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> <edition>1</edition>"
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>Oslo</city>"
92 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
95 "<publisher> <publishername>Petter Reinholdtsen</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:82
103 "<imageobject> <imagedata fileref=\"images/cc.png\" contentdepth=\"3em\" "
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106 "align=\"center\"/> </imageobject>"
109 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject><textobject><phrase>
110 #: freeculture.xml:89
111 msgid "Creative Commons, Some rights reserved"
114 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
115 #: freeculture.xml:81
116 msgid "<placeholder type=\"inlinemediaobject\" id=\"0\"/>"
119 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
120 #: freeculture.xml:95 freeculture.xml:15723
122 "This book is licensed under a Creative Commons license. This license permits "
123 "non-commercial use of this work, so long as attribution is given. For more "
124 "information about the license visit <ulink "
125 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/\"/>."
128 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><title>
129 #: freeculture.xml:103
130 msgid "About the author"
133 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><para>
134 #: freeculture.xml:105
136 "Lawrence Lessig (<ulink "
137 "url=\"http://www.lessig.org\">http://www.lessig.org</ulink>), professor of "
138 "law and a Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law "
139 "School, is founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society and is "
140 "chairman of the Creative Commons (<ulink "
141 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org\">http://creativecommons.org</ulink>). The "
142 "author of The Future of Ideas (Random House, 2001) and Code: And Other Laws "
143 "of Cyberspace (Basic Books, 1999), Lessig is a member of the boards of the "
144 "Public Library of Science, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public "
145 "Knowledge. He was the winner of the Free Software Foundation's Award for the "
146 "Advancement of Free Software, twice listed in BusinessWeek's <quote>e.biz "
147 "25,</quote> and named one of Scientific American's <quote>50 "
148 "visionaries.</quote> A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge "
149 "University, and Yale Law School, Lessig clerked for Judge Richard Posner of "
150 "the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals."
153 #. testing different ways to tag the cover page
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167 #: freeculture.xml:126
169 "<imageobject remap=\"lrg\" role=\"front-large\"> <imagedata "
170 "fileref=\"images/cover.png\" format=\"PNG\" width=\"444\" /> </imageobject>"
174 #. http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v3=1&DB=local&CMD=010a+2003063276&CNT=10+records+per+page
176 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
177 #: freeculture.xml:124
179 " <placeholder type=\"mediaobject\" id=\"0\"/> <biblioid "
180 "class=\"isbn\">978-82-8067-010-6</biblioid> <biblioid "
181 "class=\"libraryofcongress\">2003063276</biblioid> <biblioid "
182 "class=\"uri\">http://free-culture.cc/</biblioid>"
185 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><title>
186 #: freeculture.xml:155
187 msgid "Also by Lawrence Lessig"
191 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
192 #: freeculture.xml:162
193 msgid "The USA is lesterland: The nature of congressional corruption"
197 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
198 #: freeculture.xml:166
199 msgid "Republic, lost: How money corrupts Congress - and a plan to stop it"
203 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
204 #: freeculture.xml:170
205 msgid "Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy"
209 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
210 #: freeculture.xml:174
211 msgid "Code: Version 2.0"
215 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
216 #: freeculture.xml:178
217 msgid "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World"
221 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
222 #: freeculture.xml:182
223 msgid "Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace"
226 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
227 #: freeculture.xml:195
229 "To Eric Eldred — whose work first drew me to this cause, and for whom "
230 "it continues still."
233 #. type: Content of: <book><lot><title>
234 #: freeculture.xml:205
235 msgid "List of figures"
238 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><title>
239 #: freeculture.xml:267
243 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
244 #: freeculture.xml:268
248 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
249 #: freeculture.xml:270
251 "<emphasis role=\"bold\">At the end</emphasis> of his review of my first "
252 "book, <citetitle>Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle>, David "
253 "Pogue, a brilliant writer and author of countless technical and "
254 "computer-related texts, wrote this:"
257 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
258 #: freeculture.xml:281
260 "David Pogue, <quote>Don't Just Chat, Do Something,</quote> <citetitle>New "
261 "York Times</citetitle>, 30 January 2000."
264 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
265 #: freeculture.xml:277
267 "Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn't "
268 "affect people who aren't online (and only a tiny minority of the world "
269 "population is). And if you don't like the Internet's system, you can always "
270 "flip off the modem.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
273 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
274 #: freeculture.xml:286
276 "Pogue was skeptical of the core argument of the book—that software, or "
277 "<quote>code,</quote> functioned as a kind of law—and his review "
278 "suggested the happy thought that if life in cyberspace got bad, we could "
279 "always <quote>drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome</quote>-like simply flip a "
280 "switch and be back home. Turn off the modem, unplug the computer, and any "
281 "troubles that exist in <emphasis>that</emphasis> space wouldn't "
282 "<quote>affect</quote> us anymore."
286 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
287 #: freeculture.xml:295
289 "Pogue might have been right in 1999—I'm skeptical, but maybe. But "
290 "even if he was right then, the point is not right now: <citetitle>Free "
291 "Culture</citetitle> is about the troubles the Internet causes even after the "
292 "modem is turned off. It is an argument about how the battles that now rage "
293 "regarding life on-line have fundamentally affected <quote>people who aren't "
294 "online.</quote> There is no switch that will insulate us from the Internet's "
298 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
299 #: freeculture.xml:306
301 "But unlike <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, the argument here is not much about "
302 "the Internet itself. It is instead about the consequence of the Internet to "
303 "a part of our tradition that is much more fundamental, and, as hard as this "
304 "is for a geek-wanna-be to admit, much more important."
307 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para><footnote><para>
308 #: freeculture.xml:318
310 "Richard M. Stallman, <citetitle>Free Software, Free Societies</citetitle> 57 "
311 "(Joshua Gay, ed. 2002)."
314 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
315 #: freeculture.xml:313
317 "That tradition is the way our culture gets made. As I explain in the pages "
318 "that follow, we come from a tradition of <quote>free "
319 "culture</quote>—not <quote>free</quote> as in <quote>free beer</quote> "
320 "(to borrow a phrase from the founder of the free software "
321 "movement<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), but <quote>free</quote> "
322 "as in <quote>free speech,</quote> <quote>free markets,</quote> <quote>free "
323 "trade,</quote> <quote>free enterprise,</quote> <quote>free will,</quote> and "
324 "<quote>free elections.</quote> A free culture supports and protects creators "
325 "and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual property "
326 "rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those rights, to "
327 "guarantee that follow-on creators and innovators remain <emphasis>as free as "
328 "possible</emphasis> from the control of the past. A free culture is not a "
329 "culture without property, just as a free market is not a market in which "
330 "everything is free. The opposite of a free culture is a <quote>permission "
331 "culture</quote>—a culture in which creators get to create only with "
332 "the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past."
335 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
336 #: freeculture.xml:333
338 "If we understood this change, I believe we would resist it. Not "
339 "<quote>we</quote> on the Left or <quote>you</quote> on the Right, but we who "
340 "have no stake in the particular industries of culture that defined the "
341 "twentieth century. Whether you are on the Left or the Right, if you are in "
342 "this sense disinterested, then the story I tell here will trouble you. For "
343 "the changes I describe affect values that both sides of our political "
344 "culture deem fundamental."
347 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
348 #: freeculture.xml:341 freeculture.xml:995
349 msgid "power, concentration of"
352 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
353 #: freeculture.xml:342 freeculture.xml:13833
354 msgid "CodePink Women in Peace"
357 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
358 #: freeculture.xml:343 freeculture.xml:364 freeculture.xml:13834
359 msgid "Safire, William"
362 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
363 #: freeculture.xml:344
367 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
368 #: freeculture.xml:346
370 "We saw a glimpse of this bipartisan outrage in the early summer of 2003. As "
371 "the FCC considered changes in media ownership rules that would relax limits "
372 "on media concentration, an extraordinary coalition generated more than "
373 "700,000 letters to the FCC opposing the change. As William Safire described "
374 "marching <quote>uncomfortably alongside CodePink Women for Peace and the "
375 "National Rifle Association, between liberal Olympia Snowe and conservative "
376 "Ted Stevens,</quote> he formulated perhaps most simply just what was at "
377 "stake: the concentration of power. And as he asked,"
380 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
381 #: freeculture.xml:362
383 "William Safire, <quote>The Great Media Gulp,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
384 "Times</citetitle>, 22 May 2003. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
387 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
388 #: freeculture.xml:358
390 "Does that sound unconservative? Not to me. The concentration of "
391 "power—political, corporate, media, cultural—should be anathema "
392 "to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby "
393 "encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the "
394 "greatest expression of democracy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
397 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
398 #: freeculture.xml:369
400 "This idea is an element of the argument of <citetitle>Free "
401 "Culture</citetitle>, though my focus is not just on the concentration of "
402 "power produced by concentrations in ownership, but more importantly, if "
403 "because less visibly, on the concentration of power produced by a radical "
404 "change in the effective scope of the law. The law is changing; that change "
405 "is altering the way our culture gets made; that change should worry "
406 "you—whether or not you care about the Internet, and whether you're on "
407 "Safire's left or on his right."
410 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
411 #: freeculture.xml:380
413 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">The inspiration</emphasis> for the title and for "
414 "much of the argument of this book comes from the work of Richard Stallman "
415 "and the Free Software Foundation. Indeed, as I reread Stallman's own work, "
416 "especially the essays in <citetitle>Free Software, Free Society</citetitle>, "
417 "I realize that all of the theoretical insights I develop here are insights "
418 "Stallman described decades ago. One could thus well argue that this work is "
419 "<quote>merely</quote> derivative."
423 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
424 #: freeculture.xml:389
426 "I accept that criticism, if indeed it is a criticism. The work of a lawyer "
427 "is always derivative, and I mean to do nothing more in this book than to "
428 "remind a culture about a tradition that has always been its own. Like "
429 "Stallman, I defend that tradition on the basis of values. Like Stallman, I "
430 "believe those are the values of freedom. And like Stallman, I believe those "
431 "are values of our past that will need to be defended in our future. A free "
432 "culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the "
433 "path we are on right now. Like Stallman's arguments for free software, an "
434 "argument for free culture stumbles on a confusion that is hard to avoid, and "
435 "even harder to understand. A free culture is not a culture without property; "
436 "it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid. A culture without "
437 "property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not "
438 "freedom. Anarchy is not what I advance here."
441 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
442 #: freeculture.xml:407
444 "Instead, the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance between "
445 "anarchy and control. A free culture, like a free market, is filled with "
446 "property. It is filled with rules of property and contract that get enforced "
447 "by the state. But just as a free market is perverted if its property becomes "
448 "feudal, so too can a free culture be queered by extremism in the property "
449 "rights that define it. That is what I fear about our culture today. It is "
450 "against that extremism that this book is written."
453 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
454 #: freeculture.xml:422
458 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
459 #: freeculture.xml:423 freeculture.xml:526 freeculture.xml:984
460 msgid "Wright brothers"
463 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
464 #: freeculture.xml:425
466 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">On December 17</emphasis>, 1903, on a windy North "
467 "Carolina beach for just shy of one hundred seconds, the Wright brothers "
468 "demonstrated that a heavier-than-air, self-propelled vehicle could fly. The "
469 "moment was electric and its importance widely understood. Almost "
470 "immediately, there was an explosion of interest in this newfound technology "
471 "of manned flight, and a gaggle of innovators began to build upon it."
474 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
475 #: freeculture.xml:432
476 msgid "air traffic, land ownership vs."
479 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
480 #: freeculture.xml:433 freeculture.xml:14857
481 msgid "land ownership, air traffic and"
484 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
485 #: freeculture.xml:434 freeculture.xml:4660 freeculture.xml:13736 freeculture.xml:14858
486 msgid "property rights"
489 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
490 #: freeculture.xml:434 freeculture.xml:14858
491 msgid "air traffic vs."
494 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
495 #: freeculture.xml:440
497 "St. George Tucker, <citetitle>Blackstone's Commentaries</citetitle> 3 (South "
498 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1969), 18."
501 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
502 #: freeculture.xml:436
504 "At the time the Wright brothers invented the airplane, American law held "
505 "that a property owner presumptively owned not just the surface of his land, "
506 "but all the land below, down to the center of the earth, and all the space "
507 "above, to <quote>an indefinite extent, upwards.</quote><placeholder "
508 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> For many years, scholars had puzzled about how "
509 "best to interpret the idea that rights in land ran to the heavens. Did that "
510 "mean that you owned the stars? Could you prosecute geese for their willful "
511 "and regular trespass?"
514 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
515 #: freeculture.xml:450
517 "Then came airplanes, and for the first time, this principle of American "
518 "law—deep within the foundations of our tradition, and acknowledged by "
519 "the most important legal thinkers of our past—mattered. If my land "
520 "reaches to the heavens, what happens when United flies over my field? Do I "
521 "have the right to banish it from my property? Am I allowed to enter into an "
522 "exclusive license with Delta Airlines? Could we set up an auction to decide "
523 "how much these rights are worth?"
526 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
527 #: freeculture.xml:458 freeculture.xml:471 freeculture.xml:504 freeculture.xml:524 freeculture.xml:710 freeculture.xml:837 freeculture.xml:964 freeculture.xml:982 freeculture.xml:1030 freeculture.xml:9585 freeculture.xml:13152 freeculture.xml:13937
528 msgid "Causby, Thomas Lee"
531 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
532 #: freeculture.xml:459 freeculture.xml:472 freeculture.xml:505 freeculture.xml:525 freeculture.xml:711 freeculture.xml:838 freeculture.xml:965 freeculture.xml:983 freeculture.xml:1031 freeculture.xml:9586 freeculture.xml:13153 freeculture.xml:13938
533 msgid "Causby, Tinie"
536 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
537 #: freeculture.xml:461
539 "In 1945, these questions became a federal case. When North Carolina farmers "
540 "Thomas Lee and Tinie Causby started losing chickens because of low-flying "
541 "military aircraft (the terrified chickens apparently flew into the barn "
542 "walls and died), the Causbys filed a lawsuit saying that the government was "
543 "trespassing on their land. The airplanes, of course, never touched the "
544 "surface of the Causbys' land. But if, as Blackstone, Kent, and Coke had "
545 "said, their land reached to <quote>an indefinite extent, upwards,</quote> "
546 "then the government was trespassing on their property, and the Causbys "
550 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
551 #: freeculture.xml:473
552 msgid "Douglas, William O."
555 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
556 #: freeculture.xml:474 freeculture.xml:4549 freeculture.xml:5151 freeculture.xml:8898 freeculture.xml:14245
557 msgid "Supreme Court, U.S."
560 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
561 #: freeculture.xml:474
562 msgid "on airspace vs. land rights"
565 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
566 #: freeculture.xml:476
568 "The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Causbys' case. Congress had declared "
569 "the airways public, but if one's property really extended to the heavens, "
570 "then Congress's declaration could well have been an unconstitutional "
571 "<quote>taking</quote> of property without compensation. The Court "
572 "acknowledged that <quote>it is ancient doctrine that common law ownership of "
573 "the land extended to the periphery of the universe.</quote> But Justice "
574 "Douglas had no patience for ancient doctrine. In a single paragraph, "
575 "hundreds of years of property law were erased. As he wrote for the Court,"
578 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
579 #: freeculture.xml:496
581 "United States v. Causby, U.S. 328 (1946): 256, 261. The Court did find that "
582 "there could be a <quote>taking</quote> if the government's use of its land "
583 "effectively destroyed the value of the Causbys' land. This example was "
584 "suggested to me by Keith Aoki's wonderful piece, <quote>(Intellectual) "
585 "Property and Sovereignty: Notes Toward a Cultural Geography of "
586 "Authorship,</quote> <citetitle>Stanford Law Review</citetitle> 48 (1996): "
587 "1293, 1333. See also Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Real Property</citetitle> "
588 "(Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press, 1984), 1112–13. <placeholder "
589 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
592 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
593 #: freeculture.xml:487
595 "[The] doctrine has no place in the modern world. The air is a public "
596 "highway, as Congress has declared. Were that not true, every "
597 "transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass "
598 "suits. Common sense revolts at the idea. To recognize such private claims to "
599 "the airspace would clog these highways, seriously interfere with their "
600 "control and development in the public interest, and transfer into private "
601 "ownership that to which only the public has a just claim.<placeholder "
602 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
605 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
606 #: freeculture.xml:510
607 msgid "<quote>Common sense revolts at the idea.</quote>"
611 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
612 #: freeculture.xml:514
614 "This is how the law usually works. Not often this abruptly or impatiently, "
615 "but eventually, this is how it works. It was Douglas's style not to "
616 "dither. Other justices would have blathered on for pages to reach the "
617 "conclusion that Douglas holds in a single line: <quote>Common sense revolts "
618 "at the idea.</quote> But whether it takes pages or a few words, it is the "
619 "special genius of a common law system, as ours is, that the law adjusts to "
620 "the technologies of the time. And as it adjusts, it changes. Ideas that were "
621 "as solid as rock in one age crumble in another."
624 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
625 #: freeculture.xml:528
627 "Or at least, this is how things happen when there's no one powerful on the "
628 "other side of the change. The Causbys were just farmers. And though there "
629 "were no doubt many like them who were upset by the growing traffic in the "
630 "air (though one hopes not many chickens flew themselves into walls), the "
631 "Causbys of the world would find it very hard to unite and stop the idea, and "
632 "the technology, that the Wright brothers had birthed. The Wright brothers "
633 "spat airplanes into the technological meme pool; the idea then spread like a "
634 "virus in a chicken coop; farmers like the Causbys found themselves "
635 "surrounded by <quote>what seemed reasonable</quote> given the technology "
636 "that the Wrights had produced. They could stand on their farms, dead "
637 "chickens in hand, and shake their fists at these newfangled technologies all "
638 "they wanted. They could call their representatives or even file a "
639 "lawsuit. But in the end, the force of what seems <quote>obvious</quote> to "
640 "everyone else—the power of <quote>common sense</quote>—would "
641 "prevail. Their <quote>private interest</quote> would not be allowed to "
642 "defeat an obvious public gain."
645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
646 #: freeculture.xml:549 freeculture.xml:9593 freeculture.xml:10288
647 msgid "Armstrong, Edwin Howard"
650 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
651 #: freeculture.xml:550
652 msgid "Bell, Alexander Graham"
655 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
656 #: freeculture.xml:551
657 msgid "Edison, Thomas"
660 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
661 #: freeculture.xml:552
662 msgid "Faraday, Michael"
665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
666 #: freeculture.xml:553 freeculture.xml:4290 freeculture.xml:6832 freeculture.xml:10195
670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
671 #: freeculture.xml:553 freeculture.xml:6832
672 msgid "FM spectrum of"
676 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
677 #: freeculture.xml:555
679 "<emphasis role='strong'>Edwin Howard Armstrong</emphasis> is one of "
680 "America's forgotten inventor geniuses. He came to the great American "
681 "inventor scene just after the titans Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham "
682 "Bell. But his work in the area of radio technology was perhaps the most "
683 "important of any single inventor in the first fifty years of radio. He was "
684 "better educated than Michael Faraday, who as a bookbinder's apprentice had "
685 "discovered electric induction in 1831. But he had the same intuition about "
686 "how the world of radio worked, and on at least three occasions, Armstrong "
687 "invented profoundly important technologies that advanced our understanding "
691 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
692 #: freeculture.xml:568
694 "On the day after Christmas, 1933, four patents were issued to Armstrong for "
695 "his most significant invention—FM radio. Until then, consumer radio "
696 "had been amplitude-modulated (AM) radio. The theorists of the day had said "
697 "that frequency-modulated (FM) radio could never work. They were right about "
698 "FM radio in a narrow band of spectrum. But Armstrong discovered that "
699 "frequency-modulated radio in a wide band of spectrum would deliver an "
700 "astonishing fidelity of sound, with much less transmitter power and static."
703 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
704 #: freeculture.xml:578
706 "On November 5, 1935, he demonstrated the technology at a meeting of the "
707 "Institute of Radio Engineers at the Empire State Building in New York "
708 "City. He tuned his radio dial across a range of AM stations, until the radio "
709 "locked on a broadcast that he had arranged from seventeen miles away. The "
710 "radio fell totally silent, as if dead, and then with a clarity no one else "
711 "in that room had ever heard from an electrical device, it produced the sound "
712 "of an announcer's voice: <quote>This is amateur station W2AG at Yonkers, New "
713 "York, operating on frequency modulation at two and a half meters.</quote>"
716 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
717 #: freeculture.xml:589
718 msgid "The audience was hearing something no one had thought possible:"
721 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
722 #: freeculture.xml:600
724 "Lawrence Lessing, <citetitle>Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard "
725 "Armstrong</citetitle> (Philadelphia: J. B. Lipincott Company, 1956), 209."
728 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
729 #: freeculture.xml:593
731 "A glass of water was poured before the microphone in Yonkers; it sounded "
732 "like a glass of water being poured. … A paper was crumpled and torn; "
733 "it sounded like paper and not like a crackling forest fire. … Sousa "
734 "marches were played from records and a piano solo and guitar number were "
735 "performed. … The music was projected with a live-ness rarely if ever "
736 "heard before from a radio <quote>music box.</quote><placeholder "
737 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
741 #: freeculture.xml:605 freeculture.xml:6835
745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
746 #: freeculture.xml:606 freeculture.xml:2483 freeculture.xml:2501 freeculture.xml:2535 freeculture.xml:2537
750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
751 #: freeculture.xml:606 freeculture.xml:2537
752 msgid "ownership concentration in"
756 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
757 #: freeculture.xml:608
759 "As our own common sense tells us, Armstrong had discovered a vastly superior "
760 "radio technology. But at the time of his invention, Armstrong was working "
761 "for RCA. RCA was the dominant player in the then dominant AM radio "
762 "market. By 1935, there were a thousand radio stations across the United "
763 "States, but the stations in large cities were all owned by a handful of "
767 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
768 #: freeculture.xml:616 freeculture.xml:638
769 msgid "Sarnoff, David"
772 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
773 #: freeculture.xml:618
775 "RCA's president, David Sarnoff, a friend of Armstrong's, was eager that "
776 "Armstrong discover a way to remove static from AM radio. So Sarnoff was "
777 "quite excited when Armstrong told him he had a device that removed static "
778 "from <quote>radio.</quote> But when Armstrong demonstrated his invention, "
779 "Sarnoff was not pleased."
782 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
783 #: freeculture.xml:629
785 "See <quote>Saints: The Heroes and Geniuses of the Electronic Era,</quote> "
786 "First Electronic Church of America, at www.webstationone.com/fecha, "
787 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #1</ulink>."
790 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
791 #: freeculture.xml:626
793 "I thought Armstrong would invent some kind of a filter to remove static from "
794 "our AM radio. I didn't think he'd start a revolution— start up a whole "
795 "damn new industry to compete with RCA.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
800 #: freeculture.xml:637 freeculture.xml:6831
804 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
805 #: freeculture.xml:640
807 "Armstrong's invention threatened RCA's AM empire, so the company launched a "
808 "campaign to smother FM radio. While FM may have been a superior technology, "
809 "Sarnoff was a superior tactician. As one author described,"
812 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
813 #: freeculture.xml:645
814 msgid "Lessing, Lawrence"
817 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
818 #: freeculture.xml:653
819 msgid "Lessing, 226."
822 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
823 #: freeculture.xml:648
825 "The forces for FM, largely engineering, could not overcome the weight of "
826 "strategy devised by the sales, patent, and legal offices to subdue this "
827 "threat to corporate position. For FM, if allowed to develop unrestrained, "
828 "posed … a complete reordering of radio power … and the "
829 "eventual overthrow of the carefully restricted AM system on which RCA had "
830 "grown to power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
833 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
834 #: freeculture.xml:657
838 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
839 #: freeculture.xml:657
843 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
844 #: freeculture.xml:659
846 "RCA at first kept the technology in house, insisting that further tests were "
847 "needed. When, after two years of testing, Armstrong grew impatient, RCA "
848 "began to use its power with the government to stall FM radio's deployment "
849 "generally. In 1936, RCA hired the former head of the FCC and assigned him "
850 "the task of assuring that the FCC assign spectrum in a way that would "
851 "castrate FM—principally by moving FM radio to a different band of "
852 "spectrum. At first, these efforts failed. But when Armstrong and the nation "
853 "were distracted by World War II, RCA's work began to be more "
854 "successful. Soon after the war ended, the FCC announced a set of policies "
855 "that would have one clear effect: FM radio would be crippled. As Lawrence "
856 "Lessing described it,"
859 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
860 #: freeculture.xml:678
861 msgid "Lessing, 256."
864 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
865 #: freeculture.xml:674
867 "The series of body blows that FM radio received right after the war, in a "
868 "series of rulings manipulated through the FCC by the big radio interests, "
869 "were almost incredible in their force and deviousness.<placeholder "
870 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
873 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
874 #: freeculture.xml:683
878 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
879 #: freeculture.xml:685
881 "To make room in the spectrum for RCA's latest gamble, television, FM radio "
882 "users were to be moved to a totally new spectrum band. The power of FM radio "
883 "stations was also cut, meaning FM could no longer be used to beam programs "
884 "from one part of the country to another. (This change was strongly "
885 "supported by AT&T, because the loss of FM relaying stations would mean "
886 "radio stations would have to buy wired links from AT&T.) The spread of "
887 "FM radio was thus choked, at least temporarily."
890 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
891 #: freeculture.xml:697
893 "Armstrong resisted RCA's efforts. In response, RCA resisted Armstrong's "
894 "patents. After incorporating FM technology into the emerging standard for "
895 "television, RCA declared the patents invalid—baselessly, and almost "
896 "fifteen years after they were issued. It thus refused to pay him "
897 "royalties. For six years, Armstrong fought an expensive war of litigation to "
898 "defend the patents. Finally, just as the patents expired, RCA offered a "
899 "settlement so low that it would not even cover Armstrong's lawyers' "
900 "fees. Defeated, broken, and now broke, in 1954 Armstrong wrote a short note "
901 "to his wife and then stepped out of a thirteenth-story window to his death."
905 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
906 #: freeculture.xml:713
908 "This is how the law sometimes works. Not often this tragically, and rarely "
909 "with heroic drama, but sometimes, this is how it works. From the beginning, "
910 "government and government agencies have been subject to capture. They are "
911 "more likely captured when a powerful interest is threatened by either a "
912 "legal or technical change. That powerful interest too often exerts its "
913 "influence within the government to get the government to protect it. The "
914 "rhetoric of this protection is of course always public spirited; the reality "
915 "is something different. Ideas that were as solid as rock in one age, but "
916 "that, left to themselves, would crumble in another, are sustained through "
917 "this subtle corruption of our political process. RCA had what the Causbys "
918 "did not: the power to stifle the effect of technological change."
921 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
922 #: freeculture.xml:730 freeculture.xml:1103 freeculture.xml:2354 freeculture.xml:2366 freeculture.xml:2450 freeculture.xml:2484 freeculture.xml:2510 freeculture.xml:2760 freeculture.xml:4166 freeculture.xml:6715 freeculture.xml:7572 freeculture.xml:7640 freeculture.xml:10194 freeculture.xml:13468 freeculture.xml:14028 freeculture.xml:14029 freeculture.xml:14103
926 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
927 #: freeculture.xml:730 freeculture.xml:4700 freeculture.xml:13468 freeculture.xml:14028
928 msgid "development of"
931 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
932 #: freeculture.xml:738
934 "Amanda Lenhart, <quote>The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at "
935 "Internet Access and the Digital Divide,</quote> Pew Internet and American "
936 "Life Project, 15 April 2003: 6, available at <ulink "
937 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #2</ulink>."
940 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
941 #: freeculture.xml:732
943 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">There's no</emphasis> single inventor of the "
944 "Internet. Nor is there any good date upon which to mark its birth. Yet in a "
945 "very short time, the Internet has become part of ordinary American "
946 "life. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 58 percent of "
947 "Americans had access to the Internet in 2002, up from 49 percent two years "
948 "before.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That number could well "
949 "exceed two thirds of the nation by the end of 2004."
952 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
953 #: freeculture.xml:747
955 "As the Internet has been integrated into ordinary life, it has changed "
956 "things. Some of these changes are technical—the Internet has made "
957 "communication faster, it has lowered the cost of gathering data, and so "
958 "on. These technical changes are not the focus of this book. They are "
959 "important. They are not well understood. But they are the sort of thing that "
960 "would simply go away if we all just switched the Internet off. They don't "
961 "affect people who don't use the Internet, or at least they don't affect them "
962 "directly. They are the proper subject of a book about the Internet. But this "
963 "is not a book about the Internet."
966 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
967 #: freeculture.xml:758
969 "Instead, this book is about an effect of the Internet beyond the Internet "
970 "itself: an effect upon how culture is made. My claim is that the Internet "
971 "has induced an important and unrecognized change in that process. That "
972 "change will radically transform a tradition that is as old as the Republic "
973 "itself. Most, if they recognized this change, would reject it. Yet most "
974 "don't even see the change that the Internet has introduced."
977 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
978 #: freeculture.xml:767
982 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
983 #: freeculture.xml:768
987 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
988 #: freeculture.xml:768
989 msgid "commercial vs. noncommercial"
992 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
993 #: freeculture.xml:769
994 msgid "Webster, Noah"
998 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
999 #: freeculture.xml:771
1001 "We can glimpse a sense of this change by distinguishing between commercial "
1002 "and noncommercial culture, and by mapping the law's regulation of each. By "
1003 "<quote>commercial culture</quote> I mean that part of our culture that is "
1004 "produced and sold or produced to be sold. By <quote>noncommercial "
1005 "culture</quote> I mean all the rest. When old men sat around parks or on "
1006 "street corners telling stories that kids and others consumed, that was "
1007 "noncommercial culture. When Noah Webster published his "
1008 "<quote>Reader,</quote> or Joel Barlow his poetry, that was commercial "
1012 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1013 #: freeculture.xml:783
1015 "At the beginning of our history, and for just about the whole of our "
1016 "tradition, noncommercial culture was essentially unregulated. Of course, if "
1017 "your stories were lewd, or if your song disturbed the peace, then the law "
1018 "might intervene. But the law was never directly concerned with the creation "
1019 "or spread of this form of culture, and it left this culture "
1020 "<quote>free.</quote> The ordinary ways in which ordinary individuals shared "
1021 "and transformed their culture—telling stories, reenacting scenes from "
1022 "plays or TV, participating in fan clubs, sharing music, making "
1023 "tapes—were left alone by the law."
1026 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1027 #: freeculture.xml:793 freeculture.xml:2856 freeculture.xml:2857 freeculture.xml:2884 freeculture.xml:2885 freeculture.xml:2886 freeculture.xml:7803 freeculture.xml:9652 freeculture.xml:9653 freeculture.xml:9928 freeculture.xml:9929 freeculture.xml:9930 freeculture.xml:9973
1028 msgid "copyright infringement lawsuits"
1031 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1032 #: freeculture.xml:793
1033 msgid "commercial creativity as primary purpose of"
1036 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1037 #: freeculture.xml:809 freeculture.xml:1945 freeculture.xml:1958
1038 msgid "Brandeis, Louis D."
1041 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1042 #: freeculture.xml:801
1044 "This is not the only purpose of copyright, though it is the overwhelmingly "
1045 "primary purpose of the copyright established in the federal constitution. "
1046 "State copyright law historically protected not just the commercial interest "
1047 "in publication, but also a privacy interest. By granting authors the "
1048 "exclusive right to first publication, state copyright law gave authors the "
1049 "power to control the spread of facts about them. See Samuel D. Warren and "
1050 "Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> Harvard Law Review 4 "
1051 "(1890): 193, 198–200. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1054 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1055 #: freeculture.xml:795
1057 "The focus of the law was on commercial creativity. At first slightly, then "
1058 "quite extensively, the law protected the incentives of creators by granting "
1059 "them exclusive rights to their creative work, so that they could sell those "
1060 "exclusive rights in a commercial marketplace.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
1061 "id=\"0\"/> This is also, of course, an important part of creativity and "
1062 "culture, and it has become an increasingly important part in America. But in "
1063 "no sense was it dominant within our tradition. It was instead just one part, "
1064 "a controlled part, balanced with the free."
1067 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
1068 #: freeculture.xml:816 freeculture.xml:1704 freeculture.xml:5258 freeculture.xml:6486 freeculture.xml:14068
1069 msgid "free culture"
1072 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1073 #: freeculture.xml:816
1074 msgid "permission culture vs."
1077 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1078 #: freeculture.xml:817
1079 msgid "permission culture"
1082 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1083 #: freeculture.xml:817
1084 msgid "free culture vs."
1087 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1088 #: freeculture.xml:823 freeculture.xml:10178
1089 msgid "Litman, Jessica"
1092 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1093 #: freeculture.xml:821
1095 "See Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (New York: "
1096 "Prometheus Books, 2001), ch. 13. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1099 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1100 #: freeculture.xml:819
1102 "This rough divide between the free and the controlled has now been "
1103 "erased.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Internet has set the "
1104 "stage for this erasure and, pushed by big media, the law has now affected "
1105 "it. For the first time in our tradition, the ordinary ways in which "
1106 "individuals create and share culture fall within the reach of the regulation "
1107 "of the law, which has expanded to draw within its control a vast amount of "
1108 "culture and creativity that it never reached before. The technology that "
1109 "preserved the balance of our history—between uses of our culture that "
1110 "were free and uses of our culture that were only upon permission—has "
1111 "been undone. The consequence is that we are less and less a free culture, "
1112 "more and more a permission culture."
1115 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1116 #: freeculture.xml:839
1117 msgid "protection of artists vs. business interests"
1120 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1121 #: freeculture.xml:841
1123 "This change gets justified as necessary to protect commercial creativity. "
1124 "And indeed, protectionism is precisely its motivation. But the protectionism "
1125 "that justifies the changes that I will describe below is not the limited and "
1126 "balanced sort that has defined the law in the past. This is not a "
1127 "protectionism to protect artists. It is instead a protectionism to protect "
1128 "certain forms of business. Corporations threatened by the potential of the "
1129 "Internet to change the way both commercial and noncommercial culture are "
1130 "made and shared have united to induce lawmakers to use the law to protect "
1131 "them. It is the story of RCA and Armstrong; it is the dream of the Causbys."
1134 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1135 #: freeculture.xml:855
1137 "For the Internet has unleashed an extraordinary possibility for many to "
1138 "participate in the process of building and cultivating a culture that "
1139 "reaches far beyond local boundaries. That power has changed the marketplace "
1140 "for making and cultivating culture generally, and that change in turn "
1141 "threatens established content industries. The Internet is thus to the "
1142 "industries that built and distributed content in the twentieth century what "
1143 "FM radio was to AM radio, or what the truck was to the railroad industry of "
1144 "the nineteenth century: the beginning of the end, or at least a substantial "
1145 "transformation. Digital technologies, tied to the Internet, could produce a "
1146 "vastly more competitive and vibrant market for building and cultivating "
1147 "culture; that market could include a much wider and more diverse range of "
1148 "creators; those creators could produce and distribute a much more vibrant "
1149 "range of creativity; and depending upon a few important factors, those "
1150 "creators could earn more on average from this system than creators do "
1151 "today—all so long as the RCAs of our day don't use the law to protect "
1152 "themselves against this competition."
1155 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1156 #: freeculture.xml:874
1158 "Yet, as I argue in the pages that follow, that is precisely what is "
1159 "happening in our culture today. These modern-day equivalents of the early "
1160 "twentieth-century radio or nineteenth-century railroads are using their "
1161 "power to get the law to protect them against this new, more efficient, more "
1162 "vibrant technology for building culture. They are succeeding in their plan "
1163 "to remake the Internet before the Internet remakes them."
1166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1167 #: freeculture.xml:883 freeculture.xml:7527
1168 msgid "Valenti, Jack"
1171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
1172 #: freeculture.xml:883 freeculture.xml:7527
1173 msgid "on creative property rights"
1176 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1177 #: freeculture.xml:893
1179 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Black Hawk Download: Moving Beyond Music, Pirates Use New "
1180 "Tools to Turn the Net into an Illicit Video Club,</quote> <citetitle>New "
1181 "York Times</citetitle>, 17 January 2002."
1184 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1185 #: freeculture.xml:885
1187 "It doesn't seem this way to many. The battles over copyright and the "
1188 "Internet seem remote to most. To the few who follow them, they seem mainly "
1189 "about a much simpler brace of questions—whether <quote>piracy</quote> "
1190 "will be permitted, and whether <quote>property</quote> will be "
1191 "protected. The <quote>war</quote> that has been waged against the "
1192 "technologies of the Internet—what Motion Picture Association of "
1193 "America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti calls his <quote>own terrorist "
1194 "war</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—has been framed "
1195 "as a battle about the rule of law and respect for property. To know which "
1196 "side to take in this war, most think that we need only decide whether we're "
1197 "for property or against it."
1200 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1201 #: freeculture.xml:902
1203 "If those really were the choices, then I would be with Jack Valenti and the "
1204 "content industry. I, too, am a believer in property, and especially in the "
1205 "importance of what Mr. Valenti nicely calls <quote>creative "
1206 "property.</quote> I believe that <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong, and that "
1207 "the law, properly tuned, should punish <quote>piracy,</quote> whether on or "
1211 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1212 #: freeculture.xml:910
1214 "But those simple beliefs mask a much more fundamental question and a much "
1215 "more dramatic change. My fear is that unless we come to see this change, the "
1216 "war to rid the world of Internet <quote>pirates</quote> will also rid our "
1217 "culture of values that have been integral to our tradition from the start."
1220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1221 #: freeculture.xml:915 freeculture.xml:6867 freeculture.xml:6980 freeculture.xml:6981 freeculture.xml:6982 freeculture.xml:7027 freeculture.xml:7615 freeculture.xml:8896 freeculture.xml:11181 freeculture.xml:11472 freeculture.xml:12118
1222 msgid "Constitution, U.S."
1225 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
1226 #: freeculture.xml:915 freeculture.xml:6867 freeculture.xml:7615 freeculture.xml:8896
1227 msgid "First Amendment to"
1230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1231 #: freeculture.xml:916 freeculture.xml:1081 freeculture.xml:1188 freeculture.xml:1213 freeculture.xml:1557 freeculture.xml:1601 freeculture.xml:1715 freeculture.xml:3117 freeculture.xml:3208 freeculture.xml:4288 freeculture.xml:4289 freeculture.xml:4700 freeculture.xml:4701 freeculture.xml:5302 freeculture.xml:6488 freeculture.xml:6934 freeculture.xml:7014 freeculture.xml:7015 freeculture.xml:7199 freeculture.xml:7298 freeculture.xml:7330 freeculture.xml:7360 freeculture.xml:7395 freeculture.xml:7509 freeculture.xml:7510 freeculture.xml:7571 freeculture.xml:7609 freeculture.xml:7709 freeculture.xml:7723 freeculture.xml:7782 freeculture.xml:7783 freeculture.xml:7881 freeculture.xml:9814 freeculture.xml:10167 freeculture.xml:11121 freeculture.xml:11166
1232 msgid "copyright law"
1235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
1236 #: freeculture.xml:916 freeculture.xml:7014
1237 msgid "as protection of creators"
1240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1241 #: freeculture.xml:917 freeculture.xml:6868 freeculture.xml:7616 freeculture.xml:8897
1242 msgid "First Amendment"
1245 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1246 #: freeculture.xml:918 freeculture.xml:928 freeculture.xml:15256
1247 msgid "Netanel, Neil Weinstock"
1250 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1251 #: freeculture.xml:926
1253 "Neil W. Netanel, <quote>Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society,</quote> "
1254 "<citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 106 (1996): 283. <placeholder "
1255 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1258 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1259 #: freeculture.xml:920
1261 "These values built a tradition that, for at least the first 180 years of our "
1262 "Republic, guaranteed creators the right to build freely upon their past, and "
1263 "protected creators and innovators from either state or private control. The "
1264 "First Amendment protected creators against state control. And as Professor "
1265 "Neil Netanel powerfully argues,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1266 "copyright law, properly balanced, protected creators against private "
1267 "control. Our tradition was thus neither Soviet nor the tradition of "
1268 "patrons. It instead carved out a wide berth within which creators could "
1269 "cultivate and extend our culture."
1272 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1273 #: freeculture.xml:936
1275 "Yet the law's response to the Internet, when tied to changes in the "
1276 "technology of the Internet itself, has massively increased the effective "
1277 "regulation of creativity in America. To build upon or critique the culture "
1278 "around us one must ask, Oliver Twist–like, for permission first. "
1279 "Permission is, of course, often granted—but it is not often granted to "
1280 "the critical or the independent. We have built a kind of cultural nobility; "
1281 "those within the noble class live easily; those outside it don't. But it is "
1282 "nobility of any form that is alien to our tradition."
1285 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1286 #: freeculture.xml:948
1288 "The story that follows is about this war. It is not about the "
1289 "<quote>centrality of technology</quote> to ordinary life. I don't believe in "
1290 "gods, digital or otherwise. Nor is it an effort to demonize any individual "
1291 "or group, for neither do I believe in a devil, corporate or otherwise. It is "
1292 "not a morality tale. Nor is it a call to jihad against an industry."
1295 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1296 #: freeculture.xml:956
1298 "It is instead an effort to understand a hopelessly destructive war inspired "
1299 "by the technologies of the Internet but reaching far beyond its code. And by "
1300 "understanding this battle, it is an effort to map peace. There is no good "
1301 "reason for the current struggle around Internet technologies to "
1302 "continue. There will be great harm to our tradition and culture if it is "
1303 "allowed to continue unchecked. We must come to understand the source of this "
1304 "war. We must resolve it soon."
1307 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1308 #: freeculture.xml:966 freeculture.xml:13384 freeculture.xml:13467 freeculture.xml:13637
1309 msgid "intellectual property rights"
1312 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1313 #: freeculture.xml:968
1315 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Like the Causbys'</emphasis> battle, this war is, "
1316 "in part, about <quote>property.</quote> The property of this war is not as "
1317 "tangible as the Causbys', and no innocent chicken has yet to lose its "
1318 "life. Yet the ideas surrounding this <quote>property</quote> are as obvious "
1319 "to most as the Causbys' claim about the sacredness of their farm was to "
1320 "them. We are the Causbys. Most of us take for granted the extraordinarily "
1321 "powerful claims that the owners of <quote>intellectual property</quote> now "
1322 "assert. Most of us, like the Causbys, treat these claims as obvious. And "
1323 "hence we, like the Causbys, object when a new technology interferes with "
1324 "this property. It is as plain to us as it was to them that the new "
1325 "technologies of the Internet are <quote>trespassing</quote> upon legitimate "
1326 "claims of <quote>property.</quote> It is as plain to us as it was to them "
1327 "that the law should intervene to stop this trespass."
1331 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1332 #: freeculture.xml:986
1334 "And thus, when geeks and technologists defend their Armstrong or Wright "
1335 "brothers technology, most of us are simply unsympathetic. Common sense does "
1336 "not revolt. Unlike in the case of the unlucky Causbys, common sense is on "
1337 "the side of the property owners in this war. Unlike the lucky Wright "
1338 "brothers, the Internet has not inspired a revolution on its side."
1341 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1342 #: freeculture.xml:997
1344 "My hope is to push this common sense along. I have become increasingly "
1345 "amazed by the power of this idea of intellectual property and, more "
1346 "importantly, its power to disable critical thought by policy makers and "
1347 "citizens. There has never been a time in our history when more of our "
1348 "<quote>culture</quote> was as <quote>owned</quote> as it is now. And yet "
1349 "there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the "
1350 "<emphasis>uses</emphasis> of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as "
1354 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1355 #: freeculture.xml:1007
1357 "The puzzle is, Why? Is it because we have come to understand a truth about "
1358 "the value and importance of absolute property over ideas and culture? Is it "
1359 "because we have discovered that our tradition of rejecting such an absolute "
1363 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1364 #: freeculture.xml:1013
1366 "Or is it because the idea of absolute property over ideas and culture "
1367 "benefits the RCAs of our time and fits our own unreflective intuitions?"
1370 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1371 #: freeculture.xml:1017
1373 "Is the radical shift away from our tradition of free culture an instance of "
1374 "America correcting a mistake from its past, as we did after a bloody war "
1375 "with slavery, and as we are slowly doing with inequality? Or is the radical "
1376 "shift away from our tradition of free culture yet another example of a "
1377 "political system captured by a few powerful special interests?"
1380 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1381 #: freeculture.xml:1024
1383 "Does common sense lead to the extremes on this question because common sense "
1384 "actually believes in these extremes? Or does common sense stand silent in "
1385 "the face of these extremes because, as with Armstrong versus RCA, the more "
1386 "powerful side has ensured that it has the more powerful view?"
1390 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1391 #: freeculture.xml:1033
1393 "I don't mean to be mysterious. My own views are resolved. I believe it was "
1394 "right for common sense to revolt against the extremism of the Causbys. I "
1395 "believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme "
1396 "claims made today on behalf of <quote>intellectual property.</quote> What "
1397 "the law demands today is increasingly as silly as a sheriff arresting an "
1398 "airplane for trespass. But the consequences of this silliness will be much "
1402 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1403 #: freeculture.xml:1044
1405 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">The struggle</emphasis> that rages just now "
1406 "centers on two ideas: <quote>piracy</quote> and <quote>property.</quote> My "
1407 "aim in this book's next two parts is to explore these two ideas."
1410 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1411 #: freeculture.xml:1049
1413 "My method is not the usual method of an academic. I don't want to plunge you "
1414 "into a complex argument, buttressed with references to obscure French "
1415 "theorists—however natural that is for the weird sort we academics have "
1416 "become. Instead I begin in each part with a collection of stories that set a "
1417 "context within which these apparently simple ideas can be more fully "
1421 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1422 #: freeculture.xml:1057
1424 "The two sections set up the core claim of this book: that while the Internet "
1425 "has indeed produced something fantastic and new, our government, pushed by "
1426 "big media to respond to this <quote>something new,</quote> is destroying "
1427 "something very old. Rather than understanding the changes the Internet might "
1428 "permit, and rather than taking time to let <quote>common sense</quote> "
1429 "resolve how best to respond, we are allowing those most threatened by the "
1430 "changes to use their power to change the law—and more importantly, to "
1431 "use their power to change something fundamental about who we have always "
1435 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1436 #: freeculture.xml:1068
1438 "We allow this, I believe, not because it is right, and not because most of "
1439 "us really believe in these changes. We allow it because the interests most "
1440 "threatened are among the most powerful players in our depressingly "
1441 "compromised process of making law. This book is the story of one more "
1442 "consequence of this form of corruption—a consequence to which most of "
1443 "us remain oblivious."
1446 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
1447 #: freeculture.xml:1078
1448 msgid "<quote>Piracy</quote>"
1451 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1452 #: freeculture.xml:1081 freeculture.xml:4701
1456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1457 #: freeculture.xml:1082 freeculture.xml:5111
1458 msgid "Mansfield, William Murray, Lord"
1461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1462 #: freeculture.xml:1083
1463 msgid "music publishing"
1466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1467 #: freeculture.xml:1084 freeculture.xml:3205
1471 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1472 #: freeculture.xml:1086
1474 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Since the inception</emphasis> of the law "
1475 "regulating creative property, there has been a war against "
1476 "<quote>piracy.</quote> The precise contours of this concept, "
1477 "<quote>piracy,</quote> are hard to sketch, but the animating injustice is "
1478 "easy to capture. As Lord Mansfield wrote in a case that extended the reach "
1479 "of English copyright law to include sheet music,"
1483 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1484 #: freeculture.xml:1098
1486 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
1487 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777) (Mansfield)."
1490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1491 #: freeculture.xml:1094
1493 "A person may use the copy by playing it, but he has no right to rob the "
1494 "author of the profit, by multiplying copies and disposing of them for his "
1495 "own use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1499 #: freeculture.xml:1103
1500 msgid "efficient content distribution on"
1503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1504 #: freeculture.xml:1104 freeculture.xml:6716 freeculture.xml:11169
1505 msgid "peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing"
1508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1509 #: freeculture.xml:1104
1510 msgid "efficiency of"
1514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1515 #: freeculture.xml:1106
1517 "Today we are in the middle of another <quote>war</quote> against "
1518 "<quote>piracy.</quote> The Internet has provoked this war. The Internet "
1519 "makes possible the efficient spread of content. Peer-to-peer (p2p) file "
1520 "sharing is among the most efficient of the efficient technologies the "
1521 "Internet enables. Using distributed intelligence, p2p systems facilitate the "
1522 "easy spread of content in a way unimagined a generation ago."
1525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1526 #: freeculture.xml:1115
1528 "This efficiency does not respect the traditional lines of copyright. The "
1529 "network doesn't discriminate between the sharing of copyrighted and "
1530 "uncopyrighted content. Thus has there been a vast amount of sharing of "
1531 "copyrighted content. That sharing in turn has excited the war, as copyright "
1532 "owners fear the sharing will <quote>rob the author of the profit.</quote>"
1535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1536 #: freeculture.xml:1124
1538 "The warriors have turned to the courts, to the legislatures, and "
1539 "increasingly to technology to defend their <quote>property</quote> against "
1540 "this <quote>piracy.</quote> A generation of Americans, the warriors warn, is "
1541 "being raised to believe that <quote>property</quote> should be "
1542 "<quote>free.</quote> Forget tattoos, never mind body piercing—our kids "
1543 "are becoming <emphasis>thieves</emphasis>!"
1546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1547 #: freeculture.xml:1132
1549 "There's no doubt that <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong, and that pirates "
1550 "should be punished. But before we summon the executioners, we should put "
1551 "this notion of <quote>piracy</quote> in some context. For as the concept is "
1552 "increasingly used, at its core is an extraordinary idea that is almost "
1556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1557 #: freeculture.xml:1138
1558 msgid "The idea goes something like this:"
1561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1562 #: freeculture.xml:1142
1564 "Creative work has value; whenever I use, or take, or build upon the creative "
1565 "work of others, I am taking from them something of value. Whenever I take "
1566 "something of value from someone else, I should have their permission. The "
1567 "taking of something of value from someone else without permission is "
1568 "wrong. It is a form of piracy."
1571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1572 #: freeculture.xml:1150
1576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1577 #: freeculture.xml:1151
1578 msgid "Dreyfuss, Rochelle"
1581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1582 #: freeculture.xml:1152
1586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1587 #: freeculture.xml:1153 freeculture.xml:6985 freeculture.xml:7085 freeculture.xml:7528
1588 msgid "creative property"
1591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1592 #: freeculture.xml:1153
1593 msgid "<quote>if value, then right</quote> theory of"
1596 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1597 #: freeculture.xml:1154 freeculture.xml:3013
1598 msgid "<quote>if value, then right</quote> theory"
1602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1603 #: freeculture.xml:1160
1605 "See Rochelle Dreyfuss, <quote>Expressive Genericity: Trademarks as Language "
1606 "in the Pepsi Generation,</quote> <citetitle>Notre Dame Law "
1607 "Review</citetitle> 65 (1990): 397."
1610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1611 #: freeculture.xml:1173 freeculture.xml:7464
1612 msgid "Zittrain, Jonathan"
1615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1616 #: freeculture.xml:1168
1618 "Lisa Bannon, <quote>The Birds May Sing, but Campers Can't Unless They Pay "
1619 "Up,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 21 August 1996, "
1620 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #3</ulink>; "
1621 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>Calling Off the Copyright War: In Battle of "
1622 "Property vs. Free Speech, No One Wins,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
1623 "Globe</citetitle>, 24 November 2002. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
1627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1628 #: freeculture.xml:1156
1630 "This view runs deep within the current debates. It is what NYU law professor "
1631 "Rochelle Dreyfuss criticizes as the <quote>if value, then right</quote> "
1632 "theory of creative property<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1633 "—if there is value, then someone must have a right to that value. It "
1634 "is the perspective that led a composers' rights organization, ASCAP, to sue "
1635 "the Girl Scouts for failing to pay for the songs that girls sang around Girl "
1636 "Scout campfires.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> There was "
1637 "<quote>value</quote> (the songs) so there must have been a "
1638 "<quote>right</quote>—even against the Girl Scouts."
1642 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1643 #: freeculture.xml:1180
1645 "This idea is certainly a possible understanding of how creative property "
1646 "should work. It might well be a possible design for a system of law "
1647 "protecting creative property. But the <quote>if value, then right</quote> "
1648 "theory of creative property has never been America's theory of creative "
1649 "property. It has never taken hold within our law."
1652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
1653 #: freeculture.xml:1188 freeculture.xml:7298 freeculture.xml:7395 freeculture.xml:7709
1654 msgid "on republishing vs. transformation of original work"
1657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1658 #: freeculture.xml:1189 freeculture.xml:1371 freeculture.xml:1528
1662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1663 #: freeculture.xml:1189
1664 msgid "legal restrictions on"
1667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1668 #: freeculture.xml:1191
1670 "Instead, in our tradition, intellectual property is an instrument. It sets "
1671 "the groundwork for a richly creative society but remains subservient to the "
1672 "value of creativity. The current debate has this turned around. We have "
1673 "become so concerned with protecting the instrument that we are losing sight "
1677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1678 #: freeculture.xml:1198
1680 "The source of this confusion is a distinction that the law no longer takes "
1681 "care to draw—the distinction between republishing someone's work on "
1682 "the one hand and building upon or transforming that work on the "
1683 "other. Copyright law at its birth had only publishing as its concern; "
1684 "copyright law today regulates both."
1687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1688 #: freeculture.xml:1206
1690 "Before the technologies of the Internet, this conflation didn't matter all "
1691 "that much. The technologies of publishing were expensive; that meant the "
1692 "vast majority of publishing was commercial. Commercial entities could bear "
1693 "the burden of the law—even the burden of the Byzantine complexity that "
1694 "copyright law has become. It was just one more expense of doing business."
1697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1698 #: freeculture.xml:1213
1699 msgid "creativity impeded by"
1702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1703 #: freeculture.xml:1214 freeculture.xml:1245
1704 msgid "Florida, Richard"
1707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1708 #: freeculture.xml:1215 freeculture.xml:1246
1709 msgid "Rise of the Creative Class, The (Florida)"
1712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1713 #: freeculture.xml:1237
1715 "In <citetitle>The Rise of the Creative Class</citetitle> (New York: Basic "
1716 "Books, 2002), Richard Florida documents a shift in the nature of labor "
1717 "toward a labor of creativity. His work, however, doesn't directly address "
1718 "the legal conditions under which that creativity is enabled or stifled. I "
1719 "certainly agree with him about the importance and significance of this "
1720 "change, but I also believe the conditions under which it will be enabled are "
1721 "much more tenuous. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
1722 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
1725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1726 #: freeculture.xml:1217
1728 "But with the birth of the Internet, this natural limit to the reach of the "
1729 "law has disappeared. The law controls not just the creativity of commercial "
1730 "creators but effectively that of anyone. Although that expansion would not "
1731 "matter much if copyright law regulated only <quote>copying,</quote> when the "
1732 "law regulates as broadly and obscurely as it does, the extension matters a "
1733 "lot. The burden of this law now vastly outweighs any original "
1734 "benefit—certainly as it affects noncommercial creativity, and "
1735 "increasingly as it affects commercial creativity as well. Thus, as we'll see "
1736 "more clearly in the chapters below, the law's role is less and less to "
1737 "support creativity, and more and more to protect certain industries against "
1738 "competition. Just at the time digital technology could unleash an "
1739 "extraordinary range of commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law "
1740 "burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the "
1741 "threat of obscenely severe penalties. We may be seeing, as Richard Florida "
1742 "writes, the <quote>Rise of the Creative Class.</quote><placeholder "
1743 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Unfortunately, we are also seeing an "
1744 "extraordinary rise of regulation of this creative class."
1747 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1748 #: freeculture.xml:1253
1750 "These burdens make no sense in our tradition. We should begin by "
1751 "understanding that tradition a bit more and by placing in their proper "
1752 "context the current battles about behavior labeled <quote>piracy.</quote>"
1755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
1756 #: freeculture.xml:1261
1757 msgid "Chapter One: Creators"
1760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1761 #: freeculture.xml:1262
1762 msgid "animated cartoons"
1765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1766 #: freeculture.xml:1263
1767 msgid "cartoon films"
1770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1771 #: freeculture.xml:1264 freeculture.xml:5306 freeculture.xml:5340 freeculture.xml:6055 freeculture.xml:6099
1775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1776 #: freeculture.xml:1264
1780 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1781 #: freeculture.xml:1265
1782 msgid "Steamboat Willie"
1785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1786 #: freeculture.xml:1266 freeculture.xml:7489
1787 msgid "Mickey Mouse"
1790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1791 #: freeculture.xml:1268
1793 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">In 1928</emphasis>, a cartoon character was "
1794 "born. An early Mickey Mouse made his debut in May of that year, in a silent "
1795 "flop called <citetitle>Plane Crazy</citetitle>. In November, in New York "
1796 "City's Colony Theater, in the first widely distributed cartoon synchronized "
1797 "with sound, <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle> brought to life the "
1798 "character that would become Mickey Mouse."
1801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1802 #: freeculture.xml:1274 freeculture.xml:1491 freeculture.xml:1545 freeculture.xml:1686 freeculture.xml:1932 freeculture.xml:4536 freeculture.xml:6231 freeculture.xml:7488 freeculture.xml:11062 freeculture.xml:11475
1803 msgid "Disney, Walt"
1806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1807 #: freeculture.xml:1276
1809 "Synchronized sound had been introduced to film a year earlier in the movie "
1810 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle>. That success led Walt Disney to copy "
1811 "the technique and mix sound with cartoons. No one knew whether it would work "
1812 "or, if it did work, whether it would win an audience. But when Disney ran a "
1813 "test in the summer of 1928, the results were unambiguous. As Disney "
1814 "describes that first experiment,"
1818 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1819 #: freeculture.xml:1285
1821 "A couple of my boys could read music, and one of them could play a mouth "
1822 "organ. We put them in a room where they could not see the screen and "
1823 "arranged to pipe their sound into the room where our wives and friends were "
1824 "going to see the picture."
1827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1828 #: freeculture.xml:1292
1830 "The boys worked from a music and sound-effects score. After several false "
1831 "starts, sound and action got off with the gun. The mouth organist played the "
1832 "tune, the rest of us in the sound department bammed tin pans and blew slide "
1833 "whistles on the beat. The synchronization was pretty close."
1837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1838 #: freeculture.xml:1305
1840 "Leonard Maltin, <citetitle>Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated "
1841 "Cartoons</citetitle> (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), 34–35."
1844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1845 #: freeculture.xml:1299
1847 "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They "
1848 "responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought "
1849 "they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action "
1850 "again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something "
1851 "new!<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1854 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1855 #: freeculture.xml:1310
1859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1860 #: freeculture.xml:1312
1862 "Disney's then partner, and one of animation's most extraordinary talents, Ub "
1863 "Iwerks, put it more strongly: <quote>I have never been so thrilled in my "
1864 "life. Nothing since has ever equaled it.</quote>"
1867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1868 #: freeculture.xml:1317
1870 "Disney had created something very new, based upon something relatively "
1871 "new. Synchronized sound brought life to a form of creativity that had "
1872 "rarely—except in Disney's hands—been anything more than filler "
1873 "for other films. Throughout animation's early history, it was Disney's "
1874 "invention that set the standard that others struggled to match. And quite "
1875 "often, Disney's great genius, his spark of creativity, was built upon the "
1879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1880 #: freeculture.xml:1326 freeculture.xml:1688
1881 msgid "Keaton, Buster"
1884 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1885 #: freeculture.xml:1327 freeculture.xml:1558 freeculture.xml:1946
1886 msgid "Steamboat Bill, Jr."
1889 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1890 #: freeculture.xml:1329
1892 "This much is familiar. What you might not know is that 1928 also marks "
1893 "another important transition. In that year, a comic (as opposed to cartoon) "
1894 "genius created his last independently produced silent film. That genius was "
1895 "Buster Keaton. The film was <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>."
1898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1899 #: freeculture.xml:1335
1901 "Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in 1895. In the era of silent film, "
1902 "he had mastered using broad physical comedy as a way to spark uncontrollable "
1903 "laughter from his audience. <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. was a "
1904 "classic of this form, famous among film buffs for its incredible stunts. "
1905 "The film was classic Keaton—wildly popular and among the best of its "
1909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1910 #: freeculture.xml:1342 freeculture.xml:1499 freeculture.xml:7299 freeculture.xml:7396 freeculture.xml:7574 freeculture.xml:7678 freeculture.xml:7724
1911 msgid "derivative works"
1914 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
1915 #: freeculture.xml:1342 freeculture.xml:1499 freeculture.xml:7396 freeculture.xml:7574
1919 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
1920 #: freeculture.xml:1343 freeculture.xml:1502 freeculture.xml:3012 freeculture.xml:3711 freeculture.xml:7397 freeculture.xml:7575 freeculture.xml:15322
1924 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
1925 #: freeculture.xml:1343 freeculture.xml:1502 freeculture.xml:7397 freeculture.xml:7575
1926 msgid "derivative work vs."
1930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1931 #: freeculture.xml:1351
1933 "I am grateful to David Gerstein and his careful history, described at <ulink "
1934 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #4</ulink>. According to Dave "
1935 "Smith of the Disney Archives, Disney paid royalties to use the music for "
1936 "five songs in <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle>: <quote>Steamboat "
1937 "Bill,</quote> <quote>The Simpleton</quote> (Delille), <quote>Mischief "
1938 "Makers</quote> (Carbonara), <quote>Joyful Hurry No. 1</quote> (Baron), and "
1939 "<quote>Gawky Rube</quote> (Lakay). A sixth song, <quote>The Turkey in the "
1940 "Straw,</quote> was already in the public domain. Letter from David Smith to "
1941 "Harry Surden, 10 July 2003, on file with author."
1944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1945 #: freeculture.xml:1345
1947 "<citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. appeared before Disney's cartoon "
1948 "Steamboat Willie. The coincidence of titles is not coincidental. Steamboat "
1949 "Willie is a direct cartoon parody of Steamboat Bill,<placeholder "
1950 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and both are built upon a common song as a "
1951 "source. It is not just from the invention of synchronized sound in "
1952 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle> that we get <citetitle>Steamboat "
1953 "Willie</citetitle>. It is also from Buster Keaton's invention of Steamboat "
1954 "Bill, Jr., itself inspired by the song <quote>Steamboat Bill,</quote> that "
1955 "we get Steamboat Willie, and then from Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse."
1958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1959 #: freeculture.xml:1371 freeculture.xml:1528
1960 msgid "by transforming previous works"
1963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1964 #: freeculture.xml:1372 freeculture.xml:6272 freeculture.xml:7781
1965 msgid "Disney, Inc."
1969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1970 #: freeculture.xml:1378
1972 "He was also a fan of the public domain. See Chris Sprigman, <quote>The Mouse "
1973 "that Ate the Public Domain,</quote> Findlaw, 5 March 2002, at <ulink "
1974 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #5</ulink>."
1977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1978 #: freeculture.xml:1374
1980 "This <quote>borrowing</quote> was nothing unique, either for Disney or for "
1981 "the industry. Disney was always parroting the feature-length mainstream "
1982 "films of his day.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> So did many "
1983 "others. Early cartoons are filled with knockoffs—slight variations on "
1984 "winning themes; retellings of ancient stories. The key to success was the "
1985 "brilliance of the differences. With Disney, it was sound that gave his "
1986 "animation its spark. Later, it was the quality of his work relative to the "
1987 "production-line cartoons with which he competed. Yet these additions were "
1988 "built upon a base that was borrowed. Disney added to the work of others "
1989 "before him, creating something new out of something just barely old."
1992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1993 #: freeculture.xml:1392 freeculture.xml:1687 freeculture.xml:11063
1994 msgid "Grimm fairy tales"
1997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1998 #: freeculture.xml:1394
2000 "Sometimes this borrowing was slight. Sometimes it was significant. Think "
2001 "about the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. If you're as oblivious as I "
2002 "was, you're likely to think that these tales are happy, sweet stories, "
2003 "appropriate for any child at bedtime. In fact, the Grimm fairy tales are, "
2004 "well, for us, grim. It is a rare and perhaps overly ambitious parent who "
2005 "would dare to read these bloody, moralistic stories to his or her child, at "
2006 "bedtime or anytime."
2010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2011 #: freeculture.xml:1403
2013 "Disney took these stories and retold them in a way that carried them into a "
2014 "new age. He animated the stories, with both characters and light. Without "
2015 "removing the elements of fear and danger altogether, he made funny what was "
2016 "dark and injected a genuine emotion of compassion where before there was "
2017 "fear. And not just with the work of the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the catalog "
2018 "of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set "
2019 "together: <citetitle>Snow White</citetitle> (1937), "
2020 "<citetitle>Fantasia</citetitle> (1940), <citetitle>Pinocchio</citetitle> "
2021 "(1940), <citetitle>Dumbo</citetitle> (1941), <citetitle>Bambi</citetitle> "
2022 "(1942), <citetitle>Song of the South</citetitle> (1946), "
2023 "<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle> (1950), <citetitle>Alice in "
2024 "Wonderland</citetitle> (1951), <citetitle>Robin Hood</citetitle> (1952), "
2025 "<citetitle>Peter Pan</citetitle> (1953), <citetitle>Lady and the "
2026 "Tramp</citetitle> (1955), <citetitle>Mulan</citetitle> (1998), "
2027 "<citetitle>Sleeping Beauty</citetitle> (1959), <citetitle>101 "
2028 "Dalmatians</citetitle> (1961), <citetitle>The Sword in the Stone</citetitle> "
2029 "(1963), and <citetitle>The Jungle Book</citetitle> (1967)—not to "
2030 "mention a recent example that we should perhaps quickly forget, "
2031 "<citetitle>Treasure Planet</citetitle> (2003). In all of these cases, Disney "
2032 "(or Disney, Inc.) ripped creativity from the culture around him, mixed that "
2033 "creativity with his own extraordinary talent, and then burned that mix into "
2034 "the soul of his culture. Rip, mix, and burn."
2037 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2038 #: freeculture.xml:1426
2040 "This is a kind of creativity. It is a creativity that we should remember and "
2041 "celebrate. There are some who would say that there is no creativity except "
2042 "this kind. We don't need to go that far to recognize its importance. We "
2043 "could call this <quote>Disney creativity,</quote> though that would be a bit "
2044 "misleading. It is, more precisely, <quote>Walt Disney "
2045 "creativity</quote>—a form of expression and genius that builds upon "
2046 "the culture around us and makes it something different."
2049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2050 #: freeculture.xml:1437 freeculture.xml:4753 freeculture.xml:4754 freeculture.xml:4820 freeculture.xml:4858 freeculture.xml:4914 freeculture.xml:4960 freeculture.xml:5095 freeculture.xml:5189 freeculture.xml:6683 freeculture.xml:6983 freeculture.xml:6984 freeculture.xml:6987 freeculture.xml:7056 freeculture.xml:7082 freeculture.xml:7121 freeculture.xml:7244 freeculture.xml:7291 freeculture.xml:7328 freeculture.xml:7631 freeculture.xml:7802 freeculture.xml:11120 freeculture.xml:11144 freeculture.xml:11473 freeculture.xml:11474
2054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2055 #: freeculture.xml:1437 freeculture.xml:4753 freeculture.xml:4914 freeculture.xml:6984 freeculture.xml:6987 freeculture.xml:7082 freeculture.xml:11120 freeculture.xml:11474
2059 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
2060 #: freeculture.xml:1438 freeculture.xml:1439 freeculture.xml:5190 freeculture.xml:7086 freeculture.xml:7209 freeculture.xml:8094 freeculture.xml:11054 freeculture.xml:13472 freeculture.xml:14262 freeculture.xml:14263
2061 msgid "public domain"
2064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2065 #: freeculture.xml:1438
2069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2070 #: freeculture.xml:1439
2071 msgid "traditional term for conversion to"
2075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2076 #: freeculture.xml:1446
2078 "Until 1976, copyright law granted an author the possibility of two terms: an "
2079 "initial term and a renewal term. I have calculated the "
2080 "<quote>average</quote> term by determining the weighted average of total "
2081 "registrations for any particular year, and the proportion renewing. Thus, if "
2082 "100 copyrights are registered in year 1, and only 15 are renewed, and the "
2083 "renewal term is 28 years, then the average term is 32.2 years. For the "
2084 "renewal data and other relevant data, see the Web site associated with this "
2085 "book, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
2089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2090 #: freeculture.xml:1440
2092 "In 1928, the culture that Disney was free to draw upon was relatively "
2093 "fresh. The public domain in 1928 was not very old and was therefore quite "
2094 "vibrant. The average term of copyright was just around thirty "
2095 "years—for that minority of creative work that was in fact "
2096 "copyrighted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That means that for "
2097 "thirty years, on average, the authors or copyright holders of a creative "
2098 "work had an <quote>exclusive right</quote> to control certain uses of the "
2099 "work. To use this copyrighted work in limited ways required the permission "
2100 "of the copyright owner."
2103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2104 #: freeculture.xml:1463
2106 "At the end of a copyright term, a work passes into the public domain. No "
2107 "permission is then needed to draw upon or use that work. No permission and, "
2108 "hence, no lawyers. The public domain is a <quote>lawyer-free zone.</quote> "
2109 "Thus, most of the content from the nineteenth century was free for Disney to "
2110 "use and build upon in 1928. It was free for anyone— whether connected "
2111 "or not, whether rich or not, whether approved or not—to use and build "
2116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2117 #: freeculture.xml:1474
2119 "This is the ways things always were—until quite recently. For most of "
2120 "our history, the public domain was just over the horizon. From until 1978, "
2121 "the average copyright term was never more than thirty-two years, meaning "
2122 "that most culture just a generation and a half old was free for anyone to "
2123 "build upon without the permission of anyone else. Today's equivalent would "
2124 "be for creative work from the 1960s and 1970s to now be free for the next "
2125 "Walt Disney to build upon without permission. Yet today, the public domain "
2126 "is presumptive only for content from before the Great Depression."
2129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2130 #: freeculture.xml:1493
2132 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Of course</emphasis>, Walt Disney had no monopoly "
2133 "on <quote>Walt Disney creativity.</quote> Nor does America. The norm of free "
2134 "culture has, until recently, and except within totalitarian nations, been "
2135 "broadly exploited and quite universal."
2138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2139 #: freeculture.xml:1498 freeculture.xml:1602 freeculture.xml:1716
2140 msgid "comics, Japanese"
2143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2144 #: freeculture.xml:1500 freeculture.xml:1718
2145 msgid "Japanese comics"
2148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2149 #: freeculture.xml:1501 freeculture.xml:1719
2153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2154 #: freeculture.xml:1504
2156 "Consider, for example, a form of creativity that seems strange to many "
2157 "Americans but that is inescapable within Japanese culture: "
2158 "<citetitle>manga</citetitle>, or comics. The Japanese are fanatics about "
2159 "comics. Some 40 percent of publications are comics, and 30 percent of "
2160 "publication revenue derives from comics. They are everywhere in Japanese "
2161 "society, at every magazine stand, carried by a large proportion of commuters "
2162 "on Japan's extraordinary system of public transportation."
2165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2166 #: freeculture.xml:1513
2168 "Americans tend to look down upon this form of culture. That's an "
2169 "unattractive characteristic of ours. We're likely to misunderstand much "
2170 "about manga, because few of us have ever read anything close to the stories "
2171 "that these <quote>graphic novels</quote> tell. For the Japanese, manga cover "
2172 "every aspect of social life. For us, comics are <quote>men in "
2173 "tights.</quote> And anyway, it's not as if the New York subways are filled "
2174 "with readers of Joyce or even Hemingway. People of different cultures "
2175 "distract themselves in different ways, the Japanese in this interestingly "
2179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2180 #: freeculture.xml:1524
2182 "But my purpose here is not to understand manga. It is to describe a variant "
2183 "on manga that from a lawyer's perspective is quite odd, but from a Disney "
2184 "perspective is quite familiar."
2187 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2188 #: freeculture.xml:1529 freeculture.xml:1717
2189 msgid "doujinshi comics"
2193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2194 #: freeculture.xml:1531
2196 "This is the phenomenon of <citetitle>doujinshi</citetitle>. Doujinshi are "
2197 "also comics, but they are a kind of copycat comic. A rich ethic governs the "
2198 "creation of doujinshi. It is not doujinshi if it is "
2199 "<emphasis>just</emphasis> a copy; the artist must make a contribution to the "
2200 "art he copies, by transforming it either subtly or significantly. A "
2201 "doujinshi comic can thus take a mainstream comic and develop it "
2202 "differently—with a different story line. Or the comic can keep the "
2203 "character in character but change its look slightly. There is no formula for "
2204 "what makes the doujinshi sufficiently <quote>different.</quote> But they "
2205 "must be different if they are to be considered true doujinshi. Indeed, there "
2206 "are committees that review doujinshi for inclusion within shows and reject "
2207 "any copycat comic that is merely a copy."
2210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2211 #: freeculture.xml:1547
2213 "These copycat comics are not a tiny part of the manga market. They are "
2214 "huge. More than 33,000 <quote>circles</quote> of creators from across Japan "
2215 "produce these bits of Walt Disney creativity. More than 450,000 Japanese "
2216 "come together twice a year, in the largest public gathering in the country, "
2217 "to exchange and sell them. This market exists in parallel to the mainstream "
2218 "commercial manga market. In some ways, it obviously competes with that "
2219 "market, but there is no sustained effort by those who control the commercial "
2220 "manga market to shut the doujinshi market down. It flourishes, despite the "
2221 "competition and despite the law."
2224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2225 #: freeculture.xml:1557 freeculture.xml:1601 freeculture.xml:1715
2229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2230 #: freeculture.xml:1560
2232 "The most puzzling feature of the doujinshi market, for those trained in the "
2233 "law, at least, is that it is allowed to exist at all. Under Japanese "
2234 "copyright law, which in this respect (on paper) mirrors American copyright "
2235 "law, the doujinshi market is an illegal one. Doujinshi are plainly "
2236 "<quote>derivative works.</quote> There is no general practice by doujinshi "
2237 "artists of securing the permission of the manga creators. Instead, the "
2238 "practice is simply to take and modify the creations of others, as Walt "
2239 "Disney did with <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. Under both "
2240 "Japanese and American law, that <quote>taking</quote> without the permission "
2241 "of the original copyright owner is illegal. It is an infringement of the "
2242 "original copyright to make a copy or a derivative work without the original "
2243 "copyright owner's permission."
2246 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2247 #: freeculture.xml:1574
2248 msgid "Winick, Judd"
2252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2253 #: freeculture.xml:1586
2255 "For an excellent history, see Scott McCloud, <citetitle>Reinventing "
2256 "Comics</citetitle> (New York: Perennial, 2000)."
2259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2260 #: freeculture.xml:1576
2262 "Yet this illegal market exists and indeed flourishes in Japan, and in the "
2263 "view of many, it is precisely because it exists that Japanese manga "
2264 "flourish. As American graphic novelist Judd Winick said to me, <quote>The "
2265 "early days of comics in America are very much like what's going on in Japan "
2266 "now. … American comics were born out of copying each other. … "
2267 "That's how [the artists] learn to draw — by going into comic books and "
2268 "not tracing them, but looking at them and copying them</quote> and building "
2269 "from them.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2273 #: freeculture.xml:1591
2274 msgid "Superman comics"
2277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2278 #: freeculture.xml:1593
2280 "American comics now are quite different, Winick explains, in part because of "
2281 "the legal difficulty of adapting comics the way doujinshi are "
2282 "allowed. Speaking of Superman, Winick told me, <quote>there are these rules "
2283 "and you have to stick to them.</quote> There are things Superman "
2284 "<quote>cannot</quote> do. <quote>As a creator, it's frustrating having to "
2285 "stick to some parameters which are fifty years old.</quote>"
2288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2289 #: freeculture.xml:1603
2290 msgid "Mehra, Salil"
2294 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2295 #: freeculture.xml:1613
2297 "See Salil K. Mehra, <quote>Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain "
2298 "Why All the Comics My Kid Watches Are Japanese Imports?</quote> "
2299 "<citetitle>Rutgers Law Review</citetitle> 55 (2002): 155, "
2300 "182. <quote>[T]here might be a collective economic rationality that would "
2301 "lead manga and anime artists to forgo bringing legal actions for "
2302 "infringement. One hypothesis is that all manga artists may be better off "
2303 "collectively if they set aside their individual self-interest and decide not "
2304 "to press their legal rights. This is essentially a prisoner's dilemma "
2308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2309 #: freeculture.xml:1605
2311 "The norm in Japan mitigates this legal difficulty. Some say it is precisely "
2312 "the benefit accruing to the Japanese manga market that explains the "
2313 "mitigation. Temple University law professor Salil Mehra, for example, "
2314 "hypothesizes that the manga market accepts these technical violations "
2315 "because they spur the manga market to be more wealthy and "
2316 "productive. Everyone would be worse off if doujinshi were banned, so the law "
2317 "does not ban doujinshi.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2321 #: freeculture.xml:1627
2323 "The problem with this story, however, as Mehra plainly acknowledges, is that "
2324 "the mechanism producing this laissez faire response is not clear. It may "
2325 "well be that the market as a whole is better off if doujinshi are permitted "
2326 "rather than banned, but that doesn't explain why individual copyright owners "
2327 "don't sue nonetheless. If the law has no general exception for doujinshi, "
2328 "and indeed in some cases individual manga artists have sued doujinshi "
2329 "artists, why is there not a more general pattern of blocking this "
2330 "<quote>free taking</quote> by the doujinshi culture?"
2333 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2334 #: freeculture.xml:1640
2336 "I spent four wonderful months in Japan, and I asked this question as often "
2337 "as I could. Perhaps the best account in the end was offered by a friend from "
2338 "a major Japanese law firm. <quote>We don't have enough lawyers,</quote> he "
2339 "told me one afternoon. There <quote>just aren't enough resources to "
2340 "prosecute cases like this.</quote>"
2344 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2345 #: freeculture.xml:1647
2347 "This is a theme to which we will return: that regulation by law is a "
2348 "function of both the words on the books and the costs of making those words "
2349 "have effect. For now, focus on the obvious question that is begged: Would "
2350 "Japan be better off with more lawyers? Would manga be richer if doujinshi "
2351 "artists were regularly prosecuted? Would the Japanese gain something "
2352 "important if they could end this practice of uncompensated sharing? Does "
2353 "piracy here hurt the victims of the piracy, or does it help them? Would "
2354 "lawyers fighting this piracy help their clients or hurt them?"
2357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2358 #: freeculture.xml:1660
2359 msgid "<emphasis role='strong'>Let's pause</emphasis> for a moment."
2362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2363 #: freeculture.xml:1663
2365 "If you're like I was a decade ago, or like most people are when they first "
2366 "start thinking about these issues, then just about now you should be puzzled "
2367 "about something you hadn't thought through before."
2370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2371 #: freeculture.xml:1673 freeculture.xml:3030 freeculture.xml:4766 freeculture.xml:5025 freeculture.xml:7912 freeculture.xml:9041
2372 msgid "Vaidhyanathan, Siva"
2375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2376 #: freeculture.xml:1673
2378 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The term <citetitle>intellectual "
2379 "property</citetitle> is of relatively recent origin. See Siva Vaidhyanathan, "
2380 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 11 (New York: New York "
2381 "University Press, 2001). See also Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>The Future of "
2382 "Ideas</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2001), 293 n. 26. The term "
2383 "accurately describes a set of <quote>property</quote> rights — "
2384 "copyright, patents, trademark, and trade-secret — but the nature of "
2385 "those rights is very different."
2388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2389 #: freeculture.xml:1668
2391 "We live in a world that celebrates <quote>property.</quote> I am one of "
2392 "those celebrants. I believe in the value of property in general, and I also "
2393 "believe in the value of that weird form of property that lawyers call "
2394 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2395 "id=\"0\"/> A large, diverse society cannot survive without property; a "
2396 "large, diverse, and modern society cannot flourish without intellectual "
2400 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2401 #: freeculture.xml:1690
2403 "But it takes just a second's reflection to realize that there is plenty of "
2404 "value out there that <quote>property</quote> doesn't capture. I don't mean "
2405 "<quote>money can't buy you love,</quote> but rather, value that is plainly "
2406 "part of a process of production, including commercial as well as "
2407 "noncommercial production. If Disney animators had stolen a set of pencils "
2408 "to draw Steamboat Willie, we'd have no hesitation in condemning that taking "
2409 "as wrong— even though trivial, even if unnoticed. Yet there was "
2410 "nothing wrong, at least under the law of the day, with Disney's taking from "
2411 "Buster Keaton or from the Brothers Grimm. There was nothing wrong with the "
2412 "taking from Keaton because Disney's use would have been considered "
2413 "<quote>fair.</quote> There was nothing wrong with the taking from the Grimms "
2414 "because the Grimms' work was in the public domain."
2417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2418 #: freeculture.xml:1704
2419 msgid "derivative works based on"
2423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2424 #: freeculture.xml:1706
2426 "Thus, even though the things that Disney took—or more generally, the "
2427 "things taken by anyone exercising Walt Disney creativity—are valuable, "
2428 "our tradition does not treat those takings as wrong. Some things remain free "
2429 "for the taking within a free culture, and that freedom is good."
2432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2433 #: freeculture.xml:1721
2435 "The same with the doujinshi culture. If a doujinshi artist broke into a "
2436 "publisher's office and ran off with a thousand copies of his latest "
2437 "work—or even one copy—without paying, we'd have no hesitation in "
2438 "saying the artist was wrong. In addition to having trespassed, he would have "
2439 "stolen something of value. The law bans that stealing in whatever form, "
2440 "whether large or small."
2443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2444 #: freeculture.xml:1730
2446 "Yet there is an obvious reluctance, even among Japanese lawyers, to say that "
2447 "the copycat comic artists are <quote>stealing.</quote> This form of Walt "
2448 "Disney creativity is seen as fair and right, even if lawyers in particular "
2449 "find it hard to say why."
2452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2453 #: freeculture.xml:1741 freeculture.xml:4706 freeculture.xml:4838 freeculture.xml:4875 freeculture.xml:5205
2454 msgid "Shakespeare, William"
2457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2458 #: freeculture.xml:1743
2460 "It's the same with a thousand examples that appear everywhere once you begin "
2461 "to look. Scientists build upon the work of other scientists without asking "
2462 "or paying for the privilege. (<quote>Excuse me, Professor Einstein, but may "
2463 "I have permission to use your theory of relativity to show that you were "
2464 "wrong about quantum physics?</quote>) Acting companies perform adaptations "
2465 "of the works of Shakespeare without securing permission from anyone. (Does "
2466 "<emphasis>anyone</emphasis> believe Shakespeare would be better spread "
2467 "within our culture if there were a central Shakespeare rights clearinghouse "
2468 "that all productions of Shakespeare must appeal to first?) And Hollywood "
2469 "goes through cycles with a certain kind of movie: five asteroid films in the "
2470 "late 1990s; two volcano disaster films in 1997."
2474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2475 #: freeculture.xml:1757
2477 "Creators here and everywhere are always and at all times building upon the "
2478 "creativity that went before and that surrounds them now. That building is "
2479 "always and everywhere at least partially done without permission and without "
2480 "compensating the original creator. No society, free or controlled, has ever "
2481 "demanded that every use be paid for or that permission for Walt Disney "
2482 "creativity must always be sought. Instead, every society has left a certain "
2483 "bit of its culture free for the taking—free societies more fully than "
2484 "unfree, perhaps, but all societies to some degree."
2487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2488 #: freeculture.xml:1769
2490 "The hard question is therefore not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> a culture is "
2491 "free. All cultures are free to some degree. The hard question instead is "
2492 "<quote><emphasis>How</emphasis> free is this culture?</quote> How much, and "
2493 "how broadly, is the culture free for others to take and build upon? Is that "
2494 "freedom limited to party members? To members of the royal family? To the top "
2495 "ten corporations on the New York Stock Exchange? Or is that freedom spread "
2496 "broadly? To artists generally, whether affiliated with the Met or not? To "
2497 "musicians generally, whether white or not? To filmmakers generally, whether "
2498 "affiliated with a studio or not?"
2501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2502 #: freeculture.xml:1781
2504 "Free cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build "
2505 "upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free "
2506 "culture. It is becoming much less so."
2509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
2510 #: freeculture.xml:1790
2511 msgid "Chapter Two: <quote>Mere Copyists</quote>"
2514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2515 #: freeculture.xml:1791
2516 msgid "Daguerre, Louis"
2519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2520 #: freeculture.xml:1792 freeculture.xml:1947 freeculture.xml:2002 freeculture.xml:6794
2521 msgid "camera technology"
2524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2525 #: freeculture.xml:1793
2529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2530 #: freeculture.xml:1795
2532 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1839</emphasis>, Louis Daguerre invented the "
2533 "first practical technology for producing what we would call "
2534 "<quote>photographs.</quote> Appropriately enough, they were called "
2535 "<quote>daguerreotypes.</quote> The process was complicated and expensive, "
2536 "and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and "
2537 "wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that "
2538 "helped regulate the industry, as do all such associations, by keeping "
2539 "competition down so as to keep prices up.)"
2542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2543 #: freeculture.xml:1804
2544 msgid "Talbot, William"
2547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2548 #: freeculture.xml:1806
2550 "Yet despite high prices, the demand for daguerreotypes was strong. This "
2551 "pushed inventors to find simpler and cheaper ways to make <quote>automatic "
2552 "pictures.</quote> William Talbot soon discovered a process for making "
2553 "<quote>negatives.</quote> But because the negatives were glass, and had to "
2554 "be kept wet, the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the "
2555 "1870s, dry plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of "
2556 "a picture from its developing. These were still plates of glass, and thus it "
2557 "was still not a process within reach of most amateurs."
2560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2561 #: freeculture.xml:1816
2562 msgid "Eastman, George"
2566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2567 #: freeculture.xml:1818
2569 "The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen "
2570 "until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an "
2571 "amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made "
2572 "with plates. In a flash of insight (so to speak), Eastman saw that if the "
2573 "film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single "
2574 "spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of "
2575 "photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he "
2576 "could dramatically broaden the population of photographers."
2579 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2580 #: freeculture.xml:1829 freeculture.xml:1984 freeculture.xml:6796
2581 msgid "Kodak cameras"
2584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2585 #: freeculture.xml:1830
2586 msgid "Kodak Primer, The (Eastman)"
2590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2591 #: freeculture.xml:1837
2593 "Reese V. Jenkins, <citetitle>Images and Enterprise</citetitle> (Baltimore: "
2594 "Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 112."
2597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2598 #: freeculture.xml:1832
2600 "Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of "
2601 "it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis "
2602 "of its simplicity. <quote>You press the button and we do the "
2603 "rest.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As he described in "
2604 "<citetitle>The Kodak Primer</citetitle>:"
2607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2608 #: freeculture.xml:1853 freeculture.xml:1879
2612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
2613 #: freeculture.xml:1853
2615 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Brian Coe, <citetitle>The Birth "
2616 "of Photography</citetitle> (New York: Taplinger Publishing, 1977), 53."
2619 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2620 #: freeculture.xml:1842
2622 "The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any "
2623 "person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an "
2624 "expert can do. … We furnish anybody, man, woman or child, who has "
2625 "sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button, with an "
2626 "instrument which altogether removes from the practice of photography the "
2627 "necessity for exceptional facilities or, in fact, any special knowledge of "
2628 "the art. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom "
2629 "and without chemicals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2634 #: freeculture.xml:1872
2635 msgid "Jenkins, 177."
2639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2640 #: freeculture.xml:1876
2641 msgid "Based on a chart in Jenkins, p. 178."
2644 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2645 #: freeculture.xml:1861
2647 "For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came preloaded with film, "
2648 "and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, "
2649 "where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera "
2650 "and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus "
2651 "became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography. Eastman's "
2652 "camera first went on sale in 1888; one year later, Kodak was printing more "
2653 "than six thousand negatives a day. From 1888 through 1909, while industrial "
2654 "production was rising by 4.7 percent, photographic equipment and material "
2655 "sales increased by 11 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
2656 "Eastman Kodak's sales during the same period experienced an average annual "
2657 "increase of over 17 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2662 #: freeculture.xml:1894
2666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2667 #: freeculture.xml:1883
2669 "The real significance of Eastman's invention, however, was not economic. It "
2670 "was social. Professional photography gave individuals a glimpse of places "
2671 "they would never otherwise see. Amateur photography gave them the ability to "
2672 "record their own lives in a way they had never been able to do before. As "
2673 "author Brian Coe notes, <quote>For the first time the snapshot album "
2674 "provided the man on the street with a permanent record of his family and its "
2675 "activities. … For the first time in history there exists an authentic "
2676 "visual record of the appearance and activities of the common man made "
2677 "without [literary] interpretation or bias.</quote><placeholder "
2678 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2682 #: freeculture.xml:1897 freeculture.xml:2003 freeculture.xml:2381 freeculture.xml:2399
2686 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2687 #: freeculture.xml:1897 freeculture.xml:2003 freeculture.xml:2381
2688 msgid "in technologies of expression"
2691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2692 #: freeculture.xml:1898 freeculture.xml:2004 freeculture.xml:2044 freeculture.xml:2383
2693 msgid "expression, technologies of"
2696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2697 #: freeculture.xml:1898 freeculture.xml:2004 freeculture.xml:2383
2701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2702 #: freeculture.xml:1900
2704 "In this way, the Kodak camera and film were technologies of expression. The "
2705 "pencil or paintbrush was also a technology of expression, of course. But it "
2706 "took years of training before they could be deployed by amateurs in any "
2707 "useful or effective way. With the Kodak, expression was possible much sooner "
2708 "and more simply. The barrier to expression was lowered. Snobs would sneer at "
2709 "its <quote>quality</quote>; professionals would discount it as "
2710 "irrelevant. But watch a child study how best to frame a picture and you get "
2711 "a sense of the experience of creativity that the Kodak enabled. Democratic "
2712 "tools gave ordinary people a way to express themselves more easily than any "
2713 "tools could have before."
2716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2717 #: freeculture.xml:1913
2721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2722 #: freeculture.xml:1913
2723 msgid "photography exempted from"
2727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2728 #: freeculture.xml:1924
2730 "For illustrative cases, see, for example, <citetitle>Pavesich</citetitle> "
2731 "v. <citetitle>N.E. Life Ins. Co</citetitle>., 50 S.E. 68 (Ga. 1905); "
2732 "<citetitle>Foster-Milburn Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Chinn</citetitle>, "
2733 "123090 S.W. 364, 366 (Ky. 1909); <citetitle>Corliss</citetitle> "
2734 "v. <citetitle>Walker</citetitle>, 64 F. 280 (Mass. Dist. Ct. 1894)."
2737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2738 #: freeculture.xml:1915
2740 "What was required for this technology to flourish? Obviously, Eastman's "
2741 "genius was an important part. But also important was the legal environment "
2742 "within which Eastman's invention grew. For early in the history of "
2743 "photography, there was a series of judicial decisions that could well have "
2744 "changed the course of photography substantially. Courts were asked whether "
2745 "the photographer, amateur or professional, required permission before he "
2746 "could capture and print whatever image he wanted. Their answer was "
2747 "no.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2751 #: freeculture.xml:1933 freeculture.xml:9740
2752 msgid "images, ownership of"
2756 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2757 #: freeculture.xml:1935
2759 "The arguments in favor of requiring permission will sound surprisingly "
2760 "familiar. The photographer was <quote>taking</quote> something from the "
2761 "person or building whose photograph he shot—pirating something of "
2762 "value. Some even thought he was taking the target's soul. Just as Disney was "
2763 "not free to take the pencils that his animators used to draw Mickey, so, "
2764 "too, should these photographers not be free to take images that they thought "
2768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2769 #: freeculture.xml:1959
2770 msgid "Warren, Samuel D."
