that the Constitution "
15146 "envisions: In exchange for a monopoly protected for fifty-six years, they "
15147 "created new work. But now these entities were using their "
15148 "power—expressed through the power of lobbyists' money—to get "
15149 "another twenty-year dollop of monopoly. That twenty-year dollop would be "
15150 "taken from the public domain. Eric Eldred was fighting a piracy that affects "
15154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15155 #: freeculture.xml:10984
15156 msgid "Nashville Songwriters Association"
15160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15161 #: freeculture.xml:10992
15163 "Brief of the Nashville Songwriters Association, "
15164 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. "
15165 "186 (2003) (No. 01-618), n.10, available at <ulink "
15166 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #51</ulink>."
15169 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15170 #: freeculture.xml:10986
15172 "Some people view the public domain with contempt. In their brief before the "
15173 "Supreme Court, the Nashville Songwriters Association wrote that the public "
15174 "domain is nothing more than <quote>legal piracy.</quote><placeholder "
15175 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is not piracy when the law allows it; "
15176 "and in our constitutional system, our law requires it. Some may not like the "
15177 "Constitution's requirements, but that doesn't make the Constitution a "
15178 "pirate's charter."
15181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15182 #: freeculture.xml:11002
15184 "As we've seen, our constitutional system requires limits on copyright as a "
15185 "way to assure that copyright holders do not too heavily influence the "
15186 "development and distribution of our culture. Yet, as Eric Eldred discovered, "
15187 "we have set up a system that assures that copyright terms will be repeatedly "
15188 "extended, and extended, and extended. We have created the perfect storm for "
15189 "the public domain. Copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long "
15190 "as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."
15193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15194 #: freeculture.xml:11014
15196 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is valuable</emphasis> copyrights that are "
15197 "responsible for terms being extended. Mickey Mouse and <quote>Rhapsody in "
15198 "Blue.</quote> These works are too valuable for copyright owners to "
15199 "ignore. But the real harm to our society from copyright extensions is not "
15200 "that Mickey Mouse remains Disney's. Forget Mickey Mouse. Forget Robert "
15201 "Frost. Forget all the works from the 1920s and 1930s that have continuing "
15202 "commercial value. The real harm of term extension comes not from these "
15203 "famous works. The real harm is to the works that are not famous, not "
15204 "commercially exploited, and no longer available as a result."
15208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15209 #: freeculture.xml:11032
15211 "The figure of 2 percent is an extrapolation from the study by the "
15212 "Congressional Research Service, in light of the estimated renewal "
15213 "ranges. See Brief of Petitioners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15214 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 7, available at <ulink "
15215 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #52</ulink>."
15218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15219 #: freeculture.xml:11026
15221 "If you look at the work created in the first twenty years (1923 to 1942) "
15222 "affected by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 2 percent of that "
15223 "work has any continuing commercial value. It was the copyright holders for "
15224 "that 2 percent who pushed the CTEA through. But the law and its effect were "
15225 "not limited to that 2 percent. The law extended the terms of copyright "
15226 "generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15231 #: freeculture.xml:11041
15233 "Think practically about the consequence of this extension—practically, "
15234 "as a businessperson, and not as a lawyer eager for more legal work. In 1930, "
15235 "10,047 books were published. In 2000, 174 of those books were still in "
15236 "print. Let's say you were Brewster Kahle, and you wanted to make available "
15237 "to the world in your iArchive project the remaining 9,873. What would you "
15241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15242 #: freeculture.xml:11054
15244 "Well, first, you'd have to determine which of the 9,873 books were still "
15245 "under copyright. That requires going to a library (these data are not "
15246 "on-line) and paging through tomes of books, cross-checking the titles and "
15247 "authors of the 9,873 books with the copyright registration and renewal "
15248 "records for works published in 1930. That will produce a list of books still "
15252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15253 #: freeculture.xml:11062
15255 "Then for the books still under copyright, you would need to locate the "
15256 "current copyright owners. How would you do that?"
15259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15260 #: freeculture.xml:11066
15262 "Most people think that there must be a list of these copyright owners "
15263 "somewhere. Practical people think this way. How could there be thousands and "
15264 "thousands of government monopolies without there being at least a list?"
15267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15268 #: freeculture.xml:11073
15270 "But there is no list. There may be a name from 1930, and then in 1959, of "
15271 "the person who registered the copyright. But just think practically about "
15272 "how impossibly difficult it would be to track down thousands of such "
15273 "records—especially since the person who registered is not necessarily "
15274 "the current owner. And we're just talking about 1930!"
15277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15278 #: freeculture.xml:11082
15280 "<quote>But there isn't a list of who owns property generally,</quote> the "
15281 "apologists for the system respond. <quote>Why should there be a list of "
15282 "copyright owners?</quote>"
15285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15286 #: freeculture.xml:11087
15288 "Well, actually, if you think about it, there <emphasis>are</emphasis> plenty "
15289 "of lists of who owns what property. Think about deeds on houses, or titles "
15290 "to cars. And where there isn't a list, the code of real space is pretty "
15291 "good at suggesting who the owner of a bit of property is. (A swing set in "
15292 "your backyard is probably yours.) So formally or informally, we have a "
15293 "pretty good way to know who owns what tangible property."
15297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15298 #: freeculture.xml:11096
15300 "So: You walk down a street and see a house. You can know who owns the house "
15301 "by looking it up in the courthouse registry. If you see a car, there is "
15302 "ordinarily a license plate that will link the owner to the car. If you see a "
15303 "bunch of children's toys sitting on the front lawn of a house, it's fairly "
15304 "easy to determine who owns the toys. And if you happen to see a baseball "
15305 "lying in a gutter on the side of the road, look around for a second for some "
15306 "kids playing ball. If you don't see any kids, then okay: Here's a bit of "
15307 "property whose owner we can't easily determine. It is the exception that "
15308 "proves the rule: that we ordinarily know quite well who owns what property."
15311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15312 #: freeculture.xml:11111
15314 "Compare this story to intangible property. You go into a library. The "
15315 "library owns the books. But who owns the copyrights? As I've already "
15316 "described, there's no list of copyright owners. There are authors' names, of "
15317 "course, but their copyrights could have been assigned, or passed down in an "
15318 "estate like Grandma's old jewelry. To know who owns what, you would have to "
15319 "hire a private detective. The bottom line: The owner cannot easily be "
15320 "located. And in a regime like ours, in which it is a felony to use such "
15321 "property without the property owner's permission, the property isn't going "
15325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15326 #: freeculture.xml:11123
15328 "The consequence with respect to old books is that they won't be digitized, "
15329 "and hence will simply rot away on shelves. But the consequence for other "
15330 "creative works is much more dire."
15333 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15334 #: freeculture.xml:11128
15335 msgid "Agee, Michael"
15338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15339 #: freeculture.xml:11129 freeculture.xml:11564
15340 msgid "Hal Roach Studios"
15343 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15344 #: freeculture.xml:11130
15345 msgid "Laurel and Hardy Films"
15348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15349 #: freeculture.xml:11131
15350 msgid "Lucky Dog, The"
15354 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15355 #: freeculture.xml:11144
15357 "See David G. Savage, <quote>High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright "
15358 "Law,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 6 October 2002; David "
15359 "Streitfeld, <quote>Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court "
15360 "Hears Arguments Today on Striking Down Copyright Extension,</quote> "
15361 "<citetitle>Orlando Sentinel Tribune</citetitle>, 9 October 2002."
15364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15365 #: freeculture.xml:11133
15367 "Consider the story of Michael Agee, chairman of Hal Roach Studios, which "
15368 "owns the copyrights for the Laurel and Hardy films. Agee is a direct "
15369 "beneficiary of the Bono Act. The Laurel and Hardy films were made between "
15370 "1921 and 1951. Only one of these films, <citetitle>The Lucky "
15371 "Dog</citetitle>, is currently out of copyright. But for the CTEA, films made "
15372 "after 1923 would have begun entering the public domain. Because Agee "
15373 "controls the exclusive rights for these popular films, he makes a great deal "
15374 "of money. According to one estimate, <quote>Roach has sold about 60,000 "
15375 "videocassettes and 50,000 DVDs of the duo's silent "
15376 "films.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15379 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15380 #: freeculture.xml:11151
15382 "Yet Agee opposed the CTEA. His reasons demonstrate a rare virtue in this "
15383 "culture: selflessness. He argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that "
15384 "the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will, if left standing, destroy "
15385 "a whole generation of American film."
15389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15390 #: freeculture.xml:11157
15392 "His argument is straightforward. A tiny fraction of this work has any "
15393 "continuing commercial value. The rest—to the extent it survives at "
15394 "all—sits in vaults gathering dust. It may be that some of this work "
15395 "not now commercially valuable will be deemed to be valuable by the owners of "
15396 "the vaults. For this to occur, however, the commercial benefit from the work "
15397 "must exceed the costs of making the work available for distribution."
15401 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15402 #: freeculture.xml:11175
15404 "Brief of Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee as Amicus Curiae Supporting the "
15405 "Petitoners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15406 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01- 618), "
15407 "12. See also Brief of Amicus Curiae filed on behalf of Petitioners by the "
15408 "Internet Archive, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15409 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
15410 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #53</ulink>."
15413 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15414 #: freeculture.xml:11168
15416 "We can't know the benefits, but we do know a lot about the costs. For most "
15417 "of the history of film, the costs of restoring film were very high; digital "
15418 "technology has lowered these costs substantially. While it cost more than "
15419 "$10,000 to restore a ninety-minute black-and-white film in 1993, it can now "
15420 "cost as little as $100 to digitize one hour of mm film.<placeholder "
15421 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15425 #: freeculture.xml:11185
15427 "Restoration technology is not the only cost, nor the most important. "
15428 "Lawyers, too, are a cost, and increasingly, a very important one. In "
15429 "addition to preserving the film, a distributor needs to secure the rights. "
15430 "And to secure the rights for a film that is under copyright, you need to "
15431 "locate the copyright owner."
15434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15435 #: freeculture.xml:11193
15437 "Or more accurately, <emphasis>owners</emphasis>. As we've seen, there isn't "
15438 "only a single copyright associated with a film; there are many. There isn't "
15439 "a single person whom you can contact about those copyrights; there are as "
15440 "many as can hold the rights, which turns out to be an extremely large "
15441 "number. Thus the costs of clearing the rights to these films is "
15442 "exceptionally high."
15445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15446 #: freeculture.xml:11201
15448 "<quote>But can't you just restore the film, distribute it, and then pay the "
15449 "copyright owner when she shows up?</quote> Sure, if you want to commit a "
15450 "felony. And even if you're not worried about committing a felony, when she "
15451 "does show up, she'll have the right to sue you for all the profits you have "
15452 "made. So, if you're successful, you can be fairly confident you'll be "
15453 "getting a call from someone's lawyer. And if you're not successful, you "
15454 "won't make enough to cover the costs of your own lawyer. Either way, you "
15455 "have to talk to a lawyer. And as is too often the case, saying you have to "
15456 "talk to a lawyer is the same as saying you won't make any money."
15460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15461 #: freeculture.xml:11212
15463 "For some films, the benefit of releasing the film may well exceed these "
15464 "costs. But for the vast majority of them, there is no way the benefit would "
15465 "outweigh the legal costs. Thus, for the vast majority of old films, Agee "
15466 "argued, the film will not be restored and distributed until the copyright "
15470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15471 #: freeculture.xml:11223
15473 "But by the time the copyright for these films expires, the film will have "
15474 "expired. These films were produced on nitrate-based stock, and nitrate stock "
15475 "dissolves over time. They will be gone, and the metal canisters in which "
15476 "they are now stored will be filled with nothing more than dust."
15479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15480 #: freeculture.xml:11231
15482 "<emphasis role='strong'>Of all the</emphasis> creative work produced by "
15483 "humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that "
15484 "tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. For that "
15485 "tiny fraction, the copyright creates incentives to produce and distribute "
15486 "the creative work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an "
15487 "<quote>engine of free expression.</quote>"
15490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15491 #: freeculture.xml:11239
15493 "But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative "
15494 "work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books "
15495 "go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and "
15496 "film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a "
15497 "creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the "
15498 "commercial life ends."
15501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15502 #: freeculture.xml:11249
15504 "Yet that doesn't mean the life of the creative work ends. We don't keep "
15505 "libraries of books in order to compete with Barnes & Noble, and we don't "
15506 "have archives of films because we expect people to choose between spending "
15507 "Friday night watching new movies and spending Friday night watching a 1930 "
15508 "news documentary. The noncommercial life of culture is important and "
15509 "valuable—for entertainment but also, and more importantly, for "
15510 "knowledge. To understand who we are, and where we came from, and how we have "
15511 "made the mistakes that we have, we need to have access to this history."
15515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15516 #: freeculture.xml:11262
15518 "Copyrights in this context do not drive an engine of free expression. In "
15519 "this context, there is no need for an exclusive right. Copyrights in this "
15520 "context do no good."
15523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15524 #: freeculture.xml:11269
15526 "Yet, for most of our history, they also did little harm. For most of our "
15527 "history, when a work ended its commercial life, there was no "
15528 "<emphasis>copyright-related use</emphasis> that would be inhibited by an "
15529 "exclusive right. When a book went out of print, you could not buy it from a "
15530 "publisher. But you could still buy it from a used book store, and when a "
15531 "used book store sells it, in America, at least, there is no need to pay the "
15532 "copyright owner anything. Thus, the ordinary use of a book after its "
15533 "commercial life ended was a use that was independent of copyright law."
15536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15537 #: freeculture.xml:11280
15539 "The same was effectively true of film. Because the costs of restoring a "
15540 "film—the real economic costs, not the lawyer costs—were so high, "
15541 "it was never at all feasible to preserve or restore film. Like the remains "
15542 "of a great dinner, when it's over, it's over. Once a film passed out of its "
15543 "commercial life, it may have been archived for a bit, but that was the end "
15544 "of its life so long as the market didn't have more to offer."
15547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15548 #: freeculture.xml:11289
15550 "In other words, though copyright has been relatively short for most of our "
15551 "history, long copyrights wouldn't have mattered for the works that lost "
15552 "their commercial value. Long copyrights for these works would not have "
15553 "interfered with anything."
15556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15557 #: freeculture.xml:11295
15558 msgid "But this situation has now changed."
15561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15562 #: freeculture.xml:11299
15564 "One crucially important consequence of the emergence of digital technologies "
15565 "is to enable the archive that Brewster Kahle dreams of. Digital "
15566 "technologies now make it possible to preserve and give access to all sorts "
15567 "of knowledge. Once a book goes out of print, we can now imagine digitizing "
15568 "it and making it available to everyone, forever. Once a film goes out of "
15569 "distribution, we could digitize it and make it available to everyone, "
15570 "forever. Digital technologies give new life to copyrighted material after it "
15571 "passes out of its commercial life. It is now possible to preserve and assure "
15572 "universal access to this knowledge and culture, whereas before it was not."
15576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15577 #: freeculture.xml:11312
15579 "And now copyright law does get in the way. Every step of producing this "
15580 "digital archive of our culture infringes on the exclusive right of "
15581 "copyright. To digitize a book is to copy it. To do that requires permission "
15582 "of the copyright owner. The same with music, film, or any other aspect of "
15583 "our culture protected by copyright. The effort to make these things "
15584 "available to history, or to researchers, or to those who just want to "
15585 "explore, is now inhibited by a set of rules that were written for a "
15586 "radically different context."
15589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15590 #: freeculture.xml:11322
15592 "Here is the core of the harm that comes from extending terms: Now that "
15593 "technology enables us to rebuild the library of Alexandria, the law gets in "
15594 "the way. And it doesn't get in the way for any useful "
15595 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis> purpose, for the purpose of copyright is to "
15596 "enable the commercial market that spreads culture. No, we are talking about "
15597 "culture after it has lived its commercial life. In this context, copyright "
15598 "is serving no purpose <emphasis>at all</emphasis> related to the spread of "
15599 "knowledge. In this context, copyright is not an engine of free "
15600 "expression. Copyright is a brake."
15603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15604 #: freeculture.xml:11333
15606 "You may well ask, <quote>But if digital technologies lower the costs for "
15607 "Brewster Kahle, then they will lower the costs for Random House, too. So "
15608 "won't Random House do as well as Brewster Kahle in spreading culture "
15612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15613 #: freeculture.xml:11339
15615 "Maybe. Someday. But there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that "
15616 "publishers would be as complete as libraries. If Barnes & Noble offered "
15617 "to lend books from its stores for a low price, would that eliminate the need "
15618 "for libraries? Only if you think that the only role of a library is to serve "
15619 "what <quote>the market</quote> would demand. But if you think the role of a "
15620 "library is bigger than this—if you think its role is to archive "
15621 "culture, whether there's a demand for any particular bit of that culture or "
15622 "not—then we can't count on the commercial market to do our library "
15627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15628 #: freeculture.xml:11363
15630 "Jason Schultz, <quote>The Myth of the 1976 Copyright `Chaos' Theory,</quote> "
15631 "20 December 2002, available at <ulink "
15632 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #54</ulink>."
15635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15636 #: freeculture.xml:11351
15638 "I would be the first to agree that it should do as much as it can: We should "
15639 "rely upon the market as much as possible to spread and enable culture. My "
15640 "message is absolutely not antimarket. But where we see the market is not "
15641 "doing the job, then we should allow nonmarket forces the freedom to fill the "
15642 "gaps. As one researcher calculated for American culture, 94 percent of the "
15643 "films, books, and music produced between and 1946 is not commercially "
15644 "available. However much you love the commercial market, if access is a "
15645 "value, then 6 percent is a failure to provide that value.<placeholder "
15646 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15650 #: freeculture.xml:11370
15652 "<emphasis role='strong'>In January 1999</emphasis>, we filed a lawsuit on "
15653 "Eric Eldred's behalf in federal district court in Washington, D.C., asking "
15654 "the court to declare the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act "
15655 "unconstitutional. The two central claims that we made were (1) that "
15656 "extending existing terms violated the Constitution's <quote>limited "
15657 "Times</quote> requirement, and (2) that extending terms by another twenty "
15658 "years violated the First Amendment."
15661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15662 #: freeculture.xml:11379
15664 "The district court dismissed our claims without even hearing an argument. A "
15665 "panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also dismissed our "
15666 "claims, though after hearing an extensive argument. But that decision at "
15667 "least had a dissent, by one of the most conservative judges on that "
15668 "court. That dissent gave our claims life."
15671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15672 #: freeculture.xml:11386
15674 "Judge David Sentelle said the CTEA violated the requirement that copyrights "
15675 "be for <quote>limited Times</quote> only. His argument was as elegant as it "
15676 "was simple: If Congress can extend existing terms, then there is no "
15677 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power under the Copyright "
15678 "Clause. The power to extend existing terms means Congress is not required to "
15679 "grant terms that are <quote>limited.</quote> Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, "
15680 "the court had to interpret the term <quote>limited Times</quote> to give it "
15681 "meaning. And the best interpretation, Judge Sentelle argued, would be to "
15682 "deny Congress the power to extend existing terms."
15685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15686 #: freeculture.xml:11397
15688 "We asked the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as a whole to hear the "
15689 "case. Cases are ordinarily heard in panels of three, except for important "
15690 "cases or cases that raise issues specific to the circuit as a whole, where "
15691 "the court will sit <quote>en banc</quote> to hear the case."
15694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15695 #: freeculture.xml:11402
15696 msgid "Tatel, David"
15700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15701 #: freeculture.xml:11404
15703 "The Court of Appeals rejected our request to hear the case en banc. This "
15704 "time, Judge Sentelle was joined by the most liberal member of the "
15705 "D.C. Circuit, Judge David Tatel. Both the most conservative and the most "
15706 "liberal judges in the D.C. Circuit believed Congress had overstepped its "
15710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15711 #: freeculture.xml:11413
15713 "It was here that most expected Eldred v. Ashcroft would die, for the Supreme "
15714 "Court rarely reviews any decision by a court of appeals. (It hears about one "
15715 "hundred cases a year, out of more than five thousand appeals.) And it "
15716 "practically never reviews a decision that upholds a statute when no other "
15717 "court has yet reviewed the statute."
15720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15721 #: freeculture.xml:11420
15723 "But in February 2002, the Supreme Court surprised the world by granting our "
15724 "petition to review the D.C. Circuit opinion. Argument was set for October of "
15725 "2002. The summer would be spent writing briefs and preparing for argument."
15728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15729 #: freeculture.xml:11426
15731 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is over</emphasis> a year later as I write these "
15732 "words. It is still astonishingly hard. If you know anything at all about "
15733 "this story, you know that we lost the appeal. And if you know something more "
15734 "than just the minimum, you probably think there was no way this case could "
15735 "have been won. After our defeat, I received literally thousands of missives "
15736 "by well-wishers and supporters, thanking me for my work on behalf of this "
15737 "noble but doomed cause. And none from this pile was more significant to me "
15738 "than the e-mail from my client, Eric Eldred."
15741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15742 #: freeculture.xml:11437
15744 "But my client and these friends were wrong. This case could have been "
15745 "won. It should have been won. And no matter how hard I try to retell this "
15746 "story to myself, I can never escape believing that my own mistake lost it."
15749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15750 #: freeculture.xml:11442 freeculture.xml:11456
15751 msgid "Steward, Geoffrey"
15755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15756 #: freeculture.xml:11444
15758 "<emphasis role='strong'>The mistake</emphasis> was made early, though it "
15759 "became obvious only at the very end. Our case had been supported from the "
15760 "very beginning by an extraordinary lawyer, Geoffrey Stewart, and by the law "
15761 "firm he had moved to, Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. Jones Day took a great "
15762 "deal of heat from its copyright-protectionist clients for supporting "
15763 "us. They ignored this pressure (something that few law firms today would "
15764 "ever do), and throughout the case, they gave it everything they could."
15767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15768 #: freeculture.xml:11454 freeculture.xml:11813 freeculture.xml:11829 freeculture.xml:11926 freeculture.xml:12146 freeculture.xml:12177 freeculture.xml:12275
15772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15773 #: freeculture.xml:11455
15774 msgid "Bromberg, Dan"
15777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15778 #: freeculture.xml:11458
15780 "There were three key lawyers on the case from Jones Day. Geoff Stewart was "
15781 "the first, but then Dan Bromberg and Don Ayer became quite "
15782 "involved. Bromberg and Ayer in particular had a common view about how this "
15783 "case would be won: We would only win, they repeatedly told me, if we could "
15784 "make the issue seem <quote>important</quote> to the Supreme Court. It had to "
15785 "seem as if dramatic harm were being done to free speech and free culture; "
15786 "otherwise, they would never vote against <quote>the most powerful media "
15787 "companies in the world.</quote>"
15790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15791 #: freeculture.xml:11468
15793 "I hate this view of the law. Of course I thought the Sonny Bono Act was a "
15794 "dramatic harm to free speech and free culture. Of course I still think it "
15795 "is. But the idea that the Supreme Court decides the law based on how "
15796 "important they believe the issues are is just wrong. It might be "
15797 "<quote>right</quote> as in <quote>true,</quote> I thought, but it is "
15798 "<quote>wrong</quote> as in <quote>it just shouldn't be that way.</quote> As "
15799 "I believed that any faithful interpretation of what the framers of our "
15800 "Constitution did would yield the conclusion that the CTEA was "
15801 "unconstitutional, and as I believed that any faithful interpretation of what "
15802 "the First Amendment means would yield the conclusion that the power to "
15803 "extend existing copyright terms is unconstitutional, I was not persuaded "
15804 "that we had to sell our case like soap. Just as a law that bans the "
15805 "swastika is unconstitutional not because the Court likes Nazis but because "
15806 "such a law would violate the Constitution, so too, in my view, would the "
15807 "Court decide whether Congress's law was constitutional based on the "
15808 "Constitution, not based on whether they liked the values that the framers "
15809 "put in the Constitution."
