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.
9 "Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n"
10 "POT-Creation-Date: 2012-08-04 20:55+0300\n"
11 "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
12 "Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
13 "Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
16 "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
17 "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
19 #. type: Content of the copy entity
24 #. type: Attribute 'lang' of: <book>
29 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><title>
34 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
36 msgid "<abbrev>\"freeculture\"</abbrev>"
39 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
40 #: freeculture.xml:24 freeculture.xml:175
42 "HOW BIG MEDIA USES TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW TO LOCK DOWN CULTURE AND CONTROL "
46 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
48 msgid "<pubdate>2004-03-25</pubdate>"
51 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><releaseinfo>
53 msgid "Version 2004-02-10"
56 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><firstname>
61 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><surname>
66 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
68 msgid "Intellectual property—United States."
71 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
73 msgid "Mass media—United States."
76 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
78 msgid "Technological innovations—United States."
81 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
83 msgid "Art—United States."
86 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><publisher><address>
89 msgid "<city>New York</city>"
92 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
95 "<publisher> <publishername>The Penguin Press</publishername> <placeholder "
96 "type=\"address\" id=\"0\"/> </publisher> <copyright> <year>2004</year> "
97 "<holder>Lawrence Lessig</holder> </copyright>"
100 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject>
101 #: freeculture.xml:69
103 "<imageobject> <imagedata fileref=\"images/cc.png\" width=\"100%\" "
104 "align=\"center\"/> </imageobject> <imageobject> <imagedata "
105 "fileref=\"images/cc.svg\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\"/> </imageobject>"
108 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject><textobject><phrase>
109 #: freeculture.xml:76
110 msgid "Creative Commons, Some rights reserved"
113 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
114 #: freeculture.xml:68
115 msgid "<placeholder type=\"inlinemediaobject\" id=\"0\"/>"
118 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
119 #: freeculture.xml:82
121 "This version of <citetitle>Free Culture</citetitle> is licensed under a "
122 "Creative Commons license. This license permits non-commercial use of this "
123 "work, so long as attribution is given. For more information about the "
124 "license, click the icon above, or visit <ulink "
125 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/\">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/</ulink>"
128 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><title>
129 #: freeculture.xml:91
130 msgid "ABOUT THE AUTHOR"
133 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><para>
134 #: freeculture.xml:93
136 "LAWRENCE LESSIG (<ulink "
137 "url=\"http://www.lessig.org\">http://www.lessig.org</ulink>), professor of "
138 "law and a John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Stanford 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 \"e.biz 25,\" "
147 "and named one of Scientific American's \"50 visionaries.\" A graduate of the "
148 "University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, and Yale Law School, "
149 "Lessig clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of "
153 #. testing different ways to tag the cover page
155 #. <imageobject remap="s" role="front">
157 #. <imagedata fileref="images/cover_thumbnail.png" format="PNG" width="444" />
159 #. <imageobject remap="xs" role="front-small">
160 #. <imagedata fileref="images/cover_thumbnail.png" format="PNG" width="444" />
162 #. <imageobject remap="cs" role="thumbnail">
163 #. <imagedata fileref="images/cover_thumbnail.png" format="PNG" width="444" />
166 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><mediaobject>
167 #: freeculture.xml:114
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:112
179 " <placeholder type=\"mediaobject\" id=\"0\"/> <biblioid "
180 "class=\"isbn\">1-59420-006-8</biblioid> <biblioid "
181 "class=\"libraryofcongress\">2003063276</biblioid>"
184 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
185 #: freeculture.xml:143
186 msgid "You can buy a copy of this book by clicking on one of the links below:"
189 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
190 #: freeculture.xml:146
191 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.amazon.com/\">Amazon</ulink>"
194 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
195 #: freeculture.xml:147
196 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/\">B&N</ulink>"
199 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
200 #: freeculture.xml:148
201 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.penguin.com/\">Penguin</ulink>"
204 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
205 #: freeculture.xml:155
206 msgid "ALSO BY LAWRENCE LESSIG"
209 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
210 #: freeculture.xml:158
211 msgid "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World"
214 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
215 #: freeculture.xml:161
216 msgid "Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace"
219 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
220 #: freeculture.xml:166
221 msgid "THE PENGUIN PRESS, NEW YORK"
224 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
225 #: freeculture.xml:171
229 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
230 #: freeculture.xml:181
231 msgid "LAWRENCE LESSIG"
234 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
235 #: freeculture.xml:186
237 "THE PENGUIN PRESS, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street "
241 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
242 #: freeculture.xml:190
243 msgid "Copyright © Lawrence Lessig. All rights reserved."
246 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
247 #: freeculture.xml:193
249 "Excerpt from an editorial titled \"The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity,\" "
250 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, January 16, 2003. Copyright "
251 "© 2003 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission."
254 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
255 #: freeculture.xml:198
257 "Cartoon in <xref linkend=\"fig-1711\"/> by Paul Conrad, copyright Tribune "
258 "Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission."
261 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
262 #: freeculture.xml:202
264 "Diagram in <xref linkend=\"fig-1761\"/> courtesy of the office of FCC "
265 "Commissioner, Michael J. Copps."
268 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
269 #: freeculture.xml:206
270 msgid "Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data"
273 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
274 #: freeculture.xml:209
276 "Lessig, Lawrence. Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law "
277 "to lock down culture and control creativity / Lawrence Lessig."
280 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
281 #: freeculture.xml:214
285 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
286 #: freeculture.xml:217
287 msgid "Includes index."
290 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
291 #: freeculture.xml:220
292 msgid "ISBN 1-59420-006-8 (hardcover)"
295 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
296 #: freeculture.xml:224
298 "1. Intellectual property—United States. 2. Mass media—United "
302 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
303 #: freeculture.xml:227
305 "3. Technological innovations—United States. 4. Art—United "
309 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
310 #: freeculture.xml:230
314 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
315 #: freeculture.xml:233
316 msgid "343.7309'9—dc22"
319 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
320 #: freeculture.xml:236
321 msgid "This book is printed on acid-free paper."
324 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
325 #: freeculture.xml:239
326 msgid "Printed in the United States of America"
329 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
330 #: freeculture.xml:242
331 msgid "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4"
334 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
335 #: freeculture.xml:245
336 msgid "Designed by Marysarah Quinn"
339 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
340 #: freeculture.xml:249
341 msgid "&translationblock;"
344 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
345 #: freeculture.xml:253
347 "Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this "
348 "publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval "
349 "system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, "
350 "photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission "
351 "of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The "
352 "scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via "
353 "any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and "
354 "punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and "
355 "do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted "
356 "materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated."
359 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
360 #: freeculture.xml:270
362 "To Eric Eldred—whose work first drew me to this cause, and for whom it "
366 #. type: Content of: <book><lot><title>
367 #: freeculture.xml:278
368 msgid "List of figures"
371 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><title>
372 #: freeculture.xml:340
376 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
377 #: freeculture.xml:342
381 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
382 #: freeculture.xml:345
384 "At the end of his review of my first book, <citetitle>Code: And Other Laws "
385 "of Cyberspace</citetitle>, David Pogue, a brilliant writer and author of "
386 "countless technical and computer-related texts, wrote this:"
389 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
390 #: freeculture.xml:355
392 "David Pogue, \"Don't Just Chat, Do Something,\" <citetitle>New York "
393 "Times</citetitle>, 30 January 2000."
396 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
397 #: freeculture.xml:351
399 "Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn't "
400 "affect people who aren't online (and only a tiny minority of the world "
401 "population is). And if you don't like the Internet's system, you can always "
402 "flip off the modem.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
405 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
406 #: freeculture.xml:360
408 "Pogue was skeptical of the core argument of the book—that software, or "
409 "\"code,\" functioned as a kind of law—and his review suggested the "
410 "happy thought that if life in cyberspace got bad, we could always \"drizzle, "
411 "drazzle, druzzle, drome\"-like simply flip a switch and be back home. Turn "
412 "off the modem, unplug the computer, and any troubles that exist in "
413 "<emphasis>that</emphasis> space wouldn't \"affect\" us anymore."
417 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
418 #: freeculture.xml:369
420 "Pogue might have been right in 1999—I'm skeptical, but maybe. But "
421 "even if he was right then, the point is not right now: <citetitle>Free "
422 "Culture</citetitle> is about the troubles the Internet causes even after the "
423 "modem is turned off. It is an argument about how the battles that now rage "
424 "regarding life on-line have fundamentally affected \"people who aren't "
425 "online.\" There is no switch that will insulate us from the Internet's "
429 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
430 #: freeculture.xml:380
432 "But unlike <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, the argument here is not much about "
433 "the Internet itself. It is instead about the consequence of the Internet to "
434 "a part of our tradition that is much more fundamental, and, as hard as this "
435 "is for a geek-wanna-be to admit, much more important."
438 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para><footnote><para>
439 #: freeculture.xml:392
441 "Richard M. Stallman, <citetitle>Free Software, Free Societies</citetitle> 57 "
442 "(Joshua Gay, ed. 2002)."
445 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
446 #: freeculture.xml:387
448 "That tradition is the way our culture gets made. As I explain in the pages "
449 "that follow, we come from a tradition of \"free culture\"—not \"free\" "
450 "as in \"free beer\" (to borrow a phrase from the founder of the free "
451 "software movement<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), but \"free\" as "
452 "in \"free speech,\" \"free markets,\" \"free trade,\" \"free enterprise,\" "
453 "\"free will,\" and \"free elections.\" A free culture supports and protects "
454 "creators and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual "
455 "property rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those "
456 "rights, to guarantee that follow-on creators and innovators remain "
457 "<emphasis>as free as possible</emphasis> from the control of the past. A "
458 "free culture is not a culture without property, just as a free market is not "
459 "a market in which everything is free. The opposite of a free culture is a "
460 "\"permission culture\"—a culture in which creators get to create only "
461 "with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past."
464 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
465 #: freeculture.xml:407
467 "If we understood this change, I believe we would resist it. Not \"we\" on "
468 "the Left or \"you\" on the Right, but we who have no stake in the particular "
469 "industries of culture that defined the twentieth century. Whether you are "
470 "on the Left or the Right, if you are in this sense disinterested, then the "
471 "story I tell here will trouble you. For the changes I describe affect values "
472 "that both sides of our political culture deem fundamental."
475 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
476 #: freeculture.xml:415 freeculture.xml:12815
477 msgid "CodePink Women in Peace"
480 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
481 #: freeculture.xml:426 freeculture.xml:436 freeculture.xml:12828
482 msgid "Safire, William"
485 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
486 #: freeculture.xml:417
488 "We saw a glimpse of this bipartisan outrage in the early summer of 2003. As "
489 "the FCC considered changes in media ownership rules that would relax limits "
490 "on media concentration, an extraordinary coalition generated more than "
491 "700,000 letters to the FCC opposing the change. As William Safire described "
492 "marching \"uncomfortably alongside CodePink Women for Peace and the National "
493 "Rifle Association, between liberal Olympia Snowe and conservative Ted "
494 "Stevens,\" he formulated perhaps most simply just what was at stake: the "
495 "concentration of power. And as he asked, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
499 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
500 #: freeculture.xml:434
502 "William Safire, \"The Great Media Gulp,\" <citetitle>New York "
503 "Times</citetitle>, 22 May 2003. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
506 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
507 #: freeculture.xml:430
509 "Does that sound unconservative? Not to me. The concentration of "
510 "power—political, corporate, media, cultural—should be anathema "
511 "to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby "
512 "encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the "
513 "greatest expression of democracy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
516 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
517 #: freeculture.xml:441
519 "This idea is an element of the argument of <citetitle>Free "
520 "Culture</citetitle>, though my focus is not just on the concentration of "
521 "power produced by concentrations in ownership, but more importantly, if "
522 "because less visibly, on the concentration of power produced by a radical "
523 "change in the effective scope of the law. The law is changing; that change "
524 "is altering the way our culture gets made; that change should worry "
525 "you—whether or not you care about the Internet, and whether you're on "
526 "Safire's left or on his right. The inspiration for the title and for much "
527 "of the argument of this book comes from the work of Richard Stallman and the "
528 "Free Software Foundation. Indeed, as I reread Stallman's own work, "
529 "especially the essays in <citetitle>Free Software, Free Society</citetitle>, "
530 "I realize that all of the theoretical insights I develop here are insights "
531 "Stallman described decades ago. One could thus well argue that this work is "
532 "\"merely\" derivative."
536 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
537 #: freeculture.xml:457
539 "I accept that criticism, if indeed it is a criticism. The work of a lawyer "
540 "is always derivative, and I mean to do nothing more in this book than to "
541 "remind a culture about a tradition that has always been its own. Like "
542 "Stallman, I defend that tradition on the basis of values. Like Stallman, I "
543 "believe those are the values of freedom. And like Stallman, I believe those "
544 "are values of our past that will need to be defended in our future. A free "
545 "culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the "
546 "path we are on right now. Like Stallman's arguments for free software, an "
547 "argument for free culture stumbles on a confusion that is hard to avoid, and "
548 "even harder to understand. A free culture is not a culture without property; "
549 "it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid. A culture without "
550 "property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not "
551 "freedom. Anarchy is not what I advance here."
554 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
555 #: freeculture.xml:475
557 "Instead, the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance between "
558 "anarchy and control. A free culture, like a free market, is filled with "
559 "property. It is filled with rules of property and contract that get enforced "
560 "by the state. But just as a free market is perverted if its property becomes "
561 "feudal, so too can a free culture be queered by extremism in the property "
562 "rights that define it. That is what I fear about our culture today. It is "
563 "against that extremism that this book is written."
566 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
567 #: freeculture.xml:490
571 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
572 #: freeculture.xml:492
574 "On December 17, 1903, on a windy North Carolina beach for just shy of one "
575 "hundred seconds, the Wright brothers demonstrated that a heavier-than-air, "
576 "self-propelled vehicle could fly. The moment was electric and its importance "
577 "widely understood. Almost immediately, there was an explosion of interest in "
578 "this newfound technology of manned flight, and a gaggle of innovators began "
582 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
583 #: freeculture.xml:504
585 "St. George Tucker, <citetitle>Blackstone's Commentaries</citetitle> 3 (South "
586 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1969), 18."
589 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
590 #: freeculture.xml:500
592 "At the time the Wright brothers invented the airplane, American law held "
593 "that a property owner presumptively owned not just the surface of his land, "
594 "but all the land below, down to the center of the earth, and all the space "
595 "above, to \"an indefinite extent, upwards.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
596 "id=\"0\"/> For many years, scholars had puzzled about how best to interpret "
597 "the idea that rights in land ran to the heavens. Did that mean that you "
598 "owned the stars? Could you prosecute geese for their willful and regular "
602 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
603 #: freeculture.xml:513
605 "Then came airplanes, and for the first time, this principle of American "
606 "law—deep within the foundations of our tradition, and acknowledged by "
607 "the most important legal thinkers of our past—mattered. If my land "
608 "reaches to the heavens, what happens when United flies over my field? Do I "
609 "have the right to banish it from my property? Am I allowed to enter into an "
610 "exclusive license with Delta Airlines? Could we set up an auction to decide "
611 "how much these rights are worth?"
614 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
615 #: freeculture.xml:521 freeculture.xml:534 freeculture.xml:565 freeculture.xml:584 freeculture.xml:987 freeculture.xml:1004 freeculture.xml:1050 freeculture.xml:8831 freeculture.xml:12211 freeculture.xml:12919
616 msgid "Causby, Thomas Lee"
619 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
620 #: freeculture.xml:522 freeculture.xml:535 freeculture.xml:566 freeculture.xml:585 freeculture.xml:988 freeculture.xml:1005 freeculture.xml:1051 freeculture.xml:8832 freeculture.xml:12212 freeculture.xml:12920
621 msgid "Causby, Tinie"
624 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
625 #: freeculture.xml:524
627 "In 1945, these questions became a federal case. When North Carolina farmers "
628 "Thomas Lee and Tinie Causby started losing chickens because of low-flying "
629 "military aircraft (the terrified chickens apparently flew into the barn "
630 "walls and died), the Causbys filed a lawsuit saying that the government was "
631 "trespassing on their land. The airplanes, of course, never touched the "
632 "surface of the Causbys' land. But if, as Blackstone, Kent, and Coke had "
633 "said, their land reached to \"an indefinite extent, upwards,\" then the "
634 "government was trespassing on their property, and the Causbys wanted it to "
638 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
639 #: freeculture.xml:537
641 "The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Causbys' case. Congress had declared "
642 "the airways public, but if one's property really extended to the heavens, "
643 "then Congress's declaration could well have been an unconstitutional "
644 "\"taking\" of property without compensation. The Court acknowledged that "
645 "\"it is ancient doctrine that common law ownership of the land extended to "
646 "the periphery of the universe.\" But Justice Douglas had no patience for "
647 "ancient doctrine. In a single paragraph, hundreds of years of property law "
648 "were erased. As he wrote for the Court,"
651 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
652 #: freeculture.xml:557
654 "United States v. Causby, U.S. 328 (1946): 256, 261. The Court did find that "
655 "there could be a \"taking\" if the government's use of its land effectively "
656 "destroyed the value of the Causbys' land. This example was suggested to me "
657 "by Keith Aoki's wonderful piece, \"(Intellectual) Property and Sovereignty: "
658 "Notes Toward a Cultural Geography of Authorship,\" <citetitle>Stanford Law "
659 "Review</citetitle> 48 (1996): 1293, 1333. See also Paul Goldstein, "
660 "<citetitle>Real Property</citetitle> (Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press, "
661 "1984), 1112–13. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
662 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
665 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
666 #: freeculture.xml:548
668 "[The] doctrine has no place in the modern world. The air is a public "
669 "highway, as Congress has declared. Were that not true, every "
670 "transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass "
671 "suits. Common sense revolts at the idea. To recognize such private claims to "
672 "the airspace would clog these highways, seriously interfere with their "
673 "control and development in the public interest, and transfer into private "
674 "ownership that to which only the public has a just claim.<placeholder "
675 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
678 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
679 #: freeculture.xml:571
680 msgid "\"Common sense revolts at the idea.\""
684 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
685 #: freeculture.xml:574
687 "This is how the law usually works. Not often this abruptly or impatiently, "
688 "but eventually, this is how it works. It was Douglas's style not to "
689 "dither. Other justices would have blathered on for pages to reach the "
690 "conclusion that Douglas holds in a single line: \"Common sense revolts at "
691 "the idea.\" But whether it takes pages or a few words, it is the special "
692 "genius of a common law system, as ours is, that the law adjusts to the "
693 "technologies of the time. And as it adjusts, it changes. Ideas that were as "
694 "solid as rock in one age crumble in another."
697 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
698 #: freeculture.xml:587
700 "Or at least, this is how things happen when there's no one powerful on the "
701 "other side of the change. The Causbys were just farmers. And though there "
702 "were no doubt many like them who were upset by the growing traffic in the "
703 "air (though one hopes not many chickens flew themselves into walls), the "
704 "Causbys of the world would find it very hard to unite and stop the idea, and "
705 "the technology, that the Wright brothers had birthed. The Wright brothers "
706 "spat airplanes into the technological meme pool; the idea then spread like a "
707 "virus in a chicken coop; farmers like the Causbys found themselves "
708 "surrounded by \"what seemed reasonable\" given the technology that the "
709 "Wrights had produced. They could stand on their farms, dead chickens in "
710 "hand, and shake their fists at these newfangled technologies all they "
711 "wanted. They could call their representatives or even file a lawsuit. But "
712 "in the end, the force of what seems \"obvious\" to everyone else—the "
713 "power of \"common sense\"—would prevail. Their \"private interest\" "
714 "would not be allowed to defeat an obvious public gain."
717 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
718 #: freeculture.xml:616
719 msgid "Bell, Alexander Graham"
722 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
723 #: freeculture.xml:617
724 msgid "Edison, Thomas"
727 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
728 #: freeculture.xml:618
729 msgid "Faraday, Michael"
732 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
733 #: freeculture.xml:605
735 "Edwin Howard Armstrong is one of America's forgotten inventor geniuses. He "
736 "came to the great American inventor scene just after the titans Thomas "
737 "Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. But his work in the area of radio "
738 "technology was perhaps the most important of any single inventor in the "
739 "first fifty years of radio. He was better educated than Michael Faraday, who "
740 "as a bookbinder's apprentice had discovered electric induction in 1831. But "
741 "he had the same intuition about how the world of radio worked, and on at "
742 "least three occasions, Armstrong invented profoundly important technologies "
743 "that advanced our understanding of radio. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
744 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
745 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
748 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
749 #: freeculture.xml:621
751 "On the day after Christmas, 1933, four patents were issued to Armstrong for "
752 "his most significant invention—FM radio. Until then, consumer radio "
753 "had been amplitude-modulated (AM) radio. The theorists of the day had said "
754 "that frequency-modulated (FM) radio could never work. They were right about "
755 "FM radio in a narrow band of spectrum. But Armstrong discovered that "
756 "frequency-modulated radio in a wide band of spectrum would deliver an "
757 "astonishing fidelity of sound, with much less transmitter power and static."
760 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
761 #: freeculture.xml:631
763 "On November 5, 1935, he demonstrated the technology at a meeting of the "
764 "Institute of Radio Engineers at the Empire State Building in New York "
765 "City. He tuned his radio dial across a range of AM stations, until the radio "
766 "locked on a broadcast that he had arranged from seventeen miles away. The "
767 "radio fell totally silent, as if dead, and then with a clarity no one else "
768 "in that room had ever heard from an electrical device, it produced the sound "
769 "of an announcer's voice: \"This is amateur station W2AG at Yonkers, New "
770 "York, operating on frequency modulation at two and a half meters.\""
773 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
774 #: freeculture.xml:642
775 msgid "The audience was hearing something no one had thought possible:"
778 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
779 #: freeculture.xml:653
781 "Lawrence Lessing, <citetitle>Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard "
782 "Armstrong</citetitle> (Philadelphia: J. B. Lipincott Company, 1956), 209."
785 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
786 #: freeculture.xml:646
788 "A glass of water was poured before the microphone in Yonkers; it sounded "
789 "like a glass of water being poured. … A paper was crumpled and torn; "
790 "it sounded like paper and not like a crackling forest fire. … Sousa "
791 "marches were played from records and a piano solo and guitar number were "
792 "performed. … The music was projected with a live-ness rarely if ever "
793 "heard before from a radio \"music box.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
798 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
799 #: freeculture.xml:659
801 "As our own common sense tells us, Armstrong had discovered a vastly superior "
802 "radio technology. But at the time of his invention, Armstrong was working "
803 "for RCA. RCA was the dominant player in the then dominant AM radio "
804 "market. By 1935, there were a thousand radio stations across the United "
805 "States, but the stations in large cities were all owned by a handful of "
809 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
810 #: freeculture.xml:673 freeculture.xml:693
811 msgid "Sarnoff, David"
814 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
815 #: freeculture.xml:668
817 "RCA's president, David Sarnoff, a friend of Armstrong's, was eager that "
818 "Armstrong discover a way to remove static from AM radio. So Sarnoff was "
819 "quite excited when Armstrong told him he had a device that removed static "
820 "from \"radio.\" But when Armstrong demonstrated his invention, Sarnoff was "
821 "not pleased. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
824 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
825 #: freeculture.xml:680
827 "See \"Saints: The Heroes and Geniuses of the Electronic Era,\" First "
828 "Electronic Church of America, at www.webstationone.com/fecha, available at "
829 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #1</ulink>."
832 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
833 #: freeculture.xml:677
835 "I thought Armstrong would invent some kind of a filter to remove static from "
836 "our AM radio. I didn't think he'd start a revolution— start up a whole "
837 "damn new industry to compete with RCA.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
841 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
842 #: freeculture.xml:689
844 "Armstrong's invention threatened RCA's AM empire, so the company launched a "
845 "campaign to smother FM radio. While FM may have been a superior technology, "
846 "Sarnoff was a superior tactician. As one author described, <placeholder "
847 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
850 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
851 #: freeculture.xml:702
852 msgid "Lessing, 226."
855 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
856 #: freeculture.xml:697
858 "The forces for FM, largely engineering, could not overcome the weight of "
859 "strategy devised by the sales, patent, and legal offices to subdue this "
860 "threat to corporate position. For FM, if allowed to develop unrestrained, "
861 "posed … a complete reordering of radio power … and the "
862 "eventual overthrow of the carefully restricted AM system on which RCA had "
863 "grown to power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
866 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
867 #: freeculture.xml:707
869 "RCA at first kept the technology in house, insisting that further tests were "
870 "needed. When, after two years of testing, Armstrong grew impatient, RCA "
871 "began to use its power with the government to stall FM radio's deployment "
872 "generally. In 1936, RCA hired the former head of the FCC and assigned him "
873 "the task of assuring that the FCC assign spectrum in a way that would "
874 "castrate FM—principally by moving FM radio to a different band of "
875 "spectrum. At first, these efforts failed. But when Armstrong and the nation "
876 "were distracted by World War II, RCA's work began to be more "
877 "successful. Soon after the war ended, the FCC announced a set of policies "
878 "that would have one clear effect: FM radio would be crippled. As Lawrence "
879 "Lessing described it,"
882 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
883 #: freeculture.xml:726
884 msgid "Lessing, 256."
887 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
888 #: freeculture.xml:722
890 "The series of body blows that FM radio received right after the war, in a "
891 "series of rulings manipulated through the FCC by the big radio interests, "
892 "were almost incredible in their force and deviousness.<placeholder "
893 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
896 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
897 #: freeculture.xml:730
901 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
902 #: freeculture.xml:732
904 "To make room in the spectrum for RCA's latest gamble, television, FM radio "
905 "users were to be moved to a totally new spectrum band. The power of FM radio "
906 "stations was also cut, meaning FM could no longer be used to beam programs "
907 "from one part of the country to another. (This change was strongly "
908 "supported by AT&T, because the loss of FM relaying stations would mean "
909 "radio stations would have to buy wired links from AT&T.) The spread of "
910 "FM radio was thus choked, at least temporarily."
913 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
914 #: freeculture.xml:742
916 "Armstrong resisted RCA's efforts. In response, RCA resisted Armstrong's "
917 "patents. After incorporating FM technology into the emerging standard for "
918 "television, RCA declared the patents invalid—baselessly, and almost "
919 "fifteen years after they were issued. It thus refused to pay him "
920 "royalties. For six years, Armstrong fought an expensive war of litigation to "
921 "defend the patents. Finally, just as the patents expired, RCA offered a "
922 "settlement so low that it would not even cover Armstrong's lawyers' "
923 "fees. Defeated, broken, and now broke, in 1954 Armstrong wrote a short note "
924 "to his wife and then stepped out of a thirteenth-story window to his death."
928 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
929 #: freeculture.xml:754
931 "This is how the law sometimes works. Not often this tragically, and rarely "
932 "with heroic drama, but sometimes, this is how it works. From the beginning, "
933 "government and government agencies have been subject to capture. They are "
934 "more likely captured when a powerful interest is threatened by either a "
935 "legal or technical change. That powerful interest too often exerts its "
936 "influence within the government to get the government to protect it. The "
937 "rhetoric of this protection is of course always public spirited; the reality "
938 "is something different. Ideas that were as solid as rock in one age, but "
939 "that, left to themselves, would crumble in another, are sustained through "
940 "this subtle corruption of our political process. RCA had what the Causbys "
941 "did not: the power to stifle the effect of technological change."
944 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
945 #: freeculture.xml:776
947 "Amanda Lenhart, \"The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at "
948 "Internet Access and the Digital Divide,\" Pew Internet and American Life "
949 "Project, 15 April 2003: 6, available at <ulink "
950 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #2</ulink>."
953 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
954 #: freeculture.xml:770
956 "There's no single inventor of the Internet. Nor is there any good date upon "
957 "which to mark its birth. Yet in a very short time, the Internet has become "
958 "part of ordinary American life. According to the Pew Internet and American "
959 "Life Project, 58 percent of Americans had access to the Internet in 2002, up "
960 "from 49 percent two years before.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
961 "That number could well exceed two thirds of the nation by the end of 2004."
964 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
965 #: freeculture.xml:785
967 "As the Internet has been integrated into ordinary life, it has changed "
968 "things. Some of these changes are technical—the Internet has made "
969 "communication faster, it has lowered the cost of gathering data, and so "
970 "on. These technical changes are not the focus of this book. They are "
971 "important. They are not well understood. But they are the sort of thing that "
972 "would simply go away if we all just switched the Internet off. They don't "
973 "affect people who don't use the Internet, or at least they don't affect them "
974 "directly. They are the proper subject of a book about the Internet. But this "
975 "is not a book about the Internet."
978 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
979 #: freeculture.xml:796
981 "Instead, this book is about an effect of the Internet beyond the Internet "
982 "itself: an effect upon how culture is made. My claim is that the Internet "
983 "has induced an important and unrecognized change in that process. That "
984 "change will radically transform a tradition that is as old as the Republic "
985 "itself. Most, if they recognized this change, would reject it. Yet most "
986 "don't even see the change that the Internet has introduced."
989 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
990 #: freeculture.xml:815
994 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
995 #: freeculture.xml:816
996 msgid "Webster, Noah"
999 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1000 #: freeculture.xml:805
1002 "We can glimpse a sense of this change by distinguishing between commercial "
1003 "and noncommercial culture, and by mapping the law's regulation of each. By "
1004 "\"commercial culture\" I mean that part of our culture that is produced and "
1005 "sold or produced to be sold. By \"noncommercial culture\" I mean all the "
1006 "rest. When old men sat around parks or on street corners telling stories "
1007 "that kids and others consumed, that was noncommercial culture. When Noah "
1008 "Webster published his \"Reader,\" or Joel Barlow his poetry, that was "
1009 "commercial culture. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
1010 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
1013 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1014 #: freeculture.xml:819
1016 "At the beginning of our history, and for just about the whole of our "
1017 "tradition, noncommercial culture was essentially unregulated. Of course, if "
1018 "your stories were lewd, or if your song disturbed the peace, then the law "
1019 "might intervene. But the law was never directly concerned with the creation "
1020 "or spread of this form of culture, and it left this culture \"free.\" The "
1021 "ordinary ways in which ordinary individuals shared and transformed their "
1022 "culture—telling stories, reenacting scenes from plays or TV, "
1023 "participating in fan clubs, sharing music, making tapes—were left "
1027 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1028 #: freeculture.xml:844 freeculture.xml:1864 freeculture.xml:1875
1029 msgid "Brandeis, Louis D."
1032 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1033 #: freeculture.xml:836
1035 "This is not the only purpose of copyright, though it is the overwhelmingly "
1036 "primary purpose of the copyright established in the federal constitution. "
1037 "State copyright law historically protected not just the commercial interest "
1038 "in publication, but also a privacy interest. By granting authors the "
1039 "exclusive right to first publication, state copyright law gave authors the "
1040 "power to control the spread of facts about them. See Samuel D. Warren and "
1041 "Louis D. Brandeis, \"The Right to Privacy,\" Harvard Law Review 4 (1890): "
1042 "193, 198–200. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1045 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1046 #: freeculture.xml:830
1048 "The focus of the law was on commercial creativity. At first slightly, then "
1049 "quite extensively, the law protected the incentives of creators by granting "
1050 "them exclusive rights to their creative work, so that they could sell those "
1051 "exclusive rights in a commercial marketplace.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
1052 "id=\"0\"/> This is also, of course, an important part of creativity and "
1053 "culture, and it has become an increasingly important part in America. But in "
1054 "no sense was it dominant within our tradition. It was instead just one part, "
1055 "a controlled part, balanced with the free."
1058 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1059 #: freeculture.xml:856 freeculture.xml:9371
1060 msgid "Litman, Jessica"
1063 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1064 #: freeculture.xml:854
1066 "See Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (New York: "
1067 "Prometheus Books, 2001), ch. 13. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1070 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1071 #: freeculture.xml:852
1073 "This rough divide between the free and the controlled has now been "
1074 "erased.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Internet has set the "
1075 "stage for this erasure and, pushed by big media, the law has now affected "
1076 "it. For the first time in our tradition, the ordinary ways in which "
1077 "individuals create and share culture fall within the reach of the regulation "
1078 "of the law, which has expanded to draw within its control a vast amount of "
1079 "culture and creativity that it never reached before. The technology that "
1080 "preserved the balance of our history—between uses of our culture that "
1081 "were free and uses of our culture that were only upon permission—has "
1082 "been undone. The consequence is that we are less and less a free culture, "
1083 "more and more a permission culture."
1086 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1087 #: freeculture.xml:871
1089 "This change gets justified as necessary to protect commercial creativity. "
1090 "And indeed, protectionism is precisely its motivation. But the protectionism "
1091 "that justifies the changes that I will describe below is not the limited and "
1092 "balanced sort that has defined the law in the past. This is not a "
1093 "protectionism to protect artists. It is instead a protectionism to protect "
1094 "certain forms of business. Corporations threatened by the potential of the "
1095 "Internet to change the way both commercial and noncommercial culture are "
1096 "made and shared have united to induce lawmakers to use the law to protect "
1097 "them. It is the story of RCA and Armstrong; it is the dream of the Causbys."
1100 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1101 #: freeculture.xml:884
1103 "For the Internet has unleashed an extraordinary possibility for many to "
1104 "participate in the process of building and cultivating a culture that "
1105 "reaches far beyond local boundaries. That power has changed the marketplace "
1106 "for making and cultivating culture generally, and that change in turn "
1107 "threatens established content industries. The Internet is thus to the "
1108 "industries that built and distributed content in the twentieth century what "
1109 "FM radio was to AM radio, or what the truck was to the railroad industry of "
1110 "the nineteenth century: the beginning of the end, or at least a substantial "
1111 "transformation. Digital technologies, tied to the Internet, could produce a "
1112 "vastly more competitive and vibrant market for building and cultivating "
1113 "culture; that market could include a much wider and more diverse range of "
1114 "creators; those creators could produce and distribute a much more vibrant "
1115 "range of creativity; and depending upon a few important factors, those "
1116 "creators could earn more on average from this system than creators do "
1117 "today—all so long as the RCAs of our day don't use the law to protect "
1118 "themselves against this competition."
1121 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1122 #: freeculture.xml:903
1124 "Yet, as I argue in the pages that follow, that is precisely what is "
1125 "happening in our culture today. These modern-day equivalents of the early "
1126 "twentieth-century radio or nineteenth-century railroads are using their "
1127 "power to get the law to protect them against this new, more efficient, more "
1128 "vibrant technology for building culture. They are succeeding in their plan "
1129 "to remake the Internet before the Internet remakes them."
1132 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1133 #: freeculture.xml:920
1135 "Amy Harmon, \"Black Hawk Download: Moving Beyond Music, Pirates Use New "
1136 "Tools to Turn the Net into an Illicit Video Club,\" <citetitle>New York "
1137 "Times</citetitle>, 17 January 2002."
1140 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1141 #: freeculture.xml:912
1143 "It doesn't seem this way to many. The battles over copyright and the "
1144 "Internet seem remote to most. To the few who follow them, they seem mainly "
1145 "about a much simpler brace of questions—whether \"piracy\" will be "
1146 "permitted, and whether \"property\" will be protected. The \"war\" that has "
1147 "been waged against the technologies of the Internet—what Motion "
1148 "Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti calls his \"own "
1149 "terrorist war\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—has been "
1150 "framed as a battle about the rule of law and respect for property. To know "
1151 "which side to take in this war, most think that we need only decide whether "
1152 "we're for property or against it."
1155 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1156 #: freeculture.xml:929
1158 "If those really were the choices, then I would be with Jack Valenti and the "
1159 "content industry. I, too, am a believer in property, and especially in the "
1160 "importance of what Mr. Valenti nicely calls \"creative property.\" I believe "
1161 "that \"piracy\" is wrong, and that the law, properly tuned, should punish "
1162 "\"piracy,\" whether on or off the Internet."
1165 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1166 #: freeculture.xml:937
1168 "But those simple beliefs mask a much more fundamental question and a much "
1169 "more dramatic change. My fear is that unless we come to see this change, the "
1170 "war to rid the world of Internet \"pirates\" will also rid our culture of "
1171 "values that have been integral to our tradition from the start."
1174 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1175 #: freeculture.xml:951 freeculture.xml:14187
1176 msgid "Netanel, Neil Weinstock"
1179 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1180 #: freeculture.xml:949
1182 "Neil W. Netanel, \"Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society,\" "
1183 "<citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 106 (1996): 283. <placeholder "
1184 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1187 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1188 #: freeculture.xml:943
1190 "These values built a tradition that, for at least the first 180 years of our "
1191 "Republic, guaranteed creators the right to build freely upon their past, and "
1192 "protected creators and innovators from either state or private control. The "
1193 "First Amendment protected creators against state control. And as Professor "
1194 "Neil Netanel powerfully argues,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1195 "copyright law, properly balanced, protected creators against private "
1196 "control. Our tradition was thus neither Soviet nor the tradition of "
1197 "patrons. It instead carved out a wide berth within which creators could "
1198 "cultivate and extend our culture."
1201 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1202 #: freeculture.xml:959
1204 "Yet the law's response to the Internet, when tied to changes in the "
1205 "technology of the Internet itself, has massively increased the effective "
1206 "regulation of creativity in America. To build upon or critique the culture "
1207 "around us one must ask, Oliver Twist–like, for permission first. "
1208 "Permission is, of course, often granted—but it is not often granted to "
1209 "the critical or the independent. We have built a kind of cultural nobility; "
1210 "those within the noble class live easily; those outside it don't. But it is "
1211 "nobility of any form that is alien to our tradition."
1214 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1215 #: freeculture.xml:971
1217 "The story that follows is about this war. Is it not about the \"centrality "
1218 "of technology\" to ordinary life. I don't believe in gods, digital or "
1219 "otherwise. Nor is it an effort to demonize any individual or group, for "
1220 "neither do I believe in a devil, corporate or otherwise. It is not a "
1221 "morality tale. Nor is it a call to jihad against an industry."
1224 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1225 #: freeculture.xml:979
1227 "It is instead an effort to understand a hopelessly destructive war inspired "
1228 "by the technologies of the Internet but reaching far beyond its code. And by "
1229 "understanding this battle, it is an effort to map peace. There is no good "
1230 "reason for the current struggle around Internet technologies to "
1231 "continue. There will be great harm to our tradition and culture if it is "
1232 "allowed to continue unchecked. We must come to understand the source of this "
1233 "war. We must resolve it soon."
1236 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1237 #: freeculture.xml:990
1239 "Like the Causbys' battle, this war is, in part, about \"property.\" The "
1240 "property of this war is not as tangible as the Causbys', and no innocent "
1241 "chicken has yet to lose its life. Yet the ideas surrounding this "
1242 "\"property\" are as obvious to most as the Causbys' claim about the "
1243 "sacredness of their farm was to them. We are the Causbys. Most of us take "
1244 "for granted the extraordinarily powerful claims that the owners of "
1245 "\"intellectual property\" now assert. Most of us, like the Causbys, treat "
1246 "these claims as obvious. And hence we, like the Causbys, object when a new "
1247 "technology interferes with this property. It is as plain to us as it was to "
1248 "them that the new technologies of the Internet are \"trespassing\" upon "
1249 "legitimate claims of \"property.\" It is as plain to us as it was to them "
1250 "that the law should intervene to stop this trespass."
1254 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1255 #: freeculture.xml:1007
1257 "And thus, when geeks and technologists defend their Armstrong or Wright "
1258 "brothers technology, most of us are simply unsympathetic. Common sense does "
1259 "not revolt. Unlike in the case of the unlucky Causbys, common sense is on "
1260 "the side of the property owners in this war. Unlike the lucky Wright "
1261 "brothers, the Internet has not inspired a revolution on its side."
1264 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1265 #: freeculture.xml:1017
1267 "My hope is to push this common sense along. I have become increasingly "
1268 "amazed by the power of this idea of intellectual property and, more "
1269 "importantly, its power to disable critical thought by policy makers and "
1270 "citizens. There has never been a time in our history when more of our "
1271 "\"culture\" was as \"owned\" as it is now. And yet there has never been a "
1272 "time when the concentration of power to control the "
1273 "<emphasis>uses</emphasis> of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as "
1277 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1278 #: freeculture.xml:1027
1280 "The puzzle is, Why? Is it because we have come to understand a truth about "
1281 "the value and importance of absolute property over ideas and culture? Is it "
1282 "because we have discovered that our tradition of rejecting such an absolute "
1286 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1287 #: freeculture.xml:1033
1289 "Or is it because the idea of absolute property over ideas and culture "
1290 "benefits the RCAs of our time and fits our own unreflective intuitions?"
1293 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1294 #: freeculture.xml:1037
1296 "Is the radical shift away from our tradition of free culture an instance of "
1297 "America correcting a mistake from its past, as we did after a bloody war "
1298 "with slavery, and as we are slowly doing with inequality? Or is the radical "
1299 "shift away from our tradition of free culture yet another example of a "
1300 "political system captured by a few powerful special interests?"
1303 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1304 #: freeculture.xml:1044
1306 "Does common sense lead to the extremes on this question because common sense "
1307 "actually believes in these extremes? Or does common sense stand silent in "
1308 "the face of these extremes because, as with Armstrong versus RCA, the more "
1309 "powerful side has ensured that it has the more powerful view?"
1313 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1314 #: freeculture.xml:1053
1316 "I don't mean to be mysterious. My own views are resolved. I believe it was "
1317 "right for common sense to revolt against the extremism of the Causbys. I "
1318 "believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme "
1319 "claims made today on behalf of \"intellectual property.\" What the law "
1320 "demands today is increasingly as silly as a sheriff arresting an airplane "
1321 "for trespass. But the consequences of this silliness will be much more "
1325 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1326 #: freeculture.xml:1063
1328 "The struggle that rages just now centers on two ideas: \"piracy\" and "
1329 "\"property.\" My aim in this book's next two parts is to explore these two "
1333 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1334 #: freeculture.xml:1068
1336 "My method is not the usual method of an academic. I don't want to plunge you "
1337 "into a complex argument, buttressed with references to obscure French "
1338 "theorists—however natural that is for the weird sort we academics have "
1339 "become. Instead I begin in each part with a collection of stories that set a "
1340 "context within which these apparently simple ideas can be more fully "
1344 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1345 #: freeculture.xml:1076
1347 "The two sections set up the core claim of this book: that while the Internet "
1348 "has indeed produced something fantastic and new, our government, pushed by "
1349 "big media to respond to this \"something new,\" is destroying something very "
1350 "old. Rather than understanding the changes the Internet might permit, and "
1351 "rather than taking time to let \"common sense\" resolve how best to respond, "
1352 "we are allowing those most threatened by the changes to use their power to "
1353 "change the law—and more importantly, to use their power to change "
1354 "something fundamental about who we have always been."
1357 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1358 #: freeculture.xml:1087
1360 "We allow this, I believe, not because it is right, and not because most of "
1361 "us really believe in these changes. We allow it because the interests most "
1362 "threatened are among the most powerful players in our depressingly "
1363 "compromised process of making law. This book is the story of one more "
1364 "consequence of this form of corruption—a consequence to which most of "
1365 "us remain oblivious."
1368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
1369 #: freeculture.xml:1097
1373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1374 #: freeculture.xml:1101 freeculture.xml:4737
1375 msgid "Mansfield, William Murray, Lord"
1378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1379 #: freeculture.xml:1104
1381 "Since the inception of the law regulating creative property, there has been "
1382 "a war against \"piracy.\" The precise contours of this concept, \"piracy,\" "
1383 "are hard to sketch, but the animating injustice is easy to capture. As Lord "
1384 "Mansfield wrote in a case that extended the reach of English copyright law "
1385 "to include sheet music,"
1389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1390 #: freeculture.xml:1116
1392 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
1393 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777) (Mansfield)."
1396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1397 #: freeculture.xml:1112
1399 "A person may use the copy by playing it, but he has no right to rob the "
1400 "author of the profit, by multiplying copies and disposing of them for his "
1401 "own use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1406 #: freeculture.xml:1122
1408 "Today we are in the middle of another \"war\" against \"piracy.\" The "
1409 "Internet has provoked this war. The Internet makes possible the efficient "
1410 "spread of content. Peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing is among the most "
1411 "efficient of the efficient technologies the Internet enables. Using "
1412 "distributed intelligence, p2p systems facilitate the easy spread of content "
1413 "in a way unimagined a generation ago."
1416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1417 #: freeculture.xml:1131
1419 "This efficiency does not respect the traditional lines of copyright. The "
1420 "network doesn't discriminate between the sharing of copyrighted and "
1421 "uncopyrighted content. Thus has there been a vast amount of sharing of "
1422 "copyrighted content. That sharing in turn has excited the war, as copyright "
1423 "owners fear the sharing will \"rob the author of the profit.\""
1426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1427 #: freeculture.xml:1139
1429 "The warriors have turned to the courts, to the legislatures, and "
1430 "increasingly to technology to defend their \"property\" against this "
1431 "\"piracy.\" A generation of Americans, the warriors warn, is being raised to "
1432 "believe that \"property\" should be \"free.\" Forget tattoos, never mind "
1433 "body piercing—our kids are becoming <emphasis>thieves</emphasis>!"
1436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1437 #: freeculture.xml:1147
1439 "There's no doubt that \"piracy\" is wrong, and that pirates should be "
1440 "punished. But before we summon the executioners, we should put this notion "
1441 "of \"piracy\" in some context. For as the concept is increasingly used, at "
1442 "its core is an extraordinary idea that is almost certainly wrong."
1445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1446 #: freeculture.xml:1153
1447 msgid "The idea goes something like this:"
1450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1451 #: freeculture.xml:1157
1453 "Creative work has value; whenever I use, or take, or build upon the creative "
1454 "work of others, I am taking from them something of value. Whenever I take "
1455 "something of value from someone else, I should have their permission. The "
1456 "taking of something of value from someone else without permission is "
1457 "wrong. It is a form of piracy."
1460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1461 #: freeculture.xml:1165
1462 msgid "Dreyfuss, Rochelle"
1466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1467 #: freeculture.xml:1171
1469 "See Rochelle Dreyfuss, \"Expressive Genericity: Trademarks as Language in "
1470 "the Pepsi Generation,\" <citetitle>Notre Dame Law Review</citetitle> 65 "
1474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1475 #: freeculture.xml:1184 freeculture.xml:6835
1476 msgid "Zittrain, Jonathan"
1479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1480 #: freeculture.xml:1179
1482 "Lisa Bannon, \"The Birds May Sing, but Campers Can't Unless They Pay Up,\" "
1483 "<citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 21 August 1996, available at "
1484 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #3</ulink>; Jonathan "
1485 "Zittrain, \"Calling Off the Copyright War: In Battle of Property vs. Free "
1486 "Speech, No One Wins,\" <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 24 November "
1487 "2002. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1491 #: freeculture.xml:1167
1493 "This view runs deep within the current debates. It is what NYU law professor "
1494 "Rochelle Dreyfuss criticizes as the \"if value, then right\" theory of "
1495 "creative property<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> —if there "
1496 "is value, then someone must have a right to that value. It is the "
1497 "perspective that led a composers' rights organization, ASCAP, to sue the "
1498 "Girl Scouts for failing to pay for the songs that girls sang around Girl "
1499 "Scout campfires.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> There was "
1500 "\"value\" (the songs) so there must have been a \"right\"—even against "
1504 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1505 #: freeculture.xml:1189
1510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1511 #: freeculture.xml:1191
1513 "This idea is certainly a possible understanding of how creative property "
1514 "should work. It might well be a possible design for a system of law "
1515 "protecting creative property. But the \"if value, then right\" theory of "
1516 "creative property has never been America's theory of creative property. It "
1517 "has never taken hold within our law."
1520 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1521 #: freeculture.xml:1199
1523 "Instead, in our tradition, intellectual property is an instrument. It sets "
1524 "the groundwork for a richly creative society but remains subservient to the "
1525 "value of creativity. The current debate has this turned around. We have "
1526 "become so concerned with protecting the instrument that we are losing sight "
1530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1531 #: freeculture.xml:1206
1533 "The source of this confusion is a distinction that the law no longer takes "
1534 "care to draw—the distinction between republishing someone's work on "
1535 "the one hand and building upon or transforming that work on the "
1536 "other. Copyright law at its birth had only publishing as its concern; "
1537 "copyright law today regulates both."
1540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1541 #: freeculture.xml:1213
1543 "Before the technologies of the Internet, this conflation didn't matter all "
1544 "that much. The technologies of publishing were expensive; that meant the "
1545 "vast majority of publishing was commercial. Commercial entities could bear "
1546 "the burden of the law—even the burden of the Byzantine complexity that "
1547 "copyright law has become. It was just one more expense of doing business."
1550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1551 #: freeculture.xml:1220 freeculture.xml:1248
1552 msgid "Florida, Richard"
1555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1556 #: freeculture.xml:1241
1558 "In <citetitle>The Rise of the Creative Class</citetitle> (New York: Basic "
1559 "Books, 2002), Richard Florida documents a shift in the nature of labor "
1560 "toward a labor of creativity. His work, however, doesn't directly address "
1561 "the legal conditions under which that creativity is enabled or stifled. I "
1562 "certainly agree with him about the importance and significance of this "
1563 "change, but I also believe the conditions under which it will be enabled are "
1564 "much more tenuous. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1567 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1568 #: freeculture.xml:1222
1570 "But with the birth of the Internet, this natural limit to the reach of the "
1571 "law has disappeared. The law controls not just the creativity of commercial "
1572 "creators but effectively that of anyone. Although that expansion would not "
1573 "matter much if copyright law regulated only \"copying,\" when the law "
1574 "regulates as broadly and obscurely as it does, the extension matters a "
1575 "lot. The burden of this law now vastly outweighs any original "
1576 "benefit—certainly as it affects noncommercial creativity, and "
1577 "increasingly as it affects commercial creativity as well. Thus, as we'll see "
1578 "more clearly in the chapters below, the law's role is less and less to "
1579 "support creativity, and more and more to protect certain industries against "
1580 "competition. Just at the time digital technology could unleash an "
1581 "extraordinary range of commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law "
1582 "burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the "
1583 "threat of obscenely severe penalties. We may be seeing, as Richard Florida "
1584 "writes, the \"Rise of the Creative Class.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
1585 "id=\"0\"/> Unfortunately, we are also seeing an extraordinary rise of "
1586 "regulation of this creative class."
1589 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1590 #: freeculture.xml:1254
1592 "These burdens make no sense in our tradition. We should begin by "
1593 "understanding that tradition a bit more and by placing in their proper "
1594 "context the current battles about behavior labeled \"piracy.\""
1597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
1598 #: freeculture.xml:1262
1599 msgid "CHAPTER ONE: Creators"
1602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1603 #: freeculture.xml:1264
1605 "In 1928, a cartoon character was born. An early Mickey Mouse made his debut "
1606 "in May of that year, in a silent flop called <citetitle>Plane "
1607 "Crazy</citetitle>. In November, in New York City's Colony Theater, in the "
1608 "first widely distributed cartoon synchronized with sound, "
1609 "<citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle> brought to life the character that "
1610 "would become Mickey Mouse."
1613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1614 #: freeculture.xml:1271
1616 "Synchronized sound had been introduced to film a year earlier in the movie "
1617 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle>. That success led Walt Disney to copy "
1618 "the technique and mix sound with cartoons. No one knew whether it would work "
1619 "or, if it did work, whether it would win an audience. But when Disney ran a "
1620 "test in the summer of 1928, the results were unambiguous. As Disney "
1621 "describes that first experiment,"
1625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1626 #: freeculture.xml:1280
1628 "A couple of my boys could read music, and one of them could play a mouth "
1629 "organ. We put them in a room where they could not see the screen and "
1630 "arranged to pipe their sound into the room where our wives and friends were "
1631 "going to see the picture."
1634 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1635 #: freeculture.xml:1287
1637 "The boys worked from a music and sound-effects score. After several false "
1638 "starts, sound and action got off with the gun. The mouth organist played the "
1639 "tune, the rest of us in the sound department bammed tin pans and blew slide "
1640 "whistles on the beat. The synchronization was pretty close."
1644 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1645 #: freeculture.xml:1300
1647 "Leonard Maltin, <citetitle>Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated "
1648 "Cartoons</citetitle> (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), 34–35."
1651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1652 #: freeculture.xml:1294
1654 "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They "
1655 "responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought "
1656 "they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action "
1657 "again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something "
1658 "new!<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
1662 #: freeculture.xml:1309
1666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1667 #: freeculture.xml:1306
1669 "Disney's then partner, and one of animation's most extraordinary talents, Ub "
1670 "Iwerks, put it more strongly: \"I have never been so thrilled in my "
1671 "life. Nothing since has ever equaled it.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
1675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1676 #: freeculture.xml:1312
1678 "Disney had created something very new, based upon something relatively "
1679 "new. Synchronized sound brought life to a form of creativity that had "
1680 "rarely—except in Disney's hands—been anything more than filler "
1681 "for other films. Throughout animation's early history, it was Disney's "
1682 "invention that set the standard that others struggled to match. And quite "
1683 "often, Disney's great genius, his spark of creativity, was built upon the "
1687 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1688 #: freeculture.xml:1321
1690 "This much is familiar. What you might not know is that 1928 also marks "
1691 "another important transition. In that year, a comic (as opposed to cartoon) "
1692 "genius created his last independently produced silent film. That genius was "
1693 "Buster Keaton. The film was <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>."
1696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1697 #: freeculture.xml:1327
1699 "Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in 1895. In the era of silent film, "
1700 "he had mastered using broad physical comedy as a way to spark uncontrollable "
1701 "laughter from his audience. <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. was a "
1702 "classic of this form, famous among film buffs for its incredible stunts. "
1703 "The film was classic Keaton—wildly popular and among the best of its "
1708 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1709 #: freeculture.xml:1341
1711 "I am grateful to David Gerstein and his careful history, described at <ulink "
1712 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #4</ulink>. According to Dave "
1713 "Smith of the Disney Archives, Disney paid royalties to use the music for "
1714 "five songs in <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle>: \"Steamboat Bill,\" "
1715 "\"The Simpleton\" (Delille), \"Mischief Makers\" (Carbonara), \"Joyful Hurry "
1716 "No. 1\" (Baron), and \"Gawky Rube\" (Lakay). A sixth song, \"The Turkey in "
1717 "the Straw,\" was already in the public domain. Letter from David Smith to "
1718 "Harry Surden, 10 July 2003, on file with author."
1721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1722 #: freeculture.xml:1335
1724 "<citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. appeared before Disney's cartoon "
1725 "Steamboat Willie. The coincidence of titles is not coincidental. Steamboat "
1726 "Willie is a direct cartoon parody of Steamboat Bill,<placeholder "
1727 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and both are built upon a common song as a "
1728 "source. It is not just from the invention of synchronized sound in "
1729 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle> that we get <citetitle>Steamboat "
1730 "Willie</citetitle>. It is also from Buster Keaton's invention of Steamboat "
1731 "Bill, Jr., itself inspired by the song \"Steamboat Bill,\" that we get "
1732 "Steamboat Willie, and then from Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse."
1736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1737 #: freeculture.xml:1362
1739 "He was also a fan of the public domain. See Chris Sprigman, \"The Mouse that "
1740 "Ate the Public Domain,\" Findlaw, 5 March 2002, at <ulink "
1741 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #5</ulink>."
1744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1745 #: freeculture.xml:1358
1747 "This \"borrowing\" was nothing unique, either for Disney or for the "
1748 "industry. Disney was always parroting the feature-length mainstream films of "
1749 "his day.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> So did many others. Early "
1750 "cartoons are filled with knockoffs—slight variations on winning "
1751 "themes; retellings of ancient stories. The key to success was the brilliance "
1752 "of the differences. With Disney, it was sound that gave his animation its "
1753 "spark. Later, it was the quality of his work relative to the production-line "
1754 "cartoons with which he competed. Yet these additions were built upon a base "
1755 "that was borrowed. Disney added to the work of others before him, creating "
1756 "something new out of something just barely old."
1759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1760 #: freeculture.xml:1377
1762 "Sometimes this borrowing was slight. Sometimes it was significant. Think "
1763 "about the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. If you're as oblivious as I "
1764 "was, you're likely to think that these tales are happy, sweet stories, "
1765 "appropriate for any child at bedtime. In fact, the Grimm fairy tales are, "
1766 "well, for us, grim. It is a rare and perhaps overly ambitious parent who "
1767 "would dare to read these bloody, moralistic stories to his or her child, at "
1768 "bedtime or anytime."
1772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1773 #: freeculture.xml:1386
1775 "Disney took these stories and retold them in a way that carried them into a "
1776 "new age. He animated the stories, with both characters and light. Without "
1777 "removing the elements of fear and danger altogether, he made funny what was "
1778 "dark and injected a genuine emotion of compassion where before there was "
1779 "fear. And not just with the work of the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the catalog "
1780 "of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set "
1781 "together: <citetitle>Snow White</citetitle> (1937), "
1782 "<citetitle>Fantasia</citetitle> (1940), <citetitle>Pinocchio</citetitle> "
1783 "(1940), <citetitle>Dumbo</citetitle> (1941), <citetitle>Bambi</citetitle> "
1784 "(1942), <citetitle>Song of the South</citetitle> (1946), "
1785 "<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle> (1950), <citetitle>Alice in "
1786 "Wonderland</citetitle> (1951), <citetitle>Robin Hood</citetitle> (1952), "
1787 "<citetitle>Peter Pan</citetitle> (1953), <citetitle>Lady and the "
1788 "Tramp</citetitle> (1955), <citetitle>Mulan</citetitle> (1998), "
1789 "<citetitle>Sleeping Beauty</citetitle> (1959), <citetitle>101 "
1790 "Dalmatians</citetitle> (1961), <citetitle>The Sword in the Stone</citetitle> "
1791 "(1963), and <citetitle>The Jungle Book</citetitle> (1967)—not to "
1792 "mention a recent example that we should perhaps quickly forget, "
1793 "<citetitle>Treasure Planet</citetitle> (2003). In all of these cases, Disney "
1794 "(or Disney, Inc.) ripped creativity from the culture around him, mixed that "
1795 "creativity with his own extraordinary talent, and then burned that mix into "
1796 "the soul of his culture. Rip, mix, and burn."
1799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1800 #: freeculture.xml:1408
1802 "This is a kind of creativity. It is a creativity that we should remember and "
1803 "celebrate. There are some who would say that there is no creativity except "
1804 "this kind. We don't need to go that far to recognize its importance. We "
1805 "could call this \"Disney creativity,\" though that would be a bit "
1806 "misleading. It is, more precisely, \"Walt Disney creativity\"—a form "
1807 "of expression and genius that builds upon the culture around us and makes it "
1808 "something different."
1812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1813 #: freeculture.xml:1422
1815 "Until 1976, copyright law granted an author the possibility of two terms: an "
1816 "initial term and a renewal term. I have calculated the \"average\" term by "
1817 "determining the weighted average of total registrations for any particular "
1818 "year, and the proportion renewing. Thus, if 100 copyrights are registered in "
1819 "year 1, and only 15 are renewed, and the renewal term is 28 years, then the "
1820 "average term is 32.2 years. For the renewal data and other relevant data, "
1821 "see the Web site associated with this book, available at <ulink "
1822 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #6</ulink>."
1825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1826 #: freeculture.xml:1416
1828 "In 1928, the culture that Disney was free to draw upon was relatively "
1829 "fresh. The public domain in 1928 was not very old and was therefore quite "
1830 "vibrant. The average term of copyright was just around thirty "
1831 "years—for that minority of creative work that was in fact "
1832 "copyrighted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That means that for "
1833 "thirty years, on average, the authors or copyright holders of a creative "
1834 "work had an \"exclusive right\" to control certain uses of the work. To use "
1835 "this copyrighted work in limited ways required the permission of the "
1839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1840 #: freeculture.xml:1439
1842 "At the end of a copyright term, a work passes into the public domain. No "
1843 "permission is then needed to draw upon or use that work. No permission and, "
1844 "hence, no lawyers. The public domain is a \"lawyer-free zone.\" Thus, most "
1845 "of the content from the nineteenth century was free for Disney to use and "
1846 "build upon in 1928. It was free for anyone— whether connected or not, "
1847 "whether rich or not, whether approved or not—to use and build upon."
1851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1852 #: freeculture.xml:1448
1854 "This is the ways things always were—until quite recently. For most of "
1855 "our history, the public domain was just over the horizon. From until 1978, "
1856 "the average copyright term was never more than thirty-two years, meaning "
1857 "that most culture just a generation and a half old was free for anyone to "
1858 "build upon without the permission of anyone else. Today's equivalent would "
1859 "be for creative work from the 1960s and 1970s to now be free for the next "
1860 "Walt Disney to build upon without permission. Yet today, the public domain "
1861 "is presumptive only for content from before the Great Depression."
1864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1865 #: freeculture.xml:1461
1867 "Of course, Walt Disney had no monopoly on \"Walt Disney creativity.\" Nor "
1868 "does America. The norm of free culture has, until recently, and except "
1869 "within totalitarian nations, been broadly exploited and quite universal."
1872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1873 #: freeculture.xml:1467
1875 "Consider, for example, a form of creativity that seems strange to many "
1876 "Americans but that is inescapable within Japanese culture: "
1877 "<citetitle>manga</citetitle>, or comics. The Japanese are fanatics about "
1878 "comics. Some 40 percent of publications are comics, and 30 percent of "
1879 "publication revenue derives from comics. They are everywhere in Japanese "
1880 "society, at every magazine stand, carried by a large proportion of commuters "
1881 "on Japan's extraordinary system of public transportation."
1884 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1885 #: freeculture.xml:1476
1887 "Americans tend to look down upon this form of culture. That's an "
1888 "unattractive characteristic of ours. We're likely to misunderstand much "
1889 "about manga, because few of us have ever read anything close to the stories "
1890 "that these \"graphic novels\" tell. For the Japanese, manga cover every "
1891 "aspect of social life. For us, comics are \"men in tights.\" And anyway, "
1892 "it's not as if the New York subways are filled with readers of Joyce or even "
1893 "Hemingway. People of different cultures distract themselves in different "
1894 "ways, the Japanese in this interestingly different way."
1897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1898 #: freeculture.xml:1487
1900 "But my purpose here is not to understand manga. It is to describe a variant "
1901 "on manga that from a lawyer's perspective is quite odd, but from a Disney "
1902 "perspective is quite familiar."
1906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1907 #: freeculture.xml:1492
1909 "This is the phenomenon of <citetitle>doujinshi</citetitle>. Doujinshi are "
1910 "also comics, but they are a kind of copycat comic. A rich ethic governs the "
1911 "creation of doujinshi. It is not doujinshi if it is "
1912 "<emphasis>just</emphasis> a copy; the artist must make a contribution to the "
1913 "art he copies, by transforming it either subtly or significantly. A "
1914 "doujinshi comic can thus take a mainstream comic and develop it "
1915 "differently—with a different story line. Or the comic can keep the "
1916 "character in character but change its look slightly. There is no formula for "
1917 "what makes the doujinshi sufficiently \"different.\" But they must be "
1918 "different if they are to be considered true doujinshi. Indeed, there are "
1919 "committees that review doujinshi for inclusion within shows and reject any "
1920 "copycat comic that is merely a copy."
1923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1924 #: freeculture.xml:1507
1926 "These copycat comics are not a tiny part of the manga market. They are "
1927 "huge. More than 33,000 \"circles\" of creators from across Japan produce "
1928 "these bits of Walt Disney creativity. More than 450,000 Japanese come "
1929 "together twice a year, in the largest public gathering in the country, to "
1930 "exchange and sell them. This market exists in parallel to the mainstream "
1931 "commercial manga market. In some ways, it obviously competes with that "
1932 "market, but there is no sustained effort by those who control the commercial "
1933 "manga market to shut the doujinshi market down. It flourishes, despite the "
1934 "competition and despite the law."
1937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1938 #: freeculture.xml:1518
1940 "The most puzzling feature of the doujinshi market, for those trained in the "
1941 "law, at least, is that it is allowed to exist at all. Under Japanese "
1942 "copyright law, which in this respect (on paper) mirrors American copyright "
1943 "law, the doujinshi market is an illegal one. Doujinshi are plainly "
1944 "\"derivative works.\" There is no general practice by doujinshi artists of "
1945 "securing the permission of the manga creators. Instead, the practice is "
1946 "simply to take and modify the creations of others, as Walt Disney did with "
1947 "<citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. Under both Japanese and American "
1948 "law, that \"taking\" without the permission of the original copyright owner "
1949 "is illegal. It is an infringement of the original copyright to make a copy "
1950 "or a derivative work without the original copyright owner's permission."
1953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1954 #: freeculture.xml:1532
1955 msgid "Winick, Judd"
1959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1960 #: freeculture.xml:1545
1962 "For an excellent history, see Scott McCloud, <citetitle>Reinventing "
1963 "Comics</citetitle> (New York: Perennial, 2000)."
1966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1967 #: freeculture.xml:1535
1969 "Yet this illegal market exists and indeed flourishes in Japan, and in the "
1970 "view of many, it is precisely because it exists that Japanese manga "
1971 "flourish. As American graphic novelist Judd Winick said to me, \"The early "
1972 "days of comics in America are very much like what's going on in Japan "
1973 "now. … American comics were born out of copying each other. … "
1974 "That's how [the artists] learn to draw—by going into comic books and "
1975 "not tracing them, but looking at them and copying them\" and building from "
1976 "them.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1980 #: freeculture.xml:1550
1982 "American comics now are quite different, Winick explains, in part because of "
1983 "the legal difficulty of adapting comics the way doujinshi are "
1984 "allowed. Speaking of Superman, Winick told me, \"there are these rules and "
1985 "you have to stick to them.\" There are things Superman \"cannot\" do. \"As a "
1986 "creator, it's frustrating having to stick to some parameters which are fifty "
1991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1992 #: freeculture.xml:1567
1994 "See Salil K. Mehra, \"Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain Why "
1995 "All the Comics My Kid Watches Are Japanese Imports?\" <citetitle>Rutgers Law "
1996 "Review</citetitle> 55 (2002): 155, 182. \"[T]here might be a collective "
1997 "economic rationality that would lead manga and anime artists to forgo "
1998 "bringing legal actions for infringement. One hypothesis is that all manga "
1999 "artists may be better off collectively if they set aside their individual "
2000 "self-interest and decide not to press their legal rights. This is "
2001 "essentially a prisoner's dilemma solved.\""
2004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2005 #: freeculture.xml:1559
2007 "The norm in Japan mitigates this legal difficulty. Some say it is precisely "
2008 "the benefit accruing to the Japanese manga market that explains the "
2009 "mitigation. Temple University law professor Salil Mehra, for example, "
2010 "hypothesizes that the manga market accepts these technical violations "
2011 "because they spur the manga market to be more wealthy and "
2012 "productive. Everyone would be worse off if doujinshi were banned, so the law "
2013 "does not ban doujinshi.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2016 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2017 #: freeculture.xml:1578
2019 "The problem with this story, however, as Mehra plainly acknowledges, is that "
2020 "the mechanism producing this laissez faire response is not clear. It may "
2021 "well be that the market as a whole is better off if doujinshi are permitted "
2022 "rather than banned, but that doesn't explain why individual copyright owners "
2023 "don't sue nonetheless. If the law has no general exception for doujinshi, "
2024 "and indeed in some cases individual manga artists have sued doujinshi "
2025 "artists, why is there not a more general pattern of blocking this \"free "
2026 "taking\" by the doujinshi culture?"
2029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2030 #: freeculture.xml:1589
2032 "I spent four wonderful months in Japan, and I asked this question as often "
2033 "as I could. Perhaps the best account in the end was offered by a friend from "
2034 "a major Japanese law firm. \"We don't have enough lawyers,\" he told me one "
2035 "afternoon. There \"just aren't enough resources to prosecute cases like "
2040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2041 #: freeculture.xml:1596
2043 "This is a theme to which we will return: that regulation by law is a "
2044 "function of both the words on the books and the costs of making those words "
2045 "have effect. For now, focus on the obvious question that is begged: Would "
2046 "Japan be better off with more lawyers? Would manga be richer if doujinshi "
2047 "artists were regularly prosecuted? Would the Japanese gain something "
2048 "important if they could end this practice of uncompensated sharing? Does "
2049 "piracy here hurt the victims of the piracy, or does it help them? Would "
2050 "lawyers fighting this piracy help their clients or hurt them? Let's pause "
2054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2055 #: freeculture.xml:1609
2057 "If you're like I was a decade ago, or like most people are when they first "
2058 "start thinking about these issues, then just about now you should be puzzled "
2059 "about something you hadn't thought through before."
2062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2063 #: freeculture.xml:1626 freeculture.xml:2817 freeculture.xml:4443 freeculture.xml:4670 freeculture.xml:7215 freeculture.xml:8291
2064 msgid "Vaidhyanathan, Siva"
2067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2068 #: freeculture.xml:1619
2070 "The term <citetitle>intellectual property</citetitle> is of relatively "
2071 "recent origin. See Siva Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
2072 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 11 (New York: New York University Press, 2001). See "
2073 "also Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> (New York: "
2074 "Random House, 2001), 293 n. 26. The term accurately describes a set of "
2075 "\"property\" rights—copyright, patents, trademark, and "
2076 "trade-secret—but the nature of those rights is very different. "
2077 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2081 #: freeculture.xml:1614
2083 "We live in a world that celebrates \"property.\" I am one of those "
2084 "celebrants. I believe in the value of property in general, and I also "
2085 "believe in the value of that weird form of property that lawyers call "
2086 "\"intellectual property.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A large, "
2087 "diverse society cannot survive without property; a large, diverse, and "
2088 "modern society cannot flourish without intellectual property."
2091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2092 #: freeculture.xml:1633
2094 "But it takes just a second's reflection to realize that there is plenty of "
2095 "value out there that \"property\" doesn't capture. I don't mean \"money "
2096 "can't buy you love,\" but rather, value that is plainly part of a process of "
2097 "production, including commercial as well as noncommercial production. If "
2098 "Disney animators had stolen a set of pencils to draw Steamboat Willie, we'd "
2099 "have no hesitation in condemning that taking as wrong— even though "
2100 "trivial, even if unnoticed. Yet there was nothing wrong, at least under the "
2101 "law of the day, with Disney's taking from Buster Keaton or from the Brothers "
2102 "Grimm. There was nothing wrong with the taking from Keaton because Disney's "
2103 "use would have been considered \"fair.\" There was nothing wrong with the "
2104 "taking from the Grimms because the Grimms' work was in the public domain."
2108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2109 #: freeculture.xml:1648
2111 "Thus, even though the things that Disney took—or more generally, the "
2112 "things taken by anyone exercising Walt Disney creativity—are valuable, "
2113 "our tradition does not treat those takings as wrong. Some things remain free "
2114 "for the taking within a free culture, and that freedom is good."
2117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2118 #: freeculture.xml:1657
2120 "The same with the doujinshi culture. If a doujinshi artist broke into a "
2121 "publisher's office and ran off with a thousand copies of his latest "
2122 "work—or even one copy—without paying, we'd have no hesitation in "
2123 "saying the artist was wrong. In addition to having trespassed, he would have "
2124 "stolen something of value. The law bans that stealing in whatever form, "
2125 "whether large or small."
2128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2129 #: freeculture.xml:1665
2131 "Yet there is an obvious reluctance, even among Japanese lawyers, to say that "
2132 "the copycat comic artists are \"stealing.\" This form of Walt Disney "
2133 "creativity is seen as fair and right, even if lawyers in particular find it "
2137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2138 #: freeculture.xml:1671
2140 "It's the same with a thousand examples that appear everywhere once you begin "
2141 "to look. Scientists build upon the work of other scientists without asking "
2142 "or paying for the privilege. (\"Excuse me, Professor Einstein, but may I "
2143 "have permission to use your theory of relativity to show that you were wrong "
2144 "about quantum physics?\") Acting companies perform adaptations of the works "
2145 "of Shakespeare without securing permission from anyone. (Does "
2146 "<emphasis>anyone</emphasis> believe Shakespeare would be better spread "
2147 "within our culture if there were a central Shakespeare rights clearinghouse "
2148 "that all productions of Shakespeare must appeal to first?) And Hollywood "
2149 "goes through cycles with a certain kind of movie: five asteroid films in the "
2150 "late 1990s; two volcano disaster films in 1997."
2154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2155 #: freeculture.xml:1685
2157 "Creators here and everywhere are always and at all times building upon the "
2158 "creativity that went before and that surrounds them now. That building is "
2159 "always and everywhere at least partially done without permission and without "
2160 "compensating the original creator. No society, free or controlled, has ever "
2161 "demanded that every use be paid for or that permission for Walt Disney "
2162 "creativity must always be sought. Instead, every society has left a certain "
2163 "bit of its culture free for the taking—free societies more fully than "
2164 "unfree, perhaps, but all societies to some degree."
2167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2168 #: freeculture.xml:1696
2170 "The hard question is therefore not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> a culture is "
2171 "free. All cultures are free to some degree. The hard question instead is "
2172 "\"<emphasis>How</emphasis> free is this culture?\" How much, and how "
2173 "broadly, is the culture free for others to take and build upon? Is that "
2174 "freedom limited to party members? To members of the royal family? To the top "
2175 "ten corporations on the New York Stock Exchange? Or is that freedom spread "
2176 "broadly? To artists generally, whether affiliated with the Met or not? To "
2177 "musicians generally, whether white or not? To filmmakers generally, whether "
2178 "affiliated with a studio or not?"
2181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2182 #: freeculture.xml:1708
2184 "Free cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build "
2185 "upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free "
2186 "culture. It is becoming much less so."
2189 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
2190 #: freeculture.xml:1716
2191 msgid "CHAPTER TWO: \"Mere Copyists\""
2194 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2195 #: freeculture.xml:1718
2199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2200 #: freeculture.xml:1728
2201 msgid "Daguerre, Louis"
2204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2205 #: freeculture.xml:1721
2207 "In 1839, Louis Daguerre invented the first practical technology for "
2208 "producing what we would call \"photographs.\" Appropriately enough, they "
2209 "were called \"daguerreotypes.\" The process was complicated and expensive, "
2210 "and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and "
2211 "wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that "
2212 "helped regulate the industry, as do all such associations, by keeping "
2213 "competition down so as to keep prices up.) <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
2217 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2218 #: freeculture.xml:1740
2219 msgid "Talbot, William"
2222 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2223 #: freeculture.xml:1731
2225 "Yet despite high prices, the demand for daguerreotypes was strong. This "
2226 "pushed inventors to find simpler and cheaper ways to make \"automatic "
2227 "pictures.\" William Talbot soon discovered a process for making "
2228 "\"negatives.\" But because the negatives were glass, and had to be kept wet, "
2229 "the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the 1870s, dry "
2230 "plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of a picture "
2231 "from its developing. These were still plates of glass, and thus it was still "
2232 "not a process within reach of most amateurs. <placeholder "
2233 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2237 #: freeculture.xml:1743
2238 msgid "Eastman, George"
2242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2243 #: freeculture.xml:1746
2245 "The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen "
2246 "until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an "
2247 "amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made "
2248 "with plates. In a flash of insight (so to speak), Eastman saw that if the "
2249 "film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single "
2250 "spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of "
2251 "photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he "
2252 "could dramatically broaden the population of photographers."
2256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2257 #: freeculture.xml:1763
2259 "Reese V. Jenkins, <citetitle>Images and Enterprise</citetitle> (Baltimore: "
2260 "Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 112."
2263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2264 #: freeculture.xml:1765
2265 msgid "Kodak Primer, The (Eastman)"
2268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2269 #: freeculture.xml:1758
2271 "Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of "
2272 "it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis "
2273 "of its simplicity. \"You press the button and we do the rest.\"<placeholder "
2274 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As he described in <citetitle>The Kodak "
2275 "Primer</citetitle>: <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2279 #: freeculture.xml:1782 freeculture.xml:1805
2283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
2284 #: freeculture.xml:1780
2286 "Brian Coe, <citetitle>The Birth of Photography</citetitle> (New York: "
2287 "Taplinger Publishing, 1977), 53. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2290 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2291 #: freeculture.xml:1769
2293 "The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any "
2294 "person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an "
2295 "expert can do. … We furnish anybody, man, woman or child, who has "
2296 "sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button, with an "
2297 "instrument which altogether removes from the practice of photography the "
2298 "necessity for exceptional facilities or, in fact, any special knowledge of "
2299 "the art. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom "
2300 "and without chemicals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2305 #: freeculture.xml:1798
2306 msgid "Jenkins, 177."
2310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2311 #: freeculture.xml:1802
2312 msgid "Based on a chart in Jenkins, p. 178."
2315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2316 #: freeculture.xml:1787
2318 "For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came preloaded with film, "
2319 "and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, "
2320 "where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera "
2321 "and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus "
2322 "became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography. Eastman's "
2323 "camera first went on sale in 1888; one year later, Kodak was printing more "
2324 "than six thousand negatives a day. From 1888 through 1909, while industrial "
2325 "production was rising by 4.7 percent, photographic equipment and material "
2326 "sales increased by 11 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
2327 "Eastman Kodak's sales during the same period experienced an average annual "
2328 "increase of over 17 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2333 #: freeculture.xml:1820
2337 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2338 #: freeculture.xml:1809
2340 "The real significance of Eastman's invention, however, was not economic. It "
2341 "was social. Professional photography gave individuals a glimpse of places "
2342 "they would never otherwise see. Amateur photography gave them the ability to "
2343 "record their own lives in a way they had never been able to do before. As "
2344 "author Brian Coe notes, \"For the first time the snapshot album provided the "
2345 "man on the street with a permanent record of his family and its "
2346 "activities. … For the first time in history there exists an authentic "
2347 "visual record of the appearance and activities of the common man made "
2348 "without [literary] interpretation or bias.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2353 #: freeculture.xml:1824
2355 "In this way, the Kodak camera and film were technologies of expression. The "
2356 "pencil or paintbrush was also a technology of expression, of course. But it "
2357 "took years of training before they could be deployed by amateurs in any "
2358 "useful or effective way. With the Kodak, expression was possible much sooner "
2359 "and more simply. The barrier to expression was lowered. Snobs would sneer at "
2360 "its \"quality\"; professionals would discount it as irrelevant. But watch a "
2361 "child study how best to frame a picture and you get a sense of the "
2362 "experience of creativity that the Kodak enabled. Democratic tools gave "
2363 "ordinary people a way to express themselves more easily than any tools could "
2368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2369 #: freeculture.xml:1846
2371 "For illustrative cases, see, for example, <citetitle>Pavesich</citetitle> "
2372 "v. <citetitle>N.E. Life Ins. Co</citetitle>., 50 S.E. 68 (Ga. 1905); "
2373 "<citetitle>Foster-Milburn Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Chinn</citetitle>, "
2374 "123090 S.W. 364, 366 (Ky. 1909); <citetitle>Corliss</citetitle> "
2375 "v. <citetitle>Walker</citetitle>, 64 F. 280 (Mass. Dist. Ct. 1894)."
2378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2379 #: freeculture.xml:1837
2381 "What was required for this technology to flourish? Obviously, Eastman's "
2382 "genius was an important part. But also important was the legal environment "
2383 "within which Eastman's invention grew. For early in the history of "
2384 "photography, there was a series of judicial decisions that could well have "
2385 "changed the course of photography substantially. Courts were asked whether "
2386 "the photographer, amateur or professional, required permission before he "
2387 "could capture and print whatever image he wanted. Their answer was "
2388 "no.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2392 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2393 #: freeculture.xml:1854
2395 "The arguments in favor of requiring permission will sound surprisingly "
2396 "familiar. The photographer was \"taking\" something from the person or "
2397 "building whose photograph he shot—pirating something of value. Some "
2398 "even thought he was taking the target's soul. Just as Disney was not free to "
2399 "take the pencils that his animators used to draw Mickey, so, too, should "
2400 "these photographers not be free to take images that they thought valuable."
2403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2404 #: freeculture.xml:1876
2405 msgid "Warren, Samuel D."
2408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2409 #: freeculture.xml:1873
2411 "Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, \"The Right to Privacy,\" "
2412 "<citetitle>Harvard Law Review</citetitle> 4 (1890): 193. <placeholder "
2413 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2417 #: freeculture.xml:1866
2419 "On the other side was an argument that should be familiar, as well. Sure, "
2420 "there may be something of value being used. But citizens should have the "
2421 "right to capture at least those images that stand in public view. (Louis "
2422 "Brandeis, who would become a Supreme Court Justice, thought the rule should "
2423 "be different for images from private spaces.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2424 "id=\"0\"/>) It may be that this means that the photographer gets something "
2425 "for nothing. Just as Disney could take inspiration from <citetitle>Steamboat "
2426 "Bill, Jr</citetitle>. or the Brothers Grimm, the photographer should be free "
2427 "to capture an image without compensating the source."