2773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2774 #: freeculture.xml:1956
2776 "Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> "
2777 "<citetitle>Harvard Law Review</citetitle> 4 (1890): 193. <placeholder "
2778 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2781 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2782 #: freeculture.xml:1949
2784 "On the other side was an argument that should be familiar, as well. Sure, "
2785 "there may be something of value being used. But citizens should have the "
2786 "right to capture at least those images that stand in public view. (Louis "
2787 "Brandeis, who would become a Supreme Court Justice, thought the rule should "
2788 "be different for images from private spaces.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2789 "id=\"0\"/>) It may be that this means that the photographer gets something "
2790 "for nothing. Just as Disney could take inspiration from <citetitle>Steamboat "
2791 "Bill, Jr</citetitle>. or the Brothers Grimm, the photographer should be free "
2792 "to capture an image without compensating the source."
2796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2797 #: freeculture.xml:1977
2799 "See Melville B. Nimmer, <quote>The Right of Publicity,</quote> "
2800 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 19 (1954): 203; William "
2801 "L. Prosser, <quote>Privacy,</quote> <citetitle>California Law "
2802 "Review</citetitle> 48 (1960) 398–407; <citetitle>White</citetitle> "
2803 "v. <citetitle>Samsung Electronics America, Inc</citetitle>., 971 F. 2d 1395 "
2804 "(9th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 951 (1993)."
2807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2808 #: freeculture.xml:1967
2810 "Fortunately for Mr. Eastman, and for photography in general, these early "
2811 "decisions went in favor of the pirates. In general, no permission would be "
2812 "required before an image could be captured and shared with others. Instead, "
2813 "permission was presumed. Freedom was the default. (The law would eventually "
2814 "craft an exception for famous people: commercial photographers who snap "
2815 "pictures of famous people for commercial purposes have more restrictions "
2816 "than the rest of us. But in the ordinary case, the image can be captured "
2817 "without clearing the rights to do the capturing.<placeholder "
2818 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>)"
2821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2822 #: freeculture.xml:1985 freeculture.xml:3813 freeculture.xml:3835 freeculture.xml:3836 freeculture.xml:5785 freeculture.xml:9981
2826 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2827 #: freeculture.xml:1987
2829 "We can only speculate about how photography would have developed had the law "
2830 "gone the other way. If the presumption had been against the photographer, "
2831 "then the photographer would have had to demonstrate permission. Perhaps "
2832 "Eastman Kodak would have had to demonstrate permission, too, before it "
2833 "developed the film upon which images were captured. After all, if permission "
2834 "were not granted, then Eastman Kodak would be benefiting from the "
2835 "<quote>theft</quote> committed by the photographer. Just as Napster "
2836 "benefited from the copyright infringements committed by Napster users, Kodak "
2837 "would be benefiting from the <quote>image-right</quote> infringement of its "
2838 "photographers. We could imagine the law then requiring that some form of "
2839 "permission be demonstrated before a company developed pictures. We could "
2840 "imagine a system developing to demonstrate that permission."
2844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2845 #: freeculture.xml:2008
2847 "But though we could imagine this system of permission, it would be very hard "
2848 "to see how photography could have flourished as it did if the requirement "
2849 "for permission had been built into the rules that govern it. Photography "
2850 "would have existed. It would have grown in importance over "
2851 "time. Professionals would have continued to use the technology as they "
2852 "did—since professionals could have more easily borne the burdens of "
2853 "the permission system. But the spread of photography to ordinary people "
2854 "would not have occurred. Nothing like that growth would have been "
2855 "realized. And certainly, nothing like that growth in a democratic technology "
2856 "of expression would have been realized."
2859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2860 #: freeculture.xml:2024 freeculture.xml:6795
2861 msgid "digital cameras"
2864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2865 #: freeculture.xml:2025
2869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2870 #: freeculture.xml:2027
2872 "<emphasis role='strong'>If you drive</emphasis> through San Francisco's "
2873 "Presidio, you might see two gaudy yellow school buses painted over with "
2874 "colorful and striking images, and the logo <quote>Just Think!</quote> in "
2875 "place of the name of a school. But there's little that's <quote>just</quote> "
2876 "cerebral in the projects that these busses enable. These buses are filled "
2877 "with technologies that teach kids to tinker with film. Not the film of "
2878 "Eastman. Not even the film of your VCR. Rather the <quote>film</quote> of "
2879 "digital cameras. Just Think! is a project that enables kids to make films, "
2880 "as a way to understand and critique the filmed culture that they find all "
2881 "around them. Each year, these busses travel to more than thirty schools and "
2882 "enable three hundred to five hundred children to learn something about media "
2883 "by doing something with media. By doing, they think. By tinkering, they "
2887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2888 #: freeculture.xml:2042 freeculture.xml:2840
2892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2893 #: freeculture.xml:2042
2894 msgid "in media literacy"
2897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2898 #: freeculture.xml:2043
2899 msgid "media literacy"
2902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
2903 #: freeculture.xml:2044
2904 msgid "media literacy and"
2908 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2909 #: freeculture.xml:2052
2911 "H. Edward Goldberg, <quote>Essential Presentation Tools: Hardware and "
2912 "Software You Need to Create Digital Multimedia Presentations,</quote> "
2913 "cadalyst, February 2002, available at <ulink "
2914 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #7</ulink>."
2917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2918 #: freeculture.xml:2046
2920 "These buses are not cheap, but the technology they carry is increasingly "
2921 "so. The cost of a high-quality digital video system has fallen "
2922 "dramatically. As one analyst puts it, <quote>Five years ago, a good "
2923 "real-time digital video editing system cost $25,000. Today you can get "
2924 "professional quality for $595.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2925 "id=\"0\"/> These buses are filled with technology that would have cost "
2926 "hundreds of thousands just ten years ago. And it is now feasible to imagine "
2927 "not just buses like this, but classrooms across the country where kids are "
2928 "learning more and more of something teachers call <quote>media "
2932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2933 #: freeculture.xml:2062
2934 msgid "Yanofsky, Dave"
2938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2939 #: freeculture.xml:2065
2941 "<quote>Media literacy,</quote> as Dave Yanofsky, the executive director of "
2942 "Just Think!, puts it, <quote>is the ability … to understand, analyze, "
2943 "and deconstruct media images. Its aim is to make [kids] literate about the "
2944 "way media works, the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and the "
2945 "way people access it.</quote>"
2948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2949 #: freeculture.xml:2073
2951 "This may seem like an odd way to think about <quote>literacy.</quote> For "
2952 "most people, literacy is about reading and writing. Faulkner and Hemingway "
2953 "and noticing split infinitives are the things that <quote>literate</quote> "
2954 "people know about."
2957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2958 #: freeculture.xml:2078 freeculture.xml:2630 freeculture.xml:6791 freeculture.xml:7762 freeculture.xml:8863 freeculture.xml:8917
2962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2963 #: freeculture.xml:2079 freeculture.xml:6793 freeculture.xml:8864
2967 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
2968 #: freeculture.xml:2080 freeculture.xml:6792 freeculture.xml:8865 freeculture.xml:8899 freeculture.xml:15320
2972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
2973 #: freeculture.xml:2080 freeculture.xml:6792 freeculture.xml:8865
2974 msgid "advertising on"
2978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2979 #: freeculture.xml:2086
2981 "Judith Van Evra, <citetitle>Television and Child Development</citetitle> "
2982 "(Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990); <quote>Findings on "
2983 "Family and TV Study,</quote> <citetitle>Denver Post</citetitle>, 25 May "
2987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2988 #: freeculture.xml:2082
2990 "Maybe. But in a world where children see on average 390 hours of television "
2991 "commercials per year, or between 20,000 and 45,000 commercials "
2992 "generally,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it is increasingly "
2993 "important to understand the <quote>grammar</quote> of media. For just as "
2994 "there is a grammar for the written word, so, too, is there one for "
2995 "media. And just as kids learn how to write by writing lots of terrible "
2996 "prose, kids learn how to write media by constructing lots of (at least at "
2997 "first) terrible media."
3000 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3001 #: freeculture.xml:2097
3003 "A growing field of academics and activists sees this form of literacy as "
3004 "crucial to the next generation of culture. For though anyone who has written "
3005 "understands how difficult writing is—how difficult it is to sequence "
3006 "the story, to keep a reader's attention, to craft language to be "
3007 "understandable—few of us have any real sense of how difficult media "
3008 "is. Or more fundamentally, few of us have a sense of how media works, how it "
3009 "holds an audience or leads it through a story, how it triggers emotion or "
3013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3014 #: freeculture.xml:2108
3016 "It took filmmaking a generation before it could do these things well. But "
3017 "even then, the knowledge was in the filming, not in writing about the "
3018 "film. The skill came from experiencing the making of a film, not from "
3019 "reading a book about it. One learns to write by writing and then reflecting "
3020 "upon what one has written. One learns to write with images by making them "
3021 "and then reflecting upon what one has created."
3024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3025 #: freeculture.xml:2115 freeculture.xml:2131 freeculture.xml:2237
3026 msgid "Daley, Elizabeth"
3029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3030 #: freeculture.xml:2116
3031 msgid "Crichton, Michael"
3034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3035 #: freeculture.xml:2130 freeculture.xml:2190 freeculture.xml:2197 freeculture.xml:2270 freeculture.xml:2693
3036 msgid "Barish, Stephanie"
3039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3040 #: freeculture.xml:2128
3042 "Interview with Elizabeth Daley and Stephanie Barish, 13 December 2002. "
3043 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3048 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3049 #: freeculture.xml:2142
3051 "See Scott Steinberg, <quote>Crichton Gets Medieval on PCs,</quote> E!online, "
3052 "4 November 2000, available at <ulink "
3053 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #8</ulink>; "
3054 "<quote>Timeline,</quote> 22 November 2000, available at <ulink "
3055 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #9</ulink>."
3058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3059 #: freeculture.xml:2118
3061 "This grammar has changed as media has changed. When it was just film, as "
3062 "Elizabeth Daley, executive director of the University of Southern "
3063 "California's Annenberg Center for Communication and dean of the USC School "
3064 "of Cinema-Television, explained to me, the grammar was about <quote>the "
3065 "placement of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and "
3066 "texture.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But as computers "
3067 "open up an interactive space where a story is <quote>played</quote> as well "
3068 "as experienced, that grammar changes. The simple control of narrative is "
3069 "lost, and so other techniques are necessary. Author Michael Crichton had "
3070 "mastered the narrative of science fiction. But when he tried to design a "
3071 "computer game based on one of his works, it was a new craft he had to "
3072 "learn. How to lead people through a game without their feeling they have "
3073 "been led was not obvious, even to a wildly successful author.<placeholder "
3074 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3078 #: freeculture.xml:2149
3079 msgid "computer games"
3082 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3083 #: freeculture.xml:2151
3085 "This skill is precisely the craft a filmmaker learns. As Daley describes, "
3086 "<quote>people are very surprised about how they are led through a film. [I]t "
3087 "is perfectly constructed to keep you from seeing it, so you have no idea. If "
3088 "a filmmaker succeeds you do not know how you were led.</quote> If you know "
3089 "you were led through a film, the film has failed."
3092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3093 #: freeculture.xml:2158
3095 "Yet the push for an expanded literacy—one that goes beyond text to "
3096 "include audio and visual elements—is not about making better film "
3097 "directors. The aim is not to improve the profession of filmmaking at all. "
3098 "Instead, as Daley explained,"
3101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3102 #: freeculture.xml:2165
3104 "From my perspective, probably the most important digital divide is not "
3105 "access to a box. It's the ability to be empowered with the language that "
3106 "that box works in. Otherwise only a very few people can write with this "
3107 "language, and all the rest of us are reduced to being read-only."
3110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3111 #: freeculture.xml:2173
3113 "<quote>Read-only.</quote> Passive recipients of culture produced elsewhere. "
3114 "Couch potatoes. Consumers. This is the world of media from the twentieth "
3118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3119 #: freeculture.xml:2189
3120 msgid "Interview with Daley and Barish. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3124 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3125 #: freeculture.xml:2194 freeculture.xml:4080 freeculture.xml:5253 freeculture.xml:8752
3129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3130 #: freeculture.xml:2178
3132 "The twenty-first century could be different. This is the crucial point: It "
3133 "could be both read and write. Or at least reading and better understanding "
3134 "the craft of writing. Or best, reading and understanding the tools that "
3135 "enable the writing to lead or mislead. The aim of any literacy, and this "
3136 "literacy in particular, is to <quote>empower people to choose the "
3137 "appropriate language for what they need to create or "
3138 "express.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It is to enable "
3139 "students <quote>to communicate in the language of the twenty-first "
3140 "century.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3144 #: freeculture.xml:2199
3146 "As with any language, this language comes more easily to some than to "
3147 "others. It doesn't necessarily come more easily to those who excel in "
3148 "written language. Daley and Stephanie Barish, director of the Institute for "
3149 "Multimedia Literacy at the Annenberg Center, describe one particularly "
3150 "poignant example of a project they ran in a high school. The high school "
3151 "was a very poor inner-city Los Angeles school. In all the traditional "
3152 "measures of success, this school was a failure. But Daley and Barish ran a "
3153 "program that gave kids an opportunity to use film to express meaning about "
3154 "something the students know something about—gun violence."
3157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3158 #: freeculture.xml:2212
3160 "The class was held on Friday afternoons, and it created a relatively new "
3161 "problem for the school. While the challenge in most classes was getting the "
3162 "kids to come, the challenge in this class was keeping them away. The "
3163 "<quote>kids were showing up at 6 A.M. and leaving at 5 at night,</quote> "
3164 "said Barish. They were working harder than in any other class to do what "
3165 "education should be about—learning how to express themselves."
3168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3169 #: freeculture.xml:2220
3171 "Using whatever <quote>free web stuff they could find,</quote> and relatively "
3172 "simple tools to enable the kids to mix <quote>image, sound, and "
3173 "text,</quote> Barish said this class produced a series of projects that "
3174 "showed something about gun violence that few would otherwise "
3175 "understand. This was an issue close to the lives of these students. The "
3176 "project <quote>gave them a tool and empowered them to be able to both "
3177 "understand it and talk about it,</quote> Barish explained. That tool "
3178 "succeeded in creating expression—far more successfully and powerfully "
3179 "than could have been created using only text. <quote>If you had said to "
3180 "these students, `you have to do it in text,' they would've just thrown their "
3181 "hands up and gone and done something else,</quote> Barish described, in "
3182 "part, no doubt, because expressing themselves in text is not something these "
3183 "students can do well. Yet neither is text a form in which "
3184 "<emphasis>these</emphasis> ideas can be expressed well. The power of this "
3185 "message depended upon its connection to this form of expression."
3189 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3190 #: freeculture.xml:2241
3192 "<quote>But isn't education about teaching kids to write?</quote> I asked. In "
3193 "part, of course, it is. But why are we teaching kids to write? Education, "
3194 "Daley explained, is about giving students a way of <quote>constructing "
3195 "meaning.</quote> To say that that means just writing is like saying teaching "
3196 "writing is only about teaching kids how to spell. Text is one part—and "
3197 "increasingly, not the most powerful part—of constructing meaning. As "
3198 "Daley explained in the most moving part of our interview,"
3201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3202 #: freeculture.xml:2252
3204 "What you want is to give these students ways of constructing meaning. If all "
3205 "you give them is text, they're not going to do it. Because they can't. You "
3206 "know, you've got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, "
3207 "he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he "
3208 "can do all sorts of other things. He just can't read your text. So Johnny "
3209 "comes to school and you say, <quote>Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you "
3210 "can do matters.</quote> Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss "
3211 "you or he [can] dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he's going to "
3212 "dismiss you. [But i]nstead, if you say, <quote>Well, with all these things "
3213 "that you can do, let's talk about this issue. Play for me music that you "
3214 "think reflects that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw "
3215 "for me something that reflects that.</quote> Not by giving a kid a video "
3216 "camera and … saying, <quote>Let's go have fun with the video camera "
3217 "and make a little movie.</quote> But instead, really help you take these "
3218 "elements that you understand, that are your language, and construct meaning "
3219 "about the topic.…"
3222 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3223 #: freeculture.xml:2272
3225 "That empowers enormously. And then what happens, of course, is eventually, "
3226 "as it has happened in all these classes, they bump up against the fact, "
3227 "<quote>I need to explain this and I really need to write something.</quote> "
3228 "And as one of the teachers told Stephanie, they would rewrite a paragraph 5, "
3229 "6, 7, 8 times, till they got it right."
3233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3234 #: freeculture.xml:2279
3236 "Because they needed to. There was a reason for doing it. They needed to say "
3237 "something, as opposed to just jumping through your hoops. They actually "
3238 "needed to use a language that they didn't speak very well. But they had come "
3239 "to understand that they had a lot of power with this language."
3242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3243 #: freeculture.xml:2293 freeculture.xml:2352 freeculture.xml:6084
3244 msgid "September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks of"
3247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3248 #: freeculture.xml:2294
3249 msgid "World Trade Center"
3252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3253 #: freeculture.xml:2295 freeculture.xml:6004
3254 msgid "news coverage"
3257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3258 #: freeculture.xml:2297
3260 "<emphasis role='strong'>When two planes</emphasis> crashed into the World "
3261 "Trade Center, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania "
3262 "field, all media around the world shifted to this news. Every moment of just "
3263 "about every day for that week, and for weeks after, television in "
3264 "particular, and media generally, retold the story of the events we had just "
3265 "witnessed. The telling was a retelling, because we had seen the events that "
3266 "were described. The genius of this awful act of terrorism was that the "
3267 "delayed second attack was perfectly timed to assure that the whole world "
3268 "would be watching."
3271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3272 #: freeculture.xml:2309
3274 "These retellings had an increasingly familiar feel. There was music scored "
3275 "for the intermissions, and fancy graphics that flashed across the "
3276 "screen. There was a formula to interviews. There was <quote>balance,</quote> "
3277 "and seriousness. This was news choreographed in the way we have increasingly "
3278 "come to expect it, <quote>news as entertainment,</quote> even if the "
3279 "entertainment is tragedy."
3282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3283 #: freeculture.xml:2316 freeculture.xml:8691 freeculture.xml:8911
3287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3288 #: freeculture.xml:2317
3292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3293 #: freeculture.xml:2319
3295 "But in addition to this produced news about the <quote>tragedy of September "
3296 "11,</quote> those of us tied to the Internet came to see a very different "
3297 "production as well. The Internet was filled with accounts of the same "
3298 "events. Yet these Internet accounts had a very different flavor. Some people "
3299 "constructed photo pages that captured images from around the world and "
3300 "presented them as slide shows with text. Some offered open letters. There "
3301 "were sound recordings. There was anger and frustration. There were attempts "
3302 "to provide context. There was, in short, an extraordinary worldwide barn "
3303 "raising, in the sense Mike Godwin uses the term in his book <citetitle>Cyber "
3304 "Rights</citetitle>, around a news event that had captured the attention of "
3305 "the world. There was ABC and CBS, but there was also the Internet."
3309 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3310 #: freeculture.xml:2334
3312 "I don't mean simply to praise the Internet—though I do think the "
3313 "people who supported this form of speech should be praised. I mean instead "
3314 "to point to a significance in this form of speech. For like a Kodak, the "
3315 "Internet enables people to capture images. And like in a movie by a student "
3316 "on the <quote>Just Think!</quote> bus, the visual images could be mixed with "
3320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3321 #: freeculture.xml:2344
3323 "But unlike any technology for simply capturing images, the Internet allows "
3324 "these creations to be shared with an extraordinary number of people, "
3325 "practically instantaneously. This is something new in our "
3326 "tradition—not just that culture can be captured mechanically, and "
3327 "obviously not just that events are commented upon critically, but that this "
3328 "mix of captured images, sound, and commentary can be widely spread "
3329 "practically instantaneously."
3332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3333 #: freeculture.xml:2353 freeculture.xml:2448 freeculture.xml:2587
3334 msgid "blogs (Web-logs)"
3337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3338 #: freeculture.xml:2354 freeculture.xml:2450
3342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3343 #: freeculture.xml:2355 freeculture.xml:2451
3344 msgid "Web-logs (blogs)"
3347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3348 #: freeculture.xml:2357
3350 "September 11 was not an aberration. It was a beginning. Around the same "
3351 "time, a form of communication that has grown dramatically was just beginning "
3352 "to come into public consciousness: the Web-log, or blog. The blog is a kind "
3353 "of public diary, and within some cultures, such as in Japan, it functions "
3354 "very much like a diary. In those cultures, it records private facts in a "
3355 "public way—it's a kind of electronic <citetitle>Jerry "
3356 "Springer</citetitle>, available anywhere in the world."
3359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3360 #: freeculture.xml:2365 freeculture.xml:2434
3361 msgid "political discourse"
3364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3365 #: freeculture.xml:2366
3366 msgid "public discourse conducted on"
3369 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3370 #: freeculture.xml:2368
3372 "But in the United States, blogs have taken on a very different character. "
3373 "There are some who use the space simply to talk about their private "
3374 "life. But there are many who use the space to engage in public "
3375 "discourse. Discussing matters of public import, criticizing others who are "
3376 "mistaken in their views, criticizing politicians about the decisions they "
3377 "make, offering solutions to problems we all see: blogs create the sense of a "
3378 "virtual public meeting, but one in which we don't all hope to be there at "
3379 "the same time and in which conversations are not necessarily linked. The "
3380 "best of the blog entries are relatively short; they point directly to words "
3381 "used by others, criticizing with or adding to them. They are arguably the "
3382 "most important form of unchoreographed public discourse that we have."
3385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3386 #: freeculture.xml:2382
3391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3392 #: freeculture.xml:2385
3394 "That's a strong statement. Yet it says as much about our democracy as it "
3395 "does about blogs. This is the part of America that is most difficult for "
3396 "those of us who love America to accept: Our democracy has atrophied. Of "
3397 "course we have elections, and most of the time the courts allow those "
3398 "elections to count. A relatively small number of people vote in those "
3399 "elections. The cycle of these elections has become totally professionalized "
3400 "and routinized. Most of us think this is democracy."
3403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3404 #: freeculture.xml:2398
3405 msgid "Tocqueville, Alexis de"
3408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3409 #: freeculture.xml:2399
3410 msgid "public discourse in"
3413 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3414 #: freeculture.xml:2400
3419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3420 #: freeculture.xml:2417
3422 "See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville, <citetitle>Democracy in "
3423 "America</citetitle>, bk. 1, trans. Henry Reeve (New York: Bantam Books, "
3427 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3428 #: freeculture.xml:2402
3430 "But democracy has never just been about elections. Democracy means rule by "
3431 "the people, but rule means something more than mere elections. In our "
3432 "tradition, it also means control through reasoned discourse. This was the "
3433 "idea that captured the imagination of Alexis de Tocqueville, the "
3434 "nineteenth-century French lawyer who wrote the most important account of "
3435 "early <quote>Democracy in America.</quote> It wasn't popular elections that "
3436 "fascinated him—it was the jury, an institution that gave ordinary "
3437 "people the right to choose life or death for other citizens. And most "
3438 "fascinating for him was that the jury didn't just vote about the outcome "
3439 "they would impose. They deliberated. Members argued about the "
3440 "<quote>right</quote> result; they tried to persuade each other of the "
3441 "<quote>right</quote> result, and in criminal cases at least, they had to "
3442 "agree upon a unanimous result for the process to come to an end.<placeholder "
3443 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3448 #: freeculture.xml:2427
3450 "Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, <quote>Deliberation Day,</quote> "
3451 "<citetitle>Journal of Political Philosophy</citetitle> 10 (2) (2002): 129."
3454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3455 #: freeculture.xml:2423
3457 "Yet even this institution flags in American life today. And in its place, "
3458 "there is no systematic effort to enable citizen deliberation. Some are "
3459 "pushing to create just such an institution.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3460 "id=\"0\"/> And in some towns in New England, something close to deliberation "
3461 "remains. But for most of us for most of the time, there is no time or place "
3462 "for <quote>democratic deliberation</quote> to occur."
3466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3467 #: freeculture.xml:2443
3469 "Cass Sunstein, <citetitle>Republic.com</citetitle> (Princeton: Princeton "
3470 "University Press, 2001), 65–80, 175, 182, 183, 192."
3473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3474 #: freeculture.xml:2436
3476 "More bizarrely, there is generally not even permission for it to occur. We, "
3477 "the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm "
3478 "against talking about politics. It's fine to talk about politics with people "
3479 "you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you "
3480 "disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse "
3481 "becomes more extreme.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We say what "
3482 "our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say."
3485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3486 #: freeculture.xml:2449
3491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3492 #: freeculture.xml:2456
3494 "Enter the blog. The blog's very architecture solves one part of this "
3495 "problem. People post when they want to post, and people read when they want "
3496 "to read. The most difficult time is synchronous time. Technologies that "
3497 "enable asynchronous communication, such as e-mail, increase the opportunity "
3498 "for communication. Blogs allow for public discourse without the public ever "
3499 "needing to gather in a single public place."
3502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3503 #: freeculture.xml:2467
3505 "But beyond architecture, blogs also have solved the problem of "
3506 "norms. There's no norm (yet) in blog space not to talk about politics. "
3507 "Indeed, the space is filled with political speech, on both the right and the "
3508 "left. Some of the most popular sites are conservative or libertarian, but "
3509 "there are many of all political stripes. And even blogs that are not "
3510 "political cover political issues when the occasion merits."
3513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3514 #: freeculture.xml:2474
3515 msgid "Dean, Howard"
3518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3519 #: freeculture.xml:2476
3521 "The significance of these blogs is tiny now, though not so tiny. The name "
3522 "Howard Dean may well have faded from the 2004 presidential race but for "
3523 "blogs. Yet even if the number of readers is small, the reading is having an "
3527 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3528 #: freeculture.xml:2481
3532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3533 #: freeculture.xml:2482
3534 msgid "Thurmond, Strom"
3537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3538 #: freeculture.xml:2483
3539 msgid "blog pressure on"
3542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3543 #: freeculture.xml:2484
3544 msgid "news events on"
3548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3549 #: freeculture.xml:2497
3551 "Noah Shachtman, <quote>With Incessant Postings, a Pundit Stirs the "
3552 "Pot,</quote> New York Times, 16 January 2003, G5."
3555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3556 #: freeculture.xml:2486
3558 "One direct effect is on stories that had a different life cycle in the "
3559 "mainstream media. The Trent Lott affair is an example. When Lott "
3560 "<quote>misspoke</quote> at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond, essentially "
3561 "praising Thurmond's segregationist policies, he calculated correctly that "
3562 "this story would disappear from the mainstream press within forty-eight "
3563 "hours. It did. But he didn't calculate its life cycle in blog space. The "
3564 "bloggers kept researching the story. Over time, more and more instances of "
3565 "the same <quote>misspeaking</quote> emerged. Finally, the story broke back "
3566 "into the mainstream press. In the end, Lott was forced to resign as senate "
3567 "majority leader.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3571 #: freeculture.xml:2501 freeculture.xml:2535
3572 msgid "commercial imperatives of"
3575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3576 #: freeculture.xml:2503
3578 "This different cycle is possible because the same commercial pressures don't "
3579 "exist with blogs as with other ventures. Television and newspapers are "
3580 "commercial entities. They must work to keep attention. If they lose "
3581 "readers, they lose revenue. Like sharks, they must move on."
3584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3585 #: freeculture.xml:2510
3586 msgid "peer-generated rankings on"
3589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3590 #: freeculture.xml:2512
3592 "But bloggers don't have a similar constraint. They can obsess, they can "
3593 "focus, they can get serious. If a particular blogger writes a particularly "
3594 "interesting story, more and more people link to that story. And as the "
3595 "number of links to a particular story increases, it rises in the ranks of "
3596 "stories. People read what is popular; what is popular has been selected by a "
3597 "very democratic process of peer-generated rankings."
3600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3601 #: freeculture.xml:2521
3605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3606 #: freeculture.xml:2522
3611 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3612 #: freeculture.xml:2524
3614 "There's a second way, as well, in which blogs have a different cycle from "
3615 "the mainstream press. As Dave Winer, one of the fathers of this movement and "
3616 "a software author for many decades, told me, another difference is the "
3617 "absence of a financial <quote>conflict of interest.</quote> <quote>I think "
3618 "you have to take the conflict of interest</quote> out of journalism, Winer "
3619 "told me. <quote>An amateur journalist simply doesn't have a conflict of "
3620 "interest, or the conflict of interest is so easily disclosed that you know "
3621 "you can sort of get it out of the way.</quote>"
3624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3625 #: freeculture.xml:2534 freeculture.xml:2584
3629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3630 #: freeculture.xml:2536 freeculture.xml:2585 freeculture.xml:5948
3635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3636 #: freeculture.xml:2545
3637 msgid "Telephone interview with David Winer, 16 April 2003."
3640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3641 #: freeculture.xml:2539
3643 "These conflicts become more important as media becomes more concentrated "
3644 "(more on this below). A concentrated media can hide more from the public "
3645 "than an unconcentrated media can—as CNN admitted it did after the Iraq "
3646 "war because it was afraid of the consequences to its own "
3647 "employees.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It also needs to sustain "
3648 "a more coherent account. (In the middle of the Iraq war, I read a post on "
3649 "the Internet from someone who was at that time listening to a satellite "
3650 "uplink with a reporter in Iraq. The New York headquarters was telling the "
3651 "reporter over and over that her account of the war was too bleak: She needed "
3652 "to offer a more optimistic story. When she told New York that wasn't "
3653 "warranted, they told her that <emphasis>they</emphasis> were writing "
3654 "<quote>the story.</quote>)"
3658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3659 #: freeculture.xml:2565
3661 "John Schwartz, <quote>Loss of the Shuttle: The Internet; A Wealth of "
3662 "Information Online,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 2 "
3663 "February 2003, A28; Staci D. Kramer, <quote>Shuttle Disaster Coverage Mixed, "
3664 "but Strong Overall,</quote> Online Journalism Review, 2 February 2003, "
3665 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #10</ulink>."
3668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3669 #: freeculture.xml:2557
3671 "Blog space gives amateurs a way to enter the "
3672 "debate—<quote>amateur</quote> not in the sense of inexperienced, but "
3673 "in the sense of an Olympic athlete, meaning not paid by anyone to give their "
3674 "reports. It allows for a much broader range of input into a story, as "
3675 "reporting on the Columbia disaster revealed, when hundreds from across the "
3676 "southwest United States turned to the Internet to retell what they had "
3677 "seen.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And it drives readers to read "
3678 "across the range of accounts and <quote>triangulate,</quote> as Winer puts "
3679 "it, the truth. Blogs, Winer says, are <quote>communicating directly with our "
3680 "constituency, and the middle man is out of it</quote>—with all the "
3681 "benefits, and costs, that might entail."
3684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3685 #: freeculture.xml:2586
3686 msgid "Olafson, Steve"
3689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3690 #: freeculture.xml:2584
3692 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3693 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
3694 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> See Michael Falcone, <quote>Does an Editor's "
3695 "Pencil Ruin a Web Log?</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 29 "
3696 "September 2003, C4. (<quote>Not all news organizations have been as "
3697 "accepting of employees who blog. Kevin Sites, a CNN correspondent in Iraq "
3698 "who started a blog about his reporting of the war on March 9, stopped "
3699 "posting 12 days later at his bosses' request. Last year Steve Olafson, a "
3700 "<citetitle>Houston Chronicle</citetitle> reporter, was fired for keeping a "
3701 "personal Web log, published under a pseudonym, that dealt with some of the "
3702 "issues and people he was covering.</quote>)"
3706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3707 #: freeculture.xml:2577
3709 "Winer is optimistic about the future of journalism infected with "
3710 "blogs. <quote>It's going to become an essential skill,</quote> Winer "
3711 "predicts, for public figures and increasingly for private figures as "
3712 "well. It's not clear that <quote>journalism</quote> is happy about "
3713 "this—some journalists have been told to curtail their "
3714 "blogging.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is clear that we "
3715 "are still in transition. <quote>A lot of what we are doing now is warm-up "
3716 "exercises,</quote> Winer told me. There is a lot that must mature before "
3717 "this space has its mature effect. And as the inclusion of content in this "
3718 "space is the least infringing use of the Internet (meaning infringing on "
3719 "copyright), Winer said, <quote>we will be the last thing that gets shut "
3723 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3724 #: freeculture.xml:2608
3726 "This speech affects democracy. Winer thinks that happens because <quote>you "
3727 "don't have to work for somebody who controls, [for] a gatekeeper.</quote> "
3728 "That is true. But it affects democracy in another way as well. As more and "
3729 "more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will "
3730 "change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and "
3731 "misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be "
3732 "criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has "
3733 "been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore "
3734 "when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and "
3735 "criticism improves democracy. Today there are probably a couple of million "
3736 "blogs where such writing happens. When there are ten million, there will be "
3737 "something extraordinary to report."
3740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
3741 #: freeculture.xml:2629 freeculture.xml:6782
3742 msgid "Brown, John Seely"
3745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3746 #: freeculture.xml:2632
3748 "<emphasis role='strong'>John Seely Brown</emphasis> is the chief scientist "
3749 "of the Xerox Corporation. His work, as his Web site describes it, is "
3750 "<quote>human learning and … the creation of knowledge ecologies for "
3751 "creating … innovation.</quote>"
3754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3755 #: freeculture.xml:2638
3757 "Brown thus looks at these technologies of digital creativity a bit "
3758 "differently from the perspectives I've sketched so far. I'm sure he would be "
3759 "excited about any technology that might improve democracy. But his real "
3760 "excitement comes from how these technologies affect learning."
3764 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3765 #: freeculture.xml:2645
3767 "As Brown believes, we learn by tinkering. When <quote>a lot of us grew "
3768 "up,</quote> he explains, that tinkering was done <quote>on motorcycle "
3769 "engines, lawnmower engines, automobiles, radios, and so on.</quote> But "
3770 "digital technologies enable a different kind of tinkering—with "
3771 "abstract ideas though in concrete form. The kids at Just Think! not only "
3772 "think about how a commercial portrays a politician; using digital "
3773 "technology, they can take the commercial apart and manipulate it, tinker "
3774 "with it to see how it does what it does. Digital technologies launch a kind "
3775 "of bricolage, or <quote>free collage,</quote> as Brown calls it. Many get to "
3776 "add to or transform the tinkering of many others."
3779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3780 #: freeculture.xml:2658
3782 "The best large-scale example of this kind of tinkering so far is free "
3783 "software or open-source software (FS/OSS). FS/OSS is software whose source "
3784 "code is shared. Anyone can download the technology that makes a FS/OSS "
3785 "program run. And anyone eager to learn how a particular bit of FS/OSS "
3786 "technology works can tinker with the code."
3789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3790 #: freeculture.xml:2665
3792 "This opportunity creates a <quote>completely new kind of learning "
3793 "platform,</quote> as Brown describes. <quote>As soon as you start doing "
3794 "that, you … unleash a free collage on the community, so that other "
3795 "people can start looking at your code, tinkering with it, trying it out, "
3796 "seeing if they can improve it.</quote> Each effort is a kind of "
3797 "apprenticeship. <quote>Open source becomes a major apprenticeship "
3801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3802 #: freeculture.xml:2673
3804 "In this process, <quote>the concrete things you tinker with are abstract. "
3805 "They are code.</quote> Kids are <quote>shifting to the ability to tinker in "
3806 "the abstract, and this tinkering is no longer an isolated activity that "
3807 "you're doing in your garage. You are tinkering with a community "
3808 "platform. … You are tinkering with other people's stuff. The more you "
3809 "tinker the more you improve.</quote> The more you improve, the more you "
3813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3814 #: freeculture.xml:2682
3816 "This same thing happens with content, too. And it happens in the same "
3817 "collaborative way when that content is part of the Web. As Brown puts it, "
3818 "<quote>the Web [is] the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of "
3819 "intelligence.</quote> Earlier technologies, such as the typewriter or word "
3820 "processors, helped amplify text. But the Web amplifies much more than "
3821 "text. <quote>The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, "
3822 "if you are visual, if you are interested in film … [then] there is a "
3823 "lot you can start to do on this medium. [It] can now amplify and honor these "
3824 "multiple forms of intelligence.</quote>"
3828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3829 #: freeculture.xml:2695
3831 "Brown is talking about what Elizabeth Daley, Stephanie Barish, and Just "
3832 "Think! teach: that this tinkering with culture teaches as well as "
3833 "creates. It develops talents differently, and it builds a different kind of "
3837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3838 #: freeculture.xml:2703
3840 "Yet the freedom to tinker with these objects is not guaranteed. Indeed, as "
3841 "we'll see through the course of this book, that freedom is increasingly "
3842 "highly contested. While there's no doubt that your father had the right to "
3843 "tinker with the car engine, there's great doubt that your child will have "
3844 "the right to tinker with the images she finds all around. The law and, "
3845 "increasingly, technology interfere with a freedom that technology, and "
3846 "curiosity, would otherwise ensure."
3850 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3851 #: freeculture.xml:2719
3853 "See, for example, Edward Felten and Andrew Appel, <quote>Technological "
3854 "Access Control Interferes with Noninfringing Scholarship,</quote> "
3855 "<citetitle>Communications of the Association for Computer "
3856 "Machinery</citetitle> 43 (2000): 9."
3859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3860 #: freeculture.xml:2712
3862 "These restrictions have become the focus of researchers and scholars. "
3863 "Professor Ed Felten of Princeton (whom we'll see more of in chapter <xref "
3864 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>) has developed a "
3865 "powerful argument in favor of the <quote>right to tinker</quote> as it "
3866 "applies to computer science and to knowledge in general.<placeholder "
3867 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But Brown's concern is earlier, or younger, or "
3868 "more fundamental. It is about the learning that kids can do, or can't do, "
3869 "because of the law."
3872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3873 #: freeculture.xml:2727
3875 "<quote>This is where education in the twenty-first century is going,</quote> "
3876 "Brown explains. We need to <quote>understand how kids who grow up digital "
3877 "think and want to learn.</quote>"
3880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3881 #: freeculture.xml:2732
3883 "<quote>Yet,</quote> as Brown continued, and as the balance of this book will "
3884 "evince, <quote>we are building a legal system that completely suppresses the "
3885 "natural tendencies of today's digital kids. … We're building an "
3886 "architecture that unleashes 60 percent of the brain [and] a legal system "
3887 "that closes down that part of the brain.</quote>"
3890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3891 #: freeculture.xml:2740
3893 "We're building a technology that takes the magic of Kodak, mixes moving "
3894 "images and sound, and adds a space for commentary and an opportunity to "
3895 "spread that creativity everywhere. But we're building the law to close down "
3899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3900 #: freeculture.xml:2746
3902 "<quote>No way to run a culture,</quote> as Brewster Kahle, whom we'll meet "
3903 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"collectors\"/>, "
3904 "quipped to me in a rare moment of despondence."
3907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3908 #: freeculture.xml:2753
3909 msgid "Chapter Three: Catalogs"
3912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
3913 #: freeculture.xml:2754 freeculture.xml:2797 freeculture.xml:9655
3914 msgid "Jordan, Jesse"
3917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3918 #: freeculture.xml:2755
3922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3923 #: freeculture.xml:2755 freeculture.xml:2756 freeculture.xml:2757
3924 msgid "Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)"
3927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3928 #: freeculture.xml:2757
3929 msgid "computer network search engine of"
3932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3933 #: freeculture.xml:2758
3934 msgid "search engines"
3937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3938 #: freeculture.xml:2759
3939 msgid "university computer networks, p2p sharing on"
3942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
3943 #: freeculture.xml:2760
3944 msgid "search engines used on"
3947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3948 #: freeculture.xml:2762
3950 "<emphasis role='strong'>In the fall</emphasis> of 2002, Jesse Jordan of "
3951 "Oceanside, New York, enrolled as a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic "
3952 "Institute, in Troy, New York. His major at RPI was information "
3953 "technology. Though he is not a programmer, in October Jesse decided to begin "
3954 "to tinker with search engine technology that was available on the RPI "
3958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3959 #: freeculture.xml:2770
3961 "RPI is one of America's foremost technological research institutions. It "
3962 "offers degrees in fields ranging from architecture and engineering to "
3963 "information sciences. More than 65 percent of its five thousand "
3964 "undergraduates finished in the top 10 percent of their high school "
3965 "class. The school is thus a perfect mix of talent and experience to imagine "
3966 "and then build, a generation for the network age."
3969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3970 #: freeculture.xml:2778
3972 "RPI's computer network links students, faculty, and administration to one "
3973 "another. It also links RPI to the Internet. Not everything available on the "
3974 "RPI network is available on the Internet. But the network is designed to "
3975 "enable students to get access to the Internet, as well as more intimate "
3976 "access to other members of the RPI community."
3979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3980 #: freeculture.xml:2784 freeculture.xml:2839
3985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3986 #: freeculture.xml:2786
3988 "Search engines are a measure of a network's intimacy. Google brought the "
3989 "Internet much closer to all of us by fantastically improving the quality of "
3990 "search on the network. Specialty search engines can do this even better. The "
3991 "idea of <quote>intranet</quote> search engines, search engines that search "
3992 "within the network of a particular institution, is to provide users of that "
3993 "institution with better access to material from that institution. "
3994 "Businesses do this all the time, enabling employees to have access to "
3995 "material that people outside the business can't get. Universities do it as "
3999 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4000 #: freeculture.xml:2798 freeculture.xml:3715 freeculture.xml:3717 freeculture.xml:3718 freeculture.xml:5537 freeculture.xml:8223 freeculture.xml:13571 freeculture.xml:13640
4004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
4005 #: freeculture.xml:2798
4006 msgid "network file system of"
4009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4010 #: freeculture.xml:2800
4012 "These engines are enabled by the network technology itself. Microsoft, for "
4013 "example, has a network file system that makes it very easy for search "
4014 "engines tuned to that network to query the system for information about the "
4015 "publicly (within that network) available content. Jesse's search engine was "
4016 "built to take advantage of this technology. It used Microsoft's network file "
4017 "system to build an index of all the files available within the RPI network."
4020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4021 #: freeculture.xml:2810
4023 "Jesse's wasn't the first search engine built for the RPI network. Indeed, "
4024 "his engine was a simple modification of engines that others had built. His "
4025 "single most important improvement over those engines was to fix a bug within "
4026 "the Microsoft file-sharing system that could cause a user's computer to "
4027 "crash. With the engines that existed before, if you tried to access a file "
4028 "through a Windows browser that was on a computer that was off-line, your "
4029 "computer could crash. Jesse modified the system a bit to fix that problem, "
4030 "by adding a button that a user could click to see if the machine holding the "
4031 "file was still on-line."
4034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4035 #: freeculture.xml:2823
4037 "Jesse's engine went on-line in late October. Over the following six months, "
4038 "he continued to tweak it to improve its functionality. By March, the system "
4039 "was functioning quite well. Jesse had more than one million files in his "
4040 "directory, including every type of content that might be on users' "
4045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4046 #: freeculture.xml:2831
4048 "Thus the index his search engine produced included pictures, which students "
4049 "could use to put on their own Web sites; copies of notes or research; copies "
4050 "of information pamphlets; movie clips that students might have created; "
4051 "university brochures—basically anything that users of the RPI network "
4052 "made available in a public folder of their computer."
4055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
4056 #: freeculture.xml:2840
4057 msgid "tinkering as means of"
4060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4061 #: freeculture.xml:2842
4063 "But the index also included music files. In fact, one quarter of the files "
4064 "that Jesse's search engine listed were music files. But that means, of "
4065 "course, that three quarters were not, and—so that this point is "
4066 "absolutely clear—Jesse did nothing to induce people to put music files "
4067 "in their public folders. He did nothing to target the search engine to these "
4068 "files. He was a kid tinkering with a Google-like technology at a university "
4069 "where he was studying information science, and hence, tinkering was the "
4070 "aim. Unlike Google, or Microsoft, for that matter, he made no money from "
4071 "this tinkering; he was not connected to any business that would make any "
4072 "money from this experiment. He was a kid tinkering with technology in an "
4073 "environment where tinkering with technology was precisely what he was "
4077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4078 #: freeculture.xml:2856 freeculture.xml:9653 freeculture.xml:9930
4079 msgid "in recording industry"
4082 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
4083 #: freeculture.xml:2857
4084 msgid "against student file sharing"
4087 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4088 #: freeculture.xml:2858 freeculture.xml:2956 freeculture.xml:3209 freeculture.xml:3338 freeculture.xml:4291 freeculture.xml:4292 freeculture.xml:4293 freeculture.xml:9931 freeculture.xml:10342 freeculture.xml:10343 freeculture.xml:10344 freeculture.xml:10500
4089 msgid "recording industry"
4092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4093 #: freeculture.xml:2858 freeculture.xml:9931
4094 msgid "copyright infringement lawsuits of"
4097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4098 #: freeculture.xml:2859 freeculture.xml:2888 freeculture.xml:2957 freeculture.xml:9932 freeculture.xml:10345 freeculture.xml:10346 freeculture.xml:10498
4099 msgid "Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)"
4102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4103 #: freeculture.xml:2859 freeculture.xml:9932
4104 msgid "copyright infringement lawsuits filed by"
4107 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4108 #: freeculture.xml:2862
4110 "On April 3, 2003, Jesse was contacted by the dean of students at RPI. The "
4111 "dean informed Jesse that the Recording Industry Association of America, the "
4112 "RIAA, would be filing a lawsuit against him and three other students whom he "
4113 "didn't even know, two of them at other universities. A few hours later, "
4114 "Jesse was served with papers from the suit. As he read these papers and "
4115 "watched the news reports about them, he was increasingly astonished."
4118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4119 #: freeculture.xml:2871
4121 "<quote>It was absurd,</quote> he told me. <quote>I don't think I did "
4122 "anything wrong. … I don't think there's anything wrong with the "
4123 "search engine that I ran or … what I had done to it. I mean, I hadn't "
4124 "modified it in any way that promoted or enhanced the work of pirates. I just "
4125 "modified the search engine in a way that would make it easier to "
4126 "use</quote>—again, a <emphasis>search engine</emphasis>, which Jesse "
4127 "had not himself built, using the Windows filesharing system, which Jesse had "
4128 "not himself built, to enable members of the RPI community to get access to "
4129 "content, which Jesse had not himself created or posted, and the vast "
4130 "majority of which had nothing to do with music."
4133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4134 #: freeculture.xml:2884 freeculture.xml:9652 freeculture.xml:9929
4135 msgid "exaggerated claims of"
4138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
4139 #: freeculture.xml:2885
4140 msgid "statutory damages of"
4143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
4144 #: freeculture.xml:2886
4145 msgid "individual defendants intimidated by"
4148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4149 #: freeculture.xml:2887
4150 msgid "statutory damages"
4153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
4154 #: freeculture.xml:2888
4155 msgid "intimidation tactics of"
4159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4160 #: freeculture.xml:2890
4162 "But the RIAA branded Jesse a pirate. They claimed he operated a network and "
4163 "had therefore <quote>willfully</quote> violated copyright laws. They "
4164 "demanded that he pay them the damages for his wrong. For cases of "
4165 "<quote>willful infringement,</quote> the Copyright Act specifies something "
4166 "lawyers call <quote>statutory damages.</quote> These damages permit a "
4167 "copyright owner to claim $150,000 per infringement. As the RIAA alleged more "
4168 "than one hundred specific copyright infringements, they therefore demanded "
4169 "that Jesse pay them at least $15,000,000."
4172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4173 #: freeculture.xml:2900
4174 msgid "Michigan Technical University"
4177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4178 #: freeculture.xml:2901
4179 msgid "Princeton University"
4183 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4184 #: freeculture.xml:2915
4186 "Tim Goral, <quote>Recording Industry Goes After Campus P-2-P Networks: Suit "
4187 "Alleges $97.8 Billion in Damages,</quote> <citetitle>Professional Media "
4188 "Group LCC</citetitle> 6 (2003): 5, available at 2003 WL 55179443."
4191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4192 #: freeculture.xml:2903
4194 "Similar lawsuits were brought against three other students: one other "
4195 "student at RPI, one at Michigan Technical University, and one at "
4196 "Princeton. Their situations were similar to Jesse's. Though each case was "
4197 "different in detail, the bottom line in each was exactly the same: huge "
4198 "demands for <quote>damages</quote> that the RIAA claimed it was entitled "
4199 "to. If you added up the claims, these four lawsuits were asking courts in "
4200 "the United States to award the plaintiffs close to $100 "
4201 "<emphasis>billion</emphasis>—six times the <emphasis>total</emphasis> "
4202 "profit of the film industry in 2001.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4207 #: freeculture.xml:2922
4209 "Jesse called his parents. They were supportive but a bit frightened. An "
4210 "uncle was a lawyer. He began negotiations with the RIAA. They demanded to "
4211 "know how much money Jesse had. Jesse had saved $12,000 from summer jobs and "
4212 "other employment. They demanded $12,000 to dismiss the case."
4215 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4216 #: freeculture.xml:2928
4217 msgid "Oppenheimer, Matt"
4220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4221 #: freeculture.xml:2930
4223 "The RIAA wanted Jesse to admit to doing something wrong. He refused. They "
4224 "wanted him to agree to an injunction that would essentially make it "
4225 "impossible for him to work in many fields of technology for the rest of his "
4226 "life. He refused. They made him understand that this process of being sued "
4227 "was not going to be pleasant. (As Jesse's father recounted to me, the chief "
4228 "lawyer on the case, Matt Oppenheimer, told Jesse, <quote>You don't want to "
4229 "pay another visit to a dentist like me.</quote>) And throughout, the RIAA "
4230 "insisted it would not settle the case until it took every penny Jesse had "
4234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4235 #: freeculture.xml:2940
4236 msgid "legal system, attorney costs in"
4240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4241 #: freeculture.xml:2942
4243 "Jesse's family was outraged at these claims. They wanted to fight. But "
4244 "Jesse's uncle worked to educate the family about the nature of the American "
4245 "legal system. Jesse could fight the RIAA. He might even win. But the cost of "
4246 "fighting a lawsuit like this, Jesse was told, would be at least $250,000. If "
4247 "he won, he would not recover that money. If he won, he would have a piece of "
4248 "paper saying he had won, and a piece of paper saying he and his family were "
4252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4253 #: freeculture.xml:2952
4255 "So Jesse faced a mafia-like choice: $250,000 and a chance at winning, or "
4256 "$12,000 and a settlement."
4259 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4260 #: freeculture.xml:2955 freeculture.xml:3339 freeculture.xml:4284 freeculture.xml:5546 freeculture.xml:5595 freeculture.xml:10240 freeculture.xml:10338 freeculture.xml:10499 freeculture.xml:10522 freeculture.xml:15221 freeculture.xml:15286
4264 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
4265 #: freeculture.xml:2955 freeculture.xml:3339 freeculture.xml:4284 freeculture.xml:10240 freeculture.xml:10338 freeculture.xml:10499 freeculture.xml:10522 freeculture.xml:15221 freeculture.xml:15286
4266 msgid "recording industry payments to"
4269 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4270 #: freeculture.xml:2956 freeculture.xml:4291 freeculture.xml:10342 freeculture.xml:10500
4271 msgid "artist remuneration in"
4274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4275 #: freeculture.xml:2957 freeculture.xml:10346
4276 msgid "lobbying power of"
4280 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4281 #: freeculture.xml:2967
4283 "Occupational Employment Survey, U.S. Dept. of Labor (2001) "
4284 "(27–2042—Musicians and Singers). See also National Endowment for "
4285 "the Arts, <citetitle>More Than One in a Blue Moon</citetitle> (2000)."
4289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
4290 #: freeculture.xml:2975
4292 "Douglas Lichtman makes a related point in <quote>KaZaA and "
4293 "Punishment,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 10 September "
4297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4298 #: freeculture.xml:2959
4300 "The recording industry insists this is a matter of law and morality. Let's "
4301 "put the law aside for a moment and think about the morality. Where is the "
4302 "morality in a lawsuit like this? What is the virtue in scapegoatism? The "
4303 "RIAA is an extraordinarily powerful lobby. The president of the RIAA is "
4304 "reported to make more than $1 million a year. Artists, on the other hand, "
4305 "are not well paid. The average recording artist makes $45,900.<placeholder "
4306 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There are plenty of ways for the RIAA to affect "
4307 "and direct policy. So where is the morality in taking money from a student "
4308 "for running a search engine?<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
4311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4312 #: freeculture.xml:2982
4314 "On June 23, Jesse wired his savings to the lawyer working for the RIAA. The "
4315 "case against him was then dismissed. And with this, this kid who had "
4316 "tinkered a computer into a $15 million lawsuit became an activist:"
4319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
4320 #: freeculture.xml:2989
4322 "I was definitely not an activist [before]. I never really meant to be an "
4323 "activist. … [But] I've been pushed into this. In no way did I ever "
4324 "foresee anything like this, but I think it's just completely absurd what the "
4328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4329 #: freeculture.xml:2996
4331 "Jesse's parents betray a certain pride in their reluctant activist. As his "
4332 "father told me, Jesse <quote>considers himself very conservative, and so do "
4333 "I. … He's not a tree hugger. … I think it's bizarre that they "
4334 "would pick on him. But he wants to let people know that they're sending the "
4335 "wrong message. And he wants to correct the record.</quote>"
4338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
4339 #: freeculture.xml:3011
4340 msgid "Chapter Four: <quote>Pirates</quote>"
4343 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
4344 #: freeculture.xml:3012
4345 msgid "in development of content industry"
4348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4349 #: freeculture.xml:3015
4351 "<emphasis role='strong'>If <quote>piracy</quote> means</emphasis> using the "
4352 "creative property of others without their permission—if <quote>if "
4353 "value, then right</quote> is true—then the history of the content "
4354 "industry is a history of piracy. Every important sector of <quote>big "
4355 "media</quote> today—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born "
4356 "of a kind of piracy so defined. The consistent story is how last "
4357 "generation's pirates join this generation's country club—until now."
4360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4361 #: freeculture.xml:3026
4365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4366 #: freeculture.xml:3030
4368 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> I am grateful to Peter DiMauro "
4369 "for pointing me to this extraordinary history. See also Siva Vaidhyanathan, "
4370 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 87–93, which details "
4371 "Edison's <quote>adventures</quote> with copyright and patent."
4375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4376 #: freeculture.xml:3028
4378 "The film industry of Hollywood was built by fleeing pirates.<placeholder "
4379 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Creators and directors migrated from the East "
4380 "Coast to California in the early twentieth century in part to escape "
4381 "controls that patents granted the inventor of filmmaking, Thomas "
4382 "Edison. These controls were exercised through a monopoly "
4383 "<quote>trust,</quote> the Motion Pictures Patents Company, and were based on "
4384 "Thomas Edison's creative property—patents. Edison formed the MPPC to "
4385 "exercise the rights this creative property gave him, and the MPPC was "
4386 "serious about the control it demanded."
4389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4390 #: freeculture.xml:3046
4391 msgid "As one commentator tells one part of the story,"
4394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4395 #: freeculture.xml:3050
4397 "A January 1909 deadline was set for all companies to comply with the "
4398 "license. By February, unlicensed outlaws, who referred to themselves as "
4399 "independents protested the trust and carried on business without submitting "
4400 "to the Edison monopoly. In the summer of 1909 the independent movement was "
4401 "in full-swing, with producers and theater owners using illegal equipment and "
4402 "imported film stock to create their own underground market."
4405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
4406 #: freeculture.xml:3058
4407 msgid "Fox, William"
4410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
4411 #: freeculture.xml:3059
4412 msgid "General Film Company"
4415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4416 #: freeculture.xml:3060 freeculture.xml:3357 freeculture.xml:4518 freeculture.xml:10388
4417 msgid "Picker, Randal C."
4420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4421 #: freeculture.xml:3084 freeculture.xml:4517 freeculture.xml:10108 freeculture.xml:10221
4422 msgid "broadcast flag"
4425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4426 #: freeculture.xml:3073
4428 "J. A. Aberdeen, <citetitle>Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent "
4429 "Motion Picture Producers</citetitle> (Cobblestone Entertainment, 2000) and "
4430 "expanded texts posted at <quote>The Edison Movie Monopoly: The Motion "
4431 "Picture Patents Company vs. the Independent Outlaws,</quote> available at "
4432 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #11</ulink>. For a "
4433 "discussion of the economic motive behind both these limits and the limits "
4434 "imposed by Victor on phonographs, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison "
4435 "to the Broadcast Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the "
4436 "Propertization of Copyright</quote> (September 2002), University of Chicago "
4437 "Law School, James M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper "
4438 "No. 159. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4441 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4442 #: freeculture.xml:3062
4444 "With the country experiencing a tremendous expansion in the number of "
4445 "nickelodeons, the Patents Company reacted to the independent movement by "
4446 "forming a strong-arm subsidiary known as the General Film Company to block "
4447 "the entry of non-licensed independents. With coercive tactics that have "
4448 "become legendary, General Film confiscated unlicensed equipment, "
4449 "discontinued product supply to theaters which showed unlicensed films, and "
4450 "effectively monopolized distribution with the acquisition of all U.S. film "
4451 "exchanges, except for the one owned by the independent William Fox who "
4452 "defied the Trust even after his license was revoked.<placeholder "
4453 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4458 #: freeculture.xml:3095
4460 "Marc Wanamaker, <quote>The First Studios,</quote> <citetitle>The Silents "
4461 "Majority</citetitle>, archived at <ulink "
4462 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #12</ulink>."
4465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4466 #: freeculture.xml:3089
4468 "The Napsters of those days, the <quote>independents,</quote> were companies "
4469 "like Fox. And no less than today, these independents were vigorously "
4470 "resisted. <quote>Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and "
4471 "`accidents' resulting in loss of negatives, equipment, buildings and "
4472 "sometimes life and limb frequently occurred.</quote><placeholder "
4473 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That led the independents to flee the East "
4474 "Coast. California was remote enough from Edison's reach that filmmakers "
4475 "there could pirate his inventions without fear of the law. And the leaders "
4476 "of Hollywood filmmaking, Fox most prominently, did just that."
4480 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4481 #: freeculture.xml:3105
4483 "Of course, California grew quickly, and the effective enforcement of federal "
4484 "law eventually spread west. But because patents grant the patent holder a "
4485 "truly <quote>limited</quote> monopoly (just seventeen years at that time), "
4486 "by the time enough federal marshals appeared, the patents had expired. A new "
4487 "industry had been born, in part from the piracy of Edison's creative "
4491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4492 #: freeculture.xml:3116
4493 msgid "Recorded Music"
4496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4497 #: freeculture.xml:3117 freeculture.xml:4288
4498 msgid "on music recordings"
4501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4502 #: freeculture.xml:3119
4504 "The record industry was born of another kind of piracy, though to see how "
4505 "requires a bit of detail about the way the law regulates music."
4508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4509 #: freeculture.xml:3122
4510 msgid "Fourneaux, Henri"
4513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4514 #: freeculture.xml:3123
4515 msgid "Russel, Phil"
4518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4519 #: freeculture.xml:3125
4521 "At the time that Edison and Henri Fourneaux invented machines for "
4522 "reproducing music (Edison the phonograph, Fourneaux the player piano), the "
4523 "law gave composers the exclusive right to control copies of their music and "
4524 "the exclusive right to control public performances of their music. In other "
4525 "words, in 1900, if I wanted a copy of Phil Russel's 1899 hit <quote>Happy "
4526 "Mose,</quote> the law said I would have to pay for the right to get a copy "
4527 "of the musical score, and I would also have to pay for the right to perform "
4531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4532 #: freeculture.xml:3134 freeculture.xml:3272
4536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4537 #: freeculture.xml:3136
4539 "But what if I wanted to record <quote>Happy Mose,</quote> using Edison's "
4540 "phonograph or Fourneaux's player piano? Here the law stumbled. It was clear "
4541 "enough that I would have to buy any copy of the musical score that I "
4542 "performed in making this recording. And it was clear enough that I would "
4543 "have to pay for any public performance of the work I was recording. But it "
4544 "wasn't totally clear that I would have to pay for a <quote>public "
4545 "performance</quote> if I recorded the song in my own house (even today, you "
4546 "don't owe the Beatles anything if you sing their songs in the shower), or if "
4547 "I recorded the song from memory (copies in your brain are "
4548 "not—yet— regulated by copyright law). So if I simply sang the "
4549 "song into a recording device in the privacy of my own home, it wasn't clear "
4550 "that I owed the composer anything. And more importantly, it wasn't clear "
4551 "whether I owed the composer anything if I then made copies of those "
4552 "recordings. Because of this gap in the law, then, I could effectively "
4553 "pirate someone else's song without paying its composer anything."
4556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4557 #: freeculture.xml:3159 freeculture.xml:3176
4558 msgid "Kittredge, Alfred"
4561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4562 #: freeculture.xml:3155
4564 "The composers (and publishers) were none too happy about this capacity to "
4565 "pirate. As South Dakota senator Alfred Kittredge put it, <placeholder "
4566 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4570 #: freeculture.xml:3170
4572 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright: Hearings on S. 6330 "
4573 "and H.R. 19853 Before the (Joint) Committees on Patents, 59th Cong. 59, 1st "
4574 "sess. (1906) (statement of Senator Alfred B. Kittredge, of South Dakota, "
4575 "chairman), reprinted in <citetitle>Legislative History of the Copyright "
4576 "Act</citetitle>, E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South "
4577 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1976). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4582 #: freeculture.xml:3163
4584 "Imagine the injustice of the thing. A composer writes a song or an opera. A "
4585 "publisher buys at great expense the rights to the same and copyrights "
4586 "it. Along come the phonographic companies and companies who cut music rolls "
4587 "and deliberately steal the work of the brain of the composer and publisher "
4588 "without any regard for [their] rights.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4593 #: freeculture.xml:3180
4594 msgid "Sousa, John Philip"
4598 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4599 #: freeculture.xml:3186
4601 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 223 (statement of "
4602 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4606 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4607 #: freeculture.xml:3192
4609 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 226 (statement of "
4610 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4615 #: freeculture.xml:3199
4617 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 23 (statement of "
4618 "John Philip Sousa, composer)."
4621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4622 #: freeculture.xml:3182
4624 "The innovators who developed the technology to record other people's works "
4625 "were <quote>sponging upon the toil, the work, the talent, and genius of "
4626 "American composers,</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and the "
4627 "<quote>music publishing industry</quote> was thereby <quote>at the complete "
4628 "mercy of this one pirate.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
4629 "As John Philip Sousa put it, in as direct a way as possible, <quote>When "
4630 "they make money out of my pieces, I want a share of it.</quote><placeholder "
4631 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
4634 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4635 #: freeculture.xml:3203
4636 msgid "American Graphophone Company"
4639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4640 #: freeculture.xml:3204
4641 msgid "player pianos"
4644 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4645 #: freeculture.xml:3206 freeculture.xml:3207 freeculture.xml:4286 freeculture.xml:4287 freeculture.xml:4370 freeculture.xml:4371 freeculture.xml:6994 freeculture.xml:7083 freeculture.xml:7197 freeculture.xml:7198 freeculture.xml:10339 freeculture.xml:10340 freeculture.xml:10341 freeculture.xml:11119 freeculture.xml:11180 freeculture.xml:12117
4646 msgid "Congress, U.S."
4649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4650 #: freeculture.xml:3206 freeculture.xml:4286 freeculture.xml:4370 freeculture.xml:7083 freeculture.xml:7197 freeculture.xml:10339
4651 msgid "on copyright laws"
4654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4655 #: freeculture.xml:3207 freeculture.xml:4287 freeculture.xml:10341
4656 msgid "on recording industry"
4659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4660 #: freeculture.xml:3208 freeculture.xml:4289 freeculture.xml:10167
4661 msgid "statutory licenses in"
4664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4665 #: freeculture.xml:3209
4666 msgid "statutory license system in"
4670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4671 #: freeculture.xml:3219
4673 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 283–84 "
4674 "(statement of Albert Walker, representative of the Auto-Music Perforating "
4675 "Company of New York)."
4679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4680 #: freeculture.xml:3230
4682 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 376 (prepared "
4683 "memorandum of Philip Mauro, general patent counsel of the American "
4684 "Graphophone Company Association)."
4687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4688 #: freeculture.xml:3211
4690 "These arguments have familiar echoes in the wars of our day. So, too, do the "
4691 "arguments on the other side. The innovators who developed the player piano "
4692 "argued that <quote>it is perfectly demonstrable that the introduction of "
4693 "automatic music players has not deprived any composer of anything he had "
4694 "before their introduction.</quote> Rather, the machines increased the sales "
4695 "of sheet music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In any case, the "
4696 "innovators argued, the job of Congress was <quote>to consider first the "
4697 "interest of [the public], whom they represent, and whose servants they "
4698 "are.</quote> <quote>All talk about `theft,'</quote> the general counsel of "
4699 "the American Graphophone Company wrote, <quote>is the merest claptrap, for "
4700 "there exists no property in ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as "
4701 "defined by statute.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
4704 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4705 #: freeculture.xml:3235
4710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4711 #: freeculture.xml:3237
4713 "The law soon resolved this battle in favor of the composer "
4714 "<emphasis>and</emphasis> the recording artist. Congress amended the law to "
4715 "make sure that composers would be paid for the <quote>mechanical "
4716 "reproductions</quote> of their music. But rather than simply granting the "
4717 "composer complete control over the right to make mechanical reproductions, "
4718 "Congress gave recording artists a right to record the music, at a price set "
4719 "by Congress, once the composer allowed it to be recorded once. This is the "
4720 "part of copyright law that makes cover songs possible. Once a composer "
4721 "authorizes a recording of his song, others are free to record the same song, "
4722 "so long as they pay the original composer a fee set by the law."
4725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4726 #: freeculture.xml:3251
4727 msgid "compulsory license"
4730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4731 #: freeculture.xml:3252 freeculture.xml:4294 freeculture.xml:10166
4732 msgid "statutory licenses"
4735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4736 #: freeculture.xml:3254
4738 "American law ordinarily calls this a <quote>compulsory license,</quote> but "
4739 "I will refer to it as a <quote>statutory license.</quote> A statutory "
4740 "license is a license whose key terms are set by law. After Congress's "
4741 "amendment of the Copyright Act in 1909, record companies were free to "
4742 "distribute copies of recordings so long as they paid the composer (or "
4743 "copyright holder) the fee set by the statute."
4746 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4747 #: freeculture.xml:3261 freeculture.xml:14917
4748 msgid "Grisham, John"
4751 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4752 #: freeculture.xml:3263
4754 "This is an exception within the law of copyright. When John Grisham writes a "
4755 "novel, a publisher is free to publish that novel only if Grisham gives the "
4756 "publisher permission. Grisham, in turn, is free to charge whatever he wants "
4757 "for that permission. The price to publish Grisham is thus set by Grisham, "
4758 "and copyright law ordinarily says you have no permission to use Grisham's "
4759 "work except with permission of Grisham."
4763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4764 #: freeculture.xml:3288
4766 "Copyright Law Revision: Hearings on S. 2499, S. 2900, H.R. 243, and "
4767 "H.R. 11794 Before the (Joint) Committee on Patents, 60th Cong., 1st sess., "
4768 "217 (1908) (statement of Senator Reed Smoot, chairman), reprinted in "
4769 "<citetitle>Legislative History of the 1909 Copyright Act</citetitle>, "
4770 "E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman "
4774 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4775 #: freeculture.xml:3274
4777 "But the law governing recordings gives recording artists less. And thus, in "
4778 "effect, the law <emphasis>subsidizes</emphasis> the recording industry "
4779 "through a kind of piracy—by giving recording artists a weaker right "
4780 "than it otherwise gives creative authors. The Beatles have less control over "
4781 "their creative work than Grisham does. And the beneficiaries of this less "
4782 "control are the recording industry and the public. The recording industry "
4783 "gets something of value for less than it otherwise would pay; the public "
4784 "gets access to a much wider range of musical creativity. Indeed, Congress "
4785 "was quite explicit about its reasons for granting this right. Its fear was "
4786 "the monopoly power of rights holders, and that that power would stifle "
4787 "follow-on creativity.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4791 #: freeculture.xml:3299
4793 "While the recording industry has been quite coy about this recently, "
4794 "historically it has been quite a supporter of the statutory license for "
4795 "records. As a 1967 report from the House Committee on the Judiciary relates,"
4799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4800 #: freeculture.xml:3321
4802 "Copyright Law Revision: Report to Accompany H.R. 2512, House Committee on "
4803 "the Judiciary, 90th Cong., 1st sess., House Document no. 83, (8 March "
4804 "1967). I am grateful to Glenn Brown for drawing my attention to this report."
4807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4808 #: freeculture.xml:3306
4810 "the record producers argued vigorously that the compulsory license system "
4811 "must be retained. They asserted that the record industry is a "
4812 "half-billion-dollar business of great economic importance in the United "
4813 "States and throughout the world; records today are the principal means of "
4814 "disseminating music, and this creates special problems, since performers "
4815 "need unhampered access to musical material on nondiscriminatory "
4816 "terms. Historically, the record producers pointed out, there were no "
4817 "recording rights before 1909 and the 1909 statute adopted the compulsory "
4818 "license as a deliberate anti-monopoly condition on the grant of these "
4819 "rights. They argue that the result has been an outpouring of recorded music, "
4820 "with the public being given lower prices, improved quality, and a greater "
4821 "choice.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4825 #: freeculture.xml:3332
4827 "By limiting the rights musicians have, by partially pirating their creative "
4828 "work, the record producers, and the public, benefit."
4831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4832 #: freeculture.xml:3337 freeculture.xml:4482
4836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4837 #: freeculture.xml:3338 freeculture.xml:4293 freeculture.xml:10343
4838 msgid "radio broadcast and"
4841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4842 #: freeculture.xml:3341
4843 msgid "Radio was also born of piracy."
4846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4847 #: freeculture.xml:3356
4848 msgid "Hand, Learned"
4851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4852 #: freeculture.xml:3347
4854 "See 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, sections 106 and 110. At "
4855 "the beginning, record companies printed <quote>Not Licensed for Radio "
4856 "Broadcast</quote> and other messages purporting to restrict the ability to "
4857 "play a record on a radio station. Judge Learned Hand rejected the argument "
4858 "that a warning attached to a record might restrict the rights of the radio "
4859 "station. See <citetitle>RCA Manufacturing "
4860 "Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Whiteman</citetitle>, 114 F. 2d 86 (2nd "
4861 "Cir. 1940). See also Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison to the Broadcast "
4862 "Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of "
4863 "Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> "
4864 "70 (2003): 281. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4865 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4869 #: freeculture.xml:3344
4871 "When a radio station plays a record on the air, that constitutes a "
4872 "<quote>public performance</quote> of the composer's work.<placeholder "
4873 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As I described above, the law gives the "
4874 "composer (or copyright holder) an exclusive right to public performances of "
4875 "his work. The radio station thus owes the composer money for that "
4879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4880 #: freeculture.xml:3374 freeculture.xml:9409 freeculture.xml:9884 freeculture.xml:12966
4881 msgid "Lovett, Lyle"
4885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4886 #: freeculture.xml:3364
4888 "But when the radio station plays a record, it is not only performing a copy "
4889 "of the <emphasis>composer's</emphasis> work. The radio station is also "
4890 "performing a copy of the <emphasis>recording artist's</emphasis> work. It's "
4891 "one thing to have <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> sung on the radio by the "
4892 "local children's choir; it's quite another to have it sung by the Rolling "
4893 "Stones or Lyle Lovett. The recording artist is adding to the value of the "
4894 "composition performed on the radio station. And if the law were perfectly "
4895 "consistent, the radio station would have to pay the recording artist for his "
4896 "work, just as it pays the composer of the music for his work. <placeholder "
4897 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4900 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4901 #: freeculture.xml:3379
4903 "But it doesn't. Under the law governing radio performances, the radio "
4904 "station does not have to pay the recording artist. The radio station need "
4905 "only pay the composer. The radio station thus gets a bit of something for "
4906 "nothing. It gets to perform the recording artist's work for free, even if it "
4907 "must pay the composer something for the privilege of playing the song."
4910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4911 #: freeculture.xml:3386 freeculture.xml:3898 freeculture.xml:6505 freeculture.xml:6521
4915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4916 #: freeculture.xml:3388
4918 "This difference can be huge. Imagine you compose a piece of music. Imagine "
4919 "it is your first. You own the exclusive right to authorize public "
4920 "performances of that music. So if Madonna wants to sing your song in public, "
4921 "she has to get your permission."
4924 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4925 #: freeculture.xml:3394
4927 "Imagine she does sing your song, and imagine she likes it a lot. She then "
4928 "decides to make a recording of your song, and it becomes a top hit. Under "
4929 "our law, every time a radio station plays your song, you get some money. But "
4930 "Madonna gets nothing, save the indirect effect on the sale of her CDs. The "
4931 "public performance of her recording is not a <quote>protected</quote> "
4932 "right. The radio station thus gets to <emphasis>pirate</emphasis> the value "
4933 "of Madonna's work without paying her anything."
4936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4937 #: freeculture.xml:3406
4939 "No doubt, one might argue that, on balance, the recording artists "
4940 "benefit. On average, the promotion they get is worth more than the "
4941 "performance rights they give up. Maybe. But even if so, the law ordinarily "
4942 "gives the creator the right to make this choice. By making the choice for "
4943 "him or her, the law gives the radio station the right to take something for "
4947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4948 #: freeculture.xml:3416 freeculture.xml:4488
4952 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4953 #: freeculture.xml:3417 freeculture.xml:4308 freeculture.xml:8588 freeculture.xml:8627 freeculture.xml:15319
4954 msgid "cable television"
4957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4958 #: freeculture.xml:3419
4959 msgid "Cable TV was also born of a kind of piracy."
4963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4964 #: freeculture.xml:3422
4966 "When cable entrepreneurs first started wiring communities with cable "
4967 "television in 1948, most refused to pay broadcasters for the content that "
4968 "they echoed to their customers. Even when the cable companies started "
4969 "selling access to television broadcasts, they refused to pay for what they "
4970 "sold. Cable companies were thus Napsterizing broadcasters' content, but more "
4971 "egregiously than anything Napster ever did— Napster never charged for "
4972 "the content it enabled others to give away."
4975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4976 #: freeculture.xml:3432
4977 msgid "Anello, Douglas"
4980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4981 #: freeculture.xml:3433
4982 msgid "Burdick, Quentin"
4985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4986 #: freeculture.xml:3434 freeculture.xml:3445
4987 msgid "Hyde, Rosel H."
4990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4991 #: freeculture.xml:3440
4993 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV: Hearing on S. 1006 Before the "
4994 "Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Senate Committee "
4995 "on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 78 (1966) (statement of Rosel "
4996 "H. Hyde, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission). <placeholder "
4997 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5002 #: freeculture.xml:3452
5004 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 116 (statement of Douglas A. Anello, "
5005 "general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters)."
5008 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5009 #: freeculture.xml:3436
5011 "Broadcasters and copyright owners were quick to attack this theft. Rosel "
5012 "Hyde, chairman of the FCC, viewed the practice as a kind of <quote>unfair "
5013 "and potentially destructive competition.</quote><placeholder "
5014 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There may have been a <quote>public "
5015 "interest</quote> in spreading the reach of cable TV, but as Douglas Anello, "
5016 "general counsel to the National Association of Broadcasters, asked Senator "
5017 "Quentin Burdick during testimony, <quote>Does public interest dictate that "
5018 "you use somebody else's property?</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5019 "id=\"1\"/> As another broadcaster put it,"
5023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
5024 #: freeculture.xml:3463
5026 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 126 (statement of Ernest W. Jennes, "
5027 "general counsel of the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters, Inc.)."
5030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
5031 #: freeculture.xml:3459
5033 "The extraordinary thing about the CATV business is that it is the only "
5034 "business I know of where the product that is being sold is not paid "
5035 "for.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5038 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5039 #: freeculture.xml:3469
5040 msgid "Again, the demand of the copyright holders seemed reasonable enough:"
5044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
5045 #: freeculture.xml:3478
5047 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 169 (joint statement of Arthur B. Krim, "
5048 "president of United Artists Corp., and John Sinn, president of United "
5049 "Artists Television, Inc.)."
5052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
5053 #: freeculture.xml:3473
5055 "All we are asking for is a very simple thing, that people who now take our "
5056 "property for nothing pay for it. We are trying to stop piracy and I don't "
5057 "think there is any lesser word to describe it. I think there are harsher "
5058 "words which would fit it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5062 #: freeculture.xml:3484 freeculture.xml:3492
5063 msgid "Heston, Charlton"
5066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5067 #: freeculture.xml:3490
5069 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 209 (statement of Charlton Heston, "
5070 "president of the Screen Actors Guild). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
5074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5075 #: freeculture.xml:3486
5077 "These were <quote>free-ride[rs],</quote> Screen Actor's Guild president "
5078 "Charlton Heston said, who were <quote>depriving actors of "
5079 "compensation.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5082 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5083 #: freeculture.xml:3497
5085 "But again, there was another side to the debate. As Assistant Attorney "
5086 "General Edwin Zimmerman put it,"
5089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
5090 #: freeculture.xml:3513 freeculture.xml:3515
5091 msgid "Zimmerman, Edwin"
5094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
5095 #: freeculture.xml:3511
5097 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 216 (statement of Edwin M. Zimmerman, "
5098 "acting assistant attorney general). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
5102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
5103 #: freeculture.xml:3502
5105 "Our point here is that unlike the problem of whether you have any copyright "
5106 "protection at all, the problem here is whether copyright holders who are "
5107 "already compensated, who already have a monopoly, should be permitted to "
5108 "extend that monopoly. … The question here is how much compensation "
5109 "they should have and how far back they should carry their right to "
5110 "compensation.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
5111 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5115 #: freeculture.xml:3519
5117 "Copyright owners took the cable companies to court. Twice the Supreme Court "
5118 "held that the cable companies owed the copyright owners nothing."
5121 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5122 #: freeculture.xml:3523
5124 "It took Congress almost thirty years before it resolved the question of "
5125 "whether cable companies had to pay for the content they "
5126 "<quote>pirated.</quote> In the end, Congress resolved this question in the "
5127 "same way that it resolved the question about record players and player "
5128 "pianos. Yes, cable companies would have to pay for the content that they "
5129 "broadcast; but the price they would have to pay was not set by the copyright "
5130 "owner. The price was set by law, so that the broadcasters couldn't exercise "
5131 "veto power over the emerging technologies of cable. Cable companies thus "
5132 "built their empire in part upon a <quote>piracy</quote> of the value created "
5133 "by broadcasters' content."
5137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5138 #: freeculture.xml:3542
5140 "See, for example, National Music Publisher's Association, <citetitle>The "
5141 "Engine of Free Expression: Copyright on the Internet—The Myth of Free "
5142 "Information</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5143 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #13</ulink>. <quote>The threat of "
5144 "piracy—the use of someone else's creative work without permission or "
5145 "compensation—has grown with the Internet.</quote>"
5148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5149 #: freeculture.xml:3537
5151 "<emphasis role='strong'>These separate stories</emphasis> sing a common "
5152 "theme. If <quote>piracy</quote> means using value from someone else's "
5153 "creative property without permission from that creator—as it is "
5154 "increasingly described today<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
5155 "— then <emphasis>every</emphasis> industry affected by copyright today "
5156 "is the product and beneficiary of a certain kind of piracy. Film, records, "
5157 "radio, cable TV. … The list is long and could well be expanded. Every "
5158 "generation welcomes the pirates from the last. Every generation—until "
5162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
5163 #: freeculture.xml:3559
5164 msgid "Chapter Five: <quote>Piracy</quote>"
5167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5168 #: freeculture.xml:3561
5170 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is piracy</emphasis> of copyrighted "
5171 "material. Lots of it. This piracy comes in many forms. The most significant "
5172 "is commercial piracy, the unauthorized taking of other people's content "
5173 "within a commercial context. Despite the many justifications that are "
5174 "offered in its defense, this taking is wrong. No one should condone it, and "
5175 "the law should stop it."
5179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5180 #: freeculture.xml:3569
5182 "But as well as copy-shop piracy, there is another kind of "
5183 "<quote>taking</quote> that is more directly related to the Internet. That "
5184 "taking, too, seems wrong to many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before "
5185 "we paint this taking <quote>piracy,</quote> however, we should understand "
5186 "its nature a bit more. For the harm of this taking is significantly more "
5187 "ambiguous than outright copying, and the law should account for that "
5188 "ambiguity, as it has so often done in the past."
5191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
5192 #: freeculture.xml:3579
5196 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5197 #: freeculture.xml:3580 freeculture.xml:3660 freeculture.xml:3710 freeculture.xml:15321
5198 msgid "Asia, commercial piracy in"
5201 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5202 #: freeculture.xml:3581 freeculture.xml:4033 freeculture.xml:9885 freeculture.xml:10740 freeculture.xml:14712 freeculture.xml:15303
5206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5207 #: freeculture.xml:3581
5208 msgid "foreign piracy of"
5212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5213 #: freeculture.xml:3589
5215 "See IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), "
5216 "<citetitle>The Recording Industry Commercial Piracy Report 2003</citetitle>, "
5217 "July 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5218 "#14</ulink>. See also Ben Hunt, <quote>Companies Warned on Music Piracy "
5219 "Risk,</quote> <citetitle>Financial Times</citetitle>, 14 February 2003, 11."
5222 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5223 #: freeculture.xml:3583
5225 "All across the world, but especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, there are "
5226 "businesses that do nothing but take others people's copyrighted content, "
5227 "copy it, and sell it—all without the permission of a copyright "
5228 "owner. The recording industry estimates that it loses about $4.6 billion "
5229 "every year to physical piracy<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> (that "
5230 "works out to one in three CDs sold worldwide). The MPAA estimates that it "
5231 "loses $3 billion annually worldwide to piracy."
5234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5235 #: freeculture.xml:3599
5237 "This is piracy plain and simple. Nothing in the argument of this book, nor "
5238 "in the argument that most people make when talking about the subject of this "
5239 "book, should draw into doubt this simple point: This piracy is wrong."
5242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5243 #: freeculture.xml:3605
5245 "Which is not to say that excuses and justifications couldn't be made for "
5246 "it. We could, for example, remind ourselves that for the first one hundred "
5247 "years of the American Republic, America did not honor foreign copyrights. We "
5248 "were born, in this sense, a pirate nation. It might therefore seem "
5249 "hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations "
5250 "treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, "
5254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5255 #: freeculture.xml:3614
5257 "That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the "
5258 "taking of foreign works. It explicitly limited itself to American "
5259 "works. Thus the American publishers who published foreign works without the "
5260 "permission of foreign authors were not violating any rule. The copy shops "
5261 "in Asia, by contrast, are violating Asian law. Asian law does protect "
5262 "foreign copyrights, and the actions of the copy shops violate that law. So "
5263 "the wrong of piracy that they engage in is not just a moral wrong, but a "
5264 "legal wrong, and not just an internationally legal wrong, but a locally "
5265 "legal wrong as well."
5269 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5270 #: freeculture.xml:3625
5272 "True, these local rules have, in effect, been imposed upon these "
5273 "countries. No country can be part of the world economy and choose not to "
5274 "protect copyright internationally. We may have been born a pirate nation, "
5275 "but we will not allow any other nation to have a similar childhood."
5278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5279 #: freeculture.xml:3653
5280 msgid "agricultural patents"
5283 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5284 #: freeculture.xml:3654 freeculture.xml:13258 freeculture.xml:13749 freeculture.xml:13756
5285 msgid "Drahos, Peter"
5288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5289 #: freeculture.xml:3638
5291 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: "
5292 "<citetitle>Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New "
5293 "Press, 2003), 10–13, 209. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual "
5294 "Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement obligates member nations to create "
5295 "administrative and enforcement mechanisms for intellectual property rights, "
5296 "a costly proposition for developing countries. Additionally, patent rights "
5297 "may lead to higher prices for staple industries such as agriculture. Critics "
5298 "of TRIPS question the disparity between burdens imposed upon developing "
5299 "countries and benefits conferred to industrialized nations. TRIPS does "
5300 "permit governments to use patents for public, noncommercial uses without "
5301 "first obtaining the patent holder's permission. Developing nations may be "
5302 "able to use this to gain the benefits of foreign patents at lower "
5303 "prices. This is a promising strategy for developing nations within the TRIPS "
5304 "framework. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
5305 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5309 #: freeculture.xml:3633
5311 "If a country is to be treated as a sovereign, however, then its laws are its "
5312 "laws regardless of their source. The international law under which these "
5313 "nations live gives them some opportunities to escape the burden of "
5314 "intellectual property law.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In my "
5315 "view, more developing nations should take advantage of that opportunity, but "
5316 "when they don't, then their laws should be respected. And under the laws of "
5317 "these nations, this piracy is wrong."
5320 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5321 #: freeculture.xml:3675 freeculture.xml:3954 freeculture.xml:15469
5322 msgid "Liebowitz, Stan"
5325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5326 #: freeculture.xml:3668
5328 "For an analysis of the economic impact of copying technology, see Stan "
5329 "Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle> (New York: "
5330 "Amacom, 2002), 144–90. <quote>In some instances … the impact of "
5331 "piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the "
5332 "work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the "
5333 "individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if "
5334 "pirating were not an option.</quote> Ibid., 149. <placeholder "
5335 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5339 #: freeculture.xml:3662
5341 "Alternatively, we could try to excuse this piracy by noting that in any "
5342 "case, it does no harm to the industry. The Chinese who get access to "
5343 "American CDs at 50 cents a copy are not people who would have bought those "
5344 "American CDs at $15 a copy. So no one really has any less money than they "
5345 "otherwise would have had.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5349 #: freeculture.xml:3679
5351 "This is often true (though I have friends who have purchased many thousands "
5352 "of pirated DVDs who certainly have enough money to pay for the content they "
5353 "have taken), and it does mitigate to some degree the harm caused by such "
5354 "taking. Extremists in this debate love to say, <quote>You wouldn't go into "
5355 "Barnes & Noble and take a book off of the shelf without paying; why "
5356 "should it be any different with on-line music?</quote> The difference is, of "
5357 "course, that when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less "
5358 "book to sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, "
5359 "there is not one less CD that can be sold. The physics of piracy of the "
5360 "intangible are different from the physics of piracy of the tangible."
5364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5365 #: freeculture.xml:3693
5367 "This argument is still very weak. However, although copyright is a property "
5368 "right of a very special sort, it <emphasis>is</emphasis> a property "
5369 "right. Like all property rights, the copyright gives the owner the right to "
5370 "decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner "
5371 "doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important "
5372 "statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish "
5373 "of the copyright owner. Those licenses give people the right to "
5374 "<quote>take</quote> copyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner "
5375 "wants to sell. But where the law does not give people the right to take "
5376 "content, it is wrong to take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If "
5377 "we have a property system, and that system is properly balanced to the "
5378 "technology of a time, then it is wrong to take property without the "
5379 "permission of a property owner. That is exactly what <quote>property</quote> "
5383 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5384 #: freeculture.xml:3711 freeculture.xml:15322
5388 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5389 #: freeculture.xml:3712 freeculture.xml:13569 freeculture.xml:14155
5390 msgid "free software/open-source software (FS/OSS)"
5393 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5394 #: freeculture.xml:3713 freeculture.xml:3743 freeculture.xml:12049 freeculture.xml:13584 freeculture.xml:14211
5395 msgid "GNU/Linux operating system"
5398 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5399 #: freeculture.xml:3714 freeculture.xml:3744 freeculture.xml:12051 freeculture.xml:13585 freeculture.xml:14212
5400 msgid "Linux operating system"
5403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5404 #: freeculture.xml:3715
5405 msgid "competitive strategies of"
5408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5409 #: freeculture.xml:3716
5413 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5414 #: freeculture.xml:3717
5415 msgid "international software piracy of"
5418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5419 #: freeculture.xml:3718
5420 msgid "Windows operating system of"
5423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5424 #: freeculture.xml:3720
5426 "Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the "
5427 "piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese "
5428 "<quote>steal</quote> Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on "
5429 "Microsoft. Microsoft loses the value of the software that was taken. But it "
5430 "gains users who are used to life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the "
5431 "nation grows more wealthy, more and more people will buy software rather "
5432 "than steal it. And hence over time, because that buying will benefit "
5433 "Microsoft, Microsoft benefits from the piracy. If instead of pirating "
5434 "Microsoft Windows, the Chinese used the free GNU/Linux operating system, "
5435 "then these Chinese users would not eventually be buying Microsoft. Without "
5436 "piracy, then, Microsoft would lose."
5439 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5440 #: freeculture.xml:3732 freeculture.xml:4775 freeculture.xml:4999 freeculture.xml:6489 freeculture.xml:6565 freeculture.xml:6700 freeculture.xml:7112 freeculture.xml:14243
5444 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5445 #: freeculture.xml:3732 freeculture.xml:14243
5446 msgid "databases of case reports in"
5449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5450 #: freeculture.xml:3734
5452 "This argument, too, is somewhat true. The addiction strategy is a good "
5453 "one. Many businesses practice it. Some thrive because of it. Law students, "
5454 "for example, are given free access to the two largest legal databases. The "
5455 "companies marketing both hope the students will become so used to their "
5456 "service that they will want to use it and not the other when they become "
5457 "lawyers (and must pay high subscription fees)."
5460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5461 #: freeculture.xml:3741
5465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5466 #: freeculture.xml:3742
5467 msgid "Internet Explorer"
5470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5471 #: freeculture.xml:3746
5473 "Still, the argument is not terribly persuasive. We don't give the alcoholic "
5474 "a defense when he steals his first beer, merely because that will make it "
5475 "more likely that he will buy the next three. Instead, we ordinarily allow "
5476 "businesses to decide for themselves when it is best to give their product "
5477 "away. If Microsoft fears the competition of GNU/Linux, then Microsoft can "
5478 "give its product away, as it did, for example, with Internet Explorer to "
5479 "fight Netscape. A property right means giving the property owner the right "
5480 "to say who gets access to what—at least ordinarily. And if the law "
5481 "properly balances the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of "
5482 "access, then violating the law is still wrong."
5486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5487 #: freeculture.xml:3760
5489 "Thus, while I understand the pull of these justifications for piracy, and I "
5490 "certainly see the motivation, in my view, in the end, these efforts at "
5491 "justifying commercial piracy simply don't cut it. This kind of piracy is "
5492 "rampant and just plain wrong. It doesn't transform the content it steals; it "
5493 "doesn't transform the market it competes in. It merely gives someone access "
5494 "to something that the law says he should not have. Nothing has changed to "
5495 "draw that law into doubt. This form of piracy is flat out wrong."
5498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5499 #: freeculture.xml:3770
5501 "But as the examples from the four chapters that introduced this part "
5502 "suggest, even if some piracy is plainly wrong, not all <quote>piracy</quote> "
5503 "is. Or at least, not all <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong if that term is "
5504 "understood in the way it is increasingly used today. Many kinds of "
5505 "<quote>piracy</quote> are useful and productive, to produce either new "
5506 "content or new ways of doing business. Neither our tradition nor any "
5507 "tradition has ever banned all <quote>piracy</quote> in that sense of the "
5511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5512 #: freeculture.xml:3779
5514 "This doesn't mean that there are no questions raised by the latest piracy "
5515 "concern, peer-to-peer file sharing. But it does mean that we need to "
5516 "understand the harm in peer-to-peer sharing a bit more before we condemn it "
5517 "to the gallows with the charge of piracy."