15812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15813 #: freeculture.xml:11489
15815 "In any case, I thought, the Court must already see the danger and the harm "
15816 "caused by this sort of law. Why else would they grant review? There was no "
15817 "reason to hear the case in the Supreme Court if they weren't convinced that "
15818 "this regulation was harmful. So in my view, we didn't need to persuade them "
15819 "that this law was bad, we needed to show why it was unconstitutional."
15823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15824 #: freeculture.xml:11497
15826 "There was one way, however, in which I felt politics would matter and in "
15827 "which I thought a response was appropriate. I was convinced that the Court "
15828 "would not hear our arguments if it thought these were just the arguments of "
15829 "a group of lefty loons. This Supreme Court was not about to launch into a "
15830 "new field of judicial review if it seemed that this field of review was "
15831 "simply the preference of a small political minority. Although my focus in "
15832 "the case was not to demonstrate how bad the Sonny Bono Act was but to "
15833 "demonstrate that it was unconstitutional, my hope was to make this argument "
15834 "against a background of briefs that covered the full range of political "
15835 "views. To show that this claim against the CTEA was grounded in "
15836 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> and not politics, then, we tried to gather the "
15837 "widest range of credible critics—credible not because they were rich "
15838 "and famous, but because they, in the aggregate, demonstrated that this law "
15839 "was unconstitutional regardless of one's politics."
15842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15843 #: freeculture.xml:11515 freeculture.xml:11542
15844 msgid "Eagle Forum"
15847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15848 #: freeculture.xml:11516
15849 msgid "Schlafly, Phyllis"
15852 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15853 #: freeculture.xml:11518
15855 "The first step happened all by itself. Phyllis Schlafly's organization, "
15856 "Eagle Forum, had been an opponent of the CTEA from the very beginning. "
15857 "Mrs. Schlafly viewed the CTEA as a sellout by Congress. In November 1998, "
15858 "she wrote a stinging editorial attacking the Republican Congress for "
15859 "allowing the law to pass. As she wrote, <quote>Do you sometimes wonder why "
15860 "bills that create a financial windfall to narrow special interests slide "
15861 "easily through the intricate legislative process, while bills that benefit "
15862 "the general public seem to get bogged down?</quote> The answer, as the "
15863 "editorial documented, was the power of money. Schlafly enumerated Disney's "
15864 "contributions to the key players on the committees. It was money, not "
15865 "justice, that gave Mickey Mouse twenty more years in Disney's control, "
15869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15870 #: freeculture.xml:11532
15872 "In the Court of Appeals, Eagle Forum was eager to file a brief supporting "
15873 "our position. Their brief made the argument that became the core claim in "
15874 "the Supreme Court: If Congress can extend the term of existing copyrights, "
15875 "there is no limit to Congress's power to set terms. That strong "
15876 "conservative argument persuaded a strong conservative judge, Judge Sentelle."
15880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15881 #: freeculture.xml:11544
15883 "In the Supreme Court, the briefs on our side were about as diverse as it "
15884 "gets. They included an extraordinary historical brief by the Free Software "
15885 "Foundation (home of the GNU project that made GNU/ Linux possible). They "
15886 "included a powerful brief about the costs of uncertainty by Intel. There "
15887 "were two law professors' briefs, one by copyright scholars and one by First "
15888 "Amendment scholars. There was an exhaustive and uncontroverted brief by the "
15889 "world's experts in the history of the Progress Clause. And of course, there "
15890 "was a new brief by Eagle Forum, repeating and strengthening its arguments."
15893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15894 #: freeculture.xml:11556
15895 msgid "American Association of Law Libraries"
15898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15899 #: freeculture.xml:11557
15900 msgid "National Writers Union"
15903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15904 #: freeculture.xml:11559
15906 "Those briefs framed a legal argument. Then to support the legal argument, "
15907 "there were a number of powerful briefs by libraries and archives, including "
15908 "the Internet Archive, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the "
15909 "National Writers Union."
15912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15913 #: freeculture.xml:11566
15915 "But two briefs captured the policy argument best. One made the argument I've "
15916 "already described: A brief by Hal Roach Studios argued that unless the law "
15917 "was struck, a whole generation of American film would disappear. The other "
15918 "made the economic argument absolutely clear."
15921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15922 #: freeculture.xml:11572
15923 msgid "Akerlof, George"
15926 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15927 #: freeculture.xml:11573
15928 msgid "Arrow, Kenneth"
15931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15932 #: freeculture.xml:11574
15933 msgid "Buchanan, James"
15936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15937 #: freeculture.xml:11575
15938 msgid "Coase, Ronald"
15941 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15942 #: freeculture.xml:11576
15943 msgid "Friedman, Milton"
15946 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15947 #: freeculture.xml:11578
15949 "This economists' brief was signed by seventeen economists, including five "
15950 "Nobel Prize winners, including Ronald Coase, James Buchanan, Milton "
15951 "Friedman, Kenneth Arrow, and George Akerlof. The economists, as the list of "
15952 "Nobel winners demonstrates, spanned the political spectrum. Their "
15953 "conclusions were powerful: There was no plausible claim that extending the "
15954 "terms of existing copyrights would do anything to increase incentives to "
15955 "create. Such extensions were nothing more than "
15956 "<quote>rent-seeking</quote>—the fancy term economists use to describe "
15957 "special-interest legislation gone wild."
15960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15961 #: freeculture.xml:11588 freeculture.xml:11606 freeculture.xml:11815 freeculture.xml:12178
15962 msgid "Fried, Charles"
15965 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15966 #: freeculture.xml:11589
15967 msgid "Morrison, Alan"
15970 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15971 #: freeculture.xml:11590
15972 msgid "Public Citizen"
15975 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15976 #: freeculture.xml:11591 freeculture.xml:11814 freeculture.xml:12934
15977 msgid "Reagan, Ronald"
15981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15982 #: freeculture.xml:11593
15984 "The same effort at balance was reflected in the legal team we gathered to "
15985 "write our briefs in the case. The Jones Day lawyers had been with us from "
15986 "the start. But when the case got to the Supreme Court, we added three "
15987 "lawyers to help us frame this argument to this Court: Alan Morrison, a "
15988 "lawyer from Public Citizen, a Washington group that had made constitutional "
15989 "history with a series of seminal victories in the Supreme Court defending "
15990 "individual rights; my colleague and dean, Kathleen Sullivan, who had argued "
15991 "many cases in the Court, and who had advised us early on about a First "
15992 "Amendment strategy; and finally, former solicitor general Charles Fried."
15995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15996 #: freeculture.xml:11608
15998 "Fried was a special victory for our side. Every other former solicitor "
15999 "general was hired by the other side to defend Congress's power to give media "
16000 "companies the special favor of extended copyright terms. Fried was the only "
16001 "one who turned down that lucrative assignment to stand up for something he "
16002 "believed in. He had been Ronald Reagan's chief lawyer in the Supreme "
16003 "Court. He had helped craft the line of cases that limited Congress's power "
16004 "in the context of the Commerce Clause. And while he had argued many "
16005 "positions in the Supreme Court that I personally disagreed with, his joining "
16006 "the cause was a vote of confidence in our argument."
16009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16010 #: freeculture.xml:11620
16012 "The government, in defending the statute, had its collection of friends, as "
16013 "well. Significantly, however, none of these <quote>friends</quote> included "
16014 "historians or economists. The briefs on the other side of the case were "
16015 "written exclusively by major media companies, congressmen, and copyright "
16019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16020 #: freeculture.xml:11627
16022 "The media companies were not surprising. They had the most to gain from the "
16023 "law. The congressmen were not surprising either—they were defending "
16024 "their power and, indirectly, the gravy train of contributions such power "
16025 "induced. And of course it was not surprising that the copyright holders "
16026 "would defend the idea that they should continue to have the right to control "
16027 "who did what with content they wanted to control."
16030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16031 #: freeculture.xml:11635
16032 msgid "Gershwin, George"
16036 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16037 #: freeculture.xml:11644
16039 "Brief of Amici Dr. Seuss Enterprise et al., <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
16040 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. (2003) (No. 01-618), 19."
16044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16045 #: freeculture.xml:11652
16047 "Dinitia Smith, <quote>Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey Mouse "
16048 "Joins the Fray,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 28 March "
16053 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16054 #: freeculture.xml:11637
16056 "Dr. Seuss's representatives, for example, argued that it was better for the "
16057 "Dr. Seuss estate to control what happened to Dr. Seuss's work— better "
16058 "than allowing it to fall into the public domain—because if this "
16059 "creativity were in the public domain, then people could use it to "
16060 "<quote>glorify drugs or to create pornography.</quote><placeholder "
16061 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That was also the motive of the Gershwin "
16062 "estate, which defended its <quote>protection</quote> of the work of George "
16063 "Gershwin. They refuse, for example, to license <citetitle>Porgy and "
16064 "Bess</citetitle> to anyone who refuses to use African Americans in the "
16065 "cast.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> That's their view of how this "
16066 "part of American culture should be controlled, and they wanted this law to "
16067 "help them effect that control."
16070 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16071 #: freeculture.xml:11661
16073 "This argument made clear a theme that is rarely noticed in this debate. "
16074 "When Congress decides to extend the term of existing copyrights, Congress is "
16075 "making a choice about which speakers it will favor. Famous and beloved "
16076 "copyright owners, such as the Gershwin estate and Dr. Seuss, come to "
16077 "Congress and say, <quote>Give us twenty years to control the speech about "
16078 "these icons of American culture. We'll do better with them than anyone "
16079 "else.</quote> Congress of course likes to reward the popular and famous by "
16080 "giving them what they want. But when Congress gives people an exclusive "
16081 "right to speak in a certain way, that's just what the First Amendment is "
16082 "traditionally meant to block."
16085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16086 #: freeculture.xml:11673
16088 "We argued as much in a final brief. Not only would upholding the CTEA mean "
16089 "that there was no limit to the power of Congress to extend "
16090 "copyrights—extensions that would further concentrate the market; it "
16091 "would also mean that there was no limit to Congress's power to play "
16092 "favorites, through copyright, with who has the right to speak."
16095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16096 #: freeculture.xml:11680
16098 "<emphasis role='strong'>Between February</emphasis> and October, there was "
16099 "little I did beyond preparing for this case. Early on, as I said, I set the "
16103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16104 #: freeculture.xml:11685 freeculture.xml:11871
16105 msgid "O'Connor, Sandra Day"
16108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16109 #: freeculture.xml:11687
16111 "The Supreme Court was divided into two important camps. One camp we called "
16112 "<quote>the Conservatives.</quote> The other we called <quote>the "
16113 "Rest.</quote> The Conservatives included Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice "
16114 "O'Connor, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. These five "
16115 "had been the most consistent in limiting Congress's power. They were the "
16116 "five who had supported the <citetitle>Lopez/Morrison</citetitle> line of "
16117 "cases that said that an enumerated power had to be interpreted to assure "
16118 "that Congress's powers had limits."
16121 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16122 #: freeculture.xml:11696 freeculture.xml:11721 freeculture.xml:12073 freeculture.xml:12085
16123 msgid "Breyer, Stephen"
16126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16127 #: freeculture.xml:11697 freeculture.xml:12037
16128 msgid "Ginsburg, Ruth Bader"
16132 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16133 #: freeculture.xml:11699
16135 "The Rest were the four Justices who had strongly opposed limits on "
16136 "Congress's power. These four—Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, Justice "
16137 "Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer—had repeatedly argued that the "
16138 "Constitution gives Congress broad discretion to decide how best to implement "
16139 "its powers. In case after case, these justices had argued that the Court's "
16140 "role should be one of deference. Though the votes of these four justices "
16141 "were the votes that I personally had most consistently agreed with, they "
16142 "were also the votes that we were least likely to get."
16145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16146 #: freeculture.xml:11711
16148 "In particular, the least likely was Justice Ginsburg's. In addition to her "
16149 "general view about deference to Congress (except where issues of gender are "
16150 "involved), she had been particularly deferential in the context of "
16151 "intellectual property protections. She and her daughter (an excellent and "
16152 "well-known intellectual property scholar) were cut from the same "
16153 "intellectual property cloth. We expected she would agree with the writings "
16154 "of her daughter: that Congress had the power in this context to do as it "
16155 "wished, even if what Congress wished made little sense."
16158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16159 #: freeculture.xml:11723
16161 "Close behind Justice Ginsburg were two justices whom we also viewed as "
16162 "unlikely allies, though possible surprises. Justice Souter strongly favored "
16163 "deference to Congress, as did Justice Breyer. But both were also very "
16164 "sensitive to free speech concerns. And as we strongly believed, there was a "
16165 "very important free speech argument against these retrospective extensions."
16168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16169 #: freeculture.xml:11732
16171 "The only vote we could be confident about was that of Justice "
16172 "Stevens. History will record Justice Stevens as one of the greatest judges "
16173 "on this Court. His votes are consistently eclectic, which just means that no "
16174 "simple ideology explains where he will stand. But he had consistently argued "
16175 "for limits in the context of intellectual property generally. We were fairly "
16176 "confident he would recognize limits here."
16179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16180 #: freeculture.xml:11740
16182 "This analysis of <quote>the Rest</quote> showed most clearly where our focus "
16183 "had to be: on the Conservatives. To win this case, we had to crack open "
16184 "these five and get at least a majority to go our way. Thus, the single "
16185 "overriding argument that animated our claim rested on the Conservatives' "
16186 "most important jurisprudential innovation—the argument that Judge "
16187 "Sentelle had relied upon in the Court of Appeals, that Congress's power must "
16188 "be interpreted so that its enumerated powers have limits."
16192 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16193 #: freeculture.xml:11750
16195 "This then was the core of our strategy—a strategy for which I am "
16196 "responsible. We would get the Court to see that just as with the "
16197 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, under the government's argument here, "
16198 "Congress would always have unlimited power to extend existing terms. If "
16199 "anything was plain about Congress's power under the Progress Clause, it was "
16200 "that this power was supposed to be <quote>limited.</quote> Our aim would be "
16201 "to get the Court to reconcile <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> with "
16202 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>: If Congress's power to regulate commerce was "
16203 "limited, then so, too, must Congress's power to regulate copyright be "
16207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16208 #: freeculture.xml:11764
16210 "<emphasis role='strong'>The argument</emphasis> on the government's side "
16211 "came down to this: Congress has done it before. It should be allowed to do "
16212 "it again. The government claimed that from the very beginning, Congress has "
16213 "been extending the term of existing copyrights. So, the government argued, "
16214 "the Court should not now say that practice is unconstitutional."
16217 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16218 #: freeculture.xml:11772
16220 "There was some truth to the government's claim, but not much. We certainly "
16221 "agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in 1831 and in 1909. And of "
16222 "course, in 1962, Congress began extending existing terms "
16223 "regularly—eleven times in forty years."
16226 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16227 #: freeculture.xml:11779
16229 "But this <quote>consistency</quote> should be kept in perspective. Congress "
16230 "extended existing terms once in the first hundred years of the Republic. It "
16231 "then extended existing terms once again in the next fifty. Those rare "
16232 "extensions are in contrast to the now regular practice of extending existing "
16233 "terms. Whatever restraint Congress had had in the past, that restraint was "
16234 "now gone. Congress was now in a cycle of extensions; there was no reason to "
16235 "expect that cycle would end. This Court had not hesitated to intervene where "
16236 "Congress was in a similar cycle of extension. There was no reason it "
16237 "couldn't intervene here."
16241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16242 #: freeculture.xml:11794
16244 "<emphasis role='strong'>Oral argument</emphasis> was scheduled for the first "
16245 "week in October. I arrived in D.C. two weeks before the argument. During "
16246 "those two weeks, I was repeatedly <quote>mooted</quote> by lawyers who had "
16247 "volunteered to help in the case. Such <quote>moots</quote> are basically "
16248 "practice rounds, where wannabe justices fire questions at wannabe winners."
16251 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16252 #: freeculture.xml:11804
16254 "I was convinced that to win, I had to keep the Court focused on a single "
16255 "point: that if this extension is permitted, then there is no limit to the "
16256 "power to set terms. Going with the government would mean that terms would be "
16257 "effectively unlimited; going with us would give Congress a clear line to "
16258 "follow: Don't extend existing terms. The moots were an effective practice; I "
16259 "found ways to take every question back to this central idea."
16262 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16263 #: freeculture.xml:11817
16265 "One moot was before the lawyers at Jones Day. Don Ayer was the skeptic. He "
16266 "had served in the Reagan Justice Department with Solicitor General Charles "
16267 "Fried. He had argued many cases before the Supreme Court. And in his review "
16268 "of the moot, he let his concern speak:"
16271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16272 #: freeculture.xml:11823
16274 "<quote>I'm just afraid that unless they really see the harm, they won't be "
16275 "willing to upset this practice that the government says has been a "
16276 "consistent practice for two hundred years. You have to make them see the "
16277 "harm—passionately get them to see the harm. For if they don't see "
16278 "that, then we haven't any chance of winning.</quote>"
16281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16282 #: freeculture.xml:11831
16284 "He may have argued many cases before this Court, I thought, but he didn't "
16285 "understand its soul. As a clerk, I had seen the Justices do the right "
16286 "thing—not because of politics but because it was right. As a law "
16287 "professor, I had spent my life teaching my students that this Court does the "
16288 "right thing—not because of politics but because it is right. As I "
16289 "listened to Ayer's plea for passion in pressing politics, I understood his "
16290 "point, and I rejected it. Our argument was right. That was enough. Let the "
16291 "politicians learn to see that it was also good."
16295 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16296 #: freeculture.xml:11841
16298 "<emphasis role='strong'>The night before</emphasis> the argument, a line of "
16299 "people began to form in front of the Supreme Court. The case had become a "
16300 "focus of the press and of the movement to free culture. Hundreds stood in "
16301 "line for the chance to see the proceedings. Scores spent the night on the "
16302 "Supreme Court steps so that they would be assured a seat."
16305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16306 #: freeculture.xml:11851
16308 "Not everyone has to wait in line. People who know the Justices can ask for "
16309 "seats they control. (I asked Justice Scalia's chambers for seats for my "
16310 "parents, for example.) Members of the Supreme Court bar can get a seat in a "
16311 "special section reserved for them. And senators and congressmen have a "
16312 "special place where they get to sit, too. And finally, of course, the press "
16313 "has a gallery, as do clerks working for the Justices on the Court. As we "
16314 "entered that morning, there was no place that was not taken. This was an "
16315 "argument about intellectual property law, yet the halls were filled. As I "
16316 "walked in to take my seat at the front of the Court, I saw my parents "
16317 "sitting on the left. As I sat down at the table, I saw Jack Valenti sitting "
16318 "in the special section ordinarily reserved for family of the Justices."
16321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16322 #: freeculture.xml:11866
16324 "When the Chief Justice called me to begin my argument, I began where I "
16325 "intended to stay: on the question of the limits on Congress's power. This "
16326 "was a case about enumerated powers, I said, and whether those enumerated "
16327 "powers had any limit."
16330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16331 #: freeculture.xml:11873
16333 "Justice O'Connor stopped me within one minute of my opening. The history "
16334 "was bothering her."
16337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16338 #: freeculture.xml:11878
16340 "justice o'connor: Congress has extended the term so often through the years, "
16341 "and if you are right, don't we run the risk of upsetting previous extensions "
16342 "of time? I mean, this seems to be a practice that began with the very first "
16346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16347 #: freeculture.xml:11885
16349 "She was quite willing to concede <quote>that this flies directly in the face "
16350 "of what the framers had in mind.</quote> But my response again and again was "
16351 "to emphasize limits on Congress's power."
16355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16356 #: freeculture.xml:11891
16358 "mr. lessig: Well, if it flies in the face of what the framers had in mind, "
16359 "then the question is, is there a way of interpreting their words that gives "
16360 "effect to what they had in mind, and the answer is yes."
16363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16364 #: freeculture.xml:11899
16366 "There were two points in this argument when I should have seen where the "
16367 "Court was going. The first was a question by Justice Kennedy, who observed,"
16370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16371 #: freeculture.xml:11905
16373 "justice kennedy: Well, I suppose implicit in the argument that the '76 act, "
16374 "too, should have been declared void, and that we might leave it alone "
16375 "because of the disruption, is that for all these years the act has impeded "
16376 "progress in science and the useful arts. I just don't see any empirical "
16377 "evidence for that."
16380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16381 #: freeculture.xml:11913
16383 "Here follows my clear mistake. Like a professor correcting a student, I "
16387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16388 #: freeculture.xml:11919
16390 "mr. lessig: Justice, we are not making an empirical claim at all. Nothing "
16391 "in our Copyright Clause claim hangs upon the empirical assertion about "
16392 "impeding progress. Our only argument is this is a structural limit necessary "
16393 "to assure that what would be an effectively perpetual term not be permitted "
16394 "under the copyright laws."
16397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16398 #: freeculture.xml:11928
16400 "That was a correct answer, but it wasn't the right answer. The right answer "
16401 "was instead that there was an obvious and profound harm. Any number of "
16402 "briefs had been written about it. He wanted to hear it. And here was the "
16403 "place Don Ayer's advice should have mattered. This was a softball; my answer "
16404 "was a swing and a miss."
16407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16408 #: freeculture.xml:11935
16410 "The second came from the Chief, for whom the whole case had been "
16411 "crafted. For the Chief Justice had crafted the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
16412 "ruling, and we hoped that he would see this case as its second cousin."
16416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16417 #: freeculture.xml:11940
16419 "It was clear a second into his question that he wasn't at all sympathetic. "
16420 "To him, we were a bunch of anarchists. As he asked:"
16423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16424 #: freeculture.xml:11947
16426 "chief justice: Well, but you want more than that. You want the right to copy "
16427 "verbatim other people's books, don't you?"
16430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16431 #: freeculture.xml:11951
16433 "mr. lessig: We want the right to copy verbatim works that should be in the "
16434 "public domain and would be in the public domain but for a statute that "
16435 "cannot be justified under ordinary First Amendment analysis or under a "
16436 "proper reading of the limits built into the Copyright Clause."
16439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16440 #: freeculture.xml:11959
16441 msgid "Olson, Theodore B."
16444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16445 #: freeculture.xml:11961
16447 "Things went better for us when the government gave its argument; for now the "
16448 "Court picked up on the core of our claim. As Justice Scalia asked Solicitor "
16452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16453 #: freeculture.xml:11967
16455 "justice scalia: You say that the functional equivalent of an unlimited time "
16456 "would be a violation [of the Constitution], but that's precisely the "
16457 "argument that's being made by petitioners here, that a limited time which is "
16458 "extendable is the functional equivalent of an unlimited time."
16461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16462 #: freeculture.xml:11975
16464 "When Olson was finished, it was my turn to give a closing rebuttal. Olson's "
16465 "flailing had revived my anger. But my anger still was directed to the "
16466 "academic, not the practical. The government was arguing as if this were the "
16467 "first case ever to consider limits on Congress's Copyright and Patent Clause "
16468 "power. Ever the professor and not the advocate, I closed by pointing out the "
16469 "long history of the Court imposing limits on Congress's power in the name of "
16470 "the Copyright and Patent Clause— indeed, the very first case striking "
16471 "a law of Congress as exceeding a specific enumerated power was based upon "
16472 "the Copyright and Patent Clause. All true. But it wasn't going to move the "
16473 "Court to my side."
16477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16478 #: freeculture.xml:11988
16480 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I left</emphasis> the court that day, I knew "
16481 "there were a hundred points I wished I could remake. There were a hundred "
16482 "questions I wished I had answered differently. But one way of thinking about "
16483 "this case left me optimistic."
16486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16487 #: freeculture.xml:11997
16489 "The government had been asked over and over again, what is the limit? Over "
16490 "and over again, it had answered there is no limit. This was precisely the "
16491 "answer I wanted the Court to hear. For I could not imagine how the Court "
16492 "could understand that the government believed Congress's power was unlimited "
16493 "under the terms of the Copyright Clause, and sustain the government's "
16494 "argument. The solicitor general had made my argument for me. No matter how "
16495 "often I tried, I could not understand how the Court could find that "
16496 "Congress's power under the Commerce Clause was limited, but under the "
16497 "Copyright Clause, unlimited. In those rare moments when I let myself believe "
16498 "that we may have prevailed, it was because I felt this Court—in "
16499 "particular, the Conservatives—would feel itself constrained by the "
16500 "rule of law that it had established elsewhere."
