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:13173
480 msgid "CodePink Women in Peace"
483 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
484 #: freeculture.xml:400 freeculture.xml:421 freeculture.xml:13174
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:14167
607 msgid "land ownership, air traffic and"
610 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
611 #: freeculture.xml:491 freeculture.xml:14168
612 msgid "property rights"
615 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
616 #: freeculture.xml:491 freeculture.xml:14168
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:9086 freeculture.xml:12542 freeculture.xml:13277
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:9087 freeculture.xml:12543 freeculture.xml:13278
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:9094 freeculture.xml:9749
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><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1048 #: freeculture.xml:785 freeculture.xml:1156
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:1942 freeculture.xml:1953
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><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1194 #: freeculture.xml:871
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:9642
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><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1347 #: freeculture.xml:968
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:14566
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:4900
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:3100
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:2909
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:7055
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><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1779 #: freeculture.xml:1241 freeculture.xml:1266
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:1567
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:5773 freeculture.xml:5816
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><indexterm><primary>
1917 #: freeculture.xml:1319
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
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
2012 msgid "Keaton, Buster"
2015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2016 #: freeculture.xml:1380
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
2042 msgid "derivative works"
2045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2046 #: freeculture.xml:1395
2050 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
2051 #: freeculture.xml:1396 freeculture.xml:3588 freeculture.xml:14632
2055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2056 #: freeculture.xml:1396
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:1567
2091 msgid "by transforming previous works"
2094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2095 #: freeculture.xml:1425 freeculture.xml:5988
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
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:1480
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."
2181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2182 #: freeculture.xml:1497
2184 "Until 1976, copyright law granted an author the possibility of two terms: an "
2185 "initial term and a renewal term. I have calculated the "
2186 "<quote>average</quote> term by determining the weighted average of total "
2187 "registrations for any particular year, and the proportion renewing. Thus, if "
2188 "100 copyrights are registered in year 1, and only 15 are renewed, and the "
2189 "renewal term is 28 years, then the average term is 32.2 years. For the "
2190 "renewal data and other relevant data, see the Web site associated with this "
2191 "book, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
2195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2196 #: freeculture.xml:1491
2198 "In 1928, the culture that Disney was free to draw upon was relatively "
2199 "fresh. The public domain in 1928 was not very old and was therefore quite "
2200 "vibrant. The average term of copyright was just around thirty "
2201 "years—for that minority of creative work that was in fact "
2202 "copyrighted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That means that for "
2203 "thirty years, on average, the authors or copyright holders of a creative "
2204 "work had an <quote>exclusive right</quote> to control certain uses of the "
2205 "work. To use this copyrighted work in limited ways required the permission "
2206 "of the copyright owner."
2209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2210 #: freeculture.xml:1514
2212 "At the end of a copyright term, a work passes into the public domain. No "
2213 "permission is then needed to draw upon or use that work. No permission and, "
2214 "hence, no lawyers. The public domain is a <quote>lawyer-free zone.</quote> "
2215 "Thus, most of the content from the nineteenth century was free for Disney to "
2216 "use and build upon in 1928. It was free for anyone— whether connected "
2217 "or not, whether rich or not, whether approved or not—to use and build "
2222 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2223 #: freeculture.xml:1523
2225 "This is the ways things always were—until quite recently. For most of "
2226 "our history, the public domain was just over the horizon. From until 1978, "
2227 "the average copyright term was never more than thirty-two years, meaning "
2228 "that most culture just a generation and a half old was free for anyone to "
2229 "build upon without the permission of anyone else. Today's equivalent would "
2230 "be for creative work from the 1960s and 1970s to now be free for the next "
2231 "Walt Disney to build upon without permission. Yet today, the public domain "
2232 "is presumptive only for content from before the Great Depression."
2235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2236 #: freeculture.xml:1537
2238 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Of course</emphasis>, Walt Disney had no monopoly "
2239 "on <quote>Walt Disney creativity.</quote> Nor does America. The norm of free "
2240 "culture has, until recently, and except within totalitarian nations, been "
2241 "broadly exploited and quite universal."
2244 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2245 #: freeculture.xml:1543
2247 "Consider, for example, a form of creativity that seems strange to many "
2248 "Americans but that is inescapable within Japanese culture: "
2249 "<citetitle>manga</citetitle>, or comics. The Japanese are fanatics about "
2250 "comics. Some 40 percent of publications are comics, and 30 percent of "
2251 "publication revenue derives from comics. They are everywhere in Japanese "
2252 "society, at every magazine stand, carried by a large proportion of commuters "
2253 "on Japan's extraordinary system of public transportation."
2256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2257 #: freeculture.xml:1552
2259 "Americans tend to look down upon this form of culture. That's an "
2260 "unattractive characteristic of ours. We're likely to misunderstand much "
2261 "about manga, because few of us have ever read anything close to the stories "
2262 "that these <quote>graphic novels</quote> tell. For the Japanese, manga cover "
2263 "every aspect of social life. For us, comics are <quote>men in "
2264 "tights.</quote> And anyway, it's not as if the New York subways are filled "
2265 "with readers of Joyce or even Hemingway. People of different cultures "
2266 "distract themselves in different ways, the Japanese in this interestingly "
2270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2271 #: freeculture.xml:1563
2273 "But my purpose here is not to understand manga. It is to describe a variant "
2274 "on manga that from a lawyer's perspective is quite odd, but from a Disney "
2275 "perspective is quite familiar."
2279 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2280 #: freeculture.xml:1569
2282 "This is the phenomenon of <citetitle>doujinshi</citetitle>. Doujinshi are "
2283 "also comics, but they are a kind of copycat comic. A rich ethic governs the "
2284 "creation of doujinshi. It is not doujinshi if it is "
2285 "<emphasis>just</emphasis> a copy; the artist must make a contribution to the "
2286 "art he copies, by transforming it either subtly or significantly. A "
2287 "doujinshi comic can thus take a mainstream comic and develop it "
2288 "differently—with a different story line. Or the comic can keep the "
2289 "character in character but change its look slightly. There is no formula for "
2290 "what makes the doujinshi sufficiently <quote>different.</quote> But they "
2291 "must be different if they are to be considered true doujinshi. Indeed, there "
2292 "are committees that review doujinshi for inclusion within shows and reject "
2293 "any copycat comic that is merely a copy."
2296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2297 #: freeculture.xml:1584
2299 "These copycat comics are not a tiny part of the manga market. They are "
2300 "huge. More than 33,000 <quote>circles</quote> of creators from across Japan "
2301 "produce these bits of Walt Disney creativity. More than 450,000 Japanese "
2302 "come together twice a year, in the largest public gathering in the country, "
2303 "to exchange and sell them. This market exists in parallel to the mainstream "
2304 "commercial manga market. In some ways, it obviously competes with that "
2305 "market, but there is no sustained effort by those who control the commercial "
2306 "manga market to shut the doujinshi market down. It flourishes, despite the "
2307 "competition and despite the law."
2310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2311 #: freeculture.xml:1595
2313 "The most puzzling feature of the doujinshi market, for those trained in the "
2314 "law, at least, is that it is allowed to exist at all. Under Japanese "
2315 "copyright law, which in this respect (on paper) mirrors American copyright "
2316 "law, the doujinshi market is an illegal one. Doujinshi are plainly "
2317 "<quote>derivative works.</quote> There is no general practice by doujinshi "
2318 "artists of securing the permission of the manga creators. Instead, the "
2319 "practice is simply to take and modify the creations of others, as Walt "
2320 "Disney did with <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. Under both "
2321 "Japanese and American law, that <quote>taking</quote> without the permission "
2322 "of the original copyright owner is illegal. It is an infringement of the "
2323 "original copyright to make a copy or a derivative work without the original "
2324 "copyright owner's permission."
2327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2328 #: freeculture.xml:1608
2329 msgid "Winick, Judd"
2333 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2334 #: freeculture.xml:1620
2336 "For an excellent history, see Scott McCloud, <citetitle>Reinventing "
2337 "Comics</citetitle> (New York: Perennial, 2000)."
2340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2341 #: freeculture.xml:1610
2343 "Yet this illegal market exists and indeed flourishes in Japan, and in the "
2344 "view of many, it is precisely because it exists that Japanese manga "
2345 "flourish. As American graphic novelist Judd Winick said to me, <quote>The "
2346 "early days of comics in America are very much like what's going on in Japan "
2347 "now. … American comics were born out of copying each other. … "
2348 "That's how [the artists] learn to draw—by going into comic books and "
2349 "not tracing them, but looking at them and copying them</quote> and building "
2350 "from them.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2354 #: freeculture.xml:1624
2355 msgid "Superman comics"
2358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2359 #: freeculture.xml:1626
2361 "American comics now are quite different, Winick explains, in part because of "
2362 "the legal difficulty of adapting comics the way doujinshi are "
2363 "allowed. Speaking of Superman, Winick told me, <quote>there are these rules "
2364 "and you have to stick to them.</quote> There are things Superman "
2365 "<quote>cannot</quote> do. <quote>As a creator, it's frustrating having to "
2366 "stick to some parameters which are fifty years old.</quote>"
2370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2371 #: freeculture.xml:1643
2373 "See Salil K. Mehra, <quote>Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain "
2374 "Why All the Comics My Kid Watches Are Japanese Imports?</quote> "
2375 "<citetitle>Rutgers Law Review</citetitle> 55 (2002): 155, "
2376 "182. <quote>[T]here might be a collective economic rationality that would "
2377 "lead manga and anime artists to forgo bringing legal actions for "
2378 "infringement. One hypothesis is that all manga artists may be better off "
2379 "collectively if they set aside their individual self-interest and decide not "
2380 "to press their legal rights. This is essentially a prisoner's dilemma "
2384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2385 #: freeculture.xml:1635
2387 "The norm in Japan mitigates this legal difficulty. Some say it is precisely "
2388 "the benefit accruing to the Japanese manga market that explains the "
2389 "mitigation. Temple University law professor Salil Mehra, for example, "
2390 "hypothesizes that the manga market accepts these technical violations "
2391 "because they spur the manga market to be more wealthy and "
2392 "productive. Everyone would be worse off if doujinshi were banned, so the law "
2393 "does not ban doujinshi.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2397 #: freeculture.xml:1654
2399 "The problem with this story, however, as Mehra plainly acknowledges, is that "
2400 "the mechanism producing this laissez faire response is not clear. It may "
2401 "well be that the market as a whole is better off if doujinshi are permitted "
2402 "rather than banned, but that doesn't explain why individual copyright owners "
2403 "don't sue nonetheless. If the law has no general exception for doujinshi, "
2404 "and indeed in some cases individual manga artists have sued doujinshi "
2405 "artists, why is there not a more general pattern of blocking this "
2406 "<quote>free taking</quote> by the doujinshi culture?"
2409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2410 #: freeculture.xml:1665
2412 "I spent four wonderful months in Japan, and I asked this question as often "
2413 "as I could. Perhaps the best account in the end was offered by a friend from "
2414 "a major Japanese law firm. <quote>We don't have enough lawyers,</quote> he "
2415 "told me one afternoon. There <quote>just aren't enough resources to "
2416 "prosecute cases like this.</quote>"
2420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2421 #: freeculture.xml:1672
2423 "This is a theme to which we will return: that regulation by law is a "
2424 "function of both the words on the books and the costs of making those words "
2425 "have effect. For now, focus on the obvious question that is begged: Would "
2426 "Japan be better off with more lawyers? Would manga be richer if doujinshi "
2427 "artists were regularly prosecuted? Would the Japanese gain something "
2428 "important if they could end this practice of uncompensated sharing? Does "
2429 "piracy here hurt the victims of the piracy, or does it help them? Would "
2430 "lawyers fighting this piracy help their clients or hurt them?"
2433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2434 #: freeculture.xml:1684
2435 msgid "<emphasis role='strong'>Let's pause</emphasis> for a moment."
2438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2439 #: freeculture.xml:1687
2441 "If you're like I was a decade ago, or like most people are when they first "
2442 "start thinking about these issues, then just about now you should be puzzled "
2443 "about something you hadn't thought through before."
2446 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2447 #: freeculture.xml:1697 freeculture.xml:2926 freeculture.xml:4601 freeculture.xml:4826 freeculture.xml:7439 freeculture.xml:8546
2448 msgid "Vaidhyanathan, Siva"
2451 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2452 #: freeculture.xml:1697
2454 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The term <citetitle>intellectual "
2455 "property</citetitle> is of relatively recent origin. See Siva Vaidhyanathan, "
2456 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 11 (New York: New York "
2457 "University Press, 2001). See also Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>The Future of "
2458 "Ideas</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2001), 293 n. 26. The term "
2459 "accurately describes a set of <quote>property</quote> "
2460 "rights—copyright, patents, trademark, and trade-secret—but the "
2461 "nature of those rights is very different."
2464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2465 #: freeculture.xml:1692
2467 "We live in a world that celebrates <quote>property.</quote> I am one of "
2468 "those celebrants. I believe in the value of property in general, and I also "
2469 "believe in the value of that weird form of property that lawyers call "
2470 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2471 "id=\"0\"/> A large, diverse society cannot survive without property; a "
2472 "large, diverse, and modern society cannot flourish without intellectual "
2476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2477 #: freeculture.xml:1711
2479 "But it takes just a second's reflection to realize that there is plenty of "
2480 "value out there that <quote>property</quote> doesn't capture. I don't mean "
2481 "<quote>money can't buy you love,</quote> but rather, value that is plainly "
2482 "part of a process of production, including commercial as well as "
2483 "noncommercial production. If Disney animators had stolen a set of pencils "
2484 "to draw Steamboat Willie, we'd have no hesitation in condemning that taking "
2485 "as wrong— even though trivial, even if unnoticed. Yet there was "
2486 "nothing wrong, at least under the law of the day, with Disney's taking from "
2487 "Buster Keaton or from the Brothers Grimm. There was nothing wrong with the "
2488 "taking from Keaton because Disney's use would have been considered "
2489 "<quote>fair.</quote> There was nothing wrong with the taking from the Grimms "
2490 "because the Grimms' work was in the public domain."
2494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2495 #: freeculture.xml:1726
2497 "Thus, even though the things that Disney took—or more generally, the "
2498 "things taken by anyone exercising Walt Disney creativity—are valuable, "
2499 "our tradition does not treat those takings as wrong. Some things remain free "
2500 "for the taking within a free culture, and that freedom is good."
2503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2504 #: freeculture.xml:1735
2506 "The same with the doujinshi culture. If a doujinshi artist broke into a "
2507 "publisher's office and ran off with a thousand copies of his latest "
2508 "work—or even one copy—without paying, we'd have no hesitation in "
2509 "saying the artist was wrong. In addition to having trespassed, he would have "
2510 "stolen something of value. The law bans that stealing in whatever form, "
2511 "whether large or small."
2514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2515 #: freeculture.xml:1744
2517 "Yet there is an obvious reluctance, even among Japanese lawyers, to say that "
2518 "the copycat comic artists are <quote>stealing.</quote> This form of Walt "
2519 "Disney creativity is seen as fair and right, even if lawyers in particular "
2520 "find it hard to say why."
2523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2524 #: freeculture.xml:1750
2526 "It's the same with a thousand examples that appear everywhere once you begin "
2527 "to look. Scientists build upon the work of other scientists without asking "
2528 "or paying for the privilege. (<quote>Excuse me, Professor Einstein, but may "
2529 "I have permission to use your theory of relativity to show that you were "
2530 "wrong about quantum physics?</quote>) Acting companies perform adaptations "
2531 "of the works of Shakespeare without securing permission from anyone. (Does "
2532 "<emphasis>anyone</emphasis> believe Shakespeare would be better spread "
2533 "within our culture if there were a central Shakespeare rights clearinghouse "
2534 "that all productions of Shakespeare must appeal to first?) And Hollywood "
2535 "goes through cycles with a certain kind of movie: five asteroid films in the "
2536 "late 1990s; two volcano disaster films in 1997."
2540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2541 #: freeculture.xml:1764
2543 "Creators here and everywhere are always and at all times building upon the "
2544 "creativity that went before and that surrounds them now. That building is "
2545 "always and everywhere at least partially done without permission and without "
2546 "compensating the original creator. No society, free or controlled, has ever "
2547 "demanded that every use be paid for or that permission for Walt Disney "
2548 "creativity must always be sought. Instead, every society has left a certain "
2549 "bit of its culture free for the taking—free societies more fully than "
2550 "unfree, perhaps, but all societies to some degree."
2553 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2554 #: freeculture.xml:1775
2556 "The hard question is therefore not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> a culture is "
2557 "free. All cultures are free to some degree. The hard question instead is "
2558 "<quote><emphasis>How</emphasis> free is this culture?</quote> How much, and "
2559 "how broadly, is the culture free for others to take and build upon? Is that "
2560 "freedom limited to party members? To members of the royal family? To the top "
2561 "ten corporations on the New York Stock Exchange? Or is that freedom spread "
2562 "broadly? To artists generally, whether affiliated with the Met or not? To "
2563 "musicians generally, whether white or not? To filmmakers generally, whether "
2564 "affiliated with a studio or not?"
2567 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2568 #: freeculture.xml:1787
2570 "Free cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build "
2571 "upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free "
2572 "culture. It is becoming much less so."
2575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
2576 #: freeculture.xml:1795
2577 msgid "CHAPTER TWO: <quote>Mere Copyists</quote>"
2580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2581 #: freeculture.xml:1796 freeculture.xml:2009 freeculture.xml:6475
2582 msgid "camera technology"
2585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2586 #: freeculture.xml:1797
2590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2591 #: freeculture.xml:1798
2592 msgid "Daguerre, Louis"
2595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2596 #: freeculture.xml:1800
2598 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1839</emphasis>, Louis Daguerre invented the "
2599 "first practical technology for producing what we would call "
2600 "<quote>photographs.</quote> Appropriately enough, they were called "
2601 "<quote>daguerreotypes.</quote> The process was complicated and expensive, "
2602 "and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and "
2603 "wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that "
2604 "helped regulate the industry, as do all such associations, by keeping "
2605 "competition down so as to keep prices up.)"
2608 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2609 #: freeculture.xml:1809
2610 msgid "Talbot, William"
2613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2614 #: freeculture.xml:1811
2616 "Yet despite high prices, the demand for daguerreotypes was strong. This "
2617 "pushed inventors to find simpler and cheaper ways to make <quote>automatic "
2618 "pictures.</quote> William Talbot soon discovered a process for making "
2619 "<quote>negatives.</quote> But because the negatives were glass, and had to "
2620 "be kept wet, the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the "
2621 "1870s, dry plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of "
2622 "a picture from its developing. These were still plates of glass, and thus it "
2623 "was still not a process within reach of most amateurs."
2626 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2627 #: freeculture.xml:1821
2628 msgid "Eastman, George"
2632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2633 #: freeculture.xml:1823
2635 "The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen "
2636 "until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an "
2637 "amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made "
2638 "with plates. In a flash of insight (so to speak), Eastman saw that if the "
2639 "film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single "
2640 "spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of "
2641 "photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he "
2642 "could dramatically broaden the population of photographers."
2645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2646 #: freeculture.xml:1834
2647 msgid "Kodak Primer, The (Eastman)"
2651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2652 #: freeculture.xml:1841
2654 "Reese V. Jenkins, <citetitle>Images and Enterprise</citetitle> (Baltimore: "
2655 "Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 112."
2658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2659 #: freeculture.xml:1836
2661 "Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of "
2662 "it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis "
2663 "of its simplicity. <quote>You press the button and we do the "
2664 "rest.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As he described in "
2665 "<citetitle>The Kodak Primer</citetitle>:"
2668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2669 #: freeculture.xml:1859 freeculture.xml:1883
2673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
2674 #: freeculture.xml:1857
2676 "Brian Coe, <citetitle>The Birth of Photography</citetitle> (New York: "
2677 "Taplinger Publishing, 1977), 53. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2681 #: freeculture.xml:1846
2683 "The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any "
2684 "person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an "
2685 "expert can do. … We furnish anybody, man, woman or child, who has "
2686 "sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button, with an "
2687 "instrument which altogether removes from the practice of photography the "
2688 "necessity for exceptional facilities or, in fact, any special knowledge of "
2689 "the art. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom "
2690 "and without chemicals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2695 #: freeculture.xml:1875
2696 msgid "Jenkins, 177."
2700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2701 #: freeculture.xml:1879
2702 msgid "Based on a chart in Jenkins, p. 178."
2705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2706 #: freeculture.xml:1864
2708 "For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came preloaded with film, "
2709 "and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, "
2710 "where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera "
2711 "and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus "
2712 "became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography. Eastman's "
2713 "camera first went on sale in 1888; one year later, Kodak was printing more "
2714 "than six thousand negatives a day. From 1888 through 1909, while industrial "
2715 "production was rising by 4.7 percent, photographic equipment and material "
2716 "sales increased by 11 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
2717 "Eastman Kodak's sales during the same period experienced an average annual "
2718 "increase of over 17 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2723 #: freeculture.xml:1898
2727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2728 #: freeculture.xml:1887
2730 "The real significance of Eastman's invention, however, was not economic. It "
2731 "was social. Professional photography gave individuals a glimpse of places "
2732 "they would never otherwise see. Amateur photography gave them the ability to "
2733 "record their own lives in a way they had never been able to do before. As "
2734 "author Brian Coe notes, <quote>For the first time the snapshot album "
2735 "provided the man on the street with a permanent record of his family and its "
2736 "activities. … For the first time in history there exists an authentic "
2737 "visual record of the appearance and activities of the common man made "
2738 "without [literary] interpretation or bias.</quote><placeholder "
2739 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2742 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2743 #: freeculture.xml:1902
2745 "In this way, the Kodak camera and film were technologies of expression. The "
2746 "pencil or paintbrush was also a technology of expression, of course. But it "
2747 "took years of training before they could be deployed by amateurs in any "
2748 "useful or effective way. With the Kodak, expression was possible much sooner "
2749 "and more simply. The barrier to expression was lowered. Snobs would sneer at "
2750 "its <quote>quality</quote>; professionals would discount it as "
2751 "irrelevant. But watch a child study how best to frame a picture and you get "
2752 "a sense of the experience of creativity that the Kodak enabled. Democratic "
2753 "tools gave ordinary people a way to express themselves more easily than any "
2754 "tools could have before."
2758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2759 #: freeculture.xml:1924
2761 "For illustrative cases, see, for example, <citetitle>Pavesich</citetitle> "
2762 "v. <citetitle>N.E. Life Ins. Co</citetitle>., 50 S.E. 68 (Ga. 1905); "
2763 "<citetitle>Foster-Milburn Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Chinn</citetitle>, "
2764 "123090 S.W. 364, 366 (Ky. 1909); <citetitle>Corliss</citetitle> "
2765 "v. <citetitle>Walker</citetitle>, 64 F. 280 (Mass. Dist. Ct. 1894)."
2768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2769 #: freeculture.xml:1915
2771 "What was required for this technology to flourish? Obviously, Eastman's "
2772 "genius was an important part. But also important was the legal environment "
2773 "within which Eastman's invention grew. For early in the history of "
2774 "photography, there was a series of judicial decisions that could well have "
2775 "changed the course of photography substantially. Courts were asked whether "
2776 "the photographer, amateur or professional, required permission before he "
2777 "could capture and print whatever image he wanted. Their answer was "
2778 "no.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2783 #: freeculture.xml:1932
2785 "The arguments in favor of requiring permission will sound surprisingly "
2786 "familiar. The photographer was <quote>taking</quote> something from the "
2787 "person or building whose photograph he shot—pirating something of "
2788 "value. Some even thought he was taking the target's soul. Just as Disney was "
2789 "not free to take the pencils that his animators used to draw Mickey, so, "
2790 "too, should these photographers not be free to take images that they thought "
2794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2795 #: freeculture.xml:1954
2796 msgid "Warren, Samuel D."
2799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2800 #: freeculture.xml:1951
2802 "Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> "
2803 "<citetitle>Harvard Law Review</citetitle> 4 (1890): 193. <placeholder "
2804 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2808 #: freeculture.xml:1944
2810 "On the other side was an argument that should be familiar, as well. Sure, "
2811 "there may be something of value being used. But citizens should have the "
2812 "right to capture at least those images that stand in public view. (Louis "
2813 "Brandeis, who would become a Supreme Court Justice, thought the rule should "
2814 "be different for images from private spaces.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2815 "id=\"0\"/>) It may be that this means that the photographer gets something "
2816 "for nothing. Just as Disney could take inspiration from <citetitle>Steamboat "
2817 "Bill, Jr</citetitle>. or the Brothers Grimm, the photographer should be free "
2818 "to capture an image without compensating the source."
2821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2822 #: freeculture.xml:1960 freeculture.xml:9236
2823 msgid "images, ownership of"
2827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2828 #: freeculture.xml:1972
2830 "See Melville B. Nimmer, <quote>The Right of Publicity,</quote> "
2831 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 19 (1954): 203; William "
2832 "L. Prosser, <quote>Privacy,</quote> <citetitle>California Law "
2833 "Review</citetitle> 48 (1960) 398–407; <citetitle>White</citetitle> "
2834 "v. <citetitle>Samsung Electronics America, Inc</citetitle>., 971 F. 2d 1395 "
2835 "(9th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 951 (1993)."
2838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2839 #: freeculture.xml:1962
2841 "Fortunately for Mr. Eastman, and for photography in general, these early "
2842 "decisions went in favor of the pirates. In general, no permission would be "
2843 "required before an image could be captured and shared with others. Instead, "
2844 "permission was presumed. Freedom was the default. (The law would eventually "
2845 "craft an exception for famous people: commercial photographers who snap "
2846 "pictures of famous people for commercial purposes have more restrictions "
2847 "than the rest of us. But in the ordinary case, the image can be captured "
2848 "without clearing the rights to do the capturing.<placeholder "
2849 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>)"
2852 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2853 #: freeculture.xml:1980
2855 "We can only speculate about how photography would have developed had the law "
2856 "gone the other way. If the presumption had been against the photographer, "
2857 "then the photographer would have had to demonstrate permission. Perhaps "
2858 "Eastman Kodak would have had to demonstrate permission, too, before it "
2859 "developed the film upon which images were captured. After all, if permission "
2860 "were not granted, then Eastman Kodak would be benefiting from the "
2861 "<quote>theft</quote> committed by the photographer. Just as Napster "
2862 "benefited from the copyright infringements committed by Napster users, Kodak "
2863 "would be benefiting from the <quote>image-right</quote> infringement of its "
2864 "photographers. We could imagine the law then requiring that some form of "
2865 "permission be demonstrated before a company developed pictures. We could "
2866 "imagine a system developing to demonstrate that permission."
2870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2871 #: freeculture.xml:1997
2873 "But though we could imagine this system of permission, it would be very hard "
2874 "to see how photography could have flourished as it did if the requirement "
2875 "for permission had been built into the rules that govern it. Photography "
2876 "would have existed. It would have grown in importance over "
2877 "time. Professionals would have continued to use the technology as they "
2878 "did—since professionals could have more easily borne the burdens of "
2879 "the permission system. But the spread of photography to ordinary people "
2880 "would not have occurred. Nothing like that growth would have been "
2881 "realized. And certainly, nothing like that growth in a democratic technology "
2882 "of expression would have been realized."
2885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2886 #: freeculture.xml:2011
2888 "<emphasis role='strong'>If you drive</emphasis> through San Francisco's "
2889 "Presidio, you might see two gaudy yellow school buses painted over with "
2890 "colorful and striking images, and the logo <quote>Just Think!</quote> in "
2891 "place of the name of a school. But there's little that's <quote>just</quote> "
2892 "cerebral in the projects that these busses enable. These buses are filled "
2893 "with technologies that teach kids to tinker with film. Not the film of "
2894 "Eastman. Not even the film of your VCR. Rather the <quote>film</quote> of "
2895 "digital cameras. Just Think! is a project that enables kids to make films, "
2896 "as a way to understand and critique the filmed culture that they find all "
2897 "around them. Each year, these busses travel to more than thirty schools and "
2898 "enable three hundred to five hundred children to learn something about media "
2899 "by doing something with media. By doing, they think. By tinkering, they "
2904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2905 #: freeculture.xml:2035
2907 "H. Edward Goldberg, <quote>Essential Presentation Tools: Hardware and "
2908 "Software You Need to Create Digital Multimedia Presentations,</quote> "
2909 "cadalyst, February 2002, available at <ulink "
2910 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #7</ulink>."
2913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2914 #: freeculture.xml:2029
2916 "These buses are not cheap, but the technology they carry is increasingly "
2917 "so. The cost of a high-quality digital video system has fallen "
2918 "dramatically. As one analyst puts it, <quote>Five years ago, a good "
2919 "real-time digital video editing system cost $25,000. Today you can get "
2920 "professional quality for $595.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2921 "id=\"0\"/> These buses are filled with technology that would have cost "
2922 "hundreds of thousands just ten years ago. And it is now feasible to imagine "
2923 "not just buses like this, but classrooms across the country where kids are "
2924 "learning more and more of something teachers call <quote>media "
2928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2929 #: freeculture.xml:2045
2930 msgid "Yanofsky, Dave"
2934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2935 #: freeculture.xml:2048
2937 "<quote>Media literacy,</quote> as Dave Yanofsky, the executive director of "
2938 "Just Think!, puts it, <quote>is the ability … to understand, analyze, "
2939 "and deconstruct media images. Its aim is to make [kids] literate about the "
2940 "way media works, the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and the "
2941 "way people access it.</quote>"
2944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2945 #: freeculture.xml:2055
2947 "This may seem like an odd way to think about <quote>literacy.</quote> For "
2948 "most people, literacy is about reading and writing. Faulkner and Hemingway "
2949 "and noticing split infinitives are the things that <quote>literate</quote> "
2950 "people know about."
2953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2954 #: freeculture.xml:2060 freeculture.xml:2561 freeculture.xml:6474 freeculture.xml:7308 freeculture.xml:8380 freeculture.xml:8451
2959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2960 #: freeculture.xml:2066
2962 "Judith Van Evra, <citetitle>Television and Child Development</citetitle> "
2963 "(Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990); <quote>Findings on "
2964 "Family and TV Study,</quote> <citetitle>Denver Post</citetitle>, 25 May "
2968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2969 #: freeculture.xml:2062
2971 "Maybe. But in a world where children see on average 390 hours of television "
2972 "commercials per year, or between 20,000 and 45,000 commercials "
2973 "generally,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it is increasingly "
2974 "important to understand the <quote>grammar</quote> of media. For just as "
2975 "there is a grammar for the written word, so, too, is there one for "
2976 "media. And just as kids learn how to write by writing lots of terrible "
2977 "prose, kids learn how to write media by constructing lots of (at least at "
2978 "first) terrible media."
2981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2982 #: freeculture.xml:2077
2984 "A growing field of academics and activists sees this form of literacy as "
2985 "crucial to the next generation of culture. For though anyone who has written "
2986 "understands how difficult writing is—how difficult it is to sequence "
2987 "the story, to keep a reader's attention, to craft language to be "
2988 "understandable—few of us have any real sense of how difficult media "
2989 "is. Or more fundamentally, few of us have a sense of how media works, how it "
2990 "holds an audience or leads it through a story, how it triggers emotion or "
2994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2995 #: freeculture.xml:2087
2997 "It took filmmaking a generation before it could do these things well. But "
2998 "even then, the knowledge was in the filming, not in writing about the "
2999 "film. The skill came from experiencing the making of a film, not from "
3000 "reading a book about it. One learns to write by writing and then reflecting "
3001 "upon what one has written. One learns to write with images by making them "
3002 "and then reflecting upon what one has created."
3005 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3006 #: freeculture.xml:2094
3007 msgid "Crichton, Michael"
3010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3011 #: freeculture.xml:2108 freeculture.xml:2168 freeculture.xml:2175 freeculture.xml:2624
3012 msgid "Barish, Stephanie"
3015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3016 #: freeculture.xml:2109
3017 msgid "Daley, Elizabeth"
3020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3021 #: freeculture.xml:2106
3023 "Interview with Elizabeth Daley and Stephanie Barish, 13 December 2002. "
3024 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3030 #: freeculture.xml:2120
3032 "See Scott Steinberg, <quote>Crichton Gets Medieval on PCs,</quote> E!online, "
3033 "4 November 2000, available at <ulink "
3034 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #8</ulink>; "
3035 "<quote>Timeline,</quote> 22 November 2000, available at <ulink "
3036 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #9</ulink>."
3039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3040 #: freeculture.xml:2096
3042 "This grammar has changed as media has changed. When it was just film, as "
3043 "Elizabeth Daley, executive director of the University of Southern "
3044 "California's Annenberg Center for Communication and dean of the USC School "
3045 "of Cinema-Television, explained to me, the grammar was about <quote>the "
3046 "placement of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and "
3047 "texture.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But as computers "
3048 "open up an interactive space where a story is <quote>played</quote> as well "
3049 "as experienced, that grammar changes. The simple control of narrative is "
3050 "lost, and so other techniques are necessary. Author Michael Crichton had "
3051 "mastered the narrative of science fiction. But when he tried to design a "
3052 "computer game based on one of his works, it was a new craft he had to "
3053 "learn. How to lead people through a game without their feeling they have "
3054 "been led was not obvious, even to a wildly successful author.<placeholder "
3055 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3059 #: freeculture.xml:2127
3060 msgid "computer games"
3063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3064 #: freeculture.xml:2129
3066 "This skill is precisely the craft a filmmaker learns. As Daley describes, "
3067 "<quote>people are very surprised about how they are led through a film. [I]t "
3068 "is perfectly constructed to keep you from seeing it, so you have no idea. If "
3069 "a filmmaker succeeds you do not know how you were led.</quote> If you know "
3070 "you were led through a film, the film has failed."
3073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3074 #: freeculture.xml:2136
3076 "Yet the push for an expanded literacy—one that goes beyond text to "
3077 "include audio and visual elements—is not about making better film "
3078 "directors. The aim is not to improve the profession of filmmaking at all. "
3079 "Instead, as Daley explained,"
3082 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3083 #: freeculture.xml:2143
3085 "From my perspective, probably the most important digital divide is not "
3086 "access to a box. It's the ability to be empowered with the language that "
3087 "that box works in. Otherwise only a very few people can write with this "
3088 "language, and all the rest of us are reduced to being read-only."
3091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3092 #: freeculture.xml:2151
3094 "<quote>Read-only.</quote> Passive recipients of culture produced elsewhere. "
3095 "Couch potatoes. Consumers. This is the world of media from the twentieth "
3099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3100 #: freeculture.xml:2167
3101 msgid "Interview with Daley and Barish. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3106 #: freeculture.xml:2172 freeculture.xml:3952 freeculture.xml:5018 freeculture.xml:8269
3110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3111 #: freeculture.xml:2156
3113 "The twenty-first century could be different. This is the crucial point: It "
3114 "could be both read and write. Or at least reading and better understanding "
3115 "the craft of writing. Or best, reading and understanding the tools that "
3116 "enable the writing to lead or mislead. The aim of any literacy, and this "
3117 "literacy in particular, is to <quote>empower people to choose the "
3118 "appropriate language for what they need to create or "
3119 "express.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It is to enable "
3120 "students <quote>to communicate in the language of the twenty-first "
3121 "century.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3124 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3125 #: freeculture.xml:2177
3127 "As with any language, this language comes more easily to some than to "
3128 "others. It doesn't necessarily come more easily to those who excel in "
3129 "written language. Daley and Stephanie Barish, director of the Institute for "
3130 "Multimedia Literacy at the Annenberg Center, describe one particularly "
3131 "poignant example of a project they ran in a high school. The high school "
3132 "was a very poor inner-city Los Angeles school. In all the traditional "
3133 "measures of success, this school was a failure. But Daley and Barish ran a "
3134 "program that gave kids an opportunity to use film to express meaning about "
3135 "something the students know something about—gun violence."
3138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3139 #: freeculture.xml:2189
3141 "The class was held on Friday afternoons, and it created a relatively new "
3142 "problem for the school. While the challenge in most classes was getting the "
3143 "kids to come, the challenge in this class was keeping them away. The "
3144 "<quote>kids were showing up at 6 A.M. and leaving at 5 at night,</quote> "
3145 "said Barish. They were working harder than in any other class to do what "
3146 "education should be about—learning how to express themselves."
3149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3150 #: freeculture.xml:2197
3152 "Using whatever <quote>free web stuff they could find,</quote> and relatively "
3153 "simple tools to enable the kids to mix <quote>image, sound, and "
3154 "text,</quote> Barish said this class produced a series of projects that "
3155 "showed something about gun violence that few would otherwise "
3156 "understand. This was an issue close to the lives of these students. The "
3157 "project <quote>gave them a tool and empowered them to be able to both "
3158 "understand it and talk about it,</quote> Barish explained. That tool "
3159 "succeeded in creating expression—far more successfully and powerfully "
3160 "than could have been created using only text. <quote>If you had said to "
3161 "these students, `you have to do it in text,' they would've just thrown their "
3162 "hands up and gone and done something else,</quote> Barish described, in "
3163 "part, no doubt, because expressing themselves in text is not something these "
3164 "students can do well. Yet neither is text a form in which "
3165 "<emphasis>these</emphasis> ideas can be expressed well. The power of this "
3166 "message depended upon its connection to this form of expression."
3170 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3171 #: freeculture.xml:2216
3173 "<quote>But isn't education about teaching kids to write?</quote> I asked. In "
3174 "part, of course, it is. But why are we teaching kids to write? Education, "
3175 "Daley explained, is about giving students a way of <quote>constructing "
3176 "meaning.</quote> To say that that means just writing is like saying teaching "
3177 "writing is only about teaching kids how to spell. Text is one part—and "
3178 "increasingly, not the most powerful part—of constructing meaning. As "
3179 "Daley explained in the most moving part of our interview,"
3182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3183 #: freeculture.xml:2227
3185 "What you want is to give these students ways of constructing meaning. If all "
3186 "you give them is text, they're not going to do it. Because they can't. You "
3187 "know, you've got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, "
3188 "he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he "
3189 "can do all sorts of other things. He just can't read your text. So Johnny "
3190 "comes to school and you say, <quote>Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you "
3191 "can do matters.</quote> Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss "
3192 "you or he [can] dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he's going to "
3193 "dismiss you. [But i]nstead, if you say, <quote>Well, with all these things "
3194 "that you can do, let's talk about this issue. Play for me music that you "
3195 "think reflects that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw "
3196 "for me something that reflects that.</quote> Not by giving a kid a video "
3197 "camera and … saying, <quote>Let's go have fun with the video camera "
3198 "and make a little movie.</quote> But instead, really help you take these "
3199 "elements that you understand, that are your language, and construct meaning "
3200 "about the topic.…"
3203 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3204 #: freeculture.xml:2246
3206 "That empowers enormously. And then what happens, of course, is eventually, "
3207 "as it has happened in all these classes, they bump up against the fact, "
3208 "<quote>I need to explain this and I really need to write something.</quote> "
3209 "And as one of the teachers told Stephanie, they would rewrite a paragraph 5, "
3210 "6, 7, 8 times, till they got it right."
3214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3215 #: freeculture.xml:2253
3217 "Because they needed to. There was a reason for doing it. They needed to say "
3218 "something, as opposed to just jumping through your hoops. They actually "
3219 "needed to use a language that they didn't speak very well. But they had come "
3220 "to understand that they had a lot of power with this language."
3223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3224 #: freeculture.xml:2263
3225 msgid "World Trade Center"
3228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3229 #: freeculture.xml:2265
3231 "<emphasis role='strong'>When two planes</emphasis> crashed into the World "
3232 "Trade Center, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania "
3233 "field, all media around the world shifted to this news. Every moment of just "
3234 "about every day for that week, and for weeks after, television in "
3235 "particular, and media generally, retold the story of the events we had just "
3236 "witnessed. The telling was a retelling, because we had seen the events that "
3237 "were described. The genius of this awful act of terrorism was that the "
3238 "delayed second attack was perfectly timed to assure that the whole world "
3239 "would be watching."
3242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3243 #: freeculture.xml:2277
3245 "These retellings had an increasingly familiar feel. There was music scored "
3246 "for the intermissions, and fancy graphics that flashed across the "
3247 "screen. There was a formula to interviews. There was <quote>balance,</quote> "
3248 "and seriousness. This was news choreographed in the way we have increasingly "
3249 "come to expect it, <quote>news as entertainment,</quote> even if the "
3250 "entertainment is tragedy."
3253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3254 #: freeculture.xml:2284 freeculture.xml:8208 freeculture.xml:8445
3258 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3259 #: freeculture.xml:2285
3263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3264 #: freeculture.xml:2287
3266 "But in addition to this produced news about the <quote>tragedy of September "
3267 "11,</quote> those of us tied to the Internet came to see a very different "
3268 "production as well. The Internet was filled with accounts of the same "
3269 "events. Yet these Internet accounts had a very different flavor. Some people "
3270 "constructed photo pages that captured images from around the world and "
3271 "presented them as slide shows with text. Some offered open letters. There "
3272 "were sound recordings. There was anger and frustration. There were attempts "
3273 "to provide context. There was, in short, an extraordinary worldwide barn "
3274 "raising, in the sense Mike Godwin uses the term in his book <citetitle>Cyber "
3275 "Rights</citetitle>, around a news event that had captured the attention of "
3276 "the world. There was ABC and CBS, but there was also the Internet."
3280 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3281 #: freeculture.xml:2301
3283 "I don't mean simply to praise the Internet—though I do think the "
3284 "people who supported this form of speech should be praised. I mean instead "
3285 "to point to a significance in this form of speech. For like a Kodak, the "
3286 "Internet enables people to capture images. And like in a movie by a student "
3287 "on the <quote>Just Think!</quote> bus, the visual images could be mixed with "
3291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3292 #: freeculture.xml:2311
3294 "But unlike any technology for simply capturing images, the Internet allows "
3295 "these creations to be shared with an extraordinary number of people, "
3296 "practically instantaneously. This is something new in our "
3297 "tradition—not just that culture can be captured mechanically, and "
3298 "obviously not just that events are commented upon critically, but that this "
3299 "mix of captured images, sound, and commentary can be widely spread "
3300 "practically instantaneously."
3303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3304 #: freeculture.xml:2320
3306 "September 11 was not an aberration. It was a beginning. Around the same "
3307 "time, a form of communication that has grown dramatically was just beginning "
3308 "to come into public consciousness: the Web-log, or blog. The blog is a kind "
3309 "of public diary, and within some cultures, such as in Japan, it functions "
3310 "very much like a diary. In those cultures, it records private facts in a "
3311 "public way—it's a kind of electronic <citetitle>Jerry "
3312 "Springer</citetitle>, available anywhere in the world."
3315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3316 #: freeculture.xml:2328 freeculture.xml:2401 freeculture.xml:2524
3317 msgid "blogs (Web-logs)"
3320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3321 #: freeculture.xml:2330
3323 "But in the United States, blogs have taken on a very different character. "
3324 "There are some who use the space simply to talk about their private "
3325 "life. But there are many who use the space to engage in public "
3326 "discourse. Discussing matters of public import, criticizing others who are "
3327 "mistaken in their views, criticizing politicians about the decisions they "
3328 "make, offering solutions to problems we all see: blogs create the sense of a "
3329 "virtual public meeting, but one in which we don't all hope to be there at "
3330 "the same time and in which conversations are not necessarily linked. The "
3331 "best of the blog entries are relatively short; they point directly to words "
3332 "used by others, criticizing with or adding to them. They are arguably the "
3333 "most important form of unchoreographed public discourse that we have."
3337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3338 #: freeculture.xml:2344
3340 "That's a strong statement. Yet it says as much about our democracy as it "
3341 "does about blogs. This is the part of America that is most difficult for "
3342 "those of us who love America to accept: Our democracy has atrophied. Of "
3343 "course we have elections, and most of the time the courts allow those "
3344 "elections to count. A relatively small number of people vote in those "
3345 "elections. The cycle of these elections has become totally professionalized "
3346 "and routinized. Most of us think this is democracy."
3349 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3350 #: freeculture.xml:2354
3351 msgid "Tocqueville, Alexis de"
3354 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3355 #: freeculture.xml:2355
3360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3361 #: freeculture.xml:2372
3363 "See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville, <citetitle>Democracy in "
3364 "America</citetitle>, bk. 1, trans. Henry Reeve (New York: Bantam Books, "
3368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3369 #: freeculture.xml:2357
3371 "But democracy has never just been about elections. Democracy means rule by "
3372 "the people, but rule means something more than mere elections. In our "
3373 "tradition, it also means control through reasoned discourse. This was the "
3374 "idea that captured the imagination of Alexis de Tocqueville, the "
3375 "nineteenth-century French lawyer who wrote the most important account of "
3376 "early <quote>Democracy in America.</quote> It wasn't popular elections that "
3377 "fascinated him—it was the jury, an institution that gave ordinary "
3378 "people the right to choose life or death for other citizens. And most "
3379 "fascinating for him was that the jury didn't just vote about the outcome "
3380 "they would impose. They deliberated. Members argued about the "
3381 "<quote>right</quote> result; they tried to persuade each other of the "
3382 "<quote>right</quote> result, and in criminal cases at least, they had to "
3383 "agree upon a unanimous result for the process to come to an end.<placeholder "
3384 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3389 #: freeculture.xml:2381
3391 "Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, <quote>Deliberation Day,</quote> "
3392 "<citetitle>Journal of Political Philosophy</citetitle> 10 (2) (2002): 129."
3395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3396 #: freeculture.xml:2377
3398 "Yet even this institution flags in American life today. And in its place, "
3399 "there is no systematic effort to enable citizen deliberation. Some are "
3400 "pushing to create just such an institution.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3401 "id=\"0\"/> And in some towns in New England, something close to deliberation "
3402 "remains. But for most of us for most of the time, there is no time or place "
3403 "for <quote>democratic deliberation</quote> to occur."
3407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3408 #: freeculture.xml:2396
3410 "Cass Sunstein, <citetitle>Republic.com</citetitle> (Princeton: Princeton "
3411 "University Press, 2001), 65–80, 175, 182, 183, 192."
3414 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3415 #: freeculture.xml:2389
3417 "More bizarrely, there is generally not even permission for it to occur. We, "
3418 "the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm "
3419 "against talking about politics. It's fine to talk about politics with people "
3420 "you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you "
3421 "disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse "
3422 "becomes more extreme.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We say what "
3423 "our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say."
3426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3427 #: freeculture.xml:2402
3432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3433 #: freeculture.xml:2404
3435 "Enter the blog. The blog's very architecture solves one part of this "
3436 "problem. People post when they want to post, and people read when they want "
3437 "to read. The most difficult time is synchronous time. Technologies that "
3438 "enable asynchronous communication, such as e-mail, increase the opportunity "
3439 "for communication. Blogs allow for public discourse without the public ever "
3440 "needing to gather in a single public place."
3443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3444 #: freeculture.xml:2415
3446 "But beyond architecture, blogs also have solved the problem of "
3447 "norms. There's no norm (yet) in blog space not to talk about politics. "
3448 "Indeed, the space is filled with political speech, on both the right and the "
3449 "left. Some of the most popular sites are conservative or libertarian, but "
3450 "there are many of all political stripes. And even blogs that are not "
3451 "political cover political issues when the occasion merits."
3454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3455 #: freeculture.xml:2422
3456 msgid "Dean, Howard"
3459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3460 #: freeculture.xml:2424
3462 "The significance of these blogs is tiny now, though not so tiny. The name "
3463 "Howard Dean may well have faded from the 2004 presidential race but for "
3464 "blogs. Yet even if the number of readers is small, the reading is having an "
3468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3469 #: freeculture.xml:2429
3473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3474 #: freeculture.xml:2430
3475 msgid "Thurmond, Strom"
3479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3480 #: freeculture.xml:2443
3482 "Noah Shachtman, <quote>With Incessant Postings, a Pundit Stirs the "
3483 "Pot,</quote> New York Times, 16 January 2003, G5."
3486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3487 #: freeculture.xml:2432
3489 "One direct effect is on stories that had a different life cycle in the "
3490 "mainstream media. The Trent Lott affair is an example. When Lott "
3491 "<quote>misspoke</quote> at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond, essentially "
3492 "praising Thurmond's segregationist policies, he calculated correctly that "
3493 "this story would disappear from the mainstream press within forty-eight "
3494 "hours. It did. But he didn't calculate its life cycle in blog space. The "
3495 "bloggers kept researching the story. Over time, more and more instances of "
3496 "the same <quote>misspeaking</quote> emerged. Finally, the story broke back "
3497 "into the mainstream press. In the end, Lott was forced to resign as senate "
3498 "majority leader.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3502 #: freeculture.xml:2448
3504 "This different cycle is possible because the same commercial pressures don't "
3505 "exist with blogs as with other ventures. Television and newspapers are "
3506 "commercial entities. They must work to keep attention. If they lose "
3507 "readers, they lose revenue. Like sharks, they must move on."
3510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3511 #: freeculture.xml:2455
3513 "But bloggers don't have a similar constraint. They can obsess, they can "
3514 "focus, they can get serious. If a particular blogger writes a particularly "
3515 "interesting story, more and more people link to that story. And as the "
3516 "number of links to a particular story increases, it rises in the ranks of "
3517 "stories. People read what is popular; what is popular has been selected by a "
3518 "very democratic process of peer-generated rankings."
3521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3522 #: freeculture.xml:2463
3527 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3528 #: freeculture.xml:2465
3530 "There's a second way, as well, in which blogs have a different cycle from "
3531 "the mainstream press. As Dave Winer, one of the fathers of this movement and "
3532 "a software author for many decades, told me, another difference is the "
3533 "absence of a financial <quote>conflict of interest.</quote> <quote>I think "
3534 "you have to take the conflict of interest</quote> out of journalism, Winer "
3535 "told me. <quote>An amateur journalist simply doesn't have a conflict of "
3536 "interest, or the conflict of interest is so easily disclosed that you know "
3537 "you can sort of get it out of the way.</quote>"
3540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3541 #: freeculture.xml:2475 freeculture.xml:2521
3545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3546 #: freeculture.xml:2476 freeculture.xml:2522 freeculture.xml:5667
3551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3552 #: freeculture.xml:2484
3553 msgid "Telephone interview with David Winer, 16 April 2003."
3556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3557 #: freeculture.xml:2478
3559 "These conflicts become more important as media becomes more concentrated "
3560 "(more on this below). A concentrated media can hide more from the public "
3561 "than an unconcentrated media can—as CNN admitted it did after the Iraq "
3562 "war because it was afraid of the consequences to its own "
3563 "employees.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It also needs to sustain "
3564 "a more coherent account. (In the middle of the Iraq war, I read a post on "
3565 "the Internet from someone who was at that time listening to a satellite "
3566 "uplink with a reporter in Iraq. The New York headquarters was telling the "
3567 "reporter over and over that her account of the war was too bleak: She needed "
3568 "to offer a more optimistic story. When she told New York that wasn't "
3569 "warranted, they told her that <emphasis>they</emphasis> were writing "
3570 "<quote>the story.</quote>)"
3574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3575 #: freeculture.xml:2502
3577 "John Schwartz, <quote>Loss of the Shuttle: The Internet; A Wealth of "
3578 "Information Online,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 2 "
3579 "February 2003, A28; Staci D. Kramer, <quote>Shuttle Disaster Coverage Mixed, "
3580 "but Strong Overall,</quote> Online Journalism Review, 2 February 2003, "
3581 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #10</ulink>."
3584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3585 #: freeculture.xml:2494
3587 "Blog space gives amateurs a way to enter the "
3588 "debate—<quote>amateur</quote> not in the sense of inexperienced, but "
3589 "in the sense of an Olympic athlete, meaning not paid by anyone to give their "
3590 "reports. It allows for a much broader range of input into a story, as "
3591 "reporting on the Columbia disaster revealed, when hundreds from across the "
3592 "southwest United States turned to the Internet to retell what they had "
3593 "seen.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And it drives readers to read "
3594 "across the range of accounts and <quote>triangulate,</quote> as Winer puts "
3595 "it, the truth. Blogs, Winer says, are <quote>communicating directly with our "
3596 "constituency, and the middle man is out of it</quote>—with all the "
3597 "benefits, and costs, that might entail."
3600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3601 #: freeculture.xml:2523
3602 msgid "Olafson, Steve"
3605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3606 #: freeculture.xml:2521
3608 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3609 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
3610 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> See Michael Falcone, <quote>Does an Editor's "
3611 "Pencil Ruin a Web Log?</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 29 "
3612 "September 2003, C4. (<quote>Not all news organizations have been as "
3613 "accepting of employees who blog. Kevin Sites, a CNN correspondent in Iraq "
3614 "who started a blog about his reporting of the war on March 9, stopped "
3615 "posting 12 days later at his bosses' request. Last year Steve Olafson, a "
3616 "<citetitle>Houston Chronicle</citetitle> reporter, was fired for keeping a "
3617 "personal Web log, published under a pseudonym, that dealt with some of the "
3618 "issues and people he was covering.</quote>)"
3622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3623 #: freeculture.xml:2514
3625 "Winer is optimistic about the future of journalism infected with "
3626 "blogs. <quote>It's going to become an essential skill,</quote> Winer "
3627 "predicts, for public figures and increasingly for private figures as "
3628 "well. It's not clear that <quote>journalism</quote> is happy about "
3629 "this—some journalists have been told to curtail their "
3630 "blogging.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is clear that we "
3631 "are still in transition. <quote>A lot of what we are doing now is warm-up "
3632 "exercises,</quote> Winer told me. There is a lot that must mature before "
3633 "this space has its mature effect. And as the inclusion of content in this "
3634 "space is the least infringing use of the Internet (meaning infringing on "
3635 "copyright), Winer said, <quote>we will be the last thing that gets shut "
3639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3640 #: freeculture.xml:2544
3642 "This speech affects democracy. Winer thinks that happens because <quote>you "
3643 "don't have to work for somebody who controls, [for] a gatekeeper.</quote> "
3644 "That is true. But it affects democracy in another way as well. As more and "
3645 "more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will "
3646 "change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and "
3647 "misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be "
3648 "criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has "
3649 "been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore "
3650 "when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and "
3651 "criticism improves democracy. Today there are probably a couple of million "
3652 "blogs where such writing happens. When there are ten million, there will be "
3653 "something extraordinary to report."
3656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3657 #: freeculture.xml:2560
3658 msgid "Brown, John Seely"
3661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3662 #: freeculture.xml:2563
3664 "<emphasis role='strong'>John Seely Brown</emphasis> is the chief scientist "
3665 "of the Xerox Corporation. His work, as his Web site describes it, is "
3666 "<quote>human learning and … the creation of knowledge ecologies for "
3667 "creating … innovation.</quote>"
3670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3671 #: freeculture.xml:2569
3673 "Brown thus looks at these technologies of digital creativity a bit "
3674 "differently from the perspectives I've sketched so far. I'm sure he would be "
3675 "excited about any technology that might improve democracy. But his real "
3676 "excitement comes from how these technologies affect learning."
3680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3681 #: freeculture.xml:2576
3683 "As Brown believes, we learn by tinkering. When <quote>a lot of us grew "
3684 "up,</quote> he explains, that tinkering was done <quote>on motorcycle "
3685 "engines, lawnmower engines, automobiles, radios, and so on.</quote> But "
3686 "digital technologies enable a different kind of tinkering—with "
3687 "abstract ideas though in concrete form. The kids at Just Think! not only "
3688 "think about how a commercial portrays a politician; using digital "
3689 "technology, they can take the commercial apart and manipulate it, tinker "
3690 "with it to see how it does what it does. Digital technologies launch a kind "
3691 "of bricolage, or <quote>free collage,</quote> as Brown calls it. Many get to "
3692 "add to or transform the tinkering of many others."
3695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3696 #: freeculture.xml:2589
3698 "The best large-scale example of this kind of tinkering so far is free "
3699 "software or open-source software (FS/OSS). FS/OSS is software whose source "
3700 "code is shared. Anyone can download the technology that makes a FS/OSS "
3701 "program run. And anyone eager to learn how a particular bit of FS/OSS "
3702 "technology works can tinker with the code."
3705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3706 #: freeculture.xml:2596
3708 "This opportunity creates a <quote>completely new kind of learning "
3709 "platform,</quote> as Brown describes. <quote>As soon as you start doing "
3710 "that, you … unleash a free collage on the community, so that other "
3711 "people can start looking at your code, tinkering with it, trying it out, "
3712 "seeing if they can improve it.</quote> Each effort is a kind of "
3713 "apprenticeship. <quote>Open source becomes a major apprenticeship "
3717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3718 #: freeculture.xml:2604
3720 "In this process, <quote>the concrete things you tinker with are abstract. "
3721 "They are code.</quote> Kids are <quote>shifting to the ability to tinker in "
3722 "the abstract, and this tinkering is no longer an isolated activity that "
3723 "you're doing in your garage. You are tinkering with a community "
3724 "platform. … You are tinkering with other people's stuff. The more you "
3725 "tinker the more you improve.</quote> The more you improve, the more you "
3729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3730 #: freeculture.xml:2613
3732 "This same thing happens with content, too. And it happens in the same "
3733 "collaborative way when that content is part of the Web. As Brown puts it, "
3734 "<quote>the Web [is] the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of "
3735 "intelligence.</quote> Earlier technologies, such as the typewriter or word "
3736 "processors, helped amplify text. But the Web amplifies much more than "
3737 "text. <quote>The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, "
3738 "if you are visual, if you are interested in film … [then] there is a "
3739 "lot you can start to do on this medium. [It] can now amplify and honor these "
3740 "multiple forms of intelligence.</quote>"
3744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3745 #: freeculture.xml:2626
3747 "Brown is talking about what Elizabeth Daley, Stephanie Barish, and Just "
3748 "Think! teach: that this tinkering with culture teaches as well as "
3749 "creates. It develops talents differently, and it builds a different kind of "
3753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3754 #: freeculture.xml:2634
3756 "Yet the freedom to tinker with these objects is not guaranteed. Indeed, as "
3757 "we'll see through the course of this book, that freedom is increasingly "
3758 "highly contested. While there's no doubt that your father had the right to "
3759 "tinker with the car engine, there's great doubt that your child will have "
3760 "the right to tinker with the images she finds all around. The law and, "
3761 "increasingly, technology interfere with a freedom that technology, and "
3762 "curiosity, would otherwise ensure."
3766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3767 #: freeculture.xml:2650
3769 "See, for example, Edward Felten and Andrew Appel, <quote>Technological "
3770 "Access Control Interferes with Noninfringing Scholarship,</quote> "
3771 "<citetitle>Communications of the Association for Computer "
3772 "Machinery</citetitle> 43 (2000): 9."
3775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3776 #: freeculture.xml:2643
3778 "These restrictions have become the focus of researchers and scholars. "
3779 "Professor Ed Felten of Princeton (whom we'll see more of in chapter <xref "
3780 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>) has developed a "
3781 "powerful argument in favor of the <quote>right to tinker</quote> as it "
3782 "applies to computer science and to knowledge in general.<placeholder "
3783 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But Brown's concern is earlier, or younger, or "
3784 "more fundamental. It is about the learning that kids can do, or can't do, "
3785 "because of the law."
3788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3789 #: freeculture.xml:2658
3791 "<quote>This is where education in the twenty-first century is going,</quote> "
3792 "Brown explains. We need to <quote>understand how kids who grow up digital "
3793 "think and want to learn.</quote>"
3796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3797 #: freeculture.xml:2663
3799 "<quote>Yet,</quote> as Brown continued, and as the balance of this book will "
3800 "evince, <quote>we are building a legal system that completely suppresses the "
3801 "natural tendencies of today's digital kids. … We're building an "
3802 "architecture that unleashes 60 percent of the brain [and] a legal system "
3803 "that closes down that part of the brain.</quote>"
3806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3807 #: freeculture.xml:2671
3809 "We're building a technology that takes the magic of Kodak, mixes moving "
3810 "images and sound, and adds a space for commentary and an opportunity to "
3811 "spread that creativity everywhere. But we're building the law to close down "
3815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3816 #: freeculture.xml:2677
3818 "<quote>No way to run a culture,</quote> as Brewster Kahle, whom we'll meet "
3819 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"collectors\"/>, "
3820 "quipped to me in a rare moment of despondence."
3823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3824 #: freeculture.xml:2684
3825 msgid "CHAPTER THREE: Catalogs"
3828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3829 #: freeculture.xml:2685
3833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3834 #: freeculture.xml:2685 freeculture.xml:2686
3835 msgid "Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)"
3838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3839 #: freeculture.xml:2688
3841 "<emphasis role='strong'>In the fall</emphasis> of 2002, Jesse Jordan of "
3842 "Oceanside, New York, enrolled as a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic "
3843 "Institute, in Troy, New York. His major at RPI was information "
3844 "technology. Though he is not a programmer, in October Jesse decided to begin "
3845 "to tinker with search engine technology that was available on the RPI "
3849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3850 #: freeculture.xml:2696
3852 "RPI is one of America's foremost technological research institutions. It "
3853 "offers degrees in fields ranging from architecture and engineering to "
3854 "information sciences. More than 65 percent of its five thousand "
3855 "undergraduates finished in the top 10 percent of their high school "
3856 "class. The school is thus a perfect mix of talent and experience to imagine "
3857 "and then build, a generation for the network age."
3860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3861 #: freeculture.xml:2704
3863 "RPI's computer network links students, faculty, and administration to one "
3864 "another. It also links RPI to the Internet. Not everything available on the "
3865 "RPI network is available on the Internet. But the network is designed to "
3866 "enable students to get access to the Internet, as well as more intimate "
3867 "access to other members of the RPI community."
3871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3872 #: freeculture.xml:2711
3874 "Search engines are a measure of a network's intimacy. Google brought the "
3875 "Internet much closer to all of us by fantastically improving the quality of "
3876 "search on the network. Specialty search engines can do this even better. The "
3877 "idea of <quote>intranet</quote> search engines, search engines that search "
3878 "within the network of a particular institution, is to provide users of that "
3879 "institution with better access to material from that institution. "
3880 "Businesses do this all the time, enabling employees to have access to "
3881 "material that people outside the business can't get. Universities do it as "
3885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3886 #: freeculture.xml:2723
3888 "These engines are enabled by the network technology itself. Microsoft, for "
3889 "example, has a network file system that makes it very easy for search "
3890 "engines tuned to that network to query the system for information about the "
3891 "publicly (within that network) available content. Jesse's search engine was "
3892 "built to take advantage of this technology. It used Microsoft's network file "
3893 "system to build an index of all the files available within the RPI network."
3896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3897 #: freeculture.xml:2732
3899 "Jesse's wasn't the first search engine built for the RPI network. Indeed, "
3900 "his engine was a simple modification of engines that others had built. His "
3901 "single most important improvement over those engines was to fix a bug within "
3902 "the Microsoft file-sharing system that could cause a user's computer to "
3903 "crash. With the engines that existed before, if you tried to access a file "
3904 "through a Windows browser that was on a computer that was off-line, your "
3905 "computer could crash. Jesse modified the system a bit to fix that problem, "
3906 "by adding a button that a user could click to see if the machine holding the "
3907 "file was still on-line."
3910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3911 #: freeculture.xml:2744
3913 "Jesse's engine went on-line in late October. Over the following six months, "
3914 "he continued to tweak it to improve its functionality. By March, the system "
3915 "was functioning quite well. Jesse had more than one million files in his "
3916 "directory, including every type of content that might be on users' "
3921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3922 #: freeculture.xml:2751
3924 "Thus the index his search engine produced included pictures, which students "
3925 "could use to put on their own Web sites; copies of notes or research; copies "
3926 "of information pamphlets; movie clips that students might have created; "
3927 "university brochures—basically anything that users of the RPI network "
3928 "made available in a public folder of their computer."
3931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3932 #: freeculture.xml:2760
3934 "But the index also included music files. In fact, one quarter of the files "
3935 "that Jesse's search engine listed were music files. But that means, of "
3936 "course, that three quarters were not, and—so that this point is "
3937 "absolutely clear—Jesse did nothing to induce people to put music files "
3938 "in their public folders. He did nothing to target the search engine to these "
3939 "files. He was a kid tinkering with a Google-like technology at a university "
3940 "where he was studying information science, and hence, tinkering was the "
3941 "aim. Unlike Google, or Microsoft, for that matter, he made no money from "
3942 "this tinkering; he was not connected to any business that would make any "
3943 "money from this experiment. He was a kid tinkering with technology in an "
3944 "environment where tinkering with technology was precisely what he was "
3948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3949 #: freeculture.xml:2775
3951 "On April 3, 2003, Jesse was contacted by the dean of students at RPI. The "
3952 "dean informed Jesse that the Recording Industry Association of America, the "
3953 "RIAA, would be filing a lawsuit against him and three other students whom he "
3954 "didn't even know, two of them at other universities. A few hours later, "
3955 "Jesse was served with papers from the suit. As he read these papers and "
3956 "watched the news reports about them, he was increasingly astonished."
3959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3960 #: freeculture.xml:2784
3962 "<quote>It was absurd,</quote> he told me. <quote>I don't think I did "
3963 "anything wrong. … I don't think there's anything wrong with the "
3964 "search engine that I ran or … what I had done to it. I mean, I hadn't "
3965 "modified it in any way that promoted or enhanced the work of pirates. I just "
3966 "modified the search engine in a way that would make it easier to "
3967 "use</quote>—again, a <emphasis>search engine</emphasis>, which Jesse "
3968 "had not himself built, using the Windows filesharing system, which Jesse had "
3969 "not himself built, to enable members of the RPI community to get access to "
3970 "content, which Jesse had not himself created or posted, and the vast "
3971 "majority of which had nothing to do with music."
3974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3975 #: freeculture.xml:2796
3976 msgid "statutory damages"
3980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3981 #: freeculture.xml:2798
3983 "But the RIAA branded Jesse a pirate. They claimed he operated a network and "
3984 "had therefore <quote>willfully</quote> violated copyright laws. They "
3985 "demanded that he pay them the damages for his wrong. For cases of "
3986 "<quote>willful infringement,</quote> the Copyright Act specifies something "
3987 "lawyers call <quote>statutory damages.</quote> These damages permit a "
3988 "copyright owner to claim $150,000 per infringement. As the RIAA alleged more "
3989 "than one hundred specific copyright infringements, they therefore demanded "
3990 "that Jesse pay them at least $15,000,000."
3993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3994 #: freeculture.xml:2808
3995 msgid "Princeton University"
3998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3999 #: freeculture.xml:2809
4000 msgid "Michigan Technical University"
4004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4005 #: freeculture.xml:2823
4007 "Tim Goral, <quote>Recording Industry Goes After Campus P-2-P Networks: Suit "
4008 "Alleges $97.8 Billion in Damages,</quote> <citetitle>Professional Media "
4009 "Group LCC</citetitle> 6 (2003): 5, available at 2003 WL 55179443."
4012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4013 #: freeculture.xml:2811
4015 "Similar lawsuits were brought against three other students: one other "
4016 "student at RPI, one at Michigan Technical University, and one at "
4017 "Princeton. Their situations were similar to Jesse's. Though each case was "
4018 "different in detail, the bottom line in each was exactly the same: huge "
4019 "demands for <quote>damages</quote> that the RIAA claimed it was entitled "
4020 "to. If you added up the claims, these four lawsuits were asking courts in "
4021 "the United States to award the plaintiffs close to $100 "
4022 "<emphasis>billion</emphasis>—six times the <emphasis>total</emphasis> "
4023 "profit of the film industry in 2001.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4027 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4028 #: freeculture.xml:2830
4030 "Jesse called his parents. They were supportive but a bit frightened. An "
4031 "uncle was a lawyer. He began negotiations with the RIAA. They demanded to "
4032 "know how much money Jesse had. Jesse had saved $12,000 from summer jobs and "
4033 "other employment. They demanded $12,000 to dismiss the case."
4036 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4037 #: freeculture.xml:2836
4038 msgid "Oppenheimer, Matt"
4041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4042 #: freeculture.xml:2838
4044 "The RIAA wanted Jesse to admit to doing something wrong. He refused. They "
4045 "wanted him to agree to an injunction that would essentially make it "
4046 "impossible for him to work in many fields of technology for the rest of his "
4047 "life. He refused. They made him understand that this process of being sued "
4048 "was not going to be pleasant. (As Jesse's father recounted to me, the chief "
4049 "lawyer on the case, Matt Oppenheimer, told Jesse, <quote>You don't want to "
4050 "pay another visit to a dentist like me.</quote>) And throughout, the RIAA "
4051 "insisted it would not settle the case until it took every penny Jesse had "
4056 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4057 #: freeculture.xml:2849
4059 "Jesse's family was outraged at these claims. They wanted to fight. But "
4060 "Jesse's uncle worked to educate the family about the nature of the American "
4061 "legal system. Jesse could fight the RIAA. He might even win. But the cost of "
4062 "fighting a lawsuit like this, Jesse was told, would be at least $250,000. If "
4063 "he won, he would not recover that money. If he won, he would have a piece of "
4064 "paper saying he had won, and a piece of paper saying he and his family were "
4068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4069 #: freeculture.xml:2859
4071 "So Jesse faced a mafia-like choice: $250,000 and a chance at winning, or "
4072 "$12,000 and a settlement."
4075 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4076 #: freeculture.xml:2862 freeculture.xml:3218 freeculture.xml:4153 freeculture.xml:5268 freeculture.xml:5317 freeculture.xml:9701 freeculture.xml:9799 freeculture.xml:9968 freeculture.xml:14531 freeculture.xml:14596
4080 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
4081 #: freeculture.xml:2862 freeculture.xml:3218 freeculture.xml:4153 freeculture.xml:9701 freeculture.xml:9799 freeculture.xml:9968 freeculture.xml:14531 freeculture.xml:14596
4082 msgid "recording industry payments to"
4086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4087 #: freeculture.xml:2872
4089 "Occupational Employment Survey, U.S. Dept. of Labor (2001) "
4090 "(27–2042—Musicians and Singers). See also National Endowment for "
4091 "the Arts, <citetitle>More Than One in a Blue Moon</citetitle> (2000)."
4095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4096 #: freeculture.xml:2880
4098 "Douglas Lichtman makes a related point in <quote>KaZaA and "
4099 "Punishment,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 10 September "
4103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4104 #: freeculture.xml:2864
4106 "The recording industry insists this is a matter of law and morality. Let's "
4107 "put the law aside for a moment and think about the morality. Where is the "
4108 "morality in a lawsuit like this? What is the virtue in scapegoatism? The "
4109 "RIAA is an extraordinarily powerful lobby. The president of the RIAA is "
4110 "reported to make more than $1 million a year. Artists, on the other hand, "
4111 "are not well paid. The average recording artist makes $45,900.<placeholder "
4112 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There are plenty of ways for the RIAA to affect "
4113 "and direct policy. So where is the morality in taking money from a student "
4114 "for running a search engine?<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
4117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4118 #: freeculture.xml:2885
4120 "On June 23, Jesse wired his savings to the lawyer working for the RIAA. The "
4121 "case against him was then dismissed. And with this, this kid who had "
4122 "tinkered a computer into a $15 million lawsuit became an activist:"
4125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
4126 #: freeculture.xml:2892
4128 "I was definitely not an activist [before]. I never really meant to be an "
4129 "activist. … [But] I've been pushed into this. In no way did I ever "
4130 "foresee anything like this, but I think it's just completely absurd what the "
4134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4135 #: freeculture.xml:2899
4137 "Jesse's parents betray a certain pride in their reluctant activist. As his "
4138 "father told me, Jesse <quote>considers himself very conservative, and so do "
4139 "I. … He's not a tree hugger. … I think it's bizarre that they "
4140 "would pick on him. But he wants to let people know that they're sending the "
4141 "wrong message. And he wants to correct the record.</quote>"
4144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
4145 #: freeculture.xml:2908
4146 msgid "CHAPTER FOUR: <quote>Pirates</quote>"
4149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4150 #: freeculture.xml:2911
4152 "<emphasis role='strong'>If <quote>piracy</quote> means</emphasis> using the "
4153 "creative property of others without their permission—if <quote>if "
4154 "value, then right</quote> is true—then the history of the content "
4155 "industry is a history of piracy. Every important sector of <quote>big "
4156 "media</quote> today—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born "
4157 "of a kind of piracy so defined. The consistent story is how last "
4158 "generation's pirates join this generation's country club—until now."
4161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4162 #: freeculture.xml:2922
4166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4167 #: freeculture.xml:2926
4169 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> I am grateful to Peter DiMauro "
4170 "for pointing me to this extraordinary history. See also Siva Vaidhyanathan, "
4171 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 87–93, which details "
4172 "Edison's <quote>adventures</quote> with copyright and patent."
4176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4177 #: freeculture.xml:2924
4179 "The film industry of Hollywood was built by fleeing pirates.<placeholder "
4180 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Creators and directors migrated from the East "
4181 "Coast to California in the early twentieth century in part to escape "
4182 "controls that patents granted the inventor of filmmaking, Thomas "
4183 "Edison. These controls were exercised through a monopoly "
4184 "<quote>trust,</quote> the Motion Pictures Patents Company, and were based on "
4185 "Thomas Edison's creative property—patents. Edison formed the MPPC to "
4186 "exercise the rights this creative property gave him, and the MPPC was "
4187 "serious about the control it demanded."
4190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4191 #: freeculture.xml:2942
4192 msgid "As one commentator tells one part of the story,"
4195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4196 #: freeculture.xml:2946
4198 "A January 1909 deadline was set for all companies to comply with the "
4199 "license. By February, unlicensed outlaws, who referred to themselves as "
4200 "independents protested the trust and carried on business without submitting "
4201 "to the Edison monopoly. In the summer of 1909 the independent movement was "
4202 "in full-swing, with producers and theater owners using illegal equipment and "
4203 "imported film stock to create their own underground market."
4206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
4207 #: freeculture.xml:2954
4208 msgid "Fox, William"
4211 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
4212 #: freeculture.xml:2955
4213 msgid "General Film Company"
4216 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4217 #: freeculture.xml:2956 freeculture.xml:3236 freeculture.xml:4368 freeculture.xml:9841
4218 msgid "Picker, Randal C."
4221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4222 #: freeculture.xml:2980 freeculture.xml:4367 freeculture.xml:9575 freeculture.xml:9696
4223 msgid "broadcast flag"
4226 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4227 #: freeculture.xml:2969
4229 "J. A. Aberdeen, <citetitle>Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent "
4230 "Motion Picture Producers</citetitle> (Cobblestone Entertainment, 2000) and "
4231 "expanded texts posted at <quote>The Edison Movie Monopoly: The Motion "
4232 "Picture Patents Company vs. the Independent Outlaws,</quote> available at "
4233 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #11</ulink>. For a "
4234 "discussion of the economic motive behind both these limits and the limits "
4235 "imposed by Victor on phonographs, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison "
4236 "to the Broadcast Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the "
4237 "Propertization of Copyright</quote> (September 2002), University of Chicago "
4238 "Law School, James M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper "
4239 "No. 159. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4243 #: freeculture.xml:2958
4245 "With the country experiencing a tremendous expansion in the number of "
4246 "nickelodeons, the Patents Company reacted to the independent movement by "
4247 "forming a strong-arm subsidiary known as the General Film Company to block "
4248 "the entry of non-licensed independents. With coercive tactics that have "
4249 "become legendary, General Film confiscated unlicensed equipment, "
4250 "discontinued product supply to theaters which showed unlicensed films, and "
4251 "effectively monopolized distribution with the acquisition of all U.S. film "
4252 "exchanges, except for the one owned by the independent William Fox who "
4253 "defied the Trust even after his license was revoked.<placeholder "
4254 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4258 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4259 #: freeculture.xml:2991
4261 "Marc Wanamaker, <quote>The First Studios,</quote> <citetitle>The Silents "
4262 "Majority</citetitle>, archived at <ulink "
4263 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #12</ulink>."
4266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4267 #: freeculture.xml:2985
4269 "The Napsters of those days, the <quote>independents,</quote> were companies "
4270 "like Fox. And no less than today, these independents were vigorously "
4271 "resisted. <quote>Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and "
4272 "`accidents' resulting in loss of negatives, equipment, buildings and "
4273 "sometimes life and limb frequently occurred.</quote><placeholder "
4274 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That led the independents to flee the East "
4275 "Coast. California was remote enough from Edison's reach that filmmakers "
4276 "there could pirate his inventions without fear of the law. And the leaders "
4277 "of Hollywood filmmaking, Fox most prominently, did just that."
4281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4282 #: freeculture.xml:3001
4284 "Of course, California grew quickly, and the effective enforcement of federal "
4285 "law eventually spread west. But because patents grant the patent holder a "
4286 "truly <quote>limited</quote> monopoly (just seventeen years at that time), "
4287 "by the time enough federal marshals appeared, the patents had expired. A new "
4288 "industry had been born, in part from the piracy of Edison's creative "
4292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4293 #: freeculture.xml:3012
4294 msgid "Recorded Music"
4297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4298 #: freeculture.xml:3014
4300 "The record industry was born of another kind of piracy, though to see how "
4301 "requires a bit of detail about the way the law regulates music."
4304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4305 #: freeculture.xml:3017
4306 msgid "Fourneaux, Henri"
4309 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4310 #: freeculture.xml:3018
4311 msgid "Russel, Phil"
4314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4315 #: freeculture.xml:3020
4317 "At the time that Edison and Henri Fourneaux invented machines for "
4318 "reproducing music (Edison the phonograph, Fourneaux the player piano), the "
4319 "law gave composers the exclusive right to control copies of their music and "
4320 "the exclusive right to control public performances of their music. In other "
4321 "words, in 1900, if I wanted a copy of Phil Russel's 1899 hit <quote>Happy "
4322 "Mose,</quote> the law said I would have to pay for the right to get a copy "
4323 "of the musical score, and I would also have to pay for the right to perform "
4327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4328 #: freeculture.xml:3029 freeculture.xml:3180
4332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4333 #: freeculture.xml:3031
4335 "But what if I wanted to record <quote>Happy Mose,</quote> using Edison's "
4336 "phonograph or Fourneaux's player piano? Here the law stumbled. It was clear "
4337 "enough that I would have to buy any copy of the musical score that I "
4338 "performed in making this recording. And it was clear enough that I would "
4339 "have to pay for any public performance of the work I was recording. But it "
4340 "wasn't totally clear that I would have to pay for a <quote>public "
4341 "performance</quote> if I recorded the song in my own house (even today, you "
4342 "don't owe the Beatles anything if you sing their songs in the shower), or if "
4343 "I recorded the song from memory (copies in your brain are "
4344 "not—yet— regulated by copyright law). So if I simply sang the "
4345 "song into a recording device in the privacy of my own home, it wasn't clear "
4346 "that I owed the composer anything. And more importantly, it wasn't clear "
4347 "whether I owed the composer anything if I then made copies of those "
4348 "recordings. Because of this gap in the law, then, I could effectively "
4349 "pirate someone else's song without paying its composer anything."