2431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2432 #: freeculture.xml:1893
2434 "See Melville B. Nimmer, \"The Right of Publicity,\" <citetitle>Law and "
2435 "Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 19 (1954): 203; William L. Prosser, "
2436 "\"Privacy,\" <citetitle>California Law Review</citetitle> 48 (1960) "
2437 "398–407; <citetitle>White</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Samsung "
2438 "Electronics America, Inc</citetitle>., 971 F. 2d 1395 (9th Cir. 1992), "
2439 "cert. denied, 508 U.S. 951 (1993)."
2442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2443 #: freeculture.xml:1883
2445 "Fortunately for Mr. Eastman, and for photography in general, these early "
2446 "decisions went in favor of the pirates. In general, no permission would be "
2447 "required before an image could be captured and shared with others. Instead, "
2448 "permission was presumed. Freedom was the default. (The law would eventually "
2449 "craft an exception for famous people: commercial photographers who snap "
2450 "pictures of famous people for commercial purposes have more restrictions "
2451 "than the rest of us. But in the ordinary case, the image can be captured "
2452 "without clearing the rights to do the capturing.<placeholder "
2453 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>)"
2456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2457 #: freeculture.xml:1901
2459 "We can only speculate about how photography would have developed had the law "
2460 "gone the other way. If the presumption had been against the photographer, "
2461 "then the photographer would have had to demonstrate permission. Perhaps "
2462 "Eastman Kodak would have had to demonstrate permission, too, before it "
2463 "developed the film upon which images were captured. After all, if permission "
2464 "were not granted, then Eastman Kodak would be benefiting from the \"theft\" "
2465 "committed by the photographer. Just as Napster benefited from the copyright "
2466 "infringements committed by Napster users, Kodak would be benefiting from the "
2467 "\"image-right\" infringement of its photographers. We could imagine the law "
2468 "then requiring that some form of permission be demonstrated before a company "
2469 "developed pictures. We could imagine a system developing to demonstrate that "
2474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2475 #: freeculture.xml:1918
2477 "But though we could imagine this system of permission, it would be very hard "
2478 "to see how photography could have flourished as it did if the requirement "
2479 "for permission had been built into the rules that govern it. Photography "
2480 "would have existed. It would have grown in importance over "
2481 "time. Professionals would have continued to use the technology as they "
2482 "did—since professionals could have more easily borne the burdens of "
2483 "the permission system. But the spread of photography to ordinary people "
2484 "would not have occurred. Nothing like that growth would have been "
2485 "realized. And certainly, nothing like that growth in a democratic technology "
2486 "of expression would have been realized. If you drive through San "
2487 "Francisco's Presidio, you might see two gaudy yellow school buses painted "
2488 "over with colorful and striking images, and the logo \"Just Think!\" in "
2489 "place of the name of a school. But there's little that's \"just\" cerebral "
2490 "in the projects that these busses enable. These buses are filled with "
2491 "technologies that teach kids to tinker with film. Not the film of "
2492 "Eastman. Not even the film of your VCR. Rather the \"film\" of digital "
2493 "cameras. Just Think! is a project that enables kids to make films, as a way "
2494 "to understand and critique the filmed culture that they find all around "
2495 "them. Each year, these busses travel to more than thirty schools and enable "
2496 "three hundred to five hundred children to learn something about media by "
2497 "doing something with media. By doing, they think. By tinkering, they learn."
2501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2502 #: freeculture.xml:1951
2504 "H. Edward Goldberg, \"Essential Presentation Tools: Hardware and Software "
2505 "You Need to Create Digital Multimedia Presentations,\" cadalyst, February "
2506 "2002, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
2510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2511 #: freeculture.xml:1945
2513 "These buses are not cheap, but the technology they carry is increasingly "
2514 "so. The cost of a high-quality digital video system has fallen "
2515 "dramatically. As one analyst puts it, \"Five years ago, a good real-time "
2516 "digital video editing system cost $25,000. Today you can get professional "
2517 "quality for $595.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These buses are "
2518 "filled with technology that would have cost hundreds of thousands just ten "
2519 "years ago. And it is now feasible to imagine not just buses like this, but "
2520 "classrooms across the country where kids are learning more and more of "
2521 "something teachers call \"media literacy.\""
2524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
2525 #: freeculture.xml:1968
2526 msgid "Yanofsky, Dave"
2529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2530 #: freeculture.xml:1963
2532 "\"Media literacy,\" as Dave Yanofsky, the executive director of Just Think!, "
2533 "puts it, \"is the ability … to understand, analyze, and deconstruct "
2534 "media images. Its aim is to make [kids] literate about the way media works, "
2535 "the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and the way people access "
2536 "it.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2539 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2540 #: freeculture.xml:1971
2542 "This may seem like an odd way to think about \"literacy.\" For most people, "
2543 "literacy is about reading and writing. Faulkner and Hemingway and noticing "
2544 "split infinitives are the things that \"literate\" people know about."
2548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2549 #: freeculture.xml:1981
2551 "Judith Van Evra, <citetitle>Television and Child Development</citetitle> "
2552 "(Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990); \"Findings on Family "
2553 "and TV Study,\" <citetitle>Denver Post</citetitle>, 25 May 1997, B6."
2556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2557 #: freeculture.xml:1977
2559 "Maybe. But in a world where children see on average 390 hours of television "
2560 "commercials per year, or between 20,000 and 45,000 commercials "
2561 "generally,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it is increasingly "
2562 "important to understand the \"grammar\" of media. For just as there is a "
2563 "grammar for the written word, so, too, is there one for media. And just as "
2564 "kids learn how to write by writing lots of terrible prose, kids learn how to "
2565 "write media by constructing lots of (at least at first) terrible media."
2568 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2569 #: freeculture.xml:1992
2571 "A growing field of academics and activists sees this form of literacy as "
2572 "crucial to the next generation of culture. For though anyone who has written "
2573 "understands how difficult writing is—how difficult it is to sequence "
2574 "the story, to keep a reader's attention, to craft language to be "
2575 "understandable—few of us have any real sense of how difficult media "
2576 "is. Or more fundamentally, few of us have a sense of how media works, how it "
2577 "holds an audience or leads it through a story, how it triggers emotion or "
2581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2582 #: freeculture.xml:2002
2584 "It took filmmaking a generation before it could do these things well. But "
2585 "even then, the knowledge was in the filming, not in writing about the "
2586 "film. The skill came from experiencing the making of a film, not from "
2587 "reading a book about it. One learns to write by writing and then reflecting "
2588 "upon what one has written. One learns to write with images by making them "
2589 "and then reflecting upon what one has created."
2592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2593 #: freeculture.xml:2009
2594 msgid "Crichton, Michael"
2597 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2598 #: freeculture.xml:2023 freeculture.xml:2083 freeculture.xml:2090 freeculture.xml:2525
2599 msgid "Barish, Stephanie"
2602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2603 #: freeculture.xml:2024
2604 msgid "Daley, Elizabeth"
2607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2608 #: freeculture.xml:2021
2610 "Interview with Elizabeth Daley and Stephanie Barish, 13 December 2002. "
2611 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
2616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2617 #: freeculture.xml:2035
2619 "See Scott Steinberg, \"Crichton Gets Medieval on PCs,\" E!online, 4 November "
2620 "2000, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
2621 "#8</ulink>; \"Timeline,\" 22 November 2000, available at <ulink "
2622 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #9</ulink>."
2625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2626 #: freeculture.xml:2011
2628 "This grammar has changed as media has changed. When it was just film, as "
2629 "Elizabeth Daley, executive director of the University of Southern "
2630 "California's Annenberg Center for Communication and dean of the USC School "
2631 "of Cinema-Television, explained to me, the grammar was about \"the placement "
2632 "of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and texture.\"<placeholder "
2633 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But as computers open up an interactive space "
2634 "where a story is \"played\" as well as experienced, that grammar "
2635 "changes. The simple control of narrative is lost, and so other techniques "
2636 "are necessary. Author Michael Crichton had mastered the narrative of science "
2637 "fiction. But when he tried to design a computer game based on one of his "
2638 "works, it was a new craft he had to learn. How to lead people through a game "
2639 "without their feeling they have been led was not obvious, even to a wildly "
2640 "successful author.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2644 #: freeculture.xml:2042
2645 msgid "computer games"
2648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2649 #: freeculture.xml:2044
2651 "This skill is precisely the craft a filmmaker learns. As Daley describes, "
2652 "\"people are very surprised about how they are led through a film. [I]t is "
2653 "perfectly constructed to keep you from seeing it, so you have no idea. If a "
2654 "filmmaker succeeds you do not know how you were led.\" If you know you were "
2655 "led through a film, the film has failed."
2658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2659 #: freeculture.xml:2051
2661 "Yet the push for an expanded literacy—one that goes beyond text to "
2662 "include audio and visual elements—is not about making better film "
2663 "directors. The aim is not to improve the profession of filmmaking at all. "
2664 "Instead, as Daley explained,"
2667 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2668 #: freeculture.xml:2058
2670 "From my perspective, probably the most important digital divide is not "
2671 "access to a box. It's the ability to be empowered with the language that "
2672 "that box works in. Otherwise only a very few people can write with this "
2673 "language, and all the rest of us are reduced to being read-only."
2676 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2677 #: freeculture.xml:2066
2679 "\"Read-only.\" Passive recipients of culture produced elsewhere. Couch "
2680 "potatoes. Consumers. This is the world of media from the twentieth century."
2683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2684 #: freeculture.xml:2082
2685 msgid "Interview with Daley and Barish. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
2690 #: freeculture.xml:2087 freeculture.xml:3813 freeculture.xml:4856 freeculture.xml:8015
2694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2695 #: freeculture.xml:2071
2697 "The twenty-first century could be different. This is the crucial point: It "
2698 "could be both read and write. Or at least reading and better understanding "
2699 "the craft of writing. Or best, reading and understanding the tools that "
2700 "enable the writing to lead or mislead. The aim of any literacy, and this "
2701 "literacy in particular, is to \"empower people to choose the appropriate "
2702 "language for what they need to create or express.\"<placeholder "
2703 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It is to enable students \"to communicate in "
2704 "the language of the twenty-first century.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2708 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2709 #: freeculture.xml:2092
2711 "As with any language, this language comes more easily to some than to "
2712 "others. It doesn't necessarily come more easily to those who excel in "
2713 "written language. Daley and Stephanie Barish, director of the Institute for "
2714 "Multimedia Literacy at the Annenberg Center, describe one particularly "
2715 "poignant example of a project they ran in a high school. The high school "
2716 "was a very poor inner-city Los Angeles school. In all the traditional "
2717 "measures of success, this school was a failure. But Daley and Barish ran a "
2718 "program that gave kids an opportunity to use film to express meaning about "
2719 "something the students know something about—gun violence."
2722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2723 #: freeculture.xml:2104
2725 "The class was held on Friday afternoons, and it created a relatively new "
2726 "problem for the school. While the challenge in most classes was getting the "
2727 "kids to come, the challenge in this class was keeping them away. The \"kids "
2728 "were showing up at 6 A.M. and leaving at 5 at night,\" said Barish. They "
2729 "were working harder than in any other class to do what education should be "
2730 "about—learning how to express themselves."
2733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2734 #: freeculture.xml:2112
2736 "Using whatever \"free web stuff they could find,\" and relatively simple "
2737 "tools to enable the kids to mix \"image, sound, and text,\" Barish said this "
2738 "class produced a series of projects that showed something about gun violence "
2739 "that few would otherwise understand. This was an issue close to the lives of "
2740 "these students. The project \"gave them a tool and empowered them to be able "
2741 "to both understand it and talk about it,\" Barish explained. That tool "
2742 "succeeded in creating expression—far more successfully and powerfully "
2743 "than could have been created using only text. \"If you had said to these "
2744 "students, `you have to do it in text,' they would've just thrown their hands "
2745 "up and gone and done something else,\" Barish described, in part, no doubt, "
2746 "because expressing themselves in text is not something these students can do "
2747 "well. Yet neither is text a form in which <emphasis>these</emphasis> ideas "
2748 "can be expressed well. The power of this message depended upon its "
2749 "connection to this form of expression."
2753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2754 #: freeculture.xml:2131
2756 "\"But isn't education about teaching kids to write?\" I asked. In part, of "
2757 "course, it is. But why are we teaching kids to write? Education, Daley "
2758 "explained, is about giving students a way of \"constructing meaning.\" To "
2759 "say that that means just writing is like saying teaching writing is only "
2760 "about teaching kids how to spell. Text is one part—and increasingly, "
2761 "not the most powerful part—of constructing meaning. As Daley explained "
2762 "in the most moving part of our interview,"
2765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2766 #: freeculture.xml:2142
2768 "What you want is to give these students ways of constructing meaning. If all "
2769 "you give them is text, they're not going to do it. Because they can't. You "
2770 "know, you've got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, "
2771 "he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he "
2772 "can do all sorts of other things. He just can't read your text. So Johnny "
2773 "comes to school and you say, \"Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you can do "
2774 "matters.\" Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss you or he [can] "
2775 "dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he's going to dismiss "
2776 "you. [But i]nstead, if you say, \"Well, with all these things that you can "
2777 "do, let's talk about this issue. Play for me music that you think reflects "
2778 "that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw for me "
2779 "something that reflects that.\" Not by giving a kid a video camera and "
2780 "… saying, \"Let's go have fun with the video camera and make a little "
2781 "movie.\" But instead, really help you take these elements that you "
2782 "understand, that are your language, and construct meaning about the "
2786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2787 #: freeculture.xml:2161
2789 "That empowers enormously. And then what happens, of course, is eventually, "
2790 "as it has happened in all these classes, they bump up against the fact, \"I "
2791 "need to explain this and I really need to write something.\" And as one of "
2792 "the teachers told Stephanie, they would rewrite a paragraph 5, 6, 7, 8 "
2793 "times, till they got it right."
2797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2798 #: freeculture.xml:2168
2800 "Because they needed to. There was a reason for doing it. They needed to say "
2801 "something, as opposed to just jumping through your hoops. They actually "
2802 "needed to use a language that they didn't speak very well. But they had come "
2803 "to understand that they had a lot of power with this language.\""
2806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2807 #: freeculture.xml:2177
2809 "When two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, another into the "
2810 "Pentagon, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania field, all media around the world "
2811 "shifted to this news. Every moment of just about every day for that week, "
2812 "and for weeks after, television in particular, and media generally, retold "
2813 "the story of the events we had just witnessed. The telling was a retelling, "
2814 "because we had seen the events that were described. The genius of this awful "
2815 "act of terrorism was that the delayed second attack was perfectly timed to "
2816 "assure that the whole world would be watching."
2819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2820 #: freeculture.xml:2188
2822 "These retellings had an increasingly familiar feel. There was music scored "
2823 "for the intermissions, and fancy graphics that flashed across the "
2824 "screen. There was a formula to interviews. There was \"balance,\" and "
2825 "seriousness. This was news choreographed in the way we have increasingly "
2826 "come to expect it, \"news as entertainment,\" even if the entertainment is "
2830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2831 #: freeculture.xml:2195 freeculture.xml:7954 freeculture.xml:8190
2835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2836 #: freeculture.xml:2196
2840 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2841 #: freeculture.xml:2198
2843 "But in addition to this produced news about the \"tragedy of September 11,\" "
2844 "those of us tied to the Internet came to see a very different production as "
2845 "well. The Internet was filled with accounts of the same events. Yet these "
2846 "Internet accounts had a very different flavor. Some people constructed photo "
2847 "pages that captured images from around the world and presented them as slide "
2848 "shows with text. Some offered open letters. There were sound "
2849 "recordings. There was anger and frustration. There were attempts to provide "
2850 "context. There was, in short, an extraordinary worldwide barn raising, in "
2851 "the sense Mike Godwin uses the term in his book <citetitle>Cyber "
2852 "Rights</citetitle>, around a news event that had captured the attention of "
2853 "the world. There was ABC and CBS, but there was also the Internet."
2857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2858 #: freeculture.xml:2212
2860 "I don't mean simply to praise the Internet—though I do think the "
2861 "people who supported this form of speech should be praised. I mean instead "
2862 "to point to a significance in this form of speech. For like a Kodak, the "
2863 "Internet enables people to capture images. And like in a movie by a student "
2864 "on the \"Just Think!\" bus, the visual images could be mixed with sound or "
2868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2869 #: freeculture.xml:2222
2871 "But unlike any technology for simply capturing images, the Internet allows "
2872 "these creations to be shared with an extraordinary number of people, "
2873 "practically instantaneously. This is something new in our "
2874 "tradition—not just that culture can be captured mechanically, and "
2875 "obviously not just that events are commented upon critically, but that this "
2876 "mix of captured images, sound, and commentary can be widely spread "
2877 "practically instantaneously."
2880 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2881 #: freeculture.xml:2231
2883 "September 11 was not an aberration. It was a beginning. Around the same "
2884 "time, a form of communication that has grown dramatically was just beginning "
2885 "to come into public consciousness: the Web-log, or blog. The blog is a kind "
2886 "of public diary, and within some cultures, such as in Japan, it functions "
2887 "very much like a diary. In those cultures, it records private facts in a "
2888 "public way—it's a kind of electronic <citetitle>Jerry "
2889 "Springer</citetitle>, available anywhere in the world."
2892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2893 #: freeculture.xml:2240
2895 "But in the United States, blogs have taken on a very different character. "
2896 "There are some who use the space simply to talk about their private "
2897 "life. But there are many who use the space to engage in public "
2898 "discourse. Discussing matters of public import, criticizing others who are "
2899 "mistaken in their views, criticizing politicians about the decisions they "
2900 "make, offering solutions to problems we all see: blogs create the sense of a "
2901 "virtual public meeting, but one in which we don't all hope to be there at "
2902 "the same time and in which conversations are not necessarily linked. The "
2903 "best of the blog entries are relatively short; they point directly to words "
2904 "used by others, criticizing with or adding to them. They are arguably the "
2905 "most important form of unchoreographed public discourse that we have."
2909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2910 #: freeculture.xml:2254
2912 "That's a strong statement. Yet it says as much about our democracy as it "
2913 "does about blogs. This is the part of America that is most difficult for "
2914 "those of us who love America to accept: Our democracy has atrophied. Of "
2915 "course we have elections, and most of the time the courts allow those "
2916 "elections to count. A relatively small number of people vote in those "
2917 "elections. The cycle of these elections has become totally professionalized "
2918 "and routinized. Most of us think this is democracy."
2922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2923 #: freeculture.xml:2280
2925 "See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville, <citetitle>Democracy in "
2926 "America</citetitle>, bk. 1, trans. Henry Reeve (New York: Bantam Books, "
2930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2931 #: freeculture.xml:2265
2933 "But democracy has never just been about elections. Democracy means rule by "
2934 "the people, but rule means something more than mere elections. In our "
2935 "tradition, it also means control through reasoned discourse. This was the "
2936 "idea that captured the imagination of Alexis de Tocqueville, the "
2937 "nineteenth-century French lawyer who wrote the most important account of "
2938 "early \"Democracy in America.\" It wasn't popular elections that fascinated "
2939 "him—it was the jury, an institution that gave ordinary people the "
2940 "right to choose life or death for other citizens. And most fascinating for "
2941 "him was that the jury didn't just vote about the outcome they would "
2942 "impose. They deliberated. Members argued about the \"right\" result; they "
2943 "tried to persuade each other of the \"right\" result, and in criminal cases "
2944 "at least, they had to agree upon a unanimous result for the process to come "
2945 "to an end.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2950 #: freeculture.xml:2289
2952 "Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, \"Deliberation Day,\" <citetitle>Journal "
2953 "of Political Philosophy</citetitle> 10 (2) (2002): 129."
2956 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2957 #: freeculture.xml:2285
2959 "Yet even this institution flags in American life today. And in its place, "
2960 "there is no systematic effort to enable citizen deliberation. Some are "
2961 "pushing to create just such an institution.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2962 "id=\"0\"/> And in some towns in New England, something close to deliberation "
2963 "remains. But for most of us for most of the time, there is no time or place "
2964 "for \"democratic deliberation\" to occur."
2968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2969 #: freeculture.xml:2304
2971 "Cass Sunstein, <citetitle>Republic.com</citetitle> (Princeton: Princeton "
2972 "University Press, 2001), 65–80, 175, 182, 183, 192."
2975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2976 #: freeculture.xml:2297
2978 "More bizarrely, there is generally not even permission for it to occur. We, "
2979 "the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm "
2980 "against talking about politics. It's fine to talk about politics with people "
2981 "you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you "
2982 "disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse "
2983 "becomes more extreme.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We say what "
2984 "our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say."
2988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2989 #: freeculture.xml:2310
2991 "Enter the blog. The blog's very architecture solves one part of this "
2992 "problem. People post when they want to post, and people read when they want "
2993 "to read. The most difficult time is synchronous time. Technologies that "
2994 "enable asynchronous communication, such as e-mail, increase the opportunity "
2995 "for communication. Blogs allow for public discourse without the public ever "
2996 "needing to gather in a single public place."
2999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3000 #: freeculture.xml:2321
3002 "But beyond architecture, blogs also have solved the problem of "
3003 "norms. There's no norm (yet) in blog space not to talk about politics. "
3004 "Indeed, the space is filled with political speech, on both the right and the "
3005 "left. Some of the most popular sites are conservative or libertarian, but "
3006 "there are many of all political stripes. And even blogs that are not "
3007 "political cover political issues when the occasion merits."
3010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
3011 #: freeculture.xml:2333
3012 msgid "Dean, Howard"
3015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3016 #: freeculture.xml:2329
3018 "The significance of these blogs is tiny now, though not so tiny. The name "
3019 "Howard Dean may well have faded from the 2004 presidential race but for "
3020 "blogs. Yet even if the number of readers is small, the reading is having an "
3021 "effect. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3026 #: freeculture.xml:2347
3028 "Noah Shachtman, \"With Incessant Postings, a Pundit Stirs the Pot,\" New "
3029 "York Times, 16 January 2003, G5."
3032 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
3033 #: freeculture.xml:2350
3037 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3038 #: freeculture.xml:2336
3040 "One direct effect is on stories that had a different life cycle in the "
3041 "mainstream media. The Trent Lott affair is an example. When Lott "
3042 "\"misspoke\" at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond, essentially praising "
3043 "Thurmond's segregationist policies, he calculated correctly that this story "
3044 "would disappear from the mainstream press within forty-eight hours. It "
3045 "did. But he didn't calculate its life cycle in blog space. The bloggers kept "
3046 "researching the story. Over time, more and more instances of the same "
3047 "\"misspeaking\" emerged. Finally, the story broke back into the mainstream "
3048 "press. In the end, Lott was forced to resign as senate majority "
3049 "leader.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
3050 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
3053 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3054 #: freeculture.xml:2353
3056 "This different cycle is possible because the same commercial pressures don't "
3057 "exist with blogs as with other ventures. Television and newspapers are "
3058 "commercial entities. They must work to keep attention. If they lose "
3059 "readers, they lose revenue. Like sharks, they must move on."
3062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3063 #: freeculture.xml:2360
3065 "But bloggers don't have a similar constraint. They can obsess, they can "
3066 "focus, they can get serious. If a particular blogger writes a particularly "
3067 "interesting story, more and more people link to that story. And as the "
3068 "number of links to a particular story increases, it rises in the ranks of "
3069 "stories. People read what is popular; what is popular has been selected by a "
3070 "very democratic process of peer-generated rankings."
3073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3074 #: freeculture.xml:2369
3079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3080 #: freeculture.xml:2372
3082 "There's a second way, as well, in which blogs have a different cycle from "
3083 "the mainstream press. As Dave Winer, one of the fathers of this movement and "
3084 "a software author for many decades, told me, another difference is the "
3085 "absence of a financial \"conflict of interest.\" \"I think you have to take "
3086 "the conflict of interest\" out of journalism, Winer told me. \"An amateur "
3087 "journalist simply doesn't have a conflict of interest, or the conflict of "
3088 "interest is so easily disclosed that you know you can sort of get it out of "
3092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3093 #: freeculture.xml:2382 freeculture.xml:2435
3098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3099 #: freeculture.xml:2390
3100 msgid "Telephone interview with David Winer, 16 April 2003."
3103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3104 #: freeculture.xml:2384
3106 "These conflicts become more important as media becomes more concentrated "
3107 "(more on this below). A concentrated media can hide more from the public "
3108 "than an unconcentrated media can—as CNN admitted it did after the Iraq "
3109 "war because it was afraid of the consequences to its own "
3110 "employees.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It also needs to sustain "
3111 "a more coherent account. (In the middle of the Iraq war, I read a post on "
3112 "the Internet from someone who was at that time listening to a satellite "
3113 "uplink with a reporter in Iraq. The New York headquarters was telling the "
3114 "reporter over and over that her account of the war was too bleak: She needed "
3115 "to offer a more optimistic story. When she told New York that wasn't "
3116 "warranted, they told her <emphasis>that</emphasis> they were writing \"the "
3121 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3122 #: freeculture.xml:2408
3124 "John Schwartz, \"Loss of the Shuttle: The Internet; A Wealth of Information "
3125 "Online,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 2 February 2003, A28; Staci "
3126 "D. Kramer, \"Shuttle Disaster Coverage Mixed, but Strong Overall,\" Online "
3127 "Journalism Review, 2 February 2003, available at <ulink "
3128 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #10</ulink>."
3131 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3132 #: freeculture.xml:2400
3134 "Blog space gives amateurs a way to enter the debate—\"amateur\" not in "
3135 "the sense of inexperienced, but in the sense of an Olympic athlete, meaning "
3136 "not paid by anyone to give their reports. It allows for a much broader range "
3137 "of input into a story, as reporting on the Columbia disaster revealed, when "
3138 "hundreds from across the southwest United States turned to the Internet to "
3139 "retell what they had seen.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And it "
3140 "drives readers to read across the range of accounts and \"triangulate,\" as "
3141 "Winer puts it, the truth. Blogs, Winer says, are \"communicating directly "
3142 "with our constituency, and the middle man is out of it\"—with all the "
3143 "benefits, and costs, that might entail."
3146 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3147 #: freeculture.xml:2427
3149 "See Michael Falcone, \"Does an Editor's Pencil Ruin a Web Log?\" "
3150 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 29 September 2003, C4. (\"Not all "
3151 "news organizations have been as accepting of employees who blog. Kevin "
3152 "Sites, a CNN correspondent in Iraq who started a blog about his reporting of "
3153 "the war on March 9, stopped posting 12 days later at his bosses' "
3154 "request. Last year Steve Olafson, a <citetitle>Houston Chronicle</citetitle> "
3155 "reporter, was fired for keeping a personal Web log, published under a "
3156 "pseudonym, that dealt with some of the issues and people he was covering.\") "
3157 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3162 #: freeculture.xml:2420
3164 "Winer is optimistic about the future of journalism infected with "
3165 "blogs. \"It's going to become an essential skill,\" Winer predicts, for "
3166 "public figures and increasingly for private figures as well. It's not clear "
3167 "that \"journalism\" is happy about this—some journalists have been "
3168 "told to curtail their blogging.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But "
3169 "it is clear that we are still in transition. \"A lot of what we are doing "
3170 "now is warm-up exercises,\" Winer told me. There is a lot that must mature "
3171 "before this space has its mature effect. And as the inclusion of content in "
3172 "this space is the least infringing use of the Internet (meaning infringing "
3173 "on copyright), Winer said, \"we will be the last thing that gets shut "
3177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3178 #: freeculture.xml:2447
3180 "This speech affects democracy. Winer thinks that happens because \"you don't "
3181 "have to work for somebody who controls, [for] a gatekeeper.\" That is "
3182 "true. But it affects democracy in another way as well. As more and more "
3183 "citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will change "
3184 "the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and "
3185 "misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be "
3186 "criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has "
3187 "been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore "
3188 "when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and "
3189 "criticism improves democracy. Today there are probably a couple of million "
3190 "blogs where such writing happens. When there are ten million, there will be "
3191 "something extraordinary to report."
3194 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3195 #: freeculture.xml:2463
3196 msgid "Brown, John Seely"
3199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3200 #: freeculture.xml:2466
3202 "John Seely Brown is the chief scientist of the Xerox Corporation. His work, "
3203 "as his Web site describes it, is \"human learning and … the creation "
3204 "of knowledge ecologies for creating … innovation.\""
3207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3208 #: freeculture.xml:2471
3210 "Brown thus looks at these technologies of digital creativity a bit "
3211 "differently from the perspectives I've sketched so far. I'm sure he would be "
3212 "excited about any technology that might improve democracy. But his real "
3213 "excitement comes from how these technologies affect learning."
3217 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3218 #: freeculture.xml:2478
3220 "As Brown believes, we learn by tinkering. When \"a lot of us grew up,\" he "
3221 "explains, that tinkering was done \"on motorcycle engines, lawnmower "
3222 "engines, automobiles, radios, and so on.\" But digital technologies enable a "
3223 "different kind of tinkering—with abstract ideas though in concrete "
3224 "form. The kids at Just Think! not only think about how a commercial portrays "
3225 "a politician; using digital technology, they can take the commercial apart "
3226 "and manipulate it, tinker with it to see how it does what it does. Digital "
3227 "technologies launch a kind of bricolage, or \"free collage,\" as Brown calls "
3228 "it. Many get to add to or transform the tinkering of many others."
3231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3232 #: freeculture.xml:2491
3234 "The best large-scale example of this kind of tinkering so far is free "
3235 "software or open-source software (FS/OSS). FS/OSS is software whose source "
3236 "code is shared. Anyone can download the technology that makes a FS/OSS "
3237 "program run. And anyone eager to learn how a particular bit of FS/OSS "
3238 "technology works can tinker with the code."
3241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3242 #: freeculture.xml:2498
3244 "This opportunity creates a \"completely new kind of learning platform,\" as "
3245 "Brown describes. \"As soon as you start doing that, you … unleash a "
3246 "free collage on the community, so that other people can start looking at "
3247 "your code, tinkering with it, trying it out, seeing if they can improve "
3248 "it.\" Each effort is a kind of apprenticeship. \"Open source becomes a major "
3249 "apprenticeship platform.\""
3252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3253 #: freeculture.xml:2506
3255 "In this process, \"the concrete things you tinker with are abstract. They "
3256 "are code.\" Kids are \"shifting to the ability to tinker in the abstract, "
3257 "and this tinkering is no longer an isolated activity that you're doing in "
3258 "your garage. You are tinkering with a community platform. … You are "
3259 "tinkering with other people's stuff. The more you tinker the more you "
3260 "improve.\" The more you improve, the more you learn."
3263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3264 #: freeculture.xml:2515
3266 "This same thing happens with content, too. And it happens in the same "
3267 "collaborative way when that content is part of the Web. As Brown puts it, "
3268 "\"the Web [is] the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of "
3269 "intelligence.\" Earlier technologies, such as the typewriter or word "
3270 "processors, helped amplify text. But the Web amplifies much more than "
3271 "text. \"The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, if "
3272 "you are visual, if you are interested in film … [then] there is a lot "
3273 "you can start to do on this medium. [It] can now amplify and honor these "
3274 "multiple forms of intelligence.\""
3278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3279 #: freeculture.xml:2527
3281 "Brown is talking about what Elizabeth Daley, Stephanie Barish, and Just "
3282 "Think! teach: that this tinkering with culture teaches as well as "
3283 "creates. It develops talents differently, and it builds a different kind of "
3287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3288 #: freeculture.xml:2535
3290 "Yet the freedom to tinker with these objects is not guaranteed. Indeed, as "
3291 "we'll see through the course of this book, that freedom is increasingly "
3292 "highly contested. While there's no doubt that your father had the right to "
3293 "tinker with the car engine, there's great doubt that your child will have "
3294 "the right to tinker with the images she finds all around. The law and, "
3295 "increasingly, technology interfere with a freedom that technology, and "
3296 "curiosity, would otherwise ensure."
3300 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3301 #: freeculture.xml:2551
3303 "See, for example, Edward Felten and Andrew Appel, \"Technological Access "
3304 "Control Interferes with Noninfringing Scholarship,\" "
3305 "<citetitle>Communications of the Association for Computer "
3306 "Machinery</citetitle> 43 (2000): 9."
3309 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3310 #: freeculture.xml:2544
3312 "These restrictions have become the focus of researchers and scholars. "
3313 "Professor Ed Felten of Princeton (whom we'll see more of in chapter <xref "
3314 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>) has developed a "
3315 "powerful argument in favor of the \"right to tinker\" as it applies to "
3316 "computer science and to knowledge in general.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3317 "id=\"0\"/> But Brown's concern is earlier, or younger, or more "
3318 "fundamental. It is about the learning that kids can do, or can't do, because "
3322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3323 #: freeculture.xml:2559
3325 "\"This is where education in the twenty-first century is going,\" Brown "
3326 "explains. We need to \"understand how kids who grow up digital think and "
3330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3331 #: freeculture.xml:2564
3333 "\"Yet,\" as Brown continued, and as the balance of this book will evince, "
3334 "\"we are building a legal system that completely suppresses the natural "
3335 "tendencies of today's digital kids. … We're building an architecture "
3336 "that unleashes 60 percent of the brain [and] a legal system that closes down "
3337 "that part of the brain.\""
3340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3341 #: freeculture.xml:2572
3343 "We're building a technology that takes the magic of Kodak, mixes moving "
3344 "images and sound, and adds a space for commentary and an opportunity to "
3345 "spread that creativity everywhere. But we're building the law to close down "
3349 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3350 #: freeculture.xml:2578
3352 "\"No way to run a culture,\" as Brewster Kahle, whom we'll meet in chapter "
3353 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"collectors\"/>, quipped to "
3354 "me in a rare moment of despondence."
3357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3358 #: freeculture.xml:2585
3359 msgid "CHAPTER THREE: Catalogs"
3362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3363 #: freeculture.xml:2587
3365 "In the fall of 2002, Jesse Jordan of Oceanside, New York, enrolled as a "
3366 "freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York. His major "
3367 "at RPI was information technology. Though he is not a programmer, in October "
3368 "Jesse decided to begin to tinker with search engine technology that was "
3369 "available on the RPI network."
3372 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3373 #: freeculture.xml:2594
3375 "RPI is one of America's foremost technological research institutions. It "
3376 "offers degrees in fields ranging from architecture and engineering to "
3377 "information sciences. More than 65 percent of its five thousand "
3378 "undergraduates finished in the top 10 percent of their high school "
3379 "class. The school is thus a perfect mix of talent and experience to imagine "
3380 "and then build, a generation for the network age."
3383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3384 #: freeculture.xml:2602
3386 "RPI's computer network links students, faculty, and administration to one "
3387 "another. It also links RPI to the Internet. Not everything available on the "
3388 "RPI network is available on the Internet. But the network is designed to "
3389 "enable students to get access to the Internet, as well as more intimate "
3390 "access to other members of the RPI community."
3394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3395 #: freeculture.xml:2609
3397 "Search engines are a measure of a network's intimacy. Google brought the "
3398 "Internet much closer to all of us by fantastically improving the quality of "
3399 "search on the network. Specialty search engines can do this even better. The "
3400 "idea of \"intranet\" search engines, search engines that search within the "
3401 "network of a particular institution, is to provide users of that institution "
3402 "with better access to material from that institution. Businesses do this "
3403 "all the time, enabling employees to have access to material that people "
3404 "outside the business can't get. Universities do it as well."
3407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3408 #: freeculture.xml:2621
3410 "These engines are enabled by the network technology itself. Microsoft, for "
3411 "example, has a network file system that makes it very easy for search "
3412 "engines tuned to that network to query the system for information about the "
3413 "publicly (within that network) available content. Jesse's search engine was "
3414 "built to take advantage of this technology. It used Microsoft's network file "
3415 "system to build an index of all the files available within the RPI network."
3418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3419 #: freeculture.xml:2630
3421 "Jesse's wasn't the first search engine built for the RPI network. Indeed, "
3422 "his engine was a simple modification of engines that others had built. His "
3423 "single most important improvement over those engines was to fix a bug within "
3424 "the Microsoft file-sharing system that could cause a user's computer to "
3425 "crash. With the engines that existed before, if you tried to access a file "
3426 "through a Windows browser that was on a computer that was off-line, your "
3427 "computer could crash. Jesse modified the system a bit to fix that problem, "
3428 "by adding a button that a user could click to see if the machine holding the "
3429 "file was still on-line."
3432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3433 #: freeculture.xml:2642
3435 "Jesse's engine went on-line in late October. Over the following six months, "
3436 "he continued to tweak it to improve its functionality. By March, the system "
3437 "was functioning quite well. Jesse had more than one million files in his "
3438 "directory, including every type of content that might be on users' "
3443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3444 #: freeculture.xml:2649
3446 "Thus the index his search engine produced included pictures, which students "
3447 "could use to put on their own Web sites; copies of notes or research; copies "
3448 "of information pamphlets; movie clips that students might have created; "
3449 "university brochures—basically anything that users of the RPI network "
3450 "made available in a public folder of their computer."
3453 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3454 #: freeculture.xml:2658
3456 "But the index also included music files. In fact, one quarter of the files "
3457 "that Jesse's search engine listed were music files. But that means, of "
3458 "course, that three quarters were not, and—so that this point is "
3459 "absolutely clear—Jesse did nothing to induce people to put music files "
3460 "in their public folders. He did nothing to target the search engine to these "
3461 "files. He was a kid tinkering with a Google-like technology at a university "
3462 "where he was studying information science, and hence, tinkering was the "
3463 "aim. Unlike Google, or Microsoft, for that matter, he made no money from "
3464 "this tinkering; he was not connected to any business that would make any "
3465 "money from this experiment. He was a kid tinkering with technology in an "
3466 "environment where tinkering with technology was precisely what he was "
3470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3471 #: freeculture.xml:2673
3473 "On April 3, 2003, Jesse was contacted by the dean of students at RPI. The "
3474 "dean informed Jesse that the Recording Industry Association of America, the "
3475 "RIAA, would be filing a lawsuit against him and three other students whom he "
3476 "didn't even know, two of them at other universities. A few hours later, "
3477 "Jesse was served with papers from the suit. As he read these papers and "
3478 "watched the news reports about them, he was increasingly astonished."
3481 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3482 #: freeculture.xml:2682
3484 "\"It was absurd,\" he told me. \"I don't think I did anything "
3485 "wrong. … I don't think there's anything wrong with the search engine "
3486 "that I ran or … what I had done to it. I mean, I hadn't modified it "
3487 "in any way that promoted or enhanced the work of pirates. I just modified "
3488 "the search engine in a way that would make it easier to use\"—again, a "
3489 "<emphasis>search engine</emphasis>, which Jesse had not himself built, using "
3490 "the Windows filesharing system, which Jesse had not himself built, to enable "
3491 "members of the RPI community to get access to content, which Jesse had not "
3492 "himself created or posted, and the vast majority of which had nothing to do "
3497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3498 #: freeculture.xml:2695
3500 "But the RIAA branded Jesse a pirate. They claimed he operated a network and "
3501 "had therefore \"willfully\" violated copyright laws. They demanded that he "
3502 "pay them the damages for his wrong. For cases of \"willful infringement,\" "
3503 "the Copyright Act specifies something lawyers call \"statutory damages.\" "
3504 "These damages permit a copyright owner to claim $150,000 per "
3505 "infringement. As the RIAA alleged more than one hundred specific copyright "
3506 "infringements, they therefore demanded that Jesse pay them at least "
3511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3512 #: freeculture.xml:2718
3514 "Tim Goral, \"Recording Industry Goes After Campus P-2-P Networks: Suit "
3515 "Alleges $97.8 Billion in Damages,\" <citetitle>Professional Media Group "
3516 "LCC</citetitle> 6 (2003): 5, available at 2003 WL 55179443."
3519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3520 #: freeculture.xml:2706
3522 "Similar lawsuits were brought against three other students: one other "
3523 "student at RPI, one at Michigan Technical University, and one at "
3524 "Princeton. Their situations were similar to Jesse's. Though each case was "
3525 "different in detail, the bottom line in each was exactly the same: huge "
3526 "demands for \"damages\" that the RIAA claimed it was entitled to. If you "
3527 "added up the claims, these four lawsuits were asking courts in the United "
3528 "States to award the plaintiffs close to $100 "
3529 "<emphasis>billion</emphasis>—six times the <emphasis>total</emphasis> "
3530 "profit of the film industry in 2001.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3535 #: freeculture.xml:2724
3537 "Jesse called his parents. They were supportive but a bit frightened. An "
3538 "uncle was a lawyer. He began negotiations with the RIAA. They demanded to "
3539 "know how much money Jesse had. Jesse had saved $12,000 from summer jobs and "
3540 "other employment. They demanded $12,000 to dismiss the case."
3543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3544 #: freeculture.xml:2731
3546 "The RIAA wanted Jesse to admit to doing something wrong. He refused. They "
3547 "wanted him to agree to an injunction that would essentially make it "
3548 "impossible for him to work in many fields of technology for the rest of his "
3549 "life. He refused. They made him understand that this process of being sued "
3550 "was not going to be pleasant. (As Jesse's father recounted to me, the chief "
3551 "lawyer on the case, Matt Oppenheimer, told Jesse, \"You don't want to pay "
3552 "another visit to a dentist like me.\") And throughout, the RIAA insisted it "
3553 "would not settle the case until it took every penny Jesse had saved."
3557 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3558 #: freeculture.xml:2742
3560 "Jesse's family was outraged at these claims. They wanted to fight. But "
3561 "Jesse's uncle worked to educate the family about the nature of the American "
3562 "legal system. Jesse could fight the RIAA. He might even win. But the cost of "
3563 "fighting a lawsuit like this, Jesse was told, would be at least $250,000. If "
3564 "he won, he would not recover that money. If he won, he would have a piece of "
3565 "paper saying he had won, and a piece of paper saying he and his family were "
3569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3570 #: freeculture.xml:2752
3572 "So Jesse faced a mafia-like choice: $250,000 and a chance at winning, or "
3573 "$12,000 and a settlement."
3577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3578 #: freeculture.xml:2764
3580 "Occupational Employment Survey, U.S. Dept. of Labor (2001) "
3581 "(27–2042—Musicians and Singers). See also National Endowment for "
3582 "the Arts, <citetitle>More Than One in a Blue Moon</citetitle> (2000)."
3586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3587 #: freeculture.xml:2772
3589 "Douglas Lichtman makes a related point in \"KaZaA and Punishment,\" "
3590 "<citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, A24."
3593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3594 #: freeculture.xml:2756
3596 "The recording industry insists this is a matter of law and morality. Let's "
3597 "put the law aside for a moment and think about the morality. Where is the "
3598 "morality in a lawsuit like this? What is the virtue in scapegoatism? The "
3599 "RIAA is an extraordinarily powerful lobby. The president of the RIAA is "
3600 "reported to make more than $1 million a year. Artists, on the other hand, "
3601 "are not well paid. The average recording artist makes $45,900.<placeholder "
3602 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There are plenty of ways for the RIAA to affect "
3603 "and direct policy. So where is the morality in taking money from a student "
3604 "for running a search engine?<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3608 #: freeculture.xml:2777
3610 "On June 23, Jesse wired his savings to the lawyer working for the RIAA. The "
3611 "case against him was then dismissed. And with this, this kid who had "
3612 "tinkered a computer into a $15 million lawsuit became an activist:"
3615 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3616 #: freeculture.xml:2784
3618 "I was definitely not an activist [before]. I never really meant to be an "
3619 "activist. … [But] I've been pushed into this. In no way did I ever "
3620 "foresee anything like this, but I think it's just completely absurd what the "
3624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3625 #: freeculture.xml:2791
3627 "Jesse's parents betray a certain pride in their reluctant activist. As his "
3628 "father told me, Jesse \"considers himself very conservative, and so do "
3629 "I. … He's not a tree hugger. … I think it's bizarre that they "
3630 "would pick on him. But he wants to let people know that they're sending the "
3631 "wrong message. And he wants to correct the record.\""
3634 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3635 #: freeculture.xml:2800
3636 msgid "CHAPTER FOUR: \"Pirates\""
3639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3640 #: freeculture.xml:2802
3642 "If \"piracy\" means using the creative property of others without their "
3643 "permission—if \"if value, then right\" is true—then the history "
3644 "of the content industry is a history of piracy. Every important sector of "
3645 "\"big media\" today—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born "
3646 "of a kind of piracy so defined. The consistent story is how last "
3647 "generation's pirates join this generation's country club—until now."
3650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
3651 #: freeculture.xml:2810
3655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3656 #: freeculture.xml:2814
3658 "I am grateful to Peter DiMauro for pointing me to this extraordinary "
3659 "history. See also Siva Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
3660 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 87–93, which details Edison's \"adventures\" "
3661 "with copyright and patent. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3666 #: freeculture.xml:2812
3668 "The film industry of Hollywood was built by fleeing pirates.<placeholder "
3669 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Creators and directors migrated from the East "
3670 "Coast to California in the early twentieth century in part to escape "
3671 "controls that patents granted the inventor of filmmaking, Thomas "
3672 "Edison. These controls were exercised through a monopoly \"trust,\" the "
3673 "Motion Pictures Patents Company, and were based on Thomas Edison's creative "
3674 "property—patents. Edison formed the MPPC to exercise the rights this "
3675 "creative property gave him, and the MPPC was serious about the control it "
3679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3680 #: freeculture.xml:2830
3681 msgid "As one commentator tells one part of the story,"
3684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3685 #: freeculture.xml:2834
3687 "A January 1909 deadline was set for all companies to comply with the "
3688 "license. By February, unlicensed outlaws, who referred to themselves as "
3689 "independents protested the trust and carried on business without submitting "
3690 "to the Edison monopoly. In the summer of 1909 the independent movement was "
3691 "in full-swing, with producers and theater owners using illegal equipment and "
3692 "imported film stock to create their own underground market."
3696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
3697 #: freeculture.xml:2854
3699 "J. A. Aberdeen, <citetitle>Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent "
3700 "Motion Picture Producers</citetitle> (Cobblestone Entertainment, 2000) and "
3701 "expanded texts posted at \"The Edison Movie Monopoly: The Motion Picture "
3702 "Patents Company vs. the Independent Outlaws,\" available at <ulink "
3703 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #11</ulink>. For a discussion of "
3704 "the economic motive behind both these limits and the limits imposed by "
3705 "Victor on phonographs, see Randal C. Picker, \"From Edison to the Broadcast "
3706 "Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of "
3707 "Copyright\" (September 2002), University of Chicago Law School, James "
3708 "M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper No. 159."
3711 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
3712 #: freeculture.xml:2865
3713 msgid "Fox, William"
3716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
3717 #: freeculture.xml:2866
3718 msgid "General Film Company"
3721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3722 #: freeculture.xml:2867 freeculture.xml:3119 freeculture.xml:4219 freeculture.xml:9563
3723 msgid "Picker, Randal C."
3726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3727 #: freeculture.xml:2843
3729 "With the country experiencing a tremendous expansion in the number of "
3730 "nickelodeons, the Patents Company reacted to the independent movement by "
3731 "forming a strong-arm subsidiary known as the General Film Company to block "
3732 "the entry of non-licensed independents. With coercive tactics that have "
3733 "become legendary, General Film confiscated unlicensed equipment, "
3734 "discontinued product supply to theaters which showed unlicensed films, and "
3735 "effectively monopolized distribution with the acquisition of all U.S. film "
3736 "exchanges, except for the one owned by the independent William Fox who "
3737 "defied the Trust even after his license was revoked.<placeholder "
3738 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
3739 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3745 #: freeculture.xml:2877
3747 "Marc Wanamaker, \"The First Studios,\" <citetitle>The Silents "
3748 "Majority</citetitle>, archived at <ulink "
3749 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #12</ulink>."
3752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3753 #: freeculture.xml:2871
3755 "The Napsters of those days, the \"independents,\" were companies like "
3756 "Fox. And no less than today, these independents were vigorously resisted. "
3757 "\"Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and `accidents' resulting in "
3758 "loss of negatives, equipment, buildings and sometimes life and limb "
3759 "frequently occurred.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That led the "
3760 "independents to flee the East Coast. California was remote enough from "
3761 "Edison's reach that filmmakers there could pirate his inventions without "
3762 "fear of the law. And the leaders of Hollywood filmmaking, Fox most "
3763 "prominently, did just that."
3767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3768 #: freeculture.xml:2887
3770 "Of course, California grew quickly, and the effective enforcement of federal "
3771 "law eventually spread west. But because patents grant the patent holder a "
3772 "truly \"limited\" monopoly (just seventeen years at that time), by the time "
3773 "enough federal marshals appeared, the patents had expired. A new industry "
3774 "had been born, in part from the piracy of Edison's creative property."
3777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
3778 #: freeculture.xml:2898
3779 msgid "Recorded Music"
3782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3783 #: freeculture.xml:2900
3785 "The record industry was born of another kind of piracy, though to see how "
3786 "requires a bit of detail about the way the law regulates music."
3789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
3790 #: freeculture.xml:2904
3791 msgid "Fourneaux, Henri"
3794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3795 #: freeculture.xml:2907
3797 "At the time that Edison and Henri Fourneaux invented machines for "
3798 "reproducing music (Edison the phonograph, Fourneaux the player piano), the "
3799 "law gave composers the exclusive right to control copies of their music and "
3800 "the exclusive right to control public performances of their music. In other "
3801 "words, in 1900, if I wanted a copy of Phil Russel's 1899 hit \"Happy Mose,\" "
3802 "the law said I would have to pay for the right to get a copy of the musical "
3803 "score, and I would also have to pay for the right to perform it publicly."
3806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
3807 #: freeculture.xml:2916 freeculture.xml:3064
3811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3812 #: freeculture.xml:2918
3814 "But what if I wanted to record \"Happy Mose,\" using Edison's phonograph or "
3815 "Fourneaux's player piano? Here the law stumbled. It was clear enough that I "
3816 "would have to buy any copy of the musical score that I performed in making "
3817 "this recording. And it was clear enough that I would have to pay for any "
3818 "public performance of the work I was recording. But it wasn't totally clear "
3819 "that I would have to pay for a \"public performance\" if I recorded the song "
3820 "in my own house (even today, you don't owe the Beatles anything if you sing "
3821 "their songs in the shower), or if I recorded the song from memory (copies in "
3822 "your brain are not—yet— regulated by copyright law). So if I "
3823 "simply sang the song into a recording device in the privacy of my own home, "
3824 "it wasn't clear that I owed the composer anything. And more importantly, it "
3825 "wasn't clear whether I owed the composer anything if I then made copies of "
3826 "those recordings. Because of this gap in the law, then, I could effectively "
3827 "pirate someone else's song without paying its composer anything."
3830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3831 #: freeculture.xml:2941 freeculture.xml:2958
3832 msgid "Kittredge, Alfred"
3835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3836 #: freeculture.xml:2937
3838 "The composers (and publishers) were none too happy about this capacity to "
3839 "pirate. As South Dakota senator Alfred Kittredge put it, <placeholder "
3840 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
3843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
3844 #: freeculture.xml:2952
3846 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright: Hearings on S. 6330 "
3847 "and H.R. 19853 Before the ( Joint) Committees on Patents, 59th Cong. 59, 1st "
3848 "sess. (1906) (statement of Senator Alfred B. Kittredge, of South Dakota, "
3849 "chairman), reprinted in <citetitle>Legislative History of the Copyright "
3850 "Act</citetitle>, E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South "
3851 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1976). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3856 #: freeculture.xml:2945
3858 "Imagine the injustice of the thing. A composer writes a song or an opera. A "
3859 "publisher buys at great expense the rights to the same and copyrights "
3860 "it. Along come the phonographic companies and companies who cut music rolls "
3861 "and deliberately steal the work of the brain of the composer and publisher "
3862 "without any regard for [their] rights.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3868 #: freeculture.xml:2967
3870 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 223 (statement of "
3871 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
3875 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3876 #: freeculture.xml:2973
3878 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 226 (statement of "
3879 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
3883 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3884 #: freeculture.xml:2980
3886 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 23 (statement of "
3887 "John Philip Sousa, composer)."
3890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3891 #: freeculture.xml:2963
3893 "The innovators who developed the technology to record other people's works "
3894 "were \"sponging upon the toil, the work, the talent, and genius of American "
3895 "composers,\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and the \"music "
3896 "publishing industry\" was thereby \"at the complete mercy of this one "
3897 "pirate.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> As John Philip Sousa put "
3898 "it, in as direct a way as possible, \"When they make money out of my pieces, "
3899 "I want a share of it.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
3903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3904 #: freeculture.xml:2993
3906 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 283–84 "
3907 "(statement of Albert Walker, representative of the Auto-Music Perforating "
3908 "Company of New York)."
3912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3913 #: freeculture.xml:3004
3915 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 376 (prepared "
3916 "memorandum of Philip Mauro, general patent counsel of the American "
3917 "Graphophone Company Association)."
3920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
3921 #: freeculture.xml:3008
3922 msgid "American Graphophone Company"
3925 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3926 #: freeculture.xml:2985
3928 "These arguments have familiar echoes in the wars of our day. So, too, do the "
3929 "arguments on the other side. The innovators who developed the player piano "
3930 "argued that \"it is perfectly demonstrable that the introduction of "
3931 "automatic music players has not deprived any composer of anything he had "
3932 "before their introduction.\" Rather, the machines increased the sales of "
3933 "sheet music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In any case, the "
3934 "innovators argued, the job of Congress was \"to consider first the interest "
3935 "of [the public], whom they represent, and whose servants they are.\" \"All "
3936 "talk about `theft,'\" the general counsel of the American Graphophone "
3937 "Company wrote, \"is the merest claptrap, for there exists no property in "
3938 "ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as defined by "
3939 "statute.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
3940 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
3944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3945 #: freeculture.xml:3011
3947 "The law soon resolved this battle in favor of the composer "
3948 "<emphasis>and</emphasis> the recording artist. Congress amended the law to "
3949 "make sure that composers would be paid for the \"mechanical reproductions\" "
3950 "of their music. But rather than simply granting the composer complete "
3951 "control over the right to make mechanical reproductions, Congress gave "
3952 "recording artists a right to record the music, at a price set by Congress, "
3953 "once the composer allowed it to be recorded once. This is the part of "
3954 "copyright law that makes cover songs possible. Once a composer authorizes a "
3955 "recording of his song, others are free to record the same song, so long as "
3956 "they pay the original composer a fee set by the law."
3959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3960 #: freeculture.xml:3026
3962 "American law ordinarily calls this a \"compulsory license,\" but I will "
3963 "refer to it as a \"statutory license.\" A statutory license is a license "
3964 "whose key terms are set by law. After Congress's amendment of the Copyright "
3965 "Act in 1909, record companies were free to distribute copies of recordings "
3966 "so long as they paid the composer (or copyright holder) the fee set by the "
3970 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
3971 #: freeculture.xml:3041 freeculture.xml:13857
3972 msgid "Grisham, John"
3975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3976 #: freeculture.xml:3034
3978 "This is an exception within the law of copyright. When John Grisham writes a "
3979 "novel, a publisher is free to publish that novel only if Grisham gives the "
3980 "publisher permission. Grisham, in turn, is free to charge whatever he wants "
3981 "for that permission. The price to publish Grisham is thus set by Grisham, "
3982 "and copyright law ordinarily says you have no permission to use Grisham's "
3983 "work except with permission of Grisham. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3989 #: freeculture.xml:3058
3991 "Copyright Law Revision: Hearings on S. 2499, S. 2900, H.R. 243, and "
3992 "H.R. 11794 Before the ( Joint) Committee on Patents, 60th Cong., 1st sess., "
3993 "217 (1908) (statement of Senator Reed Smoot, chairman), reprinted in "
3994 "<citetitle>Legislative History of the 1909 Copyright Act</citetitle>, "
3995 "E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman "
3999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4000 #: freeculture.xml:3044
4002 "But the law governing recordings gives recording artists less. And thus, in "
4003 "effect, the law <emphasis>subsidizes</emphasis> the recording industry "
4004 "through a kind of piracy—by giving recording artists a weaker right "
4005 "than it otherwise gives creative authors. The Beatles have less control over "
4006 "their creative work than Grisham does. And the beneficiaries of this less "
4007 "control are the recording industry and the public. The recording industry "
4008 "gets something of value for less than it otherwise would pay; the public "
4009 "gets access to a much wider range of musical creativity. Indeed, Congress "
4010 "was quite explicit about its reasons for granting this right. Its fear was "
4011 "the monopoly power of rights holders, and that that power would stifle "
4012 "follow-on creativity.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4013 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4016 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4017 #: freeculture.xml:3067
4019 "While the recording industry has been quite coy about this recently, "
4020 "historically it has been quite a supporter of the statutory license for "
4021 "records. As a 1967 report from the House Committee on the Judiciary relates,"
4025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4026 #: freeculture.xml:3089
4028 "Copyright Law Revision: Report to Accompany H.R. 2512, House Committee on "
4029 "the Judiciary, 90th Cong., 1st sess., House Document no. 83, (8 March "
4030 "1967). I am grateful to Glenn Brown for drawing my attention to this report."
4033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4034 #: freeculture.xml:3074
4036 "the record producers argued vigorously that the compulsory license system "
4037 "must be retained. They asserted that the record industry is a "
4038 "half-billion-dollar business of great economic importance in the United "
4039 "States and throughout the world; records today are the principal means of "
4040 "disseminating music, and this creates special problems, since performers "
4041 "need unhampered access to musical material on nondiscriminatory "
4042 "terms. Historically, the record producers pointed out, there were no "
4043 "recording rights before 1909 and the 1909 statute adopted the compulsory "
4044 "license as a deliberate anti-monopoly condition on the grant of these "
4045 "rights. They argue that the result has been an outpouring of recorded music, "
4046 "with the public being given lower prices, improved quality, and a greater "
4047 "choice.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4051 #: freeculture.xml:3096
4053 "By limiting the rights musicians have, by partially pirating their creative "
4054 "work, the record producers, and the public, benefit."
4057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4058 #: freeculture.xml:3101 freeculture.xml:4184
4062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4063 #: freeculture.xml:3103
4064 msgid "Radio was also born of piracy."
4067 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4068 #: freeculture.xml:3118
4069 msgid "Hand, Learned"
4072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4073 #: freeculture.xml:3109
4075 "See 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, sections 106 and 110. At "
4076 "the beginning, record companies printed \"Not Licensed for Radio Broadcast\" "
4077 "and other messages purporting to restrict the ability to play a record on a "
4078 "radio station. Judge Learned Hand rejected the argument that a warning "
4079 "attached to a record might restrict the rights of the radio station. See "
4080 "<citetitle>RCA Manufacturing "
4081 "Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Whiteman</citetitle>, 114 F. 2d 86 (2nd "
4082 "Cir. 1940). See also Randal C. Picker, \"From Edison to the Broadcast Flag: "
4083 "Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of Copyright,\" "
4084 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 281. "
4085 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4090 #: freeculture.xml:3106
4092 "When a radio station plays a record on the air, that constitutes a \"public "
4093 "performance\" of the composer's work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4094 "id=\"0\"/> As I described above, the law gives the composer (or copyright "
4095 "holder) an exclusive right to public performances of his work. The radio "
4096 "station thus owes the composer money for that performance."
4099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4100 #: freeculture.xml:3136 freeculture.xml:8657 freeculture.xml:9114 freeculture.xml:12026
4101 msgid "Lovett, Lyle"
4105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4106 #: freeculture.xml:3126
4108 "But when the radio station plays a record, it is not only performing a copy "
4109 "of the <emphasis>composer's</emphasis> work. The radio station is also "
4110 "performing a copy of the <emphasis>recording artist's</emphasis> work. It's "
4111 "one thing to have \"Happy Birthday\" sung on the radio by the local "
4112 "children's choir; it's quite another to have it sung by the Rolling Stones "
4113 "or Lyle Lovett. The recording artist is adding to the value of the "
4114 "composition performed on the radio station. And if the law were perfectly "
4115 "consistent, the radio station would have to pay the recording artist for his "
4116 "work, just as it pays the composer of the music for his work. <placeholder "
4117 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4121 #: freeculture.xml:3141
4123 "But it doesn't. Under the law governing radio performances, the radio "
4124 "station does not have to pay the recording artist. The radio station need "
4125 "only pay the composer. The radio station thus gets a bit of something for "
4126 "nothing. It gets to perform the recording artist's work for free, even if it "
4127 "must pay the composer something for the privilege of playing the song."
4130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4131 #: freeculture.xml:3149 freeculture.xml:3645 freeculture.xml:6025
4135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4136 #: freeculture.xml:3152
4138 "This difference can be huge. Imagine you compose a piece of music. Imagine "
4139 "it is your first. You own the exclusive right to authorize public "
4140 "performances of that music. So if Madonna wants to sing your song in public, "
4141 "she has to get your permission."
4144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4145 #: freeculture.xml:3158
4147 "Imagine she does sing your song, and imagine she likes it a lot. She then "
4148 "decides to make a recording of your song, and it becomes a top hit. Under "
4149 "our law, every time a radio station plays your song, you get some money. But "
4150 "Madonna gets nothing, save the indirect effect on the sale of her CDs. The "
4151 "public performance of her recording is not a \"protected\" right. The radio "
4152 "station thus gets to <emphasis>pirate</emphasis> the value of Madonna's work "
4153 "without paying her anything."
4156 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4157 #: freeculture.xml:3169
4159 "No doubt, one might argue that, on balance, the recording artists "
4160 "benefit. On average, the promotion they get is worth more than the "
4161 "performance rights they give up. Maybe. But even if so, the law ordinarily "
4162 "gives the creator the right to make this choice. By making the choice for "
4163 "him or her, the law gives the radio station the right to take something for "
4167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4168 #: freeculture.xml:3178 freeculture.xml:4190
4172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4173 #: freeculture.xml:3181
4174 msgid "Cable TV was also born of a kind of piracy."
4178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4179 #: freeculture.xml:3184
4181 "When cable entrepreneurs first started wiring communities with cable "
4182 "television in 1948, most refused to pay broadcasters for the content that "
4183 "they echoed to their customers. Even when the cable companies started "
4184 "selling access to television broadcasts, they refused to pay for what they "
4185 "sold. Cable companies were thus Napsterizing broadcasters' content, but more "
4186 "egregiously than anything Napster ever did— Napster never charged for "
4187 "the content it enabled others to give away."
4190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4191 #: freeculture.xml:3194
4192 msgid "Anello, Douglas"
4195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4196 #: freeculture.xml:3195
4197 msgid "Burdick, Quentin"
4201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4202 #: freeculture.xml:3201
4204 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV: Hearing on S. 1006 Before the "
4205 "Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Senate Committee "
4206 "on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 78 (1966) (statement of Rosel "
4207 "H. Hyde, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission)."
4211 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4212 #: freeculture.xml:3212
4214 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 116 (statement of Douglas A. Anello, "
4215 "general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters)."
4218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4219 #: freeculture.xml:3197
4221 "Broadcasters and copyright owners were quick to attack this theft. Rosel "
4222 "Hyde, chairman of the FCC, viewed the practice as a kind of \"unfair and "
4223 "potentially destructive competition.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4224 "id=\"0\"/> There may have been a \"public interest\" in spreading the reach "
4225 "of cable TV, but as Douglas Anello, general counsel to the National "
4226 "Association of Broadcasters, asked Senator Quentin Burdick during testimony, "
4227 "\"Does public interest dictate that you use somebody else's "
4228 "property?\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> As another broadcaster "
4233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4234 #: freeculture.xml:3223
4236 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 126 (statement of Ernest W. Jennes, "
4237 "general counsel of the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters, Inc.)."
4240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4241 #: freeculture.xml:3219
4243 "The extraordinary thing about the CATV business is that it is the only "
4244 "business I know of where the product that is being sold is not paid "
4245 "for.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4248 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4249 #: freeculture.xml:3229
4250 msgid "Again, the demand of the copyright holders seemed reasonable enough:"
4254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4255 #: freeculture.xml:3238
4257 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 169 (joint statement of Arthur B. Krim, "
4258 "president of United Artists Corp., and John Sinn, president of United "
4259 "Artists Television, Inc.)."
4262 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4263 #: freeculture.xml:3233
4265 "All we are asking for is a very simple thing, that people who now take our "
4266 "property for nothing pay for it. We are trying to stop piracy and I don't "
4267 "think there is any lesser word to describe it. I think there are harsher "
4268 "words which would fit it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4273 #: freeculture.xml:3249
4275 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 209 (statement of Charlton Heston, "
4276 "president of the Screen Actors Guild)."
4279 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4280 #: freeculture.xml:3245
4282 "These were \"free-ride[rs],\" Screen Actor's Guild president Charlton Heston "
4283 "said, who were \"depriving actors of compensation.\"<placeholder "
4284 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4288 #: freeculture.xml:3254
4290 "But again, there was another side to the debate. As Assistant Attorney "
4291 "General Edwin Zimmerman put it,"
4294 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
4295 #: freeculture.xml:3270 freeculture.xml:3272
4296 msgid "Zimmerman, Edwin"
4299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4300 #: freeculture.xml:3268
4302 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 216 (statement of Edwin M. Zimmerman, "
4303 "acting assistant attorney general). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4308 #: freeculture.xml:3259
4310 "Our point here is that unlike the problem of whether you have any copyright "
4311 "protection at all, the problem here is whether copyright holders who are "
4312 "already compensated, who already have a monopoly, should be permitted to "
4313 "extend that monopoly. … The question here is how much compensation "
4314 "they should have and how far back they should carry their right to "
4315 "compensation.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4316 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4320 #: freeculture.xml:3276
4322 "Copyright owners took the cable companies to court. Twice the Supreme Court "
4323 "held that the cable companies owed the copyright owners nothing."
4326 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4327 #: freeculture.xml:3280
4329 "It took Congress almost thirty years before it resolved the question of "
4330 "whether cable companies had to pay for the content they \"pirated.\" In the "
4331 "end, Congress resolved this question in the same way that it resolved the "
4332 "question about record players and player pianos. Yes, cable companies would "
4333 "have to pay for the content that they broadcast; but the price they would "
4334 "have to pay was not set by the copyright owner. The price was set by law, "
4335 "so that the broadcasters couldn't exercise veto power over the emerging "
4336 "technologies of cable. Cable companies thus built their empire in part upon "
4337 "a \"piracy\" of the value created by broadcasters' content."
4341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4342 #: freeculture.xml:3297
4344 "See, for example, National Music Publisher's Association, <citetitle>The "
4345 "Engine of Free Expression: Copyright on the Internet—The Myth of Free "
4346 "Information</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
4347 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #13</ulink>. \"The threat of "
4348 "piracy—the use of someone else's creative work without permission or "
4349 "compensation—has grown with the Internet.\""
4352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4353 #: freeculture.xml:3292
4355 "These separate stories sing a common theme. If \"piracy\" means using value "
4356 "from someone else's creative property without permission from that "
4357 "creator—as it is increasingly described today<placeholder "
4358 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> — then <emphasis>every</emphasis> "
4359 "industry affected by copyright today is the product and beneficiary of a "
4360 "certain kind of piracy. Film, records, radio, cable TV. … The list is "
4361 "long and could well be expanded. Every generation welcomes the pirates from "
4362 "the last. Every generation—until now."
4365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
4366 #: freeculture.xml:3314
4367 msgid "CHAPTER FIVE: \"Piracy\""
4370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4371 #: freeculture.xml:3316
4373 "There is piracy of copyrighted material. Lots of it. This piracy comes in "
4374 "many forms. The most significant is commercial piracy, the unauthorized "
4375 "taking of other people's content within a commercial context. Despite the "
4376 "many justifications that are offered in its defense, this taking is "
4377 "wrong. No one should condone it, and the law should stop it."
4381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4382 #: freeculture.xml:3324
4384 "But as well as copy-shop piracy, there is another kind of \"taking\" that is "
4385 "more directly related to the Internet. That taking, too, seems wrong to "
4386 "many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before we paint this taking "
4387 "\"piracy,\" however, we should understand its nature a bit more. For the "
4388 "harm of this taking is significantly more ambiguous than outright copying, "
4389 "and the law should account for that ambiguity, as it has so often done in "
4393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4394 #: freeculture.xml:3334
4399 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4400 #: freeculture.xml:3342
4402 "See IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), "
4403 "<citetitle>The Recording Industry Commercial Piracy Report 2003</citetitle>, "
4404 "July 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
4405 "#14</ulink>. See also Ben Hunt, \"Companies Warned on Music Piracy Risk,\" "
4406 "<citetitle>Financial Times</citetitle>, 14 February 2003, 11."
4409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4410 #: freeculture.xml:3336
4412 "All across the world, but especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, there are "
4413 "businesses that do nothing but take others people's copyrighted content, "
4414 "copy it, and sell it—all without the permission of a copyright "
4415 "owner. The recording industry estimates that it loses about $4.6 billion "
4416 "every year to physical piracy<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> (that "
4417 "works out to one in three CDs sold worldwide). The MPAA estimates that it "
4418 "loses $3 billion annually worldwide to piracy."
4421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4422 #: freeculture.xml:3352
4424 "This is piracy plain and simple. Nothing in the argument of this book, nor "
4425 "in the argument that most people make when talking about the subject of this "
4426 "book, should draw into doubt this simple point: This piracy is wrong."
4429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4430 #: freeculture.xml:3358
4432 "Which is not to say that excuses and justifications couldn't be made for "
4433 "it. We could, for example, remind ourselves that for the first one hundred "
4434 "years of the American Republic, America did not honor foreign copyrights. We "
4435 "were born, in this sense, a pirate nation. It might therefore seem "
4436 "hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations "
4437 "treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, "
4441 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4442 #: freeculture.xml:3367
4444 "That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the "
4445 "taking of foreign works. It explicitly limited itself to American "
4446 "works. Thus the American publishers who published foreign works without the "
4447 "permission of foreign authors were not violating any rule. The copy shops "
4448 "in Asia, by contrast, are violating Asian law. Asian law does protect "
4449 "foreign copyrights, and the actions of the copy shops violate that law. So "
4450 "the wrong of piracy that they engage in is not just a moral wrong, but a "
4451 "legal wrong, and not just an internationally legal wrong, but a locally "
4452 "legal wrong as well."
4456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4457 #: freeculture.xml:3378
4459 "True, these local rules have, in effect, been imposed upon these "
4460 "countries. No country can be part of the world economy and choose not to "
4461 "protect copyright internationally. We may have been born a pirate nation, "
4462 "but we will not allow any other nation to have a similar childhood."
4465 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4466 #: freeculture.xml:3405 freeculture.xml:12306 freeculture.xml:12739 freeculture.xml:12746
4467 msgid "Drahos, Peter"
4470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4471 #: freeculture.xml:3391
4473 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: "
4474 "<citetitle>Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New "
4475 "Press, 2003), 10–13, 209. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual "
4476 "Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement obligates member nations to create "
4477 "administrative and enforcement mechanisms for intellectual property rights, "
4478 "a costly proposition for developing countries. Additionally, patent rights "
4479 "may lead to higher prices for staple industries such as agriculture. Critics "
4480 "of TRIPS question the disparity between burdens imposed upon developing "
4481 "countries and benefits conferred to industrialized nations. TRIPS does "
4482 "permit governments to use patents for public, noncommercial uses without "
4483 "first obtaining the patent holder's permission. Developing nations may be "
4484 "able to use this to gain the benefits of foreign patents at lower "
4485 "prices. This is a promising strategy for developing nations within the TRIPS "
4486 "framework. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4490 #: freeculture.xml:3386
4492 "If a country is to be treated as a sovereign, however, then its laws are its "
4493 "laws regardless of their source. The international law under which these "
4494 "nations live gives them some opportunities to escape the burden of "
4495 "intellectual property law.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In my "
4496 "view, more developing nations should take advantage of that opportunity, but "
4497 "when they don't, then their laws should be respected. And under the laws of "
4498 "these nations, this piracy is wrong."
4501 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4502 #: freeculture.xml:3425 freeculture.xml:3692 freeculture.xml:14386
4503 msgid "Liebowitz, Stan"
4506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4507 #: freeculture.xml:3418
4509 "For an analysis of the economic impact of copying technology, see Stan "
4510 "Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle> (New York: "
4511 "Amacom, 2002), 144–90. \"In some instances … the impact of "
4512 "piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the "
4513 "work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the "
4514 "individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if "
4515 "pirating were not an option.\" Ibid., 149. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4520 #: freeculture.xml:3412
4522 "Alternatively, we could try to excuse this piracy by noting that in any "
4523 "case, it does no harm to the industry. The Chinese who get access to "
4524 "American CDs at 50 cents a copy are not people who would have bought those "
4525 "American CDs at $15 a copy. So no one really has any less money than they "
4526 "otherwise would have had.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4530 #: freeculture.xml:3429
4532 "This is often true (though I have friends who have purchased many thousands "
4533 "of pirated DVDs who certainly have enough money to pay for the content they "
4534 "have taken), and it does mitigate to some degree the harm caused by such "
4535 "taking. Extremists in this debate love to say, \"You wouldn't go into Barnes "
4536 "& Noble and take a book off of the shelf without paying; why should it "
4537 "be any different with on-line music?\" The difference is, of course, that "
4538 "when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less book to "
4539 "sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, there is "
4540 "not one less CD that can be sold. The physics of piracy of the intangible "
4541 "are different from the physics of piracy of the tangible."
4545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4546 #: freeculture.xml:3442
4548 "This argument is still very weak. However, although copyright is a property "
4549 "right of a very special sort, it <emphasis>is</emphasis> a property "
4550 "right. Like all property rights, the copyright gives the owner the right to "
4551 "decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner "
4552 "doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important "
4553 "statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish "
4554 "of the copyright owner. Those licenses give people the right to \"take\" "
4555 "copyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner wants to sell. But "
4556 "where the law does not give people the right to take content, it is wrong to "
4557 "take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If we have a property "
4558 "system, and that system is properly balanced to the technology of a time, "
4559 "then it is wrong to take property without the permission of a property "
4560 "owner. That is exactly what \"property\" means."
4563 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4564 #: freeculture.xml:3471 freeculture.xml:3499 freeculture.xml:11157 freeculture.xml:12620 freeculture.xml:13172
4565 msgid "GNU/Linux operating system"
4568 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4569 #: freeculture.xml:3472 freeculture.xml:3502 freeculture.xml:11159 freeculture.xml:12621 freeculture.xml:13173
4570 msgid "Linux operating system"
4573 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4574 #: freeculture.xml:3474
4578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><secondary>
4579 #: freeculture.xml:3475
4580 msgid "Windows operating system of"
4583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4584 #: freeculture.xml:3477
4588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4589 #: freeculture.xml:3460
4591 "Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the "
4592 "piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese \"steal\" "
4593 "Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on Microsoft. Microsoft loses the "
4594 "value of the software that was taken. But it gains users who are used to "
4595 "life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the nation grows more wealthy, "
4596 "more and more people will buy software rather than steal it. And hence over "
4597 "time, because that buying will benefit Microsoft, Microsoft benefits from "
4598 "the piracy. If instead of pirating Microsoft Windows, the Chinese used the "
4599 "free GNU/Linux operating system, then these Chinese users would not "
4600 "eventually be buying Microsoft. Without piracy, then, Microsoft would "
4601 "lose. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4602 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
4603 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
4606 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4607 #: freeculture.xml:3480
4609 "This argument, too, is somewhat true. The addiction strategy is a good "
4610 "one. Many businesses practice it. Some thrive because of it. Law students, "
4611 "for example, are given free access to the two largest legal databases. The "
4612 "companies marketing both hope the students will become so used to their "
4613 "service that they will want to use it and not the other when they become "
4614 "lawyers (and must pay high subscription fees)."
4617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4618 #: freeculture.xml:3500
4619 msgid "Internet Explorer"
4622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4623 #: freeculture.xml:3501
4627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4628 #: freeculture.xml:3488
4630 "Still, the argument is not terribly persuasive. We don't give the alcoholic "
4631 "a defense when he steals his first beer, merely because that will make it "
4632 "more likely that he will buy the next three. Instead, we ordinarily allow "
4633 "businesses to decide for themselves when it is best to give their product "
4634 "away. If Microsoft fears the competition of GNU/Linux, then Microsoft can "
4635 "give its product away, as it did, for example, with Internet Explorer to "
4636 "fight Netscape. A property right means giving the property owner the right "
4637 "to say who gets access to what—at least ordinarily. And if the law "
4638 "properly balances the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of "
4639 "access, then violating the law is still wrong. <placeholder "
4640 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
4641 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4646 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4647 #: freeculture.xml:3506
4649 "Thus, while I understand the pull of these justifications for piracy, and I "
4650 "certainly see the motivation, in my view, in the end, these efforts at "
4651 "justifying commercial piracy simply don't cut it. This kind of piracy is "
4652 "rampant and just plain wrong. It doesn't transform the content it steals; it "
4653 "doesn't transform the market it competes in. It merely gives someone access "
4654 "to something that the law says he should not have. Nothing has changed to "
4655 "draw that law into doubt. This form of piracy is flat out wrong."
4658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4659 #: freeculture.xml:3516
4661 "But as the examples from the four chapters that introduced this part "
4662 "suggest, even if some piracy is plainly wrong, not all \"piracy\" is. Or at "
4663 "least, not all \"piracy\" is wrong if that term is understood in the way it "
4664 "is increasingly used today. Many kinds of \"piracy\" are useful and "
4665 "productive, to produce either new content or new ways of doing business. "
4666 "Neither our tradition nor any tradition has ever banned all \"piracy\" in "
4667 "that sense of the term."
4670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4671 #: freeculture.xml:3525
4673 "This doesn't mean that there are no questions raised by the latest piracy "
4674 "concern, peer-to-peer file sharing. But it does mean that we need to "
4675 "understand the harm in peer-to-peer sharing a bit more before we condemn it "
4676 "to the gallows with the charge of piracy."
4679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4680 #: freeculture.xml:3531
4682 "For (1) like the original Hollywood, p2p sharing escapes an overly "
4683 "controlling industry; and (2) like the original recording industry, it "
4684 "simply exploits a new way to distribute content; but (3) unlike cable TV, no "
4685 "one is selling the content that is shared on p2p services."
4688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4689 #: freeculture.xml:3537
4691 "These differences distinguish p2p sharing from true piracy. They should push "
4692 "us to find a way to protect artists while enabling this sharing to survive."
4695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4696 #: freeculture.xml:3543
4701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4702 #: freeculture.xml:3548
4704 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
4705 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777)."
4709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4710 #: freeculture.xml:3545
4712 "The key to the \"piracy\" that the law aims to quash is a use that \"rob[s] "
4713 "the author of [his] profit.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This "
4714 "means we must determine whether and how much p2p sharing harms before we "
4715 "know how strongly the law should seek to either prevent it or find an "
4716 "alternative to assure the author of his profit."
4719 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4720 #: freeculture.xml:3571 freeculture.xml:8084
4721 msgid "Christensen, Clayton M."
4724 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4725 #: freeculture.xml:3562
4727 "See Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
4728 "Revolutionary National Bestseller That Changed the Way We Do "
4729 "Business</citetitle> (New York: HarperBusiness, 2000). Professor Christensen "
4730 "examines why companies that give rise to and dominate a product area are "
4731 "frequently unable to come up with the most creative, paradigm-shifting uses "
4732 "for their own products. This job usually falls to outside innovators, who "
4733 "reassemble existing technology in inventive ways. For a discussion of "
4734 "Christensen's ideas, see Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, "
4735 "89–92, 139. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4739 #: freeculture.xml:3574
4740 msgid "Fanning, Shawn"
4743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4744 #: freeculture.xml:3557
4746 "Peer-to-peer sharing was made famous by Napster. But the inventors of the "
4747 "Napster technology had not made any major technological innovations. Like "
4748 "every great advance in innovation on the Internet (and, arguably, off the "
4749 "Internet as well<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), Shawn Fanning "
4750 "and crew had simply put together components that had been developed "
4751 "independently. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4756 #: freeculture.xml:3582
4758 "See Carolyn Lochhead, \"Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood Nightmare,\" "
4759 "<citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 September 2002, A1; "
4760 "\"Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,\" <citetitle>New Scientist</citetitle>, 6 July "
4761 "2002, 42; Benny Evangelista, \"Napster Names CEO, Secures New Financing,\" "
4762 "<citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 23 May 2003, C1; \"Napster's "
4763 "Wake-Up Call,\" <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 24 June 2000, 23; John "
4764 "Naughton, \"Hollywood at War with the Internet\" (London) "
4765 "<citetitle>Times</citetitle>, 26 July 2002, 18."