16503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16504 #: freeculture.xml:12012
16506 "<emphasis role='strong'>The morning</emphasis> of January 15, 2003, I was "
16507 "five minutes late to the office and missed the 7:00 A.M. call from the "
16508 "Supreme Court clerk. Listening to the message, I could tell in an instant "
16509 "that she had bad news to report.The Supreme Court had affirmed the decision "
16510 "of the Court of Appeals. Seven justices had voted in the majority. There "
16511 "were two dissents."
16514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16515 #: freeculture.xml:12020
16517 "A few seconds later, the opinions arrived by e-mail. I took the phone off "
16518 "the hook, posted an announcement to our blog, and sat down to see where I "
16519 "had been wrong in my reasoning."
16522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16523 #: freeculture.xml:12025
16525 "My <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. Here was a case that pitted all the money "
16526 "in the world against <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. And here was the last "
16527 "naïve law professor, scouring the pages, looking for reasoning."
16530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16531 #: freeculture.xml:12031
16533 "I first scoured the opinion, looking for how the Court would distinguish the "
16534 "principle in this case from the principle in "
16535 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The argument was nowhere to be found. The case "
16536 "was not even cited. The argument that was the core argument of our case did "
16537 "not even appear in the Court's opinion."
16541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16542 #: freeculture.xml:12041
16544 "Justice Ginsburg simply ignored the enumerated powers argument. Consistent "
16545 "with her view that Congress's power was not limited generally, she had found "
16546 "Congress's power not limited here."
16549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16550 #: freeculture.xml:12046
16552 "Her opinion was perfectly reasonable—for her, and for Justice "
16553 "Souter. Neither believes in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. It would be too "
16554 "much to expect them to write an opinion that recognized, much less "
16555 "explained, the doctrine they had worked so hard to defeat."
16558 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16559 #: freeculture.xml:12052
16561 "But as I realized what had happened, I couldn't quite believe what I was "
16562 "reading. I had said there was no way this Court could reconcile limited "
16563 "powers with the Commerce Clause and unlimited powers with the Progress "
16564 "Clause. It had never even occurred to me that they could reconcile the two "
16565 "simply <emphasis>by not addressing the argument</emphasis>. There was no "
16566 "inconsistency because they would not talk about the two together. There was "
16567 "therefore no principle that followed from the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
16568 "case: In that context, Congress's power would be limited, but in this "
16569 "context it would not."
16572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16573 #: freeculture.xml:12063
16575 "Yet by what right did they get to choose which of the framers' values they "
16576 "would respect? By what right did they—the silent five—get to "
16577 "select the part of the Constitution they would enforce based on the values "
16578 "they thought important? We were right back to the argument that I said I "
16579 "hated at the start: I had failed to convince them that the issue here was "
16580 "important, and I had failed to recognize that however much I might hate a "
16581 "system in which the Court gets to pick the constitutional values that it "
16582 "will respect, that is the system we have."
16585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16586 #: freeculture.xml:12075
16588 "Justices Breyer and Stevens wrote very strong dissents. Stevens's opinion "
16589 "was crafted internal to the law: He argued that the tradition of "
16590 "intellectual property law should not support this unjustified extension of "
16591 "terms. He based his argument on a parallel analysis that had governed in the "
16592 "context of patents (so had we). But the rest of the Court discounted the "
16593 "parallel—without explaining how the very same words in the Progress "
16594 "Clause could come to mean totally different things depending upon whether "
16595 "the words were about patents or copyrights. The Court let Justice Stevens's "
16596 "charge go unanswered."
16600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16601 #: freeculture.xml:12088
16603 "Justice Breyer's opinion, perhaps the best opinion he has ever written, was "
16604 "external to the Constitution. He argued that the term of copyrights has "
16605 "become so long as to be effectively unlimited. We had said that under the "
16606 "current term, a copyright gave an author 99.8 percent of the value of a "
16607 "perpetual term. Breyer said we were wrong, that the actual number was "
16608 "99.9997 percent of a perpetual term. Either way, the point was clear: If the "
16609 "Constitution said a term had to be <quote>limited,</quote> and the existing "
16610 "term was so long as to be effectively unlimited, then it was "
16611 "unconstitutional."
16614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16615 #: freeculture.xml:12099
16617 "These two justices understood all the arguments we had made. But because "
16618 "neither believed in the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, neither was "
16619 "willing to push it as a reason to reject this extension. The case was "
16620 "decided without anyone having addressed the argument that we had carried "
16621 "from Judge Sentelle. It was <citetitle>Hamlet</citetitle> without the "
16625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16626 #: freeculture.xml:12106
16628 "<emphasis role='strong'>Defeat brings depression</emphasis>. They say it is "
16629 "a sign of health when depression gives way to anger. My anger came quickly, "
16630 "but it didn't cure the depression. This anger was of two sorts."
16633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16634 #: freeculture.xml:12111
16635 msgid "originalism"
16638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16639 #: freeculture.xml:12113
16641 "It was first anger with the five <quote>Conservatives.</quote> It would have "
16642 "been one thing for them to have explained why the principle of "
16643 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> didn't apply in this case. That wouldn't have "
16644 "been a very convincing argument, I don't believe, having read it made by "
16645 "others, and having tried to make it myself. But it at least would have been "
16646 "an act of integrity. These justices in particular have repeatedly said that "
16647 "the proper mode of interpreting the Constitution is "
16648 "<quote>originalism</quote>—to first understand the framers' text, "
16649 "interpreted in their context, in light of the structure of the "
16650 "Constitution. That method had produced <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> and many "
16651 "other <quote>originalist</quote> rulings. Where was their "
16652 "<quote>originalism</quote> now?"
16656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16657 #: freeculture.xml:12126
16659 "Here, they had joined an opinion that never once tried to explain what the "
16660 "framers had meant by crafting the Progress Clause as they did; they joined "
16661 "an opinion that never once tried to explain how the structure of that clause "
16662 "would affect the interpretation of Congress's power. And they joined an "
16663 "opinion that didn't even try to explain why this grant of power could be "
16664 "unlimited, whereas the Commerce Clause would be limited. In short, they had "
16665 "joined an opinion that did not apply to, and was inconsistent with, their "
16666 "own method for interpreting the Constitution. This opinion may well have "
16667 "yielded a result that they liked. It did not produce a reason that was "
16668 "consistent with their own principles."
16671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16672 #: freeculture.xml:12141
16674 "My anger with the Conservatives quickly yielded to anger with myself. For I "
16675 "had let a view of the law that I liked interfere with a view of the law as "
16679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16680 #: freeculture.xml:12148
16682 "Most lawyers, and most law professors, have little patience for idealism "
16683 "about courts in general and this Supreme Court in particular. Most have a "
16684 "much more pragmatic view. When Don Ayer said that this case would be won "
16685 "based on whether I could convince the Justices that the framers' values were "
16686 "important, I fought the idea, because I didn't want to believe that that is "
16687 "how this Court decides. I insisted on arguing this case as if it were a "
16688 "simple application of a set of principles. I had an argument that followed "
16689 "in logic. I didn't need to waste my time showing it should also follow in "
16694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16695 #: freeculture.xml:12159
16697 "As I read back over the transcript from that argument in October, I can see "
16698 "a hundred places where the answers could have taken the conversation in "
16699 "different directions, where the truth about the harm that this unchecked "
16700 "power will cause could have been made clear to this Court. Justice Kennedy "
16701 "in good faith wanted to be shown. I, idiotically, corrected his "
16702 "question. Justice Souter in good faith wanted to be shown the First "
16703 "Amendment harms. I, like a math teacher, reframed the question to make the "
16704 "logical point. I had shown them how they could strike this law of Congress "
16705 "if they wanted to. There were a hundred places where I could have helped "
16706 "them want to, yet my stubbornness, my refusal to give in, stopped me. I have "
16707 "stood before hundreds of audiences trying to persuade; I have used passion "
16708 "in that effort to persuade; but I refused to stand before this audience and "
16709 "try to persuade with the passion I had used elsewhere. It was not the basis "
16710 "on which a court should decide the issue."
16713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16714 #: freeculture.xml:12180
16716 "Would it have been different if I had argued it differently? Would it have "
16717 "been different if Don Ayer had argued it? Or Charles Fried? Or Kathleen "
16721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16722 #: freeculture.xml:12185
16724 "My friends huddled around me to insist it would not. The Court was not "
16725 "ready, my friends insisted. This was a loss that was destined. It would take "
16726 "a great deal more to show our society why our framers were right. And when "
16727 "we do that, we will be able to show that Court."
16730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16731 #: freeculture.xml:12191
16733 "Maybe, but I doubt it. These Justices have no financial interest in doing "
16734 "anything except the right thing. They are not lobbied. They have little "
16735 "reason to resist doing right. I can't help but think that if I had stepped "
16736 "down from this pretty picture of dispassionate justice, I could have "
16740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16741 #: freeculture.xml:12199
16743 "And even if I couldn't, then that doesn't excuse what happened in "
16744 "January. For at the start of this case, one of America's leading "
16745 "intellectual property professors stated publicly that my bringing this case "
16746 "was a mistake. <quote>The Court is not ready,</quote> Peter Jaszi said; this "
16747 "issue should not be raised until it is."
16750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16751 #: freeculture.xml:12206
16753 "After the argument and after the decision, Peter said to me, and publicly, "
16754 "that he was wrong. But if indeed that Court could not have been persuaded, "
16755 "then that is all the evidence that's needed to know that here again Peter "
16756 "was right. Either I was not ready to argue this case in a way that would do "
16757 "some good or they were not ready to hear this case in a way that would do "
16758 "some good. Either way, the decision to bring this case—a decision I "
16759 "had made four years before—was wrong."
16763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16764 #: freeculture.xml:12215
16766 "<emphasis role='strong'>While the reaction</emphasis> to the Sonny Bono Act "
16767 "itself was almost unanimously negative, the reaction to the Court's decision "
16768 "was mixed. No one, at least in the press, tried to say that extending the "
16769 "term of copyright was a good idea. We had won that battle over ideas. Where "
16770 "the decision was praised, it was praised by papers that had been skeptical "
16771 "of the Court's activism in other cases. Deference was a good thing, even if "
16772 "it left standing a silly law. But where the decision was attacked, it was "
16773 "attacked because it left standing a silly and harmful law. <citetitle>The "
16774 "New York Times</citetitle> wrote in its editorial,"
16777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16778 #: freeculture.xml:12230
16780 "In effect, the Supreme Court's decision makes it likely that we are seeing "
16781 "the beginning of the end of public domain and the birth of copyright "
16782 "perpetuity. The public domain has been a grand experiment, one that should "
16783 "not be allowed to die. The ability to draw freely on the entire creative "
16784 "output of humanity is one of the reasons we live in a time of such fruitful "
16785 "creative ferment."
16788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><indexterm><primary>
16789 #: freeculture.xml:12244 freeculture.xml:12249
16790 msgid "Bolling, Ruben"
16793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16794 #: freeculture.xml:12239
16796 "The best responses were in the cartoons. There was a gaggle of hilarious "
16797 "images—of Mickey in jail and the like. The best, from my view of the "
16798 "case, was Ruben Bolling's, reproduced on the next page (<xref "
16799 "linkend=\"fig-18\"/>). The <quote>powerful and wealthy</quote> line is a bit "
16800 "unfair. But the punch in the face felt exactly like that. <placeholder "
16801 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16804 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
16805 #: freeculture.xml:12247
16806 msgid "Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon"
16809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
16810 #: freeculture.xml:12248
16812 "<graphic fileref=\"images/18.png\"></graphic> <placeholder "
16813 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16817 #: freeculture.xml:12252
16819 "The image that will always stick in my head is that evoked by the quote from "
16820 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>. That <quote>grand "
16821 "experiment</quote> we call the <quote>public domain</quote> is over? When I "
16822 "can make light of it, I think, <quote>Honey, I shrunk the "
16823 "Constitution.</quote> But I can rarely make light of it. We had in our "
16824 "Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the "
16825 "Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would "
16826 "have made them see differently."
16829 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
16830 #: freeculture.xml:12263
16831 msgid "CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Eldred II"
16834 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16835 #: freeculture.xml:12265
16837 "<emphasis role='strong'>The day</emphasis> <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
16838 "decided, fate would have it that I was to travel to Washington, D.C. (The "
16839 "day the rehearing petition in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
16840 "denied—meaning the case was really finally over—fate would have "
16841 "it that I was giving a speech to technologists at Disney World.) This was a "
16842 "particularly long flight to my least favorite city. The drive into the city "
16843 "from Dulles was delayed because of traffic, so I opened up my computer and "
16844 "wrote an op-ed piece."
16847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16848 #: freeculture.xml:12277
16850 "It was an act of contrition. During the whole of the flight from San "
16851 "Francisco to Washington, I had heard over and over again in my head the same "
16852 "advice from Don Ayer: You need to make them see why it is important. And "
16853 "alternating with that command was the question of Justice Kennedy: "
16854 "<quote>For all these years the act has impeded progress in science and the "
16855 "useful arts. I just don't see any empirical evidence for that.</quote> And "
16856 "so, having failed in the argument of constitutional principle, finally, I "
16857 "turned to an argument of politics."
16861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16862 #: freeculture.xml:12287
16864 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> published the piece. In it, I "
16865 "proposed a simple fix: Fifty years after a work has been published, the "
16866 "copyright owner would be required to register the work and pay a small "
16867 "fee. If he paid the fee, he got the benefit of the full term of "
16868 "copyright. If he did not, the work passed into the public domain."
16871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16872 #: freeculture.xml:12295
16874 "We called this the Eldred Act, but that was just to give it a name. Eric "
16875 "Eldred was kind enough to let his name be used once again, but as he said "
16876 "early on, it won't get passed unless it has another name."
16879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16880 #: freeculture.xml:12300
16882 "Or another two names. For depending upon your perspective, this is either "
16883 "the <quote>Public Domain Enhancement Act</quote> or the <quote>Copyright "
16884 "Term Deregulation Act.</quote> Either way, the essence of the idea is clear "
16885 "and obvious: Remove copyright where it is doing nothing except blocking "
16886 "access and the spread of knowledge. Leave it for as long as Congress allows "
16887 "for those works where its worth is at least $1. But for everything else, let "
16891 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16892 #: freeculture.xml:12308 freeculture.xml:12509
16893 msgid "Forbes, Steve"
16896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16897 #: freeculture.xml:12310
16899 "The reaction to this idea was amazingly strong. Steve Forbes endorsed it in "
16900 "an editorial. I received an avalanche of e-mail and letters expressing "
16901 "support. When you focus the issue on lost creativity, people can see the "
16902 "copyright system makes no sense. As a good Republican might say, here "
16903 "government regulation is simply getting in the way of innovation and "
16904 "creativity. And as a good Democrat might say, here the government is "
16905 "blocking access and the spread of knowledge for no good reason. Indeed, "
16906 "there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this "
16907 "issue. Anyone can recognize the stupid harm of the present system."
16910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16911 #: freeculture.xml:12322
16913 "Indeed, many recognized the obvious benefit of the registration "
16914 "requirement. For one of the hardest things about the current system for "
16915 "people who want to license content is that there is no obvious place to look "
16916 "for the current copyright owners. Since registration is not required, since "
16917 "marking content is not required, since no formality at all is required, it "
16918 "is often impossibly hard to locate copyright owners to ask permission to use "
16919 "or license their work. This system would lower these costs, by establishing "
16920 "at least one registry where copyright owners could be identified."
16923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16924 #: freeculture.xml:12332
16925 msgid "Berlin Act (1908)"
16928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16929 #: freeculture.xml:12333 freeculture.xml:12374
16930 msgid "Berne Convention (1908)"
16933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
16934 #: freeculture.xml:12341
16935 msgid "German copyright law"
16938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16939 #: freeculture.xml:12341
16941 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the "
16942 "Berne Convention, national copyright legislation sometimes made protection "
16943 "depend upon compliance with formalities such as registration, deposit, and "
16944 "affixation of notice of the author's claim of copyright. However, starting "
16945 "with the 1908 act, every text of the Convention has provided that <quote>the "
16946 "enjoyment and the exercise</quote> of rights guaranteed by the Convention "
16947 "<quote>shall not be subject to any formality.</quote> The prohibition "
16948 "against formalities is presently embodied in Article 5(2) of the Paris Text "
16949 "of the Berne Convention. Many countries continue to impose some form of "
16950 "deposit or registration requirement, albeit not as a condition of "
16951 "copyright. French law, for example, requires the deposit of copies of works "
16952 "in national repositories, principally the National Museum. Copies of books "
16953 "published in the United Kingdom must be deposited in the British "
16954 "Library. The German Copyright Act provides for a Registrar of Authors where "
16955 "the author's true name can be filed in the case of anonymous or pseudonymous "
16956 "works. Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>International Intellectual Property Law, "
16957 "Cases and Materials</citetitle> (New York: Foundation Press, 2001), "
16961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16962 #: freeculture.xml:12336
16964 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
16965 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, formalities in copyright law were removed in 1976, "
16966 "when Congress followed the Europeans by abandoning any formal requirement "
16967 "before a copyright is granted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
16968 "Europeans are said to view copyright as a <quote>natural right.</quote> "
16969 "Natural rights don't need forms to exist. Traditions, like the "
16970 "Anglo-American tradition that required copyright owners to follow form if "
16971 "their rights were to be protected, did not, the Europeans thought, properly "
16972 "respect the dignity of the author. My right as a creator turns on my "
16973 "creativity, not upon the special favor of the government."
16976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16977 #: freeculture.xml:12368
16979 "That's great rhetoric. It sounds wonderfully romantic. But it is absurd "
16980 "copyright policy. It is absurd especially for authors, because a world "
16981 "without formalities harms the creator. The ability to spread <quote>Walt "
16982 "Disney creativity</quote> is destroyed when there is no simple way to know "
16983 "what's protected and what's not."
16986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16987 #: freeculture.xml:12376
16989 "The fight against formalities achieved its first real victory in Berlin in "
16990 "1908. International copyright lawyers amended the Berne Convention in 1908, "
16991 "to require copyright terms of life plus fifty years, as well as the "
16992 "abolition of copyright formalities. The formalities were hated because the "
16993 "stories of inadvertent loss were increasingly common. It was as if a Charles "
16994 "Dickens character ran all copyright offices, and the failure to dot an "
16995 "<citetitle>i</citetitle> or cross a <citetitle>t</citetitle> resulted in the "
16996 "loss of widows' only income."
16999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17000 #: freeculture.xml:12386
17002 "These complaints were real and sensible. And the strictness of the "
17003 "formalities, especially in the United States, was absurd. The law should "
17004 "always have ways of forgiving innocent mistakes. There is no reason "
17005 "copyright law couldn't, as well. Rather than abandoning formalities totally, "
17006 "the response in Berlin should have been to embrace a more equitable system "
17010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17011 #: freeculture.xml:12394
17013 "Even that would have been resisted, however, because registration in the "
17014 "nineteenth and twentieth centuries was still expensive. It was also a "
17015 "hassle. The abolishment of formalities promised not only to save the "
17016 "starving widows, but also to lighten an unnecessary regulatory burden "
17017 "imposed upon creators."
17021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17022 #: freeculture.xml:12402
17024 "In addition to the practical complaint of authors in 1908, there was a moral "
17025 "claim as well. There was no reason that creative property should be a "
17026 "second-class form of property. If a carpenter builds a table, his rights "
17027 "over the table don't depend upon filing a form with the government. He has "
17028 "a property right over the table <quote>naturally,</quote> and he can assert "
17029 "that right against anyone who would steal the table, whether or not he has "
17030 "informed the government of his ownership of the table."
17033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17034 #: freeculture.xml:12414
17036 "This argument is correct, but its implications are misleading. For the "
17037 "argument in favor of formalities does not depend upon creative property "
17038 "being second-class property. The argument in favor of formalities turns upon "
17039 "the special problems that creative property presents. The law of "
17040 "formalities responds to the special physics of creative property, to assure "
17041 "that it can be efficiently and fairly spread."
17044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17045 #: freeculture.xml:12423
17047 "No one thinks, for example, that land is second-class property just because "
17048 "you have to register a deed with a court if your sale of land is to be "
17049 "effective. And few would think a car is second-class property just because "
17050 "you must register the car with the state and tag it with a license. In both "
17051 "of those cases, everyone sees that there is an important reason to secure "
17052 "registration—both because it makes the markets more efficient and "
17053 "because it better secures the rights of the owner. Without a registration "
17054 "system for land, landowners would perpetually have to guard their "
17055 "property. With registration, they can simply point the police to a "
17056 "deed. Without a registration system for cars, auto theft would be much "
17057 "easier. With a registration system, the thief has a high burden to sell a "
17058 "stolen car. A slight burden is placed on the property owner, but those "
17059 "burdens produce a much better system of protection for property generally."
17062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17063 #: freeculture.xml:12439
17065 "It is similarly special physics that makes formalities important in "
17066 "copyright law. Unlike a carpenter's table, there's nothing in nature that "
17067 "makes it relatively obvious who might own a particular bit of creative "
17068 "property. A recording of Lyle Lovett's latest album can exist in a billion "
17069 "places without anything necessarily linking it back to a particular "
17070 "owner. And like a car, there's no way to buy and sell creative property with "
17071 "confidence unless there is some simple way to authenticate who is the author "
17072 "and what rights he has. Simple transactions are destroyed in a world without "
17073 "formalities. Complex, expensive, <emphasis>lawyer</emphasis> transactions "
17074 "take their place. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17078 #: freeculture.xml:12454
17080 "This was the understanding of the problem with the Sonny Bono Act that we "
17081 "tried to demonstrate to the Court. This was the part it didn't "
17082 "<quote>get.</quote> Because we live in a system without formalities, there "
17083 "is no way easily to build upon or use culture from our past. If copyright "
17084 "terms were, as Justice Story said they would be, <quote>short,</quote> then "
17085 "this wouldn't matter much. For fourteen years, under the framers' system, a "
17086 "work would be presumptively controlled. After fourteen years, it would be "
17087 "presumptively uncontrolled."
17090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17091 #: freeculture.xml:12464
17093 "But now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to "
17094 "know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious "
17095 "burden on the creative process. If the only way a library can offer an "
17096 "Internet exhibit about the New Deal is to hire a lawyer to clear the rights "
17097 "to every image and sound, then the copyright system is burdening creativity "
17098 "in a way that has never been seen before <emphasis>because there are no "
17099 "formalities</emphasis>."
17102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17103 #: freeculture.xml:12473
17105 "The Eldred Act was designed to respond to exactly this problem. If it is "
17106 "worth $1 to you, then register your work and you can get the longer "
17107 "term. Others will know how to contact you and, therefore, how to get your "
17108 "permission if they want to use your work. And you will get the benefit of an "
17109 "extended copyright term."
17112 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17113 #: freeculture.xml:12480
17115 "If it isn't worth it to you to register to get the benefit of an extended "
17116 "term, then it shouldn't be worth it for the government to defend your "
17117 "monopoly over that work either. The work should pass into the public domain "
17118 "where anyone can copy it, or build archives with it, or create a movie based "
17119 "on it. It should become free if it is not worth $1 to you."
17122 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17123 #: freeculture.xml:12487
17125 "Some worry about the burden on authors. Won't the burden of registering the "
17126 "work mean that the $1 is really misleading? Isn't the hassle worth more than "
17127 "$1? Isn't that the real problem with registration?"