5520 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5521 #: freeculture.xml:3785
5523 "For (1) like the original Hollywood, p2p sharing escapes an overly "
5524 "controlling industry; and (2) like the original recording industry, it "
5525 "simply exploits a new way to distribute content; but (3) unlike cable TV, no "
5526 "one is selling the content that is shared on p2p services."
5529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5530 #: freeculture.xml:3791
5532 "These differences distinguish p2p sharing from true piracy. They should push "
5533 "us to find a way to protect artists while enabling this sharing to survive."
5536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
5537 #: freeculture.xml:3797
5542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5543 #: freeculture.xml:3802
5545 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
5546 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777)."
5550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5551 #: freeculture.xml:3799
5553 "The key to the <quote>piracy</quote> that the law aims to quash is a use "
5554 "that <quote>rob[s] the author of [his] profit.</quote><placeholder "
5555 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This means we must determine whether and how "
5556 "much p2p sharing harms before we know how strongly the law should seek to "
5557 "either prevent it or find an alternative to assure the author of his profit."
5560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5561 #: freeculture.xml:3811
5562 msgid "Fanning, Shawn"
5565 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5566 #: freeculture.xml:3812 freeculture.xml:3819 freeculture.xml:9815
5570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5571 #: freeculture.xml:3829 freeculture.xml:8821
5572 msgid "Christensen, Clayton M."
5575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5576 #: freeculture.xml:3819
5578 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Clayton M. Christensen, "
5579 "<citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary National Bestseller "
5580 "That Changed the Way We Do Business</citetitle> (New York: HarperBusiness, "
5581 "2000). Professor Christensen examines why companies that give rise to and "
5582 "dominate a product area are frequently unable to come up with the most "
5583 "creative, paradigm-shifting uses for their own products. This job usually "
5584 "falls to outside innovators, who reassemble existing technology in inventive "
5585 "ways. For a discussion of Christensen's ideas, see Lawrence Lessig, "
5586 "<citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 89–92, 139. <placeholder "
5587 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5591 #: freeculture.xml:3811
5593 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
5594 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> Peer-to-peer sharing "
5595 "was made famous by Napster. But the inventors of the Napster technology had "
5596 "not made any major technological innovations. Like every great advance in "
5597 "innovation on the Internet (and, arguably, off the Internet as "
5598 "well<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"3\"/>), Shawn Fanning and crew had "
5599 "simply put together components that had been developed independently."
5602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5603 #: freeculture.xml:3834
5607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><secondary>
5608 #: freeculture.xml:3835
5609 msgid "number of registrations on"
5612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><secondary>
5613 #: freeculture.xml:3836
5614 msgid "replacement of"
5618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5619 #: freeculture.xml:3842
5621 "See Carolyn Lochhead, <quote>Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood "
5622 "Nightmare,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 "
5623 "September 2002, A1; <quote>Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,</quote> <citetitle>New "
5624 "Scientist</citetitle>, 6 July 2002, 42; Benny Evangelista, <quote>Napster "
5625 "Names CEO, Secures New Financing,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
5626 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 23 May 2003, C1; <quote>Napster's Wake-Up "
5627 "Call,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 24 June 2000, 23; John "
5628 "Naughton, <quote>Hollywood at War with the Internet</quote> (London) "
5629 "<citetitle>Times</citetitle>, 26 July 2002, 18."
5632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5633 #: freeculture.xml:3834
5635 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
5636 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> The result was "
5637 "spontaneous combustion. Launched in July 1999, Napster amassed over 10 "
5638 "million users within nine months. After eighteen months, there were close to "
5639 "80 million registered users of the system.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5640 "id=\"3\"/> Courts quickly shut Napster down, but other services emerged to "
5641 "take its place. (Kazaa is currently the most popular p2p service. It boasts "
5642 "over 100 million members.) These services' systems are different "
5643 "architecturally, though not very different in function: Each enables users "
5644 "to make content available to any number of other users. With a p2p system, "
5645 "you can share your favorite songs with your best friend— or your "
5646 "20,000 best friends."
5650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5651 #: freeculture.xml:3865
5653 "See Ipsos-Insight, <citetitle>TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Online Music "
5654 "Distribution</citetitle> (September 2002), reporting that 28 percent of "
5655 "Americans aged twelve and older have downloaded music off of the Internet "
5656 "and 30 percent have listened to digital music files stored on their "
5661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5662 #: freeculture.xml:3874
5664 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight,</quote> "
5665 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 6 June 2003, A1."
5668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5669 #: freeculture.xml:3859
5671 "According to a number of estimates, a huge proportion of Americans have "
5672 "tasted file-sharing technology. A study by Ipsos-Insight in September 2002 "
5673 "estimated that 60 million Americans had downloaded music—28 percent of "
5674 "Americans older than 12.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A survey "
5675 "by the NPD group quoted in <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> "
5676 "estimated that 43 million citizens used file-sharing networks to exchange "
5677 "content in May 2003.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The vast "
5678 "majority of these are not kids. Whatever the actual figure, a massive "
5679 "quantity of content is being <quote>taken</quote> on these networks. The "
5680 "ease and inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to "
5681 "enjoy music in a way that they hadn't before."
5684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5685 #: freeculture.xml:3883
5687 "Some of this enjoying involves copyright infringement. Some of it does "
5688 "not. And even among the part that is technically copyright infringement, "
5689 "calculating the actual harm to copyright owners is more complicated than one "
5690 "might think. So consider—a bit more carefully than the polarized "
5691 "voices around this debate usually do—the kinds of sharing that file "
5692 "sharing enables, and the kinds of harm it entails."
5696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5697 #: freeculture.xml:3893
5699 "File sharers share different kinds of content. We can divide these different "
5700 "kinds into four types."
5704 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5705 #: freeculture.xml:3901
5707 "There are some who use sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
5708 "content. Thus, when a new Madonna CD is released, rather than buying the CD, "
5709 "these users simply take it. We might quibble about whether everyone who "
5710 "takes it would actually have bought it if sharing didn't make it available "
5711 "for free. Most probably wouldn't have, but clearly there are some who "
5712 "would. The latter are the target of category A: users who download instead "
5717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5718 #: freeculture.xml:3911
5720 "There are some who use sharing networks to sample music before purchasing "
5721 "it. Thus, a friend sends another friend an MP3 of an artist he's not heard "
5722 "of. The other friend then buys CDs by that artist. This is a kind of "
5723 "targeted advertising, quite likely to succeed. If the friend recommending "
5724 "the album gains nothing from a bad recommendation, then one could expect "
5725 "that the recommendations will actually be quite good. The net effect of this "
5726 "sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased."
5730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5731 #: freeculture.xml:3922
5733 "There are many who use sharing networks to get access to copyrighted content "
5734 "that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the "
5735 "transaction costs off the Net are too high. This use of sharing networks is "
5736 "among the most rewarding for many. Songs that were part of your childhood "
5737 "but have long vanished from the marketplace magically appear again on the "
5738 "network. (One friend told me that when she discovered Napster, she spent a "
5739 "solid weekend <quote>recalling</quote> old songs. She was astonished at the "
5740 "range and mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is "
5741 "still technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright "
5742 "owner is not selling the content anymore, the economic harm is "
5743 "zero—the same harm that occurs when I sell my collection of 1960s "
5744 "45-rpm records to a local collector."
5749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5750 #: freeculture.xml:3939
5752 "Finally, there are many who use sharing networks to get access to content "
5753 "that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away."
5756 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5757 #: freeculture.xml:3945
5758 msgid "How do these different types of sharing balance out?"
5761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5762 #: freeculture.xml:3953
5764 "See Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle>, "
5765 "148–49. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5769 #: freeculture.xml:3948
5771 "Let's start with some simple but important points. From the perspective of "
5772 "the law, only type D sharing is clearly legal. From the perspective of "
5773 "economics, only type A sharing is clearly harmful.<placeholder "
5774 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Type B sharing is illegal but plainly "
5775 "beneficial. Type C sharing is illegal, yet good for society (since more "
5776 "exposure to music is good) and harmless to the artist (since the work is "
5777 "not otherwise available). So how sharing matters on balance is a hard "
5778 "question to answer—and certainly much more difficult than the current "
5779 "rhetoric around the issue suggests."
5782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5783 #: freeculture.xml:3964
5785 "Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful "
5786 "type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers "
5787 "complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and "
5788 "broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music industry complains that "
5789 "type A sharing is a kind of <quote>theft</quote> that is "
5790 "<quote>devastating</quote> the industry."
5793 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5794 #: freeculture.xml:3971 freeculture.xml:3980 freeculture.xml:4340 freeculture.xml:8383 freeculture.xml:8412 freeculture.xml:10164 freeculture.xml:15029
5795 msgid "cassette recording"
5798 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5799 #: freeculture.xml:3971 freeculture.xml:4340 freeculture.xml:8383 freeculture.xml:8412 freeculture.xml:10164 freeculture.xml:10165 freeculture.xml:15029 freeculture.xml:15030
5803 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5804 #: freeculture.xml:3980
5806 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, "
5807 "<citetitle>Technology Evolution and the Music Industry's Business Model "
5808 "Crisis</citetitle> (2003), 3. This report describes the music industry's "
5809 "effort to stigmatize the budding practice of cassette taping in the 1970s, "
5810 "including an advertising campaign featuring a cassette-shape skull and the "
5811 "caption <quote>Home taping is killing music.</quote> At the time digital "
5812 "audio tape became a threat, the Office of Technical Assessment conducted a "
5813 "survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 percent of consumers older than ten "
5814 "had taped music to a cassette format. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology "
5815 "Assessment, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges the "
5816 "Law</citetitle>, OTA-CIT-422 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing "
5817 "Office, October 1989), 145–56."
5820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5821 #: freeculture.xml:3973
5823 "While the numbers do suggest that sharing is harmful, how harmful is harder "
5824 "to reckon. It has long been the recording industry's practice to blame "
5825 "technology for any drop in sales. The history of cassette recording is a "
5826 "good example. As a study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put it, "
5827 "<quote>Rather than exploiting this new, popular technology, the labels "
5828 "fought it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The labels "
5829 "claimed that every album taped was an album unsold, and when record sales "
5830 "fell by 11.4 percent in 1981, the industry claimed that its point was "
5831 "proved. Technology was the problem, and banning or regulating technology was "
5835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5836 #: freeculture.xml:3998
5841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5842 #: freeculture.xml:4008
5843 msgid "U.S. Congress, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying</citetitle>, 4."
5846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5847 #: freeculture.xml:4000
5849 "Yet soon thereafter, and before Congress was given an opportunity to enact "
5850 "regulation, MTV was launched, and the industry had a record "
5851 "turnaround. <quote>In the end,</quote> Cap Gemini concludes, <quote>the "
5852 "`crisis' … was not the fault of the tapers—who did not [stop "
5853 "after MTV came into being]—but had to a large extent resulted from "
5854 "stagnation in musical innovation at the major labels.</quote><placeholder "
5855 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5859 #: freeculture.xml:4013
5861 "But just because the industry was wrong before does not mean it is wrong "
5862 "today. To evaluate the real threat that p2p sharing presents to the industry "
5863 "in particular, and society in general—or at least the society that "
5864 "inherits the tradition that gave us the film industry, the record industry, "
5865 "the radio industry, cable TV, and the VCR—the question is not simply "
5866 "whether type A sharing is harmful. The question is also "
5867 "<emphasis>how</emphasis> harmful type A sharing is, and how beneficial the "
5868 "other types of sharing are."
5871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5872 #: freeculture.xml:4023
5874 "We start to answer this question by focusing on the net harm, from the "
5875 "standpoint of the industry as a whole, that sharing networks cause. The "
5876 "<quote>net harm</quote> to the industry as a whole is the amount by which "
5877 "type A sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records "
5878 "through sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks "
5879 "would actually benefit music companies on balance. They would therefore have "
5880 "little <emphasis>static</emphasis> reason to resist them."
5883 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5884 #: freeculture.xml:4033
5885 msgid "sales levels of"
5888 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5889 #: freeculture.xml:4035
5891 "Could that be true? Could the industry as a whole be gaining because of file "
5892 "sharing? Odd as that might sound, the data about CD sales actually suggest "
5893 "it might be close."
5897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5898 #: freeculture.xml:4044
5900 "See Recording Industry Association of America, <citetitle>2002 Yearend "
5901 "Statistics</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5902 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #15</ulink>. A later report "
5903 "indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of "
5904 "America, <citetitle>Some Facts About Music Piracy</citetitle>, 25 June 2003, "
5905 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #16</ulink>: "
5906 "<quote>In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen "
5907 "by 26 percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the "
5908 "United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are "
5909 "down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on "
5910 "U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from "
5911 "a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based "
5912 "on U.S. dollar value of shipments).</quote>"
5915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5916 #: freeculture.xml:4071
5920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5921 #: freeculture.xml:4068
5923 "Jane Black, <quote>Big Music's Broken Record,</quote> BusinessWeek online, "
5924 "13 February 2003, available at <ulink "
5925 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #17</ulink>. <placeholder "
5926 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5930 #: freeculture.xml:4040
5932 "In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 "
5933 "million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent.<placeholder "
5934 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This confirms a trend over the past few "
5935 "years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many "
5936 "other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, "
5937 "reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since "
5938 "1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales. Rising "
5939 "prices could account for at least some of the loss. <quote>From 1999 to "
5940 "2001, the average price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to "
5941 "$14.19.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Competition from "
5942 "other forms of media could also account for some of the decline. As Jane "
5943 "Black of <citetitle>BusinessWeek</citetitle> notes, <quote>The soundtrack to "
5944 "the film <citetitle>High Fidelity</citetitle> has a list price of "
5945 "$18.98. You could get the whole movie [on DVD] for "
5946 "$19.99.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
5950 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5951 #: freeculture.xml:4086
5953 "But let's assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is "
5954 "because of Internet sharing. Here's the rub: In the same period that the "
5955 "RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 "
5956 "billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total "
5957 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 "
5961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5962 #: freeculture.xml:4094
5964 "There are too many different things happening at the same time to explain "
5965 "these numbers definitively, but one conclusion is unavoidable: The recording "
5966 "industry constantly asks, <quote>What's the difference between downloading a "
5967 "song and stealing a CD?</quote>—but their own numbers reveal the "
5968 "difference. If I steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking "
5969 "is a lost sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is "
5970 "absolutely clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download "
5971 "were a lost sale—if every use of Kazaa <quote>rob[bed] the author of "
5972 "[his] profit</quote>—then the industry would have suffered a 100 "
5973 "percent drop in sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the "
5974 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped "
5975 "by just 6.7 percent, then there is a huge difference between "
5976 "<quote>downloading a song and stealing a CD.</quote>"
5979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5980 #: freeculture.xml:4110
5982 "These are the harms—alleged and perhaps exaggerated but, let's assume, "
5983 "real. What of the benefits? File sharing may impose costs on the recording "
5984 "industry. What value does it produce in addition to these costs?"
5988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5989 #: freeculture.xml:4122
5991 "By one estimate, 75 percent of the music released by the major labels is no "
5992 "longer in print. See Online Entertainment and Copyright Law—Coming "
5993 "Soon to a Digital Device Near You: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on "
5994 "the Judiciary, 107th Cong., 1st sess. (3 April 2001) (prepared statement of "
5995 "the Future of Music Coalition), available at <ulink "
5996 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #18</ulink>."
5999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6000 #: freeculture.xml:4116
6002 "One benefit is type C sharing—making available content that is "
6003 "technically still under copyright but is no longer commercially available. "
6004 "This is not a small category of content. There are millions of tracks that "
6005 "are no longer commercially available.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6006 "id=\"0\"/> And while it's conceivable that some of this content is not "
6007 "available because the artist producing the content doesn't want it to be "
6008 "made available, the vast majority of it is unavailable solely because the "
6009 "publisher or the distributor has decided it no longer makes economic sense "
6010 "<emphasis>to the company</emphasis> to make it available."
6013 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
6014 #: freeculture.xml:4135 freeculture.xml:4143 freeculture.xml:4164 freeculture.xml:4188 freeculture.xml:4699 freeculture.xml:6159 freeculture.xml:6164 freeculture.xml:6216 freeculture.xml:7183 freeculture.xml:7184 freeculture.xml:7570 freeculture.xml:7639 freeculture.xml:7927 freeculture.xml:14415 freeculture.xml:15141 freeculture.xml:15142
6018 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
6019 #: freeculture.xml:4135 freeculture.xml:4143 freeculture.xml:7183 freeculture.xml:15142
6023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6024 #: freeculture.xml:4143
6026 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> While there are not good "
6027 "estimates of the number of used record stores in existence, in 2002, there "
6028 "were 7,198 used book dealers in the United States, an increase of 20 percent "
6029 "since 1993. See Book Hunter Press, <citetitle>The Quiet Revolution: The "
6030 "Expansion of the Used Book Market</citetitle> (2002), available at <ulink "
6031 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #19</ulink>. Used records "
6032 "accounted for $260 million in sales in 2002. See National Association of "
6033 "Recording Merchandisers, <quote>2002 Annual Survey Results,</quote> "
6034 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #20</ulink>."
6037 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6038 #: freeculture.xml:4137
6040 "In real space—long before the Internet—the market had a simple "
6041 "response to this problem: used book and record stores. There are thousands "
6042 "of used book and used record stores in America today.<placeholder "
6043 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These stores buy content from owners, then sell "
6044 "the content they buy. And under American copyright law, when they buy and "
6045 "sell this content, <emphasis>even if the content is still under "
6046 "copyright</emphasis>, the copyright owner doesn't get a dime. Used book and "
6047 "record stores are commercial entities; their owners make money from the "
6048 "content they sell; but as with cable companies before statutory licensing, "
6049 "they don't have to pay the copyright owner for the content they sell."
6052 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
6053 #: freeculture.xml:4164 freeculture.xml:6159 freeculture.xml:6164 freeculture.xml:7184 freeculture.xml:15141
6054 msgid "out of print"
6057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6058 #: freeculture.xml:4165
6059 msgid "Bernstein, Leonard"
6062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
6063 #: freeculture.xml:4166 freeculture.xml:7640
6067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6068 #: freeculture.xml:4168
6070 "Type C sharing, then, is very much like used book stores or used record "
6071 "stores. It is different, of course, because the person making the content "
6072 "available isn't making money from making the content available. It is also "
6073 "different, of course, because in real space, when I sell a record, I don't "
6074 "have it anymore, while in cyberspace, when someone shares my 1949 recording "
6075 "of Bernstein's <quote>Two Love Songs,</quote> I still have it. That "
6076 "difference would matter economically if the owner of the copyright were "
6077 "selling the record in competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the "
6078 "class of content that is not currently commercially available. The Internet "
6079 "is making it available, through cooperative sharing, without competing with "
6083 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6084 #: freeculture.xml:4181
6086 "It may well be, all things considered, that it would be better if the "
6087 "copyright owner got something from this trade. But just because it may well "
6088 "be better, it doesn't follow that it would be good to ban used book "
6089 "stores. Or put differently, if you think that type C sharing should be "
6090 "stopped, do you think that libraries and used book stores should be shut as "
6094 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
6095 #: freeculture.xml:4188 freeculture.xml:14415
6096 msgid "free on-line releases of"
6099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6100 #: freeculture.xml:4189
6101 msgid "Doctorow, Cory"
6104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6105 #: freeculture.xml:4190
6106 msgid "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Doctorow)"
6110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6111 #: freeculture.xml:4192
6113 "Finally, and perhaps most importantly, file-sharing networks enable type D "
6114 "sharing to occur—the sharing of content that copyright owners want to "
6115 "have shared or for which there is no continuing copyright. This sharing "
6116 "clearly benefits authors and society. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow, "
6117 "for example, released his first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
6118 "Kingdom</citetitle>, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same "
6119 "day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution "
6120 "would be a great advertisement for the <quote>real</quote> book. People "
6121 "would read part on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or "
6122 "not. If they liked it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's "
6123 "content is type D content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, "
6124 "then both he and society are better off. (Actually, much better off: It is a "
6128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6129 #: freeculture.xml:4210
6131 "Likewise for work in the public domain: This sharing benefits society with "
6132 "no legal harm to authors at all. If efforts to solve the problem of type A "
6133 "sharing destroy the opportunity for type D sharing, then we lose something "
6134 "important in order to protect type A content."
6137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6138 #: freeculture.xml:4216
6140 "The point throughout is this: While the recording industry understandably "
6141 "says, <quote>This is how much we've lost,</quote> we must also ask, "
6142 "<quote>How much has society gained from p2p sharing? What are the "
6143 "efficiencies? What is the content that otherwise would be "
6144 "unavailable?</quote>"
6147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6148 #: freeculture.xml:4224
6150 "For unlike the piracy I described in the first section of this chapter, much "
6151 "of the <quote>piracy</quote> that file sharing enables is plainly legal and "
6152 "good. And like the piracy I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
6153 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"pirates\"/>, much of this piracy is motivated by a "
6154 "new way of spreading content caused by changes in the technology of "
6155 "distribution. Thus, consistent with the tradition that gave us Hollywood, "
6156 "radio, the recording industry, and cable TV, the question we should be "
6157 "asking about file sharing is how best to preserve its benefits while "
6158 "minimizing (to the extent possible) the wrongful harm it causes artists. The "
6159 "question is one of balance. The law should seek that balance, and that "
6160 "balance will be found only with time."
6163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6164 #: freeculture.xml:4238
6166 "<quote>But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the "
6167 "target just what you call type A sharing?</quote>"
6171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6172 #: freeculture.xml:4254
6174 "See Transcript of Proceedings, In Re: Napster Copyright Litigation at 34- 35 "
6175 "(N.D. Cal., 11 July 2001), nos. MDL-00-1369 MHP, C 99-5183 MHP, available at "
6176 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #21</ulink>. For an "
6177 "account of the litigation and its toll on Napster, see Joseph Menn, "
6178 "<citetitle>All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's "
6179 "Napster</citetitle> (New York: Crown Business, 2003), 269–82."
6182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6183 #: freeculture.xml:4242
6185 "You would think. And we should hope. But so far, it is not. The effect of "
6186 "the war purportedly on type A sharing alone has been felt far beyond that "
6187 "one class of sharing. That much is obvious from the Napster case "
6188 "itself. When Napster told the district court that it had developed a "
6189 "technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing "
6190 "material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not "
6191 "good enough. Napster had to push the infringements <quote>down to "
6192 "zero.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6196 #: freeculture.xml:4265
6198 "If 99.4 percent is not good enough, then this is a war on file-sharing "
6199 "technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. There is no way to assure "
6200 "that a p2p system is used 100 percent of the time in compliance with the "
6201 "law, any more than there is a way to assure that 100 percent of VCRs or 100 "
6202 "percent of Xerox machines or 100 percent of handguns are used in compliance "
6203 "with the law. Zero tolerance means zero p2p. The court's ruling means that "
6204 "we as a society must lose the benefits of p2p, even for the totally legal "
6205 "and beneficial uses they serve, simply to assure that there are zero "
6206 "copyright infringements caused by p2p."
6209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6210 #: freeculture.xml:4276
6212 "Zero tolerance has not been our history. It has not produced the content "
6213 "industry that we know today. The history of American law has been a process "
6214 "of balance. As new technologies changed the way content was distributed, the "
6215 "law adjusted, after some time, to the new technology. In this adjustment, "
6216 "the law sought to ensure the legitimate rights of creators while protecting "
6217 "innovation. Sometimes this has meant more rights for creators. Sometimes "
6221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6222 #: freeculture.xml:4285
6223 msgid "composers, copyright protections of"
6226 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
6227 #: freeculture.xml:4290
6228 msgid "music recordings played on"
6231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
6232 #: freeculture.xml:4292
6233 msgid "copyright protections in"
6236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6237 #: freeculture.xml:4295
6238 msgid "composer's rights vs. producers' rights in"
6241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6242 #: freeculture.xml:4297
6244 "So, as we've seen, when <quote>mechanical reproduction</quote> threatened "
6245 "the interests of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers "
6246 "against the interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to "
6247 "composers, but also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but "
6248 "at a price set by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the "
6249 "recordings made by these recording artists, and they complained to Congress "
6250 "that their <quote>creative property</quote> was not being respected (since "
6251 "the radio station did not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), "
6252 "Congress rejected their claim. An indirect benefit was enough."
6255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6256 #: freeculture.xml:4310
6258 "Cable TV followed the pattern of record albums. When the courts rejected the "
6259 "claim that cable broadcasters had to pay for the content they rebroadcast, "
6260 "Congress responded by giving broadcasters a right to compensation, but at a "
6261 "level set by the law. It likewise gave cable companies the right to the "
6262 "content, so long as they paid the statutory price."
6266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6267 #: freeculture.xml:4321
6269 "This compromise, like the compromise affecting records and player pianos, "
6270 "served two important goals—indeed, the two central goals of any "
6271 "copyright legislation. First, the law assured that new innovators would have "
6272 "the freedom to develop new ways to deliver content. Second, the law assured "
6273 "that copyright holders would be paid for the content that was "
6274 "distributed. One fear was that if Congress simply required cable TV to pay "
6275 "copyright holders whatever they demanded for their content, then copyright "
6276 "holders associated with broadcasters would use their power to stifle this "
6277 "new technology, cable. But if Congress had permitted cable to use "
6278 "broadcasters' content for free, then it would have unfairly subsidized "
6279 "cable. Thus Congress chose a path that would assure "
6280 "<emphasis>compensation</emphasis> without giving the past (broadcasters) "
6281 "control over the future (cable)."
6284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6285 #: freeculture.xml:4339
6289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6290 #: freeculture.xml:4342
6292 "In the same year that Congress struck this balance, two major producers and "
6293 "distributors of film content filed a lawsuit against another technology, the "
6294 "video tape recorder (VTR, or as we refer to them today, VCRs) that Sony had "
6295 "produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was "
6296 "relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, "
6297 "that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the "
6298 "device that Sony built had a <quote>record</quote> button, the device could "
6299 "be used to record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore "
6300 "benefiting from the copyright infringement of its customers. It should "
6301 "therefore, Disney and Universal claimed, be partially liable for that "
6306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6307 #: freeculture.xml:4356
6309 "There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to "
6310 "design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It "
6311 "could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a "
6312 "television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the machine to copy "
6313 "only if there were a special <quote>copy me</quote> signal on the line. It "
6314 "was clear that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone "
6315 "permission to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of "
6316 "shows would not have authorized copying. And in the face of this obvious "
6317 "preference, Sony could have designed its system to minimize the opportunity "
6318 "for copyright infringement. It did not, and for that, Disney and Universal "
6319 "wanted to hold it responsible for the architecture it chose."
6322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
6323 #: freeculture.xml:4371
6324 msgid "on VCR technology"
6328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6329 #: freeculture.xml:4380
6331 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders): Hearing on S. 1758 "
6332 "Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., "
6333 "459 (1982) (testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association "
6334 "of America, Inc.)."
6338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6339 #: freeculture.xml:4392
6340 msgid "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 475."
6344 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6345 #: freeculture.xml:4397
6347 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
6348 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 480 F. Supp. 429, (C.D. Cal., 1979)."
6352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6353 #: freeculture.xml:4408
6355 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 485 (testimony of Jack "
6359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6360 #: freeculture.xml:4373
6362 "MPAA president Jack Valenti became the studios' most vocal champion. Valenti "
6363 "called VCRs <quote>tapeworms.</quote> He warned, <quote>When there are 20, "
6364 "30, 40 million of these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of "
6365 "`tapeworms,' eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious "
6366 "asset the copyright owner has, his copyright.</quote><placeholder "
6367 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <quote>One does not have to be trained in "
6368 "sophisticated marketing and creative judgment,</quote> he told Congress, "
6369 "<quote>to understand the devastation on the after-theater marketplace caused "
6370 "by the hundreds of millions of tapings that will adversely impact on the "
6371 "future of the creative community in this country. It is simply a question of "
6372 "basic economics and plain common sense.</quote><placeholder "
6373 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Indeed, as surveys would later show, 45 percent "
6374 "of VCR owners had movie libraries of ten videos or more<placeholder "
6375 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> — a use the Court would later hold was "
6376 "not <quote>fair.</quote> By <quote>allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the "
6377 "means of an exemption from copyright infringement without creating a "
6378 "mechanism to compensate copyright owners,</quote> Valenti testified, "
6379 "Congress would <quote>take from the owners the very essence of their "
6380 "property: the exclusive right to control who may use their work, that is, "
6381 "who may copy it and thereby profit from its "
6382 "reproduction.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"3\"/>"
6386 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6387 #: freeculture.xml:4426
6389 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
6390 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 659 F. 2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981)."
6393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
6394 #: freeculture.xml:4429
6395 msgid "Kozinski, Alex"
6398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6399 #: freeculture.xml:4414
6401 "It took eight years for this case to be resolved by the Supreme Court. In "
6402 "the interim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Hollywood in "
6403 "its jurisdiction—leading Judge Alex Kozinski, who sits on that court, "
6404 "refers to it as the <quote>Hollywood Circuit</quote>—held that Sony "
6405 "would be liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its "
6406 "machines. Under the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar "
6407 "technology—which Jack Valenti had called <quote>the Boston Strangler "
6408 "of the American film industry</quote> (worse yet, it was a "
6409 "<emphasis>Japanese</emphasis> Boston Strangler of the American film "
6410 "industry)—was an illegal technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6411 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6416 #: freeculture.xml:4432
6418 "But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit. And in "
6419 "its reversal, the Court clearly articulated its understanding of when and "
6420 "whether courts should intervene in such disputes. As the Court wrote,"
6424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6425 #: freeculture.xml:4451
6427 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
6428 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984)."
6431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
6432 #: freeculture.xml:4441
6434 "Sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to "
6435 "Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for "
6436 "copyrighted materials. Congress has the constitutional authority and the "
6437 "institutional ability to accommodate fully the varied permutations of "
6438 "competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new "
6439 "technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6443 #: freeculture.xml:4457
6445 "Congress was asked to respond to the Supreme Court's decision. But as with "
6446 "the plea of recording artists about radio broadcasts, Congress ignored the "
6447 "request. Congress was convinced that American film got enough, this "
6448 "<quote>taking</quote> notwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a "
6452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6453 #: freeculture.xml:4468
6457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6458 #: freeculture.xml:4469
6459 msgid "WHOSE VALUE WAS <quote>PIRATED</quote>"
6462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6463 #: freeculture.xml:4470
6464 msgid "RESPONSE OF THE COURTS"
6467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
6468 #: freeculture.xml:4471
6469 msgid "RESPONSE OF CONGRESS"
6472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6473 #: freeculture.xml:4476
6477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6478 #: freeculture.xml:4477
6482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6483 #: freeculture.xml:4478 freeculture.xml:4490 freeculture.xml:4496
6484 msgid "No protection"
6487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6488 #: freeculture.xml:4479 freeculture.xml:4491
6489 msgid "Statutory license"
6492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6493 #: freeculture.xml:4483
6494 msgid "Recording artists"
6497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6498 #: freeculture.xml:4484
6502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6503 #: freeculture.xml:4485 freeculture.xml:4497
6507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6508 #: freeculture.xml:4489
6509 msgid "Broadcasters"
6512 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6513 #: freeculture.xml:4494
6517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
6518 #: freeculture.xml:4495
6519 msgid "Film creators"
6522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6523 #: freeculture.xml:4507
6525 "These are the most important instances in our history, but there are other "
6526 "cases as well. The technology of digital audio tape (DAT), for example, was "
6527 "regulated by Congress to minimize the risk of piracy. The remedy Congress "
6528 "imposed did burden DAT producers, by taxing tape sales and controlling the "
6529 "technology of DAT. See Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Title 17 of the "
6530 "<citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. "
6531 "4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. §1001. Again, however, this regulation did not "
6532 "eliminate the opportunity for free riding in the sense I've described. See "
6533 "Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 71. See also Picker, <quote>From "
6534 "Edison to the Broadcast Flag,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law "
6535 "Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 293–96. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6536 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6539 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6540 #: freeculture.xml:4504
6542 "In each case throughout our history, a new technology changed the way "
6543 "content was distributed.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In each "
6544 "case, throughout our history, that change meant that someone got a "
6545 "<quote>free ride</quote> on someone else's work."
6549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6550 #: freeculture.xml:4525
6552 "In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these cases did either the courts or "
6553 "Congress eliminate all free riding. In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these "
6554 "cases did the courts or Congress insist that the law should assure that the "
6555 "copyright holder get all the value that his copyright created. In every "
6556 "case, the copyright owners complained of <quote>piracy.</quote> In every "
6557 "case, Congress acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in the behavior of "
6558 "the <quote>pirates.</quote> In each case, Congress allowed some new "
6559 "technology to benefit from content made before. It balanced the interests at "
6563 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6564 #: freeculture.xml:4538
6566 "When you think across these examples, and the other examples that make up "
6567 "the first four chapters of this section, this balance makes sense. Was Walt "
6568 "Disney a pirate? Would doujinshi be better if creators had to ask "
6569 "permission? Should tools that enable others to capture and spread images as "
6570 "a way to cultivate or criticize our culture be better regulated? Is it "
6571 "really right that building a search engine should expose you to $15 million "
6572 "in damages? Would it have been better if Edison had controlled film? Should "
6573 "every cover band have to hire a lawyer to get permission to record a song?"
6576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
6577 #: freeculture.xml:4549
6578 msgid "on balance of interests in copyright law"
6582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6583 #: freeculture.xml:4556
6585 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
6586 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, (1984)."
6589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6590 #: freeculture.xml:4551
6592 "We could answer yes to each of these questions, but our tradition has "
6593 "answered no. In our tradition, as the Supreme Court has stated, copyright "
6594 "<quote>has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all "
6595 "possible uses of his work.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
6596 "Instead, the particular uses that the law regulates have been defined by "
6597 "balancing the good that comes from granting an exclusive right against the "
6598 "burdens such an exclusive right creates. And this balancing has historically "
6599 "been done <emphasis>after</emphasis> a technology has matured, or settled "
6600 "into the mix of technologies that facilitate the distribution of content."
6603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6604 #: freeculture.xml:4567
6606 "We should be doing the same thing today. The technology of the Internet is "
6607 "changing quickly. The way people connect to the Internet (wires "
6608 "vs. wireless) is changing very quickly. No doubt the network should not "
6609 "become a tool for <quote>stealing</quote> from artists. But neither should "
6610 "the law become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or "
6611 "more accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the "
6612 "last chapter of this book, we should be securing income to artists while we "
6613 "allow the market to secure the most efficient way to promote and distribute "
6614 "content. This will require changes in the law, at least in the "
6615 "interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the "
6616 "law against the strong public interest that innovation continue."
6620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6621 #: freeculture.xml:4591
6623 "John Schwartz, <quote>New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software "
6624 "Echoes Past Efforts,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 22 "
6625 "September 2003, C3."
6628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6629 #: freeculture.xml:4583
6631 "This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode "
6632 "of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally "
6633 "efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to "
6634 "develop, they could make the network vastly more efficient. Yet these "
6635 "<quote>potential public benefits,</quote> as John Schwartz writes in "
6636 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, <quote>could be delayed in the "
6637 "P2P fight.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6641 #: freeculture.xml:4596
6643 "<emphasis role='strong'>Yet when anyone</emphasis> begins to talk about "
6644 "<quote>balance,</quote> the copyright warriors raise a different "
6645 "argument. <quote>All this hand waving about balance and incentives,</quote> "
6646 "they say, <quote>misses a fundamental point. Our content,</quote> the "
6647 "warriors insist, <quote>is our <emphasis>property</emphasis>. Why should we "
6648 "wait for Congress to `rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait "
6649 "before calling the police when your car has been stolen? And why should "
6650 "Congress deliberate at all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether "
6651 "the car thief had a good use for the car before we arrest him?</quote>"
6654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6655 #: freeculture.xml:4608
6657 "<quote>It is <emphasis>our property</emphasis>,</quote> the warriors "
6658 "insist. <quote>And it should be protected just as any other property is "
6659 "protected.</quote>"
6662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
6663 #: freeculture.xml:4617
6664 msgid "<quote>Property</quote>"
6668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6669 #: freeculture.xml:4622
6671 "<emphasis role='strong'>The copyright warriors</emphasis> are right: A "
6672 "copyright is a kind of property. It can be owned and sold, and the law "
6673 "protects against its theft. Ordinarily, the copyright owner gets to hold out "
6674 "for any price he wants. Markets reckon the supply and demand that partially "
6675 "determine the price she can get."
6678 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6679 #: freeculture.xml:4629
6681 "But in ordinary language, to call a copyright a <quote>property</quote> "
6682 "right is a bit misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of "
6683 "property. Indeed, the very idea of property in any idea or any expression "
6684 "is very odd. I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you "
6685 "put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I "
6686 "take it, you don't have it. But what am I taking when I take the good "
6687 "<emphasis>idea</emphasis> you had to put a picnic table in the "
6688 "backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting "
6689 "it in my backyard? What is the thing I am taking then?"
6692 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
6693 #: freeculture.xml:4640 freeculture.xml:6450 freeculture.xml:14402
6694 msgid "Jefferson, Thomas"
6698 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6699 #: freeculture.xml:4655
6701 "Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (13 August 1813) in "
6702 "<citetitle>The Writings of Thomas Jefferson</citetitle>, vol. 6 (Andrew "
6703 "A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds., 1903), 330, 333–34."
6706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6707 #: freeculture.xml:4642
6709 "The point is not just about the thingness of picnic tables versus ideas, "
6710 "though that's an important difference. The point instead is that in the "
6711 "ordinary case—indeed, in practically every case except for a narrow "
6712 "range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take "
6713 "anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem "
6714 "weird if I did it every day, and especially weird if you are a "
6715 "woman. Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and as is especially true when I "
6716 "copy the way someone else dresses), <quote>He who receives an idea from me, "
6717 "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his "
6718 "taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.</quote><placeholder "
6719 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
6723 #: freeculture.xml:4660
6724 msgid "intangibility of"
6727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6728 #: freeculture.xml:4662
6730 "The exceptions to free use are ideas and expressions within the reach of the "
6731 "law of patent and copyright, and a few other domains that I won't discuss "
6732 "here. Here the law says you can't take my idea or expression without my "
6733 "permission: The law turns the intangible into property."
6737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6738 #: freeculture.xml:4675
6740 "As the legal realists taught American law, all property rights are "
6741 "intangible. A property right is simply a right that an individual has "
6742 "against the world to do or not do certain things that may or may not attach "
6743 "to a physical object. The right itself is intangible, even if the object to "
6744 "which it is (metaphorically) attached is tangible. See Adam Mossoff, "
6745 "<quote>What Is Property? Putting the Pieces Back Together,</quote> "
6746 "<citetitle>Arizona Law Review</citetitle> 45 (2003): 373, 429 n. 241."
6749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6750 #: freeculture.xml:4670
6752 "But how, and to what extent, and in what form—the details, in other "
6753 "words—matter. To get a good sense of how this practice of turning the "
6754 "intangible into property emerged, we need to place this "
6755 "<quote>property</quote> in its proper context.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6760 #: freeculture.xml:4685
6762 "My strategy in doing this will be the same as my strategy in the preceding "
6763 "part. I offer four stories to help put the idea of <quote>copyright material "
6764 "is property</quote> in context. Where did the idea come from? What are its "
6765 "limits? How does it function in practice? After these stories, the "
6766 "significance of this true statement—<quote>copyright material is "
6767 "property</quote>— will be a bit more clear, and its implications will "
6768 "be revealed as quite different from the implications that the copyright "
6769 "warriors would have us draw."
6772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6773 #: freeculture.xml:4698
6774 msgid "Chapter Six: Founders"
6777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
6778 #: freeculture.xml:4699
6779 msgid "English copyright law developed for"
6782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6783 #: freeculture.xml:4702
6784 msgid "England, copyright laws developed in"
6787 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6788 #: freeculture.xml:4703 freeculture.xml:13943
6789 msgid "United Kingdom"
6792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
6793 #: freeculture.xml:4703
6794 msgid "history of copyright law in"
6797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6798 #: freeculture.xml:4704 freeculture.xml:4874
6799 msgid "Branagh, Kenneth"
6802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6803 #: freeculture.xml:4705
6807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6808 #: freeculture.xml:4707 freeculture.xml:4839
6809 msgid "Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)"
6812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6813 #: freeculture.xml:4709
6815 "<emphasis role='strong'>William Shakespeare</emphasis> wrote "
6816 "<citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> in 1595. The play was first "
6817 "published in 1597. It was the eleventh major play that Shakespeare had "
6818 "written. He would continue to write plays through 1613, and the plays that "
6819 "he wrote have continued to define Anglo-American culture ever since. So "
6820 "deeply have the works of a sixteenth-century writer seeped into our culture "
6821 "that we often don't even recognize their source. I once overheard someone "
6822 "commenting on Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Henry V: <quote>I liked it, "
6823 "but Shakespeare is so full of clichés.</quote>"
6826 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6827 #: freeculture.xml:4720 freeculture.xml:4804 freeculture.xml:4913 freeculture.xml:5046
6831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6832 #: freeculture.xml:4721
6833 msgid "Tonson, Jacob"
6836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6837 #: freeculture.xml:4727
6841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6842 #: freeculture.xml:4728
6843 msgid "Dryden, John"
6846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6847 #: freeculture.xml:4727
6849 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6850 "id=\"1\"/> Jacob Tonson is typically remembered for his associations with "
6851 "prominent eighteenth-century literary figures, especially John Dryden, and "
6852 "for his handsome <quote>definitive editions</quote> of classic works. In "
6853 "addition to <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle>, he published an "
6854 "astonishing array of works that still remain at the heart of the English "
6855 "canon, including collected works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, "
6856 "and John Dryden. See Keith Walker, <quote>Jacob Tonson, Bookseller,</quote> "
6857 "<citetitle>American Scholar</citetitle> 61:3 (1992): 424–31."
6861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6862 #: freeculture.xml:4740
6864 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
6865 "Perspective</citetitle> (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968), "
6870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6871 #: freeculture.xml:4723
6873 "In 1774, almost 180 years after <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> was "
6874 "written, the <quote>copy-right</quote> for the work was still thought by "
6875 "many to be the exclusive right of a single London publisher, Jacob "
6876 "Tonson.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Tonson was the most "
6877 "prominent of a small group of publishers called the Conger<placeholder "
6878 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> who controlled bookselling in England during "
6879 "the eighteenth century. The Conger claimed a perpetual right to control the "
6880 "<quote>copy</quote> of books that they had acquired from authors. That "
6881 "perpetual right meant that no one else could publish copies of a book to "
6882 "which they held the copyright. Prices of the classics were thus kept high; "
6883 "competition to produce better or cheaper editions was eliminated."
6886 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6887 #: freeculture.xml:4752 freeculture.xml:4805 freeculture.xml:4945 freeculture.xml:5126 freeculture.xml:5282
6888 msgid "British Parliament"
6891 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
6892 #: freeculture.xml:4754 freeculture.xml:7121
6893 msgid "renewability of"
6896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6897 #: freeculture.xml:4755 freeculture.xml:4807 freeculture.xml:4851 freeculture.xml:4958 freeculture.xml:5045 freeculture.xml:7111
6898 msgid "Statute of Anne (1710)"
6901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6902 #: freeculture.xml:4766
6904 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> As Siva Vaidhyanathan nicely "
6905 "argues, it is erroneous to call this a <quote>copyright law.</quote> See "
6906 "Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 40."
6909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6910 #: freeculture.xml:4757
6912 "Now, there's something puzzling about the year 1774 to anyone who knows a "
6913 "little about copyright law. The better-known year in the history of "
6914 "copyright is 1710, the year that the British Parliament adopted the first "
6915 "<quote>copyright</quote> act. Known as the Statute of Anne, the act stated "
6916 "that all published works would get a copyright term of fourteen years, "
6917 "renewable once if the author was alive, and that all works already published "
6918 "by 1710 would get a single term of twenty-one additional years.<placeholder "
6919 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Under this law, <citetitle>Romeo and "
6920 "Juliet</citetitle> should have been free in 1731. So why was there any issue "
6921 "about it still being under Tonson's control in 1774?"
6924 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
6925 #: freeculture.xml:4775 freeculture.xml:4999
6926 msgid "common vs. positive"
6929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6930 #: freeculture.xml:4776 freeculture.xml:5000
6931 msgid "positive law"
6934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6935 #: freeculture.xml:4777
6936 msgid "Licensing Act (1662)"
6939 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6940 #: freeculture.xml:4779
6942 "The reason is that the English hadn't yet agreed on what a "
6943 "<quote>copyright</quote> was—indeed, no one had. At the time the "
6944 "English passed the Statute of Anne, there was no other legislation governing "
6945 "copyrights. The last law regulating publishers, the Licensing Act of 1662, "
6946 "had expired in 1695. That law gave publishers a monopoly over publishing, as "
6947 "a way to make it easier for the Crown to control what was published. But "
6948 "after it expired, there was no positive law that said that the publishers, "
6949 "or <quote>Stationers,</quote> had an exclusive right to print books."
6952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6953 #: freeculture.xml:4790 freeculture.xml:4998 freeculture.xml:5069 freeculture.xml:5169
6957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6958 #: freeculture.xml:4792
6960 "There was no <emphasis>positive</emphasis> law, but that didn't mean that "
6961 "there was no law. The Anglo-American legal tradition looks to both the words "
6962 "of legislatures and the words of judges to know the rules that are to govern "
6963 "how people are to behave. We call the words from legislatures "
6964 "<quote>positive law.</quote> We call the words from judges <quote>common "
6965 "law.</quote> The common law sets the background against which legislatures "
6966 "legislate; the legislature, ordinarily, can trump that background only if it "
6967 "passes a law to displace it. And so the real question after the licensing "
6968 "statutes had expired was whether the common law protected a copyright, "
6969 "independent of any positive law."
6972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6973 #: freeculture.xml:4806 freeculture.xml:5035 freeculture.xml:5143 freeculture.xml:5221
6974 msgid "Scottish publishers"
6978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6979 #: freeculture.xml:4809
6981 "This question was important to the publishers, or "
6982 "<quote>booksellers,</quote> as they were called, because there was growing "
6983 "competition from foreign publishers. The Scottish, in particular, were "
6984 "increasingly publishing and exporting books to England. That competition "
6985 "reduced the profits of the Conger, which reacted by demanding that "
6986 "Parliament pass a law to again give them exclusive control over "
6987 "publishing. That demand ultimately resulted in the Statute of Anne."
6990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
6991 #: freeculture.xml:4820
6992 msgid "as narrow monopoly right"
6995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6996 #: freeculture.xml:4822
6998 "The Statute of Anne granted the author or <quote>proprietor</quote> of a "
6999 "book an exclusive right to print that book. In an important limitation, "
7000 "however, and to the horror of the booksellers, the law gave the bookseller "
7001 "that right for a limited term. At the end of that term, the copyright "
7002 "<quote>expired,</quote> and the work would then be free and could be "
7003 "published by anyone. Or so the legislature is thought to have believed."
7006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7007 #: freeculture.xml:4832
7009 "Now, the thing to puzzle about for a moment is this: Why would Parliament "
7010 "limit the exclusive right? Not why would they limit it to the particular "
7011 "limit they set, but why would they limit the right <emphasis>at "
7015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7016 #: freeculture.xml:4841
7018 "For the booksellers, and the authors whom they represented, had a very "
7019 "strong claim. Take <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> as an example: "
7020 "That play was written by Shakespeare. It was his genius that brought it into "
7021 "the world. He didn't take anybody's property when he created this play "
7022 "(that's a controversial claim, but never mind), and by his creating this "
7023 "play, he didn't make it any harder for others to craft a play. So why is it "
7024 "that the law would ever allow someone else to come along and take "
7025 "Shakespeare's play without his, or his estate's, permission? What reason is "
7026 "there to allow someone else to <quote>steal</quote> Shakespeare's work?"
7029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7030 #: freeculture.xml:4853
7032 "The answer comes in two parts. We first need to see something special about "
7033 "the notion of <quote>copyright</quote> that existed at the time of the "
7034 "Statute of Anne. Second, we have to see something important about "
7035 "<quote>booksellers.</quote>"
7038 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
7039 #: freeculture.xml:4858 freeculture.xml:7631 freeculture.xml:7802
7040 msgid "usage restrictions attached to"
7044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7045 #: freeculture.xml:4860
7047 "First, about copyright. In the last three hundred years, we have come to "
7048 "apply the concept of <quote>copyright</quote> ever more broadly. But in "
7049 "1710, it wasn't so much a concept as it was a very particular right. The "
7050 "copyright was born as a very specific set of restrictions: It forbade others "
7051 "from reprinting a book. In 1710, the <quote>copy-right</quote> was a right "
7052 "to use a particular machine to replicate a particular work. It did not go "
7053 "beyond that very narrow right. It did not control any more generally how a "
7054 "work could be <emphasis>used</emphasis>. Today the right includes a large "
7055 "collection of restrictions on the freedom of others: It grants the author "
7056 "the exclusive right to copy, the exclusive right to distribute, the "
7057 "exclusive right to perform, and so on."
7060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7061 #: freeculture.xml:4877
7063 "So, for example, even if the copyright to Shakespeare's works were "
7064 "perpetual, all that would have meant under the original meaning of the term "
7065 "was that no one could reprint Shakespeare's work without the permission of "
7066 "the Shakespeare estate. It would not have controlled anything, for example, "
7067 "about how the work could be performed, whether the work could be translated, "
7068 "or whether Kenneth Branagh would be allowed to make his films. The "
7069 "<quote>copy-right</quote> was only an exclusive right to print—no "
7070 "less, of course, but also no more."
7073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7074 #: freeculture.xml:4886
7075 msgid "Henry VIII, King of England"
7078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7079 #: freeculture.xml:4887
7080 msgid "monopoly, copyright as"
7083 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7084 #: freeculture.xml:4888
7085 msgid "Statute of Monopolies (1656)"
7088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7089 #: freeculture.xml:4890
7091 "Even that limited right was viewed with skepticism by the British. They had "
7092 "had a long and ugly experience with <quote>exclusive rights,</quote> "
7093 "especially <quote>exclusive rights</quote> granted by the Crown. The English "
7094 "had fought a civil war in part about the Crown's practice of handing out "
7095 "monopolies—especially monopolies for works that already existed. King "
7096 "Henry VIII granted a patent to print the Bible and a monopoly to Darcy to "
7097 "print playing cards. The English Parliament began to fight back against this "
7098 "power of the Crown. In 1656, it passed the Statute of Monopolies, limiting "
7099 "monopolies to patents for new inventions. And by 1710, Parliament was eager "
7100 "to deal with the growing monopoly in publishing."
7103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7104 #: freeculture.xml:4903
7106 "Thus the <quote>copy-right,</quote> when viewed as a monopoly right, was "
7107 "naturally viewed as a right that should be limited. (However convincing the "
7108 "claim that <quote>it's my property, and I should have it forever,</quote> "
7109 "try sounding convincing when uttering, <quote>It's my monopoly, and I should "
7110 "have it forever.</quote>) The state would protect the exclusive right, but "
7111 "only so long as it benefited society. The British saw the harms from "
7112 "specialinterest favors; they passed a law to stop them."
7115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7116 #: freeculture.xml:4911 freeculture.xml:5204
7117 msgid "Milton, John"
7120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7121 #: freeculture.xml:4912
7122 msgid "booksellers, English"
7126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7127 #: freeculture.xml:4931
7129 "Philip Wittenberg, <citetitle>The Protection and Marketing of Literary "
7130 "Property</citetitle> (New York: J. Messner, Inc., 1937), 31."
7133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7134 #: freeculture.xml:4916
7136 "Second, about booksellers. It wasn't just that the copyright was a "
7137 "monopoly. It was also that it was a monopoly held by the booksellers. "
7138 "Booksellers sound quaint and harmless to us. They were not viewed as "
7139 "harmless in seventeenth-century England. Members of the Conger were "
7140 "increasingly seen as monopolists of the worst kind—tools of the "
7141 "Crown's repression, selling the liberty of England to guarantee themselves a "
7142 "monopoly profit. The attacks against these monopolists were harsh: Milton "
7143 "described them as <quote>old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of "
7144 "book-selling</quote>; they were <quote>men who do not therefore labour in an "
7145 "honest profession to which learning is indetted.</quote><placeholder "
7146 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7150 #: freeculture.xml:4935
7151 msgid "Enlightenment"
7154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7155 #: freeculture.xml:4936
7156 msgid "knowledge, freedom of"
7159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7160 #: freeculture.xml:4938
7162 "Many believed the power the booksellers exercised over the spread of "
7163 "knowledge was harming that spread, just at the time the Enlightenment was "
7164 "teaching the importance of education and knowledge spread generally. The "
7165 "idea that knowledge should be free was a hallmark of the time, and these "
7166 "powerful commercial interests were interfering with that idea."
7169 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7170 #: freeculture.xml:4947
7172 "To balance this power, Parliament decided to increase competition among "
7173 "booksellers, and the simplest way to do that was to spread the wealth of "
7174 "valuable books. Parliament therefore limited the term of copyrights, and "
7175 "thereby guaranteed that valuable books would become open to any publisher to "
7176 "publish after a limited time. Thus the setting of the term for existing "
7177 "works to just twenty-one years was a compromise to fight the power of the "
7178 "booksellers. The limitation on terms was an indirect way to assure "
7179 "competition among publishers, and thus the construction and spread of "
7183 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7184 #: freeculture.xml:4960 freeculture.xml:5095 freeculture.xml:5189 freeculture.xml:11144
7185 msgid "in perpetuity"
7188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7189 #: freeculture.xml:4962
7191 "When 1731 (1710 + 21) came along, however, the booksellers were getting "
7192 "anxious. They saw the consequences of more competition, and like every "
7193 "competitor, they didn't like them. At first booksellers simply ignored the "
7194 "Statute of Anne, continuing to insist on the perpetual right to control "
7195 "publication. But in 1735 and 1737, they tried to persuade Parliament to "
7196 "extend their terms. Twenty-one years was not enough, they said; they needed "
7200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7201 #: freeculture.xml:4971
7203 "Parliament rejected their requests. As one pamphleteer put it, in words that "
7208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
7209 #: freeculture.xml:4986
7211 "A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill now depending in the "
7212 "House of Commons, for making more effectual an Act in the Eighth Year of the "
7213 "Reign of Queen Anne, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by "
7214 "Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such "
7215 "Copies, during the Times therein mentioned (London, 1735), in Brief Amici "
7216 "Curiae of Tyler T. Ochoa et al., 8, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
7217 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618)."
7220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7221 #: freeculture.xml:4976
7223 "I see no Reason for granting a further Term now, which will not hold as well "
7224 "for granting it again and again, as often as the Old ones Expire; so that "
7225 "should this Bill pass, it will in Effect be establishing a perpetual "
7226 "Monopoly, a Thing deservedly odious in the Eye of the Law; it will be a "
7227 "great Cramp to Trade, a Discouragement to Learning, no Benefit to the "
7228 "Authors, but a general Tax on the Publick; and all this only to increase the "
7229 "private Gain of the Booksellers.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7232 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7233 #: freeculture.xml:5002
7235 "Having failed in Parliament, the publishers turned to the courts in a series "
7236 "of cases. Their argument was simple and direct: The Statute of Anne gave "
7237 "authors certain protections through positive law, but those protections were "
7238 "not intended as replacements for the common law. Instead, they were "
7239 "intended simply to supplement the common law. Under common law, it was "
7240 "already wrong to take another person's creative <quote>property</quote> and "
7241 "use it without his permission. The Statute of Anne, the booksellers argued, "
7242 "didn't change that. Therefore, just because the protections of the Statute "
7243 "of Anne expired, that didn't mean the protections of the common law expired: "
7244 "Under the common law they had the right to ban the publication of a book, "
7245 "even if its Statute of Anne copyright had expired. This, they argued, was "
7246 "the only way to protect authors."
7249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
7250 #: freeculture.xml:5024 freeculture.xml:5034 freeculture.xml:5077
7251 msgid "Patterson, Raymond"
7254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7255 #: freeculture.xml:5024
7257 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7258 "id=\"1\"/> Lyman Ray Patterson, <quote>Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair "
7259 "Use,</quote> <citetitle>Vanderbilt Law Review</citetitle> 40 (1987): 28. For "
7260 "a wonderfully compelling account, see Vaidhyanathan, 37–48."
7263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7264 #: freeculture.xml:5018
7266 "This was a clever argument, and one that had the support of some of the "
7267 "leading jurists of the day. It also displayed extraordinary chutzpah. Until "
7268 "then, as law professor Raymond Patterson has put it, <quote>The publishers "
7269 "… had as much concern for authors as a cattle rancher has for "
7270 "cattle.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The bookseller "
7271 "didn't care squat for the rights of the author. His concern was the "
7272 "monopoly profit that the author's work gave."
7275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7276 #: freeculture.xml:5033 freeculture.xml:5142
7277 msgid "Donaldson, Alexander"
7281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7282 #: freeculture.xml:5041
7284 "For a compelling account, see David Saunders, <citetitle>Authorship and "
7285 "Copyright</citetitle> (London: Routledge, 1992), 62–69."
7288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7289 #: freeculture.xml:5037
7291 "The booksellers' argument was not accepted without a fight. The hero of "
7292 "this fight was a Scottish bookseller named Alexander Donaldson.<placeholder "
7293 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7297 #: freeculture.xml:5047
7298 msgid "Boswell, James"
7301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7302 #: freeculture.xml:5048
7303 msgid "Erskine, Andrew"
7306 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7307 #: freeculture.xml:5057 freeculture.xml:15566
7311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7312 #: freeculture.xml:5055
7314 "Mark Rose, <citetitle>Authors and Owners</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard "
7315 "University Press, 1993), 92. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7320 #: freeculture.xml:5066
7324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7325 #: freeculture.xml:5050
7327 "Donaldson was an outsider to the London Conger. He began his career in "
7328 "Edinburgh in 1750. The focus of his business was inexpensive reprints "
7329 "<quote>of standard works whose copyright term had expired,</quote> at least "
7330 "under the Statute of Anne.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
7331 "Donaldson's publishing house prospered and became <quote>something of a "
7332 "center for literary Scotsmen.</quote> <quote>[A]mong them,</quote> Professor "
7333 "Mark Rose writes, was <quote>the young James Boswell who, together with his "
7334 "friend Andrew Erskine, published an anthology of contemporary Scottish poems "
7335 "with Donaldson.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
7338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7339 #: freeculture.xml:5077
7341 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Lyman Ray Patterson, "
7342 "<citetitle>Copyright in Historical Perspective</citetitle>, 167 (quoting "
7346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7347 #: freeculture.xml:5071
7349 "When the London booksellers tried to shut down Donaldson's shop in Scotland, "
7350 "he responded by moving his shop to London, where he sold inexpensive "
7351 "editions <quote>of the most popular English books, in defiance of the "
7352 "supposed common law right of Literary Property.</quote><placeholder "
7353 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His books undercut the Conger prices by 30 to "
7354 "50 percent, and he rested his right to compete upon the ground that, under "
7355 "the Statute of Anne, the works he was selling had passed out of protection."
7358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7359 #: freeculture.xml:5086
7360 msgid "Millar v. Taylor"
7363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7364 #: freeculture.xml:5088
7366 "The London booksellers quickly brought suit to block <quote>piracy</quote> "
7367 "like Donaldson's. A number of actions were successful against the "
7368 "<quote>pirates,</quote> the most important early victory being "
7369 "<citetitle>Millar</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Taylor</citetitle>."
7372 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7373 #: freeculture.xml:5094 freeculture.xml:5148
7374 msgid "Thomson, James"
7377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7378 #: freeculture.xml:5096
7379 msgid "Seasons, The (Thomson)"
7382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7383 #: freeculture.xml:5097
7384 msgid "Taylor, Robert"
7388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7389 #: freeculture.xml:5106
7391 "Howard B. Abrams, <quote>The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: "
7392 "Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Wayne Law "
7393 "Review</citetitle> 29 (1983): 1152."
7396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7397 #: freeculture.xml:5099
7399 "Millar was a bookseller who in 1729 had purchased the rights to James "
7400 "Thomson's poem <quote>The Seasons.</quote> Millar complied with the "
7401 "requirements of the Statute of Anne, and therefore received the full "
7402 "protection of the statute. After the term of copyright ended, Robert Taylor "
7403 "began printing a competing volume. Millar sued, claiming a perpetual common "
7404 "law right, the Statute of Anne notwithstanding.<placeholder "
7405 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7409 #: freeculture.xml:5113
7411 "Astonishingly to modern lawyers, one of the greatest judges in English "
7412 "history, Lord Mansfield, agreed with the booksellers. Whatever protection "
7413 "the Statute of Anne gave booksellers, it did not, he held, extinguish any "
7414 "common law right. The question was whether the common law would protect the "
7415 "author against subsequent <quote>pirates.</quote> Mansfield's answer was "
7416 "yes: The common law would bar Taylor from reprinting Thomson's poem without "
7417 "Millar's permission. That common law rule thus effectively gave the "
7418 "booksellers a perpetual right to control the publication of any book "
7423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7424 #: freeculture.xml:5128
7426 "Considered as a matter of abstract justice—reasoning as if justice "
7427 "were just a matter of logical deduction from first "
7428 "principles—Mansfield's conclusion might make some sense. But what it "
7429 "ignored was the larger issue that Parliament had struggled with in 1710: How "
7430 "best to limit the monopoly power of publishers? Parliament's strategy was to "
7431 "offer a term for existing works that was long enough to buy peace in 1710, "
7432 "but short enough to assure that culture would pass into competition within a "
7433 "reasonable period of time. Within twenty-one years, Parliament believed, "
7434 "Britain would mature from the controlled culture that the Crown coveted to "
7435 "the free culture that we inherited."
7438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7439 #: freeculture.xml:5145
7441 "The fight to defend the limits of the Statute of Anne was not to end there, "
7442 "however, and it is here that Donaldson enters the mix."
7445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7446 #: freeculture.xml:5149
7447 msgid "Beckett, Thomas"
7450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7451 #: freeculture.xml:5150 freeculture.xml:5257
7452 msgid "House of Lords"
7455 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7456 #: freeculture.xml:5151
7457 msgid "House of Lords vs."
7461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7462 #: freeculture.xml:5157
7463 msgid "Ibid., 1156."
7466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7467 #: freeculture.xml:5153
7469 "Millar died soon after his victory, so his case was not appealed. His estate "
7470 "sold Thomson's poems to a syndicate of printers that included Thomas "
7471 "Beckett.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson then released an "
7472 "unauthorized edition of Thomson's works. Beckett, on the strength of the "
7473 "decision in <citetitle>Millar</citetitle>, got an injunction against "
7474 "Donaldson. Donaldson appealed the case to the House of Lords, which "
7475 "functioned much like our own Supreme Court. In February of 1774, that body "
7476 "had the chance to interpret the meaning of Parliament's limits from sixty "
7480 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7481 #: freeculture.xml:5168
7482 msgid "Donaldson v. Beckett"
7485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7486 #: freeculture.xml:5171
7488 "As few legal cases ever do, <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
7489 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle> drew an enormous amount of attention "
7490 "throughout Britain. Donaldson's lawyers argued that whatever rights may have "
7491 "existed under the common law, the Statute of Anne terminated those "
7492 "rights. After passage of the Statute of Anne, the only legal protection for "
7493 "an exclusive right to control publication came from that statute. Thus, they "
7494 "argued, after the term specified in the Statute of Anne expired, works that "
7495 "had been protected by the statute were no longer protected."
7498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7499 #: freeculture.xml:5182
7501 "The House of Lords was an odd institution. Legal questions were presented to "
7502 "the House and voted upon first by the <quote>law lords,</quote> members of "
7503 "special legal distinction who functioned much like the Justices in our "
7504 "Supreme Court. Then, after the law lords voted, the House of Lords generally "
7508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7509 #: freeculture.xml:5190 freeculture.xml:5258
7510 msgid "English legal establishment of"
7514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7515 #: freeculture.xml:5192
7517 "The reports about the law lords' votes are mixed. On some counts, it looks "
7518 "as if perpetual copyright prevailed. But there is no ambiguity about how the "
7519 "House of Lords voted as whole. By a two-to-one majority (22 to 11) they "
7520 "voted to reject the idea of perpetual copyrights. Whatever one's "
7521 "understanding of the common law, now a copyright was fixed for a limited "
7522 "time, after which the work protected by copyright passed into the public "
7526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7527 #: freeculture.xml:5201
7528 msgid "Bacon, Francis"
7531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7532 #: freeculture.xml:5202
7533 msgid "Bunyan, John"
7536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7537 #: freeculture.xml:5203
7538 msgid "Johnson, Samuel"
7541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7542 #: freeculture.xml:5207
7544 "<quote>The public domain.</quote> Before the case of "
7545 "<citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle>, there "
7546 "was no clear idea of a public domain in England. Before 1774, there was a "
7547 "strong argument that common law copyrights were perpetual. After 1774, the "
7548 "public domain was born. For the first time in Anglo-American history, the "
7549 "legal control over creative works expired, and the greatest works in English "
7550 "history—including those of Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Johnson, and "
7551 "Bunyan—were free of legal restraint."
7555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7556 #: freeculture.xml:5233
7560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7561 #: freeculture.xml:5223
7563 "It is hard for us to imagine, but this decision by the House of Lords fueled "
7564 "an extraordinarily popular and political reaction. In Scotland, where most "
7565 "of the <quote>pirate publishers</quote> did their work, people celebrated "
7566 "the decision in the streets. As the <citetitle>Edinburgh "
7567 "Advertiser</citetitle> reported, <quote>No private cause has so much "
7568 "engrossed the attention of the public, and none has been tried before the "
7569 "House of Lords in the decision of which so many individuals were "
7570 "interested.</quote> <quote>Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon victory over "
7571 "literary property: bonfires and illuminations.</quote><placeholder "
7572 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7576 #: freeculture.xml:5238
7578 "In London, however, at least among publishers, the reaction was equally "
7579 "strong in the opposite direction. The <citetitle>Morning "
7580 "Chronicle</citetitle> reported:"
7583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7584 #: freeculture.xml:5244
7586 "By the above decision … near 200,000 pounds worth of what was "
7587 "honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought property "
7588 "is now reduced to nothing. The Booksellers of London and Westminster, many "
7589 "of whom sold estates and houses to purchase Copy-right, are in a manner "
7590 "ruined, and those who after many years industry thought they had acquired a "
7591 "competency to provide for their families now find themselves without a "
7592 "shilling to devise to their successors.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
7597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7598 #: freeculture.xml:5261
7600 "<quote>Ruined</quote> is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not an "
7601 "exaggeration to say that the change was profound. The decision of the House "
7602 "of Lords meant that the booksellers could no longer control how culture in "
7603 "England would grow and develop. Culture in England was thereafter "
7604 "<emphasis>free</emphasis>. Not in the sense that copyrights would not be "
7605 "respected, for of course, for a limited time after a work was published, the "
7606 "bookseller had an exclusive right to control the publication of that "
7607 "book. And not in the sense that books could be stolen, for even after a "
7608 "copyright expired, you still had to buy the book from someone. But "
7609 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> in the sense that the culture and its growth would "
7610 "no longer be controlled by a small group of publishers. As every free market "
7611 "does, this free market of free culture would grow as the consumers and "
7612 "producers chose. English culture would develop as the many English readers "
7613 "chose to let it develop— chose in the books they bought and wrote; "
7614 "chose in the memes they repeated and endorsed. Chose in a "
7615 "<emphasis>competitive context</emphasis>, not a context in which the choices "
7616 "about what culture is available to people and how they get access to it are "
7617 "made by the few despite the wishes of the many."
7620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7621 #: freeculture.xml:5284
7623 "At least, this was the rule in a world where the Parliament is antimonopoly, "
7624 "resistant to the protectionist pleas of publishers. In a world where the "
7625 "Parliament is more pliant, free culture would be less protected."
7628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7629 #: freeculture.xml:5301
7630 msgid "Chapter Seven: Recorders"
7633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
7634 #: freeculture.xml:5302 freeculture.xml:7609 freeculture.xml:7723 freeculture.xml:7782
7635 msgid "fair use and"
7638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7639 #: freeculture.xml:5303
7640 msgid "documentary film"
7643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7644 #: freeculture.xml:5304
7648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
7649 #: freeculture.xml:5305 freeculture.xml:5452 freeculture.xml:7608 freeculture.xml:7641 freeculture.xml:7722 freeculture.xml:7784
7653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7654 #: freeculture.xml:5305
7655 msgid "in documentary film"
7658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7659 #: freeculture.xml:5306
7660 msgid "fair use of copyrighted material in"
7663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7664 #: freeculture.xml:5308
7666 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jon Else</emphasis> is a filmmaker. He is best known "
7667 "for his documentaries and has been very successful in spreading his art. He "
7668 "is also a teacher, and as a teacher myself, I envy the loyalty and "
7669 "admiration that his students feel for him. (I met, by accident, two of his "
7670 "students at a dinner party. He was their god.)"
7673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7674 #: freeculture.xml:5315
7676 "Else worked on a documentary that I was involved in. At a break, he told me "
7677 "a story about the freedom to create with film in America today."
7680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7681 #: freeculture.xml:5319 freeculture.xml:5385
7682 msgid "Wagner, Richard"
7685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7686 #: freeculture.xml:5320 freeculture.xml:5399
7687 msgid "San Francisco Opera"
7690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7691 #: freeculture.xml:5322
7693 "In 1990, Else was working on a documentary about Wagner's Ring Cycle. The "
7694 "focus was stagehands at the San Francisco Opera. Stagehands are a "
7695 "particularly funny and colorful element of an opera. During a show, they "
7696 "hang out below the stage in the grips' lounge and in the lighting loft. They "
7697 "make a perfect contrast to the art on the stage."
7700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7701 #: freeculture.xml:5329
7702 msgid "Simpsons, The"
7706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7707 #: freeculture.xml:5331
7709 "During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing "
7710 "checkers. In one corner of the room was a television set. Playing on the "
7711 "television set, while the stagehands played checkers and the opera company "
7712 "played Wagner, was <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. As Else judged it, "
7713 "this touch of cartoon helped capture the flavor of what was special about "
7717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7718 #: freeculture.xml:5340
7719 msgid "multiple copyrights associated with"
7722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7723 #: freeculture.xml:5342
7725 "Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else "
7726 "attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of <citetitle>The "
7727 "Simpsons</citetitle>. For of course, those few seconds are copyrighted; and "
7728 "of course, to use copyrighted material you need the permission of the "
7729 "copyright owner, unless <quote>fair use</quote> or some other privilege "
7733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7734 #: freeculture.xml:5348
7735 msgid "Gracie Films"
7738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7739 #: freeculture.xml:5349 freeculture.xml:5410 freeculture.xml:5474
7740 msgid "Groening, Matt"
7743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7744 #: freeculture.xml:5351
7746 "Else called <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> creator Matt Groening's office "
7747 "to get permission. Groening approved the shot. The shot was a "
7748 "four-and-a-halfsecond image on a tiny television set in the corner of the "
7749 "room. How could it hurt? Groening was happy to have it in the film, but he "
7750 "told Else to contact Gracie Films, the company that produces the program."
7753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7754 #: freeculture.xml:5357 freeculture.xml:5409 freeculture.xml:5473
7755 msgid "Fox (film company)"
7758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7759 #: freeculture.xml:5359
7761 "Gracie Films was okay with it, too, but they, like Groening, wanted to be "
7762 "careful. So they told Else to contact Fox, Gracie's parent company. Else "
7763 "called Fox and told them about the clip in the corner of the one room shot "
7764 "of the film. Matt Groening had already given permission, Else said. He was "
7765 "just confirming the permission with Fox."
7768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7769 #: freeculture.xml:5367
7771 "Then, as Else told me, <quote>two things happened. First we discovered "
7772 "… that Matt Groening doesn't own his own creation—or at least "
7773 "that someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation.</quote> And "
7774 "second, Fox <quote>wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to "
7775 "use this four-point-five seconds of … entirely unsolicited "
7776 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> which was in the corner of the shot.</quote>"
7779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7780 #: freeculture.xml:5376
7781 msgid "Herrera, Rebecca"
7784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7785 #: freeculture.xml:5378
7787 "Else was certain there was a mistake. He worked his way up to someone he "
7788 "thought was a vice president for licensing, Rebecca Herrera. He explained "
7789 "to her, <quote>There must be some mistake here. … We're asking for "
7790 "your educational rate on this.</quote> That was the educational rate, "
7791 "Herrera told Else. A day or so later, Else called again to confirm what he "
7796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7797 #: freeculture.xml:5387
7799 "<quote>I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight,</quote> he told "
7800 "me. <quote>Yes, you have your facts straight,</quote> she said. It would "
7801 "cost $10,000 to use the clip of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle> in the "
7802 "corner of a shot in a documentary film about Wagner's Ring Cycle. And then, "
7803 "astonishingly, Herrera told Else, <quote>And if you quote me, I'll turn you "
7804 "over to our attorneys.</quote> As an assistant to Herrera told Else later "
7805 "on, <quote>They don't give a shit. They just want the money.</quote>"
7808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7809 #: freeculture.xml:5400
7810 msgid "Day After Trinity, The"
7813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7814 #: freeculture.xml:5402
7816 "Else didn't have the money to buy the right to replay what was playing on "
7817 "the television backstage at the San Francisco Opera. To reproduce this "
7818 "reality was beyond the documentary filmmaker's budget. At the very last "
7819 "minute before the film was to be released, Else digitally replaced the shot "
7820 "with a clip from another film that he had worked on, <citetitle>The Day "
7821 "After Trinity</citetitle>, from ten years before."
7824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7825 #: freeculture.xml:5412
7827 "There's no doubt that someone, whether Matt Groening or Fox, owns the "
7828 "copyright to <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. That copyright is their "
7829 "property. To use that copyrighted material thus sometimes requires the "
7830 "permission of the copyright owner. If the use that Else wanted to make of "
7831 "the <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> copyright were one of the uses "
7832 "restricted by the law, then he would need to get the permission of the "
7833 "copyright owner before he could use the work in that way. And in a free "
7834 "market, it is the owner of the copyright who gets to set the price for any "
7835 "use that the law says the owner gets to control."
7838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7839 #: freeculture.xml:5423
7841 "For example, <quote>public performance</quote> is a use of <citetitle>The "
7842 "Simpsons</citetitle> that the copyright owner gets to control. If you take a "
7843 "selection of favorite episodes, rent a movie theater, and charge for tickets "
7844 "to come see <quote>My Favorite <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>,</quote> then "
7845 "you need to get permission from the copyright owner. And the copyright owner "
7846 "(rightly, in my view) can charge whatever she wants—$10 or "
7847 "$1,000,000. That's her right, as set by the law."
7851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7852 #: freeculture.xml:5435
7854 "For an excellent argument that such use is <quote>fair use,</quote> but that "
7855 "lawyers don't permit recognition that it is <quote>fair use,</quote> see "
7856 "Richard A. Posner with William F. Patry, <quote>Fair Use and Statutory "
7857 "Reform in the Wake of <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle></quote> (draft on file "
7858 "with author), University of Chicago Law School, 5 August 2003."
7861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7862 #: freeculture.xml:5432
7864 "But when lawyers hear this story about Jon Else and Fox, their first thought "
7865 "is <quote>fair use.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Else's "
7866 "use of just 4.5 seconds of an indirect shot of a "
7867 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> episode is clearly a fair use of "
7868 "<citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>—and fair use does not require the "
7869 "permission of anyone."
7873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7874 #: freeculture.xml:5449
7876 "So I asked Else why he didn't just rely upon <quote>fair use.</quote> Here's "
7880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
7881 #: freeculture.xml:5452 freeculture.xml:7784
7882 msgid "legal intimidation tactics against"
7885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7886 #: freeculture.xml:5454
7888 "The <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> fiasco was for me a great lesson in the "
7889 "gulf between what lawyers find irrelevant in some abstract sense, and what "
7890 "is crushingly relevant in practice to those of us actually trying to make "
7891 "and broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it was "
7892 "<quote>clearly fair use</quote> in an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't "
7893 "rely on the concept in any concrete way. Here's why:"
7896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7897 #: freeculture.xml:5463
7898 msgid "Errors and Omissions insurance"
7902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7903 #: freeculture.xml:5466
7905 "Before our films can be broadcast, the network requires that we buy Errors "
7906 "and Omissions insurance. The carriers require a detailed <quote>visual cue "
7907 "sheet</quote> listing the source and licensing status of each shot in the "
7908 "film. They take a dim view of <quote>fair use,</quote> and a claim of "
7909 "<quote>fair use</quote> can grind the application process to a halt."
7912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7913 #: freeculture.xml:5475
7914 msgid "Lucas, George"
7917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7918 #: freeculture.xml:5476
7919 msgid "<citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle>"
7923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7924 #: freeculture.xml:5479
7926 "I probably never should have asked Matt Groening in the first place. But I "
7927 "knew (at least from folklore) that Fox had a history of tracking down and "
7928 "stopping unlicensed <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> usage, just as George "
7929 "Lucas had a very high profile litigating <citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle> "
7930 "usage. So I decided to play by the book, thinking that we would be granted "
7931 "free or cheap license to four seconds of <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>. As "
7932 "a documentary producer working to exhaustion on a shoestring, the last thing "
7933 "I wanted was to risk legal trouble, even nuisance legal trouble, and even to "
7934 "defend a principle."
7939 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7940 #: freeculture.xml:5491
7942 "I did, in fact, speak with one of your colleagues at Stanford Law School "
7943 "… who confirmed that it was fair use. He also confirmed that Fox "
7944 "would <quote>depose and litigate you to within an inch of your life,</quote> "
7945 "regardless of the merits of my claim. He made clear that it would boil down "
7946 "to who had the bigger legal department and the deeper pockets, me or them."
7950 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7951 #: freeculture.xml:5503
7953 "The question of fair use usually comes up at the end of the project, when we "
7954 "are up against a release deadline and out of money."
7957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7958 #: freeculture.xml:5511
7960 "In theory, fair use means you need no permission. The theory therefore "
7961 "supports free culture and insulates against a permission culture. But in "
7962 "practice, fair use functions very differently. The fuzzy lines of the law, "
7963 "tied to the extraordinary liability if lines are crossed, means that the "
7964 "effective fair use for many types of creators is slight. The law has the "
7965 "right aim; practice has defeated the aim."
7968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7969 #: freeculture.xml:5519
7971 "This practice shows just how far the law has come from its "
7972 "eighteenth-century roots. The law was born as a shield to protect "
7973 "publishers' profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. It has "
7974 "matured into a sword that interferes with any use, transformative or not."
7977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7978 #: freeculture.xml:5534
7979 msgid "Chapter Eight: Transformers"
7982 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7983 #: freeculture.xml:5535
7987 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
7988 #: freeculture.xml:5536 freeculture.xml:5596 freeculture.xml:5781 freeculture.xml:10497 freeculture.xml:14932
7992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7993 #: freeculture.xml:5539
7995 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1993</emphasis>, Alex Alben was a lawyer working "
7996 "at Starwave, Inc. Starwave was an innovative company founded by Microsoft "
7997 "cofounder Paul Allen to develop digital entertainment. Long before the "
7998 "Internet became popular, Starwave began investing in new technology for "
7999 "delivering entertainment in anticipation of the power of networks."
8002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8003 #: freeculture.xml:5546
8004 msgid "retrospective compilations on"
8007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8008 #: freeculture.xml:5547
8009 msgid "CD-ROMs, film clips used in"
8012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8013 #: freeculture.xml:5549
8015 "Alben had a special interest in new technology. He was intrigued by the "
8016 "emerging market for CD-ROM technology—not to distribute film, but to "
8017 "do things with film that otherwise would be very difficult. In 1993, he "
8018 "launched an initiative to develop a product to build retrospectives on the "
8019 "work of particular actors. The first actor chosen was Clint Eastwood. The "
8020 "idea was to showcase all of the work of Eastwood, with clips from his films "
8021 "and interviews with figures important to his career."
8024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8025 #: freeculture.xml:5559
8027 "At that time, Eastwood had made more than fifty films, as an actor and as a "
8028 "director. Alben began with a series of interviews with Eastwood, asking him "
8029 "about his career. Because Starwave produced those interviews, it was free to "
8030 "include them on the CD."
8034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8035 #: freeculture.xml:5566
8037 "That alone would not have made a very interesting product, so Starwave "
8038 "wanted to add content from the movies in Eastwood's career: posters, "
8039 "scripts, and other material relating to the films Eastwood made. Most of his "
8040 "career was spent at Warner Brothers, and so it was relatively easy to get "
8041 "permission for that content."
8044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8045 #: freeculture.xml:5573
8047 "Then Alben and his team decided to include actual film clips. <quote>Our "
8048 "goal was that we were going to have a clip from every one of Eastwood's "
8049 "films,</quote> Alben told me. It was here that the problem arose. <quote>No "
8050 "one had ever really done this before,</quote> Alben explained. <quote>No one "
8051 "had ever tried to do this in the context of an artistic look at an actor's "
8055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8056 #: freeculture.xml:5581
8058 "Alben brought the idea to Michael Slade, the CEO of Starwave. Slade asked, "
8059 "<quote>Well, what will it take?</quote>"
8062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><secondary>
8063 #: freeculture.xml:5595
8064 msgid "publicity rights on images of"
8067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8068 #: freeculture.xml:5591
8070 "Technically, the rights that Alben had to clear were mainly those of "
8071 "publicity—rights an artist has to control the commercial exploitation "
8072 "of his image. But these rights, too, burden <quote>Rip, Mix, Burn</quote> "
8073 "creativity, as this chapter evinces. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
8074 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
8077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8078 #: freeculture.xml:5585
8080 "Alben replied, <quote>Well, we're going to have to clear rights from "
8081 "everyone who appears in these films, and the music and everything else that "
8082 "we want to use in these film clips.</quote> Slade said, <quote>Great! Go for "
8083 "it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8087 #: freeculture.xml:5600
8089 "The problem was that neither Alben nor Slade had any idea what clearing "
8090 "those rights would mean. Every actor in each of the films could have a claim "
8091 "to royalties for the reuse of that film. But CD- ROMs had not been specified "
8092 "in the contracts for the actors, so there was no clear way to know just what "
8093 "Starwave was to do."
8096 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8097 #: freeculture.xml:5607
8099 "I asked Alben how he dealt with the problem. With an obvious pride in his "
8100 "resourcefulness that obscured the obvious bizarreness of his tale, Alben "
8101 "recounted just what they did:"
8104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8105 #: freeculture.xml:5613
8107 "So we very mechanically went about looking up the film clips. We made some "
8108 "artistic decisions about what film clips to include—of course we were "
8109 "going to use the <quote>Make my day</quote> clip from <citetitle>Dirty "
8110 "Harry</citetitle>. But you then need to get the guy on the ground who's "
8111 "wiggling under the gun and you need to get his permission. And then you "
8112 "have to decide what you are going to pay him."
8116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8117 #: freeculture.xml:5622
8119 "We decided that it would be fair if we offered them the dayplayer rate for "
8120 "the right to reuse that performance. We're talking about a clip of less than "
8121 "a minute, but to reuse that performance in the CD-ROM the rate at the time "
8122 "was about $600. So we had to identify the people—some of them were "
8123 "hard to identify because in Eastwood movies you can't tell who's the guy "
8124 "crashing through the glass—is it the actor or is it the stuntman? And "
8125 "then we just, we put together a team, my assistant and some others, and we "
8126 "just started calling people."
8129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8130 #: freeculture.xml:5633
8131 msgid "Sutherland, Donald"
8134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8135 #: freeculture.xml:5635
8137 "Some actors were glad to help—Donald Sutherland, for example, followed "
8138 "up himself to be sure that the rights had been cleared. Others were "
8139 "dumbfounded at their good fortune. Alben would ask, <quote>Hey, can I pay "
8140 "you $600 or maybe if you were in two films, you know, $1,200?</quote> And "
8141 "they would say, <quote>Are you for real? Hey, I'd love to get "
8142 "$1,200.</quote> And some of course were a bit difficult (estranged ex-wives, "
8143 "in particular). But eventually, Alben and his team had cleared the rights to "
8144 "this retrospective CD-ROM on Clint Eastwood's career."
8147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8148 #: freeculture.xml:5646
8150 "It was one <emphasis>year</emphasis> later—<quote>and even then we "
8151 "weren't sure whether we were totally in the clear.</quote>"
8154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8155 #: freeculture.xml:5650
8157 "Alben is proud of his work. The project was the first of its kind and the "
8158 "only time he knew of that a team had undertaken such a massive project for "
8159 "the purpose of releasing a retrospective."
8162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8163 #: freeculture.xml:5656
8165 "Everyone thought it would be too hard. Everyone just threw up their hands "
8166 "and said, <quote>Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's the "
8167 "music, there's the screenplay, there's the director, there's the "
8168 "actors.</quote> But we just broke it down. We just put it into its "
8169 "constituent parts and said, <quote>Okay, there's this many actors, this many "
8170 "directors, … this many musicians,</quote> and we just went at it very "
8171 "systematically and cleared the rights."
8175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8176 #: freeculture.xml:5668
8178 "And no doubt, the product itself was exceptionally good. Eastwood loved it, "
8179 "and it sold very well."
8182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8183 #: freeculture.xml:5671
8184 msgid "Drucker, Peter"
8188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8189 #: freeculture.xml:5679
8191 "U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Acquisition Management, "
8192 "<citetitle>Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services "
8193 "Acquisition</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
8194 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #22</ulink>."
8197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8198 #: freeculture.xml:5673
8200 "But I pressed Alben about how weird it seems that it would have to take a "
8201 "year's work simply to clear rights. No doubt Alben had done this "
8202 "efficiently, but as Peter Drucker has famously quipped, <quote>There is "
8203 "nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at "
8204 "all.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Did it make sense, I "
8205 "asked Alben, that this is the way a new work has to be made?"
8208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8209 #: freeculture.xml:5687
8211 "For, as he acknowledged, <quote>very few … have the time and "
8212 "resources, and the will to do this,</quote> and thus, very few such works "
8213 "would ever be made. Does it make sense, I asked him, from the standpoint of "
8214 "what anybody really thought they were ever giving rights for originally, "
8215 "that you would have to go clear rights for these kinds of clips?"
8218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8219 #: freeculture.xml:5695
8221 "I don't think so. When an actor renders a performance in a movie, he or she "
8222 "gets paid very well. … And then when 30 seconds of that performance "
8223 "is used in a new product that is a retrospective of somebody's career, I "
8224 "don't think that that person … should be compensated for that."
8227 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8228 #: freeculture.xml:5703
8230 "Or at least, is this <emphasis>how</emphasis> the artist should be "
8231 "compensated? Would it make sense, I asked, for there to be some kind of "
8232 "statutory license that someone could pay and be free to make derivative use "
8233 "of clips like this? Did it really make sense that a follow-on creator would "
8234 "have to track down every artist, actor, director, musician, and get explicit "
8235 "permission from each? Wouldn't a lot more be created if the legal part of "
8236 "the creative process could be made to be more clean?"
8240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8241 #: freeculture.xml:5714
8243 "Absolutely. I think that if there were some fair-licensing "
8244 "mechanism—where you weren't subject to hold-ups and you weren't "
8245 "subject to estranged former spouses—you'd see a lot more of this work, "
8246 "because it wouldn't be so daunting to try to put together a retrospective of "
8247 "someone's career and meaningfully illustrate it with lots of media from that "
8248 "person's career. You'd build in a cost as the producer of one of these "
8249 "things. You'd build in a cost of paying X dollars to the talent that "
8250 "performed. But it would be a known cost. That's the thing that trips "
8251 "everybody up and makes this kind of product hard to get off the ground. If "
8252 "you knew I have a hundred minutes of film in this product and it's going to "
8253 "cost me X, then you build your budget around it, and you can get investments "
8254 "and everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say, <quote>Oh, "
8255 "I want a hundred minutes of something and I have no idea what it's going to "
8256 "cost me, and a certain number of people are going to hold me up for "
8257 "money,</quote> then it becomes difficult to put one of these things "
8261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8262 #: freeculture.xml:5734
8264 "Alben worked for a big company. His company was backed by some of the "
8265 "richest investors in the world. He therefore had authority and access that "
8266 "the average Web designer would not have. So if it took him a year, how long "
8267 "would it take someone else? And how much creativity is never made just "
8268 "because the costs of clearing the rights are so high?"
8271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8272 #: freeculture.xml:5743
8274 "These costs are the burdens of a kind of regulation. Put on a Republican hat "
8275 "for a moment, and get angry for a bit. The government defines the scope of "
8276 "these rights, and the scope defined determines how much it's going to cost "
8277 "to negotiate them. (Remember the idea that land runs to the heavens, and "
8278 "imagine the pilot purchasing flythrough rights as he negotiates to fly from "
8279 "Los Angeles to San Francisco.) These rights might well have once made "
8280 "sense; but as circumstances change, they make no sense at all. Or at least, "
8281 "a well-trained, regulationminimizing Republican should look at the rights "
8282 "and ask, <quote>Does this still make sense?</quote>"
8286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8287 #: freeculture.xml:5756
8289 "I've seen the flash of recognition when people get this point, but only a "
8290 "few times. The first was at a conference of federal judges in California. "
8291 "The judges were gathered to discuss the emerging topic of cyber-law. I was "
8292 "asked to be on the panel. Harvey Saferstein, a well-respected lawyer from an "
8293 "L.A. firm, introduced the panel with a video that he and a friend, Robert "
8294 "Fairbank, had produced."
8297 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8298 #: freeculture.xml:5766
8300 "The video was a brilliant collage of film from every period in the twentieth "
8301 "century, all framed around the idea of a <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> "
8302 "episode. The execution was perfect, down to the sixty-minute stopwatch. The "
8303 "judges loved every minute of it."
8306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8307 #: freeculture.xml:5771
8308 msgid "Nimmer, David"
8311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8312 #: freeculture.xml:5773
8314 "When the lights came up, I looked over to my copanelist, David Nimmer, "
8315 "perhaps the leading copyright scholar and practitioner in the nation. He had "
8316 "an astonished look on his face, as he peered across the room of over 250 "
8317 "well-entertained judges. Taking an ominous tone, he began his talk with a "
8318 "question: <quote>Do you know how many federal laws were just violated in "
8319 "this room?</quote>"
8322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8323 #: freeculture.xml:5782
8324 msgid "Boies, David"
8327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8328 #: freeculture.xml:5783
8329 msgid "Court of Appeals"
8332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><secondary>
8333 #: freeculture.xml:5783
8334 msgid "Ninth Circuit"
8337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8338 #: freeculture.xml:5784
8339 msgid "Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals"
8342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8343 #: freeculture.xml:5781
8345 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
8346 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
8347 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> For "
8348 "of course, the two brilliantly talented creators who made this film hadn't "
8349 "done what Alben did. They hadn't spent a year clearing the rights to these "
8350 "clips; technically, what they had done violated the law. Of course, it "
8351 "wasn't as if they or anyone were going to be prosecuted for this violation "
8352 "(the presence of 250 judges and a gaggle of federal marshals "
8353 "notwithstanding). But Nimmer was making an important point: A year before "
8354 "anyone would have heard of the word Napster, and two years before another "
8355 "member of our panel, David Boies, would defend Napster before the Ninth "
8356 "Circuit Court of Appeals, Nimmer was trying to get the judges to see that "
8357 "the law would not be friendly to the capacities that this technology would "
8358 "enable. Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you "
8359 "couldn't easily do them legally."