4768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4769 #: freeculture.xml:3577
4771 "The result was spontaneous combustion. Launched in July 1999, Napster "
4772 "amassed over 10 million users within nine months. After eighteen months, "
4773 "there were close to 80 million registered users of the system.<placeholder "
4774 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Courts quickly shut Napster down, but other "
4775 "services emerged to take its place. (Kazaa is currently the most popular p2p "
4776 "service. It boasts over 100 million members.) These services' systems are "
4777 "different architecturally, though not very different in function: Each "
4778 "enables users to make content available to any number of other users. With a "
4779 "p2p system, you can share your favorite songs with your best friend— "
4780 "or your 20,000 best friends."
4784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4785 #: freeculture.xml:3604
4787 "See Ipsos-Insight, <citetitle>TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Online Music "
4788 "Distribution</citetitle> (September 2002), reporting that 28 percent of "
4789 "Americans aged twelve and older have downloaded music off of the Internet "
4790 "and 30 percent have listened to digital music files stored on their "
4795 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4796 #: freeculture.xml:3613
4798 "Amy Harmon, \"Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight,\" "
4799 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 6 June 2003, A1."
4802 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4803 #: freeculture.xml:3598
4805 "According to a number of estimates, a huge proportion of Americans have "
4806 "tasted file-sharing technology. A study by Ipsos-Insight in September 2002 "
4807 "estimated that 60 million Americans had downloaded music—28 percent of "
4808 "Americans older than 12.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A survey "
4809 "by the NPD group quoted in <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> "
4810 "estimated that 43 million citizens used file-sharing networks to exchange "
4811 "content in May 2003.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The vast "
4812 "majority of these are not kids. Whatever the actual figure, a massive "
4813 "quantity of content is being \"taken\" on these networks. The ease and "
4814 "inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to enjoy "
4815 "music in a way that they hadn't before."
4818 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4819 #: freeculture.xml:3622
4821 "Some of this enjoying involves copyright infringement. Some of it does "
4822 "not. And even among the part that is technically copyright infringement, "
4823 "calculating the actual harm to copyright owners is more complicated than one "
4824 "might think. So consider—a bit more carefully than the polarized "
4825 "voices around this debate usually do—the kinds of sharing that file "
4826 "sharing enables, and the kinds of harm it entails."
4830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4831 #: freeculture.xml:3632
4833 "File sharers share different kinds of content. We can divide these different "
4834 "kinds into four types."
4837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
4838 #: freeculture.xml:3638
4840 "There are some who use sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
4841 "content. Thus, when a new Madonna CD is released, rather than buying the CD, "
4842 "these users simply take it. We might quibble about whether everyone who "
4843 "takes it would actually have bought it if sharing didn't make it available "
4844 "for free. Most probably wouldn't have, but clearly there are some who "
4845 "would. The latter are the target of category A: users who download instead "
4846 "of purchasing. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4850 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
4851 #: freeculture.xml:3649
4853 "There are some who use sharing networks to sample music before purchasing "
4854 "it. Thus, a friend sends another friend an MP3 of an artist he's not heard "
4855 "of. The other friend then buys CDs by that artist. This is a kind of "
4856 "targeted advertising, quite likely to succeed. If the friend recommending "
4857 "the album gains nothing from a bad recommendation, then one could expect "
4858 "that the recommendations will actually be quite good. The net effect of this "
4859 "sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased."
4863 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
4864 #: freeculture.xml:3660
4866 "There are many who use sharing networks to get access to copyrighted content "
4867 "that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the "
4868 "transaction costs off the Net are too high. This use of sharing networks is "
4869 "among the most rewarding for many. Songs that were part of your childhood "
4870 "but have long vanished from the marketplace magically appear again on the "
4871 "network. (One friend told me that when she discovered Napster, she spent a "
4872 "solid weekend \"recalling\" old songs. She was astonished at the range and "
4873 "mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is still "
4874 "technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright owner is "
4875 "not selling the content anymore, the economic harm is zero—the same "
4876 "harm that occurs when I sell my collection of 1960s 45-rpm records to a "
4882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
4883 #: freeculture.xml:3677
4885 "Finally, there are many who use sharing networks to get access to content "
4886 "that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away."
4889 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4890 #: freeculture.xml:3683
4891 msgid "How do these different types of sharing balance out?"
4894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4895 #: freeculture.xml:3691
4897 "See Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle>, "
4898 "148–49. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4902 #: freeculture.xml:3686
4904 "Let's start with some simple but important points. From the perspective of "
4905 "the law, only type D sharing is clearly legal. From the perspective of "
4906 "economics, only type A sharing is clearly harmful.<placeholder "
4907 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Type B sharing is illegal but plainly "
4908 "beneficial. Type C sharing is illegal, yet good for society (since more "
4909 "exposure to music is good) and harmless to the artist (since the work is "
4910 "not otherwise available). So how sharing matters on balance is a hard "
4911 "question to answer—and certainly much more difficult than the current "
4912 "rhetoric around the issue suggests."
4915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4916 #: freeculture.xml:3702
4918 "Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful "
4919 "type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers "
4920 "complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and "
4921 "broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music industry complains that "
4922 "type A sharing is a kind of \"theft\" that is \"devastating\" the industry."
4926 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4927 #: freeculture.xml:3717
4929 "See Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, <citetitle>Technology Evolution and the "
4930 "Music Industry's Business Model Crisis</citetitle> (2003), 3. This report "
4931 "describes the music industry's effort to stigmatize the budding practice of "
4932 "cassette taping in the 1970s, including an advertising campaign featuring a "
4933 "cassette-shape skull and the caption \"Home taping is killing music.\" At "
4934 "the time digital audio tape became a threat, the Office of Technical "
4935 "Assessment conducted a survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 percent of "
4936 "consumers older than ten had taped music to a cassette format. U.S. "
4937 "Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, <citetitle>Copyright and Home "
4938 "Copying: Technology Challenges the Law</citetitle>, OTA-CIT-422 (Washington, "
4939 "D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, October 1989), 145–56."
4942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4943 #: freeculture.xml:3710
4945 "While the numbers do suggest that sharing is harmful, how harmful is harder "
4946 "to reckon. It has long been the recording industry's practice to blame "
4947 "technology for any drop in sales. The history of cassette recording is a "
4948 "good example. As a study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put it, \"Rather "
4949 "than exploiting this new, popular technology, the labels fought "
4950 "it.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The labels claimed that every "
4951 "album taped was an album unsold, and when record sales fell by 11.4 percent "
4952 "in 1981, the industry claimed that its point was proved. Technology was the "
4953 "problem, and banning or regulating technology was the answer."
4957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4958 #: freeculture.xml:3743
4959 msgid "U.S. Congress, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying</citetitle>, 4."
4962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4963 #: freeculture.xml:3735
4965 "Yet soon thereafter, and before Congress was given an opportunity to enact "
4966 "regulation, MTV was launched, and the industry had a record turnaround. \"In "
4967 "the end,\" Cap Gemini concludes, \"the `crisis' … was not the fault "
4968 "of the tapers—who did not [stop after MTV came into being]—but "
4969 "had to a large extent resulted from stagnation in musical innovation at the "
4970 "major labels.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4973 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4974 #: freeculture.xml:3747
4976 "But just because the industry was wrong before does not mean it is wrong "
4977 "today. To evaluate the real threat that p2p sharing presents to the industry "
4978 "in particular, and society in general—or at least the society that "
4979 "inherits the tradition that gave us the film industry, the record industry, "
4980 "the radio industry, cable TV, and the VCR—the question is not simply "
4981 "whether type A sharing is harmful. The question is also "
4982 "<emphasis>how</emphasis> harmful type A sharing is, and how beneficial the "
4983 "other types of sharing are."
4986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4987 #: freeculture.xml:3757
4989 "We start to answer this question by focusing on the net harm, from the "
4990 "standpoint of the industry as a whole, that sharing networks cause. The "
4991 "\"net harm\" to the industry as a whole is the amount by which type A "
4992 "sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records through "
4993 "sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks would "
4994 "actually benefit music companies on balance. They would therefore have "
4995 "little <emphasis>static</emphasis> reason to resist them."
4998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4999 #: freeculture.xml:3768
5001 "Could that be true? Could the industry as a whole be gaining because of file "
5002 "sharing? Odd as that might sound, the data about CD sales actually suggest "
5003 "it might be close."
5007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5008 #: freeculture.xml:3777
5010 "See Recording Industry Association of America, <citetitle>2002 Yearend "
5011 "Statistics</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5012 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #15</ulink>. A later report "
5013 "indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of "
5014 "America, <citetitle>Some Facts About Music Piracy</citetitle>, 25 June 2003, "
5015 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #16</ulink>: "
5016 "\"In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen by 26 "
5017 "percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the "
5018 "United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are "
5019 "down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on "
5020 "U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from "
5021 "a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based "
5022 "on U.S. dollar value of shipments).\""
5025 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5026 #: freeculture.xml:3804
5030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5031 #: freeculture.xml:3801
5033 "Jane Black, \"Big Music's Broken Record,\" BusinessWeek online, 13 February "
5034 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5035 "#17</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5038 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5039 #: freeculture.xml:3773
5041 "In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 "
5042 "million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent.<placeholder "
5043 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This confirms a trend over the past few "
5044 "years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many "
5045 "other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, "
5046 "reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since "
5047 "1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales. Rising "
5048 "prices could account for at least some of the loss. \"From 1999 to 2001, the "
5049 "average price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to $14.19.\"<placeholder "
5050 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Competition from other forms of media could "
5051 "also account for some of the decline. As Jane Black of "
5052 "<citetitle>BusinessWeek</citetitle> notes, \"The soundtrack to the film "
5053 "<citetitle>High Fidelity</citetitle> has a list price of $18.98. You could "
5054 "get the whole movie [on DVD] for $19.99.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5059 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5060 #: freeculture.xml:3819
5062 "But let's assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is "
5063 "because of Internet sharing. Here's the rub: In the same period that the "
5064 "RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 "
5065 "billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total "
5066 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 "
5070 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5071 #: freeculture.xml:3827
5073 "There are too many different things happening at the same time to explain "
5074 "these numbers definitively, but one conclusion is unavoidable: The recording "
5075 "industry constantly asks, \"What's the difference between downloading a song "
5076 "and stealing a CD?\"—but their own numbers reveal the difference. If I "
5077 "steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking is a lost "
5078 "sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is absolutely "
5079 "clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download were a lost "
5080 "sale—if every use of Kazaa \"rob[bed] the author of [his] "
5081 "profit\"—then the industry would have suffered a 100 percent drop in "
5082 "sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the number of CDs sold "
5083 "were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped by just 6.7 percent, "
5084 "then there is a huge difference between \"downloading a song and stealing a "
5088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5089 #: freeculture.xml:3842
5091 "These are the harms—alleged and perhaps exaggerated but, let's assume, "
5092 "real. What of the benefits? File sharing may impose costs on the recording "
5093 "industry. What value does it produce in addition to these costs?"
5097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5098 #: freeculture.xml:3854
5100 "By one estimate, 75 percent of the music released by the major labels is no "
5101 "longer in print. See Online Entertainment and Copyright Law—Coming "
5102 "Soon to a Digital Device Near You: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on "
5103 "the Judiciary, 107th Cong., 1st sess. (3 April 2001) (prepared statement of "
5104 "the Future of Music Coalition), available at <ulink "
5105 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #18</ulink>."
5108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5109 #: freeculture.xml:3848
5111 "One benefit is type C sharing—making available content that is "
5112 "technically still under copyright but is no longer commercially available. "
5113 "This is not a small category of content. There are millions of tracks that "
5114 "are no longer commercially available.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5115 "id=\"0\"/> And while it's conceivable that some of this content is not "
5116 "available because the artist producing the content doesn't want it to be "
5117 "made available, the vast majority of it is unavailable solely because the "
5118 "publisher or the distributor has decided it no longer makes economic sense "
5119 "<emphasis>to the company</emphasis> to make it available."
5123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5124 #: freeculture.xml:3874
5126 "While there are not good estimates of the number of used record stores in "
5127 "existence, in 2002, there were 7,198 used book dealers in the United States, "
5128 "an increase of 20 percent since 1993. See Book Hunter Press, <citetitle>The "
5129 "Quiet Revolution: The Expansion of the Used Book Market</citetitle> (2002), "
5130 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5131 "#19</ulink>. Used records accounted for $260 million in sales in 2002. See "
5132 "National Association of Recording Merchandisers, \"2002 Annual Survey "
5133 "Results,\" available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
5137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5138 #: freeculture.xml:3868
5140 "In real space—long before the Internet—the market had a simple "
5141 "response to this problem: used book and record stores. There are thousands "
5142 "of used book and used record stores in America today.<placeholder "
5143 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These stores buy content from owners, then sell "
5144 "the content they buy. And under American copyright law, when they buy and "
5145 "sell this content, <emphasis>even if the content is still under "
5146 "copyright</emphasis>, the copyright owner doesn't get a dime. Used book and "
5147 "record stores are commercial entities; their owners make money from the "
5148 "content they sell; but as with cable companies before statutory licensing, "
5149 "they don't have to pay the copyright owner for the content they sell."
5152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5153 #: freeculture.xml:3894
5154 msgid "Bernstein, Leonard"
5157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5158 #: freeculture.xml:3896
5160 "Type C sharing, then, is very much like used book stores or used record "
5161 "stores. It is different, of course, because the person making the content "
5162 "available isn't making money from making the content available. It is also "
5163 "different, of course, because in real space, when I sell a record, I don't "
5164 "have it anymore, while in cyberspace, when someone shares my 1949 recording "
5165 "of Bernstein's \"Two Love Songs,\" I still have it. That difference would "
5166 "matter economically if the owner of the copyright were selling the record in "
5167 "competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the class of content that "
5168 "is not currently commercially available. The Internet is making it "
5169 "available, through cooperative sharing, without competing with the market."
5172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5173 #: freeculture.xml:3909
5175 "It may well be, all things considered, that it would be better if the "
5176 "copyright owner got something from this trade. But just because it may well "
5177 "be better, it doesn't follow that it would be good to ban used book "
5178 "stores. Or put differently, if you think that type C sharing should be "
5179 "stopped, do you think that libraries and used book stores should be shut as "
5184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5185 #: freeculture.xml:3917
5187 "Finally, and perhaps most importantly, file-sharing networks enable type D "
5188 "sharing to occur—the sharing of content that copyright owners want to "
5189 "have shared or for which there is no continuing copyright. This sharing "
5190 "clearly benefits authors and society. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow, "
5191 "for example, released his first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
5192 "Kingdom</citetitle>, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same "
5193 "day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution "
5194 "would be a great advertisement for the \"real\" book. People would read part "
5195 "on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or not. If they liked "
5196 "it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's content is type D "
5197 "content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, then both he and "
5198 "society are better off. (Actually, much better off: It is a great book!)"
5201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5202 #: freeculture.xml:3934
5204 "Likewise for work in the public domain: This sharing benefits society with "
5205 "no legal harm to authors at all. If efforts to solve the problem of type A "
5206 "sharing destroy the opportunity for type D sharing, then we lose something "
5207 "important in order to protect type A content."
5210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5211 #: freeculture.xml:3940
5213 "The point throughout is this: While the recording industry understandably "
5214 "says, \"This is how much we've lost,\" we must also ask, \"How much has "
5215 "society gained from p2p sharing? What are the efficiencies? What is the "
5216 "content that otherwise would be unavailable?\""
5219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5220 #: freeculture.xml:3947
5222 "For unlike the piracy I described in the first section of this chapter, much "
5223 "of the \"piracy\" that file sharing enables is plainly legal and good. And "
5224 "like the piracy I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
5225 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"pirates\"/>, much of this piracy is motivated by a "
5226 "new way of spreading content caused by changes in the technology of "
5227 "distribution. Thus, consistent with the tradition that gave us Hollywood, "
5228 "radio, the recording industry, and cable TV, the question we should be "
5229 "asking about file sharing is how best to preserve its benefits while "
5230 "minimizing (to the extent possible) the wrongful harm it causes artists. The "
5231 "question is one of balance. The law should seek that balance, and that "
5232 "balance will be found only with time."
5235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5236 #: freeculture.xml:3961
5238 "\"But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the target "
5239 "just what you call type A sharing?\""
5243 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5244 #: freeculture.xml:3978
5246 "See Transcript of Proceedings, In Re: Napster Copyright Litigation at 34- 35 "
5247 "(N.D. Cal., 11 July 2001), nos. MDL-00-1369 MHP, C 99-5183 MHP, available at "
5248 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #21</ulink>. For an "
5249 "account of the litigation and its toll on Napster, see Joseph Menn, "
5250 "<citetitle>All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's "
5251 "Napster</citetitle> (New York: Crown Business, 2003), 269–82."
5254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5255 #: freeculture.xml:3965
5257 "You would think. And we should hope. But so far, it is not. The effect of "
5258 "the war purportedly on type A sharing alone has been felt far beyond that "
5259 "one class of sharing. That much is obvious from the Napster case "
5260 "itself. When Napster told the district court that it had developed a "
5261 "technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing "
5262 "material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not "
5263 "good enough. Napster had to push the infringements \"down to "
5264 "zero.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5268 #: freeculture.xml:3989
5270 "If 99.4 percent is not good enough, then this is a war on file-sharing "
5271 "technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. There is no way to assure "
5272 "that a p2p system is used 100 percent of the time in compliance with the "
5273 "law, any more than there is a way to assure that 100 percent of VCRs or 100 "
5274 "percent of Xerox machines or 100 percent of handguns are used in compliance "
5275 "with the law. Zero tolerance means zero p2p. The court's ruling means that "
5276 "we as a society must lose the benefits of p2p, even for the totally legal "
5277 "and beneficial uses they serve, simply to assure that there are zero "
5278 "copyright infringements caused by p2p."
5281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5282 #: freeculture.xml:4000
5284 "Zero tolerance has not been our history. It has not produced the content "
5285 "industry that we know today. The history of American law has been a process "
5286 "of balance. As new technologies changed the way content was distributed, the "
5287 "law adjusted, after some time, to the new technology. In this adjustment, "
5288 "the law sought to ensure the legitimate rights of creators while protecting "
5289 "innovation. Sometimes this has meant more rights for creators. Sometimes "
5293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5294 #: freeculture.xml:4009
5296 "So, as we've seen, when \"mechanical reproduction\" threatened the interests "
5297 "of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers against the "
5298 "interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to composers, but "
5299 "also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but at a price set "
5300 "by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the recordings made by "
5301 "these recording artists, and they complained to Congress that their "
5302 "\"creative property\" was not being respected (since the radio station did "
5303 "not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), Congress rejected "
5304 "their claim. An indirect benefit was enough."
5307 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5308 #: freeculture.xml:4021
5310 "Cable TV followed the pattern of record albums. When the courts rejected the "
5311 "claim that cable broadcasters had to pay for the content they rebroadcast, "
5312 "Congress responded by giving broadcasters a right to compensation, but at a "
5313 "level set by the law. It likewise gave cable companies the right to the "
5314 "content, so long as they paid the statutory price."
5318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5319 #: freeculture.xml:4031
5321 "This compromise, like the compromise affecting records and player pianos, "
5322 "served two important goals—indeed, the two central goals of any "
5323 "copyright legislation. First, the law assured that new innovators would have "
5324 "the freedom to develop new ways to deliver content. Second, the law assured "
5325 "that copyright holders would be paid for the content that was "
5326 "distributed. One fear was that if Congress simply required cable TV to pay "
5327 "copyright holders whatever they demanded for their content, then copyright "
5328 "holders associated with broadcasters would use their power to stifle this "
5329 "new technology, cable. But if Congress had permitted cable to use "
5330 "broadcasters' content for free, then it would have unfairly subsidized "
5331 "cable. Thus Congress chose a path that would assure "
5332 "<emphasis>compensation</emphasis> without giving the past (broadcasters) "
5333 "control over the future (cable)."
5336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5337 #: freeculture.xml:4046
5341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5342 #: freeculture.xml:4048
5344 "In the same year that Congress struck this balance, two major producers and "
5345 "distributors of film content filed a lawsuit against another technology, the "
5346 "video tape recorder (VTR, or as we refer to them today, VCRs) that Sony had "
5347 "produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was "
5348 "relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, "
5349 "that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the "
5350 "device that Sony built had a \"record\" button, the device could be used to "
5351 "record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore benefiting from the "
5352 "copyright infringement of its customers. It should therefore, Disney and "
5353 "Universal claimed, be partially liable for that infringement."
5357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5358 #: freeculture.xml:4061
5360 "There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to "
5361 "design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It "
5362 "could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a "
5363 "television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the machine to copy "
5364 "only if there were a special \"copy me\" signal on the line. It was clear "
5365 "that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone permission "
5366 "to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of shows would "
5367 "not have authorized copying. And in the face of this obvious preference, "
5368 "Sony could have designed its system to minimize the opportunity for "
5369 "copyright infringement. It did not, and for that, Disney and Universal "
5370 "wanted to hold it responsible for the architecture it chose."
5374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5375 #: freeculture.xml:4083
5377 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders): Hearing on S. 1758 "
5378 "Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., "
5379 "459 (1982) (testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association "
5380 "of America, Inc.)."
5384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5385 #: freeculture.xml:4095
5386 msgid "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 475."
5390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5391 #: freeculture.xml:4100
5393 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
5394 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 480 F. Supp. 429, (C.D. Cal., 1979)."
5398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5399 #: freeculture.xml:4111
5401 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 485 (testimony of Jack "
5405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5406 #: freeculture.xml:4076
5408 "MPAA president Jack Valenti became the studios' most vocal champion. Valenti "
5409 "called VCRs \"tapeworms.\" He warned, \"When there are 20, 30, 40 million of "
5410 "these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of `tapeworms,' "
5411 "eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious asset the "
5412 "copyright owner has, his copyright.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5413 "id=\"0\"/> \"One does not have to be trained in sophisticated marketing and "
5414 "creative judgment,\" he told Congress, \"to understand the devastation on "
5415 "the after-theater marketplace caused by the hundreds of millions of tapings "
5416 "that will adversely impact on the future of the creative community in this "
5417 "country. It is simply a question of basic economics and plain common "
5418 "sense.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Indeed, as surveys would "
5419 "later show, percent of VCR owners had movie libraries of ten videos or "
5420 "more<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> — a use the Court would "
5421 "later hold was not \"fair.\" By \"allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the "
5422 "means of an exemption from copyright infringementwithout creating a "
5423 "mechanism to compensate copyrightowners,\" Valenti testified, Congress would "
5424 "\"take from the owners the very essence of their property: the exclusive "
5425 "right to control who may use their work, that is, who may copy it and "
5426 "thereby profit from its reproduction.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5431 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5432 #: freeculture.xml:4128
5434 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
5435 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 659 F. 2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981)."
5438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5439 #: freeculture.xml:4131
5440 msgid "Kozinski, Alex"
5443 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5444 #: freeculture.xml:4116
5446 "It took eight years for this case to be resolved by the Supreme Court. In "
5447 "the interim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Hollywood in "
5448 "its jurisdiction—leading Judge Alex Kozinski, who sits on that court, "
5449 "refers to it as the \"Hollywood Circuit\"—held that Sony would be "
5450 "liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its machines. Under "
5451 "the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar technology—which Jack "
5452 "Valenti had called \"the Boston Strangler of the American film industry\" "
5453 "(worse yet, it was a <emphasis>Japanese</emphasis> Boston Strangler of the "
5454 "American film industry)—was an illegal technology.<placeholder "
5455 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5460 #: freeculture.xml:4134
5462 "But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit. And in "
5463 "its reversal, the Court clearly articulated its understanding of when and "
5464 "whether courts should intervene in such disputes. As the Court wrote,"
5468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
5469 #: freeculture.xml:4153
5471 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
5472 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984)."
5475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
5476 #: freeculture.xml:4143
5478 "Sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to "
5479 "Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for "
5480 "copyrighted materials. Congress has the constitutional authority and the "
5481 "institutional ability to accommodate fully the varied permutations of "
5482 "competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new "
5483 "technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5487 #: freeculture.xml:4158
5489 "Congress was asked to respond to the Supreme Court's decision. But as with "
5490 "the plea of recording artists about radio broadcasts, Congress ignored the "
5491 "request. Congress was convinced that American film got enough, this "
5492 "\"taking\" notwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a pattern is "
5496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
5497 #: freeculture.xml:4166
5498 msgid "Pattern of Court and Congress response"
5501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5502 #: freeculture.xml:4170
5506 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5507 #: freeculture.xml:4171
5508 msgid "WHOSE VALUE WAS \"PIRATED\""
5511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5512 #: freeculture.xml:4172
5513 msgid "RESPONSE OF THE COURTS"
5516 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5517 #: freeculture.xml:4173
5518 msgid "RESPONSE OF CONGRESS"
5521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5522 #: freeculture.xml:4178
5526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5527 #: freeculture.xml:4179
5531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5532 #: freeculture.xml:4180 freeculture.xml:4192 freeculture.xml:4198
5533 msgid "No protection"
5536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5537 #: freeculture.xml:4181 freeculture.xml:4193
5538 msgid "Statutory license"
5541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5542 #: freeculture.xml:4185
5543 msgid "Recording artists"
5546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5547 #: freeculture.xml:4186
5551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5552 #: freeculture.xml:4187 freeculture.xml:4199
5556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5557 #: freeculture.xml:4191
5558 msgid "Broadcasters"
5561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5562 #: freeculture.xml:4196
5566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5567 #: freeculture.xml:4197
5568 msgid "Film creators"
5571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5572 #: freeculture.xml:4209
5574 "These are the most important instances in our history, but there are other "
5575 "cases as well. The technology of digital audio tape (DAT), for example, was "
5576 "regulated by Congress to minimize the risk of piracy. The remedy Congress "
5577 "imposed did burden DAT producers, by taxing tape sales and controlling the "
5578 "technology of DAT. See Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Title 17 of the "
5579 "<citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. "
5580 "4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. §1001. Again, however, this regulation did not "
5581 "eliminate the opportunity for free riding in the sense I've described. See "
5582 "Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 71. See also Picker, \"From Edison to "
5583 "the Broadcast Flag,\" <citetitle>University of Chicago Law "
5584 "Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 293–96. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
5588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5589 #: freeculture.xml:4206
5591 "In each case throughout our history, a new technology changed the way "
5592 "content was distributed.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In each "
5593 "case, throughout our history, that change meant that someone got a \"free "
5594 "ride\" on someone else's work."
5598 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5599 #: freeculture.xml:4226
5601 "In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these cases did either the courts or "
5602 "Congress eliminate all free riding. In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these "
5603 "cases did the courts or Congress insist that the law should assure that the "
5604 "copyright holder get all the value that his copyright created. In every "
5605 "case, the copyright owners complained of \"piracy.\" In every case, Congress "
5606 "acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in the behavior of the "
5607 "\"pirates.\" In each case, Congress allowed some new technology to benefit "
5608 "from content made before. It balanced the interests at stake."
5611 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5612 #: freeculture.xml:4238
5614 "When you think across these examples, and the other examples that make up "
5615 "the first four chapters of this section, this balance makes sense. Was Walt "
5616 "Disney a pirate? Would doujinshi be better if creators had to ask "
5617 "permission? Should tools that enable others to capture and spread images as "
5618 "a way to cultivate or criticize our culture be better regulated? Is it "
5619 "really right that building a search engine should expose you to $15 million "
5620 "in damages? Would it have been better if Edison had controlled film? Should "
5621 "every cover band have to hire a lawyer to get permission to record a song?"
5625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5626 #: freeculture.xml:4255
5628 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
5629 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, (1984)."
5632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5633 #: freeculture.xml:4250
5635 "We could answer yes to each of these questions, but our tradition has "
5636 "answered no. In our tradition, as the Supreme Court has stated, copyright "
5637 "\"has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all possible "
5638 "uses of his work.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Instead, the "
5639 "particular uses that the law regulates have been defined by balancing the "
5640 "good that comes from granting an exclusive right against the burdens such an "
5641 "exclusive right creates. And this balancing has historically been done "
5642 "<emphasis>after</emphasis> a technology has matured, or settled into the mix "
5643 "of technologies that facilitate the distribution of content."
5646 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5647 #: freeculture.xml:4266
5649 "We should be doing the same thing today. The technology of the Internet is "
5650 "changing quickly. The way people connect to the Internet (wires "
5651 "vs. wireless) is changing very quickly. No doubt the network should not "
5652 "become a tool for \"stealing\" from artists. But neither should the law "
5653 "become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or more "
5654 "accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the last "
5655 "chapter of this book, we should be securing income to artists while we allow "
5656 "the market to secure the most efficient way to promote and distribute "
5657 "content. This will require changes in the law, at least in the "
5658 "interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the "
5659 "law against the strong public interest that innovation continue."
5663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5664 #: freeculture.xml:4290
5666 "John Schwartz, \"New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software Echoes "
5667 "Past Efforts,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 22 September 2003, "
5671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5672 #: freeculture.xml:4282
5674 "This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode "
5675 "of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally "
5676 "efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to "
5677 "develop, they could make the network vastly more efficient. Yet these "
5678 "\"potential public benefits,\" as John Schwartz writes in <citetitle>The New "
5679 "York Times</citetitle>, \"could be delayed in the P2P fight.\"<placeholder "
5680 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Yet when anyone begins to talk about "
5681 "\"balance,\" the copyright warriors raise a different argument. \"All this "
5682 "hand waving about balance and incentives,\" they say, \"misses a fundamental "
5683 "point. Our content,\" the warriors insist, \"is our "
5684 "<emphasis>property</emphasis>. Why should we wait for Congress to "
5685 "`rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait before calling the "
5686 "police when your car has been stolen? And why should Congress deliberate at "
5687 "all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether the car thief had a "
5688 "good use for the car before we arrest him?\""
5691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5692 #: freeculture.xml:4304
5694 "\"It is <emphasis>our property</emphasis>,\" the warriors insist. \"And it "
5695 "should be protected just as any other property is protected.\""
5698 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
5699 #: freeculture.xml:4312
5700 msgid "\"PROPERTY\""
5704 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5705 #: freeculture.xml:4317
5707 "The copyright warriors are right: A copyright is a kind of property. It can "
5708 "be owned and sold, and the law protects against its theft. Ordinarily, the "
5709 "copyright owner gets to hold out for any price he wants. Markets reckon the "
5710 "supply and demand that partially determine the price she can get."
5713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5714 #: freeculture.xml:4324
5716 "But in ordinary language, to call a copyright a \"property\" right is a bit "
5717 "misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of property. "
5718 "Indeed, the very idea of property in any idea or any expression is very "
5719 "odd. I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you put in "
5720 "your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I take it, "
5721 "you don't have it. But what am I taking when I take the good "
5722 "<emphasis>idea</emphasis> you had to put a picnic table in the "
5723 "backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting "
5724 "it in my backyard? What is the thing I am taking then?"
5728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
5729 #: freeculture.xml:4349
5731 "Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (13 August 1813) in "
5732 "<citetitle>The Writings of Thomas Jefferson</citetitle>, vol. 6 (Andrew "
5733 "A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds., 1903), 330, 333–34."
5736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5737 #: freeculture.xml:4336
5739 "The point is not just about the thingness of picnic tables versus ideas, "
5740 "though that's an important difference. The point instead is that in the "
5741 "ordinary case—indeed, in practically every case except for a narrow "
5742 "range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take "
5743 "anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem "
5744 "weird if I did it every day, and especially weird if you are a "
5745 "woman. Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and as is especially true when I "
5746 "copy the way someone else dresses), \"He who receives an idea from me, "
5747 "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his "
5748 "taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.\"<placeholder "
5749 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5753 #: freeculture.xml:4355
5755 "The exceptions to free use are ideas and expressions within the reach of the "
5756 "law of patent and copyright, and a few other domains that I won't discuss "
5757 "here. Here the law says you can't take my idea or expression without my "
5758 "permission: The law turns the intangible into property."
5762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
5763 #: freeculture.xml:4368
5765 "As the legal realists taught American law, all property rights are "
5766 "intangible. A property right is simply a right that an individual has "
5767 "against the world to do or not do certain things that may or may not attach "
5768 "to a physical object. The right itself is intangible, even if the object to "
5769 "which it is (metaphorically) attached is tangible. See Adam Mossoff, \"What "
5770 "Is Property? Putting the Pieces Back Together,\" <citetitle>Arizona Law "
5771 "Review</citetitle> 45 (2003): 373, 429 n. 241."
5774 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5775 #: freeculture.xml:4363
5777 "But how, and to what extent, and in what form—the details, in other "
5778 "words—matter. To get a good sense of how this practice of turning the "
5779 "intangible into property emerged, we need to place this \"property\" in its "
5780 "proper context.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
5784 #: freeculture.xml:4378
5786 "My strategy in doing this will be the same as my strategy in the preceding "
5787 "part. I offer four stories to help put the idea of \"copyright material is "
5788 "property\" in context. Where did the idea come from? What are its limits? "
5789 "How does it function in practice? After these stories, the significance of "
5790 "this true statement—\"copyright material is property\"— will be "
5791 "a bit more clear, and its implications will be revealed as quite different "
5792 "from the implications that the copyright warriors would have us draw."
5795 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
5796 #: freeculture.xml:4391
5797 msgid "CHAPTER SIX: Founders"
5800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5801 #: freeculture.xml:4393
5803 "William Shakespeare wrote <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> in "
5804 "1595. The play was first published in 1597. It was the eleventh major play "
5805 "that Shakespeare had written. He would continue to write plays through 1613, "
5806 "and the plays that he wrote have continued to define Anglo-American culture "
5807 "ever since. So deeply have the works of a sixteenth-century writer seeped "
5808 "into our culture that we often don't even recognize their source. I once "
5809 "overheard someone commenting on Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Henry V: \"I "
5810 "liked it, but Shakespeare is so full of clichés.\""
5814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
5815 #: freeculture.xml:4408
5817 "Jacob Tonson is typically remembered for his associations with prominent "
5818 "eighteenth-century literary figures, especially John Dryden, and for his "
5819 "handsome \"definitive editions\" of classic works. In addition to "
5820 "<citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle>, he published an astonishing array "
5821 "of works that still remain at the heart of the English canon, including "
5822 "collected works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, and John "
5823 "Dryden. See Keith Walker, \"Jacob Tonson, Bookseller,\" <citetitle>American "
5824 "Scholar</citetitle> 61:3 (1992): 424–31."
5828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
5829 #: freeculture.xml:4419
5831 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
5832 "Perspective</citetitle> (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968), "
5837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5838 #: freeculture.xml:4404
5840 "In 1774, almost 180 years after <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> was "
5841 "written, the \"copy-right\" for the work was still thought by many to be the "
5842 "exclusive right of a single London publisher, Jacob Tonson.<placeholder "
5843 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Tonson was the most prominent of a small group "
5844 "of publishers called the Conger<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> who "
5845 "controlled bookselling in England during the eighteenth century. The Conger "
5846 "claimed a perpetual right to control the \"copy\" of books that they had "
5847 "acquired from authors. That perpetual right meant that no one else could "
5848 "publish copies of a book to which they held the copyright. Prices of the "
5849 "classics were thus kept high; competition to produce better or cheaper "
5850 "editions was eliminated."
5853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
5854 #: freeculture.xml:4441
5856 "As Siva Vaidhyanathan nicely argues, it is erroneous to call this a "
5857 "\"copyright law.\" See Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
5858 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 40. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5862 #: freeculture.xml:4432
5864 "Now, there's something puzzling about the year 1774 to anyone who knows a "
5865 "little about copyright law. The better-known year in the history of "
5866 "copyright is 1710, the year that the British Parliament adopted the first "
5867 "\"copyright\" act. Known as the Statute of Anne, the act stated that all "
5868 "published works would get a copyright term of fourteen years, renewable once "
5869 "if the author was alive, and that all works already published by 1710 would "
5870 "get a single term of twenty-one additional years.<placeholder "
5871 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Under this law, <citetitle>Romeo and "
5872 "Juliet</citetitle> should have been free in 1731. So why was there any issue "
5873 "about it still being under Tonson's control in 1774?"
5876 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
5877 #: freeculture.xml:4458
5878 msgid "Licensing Act (1662)"
5881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5882 #: freeculture.xml:4449
5884 "The reason is that the English hadn't yet agreed on what a \"copyright\" "
5885 "was—indeed, no one had. At the time the English passed the Statute of "
5886 "Anne, there was no other legislation governing copyrights. The last law "
5887 "regulating publishers, the Licensing Act of 1662, had expired in 1695. That "
5888 "law gave publishers a monopoly over publishing, as a way to make it easier "
5889 "for the Crown to control what was published. But after it expired, there "
5890 "was no positive law that said that the publishers, or \"Stationers,\" had an "
5891 "exclusive right to print books. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5895 #: freeculture.xml:4461
5897 "There was no <emphasis>positive</emphasis> law, but that didn't mean that "
5898 "there was no law. The Anglo-American legal tradition looks to both the words "
5899 "of legislatures and the words of judges to know the rules that are to govern "
5900 "how people are to behave. We call the words from legislatures \"positive "
5901 "law.\" We call the words from judges \"common law.\" The common law sets the "
5902 "background against which legislatures legislate; the legislature, "
5903 "ordinarily, can trump that background only if it passes a law to displace "
5904 "it. And so the real question after the licensing statutes had expired was "
5905 "whether the common law protected a copyright, independent of any positive "
5910 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5911 #: freeculture.xml:4473
5913 "This question was important to the publishers, or \"booksellers,\" as they "
5914 "were called, because there was growing competition from foreign "
5915 "publishers. The Scottish, in particular, were increasingly publishing and "
5916 "exporting books to England. That competition reduced the profits of the "
5917 "Conger, which reacted by demanding that Parliament pass a law to again give "
5918 "them exclusive control over publishing. That demand ultimately resulted in "
5919 "the Statute of Anne."
5922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5923 #: freeculture.xml:4485
5925 "The Statute of Anne granted the author or \"proprietor\" of a book an "
5926 "exclusive right to print that book. In an important limitation, however, and "
5927 "to the horror of the booksellers, the law gave the bookseller that right for "
5928 "a limited term. At the end of that term, the copyright \"expired,\" and the "
5929 "work would then be free and could be published by anyone. Or so the "
5930 "legislature is thought to have believed."
5933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5934 #: freeculture.xml:4494
5936 "Now, the thing to puzzle about for a moment is this: Why would Parliament "
5937 "limit the exclusive right? Not why would they limit it to the particular "
5938 "limit they set, but why would they limit the right <emphasis>at "
5942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5943 #: freeculture.xml:4500
5945 "For the booksellers, and the authors whom they represented, had a very "
5946 "strong claim. Take <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> as an example: "
5947 "That play was written by Shakespeare. It was his genius that brought it into "
5948 "the world. He didn't take anybody's property when he created this play "
5949 "(that's a controversial claim, but never mind), and by his creating this "
5950 "play, he didn't make it any harder for others to craft a play. So why is it "
5951 "that the law would ever allow someone else to come along and take "
5952 "Shakespeare's play without his, or his estate's, permission? What reason is "
5953 "there to allow someone else to \"steal\" Shakespeare's work?"
5956 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5957 #: freeculture.xml:4511
5959 "The answer comes in two parts. We first need to see something special about "
5960 "the notion of \"copyright\" that existed at the time of the Statute of "
5961 "Anne. Second, we have to see something important about \"booksellers.\""
5965 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5966 #: freeculture.xml:4517
5968 "First, about copyright. In the last three hundred years, we have come to "
5969 "apply the concept of \"copyright\" ever more broadly. But in 1710, it wasn't "
5970 "so much a concept as it was a very particular right. The copyright was born "
5971 "as a very specific set of restrictions: It forbade others from reprinting a "
5972 "book. In 1710, the \"copy-right\" was a right to use a particular machine to "
5973 "replicate a particular work. It did not go beyond that very narrow right. It "
5974 "did not control any more generally how a work could be "
5975 "<emphasis>used</emphasis>. Today the right includes a large collection of "
5976 "restrictions on the freedom of others: It grants the author the exclusive "
5977 "right to copy, the exclusive right to distribute, the exclusive right to "
5978 "perform, and so on."
5981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5982 #: freeculture.xml:4532
5984 "So, for example, even if the copyright to Shakespeare's works were "
5985 "perpetual, all that would have meant under the original meaning of the term "
5986 "was that no one could reprint Shakespeare's work without the permission of "
5987 "the Shakespeare estate. It would not have controlled anything, for example, "
5988 "about how the work could be performed, whether the work could be translated, "
5989 "or whether Kenneth Branagh would be allowed to make his films. The "
5990 "\"copy-right\" was only an exclusive right to print—no less, of "
5991 "course, but also no more."
5994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
5995 #: freeculture.xml:4544
5997 "Even that limited right was viewed with skepticism by the British. They had "
5998 "had a long and ugly experience with \"exclusive rights,\" especially "
5999 "\"exclusive rights\" granted by the Crown. The English had fought a civil "
6000 "war in part about the Crown's practice of handing out "
6001 "monopolies—especially monopolies for works that already existed. King "
6002 "Henry VIII granted a patent to print the Bible and a monopoly to Darcy to "
6003 "print playing cards. The English Parliament began to fight back against this "
6004 "power of the Crown. In 1656, it passed the Statute of Monopolies, limiting "
6005 "monopolies to patents for new inventions. And by 1710, Parliament was eager "
6006 "to deal with the growing monopoly in publishing."
6009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6010 #: freeculture.xml:4560
6012 "Thus the \"copy-right,\" when viewed as a monopoly right, was naturally "
6013 "viewed as a right that should be limited. (However convincing the claim that "
6014 "\"it's my property, and I should have it forever,\" try sounding convincing "
6015 "when uttering, \"It's my monopoly, and I should have it forever.\") The "
6016 "state would protect the exclusive right, but only so long as it benefited "
6017 "society. The British saw the harms from specialinterest favors; they passed "
6018 "a law to stop them."
6022 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6023 #: freeculture.xml:4586
6025 "Philip Wittenberg, <citetitle>The Protection and Marketing of Literary "
6026 "Property</citetitle> (New York: J. Messner, Inc., 1937), 31."
6029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6030 #: freeculture.xml:4571
6032 "Second, about booksellers. It wasn't just that the copyright was a "
6033 "monopoly. It was also that it was a monopoly held by the booksellers. "
6034 "Booksellers sound quaint and harmless to us. They were not viewed as "
6035 "harmless in seventeenth-century England. Members of the Conger were "
6036 "increasingly seen as monopolists of the worst kind—tools of the "
6037 "Crown's repression, selling the liberty of England to guarantee themselves a "
6038 "monopoly profit. The attacks against these monopolists were harsh: Milton "
6039 "described them as \"old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of "
6040 "book-selling\"; they were \"men who do not therefore labour in an honest "
6041 "profession to which learning is indetted.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6046 #: freeculture.xml:4591
6048 "Many believed the power the booksellers exercised over the spread of "
6049 "knowledge was harming that spread, just at the time the Enlightenment was "
6050 "teaching the importance of education and knowledge spread generally. The "
6051 "idea that knowledge should be free was a hallmark of the time, and these "
6052 "powerful commercial interests were interfering with that idea."
6055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6056 #: freeculture.xml:4599
6058 "To balance this power, Parliament decided to increase competition among "
6059 "booksellers, and the simplest way to do that was to spread the wealth of "
6060 "valuable books. Parliament therefore limited the term of copyrights, and "
6061 "thereby guaranteed that valuable books would become open to any publisher to "
6062 "publish after a limited time. Thus the setting of the term for existing "
6063 "works to just twenty-one years was a compromise to fight the power of the "
6064 "booksellers. The limitation on terms was an indirect way to assure "
6065 "competition among publishers, and thus the construction and spread of "
6069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6070 #: freeculture.xml:4611
6072 "When 1731 (1710 + 21) came along, however, the booksellers were getting "
6073 "anxious. They saw the consequences of more competition, and like every "
6074 "competitor, they didn't like them. At first booksellers simply ignored the "
6075 "Statute of Anne, continuing to insist on the perpetual right to control "
6076 "publication. But in 1735 and 1737, they tried to persuade Parliament to "
6077 "extend their terms. Twenty-one years was not enough, they said; they needed "
6081 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6082 #: freeculture.xml:4620
6084 "Parliament rejected their requests. As one pamphleteer put it, in words that "
6089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6090 #: freeculture.xml:4635
6092 "A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill now depending in the "
6093 "House of Commons, for making more effectual an Act in the Eighth Year of the "
6094 "Reign of Queen Anne, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by "
6095 "Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such "
6096 "Copies, during the Times therein mentioned (London, 1735), in Brief Amici "
6097 "Curiae of Tyler T. Ochoa et al., 8, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
6098 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618)."
6101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6102 #: freeculture.xml:4625
6104 "I see no Reason for granting a further Term now, which will not hold as well "
6105 "for granting it again and again, as often as the Old ones Expire; so that "
6106 "should this Bill pass, it will in Effect be establishing a perpetual "
6107 "Monopoly, a Thing deservedly odious in the Eye of the Law; it will be a "
6108 "great Cramp to Trade, a Discouragement to Learning, no Benefit to the "
6109 "Authors, but a general Tax on the Publick; and all this only to increase the "
6110 "private Gain of the Booksellers.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6113 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6114 #: freeculture.xml:4646
6116 "Having failed in Parliament, the publishers turned to the courts in a series "
6117 "of cases. Their argument was simple and direct: The Statute of Anne gave "
6118 "authors certain protections through positive law, but those protections were "
6119 "not intended as replacements for the common law. Instead, they were "
6120 "intended simply to supplement the common law. Under common law, it was "
6121 "already wrong to take another person's creative \"property\" and use it "
6122 "without his permission. The Statute of Anne, the booksellers argued, didn't "
6123 "change that. Therefore, just because the protections of the Statute of Anne "
6124 "expired, that didn't mean the protections of the common law expired: Under "
6125 "the common law they had the right to ban the publication of a book, even if "
6126 "its Statute of Anne copyright had expired. This, they argued, was the only "
6127 "way to protect authors."
6130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6131 #: freeculture.xml:4667
6133 "Lyman Ray Patterson, \"Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair Use,\" "
6134 "<citetitle>Vanderbilt Law Review</citetitle> 40 (1987): 28. For a "
6135 "wonderfully compelling account, see Vaidhyanathan, 37–48. "
6136 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6140 #: freeculture.xml:4661
6142 "This was a clever argument, and one that had the support of some of the "
6143 "leading jurists of the day. It also displayed extraordinary chutzpah. Until "
6144 "then, as law professor Raymond Patterson has put it, \"The publishers "
6145 "… had as much concern for authors as a cattle rancher has for "
6146 "cattle.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The bookseller didn't "
6147 "care squat for the rights of the author. His concern was the monopoly "
6148 "profit that the author's work gave."
6152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6153 #: freeculture.xml:4680
6155 "For a compelling account, see David Saunders, <citetitle>Authorship and "
6156 "Copyright</citetitle> (London: Routledge, 1992), 62–69."
6159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6160 #: freeculture.xml:4676
6162 "The booksellers' argument was not accepted without a fight. The hero of "
6163 "this fight was a Scottish bookseller named Alexander Donaldson.<placeholder "
6164 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6168 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6169 #: freeculture.xml:4690
6171 "Mark Rose, <citetitle>Authors and Owners</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard "
6172 "University Press, 1993), 92."
6176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6177 #: freeculture.xml:4700
6181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6182 #: freeculture.xml:4702
6183 msgid "Erskine, Andrew"
6186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6187 #: freeculture.xml:4685
6189 "Donaldson was an outsider to the London Conger. He began his career in "
6190 "Edinburgh in 1750. The focus of his business was inexpensive reprints \"of "
6191 "standard works whose copyright term had expired,\" at least under the "
6192 "Statute of Anne.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson's "
6193 "publishing house prospered and became \"something of a center for literary "
6194 "Scotsmen.\" \"[A]mong them,\" Professor Mark Rose writes, was \"the young "
6195 "James Boswell who, together with his friend Andrew Erskine, published an "
6196 "anthology of contemporary Scottish poems with Donaldson.\"<placeholder "
6197 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
6201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6202 #: freeculture.xml:4711
6204 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
6205 "Perspective</citetitle>, 167 (quoting Borwell)."
6208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6209 #: freeculture.xml:4705
6211 "When the London booksellers tried to shut down Donaldson's shop in Scotland, "
6212 "he responded by moving his shop to London, where he sold inexpensive "
6213 "editions \"of the most popular English books, in defiance of the supposed "
6214 "common law right of Literary Property.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6215 "id=\"0\"/> His books undercut the Conger prices by 30 to 50 percent, and he "
6216 "rested his right to compete upon the ground that, under the Statute of Anne, "
6217 "the works he was selling had passed out of protection."
6220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6221 #: freeculture.xml:4719
6223 "The London booksellers quickly brought suit to block \"piracy\" like "
6224 "Donaldson's. A number of actions were successful against the \"pirates,\" "
6225 "the most important early victory being <citetitle>Millar</citetitle> "
6226 "v. <citetitle>Taylor</citetitle>."
6230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6231 #: freeculture.xml:4731
6233 "Howard B. Abrams, \"The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: "
6234 "Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright,\" <citetitle>Wayne Law "
6235 "Review</citetitle> 29 (1983): 1152."
6238 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6239 #: freeculture.xml:4724
6241 "Millar was a bookseller who in 1729 had purchased the rights to James "
6242 "Thomson's poem \"The Seasons.\" Millar complied with the requirements of the "
6243 "Statute of Anne, and therefore received the full protection of the "
6244 "statute. After the term of copyright ended, Robert Taylor began printing a "
6245 "competing volume. Millar sued, claiming a perpetual common law right, the "
6246 "Statute of Anne notwithstanding.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6250 #: freeculture.xml:4740
6252 "Astonishingly to modern lawyers, one of the greatest judges in English "
6253 "history, Lord Mansfield, agreed with the booksellers. Whatever protection "
6254 "the Statute of Anne gave booksellers, it did not, he held, extinguish any "
6255 "common law right. The question was whether the common law would protect the "
6256 "author against subsequent \"pirates.\" Mansfield's answer was yes: The "
6257 "common law would bar Taylor from reprinting Thomson's poem without Millar's "
6258 "permission. That common law rule thus effectively gave the booksellers a "
6259 "perpetual right to control the publication of any book assigned to them."
6263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6264 #: freeculture.xml:4751
6266 "Considered as a matter of abstract justice—reasoning as if justice "
6267 "were just a matter of logical deduction from first "
6268 "principles—Mansfield's conclusion might make some sense. But what it "
6269 "ignored was the larger issue that Parliament had struggled with in 1710: How "
6270 "best to limit the monopoly power of publishers? Parliament's strategy was to "
6271 "offer a term for existing works that was long enough to buy peace in 1710, "
6272 "but short enough to assure that culture would pass into competition within a "
6273 "reasonable period of time. Within twenty-one years, Parliament believed, "
6274 "Britain would mature from the controlled culture that the Crown coveted to "
6275 "the free culture that we inherited."
6278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6279 #: freeculture.xml:4766
6281 "The fight to defend the limits of the Statute of Anne was not to end there, "
6282 "however, and it is here that Donaldson enters the mix."
6285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6286 #: freeculture.xml:4769
6287 msgid "Beckett, Thomas"
6291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6292 #: freeculture.xml:4775
6293 msgid "Ibid., 1156."
6296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6297 #: freeculture.xml:4771
6299 "Millar died soon after his victory, so his case was not appealed. His estate "
6300 "sold Thomson's poems to a syndicate of printers that included Thomas "
6301 "Beckett.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson then released an "
6302 "unauthorized edition of Thomson's works. Beckett, on the strength of the "
6303 "decision in <citetitle>Millar</citetitle>, got an injunction against "
6304 "Donaldson. Donaldson appealed the case to the House of Lords, which "
6305 "functioned much like our own Supreme Court. In February of 1774, that body "
6306 "had the chance to interpret the meaning of Parliament's limits from sixty "
6310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6311 #: freeculture.xml:4785
6313 "As few legal cases ever do, <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
6314 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle> drew an enormous amount of attention "
6315 "throughout Britain. Donaldson's lawyers argued that whatever rights may have "
6316 "existed under the common law, the Statute of Anne terminated those "
6317 "rights. After passage of the Statute of Anne, the only legal protection for "
6318 "an exclusive right to control publication came from that statute. Thus, they "
6319 "argued, after the term specified in the Statute of Anne expired, works that "
6320 "had been protected by the statute were no longer protected."
6323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6324 #: freeculture.xml:4795
6326 "The House of Lords was an odd institution. Legal questions were presented to "
6327 "the House and voted upon first by the \"law lords,\" members of special "
6328 "legal distinction who functioned much like the Justices in our Supreme "
6329 "Court. Then, after the law lords voted, the House of Lords generally voted."
6333 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6334 #: freeculture.xml:4802
6336 "The reports about the law lords' votes are mixed. On some counts, it looks "
6337 "as if perpetual copyright prevailed. But there is no ambiguity about how the "
6338 "House of Lords voted as whole. By a two-to-one majority (22 to 11) they "
6339 "voted to reject the idea of perpetual copyrights. Whatever one's "
6340 "understanding of the common law, now a copyright was fixed for a limited "
6341 "time, after which the work protected by copyright passed into the public "
6345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6346 #: freeculture.xml:4820
6347 msgid "Bacon, Francis"
6350 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6351 #: freeculture.xml:4821
6352 msgid "Bunyan, John"
6355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6356 #: freeculture.xml:4822
6357 msgid "Johnson, Samuel"
6360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6361 #: freeculture.xml:4823
6362 msgid "Milton, John"
6365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6366 #: freeculture.xml:4824
6367 msgid "Shakespeare, William"
6370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6371 #: freeculture.xml:4812
6373 "\"The public domain.\" Before the case of <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
6374 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle>, there was no clear idea of a public "
6375 "domain in England. Before 1774, there was a strong argument that common law "
6376 "copyrights were perpetual. After 1774, the public domain was born. For the "
6377 "first time in Anglo-American history, the legal control over creative works "
6378 "expired, and the greatest works in English history—including those of "
6379 "Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Johnson, and Bunyan—were free of legal "
6380 "restraint. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
6381 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
6382 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6388 #: freeculture.xml:4837
6392 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6393 #: freeculture.xml:4827
6395 "It is hard for us to imagine, but this decision by the House of Lords fueled "
6396 "an extraordinarily popular and political reaction. In Scotland, where most "
6397 "of the \"pirate publishers\" did their work, people celebrated the decision "
6398 "in the streets. As the <citetitle>Edinburgh Advertiser</citetitle> reported, "
6399 "\"No private cause has so much engrossed the attention of the public, and "
6400 "none has been tried before the House of Lords in the decision of which so "
6401 "many individuals were interested.\" \"Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon "
6402 "victory over literary property: bonfires and illuminations.\"<placeholder "
6403 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6407 #: freeculture.xml:4841
6409 "In London, however, at least among publishers, the reaction was equally "
6410 "strong in the opposite direction. The <citetitle>Morning "
6411 "Chronicle</citetitle> reported:"
6414 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6415 #: freeculture.xml:4847
6417 "By the above decision … near 200,000 pounds worth of what was "
6418 "honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought property "
6419 "is now reduced to nothing. The Booksellers of London and Westminster, many "
6420 "of whom sold estates and houses to purchase Copy-right, are in a manner "
6421 "ruined, and those who after many years industry thought they had acquired a "
6422 "competency to provide for their families now find themselves without a "
6423 "shilling to devise to their successors.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6429 #: freeculture.xml:4862
6431 "\"Ruined\" is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not an exaggeration to say "
6432 "that the change was profound. The decision of the House of Lords meant that "
6433 "the booksellers could no longer control how culture in England would grow "
6434 "and develop. Culture in England was thereafter <emphasis>free</emphasis>. "
6435 "Not in the sense that copyrights would not be respected, for of course, for "
6436 "a limited time after a work was published, the bookseller had an exclusive "
6437 "right to control the publication of that book. And not in the sense that "
6438 "books could be stolen, for even after a copyright expired, you still had to "
6439 "buy the book from someone. But <emphasis>free</emphasis> in the sense that "
6440 "the culture and its growth would no longer be controlled by a small group of "
6441 "publishers. As every free market does, this free market of free culture "
6442 "would grow as the consumers and producers chose. English culture would "
6443 "develop as the many English readers chose to let it develop— chose in "
6444 "the books they bought and wrote; chose in the memes they repeated and "
6445 "endorsed. Chose in a <emphasis>competitive context</emphasis>, not a context "
6446 "in which the choices about what culture is available to people and how they "
6447 "get access to it are made by the few despite the wishes of the many."
6450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6451 #: freeculture.xml:4883
6453 "At least, this was the rule in a world where the Parliament is antimonopoly, "
6454 "resistant to the protectionist pleas of publishers. In a world where the "
6455 "Parliament is more pliant, free culture would be less protected."
6458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6459 #: freeculture.xml:4891
6460 msgid "CHAPTER SEVEN: Recorders"
6463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6464 #: freeculture.xml:4893
6466 "Jon Else is a filmmaker. He is best known for his documentaries and has been "
6467 "very successful in spreading his art. He is also a teacher, and as a teacher "
6468 "myself, I envy the loyalty and admiration that his students feel for him. (I "
6469 "met, by accident, two of his students at a dinner party. He was their god.)"
6472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6473 #: freeculture.xml:4900
6475 "Else worked on a documentary that I was involved in. At a break, he told me "
6476 "a story about the freedom to create with film in America today."
6479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6480 #: freeculture.xml:4911 freeculture.xml:4980
6481 msgid "San Francisco Opera"
6484 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6485 #: freeculture.xml:4905
6487 "In 1990, Else was working on a documentary about Wagner's Ring Cycle. The "
6488 "focus was stagehands at the San Francisco Opera. Stagehands are a "
6489 "particularly funny and colorful element of an opera. During a show, they "
6490 "hang out below the stage in the grips' lounge and in the lighting loft. They "
6491 "make a perfect contrast to the art on the stage. <placeholder "
6492 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6497 #: freeculture.xml:4914
6499 "During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing "
6500 "checkers. In one corner of the room was a television set. Playing on the "
6501 "television set, while the stagehands played checkers and the opera company "
6502 "played Wagner, was <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. As Else judged it, "
6503 "this touch of cartoon helped capture the flavor of what was special about "
6507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6508 #: freeculture.xml:4923
6510 "Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else "
6511 "attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of <citetitle>The "
6512 "Simpsons</citetitle>. For of course, those few seconds are copyrighted; and "
6513 "of course, to use copyrighted material you need the permission of the "
6514 "copyright owner, unless \"fair use\" or some other privilege applies."
6517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6518 #: freeculture.xml:4935 freeculture.xml:4943
6519 msgid "Gracie Films"
6522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6523 #: freeculture.xml:4930
6525 "Else called <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> creator Matt Groening's office "
6526 "to get permission. Groening approved the shot. The shot was a "
6527 "four-and-a-halfsecond image on a tiny television set in the corner of the "
6528 "room. How could it hurt? Groening was happy to have it in the film, but he "
6529 "told Else to contact Gracie Films, the company that produces the program. "
6530 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6533 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6534 #: freeculture.xml:4938
6536 "Gracie Films was okay with it, too, but they, like Groening, wanted to be "
6537 "careful. So they told Else to contact Fox, Gracie's parent company. Else "
6538 "called Fox and told them about the clip in the corner of the one room shot "
6539 "of the film. Matt Groening had already given permission, Else said. He was "
6540 "just confirming the permission with Fox. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6544 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6545 #: freeculture.xml:4946
6547 "Then, as Else told me, \"two things happened. First we discovered … "
6548 "that Matt Groening doesn't own his own creation—or at least that "
6549 "someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation.\" And second, Fox "
6550 "\"wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to use this "
6551 "four-point-five seconds of … entirely unsolicited "
6552 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> which was in the corner of the shot.\""
6555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6556 #: freeculture.xml:4954
6558 "Else was certain there was a mistake. He worked his way up to someone he "
6559 "thought was a vice president for licensing, Rebecca Herrera. He explained "
6560 "to her, \"There must be some mistake here. … We're asking for your "
6561 "educational rate on this.\" That was the educational rate, Herrera told "
6562 "Else. A day or so later, Else called again to confirm what he had been told."
6566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6567 #: freeculture.xml:4962
6569 "\"I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight,\" he told me. \"Yes, you "
6570 "have your facts straight,\" she said. It would cost $10,000 to use the clip "
6571 "of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle> in the corner of a shot in a "
6572 "documentary film about Wagner's Ring Cycle. And then, astonishingly, Herrera "
6573 "told Else, \"And if you quote me, I'll turn you over to our attorneys.\" As "
6574 "an assistant to Herrera told Else later on, \"They don't give a shit. They "
6575 "just want the money.\""
6578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6579 #: freeculture.xml:4981
6580 msgid "Day After Trinity, The"
6583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6584 #: freeculture.xml:4974
6586 "Else didn't have the money to buy the right to replay what was playing on "
6587 "the television backstage at the San Francisco Opera. To reproduce this "
6588 "reality was beyond the documentary filmmaker's budget. At the very last "
6589 "minute before the film was to be released, Else digitally replaced the shot "
6590 "with a clip from another film that he had worked on, <citetitle>The Day "
6591 "After Trinity</citetitle>, from ten years before. <placeholder "
6592 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6596 #: freeculture.xml:4984
6598 "There's no doubt that someone, whether Matt Groening or Fox, owns the "
6599 "copyright to <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. That copyright is their "
6600 "property. To use that copyrighted material thus sometimes requires the "
6601 "permission of the copyright owner. If the use that Else wanted to make of "
6602 "the <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> copyright were one of the uses "
6603 "restricted by the law, then he would need to get the permission of the "
6604 "copyright owner before he could use the work in that way. And in a free "
6605 "market, it is the owner of the copyright who gets to set the price for any "
6606 "use that the law says the owner gets to control."
6609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6610 #: freeculture.xml:4995
6612 "For example, \"public performance\" is a use of <citetitle>The "
6613 "Simpsons</citetitle> that the copyright owner gets to control. If you take a "
6614 "selection of favorite episodes, rent a movie theater, and charge for tickets "
6615 "to come see \"My Favorite <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>,\" then you need "
6616 "to get permission from the copyright owner. And the copyright owner "
6617 "(rightly, in my view) can charge whatever she wants—$10 or "
6618 "$1,000,000. That's her right, as set by the law."
6622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6623 #: freeculture.xml:5007
6625 "For an excellent argument that such use is \"fair use,\" but that lawyers "
6626 "don't permit recognition that it is \"fair use,\" see Richard A. Posner with "
6627 "William F. Patry, \"Fair Use and Statutory Reform in the Wake of "
6628 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle>\" (draft on file with author), University of "
6629 "Chicago Law School, 5 August 2003."
6632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6633 #: freeculture.xml:5004
6635 "But when lawyers hear this story about Jon Else and Fox, their first thought "
6636 "is \"fair use.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Else's use of just "
6637 "4.5 seconds of an indirect shot of a <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> episode "
6638 "is clearly a fair use of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>—and fair "
6639 "use does not require the permission of anyone."
6643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6644 #: freeculture.xml:5019
6645 msgid "So I asked Else why he didn't just rely upon \"fair use.\" Here's his reply:"
6648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6649 #: freeculture.xml:5023
6651 "The <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> fiasco was for me a great lesson in the "
6652 "gulf between what lawyers find irrelevant in some abstract sense, and what "
6653 "is crushingly relevant in practice to those of us actually trying to make "
6654 "and broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it was \"clearly "
6655 "fair use\" in an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't rely on the concept in "
6656 "any concrete way. Here's why:"
6660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
6661 #: freeculture.xml:5033
6663 "Before our films can be broadcast, the network requires that we buy Errors "
6664 "and Omissions insurance. The carriers require a detailed \"visual cue "
6665 "sheet\" listing the source and licensing status of each shot in the "
6666 "film. They take a dim view of \"fair use,\" and a claim of \"fair use\" can "
6667 "grind the application process to a halt."
6670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para><indexterm><primary>
6671 #: freeculture.xml:5050
6672 msgid "Lucas, George"
6675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
6676 #: freeculture.xml:5041
6678 "I probably never should have asked Matt Groening in the first place. But I "
6679 "knew (at least from folklore) that Fox had a history of tracking down and "
6680 "stopping unlicensed <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> usage, just as George "
6681 "Lucas had a very high profile litigating <citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle> "
6682 "usage. So I decided to play by the book, thinking that we would be granted "
6683 "free or cheap license to four seconds of <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>. As "
6684 "a documentary producer working to exhaustion on a shoestring, the last thing "
6685 "I wanted was to risk legal trouble, even nuisance legal trouble, and even to "
6686 "defend a principle. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
6692 #: freeculture.xml:5054
6694 "I did, in fact, speak with one of your colleagues at Stanford Law School "
6695 "… who confirmed that it was fair use. He also confirmed that Fox "
6696 "would \"depose and litigate you to within an inch of your life,\" regardless "
6697 "of the merits of my claim. He made clear that it would boil down to who had "
6698 "the bigger legal department and the deeper pockets, me or them."
6702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
6703 #: freeculture.xml:5064
6705 "The question of fair use usually comes up at the end of the project, when we "
6706 "are up against a release deadline and out of money."
6709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6710 #: freeculture.xml:5071
6712 "In theory, fair use means you need no permission. The theory therefore "
6713 "supports free culture and insulates against a permission culture. But in "
6714 "practice, fair use functions very differently. The fuzzy lines of the law, "
6715 "tied to the extraordinary liability if lines are crossed, means that the "
6716 "effective fair use for many types of creators is slight. The law has the "
6717 "right aim; practice has defeated the aim."
6720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6721 #: freeculture.xml:5079
6723 "This practice shows just how far the law has come from its "
6724 "eighteenth-century roots. The law was born as a shield to protect "
6725 "publishers' profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. It has "
6726 "matured into a sword that interferes with any use, transformative or not."
6729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6730 #: freeculture.xml:5088
6731 msgid "CHAPTER EIGHT: Transformers"
6734 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6735 #: freeculture.xml:5089
6739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
6740 #: freeculture.xml:5090 freeculture.xml:5098 freeculture.xml:5109 freeculture.xml:5124 freeculture.xml:5133 freeculture.xml:5138 freeculture.xml:5190 freeculture.xml:5206 freeculture.xml:5229 freeculture.xml:5292 freeculture.xml:9666
6744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6745 #: freeculture.xml:5092
6747 "In 1993, Alex Alben was a lawyer working at Starwave, Inc. Starwave was an "
6748 "innovative company founded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen to develop "
6749 "digital entertainment. Long before the Internet became popular, Starwave "
6750 "began investing in new technology for delivering entertainment in "
6751 "anticipation of the power of networks."
6754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6755 #: freeculture.xml:5100
6757 "Alben had a special interest in new technology. He was intrigued by the "
6758 "emerging market for CD-ROM technology—not to distribute film, but to "
6759 "do things with film that otherwise would be very difficult. In 1993, he "
6760 "launched an initiative to develop a product to build retrospectives on the "
6761 "work of particular actors. The first actor chosen was Clint Eastwood. The "
6762 "idea was to showcase all of the work of Eastwood, with clips from his films "
6763 "and interviews with figures important to his career."
6766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6767 #: freeculture.xml:5111
6769 "At that time, Eastwood had made more than fifty films, as an actor and as a "
6770 "director. Alben began with a series of interviews with Eastwood, asking him "
6771 "about his career. Because Starwave produced those interviews, it was free to "
6772 "include them on the CD."
6776 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6777 #: freeculture.xml:5118
6779 "That alone would not have made a very interesting product, so Starwave "
6780 "wanted to add content from the movies in Eastwood's career: posters, "
6781 "scripts, and other material relating to the films Eastwood made. Most of his "
6782 "career was spent at Warner Brothers, and so it was relatively easy to get "
6783 "permission for that content."
6786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6787 #: freeculture.xml:5126
6789 "Then Alben and his team decided to include actual film clips. \"Our goal was "
6790 "that we were going to have a clip from every one of Eastwood's films,\" "
6791 "Alben told me. It was here that the problem arose. \"No one had ever really "
6792 "done this before,\" Alben explained. \"No one had ever tried to do this in "
6793 "the context of an artistic look at an actor's career.\""
6796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6797 #: freeculture.xml:5135
6799 "Alben brought the idea to Michael Slade, the CEO of Starwave. Slade asked, "
6800 "\"Well, what will it take?\""
6803 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6804 #: freeculture.xml:5151
6808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><secondary>
6809 #: freeculture.xml:5152
6810 msgid "publicity rights on images of"
6813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6814 #: freeculture.xml:5146
6816 "Technically, the rights that Alben had to clear were mainly those of "
6817 "publicity—rights an artist has to control the commercial exploitation "
6818 "of his image. But these rights, too, burden \"Rip, Mix, Burn\" creativity, "
6819 "as this chapter evinces. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6823 #: freeculture.xml:5140
6825 "Alben replied, \"Well, we're going to have to clear rights from everyone who "
6826 "appears in these films, and the music and everything else that we want to "
6827 "use in these film clips.\" Slade said, \"Great! Go for it.\"<placeholder "
6828 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6831 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6832 #: freeculture.xml:5157
6834 "The problem was that neither Alben nor Slade had any idea what clearing "
6835 "those rights would mean. Every actor in each of the films could have a claim "
6836 "to royalties for the reuse of that film. But CD- ROMs had not been specified "
6837 "in the contracts for the actors, so there was no clear way to know just what "
6838 "Starwave was to do."
6841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6842 #: freeculture.xml:5164
6844 "I asked Alben how he dealt with the problem. With an obvious pride in his "
6845 "resourcefulness that obscured the obvious bizarreness of his tale, Alben "
6846 "recounted just what they did:"
6849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6850 #: freeculture.xml:5170
6852 "So we very mechanically went about looking up the film clips. We made some "
6853 "artistic decisions about what film clips to include—of course we were "
6854 "going to use the \"Make my day\" clip from <citetitle>Dirty "
6855 "Harry</citetitle>. But you then need to get the guy on the ground who's "
6856 "wiggling under the gun and you need to get his permission. And then you "
6857 "have to decide what you are going to pay him."
6861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6862 #: freeculture.xml:5179
6864 "We decided that it would be fair if we offered them the dayplayer rate for "
6865 "the right to reuse that performance. We're talking about a clip of less than "
6866 "a minute, but to reuse that performance in the CD-ROM the rate at the time "
6867 "was about $600. So we had to identify the people—some of them were "
6868 "hard to identify because in Eastwood movies you can't tell who's the guy "
6869 "crashing through the glass—is it the actor or is it the stuntman? And "
6870 "then we just, we put together a team, my assistant and some others, and we "
6871 "just started calling people."
6874 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6875 #: freeculture.xml:5192
6877 "Some actors were glad to help—Donald Sutherland, for example, followed "
6878 "up himself to be sure that the rights had been cleared. Others were "
6879 "dumbfounded at their good fortune. Alben would ask, \"Hey, can I pay you "
6880 "$600 or maybe if you were in two films, you know, $1,200?\" And they would "
6881 "say, \"Are you for real? Hey, I'd love to get $1,200.\" And some of course "
6882 "were a bit difficult (estranged ex-wives, in particular). But eventually, "
6883 "Alben and his team had cleared the rights to this retrospective CD-ROM on "
6884 "Clint Eastwood's career."
6887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6888 #: freeculture.xml:5203
6890 "It was one <emphasis>year</emphasis> later—\"and even then we weren't "
6891 "sure whether we were totally in the clear.\""
6894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6895 #: freeculture.xml:5208
6897 "Alben is proud of his work. The project was the first of its kind and the "
6898 "only time he knew of that a team had undertaken such a massive project for "
6899 "the purpose of releasing a retrospective."
6902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6903 #: freeculture.xml:5214
6905 "Everyone thought it would be too hard. Everyone just threw up their hands "
6906 "and said, \"Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's the music, "
6907 "there's the screenplay, there's the director, there's the actors.\" But we "
6908 "just broke it down. We just put it into its constituent parts and said, "
6909 "\"Okay, there's this many actors, this many directors, … this many "
6910 "musicians,\" and we just went at it very systematically and cleared the "
6915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6916 #: freeculture.xml:5226
6918 "And no doubt, the product itself was exceptionally good. Eastwood loved it, "
6919 "and it sold very well."
6922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6923 #: freeculture.xml:5230
6924 msgid "Drucker, Peter"
6928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6929 #: freeculture.xml:5238
6931 "U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Acquisition Management, "
6932 "<citetitle>Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services "
6933 "Acquisition</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
6934 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #22</ulink>."
6937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6938 #: freeculture.xml:5232
6940 "But I pressed Alben about how weird it seems that it would have to take a "
6941 "year's work simply to clear rights. No doubt Alben had done this "
6942 "efficiently, but as Peter Drucker has famously quipped, \"There is nothing "
6943 "so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at "
6944 "all.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Did it make sense, I asked "
6945 "Alben, that this is the way a new work has to be made?"
6948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6949 #: freeculture.xml:5246
6951 "For, as he acknowledged, \"very few … have the time and resources, "
6952 "and the will to do this,\" and thus, very few such works would ever be "
6953 "made. Does it make sense, I asked him, from the standpoint of what anybody "
6954 "really thought they were ever giving rights for originally, that you would "
6955 "have to go clear rights for these kinds of clips?"
6958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6959 #: freeculture.xml:5254
6961 "I don't think so. When an actor renders a performance in a movie, he or she "
6962 "gets paid very well. … And then when 30 seconds of that performance "
6963 "is used in a new product that is a retrospective of somebody's career, I "
6964 "don't think that that person … should be compensated for that."
6967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6968 #: freeculture.xml:5262
6970 "Or at least, is this <emphasis>how</emphasis> the artist should be "
6971 "compensated? Would it make sense, I asked, for there to be some kind of "
6972 "statutory license that someone could pay and be free to make derivative use "
6973 "of clips like this? Did it really make sense that a follow-on creator would "
6974 "have to track down every artist, actor, director, musician, and get explicit "
6975 "permission from each? Wouldn't a lot more be created if the legal part of "
6976 "the creative process could be made to be more clean?"
6980 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6981 #: freeculture.xml:5273
6983 "Absolutely. I think that if there were some fair-licensing "
6984 "mechanism—where you weren't subject to hold-ups and you weren't "
6985 "subject to estranged former spouses—you'd see a lot more of this work, "
6986 "because it wouldn't be so daunting to try to put together a retrospective of "
6987 "someone's career and meaningfully illustrate it with lots of media from that "
6988 "person's career. You'd build in a cost as the producer of one of these "
6989 "things. You'd build in a cost of paying X dollars to the talent that "
6990 "performed. But it would be a known cost. That's the thing that trips "
6991 "everybody up and makes this kind of product hard to get off the ground. If "
6992 "you knew I have a hundred minutes of film in this product and it's going to "
6993 "cost me X, then you build your budget around it, and you can get investments "
6994 "and everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say, \"Oh, I "
6995 "want a hundred minutes of something and I have no idea what it's going to "
6996 "cost me, and a certain number of people are going to hold me up for money,\" "
6997 "then it becomes difficult to put one of these things together."
7000 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7001 #: freeculture.xml:5294
7003 "Alben worked for a big company. His company was backed by some of the "
7004 "richest investors in the world. He therefore had authority and access that "
7005 "the average Web designer would not have. So if it took him a year, how long "
7006 "would it take someone else? And how much creativity is never made just "
7007 "because the costs of clearing the rights are so high? These costs are the "
7008 "burdens of a kind of regulation. Put on a Republican hat for a moment, and "
7009 "get angry for a bit. The government defines the scope of these rights, and "
7010 "the scope defined determines how much it's going to cost to negotiate "
7011 "them. (Remember the idea that land runs to the heavens, and imagine the "
7012 "pilot purchasing flythrough rights as he negotiates to fly from Los Angeles "
7013 "to San Francisco.) These rights might well have once made sense; but as "
7014 "circumstances change, they make no sense at all. Or at least, a "
7015 "well-trained, regulationminimizing Republican should look at the rights and "
7016 "ask, \"Does this still make sense?\""
7020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7021 #: freeculture.xml:5311
7023 "I've seen the flash of recognition when people get this point, but only a "
7024 "few times. The first was at a conference of federal judges in California. "
7025 "The judges were gathered to discuss the emerging topic of cyber-law. I was "
7026 "asked to be on the panel. Harvey Saferstein, a well-respected lawyer from an "
7027 "L.A. firm, introduced the panel with a video that he and a friend, Robert "
7028 "Fairbank, had produced."
7031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7032 #: freeculture.xml:5321
7034 "The video was a brilliant collage of film from every period in the twentieth "
7035 "century, all framed around the idea of a <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> "
7036 "episode. The execution was perfect, down to the sixty-minute stopwatch. The "
7037 "judges loved every minute of it."
7040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7041 #: freeculture.xml:5326
7042 msgid "Nimmer, David"
7045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7046 #: freeculture.xml:5328
7048 "When the lights came up, I looked over to my copanelist, David Nimmer, "
7049 "perhaps the leading copyright scholar and practitioner in the nation. He had "
7050 "an astonished look on his face, as he peered across the room of over 250 "
7051 "well-entertained judges. Taking an ominous tone, he began his talk with a "
7052 "question: \"Do you know how many federal laws were just violated in this "
7056 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7057 #: freeculture.xml:5335
7058 msgid "Boies, David"
7061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7062 #: freeculture.xml:5337
7064 "For of course, the two brilliantly talented creators who made this film "
7065 "hadn't done what Alben did. They hadn't spent a year clearing the rights to "
7066 "these clips; technically, what they had done violated the law. Of course, "
7067 "it wasn't as if they or anyone were going to be prosecuted for this "
7068 "violation (the presence of 250 judges and a gaggle of federal marshals "
7069 "notwithstanding). But Nimmer was making an important point: A year before "
7070 "anyone would have heard of the word Napster, and two years before another "
7071 "member of our panel, David Boies, would defend Napster before the Ninth "
7072 "Circuit Court of Appeals, Nimmer was trying to get the judges to see that "
7073 "the law would not be friendly to the capacities that this technology would "
7074 "enable. Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you "
7075 "couldn't easily do them legally."
7078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7079 #: freeculture.xml:5352
7081 "We live in a \"cut and paste\" culture enabled by technology. Anyone "
7082 "building a presentation knows the extraordinary freedom that the cut and "
7083 "paste architecture of the Internet created—in a second you can find "
7084 "just about any image you want; in another second, you can have it planted in "
7085 "your presentation."
7088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7089 #: freeculture.xml:5368
7093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7094 #: freeculture.xml:5359
7096 "But presentations are just a tiny beginning. Using the Internet and its "
7097 "archives, musicians are able to string together mixes of sound never before "
7098 "imagined; filmmakers are able to build movies out of clips on computers "
7099 "around the world. An extraordinary site in Sweden takes images of "
7100 "politicians and blends them with music to create biting political "
7101 "commentary. A site called Camp Chaos has produced some of the most biting "
7102 "criticism of the record industry that there is through the mixing of Flash! "
7103 "and music. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7107 #: freeculture.xml:5371
7109 "All of these creations are technically illegal. Even if the creators wanted "
7110 "to be \"legal,\" the cost of complying with the law is impossibly "
7111 "high. Therefore, for the law-abiding sorts, a wealth of creativity is never "
7112 "made. And for that part that is made, if it doesn't follow the clearance "
7113 "rules, it doesn't get released."
7116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7117 #: freeculture.xml:5378
7119 "To some, these stories suggest a solution: Let's alter the mix of rights so "
7120 "that people are free to build upon our culture. Free to add or mix as they "
7121 "see fit. We could even make this change without necessarily requiring that "
7122 "the \"free\" use be free as in \"free beer.\" Instead, the system could "
7123 "simply make it easy for follow-on creators to compensate artists without "
7124 "requiring an army of lawyers to come along: a rule, for example, that says "
7125 "\"the royalty owed the copyright owner of an unregistered work for the "
7126 "derivative reuse of his work will be a flat 1 percent of net revenues, to be "
7127 "held in escrow for the copyright owner.\" Under this rule, the copyright "
7128 "owner could benefit from some royalty, but he would not have the benefit of "
7129 "a full property right (meaning the right to name his own price) unless he "
7130 "registers the work."