17131 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17132 #: freeculture.xml:12493
17134 "It is. The hassle is terrible. The system that exists now is awful. I "
17135 "completely agree that the Copyright Office has done a terrible job (no doubt "
17136 "because they are terribly funded) in enabling simple and cheap "
17137 "registrations. Any real solution to the problem of formalities must address "
17138 "the real problem of <emphasis>governments</emphasis> standing at the core of "
17139 "any system of formalities. In this book, I offer such a solution. That "
17140 "solution essentially remakes the Copyright Office. For now, assume it was "
17141 "Amazon that ran the registration system. Assume it was one-click "
17142 "registration. The Eldred Act would propose a simple, one-click registration "
17143 "fifty years after a work was published. Based upon historical data, that "
17144 "system would move up to 98 percent of commercial work, commercial work that "
17145 "no longer had a commercial life, into the public domain within fifty "
17146 "years. What do you think?"
17149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17150 #: freeculture.xml:12511
17152 "<emphasis role='strong'>When Steve Forbes</emphasis> endorsed the idea, some "
17153 "in Washington began to pay attention. Many people contacted me pointing to "
17154 "representatives who might be willing to introduce the Eldred Act. And I had "
17155 "a few who directly suggested that they might be willing to take the first "
17159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17160 #: freeculture.xml:12517
17161 msgid "Lofgren, Zoe"
17164 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17165 #: freeculture.xml:12519
17167 "One representative, Zoe Lofgren of California, went so far as to get the "
17168 "bill drafted. The draft solved any problem with international law. It "
17169 "imposed the simplest requirement upon copyright owners possible. In May "
17170 "2003, it looked as if the bill would be introduced. On May 16, I posted on "
17171 "the Eldred Act blog, <quote>we are close.</quote> There was a general "
17172 "reaction in the blog community that something good might happen here."
17175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17176 #: freeculture.xml:12528
17178 "But at this stage, the lobbyists began to intervene. Jack Valenti and the "
17179 "MPAA general counsel came to the congresswoman's office to give the view of "
17180 "the MPAA. Aided by his lawyer, as Valenti told me, Valenti informed the "
17181 "congresswoman that the MPAA would oppose the Eldred Act. The reasons are "
17182 "embarrassingly thin. More importantly, their thinness shows something clear "
17183 "about what this debate is really about."
17187 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17188 #: freeculture.xml:12536
17190 "The MPAA argued first that Congress had <quote>firmly rejected the central "
17191 "concept in the proposed bill</quote>—that copyrights be renewed. That "
17192 "was true, but irrelevant, as Congress's <quote>firm rejection</quote> had "
17193 "occurred long before the Internet made subsequent uses much more likely. "
17194 "Second, they argued that the proposal would harm poor copyright "
17195 "owners—apparently those who could not afford the $1 fee. Third, they "
17196 "argued that Congress had determined that extending a copyright term would "
17197 "encourage restoration work. Maybe in the case of the small percentage of "
17198 "work covered by copyright law that is still commercially valuable, but again "
17199 "this was irrelevant, as the proposal would not cut off the extended term "
17200 "unless the $1 fee was not paid. Fourth, the MPAA argued that the bill would "
17201 "impose <quote>enormous</quote> costs, since a registration system is not "
17202 "free. True enough, but those costs are certainly less than the costs of "
17203 "clearing the rights for a copyright whose owner is not known. Fifth, they "
17204 "worried about the risks if the copyright to a story underlying a film were "
17205 "to pass into the public domain. But what risk is that? If it is in the "
17206 "public domain, then the film is a valid derivative use."
17209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17210 #: freeculture.xml:12557
17212 "Finally, the MPAA argued that existing law enabled copyright owners to do "
17213 "this if they wanted. But the whole point is that there are thousands of "
17214 "copyright owners who don't even know they have a copyright to give. Whether "
17215 "they are free to give away their copyright or not—a controversial "
17216 "claim in any case—unless they know about a copyright, they're not "
17220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17221 #: freeculture.xml:12565
17223 "<emphasis role='strong'>At the beginning</emphasis> of this book, I told two "
17224 "stories about the law reacting to changes in technology. In the one, common "
17225 "sense prevailed. In the other, common sense was delayed. The difference "
17226 "between the two stories was the power of the opposition—the power of "
17227 "the side that fought to defend the status quo. In both cases, a new "
17228 "technology threatened old interests. But in only one case did those "
17229 "interest's have the power to protect themselves against this new competitive "
17233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17234 #: freeculture.xml:12575
17236 "I used these two cases as a way to frame the war that this book has been "
17237 "about. For here, too, a new technology is forcing the law to react. And "
17238 "here, too, we should ask, is the law following or resisting common sense? If "
17239 "common sense supports the law, what explains this common sense?"
17243 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17244 #: freeculture.xml:12584
17246 "When the issue is piracy, it is right for the law to back the copyright "
17247 "owners. The commercial piracy that I described is wrong and harmful, and the "
17248 "law should work to eliminate it. When the issue is p2p sharing, it is easy "
17249 "to understand why the law backs the owners still: Much of this sharing is "
17250 "wrong, even if much is harmless. When the issue is copyright terms for the "
17251 "Mickey Mouses of the world, it is possible still to understand why the law "
17252 "favors Hollywood: Most people don't recognize the reasons for limiting "
17253 "copyright terms; it is thus still possible to see good faith within the "
17257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17258 #: freeculture.xml:12594
17259 msgid "Kelly, Kevin"
17262 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17263 #: freeculture.xml:12596
17265 "But when the copyright owners oppose a proposal such as the Eldred Act, "
17266 "then, finally, there is an example that lays bare the naked selfinterest "
17267 "driving this war. This act would free an extraordinary range of content that "
17268 "is otherwise unused. It wouldn't interfere with any copyright owner's desire "
17269 "to exercise continued control over his content. It would simply liberate "
17270 "what Kevin Kelly calls the <quote>Dark Content</quote> that fills archives "
17271 "around the world. So when the warriors oppose a change like this, we should "
17272 "ask one simple question:"
17275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17276 #: freeculture.xml:12606
17277 msgid "What does this industry really want?"
17280 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17281 #: freeculture.xml:12609
17283 "With very little effort, the warriors could protect their content. So the "
17284 "effort to block something like the Eldred Act is not really about protecting "
17285 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> content. The effort to block the Eldred Act is an "
17286 "effort to assure that nothing more passes into the public domain. It is "
17287 "another step to assure that the public domain will never compete, that there "
17288 "will be no use of content that is not commercially controlled, and that "
17289 "there will be no commercial use of content that doesn't require "
17290 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> permission first."
17293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17294 #: freeculture.xml:12620
17296 "The opposition to the Eldred Act reveals how extreme the other side is. The "
17297 "most powerful and sexy and well loved of lobbies really has as its aim not "
17298 "the protection of <quote>property</quote> but the rejection of a tradition. "
17299 "Their aim is not simply to protect what is theirs. <emphasis>Their aim is to "
17300 "assure that all there is is what is theirs</emphasis>."
17304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17305 #: freeculture.xml:12628
17307 "It is not hard to understand why the warriors take this view. It is not hard "
17308 "to see why it would benefit them if the competition of the public domain "
17309 "tied to the Internet could somehow be quashed. Just as RCA feared the "
17310 "competition of FM, they fear the competition of a public domain connected to "
17311 "a public that now has the means to create with it and to share its own "
17315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17316 #: freeculture.xml:12640
17318 "What is hard to understand is why the public takes this view. It is as if "
17319 "the law made airplanes trespassers. The MPAA stands with the Causbys and "
17320 "demands that their remote and useless property rights be respected, so that "
17321 "these remote and forgotten copyright holders might block the progress of "
17325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17326 #: freeculture.xml:12647
17328 "All this seems to follow easily from this untroubled acceptance of the "
17329 "<quote>property</quote> in intellectual property. Common sense supports it, "
17330 "and so long as it does, the assaults will rain down upon the technologies of "
17331 "the Internet. The consequence will be an increasing <quote>permission "
17332 "society.</quote> The past can be cultivated only if you can identify the "
17333 "owner and gain permission to build upon his work. The future will be "
17334 "controlled by this dead (and often unfindable) hand of the past."
17337 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
17338 #: freeculture.xml:12659
17342 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17343 #: freeculture.xml:12660
17344 msgid "antiretroviral drugs"
17347 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17348 #: freeculture.xml:12661
17349 msgid "HIV/AIDS therapies"
17352 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17353 #: freeculture.xml:12662
17354 msgid "Africa, medications for HIV patients in"
17357 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17358 #: freeculture.xml:12664
17360 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are more</emphasis> than 35 million people "
17361 "with the AIDS virus worldwide. Twenty-five million of them live in "
17362 "sub-Saharan Africa. Seventeen million have already died. Seventeen million "
17363 "Africans is proportional percentage-wise to seven million Americans. More "
17364 "importantly, it is seventeen million Africans."
17367 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17368 #: freeculture.xml:12671
17370 "There is no cure for AIDS, but there are drugs to slow its progression. "
17371 "These antiretroviral therapies are still experimental, but they have already "
17372 "had a dramatic effect. In the United States, AIDS patients who regularly "
17373 "take a cocktail of these drugs increase their life expectancy by ten to "
17374 "twenty years. For some, the drugs make the disease almost invisible."
17378 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17379 #: freeculture.xml:12686
17381 "Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, <quote>Final Report: Integrating "
17382 "Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy</quote> (London, 2002), "
17383 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
17384 "#55</ulink>. According to a World Health Organization press release issued 9 "
17385 "July 2002, only 230,000 of the 6 million who need drugs in the developing "
17386 "world receive them—and half of them are in Brazil."
17389 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17390 #: freeculture.xml:12679
17392 "These drugs are expensive. When they were first introduced in the United "
17393 "States, they cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per person per year. Today, "
17394 "some cost $25,000 per year. At these prices, of course, no African nation "
17395 "can afford the drugs for the vast majority of its population: $15,000 is "
17396 "thirty times the per capita gross national product of Zimbabwe. At these "
17397 "prices, the drugs are totally unavailable.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
17402 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17403 #: freeculture.xml:12697
17405 "These prices are not high because the ingredients of the drugs are "
17406 "expensive. These prices are high because the drugs are protected by "
17407 "patents. The drug companies that produced these life-saving mixes enjoy at "
17408 "least a twenty-year monopoly for their inventions. They use that monopoly "
17409 "power to extract the most they can from the market. That power is in turn "
17410 "used to keep the prices high."
17413 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17414 #: freeculture.xml:12705
17416 "There are many who are skeptical of patents, especially drug patents. I am "
17417 "not. Indeed, of all the areas of research that might be supported by "
17418 "patents, drug research is, in my view, the clearest case where patents are "
17419 "needed. The patent gives the drug company some assurance that if it is "
17420 "successful in inventing a new drug to treat a disease, it will be able to "
17421 "earn back its investment and more. This is socially an extremely valuable "
17422 "incentive. I am the last person who would argue that the law should abolish "
17423 "it, at least without other changes."
17426 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17427 #: freeculture.xml:12716
17429 "But it is one thing to support patents, even drug patents. It is another "
17430 "thing to determine how best to deal with a crisis. And as African leaders "
17431 "began to recognize the devastation that AIDS was bringing, they started "
17432 "looking for ways to import HIV treatments at costs significantly below the "
17436 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17437 #: freeculture.xml:12734 freeculture.xml:13189
17438 msgid "Braithwaite, John"
17441 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17442 #: freeculture.xml:12732
17444 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism: "
17445 "Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New Press, 2003), "
17446 "37. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
17447 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17450 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17451 #: freeculture.xml:12723
17453 "In 1997, South Africa tried one tack. It passed a law to allow the "
17454 "importation of patented medicines that had been produced or sold in another "
17455 "nation's market with the consent of the patent owner. For example, if the "
17456 "drug was sold in India, it could be imported into Africa from India. This is "
17457 "called <quote>parallel importation,</quote> and it is generally permitted "
17458 "under international trade law and is specifically permitted within the "
17459 "European Union.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
17463 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17464 #: freeculture.xml:12745
17466 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
17467 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
17468 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
17469 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 14, available at <ulink "
17470 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #56</ulink>. For a firsthand "
17471 "account of the struggle over South Africa, see Hearing Before the "
17472 "Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, House "
17473 "Committee on Government Reform, H. Rep., 1st sess., Ser. No. 106-126 (22 "
17474 "July 1999), 150–57 (statement of James Love)."
17478 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17479 #: freeculture.xml:12772
17481 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
17482 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
17483 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
17484 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 15."
17487 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17488 #: freeculture.xml:12739
17490 "However, the United States government opposed the bill. Indeed, more than "
17491 "opposed. As the International Intellectual Property Association "
17492 "characterized it, <quote>The U.S. government pressured South Africa … "
17493 "not to permit compulsory licensing or parallel imports.</quote><placeholder "
17494 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Through the Office of the United States Trade "
17495 "Representative, the government asked South Africa to change the "
17496 "law—and to add pressure to that request, in 1998, the USTR listed "
17497 "South Africa for possible trade sanctions. That same year, more than forty "
17498 "pharmaceutical companies began proceedings in the South African courts to "
17499 "challenge the government's actions. The United States was then joined by "
17500 "other governments from the EU. Their claim, and the claim of the "
17501 "pharmaceutical companies, was that South Africa was violating its "
17502 "obligations under international law by discriminating against a particular "
17503 "kind of patent— pharmaceutical patents. The demand of these "
17504 "governments, with the United States in the lead, was that South Africa "
17505 "respect these patents as it respects any other patent, regardless of any "
17506 "effect on the treatment of AIDS within South Africa.<placeholder "
17507 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
17510 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17511 #: freeculture.xml:12778
17513 "We should place the intervention by the United States in context. No doubt "
17514 "patents are not the most important reason that Africans don't have access to "
17515 "drugs. Poverty and the total absence of an effective health care "
17516 "infrastructure matter more. But whether patents are the most important "
17517 "reason or not, the price of drugs has an effect on their demand, and patents "
17518 "affect price. And so, whether massive or marginal, there was an effect from "
17519 "our government's intervention to stop the flow of medications into Africa."
17522 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17523 #: freeculture.xml:12788
17525 "By stopping the flow of HIV treatment into Africa, the United States "
17526 "government was not saving drugs for United States citizens. This is not "
17527 "like wheat (if they eat it, we can't); instead, the flow that the United "
17528 "States intervened to stop was, in effect, a flow of knowledge: information "
17529 "about how to take chemicals that exist within Africa, and turn those "
17530 "chemicals into drugs that would save 15 to 30 million lives."
17533 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17534 #: freeculture.xml:12796
17536 "Nor was the intervention by the United States going to protect the profits "
17537 "of United States drug companies—at least, not substantially. It was "
17538 "not as if these countries were in the position to buy the drugs for the "
17539 "prices the drug companies were charging. Again, the Africans are wildly too "
17540 "poor to afford these drugs at the offered prices. Stopping the parallel "
17541 "import of these drugs would not substantially increase the sales by "
17547 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17548 #: freeculture.xml:12811
17550 "See Sabin Russell, <quote>New Crusade to Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's "
17551 "Needs at Odds with Firms' Profit Motive,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
17552 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 May 1999, A1, available at <ulink "
17553 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #57</ulink> (<quote>compulsory "
17554 "licenses and gray markets pose a threat to the entire system of intellectual "
17555 "property protection</quote>); Robert Weissman, <quote>AIDS and Developing "
17556 "Countries: Democratizing Access to Essential Medicines,</quote> "
17557 "<citetitle>Foreign Policy in Focus</citetitle> 4:23 (August 1999), available "
17558 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #58</ulink> (describing "
17559 "U.S. policy); John A. Harrelson, <quote>TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and "
17560 "the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance Between Intellectual "
17561 "Property Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,</quote> <citetitle>Widener Law "
17562 "Symposium Journal</citetitle> (Spring 2001): 175."
17565 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17566 #: freeculture.xml:12805
17568 "Instead, the argument in favor of restricting this flow of information, "
17569 "which was needed to save the lives of millions, was an argument about the "
17570 "sanctity of property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It was "
17571 "because <quote>intellectual property</quote> would be violated that these "
17572 "drugs should not flow into Africa. It was a principle about the importance "
17573 "of <quote>intellectual property</quote> that led these government actors to "
17574 "intervene against the South African response to AIDS."
17577 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17578 #: freeculture.xml:12832
17580 "Now just step back for a moment. There will be a time thirty years from now "
17581 "when our children look back at us and ask, how could we have let this "
17582 "happen? How could we allow a policy to be pursued whose direct cost would be "
17583 "to speed the death of 15 to 30 million Africans, and whose only real benefit "
17584 "would be to uphold the <quote>sanctity</quote> of an idea? What possible "
17585 "justification could there ever be for a policy that results in so many "
17586 "deaths? What exactly is the insanity that would allow so many to die for "
17587 "such an abstraction?"
17590 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17591 #: freeculture.xml:12842
17593 "Some blame the drug companies. I don't. They are corporations. Their "
17594 "managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a "
17595 "certain patent policy not because of ideals, but because it is the policy "
17596 "that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money "
17597 "because of a certain corruption within our political system— a "
17598 "corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for."
17601 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17602 #: freeculture.xml:12850
17604 "The corruption is our own politicians' failure of integrity. For the drug "
17605 "companies would love—they say, and I believe them—to sell their "
17606 "drugs as cheaply as they can to countries in Africa and elsewhere. There "
17607 "are issues they'd have to resolve to make sure the drugs didn't get back "
17608 "into the United States, but those are mere problems of technology. They "
17609 "could be overcome."
17613 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17614 #: freeculture.xml:12858
17616 "A different problem, however, could not be overcome. This is the fear of the "
17617 "grandstanding politician who would call the presidents of the drug companies "
17618 "before a Senate or House hearing, and ask, <quote>How is it you can sell "
17619 "this HIV drug in Africa for only $1 a pill, but the same drug would cost an "
17620 "American $1,500?</quote> Because there is no <quote>sound bite</quote> "
17621 "answer to that question, its effect would be to induce regulation of prices "
17622 "in America. The drug companies thus avoid this spiral by avoiding the first "
17623 "step. They reinforce the idea that property should be sacred. They adopt a "
17624 "rational strategy in an irrational context, with the unintended consequence "
17625 "that perhaps millions die. And that rational strategy thus becomes framed in "
17626 "terms of this ideal—the sanctity of an idea called <quote>intellectual "
17627 "property.</quote>"
17630 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17631 #: freeculture.xml:12873
17633 "So when the common sense of your child confronts you, what will you say? "
17634 "When the common sense of a generation finally revolts against what we have "
17635 "done, how will we justify what we have done? What is the argument?"
17638 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17639 #: freeculture.xml:12879
17641 "A sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly support the patent "
17642 "system without having to reach everyone everywhere in exactly the same "
17643 "way. Just as a sensible copyright policy could endorse and strongly support "
17644 "a copyright system without having to regulate the spread of culture "
17645 "perfectly and forever, a sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly "
17646 "support a patent system without having to block the spread of drugs to a "
17647 "country not rich enough to afford market prices in any case. A sensible "
17648 "policy, in other words, could be a balanced policy. For most of our history, "
17649 "both copyright and patent policies were balanced in just this sense."
17652 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17653 #: freeculture.xml:12891
17655 "But we as a culture have lost this sense of balance. We have lost the "
17656 "critical eye that helps us see the difference between truth and extremism. "
17657 "A certain property fundamentalism, having no connection to our tradition, "
17658 "now reigns in this culture—bizarrely, and with consequences more grave "
17659 "to the spread of ideas and culture than almost any other single policy "
17660 "decision that we as a democracy will make."
17664 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17665 #: freeculture.xml:12902
17667 "<emphasis role='strong'>A simple idea</emphasis> blinds us, and under the "
17668 "cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if any of us "
17669 "looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we "
17670 "don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are "
17671 "dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in "
17672 "culture that we don't even question when the control of that property "
17673 "removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture "
17674 "democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for "
17675 "anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way "
17676 "to make this common sense open its eyes."
17679 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17680 #: freeculture.xml:12916
17682 "So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet "
17683 "see what there could be to revolt about. The extremism that now dominates "
17684 "this debate fits with ideas that seem natural, and that fit is reinforced by "
17685 "the RCAs of our day. They wage a frantic war to fight <quote>piracy,</quote> "
17686 "and devastate a culture for creativity. They defend the idea of "
17687 "<quote>creative property,</quote> while transforming real creators into "
17688 "modern-day sharecroppers. They are insulted by the idea that rights should "
17689 "be balanced, even though each of the major players in this content war was "
17690 "itself a beneficiary of a more balanced ideal. The hypocrisy reeks. Yet in a "
17691 "city like Washington, hypocrisy is not even noticed. Powerful lobbies, "
17692 "complex issues, and MTV attention spans produce the <quote>perfect "
17693 "storm</quote> for free culture."
17696 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
17697 #: freeculture.xml:12929
17698 msgid "public projects in"
17701 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17702 #: freeculture.xml:12930
17703 msgid "single nucleotied polymorphisms (SNPs)"
17706 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17707 #: freeculture.xml:12931
17708 msgid "Wellcome Trust"
17711 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17712 #: freeculture.xml:12932
17713 msgid "World Wide Web"
17716 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17717 #: freeculture.xml:12933
17718 msgid "Global Positioning System"
17721 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17722 #: freeculture.xml:12935
17723 msgid "biomedical research"
17727 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17728 #: freeculture.xml:12940
17730 "Jonathan Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> "
17731 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, August 2003, E1, available at <ulink "
17732 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #59</ulink>; William New, "
17733 "<quote>Global Group's Shift on `Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir,</quote> "
17734 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
17735 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #60</ulink>; "
17736 "William New, <quote>U.S. Official Opposes `Open Source' Talks at "
17737 "WIPO,</quote> <citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 "
17738 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
17742 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17743 #: freeculture.xml:12968 freeculture.xml:13659
17744 msgid "academic journals"
17747 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17748 #: freeculture.xml:12969 freeculture.xml:13036 freeculture.xml:13585
17752 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17753 #: freeculture.xml:12970 freeculture.xml:13722
17754 msgid "PLoS (Public Library of Science)"
17757 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17758 #: freeculture.xml:12937
17760 "<emphasis role='strong'>In August 2003</emphasis>, a fight broke out in the "
17761 "United States about a decision by the World Intellectual Property "
17762 "Organization to cancel a meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
17763 "At the request of a wide range of interests, WIPO had decided to hold a "
17764 "meeting to discuss <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
17765 "goods.</quote> These are projects that have been successful in producing "
17766 "public goods without relying exclusively upon a proprietary use of "
17767 "intellectual property. Examples include the Internet and the World Wide Web, "
17768 "both of which were developed on the basis of protocols in the public "
17769 "domain. It included an emerging trend to support open academic journals, "
17770 "including the Public Library of Science project that I describe in the "
17771 "Afterword. It included a project to develop single nucleotide polymorphisms "
17772 "(SNPs), which are thought to have great significance in biomedical "
17773 "research. (That nonprofit project comprised a consortium of the Wellcome "
17774 "Trust and pharmaceutical and technological companies, including Amersham "
17775 "Biosciences, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffmann-La "
17776 "Roche, Glaxo-SmithKline, IBM, Motorola, Novartis, Pfizer, and Searle.) It "
17777 "included the Global Positioning System, which Ronald Reagan set free in the "
17778 "early 1980s. And it included <quote>open source and free software.</quote> "
17779 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17780 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
17783 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17784 #: freeculture.xml:12974
17786 "The aim of the meeting was to consider this wide range of projects from one "
17787 "common perspective: that none of these projects relied upon intellectual "
17788 "property extremism. Instead, in all of them, intellectual property was "
17789 "balanced by agreements to keep access open or to impose limitations on the "
17790 "way in which proprietary claims might be used."
17794 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17795 #: freeculture.xml:12982
17797 "I should disclose that I was one of the people who asked WIPO for the "
17801 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17802 #: freeculture.xml:12981
17804 "From the perspective of this book, then, the conference was "
17805 "ideal.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The projects within its "
17806 "scope included both commercial and noncommercial work. They primarily "
17807 "involved science, but from many perspectives. And WIPO was an ideal venue "
17808 "for this discussion, since WIPO is the preeminent international body dealing "
17809 "with intellectual property issues."