4352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4353 #: freeculture.xml:3054 freeculture.xml:3071
4354 msgid "Kittredge, Alfred"
4357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4358 #: freeculture.xml:3050
4360 "The composers (and publishers) were none too happy about this capacity to "
4361 "pirate. As South Dakota senator Alfred Kittredge put it, <placeholder "
4362 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4366 #: freeculture.xml:3065
4368 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright: Hearings on S. 6330 "
4369 "and H.R. 19853 Before the ( Joint) Committees on Patents, 59th Cong. 59, 1st "
4370 "sess. (1906) (statement of Senator Alfred B. Kittredge, of South Dakota, "
4371 "chairman), reprinted in <citetitle>Legislative History of the Copyright "
4372 "Act</citetitle>, E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South "
4373 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1976). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4378 #: freeculture.xml:3058
4380 "Imagine the injustice of the thing. A composer writes a song or an opera. A "
4381 "publisher buys at great expense the rights to the same and copyrights "
4382 "it. Along come the phonographic companies and companies who cut music rolls "
4383 "and deliberately steal the work of the brain of the composer and publisher "
4384 "without any regard for [their] rights.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4389 #: freeculture.xml:3075
4390 msgid "Sousa, John Philip"
4394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4395 #: freeculture.xml:3081
4397 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 223 (statement of "
4398 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4402 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4403 #: freeculture.xml:3087
4405 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 226 (statement of "
4406 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4411 #: freeculture.xml:3094
4413 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 23 (statement of "
4414 "John Philip Sousa, composer)."
4417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4418 #: freeculture.xml:3077
4420 "The innovators who developed the technology to record other people's works "
4421 "were <quote>sponging upon the toil, the work, the talent, and genius of "
4422 "American composers,</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and the "
4423 "<quote>music publishing industry</quote> was thereby <quote>at the complete "
4424 "mercy of this one pirate.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
4425 "As John Philip Sousa put it, in as direct a way as possible, <quote>When "
4426 "they make money out of my pieces, I want a share of it.</quote><placeholder "
4427 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
4430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4431 #: freeculture.xml:3098
4432 msgid "American Graphophone Company"
4435 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4436 #: freeculture.xml:3099
4437 msgid "player pianos"
4441 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4442 #: freeculture.xml:3110
4444 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 283–84 "
4445 "(statement of Albert Walker, representative of the Auto-Music Perforating "
4446 "Company of New York)."
4450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4451 #: freeculture.xml:3121
4453 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 376 (prepared "
4454 "memorandum of Philip Mauro, general patent counsel of the American "
4455 "Graphophone Company Association)."
4458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4459 #: freeculture.xml:3102
4461 "These arguments have familiar echoes in the wars of our day. So, too, do the "
4462 "arguments on the other side. The innovators who developed the player piano "
4463 "argued that <quote>it is perfectly demonstrable that the introduction of "
4464 "automatic music players has not deprived any composer of anything he had "
4465 "before their introduction.</quote> Rather, the machines increased the sales "
4466 "of sheet music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In any case, the "
4467 "innovators argued, the job of Congress was <quote>to consider first the "
4468 "interest of [the public], whom they represent, and whose servants they "
4469 "are.</quote> <quote>All talk about `theft,'</quote> the general counsel of "
4470 "the American Graphophone Company wrote, <quote>is the merest claptrap, for "
4471 "there exists no property in ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as "
4472 "defined by statute.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
4476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4477 #: freeculture.xml:3127
4479 "The law soon resolved this battle in favor of the composer "
4480 "<emphasis>and</emphasis> the recording artist. Congress amended the law to "
4481 "make sure that composers would be paid for the <quote>mechanical "
4482 "reproductions</quote> of their music. But rather than simply granting the "
4483 "composer complete control over the right to make mechanical reproductions, "
4484 "Congress gave recording artists a right to record the music, at a price set "
4485 "by Congress, once the composer allowed it to be recorded once. This is the "
4486 "part of copyright law that makes cover songs possible. Once a composer "
4487 "authorizes a recording of his song, others are free to record the same song, "
4488 "so long as they pay the original composer a fee set by the law."
4491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4492 #: freeculture.xml:3142
4494 "American law ordinarily calls this a <quote>compulsory license,</quote> but "
4495 "I will refer to it as a <quote>statutory license.</quote> A statutory "
4496 "license is a license whose key terms are set by law. After Congress's "
4497 "amendment of the Copyright Act in 1909, record companies were free to "
4498 "distribute copies of recordings so long as they paid the composer (or "
4499 "copyright holder) the fee set by the statute."
4502 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4503 #: freeculture.xml:3157 freeculture.xml:14227
4504 msgid "Grisham, John"
4507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4508 #: freeculture.xml:3150
4510 "This is an exception within the law of copyright. When John Grisham writes a "
4511 "novel, a publisher is free to publish that novel only if Grisham gives the "
4512 "publisher permission. Grisham, in turn, is free to charge whatever he wants "
4513 "for that permission. The price to publish Grisham is thus set by Grisham, "
4514 "and copyright law ordinarily says you have no permission to use Grisham's "
4515 "work except with permission of Grisham. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4520 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4521 #: freeculture.xml:3174
4523 "Copyright Law Revision: Hearings on S. 2499, S. 2900, H.R. 243, and "
4524 "H.R. 11794 Before the ( Joint) Committee on Patents, 60th Cong., 1st sess., "
4525 "217 (1908) (statement of Senator Reed Smoot, chairman), reprinted in "
4526 "<citetitle>Legislative History of the 1909 Copyright Act</citetitle>, "
4527 "E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman "
4531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4532 #: freeculture.xml:3160
4534 "But the law governing recordings gives recording artists less. And thus, in "
4535 "effect, the law <emphasis>subsidizes</emphasis> the recording industry "
4536 "through a kind of piracy—by giving recording artists a weaker right "
4537 "than it otherwise gives creative authors. The Beatles have less control over "
4538 "their creative work than Grisham does. And the beneficiaries of this less "
4539 "control are the recording industry and the public. The recording industry "
4540 "gets something of value for less than it otherwise would pay; the public "
4541 "gets access to a much wider range of musical creativity. Indeed, Congress "
4542 "was quite explicit about its reasons for granting this right. Its fear was "
4543 "the monopoly power of rights holders, and that that power would stifle "
4544 "follow-on creativity.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4545 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4549 #: freeculture.xml:3183
4551 "While the recording industry has been quite coy about this recently, "
4552 "historically it has been quite a supporter of the statutory license for "
4553 "records. As a 1967 report from the House Committee on the Judiciary relates,"
4557 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4558 #: freeculture.xml:3205
4560 "Copyright Law Revision: Report to Accompany H.R. 2512, House Committee on "
4561 "the Judiciary, 90th Cong., 1st sess., House Document no. 83, (8 March "
4562 "1967). I am grateful to Glenn Brown for drawing my attention to this report."
4565 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4566 #: freeculture.xml:3190
4568 "the record producers argued vigorously that the compulsory license system "
4569 "must be retained. They asserted that the record industry is a "
4570 "half-billion-dollar business of great economic importance in the United "
4571 "States and throughout the world; records today are the principal means of "
4572 "disseminating music, and this creates special problems, since performers "
4573 "need unhampered access to musical material on nondiscriminatory "
4574 "terms. Historically, the record producers pointed out, there were no "
4575 "recording rights before 1909 and the 1909 statute adopted the compulsory "
4576 "license as a deliberate anti-monopoly condition on the grant of these "
4577 "rights. They argue that the result has been an outpouring of recorded music, "
4578 "with the public being given lower prices, improved quality, and a greater "
4579 "choice.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4583 #: freeculture.xml:3212
4585 "By limiting the rights musicians have, by partially pirating their creative "
4586 "work, the record producers, and the public, benefit."
4589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4590 #: freeculture.xml:3217 freeculture.xml:4332
4594 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4595 #: freeculture.xml:3220
4596 msgid "Radio was also born of piracy."
4599 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4600 #: freeculture.xml:3235
4601 msgid "Hand, Learned"
4604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4605 #: freeculture.xml:3226
4607 "See 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, sections 106 and 110. At "
4608 "the beginning, record companies printed <quote>Not Licensed for Radio "
4609 "Broadcast</quote> and other messages purporting to restrict the ability to "
4610 "play a record on a radio station. Judge Learned Hand rejected the argument "
4611 "that a warning attached to a record might restrict the rights of the radio "
4612 "station. See <citetitle>RCA Manufacturing "
4613 "Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Whiteman</citetitle>, 114 F. 2d 86 (2nd "
4614 "Cir. 1940). See also Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison to the Broadcast "
4615 "Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of "
4616 "Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> "
4617 "70 (2003): 281. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4618 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4622 #: freeculture.xml:3223
4624 "When a radio station plays a record on the air, that constitutes a "
4625 "<quote>public performance</quote> of the composer's work.<placeholder "
4626 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As I described above, the law gives the "
4627 "composer (or copyright holder) an exclusive right to public performances of "
4628 "his work. The radio station thus owes the composer money for that "
4632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4633 #: freeculture.xml:3253 freeculture.xml:8910 freeculture.xml:9369 freeculture.xml:12356
4634 msgid "Lovett, Lyle"
4638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4639 #: freeculture.xml:3243
4641 "But when the radio station plays a record, it is not only performing a copy "
4642 "of the <emphasis>composer's</emphasis> work. The radio station is also "
4643 "performing a copy of the <emphasis>recording artist's</emphasis> work. It's "
4644 "one thing to have <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> sung on the radio by the "
4645 "local children's choir; it's quite another to have it sung by the Rolling "
4646 "Stones or Lyle Lovett. The recording artist is adding to the value of the "
4647 "composition performed on the radio station. And if the law were perfectly "
4648 "consistent, the radio station would have to pay the recording artist for his "
4649 "work, just as it pays the composer of the music for his work. <placeholder "
4650 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4654 #: freeculture.xml:3258
4656 "But it doesn't. Under the law governing radio performances, the radio "
4657 "station does not have to pay the recording artist. The radio station need "
4658 "only pay the composer. The radio station thus gets a bit of something for "
4659 "nothing. It gets to perform the recording artist's work for free, even if it "
4660 "must pay the composer something for the privilege of playing the song."
4663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4664 #: freeculture.xml:3265 freeculture.xml:3770 freeculture.xml:6229
4668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4669 #: freeculture.xml:3267
4671 "This difference can be huge. Imagine you compose a piece of music. Imagine "
4672 "it is your first. You own the exclusive right to authorize public "
4673 "performances of that music. So if Madonna wants to sing your song in public, "
4674 "she has to get your permission."
4677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4678 #: freeculture.xml:3273
4680 "Imagine she does sing your song, and imagine she likes it a lot. She then "
4681 "decides to make a recording of your song, and it becomes a top hit. Under "
4682 "our law, every time a radio station plays your song, you get some money. But "
4683 "Madonna gets nothing, save the indirect effect on the sale of her CDs. The "
4684 "public performance of her recording is not a <quote>protected</quote> "
4685 "right. The radio station thus gets to <emphasis>pirate</emphasis> the value "
4686 "of Madonna's work without paying her anything."
4689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4690 #: freeculture.xml:3284
4692 "No doubt, one might argue that, on balance, the recording artists "
4693 "benefit. On average, the promotion they get is worth more than the "
4694 "performance rights they give up. Maybe. But even if so, the law ordinarily "
4695 "gives the creator the right to make this choice. By making the choice for "
4696 "him or her, the law gives the radio station the right to take something for "
4700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4701 #: freeculture.xml:3294 freeculture.xml:4338
4705 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4706 #: freeculture.xml:3295 freeculture.xml:4166 freeculture.xml:8105 freeculture.xml:8144 freeculture.xml:14629
4707 msgid "cable television"
4710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4711 #: freeculture.xml:3297
4712 msgid "Cable TV was also born of a kind of piracy."
4716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4717 #: freeculture.xml:3300
4719 "When cable entrepreneurs first started wiring communities with cable "
4720 "television in 1948, most refused to pay broadcasters for the content that "
4721 "they echoed to their customers. Even when the cable companies started "
4722 "selling access to television broadcasts, they refused to pay for what they "
4723 "sold. Cable companies were thus Napsterizing broadcasters' content, but more "
4724 "egregiously than anything Napster ever did— Napster never charged for "
4725 "the content it enabled others to give away."
4728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4729 #: freeculture.xml:3310
4730 msgid "Anello, Douglas"
4733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4734 #: freeculture.xml:3311
4735 msgid "Burdick, Quentin"
4738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4739 #: freeculture.xml:3312 freeculture.xml:3323
4740 msgid "Hyde, Rosel H."
4743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4744 #: freeculture.xml:3318
4746 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV: Hearing on S. 1006 Before the "
4747 "Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Senate Committee "
4748 "on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 78 (1966) (statement of Rosel "
4749 "H. Hyde, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission). <placeholder "
4750 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4755 #: freeculture.xml:3330
4757 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 116 (statement of Douglas A. Anello, "
4758 "general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters)."
4761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4762 #: freeculture.xml:3314
4764 "Broadcasters and copyright owners were quick to attack this theft. Rosel "
4765 "Hyde, chairman of the FCC, viewed the practice as a kind of <quote>unfair "
4766 "and potentially destructive competition.</quote><placeholder "
4767 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There may have been a <quote>public "
4768 "interest</quote> in spreading the reach of cable TV, but as Douglas Anello, "
4769 "general counsel to the National Association of Broadcasters, asked Senator "
4770 "Quentin Burdick during testimony, <quote>Does public interest dictate that "
4771 "you use somebody else's property?</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4772 "id=\"1\"/> As another broadcaster put it,"
4776 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4777 #: freeculture.xml:3341
4779 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 126 (statement of Ernest W. Jennes, "
4780 "general counsel of the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters, Inc.)."
4783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4784 #: freeculture.xml:3337
4786 "The extraordinary thing about the CATV business is that it is the only "
4787 "business I know of where the product that is being sold is not paid "
4788 "for.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4791 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4792 #: freeculture.xml:3347
4793 msgid "Again, the demand of the copyright holders seemed reasonable enough:"
4797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4798 #: freeculture.xml:3356
4800 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 169 (joint statement of Arthur B. Krim, "
4801 "president of United Artists Corp., and John Sinn, president of United "
4802 "Artists Television, Inc.)."
4805 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4806 #: freeculture.xml:3351
4808 "All we are asking for is a very simple thing, that people who now take our "
4809 "property for nothing pay for it. We are trying to stop piracy and I don't "
4810 "think there is any lesser word to describe it. I think there are harsher "
4811 "words which would fit it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4815 #: freeculture.xml:3362 freeculture.xml:3370
4816 msgid "Heston, Charlton"
4819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4820 #: freeculture.xml:3368
4822 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 209 (statement of Charlton Heston, "
4823 "president of the Screen Actors Guild). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4828 #: freeculture.xml:3364
4830 "These were <quote>free-ride[rs],</quote> Screen Actor's Guild president "
4831 "Charlton Heston said, who were <quote>depriving actors of "
4832 "compensation.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4836 #: freeculture.xml:3375
4838 "But again, there was another side to the debate. As Assistant Attorney "
4839 "General Edwin Zimmerman put it,"
4842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
4843 #: freeculture.xml:3391 freeculture.xml:3393
4844 msgid "Zimmerman, Edwin"
4847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4848 #: freeculture.xml:3389
4850 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 216 (statement of Edwin M. Zimmerman, "
4851 "acting assistant attorney general). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4856 #: freeculture.xml:3380
4858 "Our point here is that unlike the problem of whether you have any copyright "
4859 "protection at all, the problem here is whether copyright holders who are "
4860 "already compensated, who already have a monopoly, should be permitted to "
4861 "extend that monopoly. … The question here is how much compensation "
4862 "they should have and how far back they should carry their right to "
4863 "compensation.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4864 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4868 #: freeculture.xml:3397
4870 "Copyright owners took the cable companies to court. Twice the Supreme Court "
4871 "held that the cable companies owed the copyright owners nothing."
4874 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4875 #: freeculture.xml:3401
4877 "It took Congress almost thirty years before it resolved the question of "
4878 "whether cable companies had to pay for the content they "
4879 "<quote>pirated.</quote> In the end, Congress resolved this question in the "
4880 "same way that it resolved the question about record players and player "
4881 "pianos. Yes, cable companies would have to pay for the content that they "
4882 "broadcast; but the price they would have to pay was not set by the copyright "
4883 "owner. The price was set by law, so that the broadcasters couldn't exercise "
4884 "veto power over the emerging technologies of cable. Cable companies thus "
4885 "built their empire in part upon a <quote>piracy</quote> of the value created "
4886 "by broadcasters' content."
4890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4891 #: freeculture.xml:3419
4893 "See, for example, National Music Publisher's Association, <citetitle>The "
4894 "Engine of Free Expression: Copyright on the Internet—The Myth of Free "
4895 "Information</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
4896 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #13</ulink>. <quote>The threat of "
4897 "piracy—the use of someone else's creative work without permission or "
4898 "compensation—has grown with the Internet.</quote>"
4901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4902 #: freeculture.xml:3414
4904 "<emphasis role='strong'>These separate stories</emphasis> sing a common "
4905 "theme. If <quote>piracy</quote> means using value from someone else's "
4906 "creative property without permission from that creator—as it is "
4907 "increasingly described today<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
4908 "— then <emphasis>every</emphasis> industry affected by copyright today "
4909 "is the product and beneficiary of a certain kind of piracy. Film, records, "
4910 "radio, cable TV. … The list is long and could well be expanded. Every "
4911 "generation welcomes the pirates from the last. Every generation—until "
4915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
4916 #: freeculture.xml:3436
4917 msgid "CHAPTER FIVE: <quote>Piracy</quote>"
4920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4921 #: freeculture.xml:3438
4923 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is piracy</emphasis> of copyrighted "
4924 "material. Lots of it. This piracy comes in many forms. The most significant "
4925 "is commercial piracy, the unauthorized taking of other people's content "
4926 "within a commercial context. Despite the many justifications that are "
4927 "offered in its defense, this taking is wrong. No one should condone it, and "
4928 "the law should stop it."
4932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4933 #: freeculture.xml:3446
4935 "But as well as copy-shop piracy, there is another kind of "
4936 "<quote>taking</quote> that is more directly related to the Internet. That "
4937 "taking, too, seems wrong to many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before "
4938 "we paint this taking <quote>piracy,</quote> however, we should understand "
4939 "its nature a bit more. For the harm of this taking is significantly more "
4940 "ambiguous than outright copying, and the law should account for that "
4941 "ambiguity, as it has so often done in the past."
4944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4945 #: freeculture.xml:3456
4949 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4950 #: freeculture.xml:3457 freeculture.xml:3537 freeculture.xml:3587 freeculture.xml:14631
4951 msgid "Asia, commercial piracy in"
4954 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4955 #: freeculture.xml:3458 freeculture.xml:3905 freeculture.xml:9370 freeculture.xml:10177 freeculture.xml:14022 freeculture.xml:14613
4959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4960 #: freeculture.xml:3458
4961 msgid "foreign piracy of"
4965 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4966 #: freeculture.xml:3466
4968 "See IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), "
4969 "<citetitle>The Recording Industry Commercial Piracy Report 2003</citetitle>, "
4970 "July 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
4971 "#14</ulink>. See also Ben Hunt, <quote>Companies Warned on Music Piracy "
4972 "Risk,</quote> <citetitle>Financial Times</citetitle>, 14 February 2003, 11."
4975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4976 #: freeculture.xml:3460
4978 "All across the world, but especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, there are "
4979 "businesses that do nothing but take others people's copyrighted content, "
4980 "copy it, and sell it—all without the permission of a copyright "
4981 "owner. The recording industry estimates that it loses about $4.6 billion "
4982 "every year to physical piracy<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> (that "
4983 "works out to one in three CDs sold worldwide). The MPAA estimates that it "
4984 "loses $3 billion annually worldwide to piracy."
4987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4988 #: freeculture.xml:3476
4990 "This is piracy plain and simple. Nothing in the argument of this book, nor "
4991 "in the argument that most people make when talking about the subject of this "
4992 "book, should draw into doubt this simple point: This piracy is wrong."
4995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4996 #: freeculture.xml:3482
4998 "Which is not to say that excuses and justifications couldn't be made for "
4999 "it. We could, for example, remind ourselves that for the first one hundred "
5000 "years of the American Republic, America did not honor foreign copyrights. We "
5001 "were born, in this sense, a pirate nation. It might therefore seem "
5002 "hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations "
5003 "treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, "
5007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5008 #: freeculture.xml:3491
5010 "That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the "
5011 "taking of foreign works. It explicitly limited itself to American "
5012 "works. Thus the American publishers who published foreign works without the "
5013 "permission of foreign authors were not violating any rule. The copy shops "
5014 "in Asia, by contrast, are violating Asian law. Asian law does protect "
5015 "foreign copyrights, and the actions of the copy shops violate that law. So "
5016 "the wrong of piracy that they engage in is not just a moral wrong, but a "
5017 "legal wrong, and not just an internationally legal wrong, but a locally "
5018 "legal wrong as well."
5022 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5023 #: freeculture.xml:3502
5025 "True, these local rules have, in effect, been imposed upon these "
5026 "countries. No country can be part of the world economy and choose not to "
5027 "protect copyright internationally. We may have been born a pirate nation, "
5028 "but we will not allow any other nation to have a similar childhood."
5031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5032 #: freeculture.xml:3530
5033 msgid "agricultural patents"
5036 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5037 #: freeculture.xml:3531 freeculture.xml:12640 freeculture.xml:13093 freeculture.xml:13100
5038 msgid "Drahos, Peter"
5041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5042 #: freeculture.xml:3515
5044 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: "
5045 "<citetitle>Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New "
5046 "Press, 2003), 10–13, 209. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual "
5047 "Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement obligates member nations to create "
5048 "administrative and enforcement mechanisms for intellectual property rights, "
5049 "a costly proposition for developing countries. Additionally, patent rights "
5050 "may lead to higher prices for staple industries such as agriculture. Critics "
5051 "of TRIPS question the disparity between burdens imposed upon developing "
5052 "countries and benefits conferred to industrialized nations. TRIPS does "
5053 "permit governments to use patents for public, noncommercial uses without "
5054 "first obtaining the patent holder's permission. Developing nations may be "
5055 "able to use this to gain the benefits of foreign patents at lower "
5056 "prices. This is a promising strategy for developing nations within the TRIPS "
5057 "framework. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
5058 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5062 #: freeculture.xml:3510
5064 "If a country is to be treated as a sovereign, however, then its laws are its "
5065 "laws regardless of their source. The international law under which these "
5066 "nations live gives them some opportunities to escape the burden of "
5067 "intellectual property law.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In my "
5068 "view, more developing nations should take advantage of that opportunity, but "
5069 "when they don't, then their laws should be respected. And under the laws of "
5070 "these nations, this piracy is wrong."
5073 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5074 #: freeculture.xml:3552 freeculture.xml:3826 freeculture.xml:14779
5075 msgid "Liebowitz, Stan"
5078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5079 #: freeculture.xml:3545
5081 "For an analysis of the economic impact of copying technology, see Stan "
5082 "Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle> (New York: "
5083 "Amacom, 2002), 144–90. <quote>In some instances … the impact of "
5084 "piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the "
5085 "work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the "
5086 "individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if "
5087 "pirating were not an option.</quote> Ibid., 149. <placeholder "
5088 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5092 #: freeculture.xml:3539
5094 "Alternatively, we could try to excuse this piracy by noting that in any "
5095 "case, it does no harm to the industry. The Chinese who get access to "
5096 "American CDs at 50 cents a copy are not people who would have bought those "
5097 "American CDs at $15 a copy. So no one really has any less money than they "
5098 "otherwise would have had.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5102 #: freeculture.xml:3556
5104 "This is often true (though I have friends who have purchased many thousands "
5105 "of pirated DVDs who certainly have enough money to pay for the content they "
5106 "have taken), and it does mitigate to some degree the harm caused by such "
5107 "taking. Extremists in this debate love to say, <quote>You wouldn't go into "
5108 "Barnes & Noble and take a book off of the shelf without paying; why "
5109 "should it be any different with on-line music?</quote> The difference is, of "
5110 "course, that when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less "
5111 "book to sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, "
5112 "there is not one less CD that can be sold. The physics of piracy of the "
5113 "intangible are different from the physics of piracy of the tangible."
5117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5118 #: freeculture.xml:3570
5120 "This argument is still very weak. However, although copyright is a property "
5121 "right of a very special sort, it <emphasis>is</emphasis> a property "
5122 "right. Like all property rights, the copyright gives the owner the right to "
5123 "decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner "
5124 "doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important "
5125 "statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish "
5126 "of the copyright owner. Those licenses give people the right to "
5127 "<quote>take</quote> copyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner "
5128 "wants to sell. But where the law does not give people the right to take "
5129 "content, it is wrong to take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If "
5130 "we have a property system, and that system is properly balanced to the "
5131 "technology of a time, then it is wrong to take property without the "
5132 "permission of a property owner. That is exactly what <quote>property</quote> "
5136 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5137 #: freeculture.xml:3588 freeculture.xml:14632
5141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5142 #: freeculture.xml:3589
5143 msgid "free software/open-source software (FS/OSS)"
5146 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5147 #: freeculture.xml:3590 freeculture.xml:3620 freeculture.xml:11444 freeculture.xml:12939 freeculture.xml:13537
5148 msgid "GNU/Linux operating system"
5151 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5152 #: freeculture.xml:3591 freeculture.xml:3621 freeculture.xml:11446 freeculture.xml:12940 freeculture.xml:13538
5153 msgid "Linux operating system"
5156 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
5157 #: freeculture.xml:3592 freeculture.xml:3594 freeculture.xml:3595 freeculture.xml:5259 freeculture.xml:7744 freeculture.xml:12992
5161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5162 #: freeculture.xml:3592
5163 msgid "competitive strategies of"
5166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5167 #: freeculture.xml:3593
5171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5172 #: freeculture.xml:3594
5173 msgid "international software piracy of"
5176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5177 #: freeculture.xml:3595
5178 msgid "Windows operating system of"
5181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5182 #: freeculture.xml:3597
5184 "Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the "
5185 "piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese "
5186 "<quote>steal</quote> Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on "
5187 "Microsoft. Microsoft loses the value of the software that was taken. But it "
5188 "gains users who are used to life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the "
5189 "nation grows more wealthy, more and more people will buy software rather "
5190 "than steal it. And hence over time, because that buying will benefit "
5191 "Microsoft, Microsoft benefits from the piracy. If instead of pirating "
5192 "Microsoft Windows, the Chinese used the free GNU/Linux operating system, "
5193 "then these Chinese users would not eventually be buying Microsoft. Without "
5194 "piracy, then, Microsoft would lose."
5197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5198 #: freeculture.xml:3609
5202 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5203 #: freeculture.xml:3609
5204 msgid "databases of case reports in"
5207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5208 #: freeculture.xml:3611
5210 "This argument, too, is somewhat true. The addiction strategy is a good "
5211 "one. Many businesses practice it. Some thrive because of it. Law students, "
5212 "for example, are given free access to the two largest legal databases. The "
5213 "companies marketing both hope the students will become so used to their "
5214 "service that they will want to use it and not the other when they become "
5215 "lawyers (and must pay high subscription fees)."
5218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5219 #: freeculture.xml:3618
5223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5224 #: freeculture.xml:3619
5225 msgid "Internet Explorer"
5228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5229 #: freeculture.xml:3623
5231 "Still, the argument is not terribly persuasive. We don't give the alcoholic "
5232 "a defense when he steals his first beer, merely because that will make it "
5233 "more likely that he will buy the next three. Instead, we ordinarily allow "
5234 "businesses to decide for themselves when it is best to give their product "
5235 "away. If Microsoft fears the competition of GNU/Linux, then Microsoft can "
5236 "give its product away, as it did, for example, with Internet Explorer to "
5237 "fight Netscape. A property right means giving the property owner the right "
5238 "to say who gets access to what—at least ordinarily. And if the law "
5239 "properly balances the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of "
5240 "access, then violating the law is still wrong."
5244 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5245 #: freeculture.xml:3637
5247 "Thus, while I understand the pull of these justifications for piracy, and I "
5248 "certainly see the motivation, in my view, in the end, these efforts at "
5249 "justifying commercial piracy simply don't cut it. This kind of piracy is "
5250 "rampant and just plain wrong. It doesn't transform the content it steals; it "
5251 "doesn't transform the market it competes in. It merely gives someone access "
5252 "to something that the law says he should not have. Nothing has changed to "
5253 "draw that law into doubt. This form of piracy is flat out wrong."
5256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5257 #: freeculture.xml:3647
5259 "But as the examples from the four chapters that introduced this part "
5260 "suggest, even if some piracy is plainly wrong, not all <quote>piracy</quote> "
5261 "is. Or at least, not all <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong if that term is "
5262 "understood in the way it is increasingly used today. Many kinds of "
5263 "<quote>piracy</quote> are useful and productive, to produce either new "
5264 "content or new ways of doing business. Neither our tradition nor any "
5265 "tradition has ever banned all <quote>piracy</quote> in that sense of the "
5269 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5270 #: freeculture.xml:3656
5272 "This doesn't mean that there are no questions raised by the latest piracy "
5273 "concern, peer-to-peer file sharing. But it does mean that we need to "
5274 "understand the harm in peer-to-peer sharing a bit more before we condemn it "
5275 "to the gallows with the charge of piracy."
5278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5279 #: freeculture.xml:3662
5281 "For (1) like the original Hollywood, p2p sharing escapes an overly "
5282 "controlling industry; and (2) like the original recording industry, it "
5283 "simply exploits a new way to distribute content; but (3) unlike cable TV, no "
5284 "one is selling the content that is shared on p2p services."
5287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5288 #: freeculture.xml:3668
5290 "These differences distinguish p2p sharing from true piracy. They should push "
5291 "us to find a way to protect artists while enabling this sharing to survive."
5294 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
5295 #: freeculture.xml:3674
5300 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5301 #: freeculture.xml:3679
5303 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
5304 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777)."
5308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5309 #: freeculture.xml:3676
5311 "The key to the <quote>piracy</quote> that the law aims to quash is a use "
5312 "that <quote>rob[s] the author of [his] profit.</quote><placeholder "
5313 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This means we must determine whether and how "
5314 "much p2p sharing harms before we know how strongly the law should seek to "
5315 "either prevent it or find an alternative to assure the author of his profit."
5318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5319 #: freeculture.xml:3687 freeculture.xml:3695
5323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5324 #: freeculture.xml:3688
5325 msgid "Fanning, Shawn"
5328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5329 #: freeculture.xml:3705 freeculture.xml:8338
5330 msgid "Christensen, Clayton M."
5333 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5334 #: freeculture.xml:3695
5336 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Clayton M. Christensen, "
5337 "<citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary National Bestseller "
5338 "That Changed the Way We Do Business</citetitle> (New York: HarperBusiness, "
5339 "2000). Professor Christensen examines why companies that give rise to and "
5340 "dominate a product area are frequently unable to come up with the most "
5341 "creative, paradigm-shifting uses for their own products. This job usually "
5342 "falls to outside innovators, who reassemble existing technology in inventive "
5343 "ways. For a discussion of Christensen's ideas, see Lawrence Lessig, "
5344 "<citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 89–92, 139. <placeholder "
5345 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5349 #: freeculture.xml:3690
5351 "Peer-to-peer sharing was made famous by Napster. But the inventors of the "
5352 "Napster technology had not made any major technological innovations. Like "
5353 "every great advance in innovation on the Internet (and, arguably, off the "
5354 "Internet as well<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), Shawn Fanning "
5355 "and crew had simply put together components that had been developed "
5360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5361 #: freeculture.xml:3715
5363 "See Carolyn Lochhead, <quote>Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood "
5364 "Nightmare,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 "
5365 "September 2002, A1; <quote>Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,</quote> <citetitle>New "
5366 "Scientist</citetitle>, 6 July 2002, 42; Benny Evangelista, <quote>Napster "
5367 "Names CEO, Secures New Financing,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
5368 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 23 May 2003, C1; <quote>Napster's Wake-Up "
5369 "Call,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 24 June 2000, 23; John "
5370 "Naughton, <quote>Hollywood at War with the Internet</quote> (London) "
5371 "<citetitle>Times</citetitle>, 26 July 2002, 18."
5374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5375 #: freeculture.xml:3710
5377 "The result was spontaneous combustion. Launched in July 1999, Napster "
5378 "amassed over 10 million users within nine months. After eighteen months, "
5379 "there were close to 80 million registered users of the system.<placeholder "
5380 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Courts quickly shut Napster down, but other "
5381 "services emerged to take its place. (Kazaa is currently the most popular p2p "
5382 "service. It boasts over 100 million members.) These services' systems are "
5383 "different architecturally, though not very different in function: Each "
5384 "enables users to make content available to any number of other users. With a "
5385 "p2p system, you can share your favorite songs with your best friend— "
5386 "or your 20,000 best friends."
5390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5391 #: freeculture.xml:3737
5393 "See Ipsos-Insight, <citetitle>TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Online Music "
5394 "Distribution</citetitle> (September 2002), reporting that 28 percent of "
5395 "Americans aged twelve and older have downloaded music off of the Internet "
5396 "and 30 percent have listened to digital music files stored on their "
5401 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5402 #: freeculture.xml:3746
5404 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight,</quote> "
5405 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 6 June 2003, A1."
5408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5409 #: freeculture.xml:3731
5411 "According to a number of estimates, a huge proportion of Americans have "
5412 "tasted file-sharing technology. A study by Ipsos-Insight in September 2002 "
5413 "estimated that 60 million Americans had downloaded music—28 percent of "
5414 "Americans older than 12.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A survey "
5415 "by the NPD group quoted in <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> "
5416 "estimated that 43 million citizens used file-sharing networks to exchange "
5417 "content in May 2003.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The vast "
5418 "majority of these are not kids. Whatever the actual figure, a massive "
5419 "quantity of content is being <quote>taken</quote> on these networks. The "
5420 "ease and inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to "
5421 "enjoy music in a way that they hadn't before."
5424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5425 #: freeculture.xml:3755
5427 "Some of this enjoying involves copyright infringement. Some of it does "
5428 "not. And even among the part that is technically copyright infringement, "
5429 "calculating the actual harm to copyright owners is more complicated than one "
5430 "might think. So consider—a bit more carefully than the polarized "
5431 "voices around this debate usually do—the kinds of sharing that file "
5432 "sharing enables, and the kinds of harm it entails."
5436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5437 #: freeculture.xml:3765
5439 "File sharers share different kinds of content. We can divide these different "
5440 "kinds into four types."
5444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5445 #: freeculture.xml:3773
5447 "There are some who use sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
5448 "content. Thus, when a new Madonna CD is released, rather than buying the CD, "
5449 "these users simply take it. We might quibble about whether everyone who "
5450 "takes it would actually have bought it if sharing didn't make it available "
5451 "for free. Most probably wouldn't have, but clearly there are some who "
5452 "would. The latter are the target of category A: users who download instead "
5457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5458 #: freeculture.xml:3783
5460 "There are some who use sharing networks to sample music before purchasing "
5461 "it. Thus, a friend sends another friend an MP3 of an artist he's not heard "
5462 "of. The other friend then buys CDs by that artist. This is a kind of "
5463 "targeted advertising, quite likely to succeed. If the friend recommending "
5464 "the album gains nothing from a bad recommendation, then one could expect "
5465 "that the recommendations will actually be quite good. The net effect of this "
5466 "sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased."
5470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5471 #: freeculture.xml:3794
5473 "There are many who use sharing networks to get access to copyrighted content "
5474 "that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the "
5475 "transaction costs off the Net are too high. This use of sharing networks is "
5476 "among the most rewarding for many. Songs that were part of your childhood "
5477 "but have long vanished from the marketplace magically appear again on the "
5478 "network. (One friend told me that when she discovered Napster, she spent a "
5479 "solid weekend <quote>recalling</quote> old songs. She was astonished at the "
5480 "range and mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is "
5481 "still technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright "
5482 "owner is not selling the content anymore, the economic harm is "
5483 "zero—the same harm that occurs when I sell my collection of 1960s "
5484 "45-rpm records to a local collector."
5489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5490 #: freeculture.xml:3811
5492 "Finally, there are many who use sharing networks to get access to content "
5493 "that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away."
5496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5497 #: freeculture.xml:3817
5498 msgid "How do these different types of sharing balance out?"
5501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5502 #: freeculture.xml:3825
5504 "See Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle>, "
5505 "148–49. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5509 #: freeculture.xml:3820
5511 "Let's start with some simple but important points. From the perspective of "
5512 "the law, only type D sharing is clearly legal. From the perspective of "
5513 "economics, only type A sharing is clearly harmful.<placeholder "
5514 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Type B sharing is illegal but plainly "
5515 "beneficial. Type C sharing is illegal, yet good for society (since more "
5516 "exposure to music is good) and harmless to the artist (since the work is "
5517 "not otherwise available). So how sharing matters on balance is a hard "
5518 "question to answer—and certainly much more difficult than the current "
5519 "rhetoric around the issue suggests."
5522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5523 #: freeculture.xml:3836
5525 "Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful "
5526 "type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers "
5527 "complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and "
5528 "broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music industry complains that "
5529 "type A sharing is a kind of <quote>theft</quote> that is "
5530 "<quote>devastating</quote> the industry."
5533 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5534 #: freeculture.xml:3843 freeculture.xml:3852 freeculture.xml:4195 freeculture.xml:7904 freeculture.xml:7933 freeculture.xml:9631 freeculture.xml:14339
5535 msgid "cassette recording"
5538 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5539 #: freeculture.xml:3843 freeculture.xml:4195 freeculture.xml:7904 freeculture.xml:7933 freeculture.xml:9631 freeculture.xml:9632 freeculture.xml:14339 freeculture.xml:14340
5543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5544 #: freeculture.xml:3852
5546 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, "
5547 "<citetitle>Technology Evolution and the Music Industry's Business Model "
5548 "Crisis</citetitle> (2003), 3. This report describes the music industry's "
5549 "effort to stigmatize the budding practice of cassette taping in the 1970s, "
5550 "including an advertising campaign featuring a cassette-shape skull and the "
5551 "caption <quote>Home taping is killing music.</quote> At the time digital "
5552 "audio tape became a threat, the Office of Technical Assessment conducted a "
5553 "survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 percent of consumers older than ten "
5554 "had taped music to a cassette format. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology "
5555 "Assessment, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges the "
5556 "Law</citetitle>, OTA-CIT-422 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing "
5557 "Office, October 1989), 145–56."
5560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5561 #: freeculture.xml:3845
5563 "While the numbers do suggest that sharing is harmful, how harmful is harder "
5564 "to reckon. It has long been the recording industry's practice to blame "
5565 "technology for any drop in sales. The history of cassette recording is a "
5566 "good example. As a study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put it, "
5567 "<quote>Rather than exploiting this new, popular technology, the labels "
5568 "fought it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The labels "
5569 "claimed that every album taped was an album unsold, and when record sales "
5570 "fell by 11.4 percent in 1981, the industry claimed that its point was "
5571 "proved. Technology was the problem, and banning or regulating technology was "
5575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5576 #: freeculture.xml:3870
5581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5582 #: freeculture.xml:3880
5583 msgid "U.S. Congress, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying</citetitle>, 4."
5586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5587 #: freeculture.xml:3872
5589 "Yet soon thereafter, and before Congress was given an opportunity to enact "
5590 "regulation, MTV was launched, and the industry had a record "
5591 "turnaround. <quote>In the end,</quote> Cap Gemini concludes, <quote>the "
5592 "`crisis' … was not the fault of the tapers—who did not [stop "
5593 "after MTV came into being]—but had to a large extent resulted from "
5594 "stagnation in musical innovation at the major labels.</quote><placeholder "
5595 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5598 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5599 #: freeculture.xml:3885
5601 "But just because the industry was wrong before does not mean it is wrong "
5602 "today. To evaluate the real threat that p2p sharing presents to the industry "
5603 "in particular, and society in general—or at least the society that "
5604 "inherits the tradition that gave us the film industry, the record industry, "
5605 "the radio industry, cable TV, and the VCR—the question is not simply "
5606 "whether type A sharing is harmful. The question is also "
5607 "<emphasis>how</emphasis> harmful type A sharing is, and how beneficial the "
5608 "other types of sharing are."
5611 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5612 #: freeculture.xml:3895
5614 "We start to answer this question by focusing on the net harm, from the "
5615 "standpoint of the industry as a whole, that sharing networks cause. The "
5616 "<quote>net harm</quote> to the industry as a whole is the amount by which "
5617 "type A sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records "
5618 "through sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks "
5619 "would actually benefit music companies on balance. They would therefore have "
5620 "little <emphasis>static</emphasis> reason to resist them."
5623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5624 #: freeculture.xml:3905
5625 msgid "sales levels of"
5628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5629 #: freeculture.xml:3907
5631 "Could that be true? Could the industry as a whole be gaining because of file "
5632 "sharing? Odd as that might sound, the data about CD sales actually suggest "
5633 "it might be close."
5637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5638 #: freeculture.xml:3916
5640 "See Recording Industry Association of America, <citetitle>2002 Yearend "
5641 "Statistics</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5642 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #15</ulink>. A later report "
5643 "indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of "
5644 "America, <citetitle>Some Facts About Music Piracy</citetitle>, 25 June 2003, "
5645 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #16</ulink>: "
5646 "<quote>In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen "
5647 "by 26 percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the "
5648 "United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are "
5649 "down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on "
5650 "U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from "
5651 "a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based "
5652 "on U.S. dollar value of shipments).</quote>"
5655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5656 #: freeculture.xml:3943
5660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5661 #: freeculture.xml:3940
5663 "Jane Black, <quote>Big Music's Broken Record,</quote> BusinessWeek online, "
5664 "13 February 2003, available at <ulink "
5665 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #17</ulink>. <placeholder "
5666 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5670 #: freeculture.xml:3912
5672 "In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 "
5673 "million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent.<placeholder "
5674 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This confirms a trend over the past few "
5675 "years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many "
5676 "other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, "
5677 "reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since "
5678 "1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales. Rising "
5679 "prices could account for at least some of the loss. <quote>From 1999 to "
5680 "2001, the average price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to "
5681 "$14.19.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Competition from "
5682 "other forms of media could also account for some of the decline. As Jane "
5683 "Black of <citetitle>BusinessWeek</citetitle> notes, <quote>The soundtrack to "
5684 "the film <citetitle>High Fidelity</citetitle> has a list price of "
5685 "$18.98. You could get the whole movie [on DVD] for "
5686 "$19.99.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
5690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5691 #: freeculture.xml:3958
5693 "But let's assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is "
5694 "because of Internet sharing. Here's the rub: In the same period that the "
5695 "RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 "
5696 "billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total "
5697 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 "
5701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5702 #: freeculture.xml:3966
5704 "There are too many different things happening at the same time to explain "
5705 "these numbers definitively, but one conclusion is unavoidable: The recording "
5706 "industry constantly asks, <quote>What's the difference between downloading a "
5707 "song and stealing a CD?</quote>—but their own numbers reveal the "
5708 "difference. If I steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking "
5709 "is a lost sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is "
5710 "absolutely clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download "
5711 "were a lost sale—if every use of Kazaa <quote>rob[bed] the author of "
5712 "[his] profit</quote>—then the industry would have suffered a 100 "
5713 "percent drop in sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the "
5714 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped "
5715 "by just 6.7 percent, then there is a huge difference between "
5716 "<quote>downloading a song and stealing a CD.</quote>"
5719 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5720 #: freeculture.xml:3982
5722 "These are the harms—alleged and perhaps exaggerated but, let's assume, "
5723 "real. What of the benefits? File sharing may impose costs on the recording "
5724 "industry. What value does it produce in addition to these costs?"
5728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5729 #: freeculture.xml:3994
5731 "By one estimate, 75 percent of the music released by the major labels is no "
5732 "longer in print. See Online Entertainment and Copyright Law—Coming "
5733 "Soon to a Digital Device Near You: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on "
5734 "the Judiciary, 107th Cong., 1st sess. (3 April 2001) (prepared statement of "
5735 "the Future of Music Coalition), available at <ulink "
5736 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #18</ulink>."
5739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5740 #: freeculture.xml:3988
5742 "One benefit is type C sharing—making available content that is "
5743 "technically still under copyright but is no longer commercially available. "
5744 "This is not a small category of content. There are millions of tracks that "
5745 "are no longer commercially available.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5746 "id=\"0\"/> And while it's conceivable that some of this content is not "
5747 "available because the artist producing the content doesn't want it to be "
5748 "made available, the vast majority of it is unavailable solely because the "
5749 "publisher or the distributor has decided it no longer makes economic sense "
5750 "<emphasis>to the company</emphasis> to make it available."
5753 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5754 #: freeculture.xml:4007 freeculture.xml:4015 freeculture.xml:4037 freeculture.xml:4059 freeculture.xml:4547 freeculture.xml:5876 freeculture.xml:5881 freeculture.xml:5933 freeculture.xml:6808 freeculture.xml:6809 freeculture.xml:7149 freeculture.xml:7211 freeculture.xml:7245 freeculture.xml:7454 freeculture.xml:13725 freeculture.xml:14451 freeculture.xml:14452
5758 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5759 #: freeculture.xml:4007 freeculture.xml:4015 freeculture.xml:6809 freeculture.xml:14452
5763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5764 #: freeculture.xml:4015
5766 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> While there are not good "
5767 "estimates of the number of used record stores in existence, in 2002, there "
5768 "were 7,198 used book dealers in the United States, an increase of 20 percent "
5769 "since 1993. See Book Hunter Press, <citetitle>The Quiet Revolution: The "
5770 "Expansion of the Used Book Market</citetitle> (2002), available at <ulink "
5771 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #19</ulink>. Used records "
5772 "accounted for $260 million in sales in 2002. See National Association of "
5773 "Recording Merchandisers, <quote>2002 Annual Survey Results,</quote> "
5774 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #20</ulink>."
5777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5778 #: freeculture.xml:4009
5780 "In real space—long before the Internet—the market had a simple "
5781 "response to this problem: used book and record stores. There are thousands "
5782 "of used book and used record stores in America today.<placeholder "
5783 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These stores buy content from owners, then sell "
5784 "the content they buy. And under American copyright law, when they buy and "
5785 "sell this content, <emphasis>even if the content is still under "
5786 "copyright</emphasis>, the copyright owner doesn't get a dime. Used book and "
5787 "record stores are commercial entities; their owners make money from the "
5788 "content they sell; but as with cable companies before statutory licensing, "
5789 "they don't have to pay the copyright owner for the content they sell."
5792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5793 #: freeculture.xml:4036
5794 msgid "Bernstein, Leonard"
5797 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5798 #: freeculture.xml:4037 freeculture.xml:5876 freeculture.xml:5881 freeculture.xml:6808 freeculture.xml:14451
5799 msgid "out of print"
5802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5803 #: freeculture.xml:4039
5805 "Type C sharing, then, is very much like used book stores or used record "
5806 "stores. It is different, of course, because the person making the content "
5807 "available isn't making money from making the content available. It is also "
5808 "different, of course, because in real space, when I sell a record, I don't "
5809 "have it anymore, while in cyberspace, when someone shares my 1949 recording "
5810 "of Bernstein's <quote>Two Love Songs,</quote> I still have it. That "
5811 "difference would matter economically if the owner of the copyright were "
5812 "selling the record in competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the "
5813 "class of content that is not currently commercially available. The Internet "
5814 "is making it available, through cooperative sharing, without competing with "
5818 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5819 #: freeculture.xml:4052
5821 "It may well be, all things considered, that it would be better if the "
5822 "copyright owner got something from this trade. But just because it may well "
5823 "be better, it doesn't follow that it would be good to ban used book "
5824 "stores. Or put differently, if you think that type C sharing should be "
5825 "stopped, do you think that libraries and used book stores should be shut as "
5829 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5830 #: freeculture.xml:4059 freeculture.xml:13725
5831 msgid "free on-line releases of"
5835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5836 #: freeculture.xml:4061
5838 "Finally, and perhaps most importantly, file-sharing networks enable type D "
5839 "sharing to occur—the sharing of content that copyright owners want to "
5840 "have shared or for which there is no continuing copyright. This sharing "
5841 "clearly benefits authors and society. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow, "
5842 "for example, released his first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
5843 "Kingdom</citetitle>, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same "
5844 "day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution "
5845 "would be a great advertisement for the <quote>real</quote> book. People "
5846 "would read part on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or "
5847 "not. If they liked it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's "
5848 "content is type D content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, "
5849 "then both he and society are better off. (Actually, much better off: It is a "
5853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5854 #: freeculture.xml:4079
5856 "Likewise for work in the public domain: This sharing benefits society with "
5857 "no legal harm to authors at all. If efforts to solve the problem of type A "
5858 "sharing destroy the opportunity for type D sharing, then we lose something "
5859 "important in order to protect type A content."
5862 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5863 #: freeculture.xml:4085
5865 "The point throughout is this: While the recording industry understandably "
5866 "says, <quote>This is how much we've lost,</quote> we must also ask, "
5867 "<quote>How much has society gained from p2p sharing? What are the "
5868 "efficiencies? What is the content that otherwise would be "
5869 "unavailable?</quote>"
5872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5873 #: freeculture.xml:4092
5875 "For unlike the piracy I described in the first section of this chapter, much "
5876 "of the <quote>piracy</quote> that file sharing enables is plainly legal and "
5877 "good. And like the piracy I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
5878 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"pirates\"/>, much of this piracy is motivated by a "
5879 "new way of spreading content caused by changes in the technology of "
5880 "distribution. Thus, consistent with the tradition that gave us Hollywood, "
5881 "radio, the recording industry, and cable TV, the question we should be "
5882 "asking about file sharing is how best to preserve its benefits while "
5883 "minimizing (to the extent possible) the wrongful harm it causes artists. The "
5884 "question is one of balance. The law should seek that balance, and that "
5885 "balance will be found only with time."
5888 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5889 #: freeculture.xml:4106
5891 "<quote>But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the "
5892 "target just what you call type A sharing?</quote>"
5896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5897 #: freeculture.xml:4123
5899 "See Transcript of Proceedings, In Re: Napster Copyright Litigation at 34- 35 "
5900 "(N.D. Cal., 11 July 2001), nos. MDL-00-1369 MHP, C 99-5183 MHP, available at "
5901 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #21</ulink>. For an "
5902 "account of the litigation and its toll on Napster, see Joseph Menn, "
5903 "<citetitle>All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's "
5904 "Napster</citetitle> (New York: Crown Business, 2003), 269–82."
5907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5908 #: freeculture.xml:4110
5910 "You would think. And we should hope. But so far, it is not. The effect of "
5911 "the war purportedly on type A sharing alone has been felt far beyond that "
5912 "one class of sharing. That much is obvious from the Napster case "
5913 "itself. When Napster told the district court that it had developed a "
5914 "technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing "
5915 "material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not "
5916 "good enough. Napster had to push the infringements <quote>down to "
5917 "zero.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5921 #: freeculture.xml:4134
5923 "If 99.4 percent is not good enough, then this is a war on file-sharing "
5924 "technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. There is no way to assure "
5925 "that a p2p system is used 100 percent of the time in compliance with the "
5926 "law, any more than there is a way to assure that 100 percent of VCRs or 100 "
5927 "percent of Xerox machines or 100 percent of handguns are used in compliance "
5928 "with the law. Zero tolerance means zero p2p. The court's ruling means that "
5929 "we as a society must lose the benefits of p2p, even for the totally legal "
5930 "and beneficial uses they serve, simply to assure that there are zero "
5931 "copyright infringements caused by p2p."
5934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5935 #: freeculture.xml:4145
5937 "Zero tolerance has not been our history. It has not produced the content "
5938 "industry that we know today. The history of American law has been a process "
5939 "of balance. As new technologies changed the way content was distributed, the "
5940 "law adjusted, after some time, to the new technology. In this adjustment, "
5941 "the law sought to ensure the legitimate rights of creators while protecting "
5942 "innovation. Sometimes this has meant more rights for creators. Sometimes "
5946 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5947 #: freeculture.xml:4155
5949 "So, as we've seen, when <quote>mechanical reproduction</quote> threatened "
5950 "the interests of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers "
5951 "against the interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to "
5952 "composers, but also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but "
5953 "at a price set by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the "
5954 "recordings made by these recording artists, and they complained to Congress "
5955 "that their <quote>creative property</quote> was not being respected (since "
5956 "the radio station did not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), "
5957 "Congress rejected their claim. An indirect benefit was enough."
5960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5961 #: freeculture.xml:4168
5963 "Cable TV followed the pattern of record albums. When the courts rejected the "
5964 "claim that cable broadcasters had to pay for the content they rebroadcast, "
5965 "Congress responded by giving broadcasters a right to compensation, but at a "
5966 "level set by the law. It likewise gave cable companies the right to the "
5967 "content, so long as they paid the statutory price."
5971 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5972 #: freeculture.xml:4178
5974 "This compromise, like the compromise affecting records and player pianos, "
5975 "served two important goals—indeed, the two central goals of any "
5976 "copyright legislation. First, the law assured that new innovators would have "
5977 "the freedom to develop new ways to deliver content. Second, the law assured "
5978 "that copyright holders would be paid for the content that was "
5979 "distributed. One fear was that if Congress simply required cable TV to pay "
5980 "copyright holders whatever they demanded for their content, then copyright "
5981 "holders associated with broadcasters would use their power to stifle this "
5982 "new technology, cable. But if Congress had permitted cable to use "
5983 "broadcasters' content for free, then it would have unfairly subsidized "
5984 "cable. Thus Congress chose a path that would assure "
5985 "<emphasis>compensation</emphasis> without giving the past (broadcasters) "
5986 "control over the future (cable)."
5989 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5990 #: freeculture.xml:4194
5994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5995 #: freeculture.xml:4197
5997 "In the same year that Congress struck this balance, two major producers and "
5998 "distributors of film content filed a lawsuit against another technology, the "
5999 "video tape recorder (VTR, or as we refer to them today, VCRs) that Sony had "
6000 "produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was "
6001 "relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, "
6002 "that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the "
6003 "device that Sony built had a <quote>record</quote> button, the device could "
6004 "be used to record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore "
6005 "benefiting from the copyright infringement of its customers. It should "
6006 "therefore, Disney and Universal claimed, be partially liable for that "
6011 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6012 #: freeculture.xml:4210
6014 "There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to "
6015 "design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It "
6016 "could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a "
6017 "television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the machine to copy "
6018 "only if there were a special <quote>copy me</quote> signal on the line. It "
6019 "was clear that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone "
6020 "permission to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of "
6021 "shows would not have authorized copying. And in the face of this obvious "
6022 "preference, Sony could have designed its system to minimize the opportunity "
6023 "for copyright infringement. It did not, and for that, Disney and Universal "
6024 "wanted to hold it responsible for the architecture it chose."
6028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6029 #: freeculture.xml:4232
6031 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders): Hearing on S. 1758 "
6032 "Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., "
6033 "459 (1982) (testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association "
6034 "of America, Inc.)."
6038 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6039 #: freeculture.xml:4244
6040 msgid "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 475."
6044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6045 #: freeculture.xml:4249
6047 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
6048 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 480 F. Supp. 429, (C.D. Cal., 1979)."
6052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6053 #: freeculture.xml:4260
6055 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 485 (testimony of Jack "
6059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6060 #: freeculture.xml:4225
6062 "MPAA president Jack Valenti became the studios' most vocal champion. Valenti "
6063 "called VCRs <quote>tapeworms.</quote> He warned, <quote>When there are 20, "
6064 "30, 40 million of these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of "
6065 "`tapeworms,' eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious "
6066 "asset the copyright owner has, his copyright.</quote><placeholder "
6067 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <quote>One does not have to be trained in "
6068 "sophisticated marketing and creative judgment,</quote> he told Congress, "
6069 "<quote>to understand the devastation on the after-theater marketplace caused "
6070 "by the hundreds of millions of tapings that will adversely impact on the "
6071 "future of the creative community in this country. It is simply a question of "
6072 "basic economics and plain common sense.</quote><placeholder "
6073 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Indeed, as surveys would later show, percent of "
6074 "VCR owners had movie libraries of ten videos or more<placeholder "
6075 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> — a use the Court would later hold was "
6076 "not <quote>fair.</quote> By <quote>allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the "
6077 "means of an exemption from copyright infringementwithout creating a "
6078 "mechanism to compensate copyrightowners,</quote> Valenti testified, Congress "
6079 "would <quote>take from the owners the very essence of their property: the "
6080 "exclusive right to control who may use their work, that is, who may copy it "
6081 "and thereby profit from its reproduction.</quote><placeholder "
6082 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"3\"/>"
6086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6087 #: freeculture.xml:4277
6089 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
6090 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 659 F. 2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981)."
6093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
6094 #: freeculture.xml:4280
6095 msgid "Kozinski, Alex"
6098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6099 #: freeculture.xml:4265
6101 "It took eight years for this case to be resolved by the Supreme Court. In "
6102 "the interim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Hollywood in "
6103 "its jurisdiction—leading Judge Alex Kozinski, who sits on that court, "
6104 "refers to it as the <quote>Hollywood Circuit</quote>—held that Sony "
6105 "would be liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its "
6106 "machines. Under the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar "
6107 "technology—which Jack Valenti had called <quote>the Boston Strangler "
6108 "of the American film industry</quote> (worse yet, it was a "
6109 "<emphasis>Japanese</emphasis> Boston Strangler of the American film "
6110 "industry)—was an illegal technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6111 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6116 #: freeculture.xml:4283
6118 "But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit. And in "
6119 "its reversal, the Court clearly articulated its understanding of when and "
6120 "whether courts should intervene in such disputes. As the Court wrote,"
6124 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6125 #: freeculture.xml:4302
6127 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
6128 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984)."
6131 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
6132 #: freeculture.xml:4292
6134 "Sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to "
6135 "Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for "
6136 "copyrighted materials. Congress has the constitutional authority and the "
6137 "institutional ability to accommodate fully the varied permutations of "
6138 "competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new "
6139 "technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6142 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6143 #: freeculture.xml:4307
6145 "Congress was asked to respond to the Supreme Court's decision. But as with "
6146 "the plea of recording artists about radio broadcasts, Congress ignored the "
6147 "request. Congress was convinced that American film got enough, this "
6148 "<quote>taking</quote> notwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a "
6152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6153 #: freeculture.xml:4318
6157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6158 #: freeculture.xml:4319
6159 msgid "WHOSE VALUE WAS <quote>PIRATED</quote>"
6162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6163 #: freeculture.xml:4320
6164 msgid "RESPONSE OF THE COURTS"
6167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6168 #: freeculture.xml:4321
6169 msgid "RESPONSE OF CONGRESS"
6172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6173 #: freeculture.xml:4326
6177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6178 #: freeculture.xml:4327
6182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6183 #: freeculture.xml:4328 freeculture.xml:4340 freeculture.xml:4346
6184 msgid "No protection"
6187 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6188 #: freeculture.xml:4329 freeculture.xml:4341
6189 msgid "Statutory license"
6192 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6193 #: freeculture.xml:4333
6194 msgid "Recording artists"
6197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6198 #: freeculture.xml:4334
6202 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6203 #: freeculture.xml:4335 freeculture.xml:4347
6207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6208 #: freeculture.xml:4339
6209 msgid "Broadcasters"
6212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6213 #: freeculture.xml:4344
6217 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6218 #: freeculture.xml:4345
6219 msgid "Film creators"
6222 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6223 #: freeculture.xml:4357
6225 "These are the most important instances in our history, but there are other "
6226 "cases as well. The technology of digital audio tape (DAT), for example, was "
6227 "regulated by Congress to minimize the risk of piracy. The remedy Congress "
6228 "imposed did burden DAT producers, by taxing tape sales and controlling the "
6229 "technology of DAT. See Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Title 17 of the "
6230 "<citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. "
6231 "4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. §1001. Again, however, this regulation did not "
6232 "eliminate the opportunity for free riding in the sense I've described. See "
6233 "Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 71. See also Picker, <quote>From "
6234 "Edison to the Broadcast Flag,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law "
6235 "Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 293–96. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6236 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6239 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6240 #: freeculture.xml:4354
6242 "In each case throughout our history, a new technology changed the way "
6243 "content was distributed.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In each "
6244 "case, throughout our history, that change meant that someone got a "
6245 "<quote>free ride</quote> on someone else's work."
6249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6250 #: freeculture.xml:4375
6252 "In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these cases did either the courts or "
6253 "Congress eliminate all free riding. In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these "
6254 "cases did the courts or Congress insist that the law should assure that the "
6255 "copyright holder get all the value that his copyright created. In every "
6256 "case, the copyright owners complained of <quote>piracy.</quote> In every "
6257 "case, Congress acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in the behavior of "
6258 "the <quote>pirates.</quote> In each case, Congress allowed some new "
6259 "technology to benefit from content made before. It balanced the interests at "
6263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6264 #: freeculture.xml:4387
6266 "When you think across these examples, and the other examples that make up "
6267 "the first four chapters of this section, this balance makes sense. Was Walt "
6268 "Disney a pirate? Would doujinshi be better if creators had to ask "
6269 "permission? Should tools that enable others to capture and spread images as "
6270 "a way to cultivate or criticize our culture be better regulated? Is it "
6271 "really right that building a search engine should expose you to $15 million "
6272 "in damages? Would it have been better if Edison had controlled film? Should "
6273 "every cover band have to hire a lawyer to get permission to record a song?"
6277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6278 #: freeculture.xml:4404
6280 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
6281 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, (1984)."
6284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6285 #: freeculture.xml:4399
6287 "We could answer yes to each of these questions, but our tradition has "
6288 "answered no. In our tradition, as the Supreme Court has stated, copyright "
6289 "<quote>has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all "
6290 "possible uses of his work.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
6291 "Instead, the particular uses that the law regulates have been defined by "
6292 "balancing the good that comes from granting an exclusive right against the "
6293 "burdens such an exclusive right creates. And this balancing has historically "
6294 "been done <emphasis>after</emphasis> a technology has matured, or settled "
6295 "into the mix of technologies that facilitate the distribution of content."
6298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6299 #: freeculture.xml:4415
6301 "We should be doing the same thing today. The technology of the Internet is "
6302 "changing quickly. The way people connect to the Internet (wires "
6303 "vs. wireless) is changing very quickly. No doubt the network should not "
6304 "become a tool for <quote>stealing</quote> from artists. But neither should "
6305 "the law become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or "
6306 "more accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the "
6307 "last chapter of this book, we should be securing income to artists while we "
6308 "allow the market to secure the most efficient way to promote and distribute "
6309 "content. This will require changes in the law, at least in the "
6310 "interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the "
6311 "law against the strong public interest that innovation continue."
6315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6316 #: freeculture.xml:4439
6318 "John Schwartz, <quote>New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software "
6319 "Echoes Past Efforts,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 22 "
6320 "September 2003, C3."
6323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6324 #: freeculture.xml:4431
6326 "This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode "
6327 "of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally "
6328 "efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to "
6329 "develop, they could make the network vastly more efficient. Yet these "
6330 "<quote>potential public benefits,</quote> as John Schwartz writes in "
6331 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, <quote>could be delayed in the "
6332 "P2P fight.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6336 #: freeculture.xml:4444
6338 "<emphasis role='strong'>Yet when anyone</emphasis> begins to talk about "
6339 "<quote>balance,</quote> the copyright warriors raise a different "
6340 "argument. <quote>All this hand waving about balance and incentives,</quote> "
6341 "they say, <quote>misses a fundamental point. Our content,</quote> the "
6342 "warriors insist, <quote>is our <emphasis>property</emphasis>. Why should we "
6343 "wait for Congress to `rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait "
6344 "before calling the police when your car has been stolen? And why should "
6345 "Congress deliberate at all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether "
6346 "the car thief had a good use for the car before we arrest him?</quote>"
6349 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6350 #: freeculture.xml:4456
6352 "<quote>It is <emphasis>our property</emphasis>,</quote> the warriors "
6353 "insist. <quote>And it should be protected just as any other property is "
6354 "protected.</quote>"
6357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
6358 #: freeculture.xml:4465
6359 msgid "<quote>PROPERTY</quote>"
6363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6364 #: freeculture.xml:4470
6366 "<emphasis role='strong'>The copyright warriors</emphasis> are right: A "
6367 "copyright is a kind of property. It can be owned and sold, and the law "
6368 "protects against its theft. Ordinarily, the copyright owner gets to hold out "
6369 "for any price he wants. Markets reckon the supply and demand that partially "
6370 "determine the price she can get."
6373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6374 #: freeculture.xml:4477
6376 "But in ordinary language, to call a copyright a <quote>property</quote> "
6377 "right is a bit misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of "
6378 "property. Indeed, the very idea of property in any idea or any expression "
6379 "is very odd. I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you "
6380 "put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I "
6381 "take it, you don't have it. But what am I taking when I take the good "
6382 "<emphasis>idea</emphasis> you had to put a picnic table in the "
6383 "backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting "
6384 "it in my backyard? What is the thing I am taking then?"
6388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6389 #: freeculture.xml:4502
6391 "Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (13 August 1813) in "
6392 "<citetitle>The Writings of Thomas Jefferson</citetitle>, vol. 6 (Andrew "
6393 "A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds., 1903), 330, 333–34."
6396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6397 #: freeculture.xml:4489
6399 "The point is not just about the thingness of picnic tables versus ideas, "
6400 "though that's an important difference. The point instead is that in the "
6401 "ordinary case—indeed, in practically every case except for a narrow "
6402 "range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take "
6403 "anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem "
6404 "weird if I did it every day, and especially weird if you are a "
6405 "woman. Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and as is especially true when I "
6406 "copy the way someone else dresses), <quote>He who receives an idea from me, "
6407 "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his "
6408 "taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.</quote><placeholder "
6409 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6412 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6413 #: freeculture.xml:4508
6415 "The exceptions to free use are ideas and expressions within the reach of the "
6416 "law of patent and copyright, and a few other domains that I won't discuss "
6417 "here. Here the law says you can't take my idea or expression without my "
6418 "permission: The law turns the intangible into property."
6422 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6423 #: freeculture.xml:4521
6425 "As the legal realists taught American law, all property rights are "
6426 "intangible. A property right is simply a right that an individual has "
6427 "against the world to do or not do certain things that may or may not attach "
6428 "to a physical object. The right itself is intangible, even if the object to "
6429 "which it is (metaphorically) attached is tangible. See Adam Mossoff, "
6430 "<quote>What Is Property? Putting the Pieces Back Together,</quote> "
6431 "<citetitle>Arizona Law Review</citetitle> 45 (2003): 373, 429 n. 241."
6434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6435 #: freeculture.xml:4516
6437 "But how, and to what extent, and in what form—the details, in other "
6438 "words—matter. To get a good sense of how this practice of turning the "
6439 "intangible into property emerged, we need to place this "
6440 "<quote>property</quote> in its proper context.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6445 #: freeculture.xml:4531
6447 "My strategy in doing this will be the same as my strategy in the preceding "
6448 "part. I offer four stories to help put the idea of <quote>copyright material "
6449 "is property</quote> in context. Where did the idea come from? What are its "
6450 "limits? How does it function in practice? After these stories, the "
6451 "significance of this true statement—<quote>copyright material is "
6452 "property</quote>— will be a bit more clear, and its implications will "
6453 "be revealed as quite different from the implications that the copyright "
6454 "warriors would have us draw."
6457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6458 #: freeculture.xml:4544
6459 msgid "CHAPTER SIX: Founders"
6462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6463 #: freeculture.xml:4545
6467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6468 #: freeculture.xml:4546 freeculture.xml:4691
6469 msgid "Branagh, Kenneth"
6472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
6473 #: freeculture.xml:4547
6474 msgid "English copyright law developed for"
6477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6478 #: freeculture.xml:4549
6480 "<emphasis role='strong'>William Shakespeare</emphasis> wrote "
6481 "<citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> in 1595. The play was first "
6482 "published in 1597. It was the eleventh major play that Shakespeare had "
6483 "written. He would continue to write plays through 1613, and the plays that "
6484 "he wrote have continued to define Anglo-American culture ever since. So "
6485 "deeply have the works of a sixteenth-century writer seeped into our culture "
6486 "that we often don't even recognize their source. I once overheard someone "
6487 "commenting on Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Henry V: <quote>I liked it, "
6488 "but Shakespeare is so full of clichés.</quote>"
6491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6492 #: freeculture.xml:4565
6496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6497 #: freeculture.xml:4566
6498 msgid "Dryden, John"
6501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6502 #: freeculture.xml:4565
6504 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6505 "id=\"1\"/> Jacob Tonson is typically remembered for his associations with "
6506 "prominent eighteenth-century literary figures, especially John Dryden, and "
6507 "for his handsome <quote>definitive editions</quote> of classic works. In "
6508 "addition to <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle>, he published an "
6509 "astonishing array of works that still remain at the heart of the English "
6510 "canon, including collected works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, "
6511 "and John Dryden. See Keith Walker, <quote>Jacob Tonson, Bookseller,</quote> "
6512 "<citetitle>American Scholar</citetitle> 61:3 (1992): 424–31."
6516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6517 #: freeculture.xml:4578
6519 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
6520 "Perspective</citetitle> (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968), "
6525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6526 #: freeculture.xml:4561
6528 "In 1774, almost 180 years after <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> was "
6529 "written, the <quote>copy-right</quote> for the work was still thought by "
6530 "many to be the exclusive right of a single London publisher, Jacob "
6531 "Tonson.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Tonson was the most "
6532 "prominent of a small group of publishers called the Conger<placeholder "
6533 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> who controlled bookselling in England during "
6534 "the eighteenth century. The Conger claimed a perpetual right to control the "
6535 "<quote>copy</quote> of books that they had acquired from authors. That "
6536 "perpetual right meant that no one else could publish copies of a book to "
6537 "which they held the copyright. Prices of the classics were thus kept high; "
6538 "competition to produce better or cheaper editions was eliminated."
6541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6542 #: freeculture.xml:4590
6543 msgid "British Parliament"
6546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6547 #: freeculture.xml:4601
6549 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> As Siva Vaidhyanathan nicely "
6550 "argues, it is erroneous to call this a <quote>copyright law.</quote> See "
6551 "Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 40."
6554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6555 #: freeculture.xml:4592
6557 "Now, there's something puzzling about the year 1774 to anyone who knows a "
6558 "little about copyright law. The better-known year in the history of "
6559 "copyright is 1710, the year that the British Parliament adopted the first "
6560 "<quote>copyright</quote> act. Known as the Statute of Anne, the act stated "
6561 "that all published works would get a copyright term of fourteen years, "
6562 "renewable once if the author was alive, and that all works already published "
6563 "by 1710 would get a single term of twenty-one additional years.<placeholder "
6564 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Under this law, <citetitle>Romeo and "
6565 "Juliet</citetitle> should have been free in 1731. So why was there any issue "
6566 "about it still being under Tonson's control in 1774?"
6569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6570 #: freeculture.xml:4608
6571 msgid "Licensing Act (1662)"
6574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6575 #: freeculture.xml:4610
6577 "The reason is that the English hadn't yet agreed on what a "
6578 "<quote>copyright</quote> was—indeed, no one had. At the time the "
6579 "English passed the Statute of Anne, there was no other legislation governing "
6580 "copyrights. The last law regulating publishers, the Licensing Act of 1662, "
6581 "had expired in 1695. That law gave publishers a monopoly over publishing, as "
6582 "a way to make it easier for the Crown to control what was published. But "
6583 "after it expired, there was no positive law that said that the publishers, "
6584 "or <quote>Stationers,</quote> had an exclusive right to print books."
6587 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6588 #: freeculture.xml:4621
6590 "There was no <emphasis>positive</emphasis> law, but that didn't mean that "
6591 "there was no law. The Anglo-American legal tradition looks to both the words "
6592 "of legislatures and the words of judges to know the rules that are to govern "
6593 "how people are to behave. We call the words from legislatures "
6594 "<quote>positive law.</quote> We call the words from judges <quote>common "
6595 "law.</quote> The common law sets the background against which legislatures "
6596 "legislate; the legislature, ordinarily, can trump that background only if it "
6597 "passes a law to displace it. And so the real question after the licensing "
6598 "statutes had expired was whether the common law protected a copyright, "
6599 "independent of any positive law."
6603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6604 #: freeculture.xml:4633
6606 "This question was important to the publishers, or "
6607 "<quote>booksellers,</quote> as they were called, because there was growing "
6608 "competition from foreign publishers. The Scottish, in particular, were "
6609 "increasingly publishing and exporting books to England. That competition "
6610 "reduced the profits of the Conger, which reacted by demanding that "
6611 "Parliament pass a law to again give them exclusive control over "
6612 "publishing. That demand ultimately resulted in the Statute of Anne."
6615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6616 #: freeculture.xml:4645
6618 "The Statute of Anne granted the author or <quote>proprietor</quote> of a "
6619 "book an exclusive right to print that book. In an important limitation, "
6620 "however, and to the horror of the booksellers, the law gave the bookseller "
6621 "that right for a limited term. At the end of that term, the copyright "
6622 "<quote>expired,</quote> and the work would then be free and could be "
6623 "published by anyone. Or so the legislature is thought to have believed."
6626 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6627 #: freeculture.xml:4654
6629 "Now, the thing to puzzle about for a moment is this: Why would Parliament "
6630 "limit the exclusive right? Not why would they limit it to the particular "
6631 "limit they set, but why would they limit the right <emphasis>at "
6635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6636 #: freeculture.xml:4660
6638 "For the booksellers, and the authors whom they represented, had a very "
6639 "strong claim. Take <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> as an example: "
6640 "That play was written by Shakespeare. It was his genius that brought it into "
6641 "the world. He didn't take anybody's property when he created this play "
6642 "(that's a controversial claim, but never mind), and by his creating this "
6643 "play, he didn't make it any harder for others to craft a play. So why is it "
6644 "that the law would ever allow someone else to come along and take "
6645 "Shakespeare's play without his, or his estate's, permission? What reason is "
6646 "there to allow someone else to <quote>steal</quote> Shakespeare's work?"
6649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6650 #: freeculture.xml:4671
6652 "The answer comes in two parts. We first need to see something special about "
6653 "the notion of <quote>copyright</quote> that existed at the time of the "
6654 "Statute of Anne. Second, we have to see something important about "
6655 "<quote>booksellers.</quote>"
6659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6660 #: freeculture.xml:4677
6662 "First, about copyright. In the last three hundred years, we have come to "
6663 "apply the concept of <quote>copyright</quote> ever more broadly. But in "
6664 "1710, it wasn't so much a concept as it was a very particular right. The "
6665 "copyright was born as a very specific set of restrictions: It forbade others "
6666 "from reprinting a book. In 1710, the <quote>copy-right</quote> was a right "
6667 "to use a particular machine to replicate a particular work. It did not go "
6668 "beyond that very narrow right. It did not control any more generally how a "
6669 "work could be <emphasis>used</emphasis>. Today the right includes a large "
6670 "collection of restrictions on the freedom of others: It grants the author "
6671 "the exclusive right to copy, the exclusive right to distribute, the "
6672 "exclusive right to perform, and so on."
6675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6676 #: freeculture.xml:4693
6678 "So, for example, even if the copyright to Shakespeare's works were "
6679 "perpetual, all that would have meant under the original meaning of the term "
6680 "was that no one could reprint Shakespeare's work without the permission of "
6681 "the Shakespeare estate. It would not have controlled anything, for example, "
6682 "about how the work could be performed, whether the work could be translated, "
6683 "or whether Kenneth Branagh would be allowed to make his films. The "
6684 "<quote>copy-right</quote> was only an exclusive right to print—no "
6685 "less, of course, but also no more."
6688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6689 #: freeculture.xml:4702
6690 msgid "Henry VIII, King of England"
6693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6694 #: freeculture.xml:4703
6695 msgid "Statute of Monopolies (1656)"
6698 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6699 #: freeculture.xml:4705
6701 "Even that limited right was viewed with skepticism by the British. They had "
6702 "had a long and ugly experience with <quote>exclusive rights,</quote> "
6703 "especially <quote>exclusive rights</quote> granted by the Crown. The English "
6704 "had fought a civil war in part about the Crown's practice of handing out "
6705 "monopolies—especially monopolies for works that already existed. King "
6706 "Henry VIII granted a patent to print the Bible and a monopoly to Darcy to "
6707 "print playing cards. The English Parliament began to fight back against this "
6708 "power of the Crown. In 1656, it passed the Statute of Monopolies, limiting "
6709 "monopolies to patents for new inventions. And by 1710, Parliament was eager "
6710 "to deal with the growing monopoly in publishing."
6713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6714 #: freeculture.xml:4718
6716 "Thus the <quote>copy-right,</quote> when viewed as a monopoly right, was "
6717 "naturally viewed as a right that should be limited. (However convincing the "
6718 "claim that <quote>it's my property, and I should have it forever,</quote> "
6719 "try sounding convincing when uttering, <quote>It's my monopoly, and I should "
6720 "have it forever.</quote>) The state would protect the exclusive right, but "
6721 "only so long as it benefited society. The British saw the harms from "
6722 "specialinterest favors; they passed a law to stop them."
6725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6726 #: freeculture.xml:4726
6727 msgid "booksellers, English"
6731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6732 #: freeculture.xml:4743
6734 "Philip Wittenberg, <citetitle>The Protection and Marketing of Literary "
6735 "Property</citetitle> (New York: J. Messner, Inc., 1937), 31."
6738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6739 #: freeculture.xml:4728
6741 "Second, about booksellers. It wasn't just that the copyright was a "
6742 "monopoly. It was also that it was a monopoly held by the booksellers. "
6743 "Booksellers sound quaint and harmless to us. They were not viewed as "
6744 "harmless in seventeenth-century England. Members of the Conger were "
6745 "increasingly seen as monopolists of the worst kind—tools of the "
6746 "Crown's repression, selling the liberty of England to guarantee themselves a "
6747 "monopoly profit. The attacks against these monopolists were harsh: Milton "
6748 "described them as <quote>old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of "
6749 "book-selling</quote>; they were <quote>men who do not therefore labour in an "
6750 "honest profession to which learning is indetted.</quote><placeholder "
6751 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6755 #: freeculture.xml:4748
6757 "Many believed the power the booksellers exercised over the spread of "
6758 "knowledge was harming that spread, just at the time the Enlightenment was "
6759 "teaching the importance of education and knowledge spread generally. The "
6760 "idea that knowledge should be free was a hallmark of the time, and these "
6761 "powerful commercial interests were interfering with that idea."
6764 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6765 #: freeculture.xml:4756
6767 "To balance this power, Parliament decided to increase competition among "
6768 "booksellers, and the simplest way to do that was to spread the wealth of "
6769 "valuable books. Parliament therefore limited the term of copyrights, and "
6770 "thereby guaranteed that valuable books would become open to any publisher to "
6771 "publish after a limited time. Thus the setting of the term for existing "
6772 "works to just twenty-one years was a compromise to fight the power of the "
6773 "booksellers. The limitation on terms was an indirect way to assure "
6774 "competition among publishers, and thus the construction and spread of "
6778 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6779 #: freeculture.xml:4768
6781 "When 1731 (1710 + 21) came along, however, the booksellers were getting "
6782 "anxious. They saw the consequences of more competition, and like every "
6783 "competitor, they didn't like them. At first booksellers simply ignored the "
6784 "Statute of Anne, continuing to insist on the perpetual right to control "
6785 "publication. But in 1735 and 1737, they tried to persuade Parliament to "
6786 "extend their terms. Twenty-one years was not enough, they said; they needed "
6790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6791 #: freeculture.xml:4777
6793 "Parliament rejected their requests. As one pamphleteer put it, in words that "
6798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6799 #: freeculture.xml:4792
6801 "A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill now depending in the "
6802 "House of Commons, for making more effectual an Act in the Eighth Year of the "
6803 "Reign of Queen Anne, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by "
6804 "Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such "
6805 "Copies, during the Times therein mentioned (London, 1735), in Brief Amici "
6806 "Curiae of Tyler T. Ochoa et al., 8, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
6807 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618)."