8362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8363 #: freeculture.xml:5801
8365 "We live in a <quote>cut and paste</quote> culture enabled by "
8366 "technology. Anyone building a presentation knows the extraordinary freedom "
8367 "that the cut and paste architecture of the Internet created—in a "
8368 "second you can find just about any image you want; in another second, you "
8369 "can have it planted in your presentation."
8372 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8373 #: freeculture.xml:5807
8378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8379 #: freeculture.xml:5809
8381 "But presentations are just a tiny beginning. Using the Internet and its "
8382 "archives, musicians are able to string together mixes of sound never before "
8383 "imagined; filmmakers are able to build movies out of clips on computers "
8384 "around the world. An extraordinary site in Sweden takes images of "
8385 "politicians and blends them with music to create biting political "
8386 "commentary. A site called Camp Chaos has produced some of the most biting "
8387 "criticism of the record industry that there is through the mixing of Flash! "
8391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8392 #: freeculture.xml:5820
8394 "All of these creations are technically illegal. Even if the creators wanted "
8395 "to be <quote>legal,</quote> the cost of complying with the law is impossibly "
8396 "high. Therefore, for the law-abiding sorts, a wealth of creativity is never "
8397 "made. And for that part that is made, if it doesn't follow the clearance "
8398 "rules, it doesn't get released."
8401 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8402 #: freeculture.xml:5827
8404 "To some, these stories suggest a solution: Let's alter the mix of rights so "
8405 "that people are free to build upon our culture. Free to add or mix as they "
8406 "see fit. We could even make this change without necessarily requiring that "
8407 "the <quote>free</quote> use be free as in <quote>free beer.</quote> Instead, "
8408 "the system could simply make it easy for follow-on creators to compensate "
8409 "artists without requiring an army of lawyers to come along: a rule, for "
8410 "example, that says <quote>the royalty owed the copyright owner of an "
8411 "unregistered work for the derivative reuse of his work will be a flat 1 "
8412 "percent of net revenues, to be held in escrow for the copyright "
8413 "owner.</quote> Under this rule, the copyright owner could benefit from some "
8414 "royalty, but he would not have the benefit of a full property right (meaning "
8415 "the right to name his own price) unless he registers the work."
8418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8419 #: freeculture.xml:5842
8421 "Who could possibly object to this? And what reason would there be for "
8422 "objecting? We're talking about work that is not now being made; which if "
8423 "made, under this plan, would produce new income for artists. What reason "
8424 "would anyone have to oppose it?"
8428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8429 #: freeculture.xml:5848
8431 "<emphasis role='strong'>In February 2003</emphasis>, DreamWorks studios "
8432 "announced an agreement with Mike Myers, the comic genius of "
8433 "<citetitle>Saturday Night Live</citetitle> and Austin Powers. According to "
8434 "the announcement, Myers and Dream-Works would work together to form a "
8435 "<quote>unique filmmaking pact.</quote> Under the agreement, DreamWorks "
8436 "<quote>will acquire the rights to existing motion picture hits and classics, "
8437 "write new storylines and—with the use of stateof-the-art digital "
8438 "technology—insert Myers and other actors into the film, thereby "
8439 "creating an entirely new piece of entertainment.</quote>"
8442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8443 #: freeculture.xml:5861
8445 "The announcement called this <quote>film sampling.</quote> As Myers "
8446 "explained, <quote>Film Sampling is an exciting way to put an original spin "
8447 "on existing films and allow audiences to see old movies in a new light. Rap "
8448 "artists have been doing this for years with music and now we are able to "
8449 "take that same concept and apply it to film.</quote> Steven Spielberg is "
8450 "quoted as saying, <quote>If anyone can create a way to bring old films to "
8451 "new audiences, it is Mike.</quote>"
8454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8455 #: freeculture.xml:5870
8457 "Spielberg is right. Film sampling by Myers will be brilliant. But if you "
8458 "don't think about it, you might miss the truly astonishing point about this "
8459 "announcement. As the vast majority of our film heritage remains under "
8460 "copyright, the real meaning of the DreamWorks announcement is just this: It "
8461 "is Mike Myers and only Mike Myers who is free to sample. Any general freedom "
8462 "to build upon the film archive of our culture, a freedom in other contexts "
8463 "presumed for us all, is now a privilege reserved for the funny and "
8464 "famous—and presumably rich."
8467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8468 #: freeculture.xml:5880
8470 "This privilege becomes reserved for two sorts of reasons. The first "
8471 "continues the story of the last chapter: the vagueness of <quote>fair "
8472 "use.</quote> Much of <quote>sampling</quote> should be considered "
8473 "<quote>fair use.</quote> But few would rely upon so weak a doctrine to "
8474 "create. That leads to the second reason that the privilege is reserved for "
8475 "the few: The costs of negotiating the legal rights for the creative reuse of "
8476 "content are astronomically high. These costs mirror the costs with fair "
8477 "use: You either pay a lawyer to defend your fair use rights or pay a lawyer "
8478 "to track down permissions so you don't have to rely upon fair use "
8479 "rights. Either way, the creative process is a process of paying "
8480 "lawyers—again a privilege, or perhaps a curse, reserved for the few."
8483 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
8484 #: freeculture.xml:5895
8485 msgid "Chapter Nine: Collectors"
8488 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8489 #: freeculture.xml:5896 freeculture.xml:9239 freeculture.xml:11562 freeculture.xml:11807
8490 msgid "archives, digital"
8493 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8494 #: freeculture.xml:5897 freeculture.xml:8526
8498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8499 #: freeculture.xml:5899
8501 "<emphasis role='strong'>In April 1996</emphasis>, millions of "
8502 "<quote>bots</quote>—computer codes designed to <quote>spider,</quote> "
8503 "or automatically search the Internet and copy content—began running "
8504 "across the Net. Page by page, these bots copied Internet-based information "
8505 "onto a small set of computers located in a basement in San Francisco's "
8506 "Presidio. Once the bots finished the whole of the Internet, they started "
8507 "again. Over and over again, once every two months, these bits of code took "
8508 "copies of the Internet and stored them."
8511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8512 #: freeculture.xml:5909 freeculture.xml:5940 freeculture.xml:6002
8513 msgid "Way Back Machine"
8516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8517 #: freeculture.xml:5911
8519 "By October 2001, the bots had collected more than five years of copies. And "
8520 "at a small announcement in Berkeley, California, the archive that these "
8521 "copies created, the Internet Archive, was opened to the world. Using a "
8522 "technology called <quote>the Way Back Machine,</quote> you could enter a Web "
8523 "page, and see all of its copies going back to 1996, as well as when those "
8527 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8528 #: freeculture.xml:5918
8529 msgid "Orwell, George"
8532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8533 #: freeculture.xml:5920
8535 "This is the thing about the Internet that Orwell would have appreciated. In "
8536 "the dystopia described in <citetitle>1984</citetitle>, old newspapers were "
8537 "constantly updated to assure that the current view of the world, approved of "
8538 "by the government, was not contradicted by previous news reports."
8542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8543 #: freeculture.xml:5928
8545 "Thousands of workers constantly reedited the past, meaning there was no way "
8546 "ever to know whether the story you were reading today was the story that was "
8547 "printed on the date published on the paper."
8550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8551 #: freeculture.xml:5933
8553 "It's the same with the Internet. If you go to a Web page today, there's no "
8554 "way for you to know whether the content you are reading is the same as the "
8555 "content you read before. The page may seem the same, but the content could "
8556 "easily be different. The Internet is Orwell's library—constantly "
8557 "updated, without any reliable memory."
8560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8561 #: freeculture.xml:5949
8562 msgid "White House press releases"
8565 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8566 #: freeculture.xml:5948
8568 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
8569 "id=\"1\"/> The temptations remain, however. Brewster Kahle reports that the "
8570 "White House changes its own press releases without notice. A May 13, 2003, "
8571 "press release stated, <quote>Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.</quote> "
8572 "That was later changed, without notice, to <quote>Major Combat Operations in "
8573 "Iraq Have Ended.</quote> E-mail from Brewster Kahle, 1 December 2003."
8576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8577 #: freeculture.xml:5942
8579 "Until the Way Back Machine, at least. With the Way Back Machine, and the "
8580 "Internet Archive underlying it, you can see what the Internet was. You have "
8581 "the power to see what you remember. More importantly, perhaps, you also have "
8582 "the power to find what you don't remember and what others might prefer you "
8583 "forget.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8587 #: freeculture.xml:5957
8588 msgid "history, records of"
8591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8592 #: freeculture.xml:5959
8594 "<emphasis role='strong'>We take it</emphasis> for granted that we can go "
8595 "back to see what we remember reading. Think about newspapers. If you wanted "
8596 "to study the reaction of your hometown newspaper to the race riots in Watts "
8597 "in 1965, or to Bull Connor's water cannon in 1963, you could go to your "
8598 "public library and look at the newspapers. Those papers probably exist on "
8599 "microfiche. If you're lucky, they exist in paper, too. Either way, you are "
8600 "free, using a library, to go back and remember—not just what it is "
8601 "convenient to remember, but remember something close to the truth."
8604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8605 #: freeculture.xml:5970
8607 "It is said that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat "
8608 "it. That's not quite correct. We <emphasis>all</emphasis> forget "
8609 "history. The key is whether we have a way to go back to rediscover what we "
8610 "forget. More directly, the key is whether an objective past can keep us "
8611 "honest. Libraries help do that, by collecting content and keeping it, for "
8612 "schoolchildren, for researchers, for grandma. A free society presumes this "
8617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8618 #: freeculture.xml:5979
8620 "The Internet was an exception to this presumption. Until the Internet "
8621 "Archive, there was no way to go back. The Internet was the quintessentially "
8622 "transitory medium. And yet, as it becomes more important in forming and "
8623 "reforming society, it becomes more and more important to maintain in some "
8624 "historical form. It's just bizarre to think that we have scads of archives "
8625 "of newspapers from tiny towns around the world, yet there is but one copy of "
8626 "the Internet—the one kept by the Internet Archive."
8629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8630 #: freeculture.xml:5990
8632 "Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive. He was a very "
8633 "successful Internet entrepreneur after he was a successful computer "
8634 "researcher. In the 1990s, Kahle decided he had had enough business "
8635 "success. It was time to become a different kind of success. So he launched "
8636 "a series of projects designed to archive human knowledge. The Internet "
8637 "Archive was just the first of the projects of this Andrew Carnegie of the "
8638 "Internet. By December of 2002, the archive had over 10 billion pages, and it "
8639 "was growing at about a billion pages a month."
8642 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8643 #: freeculture.xml:5999 freeculture.xml:6054 freeculture.xml:10482
8644 msgid "Library of Congress"
8647 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8648 #: freeculture.xml:6000
8649 msgid "Television Archive"
8652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8653 #: freeculture.xml:6001
8654 msgid "Vanderbilt University"
8657 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
8658 #: freeculture.xml:6003 freeculture.xml:11053 freeculture.xml:14114 freeculture.xml:14244 freeculture.xml:14280
8662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8663 #: freeculture.xml:6003
8664 msgid "archival function of"
8667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8668 #: freeculture.xml:6006
8670 "The Way Back Machine is the largest archive of human knowledge in human "
8671 "history. At the end of 2002, it held <quote>two hundred and thirty terabytes "
8672 "of material</quote>—and was <quote>ten times larger than the Library "
8673 "of Congress.</quote> And this was just the first of the archives that Kahle "
8674 "set out to build. In addition to the Internet Archive, Kahle has been "
8675 "constructing the Television Archive. Television, it turns out, is even more "
8676 "ephemeral than the Internet. While much of twentieth-century culture was "
8677 "constructed through television, only a tiny proportion of that culture is "
8678 "available for anyone to see today. Three hours of news are recorded each "
8679 "evening by Vanderbilt University—thanks to a specific exemption in the "
8680 "copyright law. That content is indexed, and is available to scholars for a "
8681 "very low fee. <quote>But other than that, [television] is almost "
8682 "unavailable,</quote> Kahle told me. <quote>If you were Barbara Walters you "
8683 "could get access to [the archives], but if you are just a graduate "
8684 "student?</quote> As Kahle put it,"
8687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
8688 #: freeculture.xml:6023
8692 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
8693 #: freeculture.xml:6024
8698 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8699 #: freeculture.xml:6026
8701 "Do you remember when Dan Quayle was interacting with Murphy Brown? Remember "
8702 "that back and forth surreal experience of a politician interacting with a "
8703 "fictional television character? If you were a graduate student wanting to "
8704 "study that, and you wanted to get those original back and forth exchanges "
8705 "between the two, the <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> episode that came out "
8706 "after it … it would be almost impossible. … Those materials "
8707 "are almost unfindable. …"
8710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8711 #: freeculture.xml:6037
8715 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8716 #: freeculture.xml:6037
8720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8721 #: freeculture.xml:6039
8723 "Why is that? Why is it that the part of our culture that is recorded in "
8724 "newspapers remains perpetually accessible, while the part that is recorded "
8725 "on videotape is not? How is it that we've created a world where researchers "
8726 "trying to understand the effect of media on nineteenthcentury America will "
8727 "have an easier time than researchers trying to understand the effect of "
8728 "media on twentieth-century America?"
8731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8732 #: freeculture.xml:6047
8734 "In part, this is because of the law. Early in American copyright law, "
8735 "copyright owners were required to deposit copies of their work in "
8736 "libraries. These copies were intended both to facilitate the spread of "
8737 "knowledge and to assure that a copy of the work would be around once the "
8738 "copyright expired, so that others might access and copy the work."
8741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8742 #: freeculture.xml:6055 freeculture.xml:6099
8747 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8748 #: freeculture.xml:6066
8750 "Doug Herrick, <quote>Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at "
8751 "the Library of Congress,</quote> <citetitle>Film Library "
8752 "Quarterly</citetitle> 13 nos. 2–3 (1980): 5; Anthony Slide, "
8753 "<citetitle>Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United "
8754 "States</citetitle> (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1992), 36."
8757 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8758 #: freeculture.xml:6057
8760 "These rules applied to film as well. But in 1915, the Library of Congress "
8761 "made an exception for film. Film could be copyrighted so long as such "
8762 "deposits were made. But the filmmaker was then allowed to borrow back the "
8763 "deposits—for an unlimited time at no cost. In 1915 alone, there were "
8764 "more than 5,475 films deposited and <quote>borrowed back.</quote> Thus, when "
8765 "the copyrights to films expire, there is no copy held by any library. The "
8766 "copy exists—if it exists at all—in the library archive of the "
8767 "film company.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8771 #: freeculture.xml:6074
8773 "The same is generally true about television. Television broadcasts were "
8774 "originally not copyrighted—there was no way to capture the broadcasts, "
8775 "so there was no fear of <quote>theft.</quote> But as technology enabled "
8776 "capturing, broadcasters relied increasingly upon the law. The law required "
8777 "they make a copy of each broadcast for the work to be "
8778 "<quote>copyrighted.</quote> But those copies were simply kept by the "
8779 "broadcasters. No library had any right to them; the government didn't demand "
8780 "them. The content of this part of American culture is practically invisible "
8781 "to anyone who would look."
8785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8786 #: freeculture.xml:6086
8788 "Kahle was eager to correct this. Before September 11, 2001, he and his "
8789 "allies had started capturing television. They selected twenty stations from "
8790 "around the world and hit the Record button. After September 11, Kahle, "
8791 "working with dozens of others, selected twenty stations from around the "
8792 "world and, beginning October 11, 2001, made their coverage during the week "
8793 "of September 11 available free on-line. Anyone could see how news reports "
8794 "from around the world covered the events of that day."
8797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8798 #: freeculture.xml:6096
8799 msgid "Movie Archive"
8802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8803 #: freeculture.xml:6097
8807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8808 #: freeculture.xml:6097 freeculture.xml:6100
8809 msgid "Internet Archive"
8812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8813 #: freeculture.xml:6101
8814 msgid "Duck and Cover film"
8817 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8818 #: freeculture.xml:6102
8819 msgid "ephemeral films"
8822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8823 #: freeculture.xml:6103
8824 msgid "Prelinger, Rick"
8827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8828 #: freeculture.xml:6105
8830 "Kahle had the same idea with film. Working with Rick Prelinger, whose "
8831 "archive of film includes close to 45,000 <quote>ephemeral films</quote> "
8832 "(meaning films other than Hollywood movies, films that were never "
8833 "copyrighted), Kahle established the Movie Archive. Prelinger let Kahle "
8834 "digitize 1,300 films in this archive and post those films on the Internet to "
8835 "be downloaded for free. Prelinger's is a for-profit company. It sells copies "
8836 "of these films as stock footage. What he has discovered is that after he "
8837 "made a significant chunk available for free, his stock footage sales went up "
8838 "dramatically. People could easily find the material they wanted to use. Some "
8839 "downloaded that material and made films on their own. Others purchased "
8840 "copies to enable other films to be made. Either way, the archive enabled "
8841 "access to this important part of our culture. Want to see a copy of the "
8842 "<quote>Duck and Cover</quote> film that instructed children how to save "
8843 "themselves in the middle of nuclear attack? Go to archive.org, and you can "
8844 "download the film in a few minutes—for free."
8847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8848 #: freeculture.xml:6123
8850 "Here again, Kahle is providing access to a part of our culture that we "
8851 "otherwise could not get easily, if at all. It is yet another part of what "
8852 "defines the twentieth century that we have lost to history. The law doesn't "
8853 "require these copies to be kept by anyone, or to be deposited in an archive "
8854 "by anyone. Therefore, there is no simple way to find them."
8857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8858 #: freeculture.xml:6131
8860 "The key here is access, not price. Kahle wants to enable free access to this "
8861 "content, but he also wants to enable others to sell access to it. His aim is "
8862 "to ensure competition in access to this important part of our culture. Not "
8863 "during the commercial life of a bit of creative property, but during a "
8864 "second life that all creative property has—a noncommercial life."
8868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8869 #: freeculture.xml:6139
8871 "For here is an idea that we should more clearly recognize. Every bit of "
8872 "creative property goes through different <quote>lives.</quote> In its first "
8873 "life, if the creator is lucky, the content is sold. In such cases the "
8874 "commercial market is successful for the creator. The vast majority of "
8875 "creative property doesn't enjoy such success, but some clearly does. For "
8876 "that content, commercial life is extremely important. Without this "
8877 "commercial market, there would be, many argue, much less creativity."
8880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8881 #: freeculture.xml:6151
8883 "After the commercial life of creative property has ended, our tradition has "
8884 "always supported a second life as well. A newspaper delivers the news every "
8885 "day to the doorsteps of America. The very next day, it is used to wrap fish "
8886 "or to fill boxes with fragile gifts or to build an archive of knowledge "
8887 "about our history. In this second life, the content can continue to inform "
8888 "even if that information is no longer sold."
8891 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8892 #: freeculture.xml:6164
8894 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Dave Barns, <quote>Fledgling "
8895 "Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, Bar Owner Starts a New Chapter "
8896 "by Adopting Business,</quote> <citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 5 "
8897 "September 1997, at Metro Lake 1L. Of books published between 1927 and 1946, "
8898 "only 2.2 percent were in print in 2002. R. Anthony Reese, <quote>The First "
8899 "Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
8900 "College Law Review</citetitle> 44 (2003): 593 n. 51."
8903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8904 #: freeculture.xml:6161
8906 "The same has always been true about books. A book goes out of print very "
8907 "quickly (the average today is after about a year<placeholder "
8908 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>). After it is out of print, it can be sold in "
8909 "used book stores without the copyright owner getting anything and stored in "
8910 "libraries, where many get to read the book, also for free. Used book stores "
8911 "and libraries are thus the second life of a book. That second life is "
8912 "extremely important to the spread and stability of culture."
8915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8916 #: freeculture.xml:6179
8918 "Yet increasingly, any assumption about a stable second life for creative "
8919 "property does not hold true with the most important components of popular "
8920 "culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For "
8921 "these—television, movies, music, radio, the Internet—there is no "
8922 "guarantee of a second life. For these sorts of culture, it is as if we've "
8923 "replaced libraries with Barnes & Noble superstores. With this culture, "
8924 "what's accessible is nothing but what a certain limited market demands. "
8925 "Beyond that, culture disappears."
8929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8930 #: freeculture.xml:6190
8932 "<emphasis role='strong'>For most of</emphasis> the twentieth century, it was "
8933 "economics that made this so. It would have been insanely expensive to "
8934 "collect and make accessible all television and film and music: The cost of "
8935 "analog copies is extraordinarily high. So even though the law in principle "
8936 "would have restricted the ability of a Brewster Kahle to copy culture "
8937 "generally, the real restriction was economics. The market made it impossibly "
8938 "difficult to do anything about this ephemeral culture; the law had little "
8942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8943 #: freeculture.xml:6202
8945 "Perhaps the single most important feature of the digital revolution is that "
8946 "for the first time since the Library of Alexandria, it is feasible to "
8947 "imagine constructing archives that hold all culture produced or distributed "
8948 "publicly. Technology makes it possible to imagine an archive of all books "
8949 "published, and increasingly makes it possible to imagine an archive of all "
8950 "moving images and sound."
8953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8954 #: freeculture.xml:6210
8956 "The scale of this potential archive is something we've never imagined "
8957 "before. The Brewster Kahles of our history have dreamed about it; but we are "
8958 "for the first time at a point where that dream is possible. As Kahle "
8962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><secondary>
8963 #: freeculture.xml:6216
8964 msgid "total number of"
8967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8968 #: freeculture.xml:6218
8970 "It looks like there's about two to three million recordings of music. "
8971 "Ever. There are about a hundred thousand theatrical releases of movies, "
8972 "… and about one to two million movies [distributed] during the "
8973 "twentieth century. There are about twenty-six million different titles of "
8974 "books. All of these would fit on computers that would fit in this room and "
8975 "be able to be afforded by a small company. So we're at a turning point in "
8976 "our history. Universal access is the goal. And the opportunity of leading a "
8977 "different life, based on this, is … thrilling. It could be one of the "
8978 "things humankind would be most proud of. Up there with the Library of "
8979 "Alexandria, putting a man on the moon, and the invention of the printing "
8984 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8985 #: freeculture.xml:6233
8987 "Kahle is not the only librarian. The Internet Archive is not the only "
8988 "archive. But Kahle and the Internet Archive suggest what the future of "
8989 "libraries or archives could be. <emphasis>When</emphasis> the commercial "
8990 "life of creative property ends, I don't know. But it does. And whenever it "
8991 "does, Kahle and his archive hint at a world where this knowledge, and "
8992 "culture, remains perpetually available. Some will draw upon it to understand "
8993 "it; some to criticize it. Some will use it, as Walt Disney did, to re-create "
8994 "the past for the future. These technologies promise something that had "
8995 "become unimaginable for much of our past—a future "
8996 "<emphasis>for</emphasis> our past. The technology of digital arts could make "
8997 "the dream of the Library of Alexandria real again."
9000 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9001 #: freeculture.xml:6248
9003 "Technologists have thus removed the economic costs of building such an "
9004 "archive. But lawyers' costs remain. For as much as we might like to call "
9005 "these <quote>archives,</quote> as warm as the idea of a "
9006 "<quote>library</quote> might seem, the <quote>content</quote> that is "
9007 "collected in these digital spaces is also someone's <quote>property.</quote> "
9008 "And the law of property restricts the freedoms that Kahle and others would "
9012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
9013 #: freeculture.xml:6259
9014 msgid "Chapter Ten: <quote>Property</quote>"
9017 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9018 #: freeculture.xml:6260
9019 msgid "Johnson, Lyndon"
9022 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9023 #: freeculture.xml:6261 freeculture.xml:10241
9024 msgid "Kennedy, John F."
9027 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9028 #: freeculture.xml:6263
9030 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jack Valenti</emphasis> has been the president of "
9031 "the Motion Picture Association of America since 1966. He first came to "
9032 "Washington, D.C., with Lyndon Johnson's administration—literally. The "
9033 "famous picture of Johnson's swearing-in on Air Force One after the "
9034 "assassination of President Kennedy has Valenti in the background. In his "
9035 "almost forty years of running the MPAA, Valenti has established himself as "
9036 "perhaps the most prominent and effective lobbyist in Washington."
9039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9040 #: freeculture.xml:6273
9041 msgid "Sony Pictures Entertainment"
9044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9045 #: freeculture.xml:6274
9049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9050 #: freeculture.xml:6275
9051 msgid "Paramount Pictures"
9054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9055 #: freeculture.xml:6276
9056 msgid "Twentieth Century Fox"
9059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9060 #: freeculture.xml:6277
9061 msgid "Universal Pictures"
9064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9065 #: freeculture.xml:6278 freeculture.xml:7893 freeculture.xml:8065
9066 msgid "Warner Brothers"
9069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9070 #: freeculture.xml:6280
9072 "The MPAA is the American branch of the international Motion Picture "
9073 "Association. It was formed in 1922 as a trade association whose goal was to "
9074 "defend American movies against increasing domestic criticism. The "
9075 "organization now represents not only filmmakers but producers and "
9076 "distributors of entertainment for television, video, and cable. Its board is "
9077 "made up of the chairmen and presidents of the seven major producers and "
9078 "distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States: "
9079 "Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth "
9080 "Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers."
9084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9085 #: freeculture.xml:6293
9087 "Valenti is only the third president of the MPAA. No president before him has "
9088 "had as much influence over that organization, or over Washington. As a "
9089 "Texan, Valenti has mastered the single most important political skill of a "
9090 "Southerner—the ability to appear simple and slow while hiding a "
9091 "lightning-fast intellect. To this day, Valenti plays the simple, humble "
9092 "man. But this Harvard MBA, and author of four books, who finished high "
9093 "school at the age of fifteen and flew more than fifty combat missions in "
9094 "World War II, is no Mr. Smith. When Valenti went to Washington, he mastered "
9095 "the city in a quintessentially Washingtonian way."
9098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9099 #: freeculture.xml:6305
9101 "In defending artistic liberty and the freedom of speech that our culture "
9102 "depends upon, the MPAA has done important good. In crafting the MPAA rating "
9103 "system, it has probably avoided a great deal of speech-regulating harm. But "
9104 "there is an aspect to the organization's mission that is both the most "
9105 "radical and the most important. This is the organization's effort, "
9106 "epitomized in Valenti's every act, to redefine the meaning of "
9107 "<quote>creative property.</quote>"
9110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9111 #: freeculture.xml:6314
9112 msgid "In 1982, Valenti's testimony to Congress captured the strategy perfectly:"
9116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
9117 #: freeculture.xml:6328
9119 "Home Recording of Copyrighted Works: Hearings on H.R. 4783, H.R. 4794, "
9120 "H.R. 4808, H.R. 5250, H.R. 5488, and H.R. 5705 Before the Subcommittee on "
9121 "Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee "
9122 "on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, 97th Cong., 2nd "
9123 "sess. (1982): 65 (testimony of Jack Valenti)."
9126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
9127 #: freeculture.xml:6319
9129 "No matter the lengthy arguments made, no matter the charges and the "
9130 "counter-charges, no matter the tumult and the shouting, reasonable men and "
9131 "women will keep returning to the fundamental issue, the central theme which "
9132 "animates this entire debate: <emphasis>Creative property owners must be "
9133 "accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other property "
9134 "owners in the nation</emphasis>. That is the issue. That is the "
9135 "question. And that is the rostrum on which this entire hearing and the "
9136 "debates to follow must rest.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9140 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9141 #: freeculture.xml:6338
9143 "The strategy of this rhetoric, like the strategy of most of Valenti's "
9144 "rhetoric, is brilliant and simple and brilliant because simple. The "
9145 "<quote>central theme</quote> to which <quote>reasonable men and "
9146 "women</quote> will return is this: <quote>Creative property owners must be "
9147 "accorded the same rights and protections resident in all other property "
9148 "owners in the nation.</quote> There are no second-class citizens, Valenti "
9149 "might have continued. There should be no second-class property owners."
9152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9153 #: freeculture.xml:6349
9155 "This claim has an obvious and powerful intuitive pull. It is stated with "
9156 "such clarity as to make the idea as obvious as the notion that we use "
9157 "elections to pick presidents. But in fact, there is no more extreme a claim "
9158 "made by <emphasis>anyone</emphasis> who is serious in this debate than this "
9159 "claim of Valenti's. Jack Valenti, however sweet and however brilliant, is "
9160 "perhaps the nation's foremost extremist when it comes to the nature and "
9161 "scope of <quote>creative property.</quote> His views have "
9162 "<emphasis>no</emphasis> reasonable connection to our actual legal tradition, "
9163 "even if the subtle pull of his Texan charm has slowly redefined that "
9164 "tradition, at least in Washington."
9168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
9169 #: freeculture.xml:6364
9171 "Lawyers speak of <quote>property</quote> not as an absolute thing, but as a "
9172 "bundle of rights that are sometimes associated with a particular "
9173 "object. Thus, my <quote>property right</quote> to my car gives me the right "
9174 "to exclusive use, but not the right to drive at 150 miles an hour. For the "
9175 "best effort to connect the ordinary meaning of <quote>property</quote> to "
9176 "<quote>lawyer talk,</quote> see Bruce Ackerman, <citetitle>Private Property "
9177 "and the Constitution</citetitle> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), "
9181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9182 #: freeculture.xml:6361
9184 "While <quote>creative property</quote> is certainly <quote>property</quote> "
9185 "in a nerdy and precise sense that lawyers are trained to "
9186 "understand,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it has never been the "
9187 "case, nor should it be, that <quote>creative property owners</quote> have "
9188 "been <quote>accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other "
9189 "property owners.</quote> Indeed, if creative property owners were given the "
9190 "same rights as all other property owners, that would effect a radical, and "
9191 "radically undesirable, change in our tradition."
9194 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9195 #: freeculture.xml:6379
9197 "Valenti knows this. But he speaks for an industry that cares squat for our "
9198 "tradition and the values it represents. He speaks for an industry that is "
9199 "instead fighting to restore the tradition that the British overturned in "
9200 "1710. In the world that Valenti's changes would create, a powerful few would "
9201 "exercise powerful control over how our creative culture would develop."
9205 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9206 #: freeculture.xml:6387
9208 "I have two purposes in this chapter. The first is to convince you that, "
9209 "historically, Valenti's claim is absolutely wrong. The second is to convince "
9210 "you that it would be terribly wrong for us to reject our history. We have "
9211 "always treated rights in creative property differently from the rights "
9212 "resident in all other property owners. They have never been the same. And "
9213 "they should never be the same, because, however counterintuitive this may "
9214 "seem, to make them the same would be to fundamentally weaken the opportunity "
9215 "for new creators to create. Creativity depends upon the owners of "
9216 "creativity having less than perfect control."
9219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9220 #: freeculture.xml:6402
9222 "Organizations such as the MPAA, whose board includes the most powerful of "
9223 "the old guard, have little interest, their rhetoric notwithstanding, in "
9224 "assuring that the new can displace them. No organization does. No person "
9225 "does. (Ask me about tenure, for example.) But what's good for the MPAA is "
9226 "not necessarily good for America. A society that defends the ideals of free "
9227 "culture must preserve precisely the opportunity for new creativity to "
9231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9232 #: freeculture.xml:6411
9234 "<emphasis role='strong'>To get</emphasis> just a hint that there is "
9235 "something fundamentally wrong in Valenti's argument, we need look no further "
9236 "than the United States Constitution itself."
9239 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9240 #: freeculture.xml:6416
9242 "The framers of our Constitution loved <quote>property.</quote> Indeed, so "
9243 "strongly did they love property that they built into the Constitution an "
9244 "important requirement. If the government takes your property—if it "
9245 "condemns your house, or acquires a slice of land from your farm—it is "
9246 "required, under the Fifth Amendment's <quote>Takings Clause,</quote> to pay "
9247 "you <quote>just compensation</quote> for that taking. The Constitution thus "
9248 "guarantees that property is, in a certain sense, sacred. It cannot "
9249 "<emphasis>ever</emphasis> be taken from the property owner unless the "
9250 "government pays for the privilege."
9254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9255 #: freeculture.xml:6427
9257 "Yet the very same Constitution speaks very differently about what Valenti "
9258 "calls <quote>creative property.</quote> In the clause granting Congress the "
9259 "power to create <quote>creative property,</quote> the Constitution "
9260 "<emphasis>requires</emphasis> that after a <quote>limited time,</quote> "
9261 "Congress take back the rights that it has granted and set the "
9262 "<quote>creative property</quote> free to the public domain. Yet when "
9263 "Congress does this, when the expiration of a copyright term "
9264 "<quote>takes</quote> your copyright and turns it over to the public domain, "
9265 "Congress does not have any obligation to pay <quote>just "
9266 "compensation</quote> for this <quote>taking.</quote> Instead, the same "
9267 "Constitution that requires compensation for your land requires that you lose "
9268 "your <quote>creative property</quote> right without any compensation at all."
9271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9272 #: freeculture.xml:6442
9274 "The Constitution thus on its face states that these two forms of property "
9275 "are not to be accorded the same rights. They are plainly to be treated "
9276 "differently. Valenti is therefore not just asking for a change in our "
9277 "tradition when he argues that creative-property owners should be accorded "
9278 "the same rights as every other property-right owner. He is effectively "
9279 "arguing for a change in our Constitution itself."
9282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9283 #: freeculture.xml:6452
9285 "Arguing for a change in our Constitution is not necessarily wrong. There "
9286 "was much in our original Constitution that was plainly wrong. The "
9287 "Constitution of 1789 entrenched slavery; it left senators to be appointed "
9288 "rather than elected; it made it possible for the electoral college to "
9289 "produce a tie between the president and his own vice president (as it did in "
9290 "1800). The framers were no doubt extraordinary, but I would be the first to "
9291 "admit that they made big mistakes. We have since rejected some of those "
9292 "mistakes; no doubt there could be others that we should reject as well. So "
9293 "my argument is not simply that because Jefferson did it, we should, too."
9296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9297 #: freeculture.xml:6464
9299 "Instead, my argument is that because Jefferson did it, we should at least "
9300 "try to understand <emphasis>why</emphasis>. Why did the framers, fanatical "
9301 "property types that they were, reject the claim that creative property be "
9302 "given the same rights as all other property? Why did they require that for "
9303 "creative property there must be a public domain?"
9306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9307 #: freeculture.xml:6474
9309 "To answer this question, we need to get some perspective on the history of "
9310 "these <quote>creative property</quote> rights, and the control that they "
9311 "enabled. Once we see clearly how differently these rights have been "
9312 "defined, we will be in a better position to ask the question that should be "
9313 "at the core of this war: Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> creative property "
9314 "should be protected, but how. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> we will "
9315 "enforce the rights the law gives to creative-property owners, but what the "
9316 "particular mix of rights ought to be. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> "
9317 "artists should be paid, but whether institutions designed to assure that "
9318 "artists get paid need also control how culture develops."
9321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
9322 #: freeculture.xml:6486
9323 msgid "four modalities of constraint on"
9326 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9327 #: freeculture.xml:6487 freeculture.xml:6746 freeculture.xml:9816 freeculture.xml:9933
9331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
9332 #: freeculture.xml:6487
9333 msgid "four modalities of"
9336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
9337 #: freeculture.xml:6488
9338 msgid "as ex post regulation modality"
9341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9342 #: freeculture.xml:6489 freeculture.xml:6565 freeculture.xml:6700
9343 msgid "as constraint modality"
9347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9348 #: freeculture.xml:6493
9350 "To answer these questions, we need a more general way to talk about how "
9351 "property is protected. More precisely, we need a more general way than the "
9352 "narrow language of the law allows. In <citetitle>Code and Other Laws of "
9353 "Cyberspace</citetitle>, I used a simple model to capture this more general "
9354 "perspective. For any particular right or regulation, this model asks how "
9355 "four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken the "
9356 "right or regulation. I represented it with this diagram:"
9359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9360 #: freeculture.xml:6503 freeculture.xml:6696 freeculture.xml:7066
9362 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1331.svg\" align=\"center\" "
9363 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
9366 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9367 #: freeculture.xml:6507
9369 "At the center of this picture is a regulated dot: the individual or group "
9370 "that is the target of regulation, or the holder of a right. (In each case "
9371 "throughout, we can describe this either as regulation or as a right. For "
9372 "simplicity's sake, I will speak only of regulations.) The ovals represent "
9373 "four ways in which the individual or group might be regulated— either "
9374 "constrained or, alternatively, enabled. Law is the most obvious constraint "
9375 "(to lawyers, at least). It constrains by threatening punishments after the "
9376 "fact if the rules set in advance are violated. So if, for example, you "
9377 "willfully infringe Madonna's copyright by copying a song from her latest CD "
9378 "and posting it on the Web, you can be punished with a $150,000 fine. The "
9379 "fine is an ex post punishment for violating an ex ante rule. It is imposed "
9380 "by the state. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9384 #: freeculture.xml:6523 freeculture.xml:6585 freeculture.xml:6701
9385 msgid "norms, regulatory influence of"
9388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9389 #: freeculture.xml:6525
9391 "Norms are a different kind of constraint. They, too, punish an individual "
9392 "for violating a rule. But the punishment of a norm is imposed by a "
9393 "community, not (or not only) by the state. There may be no law against "
9394 "spitting, but that doesn't mean you won't be punished if you spit on the "
9395 "ground while standing in line at a movie. The punishment might not be harsh, "
9396 "though depending upon the community, it could easily be more harsh than many "
9397 "of the punishments imposed by the state. The mark of the difference is not "
9398 "the severity of the rule, but the source of the enforcement."
9401 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9402 #: freeculture.xml:6535 freeculture.xml:6584 freeculture.xml:6677 freeculture.xml:6717 freeculture.xml:9825 freeculture.xml:10059
9403 msgid "market constraints"
9406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9407 #: freeculture.xml:6537
9409 "The market is a third type of constraint. Its constraint is effected through "
9410 "conditions: You can do X if you pay Y; you'll be paid M if you do N. These "
9411 "constraints are obviously not independent of law or norms—it is "
9412 "property law that defines what must be bought if it is to be taken legally; "
9413 "it is norms that say what is appropriately sold. But given a set of norms, "
9414 "and a background of property and contract law, the market imposes a "
9415 "simultaneous constraint upon how an individual or group might behave."
9418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9419 #: freeculture.xml:6546 freeculture.xml:6583 freeculture.xml:6635 freeculture.xml:6676 freeculture.xml:6699
9420 msgid "architecture, constraint effected through"
9423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9424 #: freeculture.xml:6548
9426 "Finally, and for the moment, perhaps, most mysteriously, "
9427 "<quote>architecture</quote>—the physical world as one finds "
9428 "it—is a constraint on behavior. A fallen bridge might constrain your "
9429 "ability to get across a river. Railroad tracks might constrain the ability "
9430 "of a community to integrate its social life. As with the market, "
9431 "architecture does not effect its constraint through ex post "
9432 "punishments. Instead, also as with the market, architecture effects its "
9433 "constraint through simultaneous conditions. These conditions are imposed not "
9434 "by courts enforcing contracts, or by police punishing theft, but by nature, "
9435 "by <quote>architecture.</quote> If a 500-pound boulder blocks your way, it "
9436 "is the law of gravity that enforces this constraint. If a $500 airplane "
9437 "ticket stands between you and a flight to New York, it is the market that "
9438 "enforces this constraint."
9442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9443 #: freeculture.xml:6569
9445 "So the first point about these four modalities of regulation is obvious: "
9446 "They interact. Restrictions imposed by one might be reinforced by "
9447 "another. Or restrictions imposed by one might be undermined by another."
9450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9451 #: freeculture.xml:6575
9453 "The second point follows directly: If we want to understand the effective "
9454 "freedom that anyone has at a given moment to do any particular thing, we "
9455 "have to consider how these four modalities interact. Whether or not there "
9456 "are other constraints (there may well be; my claim is not about "
9457 "comprehensiveness), these four are among the most significant, and any "
9458 "regulator (whether controlling or freeing) must consider how these four in "
9459 "particular interact."
9462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9463 #: freeculture.xml:6586
9464 msgid "driving speed, constraints on"
9467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9468 #: freeculture.xml:6587
9469 msgid "speeding, constraints on"
9472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9473 #: freeculture.xml:6589
9475 "So, for example, consider the <quote>freedom</quote> to drive a car at a "
9476 "high speed. That freedom is in part restricted by laws: speed limits that "
9477 "say how fast you can drive in particular places at particular times. It is "
9478 "in part restricted by architecture: speed bumps, for example, slow most "
9479 "rational drivers; governors in buses, as another example, set the maximum "
9480 "rate at which the driver can drive. The freedom is in part restricted by the "
9481 "market: Fuel efficiency drops as speed increases, thus the price of gasoline "
9482 "indirectly constrains speed. And finally, the norms of a community may or "
9483 "may not constrain the freedom to speed. Drive at 50 mph by a school in your "
9484 "own neighborhood and you're likely to be punished by the neighbors. The same "
9485 "norm wouldn't be as effective in a different town, or at night."
9489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
9490 #: freeculture.xml:6607
9492 "By describing the way law affects the other three modalities, I don't mean "
9493 "to suggest that the other three don't affect law. Obviously, they do. Law's "
9494 "only distinction is that it alone speaks as if it has a right "
9495 "self-consciously to change the other three. The right of the other three is "
9496 "more timidly expressed. See Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Code: And Other "
9497 "Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle> (New York: Basic Books, 1999): 90–95; "
9498 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>The New Chicago School,</quote> <citetitle>Journal "
9499 "of Legal Studies</citetitle>, June 1998."
9503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9504 #: freeculture.xml:6603
9506 "The final point about this simple model should also be fairly clear: While "
9507 "these four modalities are analytically independent, law has a special role "
9508 "in affecting the three.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The law, in "
9509 "other words, sometimes operates to increase or decrease the constraint of a "
9510 "particular modality. Thus, the law might be used to increase taxes on "
9511 "gasoline, so as to increase the incentives to drive more slowly. The law "
9512 "might be used to mandate more speed bumps, so as to increase the difficulty "
9513 "of driving rapidly. The law might be used to fund ads that stigmatize "
9514 "reckless driving. Or the law might be used to require that other laws be "
9515 "more strict—a federal requirement that states decrease the speed "
9516 "limit, for example—so as to decrease the attractiveness of fast "
9520 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
9521 #: freeculture.xml:6632
9523 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1361.svg\" align=\"center\" "
9524 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
9527 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9528 #: freeculture.xml:6674
9529 msgid "Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)"
9532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9533 #: freeculture.xml:6675
9534 msgid "Commons, John R."
9537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
9538 #: freeculture.xml:6645
9540 "Some people object to this way of talking about <quote>liberty.</quote> They "
9541 "object because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at "
9542 "any particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the "
9543 "government. For instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people think "
9544 "it is meaningless to say that one's liberty has been restrained. A bridge "
9545 "has washed out, and it's harder to get from one place to another. To talk "
9546 "about this as a loss of freedom, they say, is to confuse the stuff of "
9547 "politics with the vagaries of ordinary life. I don't mean to deny the value "
9548 "in this narrower view, which depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, "
9549 "however, mean to argue against any insistence that this narrower view is the "
9550 "only proper view of liberty. As I argued in <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, we "
9551 "come from a long tradition of political thought with a broader focus than "
9552 "the narrow question of what the government did when. John Stuart Mill "
9553 "defended freedom of speech, for example, from the tyranny of narrow minds, "
9554 "not from the fear of government prosecution; John Stuart Mill, <citetitle>On "
9555 "Liberty</citetitle> (Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19. John "
9556 "R. Commons famously defended the economic freedom of labor from constraints "
9557 "imposed by the market; John R. Commons, <quote>The Right to Work,</quote> in "
9558 "Malcom Rutherford and Warren J. Samuels, eds., <citetitle>John R. Commons: "
9559 "Selected Essays</citetitle> (London: Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans "
9560 "with Disabilities Act increases the liberty of people with physical "
9561 "disabilities by changing the architecture of certain public places, thereby "
9562 "making access to those places easier; 42 <citetitle>United States "
9563 "Code</citetitle>, section 12101 (2000). Each of these interventions to "
9564 "change existing conditions changes the liberty of a particular group. The "
9565 "effect of those interventions should be accounted for in order to understand "
9566 "the effective liberty that each of these groups might face. <placeholder "
9567 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
9568 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
9572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
9573 #: freeculture.xml:6637
9575 "These constraints can thus change, and they can be changed. To understand "
9576 "the effective protection of liberty or protection of property at any "
9577 "particular moment, we must track these changes over time. A restriction "
9578 "imposed by one modality might be erased by another. A freedom enabled by one "
9579 "modality might be displaced by another.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9584 #: freeculture.xml:6682
9585 msgid "Why Hollywood Is Right"
9588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9589 #: freeculture.xml:6683 freeculture.xml:7056
9590 msgid "four regulatory modalities on"
9593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9594 #: freeculture.xml:6685
9596 "The most obvious point that this model reveals is just why, or just how, "
9597 "Hollywood is right. The copyright warriors have rallied Congress and the "
9598 "courts to defend copyright. This model helps us see why that rallying makes "
9602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9603 #: freeculture.xml:6691
9604 msgid "Let's say this is the picture of copyright's regulation before the Internet:"
9608 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9609 #: freeculture.xml:6704
9611 "There is balance between law, norms, market, and architecture. The law "
9612 "limits the ability to copy and share content, by imposing penalties on those "
9613 "who copy and share content. Those penalties are reinforced by technologies "
9614 "that make it hard to copy and share content (architecture) and expensive to "
9615 "copy and share content (market). Finally, those penalties are mitigated by "
9616 "norms we all recognize—kids, for example, taping other kids' "
9617 "records. These uses of copyrighted material may well be infringement, but "
9618 "the norms of our society (before the Internet, at least) had no problem with "
9619 "this form of infringement."
9622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9623 #: freeculture.xml:6715
9624 msgid "copyright regulatory balance lost with"
9627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9628 #: freeculture.xml:6716
9629 msgid "regulatory balance lost in"
9632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9633 #: freeculture.xml:6718
9637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9638 #: freeculture.xml:6720
9640 "Enter the Internet, or, more precisely, technologies such as MP3s and p2p "
9641 "sharing. Now the constraint of architecture changes dramatically, as does "
9642 "the constraint of the market. And as both the market and architecture relax "
9643 "the regulation of copyright, norms pile on. The happy balance (for the "
9644 "warriors, at least) of life before the Internet becomes an effective state "
9645 "of anarchy after the Internet."
9648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9649 #: freeculture.xml:6729 freeculture.xml:7573 freeculture.xml:7882
9653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9654 #: freeculture.xml:6729
9655 msgid "established industries threatened by changes in"
9659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9660 #: freeculture.xml:6731
9662 "Thus the sense of, and justification for, the warriors' response. "
9663 "Technology has changed, the warriors say, and the effect of this change, "
9664 "when ramified through the market and norms, is that a balance of protection "
9665 "for the copyright owners' rights has been lost. This is Iraq after the fall "
9666 "of Saddam, but this time no government is justifying the looting that "
9670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9671 #: freeculture.xml:6742
9673 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1381.svg\" align=\"center\" "
9674 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
9677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9678 #: freeculture.xml:6745
9679 msgid "Commerce, U.S. Department of"
9682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9683 #: freeculture.xml:6746 freeculture.xml:9816
9684 msgid "as establishment protectionism"
9687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9688 #: freeculture.xml:6748
9690 "Neither this analysis nor the conclusions that follow are new to the "
9691 "warriors. Indeed, in a <quote>White Paper</quote> prepared by the Commerce "
9692 "Department (one heavily influenced by the copyright warriors) in 1995, this "
9693 "mix of regulatory modalities had already been identified and the strategy to "
9694 "respond already mapped. In response to the changes the Internet had "
9695 "effected, the White Paper argued (1) Congress should strengthen intellectual "
9696 "property law, (2) businesses should adopt innovative marketing techniques, "
9697 "(3) technologists should push to develop code to protect copyrighted "
9698 "material, and (4) educators should educate kids to better protect copyright."
9701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9702 #: freeculture.xml:6761 freeculture.xml:6901
9706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9707 #: freeculture.xml:6762
9708 msgid "steel industry"
9712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9713 #: freeculture.xml:6764
9715 "This mixed strategy is just what copyright needed—if it was to "
9716 "preserve the particular balance that existed before the change induced by "
9717 "the Internet. And it's just what we should expect the content industry to "
9718 "push for. It is as American as apple pie to consider the happy life you have "
9719 "as an entitlement, and to look to the law to protect it if something comes "
9720 "along to change that happy life. Homeowners living in a flood plain have no "
9721 "hesitation appealing to the government to rebuild (and rebuild again) when a "
9722 "flood (architecture) wipes away their property (law). Farmers have no "
9723 "hesitation appealing to the government to bail them out when a virus "
9724 "(architecture) devastates their crop. Unions have no hesitation appealing to "
9725 "the government to bail them out when imports (market) wipe out the "
9726 "U.S. steel industry."
9729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9730 #: freeculture.xml:6784
9732 "Thus, there's nothing wrong or surprising in the content industry's campaign "
9733 "to protect itself from the harmful consequences of a technological "
9734 "innovation. And I would be the last person to argue that the changing "
9735 "technology of the Internet has not had a profound effect on the content "
9736 "industry's way of doing business, or as John Seely Brown describes it, its "
9737 "<quote>architecture of revenue.</quote>"
9740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9741 #: freeculture.xml:6797
9742 msgid "railroad industry"
9745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9746 #: freeculture.xml:6798
9747 msgid "remote channel changers"
9751 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9752 #: freeculture.xml:6808
9754 "See Geoffrey Smith, <quote>Film vs. Digital: Can Kodak Build a "
9755 "Bridge?</quote> BusinessWeek online, 2 August 1999, available at <ulink "
9756 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #23</ulink>. For a more recent "
9757 "analysis of Kodak's place in the market, see Chana R. Schoenberger, "
9758 "<quote>Can Kodak Make Up for Lost Moments?</quote> Forbes.com, 6 October "
9759 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
9763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9764 #: freeculture.xml:6800
9766 "But just because a particular interest asks for government support, it "
9767 "doesn't follow that support should be granted. And just because technology "
9768 "has weakened a particular way of doing business, it doesn't follow that the "
9769 "government should intervene to support that old way of doing "
9770 "business. Kodak, for example, has lost perhaps as much as 20 percent of "
9771 "their traditional film market to the emerging technologies of digital "
9772 "cameras.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Does anyone believe the "
9773 "government should ban digital cameras just to support Kodak? Highways have "
9774 "weakened the freight business for railroads. Does anyone think we should ban "
9775 "trucks from roads <emphasis>for the purpose of</emphasis> protecting the "
9776 "railroads? Closer to the subject of this book, remote channel changers have "
9777 "weakened the <quote>stickiness</quote> of television advertising (if a "
9778 "boring commercial comes on the TV, the remote makes it easy to surf), and it "
9779 "may well be that this change has weakened the television advertising "
9780 "market. But does anyone believe we should regulate remotes to reinforce "
9781 "commercial television? (Maybe by limiting them to function only once a "
9782 "second, or to switch to only ten channels within an hour?)"
9785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9786 #: freeculture.xml:6829
9787 msgid "free market, technological changes in"
9790 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
9791 #: freeculture.xml:6830 freeculture.xml:15508
9792 msgid "Brezhnev, Leonid"
9795 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
9796 #: freeculture.xml:6833 freeculture.xml:13708
9800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9801 #: freeculture.xml:6834 freeculture.xml:7847
9802 msgid "market competition"
9806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9807 #: freeculture.xml:6847
9809 "Fred Warshofsky, <citetitle>The Patent Wars</citetitle> (New York: Wiley, "
9810 "1994), 170–71."
9813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9814 #: freeculture.xml:6837
9816 "The obvious answer to these obviously rhetorical questions is no. In a free "
9817 "society, with a free market, supported by free enterprise and free trade, "
9818 "the government's role is not to support one way of doing business against "
9819 "others. Its role is not to pick winners and protect them against loss. If "
9820 "the government did this generally, then we would never have any progress. As "
9821 "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates wrote in 1991, in a memo criticizing software "
9822 "patents, <quote>established companies have an interest in excluding future "
9823 "competitors.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And relative "
9824 "to a startup, established companies also have the means. (Think RCA and FM "
9825 "radio.) A world in which competitors with new ideas must fight not only the "
9826 "market but also the government is a world in which competitors with new "
9827 "ideas will not succeed. It is a world of stasis and increasingly "
9828 "concentrated stagnation. It is the Soviet Union under Brezhnev."
9831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9832 #: freeculture.xml:6858
9834 "Thus, while it is understandable for industries threatened with new "
9835 "technologies that change the way they do business to look to the government "
9836 "for protection, it is the special duty of policy makers to guarantee that "
9837 "that protection not become a deterrent to progress. It is the duty of policy "
9838 "makers, in other words, to assure that the changes they create, in response "
9839 "to the request of those hurt by changing technology, are changes that "
9840 "preserve the incentives and opportunities for innovation and change."
9843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9844 #: freeculture.xml:6869
9845 msgid "speech, freedom of"
9848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9849 #: freeculture.xml:6869
9850 msgid "constitutional guarantee of"
9853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9854 #: freeculture.xml:6871
9856 "In the context of laws regulating speech—which include, obviously, "
9857 "copyright law—that duty is even stronger. When the industry "
9858 "complaining about changing technologies is asking Congress to respond in a "
9859 "way that burdens speech and creativity, policy makers should be especially "
9860 "wary of the request. It is always a bad deal for the government to get into "
9861 "the business of regulating speech markets. The risks and dangers of that "
9862 "game are precisely why our framers created the First Amendment to our "
9863 "Constitution: <quote>Congress shall make no law … abridging the "
9864 "freedom of speech.</quote> So when Congress is being asked to pass laws that "
9865 "would <quote>abridge</quote> the freedom of speech, it should ask— "
9866 "carefully—whether such regulation is justified."
9870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9871 #: freeculture.xml:6887
9873 "My argument just now, however, has nothing to do with whether the changes "
9874 "that are being pushed by the copyright warriors are "
9875 "<quote>justified.</quote> My argument is about their effect. For before we "
9876 "get to the question of justification, a hard question that depends a great "
9877 "deal upon your values, we should first ask whether we understand the effect "
9878 "of the changes the content industry wants."
9881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9882 #: freeculture.xml:6896
9883 msgid "Here's the metaphor that will capture the argument to follow."
9886 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9887 #: freeculture.xml:6898
9888 msgid "Müller, Paul Hermann"
9891 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9892 #: freeculture.xml:6899
9896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9897 #: freeculture.xml:6900
9898 msgid "insecticide, environmental consequences of"
9901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9902 #: freeculture.xml:6903
9904 "In 1873, the chemical DDT was first synthesized. In 1948, Swiss chemist Paul "
9905 "Hermann Müller won the Nobel Prize for his work demonstrating the "
9906 "insecticidal properties of DDT. By the 1950s, the insecticide was widely "
9907 "used around the world to kill disease-carrying pests. It was also used to "
9908 "increase farm production."
9911 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9912 #: freeculture.xml:6910
9914 "No one doubts that killing disease-carrying pests or increasing crop "
9915 "production is a good thing. No one doubts that the work of Müller was "
9916 "important and valuable and probably saved lives, possibly millions."
9919 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9920 #: freeculture.xml:6914
9921 msgid "Carson, Rachel"
9924 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9925 #: freeculture.xml:6915
9926 msgid "Silent Spring (Carson)"
9929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9930 #: freeculture.xml:6916
9931 msgid "environmentalism"
9934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9935 #: freeculture.xml:6918
9937 "But in 1962, Rachel Carson published <citetitle>Silent Spring</citetitle>, "
9938 "which argued that DDT, whatever its primary benefits, was also having "
9939 "unintended environmental consequences. Birds were losing the ability to "
9940 "reproduce. Whole chains of the ecology were being destroyed."
9943 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9944 #: freeculture.xml:6924
9946 "No one set out to destroy the environment. Paul Müller certainly did not aim "
9947 "to harm any birds. But the effort to solve one set of problems produced "
9948 "another set which, in the view of some, was far worse than the problems that "
9949 "were originally attacked. Or more accurately, the problems DDT caused were "
9950 "worse than the problems it solved, at least when considering the other, more "
9951 "environmentally friendly ways to solve the problems that DDT was meant to "
9955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9956 #: freeculture.xml:6933
9957 msgid "Boyle, James"
9960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9961 #: freeculture.xml:6934
9962 msgid "innovative freedom balanced with fair compensation in"
9966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9967 #: freeculture.xml:6940
9969 "See, for example, James Boyle, <quote>A Politics of Intellectual Property: "
9970 "Environmentalism for the Net?</quote> <citetitle>Duke Law "
9971 "Journal</citetitle> 47 (1997): 87."
9975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9976 #: freeculture.xml:6936
9978 "It is to this image precisely that Duke University law professor James Boyle "
9979 "appeals when he argues that we need an <quote>environmentalism</quote> for "
9980 "culture.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His point, and the point I "
9981 "want to develop in the balance of this chapter, is not that the aims of "
9982 "copyright are flawed. Or that authors should not be paid for their work. Or "
9983 "that music should be given away <quote>for free.</quote> The point is that "
9984 "some of the ways in which we might protect authors will have unintended "
9985 "consequences for the cultural environment, much like DDT had for the natural "
9986 "environment. And just as criticism of DDT is not an endorsement of malaria "
9987 "or an attack on farmers, so, too, is criticism of one particular set of "
9988 "regulations protecting copyright not an endorsement of anarchy or an attack "
9989 "on authors. It is an environment of creativity that we seek, and we should "
9990 "be aware of our actions' effects on the environment."
9993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9994 #: freeculture.xml:6958
9996 "My argument, in the balance of this chapter, tries to map exactly this "
9997 "effect. No doubt the technology of the Internet has had a dramatic effect on "
9998 "the ability of copyright owners to protect their content. But there should "
9999 "also be little doubt that when you add together the changes in copyright law "
10000 "over time, plus the change in technology that the Internet is undergoing "
10001 "just now, the net effect of these changes will not be only that copyrighted "
10002 "work is effectively protected. Also, and generally missed, the net effect of "
10003 "this massive increase in protection will be devastating to the environment "
10007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10008 #: freeculture.xml:6970
10010 "In a line: To kill a gnat, we are spraying DDT with consequences for free "
10011 "culture that will be far more devastating than that this gnat will be lost."
10014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10015 #: freeculture.xml:6979
10019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10020 #: freeculture.xml:6980
10021 msgid "on creative property"
10024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
10025 #: freeculture.xml:6981 freeculture.xml:11472
10026 msgid "copyright purpose established in"
10029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
10030 #: freeculture.xml:6982 freeculture.xml:11181
10031 msgid "Progress Clause of"
10034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
10035 #: freeculture.xml:6983 freeculture.xml:11473
10036 msgid "constitutional purpose of"
10039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10040 #: freeculture.xml:6985
10041 msgid "constitutional tradition on"
10044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
10045 #: freeculture.xml:6986 freeculture.xml:11182
10046 msgid "Progress Clause"
10049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10050 #: freeculture.xml:6989
10052 "America copied English copyright law. Actually, we copied and improved "
10053 "English copyright law. Our Constitution makes the purpose of <quote>creative "
10054 "property</quote> rights clear; its express limitations reinforce the English "
10055 "aim to avoid overly powerful publishers."
10058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10059 #: freeculture.xml:6994
10060 msgid "in constitutional Progress Clause"
10063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10064 #: freeculture.xml:6996
10066 "The power to establish <quote>creative property</quote> rights is granted to "
10067 "Congress in a way that, for our Constitution, at least, is very odd. Article "
10068 "I, section 8, clause 8 of our Constitution states that:"
10072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10073 #: freeculture.xml:7001
10075 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, "
10076 "by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right "
10077 "to their respective Writings and Discoveries. We can call this the "
10078 "<quote>Progress Clause,</quote> for notice what this clause does not say. It "
10079 "does not say Congress has the power to grant <quote>creative property "
10080 "rights.</quote> It says that Congress has the power <emphasis>to promote "
10081 "progress</emphasis>. The grant of power is its purpose, and its purpose is a "
10082 "public one, not the purpose of enriching publishers, nor even primarily the "
10083 "purpose of rewarding authors."
10086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10087 #: freeculture.xml:7015
10088 msgid "history of American"
10091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10092 #: freeculture.xml:7017
10094 "The Progress Clause expressly limits the term of copyrights. As we saw in "
10095 "chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"founders\"/>, the "
10096 "English limited the term of copyright so as to assure that a few would not "
10097 "exercise disproportionate control over culture by exercising "
10098 "disproportionate control over publishing. We can assume the framers followed "
10099 "the English for a similar purpose. Indeed, unlike the English, the framers "
10100 "reinforced that objective, by requiring that copyrights extend <quote>to "
10101 "Authors</quote> only."
10104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10105 #: freeculture.xml:7026
10106 msgid "Senate, U.S."
10109 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10110 #: freeculture.xml:7027
10111 msgid "structural checks and balances of"
10114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10115 #: freeculture.xml:7028
10116 msgid "electoral college"
10119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10120 #: freeculture.xml:7030
10122 "The design of the Progress Clause reflects something about the "
10123 "Constitution's design in general. To avoid a problem, the framers built "
10124 "structure. To prevent the concentrated power of publishers, they built a "
10125 "structure that kept copyrights away from publishers and kept them short. To "
10126 "prevent the concentrated power of a church, they banned the federal "
10127 "government from establishing a church. To prevent concentrating power in the "
10128 "federal government, they built structures to reinforce the power of the "
10129 "states—including the Senate, whose members were at the time selected "
10130 "by the states, and an electoral college, also selected by the states, to "
10131 "select the president. In each case, a <emphasis>structure</emphasis> built "
10132 "checks and balances into the constitutional frame, structured to prevent "
10133 "otherwise inevitable concentrations of power."
10136 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10137 #: freeculture.xml:7047
10139 "I doubt the framers would recognize the regulation we call "
10140 "<quote>copyright</quote> today. The scope of that regulation is far beyond "
10141 "anything they ever considered. To begin to understand what they did, we need "
10142 "to put our <quote>copyright</quote> in context: We need to see how it has "
10143 "changed in the 210 years since they first struck its design."
10147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10148 #: freeculture.xml:7058
10150 "Some of these changes come from the law: some in light of changes in "
10151 "technology, and some in light of changes in technology given a particular "
10152 "concentration of market power. In terms of our model, we started here:"
10155 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10156 #: freeculture.xml:7069
10157 msgid "We will end here:"
10160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10161 #: freeculture.xml:7073
10163 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1442.svg\" align=\"center\" "
10164 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
10168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10169 #: freeculture.xml:7076
10170 msgid "Let me explain how."
10173 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10174 #: freeculture.xml:7081
10175 msgid "Law: Duration"
10178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10179 #: freeculture.xml:7084 freeculture.xml:7376
10180 msgid "Copyright Act (1790)"
10183 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10184 #: freeculture.xml:7085
10185 msgid "common law protections of"
10188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10189 #: freeculture.xml:7086
10190 msgid "balance of U.S. content in"
10193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10194 #: freeculture.xml:7102
10195 msgid "Crosskey, William W."
10198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10199 #: freeculture.xml:7096
10201 "William W. Crosskey, <citetitle>Politics and the Constitution in the History "
10202 "of the United States</citetitle> (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953), "
10203 "vol. 1, 485–86: <quote>extinguish[ing], by plain implication of `the "
10204 "supreme Law of the Land,' <emphasis>the perpetual rights which authors had, "
10205 "or were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law</emphasis></quote> "
10206 "(emphasis added). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10210 #: freeculture.xml:7088
10212 "When the first Congress enacted laws to protect creative property, it faced "
10213 "the same uncertainty about the status of creative property that the English "
10214 "had confronted in 1774. Many states had passed laws protecting creative "
10215 "property, and some believed that these laws simply supplemented common law "
10216 "rights that already protected creative authorship.<placeholder "
10217 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This meant that there was no guaranteed public "
10218 "domain in the United States in 1790. If copyrights were protected by the "
10219 "common law, then there was no simple way to know whether a work published in "
10220 "the United States was controlled or free. Just as in England, this lingering "
10221 "uncertainty would make it hard for publishers to rely upon a public domain "
10222 "to reprint and distribute works."
10225 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10226 #: freeculture.xml:7112
10227 msgid "federal vs. state"
10230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10231 #: freeculture.xml:7114
10233 "That uncertainty ended after Congress passed legislation granting "
10234 "copyrights. Because federal law overrides any contrary state law, federal "
10235 "protections for copyrighted works displaced any state law protections. Just "
10236 "as in England the Statute of Anne eventually meant that the copyrights for "
10237 "all English works expired, a federal statute meant that any state copyrights "
10241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10242 #: freeculture.xml:7123
10244 "In 1790, Congress enacted the first copyright law. It created a federal "
10245 "copyright and secured that copyright for fourteen years. If the author was "
10246 "alive at the end of that fourteen years, then he could opt to renew the "
10247 "copyright for another fourteen years. If he did not renew the copyright, his "
10248 "work passed into the public domain."
10252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10253 #: freeculture.xml:7139
10255 "Although 13,000 titles were published in the United States from 1790 to "
10256 "1799, only 556 copyright registrations were filed; John Tebbel, <citetitle>A "
10257 "History of Book Publishing in the United States</citetitle>, vol. 1, "
10258 "<citetitle>The Creation of an Industry, 1630–1865</citetitle> (New "
10259 "York: Bowker, 1972), 141. Of the 21,000 imprints recorded before 1790, only "
10260 "twelve were copyrighted under the 1790 act; William J. Maher, "
10261 "<citetitle>Copyright Term, Retrospective Extension and the Copyright Law of "
10262 "1790 in Historical Context</citetitle>, 7–10 (2002), available at "
10263 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #25</ulink>. Thus, the "
10264 "overwhelming majority of works fell immediately into the public domain. Even "
10265 "those works that were copyrighted fell into the public domain quickly, "
10266 "because the term of copyright was short. The initial term of copyright was "
10267 "fourteen years, with the option of renewal for an additional fourteen "
10268 "years. Copyright Act of May 31, 1790, §1, 1 stat. 124."
10271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10272 #: freeculture.xml:7131
10274 "While there were many works created in the United States in the first ten "
10275 "years of the Republic, only 5 percent of the works were actually registered "
10276 "under the federal copyright regime. Of all the work created in the United "
10277 "States both before 1790 and from 1790 through 1800, 95 percent immediately "
10278 "passed into the public domain; the balance would pass into the pubic domain "
10279 "within twenty-eight years at most, and more likely within fourteen "
10280 "years.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10284 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10285 #: freeculture.xml:7157
10287 "This system of renewal was a crucial part of the American system of "
10288 "copyright. It assured that the maximum terms of copyright would be granted "
10289 "only for works where they were wanted. After the initial term of fourteen "
10290 "years, if it wasn't worth it to an author to renew his copyright, then it "
10291 "wasn't worth it to society to insist on the copyright, either."
10295 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10296 #: freeculture.xml:7172
10298 "Few copyright holders ever chose to renew their copyrights. For instance, of "
10299 "the 25,006 copyrights registered in 1883, only 894 were renewed in 1910. For "
10300 "a year-by-year analysis of copyright renewal rates, see Barbara A. Ringer, "
10301 "<quote>Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Studies on "
10302 "Copyright</citetitle>, vol. 1 (New York: Practicing Law Institute, 1963), "
10303 "618. For a more recent and comprehensive analysis, see William M. Landes and "
10304 "Richard A. Posner, <quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> "
10305 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 471, "
10306 "498–501, and accompanying figures."
10309 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10310 #: freeculture.xml:7166
10312 "Fourteen years may not seem long to us, but for the vast majority of "
10313 "copyright owners at that time, it was long enough: Only a small minority of "
10314 "them renewed their copyright after fourteen years; the balance allowed their "
10315 "work to pass into the public domain.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
10320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10321 #: freeculture.xml:7190
10322 msgid "See Ringer, ch. 9, n. 2."
10325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10326 #: freeculture.xml:7186
10328 "Even today, this structure would make sense. Most creative work has an "
10329 "actual commercial life of just a couple of years. Most books fall out of "
10330 "print after one year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When that "
10331 "happens, the used books are traded free of copyright regulation. Thus the "
10332 "books are no longer <emphasis>effectively</emphasis> controlled by "
10333 "copyright. The only practical commercial use of the books at that time is to "
10334 "sell the books as used books; that use—because it does not involve "
10335 "publication—is effectively free."
10338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
10339 #: freeculture.xml:7198 freeculture.xml:11119
10340 msgid "copyright terms extended by"
10343 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
10344 #: freeculture.xml:7199 freeculture.xml:11121
10345 msgid "term extensions in"
10348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10349 #: freeculture.xml:7201
10351 "In the first hundred years of the Republic, the term of copyright was "
10352 "changed once. In 1831, the term was increased from a maximum of 28 years to "
10353 "a maximum of 42 by increasing the initial term of copyright from 14 years to "
10354 "28 years. In the next fifty years of the Republic, the term increased once "
10355 "again. In 1909, Congress extended the renewal term of 14 years to 28 years, "
10356 "setting a maximum term of 56 years."
10359 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
10360 #: freeculture.xml:7208 freeculture.xml:7243 freeculture.xml:11145 freeculture.xml:15426
10361 msgid "Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) (1998)"
10364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
10365 #: freeculture.xml:7209 freeculture.xml:11125
10366 msgid "future patents vs. future copyrights in"
10369 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10370 #: freeculture.xml:7211
10372 "Then, beginning in 1962, Congress started a practice that has defined "
10373 "copyright law since. Eleven times in the last forty years, Congress has "
10374 "extended the terms of existing copyrights; twice in those forty years, "
10375 "Congress extended the term of future copyrights. Initially, the extensions "
10376 "of existing copyrights were short, a mere one to two years. In 1976, "
10377 "Congress extended all existing copyrights by nineteen years. And in 1998, "
10378 "in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Congress extended the term "
10379 "of existing and future copyrights by twenty years."
10382 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
10383 #: freeculture.xml:7220 freeculture.xml:11124 freeculture.xml:11125 freeculture.xml:13213 freeculture.xml:13694
10387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
10388 #: freeculture.xml:7220 freeculture.xml:11124
10389 msgid "in public domain"
10393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10394 #: freeculture.xml:7222
10396 "The effect of these extensions is simply to toll, or delay, the passing of "
10397 "works into the public domain. This latest extension means that the public "
10398 "domain will have been tolled for thirty-nine out of fifty-five years, or 70 "
10399 "percent of the time since 1962. Thus, in the twenty years after the Sonny "
10400 "Bono Act, while one million patents will pass into the public domain, zero "
10401 "copyrights will pass into the public domain by virtue of the expiration of a "
10405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10406 #: freeculture.xml:7234
10408 "The effect of these extensions has been exacerbated by another, "
10409 "little-noticed change in the copyright law. Remember I said that the framers "
10410 "established a two-part copyright regime, requiring a copyright owner to "
10411 "renew his copyright after an initial term. The requirement of renewal meant "
10412 "that works that no longer needed copyright protection would pass more "
10413 "quickly into the public domain. The works remaining under protection would "
10414 "be those that had some continuing commercial value."
10417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10418 #: freeculture.xml:7244
10419 msgid "of natural authors vs. corporations"
10422 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
10423 #: freeculture.xml:7245 freeculture.xml:13367
10424 msgid "corporations"
10427 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10428 #: freeculture.xml:7245
10429 msgid "copyright terms for"
10432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10433 #: freeculture.xml:7247
10435 "The United States abandoned this sensible system in 1976. For all works "
10436 "created after 1978, there was only one copyright term—the maximum "
10437 "term. For <quote>natural</quote> authors, that term was life plus fifty "
10438 "years. For corporations, the term was seventy-five years. Then, in 1992, "
10439 "Congress abandoned the renewal requirement for all works created before "
10440 "1978. All works still under copyright would be accorded the maximum term "
10441 "then available. After the Sonny Bono Act, that term was ninety-five years."
10444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10445 #: freeculture.xml:7257
10447 "This change meant that American law no longer had an automatic way to assure "
10448 "that works that were no longer exploited passed into the public domain. And "
10449 "indeed, after these changes, it is unclear whether it is even possible to "
10450 "put works into the public domain. The public domain is orphaned by these "
10451 "changes in copyright law. Despite the requirement that terms be "
10452 "<quote>limited,</quote> we have no evidence that anything will limit them."
10456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10457 #: freeculture.xml:7276
10459 "These statistics are understated. Between the years 1910 and 1962 (the first "
10460 "year the renewal term was extended), the average term was never more than "
10461 "thirty-two years, and averaged thirty years. See Landes and Posner, "
10462 "<quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> loc. cit."
10465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10466 #: freeculture.xml:7268
10468 "The effect of these changes on the average duration of copyright is "
10469 "dramatic. In 1973, more than 85 percent of copyright owners failed to renew "
10470 "their copyright. That meant that the average term of copyright in 1973 was "
10471 "just 32.2 years. Because of the elimination of the renewal requirement, the "
10472 "average term of copyright is now the maximum term. In thirty years, then, "
10473 "the average term has tripled, from 32.2 years to 95 years.<placeholder "
10474 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10478 #: freeculture.xml:7290
10482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10483 #: freeculture.xml:7291 freeculture.xml:7510
10487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10488 #: freeculture.xml:7293
10490 "The <quote>scope</quote> of a copyright is the range of rights granted by "
10491 "the law. The scope of American copyright has changed dramatically. Those "
10492 "changes are not necessarily bad. But we should understand the extent of the "
10493 "changes if we're to keep this debate in context."
10496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10497 #: freeculture.xml:7299
10498 msgid "historical shift in copyright coverage of"
10501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10502 #: freeculture.xml:7301
10504 "In 1790, that scope was very narrow. Copyright covered only <quote>maps, "
10505 "charts, and books.</quote> That means it didn't cover, for example, music or "
10506 "architecture. More significantly, the right granted by a copyright gave the "
10507 "author the exclusive right to <quote>publish</quote> copyrighted works. That "
10508 "means someone else violated the copyright only if he republished the work "
10509 "without the copyright owner's permission. Finally, the right granted by a "
10510 "copyright was an exclusive right to that particular book. The right did not "
10511 "extend to what lawyers call <quote>derivative works.</quote> It would not, "
10512 "therefore, interfere with the right of someone other than the author to "
10513 "translate a copyrighted book, or to adapt the story to a different form "
10514 "(such as a drama based on a published book)."
10517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10518 #: freeculture.xml:7314
10520 "This, too, has changed dramatically. While the contours of copyright today "
10521 "are extremely hard to describe simply, in general terms, the right covers "
10522 "practically any creative work that is reduced to a tangible form. It covers "
10523 "music as well as architecture, drama as well as computer programs. It gives "
10524 "the copyright owner of that creative work not only the exclusive right to "
10525 "<quote>publish</quote> the work, but also the exclusive right of control "
10526 "over any <quote>copies</quote> of that work. And most significant for our "
10527 "purposes here, the right gives the copyright owner control over not only his "
10528 "or her particular work, but also any <quote>derivative work</quote> that "
10529 "might grow out of the original work. In this way, the right covers more "
10530 "creative work, protects the creative work more broadly, and protects works "
10531 "that are based in a significant way on the initial creative work."
10534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10535 #: freeculture.xml:7328
10539 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10540 #: freeculture.xml:7329
10541 msgid "formalities"
10544 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10545 #: freeculture.xml:7330
10546 msgid "registration requirement of"
10550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10551 #: freeculture.xml:7332
10553 "At the same time that the scope of copyright has expanded, procedural "
10554 "limitations on the right have been relaxed. I've already described the "
10555 "complete removal of the renewal requirement in 1992. In addition to the "
10556 "renewal requirement, for most of the history of American copyright law, "
10557 "there was a requirement that a work be registered before it could receive "
10558 "the protection of a copyright. There was also a requirement that any "
10559 "copyrighted work be marked either with that famous © or the word "
10560 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis>. And for most of the history of American "
10561 "copyright law, there was a requirement that works be deposited with the "
10562 "government before a copyright could be secured."
10565 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10566 #: freeculture.xml:7347
10568 "The reason for the registration requirement was the sensible understanding "
10569 "that for most works, no copyright was required. Again, in the first ten "
10570 "years of the Republic, 95 percent of works eligible for copyright were never "
10571 "copyrighted. Thus, the rule reflected the norm: Most works apparently didn't "
10572 "need copyright, so registration narrowed the regulation of the law to the "
10573 "few that did. The same reasoning justified the requirement that a work be "
10574 "marked as copyrighted—that way it was easy to know whether a copyright "
10575 "was being claimed. The requirement that works be deposited was to assure "
10576 "that after the copyright expired, there would be a copy of the work "
10577 "somewhere so that it could be copied by others without locating the original "
10581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10582 #: freeculture.xml:7360
10586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10587 #: freeculture.xml:7362
10589 "All of these <quote>formalities</quote> were abolished in the American "
10590 "system when we decided to follow European copyright law. There is no "
10591 "requirement that you register a work to get a copyright; the copyright now "
10592 "is automatic; the copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with a "
10593 "©; and the copyright exists whether or not you actually make a copy "
10594 "available for others to copy."
10597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10598 #: freeculture.xml:7373
10599 msgid "Consider a practical example to understand the scope of these differences."
10603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10604 #: freeculture.xml:7385
10606 "See Thomas Bender and David Sampliner, <quote>Poets, Pirates, and the "
10607 "Creation of American Literature,</quote> 29 <citetitle>New York University "
10608 "Journal of International Law and Politics</citetitle> 255 (1997), and James "
10609 "Gilraeth, ed., Federal Copyright Records, 1790–1800 (U.S. G.P.O., "
10613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10614 #: freeculture.xml:7378
10616 "If, in 1790, you wrote a book and you were one of the 5 percent who actually "
10617 "copyrighted that book, then the copyright law protected you against another "
10618 "publisher's taking your book and republishing it without your "
10619 "permission. The aim of the act was to regulate publishers so as to prevent "
10620 "that kind of unfair competition. In 1790, there were 174 publishers in the "
10621 "United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Copyright Act "
10622 "was thus a tiny regulation of a tiny proportion of a tiny part of the "
10623 "creative market in the United States—publishers."
10627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10628 #: freeculture.xml:7400
10630 "The act left other creators totally unregulated. If I copied your poem by "
10631 "hand, over and over again, as a way to learn it by heart, my act was totally "
10632 "unregulated by the 1790 act. If I took your novel and made a play based upon "
10633 "it, or if I translated it or abridged it, none of those activities were "
10634 "regulated by the original copyright act. These creative activities remained "
10635 "free, while the activities of publishers were restrained."
10638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10639 #: freeculture.xml:7410
10641 "Today the story is very different: If you write a book, your book is "
10642 "automatically protected. Indeed, not just your book. Every e-mail, every "
10643 "note to your spouse, every doodle, <emphasis>every</emphasis> creative act "
10644 "that's reduced to a tangible form—all of this is automatically "
10645 "copyrighted. There is no need to register or mark your work. The protection "
10646 "follows the creation, not the steps you take to protect it."
10649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10650 #: freeculture.xml:7419
10652 "That protection gives you the right (subject to a narrow range of fair use "
10653 "exceptions) to control how others copy the work, whether they copy it to "
10654 "republish it or to share an excerpt."
10657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10658 #: freeculture.xml:7424
10660 "That much is the obvious part. Any system of copyright would control "
10661 "competing publishing. But there's a second part to the copyright of today "
10662 "that is not at all obvious. This is the protection of <quote>derivative "
10663 "rights.</quote> If you write a book, no one can make a movie out of your "
10664 "book without permission. No one can translate it without permission. "
10665 "CliffsNotes can't make an abridgment unless permission is granted. All of "
10666 "these derivative uses of your original work are controlled by the copyright "
10667 "holder. The copyright, in other words, is now not just an exclusive right to "
10668 "your writings, but an exclusive right to your writings and a large "
10669 "proportion of the writings inspired by them."
10672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10673 #: freeculture.xml:7439
10675 "It is this derivative right that would seem most bizarre to our framers, "
10676 "though it has become second nature to us. Initially, this expansion was "
10677 "created to deal with obvious evasions of a narrower copyright. If I write a "
10678 "book, can you change one word and then claim a copyright in a new and "
10679 "different book? Obviously that would make a joke of the copyright, so the "
10680 "law was properly expanded to include those slight modifications as well as "
10681 "the verbatim original work."
10684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10685 #: freeculture.xml:7461
10687 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>The Copyright Cage,</quote> <citetitle>Legal "
10688 "Affairs</citetitle>, July/August 2003, available at <ulink "
10689 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #26</ulink>. <placeholder "
10690 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10694 #: freeculture.xml:7451
10696 "In preventing that joke, the law created an astonishing power within a free "
10697 "culture—at least, it's astonishing when you understand that the law "
10698 "applies not just to the commercial publisher but to anyone with a "
10699 "computer. I understand the wrong in duplicating and selling someone else's "
10700 "work. But whatever <emphasis>that</emphasis> wrong is, transforming someone "
10701 "else's work is a different wrong. Some view transformation as no wrong at "
10702 "all—they believe that our law, as the framers penned it, should not "
10703 "protect derivative rights at all.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
10704 "Whether or not you go that far, it seems plain that whatever wrong is "
10705 "involved is fundamentally different from the wrong of direct piracy."
10708 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10709 #: freeculture.xml:7483
10710 msgid "Rubenfeld, Jeb"
10713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10714 #: freeculture.xml:7476
10716 "Professor Rubenfeld has presented a powerful constitutional argument about "
10717 "the difference that copyright law should draw (from the perspective of the "
10718 "First Amendment) between mere <quote>copies</quote> and derivative "
10719 "works. See Jed Rubenfeld, <quote>The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright's "
10720 "Constitutionality,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 112 "
10721 "(2002): 1–60 (see especially pp. 53–59). <placeholder "
10722 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10726 #: freeculture.xml:7471
10728 "Yet copyright law treats these two different wrongs in the same way. I can "
10729 "go to court and get an injunction against your pirating my book. I can go to "
10730 "court and get an injunction against your transformative use of my "
10731 "book.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These two different uses of "
10732 "my creative work are treated the same."
10735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10736 #: freeculture.xml:7491
10738 "This again may seem right to you. If I wrote a book, then why should you be "
10739 "able to write a movie that takes my story and makes money from it without "
10740 "paying me or crediting me? Or if Disney creates a creature called "
10741 "<quote>Mickey Mouse,</quote> why should you be able to make Mickey Mouse "
10742 "toys and be the one to trade on the value that Disney originally created?"
10745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10746 #: freeculture.xml:7499
10748 "These are good arguments, and, in general, my point is not that the "
10749 "derivative right is unjustified. My aim just now is much narrower: simply to "
10750 "make clear that this expansion is a significant change from the rights "
10751 "originally granted."
10754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10755 #: freeculture.xml:7508
10756 msgid "Law and Architecture: Reach"
10759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10760 #: freeculture.xml:7509 freeculture.xml:7571 freeculture.xml:7783
10761 msgid "copies as core issue of"
10765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10766 #: freeculture.xml:7517
10768 "This is a simplification of the law, but not much of one. The law certainly "
10769 "regulates more than <quote>copies</quote>—a public performance of a "
10770 "copyrighted song, for example, is regulated even though performance per se "
10771 "doesn't make a copy; 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section "
10772 "106(4). And it certainly sometimes doesn't regulate a <quote>copy</quote>; "
10773 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 112(a). But the "
10774 "presumption under the existing law (which regulates <quote>copies;</quote> "
10775 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 102) is that if there "
10776 "is a copy, there is a right."
10779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10780 #: freeculture.xml:7512
10782 "Whereas originally the law regulated only publishers, the change in "
10783 "copyright's scope means that the law today regulates publishers, users, and "
10784 "authors. It regulates them because all three are capable of making copies, "
10785 "and the core of the regulation of copyright law is copies.<placeholder "
10786 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10790 #: freeculture.xml:7528
10791 msgid "other property rights vs."
10795 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10796 #: freeculture.xml:7531
10798 "<quote>Copies.</quote> That certainly sounds like the obvious thing for "
10799 "<emphasis>copy</emphasis>right law to regulate. But as with Jack Valenti's "
10800 "argument at the start of this chapter, that <quote>creative property</quote> "
10801 "deserves the <quote>same rights</quote> as all other property, it is the "
10802 "<emphasis>obvious</emphasis> that we need to be most careful about. For "
10803 "while it may be obvious that in the world before the Internet, copies were "
10804 "the obvious trigger for copyright law, upon reflection, it should be obvious "
10805 "that in the world with the Internet, copies should <emphasis>not</emphasis> "
10806 "be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not "
10807 "<emphasis>always</emphasis> be the trigger for copyright law."
10811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10812 #: freeculture.xml:7550
10814 "Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we "
10815 "should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for its "
10816 "extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of "
10817 "arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology."
10820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10821 #: freeculture.xml:7545
10823 "This is perhaps the central claim of this book, so let me take this very "
10824 "slowly so that the point is not easily missed. My claim is that the Internet "
10825 "should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of "
10826 "copyright automatically applies,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
10827 "because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never "
10828 "contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright "
10832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10833 #: freeculture.xml:7563
10835 "We can see this point abstractly by beginning with this largely empty "
10839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10840 #: freeculture.xml:7568
10842 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1521.svg\" align=\"center\" "
10843 "width=\"40%\"></graphic>"
10846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10847 #: freeculture.xml:7570
10848 msgid "three types of uses of"
10851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10852 #: freeculture.xml:7572
10853 msgid "copyright applicability altered by technology of"
10856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10857 #: freeculture.xml:7573
10858 msgid "copyright intent altered by"
10862 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10863 #: freeculture.xml:7578
10865 "Think about a book in real space, and imagine this circle to represent all "
10866 "its potential <emphasis>uses</emphasis>. Most of these uses are unregulated "
10867 "by copyright law, because the uses don't create a copy. If you read a book, "
10868 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you give someone the book, "
10869 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you resell a book, that act "
10870 "is not regulated (copyright law expressly states that after the first sale "
10871 "of a book, the copyright owner can impose no further conditions on the "
10872 "disposition of the book). If you sleep on the book or use it to hold up a "
10873 "lamp or let your puppy chew it up, those acts are not regulated by copyright "
10874 "law, because those acts do not make a copy."
10877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10878 #: freeculture.xml:7592
10880 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1531.png\" align=\"center\" "
10881 "width=\"40%\"></graphic>"
10884 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10885 #: freeculture.xml:7595
10887 "Obviously, however, some uses of a copyrighted book are regulated by "
10888 "copyright law. Republishing the book, for example, makes a copy. It is "
10889 "therefore regulated by copyright law. Indeed, this particular use stands at "
10890 "the core of this circle of possible uses of a copyrighted work. It is the "
10891 "paradigmatic use properly regulated by copyright regulation (see diagram in "
10892 "figure <xref xrefstyle=\"template:%n\" linkend=\"fig-1541\"/>)."
10895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10896 #: freeculture.xml:7606
10898 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1541.svg\" align=\"center\" "
10899 "width=\"40%\"></graphic>"
10902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10903 #: freeculture.xml:7611
10905 "Finally, there is a tiny sliver of otherwise regulated copying uses that "
10906 "remain unregulated because the law considers these <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
10909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10910 #: freeculture.xml:7618
10912 "These are uses that themselves involve copying, but which the law treats as "
10913 "unregulated because public policy demands that they remain unregulated. You "
10914 "are free to quote from this book, even in a review that is quite negative, "
10915 "without my permission, even though that quoting makes a copy. That copy "
10916 "would ordinarily give the copyright owner the exclusive right to say whether "
10917 "the copy is allowed or not, but the law denies the owner any exclusive right "
10918 "over such <quote>fair uses</quote> for public policy (and possibly First "
10919 "Amendment) reasons."
10922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10923 #: freeculture.xml:7629
10925 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1542.svg\" align=\"center\" "
10926 "width=\"40%\"></graphic>"
10930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10931 #: freeculture.xml:7634
10933 "In real space, then, the possible uses of a book are divided into three "
10934 "sorts: (1) unregulated uses, (2) regulated uses, and (3) regulated uses that "
10935 "are nonetheless deemed <quote>fair</quote> regardless of the copyright "
10939 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10940 #: freeculture.xml:7639 freeculture.xml:7927 freeculture.xml:10195
10941 msgid "on Internet"
10944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10945 #: freeculture.xml:7641 freeculture.xml:7722
10946 msgid "Internet burdens on"
10950 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10951 #: freeculture.xml:7646
10953 "I don't mean <quote>nature</quote> in the sense that it couldn't be "
10954 "different, but rather that its present instantiation entails a copy. Optical "
10955 "networks need not make copies of content they transmit, and a digital "
10956 "network could be designed to delete anything it copies so that the same "
10957 "number of copies remain."
10960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10961 #: freeculture.xml:7643
10963 "Enter the Internet—a distributed, digital network where every use of a "
10964 "copyrighted work produces a copy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
10965 "And because of this single, arbitrary feature of the design of a digital "
10966 "network, the scope of category 1 changes dramatically. Uses that before were "
10967 "presumptively unregulated are now presumptively regulated. No longer is "
10968 "there a set of presumptively unregulated uses that define a freedom "
10969 "associated with a copyrighted work. Instead, each use is now subject to the "
10970 "copyright, because each use also makes a copy—category 1 gets sucked "
10971 "into category 2. And those who would defend the unregulated uses of "
10972 "copyrighted work must look exclusively to category 3, fair uses, to bear the "
10973 "burden of this shift."
10977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10978 #: freeculture.xml:7666
10980 "So let's be very specific to make this general point clear. Before the "
10981 "Internet, if you purchased a book and read it ten times, there would be no "
10982 "plausible <emphasis>copyright</emphasis>-related argument that the copyright "
10983 "owner could make to control that use of her book. Copyright law would have "
10984 "nothing to say about whether you read the book once, ten times, or every "
10985 "night before you went to bed. None of those instances of "
10986 "use—reading— could be regulated by copyright law because none of "
10987 "those uses produced a copy."
10990 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10991 #: freeculture.xml:7677
10995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10996 #: freeculture.xml:7678
10997 msgid "technological developments and"
11000 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11001 #: freeculture.xml:7680
11003 "But the same book as an e-book is effectively governed by a different set of "
11004 "rules. Now if the copyright owner says you may read the book only once or "
11005 "only once a month, then <emphasis>copyright law</emphasis> would aid the "
11006 "copyright owner in exercising this degree of control, because of the "
11007 "accidental feature of copyright law that triggers its application upon there "
11008 "being a copy. Now if you read the book ten times and the license says you "
11009 "may read it only five times, then whenever you read the book (or any portion "
11010 "of it) beyond the fifth time, you are making a copy of the book contrary to "
11011 "the copyright owner's wish."