17813 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17814 #: freeculture.xml:12992
17816 "Indeed, I was once publicly scolded for not recognizing this fact about "
17817 "WIPO. In February 2003, I delivered a keynote address to a preparatory "
17818 "conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At a "
17819 "press conference before the address, I was asked what I would say. I "
17820 "responded that I would be talking a little about the importance of balance "
17821 "in intellectual property for the development of an information society. The "
17822 "moderator for the event then promptly interrupted to inform me and the "
17823 "assembled reporters that no question about intellectual property would be "
17824 "discussed by WSIS, since those questions were the exclusive domain of "
17825 "WIPO. In the talk that I had prepared, I had actually made the issue of "
17826 "intellectual property relatively minor. But after this astonishing "
17827 "statement, I made intellectual property the sole focus of my talk. There was "
17828 "no way to talk about an <quote>Information Society</quote> unless one also "
17829 "talked about the range of information and culture that would be free. My "
17830 "talk did not make my immoderate moderator very happy. And she was no doubt "
17831 "correct that the scope of intellectual property protections was ordinarily "
17832 "the stuff of WIPO. But in my view, there couldn't be too much of a "
17833 "conversation about how much intellectual property is needed, since in my "
17834 "view, the very idea of balance in intellectual property had been lost."
17837 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17838 #: freeculture.xml:13016
17840 "So whether or not WSIS can discuss balance in intellectual property, I had "
17841 "thought it was taken for granted that WIPO could and should. And thus the "
17842 "meeting about <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
17843 "goods</quote> seemed perfectly appropriate within the WIPO agenda."
17846 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17847 #: freeculture.xml:13021 freeculture.xml:14705
17848 msgid "Apple Corporation"
17851 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17852 #: freeculture.xml:13023
17854 "But there is one project within that list that is highly controversial, at "
17855 "least among lobbyists. That project is <quote>open source and free "
17856 "software.</quote> Microsoft in particular is wary of discussion of the "
17857 "subject. From its perspective, a conference to discuss open source and free "
17858 "software would be like a conference to discuss Apple's operating "
17859 "system. Both open source and free software compete with Microsoft's "
17860 "software. And internationally, many governments have begun to explore "
17861 "requirements that they use open source or free software, rather than "
17862 "<quote>proprietary software,</quote> for their own internal uses."
17865 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17866 #: freeculture.xml:13033
17867 msgid "<quote>copyleft</quote> licenses"
17871 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17872 #: freeculture.xml:13049
17874 "Microsoft's position about free and open source software is more "
17875 "sophisticated. As it has repeatedly asserted, it has no problem with "
17876 "<quote>open source</quote> software or software in the public "
17877 "domain. Microsoft's principal opposition is to <quote>free software</quote> "
17878 "licensed under a <quote>copyleft</quote> license, meaning a license that "
17879 "requires the licensee to adopt the same terms on any derivative work. See "
17880 "Bradford L. Smith, <quote>The Future of Software: Enabling the Marketplace "
17881 "to Decide,</quote> <citetitle>Government Policy Toward Open Source "
17882 "Software</citetitle> (Washington, D.C.: AEI-Brookings Joint Center for "
17883 "Regulatory Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy "
17884 "Research, 2002), 69, available at <ulink "
17885 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #62</ulink>. See also Craig "
17886 "Mundie, Microsoft senior vice president, <citetitle>The Commercial Software "
17887 "Model</citetitle>, discussion at New York University Stern School of "
17888 "Business (3 May 2001), available at <ulink "
17889 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #63</ulink>."
17892 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17893 #: freeculture.xml:13038
17895 "I don't mean to enter that debate here. It is important only to make clear "
17896 "that the distinction is not between commercial and noncommercial "
17897 "software. There are many important companies that depend fundamentally upon "
17898 "open source and free software, IBM being the most prominent. IBM is "
17899 "increasingly shifting its focus to the GNU/Linux operating system, the most "
17900 "famous bit of <quote>free software</quote>—and IBM is emphatically a "
17901 "commercial entity. Thus, to support <quote>open source and free "
17902 "software</quote> is not to oppose commercial entities. It is, instead, to "
17903 "support a mode of software development that is different from "
17904 "Microsoft's.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
17907 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17908 #: freeculture.xml:13066
17909 msgid "General Public License (GPL)"
17912 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17913 #: freeculture.xml:13067
17914 msgid "GPL (General Public License)"
17918 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17919 #: freeculture.xml:13069
17921 "More important for our purposes, to support <quote>open source and free "
17922 "software</quote> is not to oppose copyright. <quote>Open source and free "
17923 "software</quote> is not software in the public domain. Instead, like "
17924 "Microsoft's software, the copyright owners of free and open source software "
17925 "insist quite strongly that the terms of their software license be respected "
17926 "by adopters of free and open source software. The terms of that license are "
17927 "no doubt different from the terms of a proprietary software license. Free "
17928 "software licensed under the General Public License (GPL), for example, "
17929 "requires that the source code for the software be made available by anyone "
17930 "who modifies and redistributes the software. But that requirement is "
17931 "effective only if copyright governs software. If copyright did not govern "
17932 "software, then free software could not impose the same kind of requirements "
17933 "on its adopters. It thus depends upon copyright law just as Microsoft does."
17936 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17937 #: freeculture.xml:13086
17938 msgid "Krim, Jonathan"
17941 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
17942 #: freeculture.xml:13087
17943 msgid "WIPO meeting opposed by"
17947 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17948 #: freeculture.xml:13097
17950 "Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> available at <ulink "
17951 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #64</ulink>."
17954 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17955 #: freeculture.xml:13089
17957 "It is therefore understandable that as a proprietary software developer, "
17958 "Microsoft would oppose this WIPO meeting, and understandable that it would "
17959 "use its lobbyists to get the United States government to oppose it, as "
17960 "well. And indeed, that is just what was reported to have happened. According "
17961 "to Jonathan Krim of the <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, Microsoft's "
17962 "lobbyists succeeded in getting the United States government to veto the "
17963 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And without U.S. backing, "
17964 "the meeting was canceled."
17967 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17968 #: freeculture.xml:13103
17970 "I don't blame Microsoft for doing what it can to advance its own interests, "
17971 "consistent with the law. And lobbying governments is plainly consistent with "
17972 "the law. There was nothing surprising about its lobbying here, and nothing "
17973 "terribly surprising about the most powerful software producer in the United "
17974 "States having succeeded in its lobbying efforts."
17977 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17978 #: freeculture.xml:13110 freeculture.xml:13163
17979 msgid "Boland, Lois"
17982 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17983 #: freeculture.xml:13112
17985 "What was surprising was the United States government's reason for opposing "
17986 "the meeting. Again, as reported by Krim, Lois Boland, acting director of "
17987 "international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, explained "
17988 "that <quote>open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which "
17989 "is to promote intellectual-property rights.</quote> She is quoted as saying, "
17990 "<quote>To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such "
17991 "rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.</quote>"
17994 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17995 #: freeculture.xml:13122
17996 msgid "These statements are astonishing on a number of levels."
17999 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18000 #: freeculture.xml:13126
18002 "First, they are just flat wrong. As I described, most open source and free "
18003 "software relies fundamentally upon the intellectual property right called "
18004 "<quote>copyright</quote>. Without it, restrictions imposed by those "
18005 "licenses wouldn't work. Thus, to say it <quote>runs counter</quote> to the "
18006 "mission of promoting intellectual property rights reveals an extraordinary "
18007 "gap in understanding—the sort of mistake that is excusable in a "
18008 "first-year law student, but an embarrassment from a high government official "
18009 "dealing with intellectual property issues."
18012 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18013 #: freeculture.xml:13135
18014 msgid "generic drugs"
18017 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18018 #: freeculture.xml:13137
18020 "Second, who ever said that WIPO's exclusive aim was to "
18021 "<quote>promote</quote> intellectual property maximally? As I had been "
18022 "scolded at the preparatory conference of WSIS, WIPO is to consider not only "
18023 "how best to protect intellectual property, but also what the best balance of "
18024 "intellectual property is. As every economist and lawyer knows, the hard "
18025 "question in intellectual property law is to find that balance. But that "
18026 "there should be limits is, I had thought, uncontested. One wants to ask "
18027 "Ms. Boland, are generic drugs (drugs based on drugs whose patent has "
18028 "expired) contrary to the WIPO mission? Does the public domain weaken "
18029 "intellectual property? Would it have been better if the protocols of the "
18030 "Internet had been patented?"
18033 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18034 #: freeculture.xml:13151
18036 "Third, even if one believed that the purpose of WIPO was to maximize "
18037 "intellectual property rights, in our tradition, intellectual property rights "
18038 "are held by individuals and corporations. They get to decide what to do with "
18039 "those rights because, again, they are <emphasis>their</emphasis> rights. If "
18040 "they want to <quote>waive</quote> or <quote>disclaim</quote> their rights, "
18041 "that is, within our tradition, totally appropriate. When Bill Gates gives "
18042 "away more than $20 billion to do good in the world, that is not inconsistent "
18043 "with the objectives of the property system. That is, on the contrary, just "
18044 "what a property system is supposed to be about: giving individuals the right "
18045 "to decide what to do with <emphasis>their</emphasis> property."
18049 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18050 #: freeculture.xml:13165
18052 "When Ms. Boland says that there is something wrong with a meeting "
18053 "<quote>which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights,</quote> "
18054 "she's saying that WIPO has an interest in interfering with the choices of "
18055 "the individuals who own intellectual property rights. That somehow, WIPO's "
18056 "objective should be to stop an individual from <quote>waiving</quote> or "
18057 "<quote>disclaiming</quote> an intellectual property right. That the interest "
18058 "of WIPO is not just that intellectual property rights be maximized, but that "
18059 "they also should be exercised in the most extreme and restrictive way "
18063 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18064 #: freeculture.xml:13177
18066 "There is a history of just such a property system that is well known in the "
18067 "Anglo-American tradition. It is called <quote>feudalism.</quote> Under "
18068 "feudalism, not only was property held by a relatively small number of "
18069 "individuals and entities. And not only were the rights that ran with that "
18070 "property powerful and extensive. But the feudal system had a strong interest "
18071 "in assuring that property holders within that system not weaken feudalism by "
18072 "liberating people or property within their control to the free "
18073 "market. Feudalism depended upon maximum control and concentration. It fought "
18074 "any freedom that might interfere with that control."
18077 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18078 #: freeculture.xml:13194
18080 "See Drahos with Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism</citetitle>, "
18081 "210–20. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18084 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18085 #: freeculture.xml:13191
18087 "As Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite relate, this is precisely the choice we "
18088 "are now making about intellectual property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
18089 "id=\"0\"/> We will have an information society. That much is certain. Our "
18090 "only choice now is whether that information society will be "
18091 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> or <emphasis>feudal</emphasis>. The trend is "
18092 "toward the feudal."
18095 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18096 #: freeculture.xml:13203
18098 "When this battle broke, I blogged it. A spirited debate within the comment "
18099 "section ensued. Ms. Boland had a number of supporters who tried to show why "
18100 "her comments made sense. But there was one comment that was particularly "
18101 "depressing for me. An anonymous poster wrote,"
18105 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
18106 #: freeculture.xml:13210
18108 "George, you misunderstand Lessig: He's only talking about the world as it "
18109 "should be (<quote>the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should "
18110 "be to promote the right balance of intellectual property rights, not simply "
18111 "to promote intellectual property rights</quote>), not as it is. If we were "
18112 "talking about the world as it is, then of course Boland didn't say anything "
18113 "wrong. But in the world as Lessig would have it, then of course she "
18114 "did. Always pay attention to the distinction between Lessig's world and "
18118 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18119 #: freeculture.xml:13222
18121 "I missed the irony the first time I read it. I read it quickly and thought "
18122 "the poster was supporting the idea that seeking balance was what our "
18123 "government should be doing. (Of course, my criticism of Ms. Boland was not "
18124 "about whether she was seeking balance or not; my criticism was that her "
18125 "comments betrayed a first-year law student's mistake. I have no illusion "
18126 "about the extremism of our government, whether Republican or Democrat. My "
18127 "only illusion apparently is about whether our government should speak the "
18131 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18132 #: freeculture.xml:13233
18134 "Obviously, however, the poster was not supporting that idea. Instead, the "
18135 "poster was ridiculing the very idea that in the real world, the "
18136 "<quote>goal</quote> of a government should be <quote>to promote the right "
18137 "balance</quote> of intellectual property. That was obviously silly to "
18138 "him. And it obviously betrayed, he believed, my own silly "
18139 "utopianism. <quote>Typical for an academic,</quote> the poster might well "
18143 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18144 #: freeculture.xml:13241
18146 "I understand criticism of academic utopianism. I think utopianism is silly, "
18147 "too, and I'd be the first to poke fun at the absurdly unrealistic ideals of "
18148 "academics throughout history (and not just in our own country's history)."
18151 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18152 #: freeculture.xml:13247
18154 "But when it has become silly to suppose that the role of our government "
18155 "should be to <quote>seek balance,</quote> then count me with the silly, for "
18156 "that means that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be "
18157 "obvious to everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the "
18158 "government is simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that the idea "
18159 "of holding the government to a different standard is absurd, that the idea "
18160 "of demanding of the government that it speak truth and not lies is just "
18161 "naïve, then who have we, the most powerful democracy in the world, "
18166 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18167 #: freeculture.xml:13258
18169 "It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the "
18170 "truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something "
18171 "more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy "
18172 "to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our "
18173 "tradition for most of our history—free culture."
18176 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18177 #: freeculture.xml:13266
18178 msgid "If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon."
18181 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18182 #: freeculture.xml:13270
18183 msgid "Turner, Ted"
18186 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18187 #: freeculture.xml:13272
18189 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are moments</emphasis> of hope in this "
18190 "struggle. And moments that surprise. When the FCC was considering relaxing "
18191 "ownership rules, which would thereby further increase the concentration in "
18192 "media ownership, an extraordinary bipartisan coalition formed to fight this "
18193 "change. For perhaps the first time in history, interests as diverse as the "
18194 "NRA, the ACLU, Moveon.org, William Safire, Ted Turner, and CodePink Women "
18195 "for Peace organized to oppose this change in FCC policy. An astonishing "
18196 "700,000 letters were sent to the FCC, demanding more hearings and a "
18197 "different result."
18200 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18201 #: freeculture.xml:13283
18203 "This activism did not stop the FCC, but soon after, a broad coalition in the "
18204 "Senate voted to reverse the FCC decision. The hostile hearings leading up to "
18205 "that vote revealed just how powerful this movement had become. There was no "
18206 "substantial support for the FCC's decision, and there was broad and "
18207 "sustained support for fighting further concentration in the media."
18210 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18211 #: freeculture.xml:13291
18213 "But even this movement misses an important piece of the puzzle. Largeness "
18214 "as such is not bad. Freedom is not threatened just because some become very "
18215 "rich, or because there are only a handful of big players. The poor quality "
18216 "of Big Macs or Quarter Pounders does not mean that you can't get a good "
18217 "hamburger from somewhere else."
18220 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18221 #: freeculture.xml:13298
18223 "The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but "
18224 "instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in "
18225 "copyright, produces. It is not just that there are a few powerful companies "
18226 "that control an ever expanding slice of the media. It is that this "
18227 "concentration can call upon an equally bloated range of "
18228 "rights—property rights of a historically extreme form—that makes "
18229 "their bigness bad."
18232 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18233 #: freeculture.xml:13308
18235 "It is therefore significant that so many would rally to demand competition "
18236 "and increased diversity. Still, if the rally is understood as being about "
18237 "bigness alone, it is not terribly surprising. We Americans have a long "
18238 "history of fighting <quote>big,</quote> wisely or not. That we could be "
18239 "motivated to fight <quote>big</quote> again is not something new."
18242 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18243 #: freeculture.xml:13315
18245 "It would be something new, and something very important, if an equal number "
18246 "could be rallied to fight the increasing extremism built within the idea of "
18247 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote> Not because balance is alien to our "
18248 "tradition; indeed, as I've argued, balance is our tradition. But because the "
18249 "muscle to think critically about the scope of anything called "
18250 "<quote>property</quote> is not well exercised within this tradition anymore."
18253 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18254 #: freeculture.xml:13323
18256 "If we were Achilles, this would be our heel. This would be the place of our "
18260 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18261 #: freeculture.xml:13326
18266 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18267 #: freeculture.xml:13332
18269 "John Borland, <quote>RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers,</quote> CNET News.com, "
18270 "September 2003, available at <ulink "
18271 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #65</ulink>; Paul R. La Monica, "
18272 "<quote>Music Industry Sues Swappers,</quote> CNN/Money, 8 September 2003, "
18273 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #66</ulink>; "
18274 "Soni Sangha and Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty, <quote>Sued for a Song, "
18275 "N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among 261 Cited as Sharers,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
18276 "Daily News</citetitle>, 9 September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's "
18277 "Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl "
18278 "in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 "
18279 "September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, <quote>Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,</quote> "
18280 "<citetitle>Wired News</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, available at <ulink "
18281 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #67</ulink>."
18285 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18286 #: freeculture.xml:13350
18288 "Jon Wiederhorn, <quote>Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old "
18289 "Lady,</quote> mtv.com, 17 September 2003, available at <ulink "
18290 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #68</ulink>."
18295 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18296 #: freeculture.xml:13357
18298 "Kenji Hall, Associated Press, <quote>Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for "
18299 "Dylan Songs,</quote> Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
18300 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #69</ulink>."
18303 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18304 #: freeculture.xml:13328
18306 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I write</emphasis> these final words, the news is "
18307 "filled with stories about the RIAA lawsuits against almost three hundred "
18308 "individuals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Eminem has just been "
18309 "sued for <quote>sampling</quote> someone else's music.<placeholder "
18310 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The story about Bob Dylan "
18311 "<quote>stealing</quote> from a Japanese author has just finished making the "
18312 "rounds.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> An insider from "
18313 "Hollywood—who insists he must remain anonymous—reports <quote>an "
18314 "amazing conversation with these studio guys. They've got extraordinary [old] "
18315 "content that they'd love to use but can't because they can't begin to clear "
18316 "the rights. They've got scores of kids who could do amazing things with the "
18317 "content, but it would take scores of lawyers to clean it first.</quote> "
18318 "Congressmen are talking about deputizing computer viruses to bring down "
18319 "computers thought to violate the law. Universities are threatening expulsion "
18320 "for kids who use a computer to share content."
18323 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18324 #: freeculture.xml:13374
18328 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18329 #: freeculture.xml:13375
18330 msgid "Brazil, free culture in"
18333 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18334 #: freeculture.xml:13376 freeculture.xml:13738
18335 msgid "Creative Commons"
18338 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18339 #: freeculture.xml:13377
18340 msgid "Gil, Gilberto"
18343 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18344 #: freeculture.xml:13378
18345 msgid "United Kingdom"
18348 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18349 #: freeculture.xml:13378
18350 msgid "public creative archive in"
18354 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18355 #: freeculture.xml:13383
18357 "<quote>BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public,</quote> BBC press "
18358 "release, 24 August 2003, available at <ulink "
18359 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #70</ulink>."
18363 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18364 #: freeculture.xml:13392
18366 "<quote>Creative Commons and Brazil,</quote> Creative Commons Weblog, 6 "
18367 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
18372 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18373 #: freeculture.xml:13380
18375 "Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC has just announced that it "
18376 "will build a <quote>Creative Archive,</quote> from which British citizens "
18377 "can download BBC content, and rip, mix, and burn it.<placeholder "
18378 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And in Brazil, the culture minister, Gilberto "
18379 "Gil, himself a folk hero of Brazilian music, has joined with Creative "
18380 "Commons to release content and free licenses in that Latin American "
18381 "country.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> I've told a dark "
18382 "story. The truth is more mixed. A technology has given us a new "
18383 "freedom. Slowly, some begin to understand that this freedom need not mean "
18384 "anarchy. We can carry a free culture into the twenty-first century, without "
18385 "artists losing and without the potential of digital technology being "
18386 "destroyed. It will take some thought, and more importantly, it will take "
18387 "some will to transform the RCAs of our day into the Causbys."
18391 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18392 #: freeculture.xml:13406
18394 "Common sense must revolt. It must act to free culture. Soon, if this "
18395 "potential is ever to be realized."
18398 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
18399 #: freeculture.xml:13414
18404 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18405 #: freeculture.xml:13418
18407 "<emphasis role='strong'>At least some</emphasis> who have read this far will "
18408 "agree with me that something must be done to change where we are "
18409 "heading. The balance of this book maps what might be done."
18412 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18413 #: freeculture.xml:13423
18415 "I divide this map into two parts: that which anyone can do now, and that "
18416 "which requires the help of lawmakers. If there is one lesson that we can "
18417 "draw from the history of remaking common sense, it is that it requires "
18418 "remaking how many people think about the very same issue."
18421 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18422 #: freeculture.xml:13429
18424 "That means this movement must begin in the streets. It must recruit a "
18425 "significant number of parents, teachers, librarians, creators, authors, "
18426 "musicians, filmmakers, scientists—all to tell this story in their own "
18427 "words, and to tell their neighbors why this battle is so important."
18430 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18431 #: freeculture.xml:13436
18433 "Once this movement has its effect in the streets, it has some hope of having "
18434 "an effect in Washington. We are still a democracy. What people think "
18435 "matters. Not as much as it should, at least when an RCA stands opposed, but "
18436 "still, it matters. And thus, in the second part below, I sketch changes that "
18437 "Congress could make to better secure a free culture."
18440 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
18441 #: freeculture.xml:13445
18445 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18446 #: freeculture.xml:13447
18448 "<emphasis role='strong'>Common sense</emphasis> is with the copyright "
18449 "warriors because the debate so far has been framed at the extremes—as "
18450 "a grand either/or: either property or anarchy, either total control or "
18451 "artists won't be paid. If that really is the choice, then the warriors "
18455 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18456 #: freeculture.xml:13454
18458 "The mistake here is the error of the excluded middle. There are extremes in "
18459 "this debate, but the extremes are not all that there is. There are those who "
18460 "believe in maximal copyright—<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote>— "
18461 "and those who reject copyright—<quote>No Rights Reserved.</quote> The "
18462 "<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe that you should ask "
18463 "permission before you <quote>use</quote> a copyrighted work in any way. The "
18464 "<quote>No Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe you should be able to do "
18465 "with content as you wish, regardless of whether you have permission or not."
18469 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18470 #: freeculture.xml:13464
18472 "When the Internet was first born, its initial architecture effectively "
18473 "tilted in the <quote>no rights reserved</quote> direction. Content could be "
18474 "copied perfectly and cheaply; rights could not easily be controlled. Thus, "
18475 "regardless of anyone's desire, the effective regime of copyright under the "
18476 "original design of the Internet was <quote>no rights reserved.</quote> "
18477 "Content was <quote>taken</quote> regardless of the rights. Any rights were "
18478 "effectively unprotected."
18481 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18482 #: freeculture.xml:13476
18484 "This initial character produced a reaction (opposite, but not quite equal) "
18485 "by copyright owners. That reaction has been the topic of this book. Through "
18486 "legislation, litigation, and changes to the network's design, copyright "
18487 "holders have been able to change the essential character of the environment "
18488 "of the original Internet. If the original architecture made the effective "
18489 "default <quote>no rights reserved,</quote> the future architecture will make "
18490 "the effective default <quote>all rights reserved.</quote> The architecture "
18491 "and law that surround the Internet's design will increasingly produce an "
18492 "environment where all use of content requires permission. The <quote>cut "
18493 "and paste</quote> world that defines the Internet today will become a "
18494 "<quote>get permission to cut and paste</quote> world that is a creator's "
18498 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18499 #: freeculture.xml:13490
18501 "What's needed is a way to say something in the middle—neither "
18502 "<quote>all rights reserved</quote> nor <quote>no rights reserved</quote> but "
18503 "<quote>some rights reserved</quote>— and thus a way to respect "
18504 "copyrights but enable creators to free content as they see fit. In other "
18505 "words, we need a way to restore a set of freedoms that we could just take "
18506 "for granted before."