6810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6811 #: freeculture.xml:4782
6813 "I see no Reason for granting a further Term now, which will not hold as well "
6814 "for granting it again and again, as often as the Old ones Expire; so that "
6815 "should this Bill pass, it will in Effect be establishing a perpetual "
6816 "Monopoly, a Thing deservedly odious in the Eye of the Law; it will be a "
6817 "great Cramp to Trade, a Discouragement to Learning, no Benefit to the "
6818 "Authors, but a general Tax on the Publick; and all this only to increase the "
6819 "private Gain of the Booksellers.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6823 #: freeculture.xml:4803
6825 "Having failed in Parliament, the publishers turned to the courts in a series "
6826 "of cases. Their argument was simple and direct: The Statute of Anne gave "
6827 "authors certain protections through positive law, but those protections were "
6828 "not intended as replacements for the common law. Instead, they were "
6829 "intended simply to supplement the common law. Under common law, it was "
6830 "already wrong to take another person's creative <quote>property</quote> and "
6831 "use it without his permission. The Statute of Anne, the booksellers argued, "
6832 "didn't change that. Therefore, just because the protections of the Statute "
6833 "of Anne expired, that didn't mean the protections of the common law expired: "
6834 "Under the common law they had the right to ban the publication of a book, "
6835 "even if its Statute of Anne copyright had expired. This, they argued, was "
6836 "the only way to protect authors."
6839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6840 #: freeculture.xml:4817 freeculture.xml:4825 freeculture.xml:4872
6841 msgid "Patterson, Raymond"
6844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6845 #: freeculture.xml:4825
6847 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6848 "id=\"1\"/> Lyman Ray Patterson, <quote>Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair "
6849 "Use,</quote> <citetitle>Vanderbilt Law Review</citetitle> 40 (1987): 28. For "
6850 "a wonderfully compelling account, see Vaidhyanathan, 37–48."
6853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6854 #: freeculture.xml:4819
6856 "This was a clever argument, and one that had the support of some of the "
6857 "leading jurists of the day. It also displayed extraordinary chutzpah. Until "
6858 "then, as law professor Raymond Patterson has put it, <quote>The publishers "
6859 "… had as much concern for authors as a cattle rancher has for "
6860 "cattle.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The bookseller "
6861 "didn't care squat for the rights of the author. His concern was the "
6862 "monopoly profit that the author's work gave."
6866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6867 #: freeculture.xml:4839
6869 "For a compelling account, see David Saunders, <citetitle>Authorship and "
6870 "Copyright</citetitle> (London: Routledge, 1992), 62–69."
6873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6874 #: freeculture.xml:4835
6876 "The booksellers' argument was not accepted without a fight. The hero of "
6877 "this fight was a Scottish bookseller named Alexander Donaldson.<placeholder "
6878 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6882 #: freeculture.xml:4843
6883 msgid "Boswell, James"
6886 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6887 #: freeculture.xml:4844
6888 msgid "Erskine, Andrew"
6891 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6892 #: freeculture.xml:4853 freeculture.xml:14875
6896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6897 #: freeculture.xml:4851
6899 "Mark Rose, <citetitle>Authors and Owners</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard "
6900 "University Press, 1993), 92. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6905 #: freeculture.xml:4862
6909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6910 #: freeculture.xml:4846
6912 "Donaldson was an outsider to the London Conger. He began his career in "
6913 "Edinburgh in 1750. The focus of his business was inexpensive reprints "
6914 "<quote>of standard works whose copyright term had expired,</quote> at least "
6915 "under the Statute of Anne.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
6916 "Donaldson's publishing house prospered and became <quote>something of a "
6917 "center for literary Scotsmen.</quote> <quote>[A]mong them,</quote> Professor "
6918 "Mark Rose writes, was <quote>the young James Boswell who, together with his "
6919 "friend Andrew Erskine, published an anthology of contemporary Scottish poems "
6920 "with Donaldson.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
6923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6924 #: freeculture.xml:4872
6926 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Lyman Ray Patterson, "
6927 "<citetitle>Copyright in Historical Perspective</citetitle>, 167 (quoting "
6931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6932 #: freeculture.xml:4866
6934 "When the London booksellers tried to shut down Donaldson's shop in Scotland, "
6935 "he responded by moving his shop to London, where he sold inexpensive "
6936 "editions <quote>of the most popular English books, in defiance of the "
6937 "supposed common law right of Literary Property.</quote><placeholder "
6938 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His books undercut the Conger prices by 30 to "
6939 "50 percent, and he rested his right to compete upon the ground that, under "
6940 "the Statute of Anne, the works he was selling had passed out of protection."
6943 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6944 #: freeculture.xml:4881
6946 "The London booksellers quickly brought suit to block <quote>piracy</quote> "
6947 "like Donaldson's. A number of actions were successful against the "
6948 "<quote>pirates,</quote> the most important early victory being "
6949 "<citetitle>Millar</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Taylor</citetitle>."
6952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6953 #: freeculture.xml:4885
6954 msgid "Seasons, The (Thomson)"
6957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6958 #: freeculture.xml:4886
6959 msgid "Taylor, Robert"
6963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6964 #: freeculture.xml:4895
6966 "Howard B. Abrams, <quote>The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: "
6967 "Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Wayne Law "
6968 "Review</citetitle> 29 (1983): 1152."
6971 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6972 #: freeculture.xml:4888
6974 "Millar was a bookseller who in 1729 had purchased the rights to James "
6975 "Thomson's poem <quote>The Seasons.</quote> Millar complied with the "
6976 "requirements of the Statute of Anne, and therefore received the full "
6977 "protection of the statute. After the term of copyright ended, Robert Taylor "
6978 "began printing a competing volume. Millar sued, claiming a perpetual common "
6979 "law right, the Statute of Anne notwithstanding.<placeholder "
6980 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6984 #: freeculture.xml:4902
6986 "Astonishingly to modern lawyers, one of the greatest judges in English "
6987 "history, Lord Mansfield, agreed with the booksellers. Whatever protection "
6988 "the Statute of Anne gave booksellers, it did not, he held, extinguish any "
6989 "common law right. The question was whether the common law would protect the "
6990 "author against subsequent <quote>pirates.</quote> Mansfield's answer was "
6991 "yes: The common law would bar Taylor from reprinting Thomson's poem without "
6992 "Millar's permission. That common law rule thus effectively gave the "
6993 "booksellers a perpetual right to control the publication of any book "
6998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6999 #: freeculture.xml:4913
7001 "Considered as a matter of abstract justice—reasoning as if justice "
7002 "were just a matter of logical deduction from first "
7003 "principles—Mansfield's conclusion might make some sense. But what it "
7004 "ignored was the larger issue that Parliament had struggled with in 1710: How "
7005 "best to limit the monopoly power of publishers? Parliament's strategy was to "
7006 "offer a term for existing works that was long enough to buy peace in 1710, "
7007 "but short enough to assure that culture would pass into competition within a "
7008 "reasonable period of time. Within twenty-one years, Parliament believed, "
7009 "Britain would mature from the controlled culture that the Crown coveted to "
7010 "the free culture that we inherited."
7013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7014 #: freeculture.xml:4928
7016 "The fight to defend the limits of the Statute of Anne was not to end there, "
7017 "however, and it is here that Donaldson enters the mix."
7020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7021 #: freeculture.xml:4931
7022 msgid "Beckett, Thomas"
7026 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7027 #: freeculture.xml:4937
7028 msgid "Ibid., 1156."
7031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7032 #: freeculture.xml:4933
7034 "Millar died soon after his victory, so his case was not appealed. His estate "
7035 "sold Thomson's poems to a syndicate of printers that included Thomas "
7036 "Beckett.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson then released an "
7037 "unauthorized edition of Thomson's works. Beckett, on the strength of the "
7038 "decision in <citetitle>Millar</citetitle>, got an injunction against "
7039 "Donaldson. Donaldson appealed the case to the House of Lords, which "
7040 "functioned much like our own Supreme Court. In February of 1774, that body "
7041 "had the chance to interpret the meaning of Parliament's limits from sixty "
7045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7046 #: freeculture.xml:4947
7048 "As few legal cases ever do, <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
7049 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle> drew an enormous amount of attention "
7050 "throughout Britain. Donaldson's lawyers argued that whatever rights may have "
7051 "existed under the common law, the Statute of Anne terminated those "
7052 "rights. After passage of the Statute of Anne, the only legal protection for "
7053 "an exclusive right to control publication came from that statute. Thus, they "
7054 "argued, after the term specified in the Statute of Anne expired, works that "
7055 "had been protected by the statute were no longer protected."
7058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7059 #: freeculture.xml:4957
7061 "The House of Lords was an odd institution. Legal questions were presented to "
7062 "the House and voted upon first by the <quote>law lords,</quote> members of "
7063 "special legal distinction who functioned much like the Justices in our "
7064 "Supreme Court. Then, after the law lords voted, the House of Lords generally "
7069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7070 #: freeculture.xml:4964
7072 "The reports about the law lords' votes are mixed. On some counts, it looks "
7073 "as if perpetual copyright prevailed. But there is no ambiguity about how the "
7074 "House of Lords voted as whole. By a two-to-one majority (22 to 11) they "
7075 "voted to reject the idea of perpetual copyrights. Whatever one's "
7076 "understanding of the common law, now a copyright was fixed for a limited "
7077 "time, after which the work protected by copyright passed into the public "
7081 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7082 #: freeculture.xml:4982
7083 msgid "Bacon, Francis"
7086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7087 #: freeculture.xml:4983
7088 msgid "Bunyan, John"
7091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7092 #: freeculture.xml:4984
7093 msgid "Johnson, Samuel"
7096 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7097 #: freeculture.xml:4985
7098 msgid "Milton, John"
7101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7102 #: freeculture.xml:4986
7103 msgid "Shakespeare, William"
7106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7107 #: freeculture.xml:4974
7109 "<quote>The public domain.</quote> Before the case of "
7110 "<citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle>, there "
7111 "was no clear idea of a public domain in England. Before 1774, there was a "
7112 "strong argument that common law copyrights were perpetual. After 1774, the "
7113 "public domain was born. For the first time in Anglo-American history, the "
7114 "legal control over creative works expired, and the greatest works in English "
7115 "history—including those of Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Johnson, and "
7116 "Bunyan—were free of legal restraint. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7117 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
7118 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> "
7119 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/>"
7123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7124 #: freeculture.xml:4999
7128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7129 #: freeculture.xml:4989
7131 "It is hard for us to imagine, but this decision by the House of Lords fueled "
7132 "an extraordinarily popular and political reaction. In Scotland, where most "
7133 "of the <quote>pirate publishers</quote> did their work, people celebrated "
7134 "the decision in the streets. As the <citetitle>Edinburgh "
7135 "Advertiser</citetitle> reported, <quote>No private cause has so much "
7136 "engrossed the attention of the public, and none has been tried before the "
7137 "House of Lords in the decision of which so many individuals were "
7138 "interested.</quote> <quote>Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon victory over "
7139 "literary property: bonfires and illuminations.</quote><placeholder "
7140 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7144 #: freeculture.xml:5003
7146 "In London, however, at least among publishers, the reaction was equally "
7147 "strong in the opposite direction. The <citetitle>Morning "
7148 "Chronicle</citetitle> reported:"
7151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7152 #: freeculture.xml:5009
7154 "By the above decision … near 200,000 pounds worth of what was "
7155 "honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought property "
7156 "is now reduced to nothing. The Booksellers of London and Westminster, many "
7157 "of whom sold estates and houses to purchase Copy-right, are in a manner "
7158 "ruined, and those who after many years industry thought they had acquired a "
7159 "competency to provide for their families now find themselves without a "
7160 "shilling to devise to their successors.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
7165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7166 #: freeculture.xml:5024
7168 "<quote>Ruined</quote> is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not an "
7169 "exaggeration to say that the change was profound. The decision of the House "
7170 "of Lords meant that the booksellers could no longer control how culture in "
7171 "England would grow and develop. Culture in England was thereafter "
7172 "<emphasis>free</emphasis>. Not in the sense that copyrights would not be "
7173 "respected, for of course, for a limited time after a work was published, the "
7174 "bookseller had an exclusive right to control the publication of that "
7175 "book. And not in the sense that books could be stolen, for even after a "
7176 "copyright expired, you still had to buy the book from someone. But "
7177 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> in the sense that the culture and its growth would "
7178 "no longer be controlled by a small group of publishers. As every free market "
7179 "does, this free market of free culture would grow as the consumers and "
7180 "producers chose. English culture would develop as the many English readers "
7181 "chose to let it develop— chose in the books they bought and wrote; "
7182 "chose in the memes they repeated and endorsed. Chose in a "
7183 "<emphasis>competitive context</emphasis>, not a context in which the choices "
7184 "about what culture is available to people and how they get access to it are "
7185 "made by the few despite the wishes of the many."
7188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7189 #: freeculture.xml:5046
7191 "At least, this was the rule in a world where the Parliament is antimonopoly, "
7192 "resistant to the protectionist pleas of publishers. In a world where the "
7193 "Parliament is more pliant, free culture would be less protected."
7196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7197 #: freeculture.xml:5056
7198 msgid "CHAPTER SEVEN: Recorders"
7201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7202 #: freeculture.xml:5058
7204 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jon Else</emphasis> is a filmmaker. He is best known "
7205 "for his documentaries and has been very successful in spreading his art. He "
7206 "is also a teacher, and as a teacher myself, I envy the loyalty and "
7207 "admiration that his students feel for him. (I met, by accident, two of his "
7208 "students at a dinner party. He was their god.)"
7211 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7212 #: freeculture.xml:5065
7214 "Else worked on a documentary that I was involved in. At a break, he told me "
7215 "a story about the freedom to create with film in America today."
7218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7219 #: freeculture.xml:5076 freeculture.xml:5139
7220 msgid "San Francisco Opera"
7223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7224 #: freeculture.xml:5070
7226 "In 1990, Else was working on a documentary about Wagner's Ring Cycle. The "
7227 "focus was stagehands at the San Francisco Opera. Stagehands are a "
7228 "particularly funny and colorful element of an opera. During a show, they "
7229 "hang out below the stage in the grips' lounge and in the lighting loft. They "
7230 "make a perfect contrast to the art on the stage. <placeholder "
7231 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7236 #: freeculture.xml:5079
7238 "During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing "
7239 "checkers. In one corner of the room was a television set. Playing on the "
7240 "television set, while the stagehands played checkers and the opera company "
7241 "played Wagner, was <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. As Else judged it, "
7242 "this touch of cartoon helped capture the flavor of what was special about "
7246 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7247 #: freeculture.xml:5088
7249 "Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else "
7250 "attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of <citetitle>The "
7251 "Simpsons</citetitle>. For of course, those few seconds are copyrighted; and "
7252 "of course, to use copyrighted material you need the permission of the "
7253 "copyright owner, unless <quote>fair use</quote> or some other privilege "
7257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7258 #: freeculture.xml:5094 freeculture.xml:5102
7259 msgid "Gracie Films"
7262 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7263 #: freeculture.xml:5096
7265 "Else called <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> creator Matt Groening's office "
7266 "to get permission. Groening approved the shot. The shot was a "
7267 "four-and-a-halfsecond image on a tiny television set in the corner of the "
7268 "room. How could it hurt? Groening was happy to have it in the film, but he "
7269 "told Else to contact Gracie Films, the company that produces the program."
7272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7273 #: freeculture.xml:5104
7275 "Gracie Films was okay with it, too, but they, like Groening, wanted to be "
7276 "careful. So they told Else to contact Fox, Gracie's parent company. Else "
7277 "called Fox and told them about the clip in the corner of the one room shot "
7278 "of the film. Matt Groening had already given permission, Else said. He was "
7279 "just confirming the permission with Fox."
7282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7283 #: freeculture.xml:5111
7285 "Then, as Else told me, <quote>two things happened. First we discovered "
7286 "… that Matt Groening doesn't own his own creation—or at least "
7287 "that someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation.</quote> And "
7288 "second, Fox <quote>wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to "
7289 "use this four-point-five seconds of … entirely unsolicited "
7290 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> which was in the corner of the shot.</quote>"
7293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7294 #: freeculture.xml:5118
7295 msgid "Herrera, Rebecca"
7298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7299 #: freeculture.xml:5120
7301 "Else was certain there was a mistake. He worked his way up to someone he "
7302 "thought was a vice president for licensing, Rebecca Herrera. He explained "
7303 "to her, <quote>There must be some mistake here. … We're asking for "
7304 "your educational rate on this.</quote> That was the educational rate, "
7305 "Herrera told Else. A day or so later, Else called again to confirm what he "
7310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7311 #: freeculture.xml:5128
7313 "<quote>I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight,</quote> he told "
7314 "me. <quote>Yes, you have your facts straight,</quote> she said. It would "
7315 "cost $10,000 to use the clip of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle> in the "
7316 "corner of a shot in a documentary film about Wagner's Ring Cycle. And then, "
7317 "astonishingly, Herrera told Else, <quote>And if you quote me, I'll turn you "
7318 "over to our attorneys.</quote> As an assistant to Herrera told Else later "
7319 "on, <quote>They don't give a shit. They just want the money.</quote>"
7322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7323 #: freeculture.xml:5140
7324 msgid "Day After Trinity, The"
7327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7328 #: freeculture.xml:5142
7330 "Else didn't have the money to buy the right to replay what was playing on "
7331 "the television backstage at the San Francisco Opera. To reproduce this "
7332 "reality was beyond the documentary filmmaker's budget. At the very last "
7333 "minute before the film was to be released, Else digitally replaced the shot "
7334 "with a clip from another film that he had worked on, <citetitle>The Day "
7335 "After Trinity</citetitle>, from ten years before."
7338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7339 #: freeculture.xml:5150
7341 "There's no doubt that someone, whether Matt Groening or Fox, owns the "
7342 "copyright to <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. That copyright is their "
7343 "property. To use that copyrighted material thus sometimes requires the "
7344 "permission of the copyright owner. If the use that Else wanted to make of "
7345 "the <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> copyright were one of the uses "
7346 "restricted by the law, then he would need to get the permission of the "
7347 "copyright owner before he could use the work in that way. And in a free "
7348 "market, it is the owner of the copyright who gets to set the price for any "
7349 "use that the law says the owner gets to control."
7352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7353 #: freeculture.xml:5161
7355 "For example, <quote>public performance</quote> is a use of <citetitle>The "
7356 "Simpsons</citetitle> that the copyright owner gets to control. If you take a "
7357 "selection of favorite episodes, rent a movie theater, and charge for tickets "
7358 "to come see <quote>My Favorite <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>,</quote> then "
7359 "you need to get permission from the copyright owner. And the copyright owner "
7360 "(rightly, in my view) can charge whatever she wants—$10 or "
7361 "$1,000,000. That's her right, as set by the law."
7365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7366 #: freeculture.xml:5173
7368 "For an excellent argument that such use is <quote>fair use,</quote> but that "
7369 "lawyers don't permit recognition that it is <quote>fair use,</quote> see "
7370 "Richard A. Posner with William F. Patry, <quote>Fair Use and Statutory "
7371 "Reform in the Wake of <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle></quote> (draft on file "
7372 "with author), University of Chicago Law School, 5 August 2003."
7375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7376 #: freeculture.xml:5170
7378 "But when lawyers hear this story about Jon Else and Fox, their first thought "
7379 "is <quote>fair use.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Else's "
7380 "use of just 4.5 seconds of an indirect shot of a "
7381 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> episode is clearly a fair use of "
7382 "<citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>—and fair use does not require the "
7383 "permission of anyone."
7387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7388 #: freeculture.xml:5185
7390 "So I asked Else why he didn't just rely upon <quote>fair use.</quote> Here's "
7394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7395 #: freeculture.xml:5189
7397 "The <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> fiasco was for me a great lesson in the "
7398 "gulf between what lawyers find irrelevant in some abstract sense, and what "
7399 "is crushingly relevant in practice to those of us actually trying to make "
7400 "and broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it was "
7401 "<quote>clearly fair use</quote> in an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't "
7402 "rely on the concept in any concrete way. Here's why:"
7406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7407 #: freeculture.xml:5199
7409 "Before our films can be broadcast, the network requires that we buy Errors "
7410 "and Omissions insurance. The carriers require a detailed <quote>visual cue "
7411 "sheet</quote> listing the source and licensing status of each shot in the "
7412 "film. They take a dim view of <quote>fair use,</quote> and a claim of "
7413 "<quote>fair use</quote> can grind the application process to a halt."
7416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7417 #: freeculture.xml:5206
7418 msgid "<citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle>"
7421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7422 #: freeculture.xml:5207
7423 msgid "Lucas, George"
7427 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7428 #: freeculture.xml:5210
7430 "I probably never should have asked Matt Groening in the first place. But I "
7431 "knew (at least from folklore) that Fox had a history of tracking down and "
7432 "stopping unlicensed <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> usage, just as George "
7433 "Lucas had a very high profile litigating <citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle> "
7434 "usage. So I decided to play by the book, thinking that we would be granted "
7435 "free or cheap license to four seconds of <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>. As "
7436 "a documentary producer working to exhaustion on a shoestring, the last thing "
7437 "I wanted was to risk legal trouble, even nuisance legal trouble, and even to "
7438 "defend a principle."
7443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7444 #: freeculture.xml:5222
7446 "I did, in fact, speak with one of your colleagues at Stanford Law School "
7447 "… who confirmed that it was fair use. He also confirmed that Fox "
7448 "would <quote>depose and litigate you to within an inch of your life,</quote> "
7449 "regardless of the merits of my claim. He made clear that it would boil down "
7450 "to who had the bigger legal department and the deeper pockets, me or them."
7454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7455 #: freeculture.xml:5232
7457 "The question of fair use usually comes up at the end of the project, when we "
7458 "are up against a release deadline and out of money."
7461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7462 #: freeculture.xml:5239
7464 "In theory, fair use means you need no permission. The theory therefore "
7465 "supports free culture and insulates against a permission culture. But in "
7466 "practice, fair use functions very differently. The fuzzy lines of the law, "
7467 "tied to the extraordinary liability if lines are crossed, means that the "
7468 "effective fair use for many types of creators is slight. The law has the "
7469 "right aim; practice has defeated the aim."
7472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7473 #: freeculture.xml:5247
7475 "This practice shows just how far the law has come from its "
7476 "eighteenth-century roots. The law was born as a shield to protect "
7477 "publishers' profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. It has "
7478 "matured into a sword that interferes with any use, transformative or not."
7481 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7482 #: freeculture.xml:5256
7483 msgid "CHAPTER EIGHT: Transformers"
7486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7487 #: freeculture.xml:5257
7491 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
7492 #: freeculture.xml:5258 freeculture.xml:5318 freeculture.xml:5503 freeculture.xml:9946 freeculture.xml:14242
7496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7497 #: freeculture.xml:5261
7499 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1993</emphasis>, Alex Alben was a lawyer working "
7500 "at Starwave, Inc. Starwave was an innovative company founded by Microsoft "
7501 "cofounder Paul Allen to develop digital entertainment. Long before the "
7502 "Internet became popular, Starwave began investing in new technology for "
7503 "delivering entertainment in anticipation of the power of networks."
7506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7507 #: freeculture.xml:5268
7508 msgid "retrospective compilations on"
7511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7512 #: freeculture.xml:5269
7513 msgid "CD-ROMs, film clips used in"
7516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7517 #: freeculture.xml:5271
7519 "Alben had a special interest in new technology. He was intrigued by the "
7520 "emerging market for CD-ROM technology—not to distribute film, but to "
7521 "do things with film that otherwise would be very difficult. In 1993, he "
7522 "launched an initiative to develop a product to build retrospectives on the "
7523 "work of particular actors. The first actor chosen was Clint Eastwood. The "
7524 "idea was to showcase all of the work of Eastwood, with clips from his films "
7525 "and interviews with figures important to his career."
7528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7529 #: freeculture.xml:5281
7531 "At that time, Eastwood had made more than fifty films, as an actor and as a "
7532 "director. Alben began with a series of interviews with Eastwood, asking him "
7533 "about his career. Because Starwave produced those interviews, it was free to "
7534 "include them on the CD."
7538 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7539 #: freeculture.xml:5288
7541 "That alone would not have made a very interesting product, so Starwave "
7542 "wanted to add content from the movies in Eastwood's career: posters, "
7543 "scripts, and other material relating to the films Eastwood made. Most of his "
7544 "career was spent at Warner Brothers, and so it was relatively easy to get "
7545 "permission for that content."
7548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7549 #: freeculture.xml:5295
7551 "Then Alben and his team decided to include actual film clips. <quote>Our "
7552 "goal was that we were going to have a clip from every one of Eastwood's "
7553 "films,</quote> Alben told me. It was here that the problem arose. <quote>No "
7554 "one had ever really done this before,</quote> Alben explained. <quote>No one "
7555 "had ever tried to do this in the context of an artistic look at an actor's "
7559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7560 #: freeculture.xml:5303
7562 "Alben brought the idea to Michael Slade, the CEO of Starwave. Slade asked, "
7563 "<quote>Well, what will it take?</quote>"
7566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><secondary>
7567 #: freeculture.xml:5317
7568 msgid "publicity rights on images of"
7571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7572 #: freeculture.xml:5313
7574 "Technically, the rights that Alben had to clear were mainly those of "
7575 "publicity—rights an artist has to control the commercial exploitation "
7576 "of his image. But these rights, too, burden <quote>Rip, Mix, Burn</quote> "
7577 "creativity, as this chapter evinces. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7578 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
7581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7582 #: freeculture.xml:5307
7584 "Alben replied, <quote>Well, we're going to have to clear rights from "
7585 "everyone who appears in these films, and the music and everything else that "
7586 "we want to use in these film clips.</quote> Slade said, <quote>Great! Go for "
7587 "it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7591 #: freeculture.xml:5322
7593 "The problem was that neither Alben nor Slade had any idea what clearing "
7594 "those rights would mean. Every actor in each of the films could have a claim "
7595 "to royalties for the reuse of that film. But CD- ROMs had not been specified "
7596 "in the contracts for the actors, so there was no clear way to know just what "
7597 "Starwave was to do."
7600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7601 #: freeculture.xml:5329
7603 "I asked Alben how he dealt with the problem. With an obvious pride in his "
7604 "resourcefulness that obscured the obvious bizarreness of his tale, Alben "
7605 "recounted just what they did:"
7608 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7609 #: freeculture.xml:5335
7611 "So we very mechanically went about looking up the film clips. We made some "
7612 "artistic decisions about what film clips to include—of course we were "
7613 "going to use the <quote>Make my day</quote> clip from <citetitle>Dirty "
7614 "Harry</citetitle>. But you then need to get the guy on the ground who's "
7615 "wiggling under the gun and you need to get his permission. And then you "
7616 "have to decide what you are going to pay him."
7620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7621 #: freeculture.xml:5344
7623 "We decided that it would be fair if we offered them the dayplayer rate for "
7624 "the right to reuse that performance. We're talking about a clip of less than "
7625 "a minute, but to reuse that performance in the CD-ROM the rate at the time "
7626 "was about $600. So we had to identify the people—some of them were "
7627 "hard to identify because in Eastwood movies you can't tell who's the guy "
7628 "crashing through the glass—is it the actor or is it the stuntman? And "
7629 "then we just, we put together a team, my assistant and some others, and we "
7630 "just started calling people."
7633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7634 #: freeculture.xml:5355
7635 msgid "Sutherland, Donald"
7638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7639 #: freeculture.xml:5357
7641 "Some actors were glad to help—Donald Sutherland, for example, followed "
7642 "up himself to be sure that the rights had been cleared. Others were "
7643 "dumbfounded at their good fortune. Alben would ask, <quote>Hey, can I pay "
7644 "you $600 or maybe if you were in two films, you know, $1,200?</quote> And "
7645 "they would say, <quote>Are you for real? Hey, I'd love to get "
7646 "$1,200.</quote> And some of course were a bit difficult (estranged ex-wives, "
7647 "in particular). But eventually, Alben and his team had cleared the rights to "
7648 "this retrospective CD-ROM on Clint Eastwood's career."
7651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7652 #: freeculture.xml:5368
7654 "It was one <emphasis>year</emphasis> later—<quote>and even then we "
7655 "weren't sure whether we were totally in the clear.</quote>"
7658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7659 #: freeculture.xml:5372
7661 "Alben is proud of his work. The project was the first of its kind and the "
7662 "only time he knew of that a team had undertaken such a massive project for "
7663 "the purpose of releasing a retrospective."
7666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7667 #: freeculture.xml:5378
7669 "Everyone thought it would be too hard. Everyone just threw up their hands "
7670 "and said, <quote>Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's the "
7671 "music, there's the screenplay, there's the director, there's the "
7672 "actors.</quote> But we just broke it down. We just put it into its "
7673 "constituent parts and said, <quote>Okay, there's this many actors, this many "
7674 "directors, … this many musicians,</quote> and we just went at it very "
7675 "systematically and cleared the rights."
7679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7680 #: freeculture.xml:5390
7682 "And no doubt, the product itself was exceptionally good. Eastwood loved it, "
7683 "and it sold very well."
7686 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7687 #: freeculture.xml:5393
7688 msgid "Drucker, Peter"
7692 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7693 #: freeculture.xml:5401
7695 "U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Acquisition Management, "
7696 "<citetitle>Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services "
7697 "Acquisition</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
7698 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #22</ulink>."
7701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7702 #: freeculture.xml:5395
7704 "But I pressed Alben about how weird it seems that it would have to take a "
7705 "year's work simply to clear rights. No doubt Alben had done this "
7706 "efficiently, but as Peter Drucker has famously quipped, <quote>There is "
7707 "nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at "
7708 "all.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Did it make sense, I "
7709 "asked Alben, that this is the way a new work has to be made?"
7712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7713 #: freeculture.xml:5409
7715 "For, as he acknowledged, <quote>very few … have the time and "
7716 "resources, and the will to do this,</quote> and thus, very few such works "
7717 "would ever be made. Does it make sense, I asked him, from the standpoint of "
7718 "what anybody really thought they were ever giving rights for originally, "
7719 "that you would have to go clear rights for these kinds of clips?"
7722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7723 #: freeculture.xml:5417
7725 "I don't think so. When an actor renders a performance in a movie, he or she "
7726 "gets paid very well. … And then when 30 seconds of that performance "
7727 "is used in a new product that is a retrospective of somebody's career, I "
7728 "don't think that that person … should be compensated for that."
7731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7732 #: freeculture.xml:5425
7734 "Or at least, is this <emphasis>how</emphasis> the artist should be "
7735 "compensated? Would it make sense, I asked, for there to be some kind of "
7736 "statutory license that someone could pay and be free to make derivative use "
7737 "of clips like this? Did it really make sense that a follow-on creator would "
7738 "have to track down every artist, actor, director, musician, and get explicit "
7739 "permission from each? Wouldn't a lot more be created if the legal part of "
7740 "the creative process could be made to be more clean?"
7744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7745 #: freeculture.xml:5436
7747 "Absolutely. I think that if there were some fair-licensing "
7748 "mechanism—where you weren't subject to hold-ups and you weren't "
7749 "subject to estranged former spouses—you'd see a lot more of this work, "
7750 "because it wouldn't be so daunting to try to put together a retrospective of "
7751 "someone's career and meaningfully illustrate it with lots of media from that "
7752 "person's career. You'd build in a cost as the producer of one of these "
7753 "things. You'd build in a cost of paying X dollars to the talent that "
7754 "performed. But it would be a known cost. That's the thing that trips "
7755 "everybody up and makes this kind of product hard to get off the ground. If "
7756 "you knew I have a hundred minutes of film in this product and it's going to "
7757 "cost me X, then you build your budget around it, and you can get investments "
7758 "and everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say, <quote>Oh, "
7759 "I want a hundred minutes of something and I have no idea what it's going to "
7760 "cost me, and a certain number of people are going to hold me up for "
7761 "money,</quote> then it becomes difficult to put one of these things "
7765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7766 #: freeculture.xml:5456
7768 "Alben worked for a big company. His company was backed by some of the "
7769 "richest investors in the world. He therefore had authority and access that "
7770 "the average Web designer would not have. So if it took him a year, how long "
7771 "would it take someone else? And how much creativity is never made just "
7772 "because the costs of clearing the rights are so high?"
7775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7776 #: freeculture.xml:5465
7778 "These costs are the burdens of a kind of regulation. Put on a Republican hat "
7779 "for a moment, and get angry for a bit. The government defines the scope of "
7780 "these rights, and the scope defined determines how much it's going to cost "
7781 "to negotiate them. (Remember the idea that land runs to the heavens, and "
7782 "imagine the pilot purchasing flythrough rights as he negotiates to fly from "
7783 "Los Angeles to San Francisco.) These rights might well have once made "
7784 "sense; but as circumstances change, they make no sense at all. Or at least, "
7785 "a well-trained, regulationminimizing Republican should look at the rights "
7786 "and ask, <quote>Does this still make sense?</quote>"
7790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7791 #: freeculture.xml:5478
7793 "I've seen the flash of recognition when people get this point, but only a "
7794 "few times. The first was at a conference of federal judges in California. "
7795 "The judges were gathered to discuss the emerging topic of cyber-law. I was "
7796 "asked to be on the panel. Harvey Saferstein, a well-respected lawyer from an "
7797 "L.A. firm, introduced the panel with a video that he and a friend, Robert "
7798 "Fairbank, had produced."
7801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7802 #: freeculture.xml:5488
7804 "The video was a brilliant collage of film from every period in the twentieth "
7805 "century, all framed around the idea of a <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> "
7806 "episode. The execution was perfect, down to the sixty-minute stopwatch. The "
7807 "judges loved every minute of it."
7810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7811 #: freeculture.xml:5493
7812 msgid "Nimmer, David"
7815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7816 #: freeculture.xml:5495
7818 "When the lights came up, I looked over to my copanelist, David Nimmer, "
7819 "perhaps the leading copyright scholar and practitioner in the nation. He had "
7820 "an astonished look on his face, as he peered across the room of over 250 "
7821 "well-entertained judges. Taking an ominous tone, he began his talk with a "
7822 "question: <quote>Do you know how many federal laws were just violated in "
7823 "this room?</quote>"
7826 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7827 #: freeculture.xml:5502
7828 msgid "Boies, David"
7831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7832 #: freeculture.xml:5505
7834 "For of course, the two brilliantly talented creators who made this film "
7835 "hadn't done what Alben did. They hadn't spent a year clearing the rights to "
7836 "these clips; technically, what they had done violated the law. Of course, "
7837 "it wasn't as if they or anyone were going to be prosecuted for this "
7838 "violation (the presence of 250 judges and a gaggle of federal marshals "
7839 "notwithstanding). But Nimmer was making an important point: A year before "
7840 "anyone would have heard of the word Napster, and two years before another "
7841 "member of our panel, David Boies, would defend Napster before the Ninth "
7842 "Circuit Court of Appeals, Nimmer was trying to get the judges to see that "
7843 "the law would not be friendly to the capacities that this technology would "
7844 "enable. Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you "
7845 "couldn't easily do them legally."
7848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7849 #: freeculture.xml:5520
7851 "We live in a <quote>cut and paste</quote> culture enabled by "
7852 "technology. Anyone building a presentation knows the extraordinary freedom "
7853 "that the cut and paste architecture of the Internet created—in a "
7854 "second you can find just about any image you want; in another second, you "
7855 "can have it planted in your presentation."
7858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7859 #: freeculture.xml:5526
7864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7865 #: freeculture.xml:5528
7867 "But presentations are just a tiny beginning. Using the Internet and its "
7868 "archives, musicians are able to string together mixes of sound never before "
7869 "imagined; filmmakers are able to build movies out of clips on computers "
7870 "around the world. An extraordinary site in Sweden takes images of "
7871 "politicians and blends them with music to create biting political "
7872 "commentary. A site called Camp Chaos has produced some of the most biting "
7873 "criticism of the record industry that there is through the mixing of Flash! "
7877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7878 #: freeculture.xml:5539
7880 "All of these creations are technically illegal. Even if the creators wanted "
7881 "to be <quote>legal,</quote> the cost of complying with the law is impossibly "
7882 "high. Therefore, for the law-abiding sorts, a wealth of creativity is never "
7883 "made. And for that part that is made, if it doesn't follow the clearance "
7884 "rules, it doesn't get released."
7887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7888 #: freeculture.xml:5546
7890 "To some, these stories suggest a solution: Let's alter the mix of rights so "
7891 "that people are free to build upon our culture. Free to add or mix as they "
7892 "see fit. We could even make this change without necessarily requiring that "
7893 "the <quote>free</quote> use be free as in <quote>free beer.</quote> Instead, "
7894 "the system could simply make it easy for follow-on creators to compensate "
7895 "artists without requiring an army of lawyers to come along: a rule, for "
7896 "example, that says <quote>the royalty owed the copyright owner of an "
7897 "unregistered work for the derivative reuse of his work will be a flat 1 "
7898 "percent of net revenues, to be held in escrow for the copyright "
7899 "owner.</quote> Under this rule, the copyright owner could benefit from some "
7900 "royalty, but he would not have the benefit of a full property right (meaning "
7901 "the right to name his own price) unless he registers the work."
7904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7905 #: freeculture.xml:5561
7907 "Who could possibly object to this? And what reason would there be for "
7908 "objecting? We're talking about work that is not now being made; which if "
7909 "made, under this plan, would produce new income for artists. What reason "
7910 "would anyone have to oppose it?"
7914 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7915 #: freeculture.xml:5567
7917 "<emphasis role='strong'>In February 2003</emphasis>, DreamWorks studios "
7918 "announced an agreement with Mike Myers, the comic genius of "
7919 "<citetitle>Saturday Night Live</citetitle> and Austin Powers. According to "
7920 "the announcement, Myers and Dream-Works would work together to form a "
7921 "<quote>unique filmmaking pact.</quote> Under the agreement, DreamWorks "
7922 "<quote>will acquire the rights to existing motion picture hits and classics, "
7923 "write new storylines and—with the use of stateof-the-art digital "
7924 "technology—insert Myers and other actors into the film, thereby "
7925 "creating an entirely new piece of entertainment.</quote>"
7928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7929 #: freeculture.xml:5580
7931 "The announcement called this <quote>film sampling.</quote> As Myers "
7932 "explained, <quote>Film Sampling is an exciting way to put an original spin "
7933 "on existing films and allow audiences to see old movies in a new light. Rap "
7934 "artists have been doing this for years with music and now we are able to "
7935 "take that same concept and apply it to film.</quote> Steven Spielberg is "
7936 "quoted as saying, <quote>If anyone can create a way to bring old films to "
7937 "new audiences, it is Mike.</quote>"
7940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7941 #: freeculture.xml:5589
7943 "Spielberg is right. Film sampling by Myers will be brilliant. But if you "
7944 "don't think about it, you might miss the truly astonishing point about this "
7945 "announcement. As the vast majority of our film heritage remains under "
7946 "copyright, the real meaning of the DreamWorks announcement is just this: It "
7947 "is Mike Myers and only Mike Myers who is free to sample. Any general freedom "
7948 "to build upon the film archive of our culture, a freedom in other contexts "
7949 "presumed for us all, is now a privilege reserved for the funny and "
7950 "famous—and presumably rich."
7953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7954 #: freeculture.xml:5599
7956 "This privilege becomes reserved for two sorts of reasons. The first "
7957 "continues the story of the last chapter: the vagueness of <quote>fair "
7958 "use.</quote> Much of <quote>sampling</quote> should be considered "
7959 "<quote>fair use.</quote> But few would rely upon so weak a doctrine to "
7960 "create. That leads to the second reason that the privilege is reserved for "
7961 "the few: The costs of negotiating the legal rights for the creative reuse of "
7962 "content are astronomically high. These costs mirror the costs with fair "
7963 "use: You either pay a lawyer to defend your fair use rights or pay a lawyer "
7964 "to track down permissions so you don't have to rely upon fair use "
7965 "rights. Either way, the creative process is a process of paying "
7966 "lawyers—again a privilege, or perhaps a curse, reserved for the few."
7969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7970 #: freeculture.xml:5614
7971 msgid "CHAPTER NINE: Collectors"
7974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7975 #: freeculture.xml:5615 freeculture.xml:8744 freeculture.xml:10957 freeculture.xml:11202
7976 msgid "archives, digital"
7979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
7980 #: freeculture.xml:5616 freeculture.xml:8043
7984 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7985 #: freeculture.xml:5618
7987 "<emphasis role='strong'>In April 1996</emphasis>, millions of "
7988 "<quote>bots</quote>—computer codes designed to <quote>spider,</quote> "
7989 "or automatically search the Internet and copy content—began running "
7990 "across the Net. Page by page, these bots copied Internet-based information "
7991 "onto a small set of computers located in a basement in San Francisco's "
7992 "Presidio. Once the bots finished the whole of the Internet, they started "
7993 "again. Over and over again, once every two months, these bits of code took "
7994 "copies of the Internet and stored them."
7997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7998 #: freeculture.xml:5628 freeculture.xml:5659 freeculture.xml:5721
7999 msgid "Way Back Machine"
8002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8003 #: freeculture.xml:5630
8005 "By October 2001, the bots had collected more than five years of copies. And "
8006 "at a small announcement in Berkeley, California, the archive that these "
8007 "copies created, the Internet Archive, was opened to the world. Using a "
8008 "technology called <quote>the Way Back Machine,</quote> you could enter a Web "
8009 "page, and see all of its copies going back to 1996, as well as when those "
8013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8014 #: freeculture.xml:5637
8015 msgid "Orwell, George"
8018 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8019 #: freeculture.xml:5639
8021 "This is the thing about the Internet that Orwell would have appreciated. In "
8022 "the dystopia described in <citetitle>1984</citetitle>, old newspapers were "
8023 "constantly updated to assure that the current view of the world, approved of "
8024 "by the government, was not contradicted by previous news reports."
8028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8029 #: freeculture.xml:5647
8031 "Thousands of workers constantly reedited the past, meaning there was no way "
8032 "ever to know whether the story you were reading today was the story that was "
8033 "printed on the date published on the paper."
8036 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8037 #: freeculture.xml:5652
8039 "It's the same with the Internet. If you go to a Web page today, there's no "
8040 "way for you to know whether the content you are reading is the same as the "
8041 "content you read before. The page may seem the same, but the content could "
8042 "easily be different. The Internet is Orwell's library—constantly "
8043 "updated, without any reliable memory."
8046 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8047 #: freeculture.xml:5668
8048 msgid "White House press releases"
8051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8052 #: freeculture.xml:5667
8054 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
8055 "id=\"1\"/> The temptations remain, however. Brewster Kahle reports that the "
8056 "White House changes its own press releases without notice. A May 13, 2003, "
8057 "press release stated, <quote>Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.</quote> "
8058 "That was later changed, without notice, to <quote>Major Combat Operations in "
8059 "Iraq Have Ended.</quote> E-mail from Brewster Kahle, 1 December 2003."
8062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8063 #: freeculture.xml:5661
8065 "Until the Way Back Machine, at least. With the Way Back Machine, and the "
8066 "Internet Archive underlying it, you can see what the Internet was. You have "
8067 "the power to see what you remember. More importantly, perhaps, you also have "
8068 "the power to find what you don't remember and what others might prefer you "
8069 "forget.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8073 #: freeculture.xml:5676
8074 msgid "history, records of"
8077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8078 #: freeculture.xml:5678
8080 "<emphasis role='strong'>We take it</emphasis> for granted that we can go "
8081 "back to see what we remember reading. Think about newspapers. If you wanted "
8082 "to study the reaction of your hometown newspaper to the race riots in Watts "
8083 "in 1965, or to Bull Connor's water cannon in 1963, you could go to your "
8084 "public library and look at the newspapers. Those papers probably exist on "
8085 "microfiche. If you're lucky, they exist in paper, too. Either way, you are "
8086 "free, using a library, to go back and remember—not just what it is "
8087 "convenient to remember, but remember something close to the truth."
8090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8091 #: freeculture.xml:5689
8093 "It is said that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat "
8094 "it. That's not quite correct. We <emphasis>all</emphasis> forget "
8095 "history. The key is whether we have a way to go back to rediscover what we "
8096 "forget. More directly, the key is whether an objective past can keep us "
8097 "honest. Libraries help do that, by collecting content and keeping it, for "
8098 "schoolchildren, for researchers, for grandma. A free society presumes this "
8103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8104 #: freeculture.xml:5698
8106 "The Internet was an exception to this presumption. Until the Internet "
8107 "Archive, there was no way to go back. The Internet was the quintessentially "
8108 "transitory medium. And yet, as it becomes more important in forming and "
8109 "reforming society, it becomes more and more important to maintain in some "
8110 "historical form. It's just bizarre to think that we have scads of archives "
8111 "of newspapers from tiny towns around the world, yet there is but one copy of "
8112 "the Internet—the one kept by the Internet Archive."
8115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8116 #: freeculture.xml:5709
8118 "Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive. He was a very "
8119 "successful Internet entrepreneur after he was a successful computer "
8120 "researcher. In the 1990s, Kahle decided he had had enough business "
8121 "success. It was time to become a different kind of success. So he launched "
8122 "a series of projects designed to archive human knowledge. The Internet "
8123 "Archive was just the first of the projects of this Andrew Carnegie of the "
8124 "Internet. By December of 2002, the archive had over 10 billion pages, and it "
8125 "was growing at about a billion pages a month."
8128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8129 #: freeculture.xml:5718 freeculture.xml:5772
8130 msgid "Library of Congress"
8133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8134 #: freeculture.xml:5719
8135 msgid "Television Archive"
8138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8139 #: freeculture.xml:5720
8140 msgid "Vanderbilt University"
8143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8144 #: freeculture.xml:5722
8148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8149 #: freeculture.xml:5722
8150 msgid "archival function of"
8153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8154 #: freeculture.xml:5724
8156 "The Way Back Machine is the largest archive of human knowledge in human "
8157 "history. At the end of 2002, it held <quote>two hundred and thirty terabytes "
8158 "of material</quote>—and was <quote>ten times larger than the Library "
8159 "of Congress.</quote> And this was just the first of the archives that Kahle "
8160 "set out to build. In addition to the Internet Archive, Kahle has been "
8161 "constructing the Television Archive. Television, it turns out, is even more "
8162 "ephemeral than the Internet. While much of twentieth-century culture was "
8163 "constructed through television, only a tiny proportion of that culture is "
8164 "available for anyone to see today. Three hours of news are recorded each "
8165 "evening by Vanderbilt University—thanks to a specific exemption in the "
8166 "copyright law. That content is indexed, and is available to scholars for a "
8167 "very low fee. <quote>But other than that, [television] is almost "
8168 "unavailable,</quote> Kahle told me. <quote>If you were Barbara Walters you "
8169 "could get access to [the archives], but if you are just a graduate "
8170 "student?</quote> As Kahle put it,"
8173 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
8174 #: freeculture.xml:5741
8178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
8179 #: freeculture.xml:5742
8184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8185 #: freeculture.xml:5744
8187 "Do you remember when Dan Quayle was interacting with Murphy Brown? Remember "
8188 "that back and forth surreal experience of a politician interacting with a "
8189 "fictional television character? If you were a graduate student wanting to "
8190 "study that, and you wanted to get those original back and forth exchanges "
8191 "between the two, the <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> episode that came out "
8192 "after it … it would be almost impossible. … Those materials "
8193 "are almost unfindable. …"
8196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8197 #: freeculture.xml:5755
8201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8202 #: freeculture.xml:5755
8206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8207 #: freeculture.xml:5757
8209 "Why is that? Why is it that the part of our culture that is recorded in "
8210 "newspapers remains perpetually accessible, while the part that is recorded "
8211 "on videotape is not? How is it that we've created a world where researchers "
8212 "trying to understand the effect of media on nineteenthcentury America will "
8213 "have an easier time than researchers trying to understand the effect of "
8214 "media on twentieth-century America?"
8217 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8218 #: freeculture.xml:5765
8220 "In part, this is because of the law. Early in American copyright law, "
8221 "copyright owners were required to deposit copies of their work in "
8222 "libraries. These copies were intended both to facilitate the spread of "
8223 "knowledge and to assure that a copy of the work would be around once the "
8224 "copyright expired, so that others might access and copy the work."
8227 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8228 #: freeculture.xml:5773 freeculture.xml:5816
8233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8234 #: freeculture.xml:5784
8236 "Doug Herrick, <quote>Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at "
8237 "the Library of Congress,</quote> <citetitle>Film Library "
8238 "Quarterly</citetitle> 13 nos. 2–3 (1980): 5; Anthony Slide, "
8239 "<citetitle>Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United "
8240 "States</citetitle> ( Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1992), 36."
8243 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8244 #: freeculture.xml:5775
8246 "These rules applied to film as well. But in 1915, the Library of Congress "
8247 "made an exception for film. Film could be copyrighted so long as such "
8248 "deposits were made. But the filmmaker was then allowed to borrow back the "
8249 "deposits—for an unlimited time at no cost. In 1915 alone, there were "
8250 "more than 5,475 films deposited and <quote>borrowed back.</quote> Thus, when "
8251 "the copyrights to films expire, there is no copy held by any library. The "
8252 "copy exists—if it exists at all—in the library archive of the "
8253 "film company.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8257 #: freeculture.xml:5792
8259 "The same is generally true about television. Television broadcasts were "
8260 "originally not copyrighted—there was no way to capture the broadcasts, "
8261 "so there was no fear of <quote>theft.</quote> But as technology enabled "
8262 "capturing, broadcasters relied increasingly upon the law. The law required "
8263 "they make a copy of each broadcast for the work to be "
8264 "<quote>copyrighted.</quote> But those copies were simply kept by the "
8265 "broadcasters. No library had any right to them; the government didn't demand "
8266 "them. The content of this part of American culture is practically invisible "
8267 "to anyone who would look."
8270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8271 #: freeculture.xml:5802
8272 msgid "September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks of"
8276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8277 #: freeculture.xml:5804
8279 "Kahle was eager to correct this. Before September 11, 2001, he and his "
8280 "allies had started capturing television. They selected twenty stations from "
8281 "around the world and hit the Record button. After September 11, Kahle, "
8282 "working with dozens of others, selected twenty stations from around the "
8283 "world and, beginning October 11, 2001, made their coverage during the week "
8284 "of September 11 available free on-line. Anyone could see how news reports "
8285 "from around the world covered the events of that day."
8288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8289 #: freeculture.xml:5814
8290 msgid "Movie Archive"
8293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8294 #: freeculture.xml:5815
8298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8299 #: freeculture.xml:5815 freeculture.xml:5817
8300 msgid "Internet Archive"
8303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8304 #: freeculture.xml:5818
8305 msgid "Duck and Cover film"
8308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8309 #: freeculture.xml:5819
8310 msgid "ephemeral films"
8313 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8314 #: freeculture.xml:5820
8315 msgid "Prelinger, Rick"
8318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8319 #: freeculture.xml:5822
8321 "Kahle had the same idea with film. Working with Rick Prelinger, whose "
8322 "archive of film includes close to 45,000 <quote>ephemeral films</quote> "
8323 "(meaning films other than Hollywood movies, films that were never "
8324 "copyrighted), Kahle established the Movie Archive. Prelinger let Kahle "
8325 "digitize 1,300 films in this archive and post those films on the Internet to "
8326 "be downloaded for free. Prelinger's is a for-profit company. It sells copies "
8327 "of these films as stock footage. What he has discovered is that after he "
8328 "made a significant chunk available for free, his stock footage sales went up "
8329 "dramatically. People could easily find the material they wanted to use. Some "
8330 "downloaded that material and made films on their own. Others purchased "
8331 "copies to enable other films to be made. Either way, the archive enabled "
8332 "access to this important part of our culture. Want to see a copy of the "
8333 "<quote>Duck and Cover</quote> film that instructed children how to save "
8334 "themselves in the middle of nuclear attack? Go to archive.org, and you can "
8335 "download the film in a few minutes—for free."
8338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8339 #: freeculture.xml:5840
8341 "Here again, Kahle is providing access to a part of our culture that we "
8342 "otherwise could not get easily, if at all. It is yet another part of what "
8343 "defines the twentieth century that we have lost to history. The law doesn't "
8344 "require these copies to be kept by anyone, or to be deposited in an archive "
8345 "by anyone. Therefore, there is no simple way to find them."
8348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8349 #: freeculture.xml:5848
8351 "The key here is access, not price. Kahle wants to enable free access to this "
8352 "content, but he also wants to enable others to sell access to it. His aim is "
8353 "to ensure competition in access to this important part of our culture. Not "
8354 "during the commercial life of a bit of creative property, but during a "
8355 "second life that all creative property has—a noncommercial life."
8359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8360 #: freeculture.xml:5856
8362 "For here is an idea that we should more clearly recognize. Every bit of "
8363 "creative property goes through different <quote>lives.</quote> In its first "
8364 "life, if the creator is lucky, the content is sold. In such cases the "
8365 "commercial market is successful for the creator. The vast majority of "
8366 "creative property doesn't enjoy such success, but some clearly does. For "
8367 "that content, commercial life is extremely important. Without this "
8368 "commercial market, there would be, many argue, much less creativity."
8371 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8372 #: freeculture.xml:5868
8374 "After the commercial life of creative property has ended, our tradition has "
8375 "always supported a second life as well. A newspaper delivers the news every "
8376 "day to the doorsteps of America. The very next day, it is used to wrap fish "
8377 "or to fill boxes with fragile gifts or to build an archive of knowledge "
8378 "about our history. In this second life, the content can continue to inform "
8379 "even if that information is no longer sold."
8382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8383 #: freeculture.xml:5881
8385 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Dave Barns, <quote>Fledgling "
8386 "Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, Bar Owner Starts a New Chapter "
8387 "by Adopting Business,</quote> <citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 5 "
8388 "September 1997, at Metro Lake 1L. Of books published between 1927 and 1946, "
8389 "only 2.2 percent were in print in 2002. R. Anthony Reese, <quote>The First "
8390 "Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
8391 "College Law Review</citetitle> 44 (2003): 593 n. 51."
8394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8395 #: freeculture.xml:5878
8397 "The same has always been true about books. A book goes out of print very "
8398 "quickly (the average today is after about a year<placeholder "
8399 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>). After it is out of print, it can be sold in "
8400 "used book stores without the copyright owner getting anything and stored in "
8401 "libraries, where many get to read the book, also for free. Used book stores "
8402 "and libraries are thus the second life of a book. That second life is "
8403 "extremely important to the spread and stability of culture."
8406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8407 #: freeculture.xml:5896
8409 "Yet increasingly, any assumption about a stable second life for creative "
8410 "property does not hold true with the most important components of popular "
8411 "culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For "
8412 "these—television, movies, music, radio, the Internet—there is no "
8413 "guarantee of a second life. For these sorts of culture, it is as if we've "
8414 "replaced libraries with Barnes & Noble superstores. With this culture, "
8415 "what's accessible is nothing but what a certain limited market demands. "
8416 "Beyond that, culture disappears."
8420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8421 #: freeculture.xml:5907
8423 "<emphasis role='strong'>For most of</emphasis> the twentieth century, it was "
8424 "economics that made this so. It would have been insanely expensive to "
8425 "collect and make accessible all television and film and music: The cost of "
8426 "analog copies is extraordinarily high. So even though the law in principle "
8427 "would have restricted the ability of a Brewster Kahle to copy culture "
8428 "generally, the real restriction was economics. The market made it impossibly "
8429 "difficult to do anything about this ephemeral culture; the law had little "
8433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8434 #: freeculture.xml:5919
8436 "Perhaps the single most important feature of the digital revolution is that "
8437 "for the first time since the Library of Alexandria, it is feasible to "
8438 "imagine constructing archives that hold all culture produced or distributed "
8439 "publicly. Technology makes it possible to imagine an archive of all books "
8440 "published, and increasingly makes it possible to imagine an archive of all "
8441 "moving images and sound."
8444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8445 #: freeculture.xml:5927
8447 "The scale of this potential archive is something we've never imagined "
8448 "before. The Brewster Kahles of our history have dreamed about it; but we are "
8449 "for the first time at a point where that dream is possible. As Kahle "
8453 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><secondary>
8454 #: freeculture.xml:5933
8455 msgid "total number of"
8458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8459 #: freeculture.xml:5935
8461 "It looks like there's about two to three million recordings of music. "
8462 "Ever. There are about a hundred thousand theatrical releases of movies, "
8463 "… and about one to two million movies [distributed] during the "
8464 "twentieth century. There are about twenty-six million different titles of "
8465 "books. All of these would fit on computers that would fit in this room and "
8466 "be able to be afforded by a small company. So we're at a turning point in "
8467 "our history. Universal access is the goal. And the opportunity of leading a "
8468 "different life, based on this, is … thrilling. It could be one of the "
8469 "things humankind would be most proud of. Up there with the Library of "
8470 "Alexandria, putting a man on the moon, and the invention of the printing "
8475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8476 #: freeculture.xml:5949
8478 "Kahle is not the only librarian. The Internet Archive is not the only "
8479 "archive. But Kahle and the Internet Archive suggest what the future of "
8480 "libraries or archives could be. <emphasis>When</emphasis> the commercial "
8481 "life of creative property ends, I don't know. But it does. And whenever it "
8482 "does, Kahle and his archive hint at a world where this knowledge, and "
8483 "culture, remains perpetually available. Some will draw upon it to understand "
8484 "it; some to criticize it. Some will use it, as Walt Disney did, to re-create "
8485 "the past for the future. These technologies promise something that had "
8486 "become unimaginable for much of our past—a future "
8487 "<emphasis>for</emphasis> our past. The technology of digital arts could make "
8488 "the dream of the Library of Alexandria real again."
8491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8492 #: freeculture.xml:5964
8494 "Technologists have thus removed the economic costs of building such an "
8495 "archive. But lawyers' costs remain. For as much as we might like to call "
8496 "these <quote>archives,</quote> as warm as the idea of a "
8497 "<quote>library</quote> might seem, the <quote>content</quote> that is "
8498 "collected in these digital spaces is also someone's <quote>property.</quote> "
8499 "And the law of property restricts the freedoms that Kahle and others would "
8503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
8504 #: freeculture.xml:5975
8505 msgid "CHAPTER TEN: <quote>Property</quote>"
8508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8509 #: freeculture.xml:5976
8510 msgid "Johnson, Lyndon"
8513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8514 #: freeculture.xml:5977 freeculture.xml:9702
8515 msgid "Kennedy, John F."
8518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8519 #: freeculture.xml:5979
8521 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jack Valenti</emphasis> has been the president of "
8522 "the Motion Picture Association of America since 1966. He first came to "
8523 "Washington, D.C., with Lyndon Johnson's administration—literally. The "
8524 "famous picture of Johnson's swearing-in on Air Force One after the "
8525 "assassination of President Kennedy has Valenti in the background. In his "
8526 "almost forty years of running the MPAA, Valenti has established himself as "
8527 "perhaps the most prominent and effective lobbyist in Washington."
8530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8531 #: freeculture.xml:5989
8532 msgid "Sony Pictures Entertainment"
8535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8536 #: freeculture.xml:5990
8540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8541 #: freeculture.xml:5991
8542 msgid "Paramount Pictures"
8545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8546 #: freeculture.xml:5992
8547 msgid "Twentieth Century Fox"
8550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8551 #: freeculture.xml:5993
8552 msgid "Universal Pictures"
8555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8556 #: freeculture.xml:5994 freeculture.xml:7420
8557 msgid "Warner Brothers"
8560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8561 #: freeculture.xml:5996
8563 "The MPAA is the American branch of the international Motion Picture "
8564 "Association. It was formed in 1922 as a trade association whose goal was to "
8565 "defend American movies against increasing domestic criticism. The "
8566 "organization now represents not only filmmakers but producers and "
8567 "distributors of entertainment for television, video, and cable. Its board is "
8568 "made up of the chairmen and presidents of the seven major producers and "
8569 "distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States: "
8570 "Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth "
8571 "Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers."
8575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8576 #: freeculture.xml:6009
8578 "Valenti is only the third president of the MPAA. No president before him has "
8579 "had as much influence over that organization, or over Washington. As a "
8580 "Texan, Valenti has mastered the single most important political skill of a "
8581 "Southerner—the ability to appear simple and slow while hiding a "
8582 "lightning-fast intellect. To this day, Valenti plays the simple, humble "
8583 "man. But this Harvard MBA, and author of four books, who finished high "
8584 "school at the age of fifteen and flew more than fifty combat missions in "
8585 "World War II, is no Mr. Smith. When Valenti went to Washington, he mastered "
8586 "the city in a quintessentially Washingtonian way."
8589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8590 #: freeculture.xml:6021
8592 "In defending artistic liberty and the freedom of speech that our culture "
8593 "depends upon, the MPAA has done important good. In crafting the MPAA rating "
8594 "system, it has probably avoided a great deal of speech-regulating harm. But "
8595 "there is an aspect to the organization's mission that is both the most "
8596 "radical and the most important. This is the organization's effort, "
8597 "epitomized in Valenti's every act, to redefine the meaning of "
8598 "<quote>creative property.</quote>"
8601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8602 #: freeculture.xml:6030
8603 msgid "In 1982, Valenti's testimony to Congress captured the strategy perfectly:"
8607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
8608 #: freeculture.xml:6044
8610 "Home Recording of Copyrighted Works: Hearings on H.R. 4783, H.R. 4794, "
8611 "H.R. 4808, H.R. 5250, H.R. 5488, and H.R. 5705 Before the Subcommittee on "
8612 "Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee "
8613 "on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, 97th Cong., 2nd "
8614 "sess. (1982): 65 (testimony of Jack Valenti)."
8617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8618 #: freeculture.xml:6035
8620 "No matter the lengthy arguments made, no matter the charges and the "
8621 "counter-charges, no matter the tumult and the shouting, reasonable men and "
8622 "women will keep returning to the fundamental issue, the central theme which "
8623 "animates this entire debate: <emphasis>Creative property owners must be "
8624 "accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other property "
8625 "owners in the nation</emphasis>. That is the issue. That is the "
8626 "question. And that is the rostrum on which this entire hearing and the "
8627 "debates to follow must rest.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8631 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8632 #: freeculture.xml:6054
8634 "The strategy of this rhetoric, like the strategy of most of Valenti's "
8635 "rhetoric, is brilliant and simple and brilliant because simple. The "
8636 "<quote>central theme</quote> to which <quote>reasonable men and "
8637 "women</quote> will return is this: <quote>Creative property owners must be "
8638 "accorded the same rights and protections resident in all other property "
8639 "owners in the nation.</quote> There are no second-class citizens, Valenti "
8640 "might have continued. There should be no second-class property owners."
8643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8644 #: freeculture.xml:6065
8646 "This claim has an obvious and powerful intuitive pull. It is stated with "
8647 "such clarity as to make the idea as obvious as the notion that we use "
8648 "elections to pick presidents. But in fact, there is no more extreme a claim "
8649 "made by <emphasis>anyone</emphasis> who is serious in this debate than this "
8650 "claim of Valenti's. Jack Valenti, however sweet and however brilliant, is "
8651 "perhaps the nation's foremost extremist when it comes to the nature and "
8652 "scope of <quote>creative property.</quote> His views have "
8653 "<emphasis>no</emphasis> reasonable connection to our actual legal tradition, "
8654 "even if the subtle pull of his Texan charm has slowly redefined that "
8655 "tradition, at least in Washington."
8659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8660 #: freeculture.xml:6080
8662 "Lawyers speak of <quote>property</quote> not as an absolute thing, but as a "
8663 "bundle of rights that are sometimes associated with a particular "
8664 "object. Thus, my <quote>property right</quote> to my car gives me the right "
8665 "to exclusive use, but not the right to drive at 150 miles an hour. For the "
8666 "best effort to connect the ordinary meaning of <quote>property</quote> to "
8667 "<quote>lawyer talk,</quote> see Bruce Ackerman, <citetitle>Private Property "
8668 "and the Constitution</citetitle> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), "
8672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8673 #: freeculture.xml:6077
8675 "While <quote>creative property</quote> is certainly <quote>property</quote> "
8676 "in a nerdy and precise sense that lawyers are trained to "
8677 "understand,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it has never been the "
8678 "case, nor should it be, that <quote>creative property owners</quote> have "
8679 "been <quote>accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other "
8680 "property owners.</quote> Indeed, if creative property owners were given the "
8681 "same rights as all other property owners, that would effect a radical, and "
8682 "radically undesirable, change in our tradition."
8685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8686 #: freeculture.xml:6095
8688 "Valenti knows this. But he speaks for an industry that cares squat for our "
8689 "tradition and the values it represents. He speaks for an industry that is "
8690 "instead fighting to restore the tradition that the British overturned in "
8691 "1710. In the world that Valenti's changes would create, a powerful few would "
8692 "exercise powerful control over how our creative culture would develop."
8696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8697 #: freeculture.xml:6103
8699 "I have two purposes in this chapter. The first is to convince you that, "
8700 "historically, Valenti's claim is absolutely wrong. The second is to convince "
8701 "you that it would be terribly wrong for us to reject our history. We have "
8702 "always treated rights in creative property differently from the rights "
8703 "resident in all other property owners. They have never been the same. And "
8704 "they should never be the same, because, however counterintuitive this may "
8705 "seem, to make them the same would be to fundamentally weaken the opportunity "
8706 "for new creators to create. Creativity depends upon the owners of "
8707 "creativity having less than perfect control."
8710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8711 #: freeculture.xml:6118
8713 "Organizations such as the MPAA, whose board includes the most powerful of "
8714 "the old guard, have little interest, their rhetoric notwithstanding, in "
8715 "assuring that the new can displace them. No organization does. No person "
8716 "does. (Ask me about tenure, for example.) But what's good for the MPAA is "
8717 "not necessarily good for America. A society that defends the ideals of free "
8718 "culture must preserve precisely the opportunity for new creativity to "
8722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8723 #: freeculture.xml:6127
8725 "<emphasis role='strong'>To get</emphasis> just a hint that there is "
8726 "something fundamentally wrong in Valenti's argument, we need look no further "
8727 "than the United States Constitution itself."
8730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8731 #: freeculture.xml:6132
8733 "The framers of our Constitution loved <quote>property.</quote> Indeed, so "
8734 "strongly did they love property that they built into the Constitution an "
8735 "important requirement. If the government takes your property—if it "
8736 "condemns your house, or acquires a slice of land from your farm—it is "
8737 "required, under the Fifth Amendment's <quote>Takings Clause,</quote> to pay "
8738 "you <quote>just compensation</quote> for that taking. The Constitution thus "
8739 "guarantees that property is, in a certain sense, sacred. It cannot "
8740 "<emphasis>ever</emphasis> be taken from the property owner unless the "
8741 "government pays for the privilege."
8745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8746 #: freeculture.xml:6143
8748 "Yet the very same Constitution speaks very differently about what Valenti "
8749 "calls <quote>creative property.</quote> In the clause granting Congress the "
8750 "power to create <quote>creative property,</quote> the Constitution "
8751 "<emphasis>requires</emphasis> that after a <quote>limited time,</quote> "
8752 "Congress take back the rights that it has granted and set the "
8753 "<quote>creative property</quote> free to the public domain. Yet when "
8754 "Congress does this, when the expiration of a copyright term "
8755 "<quote>takes</quote> your copyright and turns it over to the public domain, "
8756 "Congress does not have any obligation to pay <quote>just "
8757 "compensation</quote> for this <quote>taking.</quote> Instead, the same "
8758 "Constitution that requires compensation for your land requires that you lose "
8759 "your <quote>creative property</quote> right without any compensation at all."
8762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8763 #: freeculture.xml:6158
8765 "The Constitution thus on its face states that these two forms of property "
8766 "are not to be accorded the same rights. They are plainly to be treated "
8767 "differently. Valenti is therefore not just asking for a change in our "
8768 "tradition when he argues that creative-property owners should be accorded "
8769 "the same rights as every other property-right owner. He is effectively "
8770 "arguing for a change in our Constitution itself."
8773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8774 #: freeculture.xml:6167
8776 "Arguing for a change in our Constitution is not necessarily wrong. There "
8777 "was much in our original Constitution that was plainly wrong. The "
8778 "Constitution of 1789 entrenched slavery; it left senators to be appointed "
8779 "rather than elected; it made it possible for the electoral college to "
8780 "produce a tie between the president and his own vice president (as it did in "
8781 "1800). The framers were no doubt extraordinary, but I would be the first to "
8782 "admit that they made big mistakes. We have since rejected some of those "
8783 "mistakes; no doubt there could be others that we should reject as well. So "
8784 "my argument is not simply that because Jefferson did it, we should, too."
8787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8788 #: freeculture.xml:6179
8790 "Instead, my argument is that because Jefferson did it, we should at least "
8791 "try to understand <emphasis>why</emphasis>. Why did the framers, fanatical "
8792 "property types that they were, reject the claim that creative property be "
8793 "given the same rights as all other property? Why did they require that for "
8794 "creative property there must be a public domain?"
8797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8798 #: freeculture.xml:6187
8800 "To answer this question, we need to get some perspective on the history of "
8801 "these <quote>creative property</quote> rights, and the control that they "
8802 "enabled. Once we see clearly how differently these rights have been "
8803 "defined, we will be in a better position to ask the question that should be "
8804 "at the core of this war: Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> creative property "
8805 "should be protected, but how. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> we will "
8806 "enforce the rights the law gives to creative-property owners, but what the "
8807 "particular mix of rights ought to be. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> "
8808 "artists should be paid, but whether institutions designed to assure that "
8809 "artists get paid need also control how culture develops."
8813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8814 #: freeculture.xml:6202
8816 "To answer these questions, we need a more general way to talk about how "
8817 "property is protected. More precisely, we need a more general way than the "
8818 "narrow language of the law allows. In <citetitle>Code and Other Laws of "
8819 "Cyberspace</citetitle>, I used a simple model to capture this more general "
8820 "perspective. For any particular right or regulation, this model asks how "
8821 "four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken the "
8822 "right or regulation. I represented it with this diagram:"
8825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8826 #: freeculture.xml:6211
8828 "How four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken "
8829 "the right or regulation."
8832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8833 #: freeculture.xml:6212 freeculture.xml:6396 freeculture.xml:6703
8834 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1331.png\"></graphic>"
8837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8838 #: freeculture.xml:6215
8840 "At the center of this picture is a regulated dot: the individual or group "
8841 "that is the target of regulation, or the holder of a right. (In each case "
8842 "throughout, we can describe this either as regulation or as a right. For "
8843 "simplicity's sake, I will speak only of regulations.) The ovals represent "
8844 "four ways in which the individual or group might be regulated— either "
8845 "constrained or, alternatively, enabled. Law is the most obvious constraint "
8846 "(to lawyers, at least). It constrains by threatening punishments after the "
8847 "fact if the rules set in advance are violated. So if, for example, you "
8848 "willfully infringe Madonna's copyright by copying a song from her latest CD "
8849 "and posting it on the Web, you can be punished with a $150,000 fine. The "
8850 "fine is an ex post punishment for violating an ex ante rule. It is imposed "
8851 "by the state. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8854 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8855 #: freeculture.xml:6231 freeculture.xml:6290 freeculture.xml:6399
8856 msgid "norms, regulatory influence of"
8859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8860 #: freeculture.xml:6233
8862 "Norms are a different kind of constraint. They, too, punish an individual "
8863 "for violating a rule. But the punishment of a norm is imposed by a "
8864 "community, not (or not only) by the state. There may be no law against "
8865 "spitting, but that doesn't mean you won't be punished if you spit on the "
8866 "ground while standing in line at a movie. The punishment might not be harsh, "
8867 "though depending upon the community, it could easily be more harsh than many "
8868 "of the punishments imposed by the state. The mark of the difference is not "
8869 "the severity of the rule, but the source of the enforcement."
8872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8873 #: freeculture.xml:6243 freeculture.xml:6289 freeculture.xml:6379 freeculture.xml:6398 freeculture.xml:9327 freeculture.xml:9526
8874 msgid "market constraints"
8877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8878 #: freeculture.xml:6245
8880 "The market is a third type of constraint. Its constraint is effected through "
8881 "conditions: You can do X if you pay Y; you'll be paid M if you do N. These "
8882 "constraints are obviously not independent of law or norms—it is "
8883 "property law that defines what must be bought if it is to be taken legally; "
8884 "it is norms that say what is appropriately sold. But given a set of norms, "
8885 "and a background of property and contract law, the market imposes a "
8886 "simultaneous constraint upon how an individual or group might behave."
8889 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8890 #: freeculture.xml:6254 freeculture.xml:6288 freeculture.xml:6337 freeculture.xml:6378
8891 msgid "architecture, constraint effected through"
8894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8895 #: freeculture.xml:6256
8897 "Finally, and for the moment, perhaps, most mysteriously, "
8898 "<quote>architecture</quote>—the physical world as one finds "
8899 "it—is a constraint on behavior. A fallen bridge might constrain your "
8900 "ability to get across a river. Railroad tracks might constrain the ability "
8901 "of a community to integrate its social life. As with the market, "
8902 "architecture does not effect its constraint through ex post "
8903 "punishments. Instead, also as with the market, architecture effects its "
8904 "constraint through simultaneous conditions. These conditions are imposed not "
8905 "by courts enforcing contracts, or by police punishing theft, but by nature, "
8906 "by <quote>architecture.</quote> If a 500-pound boulder blocks your way, it "
8907 "is the law of gravity that enforces this constraint. If a $500 airplane "
8908 "ticket stands between you and a flight to New York, it is the market that "
8909 "enforces this constraint."
8913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8914 #: freeculture.xml:6273
8916 "So the first point about these four modalities of regulation is obvious: "
8917 "They interact. Restrictions imposed by one might be reinforced by "
8918 "another. Or restrictions imposed by one might be undermined by another."
8921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8922 #: freeculture.xml:6279
8924 "The second point follows directly: If we want to understand the effective "
8925 "freedom that anyone has at a given moment to do any particular thing, we "
8926 "have to consider how these four modalities interact. Whether or not there "
8927 "are other constraints (there may well be; my claim is not about "
8928 "comprehensiveness), these four are among the most significant, and any "
8929 "regulator (whether controlling or freeing) must consider how these four in "
8930 "particular interact."
8933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8934 #: freeculture.xml:6287
8935 msgid "driving speed, constraints on"
8938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8939 #: freeculture.xml:6292
8941 "So, for example, consider the <quote>freedom</quote> to drive a car at a "
8942 "high speed. That freedom is in part restricted by laws: speed limits that "
8943 "say how fast you can drive in particular places at particular times. It is "
8944 "in part restricted by architecture: speed bumps, for example, slow most "
8945 "rational drivers; governors in buses, as another example, set the maximum "
8946 "rate at which the driver can drive. The freedom is in part restricted by the "
8947 "market: Fuel efficiency drops as speed increases, thus the price of gasoline "
8948 "indirectly constrains speed. And finally, the norms of a community may or "
8949 "may not constrain the freedom to speed. Drive at 50 mph by a school in your "
8950 "own neighborhood and you're likely to be punished by the neighbors. The same "
8951 "norm wouldn't be as effective in a different town, or at night."
8955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8956 #: freeculture.xml:6310
8958 "By describing the way law affects the other three modalities, I don't mean "
8959 "to suggest that the other three don't affect law. Obviously, they do. Law's "
8960 "only distinction is that it alone speaks as if it has a right "
8961 "self-consciously to change the other three. The right of the other three is "
8962 "more timidly expressed. See Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Code: And Other "
8963 "Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle> (New York: Basic Books, 1999): 90–95; "
8964 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>The New Chicago School,</quote> <citetitle>Journal "
8965 "of Legal Studies</citetitle>, June 1998."
8969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8970 #: freeculture.xml:6306
8972 "The final point about this simple model should also be fairly clear: While "
8973 "these four modalities are analytically independent, law has a special role "
8974 "in affecting the three.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The law, in "
8975 "other words, sometimes operates to increase or decrease the constraint of a "
8976 "particular modality. Thus, the law might be used to increase taxes on "
8977 "gasoline, so as to increase the incentives to drive more slowly. The law "
8978 "might be used to mandate more speed bumps, so as to increase the difficulty "
8979 "of driving rapidly. The law might be used to fund ads that stigmatize "
8980 "reckless driving. Or the law might be used to require that other laws be "
8981 "more strict—a federal requirement that states decrease the speed "
8982 "limit, for example—so as to decrease the attractiveness of fast "
8986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8987 #: freeculture.xml:6334
8988 msgid "Law has a special role in affecting the three."
8991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
8992 #: freeculture.xml:6335
8993 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1361.png\"></graphic>"
8996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8997 #: freeculture.xml:6376
8998 msgid "Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)"
9001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9002 #: freeculture.xml:6377
9003 msgid "Commons, John R."
9006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
9007 #: freeculture.xml:6347
9009 "Some people object to this way of talking about <quote>liberty.</quote> They "
9010 "object because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at "
9011 "any particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the "
9012 "government. For instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people think "
9013 "it is meaningless to say that one's liberty has been restrained. A bridge "
9014 "has washed out, and it's harder to get from one place to another. To talk "
9015 "about this as a loss of freedom, they say, is to confuse the stuff of "
9016 "politics with the vagaries of ordinary life. I don't mean to deny the value "
9017 "in this narrower view, which depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, "
9018 "however, mean to argue against any insistence that this narrower view is the "
9019 "only proper view of liberty. As I argued in <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, we "
9020 "come from a long tradition of political thought with a broader focus than "
9021 "the narrow question of what the government did when. John Stuart Mill "
9022 "defended freedom of speech, for example, from the tyranny of narrow minds, "
9023 "not from the fear of government prosecution; John Stuart Mill, <citetitle>On "
9024 "Liberty</citetitle> (Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19. John "
9025 "R. Commons famously defended the economic freedom of labor from constraints "
9026 "imposed by the market; John R. Commons, <quote>The Right to Work,</quote> in "
9027 "Malcom Rutherford and Warren J. Samuels, eds., <citetitle>John R. Commons: "
9028 "Selected Essays</citetitle> (London: Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans "
9029 "with Disabilities Act increases the liberty of people with physical "
9030 "disabilities by changing the architecture of certain public places, thereby "
9031 "making access to those places easier; 42 <citetitle>United States "
9032 "Code</citetitle>, section 12101 (2000). Each of these interventions to "
9033 "change existing conditions changes the liberty of a particular group. The "
9034 "effect of those interventions should be accounted for in order to understand "
9035 "the effective liberty that each of these groups might face. <placeholder "
9036 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
9037 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
9041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9042 #: freeculture.xml:6339
9044 "These constraints can thus change, and they can be changed. To understand "
9045 "the effective protection of liberty or protection of property at any "
9046 "particular moment, we must track these changes over time. A restriction "
9047 "imposed by one modality might be erased by another. A freedom enabled by one "
9048 "modality might be displaced by another.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9053 #: freeculture.xml:6383
9054 msgid "Why Hollywood Is Right"
9057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9058 #: freeculture.xml:6385
9060 "The most obvious point that this model reveals is just why, or just how, "
9061 "Hollywood is right. The copyright warriors have rallied Congress and the "
9062 "courts to defend copyright. This model helps us see why that rallying makes "
9066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9067 #: freeculture.xml:6391
9068 msgid "Let's say this is the picture of copyright's regulation before the Internet:"
9071 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9072 #: freeculture.xml:6395 freeculture.xml:6702
9073 msgid "Copyright's regulation before the Internet."