11014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11015 #: freeculture.xml:7693
11017 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1551.svg\" align=\"center\" "
11018 "width=\"40%\"></graphic>"
11021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11022 #: freeculture.xml:7696
11024 "There are some people who think this makes perfect sense. My aim just now is "
11025 "not to argue about whether it makes sense or not. My aim is only to make "
11026 "clear the change. Once you see this point, a few other points also become "
11030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11031 #: freeculture.xml:7702
11033 "First, making category 1 disappear is not anything any policy maker ever "
11034 "intended. Congress did not think through the collapse of the presumptively "
11035 "unregulated uses of copyrighted works. There is no evidence at all that "
11036 "policy makers had this idea in mind when they allowed our policy here to "
11037 "shift. Unregulated uses were an important part of free culture before the "
11041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11042 #: freeculture.xml:7711
11044 "Second, this shift is especially troubling in the context of transformative "
11045 "uses of creative content. Again, we can all understand the wrong in "
11046 "commercial piracy. But the law now purports to regulate "
11047 "<emphasis>any</emphasis> transformation you make of creative work using a "
11048 "machine. <quote>Copy and paste</quote> and <quote>cut and paste</quote> "
11049 "become crimes. Tinkering with a story and releasing it to others exposes the "
11050 "tinkerer to at least a requirement of justification. However troubling the "
11051 "expansion with respect to copying a particular work, it is extraordinarily "
11052 "troubling with respect to transformative uses of creative work."
11055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11056 #: freeculture.xml:7724
11057 msgid "fair use vs."
11061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11062 #: freeculture.xml:7726
11064 "Third, this shift from category 1 to category 2 puts an extraordinary burden "
11065 "on category 3 (<quote>fair use</quote>) that fair use never before had to "
11066 "bear. If a copyright owner now tried to control how many times I could read "
11067 "a book on-line, the natural response would be to argue that this is a "
11068 "violation of my fair use rights. But there has never been any litigation "
11069 "about whether I have a fair use right to read, because before the Internet, "
11070 "reading did not trigger the application of copyright law and hence the need "
11071 "for a fair use defense. The right to read was effectively protected before "
11072 "because reading was not regulated."
11075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11076 #: freeculture.xml:7745
11078 "This point about fair use is totally ignored, even by advocates for free "
11079 "culture. We have been cornered into arguing that our rights depend upon fair "
11080 "use—never even addressing the earlier question about the expansion in "
11081 "effective regulation. A thin protection grounded in fair use makes sense "
11082 "when the vast majority of uses are <emphasis>unregulated</emphasis>. But "
11083 "when everything becomes presumptively regulated, then the protections of "
11084 "fair use are not enough."
11087 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11088 #: freeculture.xml:7761
11089 msgid "Video Pipeline"
11092 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
11093 #: freeculture.xml:7763 freeculture.xml:15323
11094 msgid "film industry"
11097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11098 #: freeculture.xml:7763
11099 msgid "trailer advertisements of"
11102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11103 #: freeculture.xml:7765
11105 "The case of Video Pipeline is a good example. Video Pipeline was in the "
11106 "business of making <quote>trailer</quote> advertisements for movies "
11107 "available to video stores. The video stores displayed the trailers as a way "
11108 "to sell videos. Video Pipeline got the trailers from the film distributors, "
11109 "put the trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores."
11112 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
11113 #: freeculture.xml:7771 freeculture.xml:7846 freeculture.xml:14069
11117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11118 #: freeculture.xml:7773
11120 "The company did this for about fifteen years. Then, in 1997, it began to "
11121 "think about the Internet as another way to distribute these previews. The "
11122 "idea was to expand their <quote>selling by sampling</quote> technique by "
11123 "giving on-line stores the same ability to enable <quote>browsing.</quote> "
11124 "Just as in a bookstore you can read a few pages of a book before you buy the "
11125 "book, so, too, you would be able to sample a bit from the movie on-line "
11126 "before you bought it."
11130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11131 #: freeculture.xml:7786
11133 "In 1998, Video Pipeline informed Disney and other film distributors that it "
11134 "intended to distribute the trailers through the Internet (rather than "
11135 "sending the tapes) to distributors of their videos. Two years later, Disney "
11136 "told Video Pipeline to stop. The owner of Video Pipeline asked Disney to "
11137 "talk about the matter—he had built a business on distributing this "
11138 "content as a way to help sell Disney films; he had customers who depended "
11139 "upon his delivering this content. Disney would agree to talk only if Video "
11140 "Pipeline stopped the distribution immediately. Video Pipeline thought it "
11141 "was within their <quote>fair use</quote> rights to distribute the clips as "
11142 "they had. So they filed a lawsuit to ask the court to declare that these "
11143 "rights were in fact their rights."
11146 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11147 #: freeculture.xml:7803
11148 msgid "willful infringement findings in"
11151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11152 #: freeculture.xml:7804
11153 msgid "willful infringement"
11156 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11157 #: freeculture.xml:7806
11159 "Disney countersued—for $100 million in damages. Those damages were "
11160 "predicated upon a claim that Video Pipeline had <quote>willfully "
11161 "infringed</quote> on Disney's copyright. When a court makes a finding of "
11162 "willful infringement, it can award damages not on the basis of the actual "
11163 "harm to the copyright owner, but on the basis of an amount set in the "
11164 "statute. Because Video Pipeline had distributed seven hundred clips of "
11165 "Disney movies to enable video stores to sell copies of those movies, Disney "
11166 "was now suing Video Pipeline for $100 million."
11169 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11170 #: freeculture.xml:7816
11172 "Disney has the right to control its property, of course. But the video "
11173 "stores that were selling Disney's films also had some sort of right to be "
11174 "able to sell the films that they had bought from Disney. Disney's claim in "
11175 "court was that the stores were allowed to sell the films and they were "
11176 "permitted to list the titles of the films they were selling, but they were "
11177 "not allowed to show clips of the films as a way of selling them without "
11178 "Disney's permission."
11181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11182 #: freeculture.xml:7824
11183 msgid "first-sale doctrine"
11186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11187 #: freeculture.xml:7826
11189 "Now, you might think this is a close case, and I think the courts would "
11190 "consider it a close case. My point here is to map the change that gives "
11191 "Disney this power. Before the Internet, Disney couldn't really control how "
11192 "people got access to their content. Once a video was in the marketplace, the "
11193 "<quote>first-sale doctrine</quote> would free the seller to use the video as "
11194 "he wished, including showing portions of it in order to engender sales of "
11195 "the entire movie video. But with the Internet, it becomes possible for "
11196 "Disney to centralize control over access to this content. Because each use "
11197 "of the Internet produces a copy, use on the Internet becomes subject to the "
11198 "copyright owner's control. The technology expands the scope of effective "
11199 "control, because the technology builds a copy into every transaction."
11202 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11203 #: freeculture.xml:7845
11204 msgid "Barnes & Noble"
11208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11209 #: freeculture.xml:7850
11211 "No doubt, a potential is not yet an abuse, and so the potential for control "
11212 "is not yet the abuse of control. Barnes & Noble has the right to say you "
11213 "can't touch a book in their store; property law gives them that right. But "
11214 "the market effectively protects against that abuse. If Barnes & Noble "
11215 "banned browsing, then consumers would choose other bookstores. Competition "
11216 "protects against the extremes. And it may well be (my argument so far does "
11217 "not even question this) that competition would prevent any similar danger "
11218 "when it comes to copyright. Sure, publishers exercising the rights that "
11219 "authors have assigned to them might try to regulate how many times you read "
11220 "a book, or try to stop you from sharing the book with anyone. But in a "
11221 "competitive market such as the book market, the dangers of this happening "
11222 "are quite slight."
11225 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11226 #: freeculture.xml:7865
11228 "Again, my aim so far is simply to map the changes that this changed "
11229 "architecture enables. Enabling technology to enforce the control of "
11230 "copyright means that the control of copyright is no longer defined by "
11231 "balanced policy. The control of copyright is simply what private owners "
11232 "choose. In some contexts, at least, that fact is harmless. But in some "
11233 "contexts it is a recipe for disaster."
11236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11237 #: freeculture.xml:7874
11238 msgid "Architecture and Law: Force"
11241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11242 #: freeculture.xml:7876
11244 "The disappearance of unregulated uses would be change enough, but a second "
11245 "important change brought about by the Internet magnifies its "
11246 "significance. This second change does not affect the reach of copyright "
11247 "regulation; it affects how such regulation is enforced."
11250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11251 #: freeculture.xml:7881
11252 msgid "technology as automatic enforcer of"
11255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11256 #: freeculture.xml:7882
11257 msgid "copyright enforcement controlled by"
11260 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11261 #: freeculture.xml:7884
11263 "In the world before digital technology, it was generally the law that "
11264 "controlled whether and how someone was regulated by copyright law. The law, "
11265 "meaning a court, meaning a judge: In the end, it was a human, trained in the "
11266 "tradition of the law and cognizant of the balances that tradition embraced, "
11267 "who said whether and how the law would restrict your freedom."
11270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11271 #: freeculture.xml:7891
11275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11276 #: freeculture.xml:7892 freeculture.xml:8064
11277 msgid "Marx Brothers"
11281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11282 #: freeculture.xml:7903
11284 "See David Lange, <quote>Recognizing the Public Domain,</quote> "
11285 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 44 (1981): "
11289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11290 #: freeculture.xml:7895
11292 "There's a famous story about a battle between the Marx Brothers and Warner "
11293 "Brothers. The Marxes intended to make a parody of "
11294 "<citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>. Warner Brothers objected. They wrote a "
11295 "nasty letter to the Marxes, warning them that there would be serious legal "
11296 "consequences if they went forward with their plan.<placeholder "
11297 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11300 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11301 #: freeculture.xml:7912
11303 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Ibid. See also Vaidhyanathan, "
11304 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 1–3."
11307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11308 #: freeculture.xml:7908
11310 "This led the Marx Brothers to respond in kind. They warned Warner Brothers "
11311 "that the Marx Brothers <quote>were brothers long before you "
11312 "were.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Marx Brothers "
11313 "therefore owned the word <citetitle>brothers</citetitle>, and if Warner "
11314 "Brothers insisted on trying to control <citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>, "
11315 "then the Marx Brothers would insist on control over "
11316 "<citetitle>brothers</citetitle>."
11319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11320 #: freeculture.xml:7922
11322 "An absurd and hollow threat, of course, because Warner Brothers, like the "
11323 "Marx Brothers, knew that no court would ever enforce such a silly "
11324 "claim. This extremism was irrelevant to the real freedoms anyone (including "
11325 "Warner Brothers) enjoyed."
11328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11329 #: freeculture.xml:7929
11331 "On the Internet, however, there is no check on silly rules, because on the "
11332 "Internet, increasingly, rules are enforced not by a human but by a machine: "
11333 "Increasingly, the rules of copyright law, as interpreted by the copyright "
11334 "owner, get built into the technology that delivers copyrighted content. It "
11335 "is code, rather than law, that rules. And the problem with code regulations "
11336 "is that, unlike law, code has no shame. Code would not get the humor of the "
11337 "Marx Brothers. The consequence of that is not at all funny."
11340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11341 #: freeculture.xml:7941
11342 msgid "Adobe eBook Reader"
11345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11346 #: freeculture.xml:7943
11347 msgid "Consider the life of my Adobe eBook Reader."
11350 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11351 #: freeculture.xml:7946
11353 "An e-book is a book delivered in electronic form. An Adobe eBook is not a "
11354 "book that Adobe has published; Adobe simply produces the software that "
11355 "publishers use to deliver e-books. It provides the technology, and the "
11356 "publisher delivers the content by using the technology."
11359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11360 #: freeculture.xml:7954
11362 "<graphic fileref=\"images/example-adobe-ebook-reader.png\" align=\"center\" "
11363 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
11366 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11367 #: freeculture.xml:7957
11369 "In figure <xref xrefstyle=\"template:%n\" "
11370 "linkend=\"fig-example-adobe-ebook-reader\"/> is a picture of an old version "
11371 "of my Adobe eBook Reader."
11375 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11376 #: freeculture.xml:7962
11378 "As you can see, I have a small collection of e-books within this e-book "
11379 "library. Some of these books reproduce content that is in the public domain: "
11380 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, for example, is in the public domain. "
11381 "Some of them reproduce content that is not in the public domain: My own book "
11382 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> is not yet within the public "
11383 "domain. Consider <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> first. If you click on "
11384 "my e-book copy of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, you'll see a fancy "
11385 "cover, and then a button at the bottom called Permissions."
11388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11389 #: freeculture.xml:7975
11391 "If you click on the Permissions button, you'll see a list of the permissions "
11392 "that the publisher purports to grant with this book."
11395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11396 #: freeculture.xml:7980
11398 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1612.png\" align=\"center\" "
11399 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
11403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11404 #: freeculture.xml:7984
11406 "According to my eBook Reader, I have the permission to copy to the clipboard "
11407 "of the computer ten text selections every ten days. (So far, I've copied no "
11408 "text to the clipboard.) I also have the permission to print ten pages from "
11409 "the book every ten days. Lastly, I have the permission to use the Read Aloud "
11410 "button to hear <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> read aloud through the "
11414 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11415 #: freeculture.xml:7991
11419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11420 #: freeculture.xml:7992
11421 msgid "<citetitle>Politics</citetitle>, (Aristotle)"
11424 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11425 #: freeculture.xml:7994
11427 "Here's the e-book for another work in the public domain (including the "
11428 "translation): Aristotle's <citetitle>Politics</citetitle>."
11431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11432 #: freeculture.xml:7999
11434 "<graphic fileref=\"images/aristotele-ebook.png\" align=\"center\" "
11435 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
11438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11439 #: freeculture.xml:8002
11441 "According to its permissions, no printing or copying is permitted at "
11442 "all. But fortunately, you can use the Read Aloud button to hear the book."
11445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11446 #: freeculture.xml:8008
11448 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1622.png\" align=\"center\" "
11449 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
11452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11453 #: freeculture.xml:8010 freeculture.xml:9866
11454 msgid "Future of Ideas, The (Lessig)"
11457 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11458 #: freeculture.xml:8011 freeculture.xml:9867 freeculture.xml:11183 freeculture.xml:11229 freeculture.xml:13523
11459 msgid "Lessig, Lawrence"
11462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11463 #: freeculture.xml:8013
11465 "Finally (and most embarrassingly), here are the permissions for the original "
11466 "e-book version of my last book, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>:"
11469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11470 #: freeculture.xml:8020
11472 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1631.png\" align=\"center\" "
11473 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
11476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11477 #: freeculture.xml:8023
11478 msgid "No copying, no printing, and don't you dare try to listen to this book!"
11482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11483 #: freeculture.xml:8033
11485 "In principle, a contract might impose a requirement on me. I might, for "
11486 "example, buy a book from you that includes a contract that says I will read "
11487 "it only three times, or that I promise to read it three times. But that "
11488 "obligation (and the limits for creating that obligation) would come from the "
11489 "contract, not from copyright law, and the obligations of contract would not "
11490 "necessarily pass to anyone who subsequently acquired the book."
11493 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11494 #: freeculture.xml:8026
11496 "Now, the Adobe eBook Reader calls these controls "
11497 "<quote>permissions</quote>— as if the publisher has the power to "
11498 "control how you use these works. For works under copyright, the copyright "
11499 "owner certainly does have the power—up to the limits of the copyright "
11500 "law. But for work not under copyright, there is no such copyright "
11501 "power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When my e-book of "
11502 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> says I have the permission to copy only "
11503 "ten text selections into the memory every ten days, what that really means "
11504 "is that the eBook Reader has enabled the publisher to control how I use the "
11505 "book on my computer, far beyond the control that the law would enable."
11508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11509 #: freeculture.xml:8048
11511 "The control comes instead from the code—from the technology within "
11512 "which the e-book <quote>lives.</quote> Though the e-book says that these are "
11513 "permissions, they are not the sort of <quote>permissions</quote> that most "
11514 "of us deal with. When a teenager gets <quote>permission</quote> to stay out "
11515 "till midnight, she knows (unless she's Cinderella) that she can stay out "
11516 "till 2 A.M., but will suffer a punishment if she's caught. But when the "
11517 "Adobe eBook Reader says I have the permission to make ten copies of the text "
11518 "into the computer's memory, that means that after I've made ten copies, the "
11519 "computer will not make any more. The same with the printing restrictions: "
11520 "After ten pages, the eBook Reader will not print any more pages. It's the "
11521 "same with the silly restriction that says that you can't use the Read Aloud "
11522 "button to read my book aloud—it's not that the company will sue you if "
11523 "you do; instead, if you push the Read Aloud button with my book, the machine "
11524 "simply won't read aloud."
11528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11529 #: freeculture.xml:8068
11531 "These are <emphasis>controls</emphasis>, not permissions. Imagine a world "
11532 "where the Marx Brothers sold word processing software that, when you tried "
11533 "to type <quote>Warner Brothers,</quote> erased <quote>Brothers</quote> from "
11537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11538 #: freeculture.xml:8074
11540 "This is the future of copyright law: not so much copyright "
11541 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> as copyright <emphasis>code</emphasis>. The "
11542 "controls over access to content will not be controls that are ratified by "
11543 "courts; the controls over access to content will be controls that are coded "
11544 "by programmers. And whereas the controls that are built into the law are "
11545 "always to be checked by a judge, the controls that are built into the "
11546 "technology have no similar built-in check."
11549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11550 #: freeculture.xml:8083
11552 "How significant is this? Isn't it always possible to get around the controls "
11553 "built into the technology? Software used to be sold with technologies that "
11554 "limited the ability of users to copy the software, but those were trivial "
11555 "protections to defeat. Why won't it be trivial to defeat these protections "
11559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11560 #: freeculture.xml:8090
11562 "We've only scratched the surface of this story. Return to the Adobe eBook "
11566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11567 #: freeculture.xml:8093
11568 msgid "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)"
11571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11572 #: freeculture.xml:8094
11573 msgid "e-book restrictions on"
11576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11577 #: freeculture.xml:8096
11579 "Early in the life of the Adobe eBook Reader, Adobe suffered a public "
11580 "relations nightmare. Among the books that you could download for free on the "
11581 "Adobe site was a copy of <citetitle>Alice's Adventures in "
11582 "Wonderland</citetitle>. This wonderful book is in the public domain. Yet "
11583 "when you clicked on Permissions for that book, you got the following report:"
11586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11587 #: freeculture.xml:8105
11589 "<graphic fileref=\"images/1641.png\" align=\"center\" "
11590 "width=\"50%\"></graphic>"
11593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11594 #: freeculture.xml:8109
11596 "Here was a public domain children's book that you were not allowed to copy, "
11597 "not allowed to lend, not allowed to give, and, as the "
11598 "<quote>permissions</quote> indicated, not allowed to <quote>read "
11602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11603 #: freeculture.xml:8114
11605 "The public relations nightmare attached to that final permission. For the "
11606 "text did not say that you were not permitted to use the Read Aloud button; "
11607 "it said you did not have the permission to read the book aloud. That led "
11608 "some people to think that Adobe was restricting the right of parents, for "
11609 "example, to read the book to their children, which seemed, to say the least, "
11613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11614 #: freeculture.xml:8122
11616 "Adobe responded quickly that it was absurd to think that it was trying to "
11617 "restrict the right to read a book aloud. Obviously it was only restricting "
11618 "the ability to use the Read Aloud button to have the book read aloud. But "
11619 "the question Adobe never did answer is this: Would Adobe thus agree that a "
11620 "consumer was free to use software to hack around the restrictions built into "
11621 "the eBook Reader? If some company (call it Elcomsoft) developed a program to "
11622 "disable the technological protection built into an Adobe eBook so that a "
11623 "blind person, say, could use a computer to read the book aloud, would Adobe "
11624 "agree that such a use of an eBook Reader was fair? Adobe didn't answer "
11625 "because the answer, however absurd it might seem, is no."
11628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11629 #: freeculture.xml:8137
11631 "The point is not to blame Adobe. Indeed, Adobe is among the most innovative "
11632 "companies developing strategies to balance open access to content with "
11633 "incentives for companies to innovate. But Adobe's technology enables "
11634 "control, and Adobe has an incentive to defend this control. That incentive "
11635 "is understandable, yet what it creates is often crazy."
11638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11639 #: freeculture.xml:8147
11641 "To see the point in a particularly absurd context, consider a favorite story "
11642 "of mine that makes the same point."
11645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11646 #: freeculture.xml:8150 freeculture.xml:8294 freeculture.xml:8359 freeculture.xml:8471
11647 msgid "Aibo robotic dog"
11650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11651 #: freeculture.xml:8151 freeculture.xml:8295 freeculture.xml:8360 freeculture.xml:8472
11652 msgid "robotic dog"
11655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11656 #: freeculture.xml:8152 freeculture.xml:8296 freeculture.xml:8361 freeculture.xml:8473
11660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11661 #: freeculture.xml:8152 freeculture.xml:8296 freeculture.xml:8361 freeculture.xml:8473
11662 msgid "Aibo robotic dog produced by"
11665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11666 #: freeculture.xml:8154
11668 "Consider the robotic dog made by Sony named <quote>Aibo.</quote> The Aibo "
11669 "learns tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity and "
11670 "that doesn't leave that much of a mess (at least in your house)."
11674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11675 #: freeculture.xml:8159
11677 "The Aibo is expensive and popular. Fans from around the world have set up "
11678 "clubs to trade stories. One fan in particular set up a Web site to enable "
11679 "information about the Aibo dog to be shared. This fan set up aibopet.com "
11680 "(and aibohack.com, but that resolves to the same site), and on that site he "
11681 "provided information about how to teach an Aibo to do tricks in addition to "
11682 "the ones Sony had taught it."
11685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11686 #: freeculture.xml:8168
11688 "<quote>Teach</quote> here has a special meaning. Aibos are just cute "
11689 "computers. You teach a computer how to do something by programming it "
11690 "differently. So to say that aibopet.com was giving information about how to "
11691 "teach the dog to do new tricks is just to say that aibopet.com was giving "
11692 "information to users of the Aibo pet about how to hack their computer "
11693 "<quote>dog</quote> to make it do new tricks (thus, aibohack.com)."
11696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11697 #: freeculture.xml:8175
11701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11702 #: freeculture.xml:8177
11704 "If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the word "
11705 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly "
11706 "connotation. Nonprogrammers hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in horror "
11707 "movies do even worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call them, "
11708 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much more positive "
11709 "term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the program "
11710 "to do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to do. If you buy a "
11711 "new printer for an old computer, you might find the old computer doesn't "
11712 "run, or <quote>drive,</quote> the printer. If you discovered that, you'd "
11713 "later be happy to discover a hack on the Net by someone who has written a "
11714 "driver to enable the computer to drive the printer you just bought."
11717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11718 #: freeculture.xml:8191
11720 "Some hacks are easy. Some are unbelievably hard. Hackers as a community like "
11721 "to challenge themselves and others with increasingly difficult "
11722 "tasks. There's a certain respect that goes with the talent to hack "
11723 "well. There's a well-deserved respect that goes with the talent to hack "
11727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11728 #: freeculture.xml:8198
11730 "The Aibo fan was displaying a bit of both when he hacked the program and "
11731 "offered to the world a bit of code that would enable the Aibo to dance "
11732 "jazz. The dog wasn't programmed to dance jazz. It was a clever bit of "
11733 "tinkering that turned the dog into a more talented creature than Sony had "
11738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11739 #: freeculture.xml:8208
11741 "I've told this story in many contexts, both inside and outside the United "
11742 "States. Once I was asked by a puzzled member of the audience, is it "
11743 "permissible for a dog to dance jazz in the United States? We forget that "
11744 "stories about the backcountry still flow across much of the world. So let's "
11745 "just be clear before we continue: It's not a crime anywhere (anymore) to "
11746 "dance jazz. Nor is it a crime to teach your dog to dance jazz. Nor should it "
11747 "be a crime (though we don't have a lot to go on here) to teach your robot "
11748 "dog to dance jazz. Dancing jazz is a completely legal activity. One imagines "
11749 "that the owner of aibopet.com thought, <emphasis>What possible problem could "
11750 "there be with teaching a robot dog to dance?</emphasis>"
11753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
11754 #: freeculture.xml:8223
11755 msgid "government case against"
11758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11759 #: freeculture.xml:8225
11761 "Let's put the dog to sleep for a minute, and turn to a pony show— not "
11762 "literally a pony show, but rather a paper that a Princeton academic named Ed "
11763 "Felten prepared for a conference. This Princeton academic is well known and "
11764 "respected. He was hired by the government in the Microsoft case to test "
11765 "Microsoft's claims about what could and could not be done with its own "
11766 "code. In that trial, he demonstrated both his brilliance and his "
11767 "coolness. Under heavy badgering by Microsoft lawyers, Ed Felten stood his "
11768 "ground. He was not about to be bullied into being silent about something he "
11772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11773 #: freeculture.xml:8248 freeculture.xml:10821
11774 msgid "Electronic Frontier Foundation"
11777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11778 #: freeculture.xml:8238
11780 "See Pamela Samuelson, <quote>Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to "
11781 "Science,</quote> <citetitle>Science</citetitle> 293 (2001): 2028; Brendan "
11782 "I. Koerner, <quote>Play Dead: Sony Muzzles the Techies Who Teach a Robot Dog "
11783 "New Tricks,</quote> <citetitle>American Prospect</citetitle>, January 2002; "
11784 "<quote>Court Dismisses Computer Scientists' Challenge to DMCA,</quote> "
11785 "<citetitle>Intellectual Property Litigation Reporter</citetitle>, 11 "
11786 "December 2001; Bill Holland, <quote>Copyright Act Raising Free-Speech "
11787 "Concerns,</quote> <citetitle>Billboard</citetitle>, May 2001; Janelle Brown, "
11788 "<quote>Is the RIAA Running Scared?</quote> Salon.com, April 2001; Electronic "
11789 "Frontier Foundation, <quote>Frequently Asked Questions about "
11790 "<citetitle>Felten and USENIX</citetitle> v. <citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> "
11791 "Legal Case,</quote> available at <ulink "
11792 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #27</ulink>. <placeholder "
11793 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11797 #: freeculture.xml:8236
11799 "But Felten's bravery was really tested in April 2001.<placeholder "
11800 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> He and a group of colleagues were working on a "
11801 "paper to be submitted at conference. The paper was intended to describe the "
11802 "weakness in an encryption system being developed by the Secure Digital Music "
11803 "Initiative as a technique to control the distribution of music."
11806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11807 #: freeculture.xml:8256
11809 "The SDMI coalition had as its goal a technology to enable content owners to "
11810 "exercise much better control over their content than the Internet, as it "
11811 "originally stood, granted them. Using encryption, SDMI hoped to develop a "
11812 "standard that would allow the content owner to say <quote>this music cannot "
11813 "be copied,</quote> and have a computer respect that command. The technology "
11814 "was to be part of a <quote>trusted system</quote> of control that would get "
11815 "content owners to trust the system of the Internet much more."
11818 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11819 #: freeculture.xml:8266
11821 "When SDMI thought it was close to a standard, it set up a competition. In "
11822 "exchange for providing contestants with the code to an SDMI-encrypted bit of "
11823 "content, contestants were to try to crack it and, if they did, report the "
11824 "problems to the consortium."
11828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11829 #: freeculture.xml:8273
11831 "Felten and his team figured out the encryption system quickly. He and the "
11832 "team saw the weakness of this system as a type: Many encryption systems "
11833 "would suffer the same weakness, and Felten and his team thought it "
11834 "worthwhile to point this out to those who study encryption."
11837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11838 #: freeculture.xml:8279
11840 "Let's review just what Felten was doing. Again, this is the United "
11841 "States. We have a principle of free speech. We have this principle not just "
11842 "because it is the law, but also because it is a really great idea. A "
11843 "strongly protected tradition of free speech is likely to encourage a wide "
11844 "range of criticism. That criticism is likely, in turn, to improve the "
11845 "systems or people or ideas criticized."
11848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11849 #: freeculture.xml:8287
11851 "What Felten and his colleagues were doing was publishing a paper describing "
11852 "the weakness in a technology. They were not spreading free music, or "
11853 "building and deploying this technology. The paper was an academic essay, "
11854 "unintelligible to most people. But it clearly showed the weakness in the "
11855 "SDMI system, and why SDMI would not, as presently constituted, succeed."
11858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11859 #: freeculture.xml:8298
11861 "What links these two, aibopet.com and Felten, is the letters they then "
11862 "received. Aibopet.com received a letter from Sony about the aibopet.com "
11863 "hack. Though a jazz-dancing dog is perfectly legal, Sony wrote:"
11866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11867 #: freeculture.xml:8305
11869 "Your site contains information providing the means to circumvent AIBO-ware's "
11870 "copy protection protocol constituting a violation of the anti-circumvention "
11871 "provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
11874 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11875 #: freeculture.xml:8314
11877 "And though an academic paper describing the weakness in a system of "
11878 "encryption should also be perfectly legal, Felten received a letter from an "
11879 "RIAA lawyer that read:"
11883 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11884 #: freeculture.xml:8320
11886 "Any disclosure of information gained from participating in the Public "
11887 "Challenge would be outside the scope of activities permitted by the "
11888 "Agreement and could subject you and your research team to actions under the "
11889 "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (<quote>DMCA</quote>)."
11892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11893 #: freeculture.xml:8328
11895 "In both cases, this weirdly Orwellian law was invoked to control the spread "
11896 "of information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act made spreading such "
11897 "information an offense."
11900 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11901 #: freeculture.xml:8333
11903 "The DMCA was enacted as a response to copyright owners' first fear about "
11904 "cyberspace. The fear was that copyright control was effectively dead; the "
11905 "response was to find technologies that might compensate. These new "
11906 "technologies would be copyright protection technologies— technologies "
11907 "to control the replication and distribution of copyrighted material. They "
11908 "were designed as <emphasis>code</emphasis> to modify the original "
11909 "<emphasis>code</emphasis> of the Internet, to reestablish some protection "
11910 "for copyright owners."
11913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11914 #: freeculture.xml:8344
11916 "The DMCA was a bit of law intended to back up the protection of this code "
11917 "designed to protect copyrighted material. It was, we could say, "
11918 "<emphasis>legal code</emphasis> intended to buttress <emphasis>software "
11919 "code</emphasis> which itself was intended to support the <emphasis>legal "
11920 "code of copyright</emphasis>."
11923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11924 #: freeculture.xml:8351
11926 "But the DMCA was not designed merely to protect copyrighted works to the "
11927 "extent copyright law protected them. Its protection, that is, did not end at "
11928 "the line that copyright law drew. The DMCA regulated devices that were "
11929 "designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. It was designed to ban "
11930 "those devices, whether or not the use of the copyrighted material made "
11931 "possible by that circumvention would have been a copyright violation."
11935 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11936 #: freeculture.xml:8363
11938 "Aibopet.com and Felten make the point. The Aibo hack circumvented a "
11939 "copyright protection system for the purpose of enabling the dog to dance "
11940 "jazz. That enablement no doubt involved the use of copyrighted material. But "
11941 "as aibopet.com's site was noncommercial, and the use did not enable "
11942 "subsequent copyright infringements, there's no doubt that aibopet.com's hack "
11943 "was fair use of Sony's copyrighted material. Yet fair use is not a defense "
11944 "to the DMCA. The question is not whether the use of the copyrighted material "
11945 "was a copyright violation. The question is whether a copyright protection "
11946 "system was circumvented."
11949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11950 #: freeculture.xml:8375
11952 "The threat against Felten was more attenuated, but it followed the same line "
11953 "of reasoning. By publishing a paper describing how a copyright protection "
11954 "system could be circumvented, the RIAA lawyer suggested, Felten himself was "
11955 "distributing a circumvention technology. Thus, even though he was not "
11956 "himself infringing anyone's copyright, his academic paper was enabling "
11957 "others to infringe others' copyright."
11960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11961 #: freeculture.xml:8382 freeculture.xml:8417
11962 msgid "Rogers, Fred"
11965 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11966 #: freeculture.xml:8393 freeculture.xml:8432 freeculture.xml:8460
11967 msgid "Conrad, Paul"
11970 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11971 #: freeculture.xml:8385
11973 "The bizarreness of these arguments is captured in a cartoon drawn in 1981 by "
11974 "Paul Conrad. At that time, a court in California had held that the VCR could "
11975 "be banned because it was a copyright-infringing technology: It enabled "
11976 "consumers to copy films without the permission of the copyright owner. No "
11977 "doubt there were uses of the technology that were legal: Fred Rogers, aka "
11978 "<quote><citetitle>Mr. Rogers</citetitle>,</quote> for example, had testified "
11979 "in that case that he wanted people to feel free to tape Mr. Rogers' "
11980 "Neighborhood. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11984 #: freeculture.xml:8412
11986 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <citetitle>Sony Corporation of "
11987 "America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>., "
11988 "464 U.S. 417, 455 fn. 27 (1984). Rogers never changed his view about the "
11989 "VCR. See James Lardner, <citetitle>Fast Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, "
11990 "and the Onslaught of the VCR</citetitle> (New York: W. W. Norton, 1987), "
11991 "270–71. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
11994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11995 #: freeculture.xml:8397
11997 "Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "
11998 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> at hours when some children cannot use it. I "
11999 "think that it's a real service to families to be able to record such "
12000 "programs and show them at appropriate times. I have always felt that with "
12001 "the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the "
12002 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "
12003 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> because that's what I produce, that they then "
12004 "become much more active in the programming of their family's television "
12005 "life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My "
12006 "whole approach in broadcasting has always been <quote>You are an important "
12007 "person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.</quote> Maybe "
12008 "I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to "
12009 "be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is "
12010 "important.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12015 #: freeculture.xml:8423
12017 "Even though there were uses that were legal, because there were some uses "
12018 "that were illegal, the court held the companies producing the VCR "
12022 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12023 #: freeculture.xml:8428
12025 "This led Conrad to draw the cartoon in figure <xref "
12026 "xrefstyle=\"template:%n\" linkend=\"fig-1711-vcr-handgun-cartoonfig\"/>, "
12027 "which we can adopt to the DMCA. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12031 #: freeculture.xml:8435
12032 msgid "No argument I have can top this picture, but let me try to get close."
12035 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12036 #: freeculture.xml:8438
12038 "The anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA target copyright circumvention "
12039 "technologies. Circumvention technologies can be used for different "
12040 "ends. They can be used, for example, to enable massive pirating of "
12041 "copyrighted material—a bad end. Or they can be used to enable the use "
12042 "of particular copyrighted materials in ways that would be considered fair "
12043 "use—a good end."
12046 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12047 #: freeculture.xml:8445
12052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12053 #: freeculture.xml:8447
12055 "A handgun can be used to shoot a police officer or a child. Most would agree "
12056 "such a use is bad. Or a handgun can be used for target practice or to "
12057 "protect against an intruder. At least some would say that such a use would "
12058 "be good. It, too, is a technology that has both good and bad uses."
12061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
12062 #: freeculture.xml:8455
12064 "— On which item have the courts ruled that manufacturers and retailers "
12065 "be held responsible for having supplied the equipment?"
12068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
12069 #: freeculture.xml:8458
12071 "<graphic fileref=\"images/vcr-comic.png\" align=\"center\" "
12072 "width=\"100%\"></graphic>"
12075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12076 #: freeculture.xml:8462
12078 "The obvious point of Conrad's cartoon is the weirdness of a world where guns "
12079 "are legal, despite the harm they can do, while VCRs (and circumvention "
12080 "technologies) are illegal. Flash: <emphasis>No one ever died from copyright "
12081 "circumvention</emphasis>. Yet the law bans circumvention technologies "
12082 "absolutely, despite the potential that they might do some good, but permits "
12083 "guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do."
12086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12087 #: freeculture.xml:8475
12089 "The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are changing the "
12090 "balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright owners restrict "
12091 "fair use; using the DMCA, they punish those who would attempt to evade the "
12092 "restrictions on fair use that they impose through code. Technology becomes a "
12093 "means by which fair use can be erased; the law of the DMCA backs up that "
12097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12098 #: freeculture.xml:8483
12100 "This is how <emphasis>code</emphasis> becomes <emphasis>law</emphasis>. The "
12101 "controls built into the technology of copy and access protection become "
12102 "rules the violation of which is also a violation of the law. In this way, "
12103 "the code extends the law—increasing its regulation, even if the "
12104 "subject it regulates (activities that would otherwise plainly constitute "
12105 "fair use) is beyond the reach of the law. Code becomes law; code extends the "
12106 "law; code thus extends the control that copyright owners effect—at "
12107 "least for those copyright holders with the lawyers who can write the nasty "
12108 "letters that Felten and aibopet.com received."
12111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12112 #: freeculture.xml:8495
12114 "There is one final aspect of the interaction between architecture and law "
12115 "that contributes to the force of copyright's regulation. This is the ease "
12116 "with which infringements of the law can be detected. For contrary to the "
12117 "rhetoric common at the birth of cyberspace that on the Internet, no one "
12118 "knows you're a dog, increasingly, given changing technologies deployed on "
12119 "the Internet, it is easy to find the dog who committed a legal wrong. The "
12120 "technologies of the Internet are open to snoops as well as sharers, and the "
12121 "snoops are increasingly good at tracking down the identity of those who "
12122 "violate the rules."
12126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12127 #: freeculture.xml:8514
12129 "For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, <quote>Legal "
12130 "Fictions, Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,</quote> "
12131 "<citetitle>Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal</citetitle> 17 "
12135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12136 #: freeculture.xml:8508
12138 "For example, imagine you were part of a <citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> fan "
12139 "club. You gathered every month to share trivia, and maybe to enact a kind of "
12140 "fan fiction about the show. One person would play Spock, another, Captain "
12141 "Kirk. The characters would begin with a plot from a real story, then simply "
12142 "continue it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12146 #: freeculture.xml:8520
12148 "Before the Internet, this was, in effect, a totally unregulated activity. "
12149 "No matter what happened inside your club room, you would never be interfered "
12150 "with by the copyright police. You were free in that space to do as you "
12151 "wished with this part of our culture. You were allowed to build on it as you "
12152 "wished without fear of legal control."
12155 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12156 #: freeculture.xml:8528
12158 "But if you moved your club onto the Internet, and made it generally "
12159 "available for others to join, the story would be very different. Bots "
12160 "scouring the Net for trademark and copyright infringement would quickly find "
12161 "your site. Your posting of fan fiction, depending upon the ownership of the "
12162 "series that you're depicting, could well inspire a lawyer's threat. And "
12163 "ignoring the lawyer's threat would be extremely costly indeed. The law of "
12164 "copyright is extremely efficient. The penalties are severe, and the process "
12168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12169 #: freeculture.xml:8538
12171 "This change in the effective force of the law is caused by a change in the "
12172 "ease with which the law can be enforced. That change too shifts the law's "
12173 "balance radically. It is as if your car transmitted the speed at which you "
12174 "traveled at every moment that you drove; that would be just one step before "
12175 "the state started issuing tickets based upon the data you transmitted. That "
12176 "is, in effect, what is happening here."
12179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12180 #: freeculture.xml:8547
12181 msgid "Market: Concentration"
12185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12186 #: freeculture.xml:8549
12188 "So copyright's duration has increased dramatically—tripled in the past "
12189 "thirty years. And copyright's scope has increased as well—from "
12190 "regulating only publishers to now regulating just about everyone. And "
12191 "copyright's reach has changed, as every action becomes a copy and hence "
12192 "presumptively regulated. And as technologists find better ways to control "
12193 "the use of content, and as copyright is increasingly enforced through "
12194 "technology, copyright's force changes, too. Misuse is easier to find and "
12195 "easier to control. This regulation of the creative process, which began as a "
12196 "tiny regulation governing a tiny part of the market for creative work, has "
12197 "become the single most important regulator of creativity there is. It is a "
12198 "massive expansion in the scope of the government's control over innovation "
12199 "and creativity; it would be totally unrecognizable to those who gave birth "
12200 "to copyright's control."
12203 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12204 #: freeculture.xml:8567
12206 "Still, in my view, all of these changes would not matter much if it weren't "
12207 "for one more change that we must also consider. This is a change that is in "
12208 "some sense the most familiar, though its significance and scope are not well "
12209 "understood. It is the one that creates precisely the reason to be concerned "
12210 "about all the other changes I have described."
12213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12214 #: freeculture.xml:8574
12216 "This is the change in the concentration and integration of the media. In "
12217 "the past twenty years, the nature of media ownership has undergone a radical "
12218 "alteration, caused by changes in legal rules governing the media. Before "
12219 "this change happened, the different forms of media were owned by separate "
12220 "media companies. Now, the media is increasingly owned by only a few "
12221 "companies. Indeed, after the changes that the FCC announced in June 2003, "
12222 "most expect that within a few years, we will live in a world where just "
12223 "three companies control more than 85 percent of the media."
12226 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12227 #: freeculture.xml:8585
12228 msgid "These changes are of two sorts: the scope of concentration, and its nature."
12231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12232 #: freeculture.xml:8589
12236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12237 #: freeculture.xml:8590 freeculture.xml:9976
12241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12242 #: freeculture.xml:8591
12243 msgid "McCain, John"
12246 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12247 #: freeculture.xml:8592 freeculture.xml:9983
12248 msgid "Universal Music Group"
12251 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12252 #: freeculture.xml:8593
12253 msgid "Warner Music Group"
12257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12258 #: freeculture.xml:8599
12260 "FCC Oversight: Hearing Before the Senate Commerce, Science and "
12261 "Transportation Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (22 May 2003) (statement "
12262 "of Senator John McCain)."
12266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12267 #: freeculture.xml:8606
12269 "Lynette Holloway, <quote>Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to "
12270 "Slide,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 23 December 2002."
12274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12275 #: freeculture.xml:8612
12277 "Molly Ivins, <quote>Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped,</quote> "
12278 "<citetitle>Charleston Gazette</citetitle>, 31 May 2003."
12281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12282 #: freeculture.xml:8595
12284 "Changes in scope are the easier ones to describe. As Senator John McCain "
12285 "summarized the data produced in the FCC's review of media ownership, "
12286 "<quote>five companies control 85 percent of our media "
12287 "sources.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The five recording "
12288 "labels of Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music "
12289 "Group, and EMI control 84.8 percent of the U.S. music market.<placeholder "
12290 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The <quote>five largest cable companies pipe "
12291 "programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers "
12292 "nationwide.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
12296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12297 #: freeculture.xml:8617
12299 "The story with radio is even more dramatic. Before deregulation, the "
12300 "nation's largest radio broadcasting conglomerate owned fewer than "
12301 "seventy-five stations. Today <emphasis>one</emphasis> company owns more than "
12302 "1,200 stations. During that period of consolidation, the total number of "
12303 "radio owners dropped by 34 percent. Today, in most markets, the two largest "
12304 "broadcasters control 74 percent of that market's revenues. Overall, just "
12305 "four companies control 90 percent of the nation's radio advertising "
12309 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12310 #: freeculture.xml:8629
12312 "Newspaper ownership is becoming more concentrated as well. Today, there are "
12313 "six hundred fewer daily newspapers in the United States than there were "
12314 "eighty years ago, and ten companies control half of the nation's "
12315 "circulation. There are twenty major newspaper publishers in the United "
12316 "States. The top ten film studios receive 99 percent of all film revenue. The "
12317 "ten largest cable companies account for 85 percent of all cable "
12318 "revenue. This is a market far from the free press the framers sought to "
12319 "protect. Indeed, it is a market that is quite well protected— by the "
12323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12324 #: freeculture.xml:8639 freeculture.xml:8660
12325 msgid "Fallows, James"
12328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12329 #: freeculture.xml:8641
12331 "Concentration in size alone is one thing. The more invidious change is in "
12332 "the nature of that concentration. As author James Fallows put it in a recent "
12333 "article about Rupert Murdoch,"
12336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12337 #: freeculture.xml:8658
12339 "James Fallows, <quote>The Age of Murdoch,</quote> <citetitle>Atlantic "
12340 "Monthly</citetitle> (September 2003): 89. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12344 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12345 #: freeculture.xml:8647
12347 "Murdoch's companies now constitute a production system unmatched in its "
12348 "integration. They supply content—Fox movies … Fox TV shows "
12349 "… Fox-controlled sports broadcasts, plus newspapers and books. They "
12350 "sell the content to the public and to advertisers—in newspapers, on "
12351 "the broadcast network, on the cable channels. And they operate the physical "
12352 "distribution system through which the content reaches the "
12353 "customers. Murdoch's satellite systems now distribute News Corp. content in "
12354 "Europe and Asia; if Murdoch becomes DirecTV's largest single owner, that "
12355 "system will serve the same function in the United States.<placeholder "
12356 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12360 #: freeculture.xml:8665
12362 "The pattern with Murdoch is the pattern of modern media. Not just large "
12363 "companies owning many radio stations, but a few companies owning as many "
12364 "outlets of media as possible. A picture describes this pattern better than a "
12365 "thousand words could do:"
12368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
12369 #: freeculture.xml:8672
12371 "<graphic fileref=\"images/pattern-modern-media-ownership.png\" "
12372 "align=\"center\" width=\"90%\"></graphic>"
12376 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12377 #: freeculture.xml:8676
12379 "Does this concentration matter? Will it affect what is made, or what is "
12380 "distributed? Or is it merely a more efficient way to produce and distribute "
12384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12385 #: freeculture.xml:8681
12387 "My view was that concentration wouldn't matter. I thought it was nothing "
12388 "more than a more efficient financial structure. But now, after reading and "
12389 "listening to a barrage of creators try to convince me to the contrary, I am "
12390 "beginning to change my mind."
12393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12394 #: freeculture.xml:8687
12396 "Here's a representative story that begins to suggest how this integration "
12400 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12401 #: freeculture.xml:8690
12402 msgid "Lear, Norman"
12405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12406 #: freeculture.xml:8692 freeculture.xml:8755
12407 msgid "All in the Family"
12410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12411 #: freeculture.xml:8694
12413 "In 1969, Norman Lear created a pilot for <citetitle>All in the "
12414 "Family</citetitle>. He took the pilot to ABC. The network didn't like it. It "
12415 "was too edgy, they told Lear. Make it again. Lear made a second pilot, more "
12416 "edgy than the first. ABC was exasperated. You're missing the point, they "
12417 "told Lear. We wanted less edgy, not more."
12421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12422 #: freeculture.xml:8706
12424 "Leonard Hill, <quote>The Axis of Access,</quote> remarks before Weidenbaum "
12425 "Center Forum, <quote>Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry,</quote> "
12426 "St. Louis, Missouri, 3 April 2003 (transcript of prepared remarks available "
12427 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #28</ulink>; for the "
12428 "Lear story, not included in the prepared remarks, see <ulink "
12429 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #29</ulink>)."
12432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12433 #: freeculture.xml:8701
12435 "Rather than comply, Lear simply took the show elsewhere. CBS was happy to "
12436 "have the series; ABC could not stop Lear from walking. The copyrights that "
12437 "Lear held assured an independence from network control.<placeholder "
12438 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12443 #: freeculture.xml:8717
12445 "The network did not control those copyrights because the law forbade the "
12446 "networks from controlling the content they syndicated. The law required a "
12447 "separation between the networks and the content producers; that separation "
12448 "would guarantee Lear freedom. And as late as 1992, because of these rules, "
12449 "the vast majority of prime time television—75 percent of it—was "
12450 "<quote>independent</quote> of the networks."
12454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12455 #: freeculture.xml:8736
12457 "NewsCorp./DirecTV Merger and Media Consolidation: Hearings on Media "
12458 "Ownership Before the Senate Commerce Committee, 108th Cong., 1st "
12459 "sess. (2003) (testimony of Gene Kimmelman on behalf of Consumers Union and "
12460 "the Consumer Federation of America), available at <ulink "
12461 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #30</ulink>. Kimmelman quotes "
12462 "Victoria Riskin, president of Writers Guild of America, West, in her Remarks "
12463 "at FCC En Banc Hearing, Richmond, Virginia, 27 February 2003."
12466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12467 #: freeculture.xml:8726
12469 "In 1994, the FCC abandoned the rules that required this independence. After "
12470 "that change, the networks quickly changed the balance. In 1985, there were "
12471 "twenty-five independent television production studios; in 2002, only five "
12472 "independent television studios remained. <quote>In 1992, only 15 percent of "
12473 "new series were produced for a network by a company it controlled. Last "
12474 "year, the percentage of shows produced by controlled companies more than "
12475 "quintupled to 77 percent.</quote> <quote>In 1992, 16 new series were "
12476 "produced independently of conglomerate control, last year there was "
12477 "one.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In 2002, 75 percent of "
12478 "prime time television was owned by the networks that ran it. <quote>In the "
12479 "ten-year period between 1992 and 2002, the number of prime time television "
12480 "hours per week produced by network studios increased over 200%, whereas the "
12481 "number of prime time television hours per week produced by independent "
12482 "studios decreased 63%.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
12485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12486 #: freeculture.xml:8757
12488 "Today, another Norman Lear with another <citetitle>All in the "
12489 "Family</citetitle> would find that he had the choice either to make the show "
12490 "less edgy or to be fired: The content of any show developed for a network is "
12491 "increasingly owned by the network."
12494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12495 #: freeculture.xml:8762
12496 msgid "Diller, Barry"
12499 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12500 #: freeculture.xml:8763
12501 msgid "Moyers, Bill"
12504 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12505 #: freeculture.xml:8765
12507 "While the number of channels has increased dramatically, the ownership of "
12508 "those channels has narrowed to an ever smaller and smaller few. As Barry "
12509 "Diller said to Bill Moyers,"
12513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12514 #: freeculture.xml:8780
12516 "<quote>Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation,</quote> <citetitle>Now with "
12517 "Bill Moyers</citetitle>, Bill Moyers, 25 April 2003, edited transcript "
12518 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #31</ulink>."
12521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12522 #: freeculture.xml:8771
12524 "Well, if you have companies that produce, that finance, that air on their "
12525 "channel and then distribute worldwide everything that goes through their "
12526 "controlled distribution system, then what you get is fewer and fewer actual "
12527 "voices participating in the process. [We u]sed to have dozens and dozens of "
12528 "thriving independent production companies producing television programs. Now "
12529 "you have less than a handful.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12533 #: freeculture.xml:8787
12535 "This narrowing has an effect on what is produced. The product of such large "
12536 "and concentrated networks is increasingly homogenous. Increasingly "
12537 "safe. Increasingly sterile. The product of news shows from networks like "
12538 "this is increasingly tailored to the message the network wants to "
12539 "convey. This is not the communist party, though from the inside, it must "
12540 "feel a bit like the communist party. No one can question without risk of "
12541 "consequence—not necessarily banishment to Siberia, but punishment "
12542 "nonetheless. Independent, critical, different views are quashed. This is not "
12543 "the environment for a democracy."
12546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12547 #: freeculture.xml:8798
12548 msgid "Clark, Kim B."
12552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12553 #: freeculture.xml:8807
12555 "Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
12556 "Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do "
12557 "Business</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, "
12558 "1997). Christensen acknowledges that the idea was first suggested by Dean "
12559 "Kim Clark. See Kim B. Clark, <quote>The Interaction of Design Hierarchies "
12560 "and Market Concepts in Technological Evolution,</quote> <citetitle>Research "
12561 "Policy</citetitle> 14 (1985): 235–51. For a more recent study, see "
12562 "Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, <citetitle>Creative Destruction: Why "
12563 "Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—and How to "
12564 "Successfully Transform Them</citetitle> (New York: Currency/Doubleday, "
12568 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12569 #: freeculture.xml:8800
12571 "Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration "
12572 "affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the "
12573 "<quote>Innovator's Dilemma</quote>: the fact that large traditional firms "
12574 "find it rational to ignore new, breakthrough technologies that compete with "
12575 "their core business. The same analysis could help explain why large, "
12576 "traditional media companies would find it rational to ignore new cultural "
12577 "trends.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Lumbering giants not only "
12578 "don't, but should not, sprint. Yet if the field is only open to the giants, "
12579 "there will be far too little sprinting. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12584 #: freeculture.xml:8824
12586 "I don't think we know enough about the economics of the media market to say "
12587 "with certainty what concentration and integration will do. The efficiencies "
12588 "are important, and the effect on culture is hard to measure."
12591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12592 #: freeculture.xml:8830
12594 "But there is a quintessentially obvious example that does strongly suggest "
12598 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12599 #: freeculture.xml:8834
12601 "In addition to the copyright wars, we're in the middle of the drug "
12602 "wars. Government policy is strongly directed against the drug cartels; "
12603 "criminal and civil courts are filled with the consequences of this battle."
12607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12608 #: freeculture.xml:8839
12610 "Let me hereby disqualify myself from any possible appointment to any "
12611 "position in government by saying I believe this war is a profound mistake. I "
12612 "am not pro drugs. Indeed, I come from a family once wrecked by "
12613 "drugs—though the drugs that wrecked my family were all quite legal. I "
12614 "believe this war is a profound mistake because the collateral damage from it "
12615 "is so great as to make waging the war insane. When you add together the "
12616 "burdens on the criminal justice system, the desperation of generations of "
12617 "kids whose only real economic opportunities are as drug warriors, the "
12618 "queering of constitutional protections because of the constant surveillance "
12619 "this war requires, and, most profoundly, the total destruction of the legal "
12620 "systems of many South American nations because of the power of the local "
12621 "drug cartels, I find it impossible to believe that the marginal benefit in "
12622 "reduced drug consumption by Americans could possibly outweigh these costs."
12625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12626 #: freeculture.xml:8858
12628 "You may not be convinced. That's fine. We live in a democracy, and it is "
12629 "through votes that we are to choose policy. But to do that, we depend "
12630 "fundamentally upon the press to help inform Americans about these issues."
12633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12634 #: freeculture.xml:8866
12635 msgid "Nick and Norm anti-drug campaign"
12638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12639 #: freeculture.xml:8868
12641 "Beginning in 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched a "
12642 "media campaign as part of the <quote>war on drugs.</quote> The campaign "
12643 "produced scores of short film clips about issues related to illegal "
12644 "drugs. In one series (the Nick and Norm series) two men are in a bar, "
12645 "discussing the idea of legalizing drugs as a way to avoid some of the "
12646 "collateral damage from the war. One advances an argument in favor of drug "
12647 "legalization. The other responds in a powerful and effective way against the "
12648 "argument of the first. In the end, the first guy changes his mind (hey, it's "
12649 "television). The plug at the end is a damning attack on the pro-legalization "
12653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12654 #: freeculture.xml:8880
12656 "Fair enough. It's a good ad. Not terribly misleading. It delivers its "
12657 "message well. It's a fair and reasonable message."
12660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12661 #: freeculture.xml:8884
12663 "But let's say you think it is a wrong message, and you'd like to run a "
12664 "countercommercial. Say you want to run a series of ads that try to "
12665 "demonstrate the extraordinary collateral harm that comes from the drug "
12666 "war. Can you do it?"
12670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12671 #: freeculture.xml:8890
12673 "Well, obviously, these ads cost lots of money. Assume you raise the "
12674 "money. Assume a group of concerned citizens donates all the money in the "
12675 "world to help you get your message out. Can you be sure your message will be "
12679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
12680 #: freeculture.xml:8898
12681 msgid "on television advertising bans"
12684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
12685 #: freeculture.xml:8899
12686 msgid "controversy avoided by"
12689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12690 #: freeculture.xml:8912
12694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12695 #: freeculture.xml:8913
12696 msgid "Marijuana Policy Project"
12699 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12700 #: freeculture.xml:8914
12704 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12705 #: freeculture.xml:8915
12709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12710 #: freeculture.xml:8916
12714 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12715 #: freeculture.xml:8911
12717 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12718 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
12719 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> "
12720 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12721 "id=\"6\"/> The Marijuana Policy Project, in February 2003, sought to place "
12722 "ads that directly responded to the Nick and Norm series on stations within "
12723 "the Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as <quote>against "
12724 "[their] policy.</quote> The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads "
12725 "without reviewing them. The local ABC affiliate, WJOA, originally agreed to "
12726 "run the ads and accepted payment to do so, but later decided not to run the "
12727 "ads and returned the collected fees. Interview with Neal Levine, 15 October "
12728 "2003. These restrictions are, of course, not limited to drug policy. See, "
12729 "for example, Nat Ives, <quote>On the Issue of an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet "
12730 "with Rejection from TV Networks,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
12731 "Times</citetitle>, 13 March 2003, C4. Outside of election-related air time "
12732 "there is very little that the FCC or the courts are willing to do to even "
12733 "the playing field. For a general overview, see Rhonda Brown, <quote>Ad Hoc "
12734 "Access: The Regulation of Editorial Advertising on Television and "
12735 "Radio,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law and Policy Review</citetitle> 6 (1988): "
12736 "449–79, and for a more recent summary of the stance of the FCC and the "
12737 "courts, see <citetitle>Radio-Television News Directors "
12738 "Association</citetitle> v. <citetitle>FCC</citetitle>, 184 F. 3d 872 "
12739 "(D.C. Cir. 1999). Municipal authorities exercise the same authority as the "
12740 "networks. In a recent example from San Francisco, the San Francisco transit "
12741 "authority rejected an ad that criticized its Muni diesel buses. Phillip "
12742 "Matier and Andrew Ross, <quote>Antidiesel Group Fuming After Muni Rejects "
12743 "Ad,</quote> SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12744 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #32</ulink>. The ground was that "
12745 "the criticism was <quote>too controversial.</quote>"
12748 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12749 #: freeculture.xml:8901
12751 "No. You cannot. Television stations have a general policy of avoiding "
12752 "<quote>controversial</quote> ads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed "
12753 "uncontroversial; ads disagreeing with the government are controversial. "
12754 "This selectivity might be thought inconsistent with the First Amendment, but "
12755 "the Supreme Court has held that stations have the right to choose what they "
12756 "run. Thus, the major channels of commercial media will refuse one side of a "
12757 "crucial debate the opportunity to present its case. And the courts will "
12758 "defend the rights of the stations to be this biased.<placeholder "
12759 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12763 #: freeculture.xml:8950
12765 "I'd be happy to defend the networks' rights, as well—if we lived in a "
12766 "media market that was truly diverse. But concentration in the media throws "
12767 "that condition into doubt. If a handful of companies control access to the "
12768 "media, and that handful of companies gets to decide which political "
12769 "positions it will allow to be promoted on its channels, then in an obvious "
12770 "and important way, concentration matters. You might like the positions the "
12771 "handful of companies selects. But you should not like a world in which a "
12772 "mere few get to decide which issues the rest of us get to know about."
12775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12776 #: freeculture.xml:8963
12780 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12781 #: freeculture.xml:8965
12783 "There is something innocent and obvious about the claim of the copyright "
12784 "warriors that the government should <quote>protect my property.</quote> In "
12785 "the abstract, it is obviously true and, ordinarily, totally harmless. No "
12786 "sane sort who is not an anarchist could disagree."
12790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12791 #: freeculture.xml:8971
12793 "But when we see how dramatically this <quote>property</quote> has "
12794 "changed— when we recognize how it might now interact with both "
12795 "technology and markets to mean that the effective constraint on the liberty "
12796 "to cultivate our culture is dramatically different—the claim begins to "
12797 "seem less innocent and obvious. Given (1) the power of technology to "
12798 "supplement the law's control, and (2) the power of concentrated markets to "
12799 "weaken the opportunity for dissent, if strictly enforcing the massively "
12800 "expanded <quote>property</quote> rights granted by copyright fundamentally "
12801 "changes the freedom within this culture to cultivate and build upon our "
12802 "past, then we have to ask whether this property should be redefined."
12805 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12806 #: freeculture.xml:8987
12808 "Not starkly. Or absolutely. My point is not that we should abolish copyright "
12809 "or go back to the eighteenth century. That would be a total mistake, "
12810 "disastrous for the most important creative enterprises within our culture "
12814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12815 #: freeculture.xml:8993
12817 "But there is a space between zero and one, Internet culture "
12818 "notwithstanding. And these massive shifts in the effective power of "
12819 "copyright regulation, tied to increased concentration of the content "
12820 "industry and resting in the hands of technology that will increasingly "
12821 "enable control over the use of culture, should drive us to consider whether "
12822 "another adjustment is called for. Not an adjustment that increases "
12823 "copyright's power. Not an adjustment that increases its term. Rather, an "
12824 "adjustment to restore the balance that has traditionally defined copyright's "
12825 "regulation—a weakening of that regulation, to strengthen creativity."
12828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12829 #: freeculture.xml:9005
12831 "Copyright law has not been a rock of Gibraltar. It's not a set of constant "
12832 "commitments that, for some mysterious reason, teenagers and geeks now "
12833 "flout. Instead, copyright power has grown dramatically in a short period of "
12834 "time, as the technologies of distribution and creation have changed and as "
12835 "lobbyists have pushed for more control by copyright holders. Changes in the "
12836 "past in response to changes in technology suggest that we may well need "
12837 "similar changes in the future. And these changes have to be "
12838 "<emphasis>reductions</emphasis> in the scope of copyright, in response to "
12839 "the extraordinary increase in control that technology and the market enable."
12843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12844 #: freeculture.xml:9017
12846 "For the single point that is lost in this war on pirates is a point that we "
12847 "see only after surveying the range of these changes. When you add together "
12848 "the effect of changing law, concentrated markets, and changing technology, "
12849 "together they produce an astonishing conclusion: <emphasis>Never in our "
12850 "history have fewer had a legal right to control more of the development of "
12851 "our culture than now</emphasis>."
12854 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12855 #: freeculture.xml:9041
12857 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a "
12858 "similar point in his <quote>four surrenders</quote> of copyright law in the "
12859 "digital age. See Vaidhyanathan, 159–60."
12862 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12863 #: freeculture.xml:9026
12865 "Not when copyrights were perpetual, for when copyrights were perpetual, they "
12866 "affected only that precise creative work. Not when only publishers had the "
12867 "tools to publish, for the market then was much more diverse. Not when there "
12868 "were only three television networks, for even then, newspapers, film "
12869 "studios, radio stations, and publishers were independent of the "
12870 "networks. <emphasis>Never</emphasis> has copyright protected such a wide "
12871 "range of rights, against as broad a range of actors, for a term that was "
12872 "remotely as long. This form of regulation—a tiny regulation of a tiny "
12873 "part of the creative energy of a nation at the founding—is now a "
12874 "massive regulation of the overall creative process. Law plus technology plus "
12875 "the market now interact to turn this historically benign regulation into the "
12876 "most significant regulation of culture that our free society has "
12877 "known.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12881 #: freeculture.xml:9047
12883 "<emphasis role='strong'>This has been</emphasis> a long chapter. Its point "
12884 "can now be briefly stated."
12887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12888 #: freeculture.xml:9051
12890 "At the start of this book, I distinguished between commercial and "
12891 "noncommercial culture. In the course of this chapter, I have distinguished "
12892 "between copying a work and transforming it. We can now combine these two "
12893 "distinctions and draw a clear map of the changes that copyright law has "
12894 "undergone. In 1790, the law looked like this:"
12897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12898 #: freeculture.xml:9063 freeculture.xml:9100
12902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12903 #: freeculture.xml:9064 freeculture.xml:9101 freeculture.xml:9139 freeculture.xml:9171
12907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12908 #: freeculture.xml:9069 freeculture.xml:9106 freeculture.xml:9144 freeculture.xml:9176
12912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12913 #: freeculture.xml:9070 freeculture.xml:9107 freeculture.xml:9108 freeculture.xml:9145 freeculture.xml:9146 freeculture.xml:9177 freeculture.xml:9178 freeculture.xml:9182 freeculture.xml:9183
12917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12918 #: freeculture.xml:9071 freeculture.xml:9075 freeculture.xml:9076 freeculture.xml:9112 freeculture.xml:9113 freeculture.xml:9151
12922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12923 #: freeculture.xml:9074 freeculture.xml:9111 freeculture.xml:9149 freeculture.xml:9181
12924 msgid "Noncommercial"
12928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12929 #: freeculture.xml:9083
12931 "The act of publishing a map, chart, and book was regulated by copyright "
12932 "law. Nothing else was. Transformations were free. And as copyright attached "
12933 "only with registration, and only those who intended to benefit commercially "
12934 "would register, copying through publishing of noncommercial work was also "
12938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12939 #: freeculture.xml:9092
12940 msgid "By the end of the nineteenth century, the law had changed to this:"
12943 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12944 #: freeculture.xml:9120
12946 "Derivative works were now regulated by copyright law—if published, "
12947 "which again, given the economics of publishing at the time, means if offered "
12948 "commercially. But noncommercial publishing and transformation were still "
12949 "essentially free."
12952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12953 #: freeculture.xml:9126
12955 "In 1909 the law changed to regulate copies, not publishing, and after this "
12956 "change, the scope of the law was tied to technology. As the technology of "
12957 "copying became more prevalent, the reach of the law expanded. Thus by 1975, "
12958 "as photocopying machines became more common, we could say the law began to "
12962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
12963 #: freeculture.xml:9138 freeculture.xml:9170
12967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
12968 #: freeculture.xml:9150
12969 msgid "© / Free"
12972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12973 #: freeculture.xml:9158
12975 "The law was interpreted to reach noncommercial copying through, say, copy "
12976 "machines, but still much of copying outside of the commercial market "
12977 "remained free. But the consequence of the emergence of digital technologies, "
12978 "especially in the context of a digital network, means that the law now looks "
12983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12984 #: freeculture.xml:9190
12986 "Every realm is governed by copyright law, whereas before most creativity was "
12987 "not. The law now regulates the full range of creativity— commercial or "
12988 "not, transformative or not—with the same rules designed to regulate "
12989 "commercial publishers."
12992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12993 #: freeculture.xml:9198
12995 "Obviously, copyright law is not the enemy. The enemy is regulation that does "
12996 "no good. So the question that we should be asking just now is whether "
12997 "extending the regulations of copyright law into each of these domains "
12998 "actually does any good."
13001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13002 #: freeculture.xml:9204
13004 "I have no doubt that it does good in regulating commercial copying. But I "
13005 "also have no doubt that it does more harm than good when regulating (as it "
13006 "regulates just now) noncommercial copying and, especially, noncommercial "
13007 "transformation. And increasingly, for the reasons sketched especially in "
13008 "chapters <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/> and "
13009 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"transformers\"/>, one "
13010 "might well wonder whether it does more harm than good for commercial "
13011 "transformation. More commercial transformative work would be created if "
13012 "derivative rights were more sharply restricted."
13015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13016 #: freeculture.xml:9222
13017 msgid "legal realist movement"
13020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13021 #: freeculture.xml:9222
13023 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> It was the single most important "
13024 "contribution of the legal realist movement to demonstrate that all property "
13025 "rights are always crafted to balance public and private interests. See "
13026 "Thomas C. Grey, <quote>The Disintegration of Property,</quote> in "
13027 "<citetitle>Nomos XXII: Property</citetitle>, J. Roland Pennock and John W. "
13028 "Chapman, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1980)."
13031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13032 #: freeculture.xml:9216
13034 "The issue is therefore not simply whether copyright is property. Of course "
13035 "copyright is a kind of <quote>property,</quote> and of course, as with any "
13036 "property, the state ought to protect it. But first impressions "
13037 "notwithstanding, historically, this property right (as with all property "
13038 "rights<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>) has been crafted to "
13039 "balance the important need to give authors and artists incentives with the "
13040 "equally important need to assure access to creative work. This balance has "
13041 "always been struck in light of new technologies. And for almost half of our "
13042 "tradition, the <quote>copyright</quote> did not control <emphasis>at "
13043 "all</emphasis> the freedom of others to build upon or transform a creative "
13044 "work. American culture was born free, and for almost 180 years our country "
13045 "consistently protected a vibrant and rich free culture."
13049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13050 #: freeculture.xml:9241
13052 "We achieved that free culture because our law respected important limits on "
13053 "the scope of the interests protected by <quote>property.</quote> The very "
13054 "birth of <quote>copyright</quote> as a statutory right recognized those "
13055 "limits, by granting copyright owners protection for a limited time only (the "
13056 "story of chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13057 "linkend=\"founders\"/>). The tradition of <quote>fair use</quote> is "
13058 "animated by a similar concern that is increasingly under strain as the costs "
13059 "of exercising any fair use right become unavoidably high (the story of "
13060 "chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13061 "linkend=\"recorders\"/>). Adding statutory rights where markets might stifle "
13062 "innovation is another familiar limit on the property right that copyright is "
13063 "(chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13064 "linkend=\"transformers\"/>). And granting archives and libraries a broad "
13065 "freedom to collect, claims of property notwithstanding, is a crucial part of "
13066 "guaranteeing the soul of a culture (chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
13067 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"collectors\"/>). Free cultures, like free markets, "
13068 "are built with property. But the nature of the property that builds a free "
13069 "culture is very different from the extremist vision that dominates the "
13073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13074 #: freeculture.xml:9264
13076 "Free culture is increasingly the casualty in this war on piracy. In response "
13077 "to a real, if not yet quantified, threat that the technologies of the "
13078 "Internet present to twentieth-century business models for producing and "
13079 "distributing culture, the law and technology are being transformed in a way "
13080 "that will undermine our tradition of free culture. The property right that "
13081 "is copyright is no longer the balanced right that it was, or was intended to "
13082 "be. The property right that is copyright has become unbalanced, tilted "
13083 "toward an extreme. The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened "
13084 "in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check "
13088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
13089 #: freeculture.xml:9281
13093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
13094 #: freeculture.xml:9285
13095 msgid "Chapter Eleven: Chimera"
13098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
13099 #: freeculture.xml:9286
13103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
13104 #: freeculture.xml:9287
13105 msgid "Wells, H. G."
13108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
13109 #: freeculture.xml:9288
13110 msgid "<quote>Country of the Blind, The</quote> (Wells)"
13114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13115 #: freeculture.xml:9296
13117 "H. G. Wells, <quote>The Country of the Blind</quote> (1904, 1911). See "
13118 "H. G. Wells, <citetitle>The Country of the Blind and Other "
13119 "Stories</citetitle>, Michael Sherborne, ed. (New York: Oxford University "
13123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13124 #: freeculture.xml:9291
13126 "<emphasis role='strong'>In a well-known</emphasis> short story by "
13127 "H. G. Wells, a mountain climber named Nunez trips (literally, down an ice "
13128 "slope) into an unknown and isolated valley in the Peruvian "
13129 "Andes.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The valley is "
13130 "extraordinarily beautiful, with <quote>sweet water, pasture, an even "
13131 "climate, slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an "
13132 "excellent fruit.</quote> But the villagers are all blind. Nunez takes this "
13133 "as an opportunity. <quote>In the Country of the Blind,</quote> he tells "
13134 "himself, <quote>the One-Eyed Man is King.</quote> So he resolves to live "
13135 "with the villagers to explore life as a king."
13138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13139 #: freeculture.xml:9308
13141 "Things don't go quite as he planned. He tries to explain the idea of sight "
13142 "to the villagers. They don't understand. He tells them they are "
13143 "<quote>blind.</quote> They don't have the word "
13144 "<citetitle>blind</citetitle>. They think he's just thick. Indeed, as they "
13145 "increasingly notice the things he can't do (hear the sound of grass being "
13146 "stepped on, for example), they increasingly try to control him. He, in turn, "
13147 "becomes increasingly frustrated. <quote>`You don't understand,' he cried, in "
13148 "a voice that was meant to be great and resolute, and which broke. `You are "
13149 "blind and I can see. Leave me alone!'</quote>"
13153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13154 #: freeculture.xml:9320
13156 "The villagers don't leave him alone. Nor do they see (so to speak) the "
13157 "virtue of his special power. Not even the ultimate target of his affection, "
13158 "a young woman who to him seems <quote>the most beautiful thing in the whole "
13159 "of creation,</quote> understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's description of "
13160 "what he sees <quote>seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she "
13161 "listened to his description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet "
13162 "white-lit beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence.</quote> <quote>She "
13163 "did not believe,</quote> Wells tells us, and <quote>she could only half "
13164 "understand, but she was mysteriously delighted.</quote>"
13167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13168 #: freeculture.xml:9331
13170 "When Nunez announces his desire to marry his <quote>mysteriously "
13171 "delighted</quote> love, the father and the village object. <quote>You see, "
13172 "my dear,</quote> her father instructs, <quote>he's an idiot. He has "
13173 "delusions. He can't do anything right.</quote> They take Nunez to the "
13177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13178 #: freeculture.xml:9337
13180 "After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. <quote>His brain "
13181 "is affected,</quote> he reports."
13184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13185 #: freeculture.xml:9341
13187 "<quote>What affects it?</quote> the father asks. <quote>Those queer things "
13188 "that are called the eyes … are diseased … in such a way as to "
13189 "affect his brain.</quote>"
13192 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13193 #: freeculture.xml:9346
13195 "The doctor continues: <quote>I think I may say with reasonable certainty "
13196 "that in order to cure him completely, all that we need to do is a simple and "
13197 "easy surgical operation—namely, to remove these irritant bodies [the "
13201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13202 #: freeculture.xml:9352
13204 "<quote>Thank Heaven for science!</quote> says the father to the doctor. They "
13205 "inform Nunez of this condition necessary for him to be allowed his bride. "
13206 "(You'll have to read the original to learn what happens in the end. I "
13207 "believe in free culture, but never in giving away the end of a story.)"
13211 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13212 #: freeculture.xml:9358
13214 "<emphasis role='strong'>It sometimes</emphasis> happens that the eggs of "
13215 "twins fuse in the mother's womb. That fusion produces a "
13216 "<quote>chimera.</quote> A chimera is a single creature with two sets of "
13217 "DNA. The DNA in the blood, for example, might be different from the DNA of "
13218 "the skin. This possibility is an underused plot for murder "
13219 "mysteries. <quote>But the DNA shows with 100 percent certainty that she was "
13220 "not the person whose blood was at the scene. …</quote>"
13223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13224 #: freeculture.xml:9372
13226 "Before I had read about chimeras, I would have said they were impossible. A "
13227 "single person can't have two sets of DNA. The very idea of DNA is that it is "
13228 "the code of an individual. Yet in fact, not only can two individuals have "
13229 "the same set of DNA (identical twins), but one person can have two different "
13230 "sets of DNA (a chimera). Our understanding of a <quote>person</quote> should "
13231 "reflect this reality."
13234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13235 #: freeculture.xml:9380
13237 "The more I work to understand the current struggle over copyright and "
13238 "culture, which I've sometimes called unfairly, and sometimes not unfairly "
13239 "enough, <quote>the copyright wars,</quote> the more I think we're dealing "
13240 "with a chimera. For example, in the battle over the question <quote>What is "
13241 "p2p file sharing?</quote> both sides have it right, and both sides have it "
13242 "wrong. One side says, <quote>File sharing is just like two kids taping each "
13243 "others' records—the sort of thing we've been doing for the last thirty "
13244 "years without any question at all.</quote> That's true, at least in "
13245 "part. When I tell my best friend to try out a new CD that I've bought, but "
13246 "rather than just send the CD, I point him to my p2p server, that is, in all "
13247 "relevant respects, just like what every executive in every recording company "
13248 "no doubt did as a kid: sharing music."
13251 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13252 #: freeculture.xml:9394
13254 "But the description is also false in part. For when my p2p server is on a "
13255 "p2p network through which anyone can get access to my music, then sure, my "
13256 "friends can get access, but it stretches the meaning of "
13257 "<quote>friends</quote> beyond recognition to say <quote>my ten thousand best "
13258 "friends</quote> can get access. Whether or not sharing my music with my best "
13259 "friend is what <quote>we have always been allowed to do,</quote> we have not "
13260 "always been allowed to share music with <quote>our ten thousand best "
13264 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13265 #: freeculture.xml:9403
13267 "Likewise, when the other side says, <quote>File sharing is just like walking "
13268 "into a Tower Records and taking a CD off the shelf and walking out with "
13269 "it,</quote> that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett (finally) "
13270 "releases a new album, rather than buying it, I go to Kazaa and find a free "
13271 "copy to take, that is very much like stealing a copy from Tower. "
13272 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13277 #: freeculture.xml:9414
13279 "But it is not quite stealing from Tower. After all, when I take a CD from "
13280 "Tower Records, Tower has one less CD to sell. And when I take a CD from "
13281 "Tower Records, I get a bit of plastic and a cover, and something to show on "
13282 "my shelves. (And, while we're at it, we could also note that when I take a "
13283 "CD from Tower Records, the maximum fine that might be imposed on me, under "
13284 "California law, at least, is $1,000. According to the RIAA, by contrast, if "
13285 "I download a ten-song CD, I'm liable for $1,500,000 in damages.)"
13288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13289 #: freeculture.xml:9424
13291 "The point is not that it is as neither side describes. The point is that it "
13292 "is both—both as the RIAA describes it and as Kazaa describes it. It is "
13293 "a chimera. And rather than simply denying what the other side asserts, we "
13294 "need to begin to think about how we should respond to this chimera. What "
13295 "rules should govern it?"
13298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13299 #: freeculture.xml:9440 freeculture.xml:9727 freeculture.xml:10822
13300 msgid "ISPs (Internet service providers), user identities revealed by"
13303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13304 #: freeculture.xml:9471
13305 msgid "Conyers, John, Jr."
13308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13309 #: freeculture.xml:9472 freeculture.xml:10219
13310 msgid "Berman, Howard L."
13313 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13314 #: freeculture.xml:9440
13316 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For an excellent summary, see the "
13317 "report prepared by GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society "
13318 "at Harvard Law School, <quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster "
13319 "World,</quote> 27 June 2003, available at <ulink "
13320 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #33</ulink>. Reps. John Conyers "
13321 "Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill that "
13322 "would treat unauthorized on-line copying as a felony offense with "
13323 "punishments ranging as high as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey, "
13324 "<quote>House Bill Aims to Up Stakes on Piracy,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
13325 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 17 July 2003, available at <ulink "
13326 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #34</ulink>. Civil penalties are "
13327 "currently set at $150,000 per copied song. For a recent (and unsuccessful) "
13328 "legal challenge to the RIAA's demand that an ISP reveal the identity of a "
13329 "user accused of sharing more than 600 songs through a family computer, see "
13330 "<citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Verizon Internet Services (In "
13331 "re. Verizon Internet Services)</citetitle>, 240 F. Supp. 2d 24 "
13332 "(D.D.C. 2003). Such a user could face liability ranging as high as $90 "
13333 "million. Such astronomical figures furnish the RIAA with a powerful arsenal "
13334 "in its prosecution of file sharers. Settlements ranging from $12,000 to "
13335 "$17,500 for four students accused of heavy file sharing on university "
13336 "networks must have seemed a mere pittance next to the $98 billion the RIAA "
13337 "could seek should the matter proceed to court. See Elizabeth Young, "
13338 "<quote>Downloading Could Lead to Fines,</quote> redandblack.com, August "
13339 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
13340 "#35</ulink>. For an example of the RIAA's targeting of student file sharing, "
13341 "and of the subpoenas issued to universities to reveal student file-sharer "
13342 "identities, see James Collins, <quote>RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to "
13343 "Name Students,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 8 August 2003, "
13344 "D3, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
13345 "#36</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
13346 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
13349 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13350 #: freeculture.xml:9431
13352 "We could respond by simply pretending that it is not a chimera. We could, "
13353 "with the RIAA, decide that every act of file sharing should be a felony. We "
13354 "could prosecute families for millions of dollars in damages just because "
13355 "file sharing occurred on a family computer. And we can get universities to "
13356 "monitor all computer traffic to make sure that no computer is used to commit "
13357 "this crime. These responses might be extreme, but each of them has either "
13358 "been proposed or actually implemented.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13363 #: freeculture.xml:9478
13365 "Alternatively, we could respond to file sharing the way many kids act as "
13366 "though we've responded. We could totally legalize it. Let there be no "
13367 "copyright liability, either civil or criminal, for making copyrighted "
13368 "content available on the Net. Make file sharing like gossip: regulated, if "
13369 "at all, by social norms but not by law."
13372 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13373 #: freeculture.xml:9485
13375 "Either response is possible. I think either would be a mistake. Rather than "
13376 "embrace one of these two extremes, we should embrace something that "
13377 "recognizes the truth in both. And while I end this book with a sketch of a "
13378 "system that does just that, my aim in the next chapter is to show just how "
13379 "awful it would be for us to adopt the zero-tolerance extreme. I believe "
13380 "<emphasis>either</emphasis> extreme would be worse than a reasonable "
13381 "alternative. But I believe the zero-tolerance solution would be the worse "
13382 "of the two extremes."
13386 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13387 #: freeculture.xml:9497
13389 "Yet zero tolerance is increasingly our government's policy. In the middle of "
13390 "the chaos that the Internet has created, an extraordinary land grab is "
13391 "occurring. The law and technology are being shifted to give content holders "
13392 "a kind of control over our culture that they have never had before. And in "
13393 "this extremism, many an opportunity for new innovation and new creativity "
13397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13398 #: freeculture.xml:9505
13400 "I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to <quote>steal</quote> "
13401 "music. My focus instead is the commercial and cultural innovation that this "
13402 "war will also kill. We have never seen the power to innovate spread so "
13403 "broadly among our citizens, and we have just begun to see the innovation "
13404 "that this power will unleash. Yet the Internet has already seen the passing "
13405 "of one cycle of innovation around technologies to distribute content. The "
13406 "law is responsible for this passing. As the vice president for global public "
13407 "policy at one of these new innovators, eMusic.com, put it when criticizing "
13408 "the DMCA's added protection for copyrighted material,"
13411 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
13412 #: freeculture.xml:9518
13414 "eMusic opposes music piracy. We are a distributor of copyrighted material, "
13415 "and we want to protect those rights."
13418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
13419 #: freeculture.xml:9522
13421 "But building a technology fortress that locks in the clout of the major "
13422 "labels is by no means the only way to protect copyright interests, nor is it "
13423 "necessarily the best. It is simply too early to answer that question. Market "
13424 "forces operating naturally may very well produce a totally different "
13429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
13430 #: freeculture.xml:9539
13432 "WIPO and the DMCA One Year Later: Assessing Consumer Access to Digital "
13433 "Entertainment on the Internet and Other Media: Hearing Before the "
13434 "Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, House "
13435 "Committee on Commerce, 106th Cong. 29 (1999) (statement of Peter Harter, "
13436 "vice president, Global Public Policy and Standards, EMusic.com), available "
13437 "in LEXIS, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony File."
13440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
13441 #: freeculture.xml:9529
13443 "This is a critical point. The choices that industry sectors make with "
13444 "respect to these systems will in many ways directly shape the market for "
13445 "digital media and the manner in which digital media are distributed. This in "
13446 "turn will directly influence the options that are available to consumers, "
13447 "both in terms of the ease with which they will be able to access digital "
13448 "media and the equipment that they will require to do so. Poor choices made "
13449 "this early in the game will retard the growth of this market, hurting "
13450 "everyone's interests.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13453 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13454 #: freeculture.xml:9553 freeculture.xml:9927
13455 msgid "Vivendi Universal"
13458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13459 #: freeculture.xml:9550
13461 "In April 2001, eMusic.com was purchased by Vivendi Universal, one of "
13462 "<quote>the major labels.</quote> Its position on these matters has now "
13463 "changed. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13467 #: freeculture.xml:9556
13469 "Reversing our tradition of tolerance now will not merely quash piracy. It "
13470 "will sacrifice values that are important to this culture, and will kill "
13471 "opportunities that could be extraordinarily valuable."
13474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
13475 #: freeculture.xml:9564
13476 msgid "Chapter Twelve: Harms"
13479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13480 #: freeculture.xml:9566
13482 "<emphasis role='strong'>To fight</emphasis> <quote>piracy,</quote> to "
13483 "protect <quote>property,</quote> the content industry has launched a "
13484 "war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have now brought the "
13485 "government into this war. As with any war, this one will have both direct "
13486 "and collateral damage. As with any war of prohibition, these damages will be "
13487 "suffered most by our own people."
13490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13491 #: freeculture.xml:9574
13493 "My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in "
13494 "particular, the consequences for <quote>free culture.</quote> But my aim now "
13495 "is to extend this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war "
13499 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13500 #: freeculture.xml:9580
13502 "In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the first "
13503 "time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the power of "
13504 "the property called <quote>intellectual property</quote> is at its greatest "
13508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13509 #: freeculture.xml:9588
13511 "Yet <quote>common sense</quote> does not see it this way. Common sense is "
13512 "still on the side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme "
13513 "claims of control in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical "
13514 "rejection of <quote>piracy</quote> still has play."
13518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13519 #: freeculture.xml:9596
13521 "There will be many consequences of continuing this war. I want to describe "
13522 "just three. All three might be said to be unintended. I am quite confident "
13523 "the third is unintended. I'm less sure about the first two. The first two "
13524 "protect modern RCAs, but there is no Howard Armstrong in the wings to fight "
13525 "today's monopolists of culture."
13528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
13529 #: freeculture.xml:9603
13530 msgid "Constraining Creators"
13533 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13534 #: freeculture.xml:9605
13536 "In the next ten years we will see an explosion of digital technologies. "
13537 "These technologies will enable almost anyone to capture and share "
13538 "content. Capturing and sharing content, of course, is what humans have done "
13539 "since the dawn of man. It is how we learn and communicate. But capturing and "
13540 "sharing through digital technology is different. The fidelity and power are "
13541 "different. You could send an e-mail telling someone about a joke you saw on "
13542 "Comedy Central, or you could send the clip. You could write an essay about "
13543 "the inconsistencies in the arguments of the politician you most love to "
13544 "hate, or you could make a short film that puts statement against "
13545 "statement. You could write a poem to express your love, or you could weave "
13546 "together a string—a mash-up— of songs from your favorite artists "
13547 "in a collage and make it available on the Net."
13550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13551 #: freeculture.xml:9620
13553 "This digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> is in part an extension of "
13554 "the capturing and sharing that has always been integral to our culture, and "
13555 "in part it is something new. It is continuous with the Kodak, but it "
13556 "explodes the boundaries of Kodak-like technologies. The technology of "
13557 "digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> promises a world of "
13558 "extraordinarily diverse creativity that can be easily and broadly "
13559 "shared. And as that creativity is applied to democracy, it will enable a "
13560 "broad range of citizens to use technology to express and criticize and "
13561 "contribute to the culture all around."
13565 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13566 #: freeculture.xml:9631
13568 "Technology has thus given us an opportunity to do something with culture "
13569 "that has only ever been possible for individuals in small groups, isolated "
13570 "from others. Think about an old man telling a story to a collection of "
13571 "neighbors in a small town. Now imagine that same storytelling extended "
13572 "across the globe."
13575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13576 #: freeculture.xml:9641
13578 "Yet all this is possible only if the activity is presumptively legal. In the "
13579 "current regime of legal regulation, it is not. Forget file sharing for a "
13580 "moment. Think about your favorite amazing sites on the Net. Web sites that "
13581 "offer plot summaries from forgotten television shows; sites that catalog "
13582 "cartoons from the 1960s; sites that mix images and sound to criticize "
13583 "politicians or businesses; sites that gather newspaper articles on remote "
13584 "topics of science or culture. There is a vast amount of creative work spread "
13585 "across the Internet. But as the law is currently crafted, this work is "
13586 "presumptively illegal."
13589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13590 #: freeculture.xml:9651 freeculture.xml:9675
13594 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13595 #: freeculture.xml:9654
13596 msgid "doctors malpractice claims against"
13599 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13600 #: freeculture.xml:9670
13602 "See Lynne W. Jeter, <citetitle>Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at "
13603 "WorldCom</citetitle> (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 176, 204; "
13604 "for details of the settlement, see MCI press release, <quote>MCI Wins "
13605 "U.S. District Court Approval for SEC Settlement</quote> (7 July 2003), "
13606 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #37</ulink>. "
13607 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13611 #: freeculture.xml:9691
13612 msgid "Bush, George W."
13615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13616 #: freeculture.xml:9682
13618 "The bill, modeled after California's tort reform model, was passed in the "
13619 "House of Representatives but defeated in a Senate vote in July 2003. For an "
13620 "overview, see Tanya Albert, <quote>Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be "
13621 "Back,' Say Tort Reformers,</quote> amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available at "
13622 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #38</ulink>, and "
13623 "<quote>Senate Turns Back Malpractice Caps,</quote> CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, "
13624 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
13625 "#39</ulink>. President Bush has continued to urge tort reform in recent "
13626 "months. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13630 #: freeculture.xml:9657
13632 "That presumption will increasingly chill creativity, as the examples of "
13633 "extreme penalties for vague infringements continue to proliferate. It is "
13634 "impossible to get a clear sense of what's allowed and what's not, and at the "
13635 "same time, the penalties for crossing the line are astonishingly harsh. The "
13636 "four students who were threatened by the RIAA (Jesse Jordan of chapter <xref "
13637 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"catalogs\"/> was just one) were "
13638 "threatened with a $98 billion lawsuit for building search engines that "
13639 "permitted songs to be copied. Yet World-Com—which defrauded investors "
13640 "of $11 billion, resulting in a loss to investors in market capitalization of "
13641 "over $200 billion—received a fine of a mere $750 million.<placeholder "
13642 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And under legislation being pushed in Congress "
13643 "right now, a doctor who negligently removes the wrong leg in an operation "
13644 "would be liable for no more than $250,000 in damages for pain and "
13645 "suffering.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Can common sense "
13646 "recognize the absurdity in a world where the maximum fine for downloading "
13647 "two songs off the Internet is more than the fine for a doctor's negligently "
13648 "butchering a patient?"
13651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13652 #: freeculture.xml:9697
13653 msgid "art, underground"
13657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13658 #: freeculture.xml:9718
13660 "See Danit Lidor, <quote>Artists Just Wanna Be Free,</quote> "
13661 "<citetitle>Wired</citetitle>, 7 July 2003, available at <ulink "
13662 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #40</ulink>. For an overview of "
13663 "the exhibition, see <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
13667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13668 #: freeculture.xml:9699
13670 "The consequence of this legal uncertainty, tied to these extremely high "
13671 "penalties, is that an extraordinary amount of creativity will either never "
13672 "be exercised, or never be exercised in the open. We drive this creative "
13673 "process underground by branding the modern-day Walt Disneys "
13674 "<quote>pirates.</quote> We make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a "
13675 "public domain, because the boundaries of the public domain are designed to "
13676 "be unclear. It never pays to do anything except pay for the right to create, "
13677 "and hence only those who can pay are allowed to create. As was the case in "
13678 "the Soviet Union, though for very different reasons, we will begin to see a "
13679 "world of underground art—not because the message is necessarily "
13680 "political, or because the subject is controversial, but because the very act "
13681 "of creating the art is legally fraught. Already, exhibits of <quote>illegal "
13682 "art</quote> tour the United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
13683 "In what does their <quote>illegality</quote> consist? In the act of mixing "
13684 "the culture around us with an expression that is critical or reflective."
13687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13688 #: freeculture.xml:9729
13690 "Part of the reason for this fear of illegality has to do with the changing "
13691 "law. I described that change in detail in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
13692 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>. But an even bigger part has to do "
13693 "with the increasing ease with which infractions can be tracked. As users of "
13694 "file-sharing systems discovered in 2002, it is a trivial matter for "
13695 "copyright owners to get courts to order Internet service providers to reveal "
13696 "who has what content. It is as if your cassette tape player transmitted a "
13697 "list of the songs that you played in the privacy of your own home that "
13698 "anyone could tune into for whatever reason they chose."
13701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13702 #: freeculture.xml:9742
13704 "Never in our history has a painter had to worry about whether his painting "
13705 "infringed on someone else's work; but the modern-day painter, using the "
13706 "tools of Photoshop, sharing content on the Web, must worry all the "
13707 "time. Images are all around, but the only safe images to use in the act of "
13708 "creation are those purchased from Corbis or another image farm. And in "
13709 "purchasing, censoring happens. There is a free market in pencils; we needn't "
13710 "worry about its effect on creativity. But there is a highly regulated, "
13711 "monopolized market in cultural icons; the right to cultivate and transform "
13712 "them is not similarly free."