18509 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18510 #: freeculture.xml:13499
18511 msgid "Rebuilding Freedoms Previously Presumed: Examples"
18514 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18515 #: freeculture.xml:13502
18517 "If you step back from the battle I've been describing here, you will "
18518 "recognize this problem from other contexts. Think about privacy. Before the "
18519 "Internet, most of us didn't have to worry much about data about our lives "
18520 "that we broadcast to the world. If you walked into a bookstore and browsed "
18521 "through some of the works of Karl Marx, you didn't need to worry about "
18522 "explaining your browsing habits to your neighbors or boss. The "
18523 "<quote>privacy</quote> of your browsing habits was assured."
18526 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18527 #: freeculture.xml:13512
18528 msgid "What made it assured?"
18531 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18532 #: freeculture.xml:13516
18534 "Well, if we think in terms of the modalities I described in chapter <xref "
18535 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, your privacy was "
18536 "assured because of an inefficient architecture for gathering data and hence "
18537 "a market constraint (cost) on anyone who wanted to gather that data. If you "
18538 "were a suspected spy for North Korea, working for the CIA, no doubt your "
18539 "privacy would not be assured. But that's because the CIA would (we hope) "
18540 "find it valuable enough to spend the thousands required to track you. But "
18541 "for most of us (again, we can hope), spying doesn't pay. The highly "
18542 "inefficient architecture of real space means we all enjoy a fairly robust "
18543 "amount of privacy. That privacy is guaranteed to us by friction. Not by law "
18544 "(there is no law protecting <quote>privacy</quote> in public places), and in "
18545 "many places, not by norms (snooping and gossip are just fun), but instead, "
18546 "by the costs that friction imposes on anyone who would want to spy."
18549 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18550 #: freeculture.xml:13531
18554 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18555 #: freeculture.xml:13532
18556 msgid "cookies, Internet"
18559 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18560 #: freeculture.xml:13534
18562 "Enter the Internet, where the cost of tracking browsing in particular has "
18563 "become quite tiny. If you're a customer at Amazon, then as you browse the "
18564 "pages, Amazon collects the data about what you've looked at. You know this "
18565 "because at the side of the page, there's a list of <quote>recently "
18566 "viewed</quote> pages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net and the "
18567 "function of cookies on the Net, it is easier to collect the data than "
18568 "not. The friction has disappeared, and hence any <quote>privacy</quote> "
18569 "protected by the friction disappears, too."
18572 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18573 #: freeculture.xml:13544
18575 "Amazon, of course, is not the problem. But we might begin to worry about "
18576 "libraries. If you're one of those crazy lefties who thinks that people "
18577 "should have the <quote>right</quote> to browse in a library without the "
18578 "government knowing which books you look at (I'm one of those lefties, too), "
18579 "then this change in the technology of monitoring might concern you. If it "
18580 "becomes simple to gather and sort who does what in electronic spaces, then "
18581 "the friction-induced privacy of yesterday disappears."
18585 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18586 #: freeculture.xml:13561
18588 "See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, <quote>Fair Information Practices and the "
18589 "Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get),</quote> "
18590 "<citetitle>Stanford Technology Law Review</citetitle> 1 (2001): "
18591 "par. 6–18, available at <ulink "
18592 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink> (describing examples "
18593 "in which technology defines privacy policy). See also Jeffrey Rosen, "
18594 "<citetitle>The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious "
18595 "Age</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2004) (mapping tradeoffs between "
18596 "technology and privacy)."
18600 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18601 #: freeculture.xml:13555
18603 "It is this reality that explains the push of many to define "
18604 "<quote>privacy</quote> on the Internet. It is the recognition that "
18605 "technology can remove what friction before gave us that leads many to push "
18606 "for laws to do what friction did.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
18607 "And whether you're in favor of those laws or not, it is the pattern that is "
18608 "important here. We must take affirmative steps to secure a kind of freedom "
18609 "that was passively provided before. A change in technology now forces those "
18610 "who believe in privacy to affirmatively act where, before, privacy was given "
18614 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18615 #: freeculture.xml:13579
18617 "A similar story could be told about the birth of the free software "
18618 "movement. When computers with software were first made available "
18619 "commercially, the software—both the source code and the "
18620 "binaries— was free. You couldn't run a program written for a Data "
18621 "General machine on an IBM machine, so Data General and IBM didn't care much "
18622 "about controlling their software. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
18626 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18627 #: freeculture.xml:13587
18628 msgid "Stallman, Richard"
18631 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18632 #: freeculture.xml:13589
18634 "That was the world Richard Stallman was born into, and while he was a "
18635 "researcher at MIT, he grew to love the community that developed when one was "
18636 "free to explore and tinker with the software that ran on machines. Being a "
18637 "smart sort himself, and a talented programmer, Stallman grew to depend upon "
18638 "the freedom to add to or modify other people's work."
18641 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18642 #: freeculture.xml:13597
18644 "In an academic setting, at least, that's not a terribly radical idea. In a "
18645 "math department, anyone would be free to tinker with a proof that someone "
18646 "offered. If you thought you had a better way to prove a theorem, you could "
18647 "take what someone else did and change it. In a classics department, if you "
18648 "believed a colleague's translation of a recently discovered text was flawed, "
18649 "you were free to improve it. Thus, to Stallman, it seemed obvious that you "
18650 "should be free to tinker with and improve the code that ran a machine. This, "
18651 "too, was knowledge. Why shouldn't it be open for criticism like anything "
18655 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18656 #: freeculture.xml:13609
18658 "No one answered that question. Instead, the architecture of revenue for "
18659 "computing changed. As it became possible to import programs from one system "
18660 "to another, it became economically attractive (at least in the view of some) "
18661 "to hide the code of your program. So, too, as companies started selling "
18662 "peripherals for mainframe systems. If I could just take your printer driver "
18663 "and copy it, then that would make it easier for me to sell a printer to the "
18664 "market than it was for you."
18668 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18669 #: freeculture.xml:13618
18671 "Thus, the practice of proprietary code began to spread, and by the early "
18672 "1980s, Stallman found himself surrounded by proprietary code. The world of "
18673 "free software had been erased by a change in the economics of computing. And "
18674 "as he believed, if he did nothing about it, then the freedom to change and "
18675 "share software would be fundamentally weakened."
18678 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18679 #: freeculture.xml:13626
18680 msgid "Torvalds, Linus"
18683 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18684 #: freeculture.xml:13628
18686 "Therefore, in 1984, Stallman began a project to build a free operating "
18687 "system, so that at least a strain of free software would survive. That was "
18688 "the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's "
18689 "<quote>Linux</quote> kernel was added to produce the GNU/Linux operating "
18690 "system. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
18691 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18694 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18695 #: freeculture.xml:13636
18697 "Stallman's technique was to use copyright law to build a world of software "
18698 "that must be kept free. Software licensed under the Free Software "
18699 "Foundation's GPL cannot be modified and distributed unless the source code "
18700 "for that software is made available as well. Thus, anyone building upon "
18701 "GPL'd software would have to make their buildings free as well. This would "
18702 "assure, Stallman believed, that an ecology of code would develop that "
18703 "remained free for others to build upon. His fundamental goal was freedom; "
18704 "innovative creative code was a byproduct."
18707 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18708 #: freeculture.xml:13647
18710 "Stallman was thus doing for software what privacy advocates now do for "
18711 "privacy. He was seeking a way to rebuild a kind of freedom that was taken "
18712 "for granted before. Through the affirmative use of licenses that bind "
18713 "copyrighted code, Stallman was affirmatively reclaiming a space where free "
18714 "software would survive. He was actively protecting what before had been "
18715 "passively guaranteed."
18718 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18719 #: freeculture.xml:13655
18721 "Finally, consider a very recent example that more directly resonates with "
18722 "the story of this book. This is the shift in the way academic and scientific "
18723 "journals are produced."
18727 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18728 #: freeculture.xml:13661
18730 "As digital technologies develop, it is becoming obvious to many that "
18731 "printing thousands of copies of journals every month and sending them to "
18732 "libraries is perhaps not the most efficient way to distribute "
18733 "knowledge. Instead, journals are increasingly becoming electronic, and "
18734 "libraries and their users are given access to these electronic journals "
18735 "through password-protected sites. Something similar to this has been "
18736 "happening in law for almost thirty years: Lexis and Westlaw have had "
18737 "electronic versions of case reports available to subscribers to their "
18738 "service. Although a Supreme Court opinion is not copyrighted, and anyone is "
18739 "free to go to a library and read it, Lexis and Westlaw are also free to "
18740 "charge users for the privilege of gaining access to that Supreme Court "
18741 "opinion through their respective services."
18744 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18745 #: freeculture.xml:13677
18747 "There's nothing wrong in general with this, and indeed, the ability to "
18748 "charge for access to even public domain materials is a good incentive for "
18749 "people to develop new and innovative ways to spread knowledge. The law has "
18750 "agreed, which is why Lexis and Westlaw have been allowed to flourish. And if "
18751 "there's nothing wrong with selling the public domain, then there could be "
18752 "nothing wrong, in principle, with selling access to material that is not in "
18753 "the public domain."
18756 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18757 #: freeculture.xml:13686
18759 "But what if the only way to get access to social and scientific data was "
18760 "through proprietary services? What if no one had the ability to browse this "
18761 "data except by paying for a subscription?"
18764 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18765 #: freeculture.xml:13691
18767 "As many are beginning to notice, this is increasingly the reality with "
18768 "scientific journals. When these journals were distributed in paper form, "
18769 "libraries could make the journals available to anyone who had access to the "
18770 "library. Thus, patients with cancer could become cancer experts because the "
18771 "library gave them access. Or patients trying to understand the risks of a "
18772 "certain treatment could research those risks by reading all available "
18773 "articles about that treatment. This freedom was therefore a function of the "
18774 "institution of libraries (norms) and the technology of paper journals "
18775 "(architecture)—namely, that it was very hard to control access to a "
18779 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18780 #: freeculture.xml:13703
18782 "As journals become electronic, however, the publishers are demanding that "
18783 "libraries not give the general public access to the journals. This means "
18784 "that the freedoms provided by print journals in public libraries begin to "
18785 "disappear. Thus, as with privacy and with software, a changing technology "
18786 "and market shrink a freedom taken for granted before."
18789 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18790 #: freeculture.xml:13711
18792 "This shrinking freedom has led many to take affirmative steps to restore the "
18793 "freedom that has been lost. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), for "
18794 "example, is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making scientific research "
18795 "available to anyone with a Web connection. Authors of scientific work submit "
18796 "that work to the Public Library of Science. That work is then subject to "
18797 "peer review. If accepted, the work is then deposited in a public, electronic "
18798 "archive and made permanently available for free. PLoS also sells a print "
18799 "version of its work, but the copyright for the print journal does not "
18800 "inhibit the right of anyone to redistribute the work for free. <placeholder "
18801 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18804 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18805 #: freeculture.xml:13725
18807 "This is one of many such efforts to restore a freedom taken for granted "
18808 "before, but now threatened by changing technology and markets. There's no "
18809 "doubt that this alternative competes with the traditional publishers and "
18810 "their efforts to make money from the exclusive distribution of content. But "
18811 "competition in our tradition is presumptively a good—especially when "
18812 "it helps spread knowledge and science."
18815 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18816 #: freeculture.xml:13737
18817 msgid "Rebuilding Free Culture: One Idea"
18820 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18821 #: freeculture.xml:13740
18823 "The same strategy could be applied to culture, as a response to the "
18824 "increasing control effected through law and technology."
18827 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18828 #: freeculture.xml:13743
18829 msgid "Stanford University"
18832 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18833 #: freeculture.xml:13745
18835 "Enter the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation "
18836 "established in Massachusetts, but with its home at Stanford University. Its "
18837 "aim is to build a layer of <emphasis>reasonable</emphasis> copyright on top "
18838 "of the extremes that now reign. It does this by making it easy for people to "
18839 "build upon other people's work, by making it simple for creators to express "
18840 "the freedom for others to take and build upon their work. Simple tags, tied "
18841 "to human-readable descriptions, tied to bulletproof licenses, make this "
18846 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18847 #: freeculture.xml:13756
18849 "<emphasis>Simple</emphasis>—which means without a middleman, or "
18850 "without a lawyer. By developing a free set of licenses that people can "
18851 "attach to their content, Creative Commons aims to mark a range of content "
18852 "that can easily, and reliably, be built upon. These tags are then linked to "
18853 "machine-readable versions of the license that enable computers automatically "
18854 "to identify content that can easily be shared. These three expressions "
18855 "together—a legal license, a human-readable description, and "
18856 "machine-readable tags—constitute a Creative Commons license. A "
18857 "Creative Commons license constitutes a grant of freedom to anyone who "
18858 "accesses the license, and more importantly, an expression of the ideal that "
18859 "the person associated with the license believes in something different than "
18860 "the <quote>All</quote> or <quote>No</quote> extremes. Content is marked with "
18861 "the CC mark, which does not mean that copyright is waived, but that certain "
18862 "freedoms are given."
18865 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18866 #: freeculture.xml:13774
18868 "These freedoms are beyond the freedoms promised by fair use. Their precise "
18869 "contours depend upon the choices the creator makes. The creator can choose a "
18870 "license that permits any use, so long as attribution is given. She can "
18871 "choose a license that permits only noncommercial use. She can choose a "
18872 "license that permits any use so long as the same freedoms are given to other "
18873 "uses (<quote>share and share alike</quote>). Or any use so long as no "
18874 "derivative use is made. Or any use at all within developing nations. Or any "
18875 "sampling use, so long as full copies are not made. Or lastly, any "
18879 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18880 #: freeculture.xml:13785
18882 "These choices thus establish a range of freedoms beyond the default of "
18883 "copyright law. They also enable freedoms that go beyond traditional fair "
18884 "use. And most importantly, they express these freedoms in a way that "
18885 "subsequent users can use and rely upon without the need to hire a "
18886 "lawyer. Creative Commons thus aims to build a layer of content, governed by "
18887 "a layer of reasonable copyright law, that others can build upon. Voluntary "
18888 "choice of individuals and creators will make this content available. And "
18889 "that content will in turn enable us to rebuild a public domain."
18892 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18893 #: freeculture.xml:13795
18894 msgid "Garlick, Mia"
18898 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18899 #: freeculture.xml:13797
18901 "This is just one project among many within the Creative Commons. And of "
18902 "course, Creative Commons is not the only organization pursuing such "
18903 "freedoms. But the point that distinguishes the Creative Commons from many is "
18904 "that we are not interested only in talking about a public domain or in "
18905 "getting legislators to help build a public domain. Our aim is to build a "
18906 "movement of consumers and producers of content (<quote>content "
18907 "conducers,</quote> as attorney Mia Garlick calls them) who help build the "
18908 "public domain and, by their work, demonstrate the importance of the public "
18909 "domain to other creativity."
18912 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18913 #: freeculture.xml:13809
18915 "The aim is not to fight the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts. The "
18916 "aim is to complement them. The problems that the law creates for us as a "
18917 "culture are produced by insane and unintended consequences of laws written "
18918 "centuries ago, applied to a technology that only Jefferson could have "
18919 "imagined. The rules may well have made sense against a background of "
18920 "technologies from centuries ago, but they do not make sense against the "
18921 "background of digital technologies. New rules—with different freedoms, "
18922 "expressed in ways so that humans without lawyers can use them—are "
18923 "needed. Creative Commons gives people a way effectively to begin to build "
18927 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18928 #: freeculture.xml:13822
18930 "Why would creators participate in giving up total control? Some participate "
18931 "to better spread their content. Cory Doctorow, for example, is a science "
18932 "fiction author. His first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
18933 "Kingdom</citetitle>, was released on-line and for free, under a Creative "
18934 "Commons license, on the same day that it went on sale in bookstores."
18937 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18938 #: freeculture.xml:13829
18940 "Why would a publisher ever agree to this? I suspect his publisher reasoned "
18941 "like this: There are two groups of people out there: (1) those who will buy "
18942 "Cory's book whether or not it's on the Internet, and (2) those who may never "
18943 "hear of Cory's book, if it isn't made available for free on the "
18944 "Internet. Some part of (1) will download Cory's book instead of buying "
18945 "it. Call them bad-(1)s. Some part of (2) will download Cory's book, like "
18946 "it, and then decide to buy it. Call them (2)-goods. If there are more "
18947 "(2)-goods than bad-(1)s, the strategy of releasing Cory's book free on-line "
18948 "will probably <emphasis>increase</emphasis> sales of Cory's book."
18951 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18952 #: freeculture.xml:13841
18954 "Indeed, the experience of his publisher clearly supports that conclusion. "
18955 "The book's first printing was exhausted months before the publisher had "
18956 "expected. This first novel of a science fiction author was a total success."
18959 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18960 #: freeculture.xml:13846
18961 msgid "Free for All (Wayner)"
18964 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18965 #: freeculture.xml:13847
18966 msgid "Wayner, Peter"
18970 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18971 #: freeculture.xml:13849
18973 "The idea that free content might increase the value of nonfree content was "
18974 "confirmed by the experience of another author. Peter Wayner, who wrote a "
18975 "book about the free software movement titled <citetitle>Free for "
18976 "All</citetitle>, made an electronic version of his book free on-line under a "
18977 "Creative Commons license after the book went out of print. He then monitored "
18978 "used book store prices for the book. As predicted, as the number of "
18979 "downloads increased, the used book price for his book increased, as well."
18982 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18983 #: freeculture.xml:13860
18984 msgid "Public Enemy"
18987 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18988 #: freeculture.xml:13861
18992 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18993 #: freeculture.xml:13862
18994 msgid "Leaphart, Walter"
18998 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18999 #: freeculture.xml:13879
19001 "<citetitle>Willful Infringement: A Report from the Front Lines of the Real "
19002 "Culture Wars</citetitle> (2003), produced by Jed Horovitz, directed by Greg "
19003 "Hittelman, a Fiat Lucre production, available at <ulink "
19004 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink>."
19007 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19008 #: freeculture.xml:13864
19010 "These are examples of using the Commons to better spread proprietary "
19011 "content. I believe that is a wonderful and common use of the Commons. There "
19012 "are others who use Creative Commons licenses for other reasons. Many who use "
19013 "the <quote>sampling license</quote> do so because anything else would be "
19014 "hypocritical. The sampling license says that others are free, for commercial "
19015 "or noncommercial purposes, to sample content from the licensed work; they "
19016 "are just not free to make full copies of the licensed work available to "
19017 "others. This is consistent with their own art—they, too, sample from "
19018 "others. Because the <emphasis>legal</emphasis> costs of sampling are so high "
19019 "(Walter Leaphart, manager of the rap group Public Enemy, which was born "
19020 "sampling the music of others, has stated that he does not "
19021 "<quote>allow</quote> Public Enemy to sample anymore, because the legal costs "
19022 "are so high<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), these artists release "
19023 "into the creative environment content that others can build upon, so that "
19024 "their form of creativity might grow."
19027 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19028 #: freeculture.xml:13888
19030 "Finally, there are many who mark their content with a Creative Commons "
19031 "license just because they want to express to others the importance of "
19032 "balance in this debate. If you just go along with the system as it is, you "
19033 "are effectively saying you believe in the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> "
19034 "model. Good for you, but many do not. Many believe that however appropriate "
19035 "that rule is for Hollywood and freaks, it is not an appropriate description "
19036 "of how most creators view the rights associated with their content. The "
19037 "Creative Commons license expresses this notion of <quote>Some Rights "
19038 "Reserved,</quote> and gives many the chance to say it to others."
19042 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19043 #: freeculture.xml:13900
19045 "In the first six months of the Creative Commons experiment, over 1 million "
19046 "objects were licensed with these free-culture licenses. The next step is "
19047 "partnerships with middleware content providers to help them build into their "
19048 "technologies simple ways for users to mark their content with Creative "
19049 "Commons freedoms. Then the next step is to watch and celebrate creators who "
19050 "build content based upon content set free."
19053 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19054 #: freeculture.xml:13910
19056 "These are first steps to rebuilding a public domain. They are not mere "
19057 "arguments; they are action. Building a public domain is the first step to "
19058 "showing people how important that domain is to creativity and "
19059 "innovation. Creative Commons relies upon voluntary steps to achieve this "
19060 "rebuilding. They will lead to a world in which more than voluntary steps are "
19064 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19065 #: freeculture.xml:13918
19067 "Creative Commons is just one example of voluntary efforts by individuals and "
19068 "creators to change the mix of rights that now govern the creative field. The "
19069 "project does not compete with copyright; it complements it. Its aim is not "
19070 "to defeat the rights of authors, but to make it easier for authors and "
19071 "creators to exercise their rights more flexibly and cheaply. That "
19072 "difference, we believe, will enable creativity to spread more easily."
19075 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
19076 #: freeculture.xml:13932
19080 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
19081 #: freeculture.xml:13934
19083 "<emphasis role='strong'>We will</emphasis> not reclaim a free culture by "
19084 "individual action alone. It will also take important reforms of laws. We "
19085 "have a long way to go before the politicians will listen to these ideas and "
19086 "implement these reforms. But that also means that we have time to build "
19087 "awareness around the changes that we need."
19090 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
19091 #: freeculture.xml:13941
19093 "In this chapter, I outline five kinds of changes: four that are general, and "
19094 "one that's specific to the most heated battle of the day, music. Each is a "
19095 "step, not an end. But any of these steps would carry us a long way to our "
19099 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19100 #: freeculture.xml:13948
19101 msgid "1. More Formalities"
19104 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19105 #: freeculture.xml:13950
19107 "If you buy a house, you have to record the sale in a deed. If you buy land "
19108 "upon which to build a house, you have to record the purchase in a deed. If "
19109 "you buy a car, you get a bill of sale and register the car. If you buy an "
19110 "airplane ticket, it has your name on it."
19114 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19115 #: freeculture.xml:13957
19117 "These are all formalities associated with property. They are requirements "
19118 "that we all must bear if we want our property to be protected."
19121 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19122 #: freeculture.xml:13962
19124 "In contrast, under current copyright law, you automatically get a copyright, "
19125 "regardless of whether you comply with any formality. You don't have to "
19126 "register. You don't even have to mark your content. The default is control, "
19127 "and <quote>formalities</quote> are banished."
19130 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19131 #: freeculture.xml:13968
19135 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19136 #: freeculture.xml:13971
19138 "As I suggested in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
19139 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, the motivation to abolish formalities was a good "
19140 "one. In the world before digital technologies, formalities imposed a burden "
19141 "on copyright holders without much benefit. Thus, it was progress when the "
19142 "law relaxed the formal requirements that a copyright owner must bear to "
19143 "protect and secure his work. Those formalities were getting in the way."
19146 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19147 #: freeculture.xml:13980
19149 "But the Internet changes all this. Formalities today need not be a "
19150 "burden. Rather, the world without formalities is the world that burdens "
19151 "creativity. Today, there is no simple way to know who owns what, or with "
19152 "whom one must deal in order to use or build upon the creative work of "
19153 "others. There are no records, there is no system to trace— there is no "
19154 "simple way to know how to get permission. Yet given the massive increase in "
19155 "the scope of copyright's rule, getting permission is a necessary step for "
19156 "any work that builds upon our past. And thus, the <emphasis>lack</emphasis> "
19157 "of formalities forces many into silence where they otherwise could speak."
19161 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19162 #: freeculture.xml:13994
19164 "The proposal I am advancing here would apply to American works only. "
19165 "Obviously, I believe it would be beneficial for the same idea to be adopted "
19166 "by other countries as well."