7133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7134 #: freeculture.xml:5393
7136 "Who could possibly object to this? And what reason would there be for "
7137 "objecting? We're talking about work that is not now being made; which if "
7138 "made, under this plan, would produce new income for artists. What reason "
7139 "would anyone have to oppose it?"
7143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7144 #: freeculture.xml:5399
7146 "In February 2003, DreamWorks studios announced an agreement with Mike Myers, "
7147 "the comic genius of <citetitle>Saturday Night Live</citetitle> and Austin "
7148 "Powers. According to the announcement, Myers and Dream-Works would work "
7149 "together to form a \"unique filmmaking pact.\" Under the agreement, "
7150 "DreamWorks \"will acquire the rights to existing motion picture hits and "
7151 "classics, write new storylines and—with the use of stateof-the-art "
7152 "digital technology—insert Myers and other actors into the film, "
7153 "thereby creating an entirely new piece of entertainment.\""
7156 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7157 #: freeculture.xml:5411
7159 "The announcement called this \"film sampling.\" As Myers explained, \"Film "
7160 "Sampling is an exciting way to put an original spin on existing films and "
7161 "allow audiences to see old movies in a new light. Rap artists have been "
7162 "doing this for years with music and now we are able to take that same "
7163 "concept and apply it to film.\" Steven Spielberg is quoted as saying, \"If "
7164 "anyone can create a way to bring old films to new audiences, it is Mike.\""
7167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7168 #: freeculture.xml:5420
7170 "Spielberg is right. Film sampling by Myers will be brilliant. But if you "
7171 "don't think about it, you might miss the truly astonishing point about this "
7172 "announcement. As the vast majority of our film heritage remains under "
7173 "copyright, the real meaning of the DreamWorks announcement is just this: It "
7174 "is Mike Myers and only Mike Myers who is free to sample. Any general freedom "
7175 "to build upon the film archive of our culture, a freedom in other contexts "
7176 "presumed for us all, is now a privilege reserved for the funny and "
7177 "famous—and presumably rich."
7180 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7181 #: freeculture.xml:5430
7183 "This privilege becomes reserved for two sorts of reasons. The first "
7184 "continues the story of the last chapter: the vagueness of \"fair use.\" Much "
7185 "of \"sampling\" should be considered \"fair use.\" But few would rely upon "
7186 "so weak a doctrine to create. That leads to the second reason that the "
7187 "privilege is reserved for the few: The costs of negotiating the legal rights "
7188 "for the creative reuse of content are astronomically high. These costs "
7189 "mirror the costs with fair use: You either pay a lawyer to defend your fair "
7190 "use rights or pay a lawyer to track down permissions so you don't have to "
7191 "rely upon fair use rights. Either way, the creative process is a process of "
7192 "paying lawyers—again a privilege, or perhaps a curse, reserved for the "
7196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7197 #: freeculture.xml:5445
7198 msgid "CHAPTER NINE: Collectors"
7201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7202 #: freeculture.xml:5447
7204 "In April 1996, millions of \"bots\"—computer codes designed to "
7205 "\"spider,\" or automatically search the Internet and copy "
7206 "content—began running across the Net. Page by page, these bots copied "
7207 "Internet-based information onto a small set of computers located in a "
7208 "basement in San Francisco's Presidio. Once the bots finished the whole of "
7209 "the Internet, they started again. Over and over again, once every two "
7210 "months, these bits of code took copies of the Internet and stored them."
7213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7214 #: freeculture.xml:5456
7216 "By October 2001, the bots had collected more than five years of copies. And "
7217 "at a small announcement in Berkeley, California, the archive that these "
7218 "copies created, the Internet Archive, was opened to the world. Using a "
7219 "technology called \"the Way Back Machine,\" you could enter a Web page, and "
7220 "see all of its copies going back to 1996, as well as when those pages "
7224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7225 #: freeculture.xml:5464
7227 "This is the thing about the Internet that Orwell would have appreciated. In "
7228 "the dystopia described in <citetitle>1984</citetitle>, old newspapers were "
7229 "constantly updated to assure that the current view of the world, approved of "
7230 "by the government, was not contradicted by previous news reports."
7234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7235 #: freeculture.xml:5472
7237 "Thousands of workers constantly reedited the past, meaning there was no way "
7238 "ever to know whether the story you were reading today was the story that was "
7239 "printed on the date published on the paper."
7242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7243 #: freeculture.xml:5477
7245 "It's the same with the Internet. If you go to a Web page today, there's no "
7246 "way for you to know whether the content you are reading is the same as the "
7247 "content you read before. The page may seem the same, but the content could "
7248 "easily be different. The Internet is Orwell's library—constantly "
7249 "updated, without any reliable memory."
7253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7254 #: freeculture.xml:5490
7256 "The temptations remain, however. Brewster Kahle reports that the White House "
7257 "changes its own press releases without notice. A May 13, 2003, press release "
7258 "stated, \"Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.\" That was later changed, "
7259 "without notice, to \"Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.\" E-mail "
7260 "from Brewster Kahle, 1 December 2003."
7263 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7264 #: freeculture.xml:5484
7266 "Until the Way Back Machine, at least. With the Way Back Machine, and the "
7267 "Internet Archive underlying it, you can see what the Internet was. You have "
7268 "the power to see what you remember. More importantly, perhaps, you also have "
7269 "the power to find what you don't remember and what others might prefer you "
7270 "forget.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7273 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7274 #: freeculture.xml:5498
7276 "We take it for granted that we can go back to see what we remember "
7277 "reading. Think about newspapers. If you wanted to study the reaction of your "
7278 "hometown newspaper to the race riots in Watts in 1965, or to Bull Connor's "
7279 "water cannon in 1963, you could go to your public library and look at the "
7280 "newspapers. Those papers probably exist on microfiche. If you're lucky, they "
7281 "exist in paper, too. Either way, you are free, using a library, to go back "
7282 "and remember—not just what it is convenient to remember, but remember "
7283 "something close to the truth."
7286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7287 #: freeculture.xml:5509
7289 "It is said that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat "
7290 "it. That's not quite correct. We <emphasis>all</emphasis> forget "
7291 "history. The key is whether we have a way to go back to rediscover what we "
7292 "forget. More directly, the key is whether an objective past can keep us "
7293 "honest. Libraries help do that, by collecting content and keeping it, for "
7294 "schoolchildren, for researchers, for grandma. A free society presumes this "
7299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7300 #: freeculture.xml:5518
7302 "The Internet was an exception to this presumption. Until the Internet "
7303 "Archive, there was no way to go back. The Internet was the quintessentially "
7304 "transitory medium. And yet, as it becomes more important in forming and "
7305 "reforming society, it becomes more and more important to maintain in some "
7306 "historical form. It's just bizarre to think that we have scads of archives "
7307 "of newspapers from tiny towns around the world, yet there is but one copy of "
7308 "the Internet—the one kept by the Internet Archive."
7311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7312 #: freeculture.xml:5529
7314 "Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive. He was a very "
7315 "successful Internet entrepreneur after he was a successful computer "
7316 "researcher. In the 1990s, Kahle decided he had had enough business "
7317 "success. It was time to become a different kind of success. So he launched "
7318 "a series of projects designed to archive human knowledge. The Internet "
7319 "Archive was just the first of the projects of this Andrew Carnegie of the "
7320 "Internet. By December of 2002, the archive had over 10 billion pages, and it "
7321 "was growing at about a billion pages a month."
7324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7325 #: freeculture.xml:5539
7327 "The Way Back Machine is the largest archive of human knowledge in human "
7328 "history. At the end of 2002, it held \"two hundred and thirty terabytes of "
7329 "material\"—and was \"ten times larger than the Library of Congress.\" "
7330 "And this was just the first of the archives that Kahle set out to build. In "
7331 "addition to the Internet Archive, Kahle has been constructing the Television "
7332 "Archive. Television, it turns out, is even more ephemeral than the "
7333 "Internet. While much of twentieth-century culture was constructed through "
7334 "television, only a tiny proportion of that culture is available for anyone "
7335 "to see today. Three hours of news are recorded each evening by Vanderbilt "
7336 "University—thanks to a specific exemption in the copyright law. That "
7337 "content is indexed, and is available to scholars for a very low fee. \"But "
7338 "other than that, [television] is almost unavailable,\" Kahle told me. \"If "
7339 "you were Barbara Walters you could get access to [the archives], but if you "
7340 "are just a graduate student?\" As Kahle put it,"
7344 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7345 #: freeculture.xml:5557
7347 "Do you remember when Dan Quayle was interacting with Murphy Brown? Remember "
7348 "that back and forth surreal experience of a politician interacting with a "
7349 "fictional television character? If you were a graduate student wanting to "
7350 "study that, and you wanted to get those original back and forth exchanges "
7351 "between the two, the <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> episode that came out "
7352 "after it … it would be almost impossible. … Those materials "
7353 "are almost unfindable. …"
7356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7357 #: freeculture.xml:5569
7359 "Why is that? Why is it that the part of our culture that is recorded in "
7360 "newspapers remains perpetually accessible, while the part that is recorded "
7361 "on videotape is not? How is it that we've created a world where researchers "
7362 "trying to understand the effect of media on nineteenthcentury America will "
7363 "have an easier time than researchers trying to understand the effect of "
7364 "media on twentieth-century America?"
7367 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7368 #: freeculture.xml:5577
7370 "In part, this is because of the law. Early in American copyright law, "
7371 "copyright owners were required to deposit copies of their work in "
7372 "libraries. These copies were intended both to facilitate the spread of "
7373 "knowledge and to assure that a copy of the work would be around once the "
7374 "copyright expired, so that others might access and copy the work."
7378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7379 #: freeculture.xml:5594
7381 "Doug Herrick, \"Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at the "
7382 "Library of Congress,\" <citetitle>Film Library Quarterly</citetitle> 13 "
7383 "nos. 2–3 (1980): 5; Anthony Slide, <citetitle>Nitrate Won't Wait: A "
7384 "History of Film Preservation in the United States</citetitle> ( Jefferson, "
7385 "N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1992), 36."
7388 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7389 #: freeculture.xml:5585
7391 "These rules applied to film as well. But in 1915, the Library of Congress "
7392 "made an exception for film. Film could be copyrighted so long as such "
7393 "deposits were made. But the filmmaker was then allowed to borrow back the "
7394 "deposits—for an unlimited time at no cost. In 1915 alone, there were "
7395 "more than 5,475 films deposited and \"borrowed back.\" Thus, when the "
7396 "copyrights to films expire, there is no copy held by any library. The copy "
7397 "exists—if it exists at all—in the library archive of the film "
7398 "company.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7401 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7402 #: freeculture.xml:5602
7404 "The same is generally true about television. Television broadcasts were "
7405 "originally not copyrighted—there was no way to capture the broadcasts, "
7406 "so there was no fear of \"theft.\" But as technology enabled capturing, "
7407 "broadcasters relied increasingly upon the law. The law required they make a "
7408 "copy of each broadcast for the work to be \"copyrighted.\" But those copies "
7409 "were simply kept by the broadcasters. No library had any right to them; the "
7410 "government didn't demand them. The content of this part of American culture "
7411 "is practically invisible to anyone who would look."
7415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7416 #: freeculture.xml:5613
7418 "Kahle was eager to correct this. Before September 11, 2001, he and his "
7419 "allies had started capturing television. They selected twenty stations from "
7420 "around the world and hit the Record button. After September 11, Kahle, "
7421 "working with dozens of others, selected twenty stations from around the "
7422 "world and, beginning October 11, 2001, made their coverage during the week "
7423 "of September 11 available free on-line. Anyone could see how news reports "
7424 "from around the world covered the events of that day."
7427 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7428 #: freeculture.xml:5640
7429 msgid "Movie Archive"
7432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7433 #: freeculture.xml:5624
7435 "Kahle had the same idea with film. Working with Rick Prelinger, whose "
7436 "archive of film includes close to 45,000 \"ephemeral films\" (meaning films "
7437 "other than Hollywood movies, films that were never copyrighted), Kahle "
7438 "established the Movie Archive. Prelinger let Kahle digitize 1,300 films in "
7439 "this archive and post those films on the Internet to be downloaded for "
7440 "free. Prelinger's is a for-profit company. It sells copies of these films as "
7441 "stock footage. What he has discovered is that after he made a significant "
7442 "chunk available for free, his stock footage sales went up "
7443 "dramatically. People could easily find the material they wanted to use. Some "
7444 "downloaded that material and made films on their own. Others purchased "
7445 "copies to enable other films to be made. Either way, the archive enabled "
7446 "access to this important part of our culture. Want to see a copy of the "
7447 "\"Duck and Cover\" film that instructed children how to save themselves in "
7448 "the middle of nuclear attack? Go to archive.org, and you can download the "
7449 "film in a few minutes—for free. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7453 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7454 #: freeculture.xml:5643
7456 "Here again, Kahle is providing access to a part of our culture that we "
7457 "otherwise could not get easily, if at all. It is yet another part of what "
7458 "defines the twentieth century that we have lost to history. The law doesn't "
7459 "require these copies to be kept by anyone, or to be deposited in an archive "
7460 "by anyone. Therefore, there is no simple way to find them."
7463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7464 #: freeculture.xml:5651
7466 "The key here is access, not price. Kahle wants to enable free access to this "
7467 "content, but he also wants to enable others to sell access to it. His aim is "
7468 "to ensure competition in access to this important part of our culture. Not "
7469 "during the commercial life of a bit of creative property, but during a "
7470 "second life that all creative property has—a noncommercial life."
7474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7475 #: freeculture.xml:5659
7477 "For here is an idea that we should more clearly recognize. Every bit of "
7478 "creative property goes through different \"lives.\" In its first life, if "
7479 "the creator is lucky, the content is sold. In such cases the commercial "
7480 "market is successful for the creator. The vast majority of creative property "
7481 "doesn't enjoy such success, but some clearly does. For that content, "
7482 "commercial life is extremely important. Without this commercial market, "
7483 "there would be, many argue, much less creativity."
7486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7487 #: freeculture.xml:5671
7489 "After the commercial life of creative property has ended, our tradition has "
7490 "always supported a second life as well. A newspaper delivers the news every "
7491 "day to the doorsteps of America. The very next day, it is used to wrap fish "
7492 "or to fill boxes with fragile gifts or to build an archive of knowledge "
7493 "about our history. In this second life, the content can continue to inform "
7494 "even if that information is no longer sold."
7498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7499 #: freeculture.xml:5683
7501 "Dave Barns, \"Fledgling Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, Bar "
7502 "Owner Starts a New Chapter by Adopting Business,\" <citetitle>Chicago "
7503 "Tribune</citetitle>, 5 September 1997, at Metro Lake 1L. Of books published "
7504 "between 1927 and 1946, only 2.2 percent were in print in 2002. R. Anthony "
7505 "Reese, \"The First Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,\" "
7506 "<citetitle>Boston College Law Review</citetitle> 44 (2003): 593 n. 51."
7509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7510 #: freeculture.xml:5680
7512 "The same has always been true about books. A book goes out of print very "
7513 "quickly (the average today is after about a year<placeholder "
7514 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>). After it is out of print, it can be sold in "
7515 "used book stores without the copyright owner getting anything and stored in "
7516 "libraries, where many get to read the book, also for free. Used book stores "
7517 "and libraries are thus the second life of a book. That second life is "
7518 "extremely important to the spread and stability of culture."
7521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7522 #: freeculture.xml:5697
7524 "Yet increasingly, any assumption about a stable second life for creative "
7525 "property does not hold true with the most important components of popular "
7526 "culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For "
7527 "these—television, movies, music, radio, the Internet—there is no "
7528 "guarantee of a second life. For these sorts of culture, it is as if we've "
7529 "replaced libraries with Barnes & Noble superstores. With this culture, "
7530 "what's accessible is nothing but what a certain limited market demands. "
7531 "Beyond that, culture disappears."
7535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7536 #: freeculture.xml:5708
7538 "For most of the twentieth century, it was economics that made this so. It "
7539 "would have been insanely expensive to collect and make accessible all "
7540 "television and film and music: The cost of analog copies is extraordinarily "
7541 "high. So even though the law in principle would have restricted the ability "
7542 "of a Brewster Kahle to copy culture generally, the real restriction was "
7543 "economics. The market made it impossibly difficult to do anything about this "
7544 "ephemeral culture; the law had little practical effect."
7547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7548 #: freeculture.xml:5720
7550 "Perhaps the single most important feature of the digital revolution is that "
7551 "for the first time since the Library of Alexandria, it is feasible to "
7552 "imagine constructing archives that hold all culture produced or distributed "
7553 "publicly. Technology makes it possible to imagine an archive of all books "
7554 "published, and increasingly makes it possible to imagine an archive of all "
7555 "moving images and sound."
7558 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7559 #: freeculture.xml:5728
7561 "The scale of this potential archive is something we've never imagined "
7562 "before. The Brewster Kahles of our history have dreamed about it; but we are "
7563 "for the first time at a point where that dream is possible. As Kahle "
7567 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7568 #: freeculture.xml:5735
7570 "It looks like there's about two to three million recordings of music. "
7571 "Ever. There are about a hundred thousand theatrical releases of movies, "
7572 "… and about one to two million movies [distributed] during the "
7573 "twentieth century. There are about twenty-six million different titles of "
7574 "books. All of these would fit on computers that would fit in this room and "
7575 "be able to be afforded by a small company. So we're at a turning point in "
7576 "our history. Universal access is the goal. And the opportunity of leading a "
7577 "different life, based on this, is … thrilling. It could be one of the "
7578 "things humankind would be most proud of. Up there with the Library of "
7579 "Alexandria, putting a man on the moon, and the invention of the printing "
7584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7585 #: freeculture.xml:5749
7587 "Kahle is not the only librarian. The Internet Archive is not the only "
7588 "archive. But Kahle and the Internet Archive suggest what the future of "
7589 "libraries or archives could be. <emphasis>When</emphasis> the commercial "
7590 "life of creative property ends, I don't know. But it does. And whenever it "
7591 "does, Kahle and his archive hint at a world where this knowledge, and "
7592 "culture, remains perpetually available. Some will draw upon it to understand "
7593 "it; some to criticize it. Some will use it, as Walt Disney did, to re-create "
7594 "the past for the future. These technologies promise something that had "
7595 "become unimaginable for much of our past—a future "
7596 "<emphasis>for</emphasis> our past. The technology of digital arts could make "
7597 "the dream of the Library of Alexandria real again."
7600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7601 #: freeculture.xml:5764
7603 "Technologists have thus removed the economic costs of building such an "
7604 "archive. But lawyers' costs remain. For as much as we might like to call "
7605 "these \"archives,\" as warm as the idea of a \"library\" might seem, the "
7606 "\"content\" that is collected in these digital spaces is also someone's "
7607 "\"property.\" And the law of property restricts the freedoms that Kahle and "
7608 "others would exercise."
7611 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7612 #: freeculture.xml:5774
7613 msgid "CHAPTER TEN: \"Property\""
7616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7617 #: freeculture.xml:5783
7618 msgid "Johnson, Lyndon"
7621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
7622 #: freeculture.xml:5784 freeculture.xml:9438
7623 msgid "Kennedy, John F."
7626 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7627 #: freeculture.xml:5776
7629 "Jack Valenti has been the president of the Motion Picture Association of "
7630 "America since 1966. He first came to Washington, D.C., with Lyndon Johnson's "
7631 "administration—literally. The famous picture of Johnson's swearing-in "
7632 "on Air Force One after the assassination of President Kennedy has Valenti in "
7633 "the background. In his almost forty years of running the MPAA, Valenti has "
7634 "established himself as perhaps the most prominent and effective lobbyist in "
7635 "Washington. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
7636 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
7639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7640 #: freeculture.xml:5797
7641 msgid "Disney, Inc."
7644 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7645 #: freeculture.xml:5798
7646 msgid "Sony Pictures Entertainment"
7649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7650 #: freeculture.xml:5799
7654 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7655 #: freeculture.xml:5800
7656 msgid "Paramount Pictures"
7659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7660 #: freeculture.xml:5801
7661 msgid "Twentieth Century Fox"
7664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
7665 #: freeculture.xml:5802
7666 msgid "Universal Pictures"
7669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
7670 #: freeculture.xml:5803 freeculture.xml:7193
7671 msgid "Warner Brothers"
7674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7675 #: freeculture.xml:5787
7677 "The MPAA is the American branch of the international Motion Picture "
7678 "Association. It was formed in 1922 as a trade association whose goal was to "
7679 "defend American movies against increasing domestic criticism. The "
7680 "organization now represents not only filmmakers but producers and "
7681 "distributors of entertainment for television, video, and cable. Its board is "
7682 "made up of the chairmen and presidents of the seven major producers and "
7683 "distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States: "
7684 "Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth "
7685 "Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers. <placeholder "
7686 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
7687 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7688 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder "
7689 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/>"
7693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7694 #: freeculture.xml:5807
7696 "Valenti is only the third president of the MPAA. No president before him has "
7697 "had as much influence over that organization, or over Washington. As a "
7698 "Texan, Valenti has mastered the single most important political skill of a "
7699 "Southerner—the ability to appear simple and slow while hiding a "
7700 "lightning-fast intellect. To this day, Valenti plays the simple, humble "
7701 "man. But this Harvard MBA, and author of four books, who finished high "
7702 "school at the age of fifteen and flew more than fifty combat missions in "
7703 "World War II, is no Mr. Smith. When Valenti went to Washington, he mastered "
7704 "the city in a quintessentially Washingtonian way."
7707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7708 #: freeculture.xml:5819
7710 "In defending artistic liberty and the freedom of speech that our culture "
7711 "depends upon, the MPAA has done important good. In crafting the MPAA rating "
7712 "system, it has probably avoided a great deal of speech-regulating harm. But "
7713 "there is an aspect to the organization's mission that is both the most "
7714 "radical and the most important. This is the organization's effort, "
7715 "epitomized in Valenti's every act, to redefine the meaning of \"creative "
7719 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7720 #: freeculture.xml:5828
7721 msgid "In 1982, Valenti's testimony to Congress captured the strategy perfectly:"
7725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
7726 #: freeculture.xml:5842
7728 "Home Recording of Copyrighted Works: Hearings on H.R. 4783, H.R. 4794, "
7729 "H.R. 4808, H.R. 5250, H.R. 5488, and H.R. 5705 Before the Subcommittee on "
7730 "Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee "
7731 "on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, 97th Cong., 2nd "
7732 "sess. (1982): 65 (testimony of Jack Valenti)."
7735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7736 #: freeculture.xml:5833
7738 "No matter the lengthy arguments made, no matter the charges and the "
7739 "counter-charges, no matter the tumult and the shouting, reasonable men and "
7740 "women will keep returning to the fundamental issue, the central theme which "
7741 "animates this entire debate: <emphasis>Creative property owners must be "
7742 "accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other property "
7743 "owners in the nation</emphasis>. That is the issue. That is the "
7744 "question. And that is the rostrum on which this entire hearing and the "
7745 "debates to follow must rest.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7750 #: freeculture.xml:5852
7752 "The strategy of this rhetoric, like the strategy of most of Valenti's "
7753 "rhetoric, is brilliant and simple and brilliant because simple. The "
7754 "\"central theme\" to which \"reasonable men and women\" will return is this: "
7755 "\"Creative property owners must be accorded the same rights and protections "
7756 "resident in all other property owners in the nation.\" There are no "
7757 "second-class citizens, Valenti might have continued. There should be no "
7758 "second-class property owners."
7761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7762 #: freeculture.xml:5863
7764 "This claim has an obvious and powerful intuitive pull. It is stated with "
7765 "such clarity as to make the idea as obvious as the notion that we use "
7766 "elections to pick presidents. But in fact, there is no more extreme a claim "
7767 "made by <emphasis>anyone</emphasis> who is serious in this debate than this "
7768 "claim of Valenti's. Jack Valenti, however sweet and however brilliant, is "
7769 "perhaps the nation's foremost extremist when it comes to the nature and "
7770 "scope of \"creative property.\" His views have <emphasis>no</emphasis> "
7771 "reasonable connection to our actual legal tradition, even if the subtle pull "
7772 "of his Texan charm has slowly redefined that tradition, at least in "
7777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7778 #: freeculture.xml:5878
7780 "Lawyers speak of \"property\" not as an absolute thing, but as a bundle of "
7781 "rights that are sometimes associated with a particular object. Thus, my "
7782 "\"property right\" to my car gives me the right to exclusive use, but not "
7783 "the right to drive at 150 miles an hour. For the best effort to connect the "
7784 "ordinary meaning of \"property\" to \"lawyer talk,\" see Bruce Ackerman, "
7785 "<citetitle>Private Property and the Constitution</citetitle> (New Haven: "
7786 "Yale University Press, 1977), 26–27."
7789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7790 #: freeculture.xml:5875
7792 "While \"creative property\" is certainly \"property\" in a nerdy and precise "
7793 "sense that lawyers are trained to understand,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
7794 "id=\"0\"/> it has never been the case, nor should it be, that \"creative "
7795 "property owners\" have been \"accorded the same rights and protection "
7796 "resident in all other property owners.\" Indeed, if creative property owners "
7797 "were given the same rights as all other property owners, that would effect a "
7798 "radical, and radically undesirable, change in our tradition."
7801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7802 #: freeculture.xml:5893
7804 "Valenti knows this. But he speaks for an industry that cares squat for our "
7805 "tradition and the values it represents. He speaks for an industry that is "
7806 "instead fighting to restore the tradition that the British overturned in "
7807 "1710. In the world that Valenti's changes would create, a powerful few would "
7808 "exercise powerful control over how our creative culture would develop."
7812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7813 #: freeculture.xml:5901
7815 "I have two purposes in this chapter. The first is to convince you that, "
7816 "historically, Valenti's claim is absolutely wrong. The second is to convince "
7817 "you that it would be terribly wrong for us to reject our history. We have "
7818 "always treated rights in creative property differently from the rights "
7819 "resident in all other property owners. They have never been the same. And "
7820 "they should never be the same, because, however counterintuitive this may "
7821 "seem, to make them the same would be to fundamentally weaken the opportunity "
7822 "for new creators to create. Creativity depends upon the owners of "
7823 "creativity having less than perfect control."
7826 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7827 #: freeculture.xml:5916
7829 "Organizations such as the MPAA, whose board includes the most powerful of "
7830 "the old guard, have little interest, their rhetoric notwithstanding, in "
7831 "assuring that the new can displace them. No organization does. No person "
7832 "does. (Ask me about tenure, for example.) But what's good for the MPAA is "
7833 "not necessarily good for America. A society that defends the ideals of free "
7834 "culture must preserve precisely the opportunity for new creativity to "
7835 "threaten the old. To get just a hint that there is something fundamentally "
7836 "wrong in Valenti's argument, we need look no further than the United States "
7837 "Constitution itself."
7840 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7841 #: freeculture.xml:5928
7843 "The framers of our Constitution loved \"property.\" Indeed, so strongly did "
7844 "they love property that they built into the Constitution an important "
7845 "requirement. If the government takes your property—if it condemns your "
7846 "house, or acquires a slice of land from your farm—it is required, "
7847 "under the Fifth Amendment's \"Takings Clause,\" to pay you \"just "
7848 "compensation\" for that taking. The Constitution thus guarantees that "
7849 "property is, in a certain sense, sacred. It cannot <emphasis>ever</emphasis> "
7850 "be taken from the property owner unless the government pays for the "
7855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7856 #: freeculture.xml:5939
7858 "Yet the very same Constitution speaks very differently about what Valenti "
7859 "calls \"creative property.\" In the clause granting Congress the power to "
7860 "create \"creative property,\" the Constitution <emphasis>requires</emphasis> "
7861 "that after a \"limited time,\" Congress take back the rights that it has "
7862 "granted and set the \"creative property\" free to the public domain. Yet "
7863 "when Congress does this, when the expiration of a copyright term \"takes\" "
7864 "your copyright and turns it over to the public domain, Congress does not "
7865 "have any obligation to pay \"just compensation\" for this \"taking.\" "
7866 "Instead, the same Constitution that requires compensation for your land "
7867 "requires that you lose your \"creative property\" right without any "
7868 "compensation at all."
7871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7872 #: freeculture.xml:5954
7874 "The Constitution thus on its face states that these two forms of property "
7875 "are not to be accorded the same rights. They are plainly to be treated "
7876 "differently. Valenti is therefore not just asking for a change in our "
7877 "tradition when he argues that creative-property owners should be accorded "
7878 "the same rights as every other property-right owner. He is effectively "
7879 "arguing for a change in our Constitution itself."
7882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7883 #: freeculture.xml:5963
7885 "Arguing for a change in our Constitution is not necessarily wrong. There "
7886 "was much in our original Constitution that was plainly wrong. The "
7887 "Constitution of 1789 entrenched slavery; it left senators to be appointed "
7888 "rather than elected; it made it possible for the electoral college to "
7889 "produce a tie between the president and his own vice president (as it did in "
7890 "1800). The framers were no doubt extraordinary, but I would be the first to "
7891 "admit that they made big mistakes. We have since rejected some of those "
7892 "mistakes; no doubt there could be others that we should reject as well. So "
7893 "my argument is not simply that because Jefferson did it, we should, too."
7896 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7897 #: freeculture.xml:5975
7899 "Instead, my argument is that because Jefferson did it, we should at least "
7900 "try to understand <emphasis>why</emphasis>. Why did the framers, fanatical "
7901 "property types that they were, reject the claim that creative property be "
7902 "given the same rights as all other property? Why did they require that for "
7903 "creative property there must be a public domain?"
7906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7907 #: freeculture.xml:5983
7909 "To answer this question, we need to get some perspective on the history of "
7910 "these \"creative property\" rights, and the control that they enabled. Once "
7911 "we see clearly how differently these rights have been defined, we will be in "
7912 "a better position to ask the question that should be at the core of this "
7913 "war: Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> creative property should be protected, "
7914 "but how. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> we will enforce the rights the law "
7915 "gives to creative-property owners, but what the particular mix of rights "
7916 "ought to be. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> artists should be paid, but "
7917 "whether institutions designed to assure that artists get paid need also "
7918 "control how culture develops."
7922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7923 #: freeculture.xml:5998
7925 "To answer these questions, we need a more general way to talk about how "
7926 "property is protected. More precisely, we need a more general way than the "
7927 "narrow language of the law allows. In <citetitle>Code and Other Laws of "
7928 "Cyberspace</citetitle>, I used a simple model to capture this more general "
7929 "perspective. For any particular right or regulation, this model asks how "
7930 "four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken the "
7931 "right or regulation. I represented it with this diagram:"
7934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
7935 #: freeculture.xml:6007
7937 "How four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken "
7938 "the right or regulation."
7941 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
7942 #: freeculture.xml:6008 freeculture.xml:6183 freeculture.xml:6485
7943 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1331.png\"></graphic>"
7946 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7947 #: freeculture.xml:6011
7949 "At the center of this picture is a regulated dot: the individual or group "
7950 "that is the target of regulation, or the holder of a right. (In each case "
7951 "throughout, we can describe this either as regulation or as a right. For "
7952 "simplicity's sake, I will speak only of regulations.) The ovals represent "
7953 "four ways in which the individual or group might be regulated— either "
7954 "constrained or, alternatively, enabled. Law is the most obvious constraint "
7955 "(to lawyers, at least). It constrains by threatening punishments after the "
7956 "fact if the rules set in advance are violated. So if, for example, you "
7957 "willfully infringe Madonna's copyright by copying a song from her latest CD "
7958 "and posting it on the Web, you can be punished with a $150,000 fine. The "
7959 "fine is an ex post punishment for violating an ex ante rule. It is imposed "
7960 "by the state. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7964 #: freeculture.xml:6028
7966 "Norms are a different kind of constraint. They, too, punish an individual "
7967 "for violating a rule. But the punishment of a norm is imposed by a "
7968 "community, not (or not only) by the state. There may be no law against "
7969 "spitting, but that doesn't mean you won't be punished if you spit on the "
7970 "ground while standing in line at a movie. The punishment might not be harsh, "
7971 "though depending upon the community, it could easily be more harsh than many "
7972 "of the punishments imposed by the state. The mark of the difference is not "
7973 "the severity of the rule, but the source of the enforcement."
7976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7977 #: freeculture.xml:6039
7979 "The market is a third type of constraint. Its constraint is effected through "
7980 "conditions: You can do X if you pay Y; you'll be paid M if you do N. These "
7981 "constraints are obviously not independent of law or norms—it is "
7982 "property law that defines what must be bought if it is to be taken legally; "
7983 "it is norms that say what is appropriately sold. But given a set of norms, "
7984 "and a background of property and contract law, the market imposes a "
7985 "simultaneous constraint upon how an individual or group might behave."
7988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7989 #: freeculture.xml:6049
7991 "Finally, and for the moment, perhaps, most mysteriously, "
7992 "\"architecture\"—the physical world as one finds it—is a "
7993 "constraint on behavior. A fallen bridge might constrain your ability to get "
7994 "across a river. Railroad tracks might constrain the ability of a community "
7995 "to integrate its social life. As with the market, architecture does not "
7996 "effect its constraint through ex post punishments. Instead, also as with the "
7997 "market, architecture effects its constraint through simultaneous "
7998 "conditions. These conditions are imposed not by courts enforcing contracts, "
7999 "or by police punishing theft, but by nature, by \"architecture.\" If a "
8000 "500-pound boulder blocks your way, it is the law of gravity that enforces "
8001 "this constraint. If a $500 airplane ticket stands between you and a flight "
8002 "to New York, it is the market that enforces this constraint."
8006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8007 #: freeculture.xml:6066
8009 "So the first point about these four modalities of regulation is obvious: "
8010 "They interact. Restrictions imposed by one might be reinforced by "
8011 "another. Or restrictions imposed by one might be undermined by another."
8014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8015 #: freeculture.xml:6072
8017 "The second point follows directly: If we want to understand the effective "
8018 "freedom that anyone has at a given moment to do any particular thing, we "
8019 "have to consider how these four modalities interact. Whether or not there "
8020 "are other constraints (there may well be; my claim is not about "
8021 "comprehensiveness), these four are among the most significant, and any "
8022 "regulator (whether controlling or freeing) must consider how these four in "
8023 "particular interact."
8026 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8027 #: freeculture.xml:6081
8028 msgid "driving speed, constraints on"
8031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8032 #: freeculture.xml:6084
8034 "So, for example, consider the \"freedom\" to drive a car at a high "
8035 "speed. That freedom is in part restricted by laws: speed limits that say how "
8036 "fast you can drive in particular places at particular times. It is in part "
8037 "restricted by architecture: speed bumps, for example, slow most rational "
8038 "drivers; governors in buses, as another example, set the maximum rate at "
8039 "which the driver can drive. The freedom is in part restricted by the market: "
8040 "Fuel efficiency drops as speed increases, thus the price of gasoline "
8041 "indirectly constrains speed. And finally, the norms of a community may or "
8042 "may not constrain the freedom to speed. Drive at 50 mph by a school in your "
8043 "own neighborhood and you're likely to be punished by the neighbors. The same "
8044 "norm wouldn't be as effective in a different town, or at night."
8048 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8049 #: freeculture.xml:6102
8051 "By describing the way law affects the other three modalities, I don't mean "
8052 "to suggest that the other three don't affect law. Obviously, they do. Law's "
8053 "only distinction is that it alone speaks as if it has a right "
8054 "self-consciously to change the other three. The right of the other three is "
8055 "more timidly expressed. See Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Code: And Other "
8056 "Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle> (New York: Basic Books, 1999): 90–95; "
8057 "Lawrence Lessig, \"The New Chicago School,\" <citetitle>Journal of Legal "
8058 "Studies</citetitle>, June 1998."
8062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8063 #: freeculture.xml:6098
8065 "The final point about this simple model should also be fairly clear: While "
8066 "these four modalities are analytically independent, law has a special role "
8067 "in affecting the three.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The law, in "
8068 "other words, sometimes operates to increase or decrease the constraint of a "
8069 "particular modality. Thus, the law might be used to increase taxes on "
8070 "gasoline, so as to increase the incentives to drive more slowly. The law "
8071 "might be used to mandate more speed bumps, so as to increase the difficulty "
8072 "of driving rapidly. The law might be used to fund ads that stigmatize "
8073 "reckless driving. Or the law might be used to require that other laws be "
8074 "more strict—a federal requirement that states decrease the speed "
8075 "limit, for example—so as to decrease the attractiveness of fast "
8079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8080 #: freeculture.xml:6126
8081 msgid "Law has a special role in affecting the three."
8084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
8085 #: freeculture.xml:6127
8086 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1361.png\"></graphic>"
8089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8090 #: freeculture.xml:6166
8091 msgid "Commons, John R."
8094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8095 #: freeculture.xml:6138
8097 "Some people object to this way of talking about \"liberty.\" They object "
8098 "because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at any "
8099 "particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the government. For "
8100 "instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people think it is meaningless "
8101 "to say that one's liberty has been restrained. A bridge has washed out, and "
8102 "it's harder to get from one place to another. To talk about this as a loss "
8103 "of freedom, they say, is to confuse the stuff of politics with the vagaries "
8104 "of ordinary life. I don't mean to deny the value in this narrower view, "
8105 "which depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, however, mean to argue "
8106 "against any insistence that this narrower view is the only proper view of "
8107 "liberty. As I argued in <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, we come from a long "
8108 "tradition of political thought with a broader focus than the narrow question "
8109 "of what the government did when. John Stuart Mill defended freedom of "
8110 "speech, for example, from the tyranny of narrow minds, not from the fear of "
8111 "government prosecution; John Stuart Mill, <citetitle>On Liberty</citetitle> "
8112 "(Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19. John R. Commons famously "
8113 "defended the economic freedom of labor from constraints imposed by the "
8114 "market; John R. Commons, \"The Right to Work,\" in Malcom Rutherford and "
8115 "Warren J. Samuels, eds., <citetitle>John R. Commons: Selected "
8116 "Essays</citetitle> (London: Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans with "
8117 "Disabilities Act increases the liberty of people with physical disabilities "
8118 "by changing the architecture of certain public places, thereby making access "
8119 "to those places easier; 42 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, "
8120 "section 12101 (2000). Each of these interventions to change existing "
8121 "conditions changes the liberty of a particular group. The effect of those "
8122 "interventions should be accounted for in order to understand the effective "
8123 "liberty that each of these groups might face. <placeholder "
8124 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8128 #: freeculture.xml:6130
8130 "These constraints can thus change, and they can be changed. To understand "
8131 "the effective protection of liberty or protection of property at any "
8132 "particular moment, we must track these changes over time. A restriction "
8133 "imposed by one modality might be erased by another. A freedom enabled by one "
8134 "modality might be displaced by another.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
8138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8139 #: freeculture.xml:6170
8140 msgid "Why Hollywood Is Right"
8143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8144 #: freeculture.xml:6172
8146 "The most obvious point that this model reveals is just why, or just how, "
8147 "Hollywood is right. The copyright warriors have rallied Congress and the "
8148 "courts to defend copyright. This model helps us see why that rallying makes "
8152 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8153 #: freeculture.xml:6178
8154 msgid "Let's say this is the picture of copyright's regulation before the Internet:"
8157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8158 #: freeculture.xml:6182 freeculture.xml:6484
8159 msgid "Copyright's regulation before the Internet."
8163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8164 #: freeculture.xml:6187
8166 "There is balance between law, norms, market, and architecture. The law "
8167 "limits the ability to copy and share content, by imposing penalties on those "
8168 "who copy and share content. Those penalties are reinforced by technologies "
8169 "that make it hard to copy and share content (architecture) and expensive to "
8170 "copy and share content (market). Finally, those penalties are mitigated by "
8171 "norms we all recognize—kids, for example, taping other kids' "
8172 "records. These uses of copyrighted material may well be infringement, but "
8173 "the norms of our society (before the Internet, at least) had no problem with "
8174 "this form of infringement."
8177 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8178 #: freeculture.xml:6199
8180 "Enter the Internet, or, more precisely, technologies such as MP3s and p2p "
8181 "sharing. Now the constraint of architecture changes dramatically, as does "
8182 "the constraint of the market. And as both the market and architecture relax "
8183 "the regulation of copyright, norms pile on. The happy balance (for the "
8184 "warriors, at least) of life before the Internet becomes an effective state "
8185 "of anarchy after the Internet."
8189 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8190 #: freeculture.xml:6207
8192 "Thus the sense of, and justification for, the warriors' response. "
8193 "Technology has changed, the warriors say, and the effect of this change, "
8194 "when ramified through the market and norms, is that a balance of protection "
8195 "for the copyright owners' rights has been lost. This is Iraq after the fall "
8196 "of Saddam, but this time no government is justifying the looting that "
8200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8201 #: freeculture.xml:6217
8202 msgid "effective state of anarchy after the Internet."
8205 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8206 #: freeculture.xml:6218
8207 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1381.png\"></graphic>"
8210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8211 #: freeculture.xml:6221
8213 "Neither this analysis nor the conclusions that follow are new to the "
8214 "warriors. Indeed, in a \"White Paper\" prepared by the Commerce Department "
8215 "(one heavily influenced by the copyright warriors) in 1995, this mix of "
8216 "regulatory modalities had already been identified and the strategy to "
8217 "respond already mapped. In response to the changes the Internet had "
8218 "effected, the White Paper argued (1) Congress should strengthen intellectual "
8219 "property law, (2) businesses should adopt innovative marketing techniques, "
8220 "(3) technologists should push to develop code to protect copyrighted "
8221 "material, and (4) educators should educate kids to better protect copyright."
8225 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8226 #: freeculture.xml:6233
8228 "This mixed strategy is just what copyright needed—if it was to "
8229 "preserve the particular balance that existed before the change induced by "
8230 "the Internet. And it's just what we should expect the content industry to "
8231 "push for. It is as American as apple pie to consider the happy life you have "
8232 "as an entitlement, and to look to the law to protect it if something comes "
8233 "along to change that happy life. Homeowners living in a flood plain have no "
8234 "hesitation appealing to the government to rebuild (and rebuild again) when a "
8235 "flood (architecture) wipes away their property (law). Farmers have no "
8236 "hesitation appealing to the government to bail them out when a virus "
8237 "(architecture) devastates their crop. Unions have no hesitation appealing to "
8238 "the government to bail them out when imports (market) wipe out the "
8239 "U.S. steel industry."
8242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8243 #: freeculture.xml:6250
8245 "Thus, there's nothing wrong or surprising in the content industry's campaign "
8246 "to protect itself from the harmful consequences of a technological "
8247 "innovation. And I would be the last person to argue that the changing "
8248 "technology of the Internet has not had a profound effect on the content "
8249 "industry's way of doing business, or as John Seely Brown describes it, its "
8250 "\"architecture of revenue.\""
8254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8255 #: freeculture.xml:6266
8257 "See Geoffrey Smith, \"Film vs. Digital: Can Kodak Build a Bridge?\" "
8258 "BusinessWeek online, 2 August 1999, available at <ulink "
8259 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #23</ulink>. For a more recent "
8260 "analysis of Kodak's place in the market, see Chana R. Schoenberger, \"Can "
8261 "Kodak Make Up for Lost Moments?\" Forbes.com, 6 October 2003, available at "
8262 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #24</ulink>."
8265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8266 #: freeculture.xml:6258
8268 "But just because a particular interest asks for government support, it "
8269 "doesn't follow that support should be granted. And just because technology "
8270 "has weakened a particular way of doing business, it doesn't follow that the "
8271 "government should intervene to support that old way of doing "
8272 "business. Kodak, for example, has lost perhaps as much as 20 percent of "
8273 "their traditional film market to the emerging technologies of digital "
8274 "cameras.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Does anyone believe the "
8275 "government should ban digital cameras just to support Kodak? Highways have "
8276 "weakened the freight business for railroads. Does anyone think we should ban "
8277 "trucks from roads <emphasis>for the purpose of</emphasis> protecting the "
8278 "railroads? Closer to the subject of this book, remote channel changers have "
8279 "weakened the \"stickiness\" of television advertising (if a boring "
8280 "commercial comes on the TV, the remote makes it easy to surf ), and it may "
8281 "well be that this change has weakened the television advertising market. But "
8282 "does anyone believe we should regulate remotes to reinforce commercial "
8283 "television? (Maybe by limiting them to function only once a second, or to "
8284 "switch to only ten channels within an hour?)"
8288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8289 #: freeculture.xml:6298
8291 "Fred Warshofsky, <citetitle>The Patent Wars</citetitle> (New York: Wiley, "
8292 "1994), 170–71."
8295 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
8296 #: freeculture.xml:6307 freeculture.xml:12713
8300 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8301 #: freeculture.xml:6288
8303 "The obvious answer to these obviously rhetorical questions is no. In a free "
8304 "society, with a free market, supported by free enterprise and free trade, "
8305 "the government's role is not to support one way of doing business against "
8306 "others. Its role is not to pick winners and protect them against loss. If "
8307 "the government did this generally, then we would never have any progress. As "
8308 "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates wrote in 1991, in a memo criticizing software "
8309 "patents, \"established companies have an interest in excluding future "
8310 "competitors.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And relative to a "
8311 "startup, established companies also have the means. (Think RCA and FM "
8312 "radio.) A world in which competitors with new ideas must fight not only the "
8313 "market but also the government is a world in which competitors with new "
8314 "ideas will not succeed. It is a world of stasis and increasingly "
8315 "concentrated stagnation. It is the Soviet Union under Brezhnev. "
8316 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
8319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8320 #: freeculture.xml:6310
8322 "Thus, while it is understandable for industries threatened with new "
8323 "technologies that change the way they do business to look to the government "
8324 "for protection, it is the special duty of policy makers to guarantee that "
8325 "that protection not become a deterrent to progress. It is the duty of policy "
8326 "makers, in other words, to assure that the changes they create, in response "
8327 "to the request of those hurt by changing technology, are changes that "
8328 "preserve the incentives and opportunities for innovation and change."
8331 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8332 #: freeculture.xml:6320
8334 "In the context of laws regulating speech—which include, obviously, "
8335 "copyright law—that duty is even stronger. When the industry "
8336 "complaining about changing technologies is asking Congress to respond in a "
8337 "way that burdens speech and creativity, policy makers should be especially "
8338 "wary of the request. It is always a bad deal for the government to get into "
8339 "the business of regulating speech markets. The risks and dangers of that "
8340 "game are precisely why our framers created the First Amendment to our "
8341 "Constitution: \"Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of "
8342 "speech.\" So when Congress is being asked to pass laws that would "
8343 "\"abridge\" the freedom of speech, it should ask— "
8344 "carefully—whether such regulation is justified."
8348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8349 #: freeculture.xml:6334
8351 "My argument just now, however, has nothing to do with whether the changes "
8352 "that are being pushed by the copyright warriors are \"justified.\" My "
8353 "argument is about their effect. For before we get to the question of "
8354 "justification, a hard question that depends a great deal upon your values, "
8355 "we should first ask whether we understand the effect of the changes the "
8356 "content industry wants."
8359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8360 #: freeculture.xml:6343
8361 msgid "Here's the metaphor that will capture the argument to follow."
8364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8365 #: freeculture.xml:6346
8369 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
8370 #: freeculture.xml:6354
8371 msgid "Müller, Paul Hermann"
8374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8375 #: freeculture.xml:6349
8377 "In 1873, the chemical DDT was first synthesized. In 1948, Swiss chemist Paul "
8378 "Hermann Müller won the Nobel Prize for his work demonstrating the "
8379 "insecticidal properties of DDT. By the 1950s, the insecticide was widely "
8380 "used around the world to kill disease-carrying pests. It was also used to "
8381 "increase farm production. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8385 #: freeculture.xml:6357
8387 "No one doubts that killing disease-carrying pests or increasing crop "
8388 "production is a good thing. No one doubts that the work of Müller was "
8389 "important and valuable and probably saved lives, possibly millions."
8392 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
8393 #: freeculture.xml:6361 freeculture.xml:6367
8394 msgid "Carson, Rachel"
8397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
8398 #: freeculture.xml:6368
8399 msgid "Silent Sprint (Carson)"
8402 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8403 #: freeculture.xml:6363
8405 "But in 1962, Rachel Carson published <citetitle>Silent Spring</citetitle>, "
8406 "which argued that DDT, whatever its primary benefits, was also having "
8407 "unintended environmental consequences. Birds were losing the ability to "
8408 "reproduce. Whole chains of the ecology were being destroyed. <placeholder "
8409 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
8412 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8413 #: freeculture.xml:6371
8415 "No one set out to destroy the environment. Paul Müller certainly did not aim "
8416 "to harm any birds. But the effort to solve one set of problems produced "
8417 "another set which, in the view of some, was far worse than the problems that "
8418 "were originally attacked. Or more accurately, the problems DDT caused were "
8419 "worse than the problems it solved, at least when considering the other, more "
8420 "environmentally friendly ways to solve the problems that DDT was meant to "
8425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8426 #: freeculture.xml:6384
8428 "See, for example, James Boyle, \"A Politics of Intellectual Property: "
8429 "Environmentalism for the Net?\" <citetitle>Duke Law Journal</citetitle> 47 "
8434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8435 #: freeculture.xml:6380
8437 "It is to this image precisely that Duke University law professor James Boyle "
8438 "appeals when he argues that we need an \"environmentalism\" for "
8439 "culture.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His point, and the point I "
8440 "want to develop in the balance of this chapter, is not that the aims of "
8441 "copyright are flawed. Or that authors should not be paid for their work. Or "
8442 "that music should be given away \"for free.\" The point is that some of the "
8443 "ways in which we might protect authors will have unintended consequences for "
8444 "the cultural environment, much like DDT had for the natural environment. And "
8445 "just as criticism of DDT is not an endorsement of malaria or an attack on "
8446 "farmers, so, too, is criticism of one particular set of regulations "
8447 "protecting copyright not an endorsement of anarchy or an attack on authors. "
8448 "It is an environment of creativity that we seek, and we should be aware of "
8449 "our actions' effects on the environment."
8452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8453 #: freeculture.xml:6401
8455 "My argument, in the balance of this chapter, tries to map exactly this "
8456 "effect. No doubt the technology of the Internet has had a dramatic effect on "
8457 "the ability of copyright owners to protect their content. But there should "
8458 "also be little doubt that when you add together the changes in copyright law "
8459 "over time, plus the change in technology that the Internet is undergoing "
8460 "just now, the net effect of these changes will not be only that copyrighted "
8461 "work is effectively protected. Also, and generally missed, the net effect of "
8462 "this massive increase in protection will be devastating to the environment "
8466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8467 #: freeculture.xml:6412
8469 "In a line: To kill a gnat, we are spraying DDT with consequences for free "
8470 "culture that will be far more devastating than that this gnat will be lost."
8473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8474 #: freeculture.xml:6419
8478 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8479 #: freeculture.xml:6421
8481 "America copied English copyright law. Actually, we copied and improved "
8482 "English copyright law. Our Constitution makes the purpose of \"creative "
8483 "property\" rights clear; its express limitations reinforce the English aim "
8484 "to avoid overly powerful publishers."
8487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8488 #: freeculture.xml:6427
8490 "The power to establish \"creative property\" rights is granted to Congress "
8491 "in a way that, for our Constitution, at least, is very odd. Article I, "
8492 "section 8, clause 8 of our Constitution states that:"
8496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8497 #: freeculture.xml:6432
8499 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, "
8500 "by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right "
8501 "to their respective Writings and Discoveries. We can call this the "
8502 "\"Progress Clause,\" for notice what this clause does not say. It does not "
8503 "say Congress has the power to grant \"creative property rights.\" It says "
8504 "that Congress has the power <emphasis>to promote progress</emphasis>. The "
8505 "grant of power is its purpose, and its purpose is a public one, not the "
8506 "purpose of enriching publishers, nor even primarily the purpose of rewarding "
8510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8511 #: freeculture.xml:6445
8513 "The Progress Clause expressly limits the term of copyrights. As we saw in "
8514 "chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"founders\"/>, the "
8515 "English limited the term of copyright so as to assure that a few would not "
8516 "exercise disproportionate control over culture by exercising "
8517 "disproportionate control over publishing. We can assume the framers followed "
8518 "the English for a similar purpose. Indeed, unlike the English, the framers "
8519 "reinforced that objective, by requiring that copyrights extend \"to "
8523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8524 #: freeculture.xml:6455
8526 "The design of the Progress Clause reflects something about the "
8527 "Constitution's design in general. To avoid a problem, the framers built "
8528 "structure. To prevent the concentrated power of publishers, they built a "
8529 "structure that kept copyrights away from publishers and kept them short. To "
8530 "prevent the concentrated power of a church, they banned the federal "
8531 "government from establishing a church. To prevent concentrating power in the "
8532 "federal government, they built structures to reinforce the power of the "
8533 "states—including the Senate, whose members were at the time selected "
8534 "by the states, and an electoral college, also selected by the states, to "
8535 "select the president. In each case, a <emphasis>structure</emphasis> built "
8536 "checks and balances into the constitutional frame, structured to prevent "
8537 "otherwise inevitable concentrations of power."
8540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8541 #: freeculture.xml:6470
8543 "I doubt the framers would recognize the regulation we call \"copyright\" "
8544 "today. The scope of that regulation is far beyond anything they ever "
8545 "considered. To begin to understand what they did, we need to put our "
8546 "\"copyright\" in context: We need to see how it has changed in the 210 years "
8547 "since they first struck its design."
8551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8552 #: freeculture.xml:6477
8554 "Some of these changes come from the law: some in light of changes in "
8555 "technology, and some in light of changes in technology given a particular "
8556 "concentration of market power. In terms of our model, we started here:"
8559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8560 #: freeculture.xml:6488
8561 msgid "We will end here:"
8564 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8565 #: freeculture.xml:6491
8566 msgid ""Copyright" today."
8569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8570 #: freeculture.xml:6492
8571 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1442.png\"></graphic>"
8575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8576 #: freeculture.xml:6495
8577 msgid "Let me explain how."
8580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8581 #: freeculture.xml:6500
8582 msgid "Law: Duration"
8585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8586 #: freeculture.xml:6516
8587 msgid "Crosskey, William W."
8590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8591 #: freeculture.xml:6510
8593 "William W. Crosskey, <citetitle>Politics and the Constitution in the History "
8594 "of the United States</citetitle> (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953), "
8595 "vol. 1, 485–86: \"extinguish[ing], by plain implication of `the "
8596 "supreme Law of the Land,' <emphasis>the perpetual rights which authors had, "
8597 "or were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law</emphasis>\" "
8598 "(emphasis added). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8602 #: freeculture.xml:6502
8604 "When the first Congress enacted laws to protect creative property, it faced "
8605 "the same uncertainty about the status of creative property that the English "
8606 "had confronted in 1774. Many states had passed laws protecting creative "
8607 "property, and some believed that these laws simply supplemented common law "
8608 "rights that already protected creative authorship.<placeholder "
8609 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This meant that there was no guaranteed public "
8610 "domain in the United States in 1790. If copyrights were protected by the "
8611 "common law, then there was no simple way to know whether a work published in "
8612 "the United States was controlled or free. Just as in England, this lingering "
8613 "uncertainty would make it hard for publishers to rely upon a public domain "
8614 "to reprint and distribute works."
8617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8618 #: freeculture.xml:6526
8620 "That uncertainty ended after Congress passed legislation granting "
8621 "copyrights. Because federal law overrides any contrary state law, federal "
8622 "protections for copyrighted works displaced any state law protections. Just "
8623 "as in England the Statute of Anne eventually meant that the copyrights for "
8624 "all English works expired, a federal statute meant that any state copyrights "
8628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8629 #: freeculture.xml:6534
8631 "In 1790, Congress enacted the first copyright law. It created a federal "
8632 "copyright and secured that copyright for fourteen years. If the author was "
8633 "alive at the end of that fourteen years, then he could opt to renew the "
8634 "copyright for another fourteen years. If he did not renew the copyright, his "
8635 "work passed into the public domain."
8639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8640 #: freeculture.xml:6549
8642 "Although 13,000 titles were published in the United States from 1790 to "
8643 "1799, only 556 copyright registrations were filed; John Tebbel, <citetitle>A "
8644 "History of Book Publishing in the United States</citetitle>, vol. 1, "
8645 "<citetitle>The Creation of an Industry, 1630–1865</citetitle> (New "
8646 "York: Bowker, 1972), 141. Of the 21,000 imprints recorded before 1790, only "
8647 "twelve were copyrighted under the 1790 act; William J. Maher, "
8648 "<citetitle>Copyright Term, Retrospective Extension and the Copyright Law of "
8649 "1790 in Historical Context</citetitle>, 7–10 (2002), available at "
8650 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #25</ulink>. Thus, the "
8651 "overwhelming majority of works fell immediately into the public domain. Even "
8652 "those works that were copyrighted fell into the public domain quickly, "
8653 "because the term of copyright was short. The initial term of copyright was "
8654 "fourteen years, with the option of renewal for an additional fourteen "
8655 "years. Copyright Act of May 31, 1790, §1, 1 stat. 124."
8658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8659 #: freeculture.xml:6541
8661 "While there were many works created in the United States in the first ten "
8662 "years of the Republic, only 5 percent of the works were actually registered "
8663 "under the federal copyright regime. Of all the work created in the United "
8664 "States both before 1790 and from 1790 through 1800, 95 percent immediately "
8665 "passed into the public domain; the balance would pass into the pubic domain "
8666 "within twenty-eight years at most, and more likely within fourteen "
8667 "years.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8672 #: freeculture.xml:6565
8674 "This system of renewal was a crucial part of the American system of "
8675 "copyright. It assured that the maximum terms of copyright would be granted "
8676 "only for works where they were wanted. After the initial term of fourteen "
8677 "years, if it wasn't worth it to an author to renew his copyright, then it "
8678 "wasn't worth it to society to insist on the copyright, either."
8682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8683 #: freeculture.xml:6580
8685 "Few copyright holders ever chose to renew their copyrights. For instance, of "
8686 "the 25,006 copyrights registered in 1883, only 894 were renewed in 1910. For "
8687 "a year-by-year analysis of copyright renewal rates, see Barbara A. Ringer, "
8688 "\"Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright,\" <citetitle>Studies on "
8689 "Copyright</citetitle>, vol. 1 (New York: Practicing Law Institute, 1963), "
8690 "618. For a more recent and comprehensive analysis, see William M. Landes and "
8691 "Richard A. Posner, \"Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,\" "
8692 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 471, "
8693 "498–501, and accompanying figures."
8696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8697 #: freeculture.xml:6574
8699 "Fourteen years may not seem long to us, but for the vast majority of "
8700 "copyright owners at that time, it was long enough: Only a small minority of "
8701 "them renewed their copyright after fourteen years; the balance allowed their "
8702 "work to pass into the public domain.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
8707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8708 #: freeculture.xml:6595
8709 msgid "See Ringer, ch. 9, n. 2."
8712 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8713 #: freeculture.xml:6591
8715 "Even today, this structure would make sense. Most creative work has an "
8716 "actual commercial life of just a couple of years. Most books fall out of "
8717 "print after one year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When that "
8718 "happens, the used books are traded free of copyright regulation. Thus the "
8719 "books are no longer <emphasis>effectively</emphasis> controlled by "
8720 "copyright. The only practical commercial use of the books at that time is to "
8721 "sell the books as used books; that use—because it does not involve "
8722 "publication—is effectively free."
8725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8726 #: freeculture.xml:6603
8728 "In the first hundred years of the Republic, the term of copyright was "
8729 "changed once. In 1831, the term was increased from a maximum of 28 years to "
8730 "a maximum of 42 by increasing the initial term of copyright from 14 years to "
8731 "28 years. In the next fifty years of the Republic, the term increased once "
8732 "again. In 1909, Congress extended the renewal term of 14 years to 28 years, "
8733 "setting a maximum term of 56 years."
8736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8737 #: freeculture.xml:6611
8739 "Then, beginning in 1962, Congress started a practice that has defined "
8740 "copyright law since. Eleven times in the last forty years, Congress has "
8741 "extended the terms of existing copyrights; twice in those forty years, "
8742 "Congress extended the term of future copyrights. Initially, the extensions "
8743 "of existing copyrights were short, a mere one to two years. In 1976, "
8744 "Congress extended all existing copyrights by nineteen years. And in 1998, "
8745 "in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Congress extended the term "
8746 "of existing and future copyrights by twenty years."
8750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8751 #: freeculture.xml:6621
8753 "The effect of these extensions is simply to toll, or delay, the passing of "
8754 "works into the public domain. This latest extension means that the public "
8755 "domain will have been tolled for thirty-nine out of fifty-five years, or 70 "
8756 "percent of the time since 1962. Thus, in the twenty years after the Sonny "
8757 "Bono Act, while one million patents will pass into the public domain, zero "
8758 "copyrights will pass into the public domain by virtue of the expiration of a "
8762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8763 #: freeculture.xml:6632
8765 "The effect of these extensions has been exacerbated by another, "
8766 "little-noticed change in the copyright law. Remember I said that the framers "
8767 "established a two-part copyright regime, requiring a copyright owner to "
8768 "renew his copyright after an initial term. The requirement of renewal meant "
8769 "that works that no longer needed copyright protection would pass more "
8770 "quickly into the public domain. The works remaining under protection would "
8771 "be those that had some continuing commercial value."
8774 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8775 #: freeculture.xml:6642
8777 "The United States abandoned this sensible system in 1976. For all works "
8778 "created after 1978, there was only one copyright term—the maximum "
8779 "term. For \"natural\" authors, that term was life plus fifty years. For "
8780 "corporations, the term was seventy-five years. Then, in 1992, Congress "
8781 "abandoned the renewal requirement for all works created before 1978. All "
8782 "works still under copyright would be accorded the maximum term then "
8783 "available. After the Sonny Bono Act, that term was ninety-five years."
8786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8787 #: freeculture.xml:6652
8789 "This change meant that American law no longer had an automatic way to assure "
8790 "that works that were no longer exploited passed into the public domain. And "
8791 "indeed, after these changes, it is unclear whether it is even possible to "
8792 "put works into the public domain. The public domain is orphaned by these "
8793 "changes in copyright law. Despite the requirement that terms be \"limited,\" "
8794 "we have no evidence that anything will limit them."
8798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8799 #: freeculture.xml:6669
8801 "These statistics are understated. Between the years 1910 and 1962 (the first "
8802 "year the renewal term was extended), the average term was never more than "
8803 "thirty-two years, and averaged thirty years. See Landes and Posner, "
8804 "\"Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,\" loc. cit."
8807 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8808 #: freeculture.xml:6661
8810 "The effect of these changes on the average duration of copyright is "
8811 "dramatic. In 1973, more than 85 percent of copyright owners failed to renew "
8812 "their copyright. That meant that the average term of copyright in 1973 was "
8813 "just 32.2 years. Because of the elimination of the renewal requirement, the "
8814 "average term of copyright is now the maximum term. In thirty years, then, "
8815 "the average term has tripled, from 32.2 years to 95 years.<placeholder "
8816 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8820 #: freeculture.xml:6678
8824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8825 #: freeculture.xml:6680
8827 "The \"scope\" of a copyright is the range of rights granted by the law. The "
8828 "scope of American copyright has changed dramatically. Those changes are not "
8829 "necessarily bad. But we should understand the extent of the changes if we're "
8830 "to keep this debate in context."
8833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8834 #: freeculture.xml:6686
8836 "In 1790, that scope was very narrow. Copyright covered only \"maps, charts, "
8837 "and books.\" That means it didn't cover, for example, music or "
8838 "architecture. More significantly, the right granted by a copyright gave the "
8839 "author the exclusive right to \"publish\" copyrighted works. That means "
8840 "someone else violated the copyright only if he republished the work without "
8841 "the copyright owner's permission. Finally, the right granted by a copyright "
8842 "was an exclusive right to that particular book. The right did not extend to "
8843 "what lawyers call \"derivative works.\" It would not, therefore, interfere "
8844 "with the right of someone other than the author to translate a copyrighted "
8845 "book, or to adapt the story to a different form (such as a drama based on a "
8849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8850 #: freeculture.xml:6699
8852 "This, too, has changed dramatically. While the contours of copyright today "
8853 "are extremely hard to describe simply, in general terms, the right covers "
8854 "practically any creative work that is reduced to a tangible form. It covers "
8855 "music as well as architecture, drama as well as computer programs. It gives "
8856 "the copyright owner of that creative work not only the exclusive right to "
8857 "\"publish\" the work, but also the exclusive right of control over any "
8858 "\"copies\" of that work. And most significant for our purposes here, the "
8859 "right gives the copyright owner control over not only his or her particular "
8860 "work, but also any \"derivative work\" that might grow out of the original "
8861 "work. In this way, the right covers more creative work, protects the "
8862 "creative work more broadly, and protects works that are based in a "
8863 "significant way on the initial creative work."
8867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8868 #: freeculture.xml:6714
8870 "At the same time that the scope of copyright has expanded, procedural "
8871 "limitations on the right have been relaxed. I've already described the "
8872 "complete removal of the renewal requirement in 1992. In addition to the "
8873 "renewal requirement, for most of the history of American copyright law, "
8874 "there was a requirement that a work be registered before it could receive "
8875 "the protection of a copyright. There was also a requirement that any "
8876 "copyrighted work be marked either with that famous © or the word "
8877 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis>. And for most of the history of American "
8878 "copyright law, there was a requirement that works be deposited with the "
8879 "government before a copyright could be secured."
8882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8883 #: freeculture.xml:6728
8885 "The reason for the registration requirement was the sensible understanding "
8886 "that for most works, no copyright was required. Again, in the first ten "
8887 "years of the Republic, 95 percent of works eligible for copyright were never "
8888 "copyrighted. Thus, the rule reflected the norm: Most works apparently didn't "
8889 "need copyright, so registration narrowed the regulation of the law to the "
8890 "few that did. The same reasoning justified the requirement that a work be "
8891 "marked as copyrighted—that way it was easy to know whether a copyright "
8892 "was being claimed. The requirement that works be deposited was to assure "
8893 "that after the copyright expired, there would be a copy of the work "
8894 "somewhere so that it could be copied by others without locating the original "
8898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8899 #: freeculture.xml:6742
8901 "All of these \"formalities\" were abolished in the American system when we "
8902 "decided to follow European copyright law. There is no requirement that you "
8903 "register a work to get a copyright; the copyright now is automatic; the "
8904 "copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with a ©; and the "
8905 "copyright exists whether or not you actually make a copy available for "
8909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8910 #: freeculture.xml:6750
8911 msgid "Consider a practical example to understand the scope of these differences."
8915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8916 #: freeculture.xml:6761
8918 "See Thomas Bender and David Sampliner, \"Poets, Pirates, and the Creation of "
8919 "American Literature,\" 29 <citetitle>New York University Journal of "
8920 "International Law and Politics</citetitle> 255 (1997), and James Gilraeth, "
8921 "ed., Federal Copyright Records, 1790–1800 (U.S. G.P.O., 1987)."
8924 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8925 #: freeculture.xml:6754
8927 "If, in 1790, you wrote a book and you were one of the 5 percent who actually "
8928 "copyrighted that book, then the copyright law protected you against another "
8929 "publisher's taking your book and republishing it without your "
8930 "permission. The aim of the act was to regulate publishers so as to prevent "
8931 "that kind of unfair competition. In 1790, there were 174 publishers in the "
8932 "United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Copyright Act "
8933 "was thus a tiny regulation of a tiny proportion of a tiny part of the "
8934 "creative market in the United States—publishers."
8938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8939 #: freeculture.xml:6773
8941 "The act left other creators totally unregulated. If I copied your poem by "
8942 "hand, over and over again, as a way to learn it by heart, my act was totally "
8943 "unregulated by the 1790 act. If I took your novel and made a play based upon "
8944 "it, or if I translated it or abridged it, none of those activities were "
8945 "regulated by the original copyright act. These creative activities remained "
8946 "free, while the activities of publishers were restrained."
8949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8950 #: freeculture.xml:6782
8952 "Today the story is very different: If you write a book, your book is "
8953 "automatically protected. Indeed, not just your book. Every e-mail, every "
8954 "note to your spouse, every doodle, <emphasis>every</emphasis> creative act "
8955 "that's reduced to a tangible form—all of this is automatically "
8956 "copyrighted. There is no need to register or mark your work. The protection "
8957 "follows the creation, not the steps you take to protect it."
8960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8961 #: freeculture.xml:6791
8963 "That protection gives you the right (subject to a narrow range of fair use "
8964 "exceptions) to control how others copy the work, whether they copy it to "
8965 "republish it or to share an excerpt."
8968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8969 #: freeculture.xml:6796
8971 "That much is the obvious part. Any system of copyright would control "
8972 "competing publishing. But there's a second part to the copyright of today "
8973 "that is not at all obvious. This is the protection of \"derivative rights.\" "
8974 "If you write a book, no one can make a movie out of your book without "
8975 "permission. No one can translate it without permission. CliffsNotes can't "
8976 "make an abridgment unless permission is granted. All of these derivative "
8977 "uses of your original work are controlled by the copyright holder. The "
8978 "copyright, in other words, is now not just an exclusive right to your "
8979 "writings, but an exclusive right to your writings and a large proportion of "
8980 "the writings inspired by them."
8983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8984 #: freeculture.xml:6810
8986 "It is this derivative right that would seem most bizarre to our framers, "
8987 "though it has become second nature to us. Initially, this expansion was "
8988 "created to deal with obvious evasions of a narrower copyright. If I write a "
8989 "book, can you change one word and then claim a copyright in a new and "
8990 "different book? Obviously that would make a joke of the copyright, so the "
8991 "law was properly expanded to include those slight modifications as well as "
8992 "the verbatim original work."
8995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8996 #: freeculture.xml:6832
8998 "Jonathan Zittrain, \"The Copyright Cage,\" <citetitle>Legal "
8999 "Affairs</citetitle>, July/August 2003, available at <ulink "
9000 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #26</ulink>. <placeholder "
9001 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9005 #: freeculture.xml:6822
9007 "In preventing that joke, the law created an astonishing power within a free "
9008 "culture—at least, it's astonishing when you understand that the law "
9009 "applies not just to the commercial publisher but to anyone with a "
9010 "computer. I understand the wrong in duplicating and selling someone else's "
9011 "work. But whatever <emphasis>that</emphasis> wrong is, transforming someone "
9012 "else's work is a different wrong. Some view transformation as no wrong at "
9013 "all—they believe that our law, as the framers penned it, should not "
9014 "protect derivative rights at all.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9015 "Whether or not you go that far, it seems plain that whatever wrong is "
9016 "involved is fundamentally different from the wrong of direct piracy."
9020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9021 #: freeculture.xml:6847
9023 "Professor Rubenfeld has presented a powerful constitutional argument about "
9024 "the difference that copyright law should draw (from the perspective of the "
9025 "First Amendment) between mere \"copies\" and derivative works. See Jed "
9026 "Rubenfeld, \"The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright's Constitutionality,\" "
9027 "<citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 112 (2002): 1–60 (see "
9028 "especially pp. 53–59)."
9031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9032 #: freeculture.xml:6842
9034 "Yet copyright law treats these two different wrongs in the same way. I can "
9035 "go to court and get an injunction against your pirating my book. I can go to "
9036 "court and get an injunction against your transformative use of my "
9037 "book.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These two different uses of "
9038 "my creative work are treated the same."
9041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9042 #: freeculture.xml:6858
9044 "This again may seem right to you. If I wrote a book, then why should you be "
9045 "able to write a movie that takes my story and makes money from it without "
9046 "paying me or crediting me? Or if Disney creates a creature called \"Mickey "
9047 "Mouse,\" why should you be able to make Mickey Mouse toys and be the one to "
9048 "trade on the value that Disney originally created?"
9051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9052 #: freeculture.xml:6866
9054 "These are good arguments, and, in general, my point is not that the "
9055 "derivative right is unjustified. My aim just now is much narrower: simply to "
9056 "make clear that this expansion is a significant change from the rights "
9057 "originally granted."
9060 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9061 #: freeculture.xml:6873
9062 msgid "Law and Architecture: Reach"
9066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9067 #: freeculture.xml:6880
9069 "This is a simplification of the law, but not much of one. The law certainly "
9070 "regulates more than \"copies\"—a public performance of a copyrighted "
9071 "song, for example, is regulated even though performance per se doesn't make "
9072 "a copy; 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 106(4). And it "
9073 "certainly sometimes doesn't regulate a \"copy\"; 17 <citetitle>United States "
9074 "Code</citetitle>, section 112(a). But the presumption under the existing law "
9075 "(which regulates \"copies;\" 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, "
9076 "section 102) is that if there is a copy, there is a right."
9079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9080 #: freeculture.xml:6875
9082 "Whereas originally the law regulated only publishers, the change in "
9083 "copyright's scope means that the law today regulates publishers, users, and "
9084 "authors. It regulates them because all three are capable of making copies, "
9085 "and the core of the regulation of copyright law is copies.<placeholder "
9086 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9090 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9091 #: freeculture.xml:6892
9093 "\"Copies.\" That certainly sounds like the obvious thing for "
9094 "<emphasis>copy</emphasis>right law to regulate. But as with Jack Valenti's "
9095 "argument at the start of this chapter, that \"creative property\" deserves "
9096 "the \"same rights\" as all other property, it is the "
9097 "<emphasis>obvious</emphasis> that we need to be most careful about. For "
9098 "while it may be obvious that in the world before the Internet, copies were "
9099 "the obvious trigger for copyright law, upon reflection, it should be obvious "
9100 "that in the world with the Internet, copies should <emphasis>not</emphasis> "
9101 "be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not "
9102 "<emphasis>always</emphasis> be the trigger for copyright law."
9106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9107 #: freeculture.xml:6910
9109 "Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we "
9110 "should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for its "
9111 "extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of "
9112 "arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology."
9115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9116 #: freeculture.xml:6905
9118 "This is perhaps the central claim of this book, so let me take this very "
9119 "slowly so that the point is not easily missed. My claim is that the Internet "
9120 "should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of "
9121 "copyright automatically applies,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9122 "because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never "
9123 "contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright "
9127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9128 #: freeculture.xml:6921
9130 "We can see this point abstractly by beginning with this largely empty "
9134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9135 #: freeculture.xml:6925
9136 msgid "All potential uses of a book."
9139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9140 #: freeculture.xml:6926
9141 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1521.png\"></graphic>"
9145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9146 #: freeculture.xml:6930
9148 "Think about a book in real space, and imagine this circle to represent all "
9149 "its potential <emphasis>uses</emphasis>. Most of these uses are unregulated "
9150 "by copyright law, because the uses don't create a copy. If you read a book, "
9151 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you give someone the book, "
9152 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you resell a book, that act "
9153 "is not regulated (copyright law expressly states that after the first sale "
9154 "of a book, the copyright owner can impose no further conditions on the "
9155 "disposition of the book). If you sleep on the book or use it to hold up a "
9156 "lamp or let your puppy chew it up, those acts are not regulated by copyright "
9157 "law, because those acts do not make a copy."
9160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9161 #: freeculture.xml:6943
9162 msgid "Examples of unregulated uses of a book."
9165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9166 #: freeculture.xml:6944
9167 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1531.png\"></graphic>"
9170 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9171 #: freeculture.xml:6947
9173 "Obviously, however, some uses of a copyrighted book are regulated by "
9174 "copyright law. Republishing the book, for example, makes a copy. It is "
9175 "therefore regulated by copyright law. Indeed, this particular use stands at "
9176 "the core of this circle of possible uses of a copyrighted work. It is the "
9177 "paradigmatic use properly regulated by copyright regulation (see first "
9178 "diagram on next page)."
9181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9182 #: freeculture.xml:6955
9184 "Finally, there is a tiny sliver of otherwise regulated copying uses that "
9185 "remain unregulated because the law considers these \"fair uses.\""
9188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9189 #: freeculture.xml:6960
9191 "Republishing stands at the core of this circle of possible uses of a "
9195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9196 #: freeculture.xml:6961
9197 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1541.png\"></graphic>"
9200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9201 #: freeculture.xml:6964
9203 "These are uses that themselves involve copying, but which the law treats as "
9204 "unregulated because public policy demands that they remain unregulated. You "
9205 "are free to quote from this book, even in a review that is quite negative, "
9206 "without my permission, even though that quoting makes a copy. That copy "
9207 "would ordinarily give the copyright owner the exclusive right to say whether "
9208 "the copy is allowed or not, but the law denies the owner any exclusive right "
9209 "over such \"fair uses\" for public policy (and possibly First Amendment) "
9213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9214 #: freeculture.xml:6974
9215 msgid "Unregulated copying considered "fair uses.""
9218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9219 #: freeculture.xml:6975
9220 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1542.png\"></graphic>"
9223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9224 #: freeculture.xml:6979
9226 "Uses that before were presumptively unregulated are now presumptively "
9230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9231 #: freeculture.xml:6980
9232 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1551.png\"></graphic>"
9236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9237 #: freeculture.xml:6984
9239 "In real space, then, the possible uses of a book are divided into three "
9240 "sorts: (1) unregulated uses, (2) regulated uses, and (3) regulated uses that "
9241 "are nonetheless deemed \"fair\" regardless of the copyright owner's views."
9245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9246 #: freeculture.xml:6992
9248 "I don't mean \"nature\" in the sense that it couldn't be different, but "
9249 "rather that its present instantiation entails a copy. Optical networks need "
9250 "not make copies of content they transmit, and a digital network could be "
9251 "designed to delete anything it copies so that the same number of copies "
9255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9256 #: freeculture.xml:6989
9258 "Enter the Internet—a distributed, digital network where every use of a "
9259 "copyrighted work produces a copy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9260 "And because of this single, arbitrary feature of the design of a digital "
9261 "network, the scope of category 1 changes dramatically. Uses that before were "
9262 "presumptively unregulated are now presumptively regulated. No longer is "
9263 "there a set of presumptively unregulated uses that define a freedom "
9264 "associated with a copyrighted work. Instead, each use is now subject to the "
9265 "copyright, because each use also makes a copy—category 1 gets sucked "
9266 "into category 2. And those who would defend the unregulated uses of "
9267 "copyrighted work must look exclusively to category 3, fair uses, to bear the "
9268 "burden of this shift."
9272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9273 #: freeculture.xml:7010
9275 "So let's be very specific to make this general point clear. Before the "
9276 "Internet, if you purchased a book and read it ten times, there would be no "
9277 "plausible <emphasis>copyright</emphasis>-related argument that the copyright "
9278 "owner could make to control that use of her book. Copyright law would have "
9279 "nothing to say about whether you read the book once, ten times, or every "
9280 "night before you went to bed. None of those instances of "
9281 "use—reading— could be regulated by copyright law because none of "
9282 "those uses produced a copy."
9285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9286 #: freeculture.xml:7022
9288 "But the same book as an e-book is effectively governed by a different set of "
9289 "rules. Now if the copyright owner says you may read the book only once or "
9290 "only once a month, then <emphasis>copyright law</emphasis> would aid the "
9291 "copyright owner in exercising this degree of control, because of the "
9292 "accidental feature of copyright law that triggers its application upon there "
9293 "being a copy. Now if you read the book ten times and the license says you "
9294 "may read it only five times, then whenever you read the book (or any portion "
9295 "of it) beyond the fifth time, you are making a copy of the book contrary to "
9296 "the copyright owner's wish."
9299 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9300 #: freeculture.xml:7034
9302 "There are some people who think this makes perfect sense. My aim just now is "
9303 "not to argue about whether it makes sense or not. My aim is only to make "
9304 "clear the change. Once you see this point, a few other points also become "
9308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9309 #: freeculture.xml:7040
9311 "First, making category 1 disappear is not anything any policy maker ever "
9312 "intended. Congress did not think through the collapse of the presumptively "
9313 "unregulated uses of copyrighted works. There is no evidence at all that "
9314 "policy makers had this idea in mind when they allowed our policy here to "
9315 "shift. Unregulated uses were an important part of free culture before the "
9319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9320 #: freeculture.xml:7048
9322 "Second, this shift is especially troubling in the context of transformative "
9323 "uses of creative content. Again, we can all understand the wrong in "
9324 "commercial piracy. But the law now purports to regulate "
9325 "<emphasis>any</emphasis> transformation you make of creative work using a "
9326 "machine. \"Copy and paste\" and \"cut and paste\" become crimes. Tinkering "
9327 "with a story and releasing it to others exposes the tinkerer to at least a "
9328 "requirement of justification. However troubling the expansion with respect "
9329 "to copying a particular work, it is extraordinarily troubling with respect "
9330 "to transformative uses of creative work."