13715 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13716 #: freeculture.xml:9753
13718 "Lawyers rarely see this because lawyers are rarely empirical. As I described "
13719 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/>, "
13720 "in response to the story about documentary filmmaker Jon Else, I have been "
13721 "lectured again and again by lawyers who insist Else's use was fair use, and "
13722 "hence I am wrong to say that the law regulates such a use."
13726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13727 #: freeculture.xml:9764
13729 "But fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer to defend "
13730 "your right to create. And as lawyers love to forget, our system for "
13731 "defending rights such as fair use is astonishingly bad—in practically "
13732 "every context, but especially here. It costs too much, it delivers too "
13733 "slowly, and what it delivers often has little connection to the justice "
13734 "underlying the claim. The legal system may be tolerable for the very rich. "
13735 "For everyone else, it is an embarrassment to a tradition that prides itself "
13736 "on the rule of law."
13739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13740 #: freeculture.xml:9774
13742 "Judges and lawyers can tell themselves that fair use provides adequate "
13743 "<quote>breathing room</quote> between regulation by the law and the access "
13744 "the law should allow. But it is a measure of how out of touch our legal "
13745 "system has become that anyone actually believes this. The rules that "
13746 "publishers impose upon writers, the rules that film distributors impose upon "
13747 "filmmakers, the rules that newspapers impose upon journalists— these "
13748 "are the real laws governing creativity. And these rules have little "
13749 "relationship to the <quote>law</quote> with which judges comfort themselves."
13752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13753 #: freeculture.xml:9785
13755 "For in a world that threatens $150,000 for a single willful infringement of "
13756 "a copyright, and which demands tens of thousands of dollars to even defend "
13757 "against a copyright infringement claim, and which would never return to the "
13758 "wrongfully accused defendant anything of the costs she suffered to defend "
13759 "her right to speak—in that world, the astonishingly broad regulations "
13760 "that pass under the name <quote>copyright</quote> silence speech and "
13761 "creativity. And in that world, it takes a studied blindness for people to "
13762 "continue to believe they live in a culture that is free."
13765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13766 #: freeculture.xml:9796
13767 msgid "As Jed Horovitz, the businessman behind Video Pipeline, said to me,"
13771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13772 #: freeculture.xml:9800
13774 "We're losing [creative] opportunities right and left. Creative people are "
13775 "being forced not to express themselves. Thoughts are not being "
13776 "expressed. And while a lot of stuff may [still] be created, it still won't "
13777 "get distributed. Even if the stuff gets made … you're not going to "
13778 "get it distributed in the mainstream media unless you've got a little note "
13779 "from a lawyer saying, <quote>This has been cleared.</quote> You're not even "
13780 "going to get it on PBS without that kind of permission. That's the point at "
13781 "which they control it."
13784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
13785 #: freeculture.xml:9813
13786 msgid "Constraining Innovators"
13789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
13790 #: freeculture.xml:9814
13791 msgid "innovation hampered by"
13794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
13795 #: freeculture.xml:9815
13796 msgid "industry establishment opposed to"
13799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13800 #: freeculture.xml:9818
13802 "The story of the last section was a crunchy-lefty story—creativity "
13803 "quashed, artists who can't speak, yada yada yada. Maybe that doesn't get you "
13804 "going. Maybe you think there's enough weird art out there, and enough "
13805 "expression that is critical of what seems to be just about everything. And "
13806 "if you think that, you might think there's little in this story to worry "
13810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13811 #: freeculture.xml:9827
13813 "But there's an aspect of this story that is not lefty in any sense. Indeed, "
13814 "it is an aspect that could be written by the most extreme promarket "
13815 "ideologue. And if you're one of these sorts (and a special one at that, "
13816 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: pagenumber\" linkend=\"innovators\"/> pages into a "
13817 "book like this), then you can see this other aspect by substituting "
13818 "<quote>free market</quote> every place I've spoken of <quote>free "
13819 "culture.</quote> The point is the same, even if the interests affecting "
13820 "culture are more fundamental."
13823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13824 #: freeculture.xml:9838
13826 "The charge I've been making about the regulation of culture is the same "
13827 "charge free marketers make about regulating markets. Everyone, of course, "
13828 "concedes that some regulation of markets is necessary—at a minimum, we "
13829 "need rules of property and contract, and courts to enforce both. Likewise, "
13830 "in this culture debate, everyone concedes that at least some framework of "
13831 "copyright is also required. But both perspectives vehemently insist that "
13832 "just because some regulation is good, it doesn't follow that more regulation "
13833 "is better. And both perspectives are constantly attuned to the ways in which "
13834 "regulation simply enables the powerful industries of today to protect "
13835 "themselves against the competitors of tomorrow."
13838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13839 #: freeculture.xml:9851 freeculture.xml:9972 freeculture.xml:9978
13840 msgid "Barry, Hank"
13843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13844 #: freeculture.xml:9852 freeculture.xml:9984
13845 msgid "venture capitalists"
13849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13850 #: freeculture.xml:9854
13852 "This is the single most dramatic effect of the shift in regulatory strategy "
13853 "that I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13854 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>. The consequence of this massive threat of "
13855 "liability tied to the murky boundaries of copyright law is that innovators "
13856 "who want to innovate in this space can safely innovate only if they have the "
13857 "sign-off from last generation's dominant industries. That lesson has been "
13858 "taught through a series of cases that were designed and executed to teach "
13859 "venture capitalists a lesson. That lesson—what former Napster CEO Hank "
13860 "Barry calls a <quote>nuclear pall</quote> that has fallen over the "
13861 "Valley—has been learned."
13864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13865 #: freeculture.xml:9869
13867 "Consider one example to make the point, a story whose beginning I told in "
13868 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> and which has progressed in a way "
13869 "that even I (pessimist extraordinaire) would never have predicted."
13872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13873 #: freeculture.xml:9873
13877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13878 #: freeculture.xml:9874
13882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13883 #: freeculture.xml:9875
13884 msgid "Roberts, Michael"
13887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13888 #: freeculture.xml:9877
13890 "In 1997, Michael Roberts launched a company called MP3.com. MP3.com was "
13891 "keen to remake the music business. Their goal was not just to facilitate new "
13892 "ways to get access to content. Their goal was also to facilitate new ways to "
13893 "create content. Unlike the major labels, MP3.com offered creators a venue to "
13894 "distribute their creativity, without demanding an exclusive engagement from "
13898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
13899 #: freeculture.xml:9885
13900 msgid "preference data on"
13903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13904 #: freeculture.xml:9887
13906 "To make this system work, however, MP3.com needed a reliable way to "
13907 "recommend music to its users. The idea behind this alternative was to "
13908 "leverage the revealed preferences of music listeners to recommend new "
13909 "artists. If you like Lyle Lovett, you're likely to enjoy Bonnie Raitt. And "
13913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13914 #: freeculture.xml:9894
13916 "This idea required a simple way to gather data about user preferences. "
13917 "MP3.com came up with an extraordinarily clever way to gather this preference "
13918 "data. In January 2000, the company launched a service called "
13919 "my.mp3.com. Using software provided by MP3.com, a user would sign into an "
13920 "account and then insert into her computer a CD. The software would identify "
13921 "the CD, and then give the user access to that content. So, for example, if "
13922 "you inserted a CD by Jill Sobule, then wherever you were—at work or at "
13923 "home—you could get access to that music once you signed into your "
13924 "account. The system was therefore a kind of music-lockbox."
13928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13929 #: freeculture.xml:9906
13931 "No doubt some could use this system to illegally copy content. But that "
13932 "opportunity existed with or without MP3.com. The aim of the my.mp3.com "
13933 "service was to give users access to their own content, and as a by-product, "
13934 "by seeing the content they already owned, to discover the kind of content "
13938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13939 #: freeculture.xml:9916
13941 "To make this system function, however, MP3.com needed to copy 50,000 CDs to "
13942 "a server. (In principle, it could have been the user who uploaded the music, "
13943 "but that would have taken a great deal of time, and would have produced a "
13944 "product of questionable quality.) It therefore purchased 50,000 CDs from a "
13945 "store, and started the process of making copies of those CDs. Again, it "
13946 "would not serve the content from those copies to anyone except those who "
13947 "authenticated that they had a copy of the CD they wanted to access. So while "
13948 "this was 50,000 copies, it was 50,000 copies directed at giving customers "
13949 "something they had already bought."
13952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
13953 #: freeculture.xml:9928 freeculture.xml:9973
13954 msgid "distribution technology targeted in"
13957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
13958 #: freeculture.xml:9933
13959 msgid "outsize penalties of"
13962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13963 #: freeculture.xml:9935
13965 "Nine days after MP3.com launched its service, the five major labels, headed "
13966 "by the RIAA, brought a lawsuit against MP3.com. MP3.com settled with four of "
13967 "the five. Nine months later, a federal judge found MP3.com to have been "
13968 "guilty of willful infringement with respect to the fifth. Applying the law "
13969 "as it is, the judge imposed a fine against MP3.com of $118 million. MP3.com "
13970 "then settled with the remaining plaintiff, Vivendi Universal, paying over "
13971 "$54 million. Vivendi purchased MP3.com just about a year later."
13974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13975 #: freeculture.xml:9945
13976 msgid "That part of the story I have told before. Now consider its conclusion."
13979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13980 #: freeculture.xml:9948
13982 "After Vivendi purchased MP3.com, Vivendi turned around and filed a "
13983 "malpractice lawsuit against the lawyers who had advised it that they had a "
13984 "good faith claim that the service they wanted to offer would be considered "
13985 "legal under copyright law. This lawsuit alleged that it should have been "
13986 "obvious that the courts would find this behavior illegal; therefore, this "
13987 "lawsuit sought to punish any lawyer who had dared to suggest that the law "
13988 "was less restrictive than the labels demanded."
13992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13993 #: freeculture.xml:9959
13995 "The clear purpose of this lawsuit (which was settled for an unspecified "
13996 "amount shortly after the story was no longer covered in the press) was to "
13997 "send an unequivocal message to lawyers advising clients in this space: It is "
13998 "not just your clients who might suffer if the content industry directs its "
13999 "guns against them. It is also you. So those of you who believe the law "
14000 "should be less restrictive should realize that such a view of the law will "
14001 "cost you and your firm dearly."
14004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14005 #: freeculture.xml:9974
14009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14010 #: freeculture.xml:9975
14011 msgid "cars, MP3 sound systems in"
14014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14015 #: freeculture.xml:9977
14016 msgid "Hummer, John"
14019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14020 #: freeculture.xml:9979
14021 msgid "Hummer Winblad"
14024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14025 #: freeculture.xml:9980
14026 msgid "MP3 players"
14029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
14030 #: freeculture.xml:9981
14031 msgid "venture capital for"
14034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14035 #: freeculture.xml:9982 freeculture.xml:10028
14036 msgid "Needleman, Rafe"
14040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14041 #: freeculture.xml:9992
14043 "See Joseph Menn, <quote>Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor,</quote> "
14044 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 23 April 2003. For a parallel "
14045 "argument about the effects on innovation in the distribution of music, see "
14046 "Janelle Brown, <quote>The Music Revolution Will Not Be Digitized,</quote> "
14047 "Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available at <ulink "
14048 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #42</ulink>. See also Jon "
14049 "Healey, <quote>Online Music Services Besieged,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
14050 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 28 May 2001."
14053 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14054 #: freeculture.xml:9986
14056 "This strategy is not just limited to the lawyers. In April 2003, Universal "
14057 "and EMI brought a lawsuit against Hummer Winblad, the venture capital firm "
14058 "(VC) that had funded Napster at a certain stage of its development, its "
14059 "cofounder (John Hummer), and general partner (Hank Barry).<placeholder "
14060 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The claim here, as well, was that the VC should "
14061 "have recognized the right of the content industry to control how the "
14062 "industry should develop. They should be held personally liable for funding a "
14063 "company whose business turned out to be beyond the law. Here again, the aim "
14064 "of the lawsuit is transparent: Any VC now recognizes that if you fund a "
14065 "company whose business is not approved of by the dinosaurs, you are at risk "
14066 "not just in the marketplace, but in the courtroom as well. Your investment "
14067 "buys you not only a company, it also buys you a lawsuit. So extreme has the "
14068 "environment become that even car manufacturers are afraid of technologies "
14069 "that touch content. In an article in <citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, "
14070 "Rafe Needleman describes a discussion with BMW:"
14073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
14074 #: freeculture.xml:10024
14076 "Rafe Needleman, <quote>Driving in Cars with MP3s,</quote> "
14077 "<citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
14078 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #43</ulink>. I am grateful to "
14079 "Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli for this example. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14083 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14084 #: freeculture.xml:10015
14086 "I asked why, with all the storage capacity and computer power in the car, "
14087 "there was no way to play MP3 files. I was told that BMW engineers in Germany "
14088 "had rigged a new vehicle to play MP3s via the car's built-in sound system, "
14089 "but that the company's marketing and legal departments weren't comfortable "
14090 "with pushing this forward for release stateside. Even today, no new cars are "
14091 "sold in the United States with bona fide MP3 players. … <placeholder "
14092 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14096 #: freeculture.xml:10036
14098 "This is the world of the mafia—filled with <quote>your money or your "
14099 "life</quote> offers, governed in the end not by courts but by the threats "
14100 "that the law empowers copyright holders to exercise. It is a system that "
14101 "will obviously and necessarily stifle new innovation. It is hard enough to "
14102 "start a company. It is impossibly hard if that company is constantly "
14103 "threatened by litigation."
14107 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14108 #: freeculture.xml:10046
14110 "The point is not that businesses should have a right to start illegal "
14111 "enterprises. The point is the definition of <quote>illegal.</quote> The law "
14112 "is a mess of uncertainty. We have no good way to know how it should apply to "
14113 "new technologies. Yet by reversing our tradition of judicial deference, and "
14114 "by embracing the astonishingly high penalties that copyright law imposes, "
14115 "that uncertainty now yields a reality which is far more conservative than is "
14116 "right. If the law imposed the death penalty for parking tickets, we'd not "
14117 "only have fewer parking tickets, we'd also have much less driving. The same "
14118 "principle applies to innovation. If innovation is constantly checked by this "
14119 "uncertain and unlimited liability, we will have much less vibrant innovation "
14120 "and much less creativity."
14123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14124 #: freeculture.xml:10061
14126 "The point is directly parallel to the crunchy-lefty point about fair "
14127 "use. Whatever the <quote>real</quote> law is, realism about the effect of "
14128 "law in both contexts is the same. This wildly punitive system of regulation "
14129 "will systematically stifle creativity and innovation. It will protect some "
14130 "industries and some creators, but it will harm industry and creativity "
14131 "generally. Free market and free culture depend upon vibrant competition. "
14132 "Yet the effect of the law today is to stifle just this kind of competition. "
14133 "The effect is to produce an overregulated culture, just as the effect of too "
14134 "much control in the market is to produce an overregulated-regulated market."
14138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14139 #: freeculture.xml:10073
14141 "The building of a permission culture, rather than a free culture, is the "
14142 "first important way in which the changes I have described will burden "
14143 "innovation. A permission culture means a lawyer's culture—a culture in "
14144 "which the ability to create requires a call to your lawyer. Again, I am not "
14145 "antilawyer, at least when they're kept in their proper place. I am certainly "
14146 "not antilaw. But our profession has lost the sense of its limits. And "
14147 "leaders in our profession have lost an appreciation of the high costs that "
14148 "our profession imposes upon others. The inefficiency of the law is an "
14149 "embarrassment to our tradition. And while I believe our profession should "
14150 "therefore do everything it can to make the law more efficient, it should at "
14151 "least do everything it can to limit the reach of the law where the law is "
14152 "not doing any good. The transaction costs buried within a permission culture "
14153 "are enough to bury a wide range of creativity. Someone needs to do a lot of "
14154 "justifying to justify that result."
14157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14158 #: freeculture.xml:10092
14160 "<emphasis role='strong'>The uncertainty</emphasis> of the law is one burden "
14161 "on innovation. There is a second burden that operates more directly. This is "
14162 "the effort by many in the content industry to use the law to directly "
14163 "regulate the technology of the Internet so that it better protects their "
14167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14168 #: freeculture.xml:10099
14170 "The motivation for this response is obvious. The Internet enables the "
14171 "efficient spread of content. That efficiency is a feature of the Internet's "
14172 "design. But from the perspective of the content industry, this feature is a "
14173 "<quote>bug.</quote> The efficient spread of content means that content "
14174 "distributors have a harder time controlling the distribution of content. "
14175 "One obvious response to this efficiency is thus to make the Internet less "
14176 "efficient. If the Internet enables <quote>piracy,</quote> then, this "
14177 "response says, we should break the kneecaps of the Internet."
14181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14182 #: freeculture.xml:10114
14184 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> "
14185 "GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law "
14186 "School (2003), 33–35, available at <ulink "
14187 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>."
14191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14192 #: freeculture.xml:10127
14193 msgid "GartnerG2, 26–27."
14196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14197 #: freeculture.xml:10110
14199 "The examples of this form of legislation are many. At the urging of the "
14200 "content industry, some in Congress have threatened legislation that would "
14201 "require computers to determine whether the content they access is protected "
14202 "or not, and to disable the spread of protected content.<placeholder "
14203 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Congress has already launched proceedings to "
14204 "explore a mandatory <quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would be required on "
14205 "any device capable of transmitting digital video (i.e., a computer), and "
14206 "that would disable the copying of any content that is marked with a "
14207 "broadcast flag. Other members of Congress have proposed immunizing content "
14208 "providers from liability for technology they might deploy that would hunt "
14209 "down copyright violators and disable their machines.<placeholder "
14210 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
14214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14215 #: freeculture.xml:10131
14217 "In one sense, these solutions seem sensible. If the problem is the code, why "
14218 "not regulate the code to remove the problem. But any regulation of technical "
14219 "infrastructure will always be tuned to the particular technology of the "
14220 "day. It will impose significant burdens and costs on the technology, but "
14221 "will likely be eclipsed by advances around exactly those requirements."
14224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14225 #: freeculture.xml:10140 freeculture.xml:12050
14230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14231 #: freeculture.xml:10146
14233 "See David McGuire, <quote>Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy,</quote> "
14234 "Newsbytes, February 2002 (Entertainment)."
14237 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14238 #: freeculture.xml:10142
14240 "In March 2002, a broad coalition of technology companies, led by Intel, "
14241 "tried to get Congress to see the harm that such legislation would "
14242 "impose.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Their argument was "
14243 "obviously not that copyright should not be protected. Instead, they argued, "
14244 "any protection should not do more harm than good."
14247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14248 #: freeculture.xml:10154
14250 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is one</emphasis> more obvious way in which "
14251 "this war has harmed innovation—again, a story that will be quite "
14252 "familiar to the free market crowd."
14255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14256 #: freeculture.xml:10159
14258 "Copyright may be property, but like all property, it is also a form of "
14259 "regulation. It is a regulation that benefits some and harms others. When "
14260 "done right, it benefits creators and harms leeches. When done wrong, it is "
14261 "regulation the powerful use to defeat competitors."
14264 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14265 #: freeculture.xml:10177
14266 msgid "Digital Copyright (Litman)"
14269 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14270 #: freeculture.xml:10175
14272 "Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (Amherst, N.Y.: "
14273 "Prometheus Books, 2001). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
14274 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14278 #: freeculture.xml:10169
14280 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
14281 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, despite this feature of copyright as regulation, "
14282 "and subject to important qualifications outlined by Jessica Litman in her "
14283 "book <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle>,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14284 "id=\"0\"/> overall this history of copyright is not bad. As chapter <xref "
14285 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/> details, when new "
14286 "technologies have come along, Congress has struck a balance to assure that "
14287 "the new is protected from the old. Compulsory, or statutory, licenses have "
14288 "been one part of that strategy. Free use (as in the case of the VCR) has "
14292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14293 #: freeculture.xml:10188
14295 "But that pattern of deference to new technologies has now changed with the "
14296 "rise of the Internet. Rather than striking a balance between the claims of a "
14297 "new technology and the legitimate rights of content creators, both the "
14298 "courts and Congress have imposed legal restrictions that will have the "
14299 "effect of smothering the new to benefit the old."
14302 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
14303 #: freeculture.xml:10194
14307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14308 #: freeculture.xml:10199
14309 msgid "Grokster, Ltd."
14312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14313 #: freeculture.xml:10199
14315 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The only circuit court exception "
14316 "is found in <citetitle>Recording Industry Association of America "
14317 "(RIAA)</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Diamond Multimedia Systems</citetitle>, 180 "
14318 "F. 3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). There the court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit "
14319 "reasoned that makers of a portable MP3 player were not liable for "
14320 "contributory copyright infringement for a device that is unable to record or "
14321 "redistribute music (a device whose only copying function is to render "
14322 "portable a music file already stored on a user's hard drive). At the "
14323 "district court level, the only exception is found in "
14324 "<citetitle>Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, "
14325 "Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Grokster, Ltd</citetitle>., 259 F. Supp. 2d "
14326 "1029 (C.D. Cal., 2003), where the court found the link between the "
14327 "distributor and any given user's conduct too attenuated to make the "
14328 "distributor liable for contributory or vicarious infringement liability."
14331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14332 #: freeculture.xml:10218
14333 msgid "Tauzin, Billy"
14336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14337 #: freeculture.xml:10220
14338 msgid "Hollings, Fritz"
14341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14342 #: freeculture.xml:10218
14344 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14345 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
14346 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> For example, in July 2002, Representative "
14347 "Howard Berman introduced the Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention Act (H.R. 5211), "
14348 "which would immunize copyright holders from liability for damage done to "
14349 "computers when the copyright holders use technology to stop copyright "
14350 "infringement. In August 2002, Representative Billy Tauzin introduced a bill "
14351 "to mandate that technologies capable of rebroadcasting digital copies of "
14352 "films broadcast on TV (i.e., computers) respect a <quote>broadcast "
14353 "flag</quote> that would disable copying of that content. And in March of the "
14354 "same year, Senator Fritz Hollings introduced the Consumer Broadband and "
14355 "Digital Television Promotion Act, which mandated copyright protection "
14356 "technology in all digital media devices. See GartnerG2, <quote>Copyright and "
14357 "Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> 27 June 2003, 33–34, "
14358 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>."
14361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14362 #: freeculture.xml:10197
14364 "The response by the courts has been fairly universal.<placeholder "
14365 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It has been mirrored in the responses "
14366 "threatened and actually implemented by Congress. I won't catalog all of "
14367 "those responses here.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> But there is "
14368 "one example that captures the flavor of them all. This is the story of the "
14369 "demise of Internet radio."
14373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14374 #: freeculture.xml:10245
14376 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
14377 "linkend=\"pirates\"/>, when a radio station plays a song, the recording "
14378 "artist doesn't get paid for that <quote>radio performance</quote> unless he "
14379 "or she is also the composer. So, for example if Marilyn Monroe had recorded "
14380 "a version of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote>—to memorialize her famous "
14381 "performance before President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden— then "
14382 "whenever that recording was played on the radio, the current copyright "
14383 "owners of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> would get some money, whereas "
14384 "Marilyn Monroe would not."
14387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14388 #: freeculture.xml:10256
14390 "The reasoning behind this balance struck by Congress makes some sense. The "
14391 "justification was that radio was a kind of advertising. The recording artist "
14392 "thus benefited because by playing her music, the radio station was making it "
14393 "more likely that her records would be purchased. Thus, the recording artist "
14394 "got something, even if only indirectly. Probably this reasoning had less to "
14395 "do with the result than with the power of radio stations: Their lobbyists "
14396 "were quite good at stopping any efforts to get Congress to require "
14397 "compensation to the recording artists."
14400 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14401 #: freeculture.xml:10267
14403 "Enter Internet radio. Like regular radio, Internet radio is a technology to "
14404 "stream content from a broadcaster to a listener. The broadcast travels "
14405 "across the Internet, not across the ether of radio spectrum. Thus, I can "
14406 "<quote>tune in</quote> to an Internet radio station in Berlin while sitting "
14407 "in San Francisco, even though there's no way for me to tune in to a regular "
14408 "radio station much beyond the San Francisco metropolitan area."
14411 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14412 #: freeculture.xml:10276
14414 "This feature of the architecture of Internet radio means that there are "
14415 "potentially an unlimited number of radio stations that a user could tune in "
14416 "to using her computer, whereas under the existing architecture for broadcast "
14417 "radio, there is an obvious limit to the number of broadcasters and clear "
14418 "broadcast frequencies. Internet radio could therefore be more competitive "
14419 "than regular radio; it could provide a wider range of selections. And "
14420 "because the potential audience for Internet radio is the whole world, niche "
14421 "stations could easily develop and market their content to a relatively large "
14422 "number of users worldwide. According to some estimates, more than eighty "
14423 "million users worldwide have tuned in to this new form of radio."
14427 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14428 #: freeculture.xml:10292
14430 "Internet radio is thus to radio what FM was to AM. It is an improvement "
14431 "potentially vastly more significant than the FM improvement over AM, since "
14432 "not only is the technology better, so, too, is the competition. Indeed, "
14433 "there is a direct parallel between the fight to establish FM radio and the "
14434 "fight to protect Internet radio. As one author describes Howard Armstrong's "
14435 "struggle to enable FM radio,"
14439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
14440 #: freeculture.xml:10316
14441 msgid "Lessing, 239."
14444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14445 #: freeculture.xml:10302
14447 "An almost unlimited number of FM stations was possible in the shortwaves, "
14448 "thus ending the unnatural restrictions imposed on radio in the crowded "
14449 "longwaves. If FM were freely developed, the number of stations would be "
14450 "limited only by economics and competition rather than by technical "
14451 "restrictions. … Armstrong likened the situation that had grown up in "
14452 "radio to that following the invention of the printing press, when "
14453 "governments and ruling interests attempted to control this new instrument of "
14454 "mass communications by imposing restrictive licenses on it. This tyranny was "
14455 "broken only when it became possible for men freely to acquire printing "
14456 "presses and freely to run them. FM in this sense was as great an invention "
14457 "as the printing presses, for it gave radio the opportunity to strike off its "
14458 "shackles.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14463 #: freeculture.xml:10326
14464 msgid "Ibid., 229."
14467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14468 #: freeculture.xml:10321
14470 "This potential for FM radio was never realized—not because Armstrong "
14471 "was wrong about the technology, but because he underestimated the power of "
14472 "<quote>vested interests, habits, customs and legislation</quote><placeholder "
14473 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> to retard the growth of this competing "
14477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14478 #: freeculture.xml:10331
14480 "Now the very same claim could be made about Internet radio. For again, there "
14481 "is no technical limitation that could restrict the number of Internet radio "
14482 "stations. The only restrictions on Internet radio are those imposed by the "
14483 "law. Copyright law is one such law. So the first question we should ask is, "
14484 "what copyright rules would govern Internet radio?"
14487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
14488 #: freeculture.xml:10340
14492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
14493 #: freeculture.xml:10344
14494 msgid "Internet radio hampered by"
14497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
14498 #: freeculture.xml:10345 freeculture.xml:10498
14499 msgid "on Internet radio fees"
14503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14504 #: freeculture.xml:10348
14506 "But here the power of the lobbyists is reversed. Internet radio is a new "
14507 "industry. The recording artists, on the other hand, have a very powerful "
14508 "lobby, the RIAA. Thus when Congress considered the phenomenon of Internet "
14509 "radio in 1995, the lobbyists had primed Congress to adopt a different rule "
14510 "for Internet radio than the rule that applies to terrestrial radio. While "
14511 "terrestrial radio does not have to pay our hypothetical Marilyn Monroe when "
14512 "it plays her hypothetical recording of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> on the "
14513 "air, <emphasis>Internet radio does</emphasis>. Not only is the law not "
14514 "neutral toward Internet radio—the law actually burdens Internet radio "
14515 "more than it burdens terrestrial radio."
14518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14519 #: freeculture.xml:10387
14520 msgid "CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel)"
14523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14524 #: freeculture.xml:10370
14526 "This example was derived from fees set by the original Copyright Arbitration "
14527 "Royalty Panel (CARP) proceedings, and is drawn from an example offered by "
14528 "Professor William Fisher. Conference Proceedings, iLaw (Stanford), 3 July "
14529 "2003, on file with author. Professors Fisher and Zittrain submitted "
14530 "testimony in the CARP proceeding that was ultimately rejected. See Jonathan "
14531 "Zittrain, Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings and Ephemeral "
14532 "Recordings, Docket No. 2000-9, CARP DTRA 1 and 2, available at <ulink "
14533 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #45</ulink>. For an excellent "
14534 "analysis making a similar point, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>Copyright as "
14535 "Entry Policy: The Case of Digital Distribution,</quote> <citetitle>Antitrust "
14536 "Bulletin</citetitle> (Summer/Fall 2002): 461: <quote>This was not confusion, "
14537 "these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are "
14538 "protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, "
14539 "this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, "
14540 "absent the play of powerful interests, that could have been done in a "
14541 "media-neutral way.</quote> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
14542 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14546 #: freeculture.xml:10363
14548 "This financial burden is not slight. As Harvard law professor William Fisher "
14549 "estimates, if an Internet radio station distributed adfree popular music to "
14550 "(on average) ten thousand listeners, twenty-four hours a day, the total "
14551 "artist fees that radio station would owe would be over $1 million a "
14552 "year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A regular radio station "
14553 "broadcasting the same content would pay no equivalent fee."
14556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14557 #: freeculture.xml:10399
14559 "The burden is not financial only. Under the original rules that were "
14560 "proposed, an Internet radio station (but not a terrestrial radio station) "
14561 "would have to collect the following data from <emphasis>every listening "
14562 "transaction</emphasis>:"
14565 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14566 #: freeculture.xml:10407
14567 msgid "name of the service;"
14570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14571 #: freeculture.xml:10410
14572 msgid "channel of the program (AM/FM stations use station ID);"
14575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14576 #: freeculture.xml:10413
14577 msgid "type of program (archived/looped/live);"
14580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14581 #: freeculture.xml:10416
14582 msgid "date of transmission;"
14585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14586 #: freeculture.xml:10419
14587 msgid "time of transmission;"
14590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14591 #: freeculture.xml:10422
14592 msgid "time zone of origination of transmission;"
14595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14596 #: freeculture.xml:10425
14597 msgid "numeric designation of the place of the sound recording within the program;"
14600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14601 #: freeculture.xml:10428
14602 msgid "duration of transmission (to nearest second);"
14605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14606 #: freeculture.xml:10431
14607 msgid "sound recording title;"
14610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14611 #: freeculture.xml:10434
14612 msgid "ISRC code of the recording;"
14615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14616 #: freeculture.xml:10437
14618 "release year of the album per copyright notice and in the case of "
14619 "compilation albums, the release year of the album and copy- right date of "
14623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14624 #: freeculture.xml:10440
14625 msgid "featured recording artist;"
14628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14629 #: freeculture.xml:10443
14630 msgid "retail album title;"
14633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14634 #: freeculture.xml:10446
14635 msgid "recording label;"
14638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14639 #: freeculture.xml:10449
14640 msgid "UPC code of the retail album;"
14643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14644 #: freeculture.xml:10452
14645 msgid "catalog number;"
14648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14649 #: freeculture.xml:10455
14650 msgid "copyright owner information;"
14653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14654 #: freeculture.xml:10458
14655 msgid "musical genre of the channel or program (station format);"
14658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14659 #: freeculture.xml:10461
14660 msgid "name of the service or entity;"
14663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14664 #: freeculture.xml:10464
14665 msgid "channel or program;"
14668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14669 #: freeculture.xml:10467
14670 msgid "date and time that the user logged in (in the user's time zone);"
14673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14674 #: freeculture.xml:10470
14675 msgid "date and time that the user logged out (in the user's time zone);"
14678 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14679 #: freeculture.xml:10473
14680 msgid "time zone where the signal was received (user);"
14683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14684 #: freeculture.xml:10476
14685 msgid "unique user identifier;"
14688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
14689 #: freeculture.xml:10479
14690 msgid "the country in which the user received the transmissions."
14693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14694 #: freeculture.xml:10484
14696 "The Librarian of Congress eventually suspended these reporting requirements, "
14697 "pending further study. And he also changed the original rates set by the "
14698 "arbitration panel charged with setting rates. But the basic difference "
14699 "between Internet radio and terrestrial radio remains: Internet radio has to "
14700 "pay a <emphasis>type of copyright fee</emphasis> that terrestrial radio does "
14704 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14705 #: freeculture.xml:10492
14707 "Why? What justifies this difference? Was there any study of the economic "
14708 "consequences from Internet radio that would justify these differences? Was "
14709 "the motive to protect artists against piracy?"
14712 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
14713 #: freeculture.xml:10496 freeculture.xml:15302
14714 msgid "Real Networks"
14717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14718 #: freeculture.xml:10502
14720 "In a rare bit of candor, one RIAA expert admitted what seemed obvious to "
14721 "everyone at the time. As Alex Alben, vice president for Public Policy at "
14722 "Real Networks, told me,"
14726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14727 #: freeculture.xml:10508
14729 "The RIAA, which was representing the record labels, presented some testimony "
14730 "about what they thought a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller, and "
14731 "it was much higher. It was ten times higher than what radio stations pay to "
14732 "perform the same songs for the same period of time. And so the attorneys "
14733 "representing the webcasters asked the RIAA, … <quote>How do you come "
14734 "up with a rate that's so much higher? Why is it worth more than radio? "
14735 "Because here we have hundreds of thousands of webcasters who want to pay, "
14736 "and that should establish the market rate, and if you set the rate so high, "
14737 "you're going to drive the small webcasters out of business. …</quote>"
14740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14741 #: freeculture.xml:10524
14743 "And the RIAA experts said, <quote>Well, we don't really model this as an "
14744 "industry with thousands of webcasters, <emphasis>we think it should be an "
14745 "industry with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate "
14746 "and it's a stable, predictable market</emphasis>.</quote> (Emphasis added.)"
14749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14750 #: freeculture.xml:10536
14752 "Translation: The aim is to use the law to eliminate competition, so that "
14753 "this platform of potentially immense competition, which would cause the "
14754 "diversity and range of content available to explode, would not cause pain to "
14755 "the dinosaurs of old. There is no one, on either the right or the left, who "
14756 "should endorse this use of the law. And yet there is practically no one, on "
14757 "either the right or the left, who is doing anything effective to prevent it."
14760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
14761 #: freeculture.xml:10552
14762 msgid "Corrupting Citizens"
14765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14766 #: freeculture.xml:10554
14768 "Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives "
14769 "dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity "
14770 "for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables."
14773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14774 #: freeculture.xml:10560
14776 "In addition to these important harms, there is one more that was important "
14777 "to our forebears, but seems forgotten today. Overregulation corrupts "
14778 "citizens and weakens the rule of law."
14782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14783 #: freeculture.xml:10569
14785 "Mike Graziano and Lee Rainie, <quote>The Music Downloading Deluge,</quote> "
14786 "Pew Internet and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at <ulink "
14787 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #46</ulink>. The Pew Internet "
14788 "and American Life Project reported that 37 million Americans had downloaded "
14789 "music files from the Internet by early 2001."
14793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14794 #: freeculture.xml:10565
14796 "The war that is being waged today is a war of prohibition. As with every war "
14797 "of prohibition, it is targeted against the behavior of a very large number "
14798 "of citizens. According to <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, 43 "
14799 "million Americans downloaded music in May 2002.<placeholder "
14800 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> According to the RIAA, the behavior of those 43 "
14801 "million Americans is a felony. We thus have a set of rules that transform 20 "
14802 "percent of America into criminals. As the RIAA launches lawsuits against not "
14803 "only the Napsters and Kazaas of the world, but against students building "
14804 "search engines, and increasingly against ordinary users downloading content, "
14805 "the technologies for sharing will advance to further protect and hide "
14806 "illegal use. It is an arms race or a civil war, with the extremes of one "
14807 "side inviting a more extreme response by the other."
14811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14812 #: freeculture.xml:10603
14814 "Alex Pham, <quote>The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA "
14815 "Case,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, "
14819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14820 #: freeculture.xml:10590
14822 "The content industry's tactics exploit the failings of the American legal "
14823 "system. When the RIAA brought suit against Jesse Jordan, it knew that in "
14824 "Jordan it had found a scapegoat, not a defendant. The threat of having to "
14825 "pay either all the money in the world in damages ($15,000,000) or almost all "
14826 "the money in the world to defend against paying all the money in the world "
14827 "in damages ($250,000 in legal fees) led Jordan to choose to pay all the "
14828 "money he had in the world ($12,000) to make the suit go away. The same "
14829 "strategy animates the RIAA's suits against individual users. In September "
14830 "2003, the RIAA sued 261 individuals—including a twelve-year-old girl "
14831 "living in public housing and a seventy-year-old man who had no idea what "
14832 "file sharing was.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As these "
14833 "scapegoats discovered, it will always cost more to defend against these "
14834 "suits than it would cost to simply settle. (The twelve year old, for "
14835 "example, like Jesse Jordan, paid her life savings of $2,000 to settle the "
14836 "case.) Our law is an awful system for defending rights. It is an "
14837 "embarrassment to our tradition. And the consequence of our law as it is, is "
14838 "that those with the power can use the law to quash any rights they oppose."
14841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14842 #: freeculture.xml:10614
14843 msgid "alcohol prohibition"
14847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14848 #: freeculture.xml:10626
14850 "Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, <quote>Alcohol Consumption During "
14851 "Prohibition,</quote> <citetitle>American Economic Review</citetitle> 81, "
14852 "no. 2 (1991): 242."
14856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14857 #: freeculture.xml:10634
14859 "National Drug Control Policy: Hearing Before the House Government Reform "
14860 "Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (5 March 2003) (statement of John "
14861 "P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy)."
14865 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14866 #: freeculture.xml:10644
14868 "See James Andreoni, Brian Erard, and Jonathon Feinstein, <quote>Tax "
14869 "Compliance,</quote> <citetitle>Journal of Economic Literature</citetitle> 36 "
14870 "(1998): 818 (survey of compliance literature)."
14873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14874 #: freeculture.xml:10616
14876 "Wars of prohibition are nothing new in America. This one is just something "
14877 "more extreme than anything we've seen before. We experimented with alcohol "
14878 "prohibition, at a time when the per capita consumption of alcohol was 1.5 "
14879 "gallons per capita per year. The war against drinking initially reduced that "
14880 "consumption to just 30 percent of its preprohibition levels, but by the end "
14881 "of prohibition, consumption was up to 70 percent of the preprohibition "
14882 "level. Americans were drinking just about as much, but now, a vast number "
14883 "were criminals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We have launched a "
14884 "war on drugs aimed at reducing the consumption of regulated narcotics that 7 "
14885 "percent (or 16 million) Americans now use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14886 "id=\"1\"/> That is a drop from the high (so to speak) in 1979 of 14 percent "
14887 "of the population. We regulate automobiles to the point where the vast "
14888 "majority of Americans violate the law every day. We run such a complex tax "
14889 "system that a majority of cash businesses regularly cheat.<placeholder "
14890 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> We pride ourselves on our <quote>free "
14891 "society,</quote> but an endless array of ordinary behavior is regulated "
14892 "within our society. And as a result, a huge proportion of Americans "
14893 "regularly violate at least some law."
14896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
14897 #: freeculture.xml:10652
14898 msgid "law schools"
14901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14902 #: freeculture.xml:10654
14904 "This state of affairs is not without consequence. It is a particularly "
14905 "salient issue for teachers like me, whose job it is to teach law students "
14906 "about the importance of <quote>ethics.</quote> As my colleague Charlie "
14907 "Nesson told a class at Stanford, each year law schools admit thousands of "
14908 "students who have illegally downloaded music, illegally consumed alcohol and "
14909 "sometimes drugs, illegally worked without paying taxes, illegally driven "
14910 "cars. These are kids for whom behaving illegally is increasingly the "
14911 "norm. And then we, as law professors, are supposed to teach them how to "
14912 "behave ethically—how to say no to bribes, or keep client funds "
14913 "separate, or honor a demand to disclose a document that will mean that your "
14914 "case is over. Generations of Americans—more significantly in some "
14915 "parts of America than in others, but still, everywhere in America "
14916 "today—can't live their lives both normally and legally, since "
14917 "<quote>normally</quote> entails a certain degree of illegality."
14920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14921 #: freeculture.xml:10671
14923 "The response to this general illegality is either to enforce the law more "
14924 "severely or to change the law. We, as a society, have to learn how to make "
14925 "that choice more rationally. Whether a law makes sense depends, in part, at "
14926 "least, upon whether the costs of the law, both intended and collateral, "
14927 "outweigh the benefits. If the costs, intended and collateral, do outweigh "
14928 "the benefits, then the law ought to be changed. Alternatively, if the costs "
14929 "of the existing system are much greater than the costs of an alternative, "
14930 "then we have a good reason to consider the alternative."
14934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14935 #: freeculture.xml:10684
14937 "My point is not the idiotic one: Just because people violate a law, we "
14938 "should therefore repeal it. Obviously, we could reduce murder statistics "
14939 "dramatically by legalizing murder on Wednesdays and Fridays. But that "
14940 "wouldn't make any sense, since murder is wrong every day of the week. A "
14941 "society is right to ban murder always and everywhere."
14944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14945 #: freeculture.xml:10691
14947 "My point is instead one that democracies understood for generations, but "
14948 "that we recently have learned to forget. The rule of law depends upon people "
14949 "obeying the law. The more often, and more repeatedly, we as citizens "
14950 "experience violating the law, the less we respect the law. Obviously, in "
14951 "most cases, the important issue is the law, not respect for the law. I don't "
14952 "care whether the rapist respects the law or not; I want to catch and "
14953 "incarcerate the rapist. But I do care whether my students respect the "
14954 "law. And I do care if the rules of law sow increasing disrespect because of "
14955 "the extreme of regulation they impose. Twenty million Americans have come "
14956 "of age since the Internet introduced this different idea of "
14957 "<quote>sharing.</quote> We need to be able to call these twenty million "
14958 "Americans <quote>citizens,</quote> not <quote>felons.</quote>"
14961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14962 #: freeculture.xml:10705
14964 "When at least forty-three million citizens download content from the "
14965 "Internet, and when they use tools to combine that content in ways "
14966 "unauthorized by copyright holders, the first question we should be asking is "
14967 "not how best to involve the FBI. The first question should be whether this "
14968 "particular prohibition is really necessary in order to achieve the proper "
14969 "ends that copyright law serves. Is there another way to assure that artists "
14970 "get paid without transforming forty-three million Americans into felons? "
14971 "Does it make sense if there are other ways to assure that artists get paid "
14972 "without transforming America into a nation of felons?"
14975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14976 #: freeculture.xml:10717
14977 msgid "This abstract point can be made more clear with a particular example."
14981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14982 #: freeculture.xml:10720
14984 "We all own CDs. Many of us still own phonograph records. These pieces of "
14985 "plastic encode music that in a certain sense we have bought. The law "
14986 "protects our right to buy and sell that plastic: It is not a copyright "
14987 "infringement for me to sell all my classical records at a used record store "
14988 "and buy jazz records to replace them. That <quote>use</quote> of the "
14989 "recordings is free."
14992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14993 #: freeculture.xml:10731
14995 "But as the MP3 craze has demonstrated, there is another use of phonograph "
14996 "records that is effectively free. Because these recordings were made without "
14997 "copy-protection technologies, I am <quote>free</quote> to copy, or "
14998 "<quote>rip,</quote> music from my records onto a computer hard disk. Indeed, "
14999 "Apple Corporation went so far as to suggest that <quote>freedom</quote> was "
15000 "a right: In a series of commercials, Apple endorsed the <quote>Rip, Mix, "
15001 "Burn</quote> capacities of digital technologies."
15004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
15005 #: freeculture.xml:10739
15009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
15010 #: freeculture.xml:10740
15011 msgid "mix technology and"
15014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15015 #: freeculture.xml:10742
15017 "This <quote>use</quote> of my records is certainly valuable. I have begun a "
15018 "large process at home of ripping all of my and my wife's CDs, and storing "
15019 "them in one archive. Then, using Apple's iTunes, or a wonderful program "
15020 "called Andromeda, we can build different play lists of our music: Bach, "
15021 "Baroque, Love Songs, Love Songs of Significant Others—the potential is "
15022 "endless. And by reducing the costs of mixing play lists, these technologies "
15023 "help build a creativity with play lists that is itself independently "
15024 "valuable. Compilations of songs are creative and meaningful in their own "
15028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15029 #: freeculture.xml:10753
15031 "This use is enabled by unprotected media—either CDs or records. But "
15032 "unprotected media also enable file sharing. File sharing threatens (or so "
15033 "the content industry believes) the ability of creators to earn a fair return "
15034 "from their creativity. And thus, many are beginning to experiment with "
15035 "technologies to eliminate unprotected media. These technologies, for "
15036 "example, would enable CDs that could not be ripped. Or they might enable spy "
15037 "programs to identify ripped content on people's machines."
15041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15042 #: freeculture.xml:10763
15044 "If these technologies took off, then the building of large archives of your "
15045 "own music would become quite difficult. You might hang in hacker circles, "
15046 "and get technology to disable the technologies that protect the "
15047 "content. Trading in those technologies is illegal, but maybe that doesn't "
15048 "bother you much. In any case, for the vast majority of people, these "
15049 "protection technologies would effectively destroy the archiving use of "
15050 "CDs. The technology, in other words, would force us all back to the world "
15051 "where we either listened to music by manipulating pieces of plastic or were "
15052 "part of a massively complex <quote>digital rights management</quote> system."
15055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15056 #: freeculture.xml:10778
15058 "If the only way to assure that artists get paid were the elimination of the "
15059 "ability to freely move content, then these technologies to interfere with "
15060 "the freedom to move content would be justifiable. But what if there were "
15061 "another way to assure that artists are paid, without locking down any "
15062 "content? What if, in other words, a different system could assure "
15063 "compensation to artists while also preserving the freedom to move content "
15067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15068 #: freeculture.xml:10787
15070 "My point just now is not to prove that there is such a system. I offer a "
15071 "version of such a system in the last chapter of this book. For now, the only "
15072 "point is the relatively uncontroversial one: If a different system achieved "
15073 "the same legitimate objectives that the existing copyright system achieved, "
15074 "but left consumers and creators much more free, then we'd have a very good "
15075 "reason to pursue this alternative—namely, freedom. The choice, in "
15076 "other words, would not be between property and piracy; the choice would be "
15077 "between different property systems and the freedoms each allowed."
15080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15081 #: freeculture.xml:10798
15083 "I believe there is a way to assure that artists are paid without turning "
15084 "forty-three million Americans into felons. But the salient feature of this "
15085 "alternative is that it would lead to a very different market for producing "
15086 "and distributing creativity. The dominant few, who today control the vast "
15087 "majority of the distribution of content in the world, would no longer "
15088 "exercise this extreme of control. Rather, they would go the way of the "
15089 "horse-drawn buggy."
15092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15093 #: freeculture.xml:10807
15095 "Except that this generation's buggy manufacturers have already saddled "
15096 "Congress, and are riding the law to protect themselves against this new form "
15097 "of competition. For them the choice is between fortythree million Americans "
15098 "as criminals and their own survival."
15102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15103 #: freeculture.xml:10813
15105 "It is understandable why they choose as they do. It is not understandable "
15106 "why we as a democracy continue to choose as we do. Jack Valenti is charming; "
15107 "but not so charming as to justify giving up a tradition as deep and "
15108 "important as our tradition of free culture."
15111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15112 #: freeculture.xml:10824
15114 "<emphasis role='strong'>There's one more</emphasis> aspect to this "
15115 "corruption that is particularly important to civil liberties, and follows "
15116 "directly from any war of prohibition. As Electronic Frontier Foundation "
15117 "attorney Fred von Lohmann describes, this is the <quote>collateral "
15118 "damage</quote> that <quote>arises whenever you turn a very large percentage "
15119 "of the population into criminals.</quote> This is the collateral damage to "
15120 "civil liberties generally."
15123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
15124 #: freeculture.xml:10832 freeculture.xml:10932
15125 msgid "von Lohmann, Fred"
15128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15129 #: freeculture.xml:10834
15131 "<quote>If you can treat someone as a putative lawbreaker,</quote> von "
15132 "Lohmann explains,"
15135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
15136 #: freeculture.xml:10839
15138 "then all of a sudden a lot of basic civil liberty protections evaporate to "
15139 "one degree or another. … If you're a copyright infringer, how can you "
15140 "hope to have any privacy rights? If you're a copyright infringer, how can "
15141 "you hope to be secure against seizures of your computer? How can you hope to "
15142 "continue to receive Internet access? … Our sensibilities change as "
15143 "soon as we think, <quote>Oh, well, but that person's a criminal, a "
15144 "lawbreaker.</quote> Well, what this campaign against file sharing has done "
15145 "is turn a remarkable percentage of the American Internet-using population "
15146 "into <quote>lawbreakers.</quote>"
15149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15150 #: freeculture.xml:10851
15152 "And the consequence of this transformation of the American public into "
15153 "criminals is that it becomes trivial, as a matter of due process, to "
15154 "effectively erase much of the privacy most would presume."
15157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15158 #: freeculture.xml:10856
15160 "Users of the Internet began to see this generally in 2003 as the RIAA "
15161 "launched its campaign to force Internet service providers to turn over the "
15162 "names of customers who the RIAA believed were violating copyright "
15163 "law. Verizon fought that demand and lost. With a simple request to a judge, "
15164 "and without any notice to the customer at all, the identity of an Internet "
15165 "user is revealed."
15169 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
15170 #: freeculture.xml:10874
15172 "See Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single "
15173 "Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> "
15174 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Chris Cobbs, "
15175 "<quote>Worried Parents Pull Plug on File `Stealing'; With the Music Industry "
15176 "Cracking Down on File Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs "
15177 "to Avoid Being Sued,</quote> <citetitle>Orlando Sentinel "
15178 "Tribune</citetitle>, 30 August 2003, C1; Jefferson Graham, <quote>Recording "
15179 "Industry Sues Parents,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 15 "
15180 "September 2003, 4D; John Schwartz, <quote>She Says She's No Music Pirate. No "
15181 "Snoop Fan, Either,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 25 "
15182 "September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, <quote>Is Brianna a Criminal?</quote> "
15183 "<citetitle>Toronto Star</citetitle>, 18 September 2003, P7."
15186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15187 #: freeculture.xml:10865
15189 "The RIAA then expanded this campaign, by announcing a general strategy to "
15190 "sue individual users of the Internet who are alleged to have downloaded "
15191 "copyrighted music from file-sharing systems. But as we've seen, the "
15192 "potential damages from these suits are astronomical: If a family's computer "
15193 "is used to download a single CD's worth of music, the family could be liable "
15194 "for $2 million in damages. That didn't stop the RIAA from suing a number of "
15195 "these families, just as they had sued Jesse Jordan.<placeholder "
15196 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
15201 #: freeculture.xml:10892
15203 "See <quote>Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses "
15204 "Some Methods Used,</quote> CNN.com, available at <ulink "
15205 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #47</ulink>."
15208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15209 #: freeculture.xml:10888
15211 "Even this understates the espionage that is being waged by the RIAA. A "
15212 "report from CNN late last summer described a strategy the RIAA had adopted "
15213 "to track Napster users.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Using a "
15214 "sophisticated hashing algorithm, the RIAA took what is in effect a "
15215 "fingerprint of every song in the Napster catalog. Any copy of one of those "
15216 "MP3s will have the same <quote>fingerprint.</quote>"
15220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
15221 #: freeculture.xml:10913
15223 "See Jeff Adler, <quote>Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not "
15224 "Penitent,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 18 May 2003, City "
15225 "Weekly, 1; Frank Ahrens, <quote>Four Students Sued over Music Sites; "
15226 "Industry Group Targets File Sharing at Colleges,</quote> "
15227 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 4 April 2003, E1; Elizabeth "
15228 "Armstrong, <quote>Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,</quote> "
15229 "<citetitle>Christian Science Monitor</citetitle>, 2 September 2003, 20; "
15230 "Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, <quote>Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; "
15231 "Two Students Names Are Handed Over; Lawsuit Possible,</quote> "
15232 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, "
15233 "<quote>RIAA Trains Antipiracy Guns on Universities,</quote> "
15234 "<citetitle>Internet News</citetitle>, 30 January 2003, available at <ulink "
15235 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #48</ulink>; Benny Evangelista, "
15236 "<quote>Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation This Fall to Include "
15237 "Record Industry Warnings Against File Sharing,</quote> <citetitle>San "
15238 "Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 11 August 2003, E11; <quote>Raid, Letters "
15239 "Are Weapons at Universities,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 26 "
15240 "September 2000, 3D."
15243 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15244 #: freeculture.xml:10901
15246 "So imagine the following not-implausible scenario: Imagine a friend gives a "
15247 "CD to your daughter—a collection of songs just like the cassettes you "
15248 "used to make as a kid. You don't know, and neither does your daughter, where "
15249 "these songs came from. But she copies these songs onto her computer. She "
15250 "then takes her computer to college and connects it to a college network, and "
15251 "if the college network is <quote>cooperating</quote> with the RIAA's "
15252 "espionage, and she hasn't properly protected her content from the network "
15253 "(do you know how to do that yourself ?), then the RIAA will be able to "
15254 "identify your daughter as a <quote>criminal.</quote> And under the rules "
15255 "that universities are beginning to deploy,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
15256 "id=\"0\"/> your daughter can lose the right to use the university's computer "
15257 "network. She can, in some cases, be expelled."
15261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15262 #: freeculture.xml:10934
15264 "Now, of course, she'll have the right to defend herself. You can hire a "
15265 "lawyer for her (at $300 per hour, if you're lucky), and she can plead that "
15266 "she didn't know anything about the source of the songs or that they came "
15267 "from Napster. And it may well be that the university believes her. But the "
15268 "university might not believe her. It might treat this "
15269 "<quote>contraband</quote> as presumptive of guilt. And as any number of "
15270 "college students have already learned, our presumptions about innocence "
15271 "disappear in the middle of wars of prohibition. This war is no different. "
15272 "Says von Lohmann,"
15275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
15276 #: freeculture.xml:10949
15278 "So when we're talking about numbers like forty to sixty million Americans "
15279 "that are essentially copyright infringers, you create a situation where the "
15280 "civil liberties of those people are very much in peril in a general "
15281 "matter. [I don't] think [there is any] analog where you could randomly "
15282 "choose any person off the street and be confident that they were committing "
15283 "an unlawful act that could put them on the hook for potential felony "
15284 "liability or hundreds of millions of dollars of civil liability. Certainly "
15285 "we all speed, but speeding isn't the kind of an act for which we routinely "
15286 "forfeit civil liberties. Some people use drugs, and I think that's the "
15287 "closest analog, [but] many have noted that the war against drugs has eroded "
15288 "all of our civil liberties because it's treated so many Americans as "
15289 "criminals. Well, I think it's fair to say that file sharing is an order of "
15290 "magnitude larger number of Americans than drug use. … If forty to "
15291 "sixty million Americans have become lawbreakers, then we're really on a "
15292 "slippery slope to lose a lot of civil liberties for all forty to sixty "
15296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
15297 #: freeculture.xml:10969
15299 "When forty to sixty million Americans are considered "
15300 "<quote>criminals</quote> under the law, and when the law could achieve the "
15301 "same objective— securing rights to authors—without these "
15302 "millions being considered <quote>criminals,</quote> who is the villain? "
15303 "Americans or the law? Which is American, a constant war on our own people or "
15304 "a concerted effort through our democracy to change our law?"
15307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
15308 #: freeculture.xml:10982
15312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
15313 #: freeculture.xml:10987
15315 "<emphasis role='strong'>So here's</emphasis> the picture: You're standing at "
15316 "the side of the road. Your car is on fire. You are angry and upset because "
15317 "in part you helped start the fire. Now you don't know how to put it "
15318 "out. Next to you is a bucket, filled with gasoline. Obviously, gasoline "
15319 "won't put the fire out."
15322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
15323 #: freeculture.xml:10994
15325 "As you ponder the mess, someone else comes along. In a panic, she grabs the "
15326 "bucket. Before you have a chance to tell her to stop—or before she "
15327 "understands just why she should stop—the bucket is in the air. The "
15328 "gasoline is about to hit the blazing car. And the fire that gasoline will "
15329 "ignite is about to ignite everything around."
15332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
15333 #: freeculture.xml:11002
15335 "<emphasis role='strong'>A war</emphasis> about copyright rages all "
15336 "around—and we're all focusing on the wrong thing. No doubt, current "
15337 "technologies threaten existing businesses. No doubt they may threaten "
15338 "artists. But technologies change. The industry and technologists have "
15339 "plenty of ways to use technology to protect themselves against the current "
15340 "threats of the Internet. This is a fire that if let alone would burn itself "
15345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
15346 #: freeculture.xml:11012
15348 "Yet policy makers are not willing to leave this fire to itself. Primed with "
15349 "plenty of lobbyists' money, they are keen to intervene to eliminate the "
15350 "problem they perceive. But the problem they perceive is not the real threat "
15351 "this culture faces. For while we watch this small fire in the corner, there "
15352 "is a massive change in the way culture is made that is happening all around."
15355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
15356 #: freeculture.xml:11020
15358 "Somehow we have to find a way to turn attention to this more important and "
15359 "fundamental issue. Somehow we have to find a way to avoid pouring gasoline "
15363 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
15364 #: freeculture.xml:11025
15366 "We have not found that way yet. Instead, we seem trapped in a simpler, "
15367 "binary view. However much many people push to frame this debate more "
15368 "broadly, it is the simple, binary view that remains. We rubberneck to look "
15369 "at the fire when we should be keeping our eyes on the road."
15372 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
15373 #: freeculture.xml:11031
15375 "This challenge has been my life these last few years. It has also been my "
15376 "failure. In the two chapters that follow, I describe one small brace of "
15377 "efforts, so far failed, to find a way to refocus this debate. We must "
15378 "understand these failures if we're to understand what success will require."
15381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
15382 #: freeculture.xml:11041
15383 msgid "Chapter Thirteen: Eldred"
15386 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15387 #: freeculture.xml:11042
15388 msgid "Eldred, Eric"
15391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15392 #: freeculture.xml:11043
15393 msgid "Hawthorne, Nathaniel"
15396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15397 #: freeculture.xml:11045
15399 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1995</emphasis>, a father was frustrated that his "
15400 "daughters didn't seem to like Hawthorne. No doubt there was more than one "
15401 "such father, but at least one did something about it. Eric Eldred, a retired "
15402 "computer programmer living in New Hampshire, decided to put Hawthorne on the "
15403 "Web. An electronic version, Eldred thought, with links to pictures and "
15404 "explanatory text, would make this nineteenth-century author's work come "
15408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
15409 #: freeculture.xml:11053
15410 msgid "of public-domain literature"
15413 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
15414 #: freeculture.xml:11054
15415 msgid "library of works derived from"
15418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15419 #: freeculture.xml:11056
15421 "It didn't work—at least for his daughters. They didn't find Hawthorne "
15422 "any more interesting than before. But Eldred's experiment gave birth to a "
15423 "hobby, and his hobby begat a cause: Eldred would build a library of public "
15424 "domain works by scanning these works and making them available for free."
15428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15429 #: freeculture.xml:11065
15431 "Eldred's library was not simply a copy of certain public domain works, "
15432 "though even a copy would have been of great value to people across the world "
15433 "who can't get access to printed versions of these works. Instead, Eldred was "
15434 "producing derivative works from these public domain works. Just as Disney "
15435 "turned Grimm into stories more accessible to the twentieth century, Eldred "
15436 "transformed Hawthorne, and many others, into a form more "
15437 "accessible—technically accessible—today."
15440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15441 #: freeculture.xml:11075
15442 msgid "Scarlet Letter, The (Hawthorne)"
15445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15446 #: freeculture.xml:11077
15448 "Eldred's freedom to do this with Hawthorne's work grew from the same source "
15449 "as Disney's. Hawthorne's <citetitle>Scarlet Letter</citetitle> had passed "
15450 "into the public domain in 1907. It was free for anyone to take without the "
15451 "permission of the Hawthorne estate or anyone else. Some, such as Dover Press "
15452 "and Penguin Classics, take works from the public domain and produce printed "
15453 "editions, which they sell in bookstores across the country. Others, such as "
15454 "Disney, take these stories and turn them into animated cartoons, sometimes "
15455 "successfully (<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle>), sometimes not "
15456 "(<citetitle>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</citetitle>, <citetitle>Treasure "
15457 "Planet</citetitle>). These are all commercial publications of public domain "
15461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15462 #: freeculture.xml:11102 freeculture.xml:12149
15463 msgid "pornography"
15466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15467 #: freeculture.xml:11102
15469 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> There's a parallel here with "
15470 "pornography that is a bit hard to describe, but it's a strong one. One "
15471 "phenomenon that the Internet created was a world of noncommercial "
15472 "pornographers—people who were distributing porn but were not making "
15473 "money directly or indirectly from that distribution. Such a class didn't "
15474 "exist before the Internet came into being because the costs of distributing "
15475 "porn were so high. Yet this new class of distributors got special attention "
15476 "in the Supreme Court, when the Court struck down the Communications Decency "
15477 "Act of 1996. It was partly because of the burden on noncommercial speakers "
15478 "that the statute was found to exceed Congress's power. The same point could "
15479 "have been made about noncommercial publishers after the advent of the "
15480 "Internet. The Eric Eldreds of the world before the Internet were extremely "
15481 "few. Yet one would think it at least as important to protect the Eldreds of "
15482 "the world as to protect noncommercial pornographers."
15485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15486 #: freeculture.xml:11091
15488 "The Internet created the possibility of noncommercial publications of public "
15489 "domain works. Eldred's is just one example. There are literally thousands of "
15490 "others. Hundreds of thousands from across the world have discovered this "
15491 "platform of expression and now use it to share works that are, by law, free "
15492 "for the taking. This has produced what we might call the "
15493 "<quote>noncommercial publishing industry,</quote> which before the Internet "
15494 "was limited to people with large egos or with political or social "
15495 "causes. But with the Internet, it includes a wide range of individuals and "
15496 "groups dedicated to spreading culture generally.<placeholder "
15497 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15500 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15501 #: freeculture.xml:11122
15502 msgid "Frost, Robert"
15505 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15506 #: freeculture.xml:11123
15507 msgid "New Hampshire (Frost)"
15510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15511 #: freeculture.xml:11127
15513 "As I said, Eldred lives in New Hampshire. In 1998, Robert Frost's collection "
15514 "of poems <citetitle>New Hampshire</citetitle> was slated to pass into the "
15515 "public domain. Eldred wanted to post that collection in his free public "
15516 "library. But Congress got in the way. As I described in chapter <xref "
15517 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, in 1998, for the "
15518 "eleventh time in forty years, Congress extended the terms of existing "
15519 "copyrights—this time by twenty years. Eldred would not be free to add "
15520 "any works more recent than 1923 to his collection until 2019. Indeed, no "
15521 "copyrighted work would pass into the public domain until that year (and not "
15522 "even then, if Congress extends the term again). By contrast, in the same "
15523 "period, more than 1 million patents will pass into the public domain."
15526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
15527 #: freeculture.xml:11142 freeculture.xml:11154
15531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
15532 #: freeculture.xml:11143 freeculture.xml:11155
15533 msgid "Bono, Sonny"
15536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15537 #: freeculture.xml:11154
15539 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
15540 "id=\"1\"/> The full text is: <quote>Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of "
15541 "copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a "
15542 "change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me "
15543 "to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you "
15544 "know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less "
15545 "one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress,</quote> 144 "
15546 "Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998)."
15549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15550 #: freeculture.xml:11149
15552 "This was the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), enacted in "
15553 "memory of the congressman and former musician Sonny Bono, who, his widow, "
15554 "Mary Bono, says, believed that <quote>copyrights should be "
15555 "forever.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15558 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
15559 #: freeculture.xml:11166
15560 msgid "felony punishment for infringement of"
15563 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15564 #: freeculture.xml:11167
15565 msgid "NET (No Electronic Theft) Act (1998)"
15568 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15569 #: freeculture.xml:11168
15570 msgid "No Electronic Theft (NET) Act (1998)"
15573 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
15574 #: freeculture.xml:11169
15575 msgid "felony punishments for"
15578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15579 #: freeculture.xml:11171
15581 "Eldred decided to fight this law. He first resolved to fight it through "
15582 "civil disobedience. In a series of interviews, Eldred announced that he "
15583 "would publish as planned, CTEA notwithstanding. But because of a second law "
15584 "passed in 1998, the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act, his act of publishing "
15585 "would make Eldred a felon—whether or not anyone complained. This was a "
15586 "dangerous strategy for a disabled programmer to undertake."
15589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
15590 #: freeculture.xml:11180 freeculture.xml:12117
15591 msgid "constitutional powers of"
15594 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
15595 #: freeculture.xml:11183 freeculture.xml:11229
15596 msgid "Eldred case involvement of"
15599 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15600 #: freeculture.xml:11185
15602 "It was here that I became involved in Eldred's battle. I was a "
15603 "constitutional scholar whose first passion was constitutional "
15604 "interpretation. And though constitutional law courses never focus upon the "
15605 "Progress Clause of the Constitution, it had always struck me as importantly "
15606 "different. As you know, the Constitution says,"
15609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15610 #: freeculture.xml:11196
15612 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science … by "
15613 "securing for limited Times to Authors … exclusive Right to their "
15614 "… Writings. …"
15617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15618 #: freeculture.xml:11203
15620 "As I've described, this clause is unique within the power-granting clause of "
15621 "Article I, section 8 of our Constitution. Every other clause granting power "
15622 "to Congress simply says Congress has the power to do something—for "
15623 "example, to regulate <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> or "
15624 "<quote>declare War.</quote> But here, the <quote>something</quote> is "
15625 "something quite specific—to <quote>promote … "
15626 "Progress</quote>—through means that are also specific— by "
15627 "<quote>securing</quote> <quote>exclusive Rights</quote> (i.e., copyrights) "
15628 "<quote>for limited Times.</quote>"
15631 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15632 #: freeculture.xml:11215 freeculture.xml:12711
15633 msgid "Jaszi, Peter"
15637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15638 #: freeculture.xml:11217
15640 "In the past forty years, Congress has gotten into the practice of extending "
15641 "existing terms of copyright protection. What puzzled me about this was, if "
15642 "Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then the Constitution's "
15643 "requirement that terms be <quote>limited</quote> will have no practical "
15644 "effect. If every time a copyright is about to expire, Congress has the power "
15645 "to extend its term, then Congress can achieve what the Constitution plainly "
15646 "forbids—perpetual terms <quote>on the installment plan,</quote> as "
15647 "Professor Peter Jaszi so nicely put it."
15650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15651 #: freeculture.xml:11231
15653 "As an academic, my first response was to hit the books. I remember sitting "
15654 "late at the office, scouring on-line databases for any serious consideration "
15655 "of the question. No one had ever challenged Congress's practice of extending "
15656 "existing terms. That failure may in part be why Congress seemed so "
15657 "untroubled in its habit. That, and the fact that the practice had become so "
15658 "lucrative for Congress. Congress knows that copyright owners will be willing "
15659 "to pay a great deal of money to see their copyright terms extended. And so "
15660 "Congress is quite happy to keep this gravy train going."
15663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15664 #: freeculture.xml:11242
15666 "For this is the core of the corruption in our present system of "
15667 "government. <quote>Corruption</quote> not in the sense that representatives "
15668 "are bribed. Rather, <quote>corruption</quote> in the sense that the system "
15669 "induces the beneficiaries of Congress's acts to raise and give money to "
15670 "Congress to induce it to act. There's only so much time; there's only so "
15671 "much Congress can do. Why not limit its actions to those things it must "
15672 "do—and those things that pay? Extending copyright terms pays."
15675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15676 #: freeculture.xml:11251
15678 "If that's not obvious to you, consider the following: Say you're one of the "
15679 "very few lucky copyright owners whose copyright continues to make money one "
15680 "hundred years after it was created. The Estate of Robert Frost is a good "
15681 "example. Frost died in 1963. His poetry continues to be extraordinarily "
15682 "valuable. Thus the Robert Frost estate benefits greatly from any extension "
15683 "of copyright, since no publisher would pay the estate any money if the poems "
15684 "Frost wrote could be published by anyone for free."
15687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15688 #: freeculture.xml:11261
15690 "So imagine the Robert Frost estate is earning $100,000 a year from three of "
15691 "Frost's poems. And imagine the copyright for those poems is about to "
15692 "expire. You sit on the board of the Robert Frost estate. Your financial "
15693 "adviser comes to your board meeting with a very grim report:"
15697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15698 #: freeculture.xml:11268
15700 "<quote>Next year,</quote> the adviser announces, <quote>our copyrights in "
15701 "works A, B, and C will expire. That means that after next year, we will no "
15702 "longer be receiving the annual royalty check of $100,000 from the publishers "
15703 "of those works.</quote>"
15706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15707 #: freeculture.xml:11276
15709 "<quote>There's a proposal in Congress, however,</quote> she continues, "
15710 "<quote>that could change this. A few congressmen are floating a bill to "
15711 "extend the terms of copyright by twenty years. That bill would be "
15712 "extraordinarily valuable to us. So we should hope this bill passes.</quote>"
15715 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15716 #: freeculture.xml:11282
15718 "<quote>Hope?</quote> a fellow board member says. <quote>Can't we be doing "
15719 "something about it?</quote>"
15722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15723 #: freeculture.xml:11286
15725 "<quote>Well, obviously, yes,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>We could "
15726 "contribute to the campaigns of a number of representatives to try to assure "
15727 "that they support the bill.</quote>"
15730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15731 #: freeculture.xml:11291
15733 "You hate politics. You hate contributing to campaigns. So you want to know "
15734 "whether this disgusting practice is worth it. <quote>How much would we get "
15735 "if this extension were passed?</quote> you ask the adviser. <quote>How much "
15736 "is it worth?</quote>"
15739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15740 #: freeculture.xml:11297
15742 "<quote>Well,</quote> the adviser says, <quote>if you're confident that you "
15743 "will continue to get at least $100,000 a year from these copyrights, and you "
15744 "use the `discount rate' that we use to evaluate estate investments (6 "
15745 "percent), then this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate.</quote>"
15748 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15749 #: freeculture.xml:11303
15751 "You're a bit shocked by the number, but you quickly come to the correct "
15755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15756 #: freeculture.xml:11307
15758 "<quote>So you're saying it would be worth it for us to pay more than "
15759 "$1,000,000 in campaign contributions if we were confident those "
15760 "contributions would assure that the bill was passed?</quote>"
15763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15764 #: freeculture.xml:11313
15766 "<quote>Absolutely,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>It is worth it to "
15767 "you to contribute up to the `present value' of the income you expect from "
15768 "these copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000.</quote>"
15772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15773 #: freeculture.xml:11319
15775 "You quickly get the point—you as the member of the board and, I trust, "
15776 "you the reader. Each time copyrights are about to expire, every beneficiary "
15777 "in the position of the Robert Frost estate faces the same choice: If they "
15778 "can contribute to get a law passed to extend copyrights, they will benefit "
15779 "greatly from that extension. And so each time copyrights are about to "
15780 "expire, there is a massive amount of lobbying to get the copyright term "
15784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15785 #: freeculture.xml:11330
15787 "Thus a congressional perpetual motion machine: So long as legislation can be "
15788 "bought (albeit indirectly), there will be all the incentive in the world to "
15789 "buy further extensions of copyright."
15793 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15794 #: freeculture.xml:11342
15796 "Associated Press, <quote>Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey "
15797 "Mouse Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years,</quote> "
15798 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 17 October 1998, 22."
15802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15803 #: freeculture.xml:11349
15805 "See Nick Brown, <quote>Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information "
15806 "Age,</quote> available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
15811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15812 #: freeculture.xml:11357
15814 "Alan K. Ota, <quote>Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars,</quote> "
15815 "<citetitle>Congressional Quarterly This Week</citetitle>, 8 August 1990, "
15816 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #50</ulink>."
15819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15820 #: freeculture.xml:11335
15822 "In the lobbying that led to the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term "
15823 "Extension Act, this <quote>theory</quote> about incentives was proved "
15824 "real. Ten of the thirteen original sponsors of the act in the House received "
15825 "the maximum contribution from Disney's political action committee; in the "
15826 "Senate, eight of the twelve sponsors received contributions.<placeholder "
15827 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The RIAA and the MPAA are estimated to have "
15828 "spent over $1.5 million lobbying in the 1998 election cycle. They paid out "
15829 "more than $200,000 in campaign contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
15830 "id=\"1\"/> Disney is estimated to have contributed more than $800,000 to "
15831 "reelection campaigns in the cycle.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
15834 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15835 #: freeculture.xml:11364
15837 "<emphasis role='strong'>Constitutional law</emphasis> is not oblivious to "
15838 "the obvious. Or at least, it need not be. So when I was considering Eldred's "
15839 "complaint, this reality about the never-ending incentives to increase the "
15840 "copyright term was central to my thinking. In my view, a pragmatic court "
15841 "committed to interpreting and applying the Constitution of our framers would "
15842 "see that if Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then there "
15843 "would be no effective constitutional requirement that terms be "
15844 "<quote>limited.</quote> If they could extend it once, they would extend it "
15845 "again and again and again."
15849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15850 #: freeculture.xml:11379
15852 "It was also my judgment that <emphasis>this</emphasis> Supreme Court would "
15853 "not allow Congress to extend existing terms. As anyone close to the Supreme "
15854 "Court's work knows, this Court has increasingly restricted the power of "
15855 "Congress when it has viewed Congress's actions as exceeding the power "
15856 "granted to it by the Constitution. Among constitutional scholars, the most "
15857 "famous example of this trend was the Supreme Court's decision in 1995 to "
15858 "strike down a law that banned the possession of guns near schools."
15861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15862 #: freeculture.xml:11392
15864 "Since 1937, the Supreme Court had interpreted Congress's granted powers very "
15865 "broadly; so, while the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate "
15866 "only <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> (aka <quote>interstate "
15867 "commerce</quote>), the Supreme Court had interpreted that power to include "
15868 "the power to regulate any activity that merely affected interstate commerce."
15871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15872 #: freeculture.xml:11402
15874 "As the economy grew, this standard increasingly meant that there was no "
15875 "limit to Congress's power to regulate, since just about every activity, when "
15876 "considered on a national scale, affects interstate commerce. A Constitution "
15877 "designed to limit Congress's power was instead interpreted to impose no "
15881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15882 #: freeculture.xml:11408 freeculture.xml:12198
15883 msgid "Rehnquist, William H."
15886 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15887 #: freeculture.xml:11410
15889 "The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Rehnquist's command, changed that in "
15890 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The "
15891 "government had argued that possessing guns near schools affected interstate "
15892 "commerce. Guns near schools increase crime, crime lowers property values, "
15893 "and so on. In the oral argument, the Chief Justice asked the government "
15894 "whether there was any activity that would not affect interstate commerce "
15895 "under the reasoning the government advanced. The government said there was "
15896 "not; if Congress says an activity affects interstate commerce, then that "
15897 "activity affects interstate commerce. The Supreme Court, the government "
15898 "said, was not in the position to second-guess Congress."
15902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15903 #: freeculture.xml:11425
15905 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>, 514 "
15906 "U.S. 549, 564 (1995)."
15910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15911 #: freeculture.xml:11432
15913 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>, 529 "
15917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15918 #: freeculture.xml:11423
15920 "<quote>We pause to consider the implications of the government's "
15921 "arguments,</quote> the Chief Justice wrote.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
15922 "id=\"0\"/> If anything Congress says is interstate commerce must therefore "
15923 "be considered interstate commerce, then there would be no limit to "
15924 "Congress's power. The decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> was "
15925 "reaffirmed five years later in <citetitle>United States</citetitle> "
15926 "v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
15930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15931 #: freeculture.xml:11439
15933 "If it is a principle about enumerated powers, then the principle carries "
15934 "from one enumerated power to another. The animating point in the context of "
15935 "the Commerce Clause was that the interpretation offered by the government "
15936 "would allow the government unending power to regulate commerce—the "
15937 "limitation to interstate commerce notwithstanding. The same point is true in "
15938 "the context of the Copyright Clause. Here, too, the government's "
15939 "interpretation would allow the government unending power to regulate "
15940 "copyrights—the limitation to <quote>limited times</quote> "
15945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15946 #: freeculture.xml:11436
15948 "If a principle were at work here, then it should apply to the Progress "
15949 "Clause as much as the Commerce Clause.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
15950 "id=\"0\"/> And if it is applied to the Progress Clause, the principle should "
15951 "yield the conclusion that Congress can't extend an existing term. If "
15952 "Congress could extend an existing term, then there would be no "
15953 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power over terms, though the "
15954 "Constitution expressly states that there is such a limit. Thus, the same "
15955 "principle applied to the power to grant copyrights should entail that "
15956 "Congress is not allowed to extend the term of existing copyrights."
15959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15960 #: freeculture.xml:11460
15962 "<emphasis>If</emphasis>, that is, the principle announced in "
15963 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for a principle. Many believed the "
15964 "decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for politics—a "
15965 "conservative Supreme Court, which believed in states' rights, using its "
15966 "power over Congress to advance its own personal political preferences. But I "
15967 "rejected that view of the Supreme Court's decision. Indeed, shortly after "
15968 "the decision, I wrote an article demonstrating the <quote>fidelity</quote> "
15969 "in such an interpretation of the Constitution. The idea that the Supreme "
15970 "Court decides cases based upon its politics struck me as extraordinarily "
15971 "boring. I was not going to devote my life to teaching constitutional law if "
15972 "these nine Justices were going to be petty politicians."
15975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15976 #: freeculture.xml:11477
15978 "<emphasis role='strong'>Now let's pause</emphasis> for a moment to make sure "
15979 "we understand what the argument in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was not "
15980 "about. By insisting on the Constitution's limits to copyright, obviously "
15981 "Eldred was not endorsing piracy. Indeed, in an obvious sense, he was "
15982 "fighting a kind of piracy—piracy of the public domain. When Robert "
15983 "Frost wrote his work and when Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, the maximum "
15984 "copyright term was just fifty-six years. Because of interim changes, Frost "
15985 "and Disney had already enjoyed a seventy-five-year monopoly for their "
15986 "work. They had gotten the benefit of the bargain that the Constitution "
15987 "envisions: In exchange for a monopoly protected for fifty-six years, they "
15988 "created new work. But now these entities were using their "
15989 "power—expressed through the power of lobbyists' money—to get "
15990 "another twenty-year dollop of monopoly. That twenty-year dollop would be "
15991 "taken from the public domain. Eric Eldred was fighting a piracy that affects "
15995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15996 #: freeculture.xml:11494
15997 msgid "Nashville Songwriters Association"
16001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16002 #: freeculture.xml:11502
16004 "Brief of the Nashville Songwriters Association, "
16005 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. "
16006 "186 (2003) (No. 01-618), n.10, available at <ulink "
16007 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #51</ulink>."
16010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16011 #: freeculture.xml:11496
16013 "Some people view the public domain with contempt. In their brief before the "
16014 "Supreme Court, the Nashville Songwriters Association wrote that the public "
16015 "domain is nothing more than <quote>legal piracy.</quote><placeholder "
16016 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is not piracy when the law allows it; "
16017 "and in our constitutional system, our law requires it. Some may not like the "
16018 "Constitution's requirements, but that doesn't make the Constitution a "
16019 "pirate's charter."
16022 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16023 #: freeculture.xml:11512
16025 "As we've seen, our constitutional system requires limits on copyright as a "
16026 "way to assure that copyright holders do not too heavily influence the "
16027 "development and distribution of our culture. Yet, as Eric Eldred discovered, "
16028 "we have set up a system that assures that copyright terms will be repeatedly "
16029 "extended, and extended, and extended. We have created the perfect storm for "
16030 "the public domain. Copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long "
16031 "as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."
16034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16035 #: freeculture.xml:11524
16037 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is valuable</emphasis> copyrights that are "
16038 "responsible for terms being extended. Mickey Mouse and <quote>Rhapsody in "
16039 "Blue.</quote> These works are too valuable for copyright owners to "
16040 "ignore. But the real harm to our society from copyright extensions is not "
16041 "that Mickey Mouse remains Disney's. Forget Mickey Mouse. Forget Robert "
16042 "Frost. Forget all the works from the 1920s and 1930s that have continuing "
16043 "commercial value. The real harm of term extension comes not from these "
16044 "famous works. The real harm is to the works that are not famous, not "
16045 "commercially exploited, and no longer available as a result."
16049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16050 #: freeculture.xml:11542
16052 "The figure of 2 percent is an extrapolation from the study by the "
16053 "Congressional Research Service, in light of the estimated renewal "
16054 "ranges. See Brief of Petitioners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
16055 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 7, available at <ulink "
16056 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #52</ulink>."
16059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16060 #: freeculture.xml:11536
16062 "If you look at the work created in the first twenty years (1923 to 1942) "
16063 "affected by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 2 percent of that "
16064 "work has any continuing commercial value. It was the copyright holders for "
16065 "that 2 percent who pushed the CTEA through. But the law and its effect were "
16066 "not limited to that 2 percent. The law extended the terms of copyright "
16067 "generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
16071 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16072 #: freeculture.xml:11551
16074 "Think practically about the consequence of this extension—practically, "
16075 "as a businessperson, and not as a lawyer eager for more legal work. In 1930, "
16076 "10,047 books were published. In 2000, 174 of those books were still in "
16077 "print. Let's say you were Brewster Kahle, and you wanted to make available "
16078 "to the world in your iArchive project the remaining 9,873. What would you "
16082 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16083 #: freeculture.xml:11564
16085 "Well, first, you'd have to determine which of the 9,873 books were still "
16086 "under copyright. That requires going to a library (these data are not "
16087 "on-line) and paging through tomes of books, cross-checking the titles and "
16088 "authors of the 9,873 books with the copyright registration and renewal "
16089 "records for works published in 1930. That will produce a list of books still "
16093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16094 #: freeculture.xml:11572
16096 "Then for the books still under copyright, you would need to locate the "
16097 "current copyright owners. How would you do that?"
16100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16101 #: freeculture.xml:11576
16103 "Most people think that there must be a list of these copyright owners "
16104 "somewhere. Practical people think this way. How could there be thousands and "
16105 "thousands of government monopolies without there being at least a list?"
16108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16109 #: freeculture.xml:11583
16111 "But there is no list. There may be a name from 1930, and then in 1959, of "
16112 "the person who registered the copyright. But just think practically about "
16113 "how impossibly difficult it would be to track down thousands of such "
16114 "records—especially since the person who registered is not necessarily "
16115 "the current owner. And we're just talking about 1930!"
16118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16119 #: freeculture.xml:11592
16121 "<quote>But there isn't a list of who owns property generally,</quote> the "
16122 "apologists for the system respond. <quote>Why should there be a list of "
16123 "copyright owners?</quote>"
16126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16127 #: freeculture.xml:11597
16129 "Well, actually, if you think about it, there <emphasis>are</emphasis> plenty "
16130 "of lists of who owns what property. Think about deeds on houses, or titles "
16131 "to cars. And where there isn't a list, the code of real space is pretty "
16132 "good at suggesting who the owner of a bit of property is. (A swing set in "
16133 "your backyard is probably yours.) So formally or informally, we have a "
16134 "pretty good way to know who owns what tangible property."
16138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16139 #: freeculture.xml:11606
16141 "So: You walk down a street and see a house. You can know who owns the house "
16142 "by looking it up in the courthouse registry. If you see a car, there is "
16143 "ordinarily a license plate that will link the owner to the car. If you see a "
16144 "bunch of children's toys sitting on the front lawn of a house, it's fairly "
16145 "easy to determine who owns the toys. And if you happen to see a baseball "
16146 "lying in a gutter on the side of the road, look around for a second for some "
16147 "kids playing ball. If you don't see any kids, then okay: Here's a bit of "
16148 "property whose owner we can't easily determine. It is the exception that "
16149 "proves the rule: that we ordinarily know quite well who owns what property."
16152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16153 #: freeculture.xml:11621
16155 "Compare this story to intangible property. You go into a library. The "
16156 "library owns the books. But who owns the copyrights? As I've already "
16157 "described, there's no list of copyright owners. There are authors' names, of "
16158 "course, but their copyrights could have been assigned, or passed down in an "
16159 "estate like Grandma's old jewelry. To know who owns what, you would have to "
16160 "hire a private detective. The bottom line: The owner cannot easily be "
16161 "located. And in a regime like ours, in which it is a felony to use such "
16162 "property without the property owner's permission, the property isn't going "
16166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16167 #: freeculture.xml:11633
16169 "The consequence with respect to old books is that they won't be digitized, "
16170 "and hence will simply rot away on shelves. But the consequence for other "
16171 "creative works is much more dire."
16174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16175 #: freeculture.xml:11638
16176 msgid "Agee, Michael"
16179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16180 #: freeculture.xml:11639 freeculture.xml:12074
16181 msgid "Hal Roach Studios"
16184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16185 #: freeculture.xml:11640
16186 msgid "Laurel and Hardy Films"
16189 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16190 #: freeculture.xml:11641
16191 msgid "Lucky Dog, The"
16195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16196 #: freeculture.xml:11654
16198 "See David G. Savage, <quote>High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright "
16199 "Law,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 6 October 2002; David "
16200 "Streitfeld, <quote>Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court "
16201 "Hears Arguments Today on Striking Down Copyright Extension,</quote> "
16202 "<citetitle>Orlando Sentinel Tribune</citetitle>, 9 October 2002."
16205 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16206 #: freeculture.xml:11643
16208 "Consider the story of Michael Agee, chairman of Hal Roach Studios, which "
16209 "owns the copyrights for the Laurel and Hardy films. Agee is a direct "
16210 "beneficiary of the Bono Act. The Laurel and Hardy films were made between "
16211 "1921 and 1951. Only one of these films, <citetitle>The Lucky "
16212 "Dog</citetitle>, is currently out of copyright. But for the CTEA, films made "
16213 "after 1923 would have begun entering the public domain. Because Agee "
16214 "controls the exclusive rights for these popular films, he makes a great deal "
16215 "of money. According to one estimate, <quote>Roach has sold about 60,000 "
16216 "videocassettes and 50,000 DVDs of the duo's silent "
16217 "films.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
16220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16221 #: freeculture.xml:11661
16223 "Yet Agee opposed the CTEA. His reasons demonstrate a rare virtue in this "
16224 "culture: selflessness. He argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that "
16225 "the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will, if left standing, destroy "
16226 "a whole generation of American film."
16230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16231 #: freeculture.xml:11667
16233 "His argument is straightforward. A tiny fraction of this work has any "
16234 "continuing commercial value. The rest—to the extent it survives at "
16235 "all—sits in vaults gathering dust. It may be that some of this work "
16236 "not now commercially valuable will be deemed to be valuable by the owners of "
16237 "the vaults. For this to occur, however, the commercial benefit from the work "
16238 "must exceed the costs of making the work available for distribution."
16242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16243 #: freeculture.xml:11685
16245 "Brief of Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee as Amicus Curiae Supporting the "
16246 "Petitoners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
16247 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01- 618), "
16248 "12. See also Brief of Amicus Curiae filed on behalf of Petitioners by the "
16249 "Internet Archive, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
16250 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
16251 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #53</ulink>."
16254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16255 #: freeculture.xml:11678
16257 "We can't know the benefits, but we do know a lot about the costs. For most "
16258 "of the history of film, the costs of restoring film were very high; digital "
16259 "technology has lowered these costs substantially. While it cost more than "
16260 "$10,000 to restore a ninety-minute black-and-white film in 1993, it can now "
16261 "cost as little as $100 to digitize one hour of 8 mm film.<placeholder "
16262 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
16265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16266 #: freeculture.xml:11695
16268 "Restoration technology is not the only cost, nor the most important. "
16269 "Lawyers, too, are a cost, and increasingly, a very important one. In "
16270 "addition to preserving the film, a distributor needs to secure the rights. "
16271 "And to secure the rights for a film that is under copyright, you need to "
16272 "locate the copyright owner."
16275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16276 #: freeculture.xml:11703
16278 "Or more accurately, <emphasis>owners</emphasis>. As we've seen, there isn't "
16279 "only a single copyright associated with a film; there are many. There isn't "
16280 "a single person whom you can contact about those copyrights; there are as "
16281 "many as can hold the rights, which turns out to be an extremely large "
16282 "number. Thus the costs of clearing the rights to these films is "
16283 "exceptionally high."
16286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16287 #: freeculture.xml:11711
16289 "<quote>But can't you just restore the film, distribute it, and then pay the "
16290 "copyright owner when she shows up?</quote> Sure, if you want to commit a "
16291 "felony. And even if you're not worried about committing a felony, when she "
16292 "does show up, she'll have the right to sue you for all the profits you have "
16293 "made. So, if you're successful, you can be fairly confident you'll be "
16294 "getting a call from someone's lawyer. And if you're not successful, you "
16295 "won't make enough to cover the costs of your own lawyer. Either way, you "
16296 "have to talk to a lawyer. And as is too often the case, saying you have to "
16297 "talk to a lawyer is the same as saying you won't make any money."
16301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16302 #: freeculture.xml:11722
16304 "For some films, the benefit of releasing the film may well exceed these "
16305 "costs. But for the vast majority of them, there is no way the benefit would "
16306 "outweigh the legal costs. Thus, for the vast majority of old films, Agee "
16307 "argued, the film will not be restored and distributed until the copyright "
16311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16312 #: freeculture.xml:11733
16314 "But by the time the copyright for these films expires, the film will have "
16315 "expired. These films were produced on nitrate-based stock, and nitrate stock "
16316 "dissolves over time. They will be gone, and the metal canisters in which "
16317 "they are now stored will be filled with nothing more than dust."
16320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16321 #: freeculture.xml:11741
16323 "<emphasis role='strong'>Of all the</emphasis> creative work produced by "
16324 "humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that "
16325 "tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. For that "
16326 "tiny fraction, the copyright creates incentives to produce and distribute "
16327 "the creative work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an "
16328 "<quote>engine of free expression.</quote>"
16331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16332 #: freeculture.xml:11749
16334 "But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative "
16335 "work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books "
16336 "go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and "
16337 "film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a "
16338 "creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the "
16339 "commercial life ends."
16342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16343 #: freeculture.xml:11759
16345 "Yet that doesn't mean the life of the creative work ends. We don't keep "
16346 "libraries of books in order to compete with Barnes & Noble, and we don't "
16347 "have archives of films because we expect people to choose between spending "
16348 "Friday night watching new movies and spending Friday night watching a 1930 "
16349 "news documentary. The noncommercial life of culture is important and "
16350 "valuable—for entertainment but also, and more importantly, for "
16351 "knowledge. To understand who we are, and where we came from, and how we have "
16352 "made the mistakes that we have, we need to have access to this history."
16356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16357 #: freeculture.xml:11772
16359 "Copyrights in this context do not drive an engine of free expression. In "
16360 "this context, there is no need for an exclusive right. Copyrights in this "
16361 "context do no good."
16364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16365 #: freeculture.xml:11779
16367 "Yet, for most of our history, they also did little harm. For most of our "
16368 "history, when a work ended its commercial life, there was no "
16369 "<emphasis>copyright-related use</emphasis> that would be inhibited by an "
16370 "exclusive right. When a book went out of print, you could not buy it from a "
16371 "publisher. But you could still buy it from a used book store, and when a "
16372 "used book store sells it, in America, at least, there is no need to pay the "
16373 "copyright owner anything. Thus, the ordinary use of a book after its "
16374 "commercial life ended was a use that was independent of copyright law."