19169 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19170 #: freeculture.xml:13992
19172 "The law should therefore change this requirement<placeholder "
19173 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—but it should not change it by going back "
19174 "to the old, broken system. We should require formalities, but we should "
19175 "establish a system that will create the incentives to minimize the burden of "
19176 "these formalities."
19179 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19180 #: freeculture.xml:14002
19182 "The important formalities are three: marking copyrighted work, registering "
19183 "copyrights, and renewing the claim to copyright. Traditionally, the first of "
19184 "these three was something the copyright owner did; the second two were "
19185 "something the government did. But a revised system of formalities would "
19186 "banish the government from the process, except for the sole purpose of "
19187 "approving standards developed by others."
19190 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
19191 #: freeculture.xml:14014
19192 msgid "REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL"
19195 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19196 #: freeculture.xml:14016
19198 "Under the old system, a copyright owner had to file a registration with the "
19199 "Copyright Office to register or renew a copyright. When filing that "
19200 "registration, the copyright owner paid a fee. As with most government "
19201 "agencies, the Copyright Office had little incentive to minimize the burden "
19202 "of registration; it also had little incentive to minimize the fee. And as "
19203 "the Copyright Office is not a main target of government policymaking, the "
19204 "office has historically been terribly underfunded. Thus, when people who "
19205 "know something about the process hear this idea about formalities, their "
19206 "first reaction is panic—nothing could be worse than forcing people to "
19207 "deal with the mess that is the Copyright Office."
19210 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19211 #: freeculture.xml:14029
19213 "Yet it is always astonishing to me that we, who come from a tradition of "
19214 "extraordinary innovation in governmental design, can no longer think "
19215 "innovatively about how governmental functions can be designed. Just because "
19216 "there is a public purpose to a government role, it doesn't follow that the "
19217 "government must actually administer the role. Instead, we should be creating "
19218 "incentives for private parties to serve the public, subject to standards "
19219 "that the government sets."
19222 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19223 #: freeculture.xml:14038
19225 "In the context of registration, one obvious model is the Internet. There "
19226 "are at least 32 million Web sites registered around the world. Domain name "
19227 "owners for these Web sites have to pay a fee to keep their registration "
19228 "alive. In the main top-level domains (.com, .org, .net), there is a central "
19229 "registry. The actual registrations are, however, performed by many competing "
19230 "registrars. That competition drives the cost of registering down, and more "
19231 "importantly, it drives the ease with which registration occurs up."
19235 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19236 #: freeculture.xml:14048
19238 "We should adopt a similar model for the registration and renewal of "
19239 "copyrights. The Copyright Office may well serve as the central registry, but "
19240 "it should not be in the registrar business. Instead, it should establish a "
19241 "database, and a set of standards for registrars. It should approve "
19242 "registrars that meet its standards. Those registrars would then compete with "
19243 "one another to deliver the cheapest and simplest systems for registering and "
19244 "renewing copyrights. That competition would substantially lower the burden "
19245 "of this formality—while producing a database of registrations that "
19246 "would facilitate the licensing of content."
19249 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
19250 #: freeculture.xml:14063
19254 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19255 #: freeculture.xml:14065
19257 "It used to be that the failure to include a copyright notice on a creative "
19258 "work meant that the copyright was forfeited. That was a harsh punishment for "
19259 "failing to comply with a regulatory rule—akin to imposing the death "
19260 "penalty for a parking ticket in the world of creative rights. Here again, "
19261 "there is no reason that a marking requirement needs to be enforced in this "
19262 "way. And more importantly, there is no reason a marking requirement needs to "
19263 "be enforced uniformly across all media."
19266 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19267 #: freeculture.xml:14075
19269 "The aim of marking is to signal to the public that this work is copyrighted "
19270 "and that the author wants to enforce his rights. The mark also makes it easy "
19271 "to locate a copyright owner to secure permission to use the work."
19274 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19275 #: freeculture.xml:14081
19277 "One of the problems the copyright system confronted early on was that "
19278 "different copyrighted works had to be differently marked. It wasn't clear "
19279 "how or where a statue was to be marked, or a record, or a film. A new "
19280 "marking requirement could solve these problems by recognizing the "
19281 "differences in media, and by allowing the system of marking to evolve as "
19282 "technologies enable it to. The system could enable a special signal from the "
19283 "failure to mark—not the loss of the copyright, but the loss of the "
19284 "right to punish someone for failing to get permission first."
19288 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19289 #: freeculture.xml:14098
19291 "There would be a complication with derivative works that I have not solved "
19292 "here. In my view, the law of derivatives creates a more complicated system "
19293 "than is justified by the marginal incentive it creates."
19297 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19298 #: freeculture.xml:14091
19300 "Let's start with the last point. If a copyright owner allows his work to be "
19301 "published without a copyright notice, the consequence of that failure need "
19302 "not be that the copyright is lost. The consequence could instead be that "
19303 "anyone has the right to use this work, until the copyright owner complains "
19304 "and demonstrates that it is his work and he doesn't give "
19305 "permission.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The meaning of an "
19306 "unmarked work would therefore be <quote>use unless someone "
19307 "complains.</quote> If someone does complain, then the obligation would be to "
19308 "stop using the work in any new work from then on though no penalty would "
19309 "attach for existing uses. This would create a strong incentive for "
19310 "copyright owners to mark their work."
19313 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19314 #: freeculture.xml:14111
19316 "That in turn raises the question about how work should best be marked. Here "
19317 "again, the system needs to adjust as the technologies evolve. The best way "
19318 "to ensure that the system evolves is to limit the Copyright Office's role to "
19319 "that of approving standards for marking content that have been crafted "
19323 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19324 #: freeculture.xml:14117
19325 msgid "copyright marking of"
19328 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19329 #: freeculture.xml:14119
19331 "For example, if a recording industry association devises a method for "
19332 "marking CDs, it would propose that to the Copyright Office. The Copyright "
19333 "Office would hold a hearing, at which other proposals could be made. The "
19334 "Copyright Office would then select the proposal that it judged preferable, "
19335 "and it would base that choice <emphasis>solely</emphasis> upon the "
19336 "consideration of which method could best be integrated into the registration "
19337 "and renewal system. We would not count on the government to innovate; but we "
19338 "would count on the government to keep the product of innovation in line with "
19339 "its other important functions."
19342 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19343 #: freeculture.xml:14131
19345 "Finally, marking content clearly would simplify registration requirements. "
19346 "If photographs were marked by author and year, there would be little reason "
19347 "not to allow a photographer to reregister, for example, all photographs "
19348 "taken in a particular year in one quick step. The aim of the formality is "
19349 "not to burden the creator; the system itself should be kept as simple as "
19353 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19354 #: freeculture.xml:14139
19356 "The objective of formalities is to make things clear. The existing system "
19357 "does nothing to make things clear. Indeed, it seems designed to make things "
19361 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19362 #: freeculture.xml:14144
19364 "If formalities such as registration were reinstated, one of the most "
19365 "difficult aspects of relying upon the public domain would be removed. It "
19366 "would be simple to identify what content is presumptively free; it would be "
19367 "simple to identify who controls the rights for a particular kind of content; "
19368 "it would be simple to assert those rights, and to renew that assertion at "
19369 "the appropriate time."
19372 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19373 #: freeculture.xml:14156
19374 msgid "2. Shorter Terms"
19377 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19378 #: freeculture.xml:14158
19380 "The term of copyright has gone from fourteen years to ninety-five years for "
19381 "corporate authors, and life of the author plus seventy years for natural "
19386 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19387 #: freeculture.xml:14171
19389 "<quote>A Radical Rethink,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 366:8308 "
19390 "(25 January 2003): 15, available at <ulink "
19391 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #74</ulink>."
19394 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19395 #: freeculture.xml:14163
19397 "In <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>, I proposed a "
19398 "seventy-five-year term, granted in five-year increments with a requirement "
19399 "of renewal every five years. That seemed radical enough at the time. But "
19400 "after we lost <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
19401 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, the proposals became even more "
19402 "radical. <citetitle>The Economist</citetitle> endorsed a proposal for a "
19403 "fourteen-year copyright term.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
19404 "Others have proposed tying the term to the term for patents."
19407 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19408 #: freeculture.xml:14178
19410 "I agree with those who believe that we need a radical change in copyright's "
19411 "term. But whether fourteen years or seventy-five, there are four principles "
19412 "that are important to keep in mind about copyright terms."
19416 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19417 #: freeculture.xml:14186
19419 "<emphasis>Keep it short:</emphasis> The term should be as long as necessary "
19420 "to give incentives to create, but no longer. If it were tied to very strong "
19421 "protections for authors (so authors were able to reclaim rights from "
19422 "publishers), rights to the same work (not derivative works) might be "
19423 "extended further. The key is not to tie the work up with legal regulations "
19424 "when it no longer benefits an author."
19429 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19430 #: freeculture.xml:14195
19432 "<emphasis>Keep it simple:</emphasis> The line between the public domain and "
19433 "protected content must be kept clear. Lawyers like the fuzziness of "
19434 "<quote>fair use,</quote> and the distinction between <quote>ideas</quote> "
19435 "and <quote>expression.</quote> That kind of law gives them lots of work. But "
19436 "our framers had a simpler idea in mind: protected versus unprotected. The "
19437 "value of short terms is that there is little need to build exceptions into "
19438 "copyright when the term itself is kept short. A clear and active "
19439 "<quote>lawyer-free zone</quote> makes the complexities of <quote>fair "
19440 "use</quote> and <quote>idea/expression</quote> less necessary to navigate."
19443 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
19444 #: freeculture.xml:14207
19445 msgid "veterans' pensions"
19449 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><footnote><para>
19450 #: freeculture.xml:14218
19452 "Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran's Application for Compensation "
19453 "and/or Pension, VA Form 21-526 (OMB Approved No. 2900-0001), available at "
19454 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #75</ulink>."
19457 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19458 #: freeculture.xml:14210
19460 "<emphasis>Keep it alive:</emphasis> Copyright should have to be renewed. "
19461 "Especially if the maximum term is long, the copyright owner should be "
19462 "required to signal periodically that he wants the protection continued. This "
19463 "need not be an onerous burden, but there is no reason this monopoly "
19464 "protection has to be granted for free. On average, it takes ninety minutes "
19465 "for a veteran to apply for a pension.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
19466 "id=\"0\"/> If we make veterans suffer that burden, I don't see why we "
19467 "couldn't require authors to spend ten minutes every fifty years to file a "
19472 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19473 #: freeculture.xml:14229
19475 "<emphasis>Keep it prospective:</emphasis> Whatever the term of copyright "
19476 "should be, the clearest lesson that economists teach is that a term once "
19477 "given should not be extended. It might have been a mistake in 1923 for the "
19478 "law to offer authors only a fifty-six-year term. I don't think so, but it's "
19479 "possible. If it was a mistake, then the consequence was that we got fewer "
19480 "authors to create in 1923 than we otherwise would have. But we can't correct "
19481 "that mistake today by increasing the term. No matter what we do today, we "
19482 "will not increase the number of authors who wrote in 1923. Of course, we can "
19483 "increase the reward that those who write now get (or alternatively, increase "
19484 "the copyright burden that smothers many works that are today invisible). But "
19485 "increasing their reward will not increase their creativity in 1923. What's "
19486 "not done is not done, and there's nothing we can do about that now."
19489 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19490 #: freeculture.xml:14245
19492 "These changes together should produce an <emphasis>average</emphasis> "
19493 "copyright term that is much shorter than the current term. Until 1976, the "
19494 "average term was just 32.2 years. We should be aiming for the same."
19497 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19498 #: freeculture.xml:14251
19500 "No doubt the extremists will call these ideas <quote>radical.</quote> (After "
19501 "all, I call them <quote>extremists.</quote>) But again, the term I "
19502 "recommended was longer than the term under Richard Nixon. How "
19503 "<quote>radical</quote> can it be to ask for a more generous copyright law "
19504 "than Richard Nixon presided over?"
19507 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19508 #: freeculture.xml:14261
19509 msgid "3. Free Use Vs. Fair Use"
19512 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19513 #: freeculture.xml:14265
19515 "As I observed at the beginning of this book, property law originally granted "
19516 "property owners the right to control their property from the ground to the "
19517 "heavens. The airplane came along. The scope of property rights quickly "
19518 "changed. There was no fuss, no constitutional challenge. It made no sense "
19519 "anymore to grant that much control, given the emergence of that new "
19523 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19524 #: freeculture.xml:14273
19526 "Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors <quote>exclusive "
19527 "right</quote> to <quote>their writings.</quote> Congress has given authors "
19528 "an exclusive right to <quote>their writings</quote> plus any derivative "
19529 "writings (made by others) that are sufficiently close to the author's "
19530 "original work. Thus, if I write a book, and you base a movie on that book, I "
19531 "have the power to deny you the right to release that movie, even though that "
19532 "movie is not <quote>my writing.</quote>"
19535 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19536 #: freeculture.xml:14281
19537 msgid "Kaplan, Benjamin"
19541 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19542 #: freeculture.xml:14287
19544 "Benjamin Kaplan, <citetitle>An Unhurried View of Copyright</citetitle> (New "
19545 "York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 32."
19548 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19549 #: freeculture.xml:14283
19551 "Congress granted the beginnings of this right in 1870, when it expanded the "
19552 "exclusive right of copyright to include a right to control translations and "
19553 "dramatizations of a work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
19554 "courts have expanded it slowly through judicial interpretation ever "
19555 "since. This expansion has been commented upon by one of the law's greatest "
19556 "judges, Judge Benjamin Kaplan."
19560 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
19561 #: freeculture.xml:14300
19565 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para>
19566 #: freeculture.xml:14296
19568 "So inured have we become to the extension of the monopoly to a large range "
19569 "of so-called derivative works, that we no longer sense the oddity of "
19570 "accepting such an enlargement of copyright while yet intoning the "
19571 "abracadabra of idea and expression.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19574 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19575 #: freeculture.xml:14305
19577 "I think it's time to recognize that there are airplanes in this field and "
19578 "the expansiveness of these rights of derivative use no longer make "
19579 "sense. More precisely, they don't make sense for the period of time that a "
19580 "copyright runs. And they don't make sense as an amorphous grant. Consider "
19581 "each limitation in turn."
19584 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19585 #: freeculture.xml:14312
19587 "<emphasis>Term:</emphasis> If Congress wants to grant a derivative right, "
19588 "then that right should be for a much shorter term. It makes sense to protect "
19589 "John Grisham's right to sell the movie rights to his latest novel (or at "
19590 "least I'm willing to assume it does); but it does not make sense for that "
19591 "right to run for the same term as the underlying copyright. The derivative "
19592 "right could be important in inducing creativity; it is not important long "
19593 "after the creative work is done. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19596 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19597 #: freeculture.xml:14325
19599 "<emphasis>Scope:</emphasis> Likewise should the scope of derivative rights "
19600 "be narrowed. Again, there are some cases in which derivative rights are "
19601 "important. Those should be specified. But the law should draw clear lines "
19602 "around regulated and unregulated uses of copyrighted material. When all "
19603 "<quote>reuse</quote> of creative material was within the control of "
19604 "businesses, perhaps it made sense to require lawyers to negotiate the "
19605 "lines. It no longer makes sense for lawyers to negotiate the lines. Think "
19606 "about all the creative possibilities that digital technologies enable; now "
19607 "imagine pouring molasses into the machines. That's what this general "
19608 "requirement of permission does to the creative process. Smothers it."
19611 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19612 #: freeculture.xml:14339
19614 "This was the point that Alben made when describing the making of the Clint "
19615 "Eastwood CD. While it makes sense to require negotiation for foreseeable "
19616 "derivative rights—turning a book into a movie, or a poem into a "
19617 "musical score—it doesn't make sense to require negotiation for the "
19618 "unforeseeable. Here, a statutory right would make much more sense."
19621 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19622 #: freeculture.xml:14355
19623 msgid "Goldstein, Paul"
19626 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19627 #: freeculture.xml:14353
19629 "Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the "
19630 "Celestial Jukebox</citetitle> (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), "
19631 "187–216. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19634 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19635 #: freeculture.xml:14347
19637 "In each of these cases, the law should mark the uses that are protected, and "
19638 "the presumption should be that other uses are not protected. This is the "
19639 "reverse of the recommendation of my colleague Paul Goldstein.<placeholder "
19640 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His view is that the law should be written so "
19641 "that expanded protections follow expanded uses."
19644 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19645 #: freeculture.xml:14361
19647 "Goldstein's analysis would make perfect sense if the cost of the legal "
19648 "system were small. But as we are currently seeing in the context of the "
19649 "Internet, the uncertainty about the scope of protection, and the incentives "
19650 "to protect existing architectures of revenue, combined with a strong "
19651 "copyright, weaken the process of innovation."
19655 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19656 #: freeculture.xml:14368
19658 "The law could remedy this problem either by removing protection beyond the "
19659 "part explicitly drawn or by granting reuse rights upon certain statutory "
19660 "conditions. Either way, the effect would be to free a great deal of culture "
19661 "to others to cultivate. And under a statutory rights regime, that reuse "
19662 "would earn artists more income."
19665 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19666 #: freeculture.xml:14378
19667 msgid "4. Liberate the Music—Again"
19670 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19671 #: freeculture.xml:14380
19673 "The battle that got this whole war going was about music, so it wouldn't be "
19674 "fair to end this book without addressing the issue that is, to most people, "
19675 "most pressing—music. There is no other policy issue that better "
19676 "teaches the lessons of this book than the battles around the sharing of "
19680 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19681 #: freeculture.xml:14387
19683 "The appeal of file-sharing music was the crack cocaine of the Internet's "
19684 "growth. It drove demand for access to the Internet more powerfully than any "
19685 "other single application. It was the Internet's killer app—possibly in "
19686 "two senses of that word. It no doubt was the application that drove demand "
19687 "for bandwidth. It may well be the application that drives demand for "
19688 "regulations that in the end kill innovation on the network."
19691 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19692 #: freeculture.xml:14396
19694 "The aim of copyright, with respect to content in general and music in "
19695 "particular, is to create the incentives for music to be composed, performed, "
19696 "and, most importantly, spread. The law does this by giving an exclusive "
19697 "right to a composer to control public performances of his work, and to a "
19698 "performing artist to control copies of her performance."
19701 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19702 #: freeculture.xml:14403
19704 "File-sharing networks complicate this model by enabling the spread of "
19705 "content for which the performer has not been paid. But of course, that's not "
19706 "all the file-sharing networks do. As I described in chapter <xref "
19707 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"piracy\"/>, they enable four "
19708 "different kinds of sharing:"
19712 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19713 #: freeculture.xml:14412
19715 "There are some who are using sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
19720 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19721 #: freeculture.xml:14417
19723 "There are also some who are using sharing networks to sample, on the way to "
19729 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19730 #: freeculture.xml:14423
19732 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
19733 "that is no longer sold but is still under copyright or that would have been "
19734 "too cumbersome to buy off the Net."
19738 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19739 #: freeculture.xml:14429
19741 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
19742 "that is not copyrighted or to get access that the copyright owner plainly "
19746 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19747 #: freeculture.xml:14437
19749 "Any reform of the law needs to keep these different uses in focus. It must "
19750 "avoid burdening type D even if it aims to eliminate type A. The eagerness "
19751 "with which the law aims to eliminate type A, moreover, should depend upon "
19752 "the magnitude of type B. As with VCRs, if the net effect of sharing is "
19753 "actually not very harmful, the need for regulation is significantly "
19757 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19758 #: freeculture.xml:14445
19760 "As I said in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
19761 "linkend=\"piracy\"/>, the actual harm caused by sharing is controversial. "
19762 "For the purposes of this chapter, however, I assume the harm is real. I "
19763 "assume, in other words, that type A sharing is significantly greater than "
19764 "type B, and is the dominant use of sharing networks."
19767 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19768 #: freeculture.xml:14453
19770 "Nonetheless, there is a crucial fact about the current technological context "
19771 "that we must keep in mind if we are to understand how the law should "
19775 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19776 #: freeculture.xml:14458
19778 "Today, file sharing is addictive. In ten years, it won't be. It is addictive "
19779 "today because it is the easiest way to gain access to a broad range of "
19780 "content. It won't be the easiest way to get access to a broad range of "
19781 "content in ten years. Today, access to the Internet is cumbersome and "
19782 "slow—we in the United States are lucky to have broadband service at "
19783 "1.5 MBs, and very rarely do we get service at that speed both up and "
19784 "down. Although wireless access is growing, most of us still get access "
19785 "across wires. Most only gain access through a machine with a keyboard. The "
19786 "idea of the always on, always connected Internet is mainly just an idea."
19790 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19791 #: freeculture.xml:14470
19793 "But it will become a reality, and that means the way we get access to the "
19794 "Internet today is a technology in transition. Policy makers should not make "
19795 "policy on the basis of technology in transition. They should make policy on "
19796 "the basis of where the technology is going. The question should not be, how "
19797 "should the law regulate sharing in this world? The question should be, what "
19798 "law will we require when the network becomes the network it is clearly "
19799 "becoming? That network is one in which every machine with electricity is "
19800 "essentially on the Net; where everywhere you are—except maybe the "
19801 "desert or the Rockies—you can instantaneously be connected to the "
19802 "Internet. Imagine the Internet as ubiquitous as the best cell-phone service, "
19803 "where with the flip of a device, you are connected."
19806 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19807 #: freeculture.xml:14484
19808 msgid "cell phones, music streamed over"
19812 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19813 #: freeculture.xml:14504
19815 "See, for example, <quote>Music Media Watch,</quote> The J@pan "
19816 "Inc. Newsletter, 3 April 2002, available at <ulink "
19817 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #76</ulink>."
19820 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19821 #: freeculture.xml:14486
19823 "In that world, it will be extremely easy to connect to services that give "
19824 "you access to content on the fly—such as Internet radio, content that "
19825 "is streamed to the user when the user demands. Here, then, is the critical "
19826 "point: When it is <emphasis>extremely</emphasis> easy to connect to services "
19827 "that give access to content, it will be <emphasis>easier</emphasis> to "
19828 "connect to services that give you access to content than it will be to "
19829 "download and store content <emphasis>on the many devices you will have for "
19830 "playing content</emphasis>. It will be easier, in other words, to subscribe "
19831 "than it will be to be a database manager, as everyone in the "
19832 "download-sharing world of Napster-like technologies essentially is. Content "
19833 "services will compete with content sharing, even if the services charge "
19834 "money for the content they give access to. Already cell-phone services in "
19835 "Japan offer music (for a fee) streamed over cell phones (enhanced with plugs "
19836 "for headphones). The Japanese are paying for this content even though "
19837 "<quote>free</quote> content is available in the form of MP3s across the "
19838 "Web.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19842 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19843 #: freeculture.xml:14511
19845 "This point about the future is meant to suggest a perspective on the "
19846 "present: It is emphatically temporary. The <quote>problem</quote> with file "
19847 "sharing—to the extent there is a real problem—is a problem that "
19848 "will increasingly disappear as it becomes easier to connect to the "
19849 "Internet. And thus it is an extraordinary mistake for policy makers today "
19850 "to be <quote>solving</quote> this problem in light of a technology that will "
19851 "be gone tomorrow. The question should not be how to regulate the Internet "
19852 "to eliminate file sharing (the Net will evolve that problem away). The "
19853 "question instead should be how to assure that artists get paid, during this "
19854 "transition between twentieth-century models for doing business and "
19855 "twenty-first-century technologies."
19858 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19859 #: freeculture.xml:14527
19861 "The answer begins with recognizing that there are different "
19862 "<quote>problems</quote> here to solve. Let's start with type D "
19863 "content—uncopyrighted content or copyrighted content that the artist "
19864 "wants shared. The <quote>problem</quote> with this content is to make sure "
19865 "that the technology that would enable this kind of sharing is not rendered "
19866 "illegal. You can think of it this way: Pay phones are used to deliver ransom "
19867 "demands, no doubt. But there are many who need to use pay phones who have "
19868 "nothing to do with ransoms. It would be wrong to ban pay phones in order to "
19869 "eliminate kidnapping."