9334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9335 #: freeculture.xml:7060
9337 "Third, this shift from category 1 to category 2 puts an extraordinary burden "
9338 "on category 3 (\"fair use\") that fair use never before had to bear. If a "
9339 "copyright owner now tried to control how many times I could read a book "
9340 "on-line, the natural response would be to argue that this is a violation of "
9341 "my fair use rights. But there has never been any litigation about whether I "
9342 "have a fair use right to read, because before the Internet, reading did not "
9343 "trigger the application of copyright law and hence the need for a fair use "
9344 "defense. The right to read was effectively protected before because reading "
9345 "was not regulated."
9348 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9349 #: freeculture.xml:7074
9351 "This point about fair use is totally ignored, even by advocates for free "
9352 "culture. We have been cornered into arguing that our rights depend upon fair "
9353 "use—never even addressing the earlier question about the expansion in "
9354 "effective regulation. A thin protection grounded in fair use makes sense "
9355 "when the vast majority of uses are <emphasis>unregulated</emphasis>. But "
9356 "when everything becomes presumptively regulated, then the protections of "
9357 "fair use are not enough."
9360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9361 #: freeculture.xml:7084
9363 "The case of Video Pipeline is a good example. Video Pipeline was in the "
9364 "business of making \"trailer\" advertisements for movies available to video "
9365 "stores. The video stores displayed the trailers as a way to sell "
9366 "videos. Video Pipeline got the trailers from the film distributors, put the "
9367 "trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores."
9370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9371 #: freeculture.xml:7091
9373 "The company did this for about fifteen years. Then, in 1997, it began to "
9374 "think about the Internet as another way to distribute these previews. The "
9375 "idea was to expand their \"selling by sampling\" technique by giving on-line "
9376 "stores the same ability to enable \"browsing.\" Just as in a bookstore you "
9377 "can read a few pages of a book before you buy the book, so, too, you would "
9378 "be able to sample a bit from the movie on-line before you bought it."
9382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9383 #: freeculture.xml:7100
9385 "In 1998, Video Pipeline informed Disney and other film distributors that it "
9386 "intended to distribute the trailers through the Internet (rather than "
9387 "sending the tapes) to distributors of their videos. Two years later, Disney "
9388 "told Video Pipeline to stop. The owner of Video Pipeline asked Disney to "
9389 "talk about the matter—he had built a business on distributing this "
9390 "content as a way to help sell Disney films; he had customers who depended "
9391 "upon his delivering this content. Disney would agree to talk only if Video "
9392 "Pipeline stopped the distribution immediately. Video Pipeline thought it "
9393 "was within their \"fair use\" rights to distribute the clips as they had. So "
9394 "they filed a lawsuit to ask the court to declare that these rights were in "
9395 "fact their rights."
9398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9399 #: freeculture.xml:7115
9401 "Disney countersued—for $100 million in damages. Those damages were "
9402 "predicated upon a claim that Video Pipeline had \"willfully infringed\" on "
9403 "Disney's copyright. When a court makes a finding of willful infringement, it "
9404 "can award damages not on the basis of the actual harm to the copyright "
9405 "owner, but on the basis of an amount set in the statute. Because Video "
9406 "Pipeline had distributed seven hundred clips of Disney movies to enable "
9407 "video stores to sell copies of those movies, Disney was now suing Video "
9408 "Pipeline for $100 million."
9411 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9412 #: freeculture.xml:7125
9414 "Disney has the right to control its property, of course. But the video "
9415 "stores that were selling Disney's films also had some sort of right to be "
9416 "able to sell the films that they had bought from Disney. Disney's claim in "
9417 "court was that the stores were allowed to sell the films and they were "
9418 "permitted to list the titles of the films they were selling, but they were "
9419 "not allowed to show clips of the films as a way of selling them without "
9420 "Disney's permission."
9423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9424 #: freeculture.xml:7134
9426 "Now, you might think this is a close case, and I think the courts would "
9427 "consider it a close case. My point here is to map the change that gives "
9428 "Disney this power. Before the Internet, Disney couldn't really control how "
9429 "people got access to their content. Once a video was in the marketplace, the "
9430 "\"first-sale doctrine\" would free the seller to use the video as he wished, "
9431 "including showing portions of it in order to engender sales of the entire "
9432 "movie video. But with the Internet, it becomes possible for Disney to "
9433 "centralize control over access to this content. Because each use of the "
9434 "Internet produces a copy, use on the Internet becomes subject to the "
9435 "copyright owner's control. The technology expands the scope of effective "
9436 "control, because the technology builds a copy into every transaction."
9440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9441 #: freeculture.xml:7149
9443 "No doubt, a potential is not yet an abuse, and so the potential for control "
9444 "is not yet the abuse of control. Barnes & Noble has the right to say you "
9445 "can't touch a book in their store; property law gives them that right. But "
9446 "the market effectively protects against that abuse. If Barnes & Noble "
9447 "banned browsing, then consumers would choose other bookstores. Competition "
9448 "protects against the extremes. And it may well be (my argument so far does "
9449 "not even question this) that competition would prevent any similar danger "
9450 "when it comes to copyright. Sure, publishers exercising the rights that "
9451 "authors have assigned to them might try to regulate how many times you read "
9452 "a book, or try to stop you from sharing the book with anyone. But in a "
9453 "competitive market such as the book market, the dangers of this happening "
9457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9458 #: freeculture.xml:7164
9460 "Again, my aim so far is simply to map the changes that this changed "
9461 "architecture enables. Enabling technology to enforce the control of "
9462 "copyright means that the control of copyright is no longer defined by "
9463 "balanced policy. The control of copyright is simply what private owners "
9464 "choose. In some contexts, at least, that fact is harmless. But in some "
9465 "contexts it is a recipe for disaster."
9468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9469 #: freeculture.xml:7173
9470 msgid "Architecture and Law: Force"
9473 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9474 #: freeculture.xml:7175
9476 "The disappearance of unregulated uses would be change enough, but a second "
9477 "important change brought about by the Internet magnifies its "
9478 "significance. This second change does not affect the reach of copyright "
9479 "regulation; it affects how such regulation is enforced."
9482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9483 #: freeculture.xml:7181
9485 "In the world before digital technology, it was generally the law that "
9486 "controlled whether and how someone was regulated by copyright law. The law, "
9487 "meaning a court, meaning a judge: In the end, it was a human, trained in the "
9488 "tradition of the law and cognizant of the balances that tradition embraced, "
9489 "who said whether and how the law would restrict your freedom."
9492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9493 #: freeculture.xml:7188
9497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9498 #: freeculture.xml:7190 freeculture.xml:7369
9499 msgid "Marx Brothers"
9503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9504 #: freeculture.xml:7204
9506 "See David Lange, \"Recognizing the Public Domain,\" <citetitle>Law and "
9507 "Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 44 (1981): 172–73."
9510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9511 #: freeculture.xml:7196
9513 "There's a famous story about a battle between the Marx Brothers and Warner "
9514 "Brothers. The Marxes intended to make a parody of "
9515 "<citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>. Warner Brothers objected. They wrote a "
9516 "nasty letter to the Marxes, warning them that there would be serious legal "
9517 "consequences if they went forward with their plan.<placeholder "
9518 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9522 #: freeculture.xml:7213
9524 "Ibid. See also Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and "
9525 "Copywrongs</citetitle>, 1–3. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
9529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9530 #: freeculture.xml:7209
9532 "This led the Marx Brothers to respond in kind. They warned Warner Brothers "
9533 "that the Marx Brothers \"were brothers long before you were.\"<placeholder "
9534 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Marx Brothers therefore owned the word "
9535 "<citetitle>brothers</citetitle>, and if Warner Brothers insisted on trying "
9536 "to control <citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>, then the Marx Brothers would "
9537 "insist on control over <citetitle>brothers</citetitle>."
9540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9541 #: freeculture.xml:7223
9543 "An absurd and hollow threat, of course, because Warner Brothers, like the "
9544 "Marx Brothers, knew that no court would ever enforce such a silly "
9545 "claim. This extremism was irrelevant to the real freedoms anyone (including "
9546 "Warner Brothers) enjoyed."
9549 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9550 #: freeculture.xml:7229
9552 "On the Internet, however, there is no check on silly rules, because on the "
9553 "Internet, increasingly, rules are enforced not by a human but by a machine: "
9554 "Increasingly, the rules of copyright law, as interpreted by the copyright "
9555 "owner, get built into the technology that delivers copyrighted content. It "
9556 "is code, rather than law, that rules. And the problem with code regulations "
9557 "is that, unlike law, code has no shame. Code would not get the humor of the "
9558 "Marx Brothers. The consequence of that is not at all funny."
9561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9562 #: freeculture.xml:7242
9563 msgid "Adobe eBook Reader"
9566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9567 #: freeculture.xml:7245
9568 msgid "Consider the life of my Adobe eBook Reader."
9571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9572 #: freeculture.xml:7248
9574 "An e-book is a book delivered in electronic form. An Adobe eBook is not a "
9575 "book that Adobe has published; Adobe simply produces the software that "
9576 "publishers use to deliver e-books. It provides the technology, and the "
9577 "publisher delivers the content by using the technology."
9580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9581 #: freeculture.xml:7255
9582 msgid "On the next page is a picture of an old version of my Adobe eBook Reader."
9586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9587 #: freeculture.xml:7259
9589 "As you can see, I have a small collection of e-books within this e-book "
9590 "library. Some of these books reproduce content that is in the public domain: "
9591 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, for example, is in the public domain. "
9592 "Some of them reproduce content that is not in the public domain: My own book "
9593 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> is not yet within the public "
9594 "domain. Consider <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> first. If you click on "
9595 "my e-book copy of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, you'll see a fancy "
9596 "cover, and then a button at the bottom called Permissions."
9599 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9600 #: freeculture.xml:7272
9601 msgid "Picture of an old version of Adobe eBook Reader"
9604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9605 #: freeculture.xml:7273
9606 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1611.png\"></graphic>"
9609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9610 #: freeculture.xml:7276
9612 "If you click on the Permissions button, you'll see a list of the permissions "
9613 "that the publisher purports to grant with this book."
9616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9617 #: freeculture.xml:7280
9618 msgid "List of the permissions that the publisher purports to grant."
9621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9622 #: freeculture.xml:7281
9623 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1612.png\"></graphic>"
9627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9628 #: freeculture.xml:7285
9630 "According to my eBook Reader, I have the permission to copy to the clipboard "
9631 "of the computer ten text selections every ten days. (So far, I've copied no "
9632 "text to the clipboard.) I also have the permission to print ten pages from "
9633 "the book every ten days. Lastly, I have the permission to use the Read Aloud "
9634 "button to hear <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> read aloud through the "
9638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9639 #: freeculture.xml:7295
9643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9644 #: freeculture.xml:7296
9645 msgid "<citetitle>Politics</citetitle>, (Aristotle)"
9648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9649 #: freeculture.xml:7293
9651 "Here's the e-book for another work in the public domain (including the "
9652 "translation): Aristotle's <citetitle>Politics</citetitle>. <placeholder "
9653 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
9656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9657 #: freeculture.xml:7299
9658 msgid "E-book of Aristotle;s "Politics""
9661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9662 #: freeculture.xml:7300
9663 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1621.png\"></graphic>"
9666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9667 #: freeculture.xml:7303
9669 "According to its permissions, no printing or copying is permitted at "
9670 "all. But fortunately, you can use the Read Aloud button to hear the book."
9673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9674 #: freeculture.xml:7308
9675 msgid "List of the permissions for Aristotle;s "Politics"."
9678 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9679 #: freeculture.xml:7309
9680 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1622.png\"></graphic>"
9683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9684 #: freeculture.xml:7312
9686 "Finally (and most embarrassingly), here are the permissions for the original "
9687 "e-book version of my last book, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>:"
9690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9691 #: freeculture.xml:7318
9692 msgid "List of the permissions for "The Future of Ideas"."
9695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9696 #: freeculture.xml:7319
9697 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1631.png\"></graphic>"
9700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9701 #: freeculture.xml:7322
9702 msgid "No copying, no printing, and don't you dare try to listen to this book!"
9706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9707 #: freeculture.xml:7332
9709 "In principle, a contract might impose a requirement on me. I might, for "
9710 "example, buy a book from you that includes a contract that says I will read "
9711 "it only three times, or that I promise to read it three times. But that "
9712 "obligation (and the limits for creating that obligation) would come from the "
9713 "contract, not from copyright law, and the obligations of contract would not "
9714 "necessarily pass to anyone who subsequently acquired the book."
9717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9718 #: freeculture.xml:7325
9720 "Now, the Adobe eBook Reader calls these controls \"permissions\"— as "
9721 "if the publisher has the power to control how you use these works. For "
9722 "works under copyright, the copyright owner certainly does have the "
9723 "power—up to the limits of the copyright law. But for work not under "
9724 "copyright, there is no such copyright power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9725 "id=\"0\"/> When my e-book of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> says I have "
9726 "the permission to copy only ten text selections into the memory every ten "
9727 "days, what that really means is that the eBook Reader has enabled the "
9728 "publisher to control how I use the book on my computer, far beyond the "
9729 "control that the law would enable."
9732 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9733 #: freeculture.xml:7347
9735 "The control comes instead from the code—from the technology within "
9736 "which the e-book \"lives.\" Though the e-book says that these are "
9737 "permissions, they are not the sort of \"permissions\" that most of us deal "
9738 "with. When a teenager gets \"permission\" to stay out till midnight, she "
9739 "knows (unless she's Cinderella) that she can stay out till 2 A.M., but will "
9740 "suffer a punishment if she's caught. But when the Adobe eBook Reader says I "
9741 "have the permission to make ten copies of the text into the computer's "
9742 "memory, that means that after I've made ten copies, the computer will not "
9743 "make any more. The same with the printing restrictions: After ten pages, the "
9744 "eBook Reader will not print any more pages. It's the same with the silly "
9745 "restriction that says that you can't use the Read Aloud button to read my "
9746 "book aloud—it's not that the company will sue you if you do; instead, "
9747 "if you push the Read Aloud button with my book, the machine simply won't "
9751 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9752 #: freeculture.xml:7365
9754 "These are <emphasis>controls</emphasis>, not permissions. Imagine a world "
9755 "where the Marx Brothers sold word processing software that, when you tried "
9756 "to type \"Warner Brothers,\" erased \"Brothers\" from the sentence. "
9757 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9761 #: freeculture.xml:7372
9763 "This is the future of copyright law: not so much copyright "
9764 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> as copyright <emphasis>code</emphasis>. The "
9765 "controls over access to content will not be controls that are ratified by "
9766 "courts; the controls over access to content will be controls that are coded "
9767 "by programmers. And whereas the controls that are built into the law are "
9768 "always to be checked by a judge, the controls that are built into the "
9769 "technology have no similar built-in check."
9772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9773 #: freeculture.xml:7381
9775 "How significant is this? Isn't it always possible to get around the controls "
9776 "built into the technology? Software used to be sold with technologies that "
9777 "limited the ability of users to copy the software, but those were trivial "
9778 "protections to defeat. Why won't it be trivial to defeat these protections "
9782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9783 #: freeculture.xml:7388
9785 "We've only scratched the surface of this story. Return to the Adobe eBook "
9789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9790 #: freeculture.xml:7398
9791 msgid "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)"
9794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9795 #: freeculture.xml:7392
9797 "Early in the life of the Adobe eBook Reader, Adobe suffered a public "
9798 "relations nightmare. Among the books that you could download for free on the "
9799 "Adobe site was a copy of <citetitle>Alice's Adventures in "
9800 "Wonderland</citetitle>. This wonderful book is in the public domain. Yet "
9801 "when you clicked on Permissions for that book, you got the following report: "
9802 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9805 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9806 #: freeculture.xml:7401
9807 msgid "List of the permissions for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"."
9810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9811 #: freeculture.xml:7403
9812 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1641.png\"></graphic>"
9816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9817 #: freeculture.xml:7407
9819 "Here was a public domain children's book that you were not allowed to copy, "
9820 "not allowed to lend, not allowed to give, and, as the \"permissions\" "
9821 "indicated, not allowed to \"read aloud\"!"
9824 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9825 #: freeculture.xml:7412
9827 "The public relations nightmare attached to that final permission. For the "
9828 "text did not say that you were not permitted to use the Read Aloud button; "
9829 "it said you did not have the permission to read the book aloud. That led "
9830 "some people to think that Adobe was restricting the right of parents, for "
9831 "example, to read the book to their children, which seemed, to say the least, "
9835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9836 #: freeculture.xml:7420
9838 "Adobe responded quickly that it was absurd to think that it was trying to "
9839 "restrict the right to read a book aloud. Obviously it was only restricting "
9840 "the ability to use the Read Aloud button to have the book read aloud. But "
9841 "the question Adobe never did answer is this: Would Adobe thus agree that a "
9842 "consumer was free to use software to hack around the restrictions built into "
9843 "the eBook Reader? If some company (call it Elcomsoft) developed a program to "
9844 "disable the technological protection built into an Adobe eBook so that a "
9845 "blind person, say, could use a computer to read the book aloud, would Adobe "
9846 "agree that such a use of an eBook Reader was fair? Adobe didn't answer "
9847 "because the answer, however absurd it might seem, is no."
9850 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9851 #: freeculture.xml:7433
9853 "The point is not to blame Adobe. Indeed, Adobe is among the most innovative "
9854 "companies developing strategies to balance open access to content with "
9855 "incentives for companies to innovate. But Adobe's technology enables "
9856 "control, and Adobe has an incentive to defend this control. That incentive "
9857 "is understandable, yet what it creates is often crazy."
9860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9861 #: freeculture.xml:7442
9863 "To see the point in a particularly absurd context, consider a favorite story "
9864 "of mine that makes the same point."
9867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9868 #: freeculture.xml:7446
9869 msgid "Aibo robotic dog"
9872 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9873 #: freeculture.xml:7449
9875 "Consider the robotic dog made by Sony named \"Aibo.\" The Aibo learns "
9876 "tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity and that "
9877 "doesn't leave that much of a mess (at least in your house)."
9881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9882 #: freeculture.xml:7454
9884 "The Aibo is expensive and popular. Fans from around the world have set up "
9885 "clubs to trade stories. One fan in particular set up a Web site to enable "
9886 "information about the Aibo dog to be shared. This fan set up aibopet.com "
9887 "(and aibohack.com, but that resolves to the same site), and on that site he "
9888 "provided information about how to teach an Aibo to do tricks in addition to "
9889 "the ones Sony had taught it."
9892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9893 #: freeculture.xml:7463
9895 "\"Teach\" here has a special meaning. Aibos are just cute computers. You "
9896 "teach a computer how to do something by programming it differently. So to "
9897 "say that aibopet.com was giving information about how to teach the dog to do "
9898 "new tricks is just to say that aibopet.com was giving information to users "
9899 "of the Aibo pet about how to hack their computer \"dog\" to make it do new "
9900 "tricks (thus, aibohack.com)."
9903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9904 #: freeculture.xml:7471
9906 "If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the word "
9907 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly "
9908 "connotation. Nonprogrammers hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in horror "
9909 "movies do even worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call them, "
9910 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much more positive "
9911 "term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the program "
9912 "to do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to do. If you buy a "
9913 "new printer for an old computer, you might find the old computer doesn't "
9914 "run, or \"drive,\" the printer. If you discovered that, you'd later be happy "
9915 "to discover a hack on the Net by someone who has written a driver to enable "
9916 "the computer to drive the printer you just bought."
9919 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9920 #: freeculture.xml:7483
9922 "Some hacks are easy. Some are unbelievably hard. Hackers as a community like "
9923 "to challenge themselves and others with increasingly difficult "
9924 "tasks. There's a certain respect that goes with the talent to hack "
9925 "well. There's a well-deserved respect that goes with the talent to hack "
9929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9930 #: freeculture.xml:7490
9932 "The Aibo fan was displaying a bit of both when he hacked the program and "
9933 "offered to the world a bit of code that would enable the Aibo to dance "
9934 "jazz. The dog wasn't programmed to dance jazz. It was a clever bit of "
9935 "tinkering that turned the dog into a more talented creature than Sony had "
9940 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9941 #: freeculture.xml:7498
9943 "I've told this story in many contexts, both inside and outside the United "
9944 "States. Once I was asked by a puzzled member of the audience, is it "
9945 "permissible for a dog to dance jazz in the United States? We forget that "
9946 "stories about the backcountry still flow across much of the world. So let's "
9947 "just be clear before we continue: It's not a crime anywhere (anymore) to "
9948 "dance jazz. Nor is it a crime to teach your dog to dance jazz. Nor should it "
9949 "be a crime (though we don't have a lot to go on here) to teach your robot "
9950 "dog to dance jazz. Dancing jazz is a completely legal activity. One imagines "
9951 "that the owner of aibopet.com thought, <emphasis>What possible problem could "
9952 "there be with teaching a robot dog to dance?</emphasis>"
9955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9956 #: freeculture.xml:7514
9958 "Let's put the dog to sleep for a minute, and turn to a pony show— not "
9959 "literally a pony show, but rather a paper that a Princeton academic named Ed "
9960 "Felten prepared for a conference. This Princeton academic is well known and "
9961 "respected. He was hired by the government in the Microsoft case to test "
9962 "Microsoft's claims about what could and could not be done with its own "
9963 "code. In that trial, he demonstrated both his brilliance and his "
9964 "coolness. Under heavy badgering by Microsoft lawyers, Ed Felten stood his "
9965 "ground. He was not about to be bullied into being silent about something he "
9969 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
9970 #: freeculture.xml:7537 freeculture.xml:9981
9971 msgid "Electronic Frontier Foundation"
9974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9975 #: freeculture.xml:7527
9977 "See Pamela Samuelson, \"Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to Science,\" "
9978 "<citetitle>Science</citetitle> 293 (2001): 2028; Brendan I. Koerner, \"Play "
9979 "Dead: Sony Muzzles the Techies Who Teach a Robot Dog New Tricks,\" "
9980 "<citetitle>American Prospect</citetitle>, January 2002; \"Court Dismisses "
9981 "Computer Scientists' Challenge to DMCA,\" <citetitle>Intellectual Property "
9982 "Litigation Reporter</citetitle>, 11 December 2001; Bill Holland, \"Copyright "
9983 "Act Raising Free-Speech Concerns,\" <citetitle>Billboard</citetitle>, May "
9984 "2001; Janelle Brown, \"Is the RIAA Running Scared?\" Salon.com, April 2001; "
9985 "Electronic Frontier Foundation, \"Frequently Asked Questions about "
9986 "<citetitle>Felten and USENIX</citetitle> v. <citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> "
9987 "Legal Case,\" available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
9988 "#27</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9992 #: freeculture.xml:7525
9994 "But Felten's bravery was really tested in April 2001.<placeholder "
9995 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> He and a group of colleagues were working on a "
9996 "paper to be submitted at conference. The paper was intended to describe the "
9997 "weakness in an encryption system being developed by the Secure Digital Music "
9998 "Initiative as a technique to control the distribution of music."
10001 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10002 #: freeculture.xml:7545
10004 "The SDMI coalition had as its goal a technology to enable content owners to "
10005 "exercise much better control over their content than the Internet, as it "
10006 "originally stood, granted them. Using encryption, SDMI hoped to develop a "
10007 "standard that would allow the content owner to say \"this music cannot be "
10008 "copied,\" and have a computer respect that command. The technology was to "
10009 "be part of a \"trusted system\" of control that would get content owners to "
10010 "trust the system of the Internet much more."
10013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10014 #: freeculture.xml:7555
10016 "When SDMI thought it was close to a standard, it set up a competition. In "
10017 "exchange for providing contestants with the code to an SDMI-encrypted bit of "
10018 "content, contestants were to try to crack it and, if they did, report the "
10019 "problems to the consortium."
10023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10024 #: freeculture.xml:7562
10026 "Felten and his team figured out the encryption system quickly. He and the "
10027 "team saw the weakness of this system as a type: Many encryption systems "
10028 "would suffer the same weakness, and Felten and his team thought it "
10029 "worthwhile to point this out to those who study encryption."
10032 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10033 #: freeculture.xml:7568
10035 "Let's review just what Felten was doing. Again, this is the United "
10036 "States. We have a principle of free speech. We have this principle not just "
10037 "because it is the law, but also because it is a really great idea. A "
10038 "strongly protected tradition of free speech is likely to encourage a wide "
10039 "range of criticism. That criticism is likely, in turn, to improve the "
10040 "systems or people or ideas criticized."
10043 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10044 #: freeculture.xml:7576
10046 "What Felten and his colleagues were doing was publishing a paper describing "
10047 "the weakness in a technology. They were not spreading free music, or "
10048 "building and deploying this technology. The paper was an academic essay, "
10049 "unintelligible to most people. But it clearly showed the weakness in the "
10050 "SDMI system, and why SDMI would not, as presently constituted, succeed."
10053 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10054 #: freeculture.xml:7584
10056 "What links these two, aibopet.com and Felten, is the letters they then "
10057 "received. Aibopet.com received a letter from Sony about the aibopet.com "
10058 "hack. Though a jazz-dancing dog is perfectly legal, Sony wrote:"
10061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10062 #: freeculture.xml:7591
10064 "Your site contains information providing the means to circumvent AIBO-ware's "
10065 "copy protection protocol constituting a violation of the anti-circumvention "
10066 "provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
10069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10070 #: freeculture.xml:7597
10072 "And though an academic paper describing the weakness in a system of "
10073 "encryption should also be perfectly legal, Felten received a letter from an "
10074 "RIAA lawyer that read:"
10078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10079 #: freeculture.xml:7603
10081 "Any disclosure of information gained from participating in the Public "
10082 "Challenge would be outside the scope of activities permitted by the "
10083 "Agreement and could subject you and your research team to actions under the "
10084 "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (\"DMCA\")."
10087 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10088 #: freeculture.xml:7611
10090 "In both cases, this weirdly Orwellian law was invoked to control the spread "
10091 "of information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act made spreading such "
10092 "information an offense."
10095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10096 #: freeculture.xml:7616
10098 "The DMCA was enacted as a response to copyright owners' first fear about "
10099 "cyberspace. The fear was that copyright control was effectively dead; the "
10100 "response was to find technologies that might compensate. These new "
10101 "technologies would be copyright protection technologies— technologies "
10102 "to control the replication and distribution of copyrighted material. They "
10103 "were designed as <emphasis>code</emphasis> to modify the original "
10104 "<emphasis>code</emphasis> of the Internet, to reestablish some protection "
10105 "for copyright owners."
10108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10109 #: freeculture.xml:7627
10111 "The DMCA was a bit of law intended to back up the protection of this code "
10112 "designed to protect copyrighted material. It was, we could say, "
10113 "<emphasis>legal code</emphasis> intended to buttress <emphasis>software "
10114 "code</emphasis> which itself was intended to support the <emphasis>legal "
10115 "code of copyright</emphasis>."
10118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10119 #: freeculture.xml:7634
10121 "But the DMCA was not designed merely to protect copyrighted works to the "
10122 "extent copyright law protected them. Its protection, that is, did not end at "
10123 "the line that copyright law drew. The DMCA regulated devices that were "
10124 "designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. It was designed to ban "
10125 "those devices, whether or not the use of the copyrighted material made "
10126 "possible by that circumvention would have been a copyright violation."
10130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10131 #: freeculture.xml:7643
10133 "Aibopet.com and Felten make the point. The Aibo hack circumvented a "
10134 "copyright protection system for the purpose of enabling the dog to dance "
10135 "jazz. That enablement no doubt involved the use of copyrighted material. But "
10136 "as aibopet.com's site was noncommercial, and the use did not enable "
10137 "subsequent copyright infringements, there's no doubt that aibopet.com's hack "
10138 "was fair use of Sony's copyrighted material. Yet fair use is not a defense "
10139 "to the DMCA. The question is not whether the use of the copyrighted material "
10140 "was a copyright violation. The question is whether a copyright protection "
10141 "system was circumvented."
10144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10145 #: freeculture.xml:7655
10147 "The threat against Felten was more attenuated, but it followed the same line "
10148 "of reasoning. By publishing a paper describing how a copyright protection "
10149 "system could be circumvented, the RIAA lawyer suggested, Felten himself was "
10150 "distributing a circumvention technology. Thus, even though he was not "
10151 "himself infringing anyone's copyright, his academic paper was enabling "
10152 "others to infringe others' copyright."
10155 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10156 #: freeculture.xml:7671 freeculture.xml:7706 freeculture.xml:7738
10157 msgid "Conrad, Paul"
10160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10161 #: freeculture.xml:7663
10163 "The bizarreness of these arguments is captured in a cartoon drawn in 1981 by "
10164 "Paul Conrad. At that time, a court in California had held that the VCR could "
10165 "be banned because it was a copyright-infringing technology: It enabled "
10166 "consumers to copy films without the permission of the copyright owner. No "
10167 "doubt there were uses of the technology that were legal: Fred Rogers, aka "
10168 "\"<citetitle>Mr. Rogers</citetitle>,\" for example, had testified in that "
10169 "case that he wanted people to feel free to tape Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. "
10170 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
10175 #: freeculture.xml:7690
10177 "<citetitle>Sony Corporation of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal "
10178 "City Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 455 fn. 27 (1984). Rogers "
10179 "never changed his view about the VCR. See James Lardner, <citetitle>Fast "
10180 "Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, and the Onslaught of the VCR</citetitle> "
10181 "(New York: W. W. Norton, 1987), 270–71."
10184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10185 #: freeculture.xml:7675
10187 "Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "
10188 "\"Neighborhood\" at hours when some children cannot use it. I think that "
10189 "it's a real service to families to be able to record such programs and show "
10190 "them at appropriate times. I have always felt that with the advent of all of "
10191 "this new technology that allows people to tape the \"Neighborhood\" "
10192 "off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the \"Neighborhood\" because that's what I "
10193 "produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their "
10194 "family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being "
10195 "programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been "
10196 "\"You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy "
10197 "decisions.\" Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that "
10198 "allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a "
10199 "healthy way, is important.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10203 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10204 #: freeculture.xml:7699
10206 "Even though there were uses that were legal, because there were some uses "
10207 "that were illegal, the court held the companies producing the VCR "
10211 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10212 #: freeculture.xml:7704
10214 "This led Conrad to draw the cartoon below, which we can adopt to the DMCA. "
10215 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10219 #: freeculture.xml:7709
10220 msgid "No argument I have can top this picture, but let me try to get close."
10223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10224 #: freeculture.xml:7712
10226 "The anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA target copyright circumvention "
10227 "technologies. Circumvention technologies can be used for different "
10228 "ends. They can be used, for example, to enable massive pirating of "
10229 "copyrighted material—a bad end. Or they can be used to enable the use "
10230 "of particular copyrighted materials in ways that would be considered fair "
10231 "use—a good end."
10235 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10236 #: freeculture.xml:7720
10238 "A handgun can be used to shoot a police officer or a child. Most would agree "
10239 "such a use is bad. Or a handgun can be used for target practice or to "
10240 "protect against an intruder. At least some would say that such a use would "
10241 "be good. It, too, is a technology that has both good and bad uses."
10244 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10245 #: freeculture.xml:7728
10246 msgid "VCR/handgun cartoon."
10249 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10250 #: freeculture.xml:7729
10251 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1711.png\"></graphic>"
10254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10255 #: freeculture.xml:7732
10257 "The obvious point of Conrad's cartoon is the weirdness of a world where guns "
10258 "are legal, despite the harm they can do, while VCRs (and circumvention "
10259 "technologies) are illegal. Flash: <emphasis>No one ever died from copyright "
10260 "circumvention</emphasis>. Yet the law bans circumvention technologies "
10261 "absolutely, despite the potential that they might do some good, but permits "
10262 "guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do. <placeholder "
10263 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10267 #: freeculture.xml:7741
10269 "The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are changing the "
10270 "balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright owners restrict "
10271 "fair use; using the DMCA, they punish those who would attempt to evade the "
10272 "restrictions on fair use that they impose through code. Technology becomes a "
10273 "means by which fair use can be erased; the law of the DMCA backs up that "
10277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10278 #: freeculture.xml:7749
10280 "This is how <emphasis>code</emphasis> becomes <emphasis>law</emphasis>. The "
10281 "controls built into the technology of copy and access protection become "
10282 "rules the violation of which is also a violation of the law. In this way, "
10283 "the code extends the law—increasing its regulation, even if the "
10284 "subject it regulates (activities that would otherwise plainly constitute "
10285 "fair use) is beyond the reach of the law. Code becomes law; code extends the "
10286 "law; code thus extends the control that copyright owners effect—at "
10287 "least for those copyright holders with the lawyers who can write the nasty "
10288 "letters that Felten and aibopet.com received."
10291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10292 #: freeculture.xml:7761
10294 "There is one final aspect of the interaction between architecture and law "
10295 "that contributes to the force of copyright's regulation. This is the ease "
10296 "with which infringements of the law can be detected. For contrary to the "
10297 "rhetoric common at the birth of cyberspace that on the Internet, no one "
10298 "knows you're a dog, increasingly, given changing technologies deployed on "
10299 "the Internet, it is easy to find the dog who committed a legal wrong. The "
10300 "technologies of the Internet are open to snoops as well as sharers, and the "
10301 "snoops are increasingly good at tracking down the identity of those who "
10302 "violate the rules."
10306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10307 #: freeculture.xml:7780
10309 "For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, \"Legal Fictions, "
10310 "Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,\" <citetitle>Loyola of Los "
10311 "Angeles Entertainment Law Journal</citetitle> 17 (1997): 651."
10314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10315 #: freeculture.xml:7774
10317 "For example, imagine you were part of a <citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> fan "
10318 "club. You gathered every month to share trivia, and maybe to enact a kind of "
10319 "fan fiction about the show. One person would play Spock, another, Captain "
10320 "Kirk. The characters would begin with a plot from a real story, then simply "
10321 "continue it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10325 #: freeculture.xml:7786
10327 "Before the Internet, this was, in effect, a totally unregulated activity. "
10328 "No matter what happened inside your club room, you would never be interfered "
10329 "with by the copyright police. You were free in that space to do as you "
10330 "wished with this part of our culture. You were allowed to build on it as you "
10331 "wished without fear of legal control."
10334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10335 #: freeculture.xml:7793
10337 "But if you moved your club onto the Internet, and made it generally "
10338 "available for others to join, the story would be very different. Bots "
10339 "scouring the Net for trademark and copyright infringement would quickly find "
10340 "your site. Your posting of fan fiction, depending upon the ownership of the "
10341 "series that you're depicting, could well inspire a lawyer's threat. And "
10342 "ignoring the lawyer's threat would be extremely costly indeed. The law of "
10343 "copyright is extremely efficient. The penalties are severe, and the process "
10347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10348 #: freeculture.xml:7803
10350 "This change in the effective force of the law is caused by a change in the "
10351 "ease with which the law can be enforced. That change too shifts the law's "
10352 "balance radically. It is as if your car transmitted the speed at which you "
10353 "traveled at every moment that you drove; that would be just one step before "
10354 "the state started issuing tickets based upon the data you transmitted. That "
10355 "is, in effect, what is happening here."
10358 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10359 #: freeculture.xml:7812
10360 msgid "Market: Concentration"
10364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10365 #: freeculture.xml:7814
10367 "So copyright's duration has increased dramatically—tripled in the past "
10368 "thirty years. And copyright's scope has increased as well—from "
10369 "regulating only publishers to now regulating just about everyone. And "
10370 "copyright's reach has changed, as every action becomes a copy and hence "
10371 "presumptively regulated. And as technologists find better ways to control "
10372 "the use of content, and as copyright is increasingly enforced through "
10373 "technology, copyright's force changes, too. Misuse is easier to find and "
10374 "easier to control. This regulation of the creative process, which began as a "
10375 "tiny regulation governing a tiny part of the market for creative work, has "
10376 "become the single most important regulator of creativity there is. It is a "
10377 "massive expansion in the scope of the government's control over innovation "
10378 "and creativity; it would be totally unrecognizable to those who gave birth "
10379 "to copyright's control."
10382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10383 #: freeculture.xml:7832
10385 "Still, in my view, all of these changes would not matter much if it weren't "
10386 "for one more change that we must also consider. This is a change that is in "
10387 "some sense the most familiar, though its significance and scope are not well "
10388 "understood. It is the one that creates precisely the reason to be concerned "
10389 "about all the other changes I have described."
10392 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10393 #: freeculture.xml:7839
10395 "This is the change in the concentration and integration of the media. In "
10396 "the past twenty years, the nature of media ownership has undergone a radical "
10397 "alteration, caused by changes in legal rules governing the media. Before "
10398 "this change happened, the different forms of media were owned by separate "
10399 "media companies. Now, the media is increasingly owned by only a few "
10400 "companies. Indeed, after the changes that the FCC announced in June 2003, "
10401 "most expect that within a few years, we will live in a world where just "
10402 "three companies control more than percent of the media."
10405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10406 #: freeculture.xml:7850
10407 msgid "These changes are of two sorts: the scope of concentration, and its nature."
10411 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10412 #: freeculture.xml:7858
10414 "FCC Oversight: Hearing Before the Senate Commerce, Science and "
10415 "Transportation Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (22 May 2003) (statement "
10416 "of Senator John McCain)."
10420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10421 #: freeculture.xml:7865
10423 "Lynette Holloway, \"Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to Slide,\" "
10424 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 23 December 2002."
10428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10429 #: freeculture.xml:7871
10431 "Molly Ivins, \"Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped,\" <citetitle>Charleston "
10432 "Gazette</citetitle>, 31 May 2003."
10435 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10436 #: freeculture.xml:7874
10440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10441 #: freeculture.xml:7875 freeculture.xml:9216
10445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10446 #: freeculture.xml:7876
10447 msgid "McCain, John"
10450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10451 #: freeculture.xml:7877 freeculture.xml:9217
10452 msgid "Universal Music Group"
10455 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10456 #: freeculture.xml:7878
10457 msgid "Warner Music Group"
10460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10461 #: freeculture.xml:7854
10463 "Changes in scope are the easier ones to describe. As Senator John McCain "
10464 "summarized the data produced in the FCC's review of media ownership, \"five "
10465 "companies control 85 percent of our media sources.\"<placeholder "
10466 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The five recording labels of Universal Music "
10467 "Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI control "
10468 "84.8 percent of the U.S. music market.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
10469 "id=\"1\"/> The \"five largest cable companies pipe programming to 74 percent "
10470 "of the cable subscribers nationwide.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
10471 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> <placeholder "
10472 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> "
10473 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10478 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10479 #: freeculture.xml:7881
10481 "The story with radio is even more dramatic. Before deregulation, the "
10482 "nation's largest radio broadcasting conglomerate owned fewer than "
10483 "seventy-five stations. Today <emphasis>one</emphasis> company owns more than "
10484 "1,200 stations. During that period of consolidation, the total number of "
10485 "radio owners dropped by 34 percent. Today, in most markets, the two largest "
10486 "broadcasters control 74 percent of that market's revenues. Overall, just "
10487 "four companies control 90 percent of the nation's radio advertising "
10491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10492 #: freeculture.xml:7892
10494 "Newspaper ownership is becoming more concentrated as well. Today, there are "
10495 "six hundred fewer daily newspapers in the United States than there were "
10496 "eighty years ago, and ten companies control half of the nation's "
10497 "circulation. There are twenty major newspaper publishers in the United "
10498 "States. The top ten film studios receive 99 percent of all film revenue. The "
10499 "ten largest cable companies account for 85 percent of all cable "
10500 "revenue. This is a market far from the free press the framers sought to "
10501 "protect. Indeed, it is a market that is quite well protected— by the "
10505 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10506 #: freeculture.xml:7906 freeculture.xml:7923
10507 msgid "Fallows, James"
10510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10511 #: freeculture.xml:7903
10513 "Concentration in size alone is one thing. The more invidious change is in "
10514 "the nature of that concentration. As author James Fallows put it in a recent "
10515 "article about Rupert Murdoch, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
10519 #: freeculture.xml:7921
10521 "James Fallows, \"The Age of Murdoch,\" <citetitle>Atlantic "
10522 "Monthly</citetitle> (September 2003): 89. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10527 #: freeculture.xml:7910
10529 "Murdoch's companies now constitute a production system unmatched in its "
10530 "integration. They supply content—Fox movies … Fox TV shows "
10531 "… Fox-controlled sports broadcasts, plus newspapers and books. They "
10532 "sell the content to the public and to advertisers—in newspapers, on "
10533 "the broadcast network, on the cable channels. And they operate the physical "
10534 "distribution system through which the content reaches the "
10535 "customers. Murdoch's satellite systems now distribute News Corp. content in "
10536 "Europe and Asia; if Murdoch becomes DirecTV's largest single owner, that "
10537 "system will serve the same function in the United States.<placeholder "
10538 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10542 #: freeculture.xml:7928
10544 "The pattern with Murdoch is the pattern of modern media. Not just large "
10545 "companies owning many radio stations, but a few companies owning as many "
10546 "outlets of media as possible. A picture describes this pattern better than a "
10547 "thousand words could do:"
10550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10551 #: freeculture.xml:7934
10552 msgid "Pattern of modern media ownership."
10555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10556 #: freeculture.xml:7935
10557 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1761.png\"></graphic>"
10561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10562 #: freeculture.xml:7939
10564 "Does this concentration matter? Will it affect what is made, or what is "
10565 "distributed? Or is it merely a more efficient way to produce and distribute "
10569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10570 #: freeculture.xml:7944
10572 "My view was that concentration wouldn't matter. I thought it was nothing "
10573 "more than a more efficient financial structure. But now, after reading and "
10574 "listening to a barrage of creators try to convince me to the contrary, I am "
10575 "beginning to change my mind."
10578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10579 #: freeculture.xml:7950
10581 "Here's a representative story that begins to suggest how this integration "
10585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10586 #: freeculture.xml:7953
10587 msgid "Lear, Norman"
10590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10591 #: freeculture.xml:7955 freeculture.xml:8018
10592 msgid "All in the Family"
10595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10596 #: freeculture.xml:7957
10598 "In 1969, Norman Lear created a pilot for <citetitle>All in the "
10599 "Family</citetitle>. He took the pilot to ABC. The network didn't like it. It "
10600 "was too edgy, they told Lear. Make it again. Lear made a second pilot, more "
10601 "edgy than the first. ABC was exasperated. You're missing the point, they "
10602 "told Lear. We wanted less edgy, not more."
10606 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10607 #: freeculture.xml:7969
10609 "Leonard Hill, \"The Axis of Access,\" remarks before Weidenbaum Center "
10610 "Forum, \"Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry,\" St. Louis, Missouri, "
10611 "3 April 2003 (transcript of prepared remarks available at <ulink "
10612 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #28</ulink>; for the Lear story, "
10613 "not included in the prepared remarks, see <ulink "
10614 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #29</ulink>)."
10617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10618 #: freeculture.xml:7964
10620 "Rather than comply, Lear simply took the show elsewhere. CBS was happy to "
10621 "have the series; ABC could not stop Lear from walking. The copyrights that "
10622 "Lear held assured an independence from network control.<placeholder "
10623 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10628 #: freeculture.xml:7980
10630 "The network did not control those copyrights because the law forbade the "
10631 "networks from controlling the content they syndicated. The law required a "
10632 "separation between the networks and the content producers; that separation "
10633 "would guarantee Lear freedom. And as late as 1992, because of these rules, "
10634 "the vast majority of prime time television—75 percent of it—was "
10635 "\"independent\" of the networks."
10639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10640 #: freeculture.xml:7999
10642 "NewsCorp./DirecTV Merger and Media Consolidation: Hearings on Media "
10643 "Ownership Before the Senate Commerce Committee, 108th Cong., 1st "
10644 "sess. (2003) (testimony of Gene Kimmelman on behalf of Consumers Union and "
10645 "the Consumer Federation of America), available at <ulink "
10646 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #30</ulink>. Kimmelman quotes "
10647 "Victoria Riskin, president of Writers Guild of America, West, in her Remarks "
10648 "at FCC En Banc Hearing, Richmond, Virginia, 27 February 2003."
10651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10652 #: freeculture.xml:7989
10654 "In 1994, the FCC abandoned the rules that required this independence. After "
10655 "that change, the networks quickly changed the balance. In 1985, there were "
10656 "twenty-five independent television production studios; in 2002, only five "
10657 "independent television studios remained. \"In 1992, only 15 percent of new "
10658 "series were produced for a network by a company it controlled. Last year, "
10659 "the percentage of shows produced by controlled companies more than "
10660 "quintupled to 77 percent.\" \"In 1992, 16 new series were produced "
10661 "independently of conglomerate control, last year there was "
10662 "one.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In 2002, 75 percent of prime "
10663 "time television was owned by the networks that ran it. \"In the ten-year "
10664 "period between 1992 and 2002, the number of prime time television hours per "
10665 "week produced by network studios increased over 200%, whereas the number of "
10666 "prime time television hours per week produced by independent studios "
10667 "decreased 63%.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
10670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10671 #: freeculture.xml:8020
10673 "Today, another Norman Lear with another <citetitle>All in the "
10674 "Family</citetitle> would find that he had the choice either to make the show "
10675 "less edgy or to be fired: The content of any show developed for a network is "
10676 "increasingly owned by the network."
10679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10680 #: freeculture.xml:8029
10681 msgid "Diller, Barry"
10684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
10685 #: freeculture.xml:8030
10686 msgid "Moyers, Bill"
10689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10690 #: freeculture.xml:8026
10692 "While the number of channels has increased dramatically, the ownership of "
10693 "those channels has narrowed to an ever smaller and smaller few. As Barry "
10694 "Diller said to Bill Moyers, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
10695 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
10699 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
10700 #: freeculture.xml:8043
10702 "\"Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation,\" <citetitle>Now with Bill "
10703 "Moyers</citetitle>, Bill Moyers, 25 April 2003, edited transcript available "
10704 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #31</ulink>."
10707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10708 #: freeculture.xml:8034
10710 "Well, if you have companies that produce, that finance, that air on their "
10711 "channel and then distribute worldwide everything that goes through their "
10712 "controlled distribution system, then what you get is fewer and fewer actual "
10713 "voices participating in the process. [We u]sed to have dozens and dozens of "
10714 "thriving independent production companies producing television programs. Now "
10715 "you have less than a handful.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10719 #: freeculture.xml:8050
10721 "This narrowing has an effect on what is produced. The product of such large "
10722 "and concentrated networks is increasingly homogenous. Increasingly "
10723 "safe. Increasingly sterile. The product of news shows from networks like "
10724 "this is increasingly tailored to the message the network wants to "
10725 "convey. This is not the communist party, though from the inside, it must "
10726 "feel a bit like the communist party. No one can question without risk of "
10727 "consequence—not necessarily banishment to Siberia, but punishment "
10728 "nonetheless. Independent, critical, different views are quashed. This is not "
10729 "the environment for a democracy."
10732 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10733 #: freeculture.xml:8061
10734 msgid "Clark, Kim B."
10738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10739 #: freeculture.xml:8070
10741 "Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
10742 "Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do "
10743 "Business</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, "
10744 "1997). Christensen acknowledges that the idea was first suggested by Dean "
10745 "Kim Clark. See Kim B. Clark, \"The Interaction of Design Hierarchies and "
10746 "Market Concepts in Technological Evolution,\" <citetitle>Research "
10747 "Policy</citetitle> 14 (1985): 235–51. For a more recent study, see "
10748 "Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, <citetitle>Creative Destruction: Why "
10749 "Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—and How to "
10750 "Successfully Transform Them</citetitle> (New York: Currency/Doubleday, "
10754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10755 #: freeculture.xml:8063
10757 "Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration "
10758 "affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the \"Innovator's "
10759 "Dilemma\": the fact that large traditional firms find it rational to ignore "
10760 "new, breakthrough technologies that compete with their core business. The "
10761 "same analysis could help explain why large, traditional media companies "
10762 "would find it rational to ignore new cultural trends.<placeholder "
10763 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Lumbering giants not only don't, but should "
10764 "not, sprint. Yet if the field is only open to the giants, there will be far "
10765 "too little sprinting. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
10768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10769 #: freeculture.xml:8087
10771 "I don't think we know enough about the economics of the media market to say "
10772 "with certainty what concentration and integration will do. The efficiencies "
10773 "are important, and the effect on culture is hard to measure."
10776 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10777 #: freeculture.xml:8093
10779 "But there is a quintessentially obvious example that does strongly suggest "
10783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10784 #: freeculture.xml:8097
10786 "In addition to the copyright wars, we're in the middle of the drug "
10787 "wars. Government policy is strongly directed against the drug cartels; "
10788 "criminal and civil courts are filled with the consequences of this battle."
10792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10793 #: freeculture.xml:8102
10795 "Let me hereby disqualify myself from any possible appointment to any "
10796 "position in government by saying I believe this war is a profound mistake. I "
10797 "am not pro drugs. Indeed, I come from a family once wrecked by "
10798 "drugs—though the drugs that wrecked my family were all quite legal. I "
10799 "believe this war is a profound mistake because the collateral damage from it "
10800 "is so great as to make waging the war insane. When you add together the "
10801 "burdens on the criminal justice system, the desperation of generations of "
10802 "kids whose only real economic opportunities are as drug warriors, the "
10803 "queering of constitutional protections because of the constant surveillance "
10804 "this war requires, and, most profoundly, the total destruction of the legal "
10805 "systems of many South American nations because of the power of the local "
10806 "drug cartels, I find it impossible to believe that the marginal benefit in "
10807 "reduced drug consumption by Americans could possibly outweigh these costs."
10810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10811 #: freeculture.xml:8121
10813 "You may not be convinced. That's fine. We live in a democracy, and it is "
10814 "through votes that we are to choose policy. But to do that, we depend "
10815 "fundamentally upon the press to help inform Americans about these issues."
10818 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10819 #: freeculture.xml:8127
10821 "Beginning in 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched a "
10822 "media campaign as part of the \"war on drugs.\" The campaign produced scores "
10823 "of short film clips about issues related to illegal drugs. In one series "
10824 "(the Nick and Norm series) two men are in a bar, discussing the idea of "
10825 "legalizing drugs as a way to avoid some of the collateral damage from the "
10826 "war. One advances an argument in favor of drug legalization. The other "
10827 "responds in a powerful and effective way against the argument of the "
10828 "first. In the end, the first guy changes his mind (hey, it's "
10829 "television). The plug at the end is a damning attack on the pro-legalization "
10833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10834 #: freeculture.xml:8139
10836 "Fair enough. It's a good ad. Not terribly misleading. It delivers its "
10837 "message well. It's a fair and reasonable message."
10840 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10841 #: freeculture.xml:8143
10843 "But let's say you think it is a wrong message, and you'd like to run a "
10844 "countercommercial. Say you want to run a series of ads that try to "
10845 "demonstrate the extraordinary collateral harm that comes from the drug "
10846 "war. Can you do it?"
10850 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10851 #: freeculture.xml:8149
10853 "Well, obviously, these ads cost lots of money. Assume you raise the "
10854 "money. Assume a group of concerned citizens donates all the money in the "
10855 "world to help you get your message out. Can you be sure your message will be "
10859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10860 #: freeculture.xml:8191
10864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10865 #: freeculture.xml:8192
10866 msgid "Marijuana Policy Project"
10869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10870 #: freeculture.xml:8193
10874 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10875 #: freeculture.xml:8194
10879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10880 #: freeculture.xml:8195
10884 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10885 #: freeculture.xml:8166
10887 "The Marijuana Policy Project, in February 2003, sought to place ads that "
10888 "directly responded to the Nick and Norm series on stations within the "
10889 "Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as \"against [their] "
10890 "policy.\" The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads without reviewing "
10891 "them. The local ABC affiliate, WJOA, originally agreed to run the ads and "
10892 "accepted payment to do so, but later decided not to run the ads and returned "
10893 "the collected fees. Interview with Neal Levine, 15 October 2003. These "
10894 "restrictions are, of course, not limited to drug policy. See, for example, "
10895 "Nat Ives, \"On the Issue of an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet with Rejection "
10896 "from TV Networks,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 13 March 2003, "
10897 "C4. Outside of election-related air time there is very little that the FCC "
10898 "or the courts are willing to do to even the playing field. For a general "
10899 "overview, see Rhonda Brown, \"Ad Hoc Access: The Regulation of Editorial "
10900 "Advertising on Television and Radio,\" <citetitle>Yale Law and Policy "
10901 "Review</citetitle> 6 (1988): 449–79, and for a more recent summary of "
10902 "the stance of the FCC and the courts, see <citetitle>Radio-Television News "
10903 "Directors Association</citetitle> v. <citetitle>FCC</citetitle>, 184 F. 3d "
10904 "872 (D.C. Cir. 1999). Municipal authorities exercise the same authority as "
10905 "the networks. In a recent example from San Francisco, the San Francisco "
10906 "transit authority rejected an ad that criticized its Muni diesel "
10907 "buses. Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, \"Antidiesel Group Fuming After Muni "
10908 "Rejects Ad,\" SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
10909 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #32</ulink>. The ground was that "
10910 "the criticism was \"too controversial.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10911 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
10912 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> "
10913 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
10917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10918 #: freeculture.xml:8156
10920 "No. You cannot. Television stations have a general policy of avoiding "
10921 "\"controversial\" ads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed "
10922 "uncontroversial; ads disagreeing with the government are controversial. "
10923 "This selectivity might be thought inconsistent with the First Amendment, but "
10924 "the Supreme Court has held that stations have the right to choose what they "
10925 "run. Thus, the major channels of commercial media will refuse one side of a "
10926 "crucial debate the opportunity to present its case. And the courts will "
10927 "defend the rights of the stations to be this biased.<placeholder "
10928 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10932 #: freeculture.xml:8199
10934 "I'd be happy to defend the networks' rights, as well—if we lived in a "
10935 "media market that was truly diverse. But concentration in the media throws "
10936 "that condition into doubt. If a handful of companies control access to the "
10937 "media, and that handful of companies gets to decide which political "
10938 "positions it will allow to be promoted on its channels, then in an obvious "
10939 "and important way, concentration matters. You might like the positions the "
10940 "handful of companies selects. But you should not like a world in which a "
10941 "mere few get to decide which issues the rest of us get to know about."
10944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10945 #: freeculture.xml:8211
10949 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10950 #: freeculture.xml:8213
10952 "There is something innocent and obvious about the claim of the copyright "
10953 "warriors that the government should \"protect my property.\" In the "
10954 "abstract, it is obviously true and, ordinarily, totally harmless. No sane "
10955 "sort who is not an anarchist could disagree."
10959 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10960 #: freeculture.xml:8219
10962 "But when we see how dramatically this \"property\" has changed— when "
10963 "we recognize how it might now interact with both technology and markets to "
10964 "mean that the effective constraint on the liberty to cultivate our culture "
10965 "is dramatically different—the claim begins to seem less innocent and "
10966 "obvious. Given (1) the power of technology to supplement the law's control, "
10967 "and (2) the power of concentrated markets to weaken the opportunity for "
10968 "dissent, if strictly enforcing the massively expanded \"property\" rights "
10969 "granted by copyright fundamentally changes the freedom within this culture "
10970 "to cultivate and build upon our past, then we have to ask whether this "
10971 "property should be redefined."
10974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10975 #: freeculture.xml:8235
10977 "Not starkly. Or absolutely. My point is not that we should abolish copyright "
10978 "or go back to the eighteenth century. That would be a total mistake, "
10979 "disastrous for the most important creative enterprises within our culture "
10983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10984 #: freeculture.xml:8241
10986 "But there is a space between zero and one, Internet culture "
10987 "notwithstanding. And these massive shifts in the effective power of "
10988 "copyright regulation, tied to increased concentration of the content "
10989 "industry and resting in the hands of technology that will increasingly "
10990 "enable control over the use of culture, should drive us to consider whether "
10991 "another adjustment is called for. Not an adjustment that increases "
10992 "copyright's power. Not an adjustment that increases its term. Rather, an "
10993 "adjustment to restore the balance that has traditionally defined copyright's "
10994 "regulation—a weakening of that regulation, to strengthen creativity."
10997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10998 #: freeculture.xml:8253
11000 "Copyright law has not been a rock of Gibraltar. It's not a set of constant "
11001 "commitments that, for some mysterious reason, teenagers and geeks now "
11002 "flout. Instead, copyright power has grown dramatically in a short period of "
11003 "time, as the technologies of distribution and creation have changed and as "
11004 "lobbyists have pushed for more control by copyright holders. Changes in the "
11005 "past in response to changes in technology suggest that we may well need "
11006 "similar changes in the future. And these changes have to be "
11007 "<emphasis>reductions</emphasis> in the scope of copyright, in response to "
11008 "the extraordinary increase in control that technology and the market enable."
11012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11013 #: freeculture.xml:8265
11015 "For the single point that is lost in this war on pirates is a point that we "
11016 "see only after surveying the range of these changes. When you add together "
11017 "the effect of changing law, concentrated markets, and changing technology, "
11018 "together they produce an astonishing conclusion: <emphasis>Never in our "
11019 "history have fewer had a legal right to control more of the development of "
11020 "our culture than now</emphasis>."
11023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11024 #: freeculture.xml:8289
11026 "Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a similar point in his \"four surrenders\" of "
11027 "copyright law in the digital age. See Vaidhyanathan, 159–60. "
11028 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11032 #: freeculture.xml:8274
11034 "Not when copyrights were perpetual, for when copyrights were perpetual, they "
11035 "affected only that precise creative work. Not when only publishers had the "
11036 "tools to publish, for the market then was much more diverse. Not when there "
11037 "were only three television networks, for even then, newspapers, film "
11038 "studios, radio stations, and publishers were independent of the "
11039 "networks. <emphasis>Never</emphasis> has copyright protected such a wide "
11040 "range of rights, against as broad a range of actors, for a term that was "
11041 "remotely as long. This form of regulation—a tiny regulation of a tiny "
11042 "part of the creative energy of a nation at the founding—is now a "
11043 "massive regulation of the overall creative process. Law plus technology plus "
11044 "the market now interact to turn this historically benign regulation into the "
11045 "most significant regulation of culture that our free society has "
11046 "known.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11049 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11050 #: freeculture.xml:8295
11051 msgid "This has been a long chapter. Its point can now be briefly stated."
11054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11055 #: freeculture.xml:8298
11057 "At the start of this book, I distinguished between commercial and "
11058 "noncommercial culture. In the course of this chapter, I have distinguished "
11059 "between copying a work and transforming it. We can now combine these two "
11060 "distinctions and draw a clear map of the changes that copyright law has "
11061 "undergone. In 1790, the law looked like this:"
11064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
11065 #: freeculture.xml:8306
11066 msgid "Law status in 1790"
11069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11070 #: freeculture.xml:8311 freeculture.xml:8349
11074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11075 #: freeculture.xml:8312 freeculture.xml:8350 freeculture.xml:8389 freeculture.xml:8422
11079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11080 #: freeculture.xml:8317 freeculture.xml:8355 freeculture.xml:8394 freeculture.xml:8427
11084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11085 #: freeculture.xml:8318 freeculture.xml:8356 freeculture.xml:8357 freeculture.xml:8395 freeculture.xml:8396 freeculture.xml:8428 freeculture.xml:8429 freeculture.xml:8433 freeculture.xml:8434
11089 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11090 #: freeculture.xml:8319 freeculture.xml:8323 freeculture.xml:8324 freeculture.xml:8361 freeculture.xml:8362 freeculture.xml:8401
11094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11095 #: freeculture.xml:8322 freeculture.xml:8360 freeculture.xml:8399 freeculture.xml:8432
11096 msgid "Noncommercial"
11100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11101 #: freeculture.xml:8331
11103 "The act of publishing a map, chart, and book was regulated by copyright "
11104 "law. Nothing else was. Transformations were free. And as copyright attached "
11105 "only with registration, and only those who intended to benefit commercially "
11106 "would register, copying through publishing of noncommercial work was also "
11110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11111 #: freeculture.xml:8340
11112 msgid "By the end of the nineteenth century, the law had changed to this:"
11115 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
11116 #: freeculture.xml:8344
11117 msgid "Law status at the end of ninetheenth centory"
11120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11121 #: freeculture.xml:8369
11123 "Derivative works were now regulated by copyright law—if published, "
11124 "which again, given the economics of publishing at the time, means if offered "
11125 "commercially. But noncommercial publishing and transformation were still "
11126 "essentially free."
11129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11130 #: freeculture.xml:8375
11132 "In 1909 the law changed to regulate copies, not publishing, and after this "
11133 "change, the scope of the law was tied to technology. As the technology of "
11134 "copying became more prevalent, the reach of the law expanded. Thus by 1975, "
11135 "as photocopying machines became more common, we could say the law began to "
11139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
11140 #: freeculture.xml:8383
11141 msgid "Law status in 1975"
11144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11145 #: freeculture.xml:8388 freeculture.xml:8421
11149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11150 #: freeculture.xml:8400
11151 msgid "©/Free"
11154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11155 #: freeculture.xml:8408
11157 "The law was interpreted to reach noncommercial copying through, say, copy "
11158 "machines, but still much of copying outside of the commercial market "
11159 "remained free. But the consequence of the emergence of digital technologies, "
11160 "especially in the context of a digital network, means that the law now looks "
11164 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><table><title>
11165 #: freeculture.xml:8416
11166 msgid "Law status now"
11170 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11171 #: freeculture.xml:8441
11173 "Every realm is governed by copyright law, whereas before most creativity was "
11174 "not. The law now regulates the full range of creativity— commercial or "
11175 "not, transformative or not—with the same rules designed to regulate "
11176 "commercial publishers."
11179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11180 #: freeculture.xml:8449
11182 "Obviously, copyright law is not the enemy. The enemy is regulation that does "
11183 "no good. So the question that we should be asking just now is whether "
11184 "extending the regulations of copyright law into each of these domains "
11185 "actually does any good."
11188 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11189 #: freeculture.xml:8455
11191 "I have no doubt that it does good in regulating commercial copying. But I "
11192 "also have no doubt that it does more harm than good when regulating (as it "
11193 "regulates just now) noncommercial copying and, especially, noncommercial "
11194 "transformation. And increasingly, for the reasons sketched especially in "
11195 "chapters <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/> and "
11196 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"transformers\"/>, one "
11197 "might well wonder whether it does more harm than good for commercial "
11198 "transformation. More commercial transformative work would be created if "
11199 "derivative rights were more sharply restricted."
11202 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11203 #: freeculture.xml:8479
11204 msgid "legal realist movement"
11207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11208 #: freeculture.xml:8473
11210 "It was the single most important contribution of the legal realist movement "
11211 "to demonstrate that all property rights are always crafted to balance public "
11212 "and private interests. See Thomas C. Grey, \"The Disintegration of "
11213 "Property,\" in <citetitle>Nomos XXII: Property</citetitle>, J. Roland "
11214 "Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds. (New York: New York University Press, "
11215 "1980). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11219 #: freeculture.xml:8467
11221 "The issue is therefore not simply whether copyright is property. Of course "
11222 "copyright is a kind of \"property,\" and of course, as with any property, "
11223 "the state ought to protect it. But first impressions notwithstanding, "
11224 "historically, this property right (as with all property rights<placeholder "
11225 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>) has been crafted to balance the important "
11226 "need to give authors and artists incentives with the equally important need "
11227 "to assure access to creative work. This balance has always been struck in "
11228 "light of new technologies. And for almost half of our tradition, the "
11229 "\"copyright\" did not control <emphasis>at all</emphasis> the freedom of "
11230 "others to build upon or transform a creative work. American culture was born "
11231 "free, and for almost 180 years our country consistently protected a vibrant "
11232 "and rich free culture."
11236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11237 #: freeculture.xml:8491
11239 "We achieved that free culture because our law respected important limits on "
11240 "the scope of the interests protected by \"property.\" The very birth of "
11241 "\"copyright\" as a statutory right recognized those limits, by granting "
11242 "copyright owners protection for a limited time only (the story of chapter "
11243 "6). The tradition of \"fair use\" is animated by a similar concern that is "
11244 "increasingly under strain as the costs of exercising any fair use right "
11245 "become unavoidably high (the story of chapter 7). Adding statutory rights "
11246 "where markets might stifle innovation is another familiar limit on the "
11247 "property right that copyright is (chapter 8). And granting archives and "
11248 "libraries a broad freedom to collect, claims of property notwithstanding, is "
11249 "a crucial part of guaranteeing the soul of a culture (chapter 9). Free "
11250 "cultures, like free markets, are built with property. But the nature of the "
11251 "property that builds a free culture is very different from the extremist "
11252 "vision that dominates the debate today."
11255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11256 #: freeculture.xml:8510
11258 "Free culture is increasingly the casualty in this war on piracy. In response "
11259 "to a real, if not yet quantified, threat that the technologies of the "
11260 "Internet present to twentieth-century business models for producing and "
11261 "distributing culture, the law and technology are being transformed in a way "
11262 "that will undermine our tradition of free culture. The property right that "
11263 "is copyright is no longer the balanced right that it was, or was intended to "
11264 "be. The property right that is copyright has become unbalanced, tilted "
11265 "toward an extreme. The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened "
11266 "in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check "
11270 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
11271 #: freeculture.xml:8527
11275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
11276 #: freeculture.xml:8531
11277 msgid "CHAPTER ELEVEN: Chimera"
11280 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11281 #: freeculture.xml:8533
11285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11286 #: freeculture.xml:8536
11287 msgid "Wells, H. G."
11290 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
11291 #: freeculture.xml:8539
11292 msgid ""Country of the Blind, The" (Wells)"
11296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
11297 #: freeculture.xml:8547
11299 "H. G. Wells, \"The Country of the Blind\" (1904, 1911). See H. G. Wells, "
11300 "<citetitle>The Country of the Blind and Other Stories</citetitle>, Michael "
11301 "Sherborne, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)."
11304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11305 #: freeculture.xml:8543
11307 "In a well-known short story by H. G. Wells, a mountain climber named Nunez "
11308 "trips (literally, down an ice slope) into an unknown and isolated valley in "
11309 "the Peruvian Andes.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The valley is "
11310 "extraordinarily beautiful, with \"sweet water, pasture, an even climate, "
11311 "slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an excellent "
11312 "fruit.\" But the villagers are all blind. Nunez takes this as an "
11313 "opportunity. \"In the Country of the Blind,\" he tells himself, \"the "
11314 "One-Eyed Man is King.\" So he resolves to live with the villagers to explore "
11318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11319 #: freeculture.xml:8559
11321 "Things don't go quite as he planned. He tries to explain the idea of sight "
11322 "to the villagers. They don't understand. He tells them they are \"blind.\" "
11323 "They don't have the word <citetitle>blind</citetitle>. They think he's just "
11324 "thick. Indeed, as they increasingly notice the things he can't do (hear the "
11325 "sound of grass being stepped on, for example), they increasingly try to "
11326 "control him. He, in turn, becomes increasingly frustrated. \"`You don't "
11327 "understand,' he cried, in a voice that was meant to be great and resolute, "
11328 "and which broke. `You are blind and I can see. Leave me alone!'\""
11332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11333 #: freeculture.xml:8571
11335 "The villagers don't leave him alone. Nor do they see (so to speak) the "
11336 "virtue of his special power. Not even the ultimate target of his affection, "
11337 "a young woman who to him seems \"the most beautiful thing in the whole of "
11338 "creation,\" understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's description of what he "
11339 "sees \"seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she listened to his "
11340 "description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet white-lit "
11341 "beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence.\" \"She did not believe,\" "
11342 "Wells tells us, and \"she could only half understand, but she was "
11343 "mysteriously delighted.\""
11346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11347 #: freeculture.xml:8582
11349 "When Nunez announces his desire to marry his \"mysteriously delighted\" "
11350 "love, the father and the village object. \"You see, my dear,\" her father "
11351 "instructs, \"he's an idiot. He has delusions. He can't do anything right.\" "
11352 "They take Nunez to the village doctor."
11355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11356 #: freeculture.xml:8588
11358 "After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. \"His brain is "
11359 "affected,\" he reports."
11362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11363 #: freeculture.xml:8592
11365 "\"What affects it?\" the father asks. \"Those queer things that are called "
11366 "the eyes … are diseased … in such a way as to affect his "
11370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11371 #: freeculture.xml:8597
11373 "The doctor continues: \"I think I may say with reasonable certainty that in "
11374 "order to cure him completely, all that we need to do is a simple and easy "
11375 "surgical operation—namely, to remove these irritant bodies [the "
11380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11381 #: freeculture.xml:8603
11383 "\"Thank Heaven for science!\" says the father to the doctor. They inform "
11384 "Nunez of this condition necessary for him to be allowed his bride. (You'll "
11385 "have to read the original to learn what happens in the end. I believe in "
11386 "free culture, but never in giving away the end of a story.) It sometimes "
11387 "happens that the eggs of twins fuse in the mother's womb. That fusion "
11388 "produces a \"chimera.\" A chimera is a single creature with two sets of "
11389 "DNA. The DNA in the blood, for example, might be different from the DNA of "
11390 "the skin. This possibility is an underused plot for murder mysteries. \"But "
11391 "the DNA shows with 100 percent certainty that she was not the person whose "
11392 "blood was at the scene. …\""
11395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11396 #: freeculture.xml:8620
11398 "Before I had read about chimeras, I would have said they were impossible. A "
11399 "single person can't have two sets of DNA. The very idea of DNA is that it is "
11400 "the code of an individual. Yet in fact, not only can two individuals have "
11401 "the same set of DNA (identical twins), but one person can have two different "
11402 "sets of DNA (a chimera). Our understanding of a \"person\" should reflect "
11406 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11407 #: freeculture.xml:8628
11409 "The more I work to understand the current struggle over copyright and "
11410 "culture, which I've sometimes called unfairly, and sometimes not unfairly "
11411 "enough, \"the copyright wars,\" the more I think we're dealing with a "
11412 "chimera. For example, in the battle over the question \"What is p2p file "
11413 "sharing?\" both sides have it right, and both sides have it wrong. One side "
11414 "says, \"File sharing is just like two kids taping each others' "
11415 "records—the sort of thing we've been doing for the last thirty years "
11416 "without any question at all.\" That's true, at least in part. When I tell my "
11417 "best friend to try out a new CD that I've bought, but rather than just send "
11418 "the CD, I point him to my p2p server, that is, in all relevant respects, "
11419 "just like what every executive in every recording company no doubt did as a "
11420 "kid: sharing music."
11423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11424 #: freeculture.xml:8642
11426 "But the description is also false in part. For when my p2p server is on a "
11427 "p2p network through which anyone can get access to my music, then sure, my "
11428 "friends can get access, but it stretches the meaning of \"friends\" beyond "
11429 "recognition to say \"my ten thousand best friends\" can get access. Whether "
11430 "or not sharing my music with my best friend is what \"we have always been "
11431 "allowed to do,\" we have not always been allowed to share music with \"our "
11432 "ten thousand best friends.\""
11435 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11436 #: freeculture.xml:8651
11438 "Likewise, when the other side says, \"File sharing is just like walking into "
11439 "a Tower Records and taking a CD off the shelf and walking out with it,\" "
11440 "that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett (finally) releases a "
11441 "new album, rather than buying it, I go to Kazaa and find a free copy to "
11442 "take, that is very much like stealing a copy from Tower. <placeholder "
11443 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11448 #: freeculture.xml:8662
11450 "But it is not quite stealing from Tower. After all, when I take a CD from "
11451 "Tower Records, Tower has one less CD to sell. And when I take a CD from "
11452 "Tower Records, I get a bit of plastic and a cover, and something to show on "
11453 "my shelves. (And, while we're at it, we could also note that when I take a "
11454 "CD from Tower Records, the maximum fine that might be imposed on me, under "
11455 "California law, at least, is $1,000. According to the RIAA, by contrast, if "
11456 "I download a ten-song CD, I'm liable for $1,500,000 in damages.)"
11459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11460 #: freeculture.xml:8672
11462 "The point is not that it is as neither side describes. The point is that it "
11463 "is both—both as the RIAA describes it and as Kazaa describes it. It is "
11464 "a chimera. And rather than simply denying what the other side asserts, we "
11465 "need to begin to think about how we should respond to this chimera. What "
11466 "rules should govern it?"
11469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11470 #: freeculture.xml:8718
11471 msgid "Conyers, John, Jr."
11474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11475 #: freeculture.xml:8719 freeculture.xml:9421
11476 msgid "Berman, Howard L."
11479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
11480 #: freeculture.xml:8688
11482 "For an excellent summary, see the report prepared by GartnerG2 and the "
11483 "Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, \"Copyright "
11484 "and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,\" 27 June 2003, available at "
11485 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #33</ulink>. Reps. John "
11486 "Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill "
11487 "that would treat unauthorized on-line copying as a felony offense with "
11488 "punishments ranging as high as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey, "
11489 "\"House Bill Aims to Up Stakes on Piracy,\" <citetitle>Los Angeles "
11490 "Times</citetitle>, 17 July 2003, available at <ulink "
11491 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #34</ulink>. Civil penalties are "
11492 "currently set at $150,000 per copied song. For a recent (and unsuccessful) "
11493 "legal challenge to the RIAA's demand that an ISP reveal the identity of a "
11494 "user accused of sharing more than 600 songs through a family computer, see "
11495 "<citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Verizon Internet Services (In "
11496 "re. Verizon Internet Services)</citetitle>, 240 F. Supp. 2d 24 "
11497 "(D.D.C. 2003). Such a user could face liability ranging as high as $90 "
11498 "million. Such astronomical figures furnish the RIAA with a powerful arsenal "
11499 "in its prosecution of file sharers. Settlements ranging from $12,000 to "
11500 "$17,500 for four students accused of heavy file sharing on university "
11501 "networks must have seemed a mere pittance next to the $98 billion the RIAA "
11502 "could seek should the matter proceed to court. See Elizabeth Young, "
11503 "\"Downloading Could Lead to Fines,\" redandblack.com, August 2003, available "
11504 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #35</ulink>. For an "
11505 "example of the RIAA's targeting of student file sharing, and of the "
11506 "subpoenas issued to universities to reveal student file-sharer identities, "
11507 "see James Collins, \"RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to Name Students,\" "
11508 "<citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 8 August 2003, D3, available at <ulink "
11509 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #36</ulink>. <placeholder "
11510 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
11513 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11514 #: freeculture.xml:8679
11516 "We could respond by simply pretending that it is not a chimera. We could, "
11517 "with the RIAA, decide that every act of file sharing should be a felony. We "
11518 "could prosecute families for millions of dollars in damages just because "
11519 "file sharing occurred on a family computer. And we can get universities to "
11520 "monitor all computer traffic to make sure that no computer is used to commit "
11521 "this crime. These responses might be extreme, but each of them has either "
11522 "been proposed or actually implemented.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
11526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11527 #: freeculture.xml:8725
11529 "Alternatively, we could respond to file sharing the way many kids act as "
11530 "though we've responded. We could totally legalize it. Let there be no "
11531 "copyright liability, either civil or criminal, for making copyrighted "
11532 "content available on the Net. Make file sharing like gossip: regulated, if "
11533 "at all, by social norms but not by law."
11536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11537 #: freeculture.xml:8732
11539 "Either response is possible. I think either would be a mistake. Rather than "
11540 "embrace one of these two extremes, we should embrace something that "
11541 "recognizes the truth in both. And while I end this book with a sketch of a "
11542 "system that does just that, my aim in the next chapter is to show just how "
11543 "awful it would be for us to adopt the zero-tolerance extreme. I believe "
11544 "<emphasis>either</emphasis> extreme would be worse than a reasonable "
11545 "alternative. But I believe the zero-tolerance solution would be the worse "
11546 "of the two extremes."
11550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11551 #: freeculture.xml:8744
11553 "Yet zero tolerance is increasingly our government's policy. In the middle of "
11554 "the chaos that the Internet has created, an extraordinary land grab is "
11555 "occurring. The law and technology are being shifted to give content holders "
11556 "a kind of control over our culture that they have never had before. And in "
11557 "this extremism, many an opportunity for new innovation and new creativity "
11561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11562 #: freeculture.xml:8752
11564 "I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to \"steal\" music. My "
11565 "focus instead is the commercial and cultural innovation that this war will "
11566 "also kill. We have never seen the power to innovate spread so broadly among "
11567 "our citizens, and we have just begun to see the innovation that this power "
11568 "will unleash. Yet the Internet has already seen the passing of one cycle of "
11569 "innovation around technologies to distribute content. The law is responsible "
11570 "for this passing. As the vice president for global public policy at one of "
11571 "these new innovators, eMusic.com, put it when criticizing the DMCA's added "
11572 "protection for copyrighted material,"
11575 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
11576 #: freeculture.xml:8765
11578 "eMusic opposes music piracy. We are a distributor of copyrighted material, "
11579 "and we want to protect those rights."
11582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
11583 #: freeculture.xml:8769
11585 "But building a technology fortress that locks in the clout of the major "
11586 "labels is by no means the only way to protect copyright interests, nor is it "
11587 "necessarily the best. It is simply too early to answer that question. Market "
11588 "forces operating naturally may very well produce a totally different "
11593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11594 #: freeculture.xml:8786
11596 "WIPO and the DMCA One Year Later: Assessing Consumer Access to Digital "
11597 "Entertainment on the Internet and Other Media: Hearing Before the "
11598 "Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, House "
11599 "Committee on Commerce, 106th Cong. 29 (1999) (statement of Peter Harter, "
11600 "vice president, Global Public Policy and Standards, EMusic.com), available "
11601 "in LEXIS, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony File."
11604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
11605 #: freeculture.xml:8776
11607 "This is a critical point. The choices that industry sectors make with "
11608 "respect to these systems will in many ways directly shape the market for "
11609 "digital media and the manner in which digital media are distributed. This in "
11610 "turn will directly influence the options that are available to consumers, "
11611 "both in terms of the ease with which they will be able to access digital "
11612 "media and the equipment that they will require to do so. Poor choices made "
11613 "this early in the game will retard the growth of this market, hurting "
11614 "everyone's interests.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11618 #: freeculture.xml:8800 freeculture.xml:9150
11619 msgid "Vivendi Universal"
11622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11623 #: freeculture.xml:8797
11625 "In April 2001, eMusic.com was purchased by Vivendi Universal, one of \"the "
11626 "major labels.\" Its position on these matters has now changed. <placeholder "
11627 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11630 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11631 #: freeculture.xml:8803
11633 "Reversing our tradition of tolerance now will not merely quash piracy. It "
11634 "will sacrifice values that are important to this culture, and will kill "
11635 "opportunities that could be extraordinarily valuable."
11638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
11639 #: freeculture.xml:8811
11640 msgid "CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms"
11643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11644 #: freeculture.xml:8813
11646 "To fight \"piracy,\" to protect \"property,\" the content industry has "
11647 "launched a war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have now brought "
11648 "the government into this war. As with any war, this one will have both "
11649 "direct and collateral damage. As with any war of prohibition, these damages "
11650 "will be suffered most by our own people."
11653 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11654 #: freeculture.xml:8820
11656 "My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in "
11657 "particular, the consequences for \"free culture.\" But my aim now is to "
11658 "extend this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war "
11662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11663 #: freeculture.xml:8826
11665 "In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the first "
11666 "time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the power of "
11667 "the property called \"intellectual property\" is at its greatest in our "
11671 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11672 #: freeculture.xml:8834
11674 "Yet \"common sense\" does not see it this way. Common sense is still on the "
11675 "side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme claims of control "
11676 "in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical rejection of "
11677 "\"piracy\" still has play."
11681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
11682 #: freeculture.xml:8841
11684 "There will be many consequences of continuing this war. I want to describe "
11685 "just three. All three might be said to be unintended. I am quite confident "
11686 "the third is unintended. I'm less sure about the first two. The first two "
11687 "protect modern RCAs, but there is no Howard Armstrong in the wings to fight "
11688 "today's monopolists of culture."
11691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11692 #: freeculture.xml:8848
11693 msgid "Constraining Creators"
11696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11697 #: freeculture.xml:8850
11699 "In the next ten years we will see an explosion of digital technologies. "
11700 "These technologies will enable almost anyone to capture and share "
11701 "content. Capturing and sharing content, of course, is what humans have done "
11702 "since the dawn of man. It is how we learn and communicate. But capturing and "
11703 "sharing through digital technology is different. The fidelity and power are "
11704 "different. You could send an e-mail telling someone about a joke you saw on "
11705 "Comedy Central, or you could send the clip. You could write an essay about "
11706 "the inconsistencies in the arguments of the politician you most love to "
11707 "hate, or you could make a short film that puts statement against "
11708 "statement. You could write a poem to express your love, or you could weave "
11709 "together a string—a mash-up— of songs from your favorite artists "
11710 "in a collage and make it available on the Net."