16377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16378 #: freeculture.xml:11790
16380 "The same was effectively true of film. Because the costs of restoring a "
16381 "film—the real economic costs, not the lawyer costs—were so high, "
16382 "it was never at all feasible to preserve or restore film. Like the remains "
16383 "of a great dinner, when it's over, it's over. Once a film passed out of its "
16384 "commercial life, it may have been archived for a bit, but that was the end "
16385 "of its life so long as the market didn't have more to offer."
16388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16389 #: freeculture.xml:11799
16391 "In other words, though copyright has been relatively short for most of our "
16392 "history, long copyrights wouldn't have mattered for the works that lost "
16393 "their commercial value. Long copyrights for these works would not have "
16394 "interfered with anything."
16397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16398 #: freeculture.xml:11805
16399 msgid "But this situation has now changed."
16402 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16403 #: freeculture.xml:11809
16405 "One crucially important consequence of the emergence of digital technologies "
16406 "is to enable the archive that Brewster Kahle dreams of. Digital "
16407 "technologies now make it possible to preserve and give access to all sorts "
16408 "of knowledge. Once a book goes out of print, we can now imagine digitizing "
16409 "it and making it available to everyone, forever. Once a film goes out of "
16410 "distribution, we could digitize it and make it available to everyone, "
16411 "forever. Digital technologies give new life to copyrighted material after it "
16412 "passes out of its commercial life. It is now possible to preserve and assure "
16413 "universal access to this knowledge and culture, whereas before it was not."
16417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16418 #: freeculture.xml:11822
16420 "And now copyright law does get in the way. Every step of producing this "
16421 "digital archive of our culture infringes on the exclusive right of "
16422 "copyright. To digitize a book is to copy it. To do that requires permission "
16423 "of the copyright owner. The same with music, film, or any other aspect of "
16424 "our culture protected by copyright. The effort to make these things "
16425 "available to history, or to researchers, or to those who just want to "
16426 "explore, is now inhibited by a set of rules that were written for a "
16427 "radically different context."
16430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16431 #: freeculture.xml:11832
16433 "Here is the core of the harm that comes from extending terms: Now that "
16434 "technology enables us to rebuild the library of Alexandria, the law gets in "
16435 "the way. And it doesn't get in the way for any useful "
16436 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis> purpose, for the purpose of copyright is to "
16437 "enable the commercial market that spreads culture. No, we are talking about "
16438 "culture after it has lived its commercial life. In this context, copyright "
16439 "is serving no purpose <emphasis>at all</emphasis> related to the spread of "
16440 "knowledge. In this context, copyright is not an engine of free "
16441 "expression. Copyright is a brake."
16444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16445 #: freeculture.xml:11843
16447 "You may well ask, <quote>But if digital technologies lower the costs for "
16448 "Brewster Kahle, then they will lower the costs for Random House, too. So "
16449 "won't Random House do as well as Brewster Kahle in spreading culture "
16453 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16454 #: freeculture.xml:11849
16456 "Maybe. Someday. But there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that "
16457 "publishers would be as complete as libraries. If Barnes & Noble offered "
16458 "to lend books from its stores for a low price, would that eliminate the need "
16459 "for libraries? Only if you think that the only role of a library is to serve "
16460 "what <quote>the market</quote> would demand. But if you think the role of a "
16461 "library is bigger than this—if you think its role is to archive "
16462 "culture, whether there's a demand for any particular bit of that culture or "
16463 "not—then we can't count on the commercial market to do our library "
16468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16469 #: freeculture.xml:11873
16471 "Jason Schultz, <quote>The Myth of the 1976 Copyright `Chaos' Theory,</quote> "
16472 "20 December 2002, available at <ulink "
16473 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #54</ulink>."
16476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16477 #: freeculture.xml:11861
16479 "I would be the first to agree that it should do as much as it can: We should "
16480 "rely upon the market as much as possible to spread and enable culture. My "
16481 "message is absolutely not antimarket. But where we see the market is not "
16482 "doing the job, then we should allow nonmarket forces the freedom to fill the "
16483 "gaps. As one researcher calculated for American culture, 94 percent of the "
16484 "films, books, and music produced between 1923 and 1946 is not commercially "
16485 "available. However much you love the commercial market, if access is a "
16486 "value, then 6 percent is a failure to provide that value.<placeholder "
16487 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
16490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16491 #: freeculture.xml:11880
16493 "<emphasis role='strong'>In January 1999</emphasis>, we filed a lawsuit on "
16494 "Eric Eldred's behalf in federal district court in Washington, D.C., asking "
16495 "the court to declare the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act "
16496 "unconstitutional. The two central claims that we made were (1) that "
16497 "extending existing terms violated the Constitution's <quote>limited "
16498 "Times</quote> requirement, and (2) that extending terms by another twenty "
16499 "years violated the First Amendment."
16502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16503 #: freeculture.xml:11889
16505 "The district court dismissed our claims without even hearing an argument. A "
16506 "panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also dismissed our "
16507 "claims, though after hearing an extensive argument. But that decision at "
16508 "least had a dissent, by one of the most conservative judges on that "
16509 "court. That dissent gave our claims life."
16512 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16513 #: freeculture.xml:11896
16515 "Judge David Sentelle said the CTEA violated the requirement that copyrights "
16516 "be for <quote>limited Times</quote> only. His argument was as elegant as it "
16517 "was simple: If Congress can extend existing terms, then there is no "
16518 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power under the Copyright "
16519 "Clause. The power to extend existing terms means Congress is not required to "
16520 "grant terms that are <quote>limited.</quote> Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, "
16521 "the court had to interpret the term <quote>limited Times</quote> to give it "
16522 "meaning. And the best interpretation, Judge Sentelle argued, would be to "
16523 "deny Congress the power to extend existing terms."
16526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16527 #: freeculture.xml:11907
16529 "We asked the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as a whole to hear the "
16530 "case. Cases are ordinarily heard in panels of three, except for important "
16531 "cases or cases that raise issues specific to the circuit as a whole, where "
16532 "the court will sit <quote>en banc</quote> to hear the case."
16535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16536 #: freeculture.xml:11912
16537 msgid "Tatel, David"
16541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16542 #: freeculture.xml:11914
16544 "The Court of Appeals rejected our request to hear the case en banc. This "
16545 "time, Judge Sentelle was joined by the most liberal member of the "
16546 "D.C. Circuit, Judge David Tatel. Both the most conservative and the most "
16547 "liberal judges in the D.C. Circuit believed Congress had overstepped its "
16551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16552 #: freeculture.xml:11923
16554 "It was here that most expected Eldred v. Ashcroft would die, for the Supreme "
16555 "Court rarely reviews any decision by a court of appeals. (It hears about one "
16556 "hundred cases a year, out of more than five thousand appeals.) And it "
16557 "practically never reviews a decision that upholds a statute when no other "
16558 "court has yet reviewed the statute."
16561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16562 #: freeculture.xml:11930
16564 "But in February 2002, the Supreme Court surprised the world by granting our "
16565 "petition to review the D.C. Circuit opinion. Argument was set for October of "
16566 "2002. The summer would be spent writing briefs and preparing for argument."
16569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16570 #: freeculture.xml:11936
16572 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is over</emphasis> a year later as I write these "
16573 "words. It is still astonishingly hard. If you know anything at all about "
16574 "this story, you know that we lost the appeal. And if you know something more "
16575 "than just the minimum, you probably think there was no way this case could "
16576 "have been won. After our defeat, I received literally thousands of missives "
16577 "by well-wishers and supporters, thanking me for my work on behalf of this "
16578 "noble but doomed cause. And none from this pile was more significant to me "
16579 "than the e-mail from my client, Eric Eldred."
16582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16583 #: freeculture.xml:11947
16585 "But my client and these friends were wrong. This case could have been "
16586 "won. It should have been won. And no matter how hard I try to retell this "
16587 "story to myself, I can never escape believing that my own mistake lost it."
16590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16591 #: freeculture.xml:11952 freeculture.xml:11966
16592 msgid "Steward, Geoffrey"
16596 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16597 #: freeculture.xml:11954
16599 "<emphasis role='strong'>The mistake</emphasis> was made early, though it "
16600 "became obvious only at the very end. Our case had been supported from the "
16601 "very beginning by an extraordinary lawyer, Geoffrey Stewart, and by the law "
16602 "firm he had moved to, Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. Jones Day took a great "
16603 "deal of heat from its copyright-protectionist clients for supporting "
16604 "us. They ignored this pressure (something that few law firms today would "
16605 "ever do), and throughout the case, they gave it everything they could."
16608 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16609 #: freeculture.xml:11964 freeculture.xml:12327 freeculture.xml:12343 freeculture.xml:12440 freeculture.xml:12660 freeculture.xml:12691 freeculture.xml:12790
16613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16614 #: freeculture.xml:11965
16615 msgid "Bromberg, Dan"
16618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16619 #: freeculture.xml:11968
16621 "There were three key lawyers on the case from Jones Day. Geoff Stewart was "
16622 "the first, but then Dan Bromberg and Don Ayer became quite "
16623 "involved. Bromberg and Ayer in particular had a common view about how this "
16624 "case would be won: We would only win, they repeatedly told me, if we could "
16625 "make the issue seem <quote>important</quote> to the Supreme Court. It had to "
16626 "seem as if dramatic harm were being done to free speech and free culture; "
16627 "otherwise, they would never vote against <quote>the most powerful media "
16628 "companies in the world.</quote>"
16631 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16632 #: freeculture.xml:11978
16634 "I hate this view of the law. Of course I thought the Sonny Bono Act was a "
16635 "dramatic harm to free speech and free culture. Of course I still think it "
16636 "is. But the idea that the Supreme Court decides the law based on how "
16637 "important they believe the issues are is just wrong. It might be "
16638 "<quote>right</quote> as in <quote>true,</quote> I thought, but it is "
16639 "<quote>wrong</quote> as in <quote>it just shouldn't be that way.</quote> As "
16640 "I believed that any faithful interpretation of what the framers of our "
16641 "Constitution did would yield the conclusion that the CTEA was "
16642 "unconstitutional, and as I believed that any faithful interpretation of what "
16643 "the First Amendment means would yield the conclusion that the power to "
16644 "extend existing copyright terms is unconstitutional, I was not persuaded "
16645 "that we had to sell our case like soap. Just as a law that bans the "
16646 "swastika is unconstitutional not because the Court likes Nazis but because "
16647 "such a law would violate the Constitution, so too, in my view, would the "
16648 "Court decide whether Congress's law was constitutional based on the "
16649 "Constitution, not based on whether they liked the values that the framers "
16650 "put in the Constitution."
16653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16654 #: freeculture.xml:11999
16656 "In any case, I thought, the Court must already see the danger and the harm "
16657 "caused by this sort of law. Why else would they grant review? There was no "
16658 "reason to hear the case in the Supreme Court if they weren't convinced that "
16659 "this regulation was harmful. So in my view, we didn't need to persuade them "
16660 "that this law was bad, we needed to show why it was unconstitutional."
16664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16665 #: freeculture.xml:12007
16667 "There was one way, however, in which I felt politics would matter and in "
16668 "which I thought a response was appropriate. I was convinced that the Court "
16669 "would not hear our arguments if it thought these were just the arguments of "
16670 "a group of lefty loons. This Supreme Court was not about to launch into a "
16671 "new field of judicial review if it seemed that this field of review was "
16672 "simply the preference of a small political minority. Although my focus in "
16673 "the case was not to demonstrate how bad the Sonny Bono Act was but to "
16674 "demonstrate that it was unconstitutional, my hope was to make this argument "
16675 "against a background of briefs that covered the full range of political "
16676 "views. To show that this claim against the CTEA was grounded in "
16677 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> and not politics, then, we tried to gather the "
16678 "widest range of credible critics—credible not because they were rich "
16679 "and famous, but because they, in the aggregate, demonstrated that this law "
16680 "was unconstitutional regardless of one's politics."
16683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16684 #: freeculture.xml:12025 freeculture.xml:12052
16685 msgid "Eagle Forum"
16688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16689 #: freeculture.xml:12026
16690 msgid "Schlafly, Phyllis"
16693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16694 #: freeculture.xml:12028
16696 "The first step happened all by itself. Phyllis Schlafly's organization, "
16697 "Eagle Forum, had been an opponent of the CTEA from the very beginning. "
16698 "Mrs. Schlafly viewed the CTEA as a sellout by Congress. In November 1998, "
16699 "she wrote a stinging editorial attacking the Republican Congress for "
16700 "allowing the law to pass. As she wrote, <quote>Do you sometimes wonder why "
16701 "bills that create a financial windfall to narrow special interests slide "
16702 "easily through the intricate legislative process, while bills that benefit "
16703 "the general public seem to get bogged down?</quote> The answer, as the "
16704 "editorial documented, was the power of money. Schlafly enumerated Disney's "
16705 "contributions to the key players on the committees. It was money, not "
16706 "justice, that gave Mickey Mouse twenty more years in Disney's control, "
16710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16711 #: freeculture.xml:12042
16713 "In the Court of Appeals, Eagle Forum was eager to file a brief supporting "
16714 "our position. Their brief made the argument that became the core claim in "
16715 "the Supreme Court: If Congress can extend the term of existing copyrights, "
16716 "there is no limit to Congress's power to set terms. That strong "
16717 "conservative argument persuaded a strong conservative judge, Judge Sentelle."
16721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16722 #: freeculture.xml:12054
16724 "In the Supreme Court, the briefs on our side were about as diverse as it "
16725 "gets. They included an extraordinary historical brief by the Free Software "
16726 "Foundation (home of the GNU project that made GNU/Linux possible). They "
16727 "included a powerful brief about the costs of uncertainty by Intel. There "
16728 "were two law professors' briefs, one by copyright scholars and one by First "
16729 "Amendment scholars. There was an exhaustive and uncontroverted brief by the "
16730 "world's experts in the history of the Progress Clause. And of course, there "
16731 "was a new brief by Eagle Forum, repeating and strengthening its arguments."
16734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16735 #: freeculture.xml:12066
16736 msgid "American Association of Law Libraries"
16739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16740 #: freeculture.xml:12067
16741 msgid "National Writers Union"
16744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16745 #: freeculture.xml:12069
16747 "Those briefs framed a legal argument. Then to support the legal argument, "
16748 "there were a number of powerful briefs by libraries and archives, including "
16749 "the Internet Archive, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the "
16750 "National Writers Union."
16753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16754 #: freeculture.xml:12076
16756 "But two briefs captured the policy argument best. One made the argument I've "
16757 "already described: A brief by Hal Roach Studios argued that unless the law "
16758 "was struck, a whole generation of American film would disappear. The other "
16759 "made the economic argument absolutely clear."
16762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16763 #: freeculture.xml:12082
16764 msgid "Akerlof, George"
16767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16768 #: freeculture.xml:12083
16769 msgid "Arrow, Kenneth"
16772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16773 #: freeculture.xml:12084
16774 msgid "Buchanan, James"
16777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16778 #: freeculture.xml:12085
16779 msgid "Coase, Ronald"
16782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16783 #: freeculture.xml:12086
16784 msgid "Friedman, Milton"
16787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16788 #: freeculture.xml:12088
16790 "This economists' brief was signed by seventeen economists, including five "
16791 "Nobel Prize winners, including Ronald Coase, James Buchanan, Milton "
16792 "Friedman, Kenneth Arrow, and George Akerlof. The economists, as the list of "
16793 "Nobel winners demonstrates, spanned the political spectrum. Their "
16794 "conclusions were powerful: There was no plausible claim that extending the "
16795 "terms of existing copyrights would do anything to increase incentives to "
16796 "create. Such extensions were nothing more than "
16797 "<quote>rent-seeking</quote>—the fancy term economists use to describe "
16798 "special-interest legislation gone wild."
16801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16802 #: freeculture.xml:12098 freeculture.xml:12116 freeculture.xml:12329 freeculture.xml:12692
16803 msgid "Fried, Charles"
16806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16807 #: freeculture.xml:12099
16808 msgid "Morrison, Alan"
16811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16812 #: freeculture.xml:12100
16813 msgid "Public Citizen"
16816 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16817 #: freeculture.xml:12101 freeculture.xml:12328 freeculture.xml:13478
16818 msgid "Reagan, Ronald"
16822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16823 #: freeculture.xml:12103
16825 "The same effort at balance was reflected in the legal team we gathered to "
16826 "write our briefs in the case. The Jones Day lawyers had been with us from "
16827 "the start. But when the case got to the Supreme Court, we added three "
16828 "lawyers to help us frame this argument to this Court: Alan Morrison, a "
16829 "lawyer from Public Citizen, a Washington group that had made constitutional "
16830 "history with a series of seminal victories in the Supreme Court defending "
16831 "individual rights; my colleague and dean, Kathleen Sullivan, who had argued "
16832 "many cases in the Court, and who had advised us early on about a First "
16833 "Amendment strategy; and finally, former solicitor general Charles Fried."
16836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
16837 #: freeculture.xml:12118
16838 msgid "Commerce Clause of"
16841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16842 #: freeculture.xml:12120
16844 "Fried was a special victory for our side. Every other former solicitor "
16845 "general was hired by the other side to defend Congress's power to give media "
16846 "companies the special favor of extended copyright terms. Fried was the only "
16847 "one who turned down that lucrative assignment to stand up for something he "
16848 "believed in. He had been Ronald Reagan's chief lawyer in the Supreme "
16849 "Court. He had helped craft the line of cases that limited Congress's power "
16850 "in the context of the Commerce Clause. And while he had argued many "
16851 "positions in the Supreme Court that I personally disagreed with, his joining "
16852 "the cause was a vote of confidence in our argument."
16855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16856 #: freeculture.xml:12132
16858 "The government, in defending the statute, had its collection of friends, as "
16859 "well. Significantly, however, none of these <quote>friends</quote> included "
16860 "historians or economists. The briefs on the other side of the case were "
16861 "written exclusively by major media companies, congressmen, and copyright "
16865 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16866 #: freeculture.xml:12139
16868 "The media companies were not surprising. They had the most to gain from the "
16869 "law. The congressmen were not surprising either—they were defending "
16870 "their power and, indirectly, the gravy train of contributions such power "
16871 "induced. And of course it was not surprising that the copyright holders "
16872 "would defend the idea that they should continue to have the right to control "
16873 "who did what with content they wanted to control."
16876 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16877 #: freeculture.xml:12147
16878 msgid "Gershwin, George"
16881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16882 #: freeculture.xml:12148
16883 msgid "Porgy and Bess"
16887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16888 #: freeculture.xml:12158
16890 "Brief of Amici Dr. Seuss Enterprise et al., <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
16891 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. (2003) (No. 01-618), 19."
16895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16896 #: freeculture.xml:12166
16898 "Dinitia Smith, <quote>Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey Mouse "
16899 "Joins the Fray,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 28 March "
16904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16905 #: freeculture.xml:12151
16907 "Dr. Seuss's representatives, for example, argued that it was better for the "
16908 "Dr. Seuss estate to control what happened to Dr. Seuss's work— better "
16909 "than allowing it to fall into the public domain—because if this "
16910 "creativity were in the public domain, then people could use it to "
16911 "<quote>glorify drugs or to create pornography.</quote><placeholder "
16912 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That was also the motive of the Gershwin "
16913 "estate, which defended its <quote>protection</quote> of the work of George "
16914 "Gershwin. They refuse, for example, to license <citetitle>Porgy and "
16915 "Bess</citetitle> to anyone who refuses to use African Americans in the "
16916 "cast.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> That's their view of how this "
16917 "part of American culture should be controlled, and they wanted this law to "
16918 "help them effect that control."
16921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16922 #: freeculture.xml:12175
16924 "This argument made clear a theme that is rarely noticed in this debate. "
16925 "When Congress decides to extend the term of existing copyrights, Congress is "
16926 "making a choice about which speakers it will favor. Famous and beloved "
16927 "copyright owners, such as the Gershwin estate and Dr. Seuss, come to "
16928 "Congress and say, <quote>Give us twenty years to control the speech about "
16929 "these icons of American culture. We'll do better with them than anyone "
16930 "else.</quote> Congress of course likes to reward the popular and famous by "
16931 "giving them what they want. But when Congress gives people an exclusive "
16932 "right to speak in a certain way, that's just what the First Amendment is "
16933 "traditionally meant to block."
16936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16937 #: freeculture.xml:12187
16939 "We argued as much in a final brief. Not only would upholding the CTEA mean "
16940 "that there was no limit to the power of Congress to extend "
16941 "copyrights—extensions that would further concentrate the market; it "
16942 "would also mean that there was no limit to Congress's power to play "
16943 "favorites, through copyright, with who has the right to speak."
16946 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16947 #: freeculture.xml:12194
16949 "<emphasis role='strong'>Between February</emphasis> and October, there was "
16950 "little I did beyond preparing for this case. Early on, as I said, I set the "
16954 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16955 #: freeculture.xml:12199 freeculture.xml:12385
16956 msgid "O'Connor, Sandra Day"
16959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16960 #: freeculture.xml:12201
16962 "The Supreme Court was divided into two important camps. One camp we called "
16963 "<quote>the Conservatives.</quote> The other we called <quote>the "
16964 "Rest.</quote> The Conservatives included Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice "
16965 "O'Connor, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. These five "
16966 "had been the most consistent in limiting Congress's power. They were the "
16967 "five who had supported the <citetitle>Lopez/Morrison</citetitle> line of "
16968 "cases that said that an enumerated power had to be interpreted to assure "
16969 "that Congress's powers had limits."
16972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16973 #: freeculture.xml:12210 freeculture.xml:12235 freeculture.xml:12587 freeculture.xml:12599
16974 msgid "Breyer, Stephen"
16977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16978 #: freeculture.xml:12211 freeculture.xml:12551
16979 msgid "Ginsburg, Ruth Bader"
16983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16984 #: freeculture.xml:12213
16986 "The Rest were the four Justices who had strongly opposed limits on "
16987 "Congress's power. These four—Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, Justice "
16988 "Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer—had repeatedly argued that the "
16989 "Constitution gives Congress broad discretion to decide how best to implement "
16990 "its powers. In case after case, these justices had argued that the Court's "
16991 "role should be one of deference. Though the votes of these four justices "
16992 "were the votes that I personally had most consistently agreed with, they "
16993 "were also the votes that we were least likely to get."
16996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16997 #: freeculture.xml:12225
16999 "In particular, the least likely was Justice Ginsburg's. In addition to her "
17000 "general view about deference to Congress (except where issues of gender are "
17001 "involved), she had been particularly deferential in the context of "
17002 "intellectual property protections. She and her daughter (an excellent and "
17003 "well-known intellectual property scholar) were cut from the same "
17004 "intellectual property cloth. We expected she would agree with the writings "
17005 "of her daughter: that Congress had the power in this context to do as it "
17006 "wished, even if what Congress wished made little sense."
17009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17010 #: freeculture.xml:12237
17012 "Close behind Justice Ginsburg were two justices whom we also viewed as "
17013 "unlikely allies, though possible surprises. Justice Souter strongly favored "
17014 "deference to Congress, as did Justice Breyer. But both were also very "
17015 "sensitive to free speech concerns. And as we strongly believed, there was a "
17016 "very important free speech argument against these retrospective extensions."
17019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17020 #: freeculture.xml:12246
17022 "The only vote we could be confident about was that of Justice "
17023 "Stevens. History will record Justice Stevens as one of the greatest judges "
17024 "on this Court. His votes are consistently eclectic, which just means that no "
17025 "simple ideology explains where he will stand. But he had consistently argued "
17026 "for limits in the context of intellectual property generally. We were fairly "
17027 "confident he would recognize limits here."
17030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17031 #: freeculture.xml:12254
17033 "This analysis of <quote>the Rest</quote> showed most clearly where our focus "
17034 "had to be: on the Conservatives. To win this case, we had to crack open "
17035 "these five and get at least a majority to go our way. Thus, the single "
17036 "overriding argument that animated our claim rested on the Conservatives' "
17037 "most important jurisprudential innovation—the argument that Judge "
17038 "Sentelle had relied upon in the Court of Appeals, that Congress's power must "
17039 "be interpreted so that its enumerated powers have limits."
17043 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17044 #: freeculture.xml:12264
17046 "This then was the core of our strategy—a strategy for which I am "
17047 "responsible. We would get the Court to see that just as with the "
17048 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, under the government's argument here, "
17049 "Congress would always have unlimited power to extend existing terms. If "
17050 "anything was plain about Congress's power under the Progress Clause, it was "
17051 "that this power was supposed to be <quote>limited.</quote> Our aim would be "
17052 "to get the Court to reconcile <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> with "
17053 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>: If Congress's power to regulate commerce was "
17054 "limited, then so, too, must Congress's power to regulate copyright be "
17058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17059 #: freeculture.xml:12278
17061 "<emphasis role='strong'>The argument</emphasis> on the government's side "
17062 "came down to this: Congress has done it before. It should be allowed to do "
17063 "it again. The government claimed that from the very beginning, Congress has "
17064 "been extending the term of existing copyrights. So, the government argued, "
17065 "the Court should not now say that practice is unconstitutional."
17068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17069 #: freeculture.xml:12286
17071 "There was some truth to the government's claim, but not much. We certainly "
17072 "agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in 1831 and in 1909. And of "
17073 "course, in 1962, Congress began extending existing terms "
17074 "regularly—eleven times in forty years."
17077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17078 #: freeculture.xml:12293
17080 "But this <quote>consistency</quote> should be kept in perspective. Congress "
17081 "extended existing terms once in the first hundred years of the Republic. It "
17082 "then extended existing terms once again in the next fifty. Those rare "
17083 "extensions are in contrast to the now regular practice of extending existing "
17084 "terms. Whatever restraint Congress had had in the past, that restraint was "
17085 "now gone. Congress was now in a cycle of extensions; there was no reason to "
17086 "expect that cycle would end. This Court had not hesitated to intervene where "
17087 "Congress was in a similar cycle of extension. There was no reason it "
17088 "couldn't intervene here."
17092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17093 #: freeculture.xml:12308
17095 "<emphasis role='strong'>Oral argument</emphasis> was scheduled for the first "
17096 "week in October. I arrived in D.C. two weeks before the argument. During "
17097 "those two weeks, I was repeatedly <quote>mooted</quote> by lawyers who had "
17098 "volunteered to help in the case. Such <quote>moots</quote> are basically "
17099 "practice rounds, where wannabe justices fire questions at wannabe winners."
17102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17103 #: freeculture.xml:12318
17105 "I was convinced that to win, I had to keep the Court focused on a single "
17106 "point: that if this extension is permitted, then there is no limit to the "
17107 "power to set terms. Going with the government would mean that terms would be "
17108 "effectively unlimited; going with us would give Congress a clear line to "
17109 "follow: Don't extend existing terms. The moots were an effective practice; I "
17110 "found ways to take every question back to this central idea."
17113 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17114 #: freeculture.xml:12331
17116 "One moot was before the lawyers at Jones Day. Don Ayer was the skeptic. He "
17117 "had served in the Reagan Justice Department with Solicitor General Charles "
17118 "Fried. He had argued many cases before the Supreme Court. And in his review "
17119 "of the moot, he let his concern speak:"
17122 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17123 #: freeculture.xml:12337
17125 "<quote>I'm just afraid that unless they really see the harm, they won't be "
17126 "willing to upset this practice that the government says has been a "
17127 "consistent practice for two hundred years. You have to make them see the "
17128 "harm—passionately get them to see the harm. For if they don't see "
17129 "that, then we haven't any chance of winning.</quote>"
17132 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17133 #: freeculture.xml:12345
17135 "He may have argued many cases before this Court, I thought, but he didn't "
17136 "understand its soul. As a clerk, I had seen the Justices do the right "
17137 "thing—not because of politics but because it was right. As a law "
17138 "professor, I had spent my life teaching my students that this Court does the "
17139 "right thing—not because of politics but because it is right. As I "
17140 "listened to Ayer's plea for passion in pressing politics, I understood his "
17141 "point, and I rejected it. Our argument was right. That was enough. Let the "
17142 "politicians learn to see that it was also good."
17146 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17147 #: freeculture.xml:12355
17149 "<emphasis role='strong'>The night before</emphasis> the argument, a line of "
17150 "people began to form in front of the Supreme Court. The case had become a "
17151 "focus of the press and of the movement to free culture. Hundreds stood in "
17152 "line for the chance to see the proceedings. Scores spent the night on the "
17153 "Supreme Court steps so that they would be assured a seat."
17156 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17157 #: freeculture.xml:12365
17159 "Not everyone has to wait in line. People who know the Justices can ask for "
17160 "seats they control. (I asked Justice Scalia's chambers for seats for my "
17161 "parents, for example.) Members of the Supreme Court bar can get a seat in a "
17162 "special section reserved for them. And senators and congressmen have a "
17163 "special place where they get to sit, too. And finally, of course, the press "
17164 "has a gallery, as do clerks working for the Justices on the Court. As we "
17165 "entered that morning, there was no place that was not taken. This was an "
17166 "argument about intellectual property law, yet the halls were filled. As I "
17167 "walked in to take my seat at the front of the Court, I saw my parents "
17168 "sitting on the left. As I sat down at the table, I saw Jack Valenti sitting "
17169 "in the special section ordinarily reserved for family of the Justices."
17172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17173 #: freeculture.xml:12380
17175 "When the Chief Justice called me to begin my argument, I began where I "
17176 "intended to stay: on the question of the limits on Congress's power. This "
17177 "was a case about enumerated powers, I said, and whether those enumerated "
17178 "powers had any limit."
17181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17182 #: freeculture.xml:12387
17184 "Justice O'Connor stopped me within one minute of my opening. The history "
17185 "was bothering her."
17188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
17189 #: freeculture.xml:12392
17191 "justice o'connor: Congress has extended the term so often through the years, "
17192 "and if you are right, don't we run the risk of upsetting previous extensions "
17193 "of time? I mean, this seems to be a practice that began with the very first "
17197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17198 #: freeculture.xml:12399
17200 "She was quite willing to concede <quote>that this flies directly in the face "
17201 "of what the framers had in mind.</quote> But my response again and again was "
17202 "to emphasize limits on Congress's power."
17206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
17207 #: freeculture.xml:12405
17209 "mr. lessig: Well, if it flies in the face of what the framers had in mind, "
17210 "then the question is, is there a way of interpreting their words that gives "
17211 "effect to what they had in mind, and the answer is yes."
17214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17215 #: freeculture.xml:12413
17217 "There were two points in this argument when I should have seen where the "
17218 "Court was going. The first was a question by Justice Kennedy, who observed,"
17221 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
17222 #: freeculture.xml:12419
17224 "justice kennedy: Well, I suppose implicit in the argument that the '76 act, "
17225 "too, should have been declared void, and that we might leave it alone "
17226 "because of the disruption, is that for all these years the act has impeded "
17227 "progress in science and the useful arts. I just don't see any empirical "
17228 "evidence for that."
17231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17232 #: freeculture.xml:12427
17234 "Here follows my clear mistake. Like a professor correcting a student, I "
17238 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
17239 #: freeculture.xml:12433
17241 "mr. lessig: Justice, we are not making an empirical claim at all. Nothing "
17242 "in our Copyright Clause claim hangs upon the empirical assertion about "
17243 "impeding progress. Our only argument is this is a structural limit necessary "
17244 "to assure that what would be an effectively perpetual term not be permitted "
17245 "under the copyright laws."
17248 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17249 #: freeculture.xml:12442
17251 "That was a correct answer, but it wasn't the right answer. The right answer "
17252 "was instead that there was an obvious and profound harm. Any number of "
17253 "briefs had been written about it. He wanted to hear it. And here was the "
17254 "place Don Ayer's advice should have mattered. This was a softball; my answer "
17255 "was a swing and a miss."
17258 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17259 #: freeculture.xml:12449
17261 "The second came from the Chief, for whom the whole case had been "
17262 "crafted. For the Chief Justice had crafted the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
17263 "ruling, and we hoped that he would see this case as its second cousin."
17267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17268 #: freeculture.xml:12454
17270 "It was clear a second into his question that he wasn't at all sympathetic. "
17271 "To him, we were a bunch of anarchists. As he asked:"
17274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
17275 #: freeculture.xml:12461
17277 "chief justice: Well, but you want more than that. You want the right to copy "
17278 "verbatim other people's books, don't you?"
17281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
17282 #: freeculture.xml:12465
17284 "mr. lessig: We want the right to copy verbatim works that should be in the "
17285 "public domain and would be in the public domain but for a statute that "
17286 "cannot be justified under ordinary First Amendment analysis or under a "
17287 "proper reading of the limits built into the Copyright Clause."
17290 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17291 #: freeculture.xml:12473
17292 msgid "Olson, Theodore B."
17295 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17296 #: freeculture.xml:12475
17298 "Things went better for us when the government gave its argument; for now the "
17299 "Court picked up on the core of our claim. As Justice Scalia asked Solicitor "
17303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
17304 #: freeculture.xml:12481
17306 "justice scalia: You say that the functional equivalent of an unlimited time "
17307 "would be a violation [of the Constitution], but that's precisely the "
17308 "argument that's being made by petitioners here, that a limited time which is "
17309 "extendable is the functional equivalent of an unlimited time."
17312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17313 #: freeculture.xml:12489
17315 "When Olson was finished, it was my turn to give a closing rebuttal. Olson's "
17316 "flailing had revived my anger. But my anger still was directed to the "
17317 "academic, not the practical. The government was arguing as if this were the "
17318 "first case ever to consider limits on Congress's Copyright and Patent Clause "
17319 "power. Ever the professor and not the advocate, I closed by pointing out the "
17320 "long history of the Court imposing limits on Congress's power in the name of "
17321 "the Copyright and Patent Clause— indeed, the very first case striking "
17322 "a law of Congress as exceeding a specific enumerated power was based upon "
17323 "the Copyright and Patent Clause. All true. But it wasn't going to move the "
17324 "Court to my side."
17328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17329 #: freeculture.xml:12502
17331 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I left</emphasis> the court that day, I knew "
17332 "there were a hundred points I wished I could remake. There were a hundred "
17333 "questions I wished I had answered differently. But one way of thinking about "
17334 "this case left me optimistic."
17337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17338 #: freeculture.xml:12511
17340 "The government had been asked over and over again, what is the limit? Over "
17341 "and over again, it had answered there is no limit. This was precisely the "
17342 "answer I wanted the Court to hear. For I could not imagine how the Court "
17343 "could understand that the government believed Congress's power was unlimited "
17344 "under the terms of the Copyright Clause, and sustain the government's "
17345 "argument. The solicitor general had made my argument for me. No matter how "
17346 "often I tried, I could not understand how the Court could find that "
17347 "Congress's power under the Commerce Clause was limited, but under the "
17348 "Copyright Clause, unlimited. In those rare moments when I let myself believe "
17349 "that we may have prevailed, it was because I felt this Court—in "
17350 "particular, the Conservatives—would feel itself constrained by the "
17351 "rule of law that it had established elsewhere."
17354 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17355 #: freeculture.xml:12526
17357 "<emphasis role='strong'>The morning</emphasis> of January 15, 2003, I was "
17358 "five minutes late to the office and missed the 7:00 A.M. call from the "
17359 "Supreme Court clerk. Listening to the message, I could tell in an instant "
17360 "that she had bad news to report.The Supreme Court had affirmed the decision "
17361 "of the Court of Appeals. Seven justices had voted in the majority. There "
17362 "were two dissents."
17365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17366 #: freeculture.xml:12534
17368 "A few seconds later, the opinions arrived by e-mail. I took the phone off "
17369 "the hook, posted an announcement to our blog, and sat down to see where I "
17370 "had been wrong in my reasoning."
17373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17374 #: freeculture.xml:12539
17376 "My <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. Here was a case that pitted all the money "
17377 "in the world against <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. And here was the last "
17378 "naïve law professor, scouring the pages, looking for reasoning."
17381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17382 #: freeculture.xml:12545
17384 "I first scoured the opinion, looking for how the Court would distinguish the "
17385 "principle in this case from the principle in "
17386 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The argument was nowhere to be found. The case "
17387 "was not even cited. The argument that was the core argument of our case did "
17388 "not even appear in the Court's opinion."
17392 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17393 #: freeculture.xml:12555
17395 "Justice Ginsburg simply ignored the enumerated powers argument. Consistent "
17396 "with her view that Congress's power was not limited generally, she had found "
17397 "Congress's power not limited here."
17400 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17401 #: freeculture.xml:12560
17403 "Her opinion was perfectly reasonable—for her, and for Justice "
17404 "Souter. Neither believes in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. It would be too "
17405 "much to expect them to write an opinion that recognized, much less "
17406 "explained, the doctrine they had worked so hard to defeat."
17409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17410 #: freeculture.xml:12566
17412 "But as I realized what had happened, I couldn't quite believe what I was "
17413 "reading. I had said there was no way this Court could reconcile limited "
17414 "powers with the Commerce Clause and unlimited powers with the Progress "
17415 "Clause. It had never even occurred to me that they could reconcile the two "
17416 "simply <emphasis>by not addressing the argument</emphasis>. There was no "
17417 "inconsistency because they would not talk about the two together. There was "
17418 "therefore no principle that followed from the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
17419 "case: In that context, Congress's power would be limited, but in this "
17420 "context it would not."
17423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17424 #: freeculture.xml:12577
17426 "Yet by what right did they get to choose which of the framers' values they "
17427 "would respect? By what right did they—the silent five—get to "
17428 "select the part of the Constitution they would enforce based on the values "
17429 "they thought important? We were right back to the argument that I said I "
17430 "hated at the start: I had failed to convince them that the issue here was "
17431 "important, and I had failed to recognize that however much I might hate a "
17432 "system in which the Court gets to pick the constitutional values that it "
17433 "will respect, that is the system we have."
17436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17437 #: freeculture.xml:12589
17439 "Justices Breyer and Stevens wrote very strong dissents. Stevens's opinion "
17440 "was crafted internal to the law: He argued that the tradition of "
17441 "intellectual property law should not support this unjustified extension of "
17442 "terms. He based his argument on a parallel analysis that had governed in the "
17443 "context of patents (so had we). But the rest of the Court discounted the "
17444 "parallel—without explaining how the very same words in the Progress "
17445 "Clause could come to mean totally different things depending upon whether "
17446 "the words were about patents or copyrights. The Court let Justice Stevens's "
17447 "charge go unanswered."
17451 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17452 #: freeculture.xml:12602
17454 "Justice Breyer's opinion, perhaps the best opinion he has ever written, was "
17455 "external to the Constitution. He argued that the term of copyrights has "
17456 "become so long as to be effectively unlimited. We had said that under the "
17457 "current term, a copyright gave an author 99.8 percent of the value of a "
17458 "perpetual term. Breyer said we were wrong, that the actual number was "
17459 "99.9997 percent of a perpetual term. Either way, the point was clear: If the "
17460 "Constitution said a term had to be <quote>limited,</quote> and the existing "
17461 "term was so long as to be effectively unlimited, then it was "
17462 "unconstitutional."
17465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17466 #: freeculture.xml:12613
17468 "These two justices understood all the arguments we had made. But because "
17469 "neither believed in the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, neither was "
17470 "willing to push it as a reason to reject this extension. The case was "
17471 "decided without anyone having addressed the argument that we had carried "
17472 "from Judge Sentelle. It was <citetitle>Hamlet</citetitle> without the "
17476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17477 #: freeculture.xml:12620
17479 "<emphasis role='strong'>Defeat brings depression</emphasis>. They say it is "
17480 "a sign of health when depression gives way to anger. My anger came quickly, "
17481 "but it didn't cure the depression. This anger was of two sorts."
17484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17485 #: freeculture.xml:12625
17486 msgid "originalism"
17489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17490 #: freeculture.xml:12627
17492 "It was first anger with the five <quote>Conservatives.</quote> It would have "
17493 "been one thing for them to have explained why the principle of "
17494 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> didn't apply in this case. That wouldn't have "
17495 "been a very convincing argument, I don't believe, having read it made by "
17496 "others, and having tried to make it myself. But it at least would have been "
17497 "an act of integrity. These justices in particular have repeatedly said that "
17498 "the proper mode of interpreting the Constitution is "
17499 "<quote>originalism</quote>—to first understand the framers' text, "
17500 "interpreted in their context, in light of the structure of the "
17501 "Constitution. That method had produced <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> and many "
17502 "other <quote>originalist</quote> rulings. Where was their "
17503 "<quote>originalism</quote> now?"
17507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17508 #: freeculture.xml:12640
17510 "Here, they had joined an opinion that never once tried to explain what the "
17511 "framers had meant by crafting the Progress Clause as they did; they joined "
17512 "an opinion that never once tried to explain how the structure of that clause "
17513 "would affect the interpretation of Congress's power. And they joined an "
17514 "opinion that didn't even try to explain why this grant of power could be "
17515 "unlimited, whereas the Commerce Clause would be limited. In short, they had "
17516 "joined an opinion that did not apply to, and was inconsistent with, their "
17517 "own method for interpreting the Constitution. This opinion may well have "
17518 "yielded a result that they liked. It did not produce a reason that was "
17519 "consistent with their own principles."
17522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17523 #: freeculture.xml:12655
17525 "My anger with the Conservatives quickly yielded to anger with myself. For I "
17526 "had let a view of the law that I liked interfere with a view of the law as "
17530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17531 #: freeculture.xml:12662
17533 "Most lawyers, and most law professors, have little patience for idealism "
17534 "about courts in general and this Supreme Court in particular. Most have a "
17535 "much more pragmatic view. When Don Ayer said that this case would be won "
17536 "based on whether I could convince the Justices that the framers' values were "
17537 "important, I fought the idea, because I didn't want to believe that that is "
17538 "how this Court decides. I insisted on arguing this case as if it were a "
17539 "simple application of a set of principles. I had an argument that followed "
17540 "in logic. I didn't need to waste my time showing it should also follow in "
17545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17546 #: freeculture.xml:12673
17548 "As I read back over the transcript from that argument in October, I can see "
17549 "a hundred places where the answers could have taken the conversation in "
17550 "different directions, where the truth about the harm that this unchecked "
17551 "power will cause could have been made clear to this Court. Justice Kennedy "
17552 "in good faith wanted to be shown. I, idiotically, corrected his "
17553 "question. Justice Souter in good faith wanted to be shown the First "
17554 "Amendment harms. I, like a math teacher, reframed the question to make the "
17555 "logical point. I had shown them how they could strike this law of Congress "
17556 "if they wanted to. There were a hundred places where I could have helped "
17557 "them want to, yet my stubbornness, my refusal to give in, stopped me. I have "
17558 "stood before hundreds of audiences trying to persuade; I have used passion "
17559 "in that effort to persuade; but I refused to stand before this audience and "
17560 "try to persuade with the passion I had used elsewhere. It was not the basis "
17561 "on which a court should decide the issue."
17564 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17565 #: freeculture.xml:12694
17567 "Would it have been different if I had argued it differently? Would it have "
17568 "been different if Don Ayer had argued it? Or Charles Fried? Or Kathleen "
17572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17573 #: freeculture.xml:12699
17575 "My friends huddled around me to insist it would not. The Court was not "
17576 "ready, my friends insisted. This was a loss that was destined. It would take "
17577 "a great deal more to show our society why our framers were right. And when "
17578 "we do that, we will be able to show that Court."
17581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17582 #: freeculture.xml:12705
17584 "Maybe, but I doubt it. These Justices have no financial interest in doing "
17585 "anything except the right thing. They are not lobbied. They have little "
17586 "reason to resist doing right. I can't help but think that if I had stepped "
17587 "down from this pretty picture of dispassionate justice, I could have "
17591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17592 #: freeculture.xml:12713
17594 "And even if I couldn't, then that doesn't excuse what happened in "
17595 "January. For at the start of this case, one of America's leading "
17596 "intellectual property professors stated publicly that my bringing this case "
17597 "was a mistake. <quote>The Court is not ready,</quote> Peter Jaszi said; this "
17598 "issue should not be raised until it is."
17601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17602 #: freeculture.xml:12720
17604 "After the argument and after the decision, Peter said to me, and publicly, "
17605 "that he was wrong. But if indeed that Court could not have been persuaded, "
17606 "then that is all the evidence that's needed to know that here again Peter "
17607 "was right. Either I was not ready to argue this case in a way that would do "
17608 "some good or they were not ready to hear this case in a way that would do "
17609 "some good. Either way, the decision to bring this case—a decision I "
17610 "had made four years before—was wrong."
17614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17615 #: freeculture.xml:12729
17617 "<emphasis role='strong'>While the reaction</emphasis> to the Sonny Bono Act "
17618 "itself was almost unanimously negative, the reaction to the Court's decision "
17619 "was mixed. No one, at least in the press, tried to say that extending the "
17620 "term of copyright was a good idea. We had won that battle over ideas. Where "
17621 "the decision was praised, it was praised by papers that had been skeptical "
17622 "of the Court's activism in other cases. Deference was a good thing, even if "
17623 "it left standing a silly law. But where the decision was attacked, it was "
17624 "attacked because it left standing a silly and harmful law. <citetitle>The "
17625 "New York Times</citetitle> wrote in its editorial,"
17628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
17629 #: freeculture.xml:12744
17631 "In effect, the Supreme Court's decision makes it likely that we are seeing "
17632 "the beginning of the end of public domain and the birth of copyright "
17633 "perpetuity. The public domain has been a grand experiment, one that should "
17634 "not be allowed to die. The ability to draw freely on the entire creative "
17635 "output of humanity is one of the reasons we live in a time of such fruitful "
17636 "creative ferment."
17639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><indexterm><primary>
17640 #: freeculture.xml:12759 freeculture.xml:12764
17641 msgid "Bolling, Ruben"
17644 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17645 #: freeculture.xml:12753
17647 "The best responses were in the cartoons. There was a gaggle of hilarious "
17648 "images—of Mickey in jail and the like. The best, from my view of the "
17649 "case, was Ruben Bolling's, reproduced in figure <xref "
17650 "xrefstyle=\"template:%n\" linkend=\"fig-18\"/>. The <quote>powerful and "
17651 "wealthy</quote> line is a bit unfair. But the punch in the face felt exactly "
17652 "like that. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
17656 #: freeculture.xml:12763
17658 "<graphic fileref=\"images/tom-the-dancing-bug.png\" align=\"center\" "
17659 "width=\"100%\"></graphic> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17663 #: freeculture.xml:12767
17665 "The image that will always stick in my head is that evoked by the quote from "
17666 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>. That <quote>grand "
17667 "experiment</quote> we call the <quote>public domain</quote> is over? When I "
17668 "can make light of it, I think, <quote>Honey, I shrunk the "
17669 "Constitution.</quote> But I can rarely make light of it. We had in our "
17670 "Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the "
17671 "Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would "
17672 "have made them see differently."
17675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
17676 #: freeculture.xml:12778
17677 msgid "Chapter Fourteen: Eldred II"
17680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17681 #: freeculture.xml:12780
17683 "<emphasis role='strong'>The day</emphasis> <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
17684 "decided, fate would have it that I was to travel to Washington, D.C. (The "
17685 "day the rehearing petition in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
17686 "denied—meaning the case was really finally over—fate would have "
17687 "it that I was giving a speech to technologists at Disney World.) This was a "
17688 "particularly long flight to my least favorite city. The drive into the city "
17689 "from Dulles was delayed because of traffic, so I opened up my computer and "
17690 "wrote an op-ed piece."
17693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17694 #: freeculture.xml:12792
17696 "It was an act of contrition. During the whole of the flight from San "
17697 "Francisco to Washington, I had heard over and over again in my head the same "
17698 "advice from Don Ayer: You need to make them see why it is important. And "
17699 "alternating with that command was the question of Justice Kennedy: "
17700 "<quote>For all these years the act has impeded progress in science and the "
17701 "useful arts. I just don't see any empirical evidence for that.</quote> And "
17702 "so, having failed in the argument of constitutional principle, finally, I "
17703 "turned to an argument of politics."
17707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17708 #: freeculture.xml:12802
17710 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> published the piece. In it, I "
17711 "proposed a simple fix: Fifty years after a work has been published, the "
17712 "copyright owner would be required to register the work and pay a small "
17713 "fee. If he paid the fee, he got the benefit of the full term of "
17714 "copyright. If he did not, the work passed into the public domain."
17717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17718 #: freeculture.xml:12810
17720 "We called this the Eldred Act, but that was just to give it a name. Eric "
17721 "Eldred was kind enough to let his name be used once again, but as he said "
17722 "early on, it won't get passed unless it has another name."
17725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17726 #: freeculture.xml:12815
17728 "Or another two names. For depending upon your perspective, this is either "
17729 "the <quote>Public Domain Enhancement Act</quote> or the <quote>Copyright "
17730 "Term Deregulation Act.</quote> Either way, the essence of the idea is clear "
17731 "and obvious: Remove copyright where it is doing nothing except blocking "
17732 "access and the spread of knowledge. Leave it for as long as Congress allows "
17733 "for those works where its worth is at least $1. But for everything else, let "
17737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17738 #: freeculture.xml:12823 freeculture.xml:13024
17739 msgid "Forbes, Steve"
17742 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17743 #: freeculture.xml:12825
17745 "The reaction to this idea was amazingly strong. Steve Forbes endorsed it in "
17746 "an editorial. I received an avalanche of e-mail and letters expressing "
17747 "support. When you focus the issue on lost creativity, people can see the "
17748 "copyright system makes no sense. As a good Republican might say, here "
17749 "government regulation is simply getting in the way of innovation and "
17750 "creativity. And as a good Democrat might say, here the government is "
17751 "blocking access and the spread of knowledge for no good reason. Indeed, "
17752 "there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this "
17753 "issue. Anyone can recognize the stupid harm of the present system."
17756 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17757 #: freeculture.xml:12837
17759 "Indeed, many recognized the obvious benefit of the registration "
17760 "requirement. For one of the hardest things about the current system for "
17761 "people who want to license content is that there is no obvious place to look "
17762 "for the current copyright owners. Since registration is not required, since "
17763 "marking content is not required, since no formality at all is required, it "
17764 "is often impossibly hard to locate copyright owners to ask permission to use "
17765 "or license their work. This system would lower these costs, by establishing "
17766 "at least one registry where copyright owners could be identified."
17769 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17770 #: freeculture.xml:12847
17771 msgid "Berlin Act (1908)"
17774 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17775 #: freeculture.xml:12848 freeculture.xml:12889
17776 msgid "Berne Convention (1908)"
17779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
17780 #: freeculture.xml:12856
17781 msgid "German copyright law"
17784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17785 #: freeculture.xml:12856
17787 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the "
17788 "Berne Convention, national copyright legislation sometimes made protection "
17789 "depend upon compliance with formalities such as registration, deposit, and "
17790 "affixation of notice of the author's claim of copyright. However, starting "
17791 "with the 1908 act, every text of the Convention has provided that <quote>the "
17792 "enjoyment and the exercise</quote> of rights guaranteed by the Convention "
17793 "<quote>shall not be subject to any formality.</quote> The prohibition "
17794 "against formalities is presently embodied in Article 5(2) of the Paris Text "
17795 "of the Berne Convention. Many countries continue to impose some form of "
17796 "deposit or registration requirement, albeit not as a condition of "
17797 "copyright. French law, for example, requires the deposit of copies of works "
17798 "in national repositories, principally the National Museum. Copies of books "
17799 "published in the United Kingdom must be deposited in the British "
17800 "Library. The German Copyright Act provides for a Registrar of Authors where "
17801 "the author's true name can be filed in the case of anonymous or pseudonymous "
17802 "works. Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>International Intellectual Property Law, "
17803 "Cases and Materials</citetitle> (New York: Foundation Press, 2001), "
17807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17808 #: freeculture.xml:12851
17810 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
17811 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, formalities in copyright law were removed in 1976, "
17812 "when Congress followed the Europeans by abandoning any formal requirement "
17813 "before a copyright is granted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
17814 "Europeans are said to view copyright as a <quote>natural right.</quote> "
17815 "Natural rights don't need forms to exist. Traditions, like the "
17816 "Anglo-American tradition that required copyright owners to follow form if "
17817 "their rights were to be protected, did not, the Europeans thought, properly "
17818 "respect the dignity of the author. My right as a creator turns on my "
17819 "creativity, not upon the special favor of the government."
17822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17823 #: freeculture.xml:12883
17825 "That's great rhetoric. It sounds wonderfully romantic. But it is absurd "
17826 "copyright policy. It is absurd especially for authors, because a world "
17827 "without formalities harms the creator. The ability to spread <quote>Walt "
17828 "Disney creativity</quote> is destroyed when there is no simple way to know "
17829 "what's protected and what's not."
17832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17833 #: freeculture.xml:12891
17835 "The fight against formalities achieved its first real victory in Berlin in "
17836 "1908. International copyright lawyers amended the Berne Convention in 1908, "
17837 "to require copyright terms of life plus fifty years, as well as the "
17838 "abolition of copyright formalities. The formalities were hated because the "
17839 "stories of inadvertent loss were increasingly common. It was as if a Charles "
17840 "Dickens character ran all copyright offices, and the failure to dot an "
17841 "<citetitle>i</citetitle> or cross a <citetitle>t</citetitle> resulted in the "
17842 "loss of widows' only income."
17845 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17846 #: freeculture.xml:12901
17848 "These complaints were real and sensible. And the strictness of the "
17849 "formalities, especially in the United States, was absurd. The law should "
17850 "always have ways of forgiving innocent mistakes. There is no reason "
17851 "copyright law couldn't, as well. Rather than abandoning formalities totally, "
17852 "the response in Berlin should have been to embrace a more equitable system "
17856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17857 #: freeculture.xml:12909
17859 "Even that would have been resisted, however, because registration in the "
17860 "nineteenth and twentieth centuries was still expensive. It was also a "
17861 "hassle. The abolishment of formalities promised not only to save the "
17862 "starving widows, but also to lighten an unnecessary regulatory burden "
17863 "imposed upon creators."
17867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17868 #: freeculture.xml:12917
17870 "In addition to the practical complaint of authors in 1908, there was a moral "
17871 "claim as well. There was no reason that creative property should be a "
17872 "second-class form of property. If a carpenter builds a table, his rights "
17873 "over the table don't depend upon filing a form with the government. He has "
17874 "a property right over the table <quote>naturally,</quote> and he can assert "
17875 "that right against anyone who would steal the table, whether or not he has "
17876 "informed the government of his ownership of the table."
17879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17880 #: freeculture.xml:12929
17882 "This argument is correct, but its implications are misleading. For the "
17883 "argument in favor of formalities does not depend upon creative property "
17884 "being second-class property. The argument in favor of formalities turns upon "
17885 "the special problems that creative property presents. The law of "
17886 "formalities responds to the special physics of creative property, to assure "
17887 "that it can be efficiently and fairly spread."
17890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17891 #: freeculture.xml:12938
17893 "No one thinks, for example, that land is second-class property just because "
17894 "you have to register a deed with a court if your sale of land is to be "
17895 "effective. And few would think a car is second-class property just because "
17896 "you must register the car with the state and tag it with a license. In both "
17897 "of those cases, everyone sees that there is an important reason to secure "
17898 "registration—both because it makes the markets more efficient and "
17899 "because it better secures the rights of the owner. Without a registration "
17900 "system for land, landowners would perpetually have to guard their "
17901 "property. With registration, they can simply point the police to a "
17902 "deed. Without a registration system for cars, auto theft would be much "
17903 "easier. With a registration system, the thief has a high burden to sell a "
17904 "stolen car. A slight burden is placed on the property owner, but those "
17905 "burdens produce a much better system of protection for property generally."
17908 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17909 #: freeculture.xml:12954
17911 "It is similarly special physics that makes formalities important in "
17912 "copyright law. Unlike a carpenter's table, there's nothing in nature that "
17913 "makes it relatively obvious who might own a particular bit of creative "
17914 "property. A recording of Lyle Lovett's latest album can exist in a billion "
17915 "places without anything necessarily linking it back to a particular "
17916 "owner. And like a car, there's no way to buy and sell creative property with "
17917 "confidence unless there is some simple way to authenticate who is the author "
17918 "and what rights he has. Simple transactions are destroyed in a world without "
17919 "formalities. Complex, expensive, <emphasis>lawyer</emphasis> transactions "
17920 "take their place. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17924 #: freeculture.xml:12969
17926 "This was the understanding of the problem with the Sonny Bono Act that we "
17927 "tried to demonstrate to the Court. This was the part it didn't "
17928 "<quote>get.</quote> Because we live in a system without formalities, there "
17929 "is no way easily to build upon or use culture from our past. If copyright "
17930 "terms were, as Justice Story said they would be, <quote>short,</quote> then "
17931 "this wouldn't matter much. For fourteen years, under the framers' system, a "
17932 "work would be presumptively controlled. After fourteen years, it would be "
17933 "presumptively uncontrolled."
17936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17937 #: freeculture.xml:12979
17939 "But now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to "
17940 "know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious "
17941 "burden on the creative process. If the only way a library can offer an "
17942 "Internet exhibit about the New Deal is to hire a lawyer to clear the rights "
17943 "to every image and sound, then the copyright system is burdening creativity "
17944 "in a way that has never been seen before <emphasis>because there are no "
17945 "formalities</emphasis>."
17948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17949 #: freeculture.xml:12988
17951 "The Eldred Act was designed to respond to exactly this problem. If it is "
17952 "worth $1 to you, then register your work and you can get the longer "
17953 "term. Others will know how to contact you and, therefore, how to get your "
17954 "permission if they want to use your work. And you will get the benefit of an "
17955 "extended copyright term."
17958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17959 #: freeculture.xml:12995
17961 "If it isn't worth it to you to register to get the benefit of an extended "
17962 "term, then it shouldn't be worth it for the government to defend your "
17963 "monopoly over that work either. The work should pass into the public domain "
17964 "where anyone can copy it, or build archives with it, or create a movie based "
17965 "on it. It should become free if it is not worth $1 to you."
17968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17969 #: freeculture.xml:13002
17971 "Some worry about the burden on authors. Won't the burden of registering the "
17972 "work mean that the $1 is really misleading? Isn't the hassle worth more than "
17973 "$1? Isn't that the real problem with registration?"
17977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17978 #: freeculture.xml:13008
17980 "It is. The hassle is terrible. The system that exists now is awful. I "
17981 "completely agree that the Copyright Office has done a terrible job (no doubt "
17982 "because they are terribly funded) in enabling simple and cheap "
17983 "registrations. Any real solution to the problem of formalities must address "
17984 "the real problem of <emphasis>governments</emphasis> standing at the core of "
17985 "any system of formalities. In this book, I offer such a solution. That "
17986 "solution essentially remakes the Copyright Office. For now, assume it was "
17987 "Amazon that ran the registration system. Assume it was one-click "
17988 "registration. The Eldred Act would propose a simple, one-click registration "
17989 "fifty years after a work was published. Based upon historical data, that "
17990 "system would move up to 98 percent of commercial work, commercial work that "
17991 "no longer had a commercial life, into the public domain within fifty "
17992 "years. What do you think?"
17995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
17996 #: freeculture.xml:13026
17998 "<emphasis role='strong'>When Steve Forbes</emphasis> endorsed the idea, some "
17999 "in Washington began to pay attention. Many people contacted me pointing to "
18000 "representatives who might be willing to introduce the Eldred Act. And I had "
18001 "a few who directly suggested that they might be willing to take the first "
18005 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18006 #: freeculture.xml:13032
18007 msgid "Lofgren, Zoe"
18010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18011 #: freeculture.xml:13034
18013 "One representative, Zoe Lofgren of California, went so far as to get the "
18014 "bill drafted. The draft solved any problem with international law. It "
18015 "imposed the simplest requirement upon copyright owners possible. In May "
18016 "2003, it looked as if the bill would be introduced. On May 16, I posted on "
18017 "the Eldred Act blog, <quote>we are close.</quote> There was a general "
18018 "reaction in the blog community that something good might happen here."
18021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18022 #: freeculture.xml:13043
18024 "But at this stage, the lobbyists began to intervene. Jack Valenti and the "
18025 "MPAA general counsel came to the congresswoman's office to give the view of "
18026 "the MPAA. Aided by his lawyer, as Valenti told me, Valenti informed the "
18027 "congresswoman that the MPAA would oppose the Eldred Act. The reasons are "
18028 "embarrassingly thin. More importantly, their thinness shows something clear "
18029 "about what this debate is really about."
18033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18034 #: freeculture.xml:13051
18036 "The MPAA argued first that Congress had <quote>firmly rejected the central "
18037 "concept in the proposed bill</quote>—that copyrights be renewed. That "
18038 "was true, but irrelevant, as Congress's <quote>firm rejection</quote> had "
18039 "occurred long before the Internet made subsequent uses much more likely. "
18040 "Second, they argued that the proposal would harm poor copyright "
18041 "owners—apparently those who could not afford the $1 fee. Third, they "
18042 "argued that Congress had determined that extending a copyright term would "
18043 "encourage restoration work. Maybe in the case of the small percentage of "
18044 "work covered by copyright law that is still commercially valuable, but again "
18045 "this was irrelevant, as the proposal would not cut off the extended term "
18046 "unless the $1 fee was not paid. Fourth, the MPAA argued that the bill would "
18047 "impose <quote>enormous</quote> costs, since a registration system is not "
18048 "free. True enough, but those costs are certainly less than the costs of "
18049 "clearing the rights for a copyright whose owner is not known. Fifth, they "
18050 "worried about the risks if the copyright to a story underlying a film were "
18051 "to pass into the public domain. But what risk is that? If it is in the "
18052 "public domain, then the film is a valid derivative use."
18055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18056 #: freeculture.xml:13072
18058 "Finally, the MPAA argued that existing law enabled copyright owners to do "
18059 "this if they wanted. But the whole point is that there are thousands of "
18060 "copyright owners who don't even know they have a copyright to give. Whether "
18061 "they are free to give away their copyright or not—a controversial "
18062 "claim in any case—unless they know about a copyright, they're not "
18066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18067 #: freeculture.xml:13080
18069 "<emphasis role='strong'>At the beginning</emphasis> of this book, I told two "
18070 "stories about the law reacting to changes in technology. In the one, common "
18071 "sense prevailed. In the other, common sense was delayed. The difference "
18072 "between the two stories was the power of the opposition—the power of "
18073 "the side that fought to defend the status quo. In both cases, a new "
18074 "technology threatened old interests. But in only one case did those "
18075 "interest's have the power to protect themselves against this new competitive "
18079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18080 #: freeculture.xml:13090
18082 "I used these two cases as a way to frame the war that this book has been "
18083 "about. For here, too, a new technology is forcing the law to react. And "
18084 "here, too, we should ask, is the law following or resisting common sense? If "
18085 "common sense supports the law, what explains this common sense?"
18089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18090 #: freeculture.xml:13099
18092 "When the issue is piracy, it is right for the law to back the copyright "
18093 "owners. The commercial piracy that I described is wrong and harmful, and the "
18094 "law should work to eliminate it. When the issue is p2p sharing, it is easy "
18095 "to understand why the law backs the owners still: Much of this sharing is "
18096 "wrong, even if much is harmless. When the issue is copyright terms for the "
18097 "Mickey Mouses of the world, it is possible still to understand why the law "
18098 "favors Hollywood: Most people don't recognize the reasons for limiting "
18099 "copyright terms; it is thus still possible to see good faith within the "
18103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18104 #: freeculture.xml:13109
18105 msgid "Kelly, Kevin"
18108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18109 #: freeculture.xml:13111
18111 "But when the copyright owners oppose a proposal such as the Eldred Act, "
18112 "then, finally, there is an example that lays bare the naked selfinterest "
18113 "driving this war. This act would free an extraordinary range of content that "
18114 "is otherwise unused. It wouldn't interfere with any copyright owner's desire "
18115 "to exercise continued control over his content. It would simply liberate "
18116 "what Kevin Kelly calls the <quote>Dark Content</quote> that fills archives "
18117 "around the world. So when the warriors oppose a change like this, we should "
18118 "ask one simple question:"
18121 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18122 #: freeculture.xml:13121
18123 msgid "What does this industry really want?"
18126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18127 #: freeculture.xml:13124
18129 "With very little effort, the warriors could protect their content. So the "
18130 "effort to block something like the Eldred Act is not really about protecting "
18131 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> content. The effort to block the Eldred Act is an "
18132 "effort to assure that nothing more passes into the public domain. It is "
18133 "another step to assure that the public domain will never compete, that there "
18134 "will be no use of content that is not commercially controlled, and that "
18135 "there will be no commercial use of content that doesn't require "
18136 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> permission first."
18139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18140 #: freeculture.xml:13135
18142 "The opposition to the Eldred Act reveals how extreme the other side is. The "
18143 "most powerful and sexy and well loved of lobbies really has as its aim not "
18144 "the protection of <quote>property</quote> but the rejection of a tradition. "
18145 "Their aim is not simply to protect what is theirs. <emphasis>Their aim is to "
18146 "assure that all there is is what is theirs</emphasis>."
18150 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18151 #: freeculture.xml:13143
18153 "It is not hard to understand why the warriors take this view. It is not hard "
18154 "to see why it would benefit them if the competition of the public domain "
18155 "tied to the Internet could somehow be quashed. Just as RCA feared the "
18156 "competition of FM, they fear the competition of a public domain connected to "
18157 "a public that now has the means to create with it and to share its own "
18161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18162 #: freeculture.xml:13155
18164 "What is hard to understand is why the public takes this view. It is as if "
18165 "the law made airplanes trespassers. The MPAA stands with the Causbys and "
18166 "demands that their remote and useless property rights be respected, so that "
18167 "these remote and forgotten copyright holders might block the progress of "
18171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
18172 #: freeculture.xml:13162
18174 "All this seems to follow easily from this untroubled acceptance of the "
18175 "<quote>property</quote> in intellectual property. Common sense supports it, "
18176 "and so long as it does, the assaults will rain down upon the technologies of "
18177 "the Internet. The consequence will be an increasing <quote>permission "
18178 "society.</quote> The past can be cultivated only if you can identify the "
18179 "owner and gain permission to build upon his work. The future will be "
18180 "controlled by this dead (and often unfindable) hand of the past."
18183 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
18184 #: freeculture.xml:13174
18188 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18189 #: freeculture.xml:13175
18190 msgid "Africa, medications for HIV patients in"
18193 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18194 #: freeculture.xml:13176
18195 msgid "AIDS medications"
18198 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18199 #: freeculture.xml:13177
18200 msgid "antiretroviral drugs"
18203 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18204 #: freeculture.xml:13178
18205 msgid "developing countries, foreign patent costs in"
18208 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18209 #: freeculture.xml:13179 freeculture.xml:13692
18213 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18214 #: freeculture.xml:13179 freeculture.xml:13692
18215 msgid "pharmaceutical"
18218 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18219 #: freeculture.xml:13180
18220 msgid "HIV/AIDS therapies"
18223 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18224 #: freeculture.xml:13182
18226 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are more</emphasis> than 35 million people "
18227 "with the AIDS virus worldwide. Twenty-five million of them live in "
18228 "sub-Saharan Africa. Seventeen million have already died. Seventeen million "
18229 "Africans is proportional percentage-wise to seven million Americans. More "
18230 "importantly, it is seventeen million Africans."
18233 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18234 #: freeculture.xml:13189
18236 "There is no cure for AIDS, but there are drugs to slow its progression. "
18237 "These antiretroviral therapies are still experimental, but they have already "
18238 "had a dramatic effect. In the United States, AIDS patients who regularly "
18239 "take a cocktail of these drugs increase their life expectancy by ten to "
18240 "twenty years. For some, the drugs make the disease almost invisible."
18244 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18245 #: freeculture.xml:13204
18247 "Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, <quote>Final Report: Integrating "
18248 "Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy</quote> (London, 2002), "
18249 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
18250 "#55</ulink>. According to a World Health Organization press release issued 9 "
18251 "July 2002, only 230,000 of the 6 million who need drugs in the developing "
18252 "world receive them—and half of them are in Brazil."
18255 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18256 #: freeculture.xml:13197
18258 "These drugs are expensive. When they were first introduced in the United "
18259 "States, they cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per person per year. Today, "
18260 "some cost $25,000 per year. At these prices, of course, no African nation "
18261 "can afford the drugs for the vast majority of its population: $15,000 is "
18262 "thirty times the per capita gross national product of Zimbabwe. At these "
18263 "prices, the drugs are totally unavailable.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
18267 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18268 #: freeculture.xml:13213 freeculture.xml:13694
18269 msgid "on pharmaceuticals"
18272 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18273 #: freeculture.xml:13214
18274 msgid "pharmaceutical patents"
18278 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18279 #: freeculture.xml:13217
18281 "These prices are not high because the ingredients of the drugs are "
18282 "expensive. These prices are high because the drugs are protected by "
18283 "patents. The drug companies that produced these life-saving mixes enjoy at "
18284 "least a twenty-year monopoly for their inventions. They use that monopoly "
18285 "power to extract the most they can from the market. That power is in turn "
18286 "used to keep the prices high."
18289 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18290 #: freeculture.xml:13225
18292 "There are many who are skeptical of patents, especially drug patents. I am "
18293 "not. Indeed, of all the areas of research that might be supported by "
18294 "patents, drug research is, in my view, the clearest case where patents are "
18295 "needed. The patent gives the drug company some assurance that if it is "
18296 "successful in inventing a new drug to treat a disease, it will be able to "
18297 "earn back its investment and more. This is socially an extremely valuable "
18298 "incentive. I am the last person who would argue that the law should abolish "
18299 "it, at least without other changes."
18302 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18303 #: freeculture.xml:13236
18305 "But it is one thing to support patents, even drug patents. It is another "
18306 "thing to determine how best to deal with a crisis. And as African leaders "
18307 "began to recognize the devastation that AIDS was bringing, they started "
18308 "looking for ways to import HIV treatments at costs significantly below the "
18312 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18313 #: freeculture.xml:13242
18314 msgid "international law"
18317 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18318 #: freeculture.xml:13243
18319 msgid "parallel importation"
18322 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18323 #: freeculture.xml:13244
18324 msgid "South Africa, Republic of, pharmaceutical imports by"
18327 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18328 #: freeculture.xml:13257 freeculture.xml:13750
18329 msgid "Braithwaite, John"
18332 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18333 #: freeculture.xml:13255
18335 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism: "
18336 "Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New Press, 2003), "
18337 "37. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
18338 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18341 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18342 #: freeculture.xml:13246
18344 "In 1997, South Africa tried one tack. It passed a law to allow the "
18345 "importation of patented medicines that had been produced or sold in another "
18346 "nation's market with the consent of the patent owner. For example, if the "
18347 "drug was sold in India, it could be imported into Africa from India. This is "
18348 "called <quote>parallel importation,</quote> and it is generally permitted "
18349 "under international trade law and is specifically permitted within the "
18350 "European Union.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18353 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18354 #: freeculture.xml:13261
18355 msgid "United States Trade Representative (USTR)"
18359 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18360 #: freeculture.xml:13269
18362 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
18363 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
18364 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
18365 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 14, available at <ulink "
18366 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #56</ulink>. For a firsthand "
18367 "account of the struggle over South Africa, see Hearing Before the "
18368 "Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, House "
18369 "Committee on Government Reform, H. Rep., 1st sess., Ser. No. 106-126 (22 "
18370 "July 1999), 150–57 (statement of James Love)."
18374 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18375 #: freeculture.xml:13296
18377 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
18378 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
18379 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
18380 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 15."
18383 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18384 #: freeculture.xml:13263
18386 "However, the United States government opposed the bill. Indeed, more than "
18387 "opposed. As the International Intellectual Property Association "
18388 "characterized it, <quote>The U.S. government pressured South Africa … "
18389 "not to permit compulsory licensing or parallel imports.</quote><placeholder "
18390 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Through the Office of the United States Trade "
18391 "Representative, the government asked South Africa to change the "
18392 "law—and to add pressure to that request, in 1998, the USTR listed "
18393 "South Africa for possible trade sanctions. That same year, more than forty "
18394 "pharmaceutical companies began proceedings in the South African courts to "
18395 "challenge the government's actions. The United States was then joined by "
18396 "other governments from the EU. Their claim, and the claim of the "
18397 "pharmaceutical companies, was that South Africa was violating its "
18398 "obligations under international law by discriminating against a particular "
18399 "kind of patent— pharmaceutical patents. The demand of these "
18400 "governments, with the United States in the lead, was that South Africa "
18401 "respect these patents as it respects any other patent, regardless of any "
18402 "effect on the treatment of AIDS within South Africa.<placeholder "
18403 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
18406 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18407 #: freeculture.xml:13303
18409 "We should place the intervention by the United States in context. No doubt "
18410 "patents are not the most important reason that Africans don't have access to "
18411 "drugs. Poverty and the total absence of an effective health care "
18412 "infrastructure matter more. But whether patents are the most important "
18413 "reason or not, the price of drugs has an effect on their demand, and patents "
18414 "affect price. And so, whether massive or marginal, there was an effect from "
18415 "our government's intervention to stop the flow of medications into Africa."
18418 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18419 #: freeculture.xml:13313
18421 "By stopping the flow of HIV treatment into Africa, the United States "
18422 "government was not saving drugs for United States citizens. This is not "
18423 "like wheat (if they eat it, we can't); instead, the flow that the United "
18424 "States intervened to stop was, in effect, a flow of knowledge: information "
18425 "about how to take chemicals that exist within Africa, and turn those "
18426 "chemicals into drugs that would save 15 to 30 million lives."
18429 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18430 #: freeculture.xml:13321
18432 "Nor was the intervention by the United States going to protect the profits "
18433 "of United States drug companies—at least, not substantially. It was "
18434 "not as if these countries were in the position to buy the drugs for the "
18435 "prices the drug companies were charging. Again, the Africans are wildly too "
18436 "poor to afford these drugs at the offered prices. Stopping the parallel "
18437 "import of these drugs would not substantially increase the sales by "
18443 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18444 #: freeculture.xml:13336
18446 "See Sabin Russell, <quote>New Crusade to Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's "
18447 "Needs at Odds with Firms' Profit Motive,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
18448 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 May 1999, A1, available at <ulink "
18449 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #57</ulink> (<quote>compulsory "
18450 "licenses and gray markets pose a threat to the entire system of intellectual "
18451 "property protection</quote>); Robert Weissman, <quote>AIDS and Developing "
18452 "Countries: Democratizing Access to Essential Medicines,</quote> "
18453 "<citetitle>Foreign Policy in Focus</citetitle> 4:23 (August 1999), available "
18454 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #58</ulink> (describing "
18455 "U.S. policy); John A. Harrelson, <quote>TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and "
18456 "the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance Between Intellectual "
18457 "Property Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,</quote> <citetitle>Widener Law "
18458 "Symposium Journal</citetitle> (Spring 2001): 175."
18461 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18462 #: freeculture.xml:13330
18464 "Instead, the argument in favor of restricting this flow of information, "
18465 "which was needed to save the lives of millions, was an argument about the "
18466 "sanctity of property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It was "
18467 "because <quote>intellectual property</quote> would be violated that these "
18468 "drugs should not flow into Africa. It was a principle about the importance "
18469 "of <quote>intellectual property</quote> that led these government actors to "
18470 "intervene against the South African response to AIDS."
18473 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18474 #: freeculture.xml:13358
18476 "Now just step back for a moment. There will be a time thirty years from now "
18477 "when our children look back at us and ask, how could we have let this "
18478 "happen? How could we allow a policy to be pursued whose direct cost would be "
18479 "to speed the death of 15 to 30 million Africans, and whose only real benefit "
18480 "would be to uphold the <quote>sanctity</quote> of an idea? What possible "
18481 "justification could there ever be for a policy that results in so many "
18482 "deaths? What exactly is the insanity that would allow so many to die for "
18483 "such an abstraction?"
18486 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18487 #: freeculture.xml:13367
18488 msgid "in pharmaceutical industry"
18491 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18492 #: freeculture.xml:13369
18494 "Some blame the drug companies. I don't. They are corporations. Their "
18495 "managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a "
18496 "certain patent policy not because of ideals, but because it is the policy "
18497 "that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money "
18498 "because of a certain corruption within our political system— a "
18499 "corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for."
18502 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18503 #: freeculture.xml:13377
18505 "The corruption is our own politicians' failure of integrity. For the drug "
18506 "companies would love—they say, and I believe them—to sell their "
18507 "drugs as cheaply as they can to countries in Africa and elsewhere. There "
18508 "are issues they'd have to resolve to make sure the drugs didn't get back "
18509 "into the United States, but those are mere problems of technology. They "
18510 "could be overcome."
18513 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18514 #: freeculture.xml:13384
18515 msgid "of drug patents"
18519 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18520 #: freeculture.xml:13386
18522 "A different problem, however, could not be overcome. This is the fear of the "
18523 "grandstanding politician who would call the presidents of the drug companies "
18524 "before a Senate or House hearing, and ask, <quote>How is it you can sell "
18525 "this HIV drug in Africa for only $1 a pill, but the same drug would cost an "
18526 "American $1,500?</quote> Because there is no <quote>sound bite</quote> "
18527 "answer to that question, its effect would be to induce regulation of prices "
18528 "in America. The drug companies thus avoid this spiral by avoiding the first "
18529 "step. They reinforce the idea that property should be sacred. They adopt a "
18530 "rational strategy in an irrational context, with the unintended consequence "
18531 "that perhaps millions die. And that rational strategy thus becomes framed in "
18532 "terms of this ideal—the sanctity of an idea called <quote>intellectual "
18533 "property.</quote>"
18536 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18537 #: freeculture.xml:13408
18539 "So when the common sense of your child confronts you, what will you say? "
18540 "When the common sense of a generation finally revolts against what we have "
18541 "done, how will we justify what we have done? What is the argument?"
18544 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18545 #: freeculture.xml:13414
18547 "A sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly support the patent "
18548 "system without having to reach everyone everywhere in exactly the same "
18549 "way. Just as a sensible copyright policy could endorse and strongly support "
18550 "a copyright system without having to regulate the spread of culture "
18551 "perfectly and forever, a sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly "
18552 "support a patent system without having to block the spread of drugs to a "
18553 "country not rich enough to afford market prices in any case. A sensible "
18554 "policy, in other words, could be a balanced policy. For most of our history, "
18555 "both copyright and patent policies were balanced in just this sense."
18558 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18559 #: freeculture.xml:13429
18561 "But we as a culture have lost this sense of balance. We have lost the "
18562 "critical eye that helps us see the difference between truth and extremism. "
18563 "A certain property fundamentalism, having no connection to our tradition, "
18564 "now reigns in this culture—bizarrely, and with consequences more grave "
18565 "to the spread of ideas and culture than almost any other single policy "
18566 "decision that we as a democracy will make."
18570 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18571 #: freeculture.xml:13438
18573 "<emphasis role='strong'>A simple idea</emphasis> blinds us, and under the "
18574 "cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if any of us "
18575 "looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we "
18576 "don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are "
18577 "dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in "
18578 "culture that we don't even question when the control of that property "
18579 "removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture "
18580 "democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for "
18581 "anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way "
18582 "to make this common sense open its eyes."
18585 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18586 #: freeculture.xml:13452
18588 "So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet "
18589 "see what there could be to revolt about. The extremism that now dominates "
18590 "this debate fits with ideas that seem natural, and that fit is reinforced by "
18591 "the RCAs of our day. They wage a frantic war to fight <quote>piracy,</quote> "
18592 "and devastate a culture for creativity. They defend the idea of "
18593 "<quote>creative property,</quote> while transforming real creators into "
18594 "modern-day sharecroppers. They are insulted by the idea that rights should "
18595 "be balanced, even though each of the major players in this content war was "
18596 "itself a beneficiary of a more balanced ideal. The hypocrisy reeks. Yet in a "
18597 "city like Washington, hypocrisy is not even noticed. Powerful lobbies, "
18598 "complex issues, and MTV attention spans produce the <quote>perfect "
18599 "storm</quote> for free culture."
18602 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18603 #: freeculture.xml:13465 freeculture.xml:14235
18604 msgid "academic journals"
18607 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18608 #: freeculture.xml:13466 freeculture.xml:13479
18609 msgid "biomedical research"
18612 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18613 #: freeculture.xml:13467 freeculture.xml:13637
18614 msgid "international organization on issues of"
18617 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18618 #: freeculture.xml:13469 freeculture.xml:13586 freeculture.xml:14154
18622 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18623 #: freeculture.xml:13470 freeculture.xml:14301
18624 msgid "PLoS (Public Library of Science)"
18627 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18628 #: freeculture.xml:13471 freeculture.xml:14302
18629 msgid "Public Library of Science (PLoS)"
18632 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18633 #: freeculture.xml:13472
18634 msgid "public projects in"
18637 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18638 #: freeculture.xml:13473
18639 msgid "single nucleotied polymorphisms (SNPs)"
18642 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18643 #: freeculture.xml:13474
18644 msgid "Wellcome Trust"
18647 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18648 #: freeculture.xml:13475 freeculture.xml:13638
18649 msgid "World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)"
18652 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18653 #: freeculture.xml:13476
18654 msgid "World Wide Web"
18657 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18658 #: freeculture.xml:13477
18659 msgid "Global Positioning System"
18663 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18664 #: freeculture.xml:13484
18666 "Jonathan Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> "
18667 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, August 2003, E1, available at <ulink "
18668 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #59</ulink>; William New, "
18669 "<quote>Global Group's Shift on `Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir,</quote> "
18670 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
18671 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #60</ulink>; "
18672 "William New, <quote>U.S. Official Opposes `Open Source' Talks at "
18673 "WIPO,</quote> <citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 "
18674 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
18679 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18680 #: freeculture.xml:13481
18682 "<emphasis role='strong'>In August 2003</emphasis>, a fight broke out in the "
18683 "United States about a decision by the World Intellectual Property "
18684 "Organization to cancel a meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
18685 "At the request of a wide range of interests, WIPO had decided to hold a "
18686 "meeting to discuss <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
18687 "goods.</quote> These are projects that have been successful in producing "
18688 "public goods without relying exclusively upon a proprietary use of "
18689 "intellectual property. Examples include the Internet and the World Wide Web, "
18690 "both of which were developed on the basis of protocols in the public "
18691 "domain. It included an emerging trend to support open academic journals, "
18692 "including the Public Library of Science project that I describe in chapter "
18693 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"c-afterword\"/>. It "
18694 "included a project to develop single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which "
18695 "are thought to have great significance in biomedical research. (That "
18696 "nonprofit project comprised a consortium of the Wellcome Trust and "
18697 "pharmaceutical and technological companies, including Amersham Biosciences, "
18698 "AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffmann-La Roche, "
18699 "Glaxo-SmithKline, IBM, Motorola, Novartis, Pfizer, and Searle.) It included "
18700 "the Global Positioning System, which Ronald Reagan set free in the early "
18701 "1980s. And it included <quote>open source and free software.</quote>"
18704 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18705 #: freeculture.xml:13517
18707 "The aim of the meeting was to consider this wide range of projects from one "
18708 "common perspective: that none of these projects relied upon intellectual "
18709 "property extremism. Instead, in all of them, intellectual property was "
18710 "balanced by agreements to keep access open or to impose limitations on the "
18711 "way in which proprietary claims might be used."
18714 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18715 #: freeculture.xml:13523
18716 msgid "in international debate on intellectual property"
18720 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18721 #: freeculture.xml:13526
18723 "I should disclose that I was one of the people who asked WIPO for the "
18727 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18728 #: freeculture.xml:13525
18730 "From the perspective of this book, then, the conference was "
18731 "ideal.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The projects within its "
18732 "scope included both commercial and noncommercial work. They primarily "
18733 "involved science, but from many perspectives. And WIPO was an ideal venue "
18734 "for this discussion, since WIPO is the preeminent international body dealing "
18735 "with intellectual property issues."
18738 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18739 #: freeculture.xml:13535 freeculture.xml:13691
18740 msgid "World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)"
18744 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18745 #: freeculture.xml:13537
18747 "Indeed, I was once publicly scolded for not recognizing this fact about "
18748 "WIPO. In February 2003, I delivered a keynote address to a preparatory "
18749 "conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At a "
18750 "press conference before the address, I was asked what I would say. I "
18751 "responded that I would be talking a little about the importance of balance "
18752 "in intellectual property for the development of an information society. The "
18753 "moderator for the event then promptly interrupted to inform me and the "
18754 "assembled reporters that no question about intellectual property would be "
18755 "discussed by WSIS, since those questions were the exclusive domain of "
18756 "WIPO. In the talk that I had prepared, I had actually made the issue of "
18757 "intellectual property relatively minor. But after this astonishing "
18758 "statement, I made intellectual property the sole focus of my talk. There was "
18759 "no way to talk about an <quote>Information Society</quote> unless one also "
18760 "talked about the range of information and culture that would be free. My "
18761 "talk did not make my immoderate moderator very happy. And she was no doubt "
18762 "correct that the scope of intellectual property protections was ordinarily "
18763 "the stuff of WIPO. But in my view, there couldn't be too much of a "
18764 "conversation about how much intellectual property is needed, since in my "
18765 "view, the very idea of balance in intellectual property had been lost."
18768 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18769 #: freeculture.xml:13561
18771 "So whether or not WSIS can discuss balance in intellectual property, I had "
18772 "thought it was taken for granted that WIPO could and should. And thus the "
18773 "meeting about <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
18774 "goods</quote> seemed perfectly appropriate within the WIPO agenda."
18777 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18778 #: freeculture.xml:13570 freeculture.xml:15300
18779 msgid "Apple Corporation"
18782 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18783 #: freeculture.xml:13571
18784 msgid "on free software"
18787 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18788 #: freeculture.xml:13573
18790 "But there is one project within that list that is highly controversial, at "
18791 "least among lobbyists. That project is <quote>open source and free "
18792 "software.</quote> Microsoft in particular is wary of discussion of the "
18793 "subject. From its perspective, a conference to discuss open source and free "
18794 "software would be like a conference to discuss Apple's operating "
18795 "system. Both open source and free software compete with Microsoft's "
18796 "software. And internationally, many governments have begun to explore "
18797 "requirements that they use open source or free software, rather than "
18798 "<quote>proprietary software,</quote> for their own internal uses."
18801 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18802 #: freeculture.xml:13583
18803 msgid "<quote>copyleft</quote> licenses"
18807 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18808 #: freeculture.xml:13599
18810 "Microsoft's position about free and open source software is more "
18811 "sophisticated. As it has repeatedly asserted, it has no problem with "
18812 "<quote>open source</quote> software or software in the public "
18813 "domain. Microsoft's principal opposition is to <quote>free software</quote> "
18814 "licensed under a <quote>copyleft</quote> license, meaning a license that "
18815 "requires the licensee to adopt the same terms on any derivative work. See "
18816 "Bradford L. Smith, <quote>The Future of Software: Enabling the Marketplace "
18817 "to Decide,</quote> <citetitle>Government Policy Toward Open Source "
18818 "Software</citetitle> (Washington, D.C.: AEI-Brookings Joint Center for "
18819 "Regulatory Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy "
18820 "Research, 2002), 69, available at <ulink "
18821 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #62</ulink>. See also Craig "
18822 "Mundie, Microsoft senior vice president, <citetitle>The Commercial Software "
18823 "Model</citetitle>, discussion at New York University Stern School of "
18824 "Business (3 May 2001), available at <ulink "
18825 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #63</ulink>."
18828 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18829 #: freeculture.xml:13588
18831 "I don't mean to enter that debate here. It is important only to make clear "
18832 "that the distinction is not between commercial and noncommercial "
18833 "software. There are many important companies that depend fundamentally upon "
18834 "open source and free software, IBM being the most prominent. IBM is "
18835 "increasingly shifting its focus to the GNU/Linux operating system, the most "
18836 "famous bit of <quote>free software</quote>—and IBM is emphatically a "
18837 "commercial entity. Thus, to support <quote>open source and free "
18838 "software</quote> is not to oppose commercial entities. It is, instead, to "
18839 "support a mode of software development that is different from "
18840 "Microsoft's.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18843 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18844 #: freeculture.xml:13617
18845 msgid "General Public License (GPL)"
18848 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18849 #: freeculture.xml:13618
18850 msgid "GPL (General Public License)"
18854 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18855 #: freeculture.xml:13620
18857 "More important for our purposes, to support <quote>open source and free "
18858 "software</quote> is not to oppose copyright. <quote>Open source and free "
18859 "software</quote> is not software in the public domain. Instead, like "
18860 "Microsoft's software, the copyright owners of free and open source software "
18861 "insist quite strongly that the terms of their software license be respected "
18862 "by adopters of free and open source software. The terms of that license are "
18863 "no doubt different from the terms of a proprietary software license. Free "
18864 "software licensed under the General Public License (GPL), for example, "
18865 "requires that the source code for the software be made available by anyone "
18866 "who modifies and redistributes the software. But that requirement is "
18867 "effective only if copyright governs software. If copyright did not govern "
18868 "software, then free software could not impose the same kind of requirements "
18869 "on its adopters. It thus depends upon copyright law just as Microsoft does."
18872 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18873 #: freeculture.xml:13639
18874 msgid "Krim, Jonathan"
18877 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
18878 #: freeculture.xml:13640
18879 msgid "WIPO meeting opposed by"
18883 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18884 #: freeculture.xml:13650
18886 "Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> available at <ulink "
18887 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #64</ulink>."
18890 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18891 #: freeculture.xml:13642
18893 "It is therefore understandable that as a proprietary software developer, "
18894 "Microsoft would oppose this WIPO meeting, and understandable that it would "
18895 "use its lobbyists to get the United States government to oppose it, as "
18896 "well. And indeed, that is just what was reported to have happened. According "
18897 "to Jonathan Krim of the <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, Microsoft's "
18898 "lobbyists succeeded in getting the United States government to veto the "
18899 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And without U.S. backing, "
18900 "the meeting was canceled."
18903 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18904 #: freeculture.xml:13656
18906 "I don't blame Microsoft for doing what it can to advance its own interests, "
18907 "consistent with the law. And lobbying governments is plainly consistent with "
18908 "the law. There was nothing surprising about its lobbying here, and nothing "
18909 "terribly surprising about the most powerful software producer in the United "
18910 "States having succeeded in its lobbying efforts."
18913 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18914 #: freeculture.xml:13664 freeculture.xml:13722
18915 msgid "Boland, Lois"
18918 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18919 #: freeculture.xml:13666
18921 "What was surprising was the United States government's reason for opposing "
18922 "the meeting. Again, as reported by Krim, Lois Boland, acting director of "
18923 "international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, explained "
18924 "that <quote>open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which "
18925 "is to promote intellectual-property rights.</quote> She is quoted as saying, "
18926 "<quote>To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such "
18927 "rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.</quote>"
18930 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18931 #: freeculture.xml:13677
18932 msgid "These statements are astonishing on a number of levels."
18935 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18936 #: freeculture.xml:13682
18938 "First, they are just flat wrong. As I described, most open source and free "
18939 "software relies fundamentally upon the intellectual property right called "
18940 "<quote>copyright</quote>. Without it, restrictions imposed by those "
18941 "licenses wouldn't work. Thus, to say it <quote>runs counter</quote> to the "
18942 "mission of promoting intellectual property rights reveals an extraordinary "
18943 "gap in understanding—the sort of mistake that is excusable in a "
18944 "first-year law student, but an embarrassment from a high government official "
18945 "dealing with intellectual property issues."