9077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9078 #: freeculture.xml:6402
9080 "There is balance between law, norms, market, and architecture. The law "
9081 "limits the ability to copy and share content, by imposing penalties on those "
9082 "who copy and share content. Those penalties are reinforced by technologies "
9083 "that make it hard to copy and share content (architecture) and expensive to "
9084 "copy and share content (market). Finally, those penalties are mitigated by "
9085 "norms we all recognize—kids, for example, taping other kids' "
9086 "records. These uses of copyrighted material may well be infringement, but "
9087 "the norms of our society (before the Internet, at least) had no problem with "
9088 "this form of infringement."
9091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9092 #: freeculture.xml:6414
9094 "Enter the Internet, or, more precisely, technologies such as MP3s and p2p "
9095 "sharing. Now the constraint of architecture changes dramatically, as does "
9096 "the constraint of the market. And as both the market and architecture relax "
9097 "the regulation of copyright, norms pile on. The happy balance (for the "
9098 "warriors, at least) of life before the Internet becomes an effective state "
9099 "of anarchy after the Internet."
9103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9104 #: freeculture.xml:6422
9106 "Thus the sense of, and justification for, the warriors' response. "
9107 "Technology has changed, the warriors say, and the effect of this change, "
9108 "when ramified through the market and norms, is that a balance of protection "
9109 "for the copyright owners' rights has been lost. This is Iraq after the fall "
9110 "of Saddam, but this time no government is justifying the looting that "
9114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9115 #: freeculture.xml:6432
9116 msgid "effective state of anarchy after the Internet."
9119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9120 #: freeculture.xml:6433
9121 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1381.png\"></graphic>"
9124 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9125 #: freeculture.xml:6436
9127 "Neither this analysis nor the conclusions that follow are new to the "
9128 "warriors. Indeed, in a <quote>White Paper</quote> prepared by the Commerce "
9129 "Department (one heavily influenced by the copyright warriors) in 1995, this "
9130 "mix of regulatory modalities had already been identified and the strategy to "
9131 "respond already mapped. In response to the changes the Internet had "
9132 "effected, the White Paper argued (1) Congress should strengthen intellectual "
9133 "property law, (2) businesses should adopt innovative marketing techniques, "
9134 "(3) technologists should push to develop code to protect copyrighted "
9135 "material, and (4) educators should educate kids to better protect copyright."
9138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9139 #: freeculture.xml:6447
9140 msgid "steel industry"
9144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9145 #: freeculture.xml:6449
9147 "This mixed strategy is just what copyright needed—if it was to "
9148 "preserve the particular balance that existed before the change induced by "
9149 "the Internet. And it's just what we should expect the content industry to "
9150 "push for. It is as American as apple pie to consider the happy life you have "
9151 "as an entitlement, and to look to the law to protect it if something comes "
9152 "along to change that happy life. Homeowners living in a flood plain have no "
9153 "hesitation appealing to the government to rebuild (and rebuild again) when a "
9154 "flood (architecture) wipes away their property (law). Farmers have no "
9155 "hesitation appealing to the government to bail them out when a virus "
9156 "(architecture) devastates their crop. Unions have no hesitation appealing to "
9157 "the government to bail them out when imports (market) wipe out the "
9158 "U.S. steel industry."
9161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9162 #: freeculture.xml:6466
9164 "Thus, there's nothing wrong or surprising in the content industry's campaign "
9165 "to protect itself from the harmful consequences of a technological "
9166 "innovation. And I would be the last person to argue that the changing "
9167 "technology of the Internet has not had a profound effect on the content "
9168 "industry's way of doing business, or as John Seely Brown describes it, its "
9169 "<quote>architecture of revenue.</quote>"
9172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9173 #: freeculture.xml:6473
9174 msgid "railroad industry"
9178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9179 #: freeculture.xml:6485
9181 "See Geoffrey Smith, <quote>Film vs. Digital: Can Kodak Build a "
9182 "Bridge?</quote> BusinessWeek online, 2 August 1999, available at <ulink "
9183 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #23</ulink>. For a more recent "
9184 "analysis of Kodak's place in the market, see Chana R. Schoenberger, "
9185 "<quote>Can Kodak Make Up for Lost Moments?</quote> Forbes.com, 6 October "
9186 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
9190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9191 #: freeculture.xml:6477
9193 "But just because a particular interest asks for government support, it "
9194 "doesn't follow that support should be granted. And just because technology "
9195 "has weakened a particular way of doing business, it doesn't follow that the "
9196 "government should intervene to support that old way of doing "
9197 "business. Kodak, for example, has lost perhaps as much as 20 percent of "
9198 "their traditional film market to the emerging technologies of digital "
9199 "cameras.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Does anyone believe the "
9200 "government should ban digital cameras just to support Kodak? Highways have "
9201 "weakened the freight business for railroads. Does anyone think we should ban "
9202 "trucks from roads <emphasis>for the purpose of</emphasis> protecting the "
9203 "railroads? Closer to the subject of this book, remote channel changers have "
9204 "weakened the <quote>stickiness</quote> of television advertising (if a "
9205 "boring commercial comes on the TV, the remote makes it easy to surf ), and "
9206 "it may well be that this change has weakened the television advertising "
9207 "market. But does anyone believe we should regulate remotes to reinforce "
9208 "commercial television? (Maybe by limiting them to function only once a "
9209 "second, or to switch to only ten channels within an hour?)"
9212 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
9213 #: freeculture.xml:6506 freeculture.xml:14818
9214 msgid "Brezhnev, Leonid"
9217 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9218 #: freeculture.xml:6507 freeculture.xml:13054
9223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9224 #: freeculture.xml:6519
9226 "Fred Warshofsky, <citetitle>The Patent Wars</citetitle> (New York: Wiley, "
9227 "1994), 170–71."
9230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9231 #: freeculture.xml:6509
9233 "The obvious answer to these obviously rhetorical questions is no. In a free "
9234 "society, with a free market, supported by free enterprise and free trade, "
9235 "the government's role is not to support one way of doing business against "
9236 "others. Its role is not to pick winners and protect them against loss. If "
9237 "the government did this generally, then we would never have any progress. As "
9238 "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates wrote in 1991, in a memo criticizing software "
9239 "patents, <quote>established companies have an interest in excluding future "
9240 "competitors.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And relative "
9241 "to a startup, established companies also have the means. (Think RCA and FM "
9242 "radio.) A world in which competitors with new ideas must fight not only the "
9243 "market but also the government is a world in which competitors with new "
9244 "ideas will not succeed. It is a world of stasis and increasingly "
9245 "concentrated stagnation. It is the Soviet Union under Brezhnev."
9248 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9249 #: freeculture.xml:6530
9251 "Thus, while it is understandable for industries threatened with new "
9252 "technologies that change the way they do business to look to the government "
9253 "for protection, it is the special duty of policy makers to guarantee that "
9254 "that protection not become a deterrent to progress. It is the duty of policy "
9255 "makers, in other words, to assure that the changes they create, in response "
9256 "to the request of those hurt by changing technology, are changes that "
9257 "preserve the incentives and opportunities for innovation and change."
9260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9261 #: freeculture.xml:6540
9263 "In the context of laws regulating speech—which include, obviously, "
9264 "copyright law—that duty is even stronger. When the industry "
9265 "complaining about changing technologies is asking Congress to respond in a "
9266 "way that burdens speech and creativity, policy makers should be especially "
9267 "wary of the request. It is always a bad deal for the government to get into "
9268 "the business of regulating speech markets. The risks and dangers of that "
9269 "game are precisely why our framers created the First Amendment to our "
9270 "Constitution: <quote>Congress shall make no law … abridging the "
9271 "freedom of speech.</quote> So when Congress is being asked to pass laws that "
9272 "would <quote>abridge</quote> the freedom of speech, it should ask— "
9273 "carefully—whether such regulation is justified."
9277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9278 #: freeculture.xml:6554
9280 "My argument just now, however, has nothing to do with whether the changes "
9281 "that are being pushed by the copyright warriors are "
9282 "<quote>justified.</quote> My argument is about their effect. For before we "
9283 "get to the question of justification, a hard question that depends a great "
9284 "deal upon your values, we should first ask whether we understand the effect "
9285 "of the changes the content industry wants."
9288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9289 #: freeculture.xml:6563
9290 msgid "Here's the metaphor that will capture the argument to follow."
9293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9294 #: freeculture.xml:6565
9298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9299 #: freeculture.xml:6566
9300 msgid "Müller, Paul Hermann"
9303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9304 #: freeculture.xml:6568
9306 "In 1873, the chemical DDT was first synthesized. In 1948, Swiss chemist Paul "
9307 "Hermann Müller won the Nobel Prize for his work demonstrating the "
9308 "insecticidal properties of DDT. By the 1950s, the insecticide was widely "
9309 "used around the world to kill disease-carrying pests. It was also used to "
9310 "increase farm production."
9313 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9314 #: freeculture.xml:6575
9316 "No one doubts that killing disease-carrying pests or increasing crop "
9317 "production is a good thing. No one doubts that the work of Müller was "
9318 "important and valuable and probably saved lives, possibly millions."
9321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9322 #: freeculture.xml:6579
9323 msgid "Carson, Rachel"
9326 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9327 #: freeculture.xml:6580
9328 msgid "Silent Sprint (Carson)"
9331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9332 #: freeculture.xml:6582
9334 "But in 1962, Rachel Carson published <citetitle>Silent Spring</citetitle>, "
9335 "which argued that DDT, whatever its primary benefits, was also having "
9336 "unintended environmental consequences. Birds were losing the ability to "
9337 "reproduce. Whole chains of the ecology were being destroyed."
9340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9341 #: freeculture.xml:6588
9343 "No one set out to destroy the environment. Paul Müller certainly did not aim "
9344 "to harm any birds. But the effort to solve one set of problems produced "
9345 "another set which, in the view of some, was far worse than the problems that "
9346 "were originally attacked. Or more accurately, the problems DDT caused were "
9347 "worse than the problems it solved, at least when considering the other, more "
9348 "environmentally friendly ways to solve the problems that DDT was meant to "
9352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9353 #: freeculture.xml:6596
9354 msgid "Boyle, James"
9358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9359 #: freeculture.xml:6602
9361 "See, for example, James Boyle, <quote>A Politics of Intellectual Property: "
9362 "Environmentalism for the Net?</quote> <citetitle>Duke Law "
9363 "Journal</citetitle> 47 (1997): 87."
9367 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9368 #: freeculture.xml:6598
9370 "It is to this image precisely that Duke University law professor James Boyle "
9371 "appeals when he argues that we need an <quote>environmentalism</quote> for "
9372 "culture.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His point, and the point I "
9373 "want to develop in the balance of this chapter, is not that the aims of "
9374 "copyright are flawed. Or that authors should not be paid for their work. Or "
9375 "that music should be given away <quote>for free.</quote> The point is that "
9376 "some of the ways in which we might protect authors will have unintended "
9377 "consequences for the cultural environment, much like DDT had for the natural "
9378 "environment. And just as criticism of DDT is not an endorsement of malaria "
9379 "or an attack on farmers, so, too, is criticism of one particular set of "
9380 "regulations protecting copyright not an endorsement of anarchy or an attack "
9381 "on authors. It is an environment of creativity that we seek, and we should "
9382 "be aware of our actions' effects on the environment."
9385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9386 #: freeculture.xml:6619
9388 "My argument, in the balance of this chapter, tries to map exactly this "
9389 "effect. No doubt the technology of the Internet has had a dramatic effect on "
9390 "the ability of copyright owners to protect their content. But there should "
9391 "also be little doubt that when you add together the changes in copyright law "
9392 "over time, plus the change in technology that the Internet is undergoing "
9393 "just now, the net effect of these changes will not be only that copyrighted "
9394 "work is effectively protected. Also, and generally missed, the net effect of "
9395 "this massive increase in protection will be devastating to the environment "
9399 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9400 #: freeculture.xml:6630
9402 "In a line: To kill a gnat, we are spraying DDT with consequences for free "
9403 "culture that will be far more devastating than that this gnat will be lost."
9406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9407 #: freeculture.xml:6637
9411 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9412 #: freeculture.xml:6639
9414 "America copied English copyright law. Actually, we copied and improved "
9415 "English copyright law. Our Constitution makes the purpose of <quote>creative "
9416 "property</quote> rights clear; its express limitations reinforce the English "
9417 "aim to avoid overly powerful publishers."
9420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9421 #: freeculture.xml:6645
9423 "The power to establish <quote>creative property</quote> rights is granted to "
9424 "Congress in a way that, for our Constitution, at least, is very odd. Article "
9425 "I, section 8, clause 8 of our Constitution states that:"
9429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9430 #: freeculture.xml:6650
9432 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, "
9433 "by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right "
9434 "to their respective Writings and Discoveries. We can call this the "
9435 "<quote>Progress Clause,</quote> for notice what this clause does not say. It "
9436 "does not say Congress has the power to grant <quote>creative property "
9437 "rights.</quote> It says that Congress has the power <emphasis>to promote "
9438 "progress</emphasis>. The grant of power is its purpose, and its purpose is a "
9439 "public one, not the purpose of enriching publishers, nor even primarily the "
9440 "purpose of rewarding authors."
9443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9444 #: freeculture.xml:6663
9446 "The Progress Clause expressly limits the term of copyrights. As we saw in "
9447 "chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"founders\"/>, the "
9448 "English limited the term of copyright so as to assure that a few would not "
9449 "exercise disproportionate control over culture by exercising "
9450 "disproportionate control over publishing. We can assume the framers followed "
9451 "the English for a similar purpose. Indeed, unlike the English, the framers "
9452 "reinforced that objective, by requiring that copyrights extend <quote>to "
9453 "Authors</quote> only."
9456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9457 #: freeculture.xml:6673
9459 "The design of the Progress Clause reflects something about the "
9460 "Constitution's design in general. To avoid a problem, the framers built "
9461 "structure. To prevent the concentrated power of publishers, they built a "
9462 "structure that kept copyrights away from publishers and kept them short. To "
9463 "prevent the concentrated power of a church, they banned the federal "
9464 "government from establishing a church. To prevent concentrating power in the "
9465 "federal government, they built structures to reinforce the power of the "
9466 "states—including the Senate, whose members were at the time selected "
9467 "by the states, and an electoral college, also selected by the states, to "
9468 "select the president. In each case, a <emphasis>structure</emphasis> built "
9469 "checks and balances into the constitutional frame, structured to prevent "
9470 "otherwise inevitable concentrations of power."
9473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9474 #: freeculture.xml:6688
9476 "I doubt the framers would recognize the regulation we call "
9477 "<quote>copyright</quote> today. The scope of that regulation is far beyond "
9478 "anything they ever considered. To begin to understand what they did, we need "
9479 "to put our <quote>copyright</quote> in context: We need to see how it has "
9480 "changed in the 210 years since they first struck its design."
9484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9485 #: freeculture.xml:6695
9487 "Some of these changes come from the law: some in light of changes in "
9488 "technology, and some in light of changes in technology given a particular "
9489 "concentration of market power. In terms of our model, we started here:"
9492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9493 #: freeculture.xml:6706
9494 msgid "We will end here:"
9497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9498 #: freeculture.xml:6709
9499 msgid "<quote>Copyright</quote> today."
9502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9503 #: freeculture.xml:6710
9504 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1442.png\"></graphic>"
9508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9509 #: freeculture.xml:6713
9510 msgid "Let me explain how."
9513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9514 #: freeculture.xml:6718
9515 msgid "Law: Duration"
9518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9519 #: freeculture.xml:6734
9520 msgid "Crosskey, William W."
9523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9524 #: freeculture.xml:6728
9526 "William W. Crosskey, <citetitle>Politics and the Constitution in the History "
9527 "of the United States</citetitle> (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953), "
9528 "vol. 1, 485–86: <quote>extinguish[ing], by plain implication of `the "
9529 "supreme Law of the Land,' <emphasis>the perpetual rights which authors had, "
9530 "or were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law</emphasis></quote> "
9531 "(emphasis added). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9535 #: freeculture.xml:6720
9537 "When the first Congress enacted laws to protect creative property, it faced "
9538 "the same uncertainty about the status of creative property that the English "
9539 "had confronted in 1774. Many states had passed laws protecting creative "
9540 "property, and some believed that these laws simply supplemented common law "
9541 "rights that already protected creative authorship.<placeholder "
9542 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This meant that there was no guaranteed public "
9543 "domain in the United States in 1790. If copyrights were protected by the "
9544 "common law, then there was no simple way to know whether a work published in "
9545 "the United States was controlled or free. Just as in England, this lingering "
9546 "uncertainty would make it hard for publishers to rely upon a public domain "
9547 "to reprint and distribute works."
9550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9551 #: freeculture.xml:6744
9553 "That uncertainty ended after Congress passed legislation granting "
9554 "copyrights. Because federal law overrides any contrary state law, federal "
9555 "protections for copyrighted works displaced any state law protections. Just "
9556 "as in England the Statute of Anne eventually meant that the copyrights for "
9557 "all English works expired, a federal statute meant that any state copyrights "
9561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9562 #: freeculture.xml:6752
9564 "In 1790, Congress enacted the first copyright law. It created a federal "
9565 "copyright and secured that copyright for fourteen years. If the author was "
9566 "alive at the end of that fourteen years, then he could opt to renew the "
9567 "copyright for another fourteen years. If he did not renew the copyright, his "
9568 "work passed into the public domain."
9572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9573 #: freeculture.xml:6767
9575 "Although 13,000 titles were published in the United States from 1790 to "
9576 "1799, only 556 copyright registrations were filed; John Tebbel, <citetitle>A "
9577 "History of Book Publishing in the United States</citetitle>, vol. 1, "
9578 "<citetitle>The Creation of an Industry, 1630–1865</citetitle> (New "
9579 "York: Bowker, 1972), 141. Of the 21,000 imprints recorded before 1790, only "
9580 "twelve were copyrighted under the 1790 act; William J. Maher, "
9581 "<citetitle>Copyright Term, Retrospective Extension and the Copyright Law of "
9582 "1790 in Historical Context</citetitle>, 7–10 (2002), available at "
9583 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #25</ulink>. Thus, the "
9584 "overwhelming majority of works fell immediately into the public domain. Even "
9585 "those works that were copyrighted fell into the public domain quickly, "
9586 "because the term of copyright was short. The initial term of copyright was "
9587 "fourteen years, with the option of renewal for an additional fourteen "
9588 "years. Copyright Act of May 31, 1790, §1, 1 stat. 124."
9591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9592 #: freeculture.xml:6759
9594 "While there were many works created in the United States in the first ten "
9595 "years of the Republic, only 5 percent of the works were actually registered "
9596 "under the federal copyright regime. Of all the work created in the United "
9597 "States both before 1790 and from 1790 through 1800, 95 percent immediately "
9598 "passed into the public domain; the balance would pass into the pubic domain "
9599 "within twenty-eight years at most, and more likely within fourteen "
9600 "years.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9605 #: freeculture.xml:6783
9607 "This system of renewal was a crucial part of the American system of "
9608 "copyright. It assured that the maximum terms of copyright would be granted "
9609 "only for works where they were wanted. After the initial term of fourteen "
9610 "years, if it wasn't worth it to an author to renew his copyright, then it "
9611 "wasn't worth it to society to insist on the copyright, either."
9615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9616 #: freeculture.xml:6798
9618 "Few copyright holders ever chose to renew their copyrights. For instance, of "
9619 "the 25,006 copyrights registered in 1883, only 894 were renewed in 1910. For "
9620 "a year-by-year analysis of copyright renewal rates, see Barbara A. Ringer, "
9621 "<quote>Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Studies on "
9622 "Copyright</citetitle>, vol. 1 (New York: Practicing Law Institute, 1963), "
9623 "618. For a more recent and comprehensive analysis, see William M. Landes and "
9624 "Richard A. Posner, <quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> "
9625 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 471, "
9626 "498–501, and accompanying figures."
9629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9630 #: freeculture.xml:6792
9632 "Fourteen years may not seem long to us, but for the vast majority of "
9633 "copyright owners at that time, it was long enough: Only a small minority of "
9634 "them renewed their copyright after fourteen years; the balance allowed their "
9635 "work to pass into the public domain.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9641 #: freeculture.xml:6815
9642 msgid "See Ringer, ch. 9, n. 2."
9645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9646 #: freeculture.xml:6811
9648 "Even today, this structure would make sense. Most creative work has an "
9649 "actual commercial life of just a couple of years. Most books fall out of "
9650 "print after one year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When that "
9651 "happens, the used books are traded free of copyright regulation. Thus the "
9652 "books are no longer <emphasis>effectively</emphasis> controlled by "
9653 "copyright. The only practical commercial use of the books at that time is to "
9654 "sell the books as used books; that use—because it does not involve "
9655 "publication—is effectively free."
9658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9659 #: freeculture.xml:6823
9661 "In the first hundred years of the Republic, the term of copyright was "
9662 "changed once. In 1831, the term was increased from a maximum of 28 years to "
9663 "a maximum of 42 by increasing the initial term of copyright from 14 years to "
9664 "28 years. In the next fifty years of the Republic, the term increased once "
9665 "again. In 1909, Congress extended the renewal term of 14 years to 28 years, "
9666 "setting a maximum term of 56 years."
9669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9670 #: freeculture.xml:6831
9672 "Then, beginning in 1962, Congress started a practice that has defined "
9673 "copyright law since. Eleven times in the last forty years, Congress has "
9674 "extended the terms of existing copyrights; twice in those forty years, "
9675 "Congress extended the term of future copyrights. Initially, the extensions "
9676 "of existing copyrights were short, a mere one to two years. In 1976, "
9677 "Congress extended all existing copyrights by nineteen years. And in 1998, "
9678 "in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Congress extended the term "
9679 "of existing and future copyrights by twenty years."
9683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9684 #: freeculture.xml:6841
9686 "The effect of these extensions is simply to toll, or delay, the passing of "
9687 "works into the public domain. This latest extension means that the public "
9688 "domain will have been tolled for thirty-nine out of fifty-five years, or 70 "
9689 "percent of the time since 1962. Thus, in the twenty years after the Sonny "
9690 "Bono Act, while one million patents will pass into the public domain, zero "
9691 "copyrights will pass into the public domain by virtue of the expiration of a "
9695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9696 #: freeculture.xml:6852
9698 "The effect of these extensions has been exacerbated by another, "
9699 "little-noticed change in the copyright law. Remember I said that the framers "
9700 "established a two-part copyright regime, requiring a copyright owner to "
9701 "renew his copyright after an initial term. The requirement of renewal meant "
9702 "that works that no longer needed copyright protection would pass more "
9703 "quickly into the public domain. The works remaining under protection would "
9704 "be those that had some continuing commercial value."
9707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9708 #: freeculture.xml:6862
9710 "The United States abandoned this sensible system in 1976. For all works "
9711 "created after 1978, there was only one copyright term—the maximum "
9712 "term. For <quote>natural</quote> authors, that term was life plus fifty "
9713 "years. For corporations, the term was seventy-five years. Then, in 1992, "
9714 "Congress abandoned the renewal requirement for all works created before "
9715 "1978. All works still under copyright would be accorded the maximum term "
9716 "then available. After the Sonny Bono Act, that term was ninety-five years."
9719 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9720 #: freeculture.xml:6872
9722 "This change meant that American law no longer had an automatic way to assure "
9723 "that works that were no longer exploited passed into the public domain. And "
9724 "indeed, after these changes, it is unclear whether it is even possible to "
9725 "put works into the public domain. The public domain is orphaned by these "
9726 "changes in copyright law. Despite the requirement that terms be "
9727 "<quote>limited,</quote> we have no evidence that anything will limit them."
9731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9732 #: freeculture.xml:6889
9734 "These statistics are understated. Between the years 1910 and 1962 (the first "
9735 "year the renewal term was extended), the average term was never more than "
9736 "thirty-two years, and averaged thirty years. See Landes and Posner, "
9737 "<quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> loc. cit."
9740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9741 #: freeculture.xml:6881
9743 "The effect of these changes on the average duration of copyright is "
9744 "dramatic. In 1973, more than 85 percent of copyright owners failed to renew "
9745 "their copyright. That meant that the average term of copyright in 1973 was "
9746 "just 32.2 years. Because of the elimination of the renewal requirement, the "
9747 "average term of copyright is now the maximum term. In thirty years, then, "
9748 "the average term has tripled, from 32.2 years to 95 years.<placeholder "
9749 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9753 #: freeculture.xml:6898
9757 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9758 #: freeculture.xml:6900
9760 "The <quote>scope</quote> of a copyright is the range of rights granted by "
9761 "the law. The scope of American copyright has changed dramatically. Those "
9762 "changes are not necessarily bad. But we should understand the extent of the "
9763 "changes if we're to keep this debate in context."
9766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9767 #: freeculture.xml:6906
9769 "In 1790, that scope was very narrow. Copyright covered only <quote>maps, "
9770 "charts, and books.</quote> That means it didn't cover, for example, music or "
9771 "architecture. More significantly, the right granted by a copyright gave the "
9772 "author the exclusive right to <quote>publish</quote> copyrighted works. That "
9773 "means someone else violated the copyright only if he republished the work "
9774 "without the copyright owner's permission. Finally, the right granted by a "
9775 "copyright was an exclusive right to that particular book. The right did not "
9776 "extend to what lawyers call <quote>derivative works.</quote> It would not, "
9777 "therefore, interfere with the right of someone other than the author to "
9778 "translate a copyrighted book, or to adapt the story to a different form "
9779 "(such as a drama based on a published book)."
9782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9783 #: freeculture.xml:6919
9785 "This, too, has changed dramatically. While the contours of copyright today "
9786 "are extremely hard to describe simply, in general terms, the right covers "
9787 "practically any creative work that is reduced to a tangible form. It covers "
9788 "music as well as architecture, drama as well as computer programs. It gives "
9789 "the copyright owner of that creative work not only the exclusive right to "
9790 "<quote>publish</quote> the work, but also the exclusive right of control "
9791 "over any <quote>copies</quote> of that work. And most significant for our "
9792 "purposes here, the right gives the copyright owner control over not only his "
9793 "or her particular work, but also any <quote>derivative work</quote> that "
9794 "might grow out of the original work. In this way, the right covers more "
9795 "creative work, protects the creative work more broadly, and protects works "
9796 "that are based in a significant way on the initial creative work."
9800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9801 #: freeculture.xml:6934
9803 "At the same time that the scope of copyright has expanded, procedural "
9804 "limitations on the right have been relaxed. I've already described the "
9805 "complete removal of the renewal requirement in 1992. In addition to the "
9806 "renewal requirement, for most of the history of American copyright law, "
9807 "there was a requirement that a work be registered before it could receive "
9808 "the protection of a copyright. There was also a requirement that any "
9809 "copyrighted work be marked either with that famous © or the word "
9810 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis>. And for most of the history of American "
9811 "copyright law, there was a requirement that works be deposited with the "
9812 "government before a copyright could be secured."
9815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9816 #: freeculture.xml:6948
9818 "The reason for the registration requirement was the sensible understanding "
9819 "that for most works, no copyright was required. Again, in the first ten "
9820 "years of the Republic, 95 percent of works eligible for copyright were never "
9821 "copyrighted. Thus, the rule reflected the norm: Most works apparently didn't "
9822 "need copyright, so registration narrowed the regulation of the law to the "
9823 "few that did. The same reasoning justified the requirement that a work be "
9824 "marked as copyrighted—that way it was easy to know whether a copyright "
9825 "was being claimed. The requirement that works be deposited was to assure "
9826 "that after the copyright expired, there would be a copy of the work "
9827 "somewhere so that it could be copied by others without locating the original "
9831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9832 #: freeculture.xml:6962
9834 "All of these <quote>formalities</quote> were abolished in the American "
9835 "system when we decided to follow European copyright law. There is no "
9836 "requirement that you register a work to get a copyright; the copyright now "
9837 "is automatic; the copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with a "
9838 "©; and the copyright exists whether or not you actually make a copy "
9839 "available for others to copy."
9842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9843 #: freeculture.xml:6970
9844 msgid "Consider a practical example to understand the scope of these differences."
9848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9849 #: freeculture.xml:6981
9851 "See Thomas Bender and David Sampliner, <quote>Poets, Pirates, and the "
9852 "Creation of American Literature,</quote> 29 <citetitle>New York University "
9853 "Journal of International Law and Politics</citetitle> 255 (1997), and James "
9854 "Gilraeth, ed., Federal Copyright Records, 1790–1800 (U.S. G.P.O., "
9858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9859 #: freeculture.xml:6974
9861 "If, in 1790, you wrote a book and you were one of the 5 percent who actually "
9862 "copyrighted that book, then the copyright law protected you against another "
9863 "publisher's taking your book and republishing it without your "
9864 "permission. The aim of the act was to regulate publishers so as to prevent "
9865 "that kind of unfair competition. In 1790, there were 174 publishers in the "
9866 "United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Copyright Act "
9867 "was thus a tiny regulation of a tiny proportion of a tiny part of the "
9868 "creative market in the United States—publishers."
9872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9873 #: freeculture.xml:6993
9875 "The act left other creators totally unregulated. If I copied your poem by "
9876 "hand, over and over again, as a way to learn it by heart, my act was totally "
9877 "unregulated by the 1790 act. If I took your novel and made a play based upon "
9878 "it, or if I translated it or abridged it, none of those activities were "
9879 "regulated by the original copyright act. These creative activities remained "
9880 "free, while the activities of publishers were restrained."
9883 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9884 #: freeculture.xml:7002
9886 "Today the story is very different: If you write a book, your book is "
9887 "automatically protected. Indeed, not just your book. Every e-mail, every "
9888 "note to your spouse, every doodle, <emphasis>every</emphasis> creative act "
9889 "that's reduced to a tangible form—all of this is automatically "
9890 "copyrighted. There is no need to register or mark your work. The protection "
9891 "follows the creation, not the steps you take to protect it."
9894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9895 #: freeculture.xml:7011
9897 "That protection gives you the right (subject to a narrow range of fair use "
9898 "exceptions) to control how others copy the work, whether they copy it to "
9899 "republish it or to share an excerpt."
9902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9903 #: freeculture.xml:7016
9905 "That much is the obvious part. Any system of copyright would control "
9906 "competing publishing. But there's a second part to the copyright of today "
9907 "that is not at all obvious. This is the protection of <quote>derivative "
9908 "rights.</quote> If you write a book, no one can make a movie out of your "
9909 "book without permission. No one can translate it without permission. "
9910 "CliffsNotes can't make an abridgment unless permission is granted. All of "
9911 "these derivative uses of your original work are controlled by the copyright "
9912 "holder. The copyright, in other words, is now not just an exclusive right to "
9913 "your writings, but an exclusive right to your writings and a large "
9914 "proportion of the writings inspired by them."
9917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9918 #: freeculture.xml:7030
9920 "It is this derivative right that would seem most bizarre to our framers, "
9921 "though it has become second nature to us. Initially, this expansion was "
9922 "created to deal with obvious evasions of a narrower copyright. If I write a "
9923 "book, can you change one word and then claim a copyright in a new and "
9924 "different book? Obviously that would make a joke of the copyright, so the "
9925 "law was properly expanded to include those slight modifications as well as "
9926 "the verbatim original work."
9929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9930 #: freeculture.xml:7052
9932 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>The Copyright Cage,</quote> <citetitle>Legal "
9933 "Affairs</citetitle>, July/August 2003, available at <ulink "
9934 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #26</ulink>. <placeholder "
9935 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9939 #: freeculture.xml:7042
9941 "In preventing that joke, the law created an astonishing power within a free "
9942 "culture—at least, it's astonishing when you understand that the law "
9943 "applies not just to the commercial publisher but to anyone with a "
9944 "computer. I understand the wrong in duplicating and selling someone else's "
9945 "work. But whatever <emphasis>that</emphasis> wrong is, transforming someone "
9946 "else's work is a different wrong. Some view transformation as no wrong at "
9947 "all—they believe that our law, as the framers penned it, should not "
9948 "protect derivative rights at all.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9949 "Whether or not you go that far, it seems plain that whatever wrong is "
9950 "involved is fundamentally different from the wrong of direct piracy."
9953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9954 #: freeculture.xml:7074
9955 msgid "Rubenfeld, Jeb"
9958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9959 #: freeculture.xml:7067
9961 "Professor Rubenfeld has presented a powerful constitutional argument about "
9962 "the difference that copyright law should draw (from the perspective of the "
9963 "First Amendment) between mere <quote>copies</quote> and derivative "
9964 "works. See Jed Rubenfeld, <quote>The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright's "
9965 "Constitutionality,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 112 "
9966 "(2002): 1–60 (see especially pp. 53–59). <placeholder "
9967 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9970 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9971 #: freeculture.xml:7062
9973 "Yet copyright law treats these two different wrongs in the same way. I can "
9974 "go to court and get an injunction against your pirating my book. I can go to "
9975 "court and get an injunction against your transformative use of my "
9976 "book.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These two different uses of "
9977 "my creative work are treated the same."
9980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9981 #: freeculture.xml:7079
9983 "This again may seem right to you. If I wrote a book, then why should you be "
9984 "able to write a movie that takes my story and makes money from it without "
9985 "paying me or crediting me? Or if Disney creates a creature called "
9986 "<quote>Mickey Mouse,</quote> why should you be able to make Mickey Mouse "
9987 "toys and be the one to trade on the value that Disney originally created?"
9990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9991 #: freeculture.xml:7087
9993 "These are good arguments, and, in general, my point is not that the "
9994 "derivative right is unjustified. My aim just now is much narrower: simply to "
9995 "make clear that this expansion is a significant change from the rights "
9996 "originally granted."
9999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10000 #: freeculture.xml:7094
10001 msgid "Law and Architecture: Reach"
10005 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10006 #: freeculture.xml:7101
10008 "This is a simplification of the law, but not much of one. The law certainly "
10009 "regulates more than <quote>copies</quote>—a public performance of a "
10010 "copyrighted song, for example, is regulated even though performance per se "
10011 "doesn't make a copy; 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section "
10012 "106(4). And it certainly sometimes doesn't regulate a <quote>copy</quote>; "
10013 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 112(a). But the "
10014 "presumption under the existing law (which regulates <quote>copies;</quote> "
10015 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 102) is that if there "
10016 "is a copy, there is a right."
10019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10020 #: freeculture.xml:7096
10022 "Whereas originally the law regulated only publishers, the change in "
10023 "copyright's scope means that the law today regulates publishers, users, and "
10024 "authors. It regulates them because all three are capable of making copies, "
10025 "and the core of the regulation of copyright law is copies.<placeholder "
10026 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10031 #: freeculture.xml:7113
10033 "<quote>Copies.</quote> That certainly sounds like the obvious thing for "
10034 "<emphasis>copy</emphasis>right law to regulate. But as with Jack Valenti's "
10035 "argument at the start of this chapter, that <quote>creative property</quote> "
10036 "deserves the <quote>same rights</quote> as all other property, it is the "
10037 "<emphasis>obvious</emphasis> that we need to be most careful about. For "
10038 "while it may be obvious that in the world before the Internet, copies were "
10039 "the obvious trigger for copyright law, upon reflection, it should be obvious "
10040 "that in the world with the Internet, copies should <emphasis>not</emphasis> "
10041 "be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not "
10042 "<emphasis>always</emphasis> be the trigger for copyright law."
10046 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10047 #: freeculture.xml:7131
10049 "Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we "
10050 "should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for its "
10051 "extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of "
10052 "arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology."
10055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10056 #: freeculture.xml:7126
10058 "This is perhaps the central claim of this book, so let me take this very "
10059 "slowly so that the point is not easily missed. My claim is that the Internet "
10060 "should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of "
10061 "copyright automatically applies,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
10062 "because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never "
10063 "contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright "
10067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10068 #: freeculture.xml:7142
10070 "We can see this point abstractly by beginning with this largely empty "
10074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10075 #: freeculture.xml:7146
10076 msgid "All potential uses of a book."
10079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10080 #: freeculture.xml:7147
10081 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1521.png\"></graphic>"
10084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10085 #: freeculture.xml:7149
10086 msgid "three types of uses of"
10090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10091 #: freeculture.xml:7152
10093 "Think about a book in real space, and imagine this circle to represent all "
10094 "its potential <emphasis>uses</emphasis>. Most of these uses are unregulated "
10095 "by copyright law, because the uses don't create a copy. If you read a book, "
10096 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you give someone the book, "
10097 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you resell a book, that act "
10098 "is not regulated (copyright law expressly states that after the first sale "
10099 "of a book, the copyright owner can impose no further conditions on the "
10100 "disposition of the book). If you sleep on the book or use it to hold up a "
10101 "lamp or let your puppy chew it up, those acts are not regulated by copyright "
10102 "law, because those acts do not make a copy."
10105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10106 #: freeculture.xml:7165
10107 msgid "Examples of unregulated uses of a book."
10110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10111 #: freeculture.xml:7166
10112 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1531.png\"></graphic>"
10115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10116 #: freeculture.xml:7169
10118 "Obviously, however, some uses of a copyrighted book are regulated by "
10119 "copyright law. Republishing the book, for example, makes a copy. It is "
10120 "therefore regulated by copyright law. Indeed, this particular use stands at "
10121 "the core of this circle of possible uses of a copyrighted work. It is the "
10122 "paradigmatic use properly regulated by copyright regulation (see first "
10123 "diagram on next page)."
10126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10127 #: freeculture.xml:7177
10129 "Finally, there is a tiny sliver of otherwise regulated copying uses that "
10130 "remain unregulated because the law considers these <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
10133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10134 #: freeculture.xml:7182
10136 "Republishing stands at the core of this circle of possible uses of a "
10137 "copyrighted work."
10140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10141 #: freeculture.xml:7183
10142 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1541.png\"></graphic>"
10145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10146 #: freeculture.xml:7186
10148 "These are uses that themselves involve copying, but which the law treats as "
10149 "unregulated because public policy demands that they remain unregulated. You "
10150 "are free to quote from this book, even in a review that is quite negative, "
10151 "without my permission, even though that quoting makes a copy. That copy "
10152 "would ordinarily give the copyright owner the exclusive right to say whether "
10153 "the copy is allowed or not, but the law denies the owner any exclusive right "
10154 "over such <quote>fair uses</quote> for public policy (and possibly First "
10155 "Amendment) reasons."
10158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10159 #: freeculture.xml:7196
10160 msgid "Unregulated copying considered <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
10163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10164 #: freeculture.xml:7197
10165 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1542.png\"></graphic>"
10168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10169 #: freeculture.xml:7201
10171 "Uses that before were presumptively unregulated are now presumptively "
10175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10176 #: freeculture.xml:7202
10177 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1551.png\"></graphic>"
10181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10182 #: freeculture.xml:7206
10184 "In real space, then, the possible uses of a book are divided into three "
10185 "sorts: (1) unregulated uses, (2) regulated uses, and (3) regulated uses that "
10186 "are nonetheless deemed <quote>fair</quote> regardless of the copyright "
10190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10191 #: freeculture.xml:7211 freeculture.xml:7245 freeculture.xml:7454
10192 msgid "on Internet"
10196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10197 #: freeculture.xml:7216
10199 "I don't mean <quote>nature</quote> in the sense that it couldn't be "
10200 "different, but rather that its present instantiation entails a copy. Optical "
10201 "networks need not make copies of content they transmit, and a digital "
10202 "network could be designed to delete anything it copies so that the same "
10203 "number of copies remain."
10206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10207 #: freeculture.xml:7213
10209 "Enter the Internet—a distributed, digital network where every use of a "
10210 "copyrighted work produces a copy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
10211 "And because of this single, arbitrary feature of the design of a digital "
10212 "network, the scope of category 1 changes dramatically. Uses that before were "
10213 "presumptively unregulated are now presumptively regulated. No longer is "
10214 "there a set of presumptively unregulated uses that define a freedom "
10215 "associated with a copyrighted work. Instead, each use is now subject to the "
10216 "copyright, because each use also makes a copy—category 1 gets sucked "
10217 "into category 2. And those who would defend the unregulated uses of "
10218 "copyrighted work must look exclusively to category 3, fair uses, to bear the "
10219 "burden of this shift."
10223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10224 #: freeculture.xml:7234
10226 "So let's be very specific to make this general point clear. Before the "
10227 "Internet, if you purchased a book and read it ten times, there would be no "
10228 "plausible <emphasis>copyright</emphasis>-related argument that the copyright "
10229 "owner could make to control that use of her book. Copyright law would have "
10230 "nothing to say about whether you read the book once, ten times, or every "
10231 "night before you went to bed. None of those instances of "
10232 "use—reading— could be regulated by copyright law because none of "
10233 "those uses produced a copy."
10236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10237 #: freeculture.xml:7247
10239 "But the same book as an e-book is effectively governed by a different set of "
10240 "rules. Now if the copyright owner says you may read the book only once or "
10241 "only once a month, then <emphasis>copyright law</emphasis> would aid the "
10242 "copyright owner in exercising this degree of control, because of the "
10243 "accidental feature of copyright law that triggers its application upon there "
10244 "being a copy. Now if you read the book ten times and the license says you "
10245 "may read it only five times, then whenever you read the book (or any portion "
10246 "of it) beyond the fifth time, you are making a copy of the book contrary to "
10247 "the copyright owner's wish."
10250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10251 #: freeculture.xml:7259
10253 "There are some people who think this makes perfect sense. My aim just now is "
10254 "not to argue about whether it makes sense or not. My aim is only to make "
10255 "clear the change. Once you see this point, a few other points also become "
10259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10260 #: freeculture.xml:7265
10262 "First, making category 1 disappear is not anything any policy maker ever "
10263 "intended. Congress did not think through the collapse of the presumptively "
10264 "unregulated uses of copyrighted works. There is no evidence at all that "
10265 "policy makers had this idea in mind when they allowed our policy here to "
10266 "shift. Unregulated uses were an important part of free culture before the "
10270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10271 #: freeculture.xml:7273
10273 "Second, this shift is especially troubling in the context of transformative "
10274 "uses of creative content. Again, we can all understand the wrong in "
10275 "commercial piracy. But the law now purports to regulate "
10276 "<emphasis>any</emphasis> transformation you make of creative work using a "
10277 "machine. <quote>Copy and paste</quote> and <quote>cut and paste</quote> "
10278 "become crimes. Tinkering with a story and releasing it to others exposes the "
10279 "tinkerer to at least a requirement of justification. However troubling the "
10280 "expansion with respect to copying a particular work, it is extraordinarily "
10281 "troubling with respect to transformative uses of creative work."
10285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10286 #: freeculture.xml:7285
10288 "Third, this shift from category 1 to category 2 puts an extraordinary burden "
10289 "on category 3 (<quote>fair use</quote>) that fair use never before had to "
10290 "bear. If a copyright owner now tried to control how many times I could read "
10291 "a book on-line, the natural response would be to argue that this is a "
10292 "violation of my fair use rights. But there has never been any litigation "
10293 "about whether I have a fair use right to read, because before the Internet, "
10294 "reading did not trigger the application of copyright law and hence the need "
10295 "for a fair use defense. The right to read was effectively protected before "
10296 "because reading was not regulated."
10299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10300 #: freeculture.xml:7299
10302 "This point about fair use is totally ignored, even by advocates for free "
10303 "culture. We have been cornered into arguing that our rights depend upon fair "
10304 "use—never even addressing the earlier question about the expansion in "
10305 "effective regulation. A thin protection grounded in fair use makes sense "
10306 "when the vast majority of uses are <emphasis>unregulated</emphasis>. But "
10307 "when everything becomes presumptively regulated, then the protections of "
10308 "fair use are not enough."
10311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10312 #: freeculture.xml:7310
10314 "The case of Video Pipeline is a good example. Video Pipeline was in the "
10315 "business of making <quote>trailer</quote> advertisements for movies "
10316 "available to video stores. The video stores displayed the trailers as a way "
10317 "to sell videos. Video Pipeline got the trailers from the film distributors, "
10318 "put the trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores."
10321 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
10322 #: freeculture.xml:7316 freeculture.xml:7376 freeculture.xml:13405
10326 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10327 #: freeculture.xml:7318
10329 "The company did this for about fifteen years. Then, in 1997, it began to "
10330 "think about the Internet as another way to distribute these previews. The "
10331 "idea was to expand their <quote>selling by sampling</quote> technique by "
10332 "giving on-line stores the same ability to enable <quote>browsing.</quote> "
10333 "Just as in a bookstore you can read a few pages of a book before you buy the "
10334 "book, so, too, you would be able to sample a bit from the movie on-line "
10335 "before you bought it."
10339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10340 #: freeculture.xml:7327
10342 "In 1998, Video Pipeline informed Disney and other film distributors that it "
10343 "intended to distribute the trailers through the Internet (rather than "
10344 "sending the tapes) to distributors of their videos. Two years later, Disney "
10345 "told Video Pipeline to stop. The owner of Video Pipeline asked Disney to "
10346 "talk about the matter—he had built a business on distributing this "
10347 "content as a way to help sell Disney films; he had customers who depended "
10348 "upon his delivering this content. Disney would agree to talk only if Video "
10349 "Pipeline stopped the distribution immediately. Video Pipeline thought it "
10350 "was within their <quote>fair use</quote> rights to distribute the clips as "
10351 "they had. So they filed a lawsuit to ask the court to declare that these "
10352 "rights were in fact their rights."
10355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10356 #: freeculture.xml:7342
10358 "Disney countersued—for $100 million in damages. Those damages were "
10359 "predicated upon a claim that Video Pipeline had <quote>willfully "
10360 "infringed</quote> on Disney's copyright. When a court makes a finding of "
10361 "willful infringement, it can award damages not on the basis of the actual "
10362 "harm to the copyright owner, but on the basis of an amount set in the "
10363 "statute. Because Video Pipeline had distributed seven hundred clips of "
10364 "Disney movies to enable video stores to sell copies of those movies, Disney "
10365 "was now suing Video Pipeline for $100 million."
10368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10369 #: freeculture.xml:7352
10371 "Disney has the right to control its property, of course. But the video "
10372 "stores that were selling Disney's films also had some sort of right to be "
10373 "able to sell the films that they had bought from Disney. Disney's claim in "
10374 "court was that the stores were allowed to sell the films and they were "
10375 "permitted to list the titles of the films they were selling, but they were "
10376 "not allowed to show clips of the films as a way of selling them without "
10377 "Disney's permission."
10380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10381 #: freeculture.xml:7362
10383 "Now, you might think this is a close case, and I think the courts would "
10384 "consider it a close case. My point here is to map the change that gives "
10385 "Disney this power. Before the Internet, Disney couldn't really control how "
10386 "people got access to their content. Once a video was in the marketplace, the "
10387 "<quote>first-sale doctrine</quote> would free the seller to use the video as "
10388 "he wished, including showing portions of it in order to engender sales of "
10389 "the entire movie video. But with the Internet, it becomes possible for "
10390 "Disney to centralize control over access to this content. Because each use "
10391 "of the Internet produces a copy, use on the Internet becomes subject to the "
10392 "copyright owner's control. The technology expands the scope of effective "
10393 "control, because the technology builds a copy into every transaction."
10396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10397 #: freeculture.xml:7375
10398 msgid "Barnes & Noble"
10402 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10403 #: freeculture.xml:7379
10405 "No doubt, a potential is not yet an abuse, and so the potential for control "
10406 "is not yet the abuse of control. Barnes & Noble has the right to say you "
10407 "can't touch a book in their store; property law gives them that right. But "
10408 "the market effectively protects against that abuse. If Barnes & Noble "
10409 "banned browsing, then consumers would choose other bookstores. Competition "
10410 "protects against the extremes. And it may well be (my argument so far does "
10411 "not even question this) that competition would prevent any similar danger "
10412 "when it comes to copyright. Sure, publishers exercising the rights that "
10413 "authors have assigned to them might try to regulate how many times you read "
10414 "a book, or try to stop you from sharing the book with anyone. But in a "
10415 "competitive market such as the book market, the dangers of this happening "
10416 "are quite slight."
10419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10420 #: freeculture.xml:7394
10422 "Again, my aim so far is simply to map the changes that this changed "
10423 "architecture enables. Enabling technology to enforce the control of "
10424 "copyright means that the control of copyright is no longer defined by "
10425 "balanced policy. The control of copyright is simply what private owners "
10426 "choose. In some contexts, at least, that fact is harmless. But in some "
10427 "contexts it is a recipe for disaster."
10430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10431 #: freeculture.xml:7403
10432 msgid "Architecture and Law: Force"
10435 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10436 #: freeculture.xml:7405
10438 "The disappearance of unregulated uses would be change enough, but a second "
10439 "important change brought about by the Internet magnifies its "
10440 "significance. This second change does not affect the reach of copyright "
10441 "regulation; it affects how such regulation is enforced."
10444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10445 #: freeculture.xml:7411
10447 "In the world before digital technology, it was generally the law that "
10448 "controlled whether and how someone was regulated by copyright law. The law, "
10449 "meaning a court, meaning a judge: In the end, it was a human, trained in the "
10450 "tradition of the law and cognizant of the balances that tradition embraced, "
10451 "who said whether and how the law would restrict your freedom."
10454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10455 #: freeculture.xml:7418
10459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10460 #: freeculture.xml:7419 freeculture.xml:7588
10461 msgid "Marx Brothers"
10465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10466 #: freeculture.xml:7430
10468 "See David Lange, <quote>Recognizing the Public Domain,</quote> "
10469 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 44 (1981): "
10473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10474 #: freeculture.xml:7422
10476 "There's a famous story about a battle between the Marx Brothers and Warner "
10477 "Brothers. The Marxes intended to make a parody of "
10478 "<citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>. Warner Brothers objected. They wrote a "
10479 "nasty letter to the Marxes, warning them that there would be serious legal "
10480 "consequences if they went forward with their plan.<placeholder "
10481 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10485 #: freeculture.xml:7439
10487 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Ibid. See also Vaidhyanathan, "
10488 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 1–3."
10491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10492 #: freeculture.xml:7435
10494 "This led the Marx Brothers to respond in kind. They warned Warner Brothers "
10495 "that the Marx Brothers <quote>were brothers long before you "
10496 "were.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Marx Brothers "
10497 "therefore owned the word <citetitle>brothers</citetitle>, and if Warner "
10498 "Brothers insisted on trying to control <citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>, "
10499 "then the Marx Brothers would insist on control over "
10500 "<citetitle>brothers</citetitle>."
10503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10504 #: freeculture.xml:7449
10506 "An absurd and hollow threat, of course, because Warner Brothers, like the "
10507 "Marx Brothers, knew that no court would ever enforce such a silly "
10508 "claim. This extremism was irrelevant to the real freedoms anyone (including "
10509 "Warner Brothers) enjoyed."
10512 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10513 #: freeculture.xml:7456
10515 "On the Internet, however, there is no check on silly rules, because on the "
10516 "Internet, increasingly, rules are enforced not by a human but by a machine: "
10517 "Increasingly, the rules of copyright law, as interpreted by the copyright "
10518 "owner, get built into the technology that delivers copyrighted content. It "
10519 "is code, rather than law, that rules. And the problem with code regulations "
10520 "is that, unlike law, code has no shame. Code would not get the humor of the "
10521 "Marx Brothers. The consequence of that is not at all funny."
10524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10525 #: freeculture.xml:7468
10526 msgid "Adobe eBook Reader"
10529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10530 #: freeculture.xml:7470
10531 msgid "Consider the life of my Adobe eBook Reader."
10534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10535 #: freeculture.xml:7473
10537 "An e-book is a book delivered in electronic form. An Adobe eBook is not a "
10538 "book that Adobe has published; Adobe simply produces the software that "
10539 "publishers use to deliver e-books. It provides the technology, and the "
10540 "publisher delivers the content by using the technology."
10543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10544 #: freeculture.xml:7480
10545 msgid "On the next page is a picture of an old version of my Adobe eBook Reader."
10549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10550 #: freeculture.xml:7484
10552 "As you can see, I have a small collection of e-books within this e-book "
10553 "library. Some of these books reproduce content that is in the public domain: "
10554 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, for example, is in the public domain. "
10555 "Some of them reproduce content that is not in the public domain: My own book "
10556 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> is not yet within the public "
10557 "domain. Consider <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> first. If you click on "
10558 "my e-book copy of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, you'll see a fancy "
10559 "cover, and then a button at the bottom called Permissions."
10562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10563 #: freeculture.xml:7497
10564 msgid "Picture of an old version of Adobe eBook Reader"
10567 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10568 #: freeculture.xml:7498
10569 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1611.png\"></graphic>"
10572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10573 #: freeculture.xml:7501
10575 "If you click on the Permissions button, you'll see a list of the permissions "
10576 "that the publisher purports to grant with this book."
10579 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10580 #: freeculture.xml:7505
10581 msgid "List of the permissions that the publisher purports to grant."
10584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10585 #: freeculture.xml:7506
10586 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1612.png\"></graphic>"
10590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10591 #: freeculture.xml:7510
10593 "According to my eBook Reader, I have the permission to copy to the clipboard "
10594 "of the computer ten text selections every ten days. (So far, I've copied no "
10595 "text to the clipboard.) I also have the permission to print ten pages from "
10596 "the book every ten days. Lastly, I have the permission to use the Read Aloud "
10597 "button to hear <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> read aloud through the "
10601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10602 #: freeculture.xml:7517
10606 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10607 #: freeculture.xml:7518
10608 msgid "<citetitle>Politics</citetitle>, (Aristotle)"
10611 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10612 #: freeculture.xml:7520
10614 "Here's the e-book for another work in the public domain (including the "
10615 "translation): Aristotle's <citetitle>Politics</citetitle>."
10618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10619 #: freeculture.xml:7524
10620 msgid "E-book of Aristotle;s <quote>Politics</quote>"
10623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10624 #: freeculture.xml:7525
10625 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1621.png\"></graphic>"
10628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10629 #: freeculture.xml:7528
10631 "According to its permissions, no printing or copying is permitted at "
10632 "all. But fortunately, you can use the Read Aloud button to hear the book."
10635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10636 #: freeculture.xml:7533
10637 msgid "List of the permissions for Aristotle;s <quote>Politics</quote>."
10640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10641 #: freeculture.xml:7534
10642 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1622.png\"></graphic>"
10645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10646 #: freeculture.xml:7537
10648 "Finally (and most embarrassingly), here are the permissions for the original "
10649 "e-book version of my last book, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>:"
10652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10653 #: freeculture.xml:7543
10654 msgid "List of the permissions for <quote>The Future of Ideas</quote>."
10657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10658 #: freeculture.xml:7544
10659 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1631.png\"></graphic>"
10662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10663 #: freeculture.xml:7547
10664 msgid "No copying, no printing, and don't you dare try to listen to this book!"
10668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10669 #: freeculture.xml:7557
10671 "In principle, a contract might impose a requirement on me. I might, for "
10672 "example, buy a book from you that includes a contract that says I will read "
10673 "it only three times, or that I promise to read it three times. But that "
10674 "obligation (and the limits for creating that obligation) would come from the "
10675 "contract, not from copyright law, and the obligations of contract would not "
10676 "necessarily pass to anyone who subsequently acquired the book."
10679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10680 #: freeculture.xml:7550
10682 "Now, the Adobe eBook Reader calls these controls "
10683 "<quote>permissions</quote>— as if the publisher has the power to "
10684 "control how you use these works. For works under copyright, the copyright "
10685 "owner certainly does have the power—up to the limits of the copyright "
10686 "law. But for work not under copyright, there is no such copyright "
10687 "power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When my e-book of "
10688 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> says I have the permission to copy only "
10689 "ten text selections into the memory every ten days, what that really means "
10690 "is that the eBook Reader has enabled the publisher to control how I use the "
10691 "book on my computer, far beyond the control that the law would enable."
10694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10695 #: freeculture.xml:7572
10697 "The control comes instead from the code—from the technology within "
10698 "which the e-book <quote>lives.</quote> Though the e-book says that these are "
10699 "permissions, they are not the sort of <quote>permissions</quote> that most "
10700 "of us deal with. When a teenager gets <quote>permission</quote> to stay out "
10701 "till midnight, she knows (unless she's Cinderella) that she can stay out "
10702 "till 2 A.M., but will suffer a punishment if she's caught. But when the "
10703 "Adobe eBook Reader says I have the permission to make ten copies of the text "
10704 "into the computer's memory, that means that after I've made ten copies, the "
10705 "computer will not make any more. The same with the printing restrictions: "
10706 "After ten pages, the eBook Reader will not print any more pages. It's the "
10707 "same with the silly restriction that says that you can't use the Read Aloud "
10708 "button to read my book aloud—it's not that the company will sue you if "
10709 "you do; instead, if you push the Read Aloud button with my book, the machine "
10710 "simply won't read aloud."
10714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10715 #: freeculture.xml:7591
10717 "These are <emphasis>controls</emphasis>, not permissions. Imagine a world "
10718 "where the Marx Brothers sold word processing software that, when you tried "
10719 "to type <quote>Warner Brothers,</quote> erased <quote>Brothers</quote> from "
10723 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10724 #: freeculture.xml:7597
10726 "This is the future of copyright law: not so much copyright "
10727 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> as copyright <emphasis>code</emphasis>. The "
10728 "controls over access to content will not be controls that are ratified by "
10729 "courts; the controls over access to content will be controls that are coded "
10730 "by programmers. And whereas the controls that are built into the law are "
10731 "always to be checked by a judge, the controls that are built into the "
10732 "technology have no similar built-in check."
10735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10736 #: freeculture.xml:7606
10738 "How significant is this? Isn't it always possible to get around the controls "
10739 "built into the technology? Software used to be sold with technologies that "
10740 "limited the ability of users to copy the software, but those were trivial "
10741 "protections to defeat. Why won't it be trivial to defeat these protections "
10745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10746 #: freeculture.xml:7613
10748 "We've only scratched the surface of this story. Return to the Adobe eBook "
10752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10753 #: freeculture.xml:7616
10754 msgid "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)"
10757 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10758 #: freeculture.xml:7618
10760 "Early in the life of the Adobe eBook Reader, Adobe suffered a public "
10761 "relations nightmare. Among the books that you could download for free on the "
10762 "Adobe site was a copy of <citetitle>Alice's Adventures in "
10763 "Wonderland</citetitle>. This wonderful book is in the public domain. Yet "
10764 "when you clicked on Permissions for that book, you got the following report:"
10767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10768 #: freeculture.xml:7626
10769 msgid "List of the permissions for <quote>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</quote>."
10772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10773 #: freeculture.xml:7628
10774 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1641.png\"></graphic>"
10777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10778 #: freeculture.xml:7632
10780 "Here was a public domain children's book that you were not allowed to copy, "
10781 "not allowed to lend, not allowed to give, and, as the "
10782 "<quote>permissions</quote> indicated, not allowed to <quote>read "
10786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10787 #: freeculture.xml:7637
10789 "The public relations nightmare attached to that final permission. For the "
10790 "text did not say that you were not permitted to use the Read Aloud button; "
10791 "it said you did not have the permission to read the book aloud. That led "
10792 "some people to think that Adobe was restricting the right of parents, for "
10793 "example, to read the book to their children, which seemed, to say the least, "
10797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10798 #: freeculture.xml:7645
10800 "Adobe responded quickly that it was absurd to think that it was trying to "
10801 "restrict the right to read a book aloud. Obviously it was only restricting "
10802 "the ability to use the Read Aloud button to have the book read aloud. But "
10803 "the question Adobe never did answer is this: Would Adobe thus agree that a "
10804 "consumer was free to use software to hack around the restrictions built into "
10805 "the eBook Reader? If some company (call it Elcomsoft) developed a program to "
10806 "disable the technological protection built into an Adobe eBook so that a "
10807 "blind person, say, could use a computer to read the book aloud, would Adobe "
10808 "agree that such a use of an eBook Reader was fair? Adobe didn't answer "
10809 "because the answer, however absurd it might seem, is no."
10812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10813 #: freeculture.xml:7658
10815 "The point is not to blame Adobe. Indeed, Adobe is among the most innovative "
10816 "companies developing strategies to balance open access to content with "
10817 "incentives for companies to innovate. But Adobe's technology enables "
10818 "control, and Adobe has an incentive to defend this control. That incentive "
10819 "is understandable, yet what it creates is often crazy."
10822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10823 #: freeculture.xml:7668
10825 "To see the point in a particularly absurd context, consider a favorite story "
10826 "of mine that makes the same point."
10829 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10830 #: freeculture.xml:7671 freeculture.xml:7815 freeculture.xml:7880 freeculture.xml:7988
10831 msgid "Aibo robotic dog"
10834 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10835 #: freeculture.xml:7672 freeculture.xml:7816 freeculture.xml:7881 freeculture.xml:7989
10836 msgid "robotic dog"
10839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10840 #: freeculture.xml:7673 freeculture.xml:7817 freeculture.xml:7882 freeculture.xml:7990
10844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10845 #: freeculture.xml:7673 freeculture.xml:7817 freeculture.xml:7882 freeculture.xml:7990
10846 msgid "Aibo robotic dog produced by"
10849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10850 #: freeculture.xml:7675
10852 "Consider the robotic dog made by Sony named <quote>Aibo.</quote> The Aibo "
10853 "learns tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity and "
10854 "that doesn't leave that much of a mess (at least in your house)."
10858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10859 #: freeculture.xml:7680
10861 "The Aibo is expensive and popular. Fans from around the world have set up "
10862 "clubs to trade stories. One fan in particular set up a Web site to enable "
10863 "information about the Aibo dog to be shared. This fan set up aibopet.com "
10864 "(and aibohack.com, but that resolves to the same site), and on that site he "
10865 "provided information about how to teach an Aibo to do tricks in addition to "
10866 "the ones Sony had taught it."
10869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10870 #: freeculture.xml:7689
10872 "<quote>Teach</quote> here has a special meaning. Aibos are just cute "
10873 "computers. You teach a computer how to do something by programming it "
10874 "differently. So to say that aibopet.com was giving information about how to "
10875 "teach the dog to do new tricks is just to say that aibopet.com was giving "
10876 "information to users of the Aibo pet about how to hack their computer "
10877 "<quote>dog</quote> to make it do new tricks (thus, aibohack.com)."
10880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10881 #: freeculture.xml:7696
10885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10886 #: freeculture.xml:7698
10888 "If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the word "
10889 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly "
10890 "connotation. Nonprogrammers hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in horror "
10891 "movies do even worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call them, "
10892 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much more positive "
10893 "term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the program "
10894 "to do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to do. If you buy a "
10895 "new printer for an old computer, you might find the old computer doesn't "
10896 "run, or <quote>drive,</quote> the printer. If you discovered that, you'd "
10897 "later be happy to discover a hack on the Net by someone who has written a "
10898 "driver to enable the computer to drive the printer you just bought."
10901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10902 #: freeculture.xml:7712
10904 "Some hacks are easy. Some are unbelievably hard. Hackers as a community like "
10905 "to challenge themselves and others with increasingly difficult "
10906 "tasks. There's a certain respect that goes with the talent to hack "
10907 "well. There's a well-deserved respect that goes with the talent to hack "
10911 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10912 #: freeculture.xml:7719
10914 "The Aibo fan was displaying a bit of both when he hacked the program and "
10915 "offered to the world a bit of code that would enable the Aibo to dance "
10916 "jazz. The dog wasn't programmed to dance jazz. It was a clever bit of "
10917 "tinkering that turned the dog into a more talented creature than Sony had "
10922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10923 #: freeculture.xml:7729
10925 "I've told this story in many contexts, both inside and outside the United "
10926 "States. Once I was asked by a puzzled member of the audience, is it "
10927 "permissible for a dog to dance jazz in the United States? We forget that "
10928 "stories about the backcountry still flow across much of the world. So let's "
10929 "just be clear before we continue: It's not a crime anywhere (anymore) to "
10930 "dance jazz. Nor is it a crime to teach your dog to dance jazz. Nor should it "
10931 "be a crime (though we don't have a lot to go on here) to teach your robot "
10932 "dog to dance jazz. Dancing jazz is a completely legal activity. One imagines "
10933 "that the owner of aibopet.com thought, <emphasis>What possible problem could "
10934 "there be with teaching a robot dog to dance?</emphasis>"
10937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10938 #: freeculture.xml:7744
10939 msgid "government case against"
10942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10943 #: freeculture.xml:7746
10945 "Let's put the dog to sleep for a minute, and turn to a pony show— not "
10946 "literally a pony show, but rather a paper that a Princeton academic named Ed "
10947 "Felten prepared for a conference. This Princeton academic is well known and "
10948 "respected. He was hired by the government in the Microsoft case to test "
10949 "Microsoft's claims about what could and could not be done with its own "
10950 "code. In that trial, he demonstrated both his brilliance and his "
10951 "coolness. Under heavy badgering by Microsoft lawyers, Ed Felten stood his "
10952 "ground. He was not about to be bullied into being silent about something he "
10956 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10957 #: freeculture.xml:7769 freeculture.xml:10258
10958 msgid "Electronic Frontier Foundation"
10961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10962 #: freeculture.xml:7759
10964 "See Pamela Samuelson, <quote>Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to "
10965 "Science,</quote> <citetitle>Science</citetitle> 293 (2001): 2028; Brendan "
10966 "I. Koerner, <quote>Play Dead: Sony Muzzles the Techies Who Teach a Robot Dog "
10967 "New Tricks,</quote> <citetitle>American Prospect</citetitle>, January 2002; "
10968 "<quote>Court Dismisses Computer Scientists' Challenge to DMCA,</quote> "
10969 "<citetitle>Intellectual Property Litigation Reporter</citetitle>, 11 "
10970 "December 2001; Bill Holland, <quote>Copyright Act Raising Free-Speech "
10971 "Concerns,</quote> <citetitle>Billboard</citetitle>, May 2001; Janelle Brown, "
10972 "<quote>Is the RIAA Running Scared?</quote> Salon.com, April 2001; Electronic "
10973 "Frontier Foundation, <quote>Frequently Asked Questions about "
10974 "<citetitle>Felten and USENIX</citetitle> v. <citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> "
10975 "Legal Case,</quote> available at <ulink "
10976 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #27</ulink>. <placeholder "
10977 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10981 #: freeculture.xml:7757
10983 "But Felten's bravery was really tested in April 2001.<placeholder "
10984 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> He and a group of colleagues were working on a "
10985 "paper to be submitted at conference. The paper was intended to describe the "
10986 "weakness in an encryption system being developed by the Secure Digital Music "
10987 "Initiative as a technique to control the distribution of music."
10990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10991 #: freeculture.xml:7777
10993 "The SDMI coalition had as its goal a technology to enable content owners to "
10994 "exercise much better control over their content than the Internet, as it "
10995 "originally stood, granted them. Using encryption, SDMI hoped to develop a "
10996 "standard that would allow the content owner to say <quote>this music cannot "
10997 "be copied,</quote> and have a computer respect that command. The technology "
10998 "was to be part of a <quote>trusted system</quote> of control that would get "
10999 "content owners to trust the system of the Internet much more."
11002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11003 #: freeculture.xml:7787
11005 "When SDMI thought it was close to a standard, it set up a competition. In "
11006 "exchange for providing contestants with the code to an SDMI-encrypted bit of "
11007 "content, contestants were to try to crack it and, if they did, report the "
11008 "problems to the consortium."
11012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11013 #: freeculture.xml:7794
11015 "Felten and his team figured out the encryption system quickly. He and the "
11016 "team saw the weakness of this system as a type: Many encryption systems "
11017 "would suffer the same weakness, and Felten and his team thought it "
11018 "worthwhile to point this out to those who study encryption."
11021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11022 #: freeculture.xml:7800
11024 "Let's review just what Felten was doing. Again, this is the United "
11025 "States. We have a principle of free speech. We have this principle not just "
11026 "because it is the law, but also because it is a really great idea. A "
11027 "strongly protected tradition of free speech is likely to encourage a wide "
11028 "range of criticism. That criticism is likely, in turn, to improve the "
11029 "systems or people or ideas criticized."
11032 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11033 #: freeculture.xml:7808
11035 "What Felten and his colleagues were doing was publishing a paper describing "
11036 "the weakness in a technology. They were not spreading free music, or "
11037 "building and deploying this technology. The paper was an academic essay, "
11038 "unintelligible to most people. But it clearly showed the weakness in the "
11039 "SDMI system, and why SDMI would not, as presently constituted, succeed."
11042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11043 #: freeculture.xml:7819
11045 "What links these two, aibopet.com and Felten, is the letters they then "
11046 "received. Aibopet.com received a letter from Sony about the aibopet.com "
11047 "hack. Though a jazz-dancing dog is perfectly legal, Sony wrote:"
11050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11051 #: freeculture.xml:7826
11053 "Your site contains information providing the means to circumvent AIBO-ware's "
11054 "copy protection protocol constituting a violation of the anti-circumvention "
11055 "provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
11058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11059 #: freeculture.xml:7835
11061 "And though an academic paper describing the weakness in a system of "
11062 "encryption should also be perfectly legal, Felten received a letter from an "
11063 "RIAA lawyer that read:"
11067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11068 #: freeculture.xml:7841
11070 "Any disclosure of information gained from participating in the Public "
11071 "Challenge would be outside the scope of activities permitted by the "
11072 "Agreement and could subject you and your research team to actions under the "
11073 "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (<quote>DMCA</quote>)."
11076 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11077 #: freeculture.xml:7849
11079 "In both cases, this weirdly Orwellian law was invoked to control the spread "
11080 "of information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act made spreading such "
11081 "information an offense."
11084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11085 #: freeculture.xml:7854
11087 "The DMCA was enacted as a response to copyright owners' first fear about "
11088 "cyberspace. The fear was that copyright control was effectively dead; the "
11089 "response was to find technologies that might compensate. These new "
11090 "technologies would be copyright protection technologies— technologies "
11091 "to control the replication and distribution of copyrighted material. They "
11092 "were designed as <emphasis>code</emphasis> to modify the original "
11093 "<emphasis>code</emphasis> of the Internet, to reestablish some protection "
11094 "for copyright owners."
11097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11098 #: freeculture.xml:7865
11100 "The DMCA was a bit of law intended to back up the protection of this code "
11101 "designed to protect copyrighted material. It was, we could say, "
11102 "<emphasis>legal code</emphasis> intended to buttress <emphasis>software "
11103 "code</emphasis> which itself was intended to support the <emphasis>legal "
11104 "code of copyright</emphasis>."
11107 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11108 #: freeculture.xml:7872
11110 "But the DMCA was not designed merely to protect copyrighted works to the "
11111 "extent copyright law protected them. Its protection, that is, did not end at "
11112 "the line that copyright law drew. The DMCA regulated devices that were "
11113 "designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. It was designed to ban "
11114 "those devices, whether or not the use of the copyrighted material made "
11115 "possible by that circumvention would have been a copyright violation."
11119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11120 #: freeculture.xml:7884
11122 "Aibopet.com and Felten make the point. The Aibo hack circumvented a "
11123 "copyright protection system for the purpose of enabling the dog to dance "
11124 "jazz. That enablement no doubt involved the use of copyrighted material. But "
11125 "as aibopet.com's site was noncommercial, and the use did not enable "
11126 "subsequent copyright infringements, there's no doubt that aibopet.com's hack "
11127 "was fair use of Sony's copyrighted material. Yet fair use is not a defense "
11128 "to the DMCA. The question is not whether the use of the copyrighted material "
11129 "was a copyright violation. The question is whether a copyright protection "
11130 "system was circumvented."
11133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11134 #: freeculture.xml:7896
11136 "The threat against Felten was more attenuated, but it followed the same line "
11137 "of reasoning. By publishing a paper describing how a copyright protection "
11138 "system could be circumvented, the RIAA lawyer suggested, Felten himself was "
11139 "distributing a circumvention technology. Thus, even though he was not "
11140 "himself infringing anyone's copyright, his academic paper was enabling "
11141 "others to infringe others' copyright."
11144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11145 #: freeculture.xml:7903 freeculture.xml:7938
11146 msgid "Rogers, Fred"
11149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11150 #: freeculture.xml:7914 freeculture.xml:7951 freeculture.xml:7977
11151 msgid "Conrad, Paul"
11154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11155 #: freeculture.xml:7906
11157 "The bizarreness of these arguments is captured in a cartoon drawn in 1981 by "
11158 "Paul Conrad. At that time, a court in California had held that the VCR could "
11159 "be banned because it was a copyright-infringing technology: It enabled "
11160 "consumers to copy films without the permission of the copyright owner. No "
11161 "doubt there were uses of the technology that were legal: Fred Rogers, aka "
11162 "<quote><citetitle>Mr. Rogers</citetitle>,</quote> for example, had testified "
11163 "in that case that he wanted people to feel free to tape Mr. Rogers' "
11164 "Neighborhood. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11168 #: freeculture.xml:7933
11170 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <citetitle>Sony Corporation of "
11171 "America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>., "
11172 "464 U.S. 417, 455 fn. 27 (1984). Rogers never changed his view about the "
11173 "VCR. See James Lardner, <citetitle>Fast Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, "
11174 "and the Onslaught of the VCR</citetitle> (New York: W. W. Norton, 1987), "
11175 "270–71. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
11178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11179 #: freeculture.xml:7918
11181 "Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "
11182 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> at hours when some children cannot use it. I "
11183 "think that it's a real service to families to be able to record such "
11184 "programs and show them at appropriate times. I have always felt that with "
11185 "the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the "
11186 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "
11187 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> because that's what I produce, that they then "
11188 "become much more active in the programming of their family's television "
11189 "life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My "
11190 "whole approach in broadcasting has always been <quote>You are an important "
11191 "person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.</quote> Maybe "
11192 "I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to "
11193 "be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is "
11194 "important.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11199 #: freeculture.xml:7944
11201 "Even though there were uses that were legal, because there were some uses "
11202 "that were illegal, the court held the companies producing the VCR "
11206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11207 #: freeculture.xml:7949
11209 "This led Conrad to draw the cartoon below, which we can adopt to the DMCA. "
11210 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11214 #: freeculture.xml:7954
11215 msgid "No argument I have can top this picture, but let me try to get close."
11218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11219 #: freeculture.xml:7957
11221 "The anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA target copyright circumvention "
11222 "technologies. Circumvention technologies can be used for different "
11223 "ends. They can be used, for example, to enable massive pirating of "
11224 "copyrighted material—a bad end. Or they can be used to enable the use "
11225 "of particular copyrighted materials in ways that would be considered fair "
11226 "use—a good end."
11229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11230 #: freeculture.xml:7964
11235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11236 #: freeculture.xml:7966
11238 "A handgun can be used to shoot a police officer or a child. Most would agree "
11239 "such a use is bad. Or a handgun can be used for target practice or to "
11240 "protect against an intruder. At least some would say that such a use would "
11241 "be good. It, too, is a technology that has both good and bad uses."
11244 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
11245 #: freeculture.xml:7974
11246 msgid "VCR/handgun cartoon."
11249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11250 #: freeculture.xml:7975
11251 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1711.png\"></graphic>"
11254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11255 #: freeculture.xml:7979
11257 "The obvious point of Conrad's cartoon is the weirdness of a world where guns "
11258 "are legal, despite the harm they can do, while VCRs (and circumvention "
11259 "technologies) are illegal. Flash: <emphasis>No one ever died from copyright "
11260 "circumvention</emphasis>. Yet the law bans circumvention technologies "
11261 "absolutely, despite the potential that they might do some good, but permits "
11262 "guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do."
11265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11266 #: freeculture.xml:7992
11268 "The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are changing the "
11269 "balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright owners restrict "
11270 "fair use; using the DMCA, they punish those who would attempt to evade the "
11271 "restrictions on fair use that they impose through code. Technology becomes a "
11272 "means by which fair use can be erased; the law of the DMCA backs up that "
11276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11277 #: freeculture.xml:8000
11279 "This is how <emphasis>code</emphasis> becomes <emphasis>law</emphasis>. The "
11280 "controls built into the technology of copy and access protection become "
11281 "rules the violation of which is also a violation of the law. In this way, "
11282 "the code extends the law—increasing its regulation, even if the "
11283 "subject it regulates (activities that would otherwise plainly constitute "
11284 "fair use) is beyond the reach of the law. Code becomes law; code extends the "
11285 "law; code thus extends the control that copyright owners effect—at "
11286 "least for those copyright holders with the lawyers who can write the nasty "
11287 "letters that Felten and aibopet.com received."
11290 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11291 #: freeculture.xml:8012
11293 "There is one final aspect of the interaction between architecture and law "
11294 "that contributes to the force of copyright's regulation. This is the ease "
11295 "with which infringements of the law can be detected. For contrary to the "
11296 "rhetoric common at the birth of cyberspace that on the Internet, no one "
11297 "knows you're a dog, increasingly, given changing technologies deployed on "
11298 "the Internet, it is easy to find the dog who committed a legal wrong. The "
11299 "technologies of the Internet are open to snoops as well as sharers, and the "
11300 "snoops are increasingly good at tracking down the identity of those who "
11301 "violate the rules."
11305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11306 #: freeculture.xml:8031
11308 "For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, <quote>Legal "
11309 "Fictions, Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,</quote> "
11310 "<citetitle>Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal</citetitle> 17 "
11314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11315 #: freeculture.xml:8025
11317 "For example, imagine you were part of a <citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> fan "
11318 "club. You gathered every month to share trivia, and maybe to enact a kind of "
11319 "fan fiction about the show. One person would play Spock, another, Captain "
11320 "Kirk. The characters would begin with a plot from a real story, then simply "
11321 "continue it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11325 #: freeculture.xml:8037
11327 "Before the Internet, this was, in effect, a totally unregulated activity. "
11328 "No matter what happened inside your club room, you would never be interfered "
11329 "with by the copyright police. You were free in that space to do as you "
11330 "wished with this part of our culture. You were allowed to build on it as you "
11331 "wished without fear of legal control."
11334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11335 #: freeculture.xml:8045
11337 "But if you moved your club onto the Internet, and made it generally "
11338 "available for others to join, the story would be very different. Bots "
11339 "scouring the Net for trademark and copyright infringement would quickly find "
11340 "your site. Your posting of fan fiction, depending upon the ownership of the "
11341 "series that you're depicting, could well inspire a lawyer's threat. And "
11342 "ignoring the lawyer's threat would be extremely costly indeed. The law of "
11343 "copyright is extremely efficient. The penalties are severe, and the process "
11347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11348 #: freeculture.xml:8055
11350 "This change in the effective force of the law is caused by a change in the "
11351 "ease with which the law can be enforced. That change too shifts the law's "
11352 "balance radically. It is as if your car transmitted the speed at which you "
11353 "traveled at every moment that you drove; that would be just one step before "
11354 "the state started issuing tickets based upon the data you transmitted. That "
11355 "is, in effect, what is happening here."