11713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11714 #: freeculture.xml:8865
11716 "This digital \"capturing and sharing\" is in part an extension of the "
11717 "capturing and sharing that has always been integral to our culture, and in "
11718 "part it is something new. It is continuous with the Kodak, but it explodes "
11719 "the boundaries of Kodak-like technologies. The technology of digital "
11720 "\"capturing and sharing\" promises a world of extraordinarily diverse "
11721 "creativity that can be easily and broadly shared. And as that creativity is "
11722 "applied to democracy, it will enable a broad range of citizens to use "
11723 "technology to express and criticize and contribute to the culture all "
11728 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11729 #: freeculture.xml:8876
11731 "Technology has thus given us an opportunity to do something with culture "
11732 "that has only ever been possible for individuals in small groups, isolated "
11733 "from others. Think about an old man telling a story to a collection of "
11734 "neighbors in a small town. Now imagine that same storytelling extended "
11735 "across the globe."
11738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11739 #: freeculture.xml:8886
11741 "Yet all this is possible only if the activity is presumptively legal. In the "
11742 "current regime of legal regulation, it is not. Forget file sharing for a "
11743 "moment. Think about your favorite amazing sites on the Net. Web sites that "
11744 "offer plot summaries from forgotten television shows; sites that catalog "
11745 "cartoons from the 1960s; sites that mix images and sound to criticize "
11746 "politicians or businesses; sites that gather newspaper articles on remote "
11747 "topics of science or culture. There is a vast amount of creative work spread "
11748 "across the Internet. But as the law is currently crafted, this work is "
11749 "presumptively illegal."
11752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
11753 #: freeculture.xml:8914 freeculture.xml:8935
11757 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11758 #: freeculture.xml:8909
11760 "See Lynne W. Jeter, <citetitle>Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at "
11761 "WorldCom</citetitle> (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 176, 204; "
11762 "for details of the settlement, see MCI press release, \"MCI Wins "
11763 "U.S. District Court Approval for SEC Settlement\" (7 July 2003), available "
11764 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #37</ulink>. "
11765 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11769 #: freeculture.xml:8930
11770 msgid "Bush, George W."
11773 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11774 #: freeculture.xml:8921
11776 "The bill, modeled after California's tort reform model, was passed in the "
11777 "House of Representatives but defeated in a Senate vote in July 2003. For an "
11778 "overview, see Tanya Albert, \"Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be Back,' Say "
11779 "Tort Reformers,\" amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available at <ulink "
11780 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #38</ulink>, and \"Senate Turns "
11781 "Back Malpractice Caps,\" CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
11782 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #39</ulink>. President Bush has "
11783 "continued to urge tort reform in recent months. <placeholder "
11784 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11788 #: freeculture.xml:8897
11790 "That presumption will increasingly chill creativity, as the examples of "
11791 "extreme penalties for vague infringements continue to proliferate. It is "
11792 "impossible to get a clear sense of what's allowed and what's not, and at the "
11793 "same time, the penalties for crossing the line are astonishingly harsh. The "
11794 "four students who were threatened by the RIAA ( Jesse Jordan of chapter 3 "
11795 "was just one) were threatened with a $98 billion lawsuit for building search "
11796 "engines that permitted songs to be copied. Yet World-Com—which "
11797 "defrauded investors of $11 billion, resulting in a loss to investors in "
11798 "market capitalization of over $200 billion—received a fine of a mere "
11799 "$750 million.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And under legislation "
11800 "being pushed in Congress right now, a doctor who negligently removes the "
11801 "wrong leg in an operation would be liable for no more than $250,000 in "
11802 "damages for pain and suffering.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Can "
11803 "common sense recognize the absurdity in a world where the maximum fine for "
11804 "downloading two songs off the Internet is more than the fine for a doctor's "
11805 "negligently butchering a patient? <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
11809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11810 #: freeculture.xml:8957
11812 "See Danit Lidor, \"Artists Just Wanna Be Free,\" "
11813 "<citetitle>Wired</citetitle>, 7 July 2003, available at <ulink "
11814 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #40</ulink>. For an overview of "
11815 "the exhibition, see <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
11819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11820 #: freeculture.xml:8938
11822 "The consequence of this legal uncertainty, tied to these extremely high "
11823 "penalties, is that an extraordinary amount of creativity will either never "
11824 "be exercised, or never be exercised in the open. We drive this creative "
11825 "process underground by branding the modern-day Walt Disneys \"pirates.\" We "
11826 "make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a public domain, because the "
11827 "boundaries of the public domain are designed to be unclear. It never pays to "
11828 "do anything except pay for the right to create, and hence only those who can "
11829 "pay are allowed to create. As was the case in the Soviet Union, though for "
11830 "very different reasons, we will begin to see a world of underground "
11831 "art—not because the message is necessarily political, or because the "
11832 "subject is controversial, but because the very act of creating the art is "
11833 "legally fraught. Already, exhibits of \"illegal art\" tour the United "
11834 "States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In what does their "
11835 "\"illegality\" consist? In the act of mixing the culture around us with an "
11836 "expression that is critical or reflective."
11839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11840 #: freeculture.xml:8967
11842 "Part of the reason for this fear of illegality has to do with the changing "
11843 "law. I described that change in detail in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
11844 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>. But an even bigger part has to do "
11845 "with the increasing ease with which infractions can be tracked. As users of "
11846 "file-sharing systems discovered in 2002, it is a trivial matter for "
11847 "copyright owners to get courts to order Internet service providers to reveal "
11848 "who has what content. It is as if your cassette tape player transmitted a "
11849 "list of the songs that you played in the privacy of your own home that "
11850 "anyone could tune into for whatever reason they chose."
11853 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11854 #: freeculture.xml:8979
11856 "Never in our history has a painter had to worry about whether his painting "
11857 "infringed on someone else's work; but the modern-day painter, using the "
11858 "tools of Photoshop, sharing content on the Web, must worry all the "
11859 "time. Images are all around, but the only safe images to use in the act of "
11860 "creation are those purchased from Corbis or another image farm. And in "
11861 "purchasing, censoring happens. There is a free market in pencils; we needn't "
11862 "worry about its effect on creativity. But there is a highly regulated, "
11863 "monopolized market in cultural icons; the right to cultivate and transform "
11864 "them is not similarly free."
11867 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11868 #: freeculture.xml:8990
11870 "Lawyers rarely see this because lawyers are rarely empirical. As I described "
11871 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/>, "
11872 "in response to the story about documentary filmmaker Jon Else, I have been "
11873 "lectured again and again by lawyers who insist Else's use was fair use, and "
11874 "hence I am wrong to say that the law regulates such a use."
11878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11879 #: freeculture.xml:9001
11881 "But fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer to defend "
11882 "your right to create. And as lawyers love to forget, our system for "
11883 "defending rights such as fair use is astonishingly bad—in practically "
11884 "every context, but especially here. It costs too much, it delivers too "
11885 "slowly, and what it delivers often has little connection to the justice "
11886 "underlying the claim. The legal system may be tolerable for the very rich. "
11887 "For everyone else, it is an embarrassment to a tradition that prides itself "
11888 "on the rule of law."
11891 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11892 #: freeculture.xml:9011
11894 "Judges and lawyers can tell themselves that fair use provides adequate "
11895 "\"breathing room\" between regulation by the law and the access the law "
11896 "should allow. But it is a measure of how out of touch our legal system has "
11897 "become that anyone actually believes this. The rules that publishers impose "
11898 "upon writers, the rules that film distributors impose upon filmmakers, the "
11899 "rules that newspapers impose upon journalists— these are the real laws "
11900 "governing creativity. And these rules have little relationship to the "
11901 "\"law\" with which judges comfort themselves."
11904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11905 #: freeculture.xml:9022
11907 "For in a world that threatens $150,000 for a single willful infringement of "
11908 "a copyright, and which demands tens of thousands of dollars to even defend "
11909 "against a copyright infringement claim, and which would never return to the "
11910 "wrongfully accused defendant anything of the costs she suffered to defend "
11911 "her right to speak—in that world, the astonishingly broad regulations "
11912 "that pass under the name \"copyright\" silence speech and creativity. And in "
11913 "that world, it takes a studied blindness for people to continue to believe "
11914 "they live in a culture that is free."
11917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11918 #: freeculture.xml:9033
11919 msgid "As Jed Horovitz, the businessman behind Video Pipeline, said to me,"
11923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11924 #: freeculture.xml:9037
11926 "We're losing [creative] opportunities right and left. Creative people are "
11927 "being forced not to express themselves. Thoughts are not being "
11928 "expressed. And while a lot of stuff may [still] be created, it still won't "
11929 "get distributed. Even if the stuff gets made … you're not going to "
11930 "get it distributed in the mainstream media unless you've got a little note "
11931 "from a lawyer saying, \"This has been cleared.\" You're not even going to "
11932 "get it on PBS without that kind of permission. That's the point at which "
11936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11937 #: freeculture.xml:9050
11938 msgid "Constraining Innovators"
11941 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11942 #: freeculture.xml:9052
11944 "The story of the last section was a crunchy-lefty story—creativity "
11945 "quashed, artists who can't speak, yada yada yada. Maybe that doesn't get you "
11946 "going. Maybe you think there's enough weird art out there, and enough "
11947 "expression that is critical of what seems to be just about everything. And "
11948 "if you think that, you might think there's little in this story to worry "
11952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11953 #: freeculture.xml:9060
11955 "But there's an aspect of this story that is not lefty in any sense. Indeed, "
11956 "it is an aspect that could be written by the most extreme promarket "
11957 "ideologue. And if you're one of these sorts (and a special one at that, 188 "
11958 "pages into a book like this), then you can see this other aspect by "
11959 "substituting \"free market\" every place I've spoken of \"free culture.\" "
11960 "The point is the same, even if the interests affecting culture are more "
11964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11965 #: freeculture.xml:9069
11967 "The charge I've been making about the regulation of culture is the same "
11968 "charge free marketers make about regulating markets. Everyone, of course, "
11969 "concedes that some regulation of markets is necessary—at a minimum, we "
11970 "need rules of property and contract, and courts to enforce both. Likewise, "
11971 "in this culture debate, everyone concedes that at least some framework of "
11972 "copyright is also required. But both perspectives vehemently insist that "
11973 "just because some regulation is good, it doesn't follow that more regulation "
11974 "is better. And both perspectives are constantly attuned to the ways in which "
11975 "regulation simply enables the powerful industries of today to protect "
11976 "themselves against the competitors of tomorrow."
11979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11980 #: freeculture.xml:9081 freeculture.xml:9188
11981 msgid "Barry, Hank"
11985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11986 #: freeculture.xml:9083
11988 "This is the single most dramatic effect of the shift in regulatory strategy "
11989 "that I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
11990 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>. The consequence of this massive threat of "
11991 "liability tied to the murky boundaries of copyright law is that innovators "
11992 "who want to innovate in this space can safely innovate only if they have the "
11993 "sign-off from last generation's dominant industries. That lesson has been "
11994 "taught through a series of cases that were designed and executed to teach "
11995 "venture capitalists a lesson. That lesson—what former Napster CEO Hank "
11996 "Barry calls a \"nuclear pall\" that has fallen over the Valley—has "
12000 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12001 #: freeculture.xml:9096
12003 "Consider one example to make the point, a story whose beginning I told in "
12004 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> and which has progressed in a way "
12005 "that even I (pessimist extraordinaire) would never have predicted."
12008 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12009 #: freeculture.xml:9101
12011 "In 1997, Michael Roberts launched a company called MP3.com. MP3.com was "
12012 "keen to remake the music business. Their goal was not just to facilitate new "
12013 "ways to get access to content. Their goal was also to facilitate new ways to "
12014 "create content. Unlike the major labels, MP3.com offered creators a venue to "
12015 "distribute their creativity, without demanding an exclusive engagement from "
12019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12020 #: freeculture.xml:9109
12022 "To make this system work, however, MP3.com needed a reliable way to "
12023 "recommend music to its users. The idea behind this alternative was to "
12024 "leverage the revealed preferences of music listeners to recommend new "
12025 "artists. If you like Lyle Lovett, you're likely to enjoy Bonnie Raitt. And "
12026 "so on. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12030 #: freeculture.xml:9117
12032 "This idea required a simple way to gather data about user preferences. "
12033 "MP3.com came up with an extraordinarily clever way to gather this preference "
12034 "data. In January 2000, the company launched a service called "
12035 "my.mp3.com. Using software provided by MP3.com, a user would sign into an "
12036 "account and then insert into her computer a CD. The software would identify "
12037 "the CD, and then give the user access to that content. So, for example, if "
12038 "you inserted a CD by Jill Sobule, then wherever you were—at work or at "
12039 "home—you could get access to that music once you signed into your "
12040 "account. The system was therefore a kind of music-lockbox."
12044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12045 #: freeculture.xml:9129
12047 "No doubt some could use this system to illegally copy content. But that "
12048 "opportunity existed with or without MP3.com. The aim of the my.mp3.com "
12049 "service was to give users access to their own content, and as a by-product, "
12050 "by seeing the content they already owned, to discover the kind of content "
12054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12055 #: freeculture.xml:9138
12057 "To make this system function, however, MP3.com needed to copy 50,000 CDs to "
12058 "a server. (In principle, it could have been the user who uploaded the music, "
12059 "but that would have taken a great deal of time, and would have produced a "
12060 "product of questionable quality.) It therefore purchased 50,000 CDs from a "
12061 "store, and started the process of making copies of those CDs. Again, it "
12062 "would not serve the content from those copies to anyone except those who "
12063 "authenticated that they had a copy of the CD they wanted to access. So while "
12064 "this was 50,000 copies, it was 50,000 copies directed at giving customers "
12065 "something they had already bought."
12068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12069 #: freeculture.xml:9153
12071 "Nine days after MP3.com launched its service, the five major labels, headed "
12072 "by the RIAA, brought a lawsuit against MP3.com. MP3.com settled with four of "
12073 "the five. Nine months later, a federal judge found MP3.com to have been "
12074 "guilty of willful infringement with respect to the fifth. Applying the law "
12075 "as it is, the judge imposed a fine against MP3.com of $118 million. MP3.com "
12076 "then settled with the remaining plaintiff, Vivendi Universal, paying over "
12077 "$54 million. Vivendi purchased MP3.com just about a year later."
12080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12081 #: freeculture.xml:9163
12082 msgid "That part of the story I have told before. Now consider its conclusion."
12085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12086 #: freeculture.xml:9166
12088 "After Vivendi purchased MP3.com, Vivendi turned around and filed a "
12089 "malpractice lawsuit against the lawyers who had advised it that they had a "
12090 "good faith claim that the service they wanted to offer would be considered "
12091 "legal under copyright law. This lawsuit alleged that it should have been "
12092 "obvious that the courts would find this behavior illegal; therefore, this "
12093 "lawsuit sought to punish any lawyer who had dared to suggest that the law "
12094 "was less restrictive than the labels demanded."
12098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12099 #: freeculture.xml:9176
12101 "The clear purpose of this lawsuit (which was settled for an unspecified "
12102 "amount shortly after the story was no longer covered in the press) was to "
12103 "send an unequivocal message to lawyers advising clients in this space: It is "
12104 "not just your clients who might suffer if the content industry directs its "
12105 "guns against them. It is also you. So those of you who believe the law "
12106 "should be less restrictive should realize that such a view of the law will "
12107 "cost you and your firm dearly."
12110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12111 #: freeculture.xml:9187
12112 msgid "Hummer, John"
12116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12117 #: freeculture.xml:9196
12119 "See Joseph Menn, \"Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor,\" <citetitle>Los "
12120 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 23 April 2003. For a parallel argument about the "
12121 "effects on innovation in the distribution of music, see Janelle Brown, \"The "
12122 "Music Revolution Will Not Be Digitized,\" Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available "
12123 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #42</ulink>. See also "
12124 "Jon Healey, \"Online Music Services Besieged,\" <citetitle>Los Angeles "
12125 "Times</citetitle>, 28 May 2001."
12128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12129 #: freeculture.xml:9190
12131 "This strategy is not just limited to the lawyers. In April 2003, Universal "
12132 "and EMI brought a lawsuit against Hummer Winblad, the venture capital firm "
12133 "(VC) that had funded Napster at a certain stage of its development, its "
12134 "cofounder ( John Hummer), and general partner (Hank Barry).<placeholder "
12135 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The claim here, as well, was that the VC should "
12136 "have recognized the right of the content industry to control how the "
12137 "industry should develop. They should be held personally liable for funding a "
12138 "company whose business turned out to be beyond the law. Here again, the aim "
12139 "of the lawsuit is transparent: Any VC now recognizes that if you fund a "
12140 "company whose business is not approved of by the dinosaurs, you are at risk "
12141 "not just in the marketplace, but in the courtroom as well. Your investment "
12142 "buys you not only a company, it also buys you a lawsuit. So extreme has the "
12143 "environment become that even car manufacturers are afraid of technologies "
12144 "that touch content. In an article in <citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, "
12145 "Rafe Needleman describes a discussion with BMW: <placeholder "
12146 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
12149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
12150 #: freeculture.xml:9220
12154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12155 #: freeculture.xml:9235
12156 msgid "Needleman, Rafe"
12159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12160 #: freeculture.xml:9231
12162 "Rafe Needleman, \"Driving in Cars with MP3s,\" <citetitle>Business "
12163 "2.0</citetitle>, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12164 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #43</ulink>. I am grateful to "
12165 "Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli for this example. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12169 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12170 #: freeculture.xml:9222
12172 "I asked why, with all the storage capacity and computer power in the car, "
12173 "there was no way to play MP3 files. I was told that BMW engineers in Germany "
12174 "had rigged a new vehicle to play MP3s via the car's built-in sound system, "
12175 "but that the company's marketing and legal departments weren't comfortable "
12176 "with pushing this forward for release stateside. Even today, no new cars are "
12177 "sold in the United States with bona fide MP3 players. … <placeholder "
12178 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12182 #: freeculture.xml:9240
12184 "This is the world of the mafia—filled with \"your money or your life\" "
12185 "offers, governed in the end not by courts but by the threats that the law "
12186 "empowers copyright holders to exercise. It is a system that will obviously "
12187 "and necessarily stifle new innovation. It is hard enough to start a "
12188 "company. It is impossibly hard if that company is constantly threatened by "
12193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12194 #: freeculture.xml:9250
12196 "The point is not that businesses should have a right to start illegal "
12197 "enterprises. The point is the definition of \"illegal.\" The law is a mess "
12198 "of uncertainty. We have no good way to know how it should apply to new "
12199 "technologies. Yet by reversing our tradition of judicial deference, and by "
12200 "embracing the astonishingly high penalties that copyright law imposes, that "
12201 "uncertainty now yields a reality which is far more conservative than is "
12202 "right. If the law imposed the death penalty for parking tickets, we'd not "
12203 "only have fewer parking tickets, we'd also have much less driving. The same "
12204 "principle applies to innovation. If innovation is constantly checked by this "
12205 "uncertain and unlimited liability, we will have much less vibrant innovation "
12206 "and much less creativity."
12209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12210 #: freeculture.xml:9264
12212 "The point is directly parallel to the crunchy-lefty point about fair "
12213 "use. Whatever the \"real\" law is, realism about the effect of law in both "
12214 "contexts is the same. This wildly punitive system of regulation will "
12215 "systematically stifle creativity and innovation. It will protect some "
12216 "industries and some creators, but it will harm industry and creativity "
12217 "generally. Free market and free culture depend upon vibrant competition. "
12218 "Yet the effect of the law today is to stifle just this kind of competition. "
12219 "The effect is to produce an overregulated culture, just as the effect of too "
12220 "much control in the market is to produce an overregulatedregulated market."
12224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12225 #: freeculture.xml:9276
12227 "The building of a permission culture, rather than a free culture, is the "
12228 "first important way in which the changes I have described will burden "
12229 "innovation. A permission culture means a lawyer's culture—a culture in "
12230 "which the ability to create requires a call to your lawyer. Again, I am not "
12231 "antilawyer, at least when they're kept in their proper place. I am certainly "
12232 "not antilaw. But our profession has lost the sense of its limits. And "
12233 "leaders in our profession have lost an appreciation of the high costs that "
12234 "our profession imposes upon others. The inefficiency of the law is an "
12235 "embarrassment to our tradition. And while I believe our profession should "
12236 "therefore do everything it can to make the law more efficient, it should at "
12237 "least do everything it can to limit the reach of the law where the law is "
12238 "not doing any good. The transaction costs buried within a permission culture "
12239 "are enough to bury a wide range of creativity. Someone needs to do a lot of "
12240 "justifying to justify that result. The uncertainty of the law is one burden "
12241 "on innovation. There is a second burden that operates more directly. This is "
12242 "the effort by many in the content industry to use the law to directly "
12243 "regulate the technology of the Internet so that it better protects their "
12247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12248 #: freeculture.xml:9298
12250 "The motivation for this response is obvious. The Internet enables the "
12251 "efficient spread of content. That efficiency is a feature of the Internet's "
12252 "design. But from the perspective of the content industry, this feature is a "
12253 "\"bug.\" The efficient spread of content means that content distributors "
12254 "have a harder time controlling the distribution of content. One obvious "
12255 "response to this efficiency is thus to make the Internet less efficient. If "
12256 "the Internet enables \"piracy,\" then, this response says, we should break "
12257 "the kneecaps of the Internet."
12261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12262 #: freeculture.xml:9312
12264 "\"Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,\" GartnerG2 and the "
12265 "Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School (2003), "
12266 "33–35, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12272 #: freeculture.xml:9325
12273 msgid "GartnerG2, 26–27."
12276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12277 #: freeculture.xml:9308
12279 "The examples of this form of legislation are many. At the urging of the "
12280 "content industry, some in Congress have threatened legislation that would "
12281 "require computers to determine whether the content they access is protected "
12282 "or not, and to disable the spread of protected content.<placeholder "
12283 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Congress has already launched proceedings to "
12284 "explore a mandatory \"broadcast flag\" that would be required on any device "
12285 "capable of transmitting digital video (i.e., a computer), and that would "
12286 "disable the copying of any content that is marked with a broadcast "
12287 "flag. Other members of Congress have proposed immunizing content providers "
12288 "from liability for technology they might deploy that would hunt down "
12289 "copyright violators and disable their machines.<placeholder "
12290 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
12294 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12295 #: freeculture.xml:9329
12297 "In one sense, these solutions seem sensible. If the problem is the code, why "
12298 "not regulate the code to remove the problem. But any regulation of technical "
12299 "infrastructure will always be tuned to the particular technology of the "
12300 "day. It will impose significant burdens and costs on the technology, but "
12301 "will likely be eclipsed by advances around exactly those requirements."
12305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12306 #: freeculture.xml:9343
12308 "See David McGuire, \"Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy,\" Newsbytes, "
12309 "February 2002 (Entertainment)."
12312 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
12313 #: freeculture.xml:9349 freeculture.xml:11158
12317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12318 #: freeculture.xml:9339
12320 "In March 2002, a broad coalition of technology companies, led by Intel, "
12321 "tried to get Congress to see the harm that such legislation would "
12322 "impose.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Their argument was "
12323 "obviously not that copyright should not be protected. Instead, they argued, "
12324 "any protection should not do more harm than good. <placeholder "
12325 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
12328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12329 #: freeculture.xml:9352
12331 "There is one more obvious way in which this war has harmed "
12332 "innovation—again, a story that will be quite familiar to the free "
12336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12337 #: freeculture.xml:9357
12339 "Copyright may be property, but like all property, it is also a form of "
12340 "regulation. It is a regulation that benefits some and harms others. When "
12341 "done right, it benefits creators and harms leeches. When done wrong, it is "
12342 "regulation the powerful use to defeat competitors."
12345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12346 #: freeculture.xml:9369
12348 "Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (Amherst, N.Y.: "
12349 "Prometheus Books, 2001). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12353 #: freeculture.xml:9363
12355 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12356 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, despite this feature of copyright as regulation, "
12357 "and subject to important qualifications outlined by Jessica Litman in her "
12358 "book <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle>,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12359 "id=\"0\"/> overall this history of copyright is not bad. As chapter 10 "
12360 "details, when new technologies have come along, Congress has struck a "
12361 "balance to assure that the new is protected from the old. Compulsory, or "
12362 "statutory, licenses have been one part of that strategy. Free use (as in the "
12363 "case of the VCR) has been another."
12366 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12367 #: freeculture.xml:9380
12369 "But that pattern of deference to new technologies has now changed with the "
12370 "rise of the Internet. Rather than striking a balance between the claims of a "
12371 "new technology and the legitimate rights of content creators, both the "
12372 "courts and Congress have imposed legal restrictions that will have the "
12373 "effect of smothering the new to benefit the old."
12377 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12378 #: freeculture.xml:9389
12380 "The only circuit court exception is found in <citetitle>Recording Industry "
12381 "Association of America (RIAA)</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Diamond Multimedia "
12382 "Systems</citetitle>, 180 F. 3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). There the court of "
12383 "appeals for the Ninth Circuit reasoned that makers of a portable MP3 player "
12384 "were not liable for contributory copyright infringement for a device that is "
12385 "unable to record or redistribute music (a device whose only copying function "
12386 "is to render portable a music file already stored on a user's hard drive). "
12387 "At the district court level, the only exception is found in "
12388 "<citetitle>Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, "
12389 "Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Grokster, Ltd</citetitle>., 259 F. Supp. 2d "
12390 "1029 (C.D. Cal., 2003), where the court found the link between the "
12391 "distributor and any given user's conduct too attenuated to make the "
12392 "distributor liable for contributory or vicarious infringement liability."
12395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12396 #: freeculture.xml:9407
12398 "For example, in July 2002, Representative Howard Berman introduced the "
12399 "Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention Act (H.R. 5211), which would immunize "
12400 "copyright holders from liability for damage done to computers when the "
12401 "copyright holders use technology to stop copyright infringement. In August "
12402 "2002, Representative Billy Tauzin introduced a bill to mandate that "
12403 "technologies capable of rebroadcasting digital copies of films broadcast on "
12404 "TV (i.e., computers) respect a \"broadcast flag\" that would disable copying "
12405 "of that content. And in March of the same year, Senator Fritz Hollings "
12406 "introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, "
12407 "which mandated copyright protection technology in all digital media "
12408 "devices. See GartnerG2, \"Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster "
12409 "World,\" 27 June 2003, 33–34, available at <ulink "
12410 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>. <placeholder "
12411 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12414 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12415 #: freeculture.xml:9387
12417 "The response by the courts has been fairly universal.<placeholder "
12418 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It has been mirrored in the responses "
12419 "threatened and actually implemented by Congress. I won't catalog all of "
12420 "those responses here.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> But there is "
12421 "one example that captures the flavor of them all. This is the story of the "
12422 "demise of Internet radio."
12425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12426 #: freeculture.xml:9429
12428 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12429 "linkend=\"pirates\"/>, when a radio station plays a song, the recording "
12430 "artist doesn't get paid for that \"radio performance\" unless he or she is "
12431 "also the composer. So, for example if Marilyn Monroe had recorded a version "
12432 "of \"Happy Birthday\"—to memorialize her famous performance before "
12433 "President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden— then whenever that "
12434 "recording was played on the radio, the current copyright owners of \"Happy "
12435 "Birthday\" would get some money, whereas Marilyn Monroe would not. "
12436 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12440 #: freeculture.xml:9441
12442 "The reasoning behind this balance struck by Congress makes some sense. The "
12443 "justification was that radio was a kind of advertising. The recording artist "
12444 "thus benefited because by playing her music, the radio station was making it "
12445 "more likely that her records would be purchased. Thus, the recording artist "
12446 "got something, even if only indirectly. Probably this reasoning had less to "
12447 "do with the result than with the power of radio stations: Their lobbyists "
12448 "were quite good at stopping any efforts to get Congress to require "
12449 "compensation to the recording artists."
12452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12453 #: freeculture.xml:9452
12455 "Enter Internet radio. Like regular radio, Internet radio is a technology to "
12456 "stream content from a broadcaster to a listener. The broadcast travels "
12457 "across the Internet, not across the ether of radio spectrum. Thus, I can "
12458 "\"tune in\" to an Internet radio station in Berlin while sitting in San "
12459 "Francisco, even though there's no way for me to tune in to a regular radio "
12460 "station much beyond the San Francisco metropolitan area."
12463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12464 #: freeculture.xml:9461
12466 "This feature of the architecture of Internet radio means that there are "
12467 "potentially an unlimited number of radio stations that a user could tune in "
12468 "to using her computer, whereas under the existing architecture for broadcast "
12469 "radio, there is an obvious limit to the number of broadcasters and clear "
12470 "broadcast frequencies. Internet radio could therefore be more competitive "
12471 "than regular radio; it could provide a wider range of selections. And "
12472 "because the potential audience for Internet radio is the whole world, niche "
12473 "stations could easily develop and market their content to a relatively large "
12474 "number of users worldwide. According to some estimates, more than eighty "
12475 "million users worldwide have tuned in to this new form of radio."
12479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12480 #: freeculture.xml:9476
12482 "Internet radio is thus to radio what FM was to AM. It is an improvement "
12483 "potentially vastly more significant than the FM improvement over AM, since "
12484 "not only is the technology better, so, too, is the competition. Indeed, "
12485 "there is a direct parallel between the fight to establish FM radio and the "
12486 "fight to protect Internet radio. As one author describes Howard Armstrong's "
12487 "struggle to enable FM radio,"
12491 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12492 #: freeculture.xml:9500
12493 msgid "Lessing, 239."
12496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12497 #: freeculture.xml:9486
12499 "An almost unlimited number of FM stations was possible in the shortwaves, "
12500 "thus ending the unnatural restrictions imposed on radio in the crowded "
12501 "longwaves. If FM were freely developed, the number of stations would be "
12502 "limited only by economics and competition rather than by technical "
12503 "restrictions. … Armstrong likened the situation that had grown up in "
12504 "radio to that following the invention of the printing press, when "
12505 "governments and ruling interests attempted to control this new instrument of "
12506 "mass communications by imposing restrictive licenses on it. This tyranny was "
12507 "broken only when it became possible for men freely to acquire printing "
12508 "presses and freely to run them. FM in this sense was as great an invention "
12509 "as the printing presses, for it gave radio the opportunity to strike off its "
12510 "shackles.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12515 #: freeculture.xml:9510
12516 msgid "Ibid., 229."
12519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12520 #: freeculture.xml:9505
12522 "This potential for FM radio was never realized—not because Armstrong "
12523 "was wrong about the technology, but because he underestimated the power of "
12524 "\"vested interests, habits, customs and legislation\"<placeholder "
12525 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> to retard the growth of this competing "
12529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12530 #: freeculture.xml:9515
12532 "Now the very same claim could be made about Internet radio. For again, there "
12533 "is no technical limitation that could restrict the number of Internet radio "
12534 "stations. The only restrictions on Internet radio are those imposed by the "
12535 "law. Copyright law is one such law. So the first question we should ask is, "
12536 "what copyright rules would govern Internet radio?"
12540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12541 #: freeculture.xml:9523
12543 "But here the power of the lobbyists is reversed. Internet radio is a new "
12544 "industry. The recording artists, on the other hand, have a very powerful "
12545 "lobby, the RIAA. Thus when Congress considered the phenomenon of Internet "
12546 "radio in 1995, the lobbyists had primed Congress to adopt a different rule "
12547 "for Internet radio than the rule that applies to terrestrial radio. While "
12548 "terrestrial radio does not have to pay our hypothetical Marilyn Monroe when "
12549 "it plays her hypothetical recording of \"Happy Birthday\" on the air, "
12550 "<emphasis>Internet radio does</emphasis>. Not only is the law not neutral "
12551 "toward Internet radio—the law actually burdens Internet radio more "
12552 "than it burdens terrestrial radio."
12555 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12556 #: freeculture.xml:9562
12557 msgid "CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel)"
12560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12561 #: freeculture.xml:9545
12563 "This example was derived from fees set by the original Copyright Arbitration "
12564 "Royalty Panel (CARP) proceedings, and is drawn from an example offered by "
12565 "Professor William Fisher. Conference Proceedings, iLaw (Stanford), 3 July "
12566 "2003, on file with author. Professors Fisher and Zittrain submitted "
12567 "testimony in the CARP proceeding that was ultimately rejected. See Jonathan "
12568 "Zittrain, Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings and Ephemeral "
12569 "Recordings, Docket No. 2000-9, CARP DTRA 1 and 2, available at <ulink "
12570 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #45</ulink>. For an excellent "
12571 "analysis making a similar point, see Randal C. Picker, \"Copyright as Entry "
12572 "Policy: The Case of Digital Distribution,\" <citetitle>Antitrust "
12573 "Bulletin</citetitle> (Summer/Fall 2002): 461: \"This was not confusion, "
12574 "these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are "
12575 "protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, "
12576 "this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, "
12577 "absent the play of powerful interests, that could have been done in a "
12578 "media-neutral way.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
12579 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
12582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12583 #: freeculture.xml:9538
12585 "This financial burden is not slight. As Harvard law professor William Fisher "
12586 "estimates, if an Internet radio station distributed adfree popular music to "
12587 "(on average) ten thousand listeners, twenty-four hours a day, the total "
12588 "artist fees that radio station would owe would be over $1 million a "
12589 "year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A regular radio station "
12590 "broadcasting the same content would pay no equivalent fee."
12593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12594 #: freeculture.xml:9569
12596 "The burden is not financial only. Under the original rules that were "
12597 "proposed, an Internet radio station (but not a terrestrial radio station) "
12598 "would have to collect the following data from <emphasis>every listening "
12599 "transaction</emphasis>:"
12602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12603 #: freeculture.xml:9577
12604 msgid "name of the service;"
12607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12608 #: freeculture.xml:9580
12609 msgid "channel of the program (AM/FM stations use station ID);"
12612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12613 #: freeculture.xml:9583
12614 msgid "type of program (archived/looped/live);"
12617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12618 #: freeculture.xml:9586
12619 msgid "date of transmission;"
12622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12623 #: freeculture.xml:9589
12624 msgid "time of transmission;"
12627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12628 #: freeculture.xml:9592
12629 msgid "time zone of origination of transmission;"
12632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12633 #: freeculture.xml:9595
12634 msgid "numeric designation of the place of the sound recording within the program;"
12637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12638 #: freeculture.xml:9598
12639 msgid "duration of transmission (to nearest second);"
12642 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12643 #: freeculture.xml:9601
12644 msgid "sound recording title;"
12647 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12648 #: freeculture.xml:9604
12649 msgid "ISRC code of the recording;"
12652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12653 #: freeculture.xml:9607
12655 "release year of the album per copyright notice and in the case of "
12656 "compilation albums, the release year of the album and copy- right date of "
12660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12661 #: freeculture.xml:9610
12662 msgid "featured recording artist;"
12665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12666 #: freeculture.xml:9613
12667 msgid "retail album title;"
12670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12671 #: freeculture.xml:9616
12672 msgid "recording label;"
12675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12676 #: freeculture.xml:9619
12677 msgid "UPC code of the retail album;"
12680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12681 #: freeculture.xml:9622
12682 msgid "catalog number;"
12685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12686 #: freeculture.xml:9625
12687 msgid "copyright owner information;"
12690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12691 #: freeculture.xml:9628
12692 msgid "musical genre of the channel or program (station format);"
12695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12696 #: freeculture.xml:9631
12697 msgid "name of the service or entity;"
12700 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12701 #: freeculture.xml:9634
12702 msgid "channel or program;"
12705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12706 #: freeculture.xml:9637
12707 msgid "date and time that the user logged in (in the user's time zone);"
12710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12711 #: freeculture.xml:9640
12712 msgid "date and time that the user logged out (in the user's time zone);"
12715 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12716 #: freeculture.xml:9643
12717 msgid "time zone where the signal was received (user);"
12720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12721 #: freeculture.xml:9646
12722 msgid "unique user identifier;"
12725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
12726 #: freeculture.xml:9649
12727 msgid "the country in which the user received the transmissions."
12730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12731 #: freeculture.xml:9654
12733 "The Librarian of Congress eventually suspended these reporting requirements, "
12734 "pending further study. And he also changed the original rates set by the "
12735 "arbitration panel charged with setting rates. But the basic difference "
12736 "between Internet radio and terrestrial radio remains: Internet radio has to "
12737 "pay a <emphasis>type of copyright fee</emphasis> that terrestrial radio does "
12741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12742 #: freeculture.xml:9662
12744 "Why? What justifies this difference? Was there any study of the economic "
12745 "consequences from Internet radio that would justify these differences? Was "
12746 "the motive to protect artists against piracy?"
12749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12750 #: freeculture.xml:9668
12752 "In a rare bit of candor, one RIAA expert admitted what seemed obvious to "
12753 "everyone at the time. As Alex Alben, vice president for Public Policy at "
12754 "Real Networks, told me,"
12758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12759 #: freeculture.xml:9674
12761 "The RIAA, which was representing the record labels, presented some testimony "
12762 "about what they thought a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller, and "
12763 "it was much higher. It was ten times higher than what radio stations pay to "
12764 "perform the same songs for the same period of time. And so the attorneys "
12765 "representing the webcasters asked the RIAA, … \"How do you come up "
12766 "with a rate that's so much higher? Why is it worth more than radio? Because "
12767 "here we have hundreds of thousands of webcasters who want to pay, and that "
12768 "should establish the market rate, and if you set the rate so high, you're "
12769 "going to drive the small webcasters out of business. …\""
12772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12773 #: freeculture.xml:9690
12775 "And the RIAA experts said, \"Well, we don't really model this as an industry "
12776 "with thousands of webcasters, <emphasis>we think it should be an industry "
12777 "with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate and it's a "
12778 "stable, predictable market</emphasis>.\" (Emphasis added.)"
12781 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12782 #: freeculture.xml:9698
12784 "Translation: The aim is to use the law to eliminate competition, so that "
12785 "this platform of potentially immense competition, which would cause the "
12786 "diversity and range of content available to explode, would not cause pain to "
12787 "the dinosaurs of old. There is no one, on either the right or the left, who "
12788 "should endorse this use of the law. And yet there is practically no one, on "
12789 "either the right or the left, who is doing anything effective to prevent it."
12792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12793 #: freeculture.xml:9708
12794 msgid "Corrupting Citizens"
12797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12798 #: freeculture.xml:9710
12800 "Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives "
12801 "dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity "
12802 "for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables."
12805 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12806 #: freeculture.xml:9716
12808 "In addition to these important harms, there is one more that was important "
12809 "to our forebears, but seems forgotten today. Overregulation corrupts "
12810 "citizens and weakens the rule of law."
12814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12815 #: freeculture.xml:9725
12817 "Mike Graziano and Lee Rainie, \"The Music Downloading Deluge,\" Pew Internet "
12818 "and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at <ulink "
12819 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #46</ulink>. The Pew Internet "
12820 "and American Life Project reported that 37 million Americans had downloaded "
12821 "music files from the Internet by early 2001."
12825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12826 #: freeculture.xml:9721
12828 "The war that is being waged today is a war of prohibition. As with every war "
12829 "of prohibition, it is targeted against the behavior of a very large number "
12830 "of citizens. According to <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, 43 "
12831 "million Americans downloaded music in May 2002.<placeholder "
12832 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> According to the RIAA, the behavior of those 43 "
12833 "million Americans is a felony. We thus have a set of rules that transform 20 "
12834 "percent of America into criminals. As the RIAA launches lawsuits against not "
12835 "only the Napsters and Kazaas of the world, but against students building "
12836 "search engines, and increasingly against ordinary users downloading content, "
12837 "the technologies for sharing will advance to further protect and hide "
12838 "illegal use. It is an arms race or a civil war, with the extremes of one "
12839 "side inviting a more extreme response by the other."
12843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12844 #: freeculture.xml:9759
12846 "Alex Pham, \"The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA Case,\" "
12847 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, Business."
12850 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12851 #: freeculture.xml:9746
12853 "The content industry's tactics exploit the failings of the American legal "
12854 "system. When the RIAA brought suit against Jesse Jordan, it knew that in "
12855 "Jordan it had found a scapegoat, not a defendant. The threat of having to "
12856 "pay either all the money in the world in damages ($15,000,000) or almost all "
12857 "the money in the world to defend against paying all the money in the world "
12858 "in damages ($250,000 in legal fees) led Jordan to choose to pay all the "
12859 "money he had in the world ($12,000) to make the suit go away. The same "
12860 "strategy animates the RIAA's suits against individual users. In September "
12861 "2003, the RIAA sued 261 individuals—including a twelve-year-old girl "
12862 "living in public housing and a seventy-year-old man who had no idea what "
12863 "file sharing was.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As these "
12864 "scapegoats discovered, it will always cost more to defend against these "
12865 "suits than it would cost to simply settle. (The twelve year old, for "
12866 "example, like Jesse Jordan, paid her life savings of $2,000 to settle the "
12867 "case.) Our law is an awful system for defending rights. It is an "
12868 "embarrassment to our tradition. And the consequence of our law as it is, is "
12869 "that those with the power can use the law to quash any rights they oppose."
12873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12874 #: freeculture.xml:9781
12876 "Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, \"Alcohol Consumption During "
12877 "Prohibition,\" <citetitle>American Economic Review</citetitle> 81, no. 2 "
12882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12883 #: freeculture.xml:9789
12885 "National Drug Control Policy: Hearing Before the House Government Reform "
12886 "Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (5 March 2003) (statement of John "
12887 "P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy)."
12891 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12892 #: freeculture.xml:9799
12894 "See James Andreoni, Brian Erard, and Jonathon Feinstein, \"Tax Compliance,\" "
12895 "<citetitle>Journal of Economic Literature</citetitle> 36 (1998): 818 (survey "
12896 "of compliance literature)."
12899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
12900 #: freeculture.xml:9806
12901 msgid "alcohol prohibition"
12904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12905 #: freeculture.xml:9771
12907 "Wars of prohibition are nothing new in America. This one is just something "
12908 "more extreme than anything we've seen before. We experimented with alcohol "
12909 "prohibition, at a time when the per capita consumption of alcohol was 1.5 "
12910 "gallons per capita per year. The war against drinking initially reduced that "
12911 "consumption to just 30 percent of its preprohibition levels, but by the end "
12912 "of prohibition, consumption was up to 70 percent of the preprohibition "
12913 "level. Americans were drinking just about as much, but now, a vast number "
12914 "were criminals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We have launched a "
12915 "war on drugs aimed at reducing the consumption of regulated narcotics that 7 "
12916 "percent (or 16 million) Americans now use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12917 "id=\"1\"/> That is a drop from the high (so to speak) in 1979 of 14 percent "
12918 "of the population. We regulate automobiles to the point where the vast "
12919 "majority of Americans violate the law every day. We run such a complex tax "
12920 "system that a majority of cash businesses regularly cheat.<placeholder "
12921 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> We pride ourselves on our \"free society,\" but "
12922 "an endless array of ordinary behavior is regulated within our society. And "
12923 "as a result, a huge proportion of Americans regularly violate at least some "
12924 "law. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
12927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
12928 #: freeculture.xml:9824
12929 msgid "law schools"
12932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12933 #: freeculture.xml:9809
12935 "This state of affairs is not without consequence. It is a particularly "
12936 "salient issue for teachers like me, whose job it is to teach law students "
12937 "about the importance of \"ethics.\" As my colleague Charlie Nesson told a "
12938 "class at Stanford, each year law schools admit thousands of students who "
12939 "have illegally downloaded music, illegally consumed alcohol and sometimes "
12940 "drugs, illegally worked without paying taxes, illegally driven cars. These "
12941 "are kids for whom behaving illegally is increasingly the norm. And then we, "
12942 "as law professors, are supposed to teach them how to behave "
12943 "ethically—how to say no to bribes, or keep client funds separate, or "
12944 "honor a demand to disclose a document that will mean that your case is "
12945 "over. Generations of Americans—more significantly in some parts of "
12946 "America than in others, but still, everywhere in America today—can't "
12947 "live their lives both normally and legally, since \"normally\" entails a "
12948 "certain degree of illegality. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12952 #: freeculture.xml:9827
12954 "The response to this general illegality is either to enforce the law more "
12955 "severely or to change the law. We, as a society, have to learn how to make "
12956 "that choice more rationally. Whether a law makes sense depends, in part, at "
12957 "least, upon whether the costs of the law, both intended and collateral, "
12958 "outweigh the benefits. If the costs, intended and collateral, do outweigh "
12959 "the benefits, then the law ought to be changed. Alternatively, if the costs "
12960 "of the existing system are much greater than the costs of an alternative, "
12961 "then we have a good reason to consider the alternative."
12965 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12966 #: freeculture.xml:9840
12968 "My point is not the idiotic one: Just because people violate a law, we "
12969 "should therefore repeal it. Obviously, we could reduce murder statistics "
12970 "dramatically by legalizing murder on Wednesdays and Fridays. But that "
12971 "wouldn't make any sense, since murder is wrong every day of the week. A "
12972 "society is right to ban murder always and everywhere."
12975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12976 #: freeculture.xml:9847
12978 "My point is instead one that democracies understood for generations, but "
12979 "that we recently have learned to forget. The rule of law depends upon people "
12980 "obeying the law. The more often, and more repeatedly, we as citizens "
12981 "experience violating the law, the less we respect the law. Obviously, in "
12982 "most cases, the important issue is the law, not respect for the law. I don't "
12983 "care whether the rapist respects the law or not; I want to catch and "
12984 "incarcerate the rapist. But I do care whether my students respect the "
12985 "law. And I do care if the rules of law sow increasing disrespect because of "
12986 "the extreme of regulation they impose. Twenty million Americans have come "
12987 "of age since the Internet introduced this different idea of \"sharing.\" We "
12988 "need to be able to call these twenty million Americans \"citizens,\" not "
12992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12993 #: freeculture.xml:9861
12995 "When at least forty-three million citizens download content from the "
12996 "Internet, and when they use tools to combine that content in ways "
12997 "unauthorized by copyright holders, the first question we should be asking is "
12998 "not how best to involve the FBI. The first question should be whether this "
12999 "particular prohibition is really necessary in order to achieve the proper "
13000 "ends that copyright law serves. Is there another way to assure that artists "
13001 "get paid without transforming forty-three million Americans into felons? "
13002 "Does it make sense if there are other ways to assure that artists get paid "
13003 "without transforming America into a nation of felons?"
13006 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13007 #: freeculture.xml:9873
13008 msgid "This abstract point can be made more clear with a particular example."
13012 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13013 #: freeculture.xml:9876
13015 "We all own CDs. Many of us still own phonograph records. These pieces of "
13016 "plastic encode music that in a certain sense we have bought. The law "
13017 "protects our right to buy and sell that plastic: It is not a copyright "
13018 "infringement for me to sell all my classical records at a used record store "
13019 "and buy jazz records to replace them. That \"use\" of the recordings is "
13023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13024 #: freeculture.xml:9887
13026 "But as the MP3 craze has demonstrated, there is another use of phonograph "
13027 "records that is effectively free. Because these recordings were made without "
13028 "copy-protection technologies, I am \"free\" to copy, or \"rip,\" music from "
13029 "my records onto a computer hard disk. Indeed, Apple Corporation went so far "
13030 "as to suggest that \"freedom\" was a right: In a series of commercials, "
13031 "Apple endorsed the \"Rip, Mix, Burn\" capacities of digital technologies."
13034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13035 #: freeculture.xml:9895
13039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13040 #: freeculture.xml:9897
13042 "This \"use\" of my records is certainly valuable. I have begun a large "
13043 "process at home of ripping all of my and my wife's CDs, and storing them in "
13044 "one archive. Then, using Apple's iTunes, or a wonderful program called "
13045 "Andromeda, we can build different play lists of our music: Bach, Baroque, "
13046 "Love Songs, Love Songs of Significant Others—the potential is "
13047 "endless. And by reducing the costs of mixing play lists, these technologies "
13048 "help build a creativity with play lists that is itself independently "
13049 "valuable. Compilations of songs are creative and meaningful in their own "
13053 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13054 #: freeculture.xml:9908
13056 "This use is enabled by unprotected media—either CDs or records. But "
13057 "unprotected media also enable file sharing. File sharing threatens (or so "
13058 "the content industry believes) the ability of creators to earn a fair return "
13059 "from their creativity. And thus, many are beginning to experiment with "
13060 "technologies to eliminate unprotected media. These technologies, for "
13061 "example, would enable CDs that could not be ripped. Or they might enable spy "
13062 "programs to identify ripped content on people's machines."
13066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13067 #: freeculture.xml:9918
13069 "If these technologies took off, then the building of large archives of your "
13070 "own music would become quite difficult. You might hang in hacker circles, "
13071 "and get technology to disable the technologies that protect the "
13072 "content. Trading in those technologies is illegal, but maybe that doesn't "
13073 "bother you much. In any case, for the vast majority of people, these "
13074 "protection technologies would effectively destroy the archiving use of "
13075 "CDs. The technology, in other words, would force us all back to the world "
13076 "where we either listened to music by manipulating pieces of plastic or were "
13077 "part of a massively complex \"digital rights management\" system."
13080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13081 #: freeculture.xml:9932
13083 "If the only way to assure that artists get paid were the elimination of the "
13084 "ability to freely move content, then these technologies to interfere with "
13085 "the freedom to move content would be justifiable. But what if there were "
13086 "another way to assure that artists are paid, without locking down any "
13087 "content? What if, in other words, a different system could assure "
13088 "compensation to artists while also preserving the freedom to move content "
13092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13093 #: freeculture.xml:9941
13095 "My point just now is not to prove that there is such a system. I offer a "
13096 "version of such a system in the last chapter of this book. For now, the only "
13097 "point is the relatively uncontroversial one: If a different system achieved "
13098 "the same legitimate objectives that the existing copyright system achieved, "
13099 "but left consumers and creators much more free, then we'd have a very good "
13100 "reason to pursue this alternative—namely, freedom. The choice, in "
13101 "other words, would not be between property and piracy; the choice would be "
13102 "between different property systems and the freedoms each allowed."
13105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13106 #: freeculture.xml:9952
13108 "I believe there is a way to assure that artists are paid without turning "
13109 "forty-three million Americans into felons. But the salient feature of this "
13110 "alternative is that it would lead to a very different market for producing "
13111 "and distributing creativity. The dominant few, who today control the vast "
13112 "majority of the distribution of content in the world, would no longer "
13113 "exercise this extreme of control. Rather, they would go the way of the "
13114 "horse-drawn buggy."
13117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13118 #: freeculture.xml:9961
13120 "Except that this generation's buggy manufacturers have already saddled "
13121 "Congress, and are riding the law to protect themselves against this new form "
13122 "of competition. For them the choice is between fortythree million Americans "
13123 "as criminals and their own survival."
13126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13127 #: freeculture.xml:9967
13129 "It is understandable why they choose as they do. It is not understandable "
13130 "why we as a democracy continue to choose as we do. Jack Valenti is charming; "
13131 "but not so charming as to justify giving up a tradition as deep and "
13132 "important as our tradition of free culture. There's one more aspect to this "
13133 "corruption that is particularly important to civil liberties, and follows "
13134 "directly from any war of prohibition. As Electronic Frontier Foundation "
13135 "attorney Fred von Lohmann describes, this is the \"collateral damage\" that "
13136 "\"arises whenever you turn a very large percentage of the population into "
13137 "criminals.\" This is the collateral damage to civil liberties generally. "
13138 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
13142 #: freeculture.xml:9986 freeculture.xml:10095
13143 msgid "von Lohmann, Fred"
13146 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13147 #: freeculture.xml:9984
13149 "\"If you can treat someone as a putative lawbreaker,\" von Lohmann explains, "
13150 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13154 #: freeculture.xml:9990
13156 "then all of a sudden a lot of basic civil liberty protections evaporate to "
13157 "one degree or another. … If you're a copyright infringer, how can you "
13158 "hope to have any privacy rights? If you're a copyright infringer, how can "
13159 "you hope to be secure against seizures of your computer? How can you hope to "
13160 "continue to receive Internet access? … Our sensibilities change as "
13161 "soon as we think, \"Oh, well, but that person's a criminal, a lawbreaker.\" "
13162 "Well, what this campaign against file sharing has done is turn a remarkable "
13163 "percentage of the American Internet-using population into \"lawbreakers.\""
13166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13167 #: freeculture.xml:10002
13169 "And the consequence of this transformation of the American public into "
13170 "criminals is that it becomes trivial, as a matter of due process, to "
13171 "effectively erase much of the privacy most would presume."
13174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13175 #: freeculture.xml:10007
13177 "Users of the Internet began to see this generally in 2003 as the RIAA "
13178 "launched its campaign to force Internet service providers to turn over the "
13179 "names of customers who the RIAA believed were violating copyright "
13180 "law. Verizon fought that demand and lost. With a simple request to a judge, "
13181 "and without any notice to the customer at all, the identity of an Internet "
13182 "user is revealed."
13186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13187 #: freeculture.xml:10025
13189 "See Frank Ahrens, \"RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in "
13190 "Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,\" <citetitle>Washington "
13191 "Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Chris Cobbs, \"Worried Parents Pull "
13192 "Plug on File `Stealing'; With the Music Industry Cracking Down on File "
13193 "Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs to Avoid Being Sued,\" "
13194 "<citetitle>Orlando Sentinel Tribune</citetitle>, 30 August 2003, C1; "
13195 "Jefferson Graham, \"Recording Industry Sues Parents,\" <citetitle>USA "
13196 "Today</citetitle>, 15 September 2003, 4D; John Schwartz, \"She Says She's No "
13197 "Music Pirate. No Snoop Fan, Either,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, "
13198 "25 September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, \"Is Brianna a Criminal?\" "
13199 "<citetitle>Toronto Star</citetitle>, 18 September 2003, P7."
13202 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13203 #: freeculture.xml:10016
13205 "The RIAA then expanded this campaign, by announcing a general strategy to "
13206 "sue individual users of the Internet who are alleged to have downloaded "
13207 "copyrighted music from file-sharing systems. But as we've seen, the "
13208 "potential damages from these suits are astronomical: If a family's computer "
13209 "is used to download a single CD's worth of music, the family could be liable "
13210 "for $2 million in damages. That didn't stop the RIAA from suing a number of "
13211 "these families, just as they had sued Jesse Jordan.<placeholder "
13212 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13216 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13217 #: freeculture.xml:10043
13219 "See \"Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses Some "
13220 "Methods Used,\" CNN.com, available at <ulink "
13221 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #47</ulink>."
13224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13225 #: freeculture.xml:10039
13227 "Even this understates the espionage that is being waged by the RIAA. A "
13228 "report from CNN late last summer described a strategy the RIAA had adopted "
13229 "to track Napster users.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Using a "
13230 "sophisticated hashing algorithm, the RIAA took what is in effect a "
13231 "fingerprint of every song in the Napster catalog. Any copy of one of those "
13232 "MP3s will have the same \"fingerprint.\""
13236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13237 #: freeculture.xml:10064
13239 "See Jeff Adler, \"Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not Penitent,\" "
13240 "<citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 18 May 2003, City Weekly, 1; Frank "
13241 "Ahrens, \"Four Students Sued over Music Sites; Industry Group Targets File "
13242 "Sharing at Colleges,\" <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 4 April 2003, "
13243 "E1; Elizabeth Armstrong, \"Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,\" "
13244 "<citetitle>Christian Science Monitor</citetitle>, 2 September 2003, 20; "
13245 "Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, \"Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; Two "
13246 "Students Names Are Handed Over; Lawsuit Possible,\" <citetitle>Chicago "
13247 "Tribune</citetitle>, 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, \"RIAA Trains Antipiracy "
13248 "Guns on Universities,\" <citetitle>Internet News</citetitle>, 30 January "
13249 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
13250 "#48</ulink>; Benny Evangelista, \"Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation "
13251 "This Fall to Include Record Industry Warnings Against File Sharing,\" "
13252 "<citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 11 August 2003, E11; \"Raid, "
13253 "Letters Are Weapons at Universities,\" <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 26 "
13254 "September 2000, 3D."
13257 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13258 #: freeculture.xml:10052
13260 "So imagine the following not-implausible scenario: Imagine a friend gives a "
13261 "CD to your daughter—a collection of songs just like the cassettes you "
13262 "used to make as a kid. You don't know, and neither does your daughter, where "
13263 "these songs came from. But she copies these songs onto her computer. She "
13264 "then takes her computer to college and connects it to a college network, and "
13265 "if the college network is \"cooperating\" with the RIAA's espionage, and she "
13266 "hasn't properly protected her content from the network (do you know how to "
13267 "do that yourself ?), then the RIAA will be able to identify your daughter as "
13268 "a \"criminal.\" And under the rules that universities are beginning to "
13269 "deploy,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> your daughter can lose the "
13270 "right to use the university's computer network. She can, in some cases, be "
13274 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13275 #: freeculture.xml:10083
13277 "Now, of course, she'll have the right to defend herself. You can hire a "
13278 "lawyer for her (at $300 per hour, if you're lucky), and she can plead that "
13279 "she didn't know anything about the source of the songs or that they came "
13280 "from Napster. And it may well be that the university believes her. But the "
13281 "university might not believe her. It might treat this \"contraband\" as "
13282 "presumptive of guilt. And as any number of college students have already "
13283 "learned, our presumptions about innocence disappear in the middle of wars of "
13284 "prohibition. This war is no different. Says von Lohmann, <placeholder "
13285 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13289 #: freeculture.xml:10099
13291 "So when we're talking about numbers like forty to sixty million Americans "
13292 "that are essentially copyright infringers, you create a situation where the "
13293 "civil liberties of those people are very much in peril in a general "
13294 "matter. [I don't] think [there is any] analog where you could randomly "
13295 "choose any person off the street and be confident that they were committing "
13296 "an unlawful act that could put them on the hook for potential felony "
13297 "liability or hundreds of millions of dollars of civil liability. Certainly "
13298 "we all speed, but speeding isn't the kind of an act for which we routinely "
13299 "forfeit civil liberties. Some people use drugs, and I think that's the "
13300 "closest analog, [but] many have noted that the war against drugs has eroded "
13301 "all of our civil liberties because it's treated so many Americans as "
13302 "criminals. Well, I think it's fair to say that file sharing is an order of "
13303 "magnitude larger number of Americans than drug use. … If forty to "
13304 "sixty million Americans have become lawbreakers, then we're really on a "
13305 "slippery slope to lose a lot of civil liberties for all forty to sixty "
13309 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13310 #: freeculture.xml:10119
13312 "When forty to sixty million Americans are considered \"criminals\" under the "
13313 "law, and when the law could achieve the same objective— securing "
13314 "rights to authors—without these millions being considered "
13315 "\"criminals,\" who is the villain? Americans or the law? Which is American, "
13316 "a constant war on our own people or a concerted effort through our democracy "
13317 "to change our law?"
13320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
13321 #: freeculture.xml:10132
13325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13326 #: freeculture.xml:10137
13328 "So here's the picture: You're standing at the side of the road. Your car is "
13329 "on fire. You are angry and upset because in part you helped start the "
13330 "fire. Now you don't know how to put it out. Next to you is a bucket, filled "
13331 "with gasoline. Obviously, gasoline won't put the fire out."
13334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13335 #: freeculture.xml:10143
13337 "As you ponder the mess, someone else comes along. In a panic, she grabs the "
13338 "bucket. Before you have a chance to tell her to stop—or before she "
13339 "understands just why she should stop—the bucket is in the air. The "
13340 "gasoline is about to hit the blazing car. And the fire that gasoline will "
13341 "ignite is about to ignite everything around."
13344 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13345 #: freeculture.xml:10151
13347 "A war about copyright rages all around—and we're all focusing on the "
13348 "wrong thing. No doubt, current technologies threaten existing businesses. "
13349 "No doubt they may threaten artists. But technologies change. The industry "
13350 "and technologists have plenty of ways to use technology to protect "
13351 "themselves against the current threats of the Internet. This is a fire that "
13352 "if let alone would burn itself out."
13356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13357 #: freeculture.xml:10160
13359 "Yet policy makers are not willing to leave this fire to itself. Primed with "
13360 "plenty of lobbyists' money, they are keen to intervene to eliminate the "
13361 "problem they perceive. But the problem they perceive is not the real threat "
13362 "this culture faces. For while we watch this small fire in the corner, there "
13363 "is a massive change in the way culture is made that is happening all around."
13366 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13367 #: freeculture.xml:10168
13369 "Somehow we have to find a way to turn attention to this more important and "
13370 "fundamental issue. Somehow we have to find a way to avoid pouring gasoline "
13374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13375 #: freeculture.xml:10173
13377 "We have not found that way yet. Instead, we seem trapped in a simpler, "
13378 "binary view. However much many people push to frame this debate more "
13379 "broadly, it is the simple, binary view that remains. We rubberneck to look "
13380 "at the fire when we should be keeping our eyes on the road."
13383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
13384 #: freeculture.xml:10179
13386 "This challenge has been my life these last few years. It has also been my "
13387 "failure. In the two chapters that follow, I describe one small brace of "
13388 "efforts, so far failed, to find a way to refocus this debate. We must "
13389 "understand these failures if we're to understand what success will require."
13392 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
13393 #: freeculture.xml:10189
13394 msgid "CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Eldred"
13397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13398 #: freeculture.xml:10191
13400 "In 1995, a father was frustrated that his daughters didn't seem to like "
13401 "Hawthorne. No doubt there was more than one such father, but at least one "
13402 "did something about it. Eric Eldred, a retired computer programmer living in "
13403 "New Hampshire, decided to put Hawthorne on the Web. An electronic version, "
13404 "Eldred thought, with links to pictures and explanatory text, would make this "
13405 "nineteenth-century author's work come alive."
13408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13409 #: freeculture.xml:10200
13411 "It didn't work—at least for his daughters. They didn't find Hawthorne "
13412 "any more interesting than before. But Eldred's experiment gave birth to a "
13413 "hobby, and his hobby begat a cause: Eldred would build a library of public "
13414 "domain works by scanning these works and making them available for free."
13418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13419 #: freeculture.xml:10207
13421 "Eldred's library was not simply a copy of certain public domain works, "
13422 "though even a copy would have been of great value to people across the world "
13423 "who can't get access to printed versions of these works. Instead, Eldred was "
13424 "producing derivative works from these public domain works. Just as Disney "
13425 "turned Grimm into stories more accessible to the twentieth century, Eldred "
13426 "transformed Hawthorne, and many others, into a form more "
13427 "accessible—technically accessible—today."
13430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13431 #: freeculture.xml:10218
13433 "Eldred's freedom to do this with Hawthorne's work grew from the same source "
13434 "as Disney's. Hawthorne's <citetitle>Scarlet Letter</citetitle> had passed "
13435 "into the public domain in 1907. It was free for anyone to take without the "
13436 "permission of the Hawthorne estate or anyone else. Some, such as Dover Press "
13437 "and Penguin Classics, take works from the public domain and produce printed "
13438 "editions, which they sell in bookstores across the country. Others, such as "
13439 "Disney, take these stories and turn them into animated cartoons, sometimes "
13440 "successfully (<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle>), sometimes not "
13441 "(<citetitle>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</citetitle>, <citetitle>Treasure "
13442 "Planet</citetitle>). These are all commercial publications of public domain "
13447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13448 #: freeculture.xml:10241
13450 "There's a parallel here with pornography that is a bit hard to describe, but "
13451 "it's a strong one. One phenomenon that the Internet created was a world of "
13452 "noncommercial pornographers—people who were distributing porn but were "
13453 "not making money directly or indirectly from that distribution. Such a "
13454 "class didn't exist before the Internet came into being because the costs of "
13455 "distributing porn were so high. Yet this new class of distributors got "
13456 "special attention in the Supreme Court, when the Court struck down the "
13457 "Communications Decency Act of 1996. It was partly because of the burden on "
13458 "noncommercial speakers that the statute was found to exceed Congress's "
13459 "power. The same point could have been made about noncommercial publishers "
13460 "after the advent of the Internet. The Eric Eldreds of the world before the "
13461 "Internet were extremely few. Yet one would think it at least as important to "
13462 "protect the Eldreds of the world as to protect noncommercial pornographers."
13465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13466 #: freeculture.xml:10230
13468 "The Internet created the possibility of noncommercial publications of public "
13469 "domain works. Eldred's is just one example. There are literally thousands of "
13470 "others. Hundreds of thousands from across the world have discovered this "
13471 "platform of expression and now use it to share works that are, by law, free "
13472 "for the taking. This has produced what we might call the \"noncommercial "
13473 "publishing industry,\" which before the Internet was limited to people with "
13474 "large egos or with political or social causes. But with the Internet, it "
13475 "includes a wide range of individuals and groups dedicated to spreading "
13476 "culture generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13480 #: freeculture.xml:10258
13482 "As I said, Eldred lives in New Hampshire. In 1998, Robert Frost's collection "
13483 "of poems <citetitle>New Hampshire</citetitle> was slated to pass into the "
13484 "public domain. Eldred wanted to post that collection in his free public "
13485 "library. But Congress got in the way. As I described in chapter <xref "
13486 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, in 1998, for the "
13487 "eleventh time in forty years, Congress extended the terms of existing "
13488 "copyrights—this time by twenty years. Eldred would not be free to add "
13489 "any works more recent than 1923 to his collection until 2019. Indeed, no "
13490 "copyrighted work would pass into the public domain until that year (and not "
13491 "even then, if Congress extends the term again). By contrast, in the same "
13492 "period, more than 1 million patents will pass into the public domain."
13496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13497 #: freeculture.xml:10279
13499 "The full text is: \"Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of copyright protection to "
13500 "last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the "
13501 "Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me to strengthen our "
13502 "copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you know, there is "
13503 "also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less one "
13504 "day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress,\" 144 "
13505 "Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998)."
13508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13509 #: freeculture.xml:10274
13511 "This was the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), enacted in "
13512 "memory of the congressman and former musician Sonny Bono, who, his widow, "
13513 "Mary Bono, says, believed that \"copyrights should be forever.\"<placeholder "
13514 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13518 #: freeculture.xml:10290
13520 "Eldred decided to fight this law. He first resolved to fight it through "
13521 "civil disobedience. In a series of interviews, Eldred announced that he "
13522 "would publish as planned, CTEA notwithstanding. But because of a second law "
13523 "passed in 1998, the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act, his act of publishing "
13524 "would make Eldred a felon—whether or not anyone complained. This was a "
13525 "dangerous strategy for a disabled programmer to undertake."
13528 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13529 #: freeculture.xml:10299
13531 "It was here that I became involved in Eldred's battle. I was a "
13532 "constitutional scholar whose first passion was constitutional "
13533 "interpretation. And though constitutional law courses never focus upon the "
13534 "Progress Clause of the Constitution, it had always struck me as importantly "
13535 "different. As you know, the Constitution says,"
13538 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
13539 #: freeculture.xml:10310
13541 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science … by "
13542 "securing for limited Times to Authors … exclusive Right to their "
13543 "… Writings. …"
13546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13547 #: freeculture.xml:10316
13549 "As I've described, this clause is unique within the power-granting clause of "
13550 "Article I, section 8 of our Constitution. Every other clause granting power "
13551 "to Congress simply says Congress has the power to do something—for "
13552 "example, to regulate \"commerce among the several states\" or \"declare "
13553 "War.\" But here, the \"something\" is something quite specific—to "
13554 "\"promote … Progress\"—through means that are also "
13555 "specific— by \"securing\" \"exclusive Rights\" (i.e., copyrights) "
13556 "\"for limited Times.\""
13559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
13560 #: freeculture.xml:10335 freeculture.xml:11784
13561 msgid "Jaszi, Peter"
13564 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13565 #: freeculture.xml:10326
13567 "In the past forty years, Congress has gotten into the practice of extending "
13568 "existing terms of copyright protection. What puzzled me about this was, if "
13569 "Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then the Constitution's "
13570 "requirement that terms be \"limited\" will have no practical effect. If "
13571 "every time a copyright is about to expire, Congress has the power to extend "
13572 "its term, then Congress can achieve what the Constitution plainly "
13573 "forbids—perpetual terms \"on the installment plan,\" as Professor "
13574 "Peter Jaszi so nicely put it. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13578 #: freeculture.xml:10338
13580 "As an academic, my first response was to hit the books. I remember sitting "
13581 "late at the office, scouring on-line databases for any serious consideration "
13582 "of the question. No one had ever challenged Congress's practice of extending "
13583 "existing terms. That failure may in part be why Congress seemed so "
13584 "untroubled in its habit. That, and the fact that the practice had become so "
13585 "lucrative for Congress. Congress knows that copyright owners will be willing "
13586 "to pay a great deal of money to see their copyright terms extended. And so "
13587 "Congress is quite happy to keep this gravy train going."
13590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13591 #: freeculture.xml:10349
13593 "For this is the core of the corruption in our present system of "
13594 "government. \"Corruption\" not in the sense that representatives are "
13595 "bribed. Rather, \"corruption\" in the sense that the system induces the "
13596 "beneficiaries of Congress's acts to raise and give money to Congress to "
13597 "induce it to act. There's only so much time; there's only so much Congress "
13598 "can do. Why not limit its actions to those things it must do—and those "
13599 "things that pay? Extending copyright terms pays."
13602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13603 #: freeculture.xml:10358
13605 "If that's not obvious to you, consider the following: Say you're one of the "
13606 "very few lucky copyright owners whose copyright continues to make money one "
13607 "hundred years after it was created. The Estate of Robert Frost is a good "
13608 "example. Frost died in 1963. His poetry continues to be extraordinarily "
13609 "valuable. Thus the Robert Frost estate benefits greatly from any extension "
13610 "of copyright, since no publisher would pay the estate any money if the poems "
13611 "Frost wrote could be published by anyone for free."
13614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13615 #: freeculture.xml:10368
13617 "So imagine the Robert Frost estate is earning $100,000 a year from three of "
13618 "Frost's poems. And imagine the copyright for those poems is about to "
13619 "expire. You sit on the board of the Robert Frost estate. Your financial "
13620 "adviser comes to your board meeting with a very grim report:"
13624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13625 #: freeculture.xml:10375
13627 "\"Next year,\" the adviser announces, \"our copyrights in works A, B, and C "
13628 "will expire. That means that after next year, we will no longer be receiving "
13629 "the annual royalty check of $100,000 from the publishers of those works."
13632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13633 #: freeculture.xml:10383
13635 "\"There's a proposal in Congress, however,\" she continues, \"that could "
13636 "change this. A few congressmen are floating a bill to extend the terms of "
13637 "copyright by twenty years. That bill would be extraordinarily valuable to "
13638 "us. So we should hope this bill passes.\""
13641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13642 #: freeculture.xml:10389
13644 "\"Hope?\" a fellow board member says. \"Can't we be doing something about "
13648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13649 #: freeculture.xml:10393
13651 "\"Well, obviously, yes,\" the adviser responds. \"We could contribute to the "
13652 "campaigns of a number of representatives to try to assure that they support "
13656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13657 #: freeculture.xml:10398
13659 "You hate politics. You hate contributing to campaigns. So you want to know "
13660 "whether this disgusting practice is worth it. \"How much would we get if "
13661 "this extension were passed?\" you ask the adviser. \"How much is it worth?\""
13664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13665 #: freeculture.xml:10404
13667 "\"Well,\" the adviser says, \"if you're confident that you will continue to "
13668 "get at least $100,000 a year from these copyrights, and you use the "
13669 "`discount rate' that we use to evaluate estate investments (6 percent), then "
13670 "this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate.\""
13673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13674 #: freeculture.xml:10410
13676 "You're a bit shocked by the number, but you quickly come to the correct "
13680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13681 #: freeculture.xml:10414
13683 "\"So you're saying it would be worth it for us to pay more than $1,000,000 "
13684 "in campaign contributions if we were confident those contributions would "
13685 "assure that the bill was passed?\""
13688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13689 #: freeculture.xml:10420
13691 "\"Absolutely,\" the adviser responds. \"It is worth it to you to contribute "
13692 "up to the `present value' of the income you expect from these "
13693 "copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000.\""
13697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13698 #: freeculture.xml:10426
13700 "You quickly get the point—you as the member of the board and, I trust, "
13701 "you the reader. Each time copyrights are about to expire, every beneficiary "
13702 "in the position of the Robert Frost estate faces the same choice: If they "
13703 "can contribute to get a law passed to extend copyrights, they will benefit "
13704 "greatly from that extension. And so each time copyrights are about to "
13705 "expire, there is a massive amount of lobbying to get the copyright term "
13709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13710 #: freeculture.xml:10437
13712 "Thus a congressional perpetual motion machine: So long as legislation can be "
13713 "bought (albeit indirectly), there will be all the incentive in the world to "
13714 "buy further extensions of copyright."
13718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13719 #: freeculture.xml:10449
13721 "Associated Press, \"Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey Mouse "
13722 "Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years,\" "
13723 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 17 October 1998, 22."
13727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13728 #: freeculture.xml:10456
13730 "See Nick Brown, \"Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information Age,\" "
13731 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #49</ulink>."
13735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13736 #: freeculture.xml:10464
13738 "Alan K. Ota, \"Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars,\" "
13739 "<citetitle>Congressional Quarterly This Week</citetitle>, 8 August 1990, "
13740 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #50</ulink>."
13743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13744 #: freeculture.xml:10442
13746 "In the lobbying that led to the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term "
13747 "Extension Act, this \"theory\" about incentives was proved real. Ten of the "
13748 "thirteen original sponsors of the act in the House received the maximum "
13749 "contribution from Disney's political action committee; in the Senate, eight "
13750 "of the twelve sponsors received contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13751 "id=\"0\"/> The RIAA and the MPAA are estimated to have spent over $1.5 "
13752 "million lobbying in the 1998 election cycle. They paid out more than "
13753 "$200,000 in campaign contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
13754 "Disney is estimated to have contributed more than $800,000 to reelection "
13755 "campaigns in the cycle.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
13758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13759 #: freeculture.xml:10471
13761 "Constitutional law is not oblivious to the obvious. Or at least, it need not "
13762 "be. So when I was considering Eldred's complaint, this reality about the "
13763 "never-ending incentives to increase the copyright term was central to my "
13764 "thinking. In my view, a pragmatic court committed to interpreting and "
13765 "applying the Constitution of our framers would see that if Congress has the "
13766 "power to extend existing terms, then there would be no effective "
13767 "constitutional requirement that terms be \"limited.\" If they could extend "
13768 "it once, they would extend it again and again and again."
13772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13773 #: freeculture.xml:10484
13775 "It was also my judgment that <emphasis>this</emphasis> Supreme Court would "
13776 "not allow Congress to extend existing terms. As anyone close to the Supreme "
13777 "Court's work knows, this Court has increasingly restricted the power of "
13778 "Congress when it has viewed Congress's actions as exceeding the power "
13779 "granted to it by the Constitution. Among constitutional scholars, the most "
13780 "famous example of this trend was the Supreme Court's decision in 1995 to "
13781 "strike down a law that banned the possession of guns near schools."
13784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13785 #: freeculture.xml:10497
13787 "Since 1937, the Supreme Court had interpreted Congress's granted powers very "
13788 "broadly; so, while the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate "
13789 "only \"commerce among the several states\" (aka \"interstate commerce\"), "
13790 "the Supreme Court had interpreted that power to include the power to "
13791 "regulate any activity that merely affected interstate commerce."
13794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13795 #: freeculture.xml:10507
13797 "As the economy grew, this standard increasingly meant that there was no "
13798 "limit to Congress's power to regulate, since just about every activity, when "
13799 "considered on a national scale, affects interstate commerce. A Constitution "
13800 "designed to limit Congress's power was instead interpreted to impose no "
13804 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13805 #: freeculture.xml:10514
13807 "The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Rehnquist's command, changed that in "
13808 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The "
13809 "government had argued that possessing guns near schools affected interstate "
13810 "commerce. Guns near schools increase crime, crime lowers property values, "
13811 "and so on. In the oral argument, the Chief Justice asked the government "
13812 "whether there was any activity that would not affect interstate commerce "
13813 "under the reasoning the government advanced. The government said there was "
13814 "not; if Congress says an activity affects interstate commerce, then that "
13815 "activity affects interstate commerce. The Supreme Court, the government "
13816 "said, was not in the position to second-guess Congress."
13820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13821 #: freeculture.xml:10529
13823 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>, 514 "
13824 "U.S. 549, 564 (1995)."
13828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13829 #: freeculture.xml:10536
13831 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>, 529 "
13835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13836 #: freeculture.xml:10527
13838 "\"We pause to consider the implications of the government's arguments,\" the "
13839 "Chief Justice wrote.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> If anything "
13840 "Congress says is interstate commerce must therefore be considered interstate "
13841 "commerce, then there would be no limit to Congress's power. The decision in "
13842 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> was reaffirmed five years later in "
13843 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> "
13844 "v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
13848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13849 #: freeculture.xml:10543
13851 "If it is a principle about enumerated powers, then the principle carries "
13852 "from one enumerated power to another. The animating point in the context of "
13853 "the Commerce Clause was that the interpretation offered by the government "
13854 "would allow the government unending power to regulate commerce—the "
13855 "limitation to interstate commerce notwithstanding. The same point is true in "
13856 "the context of the Copyright Clause. Here, too, the government's "
13857 "interpretation would allow the government unending power to regulate "
13858 "copyrights—the limitation to \"limited times\" notwithstanding."
13862 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13863 #: freeculture.xml:10540
13865 "If a principle were at work here, then it should apply to the Progress "
13866 "Clause as much as the Commerce Clause.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13867 "id=\"0\"/> And if it is applied to the Progress Clause, the principle should "
13868 "yield the conclusion that Congress can't extend an existing term. If "
13869 "Congress could extend an existing term, then there would be no \"stopping "
13870 "point\" to Congress's power over terms, though the Constitution expressly "
13871 "states that there is such a limit. Thus, the same principle applied to the "
13872 "power to grant copyrights should entail that Congress is not allowed to "
13873 "extend the term of existing copyrights."
13876 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13877 #: freeculture.xml:10564
13879 "<emphasis>If</emphasis>, that is, the principle announced in "
13880 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for a principle. Many believed the "
13881 "decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for politics—a "
13882 "conservative Supreme Court, which believed in states' rights, using its "
13883 "power over Congress to advance its own personal political preferences. But I "
13884 "rejected that view of the Supreme Court's decision. Indeed, shortly after "
13885 "the decision, I wrote an article demonstrating the \"fidelity\" in such an "
13886 "interpretation of the Constitution. The idea that the Supreme Court decides "
13887 "cases based upon its politics struck me as extraordinarily boring. I was "
13888 "not going to devote my life to teaching constitutional law if these nine "
13889 "Justices were going to be petty politicians."
13892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13893 #: freeculture.xml:10577
13895 "Now let's pause for a moment to make sure we understand what the argument in "
13896 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was not about. By insisting on the "
13897 "Constitution's limits to copyright, obviously Eldred was not endorsing "
13898 "piracy. Indeed, in an obvious sense, he was fighting a kind of "
13899 "piracy—piracy of the public domain. When Robert Frost wrote his work "
13900 "and when Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, the maximum copyright term was "
13901 "just fifty-six years. Because of interim changes, Frost and Disney had "
13902 "already enjoyed a seventy-five-year monopoly for their work. They had gotten "
13903 "the benefit of the bargain that the Constitution envisions: In exchange for "
13904 "a monopoly protected for fifty-six years, they created new work. But now "
13905 "these entities were using their power—expressed through the power of "
13906 "lobbyists' money—to get another twenty-year dollop of monopoly. That "
13907 "twenty-year dollop would be taken from the public domain. Eric Eldred was "
13908 "fighting a piracy that affects us all."
13912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13913 #: freeculture.xml:10600
13915 "Brief of the Nashville Songwriters Association, "
13916 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. "
13917 "186 (2003) (No. 01-618), n.10, available at <ulink "
13918 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #51</ulink>."