18948 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
18949 #: freeculture.xml:13693
18950 msgid "generic drugs"
18953 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18954 #: freeculture.xml:13696
18956 "Second, who ever said that WIPO's exclusive aim was to "
18957 "<quote>promote</quote> intellectual property maximally? As I had been "
18958 "scolded at the preparatory conference of WSIS, WIPO is to consider not only "
18959 "how best to protect intellectual property, but also what the best balance of "
18960 "intellectual property is. As every economist and lawyer knows, the hard "
18961 "question in intellectual property law is to find that balance. But that "
18962 "there should be limits is, I had thought, uncontested. One wants to ask "
18963 "Ms. Boland, are generic drugs (drugs based on drugs whose patent has "
18964 "expired) contrary to the WIPO mission? Does the public domain weaken "
18965 "intellectual property? Would it have been better if the protocols of the "
18966 "Internet had been patented?"
18969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18970 #: freeculture.xml:13710
18972 "Third, even if one believed that the purpose of WIPO was to maximize "
18973 "intellectual property rights, in our tradition, intellectual property rights "
18974 "are held by individuals and corporations. They get to decide what to do with "
18975 "those rights because, again, they are <emphasis>their</emphasis> rights. If "
18976 "they want to <quote>waive</quote> or <quote>disclaim</quote> their rights, "
18977 "that is, within our tradition, totally appropriate. When Bill Gates gives "
18978 "away more than $20 billion to do good in the world, that is not inconsistent "
18979 "with the objectives of the property system. That is, on the contrary, just "
18980 "what a property system is supposed to be about: giving individuals the right "
18981 "to decide what to do with <emphasis>their</emphasis> property."
18985 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18986 #: freeculture.xml:13724
18988 "When Ms. Boland says that there is something wrong with a meeting "
18989 "<quote>which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights,</quote> "
18990 "she's saying that WIPO has an interest in interfering with the choices of "
18991 "the individuals who own intellectual property rights. That somehow, WIPO's "
18992 "objective should be to stop an individual from <quote>waiving</quote> or "
18993 "<quote>disclaiming</quote> an intellectual property right. That the interest "
18994 "of WIPO is not just that intellectual property rights be maximized, but that "
18995 "they also should be exercised in the most extreme and restrictive way "
18999 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
19000 #: freeculture.xml:13735
19001 msgid "feudal system"
19004 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
19005 #: freeculture.xml:13736
19006 msgid "feudal system of"
19009 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19010 #: freeculture.xml:13738
19012 "There is a history of just such a property system that is well known in the "
19013 "Anglo-American tradition. It is called <quote>feudalism.</quote> Under "
19014 "feudalism, not only was property held by a relatively small number of "
19015 "individuals and entities. And not only were the rights that ran with that "
19016 "property powerful and extensive. But the feudal system had a strong interest "
19017 "in assuring that property holders within that system not weaken feudalism by "
19018 "liberating people or property within their control to the free "
19019 "market. Feudalism depended upon maximum control and concentration. It fought "
19020 "any freedom that might interfere with that control."
19023 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
19024 #: freeculture.xml:13755
19026 "See Drahos with Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism</citetitle>, "
19027 "210–20. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19030 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19031 #: freeculture.xml:13752
19033 "As Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite relate, this is precisely the choice we "
19034 "are now making about intellectual property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
19035 "id=\"0\"/> We will have an information society. That much is certain. Our "
19036 "only choice now is whether that information society will be "
19037 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> or <emphasis>feudal</emphasis>. The trend is "
19038 "toward the feudal."
19041 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19042 #: freeculture.xml:13766
19044 "When this battle broke, I blogged it. A spirited debate within the comment "
19045 "section ensued. Ms. Boland had a number of supporters who tried to show why "
19046 "her comments made sense. But there was one comment that was particularly "
19047 "depressing for me. An anonymous poster wrote,"
19051 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
19052 #: freeculture.xml:13775
19054 "George, you misunderstand Lessig: He's only talking about the world as it "
19055 "should be (<quote>the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should "
19056 "be to promote the right balance of intellectual property rights, not simply "
19057 "to promote intellectual property rights</quote>), not as it is. If we were "
19058 "talking about the world as it is, then of course Boland didn't say anything "
19059 "wrong. But in the world as Lessig would have it, then of course she "
19060 "did. Always pay attention to the distinction between Lessig's world and "
19064 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19065 #: freeculture.xml:13787
19067 "I missed the irony the first time I read it. I read it quickly and thought "
19068 "the poster was supporting the idea that seeking balance was what our "
19069 "government should be doing. (Of course, my criticism of Ms. Boland was not "
19070 "about whether she was seeking balance or not; my criticism was that her "
19071 "comments betrayed a first-year law student's mistake. I have no illusion "
19072 "about the extremism of our government, whether Republican or Democrat. My "
19073 "only illusion apparently is about whether our government should speak the "
19077 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19078 #: freeculture.xml:13798
19080 "Obviously, however, the poster was not supporting that idea. Instead, the "
19081 "poster was ridiculing the very idea that in the real world, the "
19082 "<quote>goal</quote> of a government should be <quote>to promote the right "
19083 "balance</quote> of intellectual property. That was obviously silly to "
19084 "him. And it obviously betrayed, he believed, my own silly "
19085 "utopianism. <quote>Typical for an academic,</quote> the poster might well "
19089 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19090 #: freeculture.xml:13806
19092 "I understand criticism of academic utopianism. I think utopianism is silly, "
19093 "too, and I'd be the first to poke fun at the absurdly unrealistic ideals of "
19094 "academics throughout history (and not just in our own country's history)."
19097 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19098 #: freeculture.xml:13812
19100 "But when it has become silly to suppose that the role of our government "
19101 "should be to <quote>seek balance,</quote> then count me with the silly, for "
19102 "that means that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be "
19103 "obvious to everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the "
19104 "government is simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that the idea "
19105 "of holding the government to a different standard is absurd, that the idea "
19106 "of demanding of the government that it speak truth and not lies is just "
19107 "naïve, then who have we, the most powerful democracy in the world, "
19112 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19113 #: freeculture.xml:13823
19115 "It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the "
19116 "truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something "
19117 "more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy "
19118 "to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our "
19119 "tradition for most of our history—free culture."
19122 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19123 #: freeculture.xml:13831
19124 msgid "If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon."
19127 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
19128 #: freeculture.xml:13835
19129 msgid "Turner, Ted"
19132 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19133 #: freeculture.xml:13837
19135 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are moments</emphasis> of hope in this "
19136 "struggle. And moments that surprise. When the FCC was considering relaxing "
19137 "ownership rules, which would thereby further increase the concentration in "
19138 "media ownership, an extraordinary bipartisan coalition formed to fight this "
19139 "change. For perhaps the first time in history, interests as diverse as the "
19140 "NRA, the ACLU, Moveon.org, William Safire, Ted Turner, and CodePink Women "
19141 "for Peace organized to oppose this change in FCC policy. An astonishing "
19142 "700,000 letters were sent to the FCC, demanding more hearings and a "
19143 "different result."
19146 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19147 #: freeculture.xml:13848
19149 "This activism did not stop the FCC, but soon after, a broad coalition in the "
19150 "Senate voted to reverse the FCC decision. The hostile hearings leading up to "
19151 "that vote revealed just how powerful this movement had become. There was no "
19152 "substantial support for the FCC's decision, and there was broad and "
19153 "sustained support for fighting further concentration in the media."
19156 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19157 #: freeculture.xml:13856
19159 "But even this movement misses an important piece of the puzzle. Largeness "
19160 "as such is not bad. Freedom is not threatened just because some become very "
19161 "rich, or because there are only a handful of big players. The poor quality "
19162 "of Big Macs or Quarter Pounders does not mean that you can't get a good "
19163 "hamburger from somewhere else."
19166 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19167 #: freeculture.xml:13863
19169 "The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but "
19170 "instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in "
19171 "copyright, produces. It is not just that there are a few powerful companies "
19172 "that control an ever expanding slice of the media. It is that this "
19173 "concentration can call upon an equally bloated range of "
19174 "rights—property rights of a historically extreme form—that makes "
19175 "their bigness bad."
19178 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19179 #: freeculture.xml:13873
19181 "It is therefore significant that so many would rally to demand competition "
19182 "and increased diversity. Still, if the rally is understood as being about "
19183 "bigness alone, it is not terribly surprising. We Americans have a long "
19184 "history of fighting <quote>big,</quote> wisely or not. That we could be "
19185 "motivated to fight <quote>big</quote> again is not something new."
19188 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19189 #: freeculture.xml:13880
19191 "It would be something new, and something very important, if an equal number "
19192 "could be rallied to fight the increasing extremism built within the idea of "
19193 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote> Not because balance is alien to our "
19194 "tradition; indeed, as I've argued, balance is our tradition. But because the "
19195 "muscle to think critically about the scope of anything called "
19196 "<quote>property</quote> is not well exercised within this tradition anymore."
19199 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19200 #: freeculture.xml:13888
19202 "If we were Achilles, this would be our heel. This would be the place of our "
19206 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
19207 #: freeculture.xml:13891
19212 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
19213 #: freeculture.xml:13897
19215 "John Borland, <quote>RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers,</quote> CNET News.com, "
19216 "September 2003, available at <ulink "
19217 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #65</ulink>; Paul R. La Monica, "
19218 "<quote>Music Industry Sues Swappers,</quote> CNN/Money, 8 September 2003, "
19219 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #66</ulink>; "
19220 "Soni Sangha and Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty, <quote>Sued for a Song, "
19221 "N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among 261 Cited as Sharers,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
19222 "Daily News</citetitle>, 9 September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's "
19223 "Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl "
19224 "in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 "
19225 "September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, <quote>Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,</quote> "
19226 "<citetitle>Wired News</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, available at <ulink "
19227 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #67</ulink>."
19231 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
19232 #: freeculture.xml:13915
19234 "Jon Wiederhorn, <quote>Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old "
19235 "Lady,</quote> mtv.com, 17 September 2003, available at <ulink "
19236 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #68</ulink>."
19241 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
19242 #: freeculture.xml:13922
19244 "Kenji Hall, Associated Press, <quote>Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for "
19245 "Dylan Songs,</quote> Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
19246 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #69</ulink>."
19249 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19250 #: freeculture.xml:13893
19252 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I write</emphasis> these final words, the news is "
19253 "filled with stories about the RIAA lawsuits against almost three hundred "
19254 "individuals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Eminem has just been "
19255 "sued for <quote>sampling</quote> someone else's music.<placeholder "
19256 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The story about Bob Dylan "
19257 "<quote>stealing</quote> from a Japanese author has just finished making the "
19258 "rounds.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> An insider from "
19259 "Hollywood—who insists he must remain anonymous—reports <quote>an "
19260 "amazing conversation with these studio guys. They've got extraordinary [old] "
19261 "content that they'd love to use but can't because they can't begin to clear "
19262 "the rights. They've got scores of kids who could do amazing things with the "
19263 "content, but it would take scores of lawyers to clean it first.</quote> "
19264 "Congressmen are talking about deputizing computer viruses to bring down "
19265 "computers thought to violate the law. Universities are threatening expulsion "
19266 "for kids who use a computer to share content."
19269 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
19270 #: freeculture.xml:13939
19274 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
19275 #: freeculture.xml:13940
19276 msgid "Brazil, free culture in"
19279 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19280 #: freeculture.xml:13941 freeculture.xml:14332
19281 msgid "Creative Commons"
19284 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
19285 #: freeculture.xml:13942
19286 msgid "Gil, Gilberto"
19289 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
19290 #: freeculture.xml:13943
19291 msgid "public creative archive in"
19295 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
19296 #: freeculture.xml:13948
19298 "<quote>BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public,</quote> BBC press "
19299 "release, 24 August 2003, available at <ulink "
19300 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #70</ulink>."
19304 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
19305 #: freeculture.xml:13957
19307 "<quote>Creative Commons and Brazil,</quote> Creative Commons Weblog, 6 "
19308 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
19313 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19314 #: freeculture.xml:13945
19316 "Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC has just announced that it "
19317 "will build a <quote>Creative Archive,</quote> from which British citizens "
19318 "can download BBC content, and rip, mix, and burn it.<placeholder "
19319 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And in Brazil, the culture minister, Gilberto "
19320 "Gil, himself a folk hero of Brazilian music, has joined with Creative "
19321 "Commons to release content and free licenses in that Latin American "
19322 "country.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> I've told a dark "
19323 "story. The truth is more mixed. A technology has given us a new "
19324 "freedom. Slowly, some begin to understand that this freedom need not mean "
19325 "anarchy. We can carry a free culture into the twenty-first century, without "
19326 "artists losing and without the potential of digital technology being "
19327 "destroyed. It will take some thought, and more importantly, it will take "
19328 "some will to transform the RCAs of our day into the Causbys."
19332 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19333 #: freeculture.xml:13971
19335 "Common sense must revolt. It must act to free culture. Soon, if this "
19336 "potential is ever to be realized."
19339 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
19340 #: freeculture.xml:13979
19345 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19346 #: freeculture.xml:13983
19348 "<emphasis role='strong'>At least some</emphasis> who have read this far will "
19349 "agree with me that something must be done to change where we are "
19350 "heading. The balance of this book maps what might be done."
19353 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19354 #: freeculture.xml:13988
19356 "I divide this map into two parts: that which anyone can do now, and that "
19357 "which requires the help of lawmakers. If there is one lesson that we can "
19358 "draw from the history of remaking common sense, it is that it requires "
19359 "remaking how many people think about the very same issue."
19362 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19363 #: freeculture.xml:13994
19365 "That means this movement must begin in the streets. It must recruit a "
19366 "significant number of parents, teachers, librarians, creators, authors, "
19367 "musicians, filmmakers, scientists—all to tell this story in their own "
19368 "words, and to tell their neighbors why this battle is so important."
19371 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
19372 #: freeculture.xml:14001
19374 "Once this movement has its effect in the streets, it has some hope of having "
19375 "an effect in Washington. We are still a democracy. What people think "
19376 "matters. Not as much as it should, at least when an RCA stands opposed, but "
19377 "still, it matters. And thus, in the second part below, I sketch changes that "
19378 "Congress could make to better secure a free culture."
19381 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
19382 #: freeculture.xml:14010
19386 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
19387 #: freeculture.xml:14012
19389 "<emphasis role='strong'>Common sense</emphasis> is with the copyright "
19390 "warriors because the debate so far has been framed at the extremes—as "
19391 "a grand either/or: either property or anarchy, either total control or "
19392 "artists won't be paid. If that really is the choice, then the warriors "
19396 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
19397 #: freeculture.xml:14019
19399 "The mistake here is the error of the excluded middle. There are extremes in "
19400 "this debate, but the extremes are not all that there is. There are those who "
19401 "believe in maximal copyright—<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote>— "
19402 "and those who reject copyright—<quote>No Rights Reserved.</quote> The "
19403 "<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe that you should ask "
19404 "permission before you <quote>use</quote> a copyrighted work in any way. The "
19405 "<quote>No Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe you should be able to do "
19406 "with content as you wish, regardless of whether you have permission or not."
19409 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
19410 #: freeculture.xml:14029
19411 msgid "initial free character of"
19415 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
19416 #: freeculture.xml:14031
19418 "When the Internet was first born, its initial architecture effectively "
19419 "tilted in the <quote>no rights reserved</quote> direction. Content could be "
19420 "copied perfectly and cheaply; rights could not easily be controlled. Thus, "
19421 "regardless of anyone's desire, the effective regime of copyright under the "
19422 "original design of the Internet was <quote>no rights reserved.</quote> "
19423 "Content was <quote>taken</quote> regardless of the rights. Any rights were "
19424 "effectively unprotected."
19427 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
19428 #: freeculture.xml:14043
19430 "This initial character produced a reaction (opposite, but not quite equal) "
19431 "by copyright owners. That reaction has been the topic of this book. Through "
19432 "legislation, litigation, and changes to the network's design, copyright "
19433 "holders have been able to change the essential character of the environment "
19434 "of the original Internet. If the original architecture made the effective "
19435 "default <quote>no rights reserved,</quote> the future architecture will make "
19436 "the effective default <quote>all rights reserved.</quote> The architecture "
19437 "and law that surround the Internet's design will increasingly produce an "
19438 "environment where all use of content requires permission. The <quote>cut "
19439 "and paste</quote> world that defines the Internet today will become a "
19440 "<quote>get permission to cut and paste</quote> world that is a creator's "
19444 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
19445 #: freeculture.xml:14059
19447 "What's needed is a way to say something in the middle—neither "
19448 "<quote>all rights reserved</quote> nor <quote>no rights reserved</quote> but "
19449 "<quote>some rights reserved</quote>— and thus a way to respect "
19450 "copyrights but enable creators to free content as they see fit. In other "
19451 "words, we need a way to restore a set of freedoms that we could just take "
19452 "for granted before."
19455 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19456 #: freeculture.xml:14067
19457 msgid "Rebuilding Freedoms Previously Presumed: Examples"
19460 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19461 #: freeculture.xml:14068
19462 msgid "restoration efforts on previous aspects of"
19465 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19466 #: freeculture.xml:14070
19467 msgid "privacy rights"
19470 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19471 #: freeculture.xml:14072
19473 "If you step back from the battle I've been describing here, you will "
19474 "recognize this problem from other contexts. Think about privacy. Before the "
19475 "Internet, most of us didn't have to worry much about data about our lives "
19476 "that we broadcast to the world. If you walked into a bookstore and browsed "
19477 "through some of the works of Karl Marx, you didn't need to worry about "
19478 "explaining your browsing habits to your neighbors or boss. The "
19479 "<quote>privacy</quote> of your browsing habits was assured."
19482 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19483 #: freeculture.xml:14082
19484 msgid "What made it assured?"
19487 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19488 #: freeculture.xml:14086
19490 "Well, if we think in terms of the modalities I described in chapter <xref "
19491 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, your privacy was "
19492 "assured because of an inefficient architecture for gathering data and hence "
19493 "a market constraint (cost) on anyone who wanted to gather that data. If you "
19494 "were a suspected spy for North Korea, working for the CIA, no doubt your "
19495 "privacy would not be assured. But that's because the CIA would (we hope) "
19496 "find it valuable enough to spend the thousands required to track you. But "
19497 "for most of us (again, we can hope), spying doesn't pay. The highly "
19498 "inefficient architecture of real space means we all enjoy a fairly robust "
19499 "amount of privacy. That privacy is guaranteed to us by friction. Not by law "
19500 "(there is no law protecting <quote>privacy</quote> in public places), and in "
19501 "many places, not by norms (snooping and gossip are just fun), but instead, "
19502 "by the costs that friction imposes on anyone who would want to spy."
19505 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19506 #: freeculture.xml:14101
19510 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19511 #: freeculture.xml:14102
19512 msgid "cookies, Internet"
19515 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19516 #: freeculture.xml:14103
19517 msgid "privacy protection on"
19520 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19521 #: freeculture.xml:14105
19523 "Enter the Internet, where the cost of tracking browsing in particular has "
19524 "become quite tiny. If you're a customer at Amazon, then as you browse the "
19525 "pages, Amazon collects the data about what you've looked at. You know this "
19526 "because at the side of the page, there's a list of <quote>recently "
19527 "viewed</quote> pages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net and the "
19528 "function of cookies on the Net, it is easier to collect the data than "
19529 "not. The friction has disappeared, and hence any <quote>privacy</quote> "
19530 "protected by the friction disappears, too."
19533 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19534 #: freeculture.xml:14114
19535 msgid "privacy rights in use of"
19538 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19539 #: freeculture.xml:14116
19541 "Amazon, of course, is not the problem. But we might begin to worry about "
19542 "libraries. If you're one of those crazy lefties who thinks that people "
19543 "should have the <quote>right</quote> to browse in a library without the "
19544 "government knowing which books you look at (I'm one of those lefties, too), "
19545 "then this change in the technology of monitoring might concern you. If it "
19546 "becomes simple to gather and sort who does what in electronic spaces, then "
19547 "the friction-induced privacy of yesterday disappears."
19551 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19552 #: freeculture.xml:14134
19554 "See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, <quote>Fair Information Practices and the "
19555 "Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get),</quote> "
19556 "<citetitle>Stanford Technology Law Review</citetitle> 1 (2001): "
19557 "par. 6–18, available at <ulink "
19558 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink> (describing examples "
19559 "in which technology defines privacy policy). See also Jeffrey Rosen, "
19560 "<citetitle>The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious "
19561 "Age</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2004) (mapping tradeoffs between "
19562 "technology and privacy)."
19566 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19567 #: freeculture.xml:14128
19569 "It is this reality that explains the push of many to define "
19570 "<quote>privacy</quote> on the Internet. It is the recognition that "
19571 "technology can remove what friction before gave us that leads many to push "
19572 "for laws to do what friction did.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
19573 "And whether you're in favor of those laws or not, it is the pattern that is "
19574 "important here. We must take affirmative steps to secure a kind of freedom "
19575 "that was passively provided before. A change in technology now forces those "
19576 "who believe in privacy to affirmatively act where, before, privacy was given "
19580 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19581 #: freeculture.xml:14153
19582 msgid "Data General"
19585 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19586 #: freeculture.xml:14157
19588 "A similar story could be told about the birth of the free software "
19589 "movement. When computers with software were first made available "
19590 "commercially, the software—both the source code and the "
19591 "binaries— was free. You couldn't run a program written for a Data "
19592 "General machine on an IBM machine, so Data General and IBM didn't care much "
19593 "about controlling their software."
19596 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19597 #: freeculture.xml:14164
19598 msgid "Stallman, Richard"
19601 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19602 #: freeculture.xml:14166
19604 "That was the world Richard Stallman was born into, and while he was a "
19605 "researcher at MIT, he grew to love the community that developed when one was "
19606 "free to explore and tinker with the software that ran on machines. Being a "
19607 "smart sort himself, and a talented programmer, Stallman grew to depend upon "
19608 "the freedom to add to or modify other people's work."
19611 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19612 #: freeculture.xml:14174
19614 "In an academic setting, at least, that's not a terribly radical idea. In a "
19615 "math department, anyone would be free to tinker with a proof that someone "
19616 "offered. If you thought you had a better way to prove a theorem, you could "
19617 "take what someone else did and change it. In a classics department, if you "
19618 "believed a colleague's translation of a recently discovered text was flawed, "
19619 "you were free to improve it. Thus, to Stallman, it seemed obvious that you "
19620 "should be free to tinker with and improve the code that ran a machine. This, "
19621 "too, was knowledge. Why shouldn't it be open for criticism like anything "
19625 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19626 #: freeculture.xml:14185
19627 msgid "proprietary code"
19630 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19631 #: freeculture.xml:14187
19633 "No one answered that question. Instead, the architecture of revenue for "
19634 "computing changed. As it became possible to import programs from one system "
19635 "to another, it became economically attractive (at least in the view of some) "
19636 "to hide the code of your program. So, too, as companies started selling "
19637 "peripherals for mainframe systems. If I could just take your printer driver "
19638 "and copy it, then that would make it easier for me to sell a printer to the "
19639 "market than it was for you."
19643 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19644 #: freeculture.xml:14196
19646 "Thus, the practice of proprietary code began to spread, and by the early "
19647 "1980s, Stallman found himself surrounded by proprietary code. The world of "
19648 "free software had been erased by a change in the economics of computing. And "
19649 "as he believed, if he did nothing about it, then the freedom to change and "
19650 "share software would be fundamentally weakened."
19653 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19654 #: freeculture.xml:14205
19655 msgid "Torvalds, Linus"
19658 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19659 #: freeculture.xml:14207
19661 "Therefore, in 1984, Stallman began a project to build a free operating "
19662 "system, so that at least a strain of free software would survive. That was "
19663 "the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's "
19664 "<quote>Linux</quote> kernel was added to produce the GNU/Linux operating "
19665 "system. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
19666 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
19669 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19670 #: freeculture.xml:14215
19672 "Stallman's technique was to use copyright law to build a world of software "
19673 "that must be kept free. Software licensed under the Free Software "
19674 "Foundation's GPL cannot be modified and distributed unless the source code "
19675 "for that software is made available as well. Thus, anyone building upon "
19676 "GPL'd software would have to make their buildings free as well. This would "
19677 "assure, Stallman believed, that an ecology of code would develop that "
19678 "remained free for others to build upon. His fundamental goal was freedom; "
19679 "innovative creative code was a byproduct."
19682 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19683 #: freeculture.xml:14226
19685 "Stallman was thus doing for software what privacy advocates now do for "
19686 "privacy. He was seeking a way to rebuild a kind of freedom that was taken "
19687 "for granted before. Through the affirmative use of licenses that bind "
19688 "copyrighted code, Stallman was affirmatively reclaiming a space where free "
19689 "software would survive. He was actively protecting what before had been "
19690 "passively guaranteed."
19693 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19694 #: freeculture.xml:14236
19695 msgid "scientific journals"
19698 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19699 #: freeculture.xml:14238
19701 "Finally, consider a very recent example that more directly resonates with "
19702 "the story of this book. This is the shift in the way academic and scientific "
19703 "journals are produced."
19706 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19707 #: freeculture.xml:14242
19708 msgid "Lexis and Westlaw"
19711 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19712 #: freeculture.xml:14244 freeculture.xml:14280
19713 msgid "journals in"
19716 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19717 #: freeculture.xml:14245
19718 msgid "access to opinions of"
19722 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19723 #: freeculture.xml:14247
19725 "As digital technologies develop, it is becoming obvious to many that "
19726 "printing thousands of copies of journals every month and sending them to "
19727 "libraries is perhaps not the most efficient way to distribute "
19728 "knowledge. Instead, journals are increasingly becoming electronic, and "
19729 "libraries and their users are given access to these electronic journals "
19730 "through password-protected sites. Something similar to this has been "
19731 "happening in law for almost thirty years: Lexis and Westlaw have had "
19732 "electronic versions of case reports available to subscribers to their "
19733 "service. Although a Supreme Court opinion is not copyrighted, and anyone is "
19734 "free to go to a library and read it, Lexis and Westlaw are also free to "
19735 "charge users for the privilege of gaining access to that Supreme Court "
19736 "opinion through their respective services."
19739 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19740 #: freeculture.xml:14262
19741 msgid "access fees for material in"
19744 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19745 #: freeculture.xml:14263
19746 msgid "license system for rebuilding of"
19749 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19750 #: freeculture.xml:14265
19752 "There's nothing wrong in general with this, and indeed, the ability to "
19753 "charge for access to even public domain materials is a good incentive for "
19754 "people to develop new and innovative ways to spread knowledge. The law has "
19755 "agreed, which is why Lexis and Westlaw have been allowed to flourish. And if "
19756 "there's nothing wrong with selling the public domain, then there could be "
19757 "nothing wrong, in principle, with selling access to material that is not in "
19758 "the public domain."
19761 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19762 #: freeculture.xml:14276
19764 "But what if the only way to get access to social and scientific data was "
19765 "through proprietary services? What if no one had the ability to browse this "
19766 "data except by paying for a subscription?"
19769 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19770 #: freeculture.xml:14282
19772 "As many are beginning to notice, this is increasingly the reality with "
19773 "scientific journals. When these journals were distributed in paper form, "
19774 "libraries could make the journals available to anyone who had access to the "
19775 "library. Thus, patients with cancer could become cancer experts because the "
19776 "library gave them access. Or patients trying to understand the risks of a "
19777 "certain treatment could research those risks by reading all available "
19778 "articles about that treatment. This freedom was therefore a function of the "
19779 "institution of libraries (norms) and the technology of paper journals "
19780 "(architecture)—namely, that it was very hard to control access to a "
19784 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19785 #: freeculture.xml:14294
19787 "As journals become electronic, however, the publishers are demanding that "
19788 "libraries not give the general public access to the journals. This means "
19789 "that the freedoms provided by print journals in public libraries begin to "
19790 "disappear. Thus, as with privacy and with software, a changing technology "
19791 "and market shrink a freedom taken for granted before."
19795 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19796 #: freeculture.xml:14304
19798 "This shrinking freedom has led many to take affirmative steps to restore the "
19799 "freedom that has been lost. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), for "
19800 "example, is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making scientific research "
19801 "available to anyone with a Web connection. Authors of scientific work submit "
19802 "that work to the Public Library of Science. That work is then subject to "
19803 "peer review. If accepted, the work is then deposited in a public, electronic "
19804 "archive and made permanently available for free. PLoS also sells a print "
19805 "version of its work, but the copyright for the print journal does not "
19806 "inhibit the right of anyone to redistribute the work for free."
19809 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19810 #: freeculture.xml:14318
19812 "This is one of many such efforts to restore a freedom taken for granted "
19813 "before, but now threatened by changing technology and markets. There's no "
19814 "doubt that this alternative competes with the traditional publishers and "
19815 "their efforts to make money from the exclusive distribution of content. But "
19816 "competition in our tradition is presumptively a good—especially when "
19817 "it helps spread knowledge and science."
19820 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19821 #: freeculture.xml:14331
19822 msgid "Rebuilding Free Culture: One Idea"
19825 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19826 #: freeculture.xml:14334
19828 "The same strategy could be applied to culture, as a response to the "
19829 "increasing control effected through law and technology."
19832 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19833 #: freeculture.xml:14337
19834 msgid "Stanford University"
19837 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19838 #: freeculture.xml:14339
19840 "Enter the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation "
19841 "established in Massachusetts, but with its home at Stanford University. Its "
19842 "aim is to build a layer of <emphasis>reasonable</emphasis> copyright on top "
19843 "of the extremes that now reign. It does this by making it easy for people to "
19844 "build upon other people's work, by making it simple for creators to express "
19845 "the freedom for others to take and build upon their work. Simple tags, tied "
19846 "to human-readable descriptions, tied to bulletproof licenses, make this "
19851 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19852 #: freeculture.xml:14350
19854 "<emphasis>Simple</emphasis>—which means without a middleman, or "
19855 "without a lawyer. By developing a free set of licenses that people can "
19856 "attach to their content, Creative Commons aims to mark a range of content "
19857 "that can easily, and reliably, be built upon. These tags are then linked to "
19858 "machine-readable versions of the license that enable computers automatically "
19859 "to identify content that can easily be shared. These three expressions "
19860 "together—a legal license, a human-readable description, and "
19861 "machine-readable tags—constitute a Creative Commons license. A "
19862 "Creative Commons license constitutes a grant of freedom to anyone who "
19863 "accesses the license, and more importantly, an expression of the ideal that "
19864 "the person associated with the license believes in something different than "
19865 "the <quote>All</quote> or <quote>No</quote> extremes. Content is marked with "
19866 "the CC mark, which does not mean that copyright is waived, but that certain "
19867 "freedoms are given."
19870 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19871 #: freeculture.xml:14368
19873 "These freedoms are beyond the freedoms promised by fair use. Their precise "
19874 "contours depend upon the choices the creator makes. The creator can choose a "
19875 "license that permits any use, so long as attribution is given. She can "
19876 "choose a license that permits only noncommercial use. She can choose a "
19877 "license that permits any use so long as the same freedoms are given to other "
19878 "uses (<quote>share and share alike</quote>). Or any use so long as no "
19879 "derivative use is made. Or any use at all within developing nations. Or any "
19880 "sampling use, so long as full copies are not made. Or lastly, any "
19884 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19885 #: freeculture.xml:14379
19887 "These choices thus establish a range of freedoms beyond the default of "
19888 "copyright law. They also enable freedoms that go beyond traditional fair "
19889 "use. And most importantly, they express these freedoms in a way that "
19890 "subsequent users can use and rely upon without the need to hire a "
19891 "lawyer. Creative Commons thus aims to build a layer of content, governed by "
19892 "a layer of reasonable copyright law, that others can build upon. Voluntary "
19893 "choice of individuals and creators will make this content available. And "
19894 "that content will in turn enable us to rebuild a public domain."
19897 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19898 #: freeculture.xml:14389
19899 msgid "Garlick, Mia"
19903 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19904 #: freeculture.xml:14391
19906 "This is just one project among many within the Creative Commons. And of "
19907 "course, Creative Commons is not the only organization pursuing such "
19908 "freedoms. But the point that distinguishes the Creative Commons from many is "
19909 "that we are not interested only in talking about a public domain or in "
19910 "getting legislators to help build a public domain. Our aim is to build a "
19911 "movement of consumers and producers of content (<quote>content "
19912 "conducers,</quote> as attorney Mia Garlick calls them) who help build the "
19913 "public domain and, by their work, demonstrate the importance of the public "
19914 "domain to other creativity."
19917 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19918 #: freeculture.xml:14404
19920 "The aim is not to fight the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts. The "
19921 "aim is to complement them. The problems that the law creates for us as a "
19922 "culture are produced by insane and unintended consequences of laws written "
19923 "centuries ago, applied to a technology that only Jefferson could have "
19924 "imagined. The rules may well have made sense against a background of "
19925 "technologies from centuries ago, but they do not make sense against the "
19926 "background of digital technologies. New rules—with different freedoms, "
19927 "expressed in ways so that humans without lawyers can use them—are "
19928 "needed. Creative Commons gives people a way effectively to begin to build "
19932 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19933 #: freeculture.xml:14417
19935 "Why would creators participate in giving up total control? Some participate "
19936 "to better spread their content. Cory Doctorow, for example, is a science "
19937 "fiction author. His first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
19938 "Kingdom</citetitle>, was released on-line and for free, under a Creative "
19939 "Commons license, on the same day that it went on sale in bookstores."
19942 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19943 #: freeculture.xml:14424
19945 "Why would a publisher ever agree to this? I suspect his publisher reasoned "
19946 "like this: There are two groups of people out there: (1) those who will buy "
19947 "Cory's book whether or not it's on the Internet, and (2) those who may never "
19948 "hear of Cory's book, if it isn't made available for free on the "
19949 "Internet. Some part of (1) will download Cory's book instead of buying "
19950 "it. Call them bad-(1)s. Some part of (2) will download Cory's book, like "
19951 "it, and then decide to buy it. Call them (2)-goods. If there are more "
19952 "(2)-goods than bad-(1)s, the strategy of releasing Cory's book free on-line "
19953 "will probably <emphasis>increase</emphasis> sales of Cory's book."
19956 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19957 #: freeculture.xml:14436
19959 "Indeed, the experience of his publisher clearly supports that conclusion. "
19960 "The book's first printing was exhausted months before the publisher had "
19961 "expected. This first novel of a science fiction author was a total success."
19964 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19965 #: freeculture.xml:14441
19966 msgid "Free for All (Wayner)"
19969 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19970 #: freeculture.xml:14442
19971 msgid "Wayner, Peter"
19975 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19976 #: freeculture.xml:14444
19978 "The idea that free content might increase the value of nonfree content was "
19979 "confirmed by the experience of another author. Peter Wayner, who wrote a "
19980 "book about the free software movement titled <citetitle>Free for "
19981 "All</citetitle>, made an electronic version of his book free on-line under a "
19982 "Creative Commons license after the book went out of print. He then monitored "
19983 "used book store prices for the book. As predicted, as the number of "
19984 "downloads increased, the used book price for his book increased, as well."
19987 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19988 #: freeculture.xml:14455
19989 msgid "Public Enemy"
19992 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19993 #: freeculture.xml:14456
19997 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19998 #: freeculture.xml:14457
19999 msgid "Leaphart, Walter"
20003 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20004 #: freeculture.xml:14474
20006 "<citetitle>Willful Infringement: A Report from the Front Lines of the Real "
20007 "Culture Wars</citetitle> (2003), produced by Jed Horovitz, directed by Greg "
20008 "Hittelman, a Fiat Lucre production, available at <ulink "
20009 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink>."
20012 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20013 #: freeculture.xml:14459
20015 "These are examples of using the Commons to better spread proprietary "
20016 "content. I believe that is a wonderful and common use of the Commons. There "
20017 "are others who use Creative Commons licenses for other reasons. Many who use "
20018 "the <quote>sampling license</quote> do so because anything else would be "
20019 "hypocritical. The sampling license says that others are free, for commercial "
20020 "or noncommercial purposes, to sample content from the licensed work; they "
20021 "are just not free to make full copies of the licensed work available to "
20022 "others. This is consistent with their own art—they, too, sample from "
20023 "others. Because the <emphasis>legal</emphasis> costs of sampling are so high "
20024 "(Walter Leaphart, manager of the rap group Public Enemy, which was born "
20025 "sampling the music of others, has stated that he does not "
20026 "<quote>allow</quote> Public Enemy to sample anymore, because the legal costs "
20027 "are so high<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), these artists release "
20028 "into the creative environment content that others can build upon, so that "
20029 "their form of creativity might grow."
20032 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20033 #: freeculture.xml:14483
20035 "Finally, there are many who mark their content with a Creative Commons "
20036 "license just because they want to express to others the importance of "
20037 "balance in this debate. If you just go along with the system as it is, you "
20038 "are effectively saying you believe in the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> "
20039 "model. Good for you, but many do not. Many believe that however appropriate "
20040 "that rule is for Hollywood and freaks, it is not an appropriate description "
20041 "of how most creators view the rights associated with their content. The "
20042 "Creative Commons license expresses this notion of <quote>Some Rights "
20043 "Reserved,</quote> and gives many the chance to say it to others."
20047 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20048 #: freeculture.xml:14495
20050 "In the first six months of the Creative Commons experiment, over 1 million "
20051 "objects were licensed with these free-culture licenses. The next step is "
20052 "partnerships with middleware content providers to help them build into their "
20053 "technologies simple ways for users to mark their content with Creative "
20054 "Commons freedoms. Then the next step is to watch and celebrate creators who "
20055 "build content based upon content set free."
20058 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20059 #: freeculture.xml:14505
20061 "These are first steps to rebuilding a public domain. They are not mere "
20062 "arguments; they are action. Building a public domain is the first step to "
20063 "showing people how important that domain is to creativity and "
20064 "innovation. Creative Commons relies upon voluntary steps to achieve this "
20065 "rebuilding. They will lead to a world in which more than voluntary steps are "
20069 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20070 #: freeculture.xml:14513
20072 "Creative Commons is just one example of voluntary efforts by individuals and "
20073 "creators to change the mix of rights that now govern the creative field. The "
20074 "project does not compete with copyright; it complements it. Its aim is not "
20075 "to defeat the rights of authors, but to make it easier for authors and "
20076 "creators to exercise their rights more flexibly and cheaply. That "
20077 "difference, we believe, will enable creativity to spread more easily."
20080 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
20081 #: freeculture.xml:14527
20085 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
20086 #: freeculture.xml:14529
20088 "<emphasis role='strong'>We will</emphasis> not reclaim a free culture by "
20089 "individual action alone. It will also take important reforms of laws. We "
20090 "have a long way to go before the politicians will listen to these ideas and "
20091 "implement these reforms. But that also means that we have time to build "
20092 "awareness around the changes that we need."
20095 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
20096 #: freeculture.xml:14536
20098 "In this chapter, I outline five kinds of changes: four that are general, and "
20099 "one that's specific to the most heated battle of the day, music. Each is a "
20100 "step, not an end. But any of these steps would carry us a long way to our "
20104 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
20105 #: freeculture.xml:14543
20106 msgid "1. More Formalities"
20109 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20110 #: freeculture.xml:14545
20112 "If you buy a house, you have to record the sale in a deed. If you buy land "
20113 "upon which to build a house, you have to record the purchase in a deed. If "
20114 "you buy a car, you get a bill of sale and register the car. If you buy an "
20115 "airplane ticket, it has your name on it."
20119 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20120 #: freeculture.xml:14552
20122 "These are all formalities associated with property. They are requirements "
20123 "that we all must bear if we want our property to be protected."
20126 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20127 #: freeculture.xml:14557
20129 "In contrast, under current copyright law, you automatically get a copyright, "
20130 "regardless of whether you comply with any formality. You don't have to "
20131 "register. You don't even have to mark your content. The default is control, "
20132 "and <quote>formalities</quote> are banished."
20135 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20136 #: freeculture.xml:14563
20140 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20141 #: freeculture.xml:14566
20143 "As I suggested in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
20144 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, the motivation to abolish formalities was a good "
20145 "one. In the world before digital technologies, formalities imposed a burden "
20146 "on copyright holders without much benefit. Thus, it was progress when the "
20147 "law relaxed the formal requirements that a copyright owner must bear to "
20148 "protect and secure his work. Those formalities were getting in the way."
20151 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20152 #: freeculture.xml:14575
20154 "But the Internet changes all this. Formalities today need not be a "
20155 "burden. Rather, the world without formalities is the world that burdens "
20156 "creativity. Today, there is no simple way to know who owns what, or with "
20157 "whom one must deal in order to use or build upon the creative work of "
20158 "others. There are no records, there is no system to trace— there is no "
20159 "simple way to know how to get permission. Yet given the massive increase in "
20160 "the scope of copyright's rule, getting permission is a necessary step for "
20161 "any work that builds upon our past. And thus, the <emphasis>lack</emphasis> "
20162 "of formalities forces many into silence where they otherwise could speak."
20166 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20167 #: freeculture.xml:14589
20169 "The proposal I am advancing here would apply to American works only. "
20170 "Obviously, I believe it would be beneficial for the same idea to be adopted "
20171 "by other countries as well."
20174 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20175 #: freeculture.xml:14587
20177 "The law should therefore change this requirement<placeholder "
20178 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—but it should not change it by going back "
20179 "to the old, broken system. We should require formalities, but we should "
20180 "establish a system that will create the incentives to minimize the burden of "
20181 "these formalities."
20184 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20185 #: freeculture.xml:14597
20187 "The important formalities are three: marking copyrighted work, registering "
20188 "copyrights, and renewing the claim to copyright. Traditionally, the first of "
20189 "these three was something the copyright owner did; the second two were "
20190 "something the government did. But a revised system of formalities would "
20191 "banish the government from the process, except for the sole purpose of "
20192 "approving standards developed by others."
20195 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
20196 #: freeculture.xml:14609
20197 msgid "Registration and renewal"
20200 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20201 #: freeculture.xml:14611
20203 "Under the old system, a copyright owner had to file a registration with the "
20204 "Copyright Office to register or renew a copyright. When filing that "
20205 "registration, the copyright owner paid a fee. As with most government "
20206 "agencies, the Copyright Office had little incentive to minimize the burden "
20207 "of registration; it also had little incentive to minimize the fee. And as "
20208 "the Copyright Office is not a main target of government policymaking, the "
20209 "office has historically been terribly underfunded. Thus, when people who "
20210 "know something about the process hear this idea about formalities, their "
20211 "first reaction is panic—nothing could be worse than forcing people to "
20212 "deal with the mess that is the Copyright Office."
20215 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20216 #: freeculture.xml:14624
20218 "Yet it is always astonishing to me that we, who come from a tradition of "
20219 "extraordinary innovation in governmental design, can no longer think "
20220 "innovatively about how governmental functions can be designed. Just because "
20221 "there is a public purpose to a government role, it doesn't follow that the "
20222 "government must actually administer the role. Instead, we should be creating "
20223 "incentives for private parties to serve the public, subject to standards "
20224 "that the government sets."
20227 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20228 #: freeculture.xml:14633
20230 "In the context of registration, one obvious model is the Internet. There "
20231 "are at least 32 million Web sites registered around the world. Domain name "
20232 "owners for these Web sites have to pay a fee to keep their registration "
20233 "alive. In the main top-level domains (.com, .org, .net), there is a central "
20234 "registry. The actual registrations are, however, performed by many competing "
20235 "registrars. That competition drives the cost of registering down, and more "
20236 "importantly, it drives the ease with which registration occurs up."
20240 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20241 #: freeculture.xml:14643
20243 "We should adopt a similar model for the registration and renewal of "
20244 "copyrights. The Copyright Office may well serve as the central registry, but "
20245 "it should not be in the registrar business. Instead, it should establish a "
20246 "database, and a set of standards for registrars. It should approve "
20247 "registrars that meet its standards. Those registrars would then compete with "
20248 "one another to deliver the cheapest and simplest systems for registering and "
20249 "renewing copyrights. That competition would substantially lower the burden "
20250 "of this formality—while producing a database of registrations that "
20251 "would facilitate the licensing of content."
20254 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
20255 #: freeculture.xml:14658
20259 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20260 #: freeculture.xml:14660
20262 "It used to be that the failure to include a copyright notice on a creative "
20263 "work meant that the copyright was forfeited. That was a harsh punishment for "
20264 "failing to comply with a regulatory rule—akin to imposing the death "
20265 "penalty for a parking ticket in the world of creative rights. Here again, "
20266 "there is no reason that a marking requirement needs to be enforced in this "
20267 "way. And more importantly, there is no reason a marking requirement needs to "
20268 "be enforced uniformly across all media."
20271 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20272 #: freeculture.xml:14670
20274 "The aim of marking is to signal to the public that this work is copyrighted "
20275 "and that the author wants to enforce his rights. The mark also makes it easy "
20276 "to locate a copyright owner to secure permission to use the work."
20279 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20280 #: freeculture.xml:14676
20282 "One of the problems the copyright system confronted early on was that "
20283 "different copyrighted works had to be differently marked. It wasn't clear "
20284 "how or where a statue was to be marked, or a record, or a film. A new "
20285 "marking requirement could solve these problems by recognizing the "
20286 "differences in media, and by allowing the system of marking to evolve as "
20287 "technologies enable it to. The system could enable a special signal from the "
20288 "failure to mark—not the loss of the copyright, but the loss of the "
20289 "right to punish someone for failing to get permission first."
20293 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20294 #: freeculture.xml:14693
20296 "There would be a complication with derivative works that I have not solved "
20297 "here. In my view, the law of derivatives creates a more complicated system "
20298 "than is justified by the marginal incentive it creates."
20302 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20303 #: freeculture.xml:14686
20305 "Let's start with the last point. If a copyright owner allows his work to be "
20306 "published without a copyright notice, the consequence of that failure need "
20307 "not be that the copyright is lost. The consequence could instead be that "
20308 "anyone has the right to use this work, until the copyright owner complains "
20309 "and demonstrates that it is his work and he doesn't give "
20310 "permission.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The meaning of an "
20311 "unmarked work would therefore be <quote>use unless someone "
20312 "complains.</quote> If someone does complain, then the obligation would be to "
20313 "stop using the work in any new work from then on though no penalty would "
20314 "attach for existing uses. This would create a strong incentive for "
20315 "copyright owners to mark their work."
20318 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20319 #: freeculture.xml:14706
20321 "That in turn raises the question about how work should best be marked. Here "
20322 "again, the system needs to adjust as the technologies evolve. The best way "
20323 "to ensure that the system evolves is to limit the Copyright Office's role to "
20324 "that of approving standards for marking content that have been crafted "
20328 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
20329 #: freeculture.xml:14712
20330 msgid "copyright marking of"
20333 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20334 #: freeculture.xml:14714
20336 "For example, if a recording industry association devises a method for "
20337 "marking CDs, it would propose that to the Copyright Office. The Copyright "
20338 "Office would hold a hearing, at which other proposals could be made. The "
20339 "Copyright Office would then select the proposal that it judged preferable, "
20340 "and it would base that choice <emphasis>solely</emphasis> upon the "
20341 "consideration of which method could best be integrated into the registration "
20342 "and renewal system. We would not count on the government to innovate; but we "
20343 "would count on the government to keep the product of innovation in line with "
20344 "its other important functions."
20347 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20348 #: freeculture.xml:14726
20350 "Finally, marking content clearly would simplify registration requirements. "
20351 "If photographs were marked by author and year, there would be little reason "
20352 "not to allow a photographer to reregister, for example, all photographs "
20353 "taken in a particular year in one quick step. The aim of the formality is "
20354 "not to burden the creator; the system itself should be kept as simple as "
20358 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20359 #: freeculture.xml:14734
20361 "The objective of formalities is to make things clear. The existing system "
20362 "does nothing to make things clear. Indeed, it seems designed to make things "
20366 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
20367 #: freeculture.xml:14739
20369 "If formalities such as registration were reinstated, one of the most "
20370 "difficult aspects of relying upon the public domain would be removed. It "
20371 "would be simple to identify what content is presumptively free; it would be "
20372 "simple to identify who controls the rights for a particular kind of content; "
20373 "it would be simple to assert those rights, and to renew that assertion at "
20374 "the appropriate time."
20377 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
20378 #: freeculture.xml:14751
20379 msgid "2. Shorter Terms"
20382 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20383 #: freeculture.xml:14753
20385 "The term of copyright has gone from fourteen years to ninety-five years for "
20386 "corporate authors, and life of the author plus seventy years for natural "
20391 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20392 #: freeculture.xml:14766
20394 "<quote>A Radical Rethink,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 366:8308 "
20395 "(25 January 2003): 15, available at <ulink "
20396 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #74</ulink>."
20399 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20400 #: freeculture.xml:14758
20402 "In <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>, I proposed a "
20403 "seventy-five-year term, granted in five-year increments with a requirement "
20404 "of renewal every five years. That seemed radical enough at the time. But "
20405 "after we lost <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
20406 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, the proposals became even more "
20407 "radical. <citetitle>The Economist</citetitle> endorsed a proposal for a "
20408 "fourteen-year copyright term.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
20409 "Others have proposed tying the term to the term for patents."
20412 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20413 #: freeculture.xml:14773
20415 "I agree with those who believe that we need a radical change in copyright's "
20416 "term. But whether fourteen years or seventy-five, there are four principles "
20417 "that are important to keep in mind about copyright terms."
20421 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20422 #: freeculture.xml:14781
20424 "<emphasis>Keep it short:</emphasis> The term should be as long as necessary "
20425 "to give incentives to create, but no longer. If it were tied to very strong "
20426 "protections for authors (so authors were able to reclaim rights from "
20427 "publishers), rights to the same work (not derivative works) might be "
20428 "extended further. The key is not to tie the work up with legal regulations "
20429 "when it no longer benefits an author."
20434 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20435 #: freeculture.xml:14790
20437 "<emphasis>Keep it simple:</emphasis> The line between the public domain and "
20438 "protected content must be kept clear. Lawyers like the fuzziness of "
20439 "<quote>fair use,</quote> and the distinction between <quote>ideas</quote> "
20440 "and <quote>expression.</quote> That kind of law gives them lots of work. But "
20441 "our framers had a simpler idea in mind: protected versus unprotected. The "
20442 "value of short terms is that there is little need to build exceptions into "
20443 "copyright when the term itself is kept short. A clear and active "
20444 "<quote>lawyer-free zone</quote> makes the complexities of <quote>fair "
20445 "use</quote> and <quote>idea/expression</quote> less necessary to navigate."
20448 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
20449 #: freeculture.xml:14802
20450 msgid "veterans' pensions"
20454 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><footnote><para>
20455 #: freeculture.xml:14813
20457 "Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran's Application for Compensation "
20458 "and/or Pension, VA Form 21-526 (OMB Approved No. 2900-0001), available at "
20459 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #75</ulink>."
20462 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20463 #: freeculture.xml:14805
20465 "<emphasis>Keep it alive:</emphasis> Copyright should have to be renewed. "
20466 "Especially if the maximum term is long, the copyright owner should be "
20467 "required to signal periodically that he wants the protection continued. This "
20468 "need not be an onerous burden, but there is no reason this monopoly "
20469 "protection has to be granted for free. On average, it takes ninety minutes "
20470 "for a veteran to apply for a pension.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
20471 "id=\"0\"/> If we make veterans suffer that burden, I don't see why we "
20472 "couldn't require authors to spend ten minutes every fifty years to file a "
20477 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20478 #: freeculture.xml:14824
20480 "<emphasis>Keep it prospective:</emphasis> Whatever the term of copyright "
20481 "should be, the clearest lesson that economists teach is that a term once "
20482 "given should not be extended. It might have been a mistake in 1923 for the "
20483 "law to offer authors only a fifty-six-year term. I don't think so, but it's "
20484 "possible. If it was a mistake, then the consequence was that we got fewer "
20485 "authors to create in 1923 than we otherwise would have. But we can't correct "
20486 "that mistake today by increasing the term. No matter what we do today, we "
20487 "will not increase the number of authors who wrote in 1923. Of course, we can "
20488 "increase the reward that those who write now get (or alternatively, increase "
20489 "the copyright burden that smothers many works that are today invisible). But "
20490 "increasing their reward will not increase their creativity in 1923. What's "
20491 "not done is not done, and there's nothing we can do about that now."
20494 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20495 #: freeculture.xml:14840
20497 "These changes together should produce an <emphasis>average</emphasis> "
20498 "copyright term that is much shorter than the current term. Until 1976, the "
20499 "average term was just 32.2 years. We should be aiming for the same."
20502 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20503 #: freeculture.xml:14846
20505 "No doubt the extremists will call these ideas <quote>radical.</quote> (After "
20506 "all, I call them <quote>extremists.</quote>) But again, the term I "
20507 "recommended was longer than the term under Richard Nixon. How "
20508 "<quote>radical</quote> can it be to ask for a more generous copyright law "
20509 "than Richard Nixon presided over?"
20512 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
20513 #: freeculture.xml:14856
20514 msgid "3. Free Use Vs. Fair Use"
20517 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20518 #: freeculture.xml:14860
20520 "As I observed at the beginning of this book, property law originally granted "
20521 "property owners the right to control their property from the ground to the "
20522 "heavens. The airplane came along. The scope of property rights quickly "
20523 "changed. There was no fuss, no constitutional challenge. It made no sense "
20524 "anymore to grant that much control, given the emergence of that new "
20528 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20529 #: freeculture.xml:14868
20531 "Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors <quote>exclusive "
20532 "right</quote> to <quote>their writings.</quote> Congress has given authors "
20533 "an exclusive right to <quote>their writings</quote> plus any derivative "
20534 "writings (made by others) that are sufficiently close to the author's "
20535 "original work. Thus, if I write a book, and you base a movie on that book, I "
20536 "have the power to deny you the right to release that movie, even though that "
20537 "movie is not <quote>my writing.</quote>"
20540 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20541 #: freeculture.xml:14876
20542 msgid "Kaplan, Benjamin"
20546 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20547 #: freeculture.xml:14882
20549 "Benjamin Kaplan, <citetitle>An Unhurried View of Copyright</citetitle> (New "
20550 "York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 32."
20553 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20554 #: freeculture.xml:14878
20556 "Congress granted the beginnings of this right in 1870, when it expanded the "
20557 "exclusive right of copyright to include a right to control translations and "
20558 "dramatizations of a work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
20559 "courts have expanded it slowly through judicial interpretation ever "
20560 "since. This expansion has been commented upon by one of the law's greatest "
20561 "judges, Judge Benjamin Kaplan."
20565 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
20566 #: freeculture.xml:14895
20570 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para>
20571 #: freeculture.xml:14891
20573 "So inured have we become to the extension of the monopoly to a large range "
20574 "of so-called derivative works, that we no longer sense the oddity of "
20575 "accepting such an enlargement of copyright while yet intoning the "
20576 "abracadabra of idea and expression.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
20579 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20580 #: freeculture.xml:14900
20582 "I think it's time to recognize that there are airplanes in this field and "
20583 "the expansiveness of these rights of derivative use no longer make "
20584 "sense. More precisely, they don't make sense for the period of time that a "
20585 "copyright runs. And they don't make sense as an amorphous grant. Consider "
20586 "each limitation in turn."
20589 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20590 #: freeculture.xml:14907
20592 "<emphasis>Term:</emphasis> If Congress wants to grant a derivative right, "
20593 "then that right should be for a much shorter term. It makes sense to protect "
20594 "John Grisham's right to sell the movie rights to his latest novel (or at "
20595 "least I'm willing to assume it does); but it does not make sense for that "
20596 "right to run for the same term as the underlying copyright. The derivative "
20597 "right could be important in inducing creativity; it is not important long "
20598 "after the creative work is done. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
20601 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20602 #: freeculture.xml:14920
20604 "<emphasis>Scope:</emphasis> Likewise should the scope of derivative rights "
20605 "be narrowed. Again, there are some cases in which derivative rights are "
20606 "important. Those should be specified. But the law should draw clear lines "
20607 "around regulated and unregulated uses of copyrighted material. When all "
20608 "<quote>reuse</quote> of creative material was within the control of "
20609 "businesses, perhaps it made sense to require lawyers to negotiate the "
20610 "lines. It no longer makes sense for lawyers to negotiate the lines. Think "
20611 "about all the creative possibilities that digital technologies enable; now "
20612 "imagine pouring molasses into the machines. That's what this general "
20613 "requirement of permission does to the creative process. Smothers it."
20616 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20617 #: freeculture.xml:14934
20619 "This was the point that Alben made when describing the making of the Clint "
20620 "Eastwood CD. While it makes sense to require negotiation for foreseeable "
20621 "derivative rights—turning a book into a movie, or a poem into a "
20622 "musical score—it doesn't make sense to require negotiation for the "
20623 "unforeseeable. Here, a statutory right would make much more sense."
20626 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
20627 #: freeculture.xml:14950
20628 msgid "Goldstein, Paul"
20631 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20632 #: freeculture.xml:14948
20634 "Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the "
20635 "Celestial Jukebox</citetitle> (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), "
20636 "187–216. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
20639 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20640 #: freeculture.xml:14942
20642 "In each of these cases, the law should mark the uses that are protected, and "
20643 "the presumption should be that other uses are not protected. This is the "
20644 "reverse of the recommendation of my colleague Paul Goldstein.<placeholder "
20645 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His view is that the law should be written so "
20646 "that expanded protections follow expanded uses."
20649 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20650 #: freeculture.xml:14956
20652 "Goldstein's analysis would make perfect sense if the cost of the legal "
20653 "system were small. But as we are currently seeing in the context of the "
20654 "Internet, the uncertainty about the scope of protection, and the incentives "
20655 "to protect existing architectures of revenue, combined with a strong "
20656 "copyright, weaken the process of innovation."
20660 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20661 #: freeculture.xml:14963
20663 "The law could remedy this problem either by removing protection beyond the "
20664 "part explicitly drawn or by granting reuse rights upon certain statutory "
20665 "conditions. Either way, the effect would be to free a great deal of culture "
20666 "to others to cultivate. And under a statutory rights regime, that reuse "
20667 "would earn artists more income."
20670 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
20671 #: freeculture.xml:14973
20672 msgid "4. Liberate the Music—Again"
20675 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20676 #: freeculture.xml:14975
20678 "The battle that got this whole war going was about music, so it wouldn't be "
20679 "fair to end this book without addressing the issue that is, to most people, "
20680 "most pressing—music. There is no other policy issue that better "
20681 "teaches the lessons of this book than the battles around the sharing of "
20685 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20686 #: freeculture.xml:14982
20688 "The appeal of file-sharing music was the crack cocaine of the Internet's "
20689 "growth. It drove demand for access to the Internet more powerfully than any "
20690 "other single application. It was the Internet's killer app—possibly in "
20691 "two senses of that word. It no doubt was the application that drove demand "
20692 "for bandwidth. It may well be the application that drives demand for "
20693 "regulations that in the end kill innovation on the network."
20696 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20697 #: freeculture.xml:14991
20699 "The aim of copyright, with respect to content in general and music in "
20700 "particular, is to create the incentives for music to be composed, performed, "
20701 "and, most importantly, spread. The law does this by giving an exclusive "
20702 "right to a composer to control public performances of his work, and to a "
20703 "performing artist to control copies of her performance."
20706 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20707 #: freeculture.xml:14998
20709 "File-sharing networks complicate this model by enabling the spread of "
20710 "content for which the performer has not been paid. But of course, that's not "
20711 "all the file-sharing networks do. As I described in chapter <xref "
20712 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"piracy\"/>, they enable four "
20713 "different kinds of sharing:"
20717 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20718 #: freeculture.xml:15007
20720 "There are some who are using sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
20725 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20726 #: freeculture.xml:15012
20728 "There are also some who are using sharing networks to sample, on the way to "
20734 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20735 #: freeculture.xml:15018
20737 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
20738 "that is no longer sold but is still under copyright or that would have been "
20739 "too cumbersome to buy off the Net."
20743 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
20744 #: freeculture.xml:15024
20746 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
20747 "that is not copyrighted or to get access that the copyright owner plainly "
20751 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20752 #: freeculture.xml:15032
20754 "Any reform of the law needs to keep these different uses in focus. It must "
20755 "avoid burdening type D even if it aims to eliminate type A. The eagerness "
20756 "with which the law aims to eliminate type A, moreover, should depend upon "
20757 "the magnitude of type B. As with VCRs, if the net effect of sharing is "
20758 "actually not very harmful, the need for regulation is significantly "
20762 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20763 #: freeculture.xml:15040
20765 "As I said in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
20766 "linkend=\"piracy\"/>, the actual harm caused by sharing is controversial. "
20767 "For the purposes of this chapter, however, I assume the harm is real. I "
20768 "assume, in other words, that type A sharing is significantly greater than "
20769 "type B, and is the dominant use of sharing networks."
20772 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20773 #: freeculture.xml:15048
20775 "Nonetheless, there is a crucial fact about the current technological context "
20776 "that we must keep in mind if we are to understand how the law should "
20780 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20781 #: freeculture.xml:15053
20783 "Today, file sharing is addictive. In ten years, it won't be. It is addictive "
20784 "today because it is the easiest way to gain access to a broad range of "
20785 "content. It won't be the easiest way to get access to a broad range of "
20786 "content in ten years. Today, access to the Internet is cumbersome and "
20787 "slow—we in the United States are lucky to have broadband service at "
20788 "1.5 MBs, and very rarely do we get service at that speed both up and "
20789 "down. Although wireless access is growing, most of us still get access "
20790 "across wires. Most only gain access through a machine with a keyboard. The "
20791 "idea of the always on, always connected Internet is mainly just an idea."
20795 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20796 #: freeculture.xml:15065
20798 "But it will become a reality, and that means the way we get access to the "
20799 "Internet today is a technology in transition. Policy makers should not make "
20800 "policy on the basis of technology in transition. They should make policy on "
20801 "the basis of where the technology is going. The question should not be, how "
20802 "should the law regulate sharing in this world? The question should be, what "
20803 "law will we require when the network becomes the network it is clearly "
20804 "becoming? That network is one in which every machine with electricity is "
20805 "essentially on the Net; where everywhere you are—except maybe the "
20806 "desert or the Rockies—you can instantaneously be connected to the "
20807 "Internet. Imagine the Internet as ubiquitous as the best cell-phone service, "
20808 "where with the flip of a device, you are connected."
20811 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
20812 #: freeculture.xml:15079
20813 msgid "cell phones, music streamed over"
20817 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20818 #: freeculture.xml:15099
20820 "See, for example, <quote>Music Media Watch,</quote> The J@pan "
20821 "Inc. Newsletter, 3 April 2002, available at <ulink "
20822 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #76</ulink>."
20825 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20826 #: freeculture.xml:15081
20828 "In that world, it will be extremely easy to connect to services that give "
20829 "you access to content on the fly—such as Internet radio, content that "
20830 "is streamed to the user when the user demands. Here, then, is the critical "
20831 "point: When it is <emphasis>extremely</emphasis> easy to connect to services "
20832 "that give access to content, it will be <emphasis>easier</emphasis> to "
20833 "connect to services that give you access to content than it will be to "
20834 "download and store content <emphasis>on the many devices you will have for "
20835 "playing content</emphasis>. It will be easier, in other words, to subscribe "
20836 "than it will be to be a database manager, as everyone in the "
20837 "download-sharing world of Napster-like technologies essentially is. Content "
20838 "services will compete with content sharing, even if the services charge "
20839 "money for the content they give access to. Already cell-phone services in "
20840 "Japan offer music (for a fee) streamed over cell phones (enhanced with plugs "
20841 "for headphones). The Japanese are paying for this content even though "
20842 "<quote>free</quote> content is available in the form of MP3s across the "
20843 "Web.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
20847 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20848 #: freeculture.xml:15106
20850 "This point about the future is meant to suggest a perspective on the "
20851 "present: It is emphatically temporary. The <quote>problem</quote> with file "
20852 "sharing—to the extent there is a real problem—is a problem that "
20853 "will increasingly disappear as it becomes easier to connect to the "
20854 "Internet. And thus it is an extraordinary mistake for policy makers today "
20855 "to be <quote>solving</quote> this problem in light of a technology that will "
20856 "be gone tomorrow. The question should not be how to regulate the Internet "
20857 "to eliminate file sharing (the Net will evolve that problem away). The "
20858 "question instead should be how to assure that artists get paid, during this "
20859 "transition between twentieth-century models for doing business and "
20860 "twenty-first-century technologies."
20863 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20864 #: freeculture.xml:15122
20866 "The answer begins with recognizing that there are different "
20867 "<quote>problems</quote> here to solve. Let's start with type D "
20868 "content—uncopyrighted content or copyrighted content that the artist "
20869 "wants shared. The <quote>problem</quote> with this content is to make sure "
20870 "that the technology that would enable this kind of sharing is not rendered "
20871 "illegal. You can think of it this way: Pay phones are used to deliver ransom "
20872 "demands, no doubt. But there are many who need to use pay phones who have "
20873 "nothing to do with ransoms. It would be wrong to ban pay phones in order to "
20874 "eliminate kidnapping."
20877 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20878 #: freeculture.xml:15133
20880 "Type C content raises a different <quote>problem.</quote> This is content "
20881 "that was, at one time, published and is no longer available. It may be "
20882 "unavailable because the artist is no longer valuable enough for the record "
20883 "label he signed with to carry his work. Or it may be unavailable because the "
20884 "work is forgotten. Either way, the aim of the law should be to facilitate "
20885 "the access to this content, ideally in a way that returns something to the "
20889 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20890 #: freeculture.xml:15144
20892 "Again, the model here is the used book store. Once a book goes out of print, "
20893 "it may still be available in libraries and used book stores. But libraries "
20894 "and used book stores don't pay the copyright owner when someone reads or "
20895 "buys an out-of-print book. That makes total sense, of course, since any "
20896 "other system would be so burdensome as to eliminate the possibility of used "
20897 "book stores' existing. But from the author's perspective, this "
20898 "<quote>sharing</quote> of his content without his being compensated is less "
20902 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20903 #: freeculture.xml:15154
20905 "The model of used book stores suggests that the law could simply deem "
20906 "out-of-print music fair game. If the publisher does not make copies of the "
20907 "music available for sale, then commercial and noncommercial providers would "
20908 "be free, under this rule, to <quote>share</quote> that content, even though "
20909 "the sharing involved making a copy. The copy here would be incidental to the "
20910 "trade; in a context where commercial publishing has ended, trading music "
20911 "should be as free as trading books."
20915 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20916 #: freeculture.xml:15165
20918 "Alternatively, the law could create a statutory license that would ensure "
20919 "that artists get something from the trade of their work. For example, if the "
20920 "law set a low statutory rate for the commercial sharing of content that was "
20921 "not offered for sale by a commercial publisher, and if that rate were "
20922 "automatically transferred to a trust for the benefit of the artist, then "
20923 "businesses could develop around the idea of trading this content, and "
20924 "artists would benefit from this trade."
20927 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20928 #: freeculture.xml:15175
20930 "This system would also create an incentive for publishers to keep works "
20931 "available commercially. Works that are available commercially would not be "
20932 "subject to this license. Thus, publishers could protect the right to charge "
20933 "whatever they want for content if they kept the work commercially "
20934 "available. But if they don't keep it available, and instead, the computer "
20935 "hard disks of fans around the world keep it alive, then any royalty owed for "
20936 "such copying should be much less than the amount owed a commercial "
20940 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20941 #: freeculture.xml:15185
20943 "The hard case is content of types A and B, and again, this case is hard only "
20944 "because the extent of the problem will change over time, as the technologies "
20945 "for gaining access to content change. The law's solution should be as "
20946 "flexible as the problem is, understanding that we are in the middle of a "
20947 "radical transformation in the technology for delivering and accessing "
20951 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20952 #: freeculture.xml:15193
20954 "So here's a solution that will at first seem very strange to both sides in "
20955 "this war, but which upon reflection, I suggest, should make some sense."
20958 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20959 #: freeculture.xml:15197
20961 "Stripped of the rhetoric about the sanctity of property, the basic claim of "
20962 "the content industry is this: A new technology (the Internet) has harmed a "
20963 "set of rights that secure copyright. If those rights are to be protected, "
20964 "then the content industry should be compensated for that harm. Just as the "
20965 "technology of tobacco harmed the health of millions of Americans, or the "
20966 "technology of asbestos caused grave illness to thousands of miners, so, too, "
20967 "has the technology of digital networks harmed the interests of the content "
20972 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20973 #: freeculture.xml:15208
20975 "I love the Internet, and so I don't like likening it to tobacco or "
20976 "asbestos. But the analogy is a fair one from the perspective of the law. "
20977 "And it suggests a fair response: Rather than seeking to destroy the "
20978 "Internet, or the p2p technologies that are currently harming content "
20979 "providers on the Internet, we should find a relatively simple way to "
20980 "compensate those who are harmed."
20983 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
20984 #: freeculture.xml:15215 freeculture.xml:15257
20985 msgid "Promises to Keep (Fisher)"
20988 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
20989 #: freeculture.xml:15255
20990 msgid "Fisher, William"
20993 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
20994 #: freeculture.xml:15221
20996 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> William Fisher, "
20997 "<citetitle>Digital Music: Problems and Possibilities</citetitle> (last "
20998 "revised: 10 October 2000), available at <ulink "
20999 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #77</ulink>; William Fisher, "
21000 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of "
21001 "Entertainment</citetitle> (forthcoming) (Stanford: Stanford University "
21002 "Press, 2004), ch. 6, available at <ulink "
21003 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #78</ulink>. Professor Netanel "
21004 "has proposed a related idea that would exempt noncommercial sharing from the "
21005 "reach of copyright and would establish compensation to artists to balance "
21006 "any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel, <quote>Impose a Noncommercial Use Levy "
21007 "to Allow Free P2P File Sharing,</quote> available at <ulink "
21008 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #79</ulink>. For other proposals, "
21009 "see Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Who's Holding Back Broadband?</quote> "
21010 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 8 January 2002, A17; Philip "
21011 "S. Corwin on behalf of Sharman Networks, A Letter to Senator Joseph "
21012 "R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 26 "
21013 "February 2002, available at <ulink "
21014 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #80</ulink>; Serguei Osokine, "
21015 "<citetitle>A Quick Case for Intellectual Property Use Fee "
21016 "(IPUF)</citetitle>, 3 March 2002, available at <ulink "
21017 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #81</ulink>; Jefferson Graham, "
21018 "<quote>Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,</quote> "
21019 "<citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 13 May 2002, available at <ulink "
21020 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #82</ulink>; Steven M. Cherry, "
21021 "<quote>Getting Copyright Right,</quote> IEEE Spectrum Online, 1 July 2002, "
21022 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #83</ulink>; "
21023 "Declan McCullagh, <quote>Verizon's Copyright Campaign,</quote> CNET "
21024 "News.com, 27 August 2002, available at <ulink "
21025 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #84</ulink>. Fisher's proposal "
21026 "is very similar to Richard Stallman's proposal for DAT. Unlike Fisher's, "
21027 "Stallman's proposal would not pay artists directly proportionally, though "
21028 "more popular artists would get more than the less popular. As is typical "
21029 "with Stallman, his proposal predates the current debate by about a "
21030 "decade. See <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #85</ulink>. "
21031 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
21032 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
21035 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21036 #: freeculture.xml:15217
21038 "The idea would be a modification of a proposal that has been floated by "
21039 "Harvard law professor William Fisher.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
21040 "id=\"0\"/> Fisher suggests a very clever way around the current impasse of "
21041 "the Internet. Under his plan, all content capable of digital transmission "
21042 "would (1) be marked with a digital watermark (don't worry about how easy it "
21043 "is to evade these marks; as you'll see, there's no incentive to evade "
21044 "them). Once the content is marked, then entrepreneurs would develop (2) "
21045 "systems to monitor how many items of each content were distributed. On the "
21046 "basis of those numbers, then (3) artists would be compensated. The "
21047 "compensation would be paid for by (4) an appropriate tax."
21050 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21051 #: freeculture.xml:15271
21053 "Fisher's proposal is careful and comprehensive. It raises a million "
21054 "questions, most of which he answers well in his upcoming book, "
21055 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep</citetitle>. The modification that I would make "
21056 "is relatively simple: Fisher imagines his proposal replacing the existing "
21057 "copyright system. I imagine it complementing the existing system. The aim "
21058 "of the proposal would be to facilitate compensation to the extent that harm "
21059 "could be shown. This compensation would be temporary, aimed at facilitating "
21060 "a transition between regimes. And it would require renewal after a period of "
21061 "years. If it continues to make sense to facilitate free exchange of content, "
21062 "supported through a taxation system, then it can be continued. If this form "
21063 "of protection is no longer necessary, then the system could lapse into the "
21064 "old system of controlling access."
21068 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21069 #: freeculture.xml:15288
21071 "Fisher would balk at the idea of allowing the system to lapse. His aim is "
21072 "not just to ensure that artists are paid, but also to ensure that the system "
21073 "supports the widest range of <quote>semiotic democracy</quote> possible. But "
21074 "the aims of semiotic democracy would be satisfied if the other changes I "
21075 "described were accomplished—in particular, the limits on derivative "
21076 "uses. A system that simply charges for access would not greatly burden "
21077 "semiotic democracy if there were few limitations on what one was allowed to "
21078 "do with the content itself."
21081 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
21082 #: freeculture.xml:15301
21086 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
21087 #: freeculture.xml:15303
21091 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21092 #: freeculture.xml:15305
21094 "No doubt it would be difficult to calculate the proper measure of "
21095 "<quote>harm</quote> to an industry. But the difficulty of making that "
21096 "calculation would be outweighed by the benefit of facilitating "
21097 "innovation. This background system to compensate would also not need to "
21098 "interfere with innovative proposals such as Apple's MusicStore. As experts "
21099 "predicted when Apple launched the MusicStore, it could beat "
21100 "<quote>free</quote> by being easier than free is. This has proven correct: "
21101 "Apple has sold millions of songs at even the very high price of 99 cents a "
21102 "song. (At 99 cents, the cost is the equivalent of a per-song CD price, "
21103 "though the labels have none of the costs of a CD to pay.) Apple's move was "
21104 "countered by Real Networks, offering music at just 79 cents a song. And no "
21105 "doubt there will be a great deal of competition to offer and sell music "
21109 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
21110 #: freeculture.xml:15320
21111 msgid "cable vs. broadcast"
21114 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
21115 #: freeculture.xml:15323
21116 msgid "luxury theatres vs. video piracy in"
21119 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21120 #: freeculture.xml:15325
21122 "This competition has already occurred against the background of "
21123 "<quote>free</quote> music from p2p systems. As the sellers of cable "
21124 "television have known for thirty years, and the sellers of bottled water for "
21125 "much more than that, there is nothing impossible at all about "
21126 "<quote>competing with free.</quote> Indeed, if anything, the competition "
21127 "spurs the competitors to offer new and better products. This is precisely "
21128 "what the competitive market was to be about. Thus in Singapore, though "
21129 "piracy is rampant, movie theaters are often luxurious—with "
21130 "<quote>first class</quote> seats, and meals served while you watch a "
21131 "movie—as they struggle and succeed in finding ways to compete with "
21132 "<quote>free.</quote>"
21135 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21136 #: freeculture.xml:15337
21138 "This regime of competition, with a backstop to assure that artists don't "
21139 "lose, would facilitate a great deal of innovation in the delivery of "
21140 "content. That competition would continue to shrink type A sharing. It would "
21141 "inspire an extraordinary range of new innovators—ones who would have a "
21142 "right to the content, and would no longer fear the uncertain and "
21143 "barbarically severe punishments of the law."
21146 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21147 #: freeculture.xml:15346
21148 msgid "In summary, then, my proposal is this:"
21152 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21153 #: freeculture.xml:15351
21155 "The Internet is in transition. We should not be regulating a technology in "
21156 "transition. We should instead be regulating to minimize the harm to "
21157 "interests affected by this technological change, while enabling, and "
21158 "encouraging, the most efficient technology we can create."
21161 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21162 #: freeculture.xml:15358
21163 msgid "We can minimize that harm while maximizing the benefit to innovation by"
21167 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
21168 #: freeculture.xml:15364
21169 msgid "guaranteeing the right to engage in type D sharing;"
21173 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
21174 #: freeculture.xml:15368
21176 "permitting noncommercial type C sharing without liability, and commercial "
21177 "type C sharing at a low and fixed rate set by statute;"
21181 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
21182 #: freeculture.xml:15374
21184 "while in this transition, taxing and compensating for type A sharing, to the "
21185 "extent actual harm is demonstrated."
21188 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21189 #: freeculture.xml:15379
21191 "But what if <quote>piracy</quote> doesn't disappear? What if there is a "
21192 "competitive market providing content at a low cost, but a significant number "
21193 "of consumers continue to <quote>take</quote> content for nothing? Should the "
21194 "law do something then?"
21197 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21198 #: freeculture.xml:15385
21200 "Yes, it should. But, again, what it should do depends upon how the facts "
21201 "develop. These changes may not eliminate type A sharing. But the real issue "
21202 "is not whether it eliminates sharing in the abstract. The real issue is its "
21203 "effect on the market. Is it better (a) to have a technology that is 95 "
21204 "percent secure and produces a market of size <citetitle>x</citetitle>, or "
21205 "(b) to have a technology that is 50 percent secure but produces a market of "
21206 "five times <citetitle>x</citetitle>? Less secure might produce more "
21207 "unauthorized sharing, but it is likely to also produce a much bigger market "
21208 "in authorized sharing. The most important thing is to assure artists' "
21209 "compensation without breaking the Internet. Once that's assured, then it may "
21210 "well be appropriate to find ways to track down the petty pirates."
21214 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21215 #: freeculture.xml:15399
21217 "But we're a long way away from whittling the problem down to this subset of "
21218 "type A sharers. And our focus until we're there should not be on finding "
21219 "ways to break the Internet. Our focus until we're there should be on how to "
21220 "make sure the artists are paid, while protecting the space for innovation "
21221 "and creativity that the Internet is."
21224 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
21225 #: freeculture.xml:15410
21226 msgid "5. Fire Lots of Lawyers"
21229 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21230 #: freeculture.xml:15412
21232 "I'm a lawyer. I make lawyers for a living. I believe in the law. I believe "
21233 "in the law of copyright. Indeed, I have devoted my life to working in law, "
21234 "not because there are big bucks at the end but because there are ideals at "
21235 "the end that I would love to live."
21238 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21239 #: freeculture.xml:15418
21241 "Yet much of this book has been a criticism of lawyers, or the role lawyers "
21242 "have played in this debate. The law speaks to ideals, but it is my view that "
21243 "our profession has become too attuned to the client. And in a world where "
21244 "the rich clients have one strong view, the unwillingness of the profession "
21245 "to question or counter that one strong view queers the law."
21248 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
21249 #: freeculture.xml:15425
21250 msgid "Nimmer, Melville"
21253 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
21254 #: freeculture.xml:15426
21255 msgid "Supreme Court challenge of"
21259 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
21260 #: freeculture.xml:15437
21262 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Copyright's First Amendment</quote> (Melville "
21263 "B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture), <citetitle>UCLA Law Review</citetitle> 48 "
21264 "(2001): 1057, 1069–70."
21267 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21268 #: freeculture.xml:15428
21270 "The evidence of this bending is compelling. I'm attacked as a "
21271 "<quote>radical</quote> by many within the profession, yet the positions that "
21272 "I am advocating are precisely the positions of some of the most moderate and "
21273 "significant figures in the history of this branch of the law. Many, for "
21274 "example, thought crazy the challenge that we brought to the Copyright Term "
21275 "Extension Act. Yet just thirty years ago, the dominant scholar and "
21276 "practitioner in the field of copyright, Melville Nimmer, thought it "
21277 "obvious.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
21280 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21281 #: freeculture.xml:15443
21283 "However, my criticism of the role that lawyers have played in this debate is "
21284 "not just about a professional bias. It is more importantly about our failure "
21285 "to actually reckon the costs of the law."
21288 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
21289 #: freeculture.xml:15453
21291 "A good example is the work of Professor Stan Liebowitz. Liebowitz is to be "
21292 "commended for his careful review of data about infringement, leading him to "
21293 "question his own publicly stated position—twice. He initially "
21294 "predicted that downloading would substantially harm the industry. He then "
21295 "revised his view in light of the data, and he has since revised his view "
21296 "again. Compare Stan J. Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network "
21297 "Economy: The True Forces That Drive the Digital Marketplace</citetitle> (New "
21298 "York: Amacom, 2002), (reviewing his original view but expressing skepticism) "
21299 "with Stan J. Liebowitz, <quote>Will MP3s Annihilate the Record "
21300 "Industry?</quote> working paper, June 2003, available at <ulink "
21301 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #86</ulink>. Liebowitz's careful "
21302 "analysis is extremely valuable in estimating the effect of file-sharing "
21303 "technology. In my view, however, he underestimates the costs of the legal "
21304 "system. See, for example, <citetitle>Rethinking</citetitle>, 174–76. "
21305 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
21308 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21309 #: freeculture.xml:15448
21311 "Economists are supposed to be good at reckoning costs and benefits. But "
21312 "more often than not, economists, with no clue about how the legal system "
21313 "actually functions, simply assume that the transaction costs of the legal "
21314 "system are slight.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> They see a "
21315 "system that has been around for hundreds of years, and they assume it works "
21316 "the way their elementary school civics class taught them it works."
21320 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21321 #: freeculture.xml:15477
21323 "But the legal system doesn't work. Or more accurately, it doesn't work for "
21324 "anyone except those with the most resources. Not because the system is "
21325 "corrupt. I don't think our legal system (at the federal level, at least) is "
21326 "at all corrupt. I mean simply because the costs of our legal system are so "
21327 "astonishingly high that justice can practically never be done."
21330 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21331 #: freeculture.xml:15485
21333 "These costs distort free culture in many ways. A lawyer's time is billed at "
21334 "the largest firms at more than $400 per hour. How much time should such a "
21335 "lawyer spend reading cases carefully, or researching obscure strands of "
21336 "authority? The answer is the increasing reality: very little. The law "
21337 "depended upon the careful articulation and development of doctrine, but the "
21338 "careful articulation and development of legal doctrine depends upon careful "
21339 "work. Yet that careful work costs too much, except in the most high-profile "
21340 "and costly cases."
21343 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21344 #: freeculture.xml:15495
21346 "The costliness and clumsiness and randomness of this system mock our "
21347 "tradition. And lawyers, as well as academics, should consider it their duty "
21348 "to change the way the law works—or better, to change the law so that "
21349 "it works. It is wrong that the system works well only for the top 1 percent "
21350 "of the clients. It could be made radically more efficient, and inexpensive, "
21351 "and hence radically more just."
21354 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21355 #: freeculture.xml:15503
21357 "But until that reform is complete, we as a society should keep the law away "
21358 "from areas that we know it will only harm. And that is precisely what the "
21359 "law will too often do if too much of our culture is left to its review."
21362 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21363 #: freeculture.xml:15510
21365 "Think about the amazing things your kid could do or make with digital "
21366 "technology—the film, the music, the Web page, the blog. Or think about "
21367 "the amazing things your community could facilitate with digital "
21368 "technology—a wiki, a barn raising, activism to change something. "
21369 "Think about all those creative things, and then imagine cold molasses poured "
21370 "onto the machines. This is what any regime that requires permission "
21371 "produces. Again, this is the reality of Brezhnev's Russia."
21375 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21376 #: freeculture.xml:15519
21378 "The law should regulate in certain areas of culture—but it should "
21379 "regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely "
21380 "test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic "
21381 "question: <quote>Will it do good?</quote> When challenged about the "
21382 "expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, <quote>Why not?</quote>"
21385 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
21386 #: freeculture.xml:15528
21388 "We should ask, <quote>Why?</quote> Show me why your regulation of culture is "
21389 "needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your "
21393 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
21394 #: freeculture.xml:15537
21398 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
21399 #: freeculture.xml:15539
21401 "Throughout this text, there are references to links on the World Wide "
21402 "Web. As anyone who has tried to use the Web knows, these links can be highly "
21403 "unstable. I have tried to remedy the instability by redirecting readers to "
21404 "the original source through the Web site associated with this book. For each "
21405 "link below, you can go to http://free-culture.cc/notes and locate the "
21406 "original source by clicking on the number after the # sign. If the original "
21407 "link remains alive, you will be redirected to that link. If the original "
21408 "link has disappeared, you will be redirected to an appropriate reference for "
21412 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
21413 #: freeculture.xml:15559
21414 msgid "Acknowledgments"
21417 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
21418 #: freeculture.xml:15561
21420 "This book is the product of a long and as yet unsuccessful struggle that "
21421 "began when I read of Eric Eldred's war to keep books free. Eldred's work "
21422 "helped launch a movement, the free culture movement, and it is to him that "
21423 "this book is dedicated."
21426 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
21427 #: freeculture.xml:15568
21429 "I received guidance in various places from friends and academics, including "
21430 "Glenn Brown, Peter DiCola, Jennifer Mnookin, Richard Posner, Mark Rose, and "
21431 "Kathleen Sullivan. And I received correction and guidance from many amazing "
21432 "students at Stanford Law School and Stanford University. They included "
21433 "Andrew B. Coan, John Eden, James P. Fellers, Christopher Guzelian, Erica "
21434 "Goldberg, Robert Hallman, Andrew Harris, Matthew Kahn, Brian Link, Ohad "
21435 "Mayblum, Alina Ng, and Erica Platt. I am particularly grateful to Catherine "
21436 "Crump and Harry Surden, who helped direct their research, and to Laura "
21437 "Lynch, who brilliantly managed the army that they assembled, and provided "
21438 "her own critical eye on much of this."
21442 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
21443 #: freeculture.xml:15581
21445 "Yuko Noguchi helped me to understand the laws of Japan as well as its "
21446 "culture. I am thankful to her, and to the many in Japan who helped me "
21447 "prepare this book: Joi Ito, Takayuki Matsutani, Naoto Misaki, Michihiro "
21448 "Sasaki, Hiromichi Tanaka, Hiroo Yamagata, and Yoshihiro Yonezawa. I am "
21449 "thankful as well as to Professor Nobuhiro Nakayama, and the Tokyo University "
21450 "Business Law Center, for giving me the chance to spend time in Japan, and to "
21451 "Tadashi Shiraishi and Kiyokazu Yamagami for their generous help while I was "
21455 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
21456 #: freeculture.xml:15592
21458 "These are the traditional sorts of help that academics regularly draw "
21459 "upon. But in addition to them, the Internet has made it possible to receive "
21460 "advice and correction from many whom I have never even met. Among those who "
21461 "have responded with extremely helpful advice to requests on my blog about "
21462 "the book are Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, David Gerstein, and Peter DiMauro, as "
21463 "well as a long list of those who had specific ideas about ways to develop my "
21464 "argument. They included Richard Bondi, Steven Cherry, David Coe, Nik "
21465 "Cubrilovic, Bob Devine, Charles Eicher, Thomas Guida, Elihu M. Gerson, "
21466 "Jeremy Hunsinger, Vaughn Iverson, John Karabaic, Jeff Keltner, James "
21467 "Lindenschmidt, K. L. Mann, Mark Manning, Nora McCauley, Jeffrey McHugh, Evan "
21468 "McMullen, Fred Norton, John Pormann, Pedro A. D. Rezende, Shabbir Safdar, "
21469 "Saul Schleimer, Clay Shirky, Adam Shostack, Kragen Sitaker, Chris Smith, "
21470 "Bruce Steinberg, Andrzej Jan Taramina, Sean Walsh, Matt Wasserman, Miljenko "
21471 "Williams, <quote>Wink,</quote> Roger Wood, <quote>Ximmbo da Jazz,</quote> "
21472 "and Richard Yanco. (I apologize if I have missed anyone; with computers come "
21473 "glitches, and a crash of my e-mail system meant I lost a bunch of great "
21477 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
21478 #: freeculture.xml:15612
21480 "Richard Stallman and Michael Carroll each read the whole book in draft, and "
21481 "each provided extremely helpful correction and advice. Michael helped me to "
21482 "see more clearly the significance of the regulation of derivitive works. And "
21483 "Richard corrected an embarrassingly large number of errors. While my work is "
21484 "in part inspired by Stallman's, he does not agree with me in important "
21485 "places throughout this book."
21488 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
21489 #: freeculture.xml:15621
21491 "Finally, and forever, I am thankful to Bettina, who has always insisted that "
21492 "there would be unending happiness away from these battles, and who has "
21493 "always been right. This slow learner is, as ever, grateful for her perpetual "
21494 "patience and love."
21497 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21498 #: freeculture.xml:15641
21500 "Free culture: How big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture "
21501 "and control creativity / Lawrence Lessig."
21504 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21505 #: freeculture.xml:15645
21506 msgid "Copyright © 2004 Lawrence Lessig. Some rights reserved."
21509 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21510 #: freeculture.xml:15649
21511 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/\"/>"
21514 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21515 #: freeculture.xml:15653
21517 "Published in English and Norwegian Bokmål 2015 by Petter Reinholdtsen with "
21518 "help from many volunteers. Typeset using dblatex with Crimson Text."
21521 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21522 #: freeculture.xml:15659
21523 msgid "First published 2004 by The Penguin Press."
21526 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21527 #: freeculture.xml:15663
21529 "Excerpt from an editorial titled <quote>The Coming of Copyright "
21530 "Perpetuity,</quote> <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, January 16, "
21531 "2003. Copyright © 2003 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with "
21535 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21536 #: freeculture.xml:15669
21538 "Cartoon in figure <xref xrefstyle=\"template:%n\" "
21539 "linkend=\"fig-1711-vcr-handgun-cartoonfig\"/> by Paul Conrad, copyright "
21540 "Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with "
21544 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21545 #: freeculture.xml:15675
21547 "Diagram in figure <xref xrefstyle=\"template:%n\" "
21548 "linkend=\"fig-1761-pattern-modern-media-ownership\"/> courtesy of the office "
21549 "of FCC Commissioner, Michael J. Copps."
21552 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21553 #: freeculture.xml:15681
21554 msgid "Includes index."
21557 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21558 #: freeculture.xml:15685
21559 msgid "Classifications:"
21562 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21563 #: freeculture.xml:15689
21564 msgid "(Dewey) 306.4, 306.40973, 306.46, 341.7582, 343.7309/9"
21567 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21568 #: freeculture.xml:15698
21569 msgid "(UDK) 347.78"
21572 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21573 #: freeculture.xml:15702
21574 msgid "(US Library of Congress) KF2979.L47 2004"
21577 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21578 #: freeculture.xml:15706
21579 msgid "(ACM CRCS) K.4.1"
21582 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21583 #: freeculture.xml:15710
21584 msgid "Thomas Gramstad Forlag donated the ISBN numbers."
21587 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
21588 #: freeculture.xml:15717
21590 "The Docbook source is available from <ulink "
21591 "url=\"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig\"/>. Please "
21592 "report any issues with the book there."
21595 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
21596 #: freeculture.xml:15734
21600 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
21601 #: freeculture.xml:15735
21602 msgid "Format / MIME-type"
21605 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
21606 #: freeculture.xml:15740
21607 msgid "978-82-8067-010-6"
21610 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
21611 #: freeculture.xml:15741
21612 msgid "Digest size from lulu.com"
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21616 #: freeculture.xml:15744
21617 msgid "978-82-8067-011-3"
21620 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
21621 #: freeculture.xml:15745
21622 msgid "application/pdf"
21625 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
21626 #: freeculture.xml:15748
21627 msgid "978-82-8067-012-0"
21630 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
21631 #: freeculture.xml:15749
21632 msgid "application/epub+zip"
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21636 #: freeculture.xml:15752
21637 msgid "978-82-8067-013-7"
21640 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
21641 #: freeculture.xml:15753
21642 msgid "application/x-mobipocket-ebook"