11358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11359 #: freeculture.xml:8064
11360 msgid "Market: Concentration"
11364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11365 #: freeculture.xml:8066
11367 "So copyright's duration has increased dramatically—tripled in the past "
11368 "thirty years. And copyright's scope has increased as well—from "
11369 "regulating only publishers to now regulating just about everyone. And "
11370 "copyright's reach has changed, as every action becomes a copy and hence "
11371 "presumptively regulated. And as technologists find better ways to control "
11372 "the use of content, and as copyright is increasingly enforced through "
11373 "technology, copyright's force changes, too. Misuse is easier to find and "
11374 "easier to control. This regulation of the creative process, which began as a "
11375 "tiny regulation governing a tiny part of the market for creative work, has "
11376 "become the single most important regulator of creativity there is. It is a "
11377 "massive expansion in the scope of the government's control over innovation "
11378 "and creativity; it would be totally unrecognizable to those who gave birth "
11379 "to copyright's control."
11382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11383 #: freeculture.xml:8084
11385 "Still, in my view, all of these changes would not matter much if it weren't "
11386 "for one more change that we must also consider. This is a change that is in "
11387 "some sense the most familiar, though its significance and scope are not well "
11388 "understood. It is the one that creates precisely the reason to be concerned "
11389 "about all the other changes I have described."
11392 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11393 #: freeculture.xml:8091
11395 "This is the change in the concentration and integration of the media. In "
11396 "the past twenty years, the nature of media ownership has undergone a radical "
11397 "alteration, caused by changes in legal rules governing the media. Before "
11398 "this change happened, the different forms of media were owned by separate "
11399 "media companies. Now, the media is increasingly owned by only a few "
11400 "companies. Indeed, after the changes that the FCC announced in June 2003, "
11401 "most expect that within a few years, we will live in a world where just "
11402 "three companies control more than percent of the media."
11405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11406 #: freeculture.xml:8102
11407 msgid "These changes are of two sorts: the scope of concentration, and its nature."
11410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11411 #: freeculture.xml:8106
11415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11416 #: freeculture.xml:8107 freeculture.xml:9451
11420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11421 #: freeculture.xml:8108
11422 msgid "McCain, John"
11425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11426 #: freeculture.xml:8109 freeculture.xml:9452
11427 msgid "Universal Music Group"
11430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11431 #: freeculture.xml:8110
11432 msgid "Warner Music Group"
11436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11437 #: freeculture.xml:8116
11439 "FCC Oversight: Hearing Before the Senate Commerce, Science and "
11440 "Transportation Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (22 May 2003) (statement "
11441 "of Senator John McCain)."
11445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11446 #: freeculture.xml:8123
11448 "Lynette Holloway, <quote>Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to "
11449 "Slide,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 23 December 2002."
11453 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11454 #: freeculture.xml:8129
11456 "Molly Ivins, <quote>Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped,</quote> "
11457 "<citetitle>Charleston Gazette</citetitle>, 31 May 2003."
11460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11461 #: freeculture.xml:8112
11463 "Changes in scope are the easier ones to describe. As Senator John McCain "
11464 "summarized the data produced in the FCC's review of media ownership, "
11465 "<quote>five companies control 85 percent of our media "
11466 "sources.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The five recording "
11467 "labels of Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music "
11468 "Group, and EMI control 84.8 percent of the U.S. music market.<placeholder "
11469 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The <quote>five largest cable companies pipe "
11470 "programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers "
11471 "nationwide.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
11475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11476 #: freeculture.xml:8134
11478 "The story with radio is even more dramatic. Before deregulation, the "
11479 "nation's largest radio broadcasting conglomerate owned fewer than "
11480 "seventy-five stations. Today <emphasis>one</emphasis> company owns more than "
11481 "1,200 stations. During that period of consolidation, the total number of "
11482 "radio owners dropped by 34 percent. Today, in most markets, the two largest "
11483 "broadcasters control 74 percent of that market's revenues. Overall, just "
11484 "four companies control 90 percent of the nation's radio advertising "
11488 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11489 #: freeculture.xml:8146
11491 "Newspaper ownership is becoming more concentrated as well. Today, there are "
11492 "six hundred fewer daily newspapers in the United States than there were "
11493 "eighty years ago, and ten companies control half of the nation's "
11494 "circulation. There are twenty major newspaper publishers in the United "
11495 "States. The top ten film studios receive 99 percent of all film revenue. The "
11496 "ten largest cable companies account for 85 percent of all cable "
11497 "revenue. This is a market far from the free press the framers sought to "
11498 "protect. Indeed, it is a market that is quite well protected— by the "
11502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11503 #: freeculture.xml:8160 freeculture.xml:8177
11504 msgid "Fallows, James"
11507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11508 #: freeculture.xml:8157
11510 "Concentration in size alone is one thing. The more invidious change is in "
11511 "the nature of that concentration. As author James Fallows put it in a recent "
11512 "article about Rupert Murdoch, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11516 #: freeculture.xml:8175
11518 "James Fallows, <quote>The Age of Murdoch,</quote> <citetitle>Atlantic "
11519 "Monthly</citetitle> (September 2003): 89. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11524 #: freeculture.xml:8164
11526 "Murdoch's companies now constitute a production system unmatched in its "
11527 "integration. They supply content—Fox movies … Fox TV shows "
11528 "… Fox-controlled sports broadcasts, plus newspapers and books. They "
11529 "sell the content to the public and to advertisers—in newspapers, on "
11530 "the broadcast network, on the cable channels. And they operate the physical "
11531 "distribution system through which the content reaches the "
11532 "customers. Murdoch's satellite systems now distribute News Corp. content in "
11533 "Europe and Asia; if Murdoch becomes DirecTV's largest single owner, that "
11534 "system will serve the same function in the United States.<placeholder "
11535 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11538 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11539 #: freeculture.xml:8182
11541 "The pattern with Murdoch is the pattern of modern media. Not just large "
11542 "companies owning many radio stations, but a few companies owning as many "
11543 "outlets of media as possible. A picture describes this pattern better than a "
11544 "thousand words could do:"
11547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
11548 #: freeculture.xml:8188
11549 msgid "Pattern of modern media ownership."
11552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11553 #: freeculture.xml:8189
11554 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1761.png\"></graphic>"
11558 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11559 #: freeculture.xml:8193
11561 "Does this concentration matter? Will it affect what is made, or what is "
11562 "distributed? Or is it merely a more efficient way to produce and distribute "
11566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11567 #: freeculture.xml:8198
11569 "My view was that concentration wouldn't matter. I thought it was nothing "
11570 "more than a more efficient financial structure. But now, after reading and "
11571 "listening to a barrage of creators try to convince me to the contrary, I am "
11572 "beginning to change my mind."
11575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11576 #: freeculture.xml:8204
11578 "Here's a representative story that begins to suggest how this integration "
11582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11583 #: freeculture.xml:8207
11584 msgid "Lear, Norman"
11587 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11588 #: freeculture.xml:8209 freeculture.xml:8272
11589 msgid "All in the Family"
11592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11593 #: freeculture.xml:8211
11595 "In 1969, Norman Lear created a pilot for <citetitle>All in the "
11596 "Family</citetitle>. He took the pilot to ABC. The network didn't like it. It "
11597 "was too edgy, they told Lear. Make it again. Lear made a second pilot, more "
11598 "edgy than the first. ABC was exasperated. You're missing the point, they "
11599 "told Lear. We wanted less edgy, not more."
11603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11604 #: freeculture.xml:8223
11606 "Leonard Hill, <quote>The Axis of Access,</quote> remarks before Weidenbaum "
11607 "Center Forum, <quote>Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry,</quote> "
11608 "St. Louis, Missouri, 3 April 2003 (transcript of prepared remarks available "
11609 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #28</ulink>; for the "
11610 "Lear story, not included in the prepared remarks, see <ulink "
11611 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #29</ulink>)."
11614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11615 #: freeculture.xml:8218
11617 "Rather than comply, Lear simply took the show elsewhere. CBS was happy to "
11618 "have the series; ABC could not stop Lear from walking. The copyrights that "
11619 "Lear held assured an independence from network control.<placeholder "
11620 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11625 #: freeculture.xml:8234
11627 "The network did not control those copyrights because the law forbade the "
11628 "networks from controlling the content they syndicated. The law required a "
11629 "separation between the networks and the content producers; that separation "
11630 "would guarantee Lear freedom. And as late as 1992, because of these rules, "
11631 "the vast majority of prime time television—75 percent of it—was "
11632 "<quote>independent</quote> of the networks."
11636 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11637 #: freeculture.xml:8253
11639 "NewsCorp./DirecTV Merger and Media Consolidation: Hearings on Media "
11640 "Ownership Before the Senate Commerce Committee, 108th Cong., 1st "
11641 "sess. (2003) (testimony of Gene Kimmelman on behalf of Consumers Union and "
11642 "the Consumer Federation of America), available at <ulink "
11643 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #30</ulink>. Kimmelman quotes "
11644 "Victoria Riskin, president of Writers Guild of America, West, in her Remarks "
11645 "at FCC En Banc Hearing, Richmond, Virginia, 27 February 2003."
11648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11649 #: freeculture.xml:8243
11651 "In 1994, the FCC abandoned the rules that required this independence. After "
11652 "that change, the networks quickly changed the balance. In 1985, there were "
11653 "twenty-five independent television production studios; in 2002, only five "
11654 "independent television studios remained. <quote>In 1992, only 15 percent of "
11655 "new series were produced for a network by a company it controlled. Last "
11656 "year, the percentage of shows produced by controlled companies more than "
11657 "quintupled to 77 percent.</quote> <quote>In 1992, 16 new series were "
11658 "produced independently of conglomerate control, last year there was "
11659 "one.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In 2002, 75 percent of "
11660 "prime time television was owned by the networks that ran it. <quote>In the "
11661 "ten-year period between 1992 and 2002, the number of prime time television "
11662 "hours per week produced by network studios increased over 200%, whereas the "
11663 "number of prime time television hours per week produced by independent "
11664 "studios decreased 63%.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
11667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11668 #: freeculture.xml:8274
11670 "Today, another Norman Lear with another <citetitle>All in the "
11671 "Family</citetitle> would find that he had the choice either to make the show "
11672 "less edgy or to be fired: The content of any show developed for a network is "
11673 "increasingly owned by the network."
11676 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11677 #: freeculture.xml:8279
11678 msgid "Diller, Barry"
11681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11682 #: freeculture.xml:8280
11683 msgid "Moyers, Bill"
11686 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11687 #: freeculture.xml:8282
11689 "While the number of channels has increased dramatically, the ownership of "
11690 "those channels has narrowed to an ever smaller and smaller few. As Barry "
11691 "Diller said to Bill Moyers,"
11695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11696 #: freeculture.xml:8297
11698 "<quote>Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation,</quote> <citetitle>Now with "
11699 "Bill Moyers</citetitle>, Bill Moyers, 25 April 2003, edited transcript "
11700 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #31</ulink>."
11703 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11704 #: freeculture.xml:8288
11706 "Well, if you have companies that produce, that finance, that air on their "
11707 "channel and then distribute worldwide everything that goes through their "
11708 "controlled distribution system, then what you get is fewer and fewer actual "
11709 "voices participating in the process. [We u]sed to have dozens and dozens of "
11710 "thriving independent production companies producing television programs. Now "
11711 "you have less than a handful.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11715 #: freeculture.xml:8304
11717 "This narrowing has an effect on what is produced. The product of such large "
11718 "and concentrated networks is increasingly homogenous. Increasingly "
11719 "safe. Increasingly sterile. The product of news shows from networks like "
11720 "this is increasingly tailored to the message the network wants to "
11721 "convey. This is not the communist party, though from the inside, it must "
11722 "feel a bit like the communist party. No one can question without risk of "
11723 "consequence—not necessarily banishment to Siberia, but punishment "
11724 "nonetheless. Independent, critical, different views are quashed. This is not "
11725 "the environment for a democracy."
11728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11729 #: freeculture.xml:8315
11730 msgid "Clark, Kim B."
11734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11735 #: freeculture.xml:8324
11737 "Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
11738 "Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do "
11739 "Business</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, "
11740 "1997). Christensen acknowledges that the idea was first suggested by Dean "
11741 "Kim Clark. See Kim B. Clark, <quote>The Interaction of Design Hierarchies "
11742 "and Market Concepts in Technological Evolution,</quote> <citetitle>Research "
11743 "Policy</citetitle> 14 (1985): 235–51. For a more recent study, see "
11744 "Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, <citetitle>Creative Destruction: Why "
11745 "Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—and How to "
11746 "Successfully Transform Them</citetitle> (New York: Currency/Doubleday, "
11750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11751 #: freeculture.xml:8317
11753 "Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration "
11754 "affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the "
11755 "<quote>Innovator's Dilemma</quote>: the fact that large traditional firms "
11756 "find it rational to ignore new, breakthrough technologies that compete with "
11757 "their core business. The same analysis could help explain why large, "
11758 "traditional media companies would find it rational to ignore new cultural "
11759 "trends.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Lumbering giants not only "
11760 "don't, but should not, sprint. Yet if the field is only open to the giants, "
11761 "there will be far too little sprinting. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11766 #: freeculture.xml:8341
11768 "I don't think we know enough about the economics of the media market to say "
11769 "with certainty what concentration and integration will do. The efficiencies "
11770 "are important, and the effect on culture is hard to measure."
11773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11774 #: freeculture.xml:8347
11776 "But there is a quintessentially obvious example that does strongly suggest "
11780 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11781 #: freeculture.xml:8351
11783 "In addition to the copyright wars, we're in the middle of the drug "
11784 "wars. Government policy is strongly directed against the drug cartels; "
11785 "criminal and civil courts are filled with the consequences of this battle."
11789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11790 #: freeculture.xml:8356
11792 "Let me hereby disqualify myself from any possible appointment to any "
11793 "position in government by saying I believe this war is a profound mistake. I "
11794 "am not pro drugs. Indeed, I come from a family once wrecked by "
11795 "drugs—though the drugs that wrecked my family were all quite legal. I "
11796 "believe this war is a profound mistake because the collateral damage from it "
11797 "is so great as to make waging the war insane. When you add together the "
11798 "burdens on the criminal justice system, the desperation of generations of "
11799 "kids whose only real economic opportunities are as drug warriors, the "
11800 "queering of constitutional protections because of the constant surveillance "
11801 "this war requires, and, most profoundly, the total destruction of the legal "
11802 "systems of many South American nations because of the power of the local "
11803 "drug cartels, I find it impossible to believe that the marginal benefit in "
11804 "reduced drug consumption by Americans could possibly outweigh these costs."
11807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11808 #: freeculture.xml:8375
11810 "You may not be convinced. That's fine. We live in a democracy, and it is "
11811 "through votes that we are to choose policy. But to do that, we depend "
11812 "fundamentally upon the press to help inform Americans about these issues."
11815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11816 #: freeculture.xml:8382
11818 "Beginning in 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched a "
11819 "media campaign as part of the <quote>war on drugs.</quote> The campaign "
11820 "produced scores of short film clips about issues related to illegal "
11821 "drugs. In one series (the Nick and Norm series) two men are in a bar, "
11822 "discussing the idea of legalizing drugs as a way to avoid some of the "
11823 "collateral damage from the war. One advances an argument in favor of drug "
11824 "legalization. The other responds in a powerful and effective way against the "
11825 "argument of the first. In the end, the first guy changes his mind (hey, it's "
11826 "television). The plug at the end is a damning attack on the pro-legalization "
11830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11831 #: freeculture.xml:8394
11833 "Fair enough. It's a good ad. Not terribly misleading. It delivers its "
11834 "message well. It's a fair and reasonable message."
11837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11838 #: freeculture.xml:8398
11840 "But let's say you think it is a wrong message, and you'd like to run a "
11841 "countercommercial. Say you want to run a series of ads that try to "
11842 "demonstrate the extraordinary collateral harm that comes from the drug "
11843 "war. Can you do it?"
11847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11848 #: freeculture.xml:8404
11850 "Well, obviously, these ads cost lots of money. Assume you raise the "
11851 "money. Assume a group of concerned citizens donates all the money in the "
11852 "world to help you get your message out. Can you be sure your message will be "
11856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11857 #: freeculture.xml:8446
11861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11862 #: freeculture.xml:8447
11863 msgid "Marijuana Policy Project"
11866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11867 #: freeculture.xml:8448
11871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11872 #: freeculture.xml:8449
11876 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11877 #: freeculture.xml:8450
11881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11882 #: freeculture.xml:8421
11884 "The Marijuana Policy Project, in February 2003, sought to place ads that "
11885 "directly responded to the Nick and Norm series on stations within the "
11886 "Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as <quote>against [their] "
11887 "policy.</quote> The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads without "
11888 "reviewing them. The local ABC affiliate, WJOA, originally agreed to run the "
11889 "ads and accepted payment to do so, but later decided not to run the ads and "
11890 "returned the collected fees. Interview with Neal Levine, 15 October 2003. "
11891 "These restrictions are, of course, not limited to drug policy. See, for "
11892 "example, Nat Ives, <quote>On the Issue of an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet "
11893 "with Rejection from TV Networks,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
11894 "Times</citetitle>, 13 March 2003, C4. Outside of election-related air time "
11895 "there is very little that the FCC or the courts are willing to do to even "
11896 "the playing field. For a general overview, see Rhonda Brown, <quote>Ad Hoc "
11897 "Access: The Regulation of Editorial Advertising on Television and "
11898 "Radio,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law and Policy Review</citetitle> 6 (1988): "
11899 "449–79, and for a more recent summary of the stance of the FCC and the "
11900 "courts, see <citetitle>Radio-Television News Directors "
11901 "Association</citetitle> v. <citetitle>FCC</citetitle>, 184 F. 3d 872 "
11902 "(D.C. Cir. 1999). Municipal authorities exercise the same authority as the "
11903 "networks. In a recent example from San Francisco, the San Francisco transit "
11904 "authority rejected an ad that criticized its Muni diesel buses. Phillip "
11905 "Matier and Andrew Ross, <quote>Antidiesel Group Fuming After Muni Rejects "
11906 "Ad,</quote> SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
11907 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #32</ulink>. The ground was that "
11908 "the criticism was <quote>too controversial.</quote> <placeholder "
11909 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
11910 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11911 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder "
11912 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/>"
11915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11916 #: freeculture.xml:8411
11918 "No. You cannot. Television stations have a general policy of avoiding "
11919 "<quote>controversial</quote> ads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed "
11920 "uncontroversial; ads disagreeing with the government are controversial. "
11921 "This selectivity might be thought inconsistent with the First Amendment, but "
11922 "the Supreme Court has held that stations have the right to choose what they "
11923 "run. Thus, the major channels of commercial media will refuse one side of a "
11924 "crucial debate the opportunity to present its case. And the courts will "
11925 "defend the rights of the stations to be this biased.<placeholder "
11926 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11930 #: freeculture.xml:8455
11932 "I'd be happy to defend the networks' rights, as well—if we lived in a "
11933 "media market that was truly diverse. But concentration in the media throws "
11934 "that condition into doubt. If a handful of companies control access to the "
11935 "media, and that handful of companies gets to decide which political "
11936 "positions it will allow to be promoted on its channels, then in an obvious "
11937 "and important way, concentration matters. You might like the positions the "
11938 "handful of companies selects. But you should not like a world in which a "
11939 "mere few get to decide which issues the rest of us get to know about."
11942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11943 #: freeculture.xml:8468
11947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11948 #: freeculture.xml:8470
11950 "There is something innocent and obvious about the claim of the copyright "
11951 "warriors that the government should <quote>protect my property.</quote> In "
11952 "the abstract, it is obviously true and, ordinarily, totally harmless. No "
11953 "sane sort who is not an anarchist could disagree."
11957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11958 #: freeculture.xml:8476
11960 "But when we see how dramatically this <quote>property</quote> has "
11961 "changed— when we recognize how it might now interact with both "
11962 "technology and markets to mean that the effective constraint on the liberty "
11963 "to cultivate our culture is dramatically different—the claim begins to "
11964 "seem less innocent and obvious. Given (1) the power of technology to "
11965 "supplement the law's control, and (2) the power of concentrated markets to "
11966 "weaken the opportunity for dissent, if strictly enforcing the massively "
11967 "expanded <quote>property</quote> rights granted by copyright fundamentally "
11968 "changes the freedom within this culture to cultivate and build upon our "
11969 "past, then we have to ask whether this property should be redefined."
11972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11973 #: freeculture.xml:8492
11975 "Not starkly. Or absolutely. My point is not that we should abolish copyright "
11976 "or go back to the eighteenth century. That would be a total mistake, "
11977 "disastrous for the most important creative enterprises within our culture "
11981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11982 #: freeculture.xml:8498
11984 "But there is a space between zero and one, Internet culture "
11985 "notwithstanding. And these massive shifts in the effective power of "
11986 "copyright regulation, tied to increased concentration of the content "
11987 "industry and resting in the hands of technology that will increasingly "
11988 "enable control over the use of culture, should drive us to consider whether "
11989 "another adjustment is called for. Not an adjustment that increases "
11990 "copyright's power. Not an adjustment that increases its term. Rather, an "
11991 "adjustment to restore the balance that has traditionally defined copyright's "
11992 "regulation—a weakening of that regulation, to strengthen creativity."
11995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11996 #: freeculture.xml:8510
11998 "Copyright law has not been a rock of Gibraltar. It's not a set of constant "
11999 "commitments that, for some mysterious reason, teenagers and geeks now "
12000 "flout. Instead, copyright power has grown dramatically in a short period of "
12001 "time, as the technologies of distribution and creation have changed and as "
12002 "lobbyists have pushed for more control by copyright holders. Changes in the "
12003 "past in response to changes in technology suggest that we may well need "
12004 "similar changes in the future. And these changes have to be "
12005 "<emphasis>reductions</emphasis> in the scope of copyright, in response to "
12006 "the extraordinary increase in control that technology and the market enable."
12010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12011 #: freeculture.xml:8522
12013 "For the single point that is lost in this war on pirates is a point that we "
12014 "see only after surveying the range of these changes. When you add together "
12015 "the effect of changing law, concentrated markets, and changing technology, "
12016 "together they produce an astonishing conclusion: <emphasis>Never in our "
12017 "history have fewer had a legal right to control more of the development of "
12018 "our culture than now</emphasis>."
12021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12022 #: freeculture.xml:8546
12024 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a "
12025 "similar point in his <quote>four surrenders</quote> of copyright law in the "
12026 "digital age. See Vaidhyanathan, 159–60."
12029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12030 #: freeculture.xml:8531
12032 "Not when copyrights were perpetual, for when copyrights were perpetual, they "
12033 "affected only that precise creative work. Not when only publishers had the "
12034 "tools to publish, for the market then was much more diverse. Not when there "
12035 "were only three television networks, for even then, newspapers, film "
12036 "studios, radio stations, and publishers were independent of the "
12037 "networks. <emphasis>Never</emphasis> has copyright protected such a wide "
12038 "range of rights, against as broad a range of actors, for a term that was "
12039 "remotely as long. This form of regulation—a tiny regulation of a tiny "
12040 "part of the creative energy of a nation at the founding—is now a "
12041 "massive regulation of the overall creative process. Law plus technology plus "
12042 "the market now interact to turn this historically benign regulation into the "
12043 "most significant regulation of culture that our free society has "
12044 "known.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12048 #: freeculture.xml:8552
12050 "<emphasis role='strong'>This has been</emphasis> a long chapter. Its point "
12051 "can now be briefly stated."
12054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12055 #: freeculture.xml:8556
12057 "At the start of this book, I distinguished between commercial and "
12058 "noncommercial culture. In the course of this chapter, I have distinguished "
12059 "between copying a work and transforming it. We can now combine these two "
12060 "distinctions and draw a clear map of the changes that copyright law has "
12061 "undergone. In 1790, the law looked like this:"
12064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12065 #: freeculture.xml:8568 freeculture.xml:8605
12069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12070 #: freeculture.xml:8569 freeculture.xml:8606 freeculture.xml:8644 freeculture.xml:8676
12074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12075 #: freeculture.xml:8574 freeculture.xml:8611 freeculture.xml:8649 freeculture.xml:8681
12079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12080 #: freeculture.xml:8575 freeculture.xml:8612 freeculture.xml:8613 freeculture.xml:8650 freeculture.xml:8651 freeculture.xml:8682 freeculture.xml:8683 freeculture.xml:8687 freeculture.xml:8688
12084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12085 #: freeculture.xml:8576 freeculture.xml:8580 freeculture.xml:8581 freeculture.xml:8617 freeculture.xml:8618 freeculture.xml:8656
12089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12090 #: freeculture.xml:8579 freeculture.xml:8616 freeculture.xml:8654 freeculture.xml:8686
12091 msgid "Noncommercial"
12095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12096 #: freeculture.xml:8588
12098 "The act of publishing a map, chart, and book was regulated by copyright "
12099 "law. Nothing else was. Transformations were free. And as copyright attached "
12100 "only with registration, and only those who intended to benefit commercially "
12101 "would register, copying through publishing of noncommercial work was also "
12105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12106 #: freeculture.xml:8597
12107 msgid "By the end of the nineteenth century, the law had changed to this:"
12110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12111 #: freeculture.xml:8625
12113 "Derivative works were now regulated by copyright law—if published, "
12114 "which again, given the economics of publishing at the time, means if offered "
12115 "commercially. But noncommercial publishing and transformation were still "
12116 "essentially free."
12119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12120 #: freeculture.xml:8631
12122 "In 1909 the law changed to regulate copies, not publishing, and after this "
12123 "change, the scope of the law was tied to technology. As the technology of "
12124 "copying became more prevalent, the reach of the law expanded. Thus by 1975, "
12125 "as photocopying machines became more common, we could say the law began to "
12129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12130 #: freeculture.xml:8643 freeculture.xml:8675
12134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12135 #: freeculture.xml:8655
12136 msgid "©/Free"
12139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12140 #: freeculture.xml:8663
12142 "The law was interpreted to reach noncommercial copying through, say, copy "
12143 "machines, but still much of copying outside of the commercial market "
12144 "remained free. But the consequence of the emergence of digital technologies, "
12145 "especially in the context of a digital network, means that the law now looks "
12150 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12151 #: freeculture.xml:8695
12153 "Every realm is governed by copyright law, whereas before most creativity was "
12154 "not. The law now regulates the full range of creativity— commercial or "
12155 "not, transformative or not—with the same rules designed to regulate "
12156 "commercial publishers."
12159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12160 #: freeculture.xml:8703
12162 "Obviously, copyright law is not the enemy. The enemy is regulation that does "
12163 "no good. So the question that we should be asking just now is whether "
12164 "extending the regulations of copyright law into each of these domains "
12165 "actually does any good."
12168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12169 #: freeculture.xml:8709
12171 "I have no doubt that it does good in regulating commercial copying. But I "
12172 "also have no doubt that it does more harm than good when regulating (as it "
12173 "regulates just now) noncommercial copying and, especially, noncommercial "
12174 "transformation. And increasingly, for the reasons sketched especially in "
12175 "chapters <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/> and "
12176 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"transformers\"/>, one "
12177 "might well wonder whether it does more harm than good for commercial "
12178 "transformation. More commercial transformative work would be created if "
12179 "derivative rights were more sharply restricted."
12182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12183 #: freeculture.xml:8733
12184 msgid "legal realist movement"
12187 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12188 #: freeculture.xml:8727
12190 "It was the single most important contribution of the legal realist movement "
12191 "to demonstrate that all property rights are always crafted to balance public "
12192 "and private interests. See Thomas C. Grey, <quote>The Disintegration of "
12193 "Property,</quote> in <citetitle>Nomos XXII: Property</citetitle>, J. Roland "
12194 "Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds. (New York: New York University Press, "
12195 "1980). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12199 #: freeculture.xml:8721
12201 "The issue is therefore not simply whether copyright is property. Of course "
12202 "copyright is a kind of <quote>property,</quote> and of course, as with any "
12203 "property, the state ought to protect it. But first impressions "
12204 "notwithstanding, historically, this property right (as with all property "
12205 "rights<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>) has been crafted to "
12206 "balance the important need to give authors and artists incentives with the "
12207 "equally important need to assure access to creative work. This balance has "
12208 "always been struck in light of new technologies. And for almost half of our "
12209 "tradition, the <quote>copyright</quote> did not control <emphasis>at "
12210 "all</emphasis> the freedom of others to build upon or transform a creative "
12211 "work. American culture was born free, and for almost 180 years our country "
12212 "consistently protected a vibrant and rich free culture."
12216 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12217 #: freeculture.xml:8746
12219 "We achieved that free culture because our law respected important limits on "
12220 "the scope of the interests protected by <quote>property.</quote> The very "
12221 "birth of <quote>copyright</quote> as a statutory right recognized those "
12222 "limits, by granting copyright owners protection for a limited time only (the "
12223 "story of chapter 6). The tradition of <quote>fair use</quote> is animated by "
12224 "a similar concern that is increasingly under strain as the costs of "
12225 "exercising any fair use right become unavoidably high (the story of chapter "
12226 "7). Adding statutory rights where markets might stifle innovation is another "
12227 "familiar limit on the property right that copyright is (chapter 8). And "
12228 "granting archives and libraries a broad freedom to collect, claims of "
12229 "property notwithstanding, is a crucial part of guaranteeing the soul of a "
12230 "culture (chapter 9). Free cultures, like free markets, are built with "
12231 "property. But the nature of the property that builds a free culture is very "
12232 "different from the extremist vision that dominates the debate today."
12235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12236 #: freeculture.xml:8765
12238 "Free culture is increasingly the casualty in this war on piracy. In response "
12239 "to a real, if not yet quantified, threat that the technologies of the "
12240 "Internet present to twentieth-century business models for producing and "
12241 "distributing culture, the law and technology are being transformed in a way "
12242 "that will undermine our tradition of free culture. The property right that "
12243 "is copyright is no longer the balanced right that it was, or was intended to "
12244 "be. The property right that is copyright has become unbalanced, tilted "
12245 "toward an extreme. The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened "
12246 "in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check "
12250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
12251 #: freeculture.xml:8782
12255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
12256 #: freeculture.xml:8786
12257 msgid "CHAPTER ELEVEN: Chimera"
12260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12261 #: freeculture.xml:8787
12265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12266 #: freeculture.xml:8788
12267 msgid "Wells, H. G."
12270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12271 #: freeculture.xml:8789
12272 msgid "<quote>Country of the Blind, The</quote> (Wells)"
12276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
12277 #: freeculture.xml:8797
12279 "H. G. Wells, <quote>The Country of the Blind</quote> (1904, 1911). See "
12280 "H. G. Wells, <citetitle>The Country of the Blind and Other "
12281 "Stories</citetitle>, Michael Sherborne, ed. (New York: Oxford University "
12285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12286 #: freeculture.xml:8792
12288 "<emphasis role='strong'>In a well-known</emphasis> short story by "
12289 "H. G. Wells, a mountain climber named Nunez trips (literally, down an ice "
12290 "slope) into an unknown and isolated valley in the Peruvian "
12291 "Andes.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The valley is "
12292 "extraordinarily beautiful, with <quote>sweet water, pasture, an even "
12293 "climate, slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an "
12294 "excellent fruit.</quote> But the villagers are all blind. Nunez takes this "
12295 "as an opportunity. <quote>In the Country of the Blind,</quote> he tells "
12296 "himself, <quote>the One-Eyed Man is King.</quote> So he resolves to live "
12297 "with the villagers to explore life as a king."
12300 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12301 #: freeculture.xml:8809
12303 "Things don't go quite as he planned. He tries to explain the idea of sight "
12304 "to the villagers. They don't understand. He tells them they are "
12305 "<quote>blind.</quote> They don't have the word "
12306 "<citetitle>blind</citetitle>. They think he's just thick. Indeed, as they "
12307 "increasingly notice the things he can't do (hear the sound of grass being "
12308 "stepped on, for example), they increasingly try to control him. He, in turn, "
12309 "becomes increasingly frustrated. <quote>`You don't understand,' he cried, in "
12310 "a voice that was meant to be great and resolute, and which broke. `You are "
12311 "blind and I can see. Leave me alone!'</quote>"
12315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12316 #: freeculture.xml:8821
12318 "The villagers don't leave him alone. Nor do they see (so to speak) the "
12319 "virtue of his special power. Not even the ultimate target of his affection, "
12320 "a young woman who to him seems <quote>the most beautiful thing in the whole "
12321 "of creation,</quote> understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's description of "
12322 "what he sees <quote>seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she "
12323 "listened to his description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet "
12324 "white-lit beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence.</quote> <quote>She "
12325 "did not believe,</quote> Wells tells us, and <quote>she could only half "
12326 "understand, but she was mysteriously delighted.</quote>"
12329 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12330 #: freeculture.xml:8832
12332 "When Nunez announces his desire to marry his <quote>mysteriously "
12333 "delighted</quote> love, the father and the village object. <quote>You see, "
12334 "my dear,</quote> her father instructs, <quote>he's an idiot. He has "
12335 "delusions. He can't do anything right.</quote> They take Nunez to the "
12339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12340 #: freeculture.xml:8838
12342 "After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. <quote>His brain "
12343 "is affected,</quote> he reports."
12346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12347 #: freeculture.xml:8842
12349 "<quote>What affects it?</quote> the father asks. <quote>Those queer things "
12350 "that are called the eyes … are diseased … in such a way as to "
12351 "affect his brain.</quote>"
12354 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12355 #: freeculture.xml:8847
12357 "The doctor continues: <quote>I think I may say with reasonable certainty "
12358 "that in order to cure him completely, all that we need to do is a simple and "
12359 "easy surgical operation—namely, to remove these irritant bodies [the "
12363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12364 #: freeculture.xml:8853
12366 "<quote>Thank Heaven for science!</quote> says the father to the doctor. They "
12367 "inform Nunez of this condition necessary for him to be allowed his bride. "
12368 "(You'll have to read the original to learn what happens in the end. I "
12369 "believe in free culture, but never in giving away the end of a story.)"
12373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12374 #: freeculture.xml:8859
12376 "<emphasis role='strong'>It sometimes</emphasis> happens that the eggs of "
12377 "twins fuse in the mother's womb. That fusion produces a "
12378 "<quote>chimera.</quote> A chimera is a single creature with two sets of "
12379 "DNA. The DNA in the blood, for example, might be different from the DNA of "
12380 "the skin. This possibility is an underused plot for murder "
12381 "mysteries. <quote>But the DNA shows with 100 percent certainty that she was "
12382 "not the person whose blood was at the scene. …</quote>"
12385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12386 #: freeculture.xml:8873
12388 "Before I had read about chimeras, I would have said they were impossible. A "
12389 "single person can't have two sets of DNA. The very idea of DNA is that it is "
12390 "the code of an individual. Yet in fact, not only can two individuals have "
12391 "the same set of DNA (identical twins), but one person can have two different "
12392 "sets of DNA (a chimera). Our understanding of a <quote>person</quote> should "
12393 "reflect this reality."
12396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12397 #: freeculture.xml:8881
12399 "The more I work to understand the current struggle over copyright and "
12400 "culture, which I've sometimes called unfairly, and sometimes not unfairly "
12401 "enough, <quote>the copyright wars,</quote> the more I think we're dealing "
12402 "with a chimera. For example, in the battle over the question <quote>What is "
12403 "p2p file sharing?</quote> both sides have it right, and both sides have it "
12404 "wrong. One side says, <quote>File sharing is just like two kids taping each "
12405 "others' records—the sort of thing we've been doing for the last thirty "
12406 "years without any question at all.</quote> That's true, at least in "
12407 "part. When I tell my best friend to try out a new CD that I've bought, but "
12408 "rather than just send the CD, I point him to my p2p server, that is, in all "
12409 "relevant respects, just like what every executive in every recording company "
12410 "no doubt did as a kid: sharing music."
12413 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12414 #: freeculture.xml:8895
12416 "But the description is also false in part. For when my p2p server is on a "
12417 "p2p network through which anyone can get access to my music, then sure, my "
12418 "friends can get access, but it stretches the meaning of "
12419 "<quote>friends</quote> beyond recognition to say <quote>my ten thousand best "
12420 "friends</quote> can get access. Whether or not sharing my music with my best "
12421 "friend is what <quote>we have always been allowed to do,</quote> we have not "
12422 "always been allowed to share music with <quote>our ten thousand best "
12426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12427 #: freeculture.xml:8904
12429 "Likewise, when the other side says, <quote>File sharing is just like walking "
12430 "into a Tower Records and taking a CD off the shelf and walking out with "
12431 "it,</quote> that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett (finally) "
12432 "releases a new album, rather than buying it, I go to Kazaa and find a free "
12433 "copy to take, that is very much like stealing a copy from Tower. "
12434 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12439 #: freeculture.xml:8915
12441 "But it is not quite stealing from Tower. After all, when I take a CD from "
12442 "Tower Records, Tower has one less CD to sell. And when I take a CD from "
12443 "Tower Records, I get a bit of plastic and a cover, and something to show on "
12444 "my shelves. (And, while we're at it, we could also note that when I take a "
12445 "CD from Tower Records, the maximum fine that might be imposed on me, under "
12446 "California law, at least, is $1,000. According to the RIAA, by contrast, if "
12447 "I download a ten-song CD, I'm liable for $1,500,000 in damages.)"
12450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12451 #: freeculture.xml:8925
12453 "The point is not that it is as neither side describes. The point is that it "
12454 "is both—both as the RIAA describes it and as Kazaa describes it. It is "
12455 "a chimera. And rather than simply denying what the other side asserts, we "
12456 "need to begin to think about how we should respond to this chimera. What "
12457 "rules should govern it?"
12460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12461 #: freeculture.xml:8941 freeculture.xml:9223 freeculture.xml:10259
12462 msgid "ISPs (Internet service providers), user identities revealed by"
12465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12466 #: freeculture.xml:8972
12467 msgid "Conyers, John, Jr."
12470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12471 #: freeculture.xml:8973 freeculture.xml:9694
12472 msgid "Berman, Howard L."
12475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
12476 #: freeculture.xml:8941
12478 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For an excellent summary, see the "
12479 "report prepared by GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society "
12480 "at Harvard Law School, <quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster "
12481 "World,</quote> 27 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12482 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #33</ulink>. Reps. John Conyers "
12483 "Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill that "
12484 "would treat unauthorized on-line copying as a felony offense with "
12485 "punishments ranging as high as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey, "
12486 "<quote>House Bill Aims to Up Stakes on Piracy,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
12487 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 17 July 2003, available at <ulink "
12488 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #34</ulink>. Civil penalties are "
12489 "currently set at $150,000 per copied song. For a recent (and unsuccessful) "
12490 "legal challenge to the RIAA's demand that an ISP reveal the identity of a "
12491 "user accused of sharing more than 600 songs through a family computer, see "
12492 "<citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Verizon Internet Services (In "
12493 "re. Verizon Internet Services)</citetitle>, 240 F. Supp. 2d 24 "
12494 "(D.D.C. 2003). Such a user could face liability ranging as high as $90 "
12495 "million. Such astronomical figures furnish the RIAA with a powerful arsenal "
12496 "in its prosecution of file sharers. Settlements ranging from $12,000 to "
12497 "$17,500 for four students accused of heavy file sharing on university "
12498 "networks must have seemed a mere pittance next to the $98 billion the RIAA "
12499 "could seek should the matter proceed to court. See Elizabeth Young, "
12500 "<quote>Downloading Could Lead to Fines,</quote> redandblack.com, August "
12501 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12502 "#35</ulink>. For an example of the RIAA's targeting of student file sharing, "
12503 "and of the subpoenas issued to universities to reveal student file-sharer "
12504 "identities, see James Collins, <quote>RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to "
12505 "Name Students,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 8 August 2003, "
12506 "D3, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12507 "#36</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
12508 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
12511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12512 #: freeculture.xml:8932
12514 "We could respond by simply pretending that it is not a chimera. We could, "
12515 "with the RIAA, decide that every act of file sharing should be a felony. We "
12516 "could prosecute families for millions of dollars in damages just because "
12517 "file sharing occurred on a family computer. And we can get universities to "
12518 "monitor all computer traffic to make sure that no computer is used to commit "
12519 "this crime. These responses might be extreme, but each of them has either "
12520 "been proposed or actually implemented.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12525 #: freeculture.xml:8979
12527 "Alternatively, we could respond to file sharing the way many kids act as "
12528 "though we've responded. We could totally legalize it. Let there be no "
12529 "copyright liability, either civil or criminal, for making copyrighted "
12530 "content available on the Net. Make file sharing like gossip: regulated, if "
12531 "at all, by social norms but not by law."
12534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12535 #: freeculture.xml:8986
12537 "Either response is possible. I think either would be a mistake. Rather than "
12538 "embrace one of these two extremes, we should embrace something that "
12539 "recognizes the truth in both. And while I end this book with a sketch of a "
12540 "system that does just that, my aim in the next chapter is to show just how "
12541 "awful it would be for us to adopt the zero-tolerance extreme. I believe "
12542 "<emphasis>either</emphasis> extreme would be worse than a reasonable "
12543 "alternative. But I believe the zero-tolerance solution would be the worse "
12544 "of the two extremes."
12548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12549 #: freeculture.xml:8998
12551 "Yet zero tolerance is increasingly our government's policy. In the middle of "
12552 "the chaos that the Internet has created, an extraordinary land grab is "
12553 "occurring. The law and technology are being shifted to give content holders "
12554 "a kind of control over our culture that they have never had before. And in "
12555 "this extremism, many an opportunity for new innovation and new creativity "
12559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12560 #: freeculture.xml:9006
12562 "I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to <quote>steal</quote> "
12563 "music. My focus instead is the commercial and cultural innovation that this "
12564 "war will also kill. We have never seen the power to innovate spread so "
12565 "broadly among our citizens, and we have just begun to see the innovation "
12566 "that this power will unleash. Yet the Internet has already seen the passing "
12567 "of one cycle of innovation around technologies to distribute content. The "
12568 "law is responsible for this passing. As the vice president for global public "
12569 "policy at one of these new innovators, eMusic.com, put it when criticizing "
12570 "the DMCA's added protection for copyrighted material,"
12573 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12574 #: freeculture.xml:9019
12576 "eMusic opposes music piracy. We are a distributor of copyrighted material, "
12577 "and we want to protect those rights."
12580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12581 #: freeculture.xml:9023
12583 "But building a technology fortress that locks in the clout of the major "
12584 "labels is by no means the only way to protect copyright interests, nor is it "
12585 "necessarily the best. It is simply too early to answer that question. Market "
12586 "forces operating naturally may very well produce a totally different "
12591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12592 #: freeculture.xml:9040
12594 "WIPO and the DMCA One Year Later: Assessing Consumer Access to Digital "
12595 "Entertainment on the Internet and Other Media: Hearing Before the "
12596 "Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, House "
12597 "Committee on Commerce, 106th Cong. 29 (1999) (statement of Peter Harter, "
12598 "vice president, Global Public Policy and Standards, EMusic.com), available "
12599 "in LEXIS, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony File."
12602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12603 #: freeculture.xml:9030
12605 "This is a critical point. The choices that industry sectors make with "
12606 "respect to these systems will in many ways directly shape the market for "
12607 "digital media and the manner in which digital media are distributed. This in "
12608 "turn will directly influence the options that are available to consumers, "
12609 "both in terms of the ease with which they will be able to access digital "
12610 "media and the equipment that they will require to do so. Poor choices made "
12611 "this early in the game will retard the growth of this market, hurting "
12612 "everyone's interests.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12616 #: freeculture.xml:9054 freeculture.xml:9412
12617 msgid "Vivendi Universal"
12620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12621 #: freeculture.xml:9051
12623 "In April 2001, eMusic.com was purchased by Vivendi Universal, one of "
12624 "<quote>the major labels.</quote> Its position on these matters has now "
12625 "changed. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12629 #: freeculture.xml:9057
12631 "Reversing our tradition of tolerance now will not merely quash piracy. It "
12632 "will sacrifice values that are important to this culture, and will kill "
12633 "opportunities that could be extraordinarily valuable."
12636 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
12637 #: freeculture.xml:9065
12638 msgid "CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms"
12641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12642 #: freeculture.xml:9067
12644 "<emphasis role='strong'>To fight</emphasis> <quote>piracy,</quote> to "
12645 "protect <quote>property,</quote> the content industry has launched a "
12646 "war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have now brought the "
12647 "government into this war. As with any war, this one will have both direct "
12648 "and collateral damage. As with any war of prohibition, these damages will be "
12649 "suffered most by our own people."
12652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12653 #: freeculture.xml:9075
12655 "My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in "
12656 "particular, the consequences for <quote>free culture.</quote> But my aim now "
12657 "is to extend this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war "
12661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12662 #: freeculture.xml:9081
12664 "In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the first "
12665 "time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the power of "
12666 "the property called <quote>intellectual property</quote> is at its greatest "
12670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12671 #: freeculture.xml:9089
12673 "Yet <quote>common sense</quote> does not see it this way. Common sense is "
12674 "still on the side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme "
12675 "claims of control in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical "
12676 "rejection of <quote>piracy</quote> still has play."
12680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12681 #: freeculture.xml:9097
12683 "There will be many consequences of continuing this war. I want to describe "
12684 "just three. All three might be said to be unintended. I am quite confident "
12685 "the third is unintended. I'm less sure about the first two. The first two "
12686 "protect modern RCAs, but there is no Howard Armstrong in the wings to fight "
12687 "today's monopolists of culture."
12690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12691 #: freeculture.xml:9104
12692 msgid "Constraining Creators"
12695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12696 #: freeculture.xml:9106
12698 "In the next ten years we will see an explosion of digital technologies. "
12699 "These technologies will enable almost anyone to capture and share "
12700 "content. Capturing and sharing content, of course, is what humans have done "
12701 "since the dawn of man. It is how we learn and communicate. But capturing and "
12702 "sharing through digital technology is different. The fidelity and power are "
12703 "different. You could send an e-mail telling someone about a joke you saw on "
12704 "Comedy Central, or you could send the clip. You could write an essay about "
12705 "the inconsistencies in the arguments of the politician you most love to "
12706 "hate, or you could make a short film that puts statement against "
12707 "statement. You could write a poem to express your love, or you could weave "
12708 "together a string—a mash-up— of songs from your favorite artists "
12709 "in a collage and make it available on the Net."
12712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12713 #: freeculture.xml:9121
12715 "This digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> is in part an extension of "
12716 "the capturing and sharing that has always been integral to our culture, and "
12717 "in part it is something new. It is continuous with the Kodak, but it "
12718 "explodes the boundaries of Kodak-like technologies. The technology of "
12719 "digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> promises a world of "
12720 "extraordinarily diverse creativity that can be easily and broadly "
12721 "shared. And as that creativity is applied to democracy, it will enable a "
12722 "broad range of citizens to use technology to express and criticize and "
12723 "contribute to the culture all around."
12727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12728 #: freeculture.xml:9132
12730 "Technology has thus given us an opportunity to do something with culture "
12731 "that has only ever been possible for individuals in small groups, isolated "
12732 "from others. Think about an old man telling a story to a collection of "
12733 "neighbors in a small town. Now imagine that same storytelling extended "
12734 "across the globe."
12737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12738 #: freeculture.xml:9142
12740 "Yet all this is possible only if the activity is presumptively legal. In the "
12741 "current regime of legal regulation, it is not. Forget file sharing for a "
12742 "moment. Think about your favorite amazing sites on the Net. Web sites that "
12743 "offer plot summaries from forgotten television shows; sites that catalog "
12744 "cartoons from the 1960s; sites that mix images and sound to criticize "
12745 "politicians or businesses; sites that gather newspaper articles on remote "
12746 "topics of science or culture. There is a vast amount of creative work spread "
12747 "across the Internet. But as the law is currently crafted, this work is "
12748 "presumptively illegal."
12751 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12752 #: freeculture.xml:9152 freeculture.xml:9171
12756 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12757 #: freeculture.xml:9166
12759 "See Lynne W. Jeter, <citetitle>Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at "
12760 "WorldCom</citetitle> (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 176, 204; "
12761 "for details of the settlement, see MCI press release, <quote>MCI Wins "
12762 "U.S. District Court Approval for SEC Settlement</quote> (7 July 2003), "
12763 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #37</ulink>. "
12764 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12768 #: freeculture.xml:9187
12769 msgid "Bush, George W."
12772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12773 #: freeculture.xml:9178
12775 "The bill, modeled after California's tort reform model, was passed in the "
12776 "House of Representatives but defeated in a Senate vote in July 2003. For an "
12777 "overview, see Tanya Albert, <quote>Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be "
12778 "Back,' Say Tort Reformers,</quote> amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available at "
12779 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #38</ulink>, and "
12780 "<quote>Senate Turns Back Malpractice Caps,</quote> CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, "
12781 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12782 "#39</ulink>. President Bush has continued to urge tort reform in recent "
12783 "months. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12787 #: freeculture.xml:9154
12789 "That presumption will increasingly chill creativity, as the examples of "
12790 "extreme penalties for vague infringements continue to proliferate. It is "
12791 "impossible to get a clear sense of what's allowed and what's not, and at the "
12792 "same time, the penalties for crossing the line are astonishingly harsh. The "
12793 "four students who were threatened by the RIAA ( Jesse Jordan of chapter 3 "
12794 "was just one) were threatened with a $98 billion lawsuit for building search "
12795 "engines that permitted songs to be copied. Yet World-Com—which "
12796 "defrauded investors of $11 billion, resulting in a loss to investors in "
12797 "market capitalization of over $200 billion—received a fine of a mere "
12798 "$750 million.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And under legislation "
12799 "being pushed in Congress right now, a doctor who negligently removes the "
12800 "wrong leg in an operation would be liable for no more than $250,000 in "
12801 "damages for pain and suffering.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Can "
12802 "common sense recognize the absurdity in a world where the maximum fine for "
12803 "downloading two songs off the Internet is more than the fine for a doctor's "
12804 "negligently butchering a patient?"
12807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12808 #: freeculture.xml:9193
12809 msgid "art, underground"
12813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12814 #: freeculture.xml:9214
12816 "See Danit Lidor, <quote>Artists Just Wanna Be Free,</quote> "
12817 "<citetitle>Wired</citetitle>, 7 July 2003, available at <ulink "
12818 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #40</ulink>. For an overview of "
12819 "the exhibition, see <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12824 #: freeculture.xml:9195
12826 "The consequence of this legal uncertainty, tied to these extremely high "
12827 "penalties, is that an extraordinary amount of creativity will either never "
12828 "be exercised, or never be exercised in the open. We drive this creative "
12829 "process underground by branding the modern-day Walt Disneys "
12830 "<quote>pirates.</quote> We make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a "
12831 "public domain, because the boundaries of the public domain are designed to "
12832 "be unclear. It never pays to do anything except pay for the right to create, "
12833 "and hence only those who can pay are allowed to create. As was the case in "
12834 "the Soviet Union, though for very different reasons, we will begin to see a "
12835 "world of underground art—not because the message is necessarily "
12836 "political, or because the subject is controversial, but because the very act "
12837 "of creating the art is legally fraught. Already, exhibits of <quote>illegal "
12838 "art</quote> tour the United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
12839 "In what does their <quote>illegality</quote> consist? In the act of mixing "
12840 "the culture around us with an expression that is critical or reflective."
12843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12844 #: freeculture.xml:9225
12846 "Part of the reason for this fear of illegality has to do with the changing "
12847 "law. I described that change in detail in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
12848 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>. But an even bigger part has to do "
12849 "with the increasing ease with which infractions can be tracked. As users of "
12850 "file-sharing systems discovered in 2002, it is a trivial matter for "
12851 "copyright owners to get courts to order Internet service providers to reveal "
12852 "who has what content. It is as if your cassette tape player transmitted a "
12853 "list of the songs that you played in the privacy of your own home that "
12854 "anyone could tune into for whatever reason they chose."
12857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12858 #: freeculture.xml:9238
12860 "Never in our history has a painter had to worry about whether his painting "
12861 "infringed on someone else's work; but the modern-day painter, using the "
12862 "tools of Photoshop, sharing content on the Web, must worry all the "
12863 "time. Images are all around, but the only safe images to use in the act of "
12864 "creation are those purchased from Corbis or another image farm. And in "
12865 "purchasing, censoring happens. There is a free market in pencils; we needn't "
12866 "worry about its effect on creativity. But there is a highly regulated, "
12867 "monopolized market in cultural icons; the right to cultivate and transform "
12868 "them is not similarly free."
12871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12872 #: freeculture.xml:9249
12874 "Lawyers rarely see this because lawyers are rarely empirical. As I described "
12875 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/>, "
12876 "in response to the story about documentary filmmaker Jon Else, I have been "
12877 "lectured again and again by lawyers who insist Else's use was fair use, and "
12878 "hence I am wrong to say that the law regulates such a use."
12882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12883 #: freeculture.xml:9260
12885 "But fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer to defend "
12886 "your right to create. And as lawyers love to forget, our system for "
12887 "defending rights such as fair use is astonishingly bad—in practically "
12888 "every context, but especially here. It costs too much, it delivers too "
12889 "slowly, and what it delivers often has little connection to the justice "
12890 "underlying the claim. The legal system may be tolerable for the very rich. "
12891 "For everyone else, it is an embarrassment to a tradition that prides itself "
12892 "on the rule of law."
12895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12896 #: freeculture.xml:9270
12898 "Judges and lawyers can tell themselves that fair use provides adequate "
12899 "<quote>breathing room</quote> between regulation by the law and the access "
12900 "the law should allow. But it is a measure of how out of touch our legal "
12901 "system has become that anyone actually believes this. The rules that "
12902 "publishers impose upon writers, the rules that film distributors impose upon "
12903 "filmmakers, the rules that newspapers impose upon journalists— these "
12904 "are the real laws governing creativity. And these rules have little "
12905 "relationship to the <quote>law</quote> with which judges comfort themselves."
12908 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12909 #: freeculture.xml:9281
12911 "For in a world that threatens $150,000 for a single willful infringement of "
12912 "a copyright, and which demands tens of thousands of dollars to even defend "
12913 "against a copyright infringement claim, and which would never return to the "
12914 "wrongfully accused defendant anything of the costs she suffered to defend "
12915 "her right to speak—in that world, the astonishingly broad regulations "
12916 "that pass under the name <quote>copyright</quote> silence speech and "
12917 "creativity. And in that world, it takes a studied blindness for people to "
12918 "continue to believe they live in a culture that is free."
12921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12922 #: freeculture.xml:9292
12923 msgid "As Jed Horovitz, the businessman behind Video Pipeline, said to me,"
12927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12928 #: freeculture.xml:9296
12930 "We're losing [creative] opportunities right and left. Creative people are "
12931 "being forced not to express themselves. Thoughts are not being "
12932 "expressed. And while a lot of stuff may [still] be created, it still won't "
12933 "get distributed. Even if the stuff gets made … you're not going to "
12934 "get it distributed in the mainstream media unless you've got a little note "
12935 "from a lawyer saying, <quote>This has been cleared.</quote> You're not even "
12936 "going to get it on PBS without that kind of permission. That's the point at "
12937 "which they control it."
12940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12941 #: freeculture.xml:9309
12942 msgid "Constraining Innovators"
12945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12946 #: freeculture.xml:9311
12948 "The story of the last section was a crunchy-lefty story—creativity "
12949 "quashed, artists who can't speak, yada yada yada. Maybe that doesn't get you "
12950 "going. Maybe you think there's enough weird art out there, and enough "
12951 "expression that is critical of what seems to be just about everything. And "
12952 "if you think that, you might think there's little in this story to worry "
12956 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12957 #: freeculture.xml:9319
12959 "But there's an aspect of this story that is not lefty in any sense. Indeed, "
12960 "it is an aspect that could be written by the most extreme promarket "
12961 "ideologue. And if you're one of these sorts (and a special one at that, 188 "
12962 "pages into a book like this), then you can see this other aspect by "
12963 "substituting <quote>free market</quote> every place I've spoken of "
12964 "<quote>free culture.</quote> The point is the same, even if the interests "
12965 "affecting culture are more fundamental."
12968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12969 #: freeculture.xml:9329
12971 "The charge I've been making about the regulation of culture is the same "
12972 "charge free marketers make about regulating markets. Everyone, of course, "
12973 "concedes that some regulation of markets is necessary—at a minimum, we "
12974 "need rules of property and contract, and courts to enforce both. Likewise, "
12975 "in this culture debate, everyone concedes that at least some framework of "
12976 "copyright is also required. But both perspectives vehemently insist that "
12977 "just because some regulation is good, it doesn't follow that more regulation "
12978 "is better. And both perspectives are constantly attuned to the ways in which "
12979 "regulation simply enables the powerful industries of today to protect "
12980 "themselves against the competitors of tomorrow."
12983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12984 #: freeculture.xml:9341 freeculture.xml:9449
12985 msgid "Barry, Hank"
12989 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12990 #: freeculture.xml:9343
12992 "This is the single most dramatic effect of the shift in regulatory strategy "
12993 "that I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12994 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>. The consequence of this massive threat of "
12995 "liability tied to the murky boundaries of copyright law is that innovators "
12996 "who want to innovate in this space can safely innovate only if they have the "
12997 "sign-off from last generation's dominant industries. That lesson has been "
12998 "taught through a series of cases that were designed and executed to teach "
12999 "venture capitalists a lesson. That lesson—what former Napster CEO Hank "
13000 "Barry calls a <quote>nuclear pall</quote> that has fallen over the "
13001 "Valley—has been learned."
13004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13005 #: freeculture.xml:9356
13007 "Consider one example to make the point, a story whose beginning I told in "
13008 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> and which has progressed in a way "
13009 "that even I (pessimist extraordinaire) would never have predicted."
13012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13013 #: freeculture.xml:9360
13014 msgid "Roberts, Michael"
13017 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13018 #: freeculture.xml:9362
13020 "In 1997, Michael Roberts launched a company called MP3.com. MP3.com was "
13021 "keen to remake the music business. Their goal was not just to facilitate new "
13022 "ways to get access to content. Their goal was also to facilitate new ways to "
13023 "create content. Unlike the major labels, MP3.com offered creators a venue to "
13024 "distribute their creativity, without demanding an exclusive engagement from "
13028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
13029 #: freeculture.xml:9370
13030 msgid "preference data on"
13033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13034 #: freeculture.xml:9372
13036 "To make this system work, however, MP3.com needed a reliable way to "
13037 "recommend music to its users. The idea behind this alternative was to "
13038 "leverage the revealed preferences of music listeners to recommend new "
13039 "artists. If you like Lyle Lovett, you're likely to enjoy Bonnie Raitt. And "
13043 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13044 #: freeculture.xml:9379
13046 "This idea required a simple way to gather data about user preferences. "
13047 "MP3.com came up with an extraordinarily clever way to gather this preference "
13048 "data. In January 2000, the company launched a service called "
13049 "my.mp3.com. Using software provided by MP3.com, a user would sign into an "
13050 "account and then insert into her computer a CD. The software would identify "
13051 "the CD, and then give the user access to that content. So, for example, if "
13052 "you inserted a CD by Jill Sobule, then wherever you were—at work or at "
13053 "home—you could get access to that music once you signed into your "
13054 "account. The system was therefore a kind of music-lockbox."
13058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13059 #: freeculture.xml:9391
13061 "No doubt some could use this system to illegally copy content. But that "
13062 "opportunity existed with or without MP3.com. The aim of the my.mp3.com "
13063 "service was to give users access to their own content, and as a by-product, "
13064 "by seeing the content they already owned, to discover the kind of content "
13068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13069 #: freeculture.xml:9401
13071 "To make this system function, however, MP3.com needed to copy 50,000 CDs to "
13072 "a server. (In principle, it could have been the user who uploaded the music, "
13073 "but that would have taken a great deal of time, and would have produced a "
13074 "product of questionable quality.) It therefore purchased 50,000 CDs from a "
13075 "store, and started the process of making copies of those CDs. Again, it "
13076 "would not serve the content from those copies to anyone except those who "
13077 "authenticated that they had a copy of the CD they wanted to access. So while "
13078 "this was 50,000 copies, it was 50,000 copies directed at giving customers "
13079 "something they had already bought."
13082 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13083 #: freeculture.xml:9414
13085 "Nine days after MP3.com launched its service, the five major labels, headed "
13086 "by the RIAA, brought a lawsuit against MP3.com. MP3.com settled with four of "
13087 "the five. Nine months later, a federal judge found MP3.com to have been "
13088 "guilty of willful infringement with respect to the fifth. Applying the law "
13089 "as it is, the judge imposed a fine against MP3.com of $118 million. MP3.com "
13090 "then settled with the remaining plaintiff, Vivendi Universal, paying over "
13091 "$54 million. Vivendi purchased MP3.com just about a year later."
13094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13095 #: freeculture.xml:9424
13096 msgid "That part of the story I have told before. Now consider its conclusion."
13099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13100 #: freeculture.xml:9427
13102 "After Vivendi purchased MP3.com, Vivendi turned around and filed a "
13103 "malpractice lawsuit against the lawyers who had advised it that they had a "
13104 "good faith claim that the service they wanted to offer would be considered "
13105 "legal under copyright law. This lawsuit alleged that it should have been "
13106 "obvious that the courts would find this behavior illegal; therefore, this "
13107 "lawsuit sought to punish any lawyer who had dared to suggest that the law "
13108 "was less restrictive than the labels demanded."
13112 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13113 #: freeculture.xml:9437
13115 "The clear purpose of this lawsuit (which was settled for an unspecified "
13116 "amount shortly after the story was no longer covered in the press) was to "
13117 "send an unequivocal message to lawyers advising clients in this space: It is "
13118 "not just your clients who might suffer if the content industry directs its "
13119 "guns against them. It is also you. So those of you who believe the law "
13120 "should be less restrictive should realize that such a view of the law will "
13121 "cost you and your firm dearly."
13124 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13125 #: freeculture.xml:9448
13126 msgid "Hummer, John"
13129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13130 #: freeculture.xml:9450
13131 msgid "Hummer Winblad"
13135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13136 #: freeculture.xml:9460
13138 "See Joseph Menn, <quote>Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor,</quote> "
13139 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 23 April 2003. For a parallel "
13140 "argument about the effects on innovation in the distribution of music, see "
13141 "Janelle Brown, <quote>The Music Revolution Will Not Be Digitized,</quote> "
13142 "Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available at <ulink "
13143 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #42</ulink>. See also Jon "
13144 "Healey, <quote>Online Music Services Besieged,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
13145 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 28 May 2001."
13148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13149 #: freeculture.xml:9454
13151 "This strategy is not just limited to the lawyers. In April 2003, Universal "
13152 "and EMI brought a lawsuit against Hummer Winblad, the venture capital firm "
13153 "(VC) that had funded Napster at a certain stage of its development, its "
13154 "cofounder ( John Hummer), and general partner (Hank Barry).<placeholder "
13155 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The claim here, as well, was that the VC should "
13156 "have recognized the right of the content industry to control how the "
13157 "industry should develop. They should be held personally liable for funding a "
13158 "company whose business turned out to be beyond the law. Here again, the aim "
13159 "of the lawsuit is transparent: Any VC now recognizes that if you fund a "
13160 "company whose business is not approved of by the dinosaurs, you are at risk "
13161 "not just in the marketplace, but in the courtroom as well. Your investment "
13162 "buys you not only a company, it also buys you a lawsuit. So extreme has the "
13163 "environment become that even car manufacturers are afraid of technologies "
13164 "that touch content. In an article in <citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, "
13165 "Rafe Needleman describes a discussion with BMW:"
13168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
13169 #: freeculture.xml:9482
13173 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
13174 #: freeculture.xml:9483
13175 msgid "cars, MP3 sound system in"
13178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13179 #: freeculture.xml:9498
13180 msgid "Needleman, Rafe"
13183 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
13184 #: freeculture.xml:9494
13186 "Rafe Needleman, <quote>Driving in Cars with MP3s,</quote> "
13187 "<citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
13188 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #43</ulink>. I am grateful to "
13189 "Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli for this example. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
13193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13194 #: freeculture.xml:9485
13196 "I asked why, with all the storage capacity and computer power in the car, "
13197 "there was no way to play MP3 files. I was told that BMW engineers in Germany "
13198 "had rigged a new vehicle to play MP3s via the car's built-in sound system, "
13199 "but that the company's marketing and legal departments weren't comfortable "
13200 "with pushing this forward for release stateside. Even today, no new cars are "
13201 "sold in the United States with bona fide MP3 players. … <placeholder "
13202 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13205 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13206 #: freeculture.xml:9503
13208 "This is the world of the mafia—filled with <quote>your money or your "
13209 "life</quote> offers, governed in the end not by courts but by the threats "
13210 "that the law empowers copyright holders to exercise. It is a system that "
13211 "will obviously and necessarily stifle new innovation. It is hard enough to "
13212 "start a company. It is impossibly hard if that company is constantly "
13213 "threatened by litigation."
13217 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13218 #: freeculture.xml:9513
13220 "The point is not that businesses should have a right to start illegal "
13221 "enterprises. The point is the definition of <quote>illegal.</quote> The law "
13222 "is a mess of uncertainty. We have no good way to know how it should apply to "
13223 "new technologies. Yet by reversing our tradition of judicial deference, and "
13224 "by embracing the astonishingly high penalties that copyright law imposes, "
13225 "that uncertainty now yields a reality which is far more conservative than is "
13226 "right. If the law imposed the death penalty for parking tickets, we'd not "
13227 "only have fewer parking tickets, we'd also have much less driving. The same "
13228 "principle applies to innovation. If innovation is constantly checked by this "
13229 "uncertain and unlimited liability, we will have much less vibrant innovation "
13230 "and much less creativity."
13233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13234 #: freeculture.xml:9528
13236 "The point is directly parallel to the crunchy-lefty point about fair "
13237 "use. Whatever the <quote>real</quote> law is, realism about the effect of "
13238 "law in both contexts is the same. This wildly punitive system of regulation "
13239 "will systematically stifle creativity and innovation. It will protect some "
13240 "industries and some creators, but it will harm industry and creativity "
13241 "generally. Free market and free culture depend upon vibrant competition. "
13242 "Yet the effect of the law today is to stifle just this kind of competition. "
13243 "The effect is to produce an overregulated culture, just as the effect of too "
13244 "much control in the market is to produce an overregulatedregulated market."
13248 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13249 #: freeculture.xml:9540
13251 "The building of a permission culture, rather than a free culture, is the "
13252 "first important way in which the changes I have described will burden "
13253 "innovation. A permission culture means a lawyer's culture—a culture in "
13254 "which the ability to create requires a call to your lawyer. Again, I am not "
13255 "antilawyer, at least when they're kept in their proper place. I am certainly "
13256 "not antilaw. But our profession has lost the sense of its limits. And "
13257 "leaders in our profession have lost an appreciation of the high costs that "
13258 "our profession imposes upon others. The inefficiency of the law is an "
13259 "embarrassment to our tradition. And while I believe our profession should "
13260 "therefore do everything it can to make the law more efficient, it should at "
13261 "least do everything it can to limit the reach of the law where the law is "
13262 "not doing any good. The transaction costs buried within a permission culture "
13263 "are enough to bury a wide range of creativity. Someone needs to do a lot of "
13264 "justifying to justify that result."
13267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13268 #: freeculture.xml:9559
13270 "<emphasis role='strong'>The uncertainty</emphasis> of the law is one burden "
13271 "on innovation. There is a second burden that operates more directly. This is "
13272 "the effort by many in the content industry to use the law to directly "
13273 "regulate the technology of the Internet so that it better protects their "
13277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13278 #: freeculture.xml:9566
13280 "The motivation for this response is obvious. The Internet enables the "
13281 "efficient spread of content. That efficiency is a feature of the Internet's "
13282 "design. But from the perspective of the content industry, this feature is a "
13283 "<quote>bug.</quote> The efficient spread of content means that content "
13284 "distributors have a harder time controlling the distribution of content. "
13285 "One obvious response to this efficiency is thus to make the Internet less "
13286 "efficient. If the Internet enables <quote>piracy,</quote> then, this "
13287 "response says, we should break the kneecaps of the Internet."
13291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13292 #: freeculture.xml:9581
13294 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> "
13295 "GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law "
13296 "School (2003), 33–35, available at <ulink "
13297 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>."
13301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13302 #: freeculture.xml:9594
13303 msgid "GartnerG2, 26–27."
13306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13307 #: freeculture.xml:9577
13309 "The examples of this form of legislation are many. At the urging of the "
13310 "content industry, some in Congress have threatened legislation that would "
13311 "require computers to determine whether the content they access is protected "
13312 "or not, and to disable the spread of protected content.<placeholder "
13313 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Congress has already launched proceedings to "
13314 "explore a mandatory <quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would be required on "
13315 "any device capable of transmitting digital video (i.e., a computer), and "
13316 "that would disable the copying of any content that is marked with a "
13317 "broadcast flag. Other members of Congress have proposed immunizing content "
13318 "providers from liability for technology they might deploy that would hunt "
13319 "down copyright violators and disable their machines.<placeholder "
13320 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
13324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13325 #: freeculture.xml:9598
13327 "In one sense, these solutions seem sensible. If the problem is the code, why "
13328 "not regulate the code to remove the problem. But any regulation of technical "
13329 "infrastructure will always be tuned to the particular technology of the "
13330 "day. It will impose significant burdens and costs on the technology, but "
13331 "will likely be eclipsed by advances around exactly those requirements."
13334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
13335 #: freeculture.xml:9607 freeculture.xml:11445
13340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13341 #: freeculture.xml:9613
13343 "See David McGuire, <quote>Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy,</quote> "
13344 "Newsbytes, February 2002 (Entertainment)."
13347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13348 #: freeculture.xml:9609
13350 "In March 2002, a broad coalition of technology companies, led by Intel, "
13351 "tried to get Congress to see the harm that such legislation would "
13352 "impose.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Their argument was "
13353 "obviously not that copyright should not be protected. Instead, they argued, "
13354 "any protection should not do more harm than good."
13357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13358 #: freeculture.xml:9621
13360 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is one</emphasis> more obvious way in which "
13361 "this war has harmed innovation—again, a story that will be quite "
13362 "familiar to the free market crowd."
13365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13366 #: freeculture.xml:9626
13368 "Copyright may be property, but like all property, it is also a form of "
13369 "regulation. It is a regulation that benefits some and harms others. When "
13370 "done right, it benefits creators and harms leeches. When done wrong, it is "
13371 "regulation the powerful use to defeat competitors."
13374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13375 #: freeculture.xml:9640
13377 "Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (Amherst, N.Y.: "
13378 "Prometheus Books, 2001). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13382 #: freeculture.xml:9634
13384 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13385 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, despite this feature of copyright as regulation, "
13386 "and subject to important qualifications outlined by Jessica Litman in her "
13387 "book <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle>,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13388 "id=\"0\"/> overall this history of copyright is not bad. As chapter 10 "
13389 "details, when new technologies have come along, Congress has struck a "
13390 "balance to assure that the new is protected from the old. Compulsory, or "
13391 "statutory, licenses have been one part of that strategy. Free use (as in the "
13392 "case of the VCR) has been another."
13395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13396 #: freeculture.xml:9651
13398 "But that pattern of deference to new technologies has now changed with the "
13399 "rise of the Internet. Rather than striking a balance between the claims of a "
13400 "new technology and the legitimate rights of content creators, both the "
13401 "courts and Congress have imposed legal restrictions that will have the "
13402 "effect of smothering the new to benefit the old."
13405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13406 #: freeculture.xml:9660
13407 msgid "Grokster, Ltd."
13410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13411 #: freeculture.xml:9660
13413 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The only circuit court exception "
13414 "is found in <citetitle>Recording Industry Association of America "
13415 "(RIAA)</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Diamond Multimedia Systems</citetitle>, 180 "
13416 "F. 3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). There the court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit "
13417 "reasoned that makers of a portable MP3 player were not liable for "
13418 "contributory copyright infringement for a device that is unable to record or "
13419 "redistribute music (a device whose only copying function is to render "
13420 "portable a music file already stored on a user's hard drive). At the "
13421 "district court level, the only exception is found in "
13422 "<citetitle>Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, "
13423 "Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Grokster, Ltd</citetitle>., 259 F. Supp. 2d "
13424 "1029 (C.D. Cal., 2003), where the court found the link between the "
13425 "distributor and any given user's conduct too attenuated to make the "
13426 "distributor liable for contributory or vicarious infringement liability."
13429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13430 #: freeculture.xml:9679
13431 msgid "Tauzin, Billy"
13434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13435 #: freeculture.xml:9695
13436 msgid "Hollings, Fritz"
13439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13440 #: freeculture.xml:9679
13442 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For example, in July 2002, "
13443 "Representative Howard Berman introduced the Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention "
13444 "Act (H.R. 5211), which would immunize copyright holders from liability for "
13445 "damage done to computers when the copyright holders use technology to stop "
13446 "copyright infringement. In August 2002, Representative Billy Tauzin "
13447 "introduced a bill to mandate that technologies capable of rebroadcasting "
13448 "digital copies of films broadcast on TV (i.e., computers) respect a "
13449 "<quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would disable copying of that "
13450 "content. And in March of the same year, Senator Fritz Hollings introduced "
13451 "the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which mandated "
13452 "copyright protection technology in all digital media devices. See GartnerG2, "
13453 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> 27 June "
13454 "2003, 33–34, available at <ulink "
13455 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>. <placeholder "
13456 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
13457 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
13460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13461 #: freeculture.xml:9658
13463 "The response by the courts has been fairly universal.<placeholder "
13464 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It has been mirrored in the responses "
13465 "threatened and actually implemented by Congress. I won't catalog all of "
13466 "those responses here.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> But there is "
13467 "one example that captures the flavor of them all. This is the story of the "
13468 "demise of Internet radio."
13472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13473 #: freeculture.xml:9706
13475 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13476 "linkend=\"pirates\"/>, when a radio station plays a song, the recording "
13477 "artist doesn't get paid for that <quote>radio performance</quote> unless he "
13478 "or she is also the composer. So, for example if Marilyn Monroe had recorded "
13479 "a version of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote>—to memorialize her famous "
13480 "performance before President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden— then "
13481 "whenever that recording was played on the radio, the current copyright "
13482 "owners of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> would get some money, whereas "
13483 "Marilyn Monroe would not."
13486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13487 #: freeculture.xml:9717
13489 "The reasoning behind this balance struck by Congress makes some sense. The "
13490 "justification was that radio was a kind of advertising. The recording artist "
13491 "thus benefited because by playing her music, the radio station was making it "
13492 "more likely that her records would be purchased. Thus, the recording artist "
13493 "got something, even if only indirectly. Probably this reasoning had less to "
13494 "do with the result than with the power of radio stations: Their lobbyists "
13495 "were quite good at stopping any efforts to get Congress to require "
13496 "compensation to the recording artists."
13499 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13500 #: freeculture.xml:9728
13502 "Enter Internet radio. Like regular radio, Internet radio is a technology to "
13503 "stream content from a broadcaster to a listener. The broadcast travels "
13504 "across the Internet, not across the ether of radio spectrum. Thus, I can "
13505 "<quote>tune in</quote> to an Internet radio station in Berlin while sitting "
13506 "in San Francisco, even though there's no way for me to tune in to a regular "
13507 "radio station much beyond the San Francisco metropolitan area."
13510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13511 #: freeculture.xml:9737
13513 "This feature of the architecture of Internet radio means that there are "
13514 "potentially an unlimited number of radio stations that a user could tune in "
13515 "to using her computer, whereas under the existing architecture for broadcast "
13516 "radio, there is an obvious limit to the number of broadcasters and clear "
13517 "broadcast frequencies. Internet radio could therefore be more competitive "
13518 "than regular radio; it could provide a wider range of selections. And "
13519 "because the potential audience for Internet radio is the whole world, niche "
13520 "stations could easily develop and market their content to a relatively large "
13521 "number of users worldwide. According to some estimates, more than eighty "
13522 "million users worldwide have tuned in to this new form of radio."
13526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13527 #: freeculture.xml:9753
13529 "Internet radio is thus to radio what FM was to AM. It is an improvement "
13530 "potentially vastly more significant than the FM improvement over AM, since "
13531 "not only is the technology better, so, too, is the competition. Indeed, "
13532 "there is a direct parallel between the fight to establish FM radio and the "
13533 "fight to protect Internet radio. As one author describes Howard Armstrong's "
13534 "struggle to enable FM radio,"
13538 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
13539 #: freeculture.xml:9777
13540 msgid "Lessing, 239."
13543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13544 #: freeculture.xml:9763
13546 "An almost unlimited number of FM stations was possible in the shortwaves, "
13547 "thus ending the unnatural restrictions imposed on radio in the crowded "
13548 "longwaves. If FM were freely developed, the number of stations would be "
13549 "limited only by economics and competition rather than by technical "
13550 "restrictions. … Armstrong likened the situation that had grown up in "
13551 "radio to that following the invention of the printing press, when "
13552 "governments and ruling interests attempted to control this new instrument of "
13553 "mass communications by imposing restrictive licenses on it. This tyranny was "
13554 "broken only when it became possible for men freely to acquire printing "
13555 "presses and freely to run them. FM in this sense was as great an invention "
13556 "as the printing presses, for it gave radio the opportunity to strike off its "
13557 "shackles.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13562 #: freeculture.xml:9787
13563 msgid "Ibid., 229."
13566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13567 #: freeculture.xml:9782
13569 "This potential for FM radio was never realized—not because Armstrong "
13570 "was wrong about the technology, but because he underestimated the power of "
13571 "<quote>vested interests, habits, customs and legislation</quote><placeholder "
13572 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> to retard the growth of this competing "
13576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13577 #: freeculture.xml:9792
13579 "Now the very same claim could be made about Internet radio. For again, there "
13580 "is no technical limitation that could restrict the number of Internet radio "
13581 "stations. The only restrictions on Internet radio are those imposed by the "
13582 "law. Copyright law is one such law. So the first question we should ask is, "
13583 "what copyright rules would govern Internet radio?"
13587 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13588 #: freeculture.xml:9801
13590 "But here the power of the lobbyists is reversed. Internet radio is a new "
13591 "industry. The recording artists, on the other hand, have a very powerful "
13592 "lobby, the RIAA. Thus when Congress considered the phenomenon of Internet "
13593 "radio in 1995, the lobbyists had primed Congress to adopt a different rule "
13594 "for Internet radio than the rule that applies to terrestrial radio. While "
13595 "terrestrial radio does not have to pay our hypothetical Marilyn Monroe when "
13596 "it plays her hypothetical recording of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> on the "
13597 "air, <emphasis>Internet radio does</emphasis>. Not only is the law not "
13598 "neutral toward Internet radio—the law actually burdens Internet radio "
13599 "more than it burdens terrestrial radio."
13602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13603 #: freeculture.xml:9840
13604 msgid "CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel)"
13607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13608 #: freeculture.xml:9823
13610 "This example was derived from fees set by the original Copyright Arbitration "
13611 "Royalty Panel (CARP) proceedings, and is drawn from an example offered by "
13612 "Professor William Fisher. Conference Proceedings, iLaw (Stanford), 3 July "
13613 "2003, on file with author. Professors Fisher and Zittrain submitted "
13614 "testimony in the CARP proceeding that was ultimately rejected. See Jonathan "
13615 "Zittrain, Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings and Ephemeral "
13616 "Recordings, Docket No. 2000-9, CARP DTRA 1 and 2, available at <ulink "
13617 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #45</ulink>. For an excellent "
13618 "analysis making a similar point, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>Copyright as "
13619 "Entry Policy: The Case of Digital Distribution,</quote> <citetitle>Antitrust "
13620 "Bulletin</citetitle> (Summer/Fall 2002): 461: <quote>This was not confusion, "
13621 "these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are "
13622 "protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, "
13623 "this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, "
13624 "absent the play of powerful interests, that could have been done in a "
13625 "media-neutral way.</quote> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
13626 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
13629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13630 #: freeculture.xml:9816
13632 "This financial burden is not slight. As Harvard law professor William Fisher "
13633 "estimates, if an Internet radio station distributed adfree popular music to "
13634 "(on average) ten thousand listeners, twenty-four hours a day, the total "
13635 "artist fees that radio station would owe would be over $1 million a "
13636 "year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A regular radio station "
13637 "broadcasting the same content would pay no equivalent fee."