13921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
13922 #: freeculture.xml:10608
13923 msgid "Nashville Songwriters Association"
13926 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13927 #: freeculture.xml:10594
13929 "Some people view the public domain with contempt. In their brief before the "
13930 "Supreme Court, the Nashville Songwriters Association wrote that the public "
13931 "domain is nothing more than \"legal piracy.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13932 "id=\"0\"/> But it is not piracy when the law allows it; and in our "
13933 "constitutional system, our law requires it. Some may not like the "
13934 "Constitution's requirements, but that doesn't make the Constitution a "
13935 "pirate's charter. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
13938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13939 #: freeculture.xml:10611
13941 "As we've seen, our constitutional system requires limits on copyright as a "
13942 "way to assure that copyright holders do not too heavily influence the "
13943 "development and distribution of our culture. Yet, as Eric Eldred discovered, "
13944 "we have set up a system that assures that copyright terms will be repeatedly "
13945 "extended, and extended, and extended. We have created the perfect storm for "
13946 "the public domain. Copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long "
13947 "as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."
13950 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13951 #: freeculture.xml:10623
13953 "It is valuable copyrights that are responsible for terms being extended. "
13954 "Mickey Mouse and \"Rhapsody in Blue.\" These works are too valuable for "
13955 "copyright owners to ignore. But the real harm to our society from copyright "
13956 "extensions is not that Mickey Mouse remains Disney's. Forget Mickey "
13957 "Mouse. Forget Robert Frost. Forget all the works from the 1920s and 1930s "
13958 "that have continuing commercial value. The real harm of term extension comes "
13959 "not from these famous works. The real harm is to the works that are not "
13960 "famous, not commercially exploited, and no longer available as a result."
13964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
13965 #: freeculture.xml:10644
13967 "The figure of 2 percent is an extrapolation from the study by the "
13968 "Congressional Research Service, in light of the estimated renewal "
13969 "ranges. See Brief of Petitioners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
13970 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 7, available at <ulink "
13971 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #52</ulink>."
13974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13975 #: freeculture.xml:10638
13977 "If you look at the work created in the first twenty years (1923 to 1942) "
13978 "affected by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 2 percent of that "
13979 "work has any continuing commercial value. It was the copyright holders for "
13980 "that 2 percent who pushed the CTEA through. But the law and its effect were "
13981 "not limited to that 2 percent. The law extended the terms of copyright "
13982 "generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13987 #: freeculture.xml:10653
13989 "Think practically about the consequence of this extension—practically, "
13990 "as a businessperson, and not as a lawyer eager for more legal work. In 1930, "
13991 "10,047 books were published. In 2000, 174 of those books were still in "
13992 "print. Let's say you were Brewster Kahle, and you wanted to make available "
13993 "to the world in your iArchive project the remaining 9,873. What would you "
13997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
13998 #: freeculture.xml:10665
14000 "Well, first, you'd have to determine which of the 9,873 books were still "
14001 "under copyright. That requires going to a library (these data are not "
14002 "on-line) and paging through tomes of books, cross-checking the titles and "
14003 "authors of the 9,873 books with the copyright registration and renewal "
14004 "records for works published in 1930. That will produce a list of books still "
14008 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14009 #: freeculture.xml:10673
14011 "Then for the books still under copyright, you would need to locate the "
14012 "current copyright owners. How would you do that?"
14015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14016 #: freeculture.xml:10677
14018 "Most people think that there must be a list of these copyright owners "
14019 "somewhere. Practical people think this way. How could there be thousands and "
14020 "thousands of government monopolies without there being at least a list?"
14023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14024 #: freeculture.xml:10684
14026 "But there is no list. There may be a name from 1930, and then in 1959, of "
14027 "the person who registered the copyright. But just think practically about "
14028 "how impossibly difficult it would be to track down thousands of such "
14029 "records—especially since the person who registered is not necessarily "
14030 "the current owner. And we're just talking about 1930!"
14033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14034 #: freeculture.xml:10693
14036 "\"But there isn't a list of who owns property generally,\" the apologists "
14037 "for the system respond. \"Why should there be a list of copyright owners?\""
14040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14041 #: freeculture.xml:10698
14043 "Well, actually, if you think about it, there <emphasis>are</emphasis> plenty "
14044 "of lists of who owns what property. Think about deeds on houses, or titles "
14045 "to cars. And where there isn't a list, the code of real space is pretty "
14046 "good at suggesting who the owner of a bit of property is. (A swing set in "
14047 "your backyard is probably yours.) So formally or informally, we have a "
14048 "pretty good way to know who owns what tangible property."
14052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14053 #: freeculture.xml:10707
14055 "So: You walk down a street and see a house. You can know who owns the house "
14056 "by looking it up in the courthouse registry. If you see a car, there is "
14057 "ordinarily a license plate that will link the owner to the car. If you see a "
14058 "bunch of children's toys sitting on the front lawn of a house, it's fairly "
14059 "easy to determine who owns the toys. And if you happen to see a baseball "
14060 "lying in a gutter on the side of the road, look around for a second for some "
14061 "kids playing ball. If you don't see any kids, then okay: Here's a bit of "
14062 "property whose owner we can't easily determine. It is the exception that "
14063 "proves the rule: that we ordinarily know quite well who owns what property."
14066 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14067 #: freeculture.xml:10722
14069 "Compare this story to intangible property. You go into a library. The "
14070 "library owns the books. But who owns the copyrights? As I've already "
14071 "described, there's no list of copyright owners. There are authors' names, of "
14072 "course, but their copyrights could have been assigned, or passed down in an "
14073 "estate like Grandma's old jewelry. To know who owns what, you would have to "
14074 "hire a private detective. The bottom line: The owner cannot easily be "
14075 "located. And in a regime like ours, in which it is a felony to use such "
14076 "property without the property owner's permission, the property isn't going "
14080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14081 #: freeculture.xml:10734
14083 "The consequence with respect to old books is that they won't be digitized, "
14084 "and hence will simply rot away on shelves. But the consequence for other "
14085 "creative works is much more dire."
14088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14089 #: freeculture.xml:10739
14090 msgid "Agee, Michael"
14093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14094 #: freeculture.xml:10740
14095 msgid "Laurel and Hardy Films"
14099 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14100 #: freeculture.xml:10753
14102 "See David G. Savage, \"High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright Law,\" "
14103 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 6 October 2002; David Streitfeld, "
14104 "\"Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court Hears Arguments Today "
14105 "on Striking Down Copyright Extension,\" <citetitle>Orlando Sentinel "
14106 "Tribune</citetitle>, 9 October 2002."
14109 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14110 #: freeculture.xml:10759
14111 msgid "Lucky Dog, The"
14114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14115 #: freeculture.xml:10742
14117 "Consider the story of Michael Agee, chairman of Hal Roach Studios, which "
14118 "owns the copyrights for the Laurel and Hardy films. Agee is a direct "
14119 "beneficiary of the Bono Act. The Laurel and Hardy films were made between "
14120 "1921 and 1951. Only one of these films, <citetitle>The Lucky "
14121 "Dog</citetitle>, is currently out of copyright. But for the CTEA, films made "
14122 "after 1923 would have begun entering the public domain. Because Agee "
14123 "controls the exclusive rights for these popular films, he makes a great deal "
14124 "of money. According to one estimate, \"Roach has sold about 60,000 "
14125 "videocassettes and 50,000 DVDs of the duo's silent films.\"<placeholder "
14126 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14129 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14130 #: freeculture.xml:10762
14132 "Yet Agee opposed the CTEA. His reasons demonstrate a rare virtue in this "
14133 "culture: selflessness. He argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that "
14134 "the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will, if left standing, destroy "
14135 "a whole generation of American film."
14139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14140 #: freeculture.xml:10768
14142 "His argument is straightforward. A tiny fraction of this work has any "
14143 "continuing commercial value. The rest—to the extent it survives at "
14144 "all—sits in vaults gathering dust. It may be that some of this work "
14145 "not now commercially valuable will be deemed to be valuable by the owners of "
14146 "the vaults. For this to occur, however, the commercial benefit from the work "
14147 "must exceed the costs of making the work available for distribution."
14151 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14152 #: freeculture.xml:10786
14154 "Brief of Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee as Amicus Curiae Supporting the "
14155 "Petitoners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14156 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01- 618), "
14157 "12. See also Brief of Amicus Curiae filed on behalf of Petitioners by the "
14158 "Internet Archive, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14159 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
14160 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #53</ulink>."
14163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14164 #: freeculture.xml:10779
14166 "We can't know the benefits, but we do know a lot about the costs. For most "
14167 "of the history of film, the costs of restoring film were very high; digital "
14168 "technology has lowered these costs substantially. While it cost more than "
14169 "$10,000 to restore a ninety-minute black-and-white film in 1993, it can now "
14170 "cost as little as $100 to digitize one hour of mm film.<placeholder "
14171 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14175 #: freeculture.xml:10796
14177 "Restoration technology is not the only cost, nor the most important. "
14178 "Lawyers, too, are a cost, and increasingly, a very important one. In "
14179 "addition to preserving the film, a distributor needs to secure the rights. "
14180 "And to secure the rights for a film that is under copyright, you need to "
14181 "locate the copyright owner."
14184 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14185 #: freeculture.xml:10804
14187 "Or more accurately, <emphasis>owners</emphasis>. As we've seen, there isn't "
14188 "only a single copyright associated with a film; there are many. There isn't "
14189 "a single person whom you can contact about those copyrights; there are as "
14190 "many as can hold the rights, which turns out to be an extremely large "
14191 "number. Thus the costs of clearing the rights to these films is "
14192 "exceptionally high."
14195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14196 #: freeculture.xml:10812
14198 "\"But can't you just restore the film, distribute it, and then pay the "
14199 "copyright owner when she shows up?\" Sure, if you want to commit a "
14200 "felony. And even if you're not worried about committing a felony, when she "
14201 "does show up, she'll have the right to sue you for all the profits you have "
14202 "made. So, if you're successful, you can be fairly confident you'll be "
14203 "getting a call from someone's lawyer. And if you're not successful, you "
14204 "won't make enough to cover the costs of your own lawyer. Either way, you "
14205 "have to talk to a lawyer. And as is too often the case, saying you have to "
14206 "talk to a lawyer is the same as saying you won't make any money."
14210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14211 #: freeculture.xml:10823
14213 "For some films, the benefit of releasing the film may well exceed these "
14214 "costs. But for the vast majority of them, there is no way the benefit would "
14215 "outweigh the legal costs. Thus, for the vast majority of old films, Agee "
14216 "argued, the film will not be restored and distributed until the copyright "
14220 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14221 #: freeculture.xml:10833
14223 "But by the time the copyright for these films expires, the film will have "
14224 "expired. These films were produced on nitrate-based stock, and nitrate stock "
14225 "dissolves over time. They will be gone, and the metal canisters in which "
14226 "they are now stored will be filled with nothing more than dust."
14229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14230 #: freeculture.xml:10841
14232 "Of all the creative work produced by humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has "
14233 "continuing commercial value. For that tiny fraction, the copyright is a "
14234 "crucially important legal device. For that tiny fraction, the copyright "
14235 "creates incentives to produce and distribute the creative work. For that "
14236 "tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an \"engine of free expression.\""
14239 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14240 #: freeculture.xml:10850
14242 "But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative "
14243 "work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books "
14244 "go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and "
14245 "film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a "
14246 "creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the "
14247 "commercial life ends."
14250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14251 #: freeculture.xml:10860
14253 "Yet that doesn't mean the life of the creative work ends. We don't keep "
14254 "libraries of books in order to compete with Barnes & Noble, and we don't "
14255 "have archives of films because we expect people to choose between spending "
14256 "Friday night watching new movies and spending Friday night watching a 1930 "
14257 "news documentary. The noncommercial life of culture is important and "
14258 "valuable—for entertainment but also, and more importantly, for "
14259 "knowledge. To understand who we are, and where we came from, and how we have "
14260 "made the mistakes that we have, we need to have access to this history."
14264 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14265 #: freeculture.xml:10873
14267 "Copyrights in this context do not drive an engine of free expression. In "
14268 "this context, there is no need for an exclusive right. Copyrights in this "
14269 "context do no good."
14272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14273 #: freeculture.xml:10880
14275 "Yet, for most of our history, they also did little harm. For most of our "
14276 "history, when a work ended its commercial life, there was no "
14277 "<emphasis>copyright-related use</emphasis> that would be inhibited by an "
14278 "exclusive right. When a book went out of print, you could not buy it from a "
14279 "publisher. But you could still buy it from a used book store, and when a "
14280 "used book store sells it, in America, at least, there is no need to pay the "
14281 "copyright owner anything. Thus, the ordinary use of a book after its "
14282 "commercial life ended was a use that was independent of copyright law."
14285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14286 #: freeculture.xml:10891
14288 "The same was effectively true of film. Because the costs of restoring a "
14289 "film—the real economic costs, not the lawyer costs—were so high, "
14290 "it was never at all feasible to preserve or restore film. Like the remains "
14291 "of a great dinner, when it's over, it's over. Once a film passed out of its "
14292 "commercial life, it may have been archived for a bit, but that was the end "
14293 "of its life so long as the market didn't have more to offer."
14296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14297 #: freeculture.xml:10900
14299 "In other words, though copyright has been relatively short for most of our "
14300 "history, long copyrights wouldn't have mattered for the works that lost "
14301 "their commercial value. Long copyrights for these works would not have "
14302 "interfered with anything."
14305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14306 #: freeculture.xml:10906
14307 msgid "But this situation has now changed."
14310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14311 #: freeculture.xml:10909
14313 "One crucially important consequence of the emergence of digital technologies "
14314 "is to enable the archive that Brewster Kahle dreams of. Digital "
14315 "technologies now make it possible to preserve and give access to all sorts "
14316 "of knowledge. Once a book goes out of print, we can now imagine digitizing "
14317 "it and making it available to everyone, forever. Once a film goes out of "
14318 "distribution, we could digitize it and make it available to everyone, "
14319 "forever. Digital technologies give new life to copyrighted material after it "
14320 "passes out of its commercial life. It is now possible to preserve and assure "
14321 "universal access to this knowledge and culture, whereas before it was not."
14325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14326 #: freeculture.xml:10922
14328 "And now copyright law does get in the way. Every step of producing this "
14329 "digital archive of our culture infringes on the exclusive right of "
14330 "copyright. To digitize a book is to copy it. To do that requires permission "
14331 "of the copyright owner. The same with music, film, or any other aspect of "
14332 "our culture protected by copyright. The effort to make these things "
14333 "available to history, or to researchers, or to those who just want to "
14334 "explore, is now inhibited by a set of rules that were written for a "
14335 "radically different context."
14338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14339 #: freeculture.xml:10932
14341 "Here is the core of the harm that comes from extending terms: Now that "
14342 "technology enables us to rebuild the library of Alexandria, the law gets in "
14343 "the way. And it doesn't get in the way for any useful "
14344 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis> purpose, for the purpose of copyright is to "
14345 "enable the commercial market that spreads culture. No, we are talking about "
14346 "culture after it has lived its commercial life. In this context, copyright "
14347 "is serving no purpose <emphasis>at all</emphasis> related to the spread of "
14348 "knowledge. In this context, copyright is not an engine of free "
14349 "expression. Copyright is a brake."
14352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14353 #: freeculture.xml:10943
14355 "You may well ask, \"But if digital technologies lower the costs for Brewster "
14356 "Kahle, then they will lower the costs for Random House, too. So won't "
14357 "Random House do as well as Brewster Kahle in spreading culture widely?\""
14360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14361 #: freeculture.xml:10949
14363 "Maybe. Someday. But there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that "
14364 "publishers would be as complete as libraries. If Barnes & Noble offered "
14365 "to lend books from its stores for a low price, would that eliminate the need "
14366 "for libraries? Only if you think that the only role of a library is to serve "
14367 "what \"the market\" would demand. But if you think the role of a library is "
14368 "bigger than this—if you think its role is to archive culture, whether "
14369 "there's a demand for any particular bit of that culture or not—then we "
14370 "can't count on the commercial market to do our library work for us."
14374 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14375 #: freeculture.xml:10972
14377 "Jason Schultz, \"The Myth of the 1976 Copyright `Chaos' Theory,\" 20 "
14378 "December 2002, available at <ulink "
14379 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #54</ulink>."
14382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14383 #: freeculture.xml:10960
14385 "I would be the first to agree that it should do as much as it can: We should "
14386 "rely upon the market as much as possible to spread and enable culture. My "
14387 "message is absolutely not antimarket. But where we see the market is not "
14388 "doing the job, then we should allow nonmarket forces the freedom to fill the "
14389 "gaps. As one researcher calculated for American culture, 94 percent of the "
14390 "films, books, and music produced between and 1946 is not commercially "
14391 "available. However much you love the commercial market, if access is a "
14392 "value, then 6 percent is a failure to provide that value.<placeholder "
14393 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14397 #: freeculture.xml:10979
14399 "In January 1999, we filed a lawsuit on Eric Eldred's behalf in federal "
14400 "district court in Washington, D.C., asking the court to declare the Sonny "
14401 "Bono Copyright Term Extension Act unconstitutional. The two central claims "
14402 "that we made were (1) that extending existing terms violated the "
14403 "Constitution's \"limited Times\" requirement, and (2) that extending terms "
14404 "by another twenty years violated the First Amendment."
14407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14408 #: freeculture.xml:10987
14410 "The district court dismissed our claims without even hearing an argument. A "
14411 "panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also dismissed our "
14412 "claims, though after hearing an extensive argument. But that decision at "
14413 "least had a dissent, by one of the most conservative judges on that "
14414 "court. That dissent gave our claims life."
14417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14418 #: freeculture.xml:10994
14420 "Judge David Sentelle said the CTEA violated the requirement that copyrights "
14421 "be for \"limited Times\" only. His argument was as elegant as it was simple: "
14422 "If Congress can extend existing terms, then there is no \"stopping point\" "
14423 "to Congress's power under the Copyright Clause. The power to extend existing "
14424 "terms means Congress is not required to grant terms that are \"limited.\" "
14425 "Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, the court had to interpret the term \"limited "
14426 "Times\" to give it meaning. And the best interpretation, Judge Sentelle "
14427 "argued, would be to deny Congress the power to extend existing terms."
14430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14431 #: freeculture.xml:11005
14433 "We asked the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as a whole to hear the "
14434 "case. Cases are ordinarily heard in panels of three, except for important "
14435 "cases or cases that raise issues specific to the circuit as a whole, where "
14436 "the court will sit \"en banc\" to hear the case."
14440 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14441 #: freeculture.xml:11011
14443 "The Court of Appeals rejected our request to hear the case en banc. This "
14444 "time, Judge Sentelle was joined by the most liberal member of the "
14445 "D.C. Circuit, Judge David Tatel. Both the most conservative and the most "
14446 "liberal judges in the D.C. Circuit believed Congress had overstepped its "
14450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14451 #: freeculture.xml:11020
14453 "It was here that most expected Eldred v. Ashcroft would die, for the Supreme "
14454 "Court rarely reviews any decision by a court of appeals. (It hears about one "
14455 "hundred cases a year, out of more than five thousand appeals.) And it "
14456 "practically never reviews a decision that upholds a statute when no other "
14457 "court has yet reviewed the statute."
14460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14461 #: freeculture.xml:11027
14463 "But in February 2002, the Supreme Court surprised the world by granting our "
14464 "petition to review the D.C. Circuit opinion. Argument was set for October of "
14465 "2002. The summer would be spent writing briefs and preparing for argument."
14468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14469 #: freeculture.xml:11033
14471 "It is over a year later as I write these words. It is still astonishingly "
14472 "hard. If you know anything at all about this story, you know that we lost "
14473 "the appeal. And if you know something more than just the minimum, you "
14474 "probably think there was no way this case could have been won. After our "
14475 "defeat, I received literally thousands of missives by well-wishers and "
14476 "supporters, thanking me for my work on behalf of this noble but doomed "
14477 "cause. And none from this pile was more significant to me than the e-mail "
14478 "from my client, Eric Eldred."
14481 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14482 #: freeculture.xml:11043
14484 "But my client and these friends were wrong. This case could have been "
14485 "won. It should have been won. And no matter how hard I try to retell this "
14486 "story to myself, I can never escape believing that my own mistake lost it."
14489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14490 #: freeculture.xml:11048 freeculture.xml:11062
14491 msgid "Steward, Geoffrey"
14495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14496 #: freeculture.xml:11050
14498 "The mistake was made early, though it became obvious only at the very "
14499 "end. Our case had been supported from the very beginning by an extraordinary "
14500 "lawyer, Geoffrey Stewart, and by the law firm he had moved to, Jones, Day, "
14501 "Reavis and Pogue. Jones Day took a great deal of heat from its "
14502 "copyright-protectionist clients for supporting us. They ignored this "
14503 "pressure (something that few law firms today would ever do), and throughout "
14504 "the case, they gave it everything they could."
14507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14508 #: freeculture.xml:11060 freeculture.xml:11405 freeculture.xml:11420 freeculture.xml:11513 freeculture.xml:11727 freeculture.xml:11758 freeculture.xml:11851
14512 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14513 #: freeculture.xml:11061
14514 msgid "Bromberg, Dan"
14517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14518 #: freeculture.xml:11064
14520 "There were three key lawyers on the case from Jones Day. Geoff Stewart was "
14521 "the first, but then Dan Bromberg and Don Ayer became quite "
14522 "involved. Bromberg and Ayer in particular had a common view about how this "
14523 "case would be won: We would only win, they repeatedly told me, if we could "
14524 "make the issue seem \"important\" to the Supreme Court. It had to seem as if "
14525 "dramatic harm were being done to free speech and free culture; otherwise, "
14526 "they would never vote against \"the most powerful media companies in the "
14530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14531 #: freeculture.xml:11074
14533 "I hate this view of the law. Of course I thought the Sonny Bono Act was a "
14534 "dramatic harm to free speech and free culture. Of course I still think it "
14535 "is. But the idea that the Supreme Court decides the law based on how "
14536 "important they believe the issues are is just wrong. It might be \"right\" "
14537 "as in \"true,\" I thought, but it is \"wrong\" as in \"it just shouldn't be "
14538 "that way.\" As I believed that any faithful interpretation of what the "
14539 "framers of our Constitution did would yield the conclusion that the CTEA was "
14540 "unconstitutional, and as I believed that any faithful interpretation of what "
14541 "the First Amendment means would yield the conclusion that the power to "
14542 "extend existing copyright terms is unconstitutional, I was not persuaded "
14543 "that we had to sell our case like soap. Just as a law that bans the "
14544 "swastika is unconstitutional not because the Court likes Nazis but because "
14545 "such a law would violate the Constitution, so too, in my view, would the "
14546 "Court decide whether Congress's law was constitutional based on the "
14547 "Constitution, not based on whether they liked the values that the framers "
14548 "put in the Constitution."
14551 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14552 #: freeculture.xml:11095
14554 "In any case, I thought, the Court must already see the danger and the harm "
14555 "caused by this sort of law. Why else would they grant review? There was no "
14556 "reason to hear the case in the Supreme Court if they weren't convinced that "
14557 "this regulation was harmful. So in my view, we didn't need to persuade them "
14558 "that this law was bad, we needed to show why it was unconstitutional."
14562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14563 #: freeculture.xml:11103
14565 "There was one way, however, in which I felt politics would matter and in "
14566 "which I thought a response was appropriate. I was convinced that the Court "
14567 "would not hear our arguments if it thought these were just the arguments of "
14568 "a group of lefty loons. This Supreme Court was not about to launch into a "
14569 "new field of judicial review if it seemed that this field of review was "
14570 "simply the preference of a small political minority. Although my focus in "
14571 "the case was not to demonstrate how bad the Sonny Bono Act was but to "
14572 "demonstrate that it was unconstitutional, my hope was to make this argument "
14573 "against a background of briefs that covered the full range of political "
14574 "views. To show that this claim against the CTEA was grounded in "
14575 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> and not politics, then, we tried to gather the "
14576 "widest range of credible critics—credible not because they were rich "
14577 "and famous, but because they, in the aggregate, demonstrated that this law "
14578 "was unconstitutional regardless of one's politics."
14581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14582 #: freeculture.xml:11134 freeculture.xml:11160
14583 msgid "Eagle Forum"
14586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14587 #: freeculture.xml:11135
14588 msgid "Schlafly, Phyllis"
14591 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14592 #: freeculture.xml:11122
14594 "The first step happened all by itself. Phyllis Schlafly's organization, "
14595 "Eagle Forum, had been an opponent of the CTEA from the very beginning. "
14596 "Mrs. Schlafly viewed the CTEA as a sellout by Congress. In November 1998, "
14597 "she wrote a stinging editorial attacking the Republican Congress for "
14598 "allowing the law to pass. As she wrote, \"Do you sometimes wonder why bills "
14599 "that create a financial windfall to narrow special interests slide easily "
14600 "through the intricate legislative process, while bills that benefit the "
14601 "general public seem to get bogged down?\" The answer, as the editorial "
14602 "documented, was the power of money. Schlafly enumerated Disney's "
14603 "contributions to the key players on the committees. It was money, not "
14604 "justice, that gave Mickey Mouse twenty more years in Disney's control, "
14605 "Schlafly argued. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
14606 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14610 #: freeculture.xml:11138
14612 "In the Court of Appeals, Eagle Forum was eager to file a brief supporting "
14613 "our position. Their brief made the argument that became the core claim in "
14614 "the Supreme Court: If Congress can extend the term of existing copyrights, "
14615 "there is no limit to Congress's power to set terms. That strong "
14616 "conservative argument persuaded a strong conservative judge, Judge Sentelle."
14619 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14620 #: freeculture.xml:11146
14622 "In the Supreme Court, the briefs on our side were about as diverse as it "
14623 "gets. They included an extraordinary historical brief by the Free Software "
14624 "Foundation (home of the GNU project that made GNU/ Linux possible). They "
14625 "included a powerful brief about the costs of uncertainty by Intel. There "
14626 "were two law professors' briefs, one by copyright scholars and one by First "
14627 "Amendment scholars. There was an exhaustive and uncontroverted brief by the "
14628 "world's experts in the history of the Progress Clause. And of course, there "
14629 "was a new brief by Eagle Forum, repeating and strengthening its arguments. "
14630 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14631 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
14632 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
14635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14636 #: freeculture.xml:11167
14637 msgid "American Association of Law Libraries"
14640 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14641 #: freeculture.xml:11168
14642 msgid "National Writers Union"
14645 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14646 #: freeculture.xml:11163
14648 "Those briefs framed a legal argument. Then to support the legal argument, "
14649 "there were a number of powerful briefs by libraries and archives, including "
14650 "the Internet Archive, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the "
14651 "National Writers Union. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
14652 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
14655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14656 #: freeculture.xml:11171
14658 "But two briefs captured the policy argument best. One made the argument I've "
14659 "already described: A brief by Hal Roach Studios argued that unless the law "
14660 "was struck, a whole generation of American film would disappear. The other "
14661 "made the economic argument absolutely clear."
14664 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14665 #: freeculture.xml:11177
14666 msgid "Akerlof, George"
14669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14670 #: freeculture.xml:11178
14671 msgid "Arrow, Kenneth"
14674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14675 #: freeculture.xml:11179
14676 msgid "Buchanan, James"
14679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14680 #: freeculture.xml:11180
14681 msgid "Coase, Ronald"
14684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14685 #: freeculture.xml:11181
14686 msgid "Friedman, Milton"
14689 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14690 #: freeculture.xml:11183
14692 "This economists' brief was signed by seventeen economists, including five "
14693 "Nobel Prize winners, including Ronald Coase, James Buchanan, Milton "
14694 "Friedman, Kenneth Arrow, and George Akerlof. The economists, as the list of "
14695 "Nobel winners demonstrates, spanned the political spectrum. Their "
14696 "conclusions were powerful: There was no plausible claim that extending the "
14697 "terms of existing copyrights would do anything to increase incentives to "
14698 "create. Such extensions were nothing more than \"rent-seeking\"—the "
14699 "fancy term economists use to describe special-interest legislation gone "
14703 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14704 #: freeculture.xml:11206 freeculture.xml:11219 freeculture.xml:11411 freeculture.xml:11763
14705 msgid "Fried, Charles"
14708 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14709 #: freeculture.xml:11194
14711 "The same effort at balance was reflected in the legal team we gathered to "
14712 "write our briefs in the case. The Jones Day lawyers had been with us from "
14713 "the start. But when the case got to the Supreme Court, we added three "
14714 "lawyers to help us frame this argument to this Court: Alan Morrison, a "
14715 "lawyer from Public Citizen, a Washington group that had made constitutional "
14716 "history with a series of seminal victories in the Supreme Court defending "
14717 "individual rights; my colleague and dean, Kathleen Sullivan, who had argued "
14718 "many cases in the Court, and who had advised us early on about a First "
14719 "Amendment strategy; and finally, former solicitor general Charles Fried. "
14720 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
14723 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14724 #: freeculture.xml:11209
14726 "Fried was a special victory for our side. Every other former solicitor "
14727 "general was hired by the other side to defend Congress's power to give media "
14728 "companies the special favor of extended copyright terms. Fried was the only "
14729 "one who turned down that lucrative assignment to stand up for something he "
14730 "believed in. He had been Ronald Reagan's chief lawyer in the Supreme "
14731 "Court. He had helped craft the line of cases that limited Congress's power "
14732 "in the context of the Commerce Clause. And while he had argued many "
14733 "positions in the Supreme Court that I personally disagreed with, his joining "
14734 "the cause was a vote of confidence in our argument. <placeholder "
14735 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
14738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14739 #: freeculture.xml:11222
14741 "The government, in defending the statute, had its collection of friends, as "
14742 "well. Significantly, however, none of these \"friends\" included historians "
14743 "or economists. The briefs on the other side of the case were written "
14744 "exclusively by major media companies, congressmen, and copyright holders."
14747 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14748 #: freeculture.xml:11229
14750 "The media companies were not surprising. They had the most to gain from the "
14751 "law. The congressmen were not surprising either—they were defending "
14752 "their power and, indirectly, the gravy train of contributions such power "
14753 "induced. And of course it was not surprising that the copyright holders "
14754 "would defend the idea that they should continue to have the right to control "
14755 "who did what with content they wanted to control."
14759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14760 #: freeculture.xml:11245
14762 "Brief of Amici Dr. Seuss Enterprise et al., <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14763 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. (2003) (No. 01-618), 19."
14767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14768 #: freeculture.xml:11253
14770 "Dinitia Smith, \"Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey Mouse Joins "
14771 "the Fray,\" <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 28 March 1998, B7."
14774 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
14775 #: freeculture.xml:11260
14776 msgid "Gershwin, George"
14779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14780 #: freeculture.xml:11238
14782 "Dr. Seuss's representatives, for example, argued that it was better for the "
14783 "Dr. Seuss estate to control what happened to Dr. Seuss's work— better "
14784 "than allowing it to fall into the public domain—because if this "
14785 "creativity were in the public domain, then people could use it to \"glorify "
14786 "drugs or to create pornography.\"<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
14787 "That was also the motive of the Gershwin estate, which defended its "
14788 "\"protection\" of the work of George Gershwin. They refuse, for example, to "
14789 "license <citetitle>Porgy and Bess</citetitle> to anyone who refuses to use "
14790 "African Americans in the cast.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
14791 "That's their view of how this part of American culture should be controlled, "
14792 "and they wanted this law to help them effect that control. <placeholder "
14793 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
14796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14797 #: freeculture.xml:11263
14799 "This argument made clear a theme that is rarely noticed in this debate. "
14800 "When Congress decides to extend the term of existing copyrights, Congress is "
14801 "making a choice about which speakers it will favor. Famous and beloved "
14802 "copyright owners, such as the Gershwin estate and Dr. Seuss, come to "
14803 "Congress and say, \"Give us twenty years to control the speech about these "
14804 "icons of American culture. We'll do better with them than anyone else.\" "
14805 "Congress of course likes to reward the popular and famous by giving them "
14806 "what they want. But when Congress gives people an exclusive right to speak "
14807 "in a certain way, that's just what the First Amendment is traditionally "
14811 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14812 #: freeculture.xml:11275
14814 "We argued as much in a final brief. Not only would upholding the CTEA mean "
14815 "that there was no limit to the power of Congress to extend "
14816 "copyrights—extensions that would further concentrate the market; it "
14817 "would also mean that there was no limit to Congress's power to play "
14818 "favorites, through copyright, with who has the right to speak. Between "
14819 "February and October, there was little I did beyond preparing for this "
14820 "case. Early on, as I said, I set the strategy."
14823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14824 #: freeculture.xml:11284
14826 "The Supreme Court was divided into two important camps. One camp we called "
14827 "\"the Conservatives.\" The other we called \"the Rest.\" The Conservatives "
14828 "included Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice O'Connor, Justice Scalia, Justice "
14829 "Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. These five had been the most consistent in "
14830 "limiting Congress's power. They were the five who had supported the "
14831 "<citetitle>Lopez/Morrison</citetitle> line of cases that said that an "
14832 "enumerated power had to be interpreted to assure that Congress's powers had "
14836 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14837 #: freeculture.xml:11293 freeculture.xml:11317 freeculture.xml:11656 freeculture.xml:11668
14838 msgid "Breyer, Stephen"
14842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14843 #: freeculture.xml:11295
14845 "The Rest were the four Justices who had strongly opposed limits on "
14846 "Congress's power. These four—Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, Justice "
14847 "Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer—had repeatedly argued that the "
14848 "Constitution gives Congress broad discretion to decide how best to implement "
14849 "its powers. In case after case, these justices had argued that the Court's "
14850 "role should be one of deference. Though the votes of these four justices "
14851 "were the votes that I personally had most consistently agreed with, they "
14852 "were also the votes that we were least likely to get."
14855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14856 #: freeculture.xml:11307
14858 "In particular, the least likely was Justice Ginsburg's. In addition to her "
14859 "general view about deference to Congress (except where issues of gender are "
14860 "involved), she had been particularly deferential in the context of "
14861 "intellectual property protections. She and her daughter (an excellent and "
14862 "well-known intellectual property scholar) were cut from the same "
14863 "intellectual property cloth. We expected she would agree with the writings "
14864 "of her daughter: that Congress had the power in this context to do as it "
14865 "wished, even if what Congress wished made little sense."
14868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14869 #: freeculture.xml:11319
14871 "Close behind Justice Ginsburg were two justices whom we also viewed as "
14872 "unlikely allies, though possible surprises. Justice Souter strongly favored "
14873 "deference to Congress, as did Justice Breyer. But both were also very "
14874 "sensitive to free speech concerns. And as we strongly believed, there was a "
14875 "very important free speech argument against these retrospective extensions."
14878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14879 #: freeculture.xml:11327
14881 "The only vote we could be confident about was that of Justice "
14882 "Stevens. History will record Justice Stevens as one of the greatest judges "
14883 "on this Court. His votes are consistently eclectic, which just means that no "
14884 "simple ideology explains where he will stand. But he had consistently argued "
14885 "for limits in the context of intellectual property generally. We were fairly "
14886 "confident he would recognize limits here."
14889 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14890 #: freeculture.xml:11335
14892 "This analysis of \"the Rest\" showed most clearly where our focus had to be: "
14893 "on the Conservatives. To win this case, we had to crack open these five and "
14894 "get at least a majority to go our way. Thus, the single overriding argument "
14895 "that animated our claim rested on the Conservatives' most important "
14896 "jurisprudential innovation—the argument that Judge Sentelle had relied "
14897 "upon in the Court of Appeals, that Congress's power must be interpreted so "
14898 "that its enumerated powers have limits."
14902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14903 #: freeculture.xml:11345
14905 "This then was the core of our strategy—a strategy for which I am "
14906 "responsible. We would get the Court to see that just as with the "
14907 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, under the government's argument here, "
14908 "Congress would always have unlimited power to extend existing terms. If "
14909 "anything was plain about Congress's power under the Progress Clause, it was "
14910 "that this power was supposed to be \"limited.\" Our aim would be to get the "
14911 "Court to reconcile <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> with "
14912 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>: If Congress's power to regulate commerce was "
14913 "limited, then so, too, must Congress's power to regulate copyright be "
14917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14918 #: freeculture.xml:11359
14920 "The argument on the government's side came down to this: Congress has done "
14921 "it before. It should be allowed to do it again. The government claimed that "
14922 "from the very beginning, Congress has been extending the term of existing "
14923 "copyrights. So, the government argued, the Court should not now say that "
14924 "practice is unconstitutional."
14927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14928 #: freeculture.xml:11366
14930 "There was some truth to the government's claim, but not much. We certainly "
14931 "agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in and in 1909. And of "
14932 "course, in 1962, Congress began extending existing terms "
14933 "regularly—eleven times in forty years."
14937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14938 #: freeculture.xml:11373
14940 "But this \"consistency\" should be kept in perspective. Congress extended "
14941 "existing terms once in the first hundred years of the Republic. It then "
14942 "extended existing terms once again in the next fifty. Those rare extensions "
14943 "are in contrast to the now regular practice of extending existing "
14944 "terms. Whatever restraint Congress had had in the past, that restraint was "
14945 "now gone. Congress was now in a cycle of extensions; there was no reason to "
14946 "expect that cycle would end. This Court had not hesitated to intervene where "
14947 "Congress was in a similar cycle of extension. There was no reason it "
14948 "couldn't intervene here. Oral argument was scheduled for the first week in "
14949 "October. I arrived in D.C. two weeks before the argument. During those two "
14950 "weeks, I was repeatedly \"mooted\" by lawyers who had volunteered to help in "
14951 "the case. Such \"moots\" are basically practice rounds, where wannabe "
14952 "justices fire questions at wannabe winners."
14955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14956 #: freeculture.xml:11396
14958 "I was convinced that to win, I had to keep the Court focused on a single "
14959 "point: that if this extension is permitted, then there is no limit to the "
14960 "power to set terms. Going with the government would mean that terms would be "
14961 "effectively unlimited; going with us would give Congress a clear line to "
14962 "follow: Don't extend existing terms. The moots were an effective practice; I "
14963 "found ways to take every question back to this central idea."
14966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14967 #: freeculture.xml:11407
14969 "One moot was before the lawyers at Jones Day. Don Ayer was the skeptic. He "
14970 "had served in the Reagan Justice Department with Solicitor General Charles "
14971 "Fried. He had argued many cases before the Supreme Court. And in his review "
14972 "of the moot, he let his concern speak: <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14977 #: freeculture.xml:11414
14979 "\"I'm just afraid that unless they really see the harm, they won't be "
14980 "willing to upset this practice that the government says has been a "
14981 "consistent practice for two hundred years. You have to make them see the "
14982 "harm—passionately get them to see the harm. For if they don't see "
14983 "that, then we haven't any chance of winning.\""
14987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14988 #: freeculture.xml:11422
14990 "He may have argued many cases before this Court, I thought, but he didn't "
14991 "understand its soul. As a clerk, I had seen the Justices do the right "
14992 "thing—not because of politics but because it was right. As a law "
14993 "professor, I had spent my life teaching my students that this Court does the "
14994 "right thing—not because of politics but because it is right. As I "
14995 "listened to Ayer's plea for passion in pressing politics, I understood his "
14996 "point, and I rejected it. Our argument was right. That was enough. Let the "
14997 "politicians learn to see that it was also good. The night before the "
14998 "argument, a line of people began to form in front of the Supreme Court. The "
14999 "case had become a focus of the press and of the movement to free "
15000 "culture. Hundreds stood in line for the chance to see the "
15001 "proceedings. Scores spent the night on the Supreme Court steps so that they "
15002 "would be assured a seat."
15005 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15006 #: freeculture.xml:11439
15008 "Not everyone has to wait in line. People who know the Justices can ask for "
15009 "seats they control. (I asked Justice Scalia's chambers for seats for my "
15010 "parents, for example.) Members of the Supreme Court bar can get a seat in a "
15011 "special section reserved for them. And senators and congressmen have a "
15012 "special place where they get to sit, too. And finally, of course, the press "
15013 "has a gallery, as do clerks working for the Justices on the Court. As we "
15014 "entered that morning, there was no place that was not taken. This was an "
15015 "argument about intellectual property law, yet the halls were filled. As I "
15016 "walked in to take my seat at the front of the Court, I saw my parents "
15017 "sitting on the left. As I sat down at the table, I saw Jack Valenti sitting "
15018 "in the special section ordinarily reserved for family of the Justices."
15021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15022 #: freeculture.xml:11454
15024 "When the Chief Justice called me to begin my argument, I began where I "
15025 "intended to stay: on the question of the limits on Congress's power. This "
15026 "was a case about enumerated powers, I said, and whether those enumerated "
15027 "powers had any limit."
15030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15031 #: freeculture.xml:11460
15033 "Justice O'Connor stopped me within one minute of my opening. The history "
15034 "was bothering her."
15037 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15038 #: freeculture.xml:11465
15040 "justice o'connor: Congress has extended the term so often through the years, "
15041 "and if you are right, don't we run the risk of upsetting previous extensions "
15042 "of time? I mean, this seems to be a practice that began with the very first "
15046 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15047 #: freeculture.xml:11472
15049 "She was quite willing to concede \"that this flies directly in the face of "
15050 "what the framers had in mind.\" But my response again and again was to "
15051 "emphasize limits on Congress's power."
15055 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15056 #: freeculture.xml:11478
15058 "mr. lessig: Well, if it flies in the face of what the framers had in mind, "
15059 "then the question is, is there a way of interpreting their words that gives "
15060 "effect to what they had in mind, and the answer is yes."
15063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15064 #: freeculture.xml:11486
15066 "There were two points in this argument when I should have seen where the "
15067 "Court was going. The first was a question by Justice Kennedy, who observed,"
15070 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15071 #: freeculture.xml:11492
15073 "justice kennedy: Well, I suppose implicit in the argument that the '76 act, "
15074 "too, should have been declared void, and that we might leave it alone "
15075 "because of the disruption, is that for all these years the act has impeded "
15076 "progress in science and the useful arts. I just don't see any empirical "
15077 "evidence for that."
15080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15081 #: freeculture.xml:11500
15083 "Here follows my clear mistake. Like a professor correcting a student, I "
15087 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15088 #: freeculture.xml:11506
15090 "mr. lessig: Justice, we are not making an empirical claim at all. Nothing "
15091 "in our Copyright Clause claim hangs upon the empirical assertion about "
15092 "impeding progress. Our only argument is this is a structural limit necessary "
15093 "to assure that what would be an effectively perpetual term not be permitted "
15094 "under the copyright laws."
15097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15098 #: freeculture.xml:11515
15100 "That was a correct answer, but it wasn't the right answer. The right answer "
15101 "was instead that there was an obvious and profound harm. Any number of "
15102 "briefs had been written about it. He wanted to hear it. And here was the "
15103 "place Don Ayer's advice should have mattered. This was a softball; my answer "
15104 "was a swing and a miss."
15107 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15108 #: freeculture.xml:11522
15110 "The second came from the Chief, for whom the whole case had been "
15111 "crafted. For the Chief Justice had crafted the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
15112 "ruling, and we hoped that he would see this case as its second cousin."
15116 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15117 #: freeculture.xml:11527
15119 "It was clear a second into his question that he wasn't at all sympathetic. "
15120 "To him, we were a bunch of anarchists. As he asked:"
15123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15124 #: freeculture.xml:11534
15126 "chief justice: Well, but you want more than that. You want the right to copy "
15127 "verbatim other people's books, don't you?"
15130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15131 #: freeculture.xml:11538
15133 "mr. lessig: We want the right to copy verbatim works that should be in the "
15134 "public domain and would be in the public domain but for a statute that "
15135 "cannot be justified under ordinary First Amendment analysis or under a "
15136 "proper reading of the limits built into the Copyright Clause."
15139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15140 #: freeculture.xml:11547
15142 "Things went better for us when the government gave its argument; for now the "
15143 "Court picked up on the core of our claim. As Justice Scalia asked Solicitor "
15147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15148 #: freeculture.xml:11553
15150 "justice scalia: You say that the functional equivalent of an unlimited time "
15151 "would be a violation [of the Constitution], but that's precisely the "
15152 "argument that's being made by petitioners here, that a limited time which is "
15153 "extendable is the functional equivalent of an unlimited time."
15156 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15157 #: freeculture.xml:11561
15159 "When Olson was finished, it was my turn to give a closing rebuttal. Olson's "
15160 "flailing had revived my anger. But my anger still was directed to the "
15161 "academic, not the practical. The government was arguing as if this were the "
15162 "first case ever to consider limits on Congress's Copyright and Patent Clause "
15163 "power. Ever the professor and not the advocate, I closed by pointing out the "
15164 "long history of the Court imposing limits on Congress's power in the name of "
15165 "the Copyright and Patent Clause— indeed, the very first case striking "
15166 "a law of Congress as exceeding a specific enumerated power was based upon "
15167 "the Copyright and Patent Clause. All true. But it wasn't going to move the "
15168 "Court to my side."
15172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15173 #: freeculture.xml:11574
15175 "As I left the court that day, I knew there were a hundred points I wished I "
15176 "could remake. There were a hundred questions I wished I had answered "
15177 "differently. But one way of thinking about this case left me optimistic."
15180 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15181 #: freeculture.xml:11582
15183 "The government had been asked over and over again, what is the limit? Over "
15184 "and over again, it had answered there is no limit. This was precisely the "
15185 "answer I wanted the Court to hear. For I could not imagine how the Court "
15186 "could understand that the government believed Congress's power was unlimited "
15187 "under the terms of the Copyright Clause, and sustain the government's "
15188 "argument. The solicitor general had made my argument for me. No matter how "
15189 "often I tried, I could not understand how the Court could find that "
15190 "Congress's power under the Commerce Clause was limited, but under the "
15191 "Copyright Clause, unlimited. In those rare moments when I let myself believe "
15192 "that we may have prevailed, it was because I felt this Court—in "
15193 "particular, the Conservatives—would feel itself constrained by the "
15194 "rule of law that it had established elsewhere."
15197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15198 #: freeculture.xml:11597
15200 "The morning of January 15, 2003, I was five minutes late to the office and "
15201 "missed the 7:00 A.M. call from the Supreme Court clerk. Listening to the "
15202 "message, I could tell in an instant that she had bad news to report.The "
15203 "Supreme Court had affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals. Seven "
15204 "justices had voted in the majority. There were two dissents."
15207 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15208 #: freeculture.xml:11604
15210 "A few seconds later, the opinions arrived by e-mail. I took the phone off "
15211 "the hook, posted an announcement to our blog, and sat down to see where I "
15212 "had been wrong in my reasoning."
15215 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15216 #: freeculture.xml:11609
15218 "My <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. Here was a case that pitted all the money "
15219 "in the world against <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. And here was the last "
15220 "naïve law professor, scouring the pages, looking for reasoning."
15223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15224 #: freeculture.xml:11615
15226 "I first scoured the opinion, looking for how the Court would distinguish the "
15227 "principle in this case from the principle in "
15228 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The argument was nowhere to be found. The case "
15229 "was not even cited. The argument that was the core argument of our case did "
15230 "not even appear in the Court's opinion."
15234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15235 #: freeculture.xml:11624
15237 "Justice Ginsburg simply ignored the enumerated powers argument. Consistent "
15238 "with her view that Congress's power was not limited generally, she had found "
15239 "Congress's power not limited here."
15242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15243 #: freeculture.xml:11629
15245 "Her opinion was perfectly reasonable—for her, and for Justice "
15246 "Souter. Neither believes in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. It would be too "
15247 "much to expect them to write an opinion that recognized, much less "
15248 "explained, the doctrine they had worked so hard to defeat."
15251 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15252 #: freeculture.xml:11635
15254 "But as I realized what had happened, I couldn't quite believe what I was "
15255 "reading. I had said there was no way this Court could reconcile limited "
15256 "powers with the Commerce Clause and unlimited powers with the Progress "
15257 "Clause. It had never even occurred to me that they could reconcile the two "
15258 "simply <emphasis>by not addressing the argument</emphasis>. There was no "
15259 "inconsistency because they would not talk about the two together. There was "
15260 "therefore no principle that followed from the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
15261 "case: In that context, Congress's power would be limited, but in this "
15262 "context it would not."
15265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15266 #: freeculture.xml:11646
15268 "Yet by what right did they get to choose which of the framers' values they "
15269 "would respect? By what right did they—the silent five—get to "
15270 "select the part of the Constitution they would enforce based on the values "
15271 "they thought important? We were right back to the argument that I said I "
15272 "hated at the start: I had failed to convince them that the issue here was "
15273 "important, and I had failed to recognize that however much I might hate a "
15274 "system in which the Court gets to pick the constitutional values that it "
15275 "will respect, that is the system we have."
15278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15279 #: freeculture.xml:11658
15281 "Justices Breyer and Stevens wrote very strong dissents. Stevens's opinion "
15282 "was crafted internal to the law: He argued that the tradition of "
15283 "intellectual property law should not support this unjustified extension of "
15284 "terms. He based his argument on a parallel analysis that had governed in the "
15285 "context of patents (so had we). But the rest of the Court discounted the "
15286 "parallel—without explaining how the very same words in the Progress "
15287 "Clause could come to mean totally different things depending upon whether "
15288 "the words were about patents or copyrights. The Court let Justice Stevens's "
15289 "charge go unanswered."
15293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15294 #: freeculture.xml:11671
15296 "Justice Breyer's opinion, perhaps the best opinion he has ever written, was "
15297 "external to the Constitution. He argued that the term of copyrights has "
15298 "become so long as to be effectively unlimited. We had said that under the "
15299 "current term, a copyright gave an author 99.8 percent of the value of a "
15300 "perpetual term. Breyer said we were wrong, that the actual number was "
15301 "99.9997 percent of a perpetual term. Either way, the point was clear: If the "
15302 "Constitution said a term had to be \"limited,\" and the existing term was so "
15303 "long as to be effectively unlimited, then it was unconstitutional."
15306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15307 #: freeculture.xml:11682
15309 "These two justices understood all the arguments we had made. But because "
15310 "neither believed in the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, neither was "
15311 "willing to push it as a reason to reject this extension. The case was "
15312 "decided without anyone having addressed the argument that we had carried "
15313 "from Judge Sentelle. It was <citetitle>Hamlet</citetitle> without the "
15317 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15318 #: freeculture.xml:11689
15320 "Defeat brings depression. They say it is a sign of health when depression "
15321 "gives way to anger. My anger came quickly, but it didn't cure the "
15322 "depression. This anger was of two sorts."
15325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15326 #: freeculture.xml:11694
15328 "It was first anger with the five \"Conservatives.\" It would have been one "
15329 "thing for them to have explained why the principle of "
15330 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> didn't apply in this case. That wouldn't have "
15331 "been a very convincing argument, I don't believe, having read it made by "
15332 "others, and having tried to make it myself. But it at least would have been "
15333 "an act of integrity. These justices in particular have repeatedly said that "
15334 "the proper mode of interpreting the Constitution is \"originalism\"—to "
15335 "first understand the framers' text, interpreted in their context, in light "
15336 "of the structure of the Constitution. That method had produced "
15337 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> and many other \"originalist\" rulings. Where "
15338 "was their \"originalism\" now?"
15342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15343 #: freeculture.xml:11707
15345 "Here, they had joined an opinion that never once tried to explain what the "
15346 "framers had meant by crafting the Progress Clause as they did; they joined "
15347 "an opinion that never once tried to explain how the structure of that clause "
15348 "would affect the interpretation of Congress's power. And they joined an "
15349 "opinion that didn't even try to explain why this grant of power could be "
15350 "unlimited, whereas the Commerce Clause would be limited. In short, they had "
15351 "joined an opinion that did not apply to, and was inconsistent with, their "
15352 "own method for interpreting the Constitution. This opinion may well have "
15353 "yielded a result that they liked. It did not produce a reason that was "
15354 "consistent with their own principles."
15357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15358 #: freeculture.xml:11722
15360 "My anger with the Conservatives quickly yielded to anger with myself. For I "
15361 "had let a view of the law that I liked interfere with a view of the law as "
15365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15366 #: freeculture.xml:11729
15368 "Most lawyers, and most law professors, have little patience for idealism "
15369 "about courts in general and this Supreme Court in particular. Most have a "
15370 "much more pragmatic view. When Don Ayer said that this case would be won "
15371 "based on whether I could convince the Justices that the framers' values were "
15372 "important, I fought the idea, because I didn't want to believe that that is "
15373 "how this Court decides. I insisted on arguing this case as if it were a "
15374 "simple application of a set of principles. I had an argument that followed "
15375 "in logic. I didn't need to waste my time showing it should also follow in "
15380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15381 #: freeculture.xml:11740
15383 "As I read back over the transcript from that argument in October, I can see "
15384 "a hundred places where the answers could have taken the conversation in "
15385 "different directions, where the truth about the harm that this unchecked "
15386 "power will cause could have been made clear to this Court. Justice Kennedy "
15387 "in good faith wanted to be shown. I, idiotically, corrected his "
15388 "question. Justice Souter in good faith wanted to be shown the First "
15389 "Amendment harms. I, like a math teacher, reframed the question to make the "
15390 "logical point. I had shown them how they could strike this law of Congress "
15391 "if they wanted to. There were a hundred places where I could have helped "
15392 "them want to, yet my stubbornness, my refusal to give in, stopped me. I have "
15393 "stood before hundreds of audiences trying to persuade; I have used passion "
15394 "in that effort to persuade; but I refused to stand before this audience and "
15395 "try to persuade with the passion I had used elsewhere. It was not the basis "
15396 "on which a court should decide the issue."
15399 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15400 #: freeculture.xml:11760
15402 "Would it have been different if I had argued it differently? Would it have "
15403 "been different if Don Ayer had argued it? Or Charles Fried? Or Kathleen "
15404 "Sullivan? <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15408 #: freeculture.xml:11766
15410 "My friends huddled around me to insist it would not. The Court was not "
15411 "ready, my friends insisted. This was a loss that was destined. It would take "
15412 "a great deal more to show our society why our framers were right. And when "
15413 "we do that, we will be able to show that Court."
15416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15417 #: freeculture.xml:11772
15419 "Maybe, but I doubt it. These Justices have no financial interest in doing "
15420 "anything except the right thing. They are not lobbied. They have little "
15421 "reason to resist doing right. I can't help but think that if I had stepped "
15422 "down from this pretty picture of dispassionate justice, I could have "
15426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15427 #: freeculture.xml:11779
15429 "And even if I couldn't, then that doesn't excuse what happened in "
15430 "January. For at the start of this case, one of America's leading "
15431 "intellectual property professors stated publicly that my bringing this case "
15432 "was a mistake. \"The Court is not ready,\" Peter Jaszi said; this issue "
15433 "should not be raised until it is. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
15438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15439 #: freeculture.xml:11787
15441 "After the argument and after the decision, Peter said to me, and publicly, "
15442 "that he was wrong. But if indeed that Court could not have been persuaded, "
15443 "then that is all the evidence that's needed to know that here again Peter "
15444 "was right. Either I was not ready to argue this case in a way that would do "
15445 "some good or they were not ready to hear this case in a way that would do "
15446 "some good. Either way, the decision to bring this case—a decision I "
15447 "had made four years before—was wrong. While the reaction to the Sonny "
15448 "Bono Act itself was almost unanimously negative, the reaction to the Court's "
15449 "decision was mixed. No one, at least in the press, tried to say that "
15450 "extending the term of copyright was a good idea. We had won that battle over "
15451 "ideas. Where the decision was praised, it was praised by papers that had "
15452 "been skeptical of the Court's activism in other cases. Deference was a good "
15453 "thing, even if it left standing a silly law. But where the decision was "
15454 "attacked, it was attacked because it left standing a silly and harmful "
15455 "law. <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> wrote in its editorial,"
15458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15459 #: freeculture.xml:11808
15461 "In effect, the Supreme Court's decision makes it likely that we are seeing "
15462 "the beginning of the end of public domain and the birth of copyright "
15463 "perpetuity. The public domain has been a grand experiment, one that should "
15464 "not be allowed to die. The ability to draw freely on the entire creative "
15465 "output of humanity is one of the reasons we live in a time of such fruitful "
15466 "creative ferment."
15469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><indexterm><primary>
15470 #: freeculture.xml:11822 freeculture.xml:11827
15471 msgid "Bolling, Ruben"
15474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15475 #: freeculture.xml:11817
15477 "The best responses were in the cartoons. There was a gaggle of hilarious "
15478 "images—of Mickey in jail and the like. The best, from my view of the "
15479 "case, was Ruben Bolling's, reproduced on the next page (<xref "
15480 "linkend=\"fig-18\"/>). The \"powerful and wealthy\" line is a bit "
15481 "unfair. But the punch in the face felt exactly like that. <placeholder "
15482 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15485 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
15486 #: freeculture.xml:11825
15487 msgid "Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon"
15490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
15491 #: freeculture.xml:11826
15493 "<graphic fileref=\"images/18.png\"></graphic> <placeholder "
15494 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15498 #: freeculture.xml:11830
15500 "The image that will always stick in my head is that evoked by the quote from "
15501 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>. That \"grand experiment\" we call "
15502 "the \"public domain\" is over? When I can make light of it, I think, "
15503 "\"Honey, I shrunk the Constitution.\" But I can rarely make light of it. We "
15504 "had in our Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I "
15505 "fathered, the Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better "
15506 "lawyer would have made them see differently."
15509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
15510 #: freeculture.xml:11841
15511 msgid "CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Eldred II"
15514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15515 #: freeculture.xml:11843
15517 "The day <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was decided, fate would have it that I "
15518 "was to travel to Washington, D.C. (The day the rehearing petition in "
15519 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was denied—meaning the case was really "
15520 "finally over—fate would have it that I was giving a speech to "
15521 "technologists at Disney World.) This was a particularly long flight to my "
15522 "least favorite city. The drive into the city from Dulles was delayed because "
15523 "of traffic, so I opened up my computer and wrote an op-ed piece."
15526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15527 #: freeculture.xml:11853
15529 "It was an act of contrition. During the whole of the flight from San "
15530 "Francisco to Washington, I had heard over and over again in my head the same "
15531 "advice from Don Ayer: You need to make them see why it is important. And "
15532 "alternating with that command was the question of Justice Kennedy: \"For all "
15533 "these years the act has impeded progress in science and the useful arts. I "
15534 "just don't see any empirical evidence for that.\" And so, having failed in "
15535 "the argument of constitutional principle, finally, I turned to an argument "
15540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15541 #: freeculture.xml:11863
15543 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> published the piece. In it, I "
15544 "proposed a simple fix: Fifty years after a work has been published, the "
15545 "copyright owner would be required to register the work and pay a small "
15546 "fee. If he paid the fee, he got the benefit of the full term of "
15547 "copyright. If he did not, the work passed into the public domain."
15550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15551 #: freeculture.xml:11871
15553 "We called this the Eldred Act, but that was just to give it a name. Eric "
15554 "Eldred was kind enough to let his name be used once again, but as he said "
15555 "early on, it won't get passed unless it has another name."
15558 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15559 #: freeculture.xml:11876
15561 "Or another two names. For depending upon your perspective, this is either "
15562 "the \"Public Domain Enhancement Act\" or the \"Copyright Term Deregulation "
15563 "Act.\" Either way, the essence of the idea is clear and obvious: Remove "
15564 "copyright where it is doing nothing except blocking access and the spread of "
15565 "knowledge. Leave it for as long as Congress allows for those works where its "
15566 "worth is at least $1. But for everything else, let the content go."
15569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15570 #: freeculture.xml:11884 freeculture.xml:12084
15571 msgid "Forbes, Steve"
15574 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15575 #: freeculture.xml:11886
15577 "The reaction to this idea was amazingly strong. Steve Forbes endorsed it in "
15578 "an editorial. I received an avalanche of e-mail and letters expressing "
15579 "support. When you focus the issue on lost creativity, people can see the "
15580 "copyright system makes no sense. As a good Republican might say, here "
15581 "government regulation is simply getting in the way of innovation and "
15582 "creativity. And as a good Democrat might say, here the government is "
15583 "blocking access and the spread of knowledge for no good reason. Indeed, "
15584 "there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this "
15585 "issue. Anyone can recognize the stupid harm of the present system."
15588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15589 #: freeculture.xml:11898
15591 "Indeed, many recognized the obvious benefit of the registration "
15592 "requirement. For one of the hardest things about the current system for "
15593 "people who want to license content is that there is no obvious place to look "
15594 "for the current copyright owners. Since registration is not required, since "
15595 "marking content is not required, since no formality at all is required, it "
15596 "is often impossibly hard to locate copyright owners to ask permission to use "
15597 "or license their work. This system would lower these costs, by establishing "
15598 "at least one registry where copyright owners could be identified."
15601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15602 #: freeculture.xml:11908
15603 msgid "Berlin Act (1908)"
15606 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15607 #: freeculture.xml:11909 freeculture.xml:11949
15608 msgid "Berne Convention (1908)"
15612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15613 #: freeculture.xml:11917
15615 "Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the Berne Convention, national copyright "
15616 "legislation sometimes made protection depend upon compliance with "
15617 "formalities such as registration, deposit, and affixation of notice of the "
15618 "author's claim of copyright. However, starting with the 1908 act, every text "
15619 "of the Convention has provided that \"the enjoyment and the exercise\" of "
15620 "rights guaranteed by the Convention \"shall not be subject to any "
15621 "formality.\" The prohibition against formalities is presently embodied in "
15622 "Article 5(2) of the Paris Text of the Berne Convention. Many countries "
15623 "continue to impose some form of deposit or registration requirement, albeit "
15624 "not as a condition of copyright. French law, for example, requires the "
15625 "deposit of copies of works in national repositories, principally the "
15626 "National Museum. Copies of books published in the United Kingdom must be "
15627 "deposited in the British Library. The German Copyright Act provides for a "
15628 "Registrar of Authors where the author's true name can be filed in the case "
15629 "of anonymous or pseudonymous works. Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>International "
15630 "Intellectual Property Law, Cases and Materials</citetitle> (New York: "
15631 "Foundation Press, 2001), 153–54."
15634 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15635 #: freeculture.xml:11912
15637 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
15638 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, formalities in copyright law were removed in 1976, "
15639 "when Congress followed the Europeans by abandoning any formal requirement "
15640 "before a copyright is granted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
15641 "Europeans are said to view copyright as a \"natural right.\" Natural rights "
15642 "don't need forms to exist. Traditions, like the Anglo-American tradition "
15643 "that required copyright owners to follow form if their rights were to be "
15644 "protected, did not, the Europeans thought, properly respect the dignity of "
15645 "the author. My right as a creator turns on my creativity, not upon the "
15646 "special favor of the government."
15649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15650 #: freeculture.xml:11943
15652 "That's great rhetoric. It sounds wonderfully romantic. But it is absurd "
15653 "copyright policy. It is absurd especially for authors, because a world "
15654 "without formalities harms the creator. The ability to spread \"Walt Disney "
15655 "creativity\" is destroyed when there is no simple way to know what's "
15656 "protected and what's not."
15659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15660 #: freeculture.xml:11951
15662 "The fight against formalities achieved its first real victory in Berlin in "
15663 "1908. International copyright lawyers amended the Berne Convention in 1908, "
15664 "to require copyright terms of life plus fifty years, as well as the "
15665 "abolition of copyright formalities. The formalities were hated because the "
15666 "stories of inadvertent loss were increasingly common. It was as if a Charles "
15667 "Dickens character ran all copyright offices, and the failure to dot an "
15668 "<citetitle>i</citetitle> or cross a <citetitle>t</citetitle> resulted in the "
15669 "loss of widows' only income."
15672 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15673 #: freeculture.xml:11961
15675 "These complaints were real and sensible. And the strictness of the "
15676 "formalities, especially in the United States, was absurd. The law should "
15677 "always have ways of forgiving innocent mistakes. There is no reason "
15678 "copyright law couldn't, as well. Rather than abandoning formalities totally, "
15679 "the response in Berlin should have been to embrace a more equitable system "
15683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15684 #: freeculture.xml:11969
15686 "Even that would have been resisted, however, because registration in the "
15687 "nineteenth and twentieth centuries was still expensive. It was also a "
15688 "hassle. The abolishment of formalities promised not only to save the "
15689 "starving widows, but also to lighten an unnecessary regulatory burden "
15690 "imposed upon creators."
15694 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15695 #: freeculture.xml:11977
15697 "In addition to the practical complaint of authors in 1908, there was a moral "
15698 "claim as well. There was no reason that creative property should be a "
15699 "second-class form of property. If a carpenter builds a table, his rights "
15700 "over the table don't depend upon filing a form with the government. He has "
15701 "a property right over the table \"naturally,\" and he can assert that right "
15702 "against anyone who would steal the table, whether or not he has informed the "
15703 "government of his ownership of the table."
15706 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15707 #: freeculture.xml:11989
15709 "This argument is correct, but its implications are misleading. For the "
15710 "argument in favor of formalities does not depend upon creative property "
15711 "being second-class property. The argument in favor of formalities turns upon "
15712 "the special problems that creative property presents. The law of "
15713 "formalities responds to the special physics of creative property, to assure "
15714 "that it can be efficiently and fairly spread."
15717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15718 #: freeculture.xml:11998
15720 "No one thinks, for example, that land is second-class property just because "
15721 "you have to register a deed with a court if your sale of land is to be "
15722 "effective. And few would think a car is second-class property just because "
15723 "you must register the car with the state and tag it with a license. In both "
15724 "of those cases, everyone sees that there is an important reason to secure "
15725 "registration—both because it makes the markets more efficient and "
15726 "because it better secures the rights of the owner. Without a registration "
15727 "system for land, landowners would perpetually have to guard their "
15728 "property. With registration, they can simply point the police to a "
15729 "deed. Without a registration system for cars, auto theft would be much "
15730 "easier. With a registration system, the thief has a high burden to sell a "
15731 "stolen car. A slight burden is placed on the property owner, but those "
15732 "burdens produce a much better system of protection for property generally."
15735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15736 #: freeculture.xml:12014
15738 "It is similarly special physics that makes formalities important in "
15739 "copyright law. Unlike a carpenter's table, there's nothing in nature that "
15740 "makes it relatively obvious who might own a particular bit of creative "
15741 "property. A recording of Lyle Lovett's latest album can exist in a billion "
15742 "places without anything necessarily linking it back to a particular "
15743 "owner. And like a car, there's no way to buy and sell creative property with "
15744 "confidence unless there is some simple way to authenticate who is the author "
15745 "and what rights he has. Simple transactions are destroyed in a world without "
15746 "formalities. Complex, expensive, <emphasis>lawyer</emphasis> transactions "
15747 "take their place. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15751 #: freeculture.xml:12029
15753 "This was the understanding of the problem with the Sonny Bono Act that we "
15754 "tried to demonstrate to the Court. This was the part it didn't \"get.\" "
15755 "Because we live in a system without formalities, there is no way easily to "
15756 "build upon or use culture from our past. If copyright terms were, as Justice "
15757 "Story said they would be, \"short,\" then this wouldn't matter much. For "
15758 "fourteen years, under the framers' system, a work would be presumptively "
15759 "controlled. After fourteen years, it would be presumptively uncontrolled."
15762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15763 #: freeculture.xml:12039
15765 "But now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to "
15766 "know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious "
15767 "burden on the creative process. If the only way a library can offer an "
15768 "Internet exhibit about the New Deal is to hire a lawyer to clear the rights "
15769 "to every image and sound, then the copyright system is burdening creativity "
15770 "in a way that has never been seen before <emphasis>because there are no "
15771 "formalities</emphasis>."
15774 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15775 #: freeculture.xml:12048
15777 "The Eldred Act was designed to respond to exactly this problem. If it is "
15778 "worth $1 to you, then register your work and you can get the longer "
15779 "term. Others will know how to contact you and, therefore, how to get your "
15780 "permission if they want to use your work. And you will get the benefit of an "
15781 "extended copyright term."
15784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15785 #: freeculture.xml:12055
15787 "If it isn't worth it to you to register to get the benefit of an extended "
15788 "term, then it shouldn't be worth it for the government to defend your "
15789 "monopoly over that work either. The work should pass into the public domain "
15790 "where anyone can copy it, or build archives with it, or create a movie based "
15791 "on it. It should become free if it is not worth $1 to you."
15794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15795 #: freeculture.xml:12062
15797 "Some worry about the burden on authors. Won't the burden of registering the "
15798 "work mean that the $1 is really misleading? Isn't the hassle worth more than "
15799 "$1? Isn't that the real problem with registration?"
15803 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15804 #: freeculture.xml:12068
15806 "It is. The hassle is terrible. The system that exists now is awful. I "
15807 "completely agree that the Copyright Office has done a terrible job (no doubt "
15808 "because they are terribly funded) in enabling simple and cheap "
15809 "registrations. Any real solution to the problem of formalities must address "
15810 "the real problem of <emphasis>governments</emphasis> standing at the core of "
15811 "any system of formalities. In this book, I offer such a solution. That "
15812 "solution essentially remakes the Copyright Office. For now, assume it was "
15813 "Amazon that ran the registration system. Assume it was one-click "
15814 "registration. The Eldred Act would propose a simple, one-click registration "
15815 "fifty years after a work was published. Based upon historical data, that "
15816 "system would move up to 98 percent of commercial work, commercial work that "
15817 "no longer had a commercial life, into the public domain within fifty "
15818 "years. What do you think?"
15821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15822 #: freeculture.xml:12086
15824 "When Steve Forbes endorsed the idea, some in Washington began to pay "
15825 "attention. Many people contacted me pointing to representatives who might be "
15826 "willing to introduce the Eldred Act. And I had a few who directly suggested "
15827 "that they might be willing to take the first step."
15830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15831 #: freeculture.xml:12099
15832 msgid "Lofgren, Zoe"
15835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15836 #: freeculture.xml:12092
15838 "One representative, Zoe Lofgren of California, went so far as to get the "
15839 "bill drafted. The draft solved any problem with international law. It "
15840 "imposed the simplest requirement upon copyright owners possible. In May "
15841 "2003, it looked as if the bill would be introduced. On May 16, I posted on "
15842 "the Eldred Act blog, \"we are close.\" There was a general reaction in the "
15843 "blog community that something good might happen here. <placeholder "
15844 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15848 #: freeculture.xml:12102
15850 "But at this stage, the lobbyists began to intervene. Jack Valenti and the "
15851 "MPAA general counsel came to the congresswoman's office to give the view of "
15852 "the MPAA. Aided by his lawyer, as Valenti told me, Valenti informed the "
15853 "congresswoman that the MPAA would oppose the Eldred Act. The reasons are "
15854 "embarrassingly thin. More importantly, their thinness shows something clear "
15855 "about what this debate is really about."
15859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15860 #: freeculture.xml:12110
15862 "The MPAA argued first that Congress had \"firmly rejected the central "
15863 "concept in the proposed bill\"—that copyrights be renewed. That was "
15864 "true, but irrelevant, as Congress's \"firm rejection\" had occurred long "
15865 "before the Internet made subsequent uses much more likely. Second, they "
15866 "argued that the proposal would harm poor copyright owners—apparently "
15867 "those who could not afford the $1 fee. Third, they argued that Congress had "
15868 "determined that extending a copyright term would encourage restoration "
15869 "work. Maybe in the case of the small percentage of work covered by copyright "
15870 "law that is still commercially valuable, but again this was irrelevant, as "
15871 "the proposal would not cut off the extended term unless the $1 fee was not "
15872 "paid. Fourth, the MPAA argued that the bill would impose \"enormous\" costs, "
15873 "since a registration system is not free. True enough, but those costs are "
15874 "certainly less than the costs of clearing the rights for a copyright whose "
15875 "owner is not known. Fifth, they worried about the risks if the copyright to "
15876 "a story underlying a film were to pass into the public domain. But what risk "
15877 "is that? If it is in the public domain, then the film is a valid derivative "
15881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15882 #: freeculture.xml:12131
15884 "Finally, the MPAA argued that existing law enabled copyright owners to do "
15885 "this if they wanted. But the whole point is that there are thousands of "
15886 "copyright owners who don't even know they have a copyright to give. Whether "
15887 "they are free to give away their copyright or not—a controversial "
15888 "claim in any case—unless they know about a copyright, they're not "
15892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15893 #: freeculture.xml:12139
15895 "At the beginning of this book, I told two stories about the law reacting to "
15896 "changes in technology. In the one, common sense prevailed. In the other, "
15897 "common sense was delayed. The difference between the two stories was the "
15898 "power of the opposition—the power of the side that fought to defend "
15899 "the status quo. In both cases, a new technology threatened old "
15900 "interests. But in only one case did those interest's have the power to "
15901 "protect themselves against this new competitive threat."
15904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15905 #: freeculture.xml:12149
15907 "I used these two cases as a way to frame the war that this book has been "
15908 "about. For here, too, a new technology is forcing the law to react. And "
15909 "here, too, we should ask, is the law following or resisting common sense? If "
15910 "common sense supports the law, what explains this common sense?"
15914 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15915 #: freeculture.xml:12158
15917 "When the issue is piracy, it is right for the law to back the copyright "
15918 "owners. The commercial piracy that I described is wrong and harmful, and the "
15919 "law should work to eliminate it. When the issue is p2p sharing, it is easy "
15920 "to understand why the law backs the owners still: Much of this sharing is "
15921 "wrong, even if much is harmless. When the issue is copyright terms for the "
15922 "Mickey Mouses of the world, it is possible still to understand why the law "
15923 "favors Hollywood: Most people don't recognize the reasons for limiting "
15924 "copyright terms; it is thus still possible to see good faith within the "
15928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
15929 #: freeculture.xml:12177
15930 msgid "Kelly, Kevin"
15933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15934 #: freeculture.xml:12169
15936 "But when the copyright owners oppose a proposal such as the Eldred Act, "
15937 "then, finally, there is an example that lays bare the naked selfinterest "
15938 "driving this war. This act would free an extraordinary range of content that "
15939 "is otherwise unused. It wouldn't interfere with any copyright owner's desire "
15940 "to exercise continued control over his content. It would simply liberate "
15941 "what Kevin Kelly calls the \"Dark Content\" that fills archives around the "
15942 "world. So when the warriors oppose a change like this, we should ask one "
15943 "simple question: <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
15946 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15947 #: freeculture.xml:12180
15948 msgid "What does this industry really want?"
15951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15952 #: freeculture.xml:12183
15954 "With very little effort, the warriors could protect their content. So the "
15955 "effort to block something like the Eldred Act is not really about protecting "
15956 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> content. The effort to block the Eldred Act is an "
15957 "effort to assure that nothing more passes into the public domain. It is "
15958 "another step to assure that the public domain will never compete, that there "
15959 "will be no use of content that is not commercially controlled, and that "
15960 "there will be no commercial use of content that doesn't require "
15961 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> permission first."
15964 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15965 #: freeculture.xml:12194
15967 "The opposition to the Eldred Act reveals how extreme the other side is. The "
15968 "most powerful and sexy and well loved of lobbies really has as its aim not "
15969 "the protection of \"property\" but the rejection of a tradition. Their aim "
15970 "is not simply to protect what is theirs. <emphasis>Their aim is to assure "
15971 "that all there is is what is theirs</emphasis>."
15975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15976 #: freeculture.xml:12202
15978 "It is not hard to understand why the warriors take this view. It is not hard "
15979 "to see why it would benefit them if the competition of the public domain "
15980 "tied to the Internet could somehow be quashed. Just as RCA feared the "
15981 "competition of FM, they fear the competition of a public domain connected to "
15982 "a public that now has the means to create with it and to share its own "
15986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15987 #: freeculture.xml:12214
15989 "What is hard to understand is why the public takes this view. It is as if "
15990 "the law made airplanes trespassers. The MPAA stands with the Causbys and "
15991 "demands that their remote and useless property rights be respected, so that "
15992 "these remote and forgotten copyright holders might block the progress of "
15996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15997 #: freeculture.xml:12221
15999 "All this seems to follow easily from this untroubled acceptance of the "
16000 "\"property\" in intellectual property. Common sense supports it, and so long "
16001 "as it does, the assaults will rain down upon the technologies of the "
16002 "Internet. The consequence will be an increasing \"permission society.\" The "
16003 "past can be cultivated only if you can identify the owner and gain "
16004 "permission to build upon his work. The future will be controlled by this "
16005 "dead (and often unfindable) hand of the past."
16008 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
16009 #: freeculture.xml:12233
16013 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16014 #: freeculture.xml:12235
16016 "There are more than 35 million people with the AIDS virus "
16017 "worldwide. Twenty-five million of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. "
16018 "Seventeen million have already died. Seventeen million Africans is "
16019 "proportional percentage-wise to seven million Americans. More importantly, "
16020 "it is seventeen million Africans."
16023 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16024 #: freeculture.xml:12242
16026 "There is no cure for AIDS, but there are drugs to slow its progression. "
16027 "These antiretroviral therapies are still experimental, but they have already "
16028 "had a dramatic effect. In the United States, AIDS patients who regularly "
16029 "take a cocktail of these drugs increase their life expectancy by ten to "
16030 "twenty years. For some, the drugs make the disease almost invisible."
16034 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16035 #: freeculture.xml:12257
16037 "Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, \"Final Report: Integrating "
16038 "Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy\" (London, 2002), "
16039 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
16040 "#55</ulink>. According to a World Health Organization press release issued 9 "
16041 "July 2002, only 230,000 of the 6 million who need drugs in the developing "
16042 "world receive them—and half of them are in Brazil."
16045 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16046 #: freeculture.xml:12250
16048 "These drugs are expensive. When they were first introduced in the United "
16049 "States, they cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per person per year. Today, "
16050 "some cost $25,000 per year. At these prices, of course, no African nation "
16051 "can afford the drugs for the vast majority of its population: $15,000 is "
16052 "thirty times the per capita gross national product of Zimbabwe. At these "
16053 "prices, the drugs are totally unavailable.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
16058 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16059 #: freeculture.xml:12268
16061 "These prices are not high because the ingredients of the drugs are "
16062 "expensive. These prices are high because the drugs are protected by "
16063 "patents. The drug companies that produced these life-saving mixes enjoy at "
16064 "least a twenty-year monopoly for their inventions. They use that monopoly "
16065 "power to extract the most they can from the market. That power is in turn "
16066 "used to keep the prices high."
16069 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16070 #: freeculture.xml:12276
16072 "There are many who are skeptical of patents, especially drug patents. I am "
16073 "not. Indeed, of all the areas of research that might be supported by "
16074 "patents, drug research is, in my view, the clearest case where patents are "
16075 "needed. The patent gives the drug company some assurance that if it is "
16076 "successful in inventing a new drug to treat a disease, it will be able to "
16077 "earn back its investment and more. This is socially an extremely valuable "
16078 "incentive. I am the last person who would argue that the law should abolish "
16079 "it, at least without other changes."
16082 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16083 #: freeculture.xml:12287
16085 "But it is one thing to support patents, even drug patents. It is another "
16086 "thing to determine how best to deal with a crisis. And as African leaders "
16087 "began to recognize the devastation that AIDS was bringing, they started "
16088 "looking for ways to import HIV treatments at costs significantly below the "
16092 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16093 #: freeculture.xml:12305 freeculture.xml:12740
16094 msgid "Braithwaite, John"
16097 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16098 #: freeculture.xml:12303
16100 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism: "
16101 "Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New Press, 2003), "
16102 "37. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
16103 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
16106 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16107 #: freeculture.xml:12294
16109 "In 1997, South Africa tried one tack. It passed a law to allow the "
16110 "importation of patented medicines that had been produced or sold in another "
16111 "nation's market with the consent of the patent owner. For example, if the "
16112 "drug was sold in India, it could be imported into Africa from India. This is "
16113 "called \"parallel importation,\" and it is generally permitted under "
16114 "international trade law and is specifically permitted within the European "
16115 "Union.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
16119 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16120 #: freeculture.xml:12316
16122 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
16123 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
16124 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
16125 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 14, available at <ulink "
16126 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #56</ulink>. For a firsthand "
16127 "account of the struggle over South Africa, see Hearing Before the "
16128 "Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, House "
16129 "Committee on Government Reform, H. Rep., 1st sess., Ser. No. 106-126 (22 "
16130 "July 1999), 150–57 (statement of James Love)."
16134 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16135 #: freeculture.xml:12343
16137 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
16138 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
16139 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
16140 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 15."