19872 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19873 #: freeculture.xml:14538
19875 "Type C content raises a different <quote>problem.</quote> This is content "
19876 "that was, at one time, published and is no longer available. It may be "
19877 "unavailable because the artist is no longer valuable enough for the record "
19878 "label he signed with to carry his work. Or it may be unavailable because the "
19879 "work is forgotten. Either way, the aim of the law should be to facilitate "
19880 "the access to this content, ideally in a way that returns something to the "
19884 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19885 #: freeculture.xml:14549
19887 "Again, the model here is the used book store. Once a book goes out of print, "
19888 "it may still be available in libraries and used book stores. But libraries "
19889 "and used book stores don't pay the copyright owner when someone reads or "
19890 "buys an out-of-print book. That makes total sense, of course, since any "
19891 "other system would be so burdensome as to eliminate the possibility of used "
19892 "book stores' existing. But from the author's perspective, this "
19893 "<quote>sharing</quote> of his content without his being compensated is less "
19897 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19898 #: freeculture.xml:14559
19900 "The model of used book stores suggests that the law could simply deem "
19901 "out-of-print music fair game. If the publisher does not make copies of the "
19902 "music available for sale, then commercial and noncommercial providers would "
19903 "be free, under this rule, to <quote>share</quote> that content, even though "
19904 "the sharing involved making a copy. The copy here would be incidental to the "
19905 "trade; in a context where commercial publishing has ended, trading music "
19906 "should be as free as trading books."
19910 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19911 #: freeculture.xml:14570
19913 "Alternatively, the law could create a statutory license that would ensure "
19914 "that artists get something from the trade of their work. For example, if the "
19915 "law set a low statutory rate for the commercial sharing of content that was "
19916 "not offered for sale by a commercial publisher, and if that rate were "
19917 "automatically transferred to a trust for the benefit of the artist, then "
19918 "businesses could develop around the idea of trading this content, and "
19919 "artists would benefit from this trade."
19922 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19923 #: freeculture.xml:14580
19925 "This system would also create an incentive for publishers to keep works "
19926 "available commercially. Works that are available commercially would not be "
19927 "subject to this license. Thus, publishers could protect the right to charge "
19928 "whatever they want for content if they kept the work commercially "
19929 "available. But if they don't keep it available, and instead, the computer "
19930 "hard disks of fans around the world keep it alive, then any royalty owed for "
19931 "such copying should be much less than the amount owed a commercial "
19935 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19936 #: freeculture.xml:14590
19938 "The hard case is content of types A and B, and again, this case is hard only "
19939 "because the extent of the problem will change over time, as the technologies "
19940 "for gaining access to content change. The law's solution should be as "
19941 "flexible as the problem is, understanding that we are in the middle of a "
19942 "radical transformation in the technology for delivering and accessing "
19946 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19947 #: freeculture.xml:14598
19949 "So here's a solution that will at first seem very strange to both sides in "
19950 "this war, but which upon reflection, I suggest, should make some sense."
19953 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19954 #: freeculture.xml:14602
19956 "Stripped of the rhetoric about the sanctity of property, the basic claim of "
19957 "the content industry is this: A new technology (the Internet) has harmed a "
19958 "set of rights that secure copyright. If those rights are to be protected, "
19959 "then the content industry should be compensated for that harm. Just as the "
19960 "technology of tobacco harmed the health of millions of Americans, or the "
19961 "technology of asbestos caused grave illness to thousands of miners, so, too, "
19962 "has the technology of digital networks harmed the interests of the content "
19967 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19968 #: freeculture.xml:14613
19970 "I love the Internet, and so I don't like likening it to tobacco or "
19971 "asbestos. But the analogy is a fair one from the perspective of the law. "
19972 "And it suggests a fair response: Rather than seeking to destroy the "
19973 "Internet, or the p2p technologies that are currently harming content "
19974 "providers on the Internet, we should find a relatively simple way to "
19975 "compensate those who are harmed."
19978 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19979 #: freeculture.xml:14620 freeculture.xml:14662
19980 msgid "Promises to Keep (Fisher)"
19983 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19984 #: freeculture.xml:14660
19985 msgid "Fisher, William"
19988 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19989 #: freeculture.xml:14626
19991 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> William Fisher, "
19992 "<citetitle>Digital Music: Problems and Possibilities</citetitle> (last "
19993 "revised: 10 October 2000), available at <ulink "
19994 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #77</ulink>; William Fisher, "
19995 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of "
19996 "Entertainment</citetitle> (forthcoming) (Stanford: Stanford University "
19997 "Press, 2004), ch. 6, available at <ulink "
19998 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #78</ulink>. Professor Netanel "
19999 "has proposed a related idea that would exempt noncommercial sharing from the "
20000 "reach of copyright and would establish compensation to artists to balance "
20001 "any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel, <quote>Impose a Noncommercial Use Levy "
20002 "to Allow Free P2P File Sharing,</quote> available at <ulink "
20003 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #79</ulink>. For other proposals, "
20004 "see Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Who's Holding Back Broadband?</quote> "
20005 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 8 January 2002, A17; Philip "
20006 "S. Corwin on behalf of Sharman Networks, A Letter to Senator Joseph "
20007 "R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 26 "
20008 "February 2002, available at <ulink "
20009 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #80</ulink>; Serguei Osokine, "
20010 "<citetitle>A Quick Case for Intellectual Property Use Fee "
20011 "(IPUF)</citetitle>, 3 March 2002, available at <ulink "
20012 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #81</ulink>; Jefferson Graham, "
20013 "<quote>Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,</quote> "
20014 "<citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 13 May 2002, available at <ulink "
20015 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #82</ulink>; Steven M. Cherry, "
20016 "<quote>Getting Copyright Right,</quote> IEEE Spectrum Online, 1 July 2002, "
20017 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #83</ulink>; "
20018 "Declan McCullagh, <quote>Verizon's Copyright Campaign,</quote> CNET "
20019 "News.com, 27 August 2002, available at <ulink "
20020 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #84</ulink>. Fisher's proposal "
20021 "is very similar to Richard Stallman's proposal for DAT. Unlike Fisher's, "
20022 "Stallman's proposal would not pay artists directly proportionally, though "
20023 "more popular artists would get more than the less popular. As is typical "
20024 "with Stallman, his proposal predates the current debate by about a "
20025 "decade. See <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #85</ulink>. "
20026 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
20027 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
20030 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20031 #: freeculture.xml:14622
20033 "The idea would be a modification of a proposal that has been floated by "
20034 "Harvard law professor William Fisher.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
20035 "id=\"0\"/> Fisher suggests a very clever way around the current impasse of "
20036 "the Internet. Under his plan, all content capable of digital transmission "
20037 "would (1) be marked with a digital watermark (don't worry about how easy it "
20038 "is to evade these marks; as you'll see, there's no incentive to evade "
20039 "them). Once the content is marked, then entrepreneurs would develop (2) "
20040 "systems to monitor how many items of each content were distributed. On the "
20041 "basis of those numbers, then (3) artists would be compensated. The "
20042 "compensation would be paid for by (4) an appropriate tax."
20045 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20046 #: freeculture.xml:14676
20048 "Fisher's proposal is careful and comprehensive. It raises a million "
20049 "questions, most of which he answers well in his upcoming book, "
20050 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep</citetitle>. The modification that I would make "
20051 "is relatively simple: Fisher imagines his proposal replacing the existing "
20052 "copyright system. I imagine it complementing the existing system. The aim "
20053 "of the proposal would be to facilitate compensation to the extent that harm "
20054 "could be shown. This compensation would be temporary, aimed at facilitating "
20055 "a transition between regimes. And it would require renewal after a period of "
20056 "years. If it continues to make sense to facilitate free exchange of content, "
20057 "supported through a taxation system, then it can be continued. If this form "
20058 "of protection is no longer necessary, then the system could lapse into the "
20059 "old system of controlling access."
20063 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20064 #: freeculture.xml:14693
20066 "Fisher would balk at the idea of allowing the system to lapse. His aim is "
20067 "not just to ensure that artists are paid, but also to ensure that the system "
20068 "supports the widest range of <quote>semiotic democracy</quote> possible. But "
20069 "the aims of semiotic democracy would be satisfied if the other changes I "
20070 "described were accomplished—in particular, the limits on derivative "
20071 "uses. A system that simply charges for access would not greatly burden "
20072 "semiotic democracy if there were few limitations on what one was allowed to "
20073 "do with the content itself."
20076 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20077 #: freeculture.xml:14706
20081 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
20082 #: freeculture.xml:14708
20086 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20087 #: freeculture.xml:14710
20089 "No doubt it would be difficult to calculate the proper measure of "
20090 "<quote>harm</quote> to an industry. But the difficulty of making that "
20091 "calculation would be outweighed by the benefit of facilitating "
20092 "innovation. This background system to compensate would also not need to "
20093 "interfere with innovative proposals such as Apple's MusicStore. As experts "
20094 "predicted when Apple launched the MusicStore, it could beat "
20095 "<quote>free</quote> by being easier than free is. This has proven correct: "
20096 "Apple has sold millions of songs at even the very high price of 99 cents a "
20097 "song. (At 99 cents, the cost is the equivalent of a per-song CD price, "
20098 "though the labels have none of the costs of a CD to pay.) Apple's move was "
20099 "countered by Real Networks, offering music at just 79 cents a song. And no "
20100 "doubt there will be a great deal of competition to offer and sell music "
20104 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20105 #: freeculture.xml:14725
20109 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
20110 #: freeculture.xml:14725
20111 msgid "cable vs. broadcast"
20114 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20115 #: freeculture.xml:14728
20116 msgid "film industry"
20119 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
20120 #: freeculture.xml:14728
20121 msgid "luxury theatres vs. video piracy in"
20124 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20125 #: freeculture.xml:14730
20127 "This competition has already occurred against the background of "
20128 "<quote>free</quote> music from p2p systems. As the sellers of cable "
20129 "television have known for thirty years, and the sellers of bottled water for "
20130 "much more than that, there is nothing impossible at all about "
20131 "<quote>competing with free.</quote> Indeed, if anything, the competition "
20132 "spurs the competitors to offer new and better products. This is precisely "
20133 "what the competitive market was to be about. Thus in Singapore, though "
20134 "piracy is rampant, movie theaters are often luxurious—with "
20135 "<quote>first class</quote> seats, and meals served while you watch a "
20136 "movie—as they struggle and succeed in finding ways to compete with "
20137 "<quote>free.</quote>"
20140 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20141 #: freeculture.xml:14742
20143 "This regime of competition, with a backstop to assure that artists don't "
20144 "lose, would facilitate a great deal of innovation in the delivery of "
20145 "content. That competition would continue to shrink type A sharing. It would "
20146 "inspire an extraordinary range of new innovators—ones who would have a "
20147 "right to the content, and would no longer fear the uncertain and "
20148 "barbarically severe punishments of the law."
20151 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20152 #: freeculture.xml:14751
20153 msgid "In summary, then, my proposal is this:"
20157 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20158 #: freeculture.xml:14756
20160 "The Internet is in transition. We should not be regulating a technology in "
20161 "transition. We should instead be regulating to minimize the harm to "
20162 "interests affected by this technological change, while enabling, and "
20163 "encouraging, the most efficient technology we can create."
20166 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20167 #: freeculture.xml:14763
20168 msgid "We can minimize that harm while maximizing the benefit to innovation by"
20172 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20173 #: freeculture.xml:14769
20174 msgid "guaranteeing the right to engage in type D sharing;"
20178 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20179 #: freeculture.xml:14773
20181 "permitting noncommercial type C sharing without liability, and commercial "
20182 "type C sharing at a low and fixed rate set by statute;"
20186 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20187 #: freeculture.xml:14779
20189 "while in this transition, taxing and compensating for type A sharing, to the "
20190 "extent actual harm is demonstrated."
20193 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20194 #: freeculture.xml:14784
20196 "But what if <quote>piracy</quote> doesn't disappear? What if there is a "
20197 "competitive market providing content at a low cost, but a significant number "
20198 "of consumers continue to <quote>take</quote> content for nothing? Should the "
20199 "law do something then?"
20202 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20203 #: freeculture.xml:14790
20205 "Yes, it should. But, again, what it should do depends upon how the facts "
20206 "develop. These changes may not eliminate type A sharing. But the real issue "
20207 "is not whether it eliminates sharing in the abstract. The real issue is its "
20208 "effect on the market. Is it better (a) to have a technology that is 95 "
20209 "percent secure and produces a market of size <citetitle>x</citetitle>, or "
20210 "(b) to have a technology that is 50 percent secure but produces a market of "
20211 "five times <citetitle>x</citetitle>? Less secure might produce more "
20212 "unauthorized sharing, but it is likely to also produce a much bigger market "
20213 "in authorized sharing. The most important thing is to assure artists' "
20214 "compensation without breaking the Internet. Once that's assured, then it may "
20215 "well be appropriate to find ways to track down the petty pirates."
20219 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20220 #: freeculture.xml:14804
20222 "But we're a long way away from whittling the problem down to this subset of "
20223 "type A sharers. And our focus until we're there should not be on finding "
20224 "ways to break the Internet. Our focus until we're there should be on how to "
20225 "make sure the artists are paid, while protecting the space for innovation "
20226 "and creativity that the Internet is."
20229 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
20230 #: freeculture.xml:14815
20231 msgid "5. Fire Lots of Lawyers"
20234 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20235 #: freeculture.xml:14817
20237 "I'm a lawyer. I make lawyers for a living. I believe in the law. I believe "
20238 "in the law of copyright. Indeed, I have devoted my life to working in law, "
20239 "not because there are big bucks at the end but because there are ideals at "
20240 "the end that I would love to live."
20243 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20244 #: freeculture.xml:14823
20246 "Yet much of this book has been a criticism of lawyers, or the role lawyers "
20247 "have played in this debate. The law speaks to ideals, but it is my view that "
20248 "our profession has become too attuned to the client. And in a world where "
20249 "the rich clients have one strong view, the unwillingness of the profession "
20250 "to question or counter that one strong view queers the law."
20253 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20254 #: freeculture.xml:14830
20255 msgid "Nimmer, Melville"
20258 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20259 #: freeculture.xml:14831
20260 msgid "Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) (1998)"
20263 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
20264 #: freeculture.xml:14831
20265 msgid "Supreme Court challenge of"
20269 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20270 #: freeculture.xml:14842
20272 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Copyright's First Amendment</quote> (Melville "
20273 "B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture), <citetitle>UCLA Law Review</citetitle> 48 "
20274 "(2001): 1057, 1069–70."
20277 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20278 #: freeculture.xml:14833
20280 "The evidence of this bending is compelling. I'm attacked as a "
20281 "<quote>radical</quote> by many within the profession, yet the positions that "
20282 "I am advocating are precisely the positions of some of the most moderate and "
20283 "significant figures in the history of this branch of the law. Many, for "
20284 "example, thought crazy the challenge that we brought to the Copyright Term "
20285 "Extension Act. Yet just thirty years ago, the dominant scholar and "
20286 "practitioner in the field of copyright, Melville Nimmer, thought it "
20287 "obvious.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
20290 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20291 #: freeculture.xml:14848
20293 "However, my criticism of the role that lawyers have played in this debate is "
20294 "not just about a professional bias. It is more importantly about our failure "
20295 "to actually reckon the costs of the law."
20298 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20299 #: freeculture.xml:14858
20301 "A good example is the work of Professor Stan Liebowitz. Liebowitz is to be "
20302 "commended for his careful review of data about infringement, leading him to "
20303 "question his own publicly stated position—twice. He initially "
20304 "predicted that downloading would substantially harm the industry. He then "
20305 "revised his view in light of the data, and he has since revised his view "
20306 "again. Compare Stan J. Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network "
20307 "Economy: The True Forces That Drive the Digital Marketplace</citetitle> (New "
20308 "York: Amacom, 2002), (reviewing his original view but expressing skepticism) "
20309 "with Stan J. Liebowitz, <quote>Will MP3s Annihilate the Record "
20310 "Industry?</quote> working paper, June 2003, available at <ulink "
20311 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #86</ulink>. Liebowitz's careful "
20312 "analysis is extremely valuable in estimating the effect of file-sharing "
20313 "technology. In my view, however, he underestimates the costs of the legal "
20314 "system. See, for example, <citetitle>Rethinking</citetitle>, 174–76. "
20315 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
20318 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20319 #: freeculture.xml:14853
20321 "Economists are supposed to be good at reckoning costs and benefits. But "
20322 "more often than not, economists, with no clue about how the legal system "
20323 "actually functions, simply assume that the transaction costs of the legal "
20324 "system are slight.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> They see a "
20325 "system that has been around for hundreds of years, and they assume it works "
20326 "the way their elementary school civics class taught them it works."
20330 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20331 #: freeculture.xml:14882
20333 "But the legal system doesn't work. Or more accurately, it doesn't work for "
20334 "anyone except those with the most resources. Not because the system is "
20335 "corrupt. I don't think our legal system (at the federal level, at least) is "
20336 "at all corrupt. I mean simply because the costs of our legal system are so "
20337 "astonishingly high that justice can practically never be done."
20340 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20341 #: freeculture.xml:14890
20343 "These costs distort free culture in many ways. A lawyer's time is billed at "
20344 "the largest firms at more than $400 per hour. How much time should such a "
20345 "lawyer spend reading cases carefully, or researching obscure strands of "
20346 "authority? The answer is the increasing reality: very little. The law "
20347 "depended upon the careful articulation and development of doctrine, but the "
20348 "careful articulation and development of legal doctrine depends upon careful "
20349 "work. Yet that careful work costs too much, except in the most high-profile "
20350 "and costly cases."
20353 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20354 #: freeculture.xml:14900
20356 "The costliness and clumsiness and randomness of this system mock our "
20357 "tradition. And lawyers, as well as academics, should consider it their duty "
20358 "to change the way the law works—or better, to change the law so that "
20359 "it works. It is wrong that the system works well only for the top 1 percent "
20360 "of the clients. It could be made radically more efficient, and inexpensive, "
20361 "and hence radically more just."
20364 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20365 #: freeculture.xml:14908
20367 "But until that reform is complete, we as a society should keep the law away "
20368 "from areas that we know it will only harm. And that is precisely what the "
20369 "law will too often do if too much of our culture is left to its review."
20372 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20373 #: freeculture.xml:14915
20375 "Think about the amazing things your kid could do or make with digital "
20376 "technology—the film, the music, the Web page, the blog. Or think about "
20377 "the amazing things your community could facilitate with digital "
20378 "technology—a wiki, a barn raising, activism to change something. "
20379 "Think about all those creative things, and then imagine cold molasses poured "
20380 "onto the machines. This is what any regime that requires permission "
20381 "produces. Again, this is the reality of Brezhnev's Russia."
20385 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20386 #: freeculture.xml:14924
20388 "The law should regulate in certain areas of culture—but it should "
20389 "regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely "
20390 "test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic "
20391 "question: <quote>Will it do good?</quote> When challenged about the "
20392 "expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, <quote>Why not?</quote>"
20395 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20396 #: freeculture.xml:14933
20398 "We should ask, <quote>Why?</quote> Show me why your regulation of culture is "
20399 "needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your "
20403 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
20404 #: freeculture.xml:14942
20408 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20409 #: freeculture.xml:14944
20411 "Throughout this text, there are references to links on the World Wide "
20412 "Web. As anyone who has tried to use the Web knows, these links can be highly "
20413 "unstable. I have tried to remedy the instability by redirecting readers to "
20414 "the original source through the Web site associated with this book. For each "
20415 "link below, you can go to http://free-culture.cc/notes and locate the "
20416 "original source by clicking on the number after the # sign. If the original "
20417 "link remains alive, you will be redirected to that link. If the original "
20418 "link has disappeared, you will be redirected to an appropriate reference for "
20422 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
20423 #: freeculture.xml:14963
20424 msgid "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS"
20427 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20428 #: freeculture.xml:14965
20430 "This book is the product of a long and as yet unsuccessful struggle that "
20431 "began when I read of Eric Eldred's war to keep books free. Eldred's work "
20432 "helped launch a movement, the free culture movement, and it is to him that "
20433 "this book is dedicated."
20436 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20437 #: freeculture.xml:14972
20439 "I received guidance in various places from friends and academics, including "
20440 "Glenn Brown, Peter DiCola, Jennifer Mnookin, Richard Posner, Mark Rose, and "
20441 "Kathleen Sullivan. And I received correction and guidance from many amazing "
20442 "students at Stanford Law School and Stanford University. They included "
20443 "Andrew B. Coan, John Eden, James P. Fellers, Christopher Guzelian, Erica "
20444 "Goldberg, Robert Hallman, Andrew Harris, Matthew Kahn, Brian Link, Ohad "
20445 "Mayblum, Alina Ng, and Erica Platt. I am particularly grateful to Catherine "
20446 "Crump and Harry Surden, who helped direct their research, and to Laura "
20447 "Lynch, who brilliantly managed the army that they assembled, and provided "
20448 "her own critical eye on much of this."
20452 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20453 #: freeculture.xml:14985
20455 "Yuko Noguchi helped me to understand the laws of Japan as well as its "
20456 "culture. I am thankful to her, and to the many in Japan who helped me "
20457 "prepare this book: Joi Ito, Takayuki Matsutani, Naoto Misaki, Michihiro "
20458 "Sasaki, Hiromichi Tanaka, Hiroo Yamagata, and Yoshihiro Yonezawa. I am "
20459 "thankful as well as to Professor Nobuhiro Nakayama, and the Tokyo University "
20460 "Business Law Center, for giving me the chance to spend time in Japan, and to "
20461 "Tadashi Shiraishi and Kiyokazu Yamagami for their generous help while I was "
20465 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20466 #: freeculture.xml:14996
20468 "These are the traditional sorts of help that academics regularly draw "
20469 "upon. But in addition to them, the Internet has made it possible to receive "
20470 "advice and correction from many whom I have never even met. Among those who "
20471 "have responded with extremely helpful advice to requests on my blog about "
20472 "the book are Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, David Gerstein, and Peter DiMauro, as "
20473 "well as a long list of those who had specific ideas about ways to develop my "
20474 "argument. They included Richard Bondi, Steven Cherry, David Coe, Nik "
20475 "Cubrilovic, Bob Devine, Charles Eicher, Thomas Guida, Elihu M. Gerson, "
20476 "Jeremy Hunsinger, Vaughn Iverson, John Karabaic, Jeff Keltner, James "
20477 "Lindenschmidt, K. L. Mann, Mark Manning, Nora McCauley, Jeffrey McHugh, Evan "
20478 "McMullen, Fred Norton, John Pormann, Pedro A. D. Rezende, Shabbir Safdar, "
20479 "Saul Schleimer, Clay Shirky, Adam Shostack, Kragen Sitaker, Chris Smith, "
20480 "Bruce Steinberg, Andrzej Jan Taramina, Sean Walsh, Matt Wasserman, Miljenko "
20481 "Williams, <quote>Wink,</quote> Roger Wood, <quote>Ximmbo da Jazz,</quote> "
20482 "and Richard Yanco. (I apologize if I have missed anyone; with computers come "
20483 "glitches, and a crash of my e-mail system meant I lost a bunch of great "
20487 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20488 #: freeculture.xml:15016
20490 "Richard Stallman and Michael Carroll each read the whole book in draft, and "
20491 "each provided extremely helpful correction and advice. Michael helped me to "
20492 "see more clearly the significance of the regulation of derivitive works. And "
20493 "Richard corrected an embarrassingly large number of errors. While my work is "
20494 "in part inspired by Stallman's, he does not agree with me in important "
20495 "places throughout this book."
20498 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20499 #: freeculture.xml:15025
20501 "Finally, and forever, I am thankful to Bettina, who has always insisted that "
20502 "there would be unending happiness away from these battles, and who has "
20503 "always been right. This slow learner is, as ever, grateful for her perpetual "
20504 "patience and love."