13640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13641 #: freeculture.xml:9848
13643 "The burden is not financial only. Under the original rules that were "
13644 "proposed, an Internet radio station (but not a terrestrial radio station) "
13645 "would have to collect the following data from <emphasis>every listening "
13646 "transaction</emphasis>:"
13649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13650 #: freeculture.xml:9856
13651 msgid "name of the service;"
13654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13655 #: freeculture.xml:9859
13656 msgid "channel of the program (AM/FM stations use station ID);"
13659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13660 #: freeculture.xml:9862
13661 msgid "type of program (archived/looped/live);"
13664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13665 #: freeculture.xml:9865
13666 msgid "date of transmission;"
13669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13670 #: freeculture.xml:9868
13671 msgid "time of transmission;"
13674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13675 #: freeculture.xml:9871
13676 msgid "time zone of origination of transmission;"
13679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13680 #: freeculture.xml:9874
13681 msgid "numeric designation of the place of the sound recording within the program;"
13684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13685 #: freeculture.xml:9877
13686 msgid "duration of transmission (to nearest second);"
13689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13690 #: freeculture.xml:9880
13691 msgid "sound recording title;"
13694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13695 #: freeculture.xml:9883
13696 msgid "ISRC code of the recording;"
13699 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13700 #: freeculture.xml:9886
13702 "release year of the album per copyright notice and in the case of "
13703 "compilation albums, the release year of the album and copy- right date of "
13707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13708 #: freeculture.xml:9889
13709 msgid "featured recording artist;"
13712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13713 #: freeculture.xml:9892
13714 msgid "retail album title;"
13717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13718 #: freeculture.xml:9895
13719 msgid "recording label;"
13722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13723 #: freeculture.xml:9898
13724 msgid "UPC code of the retail album;"
13727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13728 #: freeculture.xml:9901
13729 msgid "catalog number;"
13732 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13733 #: freeculture.xml:9904
13734 msgid "copyright owner information;"
13737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13738 #: freeculture.xml:9907
13739 msgid "musical genre of the channel or program (station format);"
13742 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13743 #: freeculture.xml:9910
13744 msgid "name of the service or entity;"
13747 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13748 #: freeculture.xml:9913
13749 msgid "channel or program;"
13752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13753 #: freeculture.xml:9916
13754 msgid "date and time that the user logged in (in the user's time zone);"
13757 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13758 #: freeculture.xml:9919
13759 msgid "date and time that the user logged out (in the user's time zone);"
13762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13763 #: freeculture.xml:9922
13764 msgid "time zone where the signal was received (user);"
13767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13768 #: freeculture.xml:9925
13769 msgid "unique user identifier;"
13772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13773 #: freeculture.xml:9928
13774 msgid "the country in which the user received the transmissions."
13777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13778 #: freeculture.xml:9933
13780 "The Librarian of Congress eventually suspended these reporting requirements, "
13781 "pending further study. And he also changed the original rates set by the "
13782 "arbitration panel charged with setting rates. But the basic difference "
13783 "between Internet radio and terrestrial radio remains: Internet radio has to "
13784 "pay a <emphasis>type of copyright fee</emphasis> that terrestrial radio does "
13788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13789 #: freeculture.xml:9941
13791 "Why? What justifies this difference? Was there any study of the economic "
13792 "consequences from Internet radio that would justify these differences? Was "
13793 "the motive to protect artists against piracy?"
13796 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
13797 #: freeculture.xml:9945 freeculture.xml:14612
13798 msgid "Real Networks"
13801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13802 #: freeculture.xml:9948
13804 "In a rare bit of candor, one RIAA expert admitted what seemed obvious to "
13805 "everyone at the time. As Alex Alben, vice president for Public Policy at "
13806 "Real Networks, told me,"
13810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13811 #: freeculture.xml:9954
13813 "The RIAA, which was representing the record labels, presented some testimony "
13814 "about what they thought a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller, and "
13815 "it was much higher. It was ten times higher than what radio stations pay to "
13816 "perform the same songs for the same period of time. And so the attorneys "
13817 "representing the webcasters asked the RIAA, … <quote>How do you come "
13818 "up with a rate that's so much higher? Why is it worth more than radio? "
13819 "Because here we have hundreds of thousands of webcasters who want to pay, "
13820 "and that should establish the market rate, and if you set the rate so high, "
13821 "you're going to drive the small webcasters out of business. …</quote>"
13824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13825 #: freeculture.xml:9970
13827 "And the RIAA experts said, <quote>Well, we don't really model this as an "
13828 "industry with thousands of webcasters, <emphasis>we think it should be an "
13829 "industry with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate "
13830 "and it's a stable, predictable market</emphasis>.</quote> (Emphasis added.)"
13833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13834 #: freeculture.xml:9979
13836 "Translation: The aim is to use the law to eliminate competition, so that "
13837 "this platform of potentially immense competition, which would cause the "
13838 "diversity and range of content available to explode, would not cause pain to "
13839 "the dinosaurs of old. There is no one, on either the right or the left, who "
13840 "should endorse this use of the law. And yet there is practically no one, on "
13841 "either the right or the left, who is doing anything effective to prevent it."
13844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
13845 #: freeculture.xml:9989
13846 msgid "Corrupting Citizens"
13849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13850 #: freeculture.xml:9991
13852 "Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives "
13853 "dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity "
13854 "for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables."
13857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13858 #: freeculture.xml:9997
13860 "In addition to these important harms, there is one more that was important "
13861 "to our forebears, but seems forgotten today. Overregulation corrupts "
13862 "citizens and weakens the rule of law."
13866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13867 #: freeculture.xml:10006
13869 "Mike Graziano and Lee Rainie, <quote>The Music Downloading Deluge,</quote> "
13870 "Pew Internet and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at <ulink "
13871 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #46</ulink>. The Pew Internet "
13872 "and American Life Project reported that 37 million Americans had downloaded "
13873 "music files from the Internet by early 2001."
13877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13878 #: freeculture.xml:10002
13880 "The war that is being waged today is a war of prohibition. As with every war "
13881 "of prohibition, it is targeted against the behavior of a very large number "
13882 "of citizens. According to <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, 43 "
13883 "million Americans downloaded music in May 2002.<placeholder "
13884 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> According to the RIAA, the behavior of those 43 "
13885 "million Americans is a felony. We thus have a set of rules that transform 20 "
13886 "percent of America into criminals. As the RIAA launches lawsuits against not "
13887 "only the Napsters and Kazaas of the world, but against students building "
13888 "search engines, and increasingly against ordinary users downloading content, "
13889 "the technologies for sharing will advance to further protect and hide "
13890 "illegal use. It is an arms race or a civil war, with the extremes of one "
13891 "side inviting a more extreme response by the other."
13895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13896 #: freeculture.xml:10040
13898 "Alex Pham, <quote>The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA "
13899 "Case,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, "
13903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13904 #: freeculture.xml:10027
13906 "The content industry's tactics exploit the failings of the American legal "
13907 "system. When the RIAA brought suit against Jesse Jordan, it knew that in "
13908 "Jordan it had found a scapegoat, not a defendant. The threat of having to "
13909 "pay either all the money in the world in damages ($15,000,000) or almost all "
13910 "the money in the world to defend against paying all the money in the world "
13911 "in damages ($250,000 in legal fees) led Jordan to choose to pay all the "
13912 "money he had in the world ($12,000) to make the suit go away. The same "
13913 "strategy animates the RIAA's suits against individual users. In September "
13914 "2003, the RIAA sued 261 individuals—including a twelve-year-old girl "
13915 "living in public housing and a seventy-year-old man who had no idea what "
13916 "file sharing was.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As these "
13917 "scapegoats discovered, it will always cost more to defend against these "
13918 "suits than it would cost to simply settle. (The twelve year old, for "
13919 "example, like Jesse Jordan, paid her life savings of $2,000 to settle the "
13920 "case.) Our law is an awful system for defending rights. It is an "
13921 "embarrassment to our tradition. And the consequence of our law as it is, is "
13922 "that those with the power can use the law to quash any rights they oppose."
13925 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13926 #: freeculture.xml:10051
13927 msgid "alcohol prohibition"
13931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13932 #: freeculture.xml:10063
13934 "Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, <quote>Alcohol Consumption During "
13935 "Prohibition,</quote> <citetitle>American Economic Review</citetitle> 81, "
13936 "no. 2 (1991): 242."
13940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13941 #: freeculture.xml:10071
13943 "National Drug Control Policy: Hearing Before the House Government Reform "
13944 "Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (5 March 2003) (statement of John "
13945 "P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy)."
13949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13950 #: freeculture.xml:10081
13952 "See James Andreoni, Brian Erard, and Jonathon Feinstein, <quote>Tax "
13953 "Compliance,</quote> <citetitle>Journal of Economic Literature</citetitle> 36 "
13954 "(1998): 818 (survey of compliance literature)."
13957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13958 #: freeculture.xml:10053
13960 "Wars of prohibition are nothing new in America. This one is just something "
13961 "more extreme than anything we've seen before. We experimented with alcohol "
13962 "prohibition, at a time when the per capita consumption of alcohol was 1.5 "
13963 "gallons per capita per year. The war against drinking initially reduced that "
13964 "consumption to just 30 percent of its preprohibition levels, but by the end "
13965 "of prohibition, consumption was up to 70 percent of the preprohibition "
13966 "level. Americans were drinking just about as much, but now, a vast number "
13967 "were criminals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We have launched a "
13968 "war on drugs aimed at reducing the consumption of regulated narcotics that 7 "
13969 "percent (or 16 million) Americans now use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13970 "id=\"1\"/> That is a drop from the high (so to speak) in 1979 of 14 percent "
13971 "of the population. We regulate automobiles to the point where the vast "
13972 "majority of Americans violate the law every day. We run such a complex tax "
13973 "system that a majority of cash businesses regularly cheat.<placeholder "
13974 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> We pride ourselves on our <quote>free "
13975 "society,</quote> but an endless array of ordinary behavior is regulated "
13976 "within our society. And as a result, a huge proportion of Americans "
13977 "regularly violate at least some law."
13980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13981 #: freeculture.xml:10089
13982 msgid "law schools"
13985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13986 #: freeculture.xml:10091
13988 "This state of affairs is not without consequence. It is a particularly "
13989 "salient issue for teachers like me, whose job it is to teach law students "
13990 "about the importance of <quote>ethics.</quote> As my colleague Charlie "
13991 "Nesson told a class at Stanford, each year law schools admit thousands of "
13992 "students who have illegally downloaded music, illegally consumed alcohol and "
13993 "sometimes drugs, illegally worked without paying taxes, illegally driven "
13994 "cars. These are kids for whom behaving illegally is increasingly the "
13995 "norm. And then we, as law professors, are supposed to teach them how to "
13996 "behave ethically—how to say no to bribes, or keep client funds "
13997 "separate, or honor a demand to disclose a document that will mean that your "
13998 "case is over. Generations of Americans—more significantly in some "
13999 "parts of America than in others, but still, everywhere in America "
14000 "today—can't live their lives both normally and legally, since "
14001 "<quote>normally</quote> entails a certain degree of illegality."
14004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14005 #: freeculture.xml:10108
14007 "The response to this general illegality is either to enforce the law more "
14008 "severely or to change the law. We, as a society, have to learn how to make "
14009 "that choice more rationally. Whether a law makes sense depends, in part, at "
14010 "least, upon whether the costs of the law, both intended and collateral, "
14011 "outweigh the benefits. If the costs, intended and collateral, do outweigh "
14012 "the benefits, then the law ought to be changed. Alternatively, if the costs "
14013 "of the existing system are much greater than the costs of an alternative, "
14014 "then we have a good reason to consider the alternative."
14018 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14019 #: freeculture.xml:10121
14021 "My point is not the idiotic one: Just because people violate a law, we "
14022 "should therefore repeal it. Obviously, we could reduce murder statistics "
14023 "dramatically by legalizing murder on Wednesdays and Fridays. But that "
14024 "wouldn't make any sense, since murder is wrong every day of the week. A "
14025 "society is right to ban murder always and everywhere."
14028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14029 #: freeculture.xml:10128
14031 "My point is instead one that democracies understood for generations, but "
14032 "that we recently have learned to forget. The rule of law depends upon people "
14033 "obeying the law. The more often, and more repeatedly, we as citizens "
14034 "experience violating the law, the less we respect the law. Obviously, in "
14035 "most cases, the important issue is the law, not respect for the law. I don't "
14036 "care whether the rapist respects the law or not; I want to catch and "
14037 "incarcerate the rapist. But I do care whether my students respect the "
14038 "law. And I do care if the rules of law sow increasing disrespect because of "
14039 "the extreme of regulation they impose. Twenty million Americans have come "
14040 "of age since the Internet introduced this different idea of "
14041 "<quote>sharing.</quote> We need to be able to call these twenty million "
14042 "Americans <quote>citizens,</quote> not <quote>felons.</quote>"
14045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14046 #: freeculture.xml:10142
14048 "When at least forty-three million citizens download content from the "
14049 "Internet, and when they use tools to combine that content in ways "
14050 "unauthorized by copyright holders, the first question we should be asking is "
14051 "not how best to involve the FBI. The first question should be whether this "
14052 "particular prohibition is really necessary in order to achieve the proper "
14053 "ends that copyright law serves. Is there another way to assure that artists "
14054 "get paid without transforming forty-three million Americans into felons? "
14055 "Does it make sense if there are other ways to assure that artists get paid "
14056 "without transforming America into a nation of felons?"
14059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14060 #: freeculture.xml:10154
14061 msgid "This abstract point can be made more clear with a particular example."
14065 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14066 #: freeculture.xml:10157
14068 "We all own CDs. Many of us still own phonograph records. These pieces of "
14069 "plastic encode music that in a certain sense we have bought. The law "
14070 "protects our right to buy and sell that plastic: It is not a copyright "
14071 "infringement for me to sell all my classical records at a used record store "
14072 "and buy jazz records to replace them. That <quote>use</quote> of the "
14073 "recordings is free."
14076 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14077 #: freeculture.xml:10168
14079 "But as the MP3 craze has demonstrated, there is another use of phonograph "
14080 "records that is effectively free. Because these recordings were made without "
14081 "copy-protection technologies, I am <quote>free</quote> to copy, or "
14082 "<quote>rip,</quote> music from my records onto a computer hard disk. Indeed, "
14083 "Apple Corporation went so far as to suggest that <quote>freedom</quote> was "
14084 "a right: In a series of commercials, Apple endorsed the <quote>Rip, Mix, "
14085 "Burn</quote> capacities of digital technologies."
14088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14089 #: freeculture.xml:10176
14093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
14094 #: freeculture.xml:10177
14095 msgid "mix technology and"
14098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14099 #: freeculture.xml:10179
14101 "This <quote>use</quote> of my records is certainly valuable. I have begun a "
14102 "large process at home of ripping all of my and my wife's CDs, and storing "
14103 "them in one archive. Then, using Apple's iTunes, or a wonderful program "
14104 "called Andromeda, we can build different play lists of our music: Bach, "
14105 "Baroque, Love Songs, Love Songs of Significant Others—the potential is "
14106 "endless. And by reducing the costs of mixing play lists, these technologies "
14107 "help build a creativity with play lists that is itself independently "
14108 "valuable. Compilations of songs are creative and meaningful in their own "
14112 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14113 #: freeculture.xml:10190
14115 "This use is enabled by unprotected media—either CDs or records. But "
14116 "unprotected media also enable file sharing. File sharing threatens (or so "
14117 "the content industry believes) the ability of creators to earn a fair return "
14118 "from their creativity. And thus, many are beginning to experiment with "
14119 "technologies to eliminate unprotected media. These technologies, for "
14120 "example, would enable CDs that could not be ripped. Or they might enable spy "
14121 "programs to identify ripped content on people's machines."
14125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14126 #: freeculture.xml:10200
14128 "If these technologies took off, then the building of large archives of your "
14129 "own music would become quite difficult. You might hang in hacker circles, "
14130 "and get technology to disable the technologies that protect the "
14131 "content. Trading in those technologies is illegal, but maybe that doesn't "
14132 "bother you much. In any case, for the vast majority of people, these "
14133 "protection technologies would effectively destroy the archiving use of "
14134 "CDs. The technology, in other words, would force us all back to the world "
14135 "where we either listened to music by manipulating pieces of plastic or were "
14136 "part of a massively complex <quote>digital rights management</quote> system."
14139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14140 #: freeculture.xml:10215
14142 "If the only way to assure that artists get paid were the elimination of the "
14143 "ability to freely move content, then these technologies to interfere with "
14144 "the freedom to move content would be justifiable. But what if there were "
14145 "another way to assure that artists are paid, without locking down any "
14146 "content? What if, in other words, a different system could assure "
14147 "compensation to artists while also preserving the freedom to move content "
14151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14152 #: freeculture.xml:10224
14154 "My point just now is not to prove that there is such a system. I offer a "
14155 "version of such a system in the last chapter of this book. For now, the only "
14156 "point is the relatively uncontroversial one: If a different system achieved "
14157 "the same legitimate objectives that the existing copyright system achieved, "
14158 "but left consumers and creators much more free, then we'd have a very good "
14159 "reason to pursue this alternative—namely, freedom. The choice, in "
14160 "other words, would not be between property and piracy; the choice would be "
14161 "between different property systems and the freedoms each allowed."
14164 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14165 #: freeculture.xml:10235
14167 "I believe there is a way to assure that artists are paid without turning "
14168 "forty-three million Americans into felons. But the salient feature of this "
14169 "alternative is that it would lead to a very different market for producing "
14170 "and distributing creativity. The dominant few, who today control the vast "
14171 "majority of the distribution of content in the world, would no longer "
14172 "exercise this extreme of control. Rather, they would go the way of the "
14173 "horse-drawn buggy."
14176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14177 #: freeculture.xml:10244
14179 "Except that this generation's buggy manufacturers have already saddled "
14180 "Congress, and are riding the law to protect themselves against this new form "
14181 "of competition. For them the choice is between fortythree million Americans "
14182 "as criminals and their own survival."
14186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14187 #: freeculture.xml:10250
14189 "It is understandable why they choose as they do. It is not understandable "
14190 "why we as a democracy continue to choose as we do. Jack Valenti is charming; "
14191 "but not so charming as to justify giving up a tradition as deep and "
14192 "important as our tradition of free culture."
14195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14196 #: freeculture.xml:10261
14198 "<emphasis role='strong'>There's one more</emphasis> aspect to this "
14199 "corruption that is particularly important to civil liberties, and follows "
14200 "directly from any war of prohibition. As Electronic Frontier Foundation "
14201 "attorney Fred von Lohmann describes, this is the <quote>collateral "
14202 "damage</quote> that <quote>arises whenever you turn a very large percentage "
14203 "of the population into criminals.</quote> This is the collateral damage to "
14204 "civil liberties generally."
14207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14208 #: freeculture.xml:10269 freeculture.xml:10369
14209 msgid "von Lohmann, Fred"
14212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14213 #: freeculture.xml:10271
14215 "<quote>If you can treat someone as a putative lawbreaker,</quote> von "
14216 "Lohmann explains,"
14219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14220 #: freeculture.xml:10276
14222 "then all of a sudden a lot of basic civil liberty protections evaporate to "
14223 "one degree or another. … If you're a copyright infringer, how can you "
14224 "hope to have any privacy rights? If you're a copyright infringer, how can "
14225 "you hope to be secure against seizures of your computer? How can you hope to "
14226 "continue to receive Internet access? … Our sensibilities change as "
14227 "soon as we think, <quote>Oh, well, but that person's a criminal, a "
14228 "lawbreaker.</quote> Well, what this campaign against file sharing has done "
14229 "is turn a remarkable percentage of the American Internet-using population "
14230 "into <quote>lawbreakers.</quote>"
14233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14234 #: freeculture.xml:10288
14236 "And the consequence of this transformation of the American public into "
14237 "criminals is that it becomes trivial, as a matter of due process, to "
14238 "effectively erase much of the privacy most would presume."
14241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14242 #: freeculture.xml:10293
14244 "Users of the Internet began to see this generally in 2003 as the RIAA "
14245 "launched its campaign to force Internet service providers to turn over the "
14246 "names of customers who the RIAA believed were violating copyright "
14247 "law. Verizon fought that demand and lost. With a simple request to a judge, "
14248 "and without any notice to the customer at all, the identity of an Internet "
14249 "user is revealed."
14253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14254 #: freeculture.xml:10311
14256 "See Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single "
14257 "Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> "
14258 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Chris Cobbs, "
14259 "<quote>Worried Parents Pull Plug on File `Stealing'; With the Music Industry "
14260 "Cracking Down on File Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs "
14261 "to Avoid Being Sued,</quote> <citetitle>Orlando Sentinel "
14262 "Tribune</citetitle>, 30 August 2003, C1; Jefferson Graham, <quote>Recording "
14263 "Industry Sues Parents,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 15 "
14264 "September 2003, 4D; John Schwartz, <quote>She Says She's No Music Pirate. No "
14265 "Snoop Fan, Either,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 25 "
14266 "September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, <quote>Is Brianna a Criminal?</quote> "
14267 "<citetitle>Toronto Star</citetitle>, 18 September 2003, P7."
14270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14271 #: freeculture.xml:10302
14273 "The RIAA then expanded this campaign, by announcing a general strategy to "
14274 "sue individual users of the Internet who are alleged to have downloaded "
14275 "copyrighted music from file-sharing systems. But as we've seen, the "
14276 "potential damages from these suits are astronomical: If a family's computer "
14277 "is used to download a single CD's worth of music, the family could be liable "
14278 "for $2 million in damages. That didn't stop the RIAA from suing a number of "
14279 "these families, just as they had sued Jesse Jordan.<placeholder "
14280 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14285 #: freeculture.xml:10329
14287 "See <quote>Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses "
14288 "Some Methods Used,</quote> CNN.com, available at <ulink "
14289 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #47</ulink>."
14292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14293 #: freeculture.xml:10325
14295 "Even this understates the espionage that is being waged by the RIAA. A "
14296 "report from CNN late last summer described a strategy the RIAA had adopted "
14297 "to track Napster users.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Using a "
14298 "sophisticated hashing algorithm, the RIAA took what is in effect a "
14299 "fingerprint of every song in the Napster catalog. Any copy of one of those "
14300 "MP3s will have the same <quote>fingerprint.</quote>"
14304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14305 #: freeculture.xml:10350
14307 "See Jeff Adler, <quote>Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not "
14308 "Penitent,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 18 May 2003, City "
14309 "Weekly, 1; Frank Ahrens, <quote>Four Students Sued over Music Sites; "
14310 "Industry Group Targets File Sharing at Colleges,</quote> "
14311 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 4 April 2003, E1; Elizabeth "
14312 "Armstrong, <quote>Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,</quote> "
14313 "<citetitle>Christian Science Monitor</citetitle>, 2 September 2003, 20; "
14314 "Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, <quote>Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; "
14315 "Two Students Names Are Handed Over; Lawsuit Possible,</quote> "
14316 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, "
14317 "<quote>RIAA Trains Antipiracy Guns on Universities,</quote> "
14318 "<citetitle>Internet News</citetitle>, 30 January 2003, available at <ulink "
14319 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #48</ulink>; Benny Evangelista, "
14320 "<quote>Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation This Fall to Include "
14321 "Record Industry Warnings Against File Sharing,</quote> <citetitle>San "
14322 "Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 11 August 2003, E11; <quote>Raid, Letters "
14323 "Are Weapons at Universities,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 26 "
14324 "September 2000, 3D."
14327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14328 #: freeculture.xml:10338
14330 "So imagine the following not-implausible scenario: Imagine a friend gives a "
14331 "CD to your daughter—a collection of songs just like the cassettes you "
14332 "used to make as a kid. You don't know, and neither does your daughter, where "
14333 "these songs came from. But she copies these songs onto her computer. She "
14334 "then takes her computer to college and connects it to a college network, and "
14335 "if the college network is <quote>cooperating</quote> with the RIAA's "
14336 "espionage, and she hasn't properly protected her content from the network "
14337 "(do you know how to do that yourself ?), then the RIAA will be able to "
14338 "identify your daughter as a <quote>criminal.</quote> And under the rules "
14339 "that universities are beginning to deploy,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14340 "id=\"0\"/> your daughter can lose the right to use the university's computer "
14341 "network. She can, in some cases, be expelled."
14345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14346 #: freeculture.xml:10371
14348 "Now, of course, she'll have the right to defend herself. You can hire a "
14349 "lawyer for her (at $300 per hour, if you're lucky), and she can plead that "
14350 "she didn't know anything about the source of the songs or that they came "
14351 "from Napster. And it may well be that the university believes her. But the "
14352 "university might not believe her. It might treat this "
14353 "<quote>contraband</quote> as presumptive of guilt. And as any number of "
14354 "college students have already learned, our presumptions about innocence "
14355 "disappear in the middle of wars of prohibition. This war is no different. "
14356 "Says von Lohmann,"
14359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14360 #: freeculture.xml:10386
14362 "So when we're talking about numbers like forty to sixty million Americans "
14363 "that are essentially copyright infringers, you create a situation where the "
14364 "civil liberties of those people are very much in peril in a general "
14365 "matter. [I don't] think [there is any] analog where you could randomly "
14366 "choose any person off the street and be confident that they were committing "
14367 "an unlawful act that could put them on the hook for potential felony "
14368 "liability or hundreds of millions of dollars of civil liability. Certainly "
14369 "we all speed, but speeding isn't the kind of an act for which we routinely "
14370 "forfeit civil liberties. Some people use drugs, and I think that's the "
14371 "closest analog, [but] many have noted that the war against drugs has eroded "
14372 "all of our civil liberties because it's treated so many Americans as "
14373 "criminals. Well, I think it's fair to say that file sharing is an order of "
14374 "magnitude larger number of Americans than drug use. … If forty to "
14375 "sixty million Americans have become lawbreakers, then we're really on a "
14376 "slippery slope to lose a lot of civil liberties for all forty to sixty "
14380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14381 #: freeculture.xml:10406
14383 "When forty to sixty million Americans are considered "
14384 "<quote>criminals</quote> under the law, and when the law could achieve the "
14385 "same objective— securing rights to authors—without these "
14386 "millions being considered <quote>criminals,</quote> who is the villain? "
14387 "Americans or the law? Which is American, a constant war on our own people or "
14388 "a concerted effort through our democracy to change our law?"
14391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
14392 #: freeculture.xml:10419
14396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14397 #: freeculture.xml:10424
14399 "<emphasis role='strong'>So here's</emphasis> the picture: You're standing at "
14400 "the side of the road. Your car is on fire. You are angry and upset because "
14401 "in part you helped start the fire. Now you don't know how to put it "
14402 "out. Next to you is a bucket, filled with gasoline. Obviously, gasoline "
14403 "won't put the fire out."
14406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14407 #: freeculture.xml:10431
14409 "As you ponder the mess, someone else comes along. In a panic, she grabs the "
14410 "bucket. Before you have a chance to tell her to stop—or before she "
14411 "understands just why she should stop—the bucket is in the air. The "
14412 "gasoline is about to hit the blazing car. And the fire that gasoline will "
14413 "ignite is about to ignite everything around."
14416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14417 #: freeculture.xml:10439
14419 "<emphasis role='strong'>A war</emphasis> about copyright rages all "
14420 "around—and we're all focusing on the wrong thing. No doubt, current "
14421 "technologies threaten existing businesses. No doubt they may threaten "
14422 "artists. But technologies change. The industry and technologists have "
14423 "plenty of ways to use technology to protect themselves against the current "
14424 "threats of the Internet. This is a fire that if let alone would burn itself "
14429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14430 #: freeculture.xml:10449
14432 "Yet policy makers are not willing to leave this fire to itself. Primed with "
14433 "plenty of lobbyists' money, they are keen to intervene to eliminate the "
14434 "problem they perceive. But the problem they perceive is not the real threat "
14435 "this culture faces. For while we watch this small fire in the corner, there "
14436 "is a massive change in the way culture is made that is happening all around."
14439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14440 #: freeculture.xml:10457
14442 "Somehow we have to find a way to turn attention to this more important and "
14443 "fundamental issue. Somehow we have to find a way to avoid pouring gasoline "
14447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14448 #: freeculture.xml:10462
14450 "We have not found that way yet. Instead, we seem trapped in a simpler, "
14451 "binary view. However much many people push to frame this debate more "
14452 "broadly, it is the simple, binary view that remains. We rubberneck to look "
14453 "at the fire when we should be keeping our eyes on the road."
14456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14457 #: freeculture.xml:10468
14459 "This challenge has been my life these last few years. It has also been my "
14460 "failure. In the two chapters that follow, I describe one small brace of "
14461 "efforts, so far failed, to find a way to refocus this debate. We must "
14462 "understand these failures if we're to understand what success will require."
14465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
14466 #: freeculture.xml:10478
14467 msgid "CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Eldred"
14470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14471 #: freeculture.xml:10479
14472 msgid "Hawthorne, Nathaniel"
14475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14476 #: freeculture.xml:10481
14478 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1995</emphasis>, a father was frustrated that his "
14479 "daughters didn't seem to like Hawthorne. No doubt there was more than one "
14480 "such father, but at least one did something about it. Eric Eldred, a retired "
14481 "computer programmer living in New Hampshire, decided to put Hawthorne on the "
14482 "Web. An electronic version, Eldred thought, with links to pictures and "
14483 "explanatory text, would make this nineteenth-century author's work come "
14487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14488 #: freeculture.xml:10490
14490 "It didn't work—at least for his daughters. They didn't find Hawthorne "
14491 "any more interesting than before. But Eldred's experiment gave birth to a "
14492 "hobby, and his hobby begat a cause: Eldred would build a library of public "
14493 "domain works by scanning these works and making them available for free."
14497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14498 #: freeculture.xml:10497
14500 "Eldred's library was not simply a copy of certain public domain works, "
14501 "though even a copy would have been of great value to people across the world "
14502 "who can't get access to printed versions of these works. Instead, Eldred was "
14503 "producing derivative works from these public domain works. Just as Disney "
14504 "turned Grimm into stories more accessible to the twentieth century, Eldred "
14505 "transformed Hawthorne, and many others, into a form more "
14506 "accessible—technically accessible—today."
14509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14510 #: freeculture.xml:10508
14512 "Eldred's freedom to do this with Hawthorne's work grew from the same source "
14513 "as Disney's. Hawthorne's <citetitle>Scarlet Letter</citetitle> had passed "
14514 "into the public domain in 1907. It was free for anyone to take without the "
14515 "permission of the Hawthorne estate or anyone else. Some, such as Dover Press "
14516 "and Penguin Classics, take works from the public domain and produce printed "
14517 "editions, which they sell in bookstores across the country. Others, such as "
14518 "Disney, take these stories and turn them into animated cartoons, sometimes "
14519 "successfully (<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle>), sometimes not "
14520 "(<citetitle>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</citetitle>, <citetitle>Treasure "
14521 "Planet</citetitle>). These are all commercial publications of public domain "
14526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14527 #: freeculture.xml:10532
14529 "There's a parallel here with pornography that is a bit hard to describe, but "
14530 "it's a strong one. One phenomenon that the Internet created was a world of "
14531 "noncommercial pornographers—people who were distributing porn but were "
14532 "not making money directly or indirectly from that distribution. Such a "
14533 "class didn't exist before the Internet came into being because the costs of "
14534 "distributing porn were so high. Yet this new class of distributors got "
14535 "special attention in the Supreme Court, when the Court struck down the "
14536 "Communications Decency Act of 1996. It was partly because of the burden on "
14537 "noncommercial speakers that the statute was found to exceed Congress's "
14538 "power. The same point could have been made about noncommercial publishers "
14539 "after the advent of the Internet. The Eric Eldreds of the world before the "
14540 "Internet were extremely few. Yet one would think it at least as important to "
14541 "protect the Eldreds of the world as to protect noncommercial pornographers."
14544 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14545 #: freeculture.xml:10521
14547 "The Internet created the possibility of noncommercial publications of public "
14548 "domain works. Eldred's is just one example. There are literally thousands of "
14549 "others. Hundreds of thousands from across the world have discovered this "
14550 "platform of expression and now use it to share works that are, by law, free "
14551 "for the taking. This has produced what we might call the "
14552 "<quote>noncommercial publishing industry,</quote> which before the Internet "
14553 "was limited to people with large egos or with political or social "
14554 "causes. But with the Internet, it includes a wide range of individuals and "
14555 "groups dedicated to spreading culture generally.<placeholder "
14556 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14560 #: freeculture.xml:10549
14562 "As I said, Eldred lives in New Hampshire. In 1998, Robert Frost's collection "
14563 "of poems <citetitle>New Hampshire</citetitle> was slated to pass into the "
14564 "public domain. Eldred wanted to post that collection in his free public "
14565 "library. But Congress got in the way. As I described in chapter <xref "
14566 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, in 1998, for the "
14567 "eleventh time in forty years, Congress extended the terms of existing "
14568 "copyrights—this time by twenty years. Eldred would not be free to add "
14569 "any works more recent than 1923 to his collection until 2019. Indeed, no "
14570 "copyrighted work would pass into the public domain until that year (and not "
14571 "even then, if Congress extends the term again). By contrast, in the same "
14572 "period, more than 1 million patents will pass into the public domain."
14575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14576 #: freeculture.xml:10562 freeculture.xml:10572
14580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14581 #: freeculture.xml:10563 freeculture.xml:10573
14582 msgid "Bono, Sonny"
14585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14586 #: freeculture.xml:10572
14588 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14589 "id=\"1\"/> The full text is: <quote>Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of "
14590 "copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a "
14591 "change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me "
14592 "to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you "
14593 "know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less "
14594 "one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress,</quote> 144 "
14595 "Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998)."
14598 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14599 #: freeculture.xml:10567
14601 "This was the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), enacted in "
14602 "memory of the congressman and former musician Sonny Bono, who, his widow, "
14603 "Mary Bono, says, believed that <quote>copyrights should be "
14604 "forever.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14608 #: freeculture.xml:10585
14610 "Eldred decided to fight this law. He first resolved to fight it through "
14611 "civil disobedience. In a series of interviews, Eldred announced that he "
14612 "would publish as planned, CTEA notwithstanding. But because of a second law "
14613 "passed in 1998, the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act, his act of publishing "
14614 "would make Eldred a felon—whether or not anyone complained. This was a "
14615 "dangerous strategy for a disabled programmer to undertake."
14618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14619 #: freeculture.xml:10594
14621 "It was here that I became involved in Eldred's battle. I was a "
14622 "constitutional scholar whose first passion was constitutional "
14623 "interpretation. And though constitutional law courses never focus upon the "
14624 "Progress Clause of the Constitution, it had always struck me as importantly "
14625 "different. As you know, the Constitution says,"
14628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
14629 #: freeculture.xml:10605
14631 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science … by "
14632 "securing for limited Times to Authors … exclusive Right to their "
14633 "… Writings. …"
14636 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14637 #: freeculture.xml:10611
14639 "As I've described, this clause is unique within the power-granting clause of "
14640 "Article I, section 8 of our Constitution. Every other clause granting power "
14641 "to Congress simply says Congress has the power to do something—for "
14642 "example, to regulate <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> or "
14643 "<quote>declare War.</quote> But here, the <quote>something</quote> is "
14644 "something quite specific—to <quote>promote … "
14645 "Progress</quote>—through means that are also specific— by "
14646 "<quote>securing</quote> <quote>exclusive Rights</quote> (i.e., copyrights) "
14647 "<quote>for limited Times.</quote>"
14650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14651 #: freeculture.xml:10620 freeculture.xml:12102
14652 msgid "Jaszi, Peter"
14656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14657 #: freeculture.xml:10622
14659 "In the past forty years, Congress has gotten into the practice of extending "
14660 "existing terms of copyright protection. What puzzled me about this was, if "
14661 "Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then the Constitution's "
14662 "requirement that terms be <quote>limited</quote> will have no practical "
14663 "effect. If every time a copyright is about to expire, Congress has the power "
14664 "to extend its term, then Congress can achieve what the Constitution plainly "
14665 "forbids—perpetual terms <quote>on the installment plan,</quote> as "
14666 "Professor Peter Jaszi so nicely put it."
14669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14670 #: freeculture.xml:10633
14672 "As an academic, my first response was to hit the books. I remember sitting "
14673 "late at the office, scouring on-line databases for any serious consideration "
14674 "of the question. No one had ever challenged Congress's practice of extending "
14675 "existing terms. That failure may in part be why Congress seemed so "
14676 "untroubled in its habit. That, and the fact that the practice had become so "
14677 "lucrative for Congress. Congress knows that copyright owners will be willing "
14678 "to pay a great deal of money to see their copyright terms extended. And so "
14679 "Congress is quite happy to keep this gravy train going."
14682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14683 #: freeculture.xml:10644
14685 "For this is the core of the corruption in our present system of "
14686 "government. <quote>Corruption</quote> not in the sense that representatives "
14687 "are bribed. Rather, <quote>corruption</quote> in the sense that the system "
14688 "induces the beneficiaries of Congress's acts to raise and give money to "
14689 "Congress to induce it to act. There's only so much time; there's only so "
14690 "much Congress can do. Why not limit its actions to those things it must "
14691 "do—and those things that pay? Extending copyright terms pays."
14694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14695 #: freeculture.xml:10653
14697 "If that's not obvious to you, consider the following: Say you're one of the "
14698 "very few lucky copyright owners whose copyright continues to make money one "
14699 "hundred years after it was created. The Estate of Robert Frost is a good "
14700 "example. Frost died in 1963. His poetry continues to be extraordinarily "
14701 "valuable. Thus the Robert Frost estate benefits greatly from any extension "
14702 "of copyright, since no publisher would pay the estate any money if the poems "
14703 "Frost wrote could be published by anyone for free."
14706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14707 #: freeculture.xml:10663
14709 "So imagine the Robert Frost estate is earning $100,000 a year from three of "
14710 "Frost's poems. And imagine the copyright for those poems is about to "
14711 "expire. You sit on the board of the Robert Frost estate. Your financial "
14712 "adviser comes to your board meeting with a very grim report:"
14716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14717 #: freeculture.xml:10670
14719 "<quote>Next year,</quote> the adviser announces, <quote>our copyrights in "
14720 "works A, B, and C will expire. That means that after next year, we will no "
14721 "longer be receiving the annual royalty check of $100,000 from the publishers "
14722 "of those works.</quote>"
14725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14726 #: freeculture.xml:10678
14728 "<quote>There's a proposal in Congress, however,</quote> she continues, "
14729 "<quote>that could change this. A few congressmen are floating a bill to "
14730 "extend the terms of copyright by twenty years. That bill would be "
14731 "extraordinarily valuable to us. So we should hope this bill passes.</quote>"
14734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14735 #: freeculture.xml:10684
14737 "<quote>Hope?</quote> a fellow board member says. <quote>Can't we be doing "
14738 "something about it?</quote>"
14741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14742 #: freeculture.xml:10688
14744 "<quote>Well, obviously, yes,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>We could "
14745 "contribute to the campaigns of a number of representatives to try to assure "
14746 "that they support the bill.</quote>"
14749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14750 #: freeculture.xml:10693
14752 "You hate politics. You hate contributing to campaigns. So you want to know "
14753 "whether this disgusting practice is worth it. <quote>How much would we get "
14754 "if this extension were passed?</quote> you ask the adviser. <quote>How much "
14755 "is it worth?</quote>"
14758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14759 #: freeculture.xml:10699
14761 "<quote>Well,</quote> the adviser says, <quote>if you're confident that you "
14762 "will continue to get at least $100,000 a year from these copyrights, and you "
14763 "use the `discount rate' that we use to evaluate estate investments (6 "
14764 "percent), then this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate.</quote>"
14767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14768 #: freeculture.xml:10705
14770 "You're a bit shocked by the number, but you quickly come to the correct "
14774 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14775 #: freeculture.xml:10709
14777 "<quote>So you're saying it would be worth it for us to pay more than "
14778 "$1,000,000 in campaign contributions if we were confident those "
14779 "contributions would assure that the bill was passed?</quote>"
14782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14783 #: freeculture.xml:10715
14785 "<quote>Absolutely,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>It is worth it to "
14786 "you to contribute up to the `present value' of the income you expect from "
14787 "these copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000.</quote>"
14791 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14792 #: freeculture.xml:10721
14794 "You quickly get the point—you as the member of the board and, I trust, "
14795 "you the reader. Each time copyrights are about to expire, every beneficiary "
14796 "in the position of the Robert Frost estate faces the same choice: If they "
14797 "can contribute to get a law passed to extend copyrights, they will benefit "
14798 "greatly from that extension. And so each time copyrights are about to "
14799 "expire, there is a massive amount of lobbying to get the copyright term "
14803 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14804 #: freeculture.xml:10732
14806 "Thus a congressional perpetual motion machine: So long as legislation can be "
14807 "bought (albeit indirectly), there will be all the incentive in the world to "
14808 "buy further extensions of copyright."
14812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14813 #: freeculture.xml:10744
14815 "Associated Press, <quote>Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey "
14816 "Mouse Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years,</quote> "
14817 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 17 October 1998, 22."
14821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14822 #: freeculture.xml:10751
14824 "See Nick Brown, <quote>Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information "
14825 "Age,</quote> available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
14830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14831 #: freeculture.xml:10759
14833 "Alan K. Ota, <quote>Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars,</quote> "
14834 "<citetitle>Congressional Quarterly This Week</citetitle>, 8 August 1990, "
14835 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #50</ulink>."
14838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14839 #: freeculture.xml:10737
14841 "In the lobbying that led to the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term "
14842 "Extension Act, this <quote>theory</quote> about incentives was proved "
14843 "real. Ten of the thirteen original sponsors of the act in the House received "
14844 "the maximum contribution from Disney's political action committee; in the "
14845 "Senate, eight of the twelve sponsors received contributions.<placeholder "
14846 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The RIAA and the MPAA are estimated to have "
14847 "spent over $1.5 million lobbying in the 1998 election cycle. They paid out "
14848 "more than $200,000 in campaign contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14849 "id=\"1\"/> Disney is estimated to have contributed more than $800,000 to "
14850 "reelection campaigns in the cycle.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
14853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14854 #: freeculture.xml:10766
14856 "<emphasis role='strong'>Constitutional law</emphasis> is not oblivious to "
14857 "the obvious. Or at least, it need not be. So when I was considering Eldred's "
14858 "complaint, this reality about the never-ending incentives to increase the "
14859 "copyright term was central to my thinking. In my view, a pragmatic court "
14860 "committed to interpreting and applying the Constitution of our framers would "
14861 "see that if Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then there "
14862 "would be no effective constitutional requirement that terms be "
14863 "<quote>limited.</quote> If they could extend it once, they would extend it "
14864 "again and again and again."
14868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14869 #: freeculture.xml:10778
14871 "It was also my judgment that <emphasis>this</emphasis> Supreme Court would "
14872 "not allow Congress to extend existing terms. As anyone close to the Supreme "
14873 "Court's work knows, this Court has increasingly restricted the power of "
14874 "Congress when it has viewed Congress's actions as exceeding the power "
14875 "granted to it by the Constitution. Among constitutional scholars, the most "
14876 "famous example of this trend was the Supreme Court's decision in 1995 to "
14877 "strike down a law that banned the possession of guns near schools."
14880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14881 #: freeculture.xml:10791
14883 "Since 1937, the Supreme Court had interpreted Congress's granted powers very "
14884 "broadly; so, while the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate "
14885 "only <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> (aka <quote>interstate "
14886 "commerce</quote>), the Supreme Court had interpreted that power to include "
14887 "the power to regulate any activity that merely affected interstate commerce."
14890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14891 #: freeculture.xml:10801
14893 "As the economy grew, this standard increasingly meant that there was no "
14894 "limit to Congress's power to regulate, since just about every activity, when "
14895 "considered on a national scale, affects interstate commerce. A Constitution "
14896 "designed to limit Congress's power was instead interpreted to impose no "
14900 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14901 #: freeculture.xml:10807 freeculture.xml:11589
14902 msgid "Rehnquist, William H."
14905 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14906 #: freeculture.xml:10809
14908 "The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Rehnquist's command, changed that in "
14909 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The "
14910 "government had argued that possessing guns near schools affected interstate "
14911 "commerce. Guns near schools increase crime, crime lowers property values, "
14912 "and so on. In the oral argument, the Chief Justice asked the government "
14913 "whether there was any activity that would not affect interstate commerce "
14914 "under the reasoning the government advanced. The government said there was "
14915 "not; if Congress says an activity affects interstate commerce, then that "
14916 "activity affects interstate commerce. The Supreme Court, the government "
14917 "said, was not in the position to second-guess Congress."
14921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14922 #: freeculture.xml:10824
14924 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>, 514 "
14925 "U.S. 549, 564 (1995)."
14929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14930 #: freeculture.xml:10831
14932 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>, 529 "
14936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14937 #: freeculture.xml:10822
14939 "<quote>We pause to consider the implications of the government's "
14940 "arguments,</quote> the Chief Justice wrote.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14941 "id=\"0\"/> If anything Congress says is interstate commerce must therefore "
14942 "be considered interstate commerce, then there would be no limit to "
14943 "Congress's power. The decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> was "
14944 "reaffirmed five years later in <citetitle>United States</citetitle> "
14945 "v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
14949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14950 #: freeculture.xml:10838
14952 "If it is a principle about enumerated powers, then the principle carries "
14953 "from one enumerated power to another. The animating point in the context of "
14954 "the Commerce Clause was that the interpretation offered by the government "
14955 "would allow the government unending power to regulate commerce—the "
14956 "limitation to interstate commerce notwithstanding. The same point is true in "
14957 "the context of the Copyright Clause. Here, too, the government's "
14958 "interpretation would allow the government unending power to regulate "
14959 "copyrights—the limitation to <quote>limited times</quote> "
14964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14965 #: freeculture.xml:10835
14967 "If a principle were at work here, then it should apply to the Progress "
14968 "Clause as much as the Commerce Clause.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14969 "id=\"0\"/> And if it is applied to the Progress Clause, the principle should "
14970 "yield the conclusion that Congress can't extend an existing term. If "
14971 "Congress could extend an existing term, then there would be no "
14972 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power over terms, though the "
14973 "Constitution expressly states that there is such a limit. Thus, the same "
14974 "principle applied to the power to grant copyrights should entail that "
14975 "Congress is not allowed to extend the term of existing copyrights."
14978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14979 #: freeculture.xml:10859
14981 "<emphasis>If</emphasis>, that is, the principle announced in "
14982 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for a principle. Many believed the "
14983 "decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for politics—a "
14984 "conservative Supreme Court, which believed in states' rights, using its "
14985 "power over Congress to advance its own personal political preferences. But I "
14986 "rejected that view of the Supreme Court's decision. Indeed, shortly after "
14987 "the decision, I wrote an article demonstrating the <quote>fidelity</quote> "
14988 "in such an interpretation of the Constitution. The idea that the Supreme "
14989 "Court decides cases based upon its politics struck me as extraordinarily "
14990 "boring. I was not going to devote my life to teaching constitutional law if "
14991 "these nine Justices were going to be petty politicians."
14994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14995 #: freeculture.xml:10872
14997 "<emphasis role='strong'>Now let's pause</emphasis> for a moment to make sure "
14998 "we understand what the argument in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was not "
14999 "about. By insisting on the Constitution's limits to copyright, obviously "
15000 "Eldred was not endorsing piracy. Indeed, in an obvious sense, he was "
15001 "fighting a kind of piracy—piracy of the public domain. When Robert "
15002 "Frost wrote his work and when Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, the maximum "
15003 "copyright term was just fifty-six years. Because of interim changes, Frost "
15004 "and Disney had already enjoyed a seventy-five-year monopoly for their "
15005 "work. They had gotten the benefit of the bargain that the Constitution "
15006 "envisions: In exchange for a monopoly protected for fifty-six years, they "
15007 "created new work. But now these entities were using their "
15008 "power—expressed through the power of lobbyists' money—to get "
15009 "another twenty-year dollop of monopoly. That twenty-year dollop would be "
15010 "taken from the public domain. Eric Eldred was fighting a piracy that affects "
15014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15015 #: freeculture.xml:10889
15016 msgid "Nashville Songwriters Association"
15020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15021 #: freeculture.xml:10897
15023 "Brief of the Nashville Songwriters Association, "
15024 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. "
15025 "186 (2003) (No. 01-618), n.10, available at <ulink "
15026 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #51</ulink>."
15029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15030 #: freeculture.xml:10891
15032 "Some people view the public domain with contempt. In their brief before the "
15033 "Supreme Court, the Nashville Songwriters Association wrote that the public "
15034 "domain is nothing more than <quote>legal piracy.</quote><placeholder "
15035 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is not piracy when the law allows it; "
15036 "and in our constitutional system, our law requires it. Some may not like the "
15037 "Constitution's requirements, but that doesn't make the Constitution a "
15038 "pirate's charter."
15041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15042 #: freeculture.xml:10907
15044 "As we've seen, our constitutional system requires limits on copyright as a "
15045 "way to assure that copyright holders do not too heavily influence the "
15046 "development and distribution of our culture. Yet, as Eric Eldred discovered, "
15047 "we have set up a system that assures that copyright terms will be repeatedly "
15048 "extended, and extended, and extended. We have created the perfect storm for "
15049 "the public domain. Copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long "
15050 "as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."
15053 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15054 #: freeculture.xml:10919
15056 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is valuable</emphasis> copyrights that are "
15057 "responsible for terms being extended. Mickey Mouse and <quote>Rhapsody in "
15058 "Blue.</quote> These works are too valuable for copyright owners to "
15059 "ignore. But the real harm to our society from copyright extensions is not "
15060 "that Mickey Mouse remains Disney's. Forget Mickey Mouse. Forget Robert "
15061 "Frost. Forget all the works from the 1920s and 1930s that have continuing "
15062 "commercial value. The real harm of term extension comes not from these "
15063 "famous works. The real harm is to the works that are not famous, not "
15064 "commercially exploited, and no longer available as a result."
15068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15069 #: freeculture.xml:10937
15071 "The figure of 2 percent is an extrapolation from the study by the "
15072 "Congressional Research Service, in light of the estimated renewal "
15073 "ranges. See Brief of Petitioners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15074 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 7, available at <ulink "
15075 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #52</ulink>."
15078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15079 #: freeculture.xml:10931
15081 "If you look at the work created in the first twenty years (1923 to 1942) "
15082 "affected by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 2 percent of that "
15083 "work has any continuing commercial value. It was the copyright holders for "
15084 "that 2 percent who pushed the CTEA through. But the law and its effect were "
15085 "not limited to that 2 percent. The law extended the terms of copyright "
15086 "generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15091 #: freeculture.xml:10946
15093 "Think practically about the consequence of this extension—practically, "
15094 "as a businessperson, and not as a lawyer eager for more legal work. In 1930, "
15095 "10,047 books were published. In 2000, 174 of those books were still in "
15096 "print. Let's say you were Brewster Kahle, and you wanted to make available "
15097 "to the world in your iArchive project the remaining 9,873. What would you "
15101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15102 #: freeculture.xml:10959
15104 "Well, first, you'd have to determine which of the 9,873 books were still "
15105 "under copyright. That requires going to a library (these data are not "
15106 "on-line) and paging through tomes of books, cross-checking the titles and "
15107 "authors of the 9,873 books with the copyright registration and renewal "
15108 "records for works published in 1930. That will produce a list of books still "
15112 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15113 #: freeculture.xml:10967
15115 "Then for the books still under copyright, you would need to locate the "
15116 "current copyright owners. How would you do that?"
15119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15120 #: freeculture.xml:10971
15122 "Most people think that there must be a list of these copyright owners "
15123 "somewhere. Practical people think this way. How could there be thousands and "
15124 "thousands of government monopolies without there being at least a list?"
15127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15128 #: freeculture.xml:10978
15130 "But there is no list. There may be a name from 1930, and then in 1959, of "
15131 "the person who registered the copyright. But just think practically about "
15132 "how impossibly difficult it would be to track down thousands of such "
15133 "records—especially since the person who registered is not necessarily "
15134 "the current owner. And we're just talking about 1930!"
15137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15138 #: freeculture.xml:10987
15140 "<quote>But there isn't a list of who owns property generally,</quote> the "
15141 "apologists for the system respond. <quote>Why should there be a list of "
15142 "copyright owners?</quote>"
15145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15146 #: freeculture.xml:10992
15148 "Well, actually, if you think about it, there <emphasis>are</emphasis> plenty "
15149 "of lists of who owns what property. Think about deeds on houses, or titles "
15150 "to cars. And where there isn't a list, the code of real space is pretty "
15151 "good at suggesting who the owner of a bit of property is. (A swing set in "
15152 "your backyard is probably yours.) So formally or informally, we have a "
15153 "pretty good way to know who owns what tangible property."
15157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15158 #: freeculture.xml:11001
15160 "So: You walk down a street and see a house. You can know who owns the house "
15161 "by looking it up in the courthouse registry. If you see a car, there is "
15162 "ordinarily a license plate that will link the owner to the car. If you see a "
15163 "bunch of children's toys sitting on the front lawn of a house, it's fairly "
15164 "easy to determine who owns the toys. And if you happen to see a baseball "
15165 "lying in a gutter on the side of the road, look around for a second for some "
15166 "kids playing ball. If you don't see any kids, then okay: Here's a bit of "
15167 "property whose owner we can't easily determine. It is the exception that "
15168 "proves the rule: that we ordinarily know quite well who owns what property."
15171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15172 #: freeculture.xml:11016
15174 "Compare this story to intangible property. You go into a library. The "
15175 "library owns the books. But who owns the copyrights? As I've already "
15176 "described, there's no list of copyright owners. There are authors' names, of "
15177 "course, but their copyrights could have been assigned, or passed down in an "
15178 "estate like Grandma's old jewelry. To know who owns what, you would have to "
15179 "hire a private detective. The bottom line: The owner cannot easily be "
15180 "located. And in a regime like ours, in which it is a felony to use such "
15181 "property without the property owner's permission, the property isn't going "
15185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15186 #: freeculture.xml:11028
15188 "The consequence with respect to old books is that they won't be digitized, "
15189 "and hence will simply rot away on shelves. But the consequence for other "
15190 "creative works is much more dire."
15193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15194 #: freeculture.xml:11033
15195 msgid "Agee, Michael"
15198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15199 #: freeculture.xml:11034 freeculture.xml:11469
15200 msgid "Hal Roach Studios"
15203 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15204 #: freeculture.xml:11035
15205 msgid "Laurel and Hardy Films"
15208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15209 #: freeculture.xml:11036
15210 msgid "Lucky Dog, The"
15214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15215 #: freeculture.xml:11049
15217 "See David G. Savage, <quote>High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright "
15218 "Law,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 6 October 2002; David "
15219 "Streitfeld, <quote>Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court "
15220 "Hears Arguments Today on Striking Down Copyright Extension,</quote> "
15221 "<citetitle>Orlando Sentinel Tribune</citetitle>, 9 October 2002."
15224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15225 #: freeculture.xml:11038
15227 "Consider the story of Michael Agee, chairman of Hal Roach Studios, which "
15228 "owns the copyrights for the Laurel and Hardy films. Agee is a direct "
15229 "beneficiary of the Bono Act. The Laurel and Hardy films were made between "
15230 "1921 and 1951. Only one of these films, <citetitle>The Lucky "
15231 "Dog</citetitle>, is currently out of copyright. But for the CTEA, films made "
15232 "after 1923 would have begun entering the public domain. Because Agee "
15233 "controls the exclusive rights for these popular films, he makes a great deal "
15234 "of money. According to one estimate, <quote>Roach has sold about 60,000 "
15235 "videocassettes and 50,000 DVDs of the duo's silent "
15236 "films.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15239 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15240 #: freeculture.xml:11056
15242 "Yet Agee opposed the CTEA. His reasons demonstrate a rare virtue in this "
15243 "culture: selflessness. He argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that "
15244 "the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will, if left standing, destroy "
15245 "a whole generation of American film."
15249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15250 #: freeculture.xml:11062
15252 "His argument is straightforward. A tiny fraction of this work has any "
15253 "continuing commercial value. The rest—to the extent it survives at "
15254 "all—sits in vaults gathering dust. It may be that some of this work "
15255 "not now commercially valuable will be deemed to be valuable by the owners of "
15256 "the vaults. For this to occur, however, the commercial benefit from the work "
15257 "must exceed the costs of making the work available for distribution."
15261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15262 #: freeculture.xml:11080
15264 "Brief of Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee as Amicus Curiae Supporting the "
15265 "Petitoners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15266 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01- 618), "
15267 "12. See also Brief of Amicus Curiae filed on behalf of Petitioners by the "
15268 "Internet Archive, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15269 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
15270 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #53</ulink>."
15273 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15274 #: freeculture.xml:11073
15276 "We can't know the benefits, but we do know a lot about the costs. For most "
15277 "of the history of film, the costs of restoring film were very high; digital "
15278 "technology has lowered these costs substantially. While it cost more than "
15279 "$10,000 to restore a ninety-minute black-and-white film in 1993, it can now "
15280 "cost as little as $100 to digitize one hour of mm film.<placeholder "
15281 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15285 #: freeculture.xml:11090
15287 "Restoration technology is not the only cost, nor the most important. "
15288 "Lawyers, too, are a cost, and increasingly, a very important one. In "
15289 "addition to preserving the film, a distributor needs to secure the rights. "
15290 "And to secure the rights for a film that is under copyright, you need to "
15291 "locate the copyright owner."
15294 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15295 #: freeculture.xml:11098
15297 "Or more accurately, <emphasis>owners</emphasis>. As we've seen, there isn't "
15298 "only a single copyright associated with a film; there are many. There isn't "
15299 "a single person whom you can contact about those copyrights; there are as "
15300 "many as can hold the rights, which turns out to be an extremely large "
15301 "number. Thus the costs of clearing the rights to these films is "
15302 "exceptionally high."
15305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15306 #: freeculture.xml:11106
15308 "<quote>But can't you just restore the film, distribute it, and then pay the "
15309 "copyright owner when she shows up?</quote> Sure, if you want to commit a "
15310 "felony. And even if you're not worried about committing a felony, when she "
15311 "does show up, she'll have the right to sue you for all the profits you have "
15312 "made. So, if you're successful, you can be fairly confident you'll be "
15313 "getting a call from someone's lawyer. And if you're not successful, you "
15314 "won't make enough to cover the costs of your own lawyer. Either way, you "
15315 "have to talk to a lawyer. And as is too often the case, saying you have to "
15316 "talk to a lawyer is the same as saying you won't make any money."
15320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15321 #: freeculture.xml:11117
15323 "For some films, the benefit of releasing the film may well exceed these "
15324 "costs. But for the vast majority of them, there is no way the benefit would "
15325 "outweigh the legal costs. Thus, for the vast majority of old films, Agee "
15326 "argued, the film will not be restored and distributed until the copyright "
15330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15331 #: freeculture.xml:11128
15333 "But by the time the copyright for these films expires, the film will have "
15334 "expired. These films were produced on nitrate-based stock, and nitrate stock "
15335 "dissolves over time. They will be gone, and the metal canisters in which "
15336 "they are now stored will be filled with nothing more than dust."
15339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15340 #: freeculture.xml:11136
15342 "<emphasis role='strong'>Of all the</emphasis> creative work produced by "
15343 "humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that "
15344 "tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. For that "
15345 "tiny fraction, the copyright creates incentives to produce and distribute "
15346 "the creative work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an "
15347 "<quote>engine of free expression.</quote>"
15350 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15351 #: freeculture.xml:11144
15353 "But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative "
15354 "work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books "
15355 "go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and "
15356 "film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a "
15357 "creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the "
15358 "commercial life ends."
15361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15362 #: freeculture.xml:11154
15364 "Yet that doesn't mean the life of the creative work ends. We don't keep "
15365 "libraries of books in order to compete with Barnes & Noble, and we don't "
15366 "have archives of films because we expect people to choose between spending "
15367 "Friday night watching new movies and spending Friday night watching a 1930 "
15368 "news documentary. The noncommercial life of culture is important and "
15369 "valuable—for entertainment but also, and more importantly, for "
15370 "knowledge. To understand who we are, and where we came from, and how we have "
15371 "made the mistakes that we have, we need to have access to this history."
15375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15376 #: freeculture.xml:11167
15378 "Copyrights in this context do not drive an engine of free expression. In "
15379 "this context, there is no need for an exclusive right. Copyrights in this "
15380 "context do no good."
15383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15384 #: freeculture.xml:11174
15386 "Yet, for most of our history, they also did little harm. For most of our "
15387 "history, when a work ended its commercial life, there was no "
15388 "<emphasis>copyright-related use</emphasis> that would be inhibited by an "
15389 "exclusive right. When a book went out of print, you could not buy it from a "
15390 "publisher. But you could still buy it from a used book store, and when a "
15391 "used book store sells it, in America, at least, there is no need to pay the "
15392 "copyright owner anything. Thus, the ordinary use of a book after its "
15393 "commercial life ended was a use that was independent of copyright law."
15396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15397 #: freeculture.xml:11185
15399 "The same was effectively true of film. Because the costs of restoring a "
15400 "film—the real economic costs, not the lawyer costs—were so high, "
15401 "it was never at all feasible to preserve or restore film. Like the remains "
15402 "of a great dinner, when it's over, it's over. Once a film passed out of its "
15403 "commercial life, it may have been archived for a bit, but that was the end "
15404 "of its life so long as the market didn't have more to offer."
15407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15408 #: freeculture.xml:11194
15410 "In other words, though copyright has been relatively short for most of our "
15411 "history, long copyrights wouldn't have mattered for the works that lost "
15412 "their commercial value. Long copyrights for these works would not have "
15413 "interfered with anything."
15416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15417 #: freeculture.xml:11200
15418 msgid "But this situation has now changed."
15421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15422 #: freeculture.xml:11204
15424 "One crucially important consequence of the emergence of digital technologies "
15425 "is to enable the archive that Brewster Kahle dreams of. Digital "
15426 "technologies now make it possible to preserve and give access to all sorts "
15427 "of knowledge. Once a book goes out of print, we can now imagine digitizing "
15428 "it and making it available to everyone, forever. Once a film goes out of "
15429 "distribution, we could digitize it and make it available to everyone, "
15430 "forever. Digital technologies give new life to copyrighted material after it "
15431 "passes out of its commercial life. It is now possible to preserve and assure "
15432 "universal access to this knowledge and culture, whereas before it was not."
15436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15437 #: freeculture.xml:11217
15439 "And now copyright law does get in the way. Every step of producing this "
15440 "digital archive of our culture infringes on the exclusive right of "
15441 "copyright. To digitize a book is to copy it. To do that requires permission "
15442 "of the copyright owner. The same with music, film, or any other aspect of "
15443 "our culture protected by copyright. The effort to make these things "
15444 "available to history, or to researchers, or to those who just want to "
15445 "explore, is now inhibited by a set of rules that were written for a "
15446 "radically different context."
15449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15450 #: freeculture.xml:11227
15452 "Here is the core of the harm that comes from extending terms: Now that "
15453 "technology enables us to rebuild the library of Alexandria, the law gets in "
15454 "the way. And it doesn't get in the way for any useful "
15455 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis> purpose, for the purpose of copyright is to "
15456 "enable the commercial market that spreads culture. No, we are talking about "
15457 "culture after it has lived its commercial life. In this context, copyright "
15458 "is serving no purpose <emphasis>at all</emphasis> related to the spread of "
15459 "knowledge. In this context, copyright is not an engine of free "
15460 "expression. Copyright is a brake."
15463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15464 #: freeculture.xml:11238
15466 "You may well ask, <quote>But if digital technologies lower the costs for "
15467 "Brewster Kahle, then they will lower the costs for Random House, too. So "
15468 "won't Random House do as well as Brewster Kahle in spreading culture "
15472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15473 #: freeculture.xml:11244
15475 "Maybe. Someday. But there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that "
15476 "publishers would be as complete as libraries. If Barnes & Noble offered "
15477 "to lend books from its stores for a low price, would that eliminate the need "
15478 "for libraries? Only if you think that the only role of a library is to serve "
15479 "what <quote>the market</quote> would demand. But if you think the role of a "
15480 "library is bigger than this—if you think its role is to archive "
15481 "culture, whether there's a demand for any particular bit of that culture or "
15482 "not—then we can't count on the commercial market to do our library "
15487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15488 #: freeculture.xml:11268
15490 "Jason Schultz, <quote>The Myth of the 1976 Copyright `Chaos' Theory,</quote> "
15491 "20 December 2002, available at <ulink "
15492 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #54</ulink>."
15495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15496 #: freeculture.xml:11256
15498 "I would be the first to agree that it should do as much as it can: We should "
15499 "rely upon the market as much as possible to spread and enable culture. My "
15500 "message is absolutely not antimarket. But where we see the market is not "
15501 "doing the job, then we should allow nonmarket forces the freedom to fill the "
15502 "gaps. As one researcher calculated for American culture, 94 percent of the "
15503 "films, books, and music produced between and 1946 is not commercially "
15504 "available. However much you love the commercial market, if access is a "
15505 "value, then 6 percent is a failure to provide that value.<placeholder "
15506 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15510 #: freeculture.xml:11275
15512 "<emphasis role='strong'>In January 1999</emphasis>, we filed a lawsuit on "
15513 "Eric Eldred's behalf in federal district court in Washington, D.C., asking "
15514 "the court to declare the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act "
15515 "unconstitutional. The two central claims that we made were (1) that "
15516 "extending existing terms violated the Constitution's <quote>limited "
15517 "Times</quote> requirement, and (2) that extending terms by another twenty "
15518 "years violated the First Amendment."
15521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15522 #: freeculture.xml:11284
15524 "The district court dismissed our claims without even hearing an argument. A "
15525 "panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also dismissed our "
15526 "claims, though after hearing an extensive argument. But that decision at "
15527 "least had a dissent, by one of the most conservative judges on that "
15528 "court. That dissent gave our claims life."
15531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15532 #: freeculture.xml:11291
15534 "Judge David Sentelle said the CTEA violated the requirement that copyrights "
15535 "be for <quote>limited Times</quote> only. His argument was as elegant as it "
15536 "was simple: If Congress can extend existing terms, then there is no "
15537 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power under the Copyright "
15538 "Clause. The power to extend existing terms means Congress is not required to "
15539 "grant terms that are <quote>limited.</quote> Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, "
15540 "the court had to interpret the term <quote>limited Times</quote> to give it "
15541 "meaning. And the best interpretation, Judge Sentelle argued, would be to "
15542 "deny Congress the power to extend existing terms."
15545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15546 #: freeculture.xml:11302
15548 "We asked the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as a whole to hear the "
15549 "case. Cases are ordinarily heard in panels of three, except for important "
15550 "cases or cases that raise issues specific to the circuit as a whole, where "
15551 "the court will sit <quote>en banc</quote> to hear the case."
15554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15555 #: freeculture.xml:11307
15556 msgid "Tatel, David"
15560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15561 #: freeculture.xml:11309
15563 "The Court of Appeals rejected our request to hear the case en banc. This "
15564 "time, Judge Sentelle was joined by the most liberal member of the "
15565 "D.C. Circuit, Judge David Tatel. Both the most conservative and the most "
15566 "liberal judges in the D.C. Circuit believed Congress had overstepped its "
15570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15571 #: freeculture.xml:11318
15573 "It was here that most expected Eldred v. Ashcroft would die, for the Supreme "
15574 "Court rarely reviews any decision by a court of appeals. (It hears about one "
15575 "hundred cases a year, out of more than five thousand appeals.) And it "
15576 "practically never reviews a decision that upholds a statute when no other "
15577 "court has yet reviewed the statute."
15580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15581 #: freeculture.xml:11325
15583 "But in February 2002, the Supreme Court surprised the world by granting our "
15584 "petition to review the D.C. Circuit opinion. Argument was set for October of "
15585 "2002. The summer would be spent writing briefs and preparing for argument."
15588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15589 #: freeculture.xml:11331
15591 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is over</emphasis> a year later as I write these "
15592 "words. It is still astonishingly hard. If you know anything at all about "
15593 "this story, you know that we lost the appeal. And if you know something more "
15594 "than just the minimum, you probably think there was no way this case could "
15595 "have been won. After our defeat, I received literally thousands of missives "
15596 "by well-wishers and supporters, thanking me for my work on behalf of this "
15597 "noble but doomed cause. And none from this pile was more significant to me "
15598 "than the e-mail from my client, Eric Eldred."
15601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15602 #: freeculture.xml:11342
15604 "But my client and these friends were wrong. This case could have been "
15605 "won. It should have been won. And no matter how hard I try to retell this "
15606 "story to myself, I can never escape believing that my own mistake lost it."
15609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15610 #: freeculture.xml:11347 freeculture.xml:11361
15611 msgid "Steward, Geoffrey"
15615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15616 #: freeculture.xml:11349
15618 "<emphasis role='strong'>The mistake</emphasis> was made early, though it "
15619 "became obvious only at the very end. Our case had been supported from the "
15620 "very beginning by an extraordinary lawyer, Geoffrey Stewart, and by the law "
15621 "firm he had moved to, Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. Jones Day took a great "
15622 "deal of heat from its copyright-protectionist clients for supporting "
15623 "us. They ignored this pressure (something that few law firms today would "
15624 "ever do), and throughout the case, they gave it everything they could."
15627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15628 #: freeculture.xml:11359 freeculture.xml:11718 freeculture.xml:11734 freeculture.xml:11831 freeculture.xml:12051 freeculture.xml:12082 freeculture.xml:12180
15632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15633 #: freeculture.xml:11360
15634 msgid "Bromberg, Dan"
15637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15638 #: freeculture.xml:11363
15640 "There were three key lawyers on the case from Jones Day. Geoff Stewart was "
15641 "the first, but then Dan Bromberg and Don Ayer became quite "
15642 "involved. Bromberg and Ayer in particular had a common view about how this "
15643 "case would be won: We would only win, they repeatedly told me, if we could "
15644 "make the issue seem <quote>important</quote> to the Supreme Court. It had to "
15645 "seem as if dramatic harm were being done to free speech and free culture; "
15646 "otherwise, they would never vote against <quote>the most powerful media "
15647 "companies in the world.</quote>"
15650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15651 #: freeculture.xml:11373
15653 "I hate this view of the law. Of course I thought the Sonny Bono Act was a "
15654 "dramatic harm to free speech and free culture. Of course I still think it "
15655 "is. But the idea that the Supreme Court decides the law based on how "
15656 "important they believe the issues are is just wrong. It might be "
15657 "<quote>right</quote> as in <quote>true,</quote> I thought, but it is "
15658 "<quote>wrong</quote> as in <quote>it just shouldn't be that way.</quote> As "
15659 "I believed that any faithful interpretation of what the framers of our "
15660 "Constitution did would yield the conclusion that the CTEA was "
15661 "unconstitutional, and as I believed that any faithful interpretation of what "
15662 "the First Amendment means would yield the conclusion that the power to "
15663 "extend existing copyright terms is unconstitutional, I was not persuaded "
15664 "that we had to sell our case like soap. Just as a law that bans the "
15665 "swastika is unconstitutional not because the Court likes Nazis but because "
15666 "such a law would violate the Constitution, so too, in my view, would the "
15667 "Court decide whether Congress's law was constitutional based on the "
15668 "Constitution, not based on whether they liked the values that the framers "
15669 "put in the Constitution."
15672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15673 #: freeculture.xml:11394
15675 "In any case, I thought, the Court must already see the danger and the harm "
15676 "caused by this sort of law. Why else would they grant review? There was no "
15677 "reason to hear the case in the Supreme Court if they weren't convinced that "
15678 "this regulation was harmful. So in my view, we didn't need to persuade them "
15679 "that this law was bad, we needed to show why it was unconstitutional."
15683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15684 #: freeculture.xml:11402
15686 "There was one way, however, in which I felt politics would matter and in "
15687 "which I thought a response was appropriate. I was convinced that the Court "
15688 "would not hear our arguments if it thought these were just the arguments of "
15689 "a group of lefty loons. This Supreme Court was not about to launch into a "
15690 "new field of judicial review if it seemed that this field of review was "
15691 "simply the preference of a small political minority. Although my focus in "
15692 "the case was not to demonstrate how bad the Sonny Bono Act was but to "
15693 "demonstrate that it was unconstitutional, my hope was to make this argument "
15694 "against a background of briefs that covered the full range of political "
15695 "views. To show that this claim against the CTEA was grounded in "
15696 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> and not politics, then, we tried to gather the "
15697 "widest range of credible critics—credible not because they were rich "
15698 "and famous, but because they, in the aggregate, demonstrated that this law "
15699 "was unconstitutional regardless of one's politics."
15702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15703 #: freeculture.xml:11420 freeculture.xml:11447
15704 msgid "Eagle Forum"
15707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15708 #: freeculture.xml:11421
15709 msgid "Schlafly, Phyllis"
15712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15713 #: freeculture.xml:11423
15715 "The first step happened all by itself. Phyllis Schlafly's organization, "
15716 "Eagle Forum, had been an opponent of the CTEA from the very beginning. "
15717 "Mrs. Schlafly viewed the CTEA as a sellout by Congress. In November 1998, "
15718 "she wrote a stinging editorial attacking the Republican Congress for "
15719 "allowing the law to pass. As she wrote, <quote>Do you sometimes wonder why "
15720 "bills that create a financial windfall to narrow special interests slide "
15721 "easily through the intricate legislative process, while bills that benefit "
15722 "the general public seem to get bogged down?</quote> The answer, as the "
15723 "editorial documented, was the power of money. Schlafly enumerated Disney's "
15724 "contributions to the key players on the committees. It was money, not "
15725 "justice, that gave Mickey Mouse twenty more years in Disney's control, "
15729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15730 #: freeculture.xml:11437
15732 "In the Court of Appeals, Eagle Forum was eager to file a brief supporting "
15733 "our position. Their brief made the argument that became the core claim in "
15734 "the Supreme Court: If Congress can extend the term of existing copyrights, "
15735 "there is no limit to Congress's power to set terms. That strong "
15736 "conservative argument persuaded a strong conservative judge, Judge Sentelle."
15740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15741 #: freeculture.xml:11449
15743 "In the Supreme Court, the briefs on our side were about as diverse as it "
15744 "gets. They included an extraordinary historical brief by the Free Software "
15745 "Foundation (home of the GNU project that made GNU/ Linux possible). They "
15746 "included a powerful brief about the costs of uncertainty by Intel. There "
15747 "were two law professors' briefs, one by copyright scholars and one by First "
15748 "Amendment scholars. There was an exhaustive and uncontroverted brief by the "
15749 "world's experts in the history of the Progress Clause. And of course, there "
15750 "was a new brief by Eagle Forum, repeating and strengthening its arguments."
15753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15754 #: freeculture.xml:11461
15755 msgid "American Association of Law Libraries"
15758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15759 #: freeculture.xml:11462
15760 msgid "National Writers Union"
15763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15764 #: freeculture.xml:11464
15766 "Those briefs framed a legal argument. Then to support the legal argument, "
15767 "there were a number of powerful briefs by libraries and archives, including "
15768 "the Internet Archive, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the "
15769 "National Writers Union."
15772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15773 #: freeculture.xml:11471
15775 "But two briefs captured the policy argument best. One made the argument I've "
15776 "already described: A brief by Hal Roach Studios argued that unless the law "
15777 "was struck, a whole generation of American film would disappear. The other "
15778 "made the economic argument absolutely clear."
15781 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15782 #: freeculture.xml:11477
15783 msgid "Akerlof, George"
15786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15787 #: freeculture.xml:11478
15788 msgid "Arrow, Kenneth"
15791 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15792 #: freeculture.xml:11479
15793 msgid "Buchanan, James"
15796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15797 #: freeculture.xml:11480
15798 msgid "Coase, Ronald"
15801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15802 #: freeculture.xml:11481
15803 msgid "Friedman, Milton"
15806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15807 #: freeculture.xml:11483
15809 "This economists' brief was signed by seventeen economists, including five "
15810 "Nobel Prize winners, including Ronald Coase, James Buchanan, Milton "
15811 "Friedman, Kenneth Arrow, and George Akerlof. The economists, as the list of "
15812 "Nobel winners demonstrates, spanned the political spectrum. Their "
15813 "conclusions were powerful: There was no plausible claim that extending the "
15814 "terms of existing copyrights would do anything to increase incentives to "
15815 "create. Such extensions were nothing more than "
15816 "<quote>rent-seeking</quote>—the fancy term economists use to describe "
15817 "special-interest legislation gone wild."
15820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15821 #: freeculture.xml:11493 freeculture.xml:11511 freeculture.xml:11720 freeculture.xml:12083
15822 msgid "Fried, Charles"
15825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15826 #: freeculture.xml:11494
15827 msgid "Morrison, Alan"
15830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15831 #: freeculture.xml:11495
15832 msgid "Public Citizen"
15835 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15836 #: freeculture.xml:11496 freeculture.xml:11719 freeculture.xml:12839
15837 msgid "Reagan, Ronald"
15841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15842 #: freeculture.xml:11498
15844 "The same effort at balance was reflected in the legal team we gathered to "
15845 "write our briefs in the case. The Jones Day lawyers had been with us from "
15846 "the start. But when the case got to the Supreme Court, we added three "
15847 "lawyers to help us frame this argument to this Court: Alan Morrison, a "
15848 "lawyer from Public Citizen, a Washington group that had made constitutional "
15849 "history with a series of seminal victories in the Supreme Court defending "
15850 "individual rights; my colleague and dean, Kathleen Sullivan, who had argued "
15851 "many cases in the Court, and who had advised us early on about a First "
15852 "Amendment strategy; and finally, former solicitor general Charles Fried."
15855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15856 #: freeculture.xml:11513
15858 "Fried was a special victory for our side. Every other former solicitor "
15859 "general was hired by the other side to defend Congress's power to give media "
15860 "companies the special favor of extended copyright terms. Fried was the only "
15861 "one who turned down that lucrative assignment to stand up for something he "
15862 "believed in. He had been Ronald Reagan's chief lawyer in the Supreme "
15863 "Court. He had helped craft the line of cases that limited Congress's power "
15864 "in the context of the Commerce Clause. And while he had argued many "
15865 "positions in the Supreme Court that I personally disagreed with, his joining "
15866 "the cause was a vote of confidence in our argument."
15869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15870 #: freeculture.xml:11525
15872 "The government, in defending the statute, had its collection of friends, as "
15873 "well. Significantly, however, none of these <quote>friends</quote> included "
15874 "historians or economists. The briefs on the other side of the case were "
15875 "written exclusively by major media companies, congressmen, and copyright "
15879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15880 #: freeculture.xml:11532
15882 "The media companies were not surprising. They had the most to gain from the "
15883 "law. The congressmen were not surprising either—they were defending "
15884 "their power and, indirectly, the gravy train of contributions such power "
15885 "induced. And of course it was not surprising that the copyright holders "
15886 "would defend the idea that they should continue to have the right to control "
15887 "who did what with content they wanted to control."
15890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15891 #: freeculture.xml:11540
15892 msgid "Gershwin, George"
15896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15897 #: freeculture.xml:11549
15899 "Brief of Amici Dr. Seuss Enterprise et al., <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15900 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. (2003) (No. 01-618), 19."
15904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15905 #: freeculture.xml:11557
15907 "Dinitia Smith, <quote>Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey Mouse "
15908 "Joins the Fray,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 28 March "
15913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15914 #: freeculture.xml:11542
15916 "Dr. Seuss's representatives, for example, argued that it was better for the "
15917 "Dr. Seuss estate to control what happened to Dr. Seuss's work— better "
15918 "than allowing it to fall into the public domain—because if this "
15919 "creativity were in the public domain, then people could use it to "
15920 "<quote>glorify drugs or to create pornography.</quote><placeholder "
15921 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That was also the motive of the Gershwin "
15922 "estate, which defended its <quote>protection</quote> of the work of George "
15923 "Gershwin. They refuse, for example, to license <citetitle>Porgy and "
15924 "Bess</citetitle> to anyone who refuses to use African Americans in the "
15925 "cast.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> That's their view of how this "
15926 "part of American culture should be controlled, and they wanted this law to "
15927 "help them effect that control."
15930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15931 #: freeculture.xml:11566
15933 "This argument made clear a theme that is rarely noticed in this debate. "
15934 "When Congress decides to extend the term of existing copyrights, Congress is "
15935 "making a choice about which speakers it will favor. Famous and beloved "
15936 "copyright owners, such as the Gershwin estate and Dr. Seuss, come to "
15937 "Congress and say, <quote>Give us twenty years to control the speech about "
15938 "these icons of American culture. We'll do better with them than anyone "
15939 "else.</quote> Congress of course likes to reward the popular and famous by "
15940 "giving them what they want. But when Congress gives people an exclusive "
15941 "right to speak in a certain way, that's just what the First Amendment is "
15942 "traditionally meant to block."
15945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15946 #: freeculture.xml:11578
15948 "We argued as much in a final brief. Not only would upholding the CTEA mean "
15949 "that there was no limit to the power of Congress to extend "
15950 "copyrights—extensions that would further concentrate the market; it "
15951 "would also mean that there was no limit to Congress's power to play "
15952 "favorites, through copyright, with who has the right to speak."
15955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15956 #: freeculture.xml:11585
15958 "<emphasis role='strong'>Between February</emphasis> and October, there was "
15959 "little I did beyond preparing for this case. Early on, as I said, I set the "
15963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15964 #: freeculture.xml:11590 freeculture.xml:11776
15965 msgid "O'Connor, Sandra Day"
15968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15969 #: freeculture.xml:11592
15971 "The Supreme Court was divided into two important camps. One camp we called "
15972 "<quote>the Conservatives.</quote> The other we called <quote>the "
15973 "Rest.</quote> The Conservatives included Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice "
15974 "O'Connor, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. These five "
15975 "had been the most consistent in limiting Congress's power. They were the "
15976 "five who had supported the <citetitle>Lopez/Morrison</citetitle> line of "
15977 "cases that said that an enumerated power had to be interpreted to assure "
15978 "that Congress's powers had limits."
15981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15982 #: freeculture.xml:11601 freeculture.xml:11626 freeculture.xml:11978 freeculture.xml:11990
15983 msgid "Breyer, Stephen"
15986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15987 #: freeculture.xml:11602 freeculture.xml:11942
15988 msgid "Ginsburg, Ruth Bader"
15992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15993 #: freeculture.xml:11604
15995 "The Rest were the four Justices who had strongly opposed limits on "
15996 "Congress's power. These four—Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, Justice "
15997 "Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer—had repeatedly argued that the "
15998 "Constitution gives Congress broad discretion to decide how best to implement "
15999 "its powers. In case after case, these justices had argued that the Court's "
16000 "role should be one of deference. Though the votes of these four justices "
16001 "were the votes that I personally had most consistently agreed with, they "
16002 "were also the votes that we were least likely to get."
16005 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16006 #: freeculture.xml:11616
16008 "In particular, the least likely was Justice Ginsburg's. In addition to her "
16009 "general view about deference to Congress (except where issues of gender are "
16010 "involved), she had been particularly deferential in the context of "
16011 "intellectual property protections. She and her daughter (an excellent and "
16012 "well-known intellectual property scholar) were cut from the same "
16013 "intellectual property cloth. We expected she would agree with the writings "
16014 "of her daughter: that Congress had the power in this context to do as it "
16015 "wished, even if what Congress wished made little sense."
16018 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16019 #: freeculture.xml:11628
16021 "Close behind Justice Ginsburg were two justices whom we also viewed as "
16022 "unlikely allies, though possible surprises. Justice Souter strongly favored "
16023 "deference to Congress, as did Justice Breyer. But both were also very "
16024 "sensitive to free speech concerns. And as we strongly believed, there was a "
16025 "very important free speech argument against these retrospective extensions."
16028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16029 #: freeculture.xml:11637
16031 "The only vote we could be confident about was that of Justice "
16032 "Stevens. History will record Justice Stevens as one of the greatest judges "
16033 "on this Court. His votes are consistently eclectic, which just means that no "
16034 "simple ideology explains where he will stand. But he had consistently argued "
16035 "for limits in the context of intellectual property generally. We were fairly "
16036 "confident he would recognize limits here."
16039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16040 #: freeculture.xml:11645
16042 "This analysis of <quote>the Rest</quote> showed most clearly where our focus "
16043 "had to be: on the Conservatives. To win this case, we had to crack open "
16044 "these five and get at least a majority to go our way. Thus, the single "
16045 "overriding argument that animated our claim rested on the Conservatives' "
16046 "most important jurisprudential innovation—the argument that Judge "
16047 "Sentelle had relied upon in the Court of Appeals, that Congress's power must "
16048 "be interpreted so that its enumerated powers have limits."
16052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16053 #: freeculture.xml:11655
16055 "This then was the core of our strategy—a strategy for which I am "
16056 "responsible. We would get the Court to see that just as with the "
16057 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, under the government's argument here, "
16058 "Congress would always have unlimited power to extend existing terms. If "
16059 "anything was plain about Congress's power under the Progress Clause, it was "
16060 "that this power was supposed to be <quote>limited.</quote> Our aim would be "
16061 "to get the Court to reconcile <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> with "
16062 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>: If Congress's power to regulate commerce was "
16063 "limited, then so, too, must Congress's power to regulate copyright be "
16067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16068 #: freeculture.xml:11669
16070 "<emphasis role='strong'>The argument</emphasis> on the government's side "
16071 "came down to this: Congress has done it before. It should be allowed to do "
16072 "it again. The government claimed that from the very beginning, Congress has "
16073 "been extending the term of existing copyrights. So, the government argued, "
16074 "the Court should not now say that practice is unconstitutional."
16077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16078 #: freeculture.xml:11677
16080 "There was some truth to the government's claim, but not much. We certainly "
16081 "agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in 1831 and in 1909. And of "
16082 "course, in 1962, Congress began extending existing terms "
16083 "regularly—eleven times in forty years."
16086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16087 #: freeculture.xml:11684
16089 "But this <quote>consistency</quote> should be kept in perspective. Congress "
16090 "extended existing terms once in the first hundred years of the Republic. It "
16091 "then extended existing terms once again in the next fifty. Those rare "
16092 "extensions are in contrast to the now regular practice of extending existing "
16093 "terms. Whatever restraint Congress had had in the past, that restraint was "
16094 "now gone. Congress was now in a cycle of extensions; there was no reason to "
16095 "expect that cycle would end. This Court had not hesitated to intervene where "
16096 "Congress was in a similar cycle of extension. There was no reason it "
16097 "couldn't intervene here."
16101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16102 #: freeculture.xml:11699
16104 "<emphasis role='strong'>Oral argument</emphasis> was scheduled for the first "
16105 "week in October. I arrived in D.C. two weeks before the argument. During "
16106 "those two weeks, I was repeatedly <quote>mooted</quote> by lawyers who had "
16107 "volunteered to help in the case. Such <quote>moots</quote> are basically "
16108 "practice rounds, where wannabe justices fire questions at wannabe winners."
16111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16112 #: freeculture.xml:11709
16114 "I was convinced that to win, I had to keep the Court focused on a single "
16115 "point: that if this extension is permitted, then there is no limit to the "
16116 "power to set terms. Going with the government would mean that terms would be "
16117 "effectively unlimited; going with us would give Congress a clear line to "
16118 "follow: Don't extend existing terms. The moots were an effective practice; I "
16119 "found ways to take every question back to this central idea."
16122 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16123 #: freeculture.xml:11722
16125 "One moot was before the lawyers at Jones Day. Don Ayer was the skeptic. He "
16126 "had served in the Reagan Justice Department with Solicitor General Charles "
16127 "Fried. He had argued many cases before the Supreme Court. And in his review "
16128 "of the moot, he let his concern speak:"
16131 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16132 #: freeculture.xml:11728
16134 "<quote>I'm just afraid that unless they really see the harm, they won't be "
16135 "willing to upset this practice that the government says has been a "
16136 "consistent practice for two hundred years. You have to make them see the "
16137 "harm—passionately get them to see the harm. For if they don't see "
16138 "that, then we haven't any chance of winning.</quote>"
16141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16142 #: freeculture.xml:11736
16144 "He may have argued many cases before this Court, I thought, but he didn't "
16145 "understand its soul. As a clerk, I had seen the Justices do the right "
16146 "thing—not because of politics but because it was right. As a law "
16147 "professor, I had spent my life teaching my students that this Court does the "
16148 "right thing—not because of politics but because it is right. As I "
16149 "listened to Ayer's plea for passion in pressing politics, I understood his "
16150 "point, and I rejected it. Our argument was right. That was enough. Let the "
16151 "politicians learn to see that it was also good."
16155 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16156 #: freeculture.xml:11746
16158 "<emphasis role='strong'>The night before</emphasis> the argument, a line of "
16159 "people began to form in front of the Supreme Court. The case had become a "
16160 "focus of the press and of the movement to free culture. Hundreds stood in "
16161 "line for the chance to see the proceedings. Scores spent the night on the "
16162 "Supreme Court steps so that they would be assured a seat."
16165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16166 #: freeculture.xml:11756
16168 "Not everyone has to wait in line. People who know the Justices can ask for "
16169 "seats they control. (I asked Justice Scalia's chambers for seats for my "
16170 "parents, for example.) Members of the Supreme Court bar can get a seat in a "
16171 "special section reserved for them. And senators and congressmen have a "
16172 "special place where they get to sit, too. And finally, of course, the press "
16173 "has a gallery, as do clerks working for the Justices on the Court. As we "
16174 "entered that morning, there was no place that was not taken. This was an "
16175 "argument about intellectual property law, yet the halls were filled. As I "
16176 "walked in to take my seat at the front of the Court, I saw my parents "
16177 "sitting on the left. As I sat down at the table, I saw Jack Valenti sitting "
16178 "in the special section ordinarily reserved for family of the Justices."
16181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16182 #: freeculture.xml:11771
16184 "When the Chief Justice called me to begin my argument, I began where I "
16185 "intended to stay: on the question of the limits on Congress's power. This "
16186 "was a case about enumerated powers, I said, and whether those enumerated "
16187 "powers had any limit."
16190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16191 #: freeculture.xml:11778
16193 "Justice O'Connor stopped me within one minute of my opening. The history "
16194 "was bothering her."
16197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16198 #: freeculture.xml:11783
16200 "justice o'connor: Congress has extended the term so often through the years, "
16201 "and if you are right, don't we run the risk of upsetting previous extensions "
16202 "of time? I mean, this seems to be a practice that began with the very first "
16206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16207 #: freeculture.xml:11790
16209 "She was quite willing to concede <quote>that this flies directly in the face "
16210 "of what the framers had in mind.</quote> But my response again and again was "
16211 "to emphasize limits on Congress's power."
16215 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16216 #: freeculture.xml:11796
16218 "mr. lessig: Well, if it flies in the face of what the framers had in mind, "
16219 "then the question is, is there a way of interpreting their words that gives "
16220 "effect to what they had in mind, and the answer is yes."
16223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16224 #: freeculture.xml:11804
16226 "There were two points in this argument when I should have seen where the "
16227 "Court was going. The first was a question by Justice Kennedy, who observed,"
16230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16231 #: freeculture.xml:11810
16233 "justice kennedy: Well, I suppose implicit in the argument that the '76 act, "
16234 "too, should have been declared void, and that we might leave it alone "
16235 "because of the disruption, is that for all these years the act has impeded "
16236 "progress in science and the useful arts. I just don't see any empirical "
16237 "evidence for that."
16240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16241 #: freeculture.xml:11818
16243 "Here follows my clear mistake. Like a professor correcting a student, I "
16247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16248 #: freeculture.xml:11824
16250 "mr. lessig: Justice, we are not making an empirical claim at all. Nothing "
16251 "in our Copyright Clause claim hangs upon the empirical assertion about "
16252 "impeding progress. Our only argument is this is a structural limit necessary "
16253 "to assure that what would be an effectively perpetual term not be permitted "
16254 "under the copyright laws."
16257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16258 #: freeculture.xml:11833
16260 "That was a correct answer, but it wasn't the right answer. The right answer "
16261 "was instead that there was an obvious and profound harm. Any number of "
16262 "briefs had been written about it. He wanted to hear it. And here was the "
16263 "place Don Ayer's advice should have mattered. This was a softball; my answer "
16264 "was a swing and a miss."
16267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16268 #: freeculture.xml:11840
16270 "The second came from the Chief, for whom the whole case had been "
16271 "crafted. For the Chief Justice had crafted the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
16272 "ruling, and we hoped that he would see this case as its second cousin."
16276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16277 #: freeculture.xml:11845
16279 "It was clear a second into his question that he wasn't at all sympathetic. "
16280 "To him, we were a bunch of anarchists. As he asked:"
16283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16284 #: freeculture.xml:11852
16286 "chief justice: Well, but you want more than that. You want the right to copy "
16287 "verbatim other people's books, don't you?"
16290 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16291 #: freeculture.xml:11856
16293 "mr. lessig: We want the right to copy verbatim works that should be in the "
16294 "public domain and would be in the public domain but for a statute that "
16295 "cannot be justified under ordinary First Amendment analysis or under a "
16296 "proper reading of the limits built into the Copyright Clause."
16299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16300 #: freeculture.xml:11864
16301 msgid "Olson, Theodore B."
16304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16305 #: freeculture.xml:11866
16307 "Things went better for us when the government gave its argument; for now the "
16308 "Court picked up on the core of our claim. As Justice Scalia asked Solicitor "
16312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16313 #: freeculture.xml:11872
16315 "justice scalia: You say that the functional equivalent of an unlimited time "
16316 "would be a violation [of the Constitution], but that's precisely the "
16317 "argument that's being made by petitioners here, that a limited time which is "
16318 "extendable is the functional equivalent of an unlimited time."
16321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16322 #: freeculture.xml:11880
16324 "When Olson was finished, it was my turn to give a closing rebuttal. Olson's "
16325 "flailing had revived my anger. But my anger still was directed to the "
16326 "academic, not the practical. The government was arguing as if this were the "
16327 "first case ever to consider limits on Congress's Copyright and Patent Clause "
16328 "power. Ever the professor and not the advocate, I closed by pointing out the "
16329 "long history of the Court imposing limits on Congress's power in the name of "
16330 "the Copyright and Patent Clause— indeed, the very first case striking "
16331 "a law of Congress as exceeding a specific enumerated power was based upon "
16332 "the Copyright and Patent Clause. All true. But it wasn't going to move the "
16333 "Court to my side."
16337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16338 #: freeculture.xml:11893
16340 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I left</emphasis> the court that day, I knew "
16341 "there were a hundred points I wished I could remake. There were a hundred "
16342 "questions I wished I had answered differently. But one way of thinking about "
16343 "this case left me optimistic."
16346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16347 #: freeculture.xml:11902
16349 "The government had been asked over and over again, what is the limit? Over "
16350 "and over again, it had answered there is no limit. This was precisely the "
16351 "answer I wanted the Court to hear. For I could not imagine how the Court "
16352 "could understand that the government believed Congress's power was unlimited "
16353 "under the terms of the Copyright Clause, and sustain the government's "
16354 "argument. The solicitor general had made my argument for me. No matter how "
16355 "often I tried, I could not understand how the Court could find that "
16356 "Congress's power under the Commerce Clause was limited, but under the "
16357 "Copyright Clause, unlimited. In those rare moments when I let myself believe "
16358 "that we may have prevailed, it was because I felt this Court—in "
16359 "particular, the Conservatives—would feel itself constrained by the "
16360 "rule of law that it had established elsewhere."
16363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16364 #: freeculture.xml:11917
16366 "<emphasis role='strong'>The morning</emphasis> of January 15, 2003, I was "
16367 "five minutes late to the office and missed the 7:00 A.M. call from the "
16368 "Supreme Court clerk. Listening to the message, I could tell in an instant "
16369 "that she had bad news to report.The Supreme Court had affirmed the decision "
16370 "of the Court of Appeals. Seven justices had voted in the majority. There "
16371 "were two dissents."
16374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16375 #: freeculture.xml:11925
16377 "A few seconds later, the opinions arrived by e-mail. I took the phone off "
16378 "the hook, posted an announcement to our blog, and sat down to see where I "
16379 "had been wrong in my reasoning."
16382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16383 #: freeculture.xml:11930
16385 "My <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. Here was a case that pitted all the money "
16386 "in the world against <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. And here was the last "
16387 "naïve law professor, scouring the pages, looking for reasoning."
16390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16391 #: freeculture.xml:11936
16393 "I first scoured the opinion, looking for how the Court would distinguish the "
16394 "principle in this case from the principle in "
16395 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The argument was nowhere to be found. The case "
16396 "was not even cited. The argument that was the core argument of our case did "
16397 "not even appear in the Court's opinion."
16401 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16402 #: freeculture.xml:11946
16404 "Justice Ginsburg simply ignored the enumerated powers argument. Consistent "
16405 "with her view that Congress's power was not limited generally, she had found "
16406 "Congress's power not limited here."
16409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16410 #: freeculture.xml:11951
16412 "Her opinion was perfectly reasonable—for her, and for Justice "
16413 "Souter. Neither believes in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. It would be too "
16414 "much to expect them to write an opinion that recognized, much less "
16415 "explained, the doctrine they had worked so hard to defeat."
16418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16419 #: freeculture.xml:11957
16421 "But as I realized what had happened, I couldn't quite believe what I was "
16422 "reading. I had said there was no way this Court could reconcile limited "
16423 "powers with the Commerce Clause and unlimited powers with the Progress "
16424 "Clause. It had never even occurred to me that they could reconcile the two "
16425 "simply <emphasis>by not addressing the argument</emphasis>. There was no "
16426 "inconsistency because they would not talk about the two together. There was "
16427 "therefore no principle that followed from the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
16428 "case: In that context, Congress's power would be limited, but in this "
16429 "context it would not."
16432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16433 #: freeculture.xml:11968
16435 "Yet by what right did they get to choose which of the framers' values they "
16436 "would respect? By what right did they—the silent five—get to "
16437 "select the part of the Constitution they would enforce based on the values "
16438 "they thought important? We were right back to the argument that I said I "
16439 "hated at the start: I had failed to convince them that the issue here was "
16440 "important, and I had failed to recognize that however much I might hate a "
16441 "system in which the Court gets to pick the constitutional values that it "
16442 "will respect, that is the system we have."
16445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16446 #: freeculture.xml:11980
16448 "Justices Breyer and Stevens wrote very strong dissents. Stevens's opinion "
16449 "was crafted internal to the law: He argued that the tradition of "
16450 "intellectual property law should not support this unjustified extension of "
16451 "terms. He based his argument on a parallel analysis that had governed in the "
16452 "context of patents (so had we). But the rest of the Court discounted the "
16453 "parallel—without explaining how the very same words in the Progress "
16454 "Clause could come to mean totally different things depending upon whether "
16455 "the words were about patents or copyrights. The Court let Justice Stevens's "
16456 "charge go unanswered."
16460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16461 #: freeculture.xml:11993
16463 "Justice Breyer's opinion, perhaps the best opinion he has ever written, was "
16464 "external to the Constitution. He argued that the term of copyrights has "
16465 "become so long as to be effectively unlimited. We had said that under the "
16466 "current term, a copyright gave an author 99.8 percent of the value of a "
16467 "perpetual term. Breyer said we were wrong, that the actual number was "
16468 "99.9997 percent of a perpetual term. Either way, the point was clear: If the "
16469 "Constitution said a term had to be <quote>limited,</quote> and the existing "
16470 "term was so long as to be effectively unlimited, then it was "
16471 "unconstitutional."
16474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16475 #: freeculture.xml:12004
16477 "These two justices understood all the arguments we had made. But because "
16478 "neither believed in the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, neither was "
16479 "willing to push it as a reason to reject this extension. The case was "
16480 "decided without anyone having addressed the argument that we had carried "
16481 "from Judge Sentelle. It was <citetitle>Hamlet</citetitle> without the "
16485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16486 #: freeculture.xml:12011
16488 "<emphasis role='strong'>Defeat brings depression</emphasis>. They say it is "
16489 "a sign of health when depression gives way to anger. My anger came quickly, "
16490 "but it didn't cure the depression. This anger was of two sorts."
16493 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16494 #: freeculture.xml:12016
16495 msgid "originalism"
16498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16499 #: freeculture.xml:12018
16501 "It was first anger with the five <quote>Conservatives.</quote> It would have "
16502 "been one thing for them to have explained why the principle of "
16503 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> didn't apply in this case. That wouldn't have "
16504 "been a very convincing argument, I don't believe, having read it made by "
16505 "others, and having tried to make it myself. But it at least would have been "
16506 "an act of integrity. These justices in particular have repeatedly said that "
16507 "the proper mode of interpreting the Constitution is "
16508 "<quote>originalism</quote>—to first understand the framers' text, "
16509 "interpreted in their context, in light of the structure of the "
16510 "Constitution. That method had produced <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> and many "
16511 "other <quote>originalist</quote> rulings. Where was their "
16512 "<quote>originalism</quote> now?"
16516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16517 #: freeculture.xml:12031
16519 "Here, they had joined an opinion that never once tried to explain what the "
16520 "framers had meant by crafting the Progress Clause as they did; they joined "
16521 "an opinion that never once tried to explain how the structure of that clause "
16522 "would affect the interpretation of Congress's power. And they joined an "
16523 "opinion that didn't even try to explain why this grant of power could be "
16524 "unlimited, whereas the Commerce Clause would be limited. In short, they had "
16525 "joined an opinion that did not apply to, and was inconsistent with, their "
16526 "own method for interpreting the Constitution. This opinion may well have "
16527 "yielded a result that they liked. It did not produce a reason that was "
16528 "consistent with their own principles."
16531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16532 #: freeculture.xml:12046
16534 "My anger with the Conservatives quickly yielded to anger with myself. For I "
16535 "had let a view of the law that I liked interfere with a view of the law as "
16539 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16540 #: freeculture.xml:12053
16542 "Most lawyers, and most law professors, have little patience for idealism "
16543 "about courts in general and this Supreme Court in particular. Most have a "
16544 "much more pragmatic view. When Don Ayer said that this case would be won "
16545 "based on whether I could convince the Justices that the framers' values were "
16546 "important, I fought the idea, because I didn't want to believe that that is "
16547 "how this Court decides. I insisted on arguing this case as if it were a "
16548 "simple application of a set of principles. I had an argument that followed "
16549 "in logic. I didn't need to waste my time showing it should also follow in "
16554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16555 #: freeculture.xml:12064
16557 "As I read back over the transcript from that argument in October, I can see "
16558 "a hundred places where the answers could have taken the conversation in "
16559 "different directions, where the truth about the harm that this unchecked "
16560 "power will cause could have been made clear to this Court. Justice Kennedy "
16561 "in good faith wanted to be shown. I, idiotically, corrected his "
16562 "question. Justice Souter in good faith wanted to be shown the First "
16563 "Amendment harms. I, like a math teacher, reframed the question to make the "
16564 "logical point. I had shown them how they could strike this law of Congress "
16565 "if they wanted to. There were a hundred places where I could have helped "
16566 "them want to, yet my stubbornness, my refusal to give in, stopped me. I have "
16567 "stood before hundreds of audiences trying to persuade; I have used passion "
16568 "in that effort to persuade; but I refused to stand before this audience and "
16569 "try to persuade with the passion I had used elsewhere. It was not the basis "
16570 "on which a court should decide the issue."
16573 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16574 #: freeculture.xml:12085
16576 "Would it have been different if I had argued it differently? Would it have "
16577 "been different if Don Ayer had argued it? Or Charles Fried? Or Kathleen "
16581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16582 #: freeculture.xml:12090
16584 "My friends huddled around me to insist it would not. The Court was not "
16585 "ready, my friends insisted. This was a loss that was destined. It would take "
16586 "a great deal more to show our society why our framers were right. And when "
16587 "we do that, we will be able to show that Court."
16590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16591 #: freeculture.xml:12096
16593 "Maybe, but I doubt it. These Justices have no financial interest in doing "
16594 "anything except the right thing. They are not lobbied. They have little "
16595 "reason to resist doing right. I can't help but think that if I had stepped "
16596 "down from this pretty picture of dispassionate justice, I could have "
16600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16601 #: freeculture.xml:12104
16603 "And even if I couldn't, then that doesn't excuse what happened in "
16604 "January. For at the start of this case, one of America's leading "
16605 "intellectual property professors stated publicly that my bringing this case "
16606 "was a mistake. <quote>The Court is not ready,</quote> Peter Jaszi said; this "
16607 "issue should not be raised until it is."
16610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16611 #: freeculture.xml:12111
16613 "After the argument and after the decision, Peter said to me, and publicly, "
16614 "that he was wrong. But if indeed that Court could not have been persuaded, "
16615 "then that is all the evidence that's needed to know that here again Peter "
16616 "was right. Either I was not ready to argue this case in a way that would do "
16617 "some good or they were not ready to hear this case in a way that would do "
16618 "some good. Either way, the decision to bring this case—a decision I "
16619 "had made four years before—was wrong."
16623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16624 #: freeculture.xml:12120
16626 "<emphasis role='strong'>While the reaction</emphasis> to the Sonny Bono Act "
16627 "itself was almost unanimously negative, the reaction to the Court's decision "
16628 "was mixed. No one, at least in the press, tried to say that extending the "
16629 "term of copyright was a good idea. We had won that battle over ideas. Where "
16630 "the decision was praised, it was praised by papers that had been skeptical "
16631 "of the Court's activism in other cases. Deference was a good thing, even if "
16632 "it left standing a silly law. But where the decision was attacked, it was "
16633 "attacked because it left standing a silly and harmful law. <citetitle>The "
16634 "New York Times</citetitle> wrote in its editorial,"
16637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16638 #: freeculture.xml:12135
16640 "In effect, the Supreme Court's decision makes it likely that we are seeing "
16641 "the beginning of the end of public domain and the birth of copyright "
16642 "perpetuity. The public domain has been a grand experiment, one that should "
16643 "not be allowed to die. The ability to draw freely on the entire creative "
16644 "output of humanity is one of the reasons we live in a time of such fruitful "
16645 "creative ferment."
16648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><indexterm><primary>
16649 #: freeculture.xml:12149 freeculture.xml:12154
16650 msgid "Bolling, Ruben"
16653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16654 #: freeculture.xml:12144
16656 "The best responses were in the cartoons. There was a gaggle of hilarious "
16657 "images—of Mickey in jail and the like. The best, from my view of the "
16658 "case, was Ruben Bolling's, reproduced on the next page (<xref "
16659 "linkend=\"fig-18\"/>). The <quote>powerful and wealthy</quote> line is a bit "
16660 "unfair. But the punch in the face felt exactly like that. <placeholder "
16661 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
16665 #: freeculture.xml:12152
16666 msgid "Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon"
16669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
16670 #: freeculture.xml:12153
16672 "<graphic fileref=\"images/18.png\"></graphic> <placeholder "
16673 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16676 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16677 #: freeculture.xml:12157
16679 "The image that will always stick in my head is that evoked by the quote from "
16680 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>. That <quote>grand "
16681 "experiment</quote> we call the <quote>public domain</quote> is over? When I "
16682 "can make light of it, I think, <quote>Honey, I shrunk the "
16683 "Constitution.</quote> But I can rarely make light of it. We had in our "
16684 "Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the "
16685 "Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would "
16686 "have made them see differently."
16689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
16690 #: freeculture.xml:12168
16691 msgid "CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Eldred II"
16694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16695 #: freeculture.xml:12170
16697 "<emphasis role='strong'>The day</emphasis> <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
16698 "decided, fate would have it that I was to travel to Washington, D.C. (The "
16699 "day the rehearing petition in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
16700 "denied—meaning the case was really finally over—fate would have "
16701 "it that I was giving a speech to technologists at Disney World.) This was a "
16702 "particularly long flight to my least favorite city. The drive into the city "
16703 "from Dulles was delayed because of traffic, so I opened up my computer and "
16704 "wrote an op-ed piece."
16707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16708 #: freeculture.xml:12182
16710 "It was an act of contrition. During the whole of the flight from San "
16711 "Francisco to Washington, I had heard over and over again in my head the same "
16712 "advice from Don Ayer: You need to make them see why it is important. And "
16713 "alternating with that command was the question of Justice Kennedy: "
16714 "<quote>For all these years the act has impeded progress in science and the "
16715 "useful arts. I just don't see any empirical evidence for that.</quote> And "
16716 "so, having failed in the argument of constitutional principle, finally, I "
16717 "turned to an argument of politics."
16721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16722 #: freeculture.xml:12192
16724 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> published the piece. In it, I "
16725 "proposed a simple fix: Fifty years after a work has been published, the "
16726 "copyright owner would be required to register the work and pay a small "
16727 "fee. If he paid the fee, he got the benefit of the full term of "
16728 "copyright. If he did not, the work passed into the public domain."
16731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16732 #: freeculture.xml:12200
16734 "We called this the Eldred Act, but that was just to give it a name. Eric "
16735 "Eldred was kind enough to let his name be used once again, but as he said "
16736 "early on, it won't get passed unless it has another name."
16739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16740 #: freeculture.xml:12205
16742 "Or another two names. For depending upon your perspective, this is either "
16743 "the <quote>Public Domain Enhancement Act</quote> or the <quote>Copyright "
16744 "Term Deregulation Act.</quote> Either way, the essence of the idea is clear "
16745 "and obvious: Remove copyright where it is doing nothing except blocking "
16746 "access and the spread of knowledge. Leave it for as long as Congress allows "
16747 "for those works where its worth is at least $1. But for everything else, let "
16751 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16752 #: freeculture.xml:12213 freeculture.xml:12414
16753 msgid "Forbes, Steve"
16756 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16757 #: freeculture.xml:12215
16759 "The reaction to this idea was amazingly strong. Steve Forbes endorsed it in "
16760 "an editorial. I received an avalanche of e-mail and letters expressing "
16761 "support. When you focus the issue on lost creativity, people can see the "
16762 "copyright system makes no sense. As a good Republican might say, here "
16763 "government regulation is simply getting in the way of innovation and "
16764 "creativity. And as a good Democrat might say, here the government is "
16765 "blocking access and the spread of knowledge for no good reason. Indeed, "
16766 "there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this "
16767 "issue. Anyone can recognize the stupid harm of the present system."
16770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16771 #: freeculture.xml:12227
16773 "Indeed, many recognized the obvious benefit of the registration "
16774 "requirement. For one of the hardest things about the current system for "
16775 "people who want to license content is that there is no obvious place to look "
16776 "for the current copyright owners. Since registration is not required, since "
16777 "marking content is not required, since no formality at all is required, it "
16778 "is often impossibly hard to locate copyright owners to ask permission to use "
16779 "or license their work. This system would lower these costs, by establishing "
16780 "at least one registry where copyright owners could be identified."
16783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16784 #: freeculture.xml:12237
16785 msgid "Berlin Act (1908)"
16788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16789 #: freeculture.xml:12238 freeculture.xml:12279
16790 msgid "Berne Convention (1908)"
16793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
16794 #: freeculture.xml:12246
16795 msgid "German copyright law"
16798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16799 #: freeculture.xml:12246
16801 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the "
16802 "Berne Convention, national copyright legislation sometimes made protection "
16803 "depend upon compliance with formalities such as registration, deposit, and "
16804 "affixation of notice of the author's claim of copyright. However, starting "
16805 "with the 1908 act, every text of the Convention has provided that <quote>the "
16806 "enjoyment and the exercise</quote> of rights guaranteed by the Convention "
16807 "<quote>shall not be subject to any formality.</quote> The prohibition "
16808 "against formalities is presently embodied in Article 5(2) of the Paris Text "
16809 "of the Berne Convention. Many countries continue to impose some form of "
16810 "deposit or registration requirement, albeit not as a condition of "
16811 "copyright. French law, for example, requires the deposit of copies of works "
16812 "in national repositories, principally the National Museum. Copies of books "
16813 "published in the United Kingdom must be deposited in the British "
16814 "Library. The German Copyright Act provides for a Registrar of Authors where "
16815 "the author's true name can be filed in the case of anonymous or pseudonymous "
16816 "works. Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>International Intellectual Property Law, "
16817 "Cases and Materials</citetitle> (New York: Foundation Press, 2001), "
16821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16822 #: freeculture.xml:12241
16824 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
16825 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, formalities in copyright law were removed in 1976, "
16826 "when Congress followed the Europeans by abandoning any formal requirement "
16827 "before a copyright is granted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
16828 "Europeans are said to view copyright as a <quote>natural right.</quote> "
16829 "Natural rights don't need forms to exist. Traditions, like the "
16830 "Anglo-American tradition that required copyright owners to follow form if "
16831 "their rights were to be protected, did not, the Europeans thought, properly "
16832 "respect the dignity of the author. My right as a creator turns on my "
16833 "creativity, not upon the special favor of the government."
16836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16837 #: freeculture.xml:12273
16839 "That's great rhetoric. It sounds wonderfully romantic. But it is absurd "
16840 "copyright policy. It is absurd especially for authors, because a world "
16841 "without formalities harms the creator. The ability to spread <quote>Walt "
16842 "Disney creativity</quote> is destroyed when there is no simple way to know "
16843 "what's protected and what's not."
16846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16847 #: freeculture.xml:12281
16849 "The fight against formalities achieved its first real victory in Berlin in "
16850 "1908. International copyright lawyers amended the Berne Convention in 1908, "
16851 "to require copyright terms of life plus fifty years, as well as the "
16852 "abolition of copyright formalities. The formalities were hated because the "
16853 "stories of inadvertent loss were increasingly common. It was as if a Charles "
16854 "Dickens character ran all copyright offices, and the failure to dot an "
16855 "<citetitle>i</citetitle> or cross a <citetitle>t</citetitle> resulted in the "
16856 "loss of widows' only income."
16859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16860 #: freeculture.xml:12291
16862 "These complaints were real and sensible. And the strictness of the "
16863 "formalities, especially in the United States, was absurd. The law should "
16864 "always have ways of forgiving innocent mistakes. There is no reason "
16865 "copyright law couldn't, as well. Rather than abandoning formalities totally, "
16866 "the response in Berlin should have been to embrace a more equitable system "
16870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16871 #: freeculture.xml:12299
16873 "Even that would have been resisted, however, because registration in the "
16874 "nineteenth and twentieth centuries was still expensive. It was also a "
16875 "hassle. The abolishment of formalities promised not only to save the "
16876 "starving widows, but also to lighten an unnecessary regulatory burden "
16877 "imposed upon creators."
16881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16882 #: freeculture.xml:12307
16884 "In addition to the practical complaint of authors in 1908, there was a moral "
16885 "claim as well. There was no reason that creative property should be a "
16886 "second-class form of property. If a carpenter builds a table, his rights "
16887 "over the table don't depend upon filing a form with the government. He has "
16888 "a property right over the table <quote>naturally,</quote> and he can assert "
16889 "that right against anyone who would steal the table, whether or not he has "
16890 "informed the government of his ownership of the table."
16893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16894 #: freeculture.xml:12319
16896 "This argument is correct, but its implications are misleading. For the "
16897 "argument in favor of formalities does not depend upon creative property "
16898 "being second-class property. The argument in favor of formalities turns upon "
16899 "the special problems that creative property presents. The law of "
16900 "formalities responds to the special physics of creative property, to assure "
16901 "that it can be efficiently and fairly spread."
16904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16905 #: freeculture.xml:12328
16907 "No one thinks, for example, that land is second-class property just because "
16908 "you have to register a deed with a court if your sale of land is to be "
16909 "effective. And few would think a car is second-class property just because "
16910 "you must register the car with the state and tag it with a license. In both "
16911 "of those cases, everyone sees that there is an important reason to secure "
16912 "registration—both because it makes the markets more efficient and "
16913 "because it better secures the rights of the owner. Without a registration "
16914 "system for land, landowners would perpetually have to guard their "
16915 "property. With registration, they can simply point the police to a "
16916 "deed. Without a registration system for cars, auto theft would be much "
16917 "easier. With a registration system, the thief has a high burden to sell a "
16918 "stolen car. A slight burden is placed on the property owner, but those "
16919 "burdens produce a much better system of protection for property generally."
16922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16923 #: freeculture.xml:12344
16925 "It is similarly special physics that makes formalities important in "
16926 "copyright law. Unlike a carpenter's table, there's nothing in nature that "
16927 "makes it relatively obvious who might own a particular bit of creative "
16928 "property. A recording of Lyle Lovett's latest album can exist in a billion "
16929 "places without anything necessarily linking it back to a particular "
16930 "owner. And like a car, there's no way to buy and sell creative property with "
16931 "confidence unless there is some simple way to authenticate who is the author "
16932 "and what rights he has. Simple transactions are destroyed in a world without "
16933 "formalities. Complex, expensive, <emphasis>lawyer</emphasis> transactions "
16934 "take their place. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16938 #: freeculture.xml:12359
16940 "This was the understanding of the problem with the Sonny Bono Act that we "
16941 "tried to demonstrate to the Court. This was the part it didn't "
16942 "<quote>get.</quote> Because we live in a system without formalities, there "
16943 "is no way easily to build upon or use culture from our past. If copyright "
16944 "terms were, as Justice Story said they would be, <quote>short,</quote> then "
16945 "this wouldn't matter much. For fourteen years, under the framers' system, a "
16946 "work would be presumptively controlled. After fourteen years, it would be "
16947 "presumptively uncontrolled."
16950 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16951 #: freeculture.xml:12369
16953 "But now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to "
16954 "know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious "
16955 "burden on the creative process. If the only way a library can offer an "
16956 "Internet exhibit about the New Deal is to hire a lawyer to clear the rights "
16957 "to every image and sound, then the copyright system is burdening creativity "
16958 "in a way that has never been seen before <emphasis>because there are no "
16959 "formalities</emphasis>."
16962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16963 #: freeculture.xml:12378
16965 "The Eldred Act was designed to respond to exactly this problem. If it is "
16966 "worth $1 to you, then register your work and you can get the longer "
16967 "term. Others will know how to contact you and, therefore, how to get your "
16968 "permission if they want to use your work. And you will get the benefit of an "
16969 "extended copyright term."
16972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16973 #: freeculture.xml:12385
16975 "If it isn't worth it to you to register to get the benefit of an extended "
16976 "term, then it shouldn't be worth it for the government to defend your "
16977 "monopoly over that work either. The work should pass into the public domain "
16978 "where anyone can copy it, or build archives with it, or create a movie based "
16979 "on it. It should become free if it is not worth $1 to you."
16982 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16983 #: freeculture.xml:12392
16985 "Some worry about the burden on authors. Won't the burden of registering the "
16986 "work mean that the $1 is really misleading? Isn't the hassle worth more than "
16987 "$1? Isn't that the real problem with registration?"
16991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16992 #: freeculture.xml:12398
16994 "It is. The hassle is terrible. The system that exists now is awful. I "
16995 "completely agree that the Copyright Office has done a terrible job (no doubt "
16996 "because they are terribly funded) in enabling simple and cheap "
16997 "registrations. Any real solution to the problem of formalities must address "
16998 "the real problem of <emphasis>governments</emphasis> standing at the core of "
16999 "any system of formalities. In this book, I offer such a solution. That "
17000 "solution essentially remakes the Copyright Office. For now, assume it was "
17001 "Amazon that ran the registration system. Assume it was one-click "
17002 "registration. The Eldred Act would propose a simple, one-click registration "
17003 "fifty years after a work was published. Based upon historical data, that "
17004 "system would move up to 98 percent of commercial work, commercial work that "
17005 "no longer had a commercial life, into the public domain within fifty "
17006 "years. What do you think?"
17009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17010 #: freeculture.xml:12416
17012 "<emphasis role='strong'>When Steve Forbes</emphasis> endorsed the idea, some "
17013 "in Washington began to pay attention. Many people contacted me pointing to "
17014 "representatives who might be willing to introduce the Eldred Act. And I had "
17015 "a few who directly suggested that they might be willing to take the first "
17019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17020 #: freeculture.xml:12422
17021 msgid "Lofgren, Zoe"
17024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17025 #: freeculture.xml:12424
17027 "One representative, Zoe Lofgren of California, went so far as to get the "
17028 "bill drafted. The draft solved any problem with international law. It "
17029 "imposed the simplest requirement upon copyright owners possible. In May "
17030 "2003, it looked as if the bill would be introduced. On May 16, I posted on "
17031 "the Eldred Act blog, <quote>we are close.</quote> There was a general "
17032 "reaction in the blog community that something good might happen here."
17035 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17036 #: freeculture.xml:12433
17038 "But at this stage, the lobbyists began to intervene. Jack Valenti and the "
17039 "MPAA general counsel came to the congresswoman's office to give the view of "
17040 "the MPAA. Aided by his lawyer, as Valenti told me, Valenti informed the "
17041 "congresswoman that the MPAA would oppose the Eldred Act. The reasons are "
17042 "embarrassingly thin. More importantly, their thinness shows something clear "
17043 "about what this debate is really about."
17047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17048 #: freeculture.xml:12441
17050 "The MPAA argued first that Congress had <quote>firmly rejected the central "
17051 "concept in the proposed bill</quote>—that copyrights be renewed. That "
17052 "was true, but irrelevant, as Congress's <quote>firm rejection</quote> had "
17053 "occurred long before the Internet made subsequent uses much more likely. "
17054 "Second, they argued that the proposal would harm poor copyright "
17055 "owners—apparently those who could not afford the $1 fee. Third, they "
17056 "argued that Congress had determined that extending a copyright term would "
17057 "encourage restoration work. Maybe in the case of the small percentage of "
17058 "work covered by copyright law that is still commercially valuable, but again "
17059 "this was irrelevant, as the proposal would not cut off the extended term "
17060 "unless the $1 fee was not paid. Fourth, the MPAA argued that the bill would "
17061 "impose <quote>enormous</quote> costs, since a registration system is not "
17062 "free. True enough, but those costs are certainly less than the costs of "
17063 "clearing the rights for a copyright whose owner is not known. Fifth, they "
17064 "worried about the risks if the copyright to a story underlying a film were "
17065 "to pass into the public domain. But what risk is that? If it is in the "
17066 "public domain, then the film is a valid derivative use."
17069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17070 #: freeculture.xml:12462
17072 "Finally, the MPAA argued that existing law enabled copyright owners to do "
17073 "this if they wanted. But the whole point is that there are thousands of "
17074 "copyright owners who don't even know they have a copyright to give. Whether "
17075 "they are free to give away their copyright or not—a controversial "
17076 "claim in any case—unless they know about a copyright, they're not "
17080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17081 #: freeculture.xml:12470
17083 "<emphasis role='strong'>At the beginning</emphasis> of this book, I told two "
17084 "stories about the law reacting to changes in technology. In the one, common "
17085 "sense prevailed. In the other, common sense was delayed. The difference "
17086 "between the two stories was the power of the opposition—the power of "
17087 "the side that fought to defend the status quo. In both cases, a new "
17088 "technology threatened old interests. But in only one case did those "
17089 "interest's have the power to protect themselves against this new competitive "
17093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17094 #: freeculture.xml:12480
17096 "I used these two cases as a way to frame the war that this book has been "
17097 "about. For here, too, a new technology is forcing the law to react. And "
17098 "here, too, we should ask, is the law following or resisting common sense? If "
17099 "common sense supports the law, what explains this common sense?"
17103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17104 #: freeculture.xml:12489
17106 "When the issue is piracy, it is right for the law to back the copyright "
17107 "owners. The commercial piracy that I described is wrong and harmful, and the "
17108 "law should work to eliminate it. When the issue is p2p sharing, it is easy "
17109 "to understand why the law backs the owners still: Much of this sharing is "
17110 "wrong, even if much is harmless. When the issue is copyright terms for the "
17111 "Mickey Mouses of the world, it is possible still to understand why the law "
17112 "favors Hollywood: Most people don't recognize the reasons for limiting "
17113 "copyright terms; it is thus still possible to see good faith within the "
17117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17118 #: freeculture.xml:12499
17119 msgid "Kelly, Kevin"
17122 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17123 #: freeculture.xml:12501
17125 "But when the copyright owners oppose a proposal such as the Eldred Act, "
17126 "then, finally, there is an example that lays bare the naked selfinterest "
17127 "driving this war. This act would free an extraordinary range of content that "
17128 "is otherwise unused. It wouldn't interfere with any copyright owner's desire "
17129 "to exercise continued control over his content. It would simply liberate "
17130 "what Kevin Kelly calls the <quote>Dark Content</quote> that fills archives "
17131 "around the world. So when the warriors oppose a change like this, we should "
17132 "ask one simple question:"
17135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17136 #: freeculture.xml:12511
17137 msgid "What does this industry really want?"
17140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17141 #: freeculture.xml:12514
17143 "With very little effort, the warriors could protect their content. So the "
17144 "effort to block something like the Eldred Act is not really about protecting "
17145 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> content. The effort to block the Eldred Act is an "
17146 "effort to assure that nothing more passes into the public domain. It is "
17147 "another step to assure that the public domain will never compete, that there "
17148 "will be no use of content that is not commercially controlled, and that "
17149 "there will be no commercial use of content that doesn't require "
17150 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> permission first."
17153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17154 #: freeculture.xml:12525
17156 "The opposition to the Eldred Act reveals how extreme the other side is. The "
17157 "most powerful and sexy and well loved of lobbies really has as its aim not "
17158 "the protection of <quote>property</quote> but the rejection of a tradition. "
17159 "Their aim is not simply to protect what is theirs. <emphasis>Their aim is to "
17160 "assure that all there is is what is theirs</emphasis>."
17164 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17165 #: freeculture.xml:12533
17167 "It is not hard to understand why the warriors take this view. It is not hard "
17168 "to see why it would benefit them if the competition of the public domain "
17169 "tied to the Internet could somehow be quashed. Just as RCA feared the "
17170 "competition of FM, they fear the competition of a public domain connected to "
17171 "a public that now has the means to create with it and to share its own "
17175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17176 #: freeculture.xml:12545
17178 "What is hard to understand is why the public takes this view. It is as if "
17179 "the law made airplanes trespassers. The MPAA stands with the Causbys and "
17180 "demands that their remote and useless property rights be respected, so that "
17181 "these remote and forgotten copyright holders might block the progress of "
17185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17186 #: freeculture.xml:12552
17188 "All this seems to follow easily from this untroubled acceptance of the "
17189 "<quote>property</quote> in intellectual property. Common sense supports it, "
17190 "and so long as it does, the assaults will rain down upon the technologies of "
17191 "the Internet. The consequence will be an increasing <quote>permission "
17192 "society.</quote> The past can be cultivated only if you can identify the "
17193 "owner and gain permission to build upon his work. The future will be "
17194 "controlled by this dead (and often unfindable) hand of the past."
17197 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
17198 #: freeculture.xml:12564
17202 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17203 #: freeculture.xml:12565
17204 msgid "antiretroviral drugs"
17207 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17208 #: freeculture.xml:12566
17209 msgid "HIV/AIDS therapies"
17212 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17213 #: freeculture.xml:12567
17214 msgid "Africa, medications for HIV patients in"
17217 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17218 #: freeculture.xml:12569
17220 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are more</emphasis> than 35 million people "
17221 "with the AIDS virus worldwide. Twenty-five million of them live in "
17222 "sub-Saharan Africa. Seventeen million have already died. Seventeen million "
17223 "Africans is proportional percentage-wise to seven million Americans. More "
17224 "importantly, it is seventeen million Africans."
17227 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17228 #: freeculture.xml:12576
17230 "There is no cure for AIDS, but there are drugs to slow its progression. "
17231 "These antiretroviral therapies are still experimental, but they have already "
17232 "had a dramatic effect. In the United States, AIDS patients who regularly "
17233 "take a cocktail of these drugs increase their life expectancy by ten to "
17234 "twenty years. For some, the drugs make the disease almost invisible."
17238 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17239 #: freeculture.xml:12591
17241 "Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, <quote>Final Report: Integrating "
17242 "Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy</quote> (London, 2002), "
17243 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
17244 "#55</ulink>. According to a World Health Organization press release issued 9 "
17245 "July 2002, only 230,000 of the 6 million who need drugs in the developing "
17246 "world receive them—and half of them are in Brazil."
17249 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17250 #: freeculture.xml:12584
17252 "These drugs are expensive. When they were first introduced in the United "
17253 "States, they cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per person per year. Today, "
17254 "some cost $25,000 per year. At these prices, of course, no African nation "
17255 "can afford the drugs for the vast majority of its population: $15,000 is "
17256 "thirty times the per capita gross national product of Zimbabwe. At these "
17257 "prices, the drugs are totally unavailable.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
17262 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17263 #: freeculture.xml:12602
17265 "These prices are not high because the ingredients of the drugs are "
17266 "expensive. These prices are high because the drugs are protected by "
17267 "patents. The drug companies that produced these life-saving mixes enjoy at "
17268 "least a twenty-year monopoly for their inventions. They use that monopoly "
17269 "power to extract the most they can from the market. That power is in turn "
17270 "used to keep the prices high."
17273 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17274 #: freeculture.xml:12610
17276 "There are many who are skeptical of patents, especially drug patents. I am "
17277 "not. Indeed, of all the areas of research that might be supported by "
17278 "patents, drug research is, in my view, the clearest case where patents are "
17279 "needed. The patent gives the drug company some assurance that if it is "
17280 "successful in inventing a new drug to treat a disease, it will be able to "
17281 "earn back its investment and more. This is socially an extremely valuable "
17282 "incentive. I am the last person who would argue that the law should abolish "
17283 "it, at least without other changes."
17286 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17287 #: freeculture.xml:12621
17289 "But it is one thing to support patents, even drug patents. It is another "
17290 "thing to determine how best to deal with a crisis. And as African leaders "
17291 "began to recognize the devastation that AIDS was bringing, they started "
17292 "looking for ways to import HIV treatments at costs significantly below the "
17296 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17297 #: freeculture.xml:12639 freeculture.xml:13094
17298 msgid "Braithwaite, John"
17301 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17302 #: freeculture.xml:12637
17304 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism: "
17305 "Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New Press, 2003), "
17306 "37. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
17307 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17310 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17311 #: freeculture.xml:12628
17313 "In 1997, South Africa tried one tack. It passed a law to allow the "
17314 "importation of patented medicines that had been produced or sold in another "
17315 "nation's market with the consent of the patent owner. For example, if the "
17316 "drug was sold in India, it could be imported into Africa from India. This is "
17317 "called <quote>parallel importation,</quote> and it is generally permitted "
17318 "under international trade law and is specifically permitted within the "
17319 "European Union.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
17323 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17324 #: freeculture.xml:12650
17326 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
17327 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
17328 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
17329 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 14, available at <ulink "
17330 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #56</ulink>. For a firsthand "
17331 "account of the struggle over South Africa, see Hearing Before the "
17332 "Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, House "
17333 "Committee on Government Reform, H. Rep., 1st sess., Ser. No. 106-126 (22 "
17334 "July 1999), 150–57 (statement of James Love)."
17338 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17339 #: freeculture.xml:12677
17341 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
17342 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
17343 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
17344 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 15."
17347 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17348 #: freeculture.xml:12644
17350 "However, the United States government opposed the bill. Indeed, more than "
17351 "opposed. As the International Intellectual Property Association "
17352 "characterized it, <quote>The U.S. government pressured South Africa … "
17353 "not to permit compulsory licensing or parallel imports.</quote><placeholder "
17354 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Through the Office of the United States Trade "
17355 "Representative, the government asked South Africa to change the "
17356 "law—and to add pressure to that request, in 1998, the USTR listed "
17357 "South Africa for possible trade sanctions. That same year, more than forty "
17358 "pharmaceutical companies began proceedings in the South African courts to "
17359 "challenge the government's actions. The United States was then joined by "
17360 "other governments from the EU. Their claim, and the claim of the "
17361 "pharmaceutical companies, was that South Africa was violating its "
17362 "obligations under international law by discriminating against a particular "
17363 "kind of patent— pharmaceutical patents. The demand of these "
17364 "governments, with the United States in the lead, was that South Africa "
17365 "respect these patents as it respects any other patent, regardless of any "
17366 "effect on the treatment of AIDS within South Africa.<placeholder "
17367 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
17370 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17371 #: freeculture.xml:12683
17373 "We should place the intervention by the United States in context. No doubt "
17374 "patents are not the most important reason that Africans don't have access to "
17375 "drugs. Poverty and the total absence of an effective health care "
17376 "infrastructure matter more. But whether patents are the most important "
17377 "reason or not, the price of drugs has an effect on their demand, and patents "
17378 "affect price. And so, whether massive or marginal, there was an effect from "
17379 "our government's intervention to stop the flow of medications into Africa."
17382 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17383 #: freeculture.xml:12693
17385 "By stopping the flow of HIV treatment into Africa, the United States "
17386 "government was not saving drugs for United States citizens. This is not "
17387 "like wheat (if they eat it, we can't); instead, the flow that the United "
17388 "States intervened to stop was, in effect, a flow of knowledge: information "
17389 "about how to take chemicals that exist within Africa, and turn those "
17390 "chemicals into drugs that would save 15 to 30 million lives."
17393 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17394 #: freeculture.xml:12701
17396 "Nor was the intervention by the United States going to protect the profits "
17397 "of United States drug companies—at least, not substantially. It was "
17398 "not as if these countries were in the position to buy the drugs for the "
17399 "prices the drug companies were charging. Again, the Africans are wildly too "
17400 "poor to afford these drugs at the offered prices. Stopping the parallel "
17401 "import of these drugs would not substantially increase the sales by "
17407 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17408 #: freeculture.xml:12716
17410 "See Sabin Russell, <quote>New Crusade to Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's "
17411 "Needs at Odds with Firms' Profit Motive,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
17412 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 May 1999, A1, available at <ulink "
17413 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #57</ulink> (<quote>compulsory "
17414 "licenses and gray markets pose a threat to the entire system of intellectual "
17415 "property protection</quote>); Robert Weissman, <quote>AIDS and Developing "
17416 "Countries: Democratizing Access to Essential Medicines,</quote> "
17417 "<citetitle>Foreign Policy in Focus</citetitle> 4:23 (August 1999), available "
17418 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #58</ulink> (describing "
17419 "U.S. policy); John A. Harrelson, <quote>TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and "
17420 "the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance Between Intellectual "
17421 "Property Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,</quote> <citetitle>Widener Law "
17422 "Symposium Journal</citetitle> (Spring 2001): 175."
17425 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17426 #: freeculture.xml:12710
17428 "Instead, the argument in favor of restricting this flow of information, "
17429 "which was needed to save the lives of millions, was an argument about the "
17430 "sanctity of property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It was "
17431 "because <quote>intellectual property</quote> would be violated that these "
17432 "drugs should not flow into Africa. It was a principle about the importance "
17433 "of <quote>intellectual property</quote> that led these government actors to "
17434 "intervene against the South African response to AIDS."
17437 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17438 #: freeculture.xml:12737
17440 "Now just step back for a moment. There will be a time thirty years from now "
17441 "when our children look back at us and ask, how could we have let this "
17442 "happen? How could we allow a policy to be pursued whose direct cost would be "
17443 "to speed the death of 15 to 30 million Africans, and whose only real benefit "
17444 "would be to uphold the <quote>sanctity</quote> of an idea? What possible "
17445 "justification could there ever be for a policy that results in so many "
17446 "deaths? What exactly is the insanity that would allow so many to die for "
17447 "such an abstraction?"
17450 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17451 #: freeculture.xml:12747
17453 "Some blame the drug companies. I don't. They are corporations. Their "
17454 "managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a "
17455 "certain patent policy not because of ideals, but because it is the policy "
17456 "that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money "
17457 "because of a certain corruption within our political system— a "
17458 "corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for."
17461 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17462 #: freeculture.xml:12755
17464 "The corruption is our own politicians' failure of integrity. For the drug "
17465 "companies would love—they say, and I believe them—to sell their "
17466 "drugs as cheaply as they can to countries in Africa and elsewhere. There "
17467 "are issues they'd have to resolve to make sure the drugs didn't get back "
17468 "into the United States, but those are mere problems of technology. They "
17469 "could be overcome."
17473 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17474 #: freeculture.xml:12763
17476 "A different problem, however, could not be overcome. This is the fear of the "
17477 "grandstanding politician who would call the presidents of the drug companies "
17478 "before a Senate or House hearing, and ask, <quote>How is it you can sell "
17479 "this HIV drug in Africa for only $1 a pill, but the same drug would cost an "
17480 "American $1,500?</quote> Because there is no <quote>sound bite</quote> "
17481 "answer to that question, its effect would be to induce regulation of prices "
17482 "in America. The drug companies thus avoid this spiral by avoiding the first "
17483 "step. They reinforce the idea that property should be sacred. They adopt a "
17484 "rational strategy in an irrational context, with the unintended consequence "
17485 "that perhaps millions die. And that rational strategy thus becomes framed in "
17486 "terms of this ideal—the sanctity of an idea called <quote>intellectual "
17487 "property.</quote>"
17490 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17491 #: freeculture.xml:12778
17493 "So when the common sense of your child confronts you, what will you say? "
17494 "When the common sense of a generation finally revolts against what we have "
17495 "done, how will we justify what we have done? What is the argument?"
17498 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17499 #: freeculture.xml:12784
17501 "A sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly support the patent "
17502 "system without having to reach everyone everywhere in exactly the same "
17503 "way. Just as a sensible copyright policy could endorse and strongly support "
17504 "a copyright system without having to regulate the spread of culture "
17505 "perfectly and forever, a sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly "
17506 "support a patent system without having to block the spread of drugs to a "
17507 "country not rich enough to afford market prices in any case. A sensible "
17508 "policy, in other words, could be a balanced policy. For most of our history, "
17509 "both copyright and patent policies were balanced in just this sense."
17512 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17513 #: freeculture.xml:12796
17515 "But we as a culture have lost this sense of balance. We have lost the "
17516 "critical eye that helps us see the difference between truth and extremism. "
17517 "A certain property fundamentalism, having no connection to our tradition, "
17518 "now reigns in this culture—bizarrely, and with consequences more grave "
17519 "to the spread of ideas and culture than almost any other single policy "
17520 "decision that we as a democracy will make."
17524 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17525 #: freeculture.xml:12807
17527 "<emphasis role='strong'>A simple idea</emphasis> blinds us, and under the "
17528 "cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if any of us "
17529 "looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we "
17530 "don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are "
17531 "dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in "
17532 "culture that we don't even question when the control of that property "
17533 "removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture "
17534 "democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for "
17535 "anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way "
17536 "to make this common sense open its eyes."
17539 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17540 #: freeculture.xml:12821
17542 "So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet "
17543 "see what there could be to revolt about. The extremism that now dominates "
17544 "this debate fits with ideas that seem natural, and that fit is reinforced by "
17545 "the RCAs of our day. They wage a frantic war to fight <quote>piracy,</quote> "
17546 "and devastate a culture for creativity. They defend the idea of "
17547 "<quote>creative property,</quote> while transforming real creators into "
17548 "modern-day sharecroppers. They are insulted by the idea that rights should "
17549 "be balanced, even though each of the major players in this content war was "
17550 "itself a beneficiary of a more balanced ideal. The hypocrisy reeks. Yet in a "
17551 "city like Washington, hypocrisy is not even noticed. Powerful lobbies, "
17552 "complex issues, and MTV attention spans produce the <quote>perfect "
17553 "storm</quote> for free culture."
17556 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17557 #: freeculture.xml:12834
17558 msgid "public domain"
17561 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
17562 #: freeculture.xml:12834
17563 msgid "public projects in"
17566 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17567 #: freeculture.xml:12835
17568 msgid "single nucleotied polymorphisms (SNPs)"
17571 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17572 #: freeculture.xml:12836
17573 msgid "Wellcome Trust"
17576 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17577 #: freeculture.xml:12837
17578 msgid "World Wide Web"
17581 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17582 #: freeculture.xml:12838
17583 msgid "Global Positioning System"
17586 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17587 #: freeculture.xml:12840
17588 msgid "biomedical research"
17592 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17593 #: freeculture.xml:12845
17595 "Jonathan Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> "
17596 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, August 2003, E1, available at <ulink "
17597 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #59</ulink>; William New, "
17598 "<quote>Global Group's Shift on `Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir,</quote> "
17599 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
17600 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #60</ulink>; "
17601 "William New, <quote>U.S. Official Opposes `Open Source' Talks at "
17602 "WIPO,</quote> <citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 "
17603 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
17607 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17608 #: freeculture.xml:12873 freeculture.xml:13564
17609 msgid "academic journals"
17612 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17613 #: freeculture.xml:12874 freeculture.xml:12941 freeculture.xml:13490
17617 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17618 #: freeculture.xml:12875 freeculture.xml:13627
17619 msgid "PLoS (Public Library of Science)"
17622 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17623 #: freeculture.xml:12842
17625 "<emphasis role='strong'>In August 2003</emphasis>, a fight broke out in the "
17626 "United States about a decision by the World Intellectual Property "
17627 "Organization to cancel a meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
17628 "At the request of a wide range of interests, WIPO had decided to hold a "
17629 "meeting to discuss <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
17630 "goods.</quote> These are projects that have been successful in producing "
17631 "public goods without relying exclusively upon a proprietary use of "
17632 "intellectual property. Examples include the Internet and the World Wide Web, "
17633 "both of which were developed on the basis of protocols in the public "
17634 "domain. It included an emerging trend to support open academic journals, "
17635 "including the Public Library of Science project that I describe in the "
17636 "Afterword. It included a project to develop single nucleotide polymorphisms "
17637 "(SNPs), which are thought to have great significance in biomedical "
17638 "research. (That nonprofit project comprised a consortium of the Wellcome "
17639 "Trust and pharmaceutical and technological companies, including Amersham "
17640 "Biosciences, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffmann-La "
17641 "Roche, Glaxo-SmithKline, IBM, Motorola, Novartis, Pfizer, and Searle.) It "
17642 "included the Global Positioning System, which Ronald Reagan set free in the "
17643 "early 1980s. And it included <quote>open source and free software.</quote> "
17644 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17645 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
17648 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17649 #: freeculture.xml:12879
17651 "The aim of the meeting was to consider this wide range of projects from one "
17652 "common perspective: that none of these projects relied upon intellectual "
17653 "property extremism. Instead, in all of them, intellectual property was "
17654 "balanced by agreements to keep access open or to impose limitations on the "
17655 "way in which proprietary claims might be used."
17659 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17660 #: freeculture.xml:12887
17662 "I should disclose that I was one of the people who asked WIPO for the "
17666 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17667 #: freeculture.xml:12886
17669 "From the perspective of this book, then, the conference was "
17670 "ideal.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The projects within its "
17671 "scope included both commercial and noncommercial work. They primarily "
17672 "involved science, but from many perspectives. And WIPO was an ideal venue "
17673 "for this discussion, since WIPO is the preeminent international body dealing "
17674 "with intellectual property issues."
17678 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17679 #: freeculture.xml:12897
17681 "Indeed, I was once publicly scolded for not recognizing this fact about "
17682 "WIPO. In February 2003, I delivered a keynote address to a preparatory "
17683 "conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At a "
17684 "press conference before the address, I was asked what I would say. I "
17685 "responded that I would be talking a little about the importance of balance "
17686 "in intellectual property for the development of an information society. The "
17687 "moderator for the event then promptly interrupted to inform me and the "
17688 "assembled reporters that no question about intellectual property would be "
17689 "discussed by WSIS, since those questions were the exclusive domain of "
17690 "WIPO. In the talk that I had prepared, I had actually made the issue of "
17691 "intellectual property relatively minor. But after this astonishing "
17692 "statement, I made intellectual property the sole focus of my talk. There was "
17693 "no way to talk about an <quote>Information Society</quote> unless one also "
17694 "talked about the range of information and culture that would be free. My "
17695 "talk did not make my immoderate moderator very happy. And she was no doubt "
17696 "correct that the scope of intellectual property protections was ordinarily "
17697 "the stuff of WIPO. But in my view, there couldn't be too much of a "
17698 "conversation about how much intellectual property is needed, since in my "
17699 "view, the very idea of balance in intellectual property had been lost."
17702 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17703 #: freeculture.xml:12921
17705 "So whether or not WSIS can discuss balance in intellectual property, I had "
17706 "thought it was taken for granted that WIPO could and should. And thus the "
17707 "meeting about <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
17708 "goods</quote> seemed perfectly appropriate within the WIPO agenda."
17711 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17712 #: freeculture.xml:12926 freeculture.xml:14610
17713 msgid "Apple Corporation"
17716 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17717 #: freeculture.xml:12928
17719 "But there is one project within that list that is highly controversial, at "
17720 "least among lobbyists. That project is <quote>open source and free "
17721 "software.</quote> Microsoft in particular is wary of discussion of the "
17722 "subject. From its perspective, a conference to discuss open source and free "
17723 "software would be like a conference to discuss Apple's operating "
17724 "system. Both open source and free software compete with Microsoft's "
17725 "software. And internationally, many governments have begun to explore "
17726 "requirements that they use open source or free software, rather than "
17727 "<quote>proprietary software,</quote> for their own internal uses."
17730 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17731 #: freeculture.xml:12938
17732 msgid "<quote>copyleft</quote> licenses"
17736 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17737 #: freeculture.xml:12954
17739 "Microsoft's position about free and open source software is more "
17740 "sophisticated. As it has repeatedly asserted, it has no problem with "
17741 "<quote>open source</quote> software or software in the public "
17742 "domain. Microsoft's principal opposition is to <quote>free software</quote> "
17743 "licensed under a <quote>copyleft</quote> license, meaning a license that "
17744 "requires the licensee to adopt the same terms on any derivative work. See "
17745 "Bradford L. Smith, <quote>The Future of Software: Enabling the Marketplace "
17746 "to Decide,</quote> <citetitle>Government Policy Toward Open Source "
17747 "Software</citetitle> (Washington, D.C.: AEI-Brookings Joint Center for "
17748 "Regulatory Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy "
17749 "Research, 2002), 69, available at <ulink "
17750 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #62</ulink>. See also Craig "
17751 "Mundie, Microsoft senior vice president, <citetitle>The Commercial Software "
17752 "Model</citetitle>, discussion at New York University Stern School of "
17753 "Business (3 May 2001), available at <ulink "
17754 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #63</ulink>."
17757 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17758 #: freeculture.xml:12943
17760 "I don't mean to enter that debate here. It is important only to make clear "
17761 "that the distinction is not between commercial and noncommercial "
17762 "software. There are many important companies that depend fundamentally upon "
17763 "open source and free software, IBM being the most prominent. IBM is "
17764 "increasingly shifting its focus to the GNU/Linux operating system, the most "
17765 "famous bit of <quote>free software</quote>—and IBM is emphatically a "
17766 "commercial entity. Thus, to support <quote>open source and free "
17767 "software</quote> is not to oppose commercial entities. It is, instead, to "
17768 "support a mode of software development that is different from "
17769 "Microsoft's.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
17772 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17773 #: freeculture.xml:12971
17774 msgid "General Public License (GPL)"
17777 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17778 #: freeculture.xml:12972
17779 msgid "GPL (General Public License)"
17783 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17784 #: freeculture.xml:12974
17786 "More important for our purposes, to support <quote>open source and free "
17787 "software</quote> is not to oppose copyright. <quote>Open source and free "
17788 "software</quote> is not software in the public domain. Instead, like "
17789 "Microsoft's software, the copyright owners of free and open source software "
17790 "insist quite strongly that the terms of their software license be respected "
17791 "by adopters of free and open source software. The terms of that license are "
17792 "no doubt different from the terms of a proprietary software license. Free "
17793 "software licensed under the General Public License (GPL), for example, "
17794 "requires that the source code for the software be made available by anyone "
17795 "who modifies and redistributes the software. But that requirement is "
17796 "effective only if copyright governs software. If copyright did not govern "
17797 "software, then free software could not impose the same kind of requirements "
17798 "on its adopters. It thus depends upon copyright law just as Microsoft does."
17801 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17802 #: freeculture.xml:12991
17803 msgid "Krim, Jonathan"
17806 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
17807 #: freeculture.xml:12992
17808 msgid "WIPO meeting opposed by"
17812 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17813 #: freeculture.xml:13002
17815 "Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> available at <ulink "
17816 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #64</ulink>."
17819 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17820 #: freeculture.xml:12994
17822 "It is therefore understandable that as a proprietary software developer, "
17823 "Microsoft would oppose this WIPO meeting, and understandable that it would "
17824 "use its lobbyists to get the United States government to oppose it, as "
17825 "well. And indeed, that is just what was reported to have happened. According "
17826 "to Jonathan Krim of the <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, Microsoft's "
17827 "lobbyists succeeded in getting the United States government to veto the "
17828 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And without U.S. backing, "
17829 "the meeting was canceled."
17832 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17833 #: freeculture.xml:13008
17835 "I don't blame Microsoft for doing what it can to advance its own interests, "
17836 "consistent with the law. And lobbying governments is plainly consistent with "
17837 "the law. There was nothing surprising about its lobbying here, and nothing "
17838 "terribly surprising about the most powerful software producer in the United "
17839 "States having succeeded in its lobbying efforts."
17842 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17843 #: freeculture.xml:13015 freeculture.xml:13068
17844 msgid "Boland, Lois"
17847 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17848 #: freeculture.xml:13017
17850 "What was surprising was the United States government's reason for opposing "
17851 "the meeting. Again, as reported by Krim, Lois Boland, acting director of "
17852 "international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, explained "
17853 "that <quote>open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which "
17854 "is to promote intellectual-property rights.</quote> She is quoted as saying, "
17855 "<quote>To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such "
17856 "rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.</quote>"
17859 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17860 #: freeculture.xml:13027
17861 msgid "These statements are astonishing on a number of levels."
17864 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17865 #: freeculture.xml:13031
17867 "First, they are just flat wrong. As I described, most open source and free "
17868 "software relies fundamentally upon the intellectual property right called "
17869 "<quote>copyright</quote>. Without it, restrictions imposed by those "
17870 "licenses wouldn't work. Thus, to say it <quote>runs counter</quote> to the "
17871 "mission of promoting intellectual property rights reveals an extraordinary "
17872 "gap in understanding—the sort of mistake that is excusable in a "
17873 "first-year law student, but an embarrassment from a high government official "
17874 "dealing with intellectual property issues."
17877 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17878 #: freeculture.xml:13040
17879 msgid "generic drugs"
17882 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17883 #: freeculture.xml:13042
17885 "Second, who ever said that WIPO's exclusive aim was to "
17886 "<quote>promote</quote> intellectual property maximally? As I had been "
17887 "scolded at the preparatory conference of WSIS, WIPO is to consider not only "
17888 "how best to protect intellectual property, but also what the best balance of "
17889 "intellectual property is. As every economist and lawyer knows, the hard "
17890 "question in intellectual property law is to find that balance. But that "
17891 "there should be limits is, I had thought, uncontested. One wants to ask "
17892 "Ms. Boland, are generic drugs (drugs based on drugs whose patent has "
17893 "expired) contrary to the WIPO mission? Does the public domain weaken "
17894 "intellectual property? Would it have been better if the protocols of the "
17895 "Internet had been patented?"
17898 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17899 #: freeculture.xml:13056
17901 "Third, even if one believed that the purpose of WIPO was to maximize "
17902 "intellectual property rights, in our tradition, intellectual property rights "
17903 "are held by individuals and corporations. They get to decide what to do with "
17904 "those rights because, again, they are <emphasis>their</emphasis> rights. If "
17905 "they want to <quote>waive</quote> or <quote>disclaim</quote> their rights, "
17906 "that is, within our tradition, totally appropriate. When Bill Gates gives "
17907 "away more than $20 billion to do good in the world, that is not inconsistent "
17908 "with the objectives of the property system. That is, on the contrary, just "
17909 "what a property system is supposed to be about: giving individuals the right "
17910 "to decide what to do with <emphasis>their</emphasis> property."
17914 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17915 #: freeculture.xml:13070
17917 "When Ms. Boland says that there is something wrong with a meeting "
17918 "<quote>which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights,</quote> "
17919 "she's saying that WIPO has an interest in interfering with the choices of "
17920 "the individuals who own intellectual property rights. That somehow, WIPO's "
17921 "objective should be to stop an individual from <quote>waiving</quote> or "
17922 "<quote>disclaiming</quote> an intellectual property right. That the interest "
17923 "of WIPO is not just that intellectual property rights be maximized, but that "
17924 "they also should be exercised in the most extreme and restrictive way "
17928 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17929 #: freeculture.xml:13082
17931 "There is a history of just such a property system that is well known in the "
17932 "Anglo-American tradition. It is called <quote>feudalism.</quote> Under "
17933 "feudalism, not only was property held by a relatively small number of "
17934 "individuals and entities. And not only were the rights that ran with that "
17935 "property powerful and extensive. But the feudal system had a strong interest "
17936 "in assuring that property holders within that system not weaken feudalism by "
17937 "liberating people or property within their control to the free "
17938 "market. Feudalism depended upon maximum control and concentration. It fought "
17939 "any freedom that might interfere with that control."
17942 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17943 #: freeculture.xml:13099
17945 "See Drahos with Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism</citetitle>, "
17946 "210–20. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17949 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17950 #: freeculture.xml:13096
17952 "As Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite relate, this is precisely the choice we "
17953 "are now making about intellectual property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
17954 "id=\"0\"/> We will have an information society. That much is certain. Our "
17955 "only choice now is whether that information society will be "
17956 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> or <emphasis>feudal</emphasis>. The trend is "
17957 "toward the feudal."
17960 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17961 #: freeculture.xml:13108
17963 "When this battle broke, I blogged it. A spirited debate within the comment "
17964 "section ensued. Ms. Boland had a number of supporters who tried to show why "
17965 "her comments made sense. But there was one comment that was particularly "
17966 "depressing for me. An anonymous poster wrote,"
17970 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
17971 #: freeculture.xml:13115
17973 "George, you misunderstand Lessig: He's only talking about the world as it "
17974 "should be (<quote>the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should "
17975 "be to promote the right balance of intellectual property rights, not simply "
17976 "to promote intellectual property rights</quote>), not as it is. If we were "
17977 "talking about the world as it is, then of course Boland didn't say anything "
17978 "wrong. But in the world as Lessig would have it, then of course she "
17979 "did. Always pay attention to the distinction between Lessig's world and "
17983 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17984 #: freeculture.xml:13127
17986 "I missed the irony the first time I read it. I read it quickly and thought "
17987 "the poster was supporting the idea that seeking balance was what our "
17988 "government should be doing. (Of course, my criticism of Ms. Boland was not "
17989 "about whether she was seeking balance or not; my criticism was that her "
17990 "comments betrayed a first-year law student's mistake. I have no illusion "
17991 "about the extremism of our government, whether Republican or Democrat. My "
17992 "only illusion apparently is about whether our government should speak the "
17996 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17997 #: freeculture.xml:13138
17999 "Obviously, however, the poster was not supporting that idea. Instead, the "
18000 "poster was ridiculing the very idea that in the real world, the "
18001 "<quote>goal</quote> of a government should be <quote>to promote the right "
18002 "balance</quote> of intellectual property. That was obviously silly to "
18003 "him. And it obviously betrayed, he believed, my own silly "
18004 "utopianism. <quote>Typical for an academic,</quote> the poster might well "
18008 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18009 #: freeculture.xml:13146
18011 "I understand criticism of academic utopianism. I think utopianism is silly, "
18012 "too, and I'd be the first to poke fun at the absurdly unrealistic ideals of "
18013 "academics throughout history (and not just in our own country's history)."
18016 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18017 #: freeculture.xml:13152
18019 "But when it has become silly to suppose that the role of our government "
18020 "should be to <quote>seek balance,</quote> then count me with the silly, for "
18021 "that means that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be "
18022 "obvious to everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the "
18023 "government is simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that the idea "
18024 "of holding the government to a different standard is absurd, that the idea "
18025 "of demanding of the government that it speak truth and not lies is just "
18026 "naïve, then who have we, the most powerful democracy in the world, "
18031 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18032 #: freeculture.xml:13163
18034 "It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the "
18035 "truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something "
18036 "more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy "
18037 "to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our "
18038 "tradition for most of our history—free culture."
18041 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18042 #: freeculture.xml:13171
18043 msgid "If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon."
18046 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18047 #: freeculture.xml:13175
18048 msgid "Turner, Ted"
18051 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18052 #: freeculture.xml:13177
18054 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are moments</emphasis> of hope in this "
18055 "struggle. And moments that surprise. When the FCC was considering relaxing "
18056 "ownership rules, which would thereby further increase the concentration in "
18057 "media ownership, an extraordinary bipartisan coalition formed to fight this "
18058 "change. For perhaps the first time in history, interests as diverse as the "
18059 "NRA, the ACLU, Moveon.org, William Safire, Ted Turner, and CodePink Women "
18060 "for Peace organized to oppose this change in FCC policy. An astonishing "
18061 "700,000 letters were sent to the FCC, demanding more hearings and a "
18062 "different result."
18065 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18066 #: freeculture.xml:13188
18068 "This activism did not stop the FCC, but soon after, a broad coalition in the "
18069 "Senate voted to reverse the FCC decision. The hostile hearings leading up to "
18070 "that vote revealed just how powerful this movement had become. There was no "
18071 "substantial support for the FCC's decision, and there was broad and "
18072 "sustained support for fighting further concentration in the media."
18075 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18076 #: freeculture.xml:13196
18078 "But even this movement misses an important piece of the puzzle. Largeness "
18079 "as such is not bad. Freedom is not threatened just because some become very "
18080 "rich, or because there are only a handful of big players. The poor quality "
18081 "of Big Macs or Quarter Pounders does not mean that you can't get a good "
18082 "hamburger from somewhere else."
18085 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18086 #: freeculture.xml:13203
18088 "The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but "
18089 "instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in "
18090 "copyright, produces. It is not just that there are a few powerful companies "
18091 "that control an ever expanding slice of the media. It is that this "
18092 "concentration can call upon an equally bloated range of "
18093 "rights—property rights of a historically extreme form—that makes "
18094 "their bigness bad."
18097 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18098 #: freeculture.xml:13213
18100 "It is therefore significant that so many would rally to demand competition "
18101 "and increased diversity. Still, if the rally is understood as being about "
18102 "bigness alone, it is not terribly surprising. We Americans have a long "
18103 "history of fighting <quote>big,</quote> wisely or not. That we could be "
18104 "motivated to fight <quote>big</quote> again is not something new."
18107 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18108 #: freeculture.xml:13220
18110 "It would be something new, and something very important, if an equal number "
18111 "could be rallied to fight the increasing extremism built within the idea of "
18112 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote> Not because balance is alien to our "
18113 "tradition; indeed, as I've argued, balance is our tradition. But because the "
18114 "muscle to think critically about the scope of anything called "
18115 "<quote>property</quote> is not well exercised within this tradition anymore."
18118 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18119 #: freeculture.xml:13228
18121 "If we were Achilles, this would be our heel. This would be the place of our "
18125 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18126 #: freeculture.xml:13231
18131 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18132 #: freeculture.xml:13237
18134 "John Borland, <quote>RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers,</quote> CNET News.com, "
18135 "September 2003, available at <ulink "
18136 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #65</ulink>; Paul R. La Monica, "
18137 "<quote>Music Industry Sues Swappers,</quote> CNN/Money, 8 September 2003, "
18138 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #66</ulink>; "
18139 "Soni Sangha and Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty, <quote>Sued for a Song, "
18140 "N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among 261 Cited as Sharers,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
18141 "Daily News</citetitle>, 9 September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's "
18142 "Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl "
18143 "in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 "
18144 "September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, <quote>Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,</quote> "
18145 "<citetitle>Wired News</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, available at <ulink "
18146 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #67</ulink>."
18150 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18151 #: freeculture.xml:13255
18153 "Jon Wiederhorn, <quote>Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old "
18154 "Lady,</quote> mtv.com, 17 September 2003, available at <ulink "
18155 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #68</ulink>."
18160 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18161 #: freeculture.xml:13262
18163 "Kenji Hall, Associated Press, <quote>Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for "
18164 "Dylan Songs,</quote> Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
18165 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #69</ulink>."
18168 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18169 #: freeculture.xml:13233
18171 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I write</emphasis> these final words, the news is "
18172 "filled with stories about the RIAA lawsuits against almost three hundred "
18173 "individuals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Eminem has just been "
18174 "sued for <quote>sampling</quote> someone else's music.<placeholder "
18175 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The story about Bob Dylan "
18176 "<quote>stealing</quote> from a Japanese author has just finished making the "
18177 "rounds.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> An insider from "
18178 "Hollywood—who insists he must remain anonymous—reports <quote>an "
18179 "amazing conversation with these studio guys. They've got extraordinary [old] "
18180 "content that they'd love to use but can't because they can't begin to clear "
18181 "the rights. They've got scores of kids who could do amazing things with the "
18182 "content, but it would take scores of lawyers to clean it first.</quote> "
18183 "Congressmen are talking about deputizing computer viruses to bring down "
18184 "computers thought to violate the law. Universities are threatening expulsion "
18185 "for kids who use a computer to share content."
18188 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18189 #: freeculture.xml:13279
18193 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18194 #: freeculture.xml:13280
18195 msgid "Brazil, free culture in"
18198 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18199 #: freeculture.xml:13281 freeculture.xml:13643
18200 msgid "Creative Commons"
18203 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18204 #: freeculture.xml:13282
18205 msgid "Gil, Gilberto"
18208 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18209 #: freeculture.xml:13283
18210 msgid "United Kingdom"
18213 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18214 #: freeculture.xml:13283
18215 msgid "public creative archive in"
18219 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18220 #: freeculture.xml:13288
18222 "<quote>BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public,</quote> BBC press "
18223 "release, 24 August 2003, available at <ulink "
18224 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #70</ulink>."
18228 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18229 #: freeculture.xml:13297
18231 "<quote>Creative Commons and Brazil,</quote> Creative Commons Weblog, 6 "
18232 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
18237 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18238 #: freeculture.xml:13285
18240 "Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC has just announced that it "
18241 "will build a <quote>Creative Archive,</quote> from which British citizens "
18242 "can download BBC content, and rip, mix, and burn it.<placeholder "
18243 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And in Brazil, the culture minister, Gilberto "
18244 "Gil, himself a folk hero of Brazilian music, has joined with Creative "
18245 "Commons to release content and free licenses in that Latin American "
18246 "country.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> I've told a dark "
18247 "story. The truth is more mixed. A technology has given us a new "
18248 "freedom. Slowly, some begin to understand that this freedom need not mean "
18249 "anarchy. We can carry a free culture into the twenty-first century, without "
18250 "artists losing and without the potential of digital technology being "
18251 "destroyed. It will take some thought, and more importantly, it will take "
18252 "some will to transform the RCAs of our day into the Causbys."
18256 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18257 #: freeculture.xml:13311
18259 "Common sense must revolt. It must act to free culture. Soon, if this "
18260 "potential is ever to be realized."
18263 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
18264 #: freeculture.xml:13319
18269 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18270 #: freeculture.xml:13323
18272 "<emphasis role='strong'>At least some</emphasis> who have read this far will "
18273 "agree with me that something must be done to change where we are "
18274 "heading. The balance of this book maps what might be done."
18277 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18278 #: freeculture.xml:13328
18280 "I divide this map into two parts: that which anyone can do now, and that "
18281 "which requires the help of lawmakers. If there is one lesson that we can "
18282 "draw from the history of remaking common sense, it is that it requires "
18283 "remaking how many people think about the very same issue."
18286 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18287 #: freeculture.xml:13334
18289 "That means this movement must begin in the streets. It must recruit a "
18290 "significant number of parents, teachers, librarians, creators, authors, "
18291 "musicians, filmmakers, scientists—all to tell this story in their own "
18292 "words, and to tell their neighbors why this battle is so important."
18295 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18296 #: freeculture.xml:13341
18298 "Once this movement has its effect in the streets, it has some hope of having "
18299 "an effect in Washington. We are still a democracy. What people think "
18300 "matters. Not as much as it should, at least when an RCA stands opposed, but "
18301 "still, it matters. And thus, in the second part below, I sketch changes that "
18302 "Congress could make to better secure a free culture."
18305 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
18306 #: freeculture.xml:13350
18310 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18311 #: freeculture.xml:13352
18313 "<emphasis role='strong'>Common sense</emphasis> is with the copyright "
18314 "warriors because the debate so far has been framed at the extremes—as "
18315 "a grand either/or: either property or anarchy, either total control or "
18316 "artists won't be paid. If that really is the choice, then the warriors "
18320 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18321 #: freeculture.xml:13359
18323 "The mistake here is the error of the excluded middle. There are extremes in "
18324 "this debate, but the extremes are not all that there is. There are those who "
18325 "believe in maximal copyright—<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote>— "
18326 "and those who reject copyright—<quote>No Rights Reserved.</quote> The "
18327 "<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe that you should ask "
18328 "permission before you <quote>use</quote> a copyrighted work in any way. The "
18329 "<quote>No Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe you should be able to do "
18330 "with content as you wish, regardless of whether you have permission or not."
18334 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18335 #: freeculture.xml:13369
18337 "When the Internet was first born, its initial architecture effectively "
18338 "tilted in the <quote>no rights reserved</quote> direction. Content could be "
18339 "copied perfectly and cheaply; rights could not easily be controlled. Thus, "
18340 "regardless of anyone's desire, the effective regime of copyright under the "
18341 "original design of the Internet was <quote>no rights reserved.</quote> "
18342 "Content was <quote>taken</quote> regardless of the rights. Any rights were "
18343 "effectively unprotected."
18346 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18347 #: freeculture.xml:13381
18349 "This initial character produced a reaction (opposite, but not quite equal) "
18350 "by copyright owners. That reaction has been the topic of this book. Through "
18351 "legislation, litigation, and changes to the network's design, copyright "
18352 "holders have been able to change the essential character of the environment "
18353 "of the original Internet. If the original architecture made the effective "
18354 "default <quote>no rights reserved,</quote> the future architecture will make "
18355 "the effective default <quote>all rights reserved.</quote> The architecture "
18356 "and law that surround the Internet's design will increasingly produce an "
18357 "environment where all use of content requires permission. The <quote>cut "
18358 "and paste</quote> world that defines the Internet today will become a "
18359 "<quote>get permission to cut and paste</quote> world that is a creator's "
18363 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18364 #: freeculture.xml:13395
18366 "What's needed is a way to say something in the middle—neither "
18367 "<quote>all rights reserved</quote> nor <quote>no rights reserved</quote> but "
18368 "<quote>some rights reserved</quote>— and thus a way to respect "
18369 "copyrights but enable creators to free content as they see fit. In other "
18370 "words, we need a way to restore a set of freedoms that we could just take "
18371 "for granted before."
18374 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18375 #: freeculture.xml:13404
18376 msgid "Rebuilding Freedoms Previously Presumed: Examples"
18379 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18380 #: freeculture.xml:13407
18382 "If you step back from the battle I've been describing here, you will "
18383 "recognize this problem from other contexts. Think about privacy. Before the "
18384 "Internet, most of us didn't have to worry much about data about our lives "
18385 "that we broadcast to the world. If you walked into a bookstore and browsed "
18386 "through some of the works of Karl Marx, you didn't need to worry about "
18387 "explaining your browsing habits to your neighbors or boss. The "
18388 "<quote>privacy</quote> of your browsing habits was assured."
18391 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18392 #: freeculture.xml:13417
18393 msgid "What made it assured?"
18396 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18397 #: freeculture.xml:13421
18399 "Well, if we think in terms of the modalities I described in chapter <xref "
18400 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, your privacy was "
18401 "assured because of an inefficient architecture for gathering data and hence "
18402 "a market constraint (cost) on anyone who wanted to gather that data. If you "
18403 "were a suspected spy for North Korea, working for the CIA, no doubt your "
18404 "privacy would not be assured. But that's because the CIA would (we hope) "
18405 "find it valuable enough to spend the thousands required to track you. But "
18406 "for most of us (again, we can hope), spying doesn't pay. The highly "
18407 "inefficient architecture of real space means we all enjoy a fairly robust "
18408 "amount of privacy. That privacy is guaranteed to us by friction. Not by law "
18409 "(there is no law protecting <quote>privacy</quote> in public places), and in "
18410 "many places, not by norms (snooping and gossip are just fun), but instead, "
18411 "by the costs that friction imposes on anyone who would want to spy."
18414 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18415 #: freeculture.xml:13436
18419 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18420 #: freeculture.xml:13437
18421 msgid "cookies, Internet"
18424 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18425 #: freeculture.xml:13439
18427 "Enter the Internet, where the cost of tracking browsing in particular has "
18428 "become quite tiny. If you're a customer at Amazon, then as you browse the "
18429 "pages, Amazon collects the data about what you've looked at. You know this "
18430 "because at the side of the page, there's a list of <quote>recently "
18431 "viewed</quote> pages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net and the "
18432 "function of cookies on the Net, it is easier to collect the data than "
18433 "not. The friction has disappeared, and hence any <quote>privacy</quote> "
18434 "protected by the friction disappears, too."
18437 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18438 #: freeculture.xml:13449
18440 "Amazon, of course, is not the problem. But we might begin to worry about "
18441 "libraries. If you're one of those crazy lefties who thinks that people "
18442 "should have the <quote>right</quote> to browse in a library without the "
18443 "government knowing which books you look at (I'm one of those lefties, too), "
18444 "then this change in the technology of monitoring might concern you. If it "
18445 "becomes simple to gather and sort who does what in electronic spaces, then "
18446 "the friction-induced privacy of yesterday disappears."
18450 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18451 #: freeculture.xml:13466
18453 "See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, <quote>Fair Information Practices and the "
18454 "Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get),</quote> "
18455 "<citetitle>Stanford Technology Law Review</citetitle> 1 (2001): "
18456 "par. 6–18, available at <ulink "
18457 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink> (describing examples "
18458 "in which technology defines privacy policy). See also Jeffrey Rosen, "
18459 "<citetitle>The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious "
18460 "Age</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2004) (mapping tradeoffs between "
18461 "technology and privacy)."
18465 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18466 #: freeculture.xml:13460
18468 "It is this reality that explains the push of many to define "
18469 "<quote>privacy</quote> on the Internet. It is the recognition that "
18470 "technology can remove what friction before gave us that leads many to push "
18471 "for laws to do what friction did.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
18472 "And whether you're in favor of those laws or not, it is the pattern that is "
18473 "important here. We must take affirmative steps to secure a kind of freedom "
18474 "that was passively provided before. A change in technology now forces those "
18475 "who believe in privacy to affirmatively act where, before, privacy was given "
18479 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18480 #: freeculture.xml:13484
18482 "A similar story could be told about the birth of the free software "
18483 "movement. When computers with software were first made available "
18484 "commercially, the software—both the source code and the "
18485 "binaries— was free. You couldn't run a program written for a Data "
18486 "General machine on an IBM machine, so Data General and IBM didn't care much "
18487 "about controlling their software. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
18491 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18492 #: freeculture.xml:13492
18493 msgid "Stallman, Richard"
18496 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18497 #: freeculture.xml:13494
18499 "That was the world Richard Stallman was born into, and while he was a "
18500 "researcher at MIT, he grew to love the community that developed when one was "
18501 "free to explore and tinker with the software that ran on machines. Being a "
18502 "smart sort himself, and a talented programmer, Stallman grew to depend upon "
18503 "the freedom to add to or modify other people's work."
18506 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18507 #: freeculture.xml:13502
18509 "In an academic setting, at least, that's not a terribly radical idea. In a "
18510 "math department, anyone would be free to tinker with a proof that someone "
18511 "offered. If you thought you had a better way to prove a theorem, you could "
18512 "take what someone else did and change it. In a classics department, if you "
18513 "believed a colleague's translation of a recently discovered text was flawed, "
18514 "you were free to improve it. Thus, to Stallman, it seemed obvious that you "
18515 "should be free to tinker with and improve the code that ran a machine. This, "
18516 "too, was knowledge. Why shouldn't it be open for criticism like anything "
18520 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18521 #: freeculture.xml:13514
18523 "No one answered that question. Instead, the architecture of revenue for "
18524 "computing changed. As it became possible to import programs from one system "
18525 "to another, it became economically attractive (at least in the view of some) "
18526 "to hide the code of your program. So, too, as companies started selling "
18527 "peripherals for mainframe systems. If I could just take your printer driver "
18528 "and copy it, then that would make it easier for me to sell a printer to the "
18529 "market than it was for you."
18533 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18534 #: freeculture.xml:13523
18536 "Thus, the practice of proprietary code began to spread, and by the early "
18537 "1980s, Stallman found himself surrounded by proprietary code. The world of "
18538 "free software had been erased by a change in the economics of computing. And "
18539 "as he believed, if he did nothing about it, then the freedom to change and "
18540 "share software would be fundamentally weakened."
18543 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18544 #: freeculture.xml:13531
18545 msgid "Torvalds, Linus"
18548 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18549 #: freeculture.xml:13533
18551 "Therefore, in 1984, Stallman began a project to build a free operating "
18552 "system, so that at least a strain of free software would survive. That was "
18553 "the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's "
18554 "<quote>Linux</quote> kernel was added to produce the GNU/Linux operating "
18555 "system. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
18556 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18559 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18560 #: freeculture.xml:13541
18562 "Stallman's technique was to use copyright law to build a world of software "
18563 "that must be kept free. Software licensed under the Free Software "
18564 "Foundation's GPL cannot be modified and distributed unless the source code "
18565 "for that software is made available as well. Thus, anyone building upon "
18566 "GPL'd software would have to make their buildings free as well. This would "
18567 "assure, Stallman believed, that an ecology of code would develop that "
18568 "remained free for others to build upon. His fundamental goal was freedom; "
18569 "innovative creative code was a byproduct."
18572 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18573 #: freeculture.xml:13552
18575 "Stallman was thus doing for software what privacy advocates now do for "
18576 "privacy. He was seeking a way to rebuild a kind of freedom that was taken "
18577 "for granted before. Through the affirmative use of licenses that bind "
18578 "copyrighted code, Stallman was affirmatively reclaiming a space where free "
18579 "software would survive. He was actively protecting what before had been "
18580 "passively guaranteed."
18583 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18584 #: freeculture.xml:13560
18586 "Finally, consider a very recent example that more directly resonates with "
18587 "the story of this book. This is the shift in the way academic and scientific "
18588 "journals are produced."
18592 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18593 #: freeculture.xml:13566
18595 "As digital technologies develop, it is becoming obvious to many that "
18596 "printing thousands of copies of journals every month and sending them to "
18597 "libraries is perhaps not the most efficient way to distribute "
18598 "knowledge. Instead, journals are increasingly becoming electronic, and "
18599 "libraries and their users are given access to these electronic journals "
18600 "through password-protected sites. Something similar to this has been "
18601 "happening in law for almost thirty years: Lexis and Westlaw have had "
18602 "electronic versions of case reports available to subscribers to their "
18603 "service. Although a Supreme Court opinion is not copyrighted, and anyone is "
18604 "free to go to a library and read it, Lexis and Westlaw are also free to "
18605 "charge users for the privilege of gaining access to that Supreme Court "
18606 "opinion through their respective services."
18609 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18610 #: freeculture.xml:13582
18612 "There's nothing wrong in general with this, and indeed, the ability to "
18613 "charge for access to even public domain materials is a good incentive for "
18614 "people to develop new and innovative ways to spread knowledge. The law has "
18615 "agreed, which is why Lexis and Westlaw have been allowed to flourish. And if "
18616 "there's nothing wrong with selling the public domain, then there could be "
18617 "nothing wrong, in principle, with selling access to material that is not in "
18618 "the public domain."
18621 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18622 #: freeculture.xml:13591
18624 "But what if the only way to get access to social and scientific data was "
18625 "through proprietary services? What if no one had the ability to browse this "
18626 "data except by paying for a subscription?"
18629 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18630 #: freeculture.xml:13596
18632 "As many are beginning to notice, this is increasingly the reality with "
18633 "scientific journals. When these journals were distributed in paper form, "
18634 "libraries could make the journals available to anyone who had access to the "
18635 "library. Thus, patients with cancer could become cancer experts because the "
18636 "library gave them access. Or patients trying to understand the risks of a "
18637 "certain treatment could research those risks by reading all available "
18638 "articles about that treatment. This freedom was therefore a function of the "
18639 "institution of libraries (norms) and the technology of paper journals "
18640 "(architecture)—namely, that it was very hard to control access to a "
18644 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18645 #: freeculture.xml:13608
18647 "As journals become electronic, however, the publishers are demanding that "
18648 "libraries not give the general public access to the journals. This means "
18649 "that the freedoms provided by print journals in public libraries begin to "
18650 "disappear. Thus, as with privacy and with software, a changing technology "
18651 "and market shrink a freedom taken for granted before."
18654 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18655 #: freeculture.xml:13616
18657 "This shrinking freedom has led many to take affirmative steps to restore the "
18658 "freedom that has been lost. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), for "
18659 "example, is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making scientific research "
18660 "available to anyone with a Web connection. Authors of scientific work submit "
18661 "that work to the Public Library of Science. That work is then subject to "
18662 "peer review. If accepted, the work is then deposited in a public, electronic "
18663 "archive and made permanently available for free. PLoS also sells a print "
18664 "version of its work, but the copyright for the print journal does not "
18665 "inhibit the right of anyone to redistribute the work for free. <placeholder "
18666 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18669 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18670 #: freeculture.xml:13630
18672 "This is one of many such efforts to restore a freedom taken for granted "
18673 "before, but now threatened by changing technology and markets. There's no "
18674 "doubt that this alternative competes with the traditional publishers and "
18675 "their efforts to make money from the exclusive distribution of content. But "
18676 "competition in our tradition is presumptively a good—especially when "
18677 "it helps spread knowledge and science."
18680 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18681 #: freeculture.xml:13642
18682 msgid "Rebuilding Free Culture: One Idea"
18685 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18686 #: freeculture.xml:13645
18688 "The same strategy could be applied to culture, as a response to the "
18689 "increasing control effected through law and technology."
18692 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18693 #: freeculture.xml:13648
18694 msgid "Stanford University"
18697 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18698 #: freeculture.xml:13650
18700 "Enter the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation "
18701 "established in Massachusetts, but with its home at Stanford University. Its "
18702 "aim is to build a layer of <emphasis>reasonable</emphasis> copyright on top "
18703 "of the extremes that now reign. It does this by making it easy for people to "
18704 "build upon other people's work, by making it simple for creators to express "
18705 "the freedom for others to take and build upon their work. Simple tags, tied "
18706 "to human-readable descriptions, tied to bulletproof licenses, make this "
18711 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18712 #: freeculture.xml:13661
18714 "<emphasis>Simple</emphasis>—which means without a middleman, or "
18715 "without a lawyer. By developing a free set of licenses that people can "
18716 "attach to their content, Creative Commons aims to mark a range of content "
18717 "that can easily, and reliably, be built upon. These tags are then linked to "
18718 "machine-readable versions of the license that enable computers automatically "
18719 "to identify content that can easily be shared. These three expressions "
18720 "together—a legal license, a human-readable description, and "
18721 "machine-readable tags—constitute a Creative Commons license. A "
18722 "Creative Commons license constitutes a grant of freedom to anyone who "
18723 "accesses the license, and more importantly, an expression of the ideal that "
18724 "the person associated with the license believes in something different than "
18725 "the <quote>All</quote> or <quote>No</quote> extremes. Content is marked with "
18726 "the CC mark, which does not mean that copyright is waived, but that certain "
18727 "freedoms are given."
18730 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18731 #: freeculture.xml:13679
18733 "These freedoms are beyond the freedoms promised by fair use. Their precise "
18734 "contours depend upon the choices the creator makes. The creator can choose a "
18735 "license that permits any use, so long as attribution is given. She can "
18736 "choose a license that permits only noncommercial use. She can choose a "
18737 "license that permits any use so long as the same freedoms are given to other "
18738 "uses (<quote>share and share alike</quote>). Or any use so long as no "
18739 "derivative use is made. Or any use at all within developing nations. Or any "
18740 "sampling use, so long as full copies are not made. Or lastly, any "
18744 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18745 #: freeculture.xml:13690
18747 "These choices thus establish a range of freedoms beyond the default of "
18748 "copyright law. They also enable freedoms that go beyond traditional fair "
18749 "use. And most importantly, they express these freedoms in a way that "
18750 "subsequent users can use and rely upon without the need to hire a "
18751 "lawyer. Creative Commons thus aims to build a layer of content, governed by "
18752 "a layer of reasonable copyright law, that others can build upon. Voluntary "
18753 "choice of individuals and creators will make this content available. And "
18754 "that content will in turn enable us to rebuild a public domain."
18757 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18758 #: freeculture.xml:13700
18759 msgid "Garlick, Mia"
18763 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18764 #: freeculture.xml:13702
18766 "This is just one project among many within the Creative Commons. And of "
18767 "course, Creative Commons is not the only organization pursuing such "
18768 "freedoms. But the point that distinguishes the Creative Commons from many is "
18769 "that we are not interested only in talking about a public domain or in "
18770 "getting legislators to help build a public domain. Our aim is to build a "
18771 "movement of consumers and producers of content (<quote>content "
18772 "conducers,</quote> as attorney Mia Garlick calls them) who help build the "
18773 "public domain and, by their work, demonstrate the importance of the public "
18774 "domain to other creativity."
18777 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18778 #: freeculture.xml:13714
18780 "The aim is not to fight the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts. The "
18781 "aim is to complement them. The problems that the law creates for us as a "
18782 "culture are produced by insane and unintended consequences of laws written "
18783 "centuries ago, applied to a technology that only Jefferson could have "
18784 "imagined. The rules may well have made sense against a background of "
18785 "technologies from centuries ago, but they do not make sense against the "
18786 "background of digital technologies. New rules—with different freedoms, "
18787 "expressed in ways so that humans without lawyers can use them—are "
18788 "needed. Creative Commons gives people a way effectively to begin to build "
18792 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18793 #: freeculture.xml:13727
18795 "Why would creators participate in giving up total control? Some participate "
18796 "to better spread their content. Cory Doctorow, for example, is a science "
18797 "fiction author. His first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
18798 "Kingdom</citetitle>, was released on-line and for free, under a Creative "
18799 "Commons license, on the same day that it went on sale in bookstores."
18802 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18803 #: freeculture.xml:13734
18805 "Why would a publisher ever agree to this? I suspect his publisher reasoned "
18806 "like this: There are two groups of people out there: (1) those who will buy "
18807 "Cory's book whether or not it's on the Internet, and (2) those who may never "
18808 "hear of Cory's book, if it isn't made available for free on the "
18809 "Internet. Some part of (1) will download Cory's book instead of buying "
18810 "it. Call them bad-(1)s. Some part of (2) will download Cory's book, like "
18811 "it, and then decide to buy it. Call them (2)-goods. If there are more "
18812 "(2)-goods than bad-(1)s, the strategy of releasing Cory's book free on-line "
18813 "will probably <emphasis>increase</emphasis> sales of Cory's book."
18816 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18817 #: freeculture.xml:13746
18819 "Indeed, the experience of his publisher clearly supports that conclusion. "
18820 "The book's first printing was exhausted months before the publisher had "
18821 "expected. This first novel of a science fiction author was a total success."
18824 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18825 #: freeculture.xml:13751
18826 msgid "Free for All (Wayner)"
18829 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18830 #: freeculture.xml:13752
18831 msgid "Wayner, Peter"
18835 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18836 #: freeculture.xml:13754
18838 "The idea that free content might increase the value of nonfree content was "
18839 "confirmed by the experience of another author. Peter Wayner, who wrote a "
18840 "book about the free software movement titled <citetitle>Free for "
18841 "All</citetitle>, made an electronic version of his book free on-line under a "
18842 "Creative Commons license after the book went out of print. He then monitored "
18843 "used book store prices for the book. As predicted, as the number of "
18844 "downloads increased, the used book price for his book increased, as well."
18847 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18848 #: freeculture.xml:13765
18849 msgid "Public Enemy"
18852 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18853 #: freeculture.xml:13766
18857 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18858 #: freeculture.xml:13767
18859 msgid "Leaphart, Walter"
18863 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18864 #: freeculture.xml:13784
18866 "<citetitle>Willful Infringement: A Report from the Front Lines of the Real "
18867 "Culture Wars</citetitle> (2003), produced by Jed Horovitz, directed by Greg "
18868 "Hittelman, a Fiat Lucre production, available at <ulink "
18869 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink>."
18872 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18873 #: freeculture.xml:13769
18875 "These are examples of using the Commons to better spread proprietary "
18876 "content. I believe that is a wonderful and common use of the Commons. There "
18877 "are others who use Creative Commons licenses for other reasons. Many who use "
18878 "the <quote>sampling license</quote> do so because anything else would be "
18879 "hypocritical. The sampling license says that others are free, for commercial "
18880 "or noncommercial purposes, to sample content from the licensed work; they "
18881 "are just not free to make full copies of the licensed work available to "
18882 "others. This is consistent with their own art—they, too, sample from "
18883 "others. Because the <emphasis>legal</emphasis> costs of sampling are so high "
18884 "(Walter Leaphart, manager of the rap group Public Enemy, which was born "
18885 "sampling the music of others, has stated that he does not "
18886 "<quote>allow</quote> Public Enemy to sample anymore, because the legal costs "
18887 "are so high<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), these artists release "
18888 "into the creative environment content that others can build upon, so that "
18889 "their form of creativity might grow."
18892 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18893 #: freeculture.xml:13793
18895 "Finally, there are many who mark their content with a Creative Commons "
18896 "license just because they want to express to others the importance of "
18897 "balance in this debate. If you just go along with the system as it is, you "
18898 "are effectively saying you believe in the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> "
18899 "model. Good for you, but many do not. Many believe that however appropriate "
18900 "that rule is for Hollywood and freaks, it is not an appropriate description "
18901 "of how most creators view the rights associated with their content. The "
18902 "Creative Commons license expresses this notion of <quote>Some Rights "
18903 "Reserved,</quote> and gives many the chance to say it to others."
18907 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18908 #: freeculture.xml:13805
18910 "In the first six months of the Creative Commons experiment, over 1 million "
18911 "objects were licensed with these free-culture licenses. The next step is "
18912 "partnerships with middleware content providers to help them build into their "
18913 "technologies simple ways for users to mark their content with Creative "
18914 "Commons freedoms. Then the next step is to watch and celebrate creators who "
18915 "build content based upon content set free."
18918 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18919 #: freeculture.xml:13815
18921 "These are first steps to rebuilding a public domain. They are not mere "
18922 "arguments; they are action. Building a public domain is the first step to "
18923 "showing people how important that domain is to creativity and "
18924 "innovation. Creative Commons relies upon voluntary steps to achieve this "
18925 "rebuilding. They will lead to a world in which more than voluntary steps are "
18929 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18930 #: freeculture.xml:13823
18932 "Creative Commons is just one example of voluntary efforts by individuals and "
18933 "creators to change the mix of rights that now govern the creative field. The "
18934 "project does not compete with copyright; it complements it. Its aim is not "
18935 "to defeat the rights of authors, but to make it easier for authors and "
18936 "creators to exercise their rights more flexibly and cheaply. That "
18937 "difference, we believe, will enable creativity to spread more easily."
18940 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
18941 #: freeculture.xml:13837
18945 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18946 #: freeculture.xml:13839
18948 "<emphasis role='strong'>We will</emphasis> not reclaim a free culture by "
18949 "individual action alone. It will also take important reforms of laws. We "
18950 "have a long way to go before the politicians will listen to these ideas and "
18951 "implement these reforms. But that also means that we have time to build "
18952 "awareness around the changes that we need."
18955 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18956 #: freeculture.xml:13846
18958 "In this chapter, I outline five kinds of changes: four that are general, and "
18959 "one that's specific to the most heated battle of the day, music. Each is a "
18960 "step, not an end. But any of these steps would carry us a long way to our "
18964 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18965 #: freeculture.xml:13853
18966 msgid "1. More Formalities"
18969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18970 #: freeculture.xml:13855
18972 "If you buy a house, you have to record the sale in a deed. If you buy land "
18973 "upon which to build a house, you have to record the purchase in a deed. If "
18974 "you buy a car, you get a bill of sale and register the car. If you buy an "
18975 "airplane ticket, it has your name on it."
18979 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18980 #: freeculture.xml:13862
18982 "These are all formalities associated with property. They are requirements "
18983 "that we all must bear if we want our property to be protected."
18986 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18987 #: freeculture.xml:13867
18989 "In contrast, under current copyright law, you automatically get a copyright, "
18990 "regardless of whether you comply with any formality. You don't have to "
18991 "register. You don't even have to mark your content. The default is control, "
18992 "and <quote>formalities</quote> are banished."
18995 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18996 #: freeculture.xml:13873
19000 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19001 #: freeculture.xml:13876
19003 "As I suggested in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
19004 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, the motivation to abolish formalities was a good "
19005 "one. In the world before digital technologies, formalities imposed a burden "
19006 "on copyright holders without much benefit. Thus, it was progress when the "
19007 "law relaxed the formal requirements that a copyright owner must bear to "
19008 "protect and secure his work. Those formalities were getting in the way."
19011 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19012 #: freeculture.xml:13885
19014 "But the Internet changes all this. Formalities today need not be a "
19015 "burden. Rather, the world without formalities is the world that burdens "
19016 "creativity. Today, there is no simple way to know who owns what, or with "
19017 "whom one must deal in order to use or build upon the creative work of "
19018 "others. There are no records, there is no system to trace— there is no "
19019 "simple way to know how to get permission. Yet given the massive increase in "
19020 "the scope of copyright's rule, getting permission is a necessary step for "
19021 "any work that builds upon our past. And thus, the <emphasis>lack</emphasis> "
19022 "of formalities forces many into silence where they otherwise could speak."
19026 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19027 #: freeculture.xml:13899
19029 "The proposal I am advancing here would apply to American works only. "
19030 "Obviously, I believe it would be beneficial for the same idea to be adopted "
19031 "by other countries as well."
19034 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19035 #: freeculture.xml:13897
19037 "The law should therefore change this requirement<placeholder "
19038 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—but it should not change it by going back "
19039 "to the old, broken system. We should require formalities, but we should "
19040 "establish a system that will create the incentives to minimize the burden of "
19041 "these formalities."
19044 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19045 #: freeculture.xml:13907
19047 "The important formalities are three: marking copyrighted work, registering "
19048 "copyrights, and renewing the claim to copyright. Traditionally, the first of "
19049 "these three was something the copyright owner did; the second two were "
19050 "something the government did. But a revised system of formalities would "
19051 "banish the government from the process, except for the sole purpose of "
19052 "approving standards developed by others."
19055 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
19056 #: freeculture.xml:13919
19057 msgid "REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL"
19060 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19061 #: freeculture.xml:13921
19063 "Under the old system, a copyright owner had to file a registration with the "
19064 "Copyright Office to register or renew a copyright. When filing that "
19065 "registration, the copyright owner paid a fee. As with most government "
19066 "agencies, the Copyright Office had little incentive to minimize the burden "
19067 "of registration; it also had little incentive to minimize the fee. And as "
19068 "the Copyright Office is not a main target of government policymaking, the "
19069 "office has historically been terribly underfunded. Thus, when people who "
19070 "know something about the process hear this idea about formalities, their "
19071 "first reaction is panic—nothing could be worse than forcing people to "
19072 "deal with the mess that is the Copyright Office."
19075 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19076 #: freeculture.xml:13934
19078 "Yet it is always astonishing to me that we, who come from a tradition of "
19079 "extraordinary innovation in governmental design, can no longer think "
19080 "innovatively about how governmental functions can be designed. Just because "
19081 "there is a public purpose to a government role, it doesn't follow that the "
19082 "government must actually administer the role. Instead, we should be creating "
19083 "incentives for private parties to serve the public, subject to standards "
19084 "that the government sets."
19087 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19088 #: freeculture.xml:13943
19090 "In the context of registration, one obvious model is the Internet. There "
19091 "are at least 32 million Web sites registered around the world. Domain name "
19092 "owners for these Web sites have to pay a fee to keep their registration "
19093 "alive. In the main top-level domains (.com, .org, .net), there is a central "
19094 "registry. The actual registrations are, however, performed by many competing "
19095 "registrars. That competition drives the cost of registering down, and more "
19096 "importantly, it drives the ease with which registration occurs up."
19100 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19101 #: freeculture.xml:13953
19103 "We should adopt a similar model for the registration and renewal of "
19104 "copyrights. The Copyright Office may well serve as the central registry, but "
19105 "it should not be in the registrar business. Instead, it should establish a "
19106 "database, and a set of standards for registrars. It should approve "
19107 "registrars that meet its standards. Those registrars would then compete with "
19108 "one another to deliver the cheapest and simplest systems for registering and "
19109 "renewing copyrights. That competition would substantially lower the burden "
19110 "of this formality—while producing a database of registrations that "
19111 "would facilitate the licensing of content."
19114 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
19115 #: freeculture.xml:13968
19119 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19120 #: freeculture.xml:13970
19122 "It used to be that the failure to include a copyright notice on a creative "
19123 "work meant that the copyright was forfeited. That was a harsh punishment for "
19124 "failing to comply with a regulatory rule—akin to imposing the death "
19125 "penalty for a parking ticket in the world of creative rights. Here again, "
19126 "there is no reason that a marking requirement needs to be enforced in this "
19127 "way. And more importantly, there is no reason a marking requirement needs to "
19128 "be enforced uniformly across all media."
19131 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19132 #: freeculture.xml:13980
19134 "The aim of marking is to signal to the public that this work is copyrighted "
19135 "and that the author wants to enforce his rights. The mark also makes it easy "
19136 "to locate a copyright owner to secure permission to use the work."
19139 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19140 #: freeculture.xml:13986
19142 "One of the problems the copyright system confronted early on was that "
19143 "different copyrighted works had to be differently marked. It wasn't clear "
19144 "how or where a statue was to be marked, or a record, or a film. A new "
19145 "marking requirement could solve these problems by recognizing the "
19146 "differences in media, and by allowing the system of marking to evolve as "
19147 "technologies enable it to. The system could enable a special signal from the "
19148 "failure to mark—not the loss of the copyright, but the loss of the "
19149 "right to punish someone for failing to get permission first."
19153 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19154 #: freeculture.xml:14003
19156 "There would be a complication with derivative works that I have not solved "
19157 "here. In my view, the law of derivatives creates a more complicated system "
19158 "than is justified by the marginal incentive it creates."
19162 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19163 #: freeculture.xml:13996
19165 "Let's start with the last point. If a copyright owner allows his work to be "
19166 "published without a copyright notice, the consequence of that failure need "
19167 "not be that the copyright is lost. The consequence could instead be that "
19168 "anyone has the right to use this work, until the copyright owner complains "
19169 "and demonstrates that it is his work and he doesn't give "
19170 "permission.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The meaning of an "
19171 "unmarked work would therefore be <quote>use unless someone "
19172 "complains.</quote> If someone does complain, then the obligation would be to "
19173 "stop using the work in any new work from then on though no penalty would "
19174 "attach for existing uses. This would create a strong incentive for "
19175 "copyright owners to mark their work."
19178 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19179 #: freeculture.xml:14016
19181 "That in turn raises the question about how work should best be marked. Here "
19182 "again, the system needs to adjust as the technologies evolve. The best way "
19183 "to ensure that the system evolves is to limit the Copyright Office's role to "
19184 "that of approving standards for marking content that have been crafted "
19188 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19189 #: freeculture.xml:14022
19190 msgid "copyright marking of"
19193 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19194 #: freeculture.xml:14024
19196 "For example, if a recording industry association devises a method for "
19197 "marking CDs, it would propose that to the Copyright Office. The Copyright "
19198 "Office would hold a hearing, at which other proposals could be made. The "
19199 "Copyright Office would then select the proposal that it judged preferable, "
19200 "and it would base that choice <emphasis>solely</emphasis> upon the "
19201 "consideration of which method could best be integrated into the registration "
19202 "and renewal system. We would not count on the government to innovate; but we "
19203 "would count on the government to keep the product of innovation in line with "
19204 "its other important functions."
19207 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19208 #: freeculture.xml:14036
19210 "Finally, marking content clearly would simplify registration requirements. "
19211 "If photographs were marked by author and year, there would be little reason "
19212 "not to allow a photographer to reregister, for example, all photographs "
19213 "taken in a particular year in one quick step. The aim of the formality is "
19214 "not to burden the creator; the system itself should be kept as simple as "
19218 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19219 #: freeculture.xml:14044
19221 "The objective of formalities is to make things clear. The existing system "
19222 "does nothing to make things clear. Indeed, it seems designed to make things "
19226 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19227 #: freeculture.xml:14049
19229 "If formalities such as registration were reinstated, one of the most "
19230 "difficult aspects of relying upon the public domain would be removed. It "
19231 "would be simple to identify what content is presumptively free; it would be "
19232 "simple to identify who controls the rights for a particular kind of content; "
19233 "it would be simple to assert those rights, and to renew that assertion at "
19234 "the appropriate time."
19237 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19238 #: freeculture.xml:14061
19239 msgid "2. Shorter Terms"
19242 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19243 #: freeculture.xml:14063
19245 "The term of copyright has gone from fourteen years to ninety-five years for "
19246 "corporate authors, and life of the author plus seventy years for natural "
19251 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19252 #: freeculture.xml:14076
19254 "<quote>A Radical Rethink,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 366:8308 "
19255 "(25 January 2003): 15, available at <ulink "
19256 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #74</ulink>."
19259 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19260 #: freeculture.xml:14068
19262 "In <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>, I proposed a "
19263 "seventy-five-year term, granted in five-year increments with a requirement "
19264 "of renewal every five years. That seemed radical enough at the time. But "
19265 "after we lost <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
19266 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, the proposals became even more "
19267 "radical. <citetitle>The Economist</citetitle> endorsed a proposal for a "
19268 "fourteen-year copyright term.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
19269 "Others have proposed tying the term to the term for patents."
19272 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19273 #: freeculture.xml:14083
19275 "I agree with those who believe that we need a radical change in copyright's "
19276 "term. But whether fourteen years or seventy-five, there are four principles "
19277 "that are important to keep in mind about copyright terms."
19281 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19282 #: freeculture.xml:14091
19284 "<emphasis>Keep it short:</emphasis> The term should be as long as necessary "
19285 "to give incentives to create, but no longer. If it were tied to very strong "
19286 "protections for authors (so authors were able to reclaim rights from "
19287 "publishers), rights to the same work (not derivative works) might be "
19288 "extended further. The key is not to tie the work up with legal regulations "
19289 "when it no longer benefits an author."
19294 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19295 #: freeculture.xml:14100
19297 "<emphasis>Keep it simple:</emphasis> The line between the public domain and "
19298 "protected content must be kept clear. Lawyers like the fuzziness of "
19299 "<quote>fair use,</quote> and the distinction between <quote>ideas</quote> "
19300 "and <quote>expression.</quote> That kind of law gives them lots of work. But "
19301 "our framers had a simpler idea in mind: protected versus unprotected. The "
19302 "value of short terms is that there is little need to build exceptions into "
19303 "copyright when the term itself is kept short. A clear and active "
19304 "<quote>lawyer-free zone</quote> makes the complexities of <quote>fair "
19305 "use</quote> and <quote>idea/expression</quote> less necessary to navigate."
19308 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
19309 #: freeculture.xml:14112
19310 msgid "veterans' pensions"
19314 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><footnote><para>
19315 #: freeculture.xml:14123
19317 "Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran's Application for Compensation "
19318 "and/or Pension, VA Form 21-526 (OMB Approved No. 2900-0001), available at "
19319 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #75</ulink>."
19322 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19323 #: freeculture.xml:14115
19325 "<emphasis>Keep it alive:</emphasis> Copyright should have to be renewed. "
19326 "Especially if the maximum term is long, the copyright owner should be "
19327 "required to signal periodically that he wants the protection continued. This "
19328 "need not be an onerous burden, but there is no reason this monopoly "
19329 "protection has to be granted for free. On average, it takes ninety minutes "
19330 "for a veteran to apply for a pension.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
19331 "id=\"0\"/> If we make veterans suffer that burden, I don't see why we "
19332 "couldn't require authors to spend ten minutes every fifty years to file a "
19337 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19338 #: freeculture.xml:14134
19340 "<emphasis>Keep it prospective:</emphasis> Whatever the term of copyright "
19341 "should be, the clearest lesson that economists teach is that a term once "
19342 "given should not be extended. It might have been a mistake in 1923 for the "
19343 "law to offer authors only a fifty-six-year term. I don't think so, but it's "
19344 "possible. If it was a mistake, then the consequence was that we got fewer "
19345 "authors to create in 1923 than we otherwise would have. But we can't correct "
19346 "that mistake today by increasing the term. No matter what we do today, we "
19347 "will not increase the number of authors who wrote in 1923. Of course, we can "
19348 "increase the reward that those who write now get (or alternatively, increase "
19349 "the copyright burden that smothers many works that are today invisible). But "
19350 "increasing their reward will not increase their creativity in 1923. What's "
19351 "not done is not done, and there's nothing we can do about that now."
19354 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19355 #: freeculture.xml:14150
19357 "These changes together should produce an <emphasis>average</emphasis> "
19358 "copyright term that is much shorter than the current term. Until 1976, the "
19359 "average term was just 32.2 years. We should be aiming for the same."
19362 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19363 #: freeculture.xml:14156
19365 "No doubt the extremists will call these ideas <quote>radical.</quote> (After "
19366 "all, I call them <quote>extremists.</quote>) But again, the term I "
19367 "recommended was longer than the term under Richard Nixon. How "
19368 "<quote>radical</quote> can it be to ask for a more generous copyright law "
19369 "than Richard Nixon presided over?"
19372 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19373 #: freeculture.xml:14166
19374 msgid "3. Free Use Vs. Fair Use"
19377 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19378 #: freeculture.xml:14170
19380 "As I observed at the beginning of this book, property law originally granted "
19381 "property owners the right to control their property from the ground to the "
19382 "heavens. The airplane came along. The scope of property rights quickly "
19383 "changed. There was no fuss, no constitutional challenge. It made no sense "
19384 "anymore to grant that much control, given the emergence of that new "
19388 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19389 #: freeculture.xml:14178
19391 "Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors <quote>exclusive "
19392 "right</quote> to <quote>their writings.</quote> Congress has given authors "
19393 "an exclusive right to <quote>their writings</quote> plus any derivative "
19394 "writings (made by others) that are sufficiently close to the author's "
19395 "original work. Thus, if I write a book, and you base a movie on that book, I "
19396 "have the power to deny you the right to release that movie, even though that "
19397 "movie is not <quote>my writing.</quote>"
19400 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19401 #: freeculture.xml:14186
19402 msgid "Kaplan, Benjamin"
19406 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19407 #: freeculture.xml:14192
19409 "Benjamin Kaplan, <citetitle>An Unhurried View of Copyright</citetitle> (New "
19410 "York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 32."
19413 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19414 #: freeculture.xml:14188
19416 "Congress granted the beginnings of this right in 1870, when it expanded the "
19417 "exclusive right of copyright to include a right to control translations and "
19418 "dramatizations of a work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
19419 "courts have expanded it slowly through judicial interpretation ever "
19420 "since. This expansion has been commented upon by one of the law's greatest "
19421 "judges, Judge Benjamin Kaplan."
19425 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
19426 #: freeculture.xml:14205
19430 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para>
19431 #: freeculture.xml:14201
19433 "So inured have we become to the extension of the monopoly to a large range "
19434 "of so-called derivative works, that we no longer sense the oddity of "
19435 "accepting such an enlargement of copyright while yet intoning the "
19436 "abracadabra of idea and expression.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19439 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19440 #: freeculture.xml:14210
19442 "I think it's time to recognize that there are airplanes in this field and "
19443 "the expansiveness of these rights of derivative use no longer make "
19444 "sense. More precisely, they don't make sense for the period of time that a "
19445 "copyright runs. And they don't make sense as an amorphous grant. Consider "
19446 "each limitation in turn."
19449 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19450 #: freeculture.xml:14217
19452 "<emphasis>Term:</emphasis> If Congress wants to grant a derivative right, "
19453 "then that right should be for a much shorter term. It makes sense to protect "
19454 "John Grisham's right to sell the movie rights to his latest novel (or at "
19455 "least I'm willing to assume it does); but it does not make sense for that "
19456 "right to run for the same term as the underlying copyright. The derivative "
19457 "right could be important in inducing creativity; it is not important long "
19458 "after the creative work is done. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19461 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19462 #: freeculture.xml:14230
19464 "<emphasis>Scope:</emphasis> Likewise should the scope of derivative rights "
19465 "be narrowed. Again, there are some cases in which derivative rights are "
19466 "important. Those should be specified. But the law should draw clear lines "
19467 "around regulated and unregulated uses of copyrighted material. When all "
19468 "<quote>reuse</quote> of creative material was within the control of "
19469 "businesses, perhaps it made sense to require lawyers to negotiate the "
19470 "lines. It no longer makes sense for lawyers to negotiate the lines. Think "
19471 "about all the creative possibilities that digital technologies enable; now "
19472 "imagine pouring molasses into the machines. That's what this general "
19473 "requirement of permission does to the creative process. Smothers it."
19476 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19477 #: freeculture.xml:14244
19479 "This was the point that Alben made when describing the making of the Clint "
19480 "Eastwood CD. While it makes sense to require negotiation for foreseeable "
19481 "derivative rights—turning a book into a movie, or a poem into a "
19482 "musical score—it doesn't make sense to require negotiation for the "
19483 "unforeseeable. Here, a statutory right would make much more sense."
19486 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19487 #: freeculture.xml:14260
19488 msgid "Goldstein, Paul"
19491 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19492 #: freeculture.xml:14258
19494 "Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the "
19495 "Celestial Jukebox</citetitle> (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), "
19496 "187–216. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19499 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19500 #: freeculture.xml:14252
19502 "In each of these cases, the law should mark the uses that are protected, and "
19503 "the presumption should be that other uses are not protected. This is the "
19504 "reverse of the recommendation of my colleague Paul Goldstein.<placeholder "
19505 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His view is that the law should be written so "
19506 "that expanded protections follow expanded uses."
19509 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19510 #: freeculture.xml:14266
19512 "Goldstein's analysis would make perfect sense if the cost of the legal "
19513 "system were small. But as we are currently seeing in the context of the "
19514 "Internet, the uncertainty about the scope of protection, and the incentives "
19515 "to protect existing architectures of revenue, combined with a strong "
19516 "copyright, weaken the process of innovation."
19520 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19521 #: freeculture.xml:14273
19523 "The law could remedy this problem either by removing protection beyond the "
19524 "part explicitly drawn or by granting reuse rights upon certain statutory "
19525 "conditions. Either way, the effect would be to free a great deal of culture "
19526 "to others to cultivate. And under a statutory rights regime, that reuse "
19527 "would earn artists more income."
19530 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19531 #: freeculture.xml:14283
19532 msgid "4. Liberate the Music—Again"
19535 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19536 #: freeculture.xml:14285
19538 "The battle that got this whole war going was about music, so it wouldn't be "
19539 "fair to end this book without addressing the issue that is, to most people, "
19540 "most pressing—music. There is no other policy issue that better "
19541 "teaches the lessons of this book than the battles around the sharing of "
19545 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19546 #: freeculture.xml:14292
19548 "The appeal of file-sharing music was the crack cocaine of the Internet's "
19549 "growth. It drove demand for access to the Internet more powerfully than any "
19550 "other single application. It was the Internet's killer app—possibly in "
19551 "two senses of that word. It no doubt was the application that drove demand "
19552 "for bandwidth. It may well be the application that drives demand for "
19553 "regulations that in the end kill innovation on the network."
19556 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19557 #: freeculture.xml:14301
19559 "The aim of copyright, with respect to content in general and music in "
19560 "particular, is to create the incentives for music to be composed, performed, "
19561 "and, most importantly, spread. The law does this by giving an exclusive "
19562 "right to a composer to control public performances of his work, and to a "
19563 "performing artist to control copies of her performance."
19566 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19567 #: freeculture.xml:14308
19569 "File-sharing networks complicate this model by enabling the spread of "
19570 "content for which the performer has not been paid. But of course, that's not "
19571 "all the file-sharing networks do. As I described in chapter <xref "
19572 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"piracy\"/>, they enable four "
19573 "different kinds of sharing:"
19577 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19578 #: freeculture.xml:14317
19580 "There are some who are using sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
19585 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19586 #: freeculture.xml:14322
19588 "There are also some who are using sharing networks to sample, on the way to "
19594 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19595 #: freeculture.xml:14328
19597 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
19598 "that is no longer sold but is still under copyright or that would have been "
19599 "too cumbersome to buy off the Net."
19603 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19604 #: freeculture.xml:14334
19606 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
19607 "that is not copyrighted or to get access that the copyright owner plainly "
19611 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19612 #: freeculture.xml:14342
19614 "Any reform of the law needs to keep these different uses in focus. It must "
19615 "avoid burdening type D even if it aims to eliminate type A. The eagerness "
19616 "with which the law aims to eliminate type A, moreover, should depend upon "
19617 "the magnitude of type B. As with VCRs, if the net effect of sharing is "
19618 "actually not very harmful, the need for regulation is significantly "
19622 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19623 #: freeculture.xml:14350
19625 "As I said in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
19626 "linkend=\"piracy\"/>, the actual harm caused by sharing is controversial. "
19627 "For the purposes of this chapter, however, I assume the harm is real. I "
19628 "assume, in other words, that type A sharing is significantly greater than "
19629 "type B, and is the dominant use of sharing networks."
19632 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19633 #: freeculture.xml:14358
19635 "Nonetheless, there is a crucial fact about the current technological context "
19636 "that we must keep in mind if we are to understand how the law should "
19640 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19641 #: freeculture.xml:14363
19643 "Today, file sharing is addictive. In ten years, it won't be. It is addictive "
19644 "today because it is the easiest way to gain access to a broad range of "
19645 "content. It won't be the easiest way to get access to a broad range of "
19646 "content in ten years. Today, access to the Internet is cumbersome and "
19647 "slow—we in the United States are lucky to have broadband service at "
19648 "1.5 MBs, and very rarely do we get service at that speed both up and "
19649 "down. Although wireless access is growing, most of us still get access "
19650 "across wires. Most only gain access through a machine with a keyboard. The "
19651 "idea of the always on, always connected Internet is mainly just an idea."
19655 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19656 #: freeculture.xml:14375
19658 "But it will become a reality, and that means the way we get access to the "
19659 "Internet today is a technology in transition. Policy makers should not make "
19660 "policy on the basis of technology in transition. They should make policy on "
19661 "the basis of where the technology is going. The question should not be, how "
19662 "should the law regulate sharing in this world? The question should be, what "
19663 "law will we require when the network becomes the network it is clearly "
19664 "becoming? That network is one in which every machine with electricity is "
19665 "essentially on the Net; where everywhere you are—except maybe the "
19666 "desert or the Rockies—you can instantaneously be connected to the "
19667 "Internet. Imagine the Internet as ubiquitous as the best cell-phone service, "
19668 "where with the flip of a device, you are connected."
19671 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19672 #: freeculture.xml:14389
19673 msgid "cell phones, music streamed over"
19677 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19678 #: freeculture.xml:14409
19680 "See, for example, <quote>Music Media Watch,</quote> The J@pan "
19681 "Inc. Newsletter, 3 April 2002, available at <ulink "
19682 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #76</ulink>."
19685 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19686 #: freeculture.xml:14391
19688 "In that world, it will be extremely easy to connect to services that give "
19689 "you access to content on the fly—such as Internet radio, content that "
19690 "is streamed to the user when the user demands. Here, then, is the critical "
19691 "point: When it is <emphasis>extremely</emphasis> easy to connect to services "
19692 "that give access to content, it will be <emphasis>easier</emphasis> to "
19693 "connect to services that give you access to content than it will be to "
19694 "download and store content <emphasis>on the many devices you will have for "
19695 "playing content</emphasis>. It will be easier, in other words, to subscribe "
19696 "than it will be to be a database manager, as everyone in the "
19697 "download-sharing world of Napster-like technologies essentially is. Content "
19698 "services will compete with content sharing, even if the services charge "
19699 "money for the content they give access to. Already cell-phone services in "
19700 "Japan offer music (for a fee) streamed over cell phones (enhanced with plugs "
19701 "for headphones). The Japanese are paying for this content even though "
19702 "<quote>free</quote> content is available in the form of MP3s across the "
19703 "Web.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19707 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19708 #: freeculture.xml:14416
19710 "This point about the future is meant to suggest a perspective on the "
19711 "present: It is emphatically temporary. The <quote>problem</quote> with file "
19712 "sharing—to the extent there is a real problem—is a problem that "
19713 "will increasingly disappear as it becomes easier to connect to the "
19714 "Internet. And thus it is an extraordinary mistake for policy makers today "
19715 "to be <quote>solving</quote> this problem in light of a technology that will "
19716 "be gone tomorrow. The question should not be how to regulate the Internet "
19717 "to eliminate file sharing (the Net will evolve that problem away). The "
19718 "question instead should be how to assure that artists get paid, during this "
19719 "transition between twentieth-century models for doing business and "
19720 "twenty-first-century technologies."
19723 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19724 #: freeculture.xml:14432
19726 "The answer begins with recognizing that there are different "
19727 "<quote>problems</quote> here to solve. Let's start with type D "
19728 "content—uncopyrighted content or copyrighted content that the artist "
19729 "wants shared. The <quote>problem</quote> with this content is to make sure "
19730 "that the technology that would enable this kind of sharing is not rendered "
19731 "illegal. You can think of it this way: Pay phones are used to deliver ransom "
19732 "demands, no doubt. But there are many who need to use pay phones who have "
19733 "nothing to do with ransoms. It would be wrong to ban pay phones in order to "
19734 "eliminate kidnapping."
19737 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19738 #: freeculture.xml:14443
19740 "Type C content raises a different <quote>problem.</quote> This is content "
19741 "that was, at one time, published and is no longer available. It may be "
19742 "unavailable because the artist is no longer valuable enough for the record "
19743 "label he signed with to carry his work. Or it may be unavailable because the "
19744 "work is forgotten. Either way, the aim of the law should be to facilitate "
19745 "the access to this content, ideally in a way that returns something to the "
19749 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19750 #: freeculture.xml:14454
19752 "Again, the model here is the used book store. Once a book goes out of print, "
19753 "it may still be available in libraries and used book stores. But libraries "
19754 "and used book stores don't pay the copyright owner when someone reads or "
19755 "buys an out-of-print book. That makes total sense, of course, since any "
19756 "other system would be so burdensome as to eliminate the possibility of used "
19757 "book stores' existing. But from the author's perspective, this "
19758 "<quote>sharing</quote> of his content without his being compensated is less "
19762 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19763 #: freeculture.xml:14464
19765 "The model of used book stores suggests that the law could simply deem "
19766 "out-of-print music fair game. If the publisher does not make copies of the "
19767 "music available for sale, then commercial and noncommercial providers would "
19768 "be free, under this rule, to <quote>share</quote> that content, even though "
19769 "the sharing involved making a copy. The copy here would be incidental to the "
19770 "trade; in a context where commercial publishing has ended, trading music "
19771 "should be as free as trading books."
19775 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19776 #: freeculture.xml:14475
19778 "Alternatively, the law could create a statutory license that would ensure "
19779 "that artists get something from the trade of their work. For example, if the "
19780 "law set a low statutory rate for the commercial sharing of content that was "
19781 "not offered for sale by a commercial publisher, and if that rate were "
19782 "automatically transferred to a trust for the benefit of the artist, then "
19783 "businesses could develop around the idea of trading this content, and "
19784 "artists would benefit from this trade."
19787 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19788 #: freeculture.xml:14485
19790 "This system would also create an incentive for publishers to keep works "
19791 "available commercially. Works that are available commercially would not be "
19792 "subject to this license. Thus, publishers could protect the right to charge "
19793 "whatever they want for content if they kept the work commercially "
19794 "available. But if they don't keep it available, and instead, the computer "
19795 "hard disks of fans around the world keep it alive, then any royalty owed for "
19796 "such copying should be much less than the amount owed a commercial "
19800 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19801 #: freeculture.xml:14495
19803 "The hard case is content of types A and B, and again, this case is hard only "
19804 "because the extent of the problem will change over time, as the technologies "
19805 "for gaining access to content change. The law's solution should be as "
19806 "flexible as the problem is, understanding that we are in the middle of a "
19807 "radical transformation in the technology for delivering and accessing "
19811 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19812 #: freeculture.xml:14503
19814 "So here's a solution that will at first seem very strange to both sides in "
19815 "this war, but which upon reflection, I suggest, should make some sense."
19818 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19819 #: freeculture.xml:14507
19821 "Stripped of the rhetoric about the sanctity of property, the basic claim of "
19822 "the content industry is this: A new technology (the Internet) has harmed a "
19823 "set of rights that secure copyright. If those rights are to be protected, "
19824 "then the content industry should be compensated for that harm. Just as the "
19825 "technology of tobacco harmed the health of millions of Americans, or the "
19826 "technology of asbestos caused grave illness to thousands of miners, so, too, "
19827 "has the technology of digital networks harmed the interests of the content "
19832 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19833 #: freeculture.xml:14518
19835 "I love the Internet, and so I don't like likening it to tobacco or "
19836 "asbestos. But the analogy is a fair one from the perspective of the law. "
19837 "And it suggests a fair response: Rather than seeking to destroy the "
19838 "Internet, or the p2p technologies that are currently harming content "
19839 "providers on the Internet, we should find a relatively simple way to "
19840 "compensate those who are harmed."
19843 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19844 #: freeculture.xml:14525 freeculture.xml:14567
19845 msgid "Promises to Keep (Fisher)"
19848 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19849 #: freeculture.xml:14565
19850 msgid "Fisher, William"
19853 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19854 #: freeculture.xml:14531
19856 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> William Fisher, "
19857 "<citetitle>Digital Music: Problems and Possibilities</citetitle> (last "
19858 "revised: 10 October 2000), available at <ulink "
19859 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #77</ulink>; William Fisher, "
19860 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of "
19861 "Entertainment</citetitle> (forthcoming) (Stanford: Stanford University "
19862 "Press, 2004), ch. 6, available at <ulink "
19863 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #78</ulink>. Professor Netanel "
19864 "has proposed a related idea that would exempt noncommercial sharing from the "
19865 "reach of copyright and would establish compensation to artists to balance "
19866 "any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel, <quote>Impose a Noncommercial Use Levy "
19867 "to Allow Free P2P File Sharing,</quote> available at <ulink "
19868 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #79</ulink>. For other proposals, "
19869 "see Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Who's Holding Back Broadband?</quote> "
19870 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 8 January 2002, A17; Philip "
19871 "S. Corwin on behalf of Sharman Networks, A Letter to Senator Joseph "
19872 "R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 26 "
19873 "February 2002, available at <ulink "
19874 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #80</ulink>; Serguei Osokine, "
19875 "<citetitle>A Quick Case for Intellectual Property Use Fee "
19876 "(IPUF)</citetitle>, 3 March 2002, available at <ulink "
19877 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #81</ulink>; Jefferson Graham, "
19878 "<quote>Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,</quote> "
19879 "<citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 13 May 2002, available at <ulink "
19880 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #82</ulink>; Steven M. Cherry, "
19881 "<quote>Getting Copyright Right,</quote> IEEE Spectrum Online, 1 July 2002, "
19882 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #83</ulink>; "
19883 "Declan McCullagh, <quote>Verizon's Copyright Campaign,</quote> CNET "
19884 "News.com, 27 August 2002, available at <ulink "
19885 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #84</ulink>. Fisher's proposal "
19886 "is very similar to Richard Stallman's proposal for DAT. Unlike Fisher's, "
19887 "Stallman's proposal would not pay artists directly proportionally, though "
19888 "more popular artists would get more than the less popular. As is typical "
19889 "with Stallman, his proposal predates the current debate by about a "
19890 "decade. See <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #85</ulink>. "
19891 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
19892 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
19895 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19896 #: freeculture.xml:14527
19898 "The idea would be a modification of a proposal that has been floated by "
19899 "Harvard law professor William Fisher.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
19900 "id=\"0\"/> Fisher suggests a very clever way around the current impasse of "
19901 "the Internet. Under his plan, all content capable of digital transmission "
19902 "would (1) be marked with a digital watermark (don't worry about how easy it "
19903 "is to evade these marks; as you'll see, there's no incentive to evade "
19904 "them). Once the content is marked, then entrepreneurs would develop (2) "
19905 "systems to monitor how many items of each content were distributed. On the "
19906 "basis of those numbers, then (3) artists would be compensated. The "
19907 "compensation would be paid for by (4) an appropriate tax."
19910 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19911 #: freeculture.xml:14581
19913 "Fisher's proposal is careful and comprehensive. It raises a million "
19914 "questions, most of which he answers well in his upcoming book, "
19915 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep</citetitle>. The modification that I would make "
19916 "is relatively simple: Fisher imagines his proposal replacing the existing "
19917 "copyright system. I imagine it complementing the existing system. The aim "
19918 "of the proposal would be to facilitate compensation to the extent that harm "
19919 "could be shown. This compensation would be temporary, aimed at facilitating "
19920 "a transition between regimes. And it would require renewal after a period of "
19921 "years. If it continues to make sense to facilitate free exchange of content, "
19922 "supported through a taxation system, then it can be continued. If this form "
19923 "of protection is no longer necessary, then the system could lapse into the "
19924 "old system of controlling access."
19928 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19929 #: freeculture.xml:14598
19931 "Fisher would balk at the idea of allowing the system to lapse. His aim is "
19932 "not just to ensure that artists are paid, but also to ensure that the system "
19933 "supports the widest range of <quote>semiotic democracy</quote> possible. But "
19934 "the aims of semiotic democracy would be satisfied if the other changes I "
19935 "described were accomplished—in particular, the limits on derivative "
19936 "uses. A system that simply charges for access would not greatly burden "
19937 "semiotic democracy if there were few limitations on what one was allowed to "
19938 "do with the content itself."
19941 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19942 #: freeculture.xml:14611
19946 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19947 #: freeculture.xml:14613
19951 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19952 #: freeculture.xml:14615
19954 "No doubt it would be difficult to calculate the proper measure of "
19955 "<quote>harm</quote> to an industry. But the difficulty of making that "
19956 "calculation would be outweighed by the benefit of facilitating "
19957 "innovation. This background system to compensate would also not need to "
19958 "interfere with innovative proposals such as Apple's MusicStore. As experts "
19959 "predicted when Apple launched the MusicStore, it could beat "
19960 "<quote>free</quote> by being easier than free is. This has proven correct: "
19961 "Apple has sold millions of songs at even the very high price of 99 cents a "
19962 "song. (At 99 cents, the cost is the equivalent of a per-song CD price, "
19963 "though the labels have none of the costs of a CD to pay.) Apple's move was "
19964 "countered by Real Networks, offering music at just 79 cents a song. And no "
19965 "doubt there will be a great deal of competition to offer and sell music "
19969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19970 #: freeculture.xml:14630
19974 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19975 #: freeculture.xml:14630
19976 msgid "cable vs. broadcast"
19979 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19980 #: freeculture.xml:14633
19981 msgid "film industry"
19984 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19985 #: freeculture.xml:14633
19986 msgid "luxury theatres vs. video piracy in"
19989 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19990 #: freeculture.xml:14635
19992 "This competition has already occurred against the background of "
19993 "<quote>free</quote> music from p2p systems. As the sellers of cable "
19994 "television have known for thirty years, and the sellers of bottled water for "
19995 "much more than that, there is nothing impossible at all about "
19996 "<quote>competing with free.</quote> Indeed, if anything, the competition "
19997 "spurs the competitors to offer new and better products. This is precisely "
19998 "what the competitive market was to be about. Thus in Singapore, though "
19999 "piracy is rampant, movie theaters are often luxurious—with "
20000 "<quote>first class</quote> seats, and meals served while you watch a "
20001 "movie—as they struggle and succeed in finding ways to compete with "
20002 "<quote>free.</quote>"
20005 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20006 #: freeculture.xml:14647
20008 "This regime of competition, with a backstop to assure that artists don't "
20009 "lose, would facilitate a great deal of innovation in the delivery of "
20010 "content. That competition would continue to shrink type A sharing. It would "
20011 "inspire an extraordinary range of new innovators—ones who would have a "
20012 "right to the content, and would no longer fear the uncertain and "
20013 "barbarically severe punishments of the law."
20016 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20017 #: freeculture.xml:14656
20018 msgid "In summary, then, my proposal is this:"
20022 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20023 #: freeculture.xml:14661
20025 "The Internet is in transition. We should not be regulating a technology in "
20026 "transition. We should instead be regulating to minimize the harm to "
20027 "interests affected by this technological change, while enabling, and "
20028 "encouraging, the most efficient technology we can create."
20031 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20032 #: freeculture.xml:14668
20033 msgid "We can minimize that harm while maximizing the benefit to innovation by"
20037 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20038 #: freeculture.xml:14674
20039 msgid "guaranteeing the right to engage in type D sharing;"
20043 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20044 #: freeculture.xml:14678
20046 "permitting noncommercial type C sharing without liability, and commercial "
20047 "type C sharing at a low and fixed rate set by statute;"
20051 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20052 #: freeculture.xml:14684
20054 "while in this transition, taxing and compensating for type A sharing, to the "
20055 "extent actual harm is demonstrated."
20058 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20059 #: freeculture.xml:14689
20061 "But what if <quote>piracy</quote> doesn't disappear? What if there is a "
20062 "competitive market providing content at a low cost, but a significant number "
20063 "of consumers continue to <quote>take</quote> content for nothing? Should the "
20064 "law do something then?"
20067 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20068 #: freeculture.xml:14695
20070 "Yes, it should. But, again, what it should do depends upon how the facts "
20071 "develop. These changes may not eliminate type A sharing. But the real issue "
20072 "is not whether it eliminates sharing in the abstract. The real issue is its "
20073 "effect on the market. Is it better (a) to have a technology that is 95 "
20074 "percent secure and produces a market of size <citetitle>x</citetitle>, or "
20075 "(b) to have a technology that is 50 percent secure but produces a market of "
20076 "five times <citetitle>x</citetitle>? Less secure might produce more "
20077 "unauthorized sharing, but it is likely to also produce a much bigger market "
20078 "in authorized sharing. The most important thing is to assure artists' "
20079 "compensation without breaking the Internet. Once that's assured, then it may "
20080 "well be appropriate to find ways to track down the petty pirates."
20084 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20085 #: freeculture.xml:14709
20087 "But we're a long way away from whittling the problem down to this subset of "
20088 "type A sharers. And our focus until we're there should not be on finding "
20089 "ways to break the Internet. Our focus until we're there should be on how to "
20090 "make sure the artists are paid, while protecting the space for innovation "
20091 "and creativity that the Internet is."
20094 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
20095 #: freeculture.xml:14720
20096 msgid "5. Fire Lots of Lawyers"
20099 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20100 #: freeculture.xml:14722
20102 "I'm a lawyer. I make lawyers for a living. I believe in the law. I believe "
20103 "in the law of copyright. Indeed, I have devoted my life to working in law, "
20104 "not because there are big bucks at the end but because there are ideals at "
20105 "the end that I would love to live."
20108 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20109 #: freeculture.xml:14728
20111 "Yet much of this book has been a criticism of lawyers, or the role lawyers "
20112 "have played in this debate. The law speaks to ideals, but it is my view that "
20113 "our profession has become too attuned to the client. And in a world where "
20114 "the rich clients have one strong view, the unwillingness of the profession "
20115 "to question or counter that one strong view queers the law."
20118 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20119 #: freeculture.xml:14735
20120 msgid "Nimmer, Melville"
20123 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20124 #: freeculture.xml:14736
20125 msgid "Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) (1998)"
20128 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
20129 #: freeculture.xml:14736
20130 msgid "Supreme Court challenge of"
20134 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20135 #: freeculture.xml:14747
20137 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Copyright's First Amendment</quote> (Melville "
20138 "B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture), <citetitle>UCLA Law Review</citetitle> 48 "
20139 "(2001): 1057, 1069–70."
20142 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20143 #: freeculture.xml:14738
20145 "The evidence of this bending is compelling. I'm attacked as a "
20146 "<quote>radical</quote> by many within the profession, yet the positions that "
20147 "I am advocating are precisely the positions of some of the most moderate and "
20148 "significant figures in the history of this branch of the law. Many, for "
20149 "example, thought crazy the challenge that we brought to the Copyright Term "
20150 "Extension Act. Yet just thirty years ago, the dominant scholar and "
20151 "practitioner in the field of copyright, Melville Nimmer, thought it "
20152 "obvious.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
20155 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20156 #: freeculture.xml:14753
20158 "However, my criticism of the role that lawyers have played in this debate is "
20159 "not just about a professional bias. It is more importantly about our failure "
20160 "to actually reckon the costs of the law."
20163 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20164 #: freeculture.xml:14763
20166 "A good example is the work of Professor Stan Liebowitz. Liebowitz is to be "
20167 "commended for his careful review of data about infringement, leading him to "
20168 "question his own publicly stated position—twice. He initially "
20169 "predicted that downloading would substantially harm the industry. He then "
20170 "revised his view in light of the data, and he has since revised his view "
20171 "again. Compare Stan J. Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network "
20172 "Economy: The True Forces That Drive the Digital Marketplace</citetitle> (New "
20173 "York: Amacom, 2002), (reviewing his original view but expressing skepticism) "
20174 "with Stan J. Liebowitz, <quote>Will MP3s Annihilate the Record "
20175 "Industry?</quote> working paper, June 2003, available at <ulink "
20176 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #86</ulink>. Liebowitz's careful "
20177 "analysis is extremely valuable in estimating the effect of file-sharing "
20178 "technology. In my view, however, he underestimates the costs of the legal "
20179 "system. See, for example, <citetitle>Rethinking</citetitle>, 174–76. "
20180 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
20183 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20184 #: freeculture.xml:14758
20186 "Economists are supposed to be good at reckoning costs and benefits. But "
20187 "more often than not, economists, with no clue about how the legal system "
20188 "actually functions, simply assume that the transaction costs of the legal "
20189 "system are slight.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> They see a "
20190 "system that has been around for hundreds of years, and they assume it works "
20191 "the way their elementary school civics class taught them it works."
20195 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20196 #: freeculture.xml:14787
20198 "But the legal system doesn't work. Or more accurately, it doesn't work for "
20199 "anyone except those with the most resources. Not because the system is "
20200 "corrupt. I don't think our legal system (at the federal level, at least) is "
20201 "at all corrupt. I mean simply because the costs of our legal system are so "
20202 "astonishingly high that justice can practically never be done."
20205 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20206 #: freeculture.xml:14795
20208 "These costs distort free culture in many ways. A lawyer's time is billed at "
20209 "the largest firms at more than $400 per hour. How much time should such a "
20210 "lawyer spend reading cases carefully, or researching obscure strands of "
20211 "authority? The answer is the increasing reality: very little. The law "
20212 "depended upon the careful articulation and development of doctrine, but the "
20213 "careful articulation and development of legal doctrine depends upon careful "
20214 "work. Yet that careful work costs too much, except in the most high-profile "
20215 "and costly cases."
20218 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20219 #: freeculture.xml:14805
20221 "The costliness and clumsiness and randomness of this system mock our "
20222 "tradition. And lawyers, as well as academics, should consider it their duty "
20223 "to change the way the law works—or better, to change the law so that "
20224 "it works. It is wrong that the system works well only for the top 1 percent "
20225 "of the clients. It could be made radically more efficient, and inexpensive, "
20226 "and hence radically more just."
20229 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20230 #: freeculture.xml:14813
20232 "But until that reform is complete, we as a society should keep the law away "
20233 "from areas that we know it will only harm. And that is precisely what the "
20234 "law will too often do if too much of our culture is left to its review."
20237 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20238 #: freeculture.xml:14820
20240 "Think about the amazing things your kid could do or make with digital "
20241 "technology—the film, the music, the Web page, the blog. Or think about "
20242 "the amazing things your community could facilitate with digital "
20243 "technology—a wiki, a barn raising, activism to change something. "
20244 "Think about all those creative things, and then imagine cold molasses poured "
20245 "onto the machines. This is what any regime that requires permission "
20246 "produces. Again, this is the reality of Brezhnev's Russia."
20250 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20251 #: freeculture.xml:14829
20253 "The law should regulate in certain areas of culture—but it should "
20254 "regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely "
20255 "test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic "
20256 "question: <quote>Will it do good?</quote> When challenged about the "
20257 "expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, <quote>Why not?</quote>"
20260 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20261 #: freeculture.xml:14838
20263 "We should ask, <quote>Why?</quote> Show me why your regulation of culture is "
20264 "needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your "
20268 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
20269 #: freeculture.xml:14847
20273 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20274 #: freeculture.xml:14849
20276 "Throughout this text, there are references to links on the World Wide "
20277 "Web. As anyone who has tried to use the Web knows, these links can be highly "
20278 "unstable. I have tried to remedy the instability by redirecting readers to "
20279 "the original source through the Web site associated with this book. For each "
20280 "link below, you can go to http://free-culture.cc/notes and locate the "
20281 "original source by clicking on the number after the # sign. If the original "
20282 "link remains alive, you will be redirected to that link. If the original "
20283 "link has disappeared, you will be redirected to an appropriate reference for "
20287 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
20288 #: freeculture.xml:14868
20289 msgid "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS"
20292 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20293 #: freeculture.xml:14870
20295 "This book is the product of a long and as yet unsuccessful struggle that "
20296 "began when I read of Eric Eldred's war to keep books free. Eldred's work "
20297 "helped launch a movement, the free culture movement, and it is to him that "
20298 "this book is dedicated."
20301 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20302 #: freeculture.xml:14877
20304 "I received guidance in various places from friends and academics, including "
20305 "Glenn Brown, Peter DiCola, Jennifer Mnookin, Richard Posner, Mark Rose, and "
20306 "Kathleen Sullivan. And I received correction and guidance from many amazing "
20307 "students at Stanford Law School and Stanford University. They included "
20308 "Andrew B. Coan, John Eden, James P. Fellers, Christopher Guzelian, Erica "
20309 "Goldberg, Robert Hallman, Andrew Harris, Matthew Kahn, Brian Link, Ohad "
20310 "Mayblum, Alina Ng, and Erica Platt. I am particularly grateful to Catherine "
20311 "Crump and Harry Surden, who helped direct their research, and to Laura "
20312 "Lynch, who brilliantly managed the army that they assembled, and provided "
20313 "her own critical eye on much of this."
20317 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20318 #: freeculture.xml:14890
20320 "Yuko Noguchi helped me to understand the laws of Japan as well as its "
20321 "culture. I am thankful to her, and to the many in Japan who helped me "
20322 "prepare this book: Joi Ito, Takayuki Matsutani, Naoto Misaki, Michihiro "
20323 "Sasaki, Hiromichi Tanaka, Hiroo Yamagata, and Yoshihiro Yonezawa. I am "
20324 "thankful as well as to Professor Nobuhiro Nakayama, and the Tokyo University "
20325 "Business Law Center, for giving me the chance to spend time in Japan, and to "
20326 "Tadashi Shiraishi and Kiyokazu Yamagami for their generous help while I was "
20330 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20331 #: freeculture.xml:14901
20333 "These are the traditional sorts of help that academics regularly draw "
20334 "upon. But in addition to them, the Internet has made it possible to receive "
20335 "advice and correction from many whom I have never even met. Among those who "
20336 "have responded with extremely helpful advice to requests on my blog about "
20337 "the book are Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, David Gerstein, and Peter DiMauro, as "
20338 "well as a long list of those who had specific ideas about ways to develop my "
20339 "argument. They included Richard Bondi, Steven Cherry, David Coe, Nik "
20340 "Cubrilovic, Bob Devine, Charles Eicher, Thomas Guida, Elihu M. Gerson, "
20341 "Jeremy Hunsinger, Vaughn Iverson, John Karabaic, Jeff Keltner, James "
20342 "Lindenschmidt, K. L. Mann, Mark Manning, Nora McCauley, Jeffrey McHugh, Evan "
20343 "McMullen, Fred Norton, John Pormann, Pedro A. D. Rezende, Shabbir Safdar, "
20344 "Saul Schleimer, Clay Shirky, Adam Shostack, Kragen Sitaker, Chris Smith, "
20345 "Bruce Steinberg, Andrzej Jan Taramina, Sean Walsh, Matt Wasserman, Miljenko "
20346 "Williams, <quote>Wink,</quote> Roger Wood, <quote>Ximmbo da Jazz,</quote> "
20347 "and Richard Yanco. (I apologize if I have missed anyone; with computers come "
20348 "glitches, and a crash of my e-mail system meant I lost a bunch of great "
20352 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20353 #: freeculture.xml:14921
20355 "Richard Stallman and Michael Carroll each read the whole book in draft, and "
20356 "each provided extremely helpful correction and advice. Michael helped me to "
20357 "see more clearly the significance of the regulation of derivitive works. And "
20358 "Richard corrected an embarrassingly large number of errors. While my work is "
20359 "in part inspired by Stallman's, he does not agree with me in important "
20360 "places throughout this book."
20363 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20364 #: freeculture.xml:14930
20366 "Finally, and forever, I am thankful to Bettina, who has always insisted that "
20367 "there would be unending happiness away from these battles, and who has "
20368 "always been right. This slow learner is, as ever, grateful for her perpetual "
20369 "patience and love."