16143 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16144 #: freeculture.xml:12310
16146 "However, the United States government opposed the bill. Indeed, more than "
16147 "opposed. As the International Intellectual Property Association "
16148 "characterized it, \"The U.S. government pressured South Africa … not "
16149 "to permit compulsory licensing or parallel imports.\"<placeholder "
16150 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Through the Office of the United States Trade "
16151 "Representative, the government asked South Africa to change the "
16152 "law—and to add pressure to that request, in 1998, the USTR listed "
16153 "South Africa for possible trade sanctions. That same year, more than forty "
16154 "pharmaceutical companies began proceedings in the South African courts to "
16155 "challenge the government's actions. The United States was then joined by "
16156 "other governments from the EU. Their claim, and the claim of the "
16157 "pharmaceutical companies, was that South Africa was violating its "
16158 "obligations under international law by discriminating against a particular "
16159 "kind of patent— pharmaceutical patents. The demand of these "
16160 "governments, with the United States in the lead, was that South Africa "
16161 "respect these patents as it respects any other patent, regardless of any "
16162 "effect on the treatment of AIDS within South Africa.<placeholder "
16163 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
16166 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16167 #: freeculture.xml:12349
16169 "We should place the intervention by the United States in context. No doubt "
16170 "patents are not the most important reason that Africans don't have access to "
16171 "drugs. Poverty and the total absence of an effective health care "
16172 "infrastructure matter more. But whether patents are the most important "
16173 "reason or not, the price of drugs has an effect on their demand, and patents "
16174 "affect price. And so, whether massive or marginal, there was an effect from "
16175 "our government's intervention to stop the flow of medications into Africa."
16178 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16179 #: freeculture.xml:12359
16181 "By stopping the flow of HIV treatment into Africa, the United States "
16182 "government was not saving drugs for United States citizens. This is not "
16183 "like wheat (if they eat it, we can't); instead, the flow that the United "
16184 "States intervened to stop was, in effect, a flow of knowledge: information "
16185 "about how to take chemicals that exist within Africa, and turn those "
16186 "chemicals into drugs that would save 15 to 30 million lives."
16189 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16190 #: freeculture.xml:12367
16192 "Nor was the intervention by the United States going to protect the profits "
16193 "of United States drug companies—at least, not substantially. It was "
16194 "not as if these countries were in the position to buy the drugs for the "
16195 "prices the drug companies were charging. Again, the Africans are wildly too "
16196 "poor to afford these drugs at the offered prices. Stopping the parallel "
16197 "import of these drugs would not substantially increase the sales by "
16203 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16204 #: freeculture.xml:12382
16206 "See Sabin Russell, \"New Crusade to Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's Needs at "
16207 "Odds with Firms' Profit Motive,\" <citetitle>San Francisco "
16208 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 May 1999, A1, available at <ulink "
16209 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #57</ulink> (\"compulsory "
16210 "licenses and gray markets pose a threat to the entire system of intellectual "
16211 "property protection\"); Robert Weissman, \"AIDS and Developing Countries: "
16212 "Democratizing Access to Essential Medicines,\" <citetitle>Foreign Policy in "
16213 "Focus</citetitle> 4:23 (August 1999), available at <ulink "
16214 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #58</ulink> (describing "
16215 "U.S. policy); John A. Harrelson, \"TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and the "
16216 "HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance Between Intellectual Property "
16217 "Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,\" <citetitle>Widener Law Symposium "
16218 "Journal</citetitle> (Spring 2001): 175."
16221 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16222 #: freeculture.xml:12376
16224 "Instead, the argument in favor of restricting this flow of information, "
16225 "which was needed to save the lives of millions, was an argument about the "
16226 "sanctity of property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It was "
16227 "because \"intellectual property\" would be violated that these drugs should "
16228 "not flow into Africa. It was a principle about the importance of "
16229 "\"intellectual property\" that led these government actors to intervene "
16230 "against the South African response to AIDS."
16233 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16234 #: freeculture.xml:12403
16236 "Now just step back for a moment. There will be a time thirty years from now "
16237 "when our children look back at us and ask, how could we have let this "
16238 "happen? How could we allow a policy to be pursued whose direct cost would be "
16239 "to speed the death of 15 to 30 million Africans, and whose only real benefit "
16240 "would be to uphold the \"sanctity\" of an idea? What possible justification "
16241 "could there ever be for a policy that results in so many deaths? What "
16242 "exactly is the insanity that would allow so many to die for such an "
16246 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16247 #: freeculture.xml:12413
16249 "Some blame the drug companies. I don't. They are corporations. Their "
16250 "managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a "
16251 "certain patent policy not because of ideals, but because it is the policy "
16252 "that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money "
16253 "because of a certain corruption within our political system— a "
16254 "corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for."
16257 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16258 #: freeculture.xml:12421
16260 "The corruption is our own politicians' failure of integrity. For the drug "
16261 "companies would love—they say, and I believe them—to sell their "
16262 "drugs as cheaply as they can to countries in Africa and elsewhere. There "
16263 "are issues they'd have to resolve to make sure the drugs didn't get back "
16264 "into the United States, but those are mere problems of technology. They "
16265 "could be overcome."
16269 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16270 #: freeculture.xml:12429
16272 "A different problem, however, could not be overcome. This is the fear of the "
16273 "grandstanding politician who would call the presidents of the drug companies "
16274 "before a Senate or House hearing, and ask, \"How is it you can sell this HIV "
16275 "drug in Africa for only $1 a pill, but the same drug would cost an American "
16276 "$1,500?\" Because there is no \"sound bite\" answer to that question, its "
16277 "effect would be to induce regulation of prices in America. The drug "
16278 "companies thus avoid this spiral by avoiding the first step. They reinforce "
16279 "the idea that property should be sacred. They adopt a rational strategy in "
16280 "an irrational context, with the unintended consequence that perhaps millions "
16281 "die. And that rational strategy thus becomes framed in terms of this "
16282 "ideal—the sanctity of an idea called \"intellectual property.\""
16285 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16286 #: freeculture.xml:12444
16288 "So when the common sense of your child confronts you, what will you say? "
16289 "When the common sense of a generation finally revolts against what we have "
16290 "done, how will we justify what we have done? What is the argument?"
16293 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16294 #: freeculture.xml:12450
16296 "A sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly support the patent "
16297 "system without having to reach everyone everywhere in exactly the same "
16298 "way. Just as a sensible copyright policy could endorse and strongly support "
16299 "a copyright system without having to regulate the spread of culture "
16300 "perfectly and forever, a sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly "
16301 "support a patent system without having to block the spread of drugs to a "
16302 "country not rich enough to afford market prices in any case. A sensible "
16303 "policy, in other words, could be a balanced policy. For most of our history, "
16304 "both copyright and patent policies were balanced in just this sense."
16308 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16309 #: freeculture.xml:12462
16311 "But we as a culture have lost this sense of balance. We have lost the "
16312 "critical eye that helps us see the difference between truth and extremism. "
16313 "A certain property fundamentalism, having no connection to our tradition, "
16314 "now reigns in this culture—bizarrely, and with consequences more grave "
16315 "to the spread of ideas and culture than almost any other single policy "
16316 "decision that we as a democracy will make. A simple idea blinds us, and "
16317 "under the cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if "
16318 "any of us looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas "
16319 "that we don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who "
16320 "are dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in "
16321 "culture that we don't even question when the control of that property "
16322 "removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture "
16323 "democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for "
16324 "anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way "
16325 "to make this common sense open its eyes."
16328 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16329 #: freeculture.xml:12482
16331 "So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet "
16332 "see what there could be to revolt about. The extremism that now dominates "
16333 "this debate fits with ideas that seem natural, and that fit is reinforced by "
16334 "the RCAs of our day. They wage a frantic war to fight \"piracy,\" and "
16335 "devastate a culture for creativity. They defend the idea of \"creative "
16336 "property,\" while transforming real creators into modern-day "
16337 "sharecroppers. They are insulted by the idea that rights should be balanced, "
16338 "even though each of the major players in this content war was itself a "
16339 "beneficiary of a more balanced ideal. The hypocrisy reeks. Yet in a city "
16340 "like Washington, hypocrisy is not even noticed. Powerful lobbies, complex "
16341 "issues, and MTV attention spans produce the \"perfect storm\" for free "
16346 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16347 #: freeculture.xml:12499
16349 "Jonathan Krim, \"The Quiet War over Open-Source,\" <citetitle>Washington "
16350 "Post</citetitle>, August 2003, E1, available at <ulink "
16351 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #59</ulink>; William New, "
16352 "\"Global Group's Shift on `Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir,\" "
16353 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
16354 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #60</ulink>; "
16355 "William New, \"U.S. Official Opposes `Open Source' Talks at WIPO,\" "
16356 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
16357 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #61</ulink>."
16360 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
16361 #: freeculture.xml:12527 freeculture.xml:13200
16362 msgid "academic journals"
16365 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
16366 #: freeculture.xml:12528 freeculture.xml:12618 freeculture.xml:13126
16370 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
16371 #: freeculture.xml:12529 freeculture.xml:13264
16372 msgid "PLoS (Public Library of Science)"
16375 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16376 #: freeculture.xml:12496
16378 "In August 2003, a fight broke out in the United States about a decision by "
16379 "the World Intellectual Property Organization to cancel a "
16380 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> At the request of a wide "
16381 "range of interests, WIPO had decided to hold a meeting to discuss \"open and "
16382 "collaborative projects to create public goods.\" These are projects that "
16383 "have been successful in producing public goods without relying exclusively "
16384 "upon a proprietary use of intellectual property. Examples include the "
16385 "Internet and the World Wide Web, both of which were developed on the basis "
16386 "of protocols in the public domain. It included an emerging trend to support "
16387 "open academic journals, including the Public Library of Science project that "
16388 "I describe in the Afterword. It included a project to develop single "
16389 "nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are thought to have great "
16390 "significance in biomedical research. (That nonprofit project comprised a "
16391 "consortium of the Wellcome Trust and pharmaceutical and technological "
16392 "companies, including Amersham Biosciences, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, "
16393 "Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffmann-La Roche, Glaxo-SmithKline, IBM, Motorola, "
16394 "Novartis, Pfizer, and Searle.) It included the Global Positioning System, "
16395 "which Ronald Reagan set free in the early 1980s. And it included \"open "
16396 "source and free software.\" <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
16397 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
16401 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16402 #: freeculture.xml:12532
16404 "The aim of the meeting was to consider this wide range of projects from one "
16405 "common perspective: that none of these projects relied upon intellectual "
16406 "property extremism. Instead, in all of them, intellectual property was "
16407 "balanced by agreements to keep access open or to impose limitations on the "
16408 "way in which proprietary claims might be used."
16412 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16413 #: freeculture.xml:12540
16415 "I should disclose that I was one of the people who asked WIPO for the "
16419 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16420 #: freeculture.xml:12539
16422 "From the perspective of this book, then, the conference was "
16423 "ideal.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The projects within its "
16424 "scope included both commercial and noncommercial work. They primarily "
16425 "involved science, but from many perspectives. And WIPO was an ideal venue "
16426 "for this discussion, since WIPO is the preeminent international body dealing "
16427 "with intellectual property issues."
16431 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16432 #: freeculture.xml:12550
16434 "Indeed, I was once publicly scolded for not recognizing this fact about "
16435 "WIPO. In February 2003, I delivered a keynote address to a preparatory "
16436 "conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At a "
16437 "press conference before the address, I was asked what I would say. I "
16438 "responded that I would be talking a little about the importance of balance "
16439 "in intellectual property for the development of an information society. The "
16440 "moderator for the event then promptly interrupted to inform me and the "
16441 "assembled reporters that no question about intellectual property would be "
16442 "discussed by WSIS, since those questions were the exclusive domain of "
16443 "WIPO. In the talk that I had prepared, I had actually made the issue of "
16444 "intellectual property relatively minor. But after this astonishing "
16445 "statement, I made intellectual property the sole focus of my talk. There was "
16446 "no way to talk about an \"Information Society\" unless one also talked about "
16447 "the range of information and culture that would be free. My talk did not "
16448 "make my immoderate moderator very happy. And she was no doubt correct that "
16449 "the scope of intellectual property protections was ordinarily the stuff of "
16450 "WIPO. But in my view, there couldn't be too much of a conversation about how "
16451 "much intellectual property is needed, since in my view, the very idea of "
16452 "balance in intellectual property had been lost."
16455 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16456 #: freeculture.xml:12574
16458 "So whether or not WSIS can discuss balance in intellectual property, I had "
16459 "thought it was taken for granted that WIPO could and should. And thus the "
16460 "meeting about \"open and collaborative projects to create public goods\" "
16461 "seemed perfectly appropriate within the WIPO agenda."
16464 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16465 #: freeculture.xml:12580
16467 "But there is one project within that list that is highly controversial, at "
16468 "least among lobbyists. That project is \"open source and free software.\" "
16469 "Microsoft in particular is wary of discussion of the subject. From its "
16470 "perspective, a conference to discuss open source and free software would be "
16471 "like a conference to discuss Apple's operating system. Both open source and "
16472 "free software compete with Microsoft's software. And internationally, many "
16473 "governments have begun to explore requirements that they use open source or "
16474 "free software, rather than \"proprietary software,\" for their own internal "
16479 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16480 #: freeculture.xml:12602
16482 "Microsoft's position about free and open source software is more "
16483 "sophisticated. As it has repeatedly asserted, it has no problem with \"open "
16484 "source\" software or software in the public domain. Microsoft's principal "
16485 "opposition is to \"free software\" licensed under a \"copyleft\" license, "
16486 "meaning a license that requires the licensee to adopt the same terms on any "
16487 "derivative work. See Bradford L. Smith, \"The Future of Software: Enabling "
16488 "the Marketplace to Decide,\" <citetitle>Government Policy Toward Open Source "
16489 "Software</citetitle> (Washington, D.C.: AEI-Brookings Joint Center for "
16490 "Regulatory Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy "
16491 "Research, 2002), 69, available at <ulink "
16492 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #62</ulink>. See also Craig "
16493 "Mundie, Microsoft senior vice president, <citetitle>The Commercial Software "
16494 "Model</citetitle>, discussion at New York University Stern School of "
16495 "Business (3 May 2001), available at <ulink "
16496 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #63</ulink>."
16499 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
16500 #: freeculture.xml:12619
16501 msgid "\"copyleft\" licenses"
16504 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16505 #: freeculture.xml:12591
16507 "I don't mean to enter that debate here. It is important only to make clear "
16508 "that the distinction is not between commercial and noncommercial "
16509 "software. There are many important companies that depend fundamentally upon "
16510 "open source and free software, IBM being the most prominent. IBM is "
16511 "increasingly shifting its focus to the GNU/Linux operating system, the most "
16512 "famous bit of \"free software\"—and IBM is emphatically a commercial "
16513 "entity. Thus, to support \"open source and free software\" is not to oppose "
16514 "commercial entities. It is, instead, to support a mode of software "
16515 "development that is different from Microsoft's.<placeholder "
16516 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
16517 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
16518 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/>"
16522 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16523 #: freeculture.xml:12624
16525 "More important for our purposes, to support \"open source and free "
16526 "software\" is not to oppose copyright. \"Open source and free software\" is "
16527 "not software in the public domain. Instead, like Microsoft's software, the "
16528 "copyright owners of free and open source software insist quite strongly that "
16529 "the terms of their software license be respected by adopters of free and "
16530 "open source software. The terms of that license are no doubt different from "
16531 "the terms of a proprietary software license. Free software licensed under "
16532 "the General Public License (GPL), for example, requires that the source code "
16533 "for the software be made available by anyone who modifies and redistributes "
16534 "the software. But that requirement is effective only if copyright governs "
16535 "software. If copyright did not govern software, then free software could not "
16536 "impose the same kind of requirements on its adopters. It thus depends upon "
16537 "copyright law just as Microsoft does."
16541 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16542 #: freeculture.xml:12650
16544 "Krim, \"The Quiet War over Open-Source,\" available at <ulink "
16545 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #64</ulink>."
16548 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
16549 #: freeculture.xml:12654
16550 msgid "Krim, Jonathan"
16553 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16554 #: freeculture.xml:12642
16556 "It is therefore understandable that as a proprietary software developer, "
16557 "Microsoft would oppose this WIPO meeting, and understandable that it would "
16558 "use its lobbyists to get the United States government to oppose it, as "
16559 "well. And indeed, that is just what was reported to have happened. According "
16560 "to Jonathan Krim of the <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, Microsoft's "
16561 "lobbyists succeeded in getting the United States government to veto the "
16562 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And without U.S. backing, "
16563 "the meeting was canceled. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
16566 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16567 #: freeculture.xml:12657
16569 "I don't blame Microsoft for doing what it can to advance its own interests, "
16570 "consistent with the law. And lobbying governments is plainly consistent with "
16571 "the law. There was nothing surprising about its lobbying here, and nothing "
16572 "terribly surprising about the most powerful software producer in the United "
16573 "States having succeeded in its lobbying efforts."
16576 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16577 #: freeculture.xml:12665
16579 "What was surprising was the United States government's reason for opposing "
16580 "the meeting. Again, as reported by Krim, Lois Boland, acting director of "
16581 "international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, explained "
16582 "that \"open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to "
16583 "promote intellectual-property rights.\" She is quoted as saying, \"To hold a "
16584 "meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to "
16585 "us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.\""
16588 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16589 #: freeculture.xml:12675
16590 msgid "These statements are astonishing on a number of levels."
16593 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16594 #: freeculture.xml:12679
16596 "First, they are just flat wrong. As I described, most open source and free "
16597 "software relies fundamentally upon the intellectual property right called "
16598 "\"copyright\". Without it, restrictions imposed by those licenses wouldn't "
16599 "work. Thus, to say it \"runs counter\" to the mission of promoting "
16600 "intellectual property rights reveals an extraordinary gap in "
16601 "understanding—the sort of mistake that is excusable in a first-year "
16602 "law student, but an embarrassment from a high government official dealing "
16603 "with intellectual property issues."
16606 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16607 #: freeculture.xml:12689
16609 "Second, who ever said that WIPO's exclusive aim was to \"promote\" "
16610 "intellectual property maximally? As I had been scolded at the preparatory "
16611 "conference of WSIS, WIPO is to consider not only how best to protect "
16612 "intellectual property, but also what the best balance of intellectual "
16613 "property is. As every economist and lawyer knows, the hard question in "
16614 "intellectual property law is to find that balance. But that there should be "
16615 "limits is, I had thought, uncontested. One wants to ask Ms. Boland, are "
16616 "generic drugs (drugs based on drugs whose patent has expired) contrary to "
16617 "the WIPO mission? Does the public domain weaken intellectual property? Would "
16618 "it have been better if the protocols of the Internet had been patented?"
16621 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16622 #: freeculture.xml:12702
16624 "Third, even if one believed that the purpose of WIPO was to maximize "
16625 "intellectual property rights, in our tradition, intellectual property rights "
16626 "are held by individuals and corporations. They get to decide what to do with "
16627 "those rights because, again, they are <emphasis>their</emphasis> rights. If "
16628 "they want to \"waive\" or \"disclaim\" their rights, that is, within our "
16629 "tradition, totally appropriate. When Bill Gates gives away more than $20 "
16630 "billion to do good in the world, that is not inconsistent with the "
16631 "objectives of the property system. That is, on the contrary, just what a "
16632 "property system is supposed to be about: giving individuals the right to "
16633 "decide what to do with <emphasis>their</emphasis> property. <placeholder "
16634 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16638 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16639 #: freeculture.xml:12716
16641 "When Ms. Boland says that there is something wrong with a meeting \"which "
16642 "has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights,\" she's saying that "
16643 "WIPO has an interest in interfering with the choices of the individuals who "
16644 "own intellectual property rights. That somehow, WIPO's objective should be "
16645 "to stop an individual from \"waiving\" or \"disclaiming\" an intellectual "
16646 "property right. That the interest of WIPO is not just that intellectual "
16647 "property rights be maximized, but that they also should be exercised in the "
16648 "most extreme and restrictive way possible."
16651 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16652 #: freeculture.xml:12728
16654 "There is a history of just such a property system that is well known in the "
16655 "Anglo-American tradition. It is called \"feudalism.\" Under feudalism, not "
16656 "only was property held by a relatively small number of individuals and "
16657 "entities. And not only were the rights that ran with that property powerful "
16658 "and extensive. But the feudal system had a strong interest in assuring that "
16659 "property holders within that system not weaken feudalism by liberating "
16660 "people or property within their control to the free market. Feudalism "
16661 "depended upon maximum control and concentration. It fought any freedom that "
16662 "might interfere with that control."
16665 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16666 #: freeculture.xml:12745
16668 "See Drahos with Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism</citetitle>, "
16669 "210–20. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16672 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16673 #: freeculture.xml:12742
16675 "As Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite relate, this is precisely the choice we "
16676 "are now making about intellectual property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
16677 "id=\"0\"/> We will have an information society. That much is certain. Our "
16678 "only choice now is whether that information society will be "
16679 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> or <emphasis>feudal</emphasis>. The trend is "
16680 "toward the feudal."
16683 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16684 #: freeculture.xml:12754
16686 "When this battle broke, I blogged it. A spirited debate within the comment "
16687 "section ensued. Ms. Boland had a number of supporters who tried to show why "
16688 "her comments made sense. But there was one comment that was particularly "
16689 "depressing for me. An anonymous poster wrote,"
16693 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
16694 #: freeculture.xml:12761
16696 "George, you misunderstand Lessig: He's only talking about the world as it "
16697 "should be (\"the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should be to "
16698 "promote the right balance of intellectual property rights, not simply to "
16699 "promote intellectual property rights\"), not as it is. If we were talking "
16700 "about the world as it is, then of course Boland didn't say anything "
16701 "wrong. But in the world as Lessig would have it, then of course she "
16702 "did. Always pay attention to the distinction between Lessig's world and "
16706 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16707 #: freeculture.xml:12773
16709 "I missed the irony the first time I read it. I read it quickly and thought "
16710 "the poster was supporting the idea that seeking balance was what our "
16711 "government should be doing. (Of course, my criticism of Ms. Boland was not "
16712 "about whether she was seeking balance or not; my criticism was that her "
16713 "comments betrayed a first-year law student's mistake. I have no illusion "
16714 "about the extremism of our government, whether Republican or Democrat. My "
16715 "only illusion apparently is about whether our government should speak the "
16719 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16720 #: freeculture.xml:12783
16722 "Obviously, however, the poster was not supporting that idea. Instead, the "
16723 "poster was ridiculing the very idea that in the real world, the \"goal\" of "
16724 "a government should be \"to promote the right balance\" of intellectual "
16725 "property. That was obviously silly to him. And it obviously betrayed, he "
16726 "believed, my own silly utopianism. \"Typical for an academic,\" the poster "
16727 "might well have continued."
16730 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16731 #: freeculture.xml:12791
16733 "I understand criticism of academic utopianism. I think utopianism is silly, "
16734 "too, and I'd be the first to poke fun at the absurdly unrealistic ideals of "
16735 "academics throughout history (and not just in our own country's history)."
16738 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16739 #: freeculture.xml:12797
16741 "But when it has become silly to suppose that the role of our government "
16742 "should be to \"seek balance,\" then count me with the silly, for that means "
16743 "that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be obvious to "
16744 "everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the government is "
16745 "simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that the idea of holding the "
16746 "government to a different standard is absurd, that the idea of demanding of "
16747 "the government that it speak truth and not lies is just naïve, then who "
16748 "have we, the most powerful democracy in the world, become?"
16752 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16753 #: freeculture.xml:12808
16755 "It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the "
16756 "truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something "
16757 "more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy "
16758 "to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our "
16759 "tradition for most of our history—free culture."
16762 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
16763 #: freeculture.xml:12827
16764 msgid "Turner, Ted"
16767 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16768 #: freeculture.xml:12817
16770 "If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon. There are moments "
16771 "of hope in this struggle. And moments that surprise. When the FCC was "
16772 "considering relaxing ownership rules, which would thereby further increase "
16773 "the concentration in media ownership, an extraordinary bipartisan coalition "
16774 "formed to fight this change. For perhaps the first time in history, "
16775 "interests as diverse as the NRA, the ACLU, Moveon.org, William Safire, Ted "
16776 "Turner, and CodePink Women for Peace organized to oppose this change in FCC "
16777 "policy. An astonishing 700,000 letters were sent to the FCC, demanding more "
16778 "hearings and a different result. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
16779 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
16782 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16783 #: freeculture.xml:12831
16785 "This activism did not stop the FCC, but soon after, a broad coalition in the "
16786 "Senate voted to reverse the FCC decision. The hostile hearings leading up to "
16787 "that vote revealed just how powerful this movement had become. There was no "
16788 "substantial support for the FCC's decision, and there was broad and "
16789 "sustained support for fighting further concentration in the media."
16792 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16793 #: freeculture.xml:12839
16795 "But even this movement misses an important piece of the puzzle. Largeness "
16796 "as such is not bad. Freedom is not threatened just because some become very "
16797 "rich, or because there are only a handful of big players. The poor quality "
16798 "of Big Macs or Quarter Pounders does not mean that you can't get a good "
16799 "hamburger from somewhere else."
16802 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16803 #: freeculture.xml:12846
16805 "The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but "
16806 "instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in "
16807 "copyright, produces. It is not just that there are a few powerful companies "
16808 "that control an ever expanding slice of the media. It is that this "
16809 "concentration can call upon an equally bloated range of "
16810 "rights—property rights of a historically extreme form—that makes "
16811 "their bigness bad."
16814 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16815 #: freeculture.xml:12856
16817 "It is therefore significant that so many would rally to demand competition "
16818 "and increased diversity. Still, if the rally is understood as being about "
16819 "bigness alone, it is not terribly surprising. We Americans have a long "
16820 "history of fighting \"big,\" wisely or not. That we could be motivated to "
16821 "fight \"big\" again is not something new."
16824 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16825 #: freeculture.xml:12863
16827 "It would be something new, and something very important, if an equal number "
16828 "could be rallied to fight the increasing extremism built within the idea of "
16829 "\"intellectual property.\" Not because balance is alien to our tradition; "
16830 "indeed, as I've argued, balance is our tradition. But because the muscle to "
16831 "think critically about the scope of anything called \"property\" is not well "
16832 "exercised within this tradition anymore."
16835 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16836 #: freeculture.xml:12871
16838 "If we were Achilles, this would be our heel. This would be the place of our "
16842 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16843 #: freeculture.xml:12874
16848 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16849 #: freeculture.xml:12879
16851 "John Borland, \"RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers,\" CNET News.com, September "
16852 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
16853 "#65</ulink>; Paul R. La Monica, \"Music Industry Sues Swappers,\" CNN/Money, "
16854 "8 September 2003, available at <ulink "
16855 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #66</ulink>; Soni Sangha and "
16856 "Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty, \"Sued for a Song, N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among "
16857 "261 Cited as Sharers,\" <citetitle>New York Daily News</citetitle>, 9 "
16858 "September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens, \"RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; "
16859 "Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,\" "
16860 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, "
16861 "\"Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,\" <citetitle>Wired News</citetitle>, 10 "
16862 "September 2003, available at <ulink "
16863 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #67</ulink>."
16867 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16868 #: freeculture.xml:12897
16870 "Jon Wiederhorn, \"Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old Lady,\" mtv.com, "
16871 "17 September 2003, available at <ulink "
16872 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #68</ulink>."
16877 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16878 #: freeculture.xml:12904
16880 "Kenji Hall, Associated Press, \"Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for Dylan "
16881 "Songs,\" Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
16882 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #69</ulink>."
16885 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16886 #: freeculture.xml:12876
16888 "As I write these final words, the news is filled with stories about the RIAA "
16889 "lawsuits against almost three hundred individuals.<placeholder "
16890 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Eminem has just been sued for \"sampling\" "
16891 "someone else's music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The story "
16892 "about Bob Dylan \"stealing\" from a Japanese author has just finished making "
16893 "the rounds.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> An insider from "
16894 "Hollywood—who insists he must remain anonymous—reports \"an "
16895 "amazing conversation with these studio guys. They've got extraordinary [old] "
16896 "content that they'd love to use but can't because they can't begin to clear "
16897 "the rights. They've got scores of kids who could do amazing things with the "
16898 "content, but it would take scores of lawyers to clean it first.\" "
16899 "Congressmen are talking about deputizing computer viruses to bring down "
16900 "computers thought to violate the law. Universities are threatening expulsion "
16901 "for kids who use a computer to share content."
16904 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
16905 #: freeculture.xml:12921 freeculture.xml:13281
16906 msgid "Creative Commons"
16909 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16910 #: freeculture.xml:12922
16911 msgid "Gil, Gilberto"
16915 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16916 #: freeculture.xml:12927
16918 "\"BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public,\" BBC press release, 24 "
16919 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
16924 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16925 #: freeculture.xml:12936
16927 "\"Creative Commons and Brazil,\" Creative Commons Weblog, 6 August 2003, "
16928 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #71</ulink>."
16932 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16933 #: freeculture.xml:12924
16935 "Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC has just announced that it "
16936 "will build a \"Creative Archive,\" from which British citizens can download "
16937 "BBC content, and rip, mix, and burn it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
16938 "id=\"0\"/> And in Brazil, the culture minister, Gilberto Gil, himself a folk "
16939 "hero of Brazilian music, has joined with Creative Commons to release content "
16940 "and free licenses in that Latin American country.<placeholder "
16941 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> I've told a dark story. The truth is more "
16942 "mixed. A technology has given us a new freedom. Slowly, some begin to "
16943 "understand that this freedom need not mean anarchy. We can carry a free "
16944 "culture into the twenty-first century, without artists losing and without "
16945 "the potential of digital technology being destroyed. It will take some "
16946 "thought, and more importantly, it will take some will to transform the RCAs "
16947 "of our day into the Causbys."
16951 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16952 #: freeculture.xml:12950
16954 "Common sense must revolt. It must act to free culture. Soon, if this "
16955 "potential is ever to be realized."
16958 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
16959 #: freeculture.xml:12958
16964 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16965 #: freeculture.xml:12962
16967 "At least some who have read this far will agree with me that something must "
16968 "be done to change where we are heading. The balance of this book maps what "
16972 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16973 #: freeculture.xml:12967
16975 "I divide this map into two parts: that which anyone can do now, and that "
16976 "which requires the help of lawmakers. If there is one lesson that we can "
16977 "draw from the history of remaking common sense, it is that it requires "
16978 "remaking how many people think about the very same issue."
16981 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16982 #: freeculture.xml:12973
16984 "That means this movement must begin in the streets. It must recruit a "
16985 "significant number of parents, teachers, librarians, creators, authors, "
16986 "musicians, filmmakers, scientists—all to tell this story in their own "
16987 "words, and to tell their neighbors why this battle is so important."
16990 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16991 #: freeculture.xml:12980
16993 "Once this movement has its effect in the streets, it has some hope of having "
16994 "an effect in Washington. We are still a democracy. What people think "
16995 "matters. Not as much as it should, at least when an RCA stands opposed, but "
16996 "still, it matters. And thus, in the second part below, I sketch changes that "
16997 "Congress could make to better secure a free culture."
17000 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
17001 #: freeculture.xml:12989
17005 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17006 #: freeculture.xml:12991
17008 "Common sense is with the copyright warriors because the debate so far has "
17009 "been framed at the extremes—as a grand either/or: either property or "
17010 "anarchy, either total control or artists won't be paid. If that really is "
17011 "the choice, then the warriors should win."
17014 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17015 #: freeculture.xml:12997
17017 "The mistake here is the error of the excluded middle. There are extremes in "
17018 "this debate, but the extremes are not all that there is. There are those who "
17019 "believe in maximal copyright—\"All Rights Reserved\"— and those "
17020 "who reject copyright—\"No Rights Reserved.\" The \"All Rights "
17021 "Reserved\" sorts believe that you should ask permission before you \"use\" a "
17022 "copyrighted work in any way. The \"No Rights Reserved\" sorts believe you "
17023 "should be able to do with content as you wish, regardless of whether you "
17024 "have permission or not."
17028 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17029 #: freeculture.xml:13007
17031 "When the Internet was first born, its initial architecture effectively "
17032 "tilted in the \"no rights reserved\" direction. Content could be copied "
17033 "perfectly and cheaply; rights could not easily be controlled. Thus, "
17034 "regardless of anyone's desire, the effective regime of copyright under the "
17035 "original design of the Internet was \"no rights reserved.\" Content was "
17036 "\"taken\" regardless of the rights. Any rights were effectively unprotected."
17039 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17040 #: freeculture.xml:13019
17042 "This initial character produced a reaction (opposite, but not quite equal) "
17043 "by copyright owners. That reaction has been the topic of this book. Through "
17044 "legislation, litigation, and changes to the network's design, copyright "
17045 "holders have been able to change the essential character of the environment "
17046 "of the original Internet. If the original architecture made the effective "
17047 "default \"no rights reserved,\" the future architecture will make the "
17048 "effective default \"all rights reserved.\" The architecture and law that "
17049 "surround the Internet's design will increasingly produce an environment "
17050 "where all use of content requires permission. The \"cut and paste\" world "
17051 "that defines the Internet today will become a \"get permission to cut and "
17052 "paste\" world that is a creator's nightmare."
17055 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17056 #: freeculture.xml:13033
17058 "What's needed is a way to say something in the middle—neither \"all "
17059 "rights reserved\" nor \"no rights reserved\" but \"some rights "
17060 "reserved\"— and thus a way to respect copyrights but enable creators "
17061 "to free content as they see fit. In other words, we need a way to restore a "
17062 "set of freedoms that we could just take for granted before."
17065 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17066 #: freeculture.xml:13042
17067 msgid "Rebuilding Freedoms Previously Presumed: Examples"
17070 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17071 #: freeculture.xml:13044
17073 "If you step back from the battle I've been describing here, you will "
17074 "recognize this problem from other contexts. Think about privacy. Before the "
17075 "Internet, most of us didn't have to worry much about data about our lives "
17076 "that we broadcast to the world. If you walked into a bookstore and browsed "
17077 "through some of the works of Karl Marx, you didn't need to worry about "
17078 "explaining your browsing habits to your neighbors or boss. The \"privacy\" "
17079 "of your browsing habits was assured."
17082 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17083 #: freeculture.xml:13054
17084 msgid "What made it assured?"
17087 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17088 #: freeculture.xml:13058
17090 "Well, if we think in terms of the modalities I described in chapter <xref "
17091 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, your privacy was "
17092 "assured because of an inefficient architecture for gathering data and hence "
17093 "a market constraint (cost) on anyone who wanted to gather that data. If you "
17094 "were a suspected spy for North Korea, working for the CIA, no doubt your "
17095 "privacy would not be assured. But that's because the CIA would (we hope) "
17096 "find it valuable enough to spend the thousands required to track you. But "
17097 "for most of us (again, we can hope), spying doesn't pay. The highly "
17098 "inefficient architecture of real space means we all enjoy a fairly robust "
17099 "amount of privacy. That privacy is guaranteed to us by friction. Not by law "
17100 "(there is no law protecting \"privacy\" in public places), and in many "
17101 "places, not by norms (snooping and gossip are just fun), but instead, by the "
17102 "costs that friction imposes on anyone who would want to spy."
17105 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17106 #: freeculture.xml:13073
17110 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17111 #: freeculture.xml:13083
17112 msgid "cookies, Internet"
17115 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17116 #: freeculture.xml:13075
17118 "Enter the Internet, where the cost of tracking browsing in particular has "
17119 "become quite tiny. If you're a customer at Amazon, then as you browse the "
17120 "pages, Amazon collects the data about what you've looked at. You know this "
17121 "because at the side of the page, there's a list of \"recently viewed\" "
17122 "pages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net and the function of "
17123 "cookies on the Net, it is easier to collect the data than not. The friction "
17124 "has disappeared, and hence any \"privacy\" protected by the friction "
17125 "disappears, too. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17128 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17129 #: freeculture.xml:13086
17131 "Amazon, of course, is not the problem. But we might begin to worry about "
17132 "libraries. If you're one of those crazy lefties who thinks that people "
17133 "should have the \"right\" to browse in a library without the government "
17134 "knowing which books you look at (I'm one of those lefties, too), then this "
17135 "change in the technology of monitoring might concern you. If it becomes "
17136 "simple to gather and sort who does what in electronic spaces, then the "
17137 "friction-induced privacy of yesterday disappears."
17141 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17142 #: freeculture.xml:13102
17144 "See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, \"Fair Information Practices and the "
17145 "Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get),\" <citetitle>Stanford "
17146 "Technology Law Review</citetitle> 1 (2001): par. 6–18, available at "
17147 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink> (describing "
17148 "examples in which technology defines privacy policy). See also Jeffrey "
17149 "Rosen, <citetitle>The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an "
17150 "Anxious Age</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2004) (mapping tradeoffs "
17151 "between technology and privacy)."
17155 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17156 #: freeculture.xml:13096
17158 "It is this reality that explains the push of many to define \"privacy\" on "
17159 "the Internet. It is the recognition that technology can remove what friction "
17160 "before gave us that leads many to push for laws to do what friction "
17161 "did.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And whether you're in favor of "
17162 "those laws or not, it is the pattern that is important here. We must take "
17163 "affirmative steps to secure a kind of freedom that was passively provided "
17164 "before. A change in technology now forces those who believe in privacy to "
17165 "affirmatively act where, before, privacy was given by default."
17168 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17169 #: freeculture.xml:13120
17171 "A similar story could be told about the birth of the free software "
17172 "movement. When computers with software were first made available "
17173 "commercially, the software—both the source code and the "
17174 "binaries— was free. You couldn't run a program written for a Data "
17175 "General machine on an IBM machine, so Data General and IBM didn't care much "
17176 "about controlling their software. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17180 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17181 #: freeculture.xml:13128
17182 msgid "Stallman, Richard"
17185 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17186 #: freeculture.xml:13130
17188 "That was the world Richard Stallman was born into, and while he was a "
17189 "researcher at MIT, he grew to love the community that developed when one was "
17190 "free to explore and tinker with the software that ran on machines. Being a "
17191 "smart sort himself, and a talented programmer, Stallman grew to depend upon "
17192 "the freedom to add to or modify other people's work."
17195 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17196 #: freeculture.xml:13138
17198 "In an academic setting, at least, that's not a terribly radical idea. In a "
17199 "math department, anyone would be free to tinker with a proof that someone "
17200 "offered. If you thought you had a better way to prove a theorem, you could "
17201 "take what someone else did and change it. In a classics department, if you "
17202 "believed a colleague's translation of a recently discovered text was flawed, "
17203 "you were free to improve it. Thus, to Stallman, it seemed obvious that you "
17204 "should be free to tinker with and improve the code that ran a machine. This, "
17205 "too, was knowledge. Why shouldn't it be open for criticism like anything "
17209 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17210 #: freeculture.xml:13150
17212 "No one answered that question. Instead, the architecture of revenue for "
17213 "computing changed. As it became possible to import programs from one system "
17214 "to another, it became economically attractive (at least in the view of some) "
17215 "to hide the code of your program. So, too, as companies started selling "
17216 "peripherals for mainframe systems. If I could just take your printer driver "
17217 "and copy it, then that would make it easier for me to sell a printer to the "
17218 "market than it was for you."
17222 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17223 #: freeculture.xml:13159
17225 "Thus, the practice of proprietary code began to spread, and by the early "
17226 "1980s, Stallman found himself surrounded by proprietary code. The world of "
17227 "free software had been erased by a change in the economics of computing. And "
17228 "as he believed, if he did nothing about it, then the freedom to change and "
17229 "share software would be fundamentally weakened."
17232 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17233 #: freeculture.xml:13168
17235 "Therefore, in 1984, Stallman began a project to build a free operating "
17236 "system, so that at least a strain of free software would survive. That was "
17237 "the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's \"Linux\" kernel "
17238 "was added to produce the GNU/Linux operating system. <placeholder "
17239 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17242 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17243 #: freeculture.xml:13176
17245 "Stallman's technique was to use copyright law to build a world of software "
17246 "that must be kept free. Software licensed under the Free Software "
17247 "Foundation's GPL cannot be modified and distributed unless the source code "
17248 "for that software is made available as well. Thus, anyone building upon "
17249 "GPL'd software would have to make their buildings free as well. This would "
17250 "assure, Stallman believed, that an ecology of code would develop that "
17251 "remained free for others to build upon. His fundamental goal was freedom; "
17252 "innovative creative code was a byproduct."
17255 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17256 #: freeculture.xml:13187
17258 "Stallman was thus doing for software what privacy advocates now do for "
17259 "privacy. He was seeking a way to rebuild a kind of freedom that was taken "
17260 "for granted before. Through the affirmative use of licenses that bind "
17261 "copyrighted code, Stallman was affirmatively reclaiming a space where free "
17262 "software would survive. He was actively protecting what before had been "
17263 "passively guaranteed."
17266 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17267 #: freeculture.xml:13195
17269 "Finally, consider a very recent example that more directly resonates with "
17270 "the story of this book. This is the shift in the way academic and scientific "
17271 "journals are produced."
17275 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17276 #: freeculture.xml:13203
17278 "As digital technologies develop, it is becoming obvious to many that "
17279 "printing thousands of copies of journals every month and sending them to "
17280 "libraries is perhaps not the most efficient way to distribute "
17281 "knowledge. Instead, journals are increasingly becoming electronic, and "
17282 "libraries and their users are given access to these electronic journals "
17283 "through password-protected sites. Something similar to this has been "
17284 "happening in law for almost thirty years: Lexis and Westlaw have had "
17285 "electronic versions of case reports available to subscribers to their "
17286 "service. Although a Supreme Court opinion is not copyrighted, and anyone is "
17287 "free to go to a library and read it, Lexis and Westlaw are also free to "
17288 "charge users for the privilege of gaining access to that Supreme Court "
17289 "opinion through their respective services."
17292 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17293 #: freeculture.xml:13219
17295 "There's nothing wrong in general with this, and indeed, the ability to "
17296 "charge for access to even public domain materials is a good incentive for "
17297 "people to develop new and innovative ways to spread knowledge. The law has "
17298 "agreed, which is why Lexis and Westlaw have been allowed to flourish. And if "
17299 "there's nothing wrong with selling the public domain, then there could be "
17300 "nothing wrong, in principle, with selling access to material that is not in "
17301 "the public domain."
17304 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17305 #: freeculture.xml:13228
17307 "But what if the only way to get access to social and scientific data was "
17308 "through proprietary services? What if no one had the ability to browse this "
17309 "data except by paying for a subscription?"
17312 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17313 #: freeculture.xml:13233
17315 "As many are beginning to notice, this is increasingly the reality with "
17316 "scientific journals. When these journals were distributed in paper form, "
17317 "libraries could make the journals available to anyone who had access to the "
17318 "library. Thus, patients with cancer could become cancer experts because the "
17319 "library gave them access. Or patients trying to understand the risks of a "
17320 "certain treatment could research those risks by reading all available "
17321 "articles about that treatment. This freedom was therefore a function of the "
17322 "institution of libraries (norms) and the technology of paper journals "
17323 "(architecture)—namely, that it was very hard to control access to a "
17327 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17328 #: freeculture.xml:13245
17330 "As journals become electronic, however, the publishers are demanding that "
17331 "libraries not give the general public access to the journals. This means "
17332 "that the freedoms provided by print journals in public libraries begin to "
17333 "disappear. Thus, as with privacy and with software, a changing technology "
17334 "and market shrink a freedom taken for granted before."
17337 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17338 #: freeculture.xml:13253
17340 "This shrinking freedom has led many to take affirmative steps to restore the "
17341 "freedom that has been lost. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), for "
17342 "example, is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making scientific research "
17343 "available to anyone with a Web connection. Authors of scientific work submit "
17344 "that work to the Public Library of Science. That work is then subject to "
17345 "peer review. If accepted, the work is then deposited in a public, electronic "
17346 "archive and made permanently available for free. PLoS also sells a print "
17347 "version of its work, but the copyright for the print journal does not "
17348 "inhibit the right of anyone to redistribute the work for free. <placeholder "
17349 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17352 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17353 #: freeculture.xml:13267
17355 "This is one of many such efforts to restore a freedom taken for granted "
17356 "before, but now threatened by changing technology and markets. There's no "
17357 "doubt that this alternative competes with the traditional publishers and "
17358 "their efforts to make money from the exclusive distribution of content. But "
17359 "competition in our tradition is presumptively a good—especially when "
17360 "it helps spread knowledge and science."
17363 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17364 #: freeculture.xml:13279
17365 msgid "Rebuilding Free Culture: One Idea"
17368 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17369 #: freeculture.xml:13284
17371 "The same strategy could be applied to culture, as a response to the "
17372 "increasing control effected through law and technology."
17375 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17376 #: freeculture.xml:13288
17378 "Enter the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation "
17379 "established in Massachusetts, but with its home at Stanford University. Its "
17380 "aim is to build a layer of <emphasis>reasonable</emphasis> copyright on top "
17381 "of the extremes that now reign. It does this by making it easy for people to "
17382 "build upon other people's work, by making it simple for creators to express "
17383 "the freedom for others to take and build upon their work. Simple tags, tied "
17384 "to human-readable descriptions, tied to bulletproof licenses, make this "
17389 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17390 #: freeculture.xml:13299
17392 "<emphasis>Simple</emphasis>—which means without a middleman, or "
17393 "without a lawyer. By developing a free set of licenses that people can "
17394 "attach to their content, Creative Commons aims to mark a range of content "
17395 "that can easily, and reliably, be built upon. These tags are then linked to "
17396 "machine-readable versions of the license that enable computers automatically "
17397 "to identify content that can easily be shared. These three expressions "
17398 "together—a legal license, a human-readable description, and "
17399 "machine-readable tags—constitute a Creative Commons license. A "
17400 "Creative Commons license constitutes a grant of freedom to anyone who "
17401 "accesses the license, and more importantly, an expression of the ideal that "
17402 "the person associated with the license believes in something different than "
17403 "the \"All\" or \"No\" extremes. Content is marked with the CC mark, which "
17404 "does not mean that copyright is waived, but that certain freedoms are given."
17407 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17408 #: freeculture.xml:13317
17410 "These freedoms are beyond the freedoms promised by fair use. Their precise "
17411 "contours depend upon the choices the creator makes. The creator can choose a "
17412 "license that permits any use, so long as attribution is given. She can "
17413 "choose a license that permits only noncommercial use. She can choose a "
17414 "license that permits any use so long as the same freedoms are given to other "
17415 "uses (\"share and share alike\"). Or any use so long as no derivative use is "
17416 "made. Or any use at all within developing nations. Or any sampling use, so "
17417 "long as full copies are not made. Or lastly, any educational use."
17420 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17421 #: freeculture.xml:13328
17423 "These choices thus establish a range of freedoms beyond the default of "
17424 "copyright law. They also enable freedoms that go beyond traditional fair "
17425 "use. And most importantly, they express these freedoms in a way that "
17426 "subsequent users can use and rely upon without the need to hire a "
17427 "lawyer. Creative Commons thus aims to build a layer of content, governed by "
17428 "a layer of reasonable copyright law, that others can build upon. Voluntary "
17429 "choice of individuals and creators will make this content available. And "
17430 "that content will in turn enable us to rebuild a public domain."
17433 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17434 #: freeculture.xml:13349
17435 msgid "Garlick, Mia"
17438 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17439 #: freeculture.xml:13339
17441 "This is just one project among many within the Creative Commons. And of "
17442 "course, Creative Commons is not the only organization pursuing such "
17443 "freedoms. But the point that distinguishes the Creative Commons from many is "
17444 "that we are not interested only in talking about a public domain or in "
17445 "getting legislators to help build a public domain. Our aim is to build a "
17446 "movement of consumers and producers of content (\"content conducers,\" as "
17447 "attorney Mia Garlick calls them) who help build the public domain and, by "
17448 "their work, demonstrate the importance of the public domain to other "
17449 "creativity. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17452 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17453 #: freeculture.xml:13352
17455 "The aim is not to fight the \"All Rights Reserved\" sorts. The aim is to "
17456 "complement them. The problems that the law creates for us as a culture are "
17457 "produced by insane and unintended consequences of laws written centuries "
17458 "ago, applied to a technology that only Jefferson could have imagined. The "
17459 "rules may well have made sense against a background of technologies from "
17460 "centuries ago, but they do not make sense against the background of digital "
17461 "technologies. New rules—with different freedoms, expressed in ways so "
17462 "that humans without lawyers can use them—are needed. Creative Commons "
17463 "gives people a way effectively to begin to build those rules."
17466 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17467 #: freeculture.xml:13364
17469 "Why would creators participate in giving up total control? Some participate "
17470 "to better spread their content. Cory Doctorow, for example, is a science "
17471 "fiction author. His first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
17472 "Kingdom</citetitle>, was released on-line and for free, under a Creative "
17473 "Commons license, on the same day that it went on sale in bookstores."
17476 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17477 #: freeculture.xml:13371
17479 "Why would a publisher ever agree to this? I suspect his publisher reasoned "
17480 "like this: There are two groups of people out there: (1) those who will buy "
17481 "Cory's book whether or not it's on the Internet, and (2) those who may never "
17482 "hear of Cory's book, if it isn't made available for free on the "
17483 "Internet. Some part of (1) will download Cory's book instead of buying "
17484 "it. Call them bad-(1)s. Some part of (2) will download Cory's book, like "
17485 "it, and then decide to buy it. Call them (2)-goods. If there are more "
17486 "(2)-goods than bad-(1)s, the strategy of releasing Cory's book free on-line "
17487 "will probably <emphasis>increase</emphasis> sales of Cory's book."
17490 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17491 #: freeculture.xml:13383
17493 "Indeed, the experience of his publisher clearly supports that conclusion. "
17494 "The book's first printing was exhausted months before the publisher had "
17495 "expected. This first novel of a science fiction author was a total success."
17498 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17499 #: freeculture.xml:13398
17500 msgid "Free for All (Wayner)"
17503 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17504 #: freeculture.xml:13399
17505 msgid "Wayner, Peter"
17508 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17509 #: freeculture.xml:13389
17511 "The idea that free content might increase the value of nonfree content was "
17512 "confirmed by the experience of another author. Peter Wayner, who wrote a "
17513 "book about the free software movement titled <citetitle>Free for "
17514 "All</citetitle>, made an electronic version of his book free on-line under a "
17515 "Creative Commons license after the book went out of print. He then monitored "
17516 "used book store prices for the book. As predicted, as the number of "
17517 "downloads increased, the used book price for his book increased, as well. "
17518 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17523 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17524 #: freeculture.xml:13417
17526 "<citetitle>Willful Infringement: A Report from the Front Lines of the Real "
17527 "Culture Wars</citetitle> (2003), produced by Jed Horovitz, directed by Greg "
17528 "Hittelman, a Fiat Lucre production, available at <ulink "
17529 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink>."
17532 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17533 #: freeculture.xml:13424
17534 msgid "Leaphart, Walter"
17537 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17538 #: freeculture.xml:13402
17540 "These are examples of using the Commons to better spread proprietary "
17541 "content. I believe that is a wonderful and common use of the Commons. There "
17542 "are others who use Creative Commons licenses for other reasons. Many who use "
17543 "the \"sampling license\" do so because anything else would be "
17544 "hypocritical. The sampling license says that others are free, for commercial "
17545 "or noncommercial purposes, to sample content from the licensed work; they "
17546 "are just not free to make full copies of the licensed work available to "
17547 "others. This is consistent with their own art—they, too, sample from "
17548 "others. Because the <emphasis>legal</emphasis> costs of sampling are so high "
17549 "(Walter Leaphart, manager of the rap group Public Enemy, which was born "
17550 "sampling the music of others, has stated that he does not \"allow\" Public "
17551 "Enemy to sample anymore, because the legal costs are so high<placeholder "
17552 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), these artists release into the creative "
17553 "environment content that others can build upon, so that their form of "
17554 "creativity might grow. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17557 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17558 #: freeculture.xml:13427
17560 "Finally, there are many who mark their content with a Creative Commons "
17561 "license just because they want to express to others the importance of "
17562 "balance in this debate. If you just go along with the system as it is, you "
17563 "are effectively saying you believe in the \"All Rights Reserved\" "
17564 "model. Good for you, but many do not. Many believe that however appropriate "
17565 "that rule is for Hollywood and freaks, it is not an appropriate description "
17566 "of how most creators view the rights associated with their content. The "
17567 "Creative Commons license expresses this notion of \"Some Rights Reserved,\" "
17568 "and gives many the chance to say it to others."
17572 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17573 #: freeculture.xml:13439
17575 "In the first six months of the Creative Commons experiment, over 1 million "
17576 "objects were licensed with these free-culture licenses. The next step is "
17577 "partnerships with middleware content providers to help them build into their "
17578 "technologies simple ways for users to mark their content with Creative "
17579 "Commons freedoms. Then the next step is to watch and celebrate creators who "
17580 "build content based upon content set free."
17583 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17584 #: freeculture.xml:13449
17586 "These are first steps to rebuilding a public domain. They are not mere "
17587 "arguments; they are action. Building a public domain is the first step to "
17588 "showing people how important that domain is to creativity and "
17589 "innovation. Creative Commons relies upon voluntary steps to achieve this "
17590 "rebuilding. They will lead to a world in which more than voluntary steps are "
17594 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17595 #: freeculture.xml:13457
17597 "Creative Commons is just one example of voluntary efforts by individuals and "
17598 "creators to change the mix of rights that now govern the creative field. The "
17599 "project does not compete with copyright; it complements it. Its aim is not "
17600 "to defeat the rights of authors, but to make it easier for authors and "
17601 "creators to exercise their rights more flexibly and cheaply. That "
17602 "difference, we believe, will enable creativity to spread more easily."
17605 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
17606 #: freeculture.xml:13471
17610 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17611 #: freeculture.xml:13473
17613 "We will not reclaim a free culture by individual action alone. It will also "
17614 "take important reforms of laws. We have a long way to go before the "
17615 "politicians will listen to these ideas and implement these reforms. But "
17616 "that also means that we have time to build awareness around the changes that "
17620 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
17621 #: freeculture.xml:13480
17623 "In this chapter, I outline five kinds of changes: four that are general, and "
17624 "one that's specific to the most heated battle of the day, music. Each is a "
17625 "step, not an end. But any of these steps would carry us a long way to our "
17629 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17630 #: freeculture.xml:13487
17631 msgid "1. More Formalities"
17634 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17635 #: freeculture.xml:13489
17637 "If you buy a house, you have to record the sale in a deed. If you buy land "
17638 "upon which to build a house, you have to record the purchase in a deed. If "
17639 "you buy a car, you get a bill of sale and register the car. If you buy an "
17640 "airplane ticket, it has your name on it."
17644 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17645 #: freeculture.xml:13496
17647 "These are all formalities associated with property. They are requirements "
17648 "that we all must bear if we want our property to be protected."
17651 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17652 #: freeculture.xml:13501
17654 "In contrast, under current copyright law, you automatically get a copyright, "
17655 "regardless of whether you comply with any formality. You don't have to "
17656 "register. You don't even have to mark your content. The default is control, "
17657 "and \"formalities\" are banished."
17660 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17661 #: freeculture.xml:13507
17665 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17666 #: freeculture.xml:13510
17668 "As I suggested in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
17669 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, the motivation to abolish formalities was a good "
17670 "one. In the world before digital technologies, formalities imposed a burden "
17671 "on copyright holders without much benefit. Thus, it was progress when the "
17672 "law relaxed the formal requirements that a copyright owner must bear to "
17673 "protect and secure his work. Those formalities were getting in the way."
17676 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17677 #: freeculture.xml:13519
17679 "But the Internet changes all this. Formalities today need not be a "
17680 "burden. Rather, the world without formalities is the world that burdens "
17681 "creativity. Today, there is no simple way to know who owns what, or with "
17682 "whom one must deal in order to use or build upon the creative work of "
17683 "others. There are no records, there is no system to trace— there is no "
17684 "simple way to know how to get permission. Yet given the massive increase in "
17685 "the scope of copyright's rule, getting permission is a necessary step for "
17686 "any work that builds upon our past. And thus, the <emphasis>lack</emphasis> "
17687 "of formalities forces many into silence where they otherwise could speak."
17691 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17692 #: freeculture.xml:13533
17694 "The proposal I am advancing here would apply to American works only. "
17695 "Obviously, I believe it would be beneficial for the same idea to be adopted "
17696 "by other countries as well."
17699 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17700 #: freeculture.xml:13531
17702 "The law should therefore change this requirement<placeholder "
17703 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—but it should not change it by going back "
17704 "to the old, broken system. We should require formalities, but we should "
17705 "establish a system that will create the incentives to minimize the burden of "
17706 "these formalities."
17709 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17710 #: freeculture.xml:13541
17712 "The important formalities are three: marking copyrighted work, registering "
17713 "copyrights, and renewing the claim to copyright. Traditionally, the first of "
17714 "these three was something the copyright owner did; the second two were "
17715 "something the government did. But a revised system of formalities would "
17716 "banish the government from the process, except for the sole purpose of "
17717 "approving standards developed by others."
17720 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
17721 #: freeculture.xml:13553
17722 msgid "REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL"
17725 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17726 #: freeculture.xml:13555
17728 "Under the old system, a copyright owner had to file a registration with the "
17729 "Copyright Office to register or renew a copyright. When filing that "
17730 "registration, the copyright owner paid a fee. As with most government "
17731 "agencies, the Copyright Office had little incentive to minimize the burden "
17732 "of registration; it also had little incentive to minimize the fee. And as "
17733 "the Copyright Office is not a main target of government policymaking, the "
17734 "office has historically been terribly underfunded. Thus, when people who "
17735 "know something about the process hear this idea about formalities, their "
17736 "first reaction is panic—nothing could be worse than forcing people to "
17737 "deal with the mess that is the Copyright Office."
17740 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17741 #: freeculture.xml:13568
17743 "Yet it is always astonishing to me that we, who come from a tradition of "
17744 "extraordinary innovation in governmental design, can no longer think "
17745 "innovatively about how governmental functions can be designed. Just because "
17746 "there is a public purpose to a government role, it doesn't follow that the "
17747 "government must actually administer the role. Instead, we should be creating "
17748 "incentives for private parties to serve the public, subject to standards "
17749 "that the government sets."
17752 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17753 #: freeculture.xml:13577
17755 "In the context of registration, one obvious model is the Internet. There "
17756 "are at least 32 million Web sites registered around the world. Domain name "
17757 "owners for these Web sites have to pay a fee to keep their registration "
17758 "alive. In the main top-level domains (.com, .org, .net), there is a central "
17759 "registry. The actual registrations are, however, performed by many competing "
17760 "registrars. That competition drives the cost of registering down, and more "
17761 "importantly, it drives the ease with which registration occurs up."
17765 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17766 #: freeculture.xml:13587
17768 "We should adopt a similar model for the registration and renewal of "
17769 "copyrights. The Copyright Office may well serve as the central registry, but "
17770 "it should not be in the registrar business. Instead, it should establish a "
17771 "database, and a set of standards for registrars. It should approve "
17772 "registrars that meet its standards. Those registrars would then compete with "
17773 "one another to deliver the cheapest and simplest systems for registering and "
17774 "renewing copyrights. That competition would substantially lower the burden "
17775 "of this formality—while producing a database of registrations that "
17776 "would facilitate the licensing of content."
17779 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
17780 #: freeculture.xml:13602
17784 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17785 #: freeculture.xml:13604
17787 "It used to be that the failure to include a copyright notice on a creative "
17788 "work meant that the copyright was forfeited. That was a harsh punishment for "
17789 "failing to comply with a regulatory rule—akin to imposing the death "
17790 "penalty for a parking ticket in the world of creative rights. Here again, "
17791 "there is no reason that a marking requirement needs to be enforced in this "
17792 "way. And more importantly, there is no reason a marking requirement needs to "
17793 "be enforced uniformly across all media."
17796 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17797 #: freeculture.xml:13614
17799 "The aim of marking is to signal to the public that this work is copyrighted "
17800 "and that the author wants to enforce his rights. The mark also makes it easy "
17801 "to locate a copyright owner to secure permission to use the work."
17804 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17805 #: freeculture.xml:13620
17807 "One of the problems the copyright system confronted early on was that "
17808 "different copyrighted works had to be differently marked. It wasn't clear "
17809 "how or where a statue was to be marked, or a record, or a film. A new "
17810 "marking requirement could solve these problems by recognizing the "
17811 "differences in media, and by allowing the system of marking to evolve as "
17812 "technologies enable it to. The system could enable a special signal from the "
17813 "failure to mark—not the loss of the copyright, but the loss of the "
17814 "right to punish someone for failing to get permission first."
17818 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17819 #: freeculture.xml:13637
17821 "There would be a complication with derivative works that I have not solved "
17822 "here. In my view, the law of derivatives creates a more complicated system "
17823 "than is justified by the marginal incentive it creates."
17827 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17828 #: freeculture.xml:13630
17830 "Let's start with the last point. If a copyright owner allows his work to be "
17831 "published without a copyright notice, the consequence of that failure need "
17832 "not be that the copyright is lost. The consequence could instead be that "
17833 "anyone has the right to use this work, until the copyright owner complains "
17834 "and demonstrates that it is his work and he doesn't give "
17835 "permission.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The meaning of an "
17836 "unmarked work would therefore be \"use unless someone complains.\" If "
17837 "someone does complain, then the obligation would be to stop using the work "
17838 "in any new work from then on though no penalty would attach for existing "
17839 "uses. This would create a strong incentive for copyright owners to mark "
17843 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17844 #: freeculture.xml:13650
17846 "That in turn raises the question about how work should best be marked. Here "
17847 "again, the system needs to adjust as the technologies evolve. The best way "
17848 "to ensure that the system evolves is to limit the Copyright Office's role to "
17849 "that of approving standards for marking content that have been crafted "
17853 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17854 #: freeculture.xml:13657
17856 "For example, if a recording industry association devises a method for "
17857 "marking CDs, it would propose that to the Copyright Office. The Copyright "
17858 "Office would hold a hearing, at which other proposals could be made. The "
17859 "Copyright Office would then select the proposal that it judged preferable, "
17860 "and it would base that choice <emphasis>solely</emphasis> upon the "
17861 "consideration of which method could best be integrated into the registration "
17862 "and renewal system. We would not count on the government to innovate; but we "
17863 "would count on the government to keep the product of innovation in line with "
17864 "its other important functions."
17867 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17868 #: freeculture.xml:13669
17870 "Finally, marking content clearly would simplify registration requirements. "
17871 "If photographs were marked by author and year, there would be little reason "
17872 "not to allow a photographer to reregister, for example, all photographs "
17873 "taken in a particular year in one quick step. The aim of the formality is "
17874 "not to burden the creator; the system itself should be kept as simple as "
17878 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17879 #: freeculture.xml:13677
17881 "The objective of formalities is to make things clear. The existing system "
17882 "does nothing to make things clear. Indeed, it seems designed to make things "
17886 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
17887 #: freeculture.xml:13682
17889 "If formalities such as registration were reinstated, one of the most "
17890 "difficult aspects of relying upon the public domain would be removed. It "
17891 "would be simple to identify what content is presumptively free; it would be "
17892 "simple to identify who controls the rights for a particular kind of content; "
17893 "it would be simple to assert those rights, and to renew that assertion at "
17894 "the appropriate time."
17897 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
17898 #: freeculture.xml:13694
17899 msgid "2. Shorter Terms"
17902 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17903 #: freeculture.xml:13696
17905 "The term of copyright has gone from fourteen years to ninety-five years for "
17906 "corporate authors, and life of the author plus seventy years for natural "
17911 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
17912 #: freeculture.xml:13709
17914 "\"A Radical Rethink,\" <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 366:8308 (25 "
17915 "January 2003): 15, available at <ulink "
17916 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #74</ulink>."
17919 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17920 #: freeculture.xml:13701
17922 "In <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>, I proposed a "
17923 "seventy-five-year term, granted in five-year increments with a requirement "
17924 "of renewal every five years. That seemed radical enough at the time. But "
17925 "after we lost <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
17926 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, the proposals became even more "
17927 "radical. <citetitle>The Economist</citetitle> endorsed a proposal for a "
17928 "fourteen-year copyright term.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
17929 "Others have proposed tying the term to the term for patents."
17932 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
17933 #: freeculture.xml:13716
17935 "I agree with those who believe that we need a radical change in copyright's "
17936 "term. But whether fourteen years or seventy-five, there are four principles "
17937 "that are important to keep in mind about copyright terms."
17941 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
17942 #: freeculture.xml:13724
17944 "<emphasis>Keep it short:</emphasis> The term should be as long as necessary "
17945 "to give incentives to create, but no longer. If it were tied to very strong "
17946 "protections for authors (so authors were able to reclaim rights from "
17947 "publishers), rights to the same work (not derivative works) might be "
17948 "extended further. The key is not to tie the work up with legal regulations "
17949 "when it no longer benefits an author."
17954 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
17955 #: freeculture.xml:13733
17957 "<emphasis>Keep it simple:</emphasis> The line between the public domain and "
17958 "protected content must be kept clear. Lawyers like the fuzziness of \"fair "
17959 "use,\" and the distinction between \"ideas\" and \"expression.\" That kind "
17960 "of law gives them lots of work. But our framers had a simpler idea in mind: "
17961 "protected versus unprotected. The value of short terms is that there is "
17962 "little need to build exceptions into copyright when the term itself is kept "
17963 "short. A clear and active \"lawyer-free zone\" makes the complexities of "
17964 "\"fair use\" and \"idea/expression\" less necessary to navigate."
17968 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><footnote><para>
17969 #: freeculture.xml:13754
17971 "Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran's Application for Compensation "
17972 "and/or Pension, VA Form 21-526 (OMB Approved No. 2900-0001), available at "
17973 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #75</ulink>."
17976 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><indexterm><primary>
17977 #: freeculture.xml:13762
17978 msgid "veterans' pensions"
17981 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
17982 #: freeculture.xml:13746
17984 "<emphasis>Keep it alive:</emphasis> Copyright should have to be renewed. "
17985 "Especially if the maximum term is long, the copyright owner should be "
17986 "required to signal periodically that he wants the protection continued. This "
17987 "need not be an onerous burden, but there is no reason this monopoly "
17988 "protection has to be granted for free. On average, it takes ninety minutes "
17989 "for a veteran to apply for a pension.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
17990 "id=\"0\"/> If we make veterans suffer that burden, I don't see why we "
17991 "couldn't require authors to spend ten minutes every fifty years to file a "
17992 "single form. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17996 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
17997 #: freeculture.xml:13766
17999 "<emphasis>Keep it prospective:</emphasis> Whatever the term of copyright "
18000 "should be, the clearest lesson that economists teach is that a term once "
18001 "given should not be extended. It might have been a mistake in 1923 for the "
18002 "law to offer authors only a fifty-six-year term. I don't think so, but it's "
18003 "possible. If it was a mistake, then the consequence was that we got fewer "
18004 "authors to create in 1923 than we otherwise would have. But we can't correct "
18005 "that mistake today by increasing the term. No matter what we do today, we "
18006 "will not increase the number of authors who wrote in 1923. Of course, we can "
18007 "increase the reward that those who write now get (or alternatively, increase "
18008 "the copyright burden that smothers many works that are today invisible). But "
18009 "increasing their reward will not increase their creativity in 1923. What's "
18010 "not done is not done, and there's nothing we can do about that now."
18013 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18014 #: freeculture.xml:13782
18016 "These changes together should produce an <emphasis>average</emphasis> "
18017 "copyright term that is much shorter than the current term. Until 1976, the "
18018 "average term was just 32.2 years. We should be aiming for the same."
18021 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18022 #: freeculture.xml:13788
18024 "No doubt the extremists will call these ideas \"radical.\" (After all, I "
18025 "call them \"extremists.\") But again, the term I recommended was longer than "
18026 "the term under Richard Nixon. How \"radical\" can it be to ask for a more "
18027 "generous copyright law than Richard Nixon presided over?"
18030 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18031 #: freeculture.xml:13798
18032 msgid "3. Free Use Vs. Fair Use"
18035 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18036 #: freeculture.xml:13800
18038 "As I observed at the beginning of this book, property law originally granted "
18039 "property owners the right to control their property from the ground to the "
18040 "heavens. The airplane came along. The scope of property rights quickly "
18041 "changed. There was no fuss, no constitutional challenge. It made no sense "
18042 "anymore to grant that much control, given the emergence of that new "
18046 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18047 #: freeculture.xml:13808
18049 "Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors \"exclusive "
18050 "right\" to \"their writings.\" Congress has given authors an exclusive right "
18051 "to \"their writings\" plus any derivative writings (made by others) that are "
18052 "sufficiently close to the author's original work. Thus, if I write a book, "
18053 "and you base a movie on that book, I have the power to deny you the right to "
18054 "release that movie, even though that movie is not \"my writing.\""
18058 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18059 #: freeculture.xml:13821
18061 "Benjamin Kaplan, <citetitle>An Unhurried View of Copyright</citetitle> (New "
18062 "York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 32."
18065 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
18066 #: freeculture.xml:13827
18067 msgid "Kaplan, Benjamin"
18070 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18071 #: freeculture.xml:13817
18073 "Congress granted the beginnings of this right in 1870, when it expanded the "
18074 "exclusive right of copyright to include a right to control translations and "
18075 "dramatizations of a work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
18076 "courts have expanded it slowly through judicial interpretation ever "
18077 "since. This expansion has been commented upon by one of the law's greatest "
18078 "judges, Judge Benjamin Kaplan. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18082 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
18083 #: freeculture.xml:13835
18087 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para>
18088 #: freeculture.xml:13831
18090 "So inured have we become to the extension of the monopoly to a large range "
18091 "of so-called derivative works, that we no longer sense the oddity of "
18092 "accepting such an enlargement of copyright while yet intoning the "
18093 "abracadabra of idea and expression.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18096 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18097 #: freeculture.xml:13840
18099 "I think it's time to recognize that there are airplanes in this field and "
18100 "the expansiveness of these rights of derivative use no longer make "
18101 "sense. More precisely, they don't make sense for the period of time that a "
18102 "copyright runs. And they don't make sense as an amorphous grant. Consider "
18103 "each limitation in turn."
18106 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18107 #: freeculture.xml:13847
18109 "<emphasis>Term:</emphasis> If Congress wants to grant a derivative right, "
18110 "then that right should be for a much shorter term. It makes sense to protect "
18111 "John Grisham's right to sell the movie rights to his latest novel (or at "
18112 "least I'm willing to assume it does); but it does not make sense for that "
18113 "right to run for the same term as the underlying copyright. The derivative "
18114 "right could be important in inducing creativity; it is not important long "
18115 "after the creative work is done. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18118 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18119 #: freeculture.xml:13860
18121 "<emphasis>Scope:</emphasis> Likewise should the scope of derivative rights "
18122 "be narrowed. Again, there are some cases in which derivative rights are "
18123 "important. Those should be specified. But the law should draw clear lines "
18124 "around regulated and unregulated uses of copyrighted material. When all "
18125 "\"reuse\" of creative material was within the control of businesses, perhaps "
18126 "it made sense to require lawyers to negotiate the lines. It no longer makes "
18127 "sense for lawyers to negotiate the lines. Think about all the creative "
18128 "possibilities that digital technologies enable; now imagine pouring molasses "
18129 "into the machines. That's what this general requirement of permission does "
18130 "to the creative process. Smothers it."
18133 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18134 #: freeculture.xml:13873
18136 "This was the point that Alben made when describing the making of the Clint "
18137 "Eastwood CD. While it makes sense to require negotiation for foreseeable "
18138 "derivative rights—turning a book into a movie, or a poem into a "
18139 "musical score—it doesn't make sense to require negotiation for the "
18140 "unforeseeable. Here, a statutory right would make much more sense."
18143 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
18144 #: freeculture.xml:13889
18145 msgid "Goldstein, Paul"
18148 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18149 #: freeculture.xml:13887
18151 "Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the "
18152 "Celestial Jukebox</citetitle> (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), "
18153 "187–216. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18156 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18157 #: freeculture.xml:13881
18159 "In each of these cases, the law should mark the uses that are protected, and "
18160 "the presumption should be that other uses are not protected. This is the "
18161 "reverse of the recommendation of my colleague Paul Goldstein.<placeholder "
18162 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His view is that the law should be written so "
18163 "that expanded protections follow expanded uses."
18166 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18167 #: freeculture.xml:13895
18169 "Goldstein's analysis would make perfect sense if the cost of the legal "
18170 "system were small. But as we are currently seeing in the context of the "
18171 "Internet, the uncertainty about the scope of protection, and the incentives "
18172 "to protect existing architectures of revenue, combined with a strong "
18173 "copyright, weaken the process of innovation."
18177 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18178 #: freeculture.xml:13902
18180 "The law could remedy this problem either by removing protection beyond the "
18181 "part explicitly drawn or by granting reuse rights upon certain statutory "
18182 "conditions. Either way, the effect would be to free a great deal of culture "
18183 "to others to cultivate. And under a statutory rights regime, that reuse "
18184 "would earn artists more income."
18187 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18188 #: freeculture.xml:13912
18189 msgid "4. Liberate the Music—Again"
18192 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18193 #: freeculture.xml:13914
18195 "The battle that got this whole war going was about music, so it wouldn't be "
18196 "fair to end this book without addressing the issue that is, to most people, "
18197 "most pressing—music. There is no other policy issue that better "
18198 "teaches the lessons of this book than the battles around the sharing of "
18202 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18203 #: freeculture.xml:13921
18205 "The appeal of file-sharing music was the crack cocaine of the Internet's "
18206 "growth. It drove demand for access to the Internet more powerfully than any "
18207 "other single application. It was the Internet's killer app—possibly in "
18208 "two senses of that word. It no doubt was the application that drove demand "
18209 "for bandwidth. It may well be the application that drives demand for "
18210 "regulations that in the end kill innovation on the network."
18213 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18214 #: freeculture.xml:13930
18216 "The aim of copyright, with respect to content in general and music in "
18217 "particular, is to create the incentives for music to be composed, performed, "
18218 "and, most importantly, spread. The law does this by giving an exclusive "
18219 "right to a composer to control public performances of his work, and to a "
18220 "performing artist to control copies of her performance."
18223 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18224 #: freeculture.xml:13937
18226 "File-sharing networks complicate this model by enabling the spread of "
18227 "content for which the performer has not been paid. But of course, that's not "
18228 "all the file-sharing networks do. As I described in chapter <xref "
18229 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"piracy\"/>, they enable four "
18230 "different kinds of sharing:"
18234 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18235 #: freeculture.xml:13946
18237 "There are some who are using sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
18242 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18243 #: freeculture.xml:13951
18245 "There are also some who are using sharing networks to sample, on the way to "
18251 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18252 #: freeculture.xml:13957
18254 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
18255 "that is no longer sold but is still under copyright or that would have been "
18256 "too cumbersome to buy off the Net."
18260 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18261 #: freeculture.xml:13963
18263 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
18264 "that is not copyrighted or to get access that the copyright owner plainly "
18268 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18269 #: freeculture.xml:13969
18271 "Any reform of the law needs to keep these different uses in focus. It must "
18272 "avoid burdening type D even if it aims to eliminate type A. The eagerness "
18273 "with which the law aims to eliminate type A, moreover, should depend upon "
18274 "the magnitude of type B. As with VCRs, if the net effect of sharing is "
18275 "actually not very harmful, the need for regulation is significantly "
18279 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18280 #: freeculture.xml:13977
18282 "As I said in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
18283 "linkend=\"piracy\"/>, the actual harm caused by sharing is controversial. "
18284 "For the purposes of this chapter, however, I assume the harm is real. I "
18285 "assume, in other words, that type A sharing is significantly greater than "
18286 "type B, and is the dominant use of sharing networks."
18289 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18290 #: freeculture.xml:13985
18292 "Nonetheless, there is a crucial fact about the current technological context "
18293 "that we must keep in mind if we are to understand how the law should "
18297 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18298 #: freeculture.xml:13990
18300 "Today, file sharing is addictive. In ten years, it won't be. It is addictive "
18301 "today because it is the easiest way to gain access to a broad range of "
18302 "content. It won't be the easiest way to get access to a broad range of "
18303 "content in ten years. Today, access to the Internet is cumbersome and "
18304 "slow—we in the United States are lucky to have broadband service at "
18305 "1.5 MBs, and very rarely do we get service at that speed both up and "
18306 "down. Although wireless access is growing, most of us still get access "
18307 "across wires. Most only gain access through a machine with a keyboard. The "
18308 "idea of the always on, always connected Internet is mainly just an idea."
18312 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18313 #: freeculture.xml:14002
18315 "But it will become a reality, and that means the way we get access to the "
18316 "Internet today is a technology in transition. Policy makers should not make "
18317 "policy on the basis of technology in transition. They should make policy on "
18318 "the basis of where the technology is going. The question should not be, how "
18319 "should the law regulate sharing in this world? The question should be, what "
18320 "law will we require when the network becomes the network it is clearly "
18321 "becoming? That network is one in which every machine with electricity is "
18322 "essentially on the Net; where everywhere you are—except maybe the "
18323 "desert or the Rockies—you can instantaneously be connected to the "
18324 "Internet. Imagine the Internet as ubiquitous as the best cell-phone service, "
18325 "where with the flip of a device, you are connected."
18329 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18330 #: freeculture.xml:14035
18332 "See, for example, \"Music Media Watch,\" The J@pan Inc. Newsletter, 3 April "
18333 "2002, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
18337 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18338 #: freeculture.xml:14017
18340 "In that world, it will be extremely easy to connect to services that give "
18341 "you access to content on the fly—such as Internet radio, content that "
18342 "is streamed to the user when the user demands. Here, then, is the critical "
18343 "point: When it is <emphasis>extremely</emphasis> easy to connect to services "
18344 "that give access to content, it will be <emphasis>easier</emphasis> to "
18345 "connect to services that give you access to content than it will be to "
18346 "download and store content <emphasis>on the many devices you will have for "
18347 "playing content</emphasis>. It will be easier, in other words, to subscribe "
18348 "than it will be to be a database manager, as everyone in the "
18349 "download-sharing world of Napster-like technologies essentially is. Content "
18350 "services will compete with content sharing, even if the services charge "
18351 "money for the content they give access to. Already cell-phone services in "
18352 "Japan offer music (for a fee) streamed over cell phones (enhanced with plugs "
18353 "for headphones). The Japanese are paying for this content even though "
18354 "\"free\" content is available in the form of MP3s across the "
18355 "Web.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18359 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18360 #: freeculture.xml:14042
18362 "This point about the future is meant to suggest a perspective on the "
18363 "present: It is emphatically temporary. The \"problem\" with file "
18364 "sharing—to the extent there is a real problem—is a problem that "
18365 "will increasingly disappear as it becomes easier to connect to the "
18366 "Internet. And thus it is an extraordinary mistake for policy makers today "
18367 "to be \"solving\" this problem in light of a technology that will be gone "
18368 "tomorrow. The question should not be how to regulate the Internet to "
18369 "eliminate file sharing (the Net will evolve that problem away). The question "
18370 "instead should be how to assure that artists get paid, during this "
18371 "transition between twentieth-century models for doing business and "
18372 "twenty-first-century technologies."
18375 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18376 #: freeculture.xml:14058
18378 "The answer begins with recognizing that there are different \"problems\" "
18379 "here to solve. Let's start with type D content—uncopyrighted content "
18380 "or copyrighted content that the artist wants shared. The \"problem\" with "
18381 "this content is to make sure that the technology that would enable this kind "
18382 "of sharing is not rendered illegal. You can think of it this way: Pay phones "
18383 "are used to deliver ransom demands, no doubt. But there are many who need "
18384 "to use pay phones who have nothing to do with ransoms. It would be wrong to "
18385 "ban pay phones in order to eliminate kidnapping."
18388 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18389 #: freeculture.xml:14069
18391 "Type C content raises a different \"problem.\" This is content that was, at "
18392 "one time, published and is no longer available. It may be unavailable "
18393 "because the artist is no longer valuable enough for the record label he "
18394 "signed with to carry his work. Or it may be unavailable because the work is "
18395 "forgotten. Either way, the aim of the law should be to facilitate the access "
18396 "to this content, ideally in a way that returns something to the artist."
18399 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18400 #: freeculture.xml:14078
18402 "Again, the model here is the used book store. Once a book goes out of print, "
18403 "it may still be available in libraries and used book stores. But libraries "
18404 "and used book stores don't pay the copyright owner when someone reads or "
18405 "buys an out-of-print book. That makes total sense, of course, since any "
18406 "other system would be so burdensome as to eliminate the possibility of used "
18407 "book stores' existing. But from the author's perspective, this \"sharing\" "
18408 "of his content without his being compensated is less than ideal."
18411 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18412 #: freeculture.xml:14088
18414 "The model of used book stores suggests that the law could simply deem "
18415 "out-of-print music fair game. If the publisher does not make copies of the "
18416 "music available for sale, then commercial and noncommercial providers would "
18417 "be free, under this rule, to \"share\" that content, even though the sharing "
18418 "involved making a copy. The copy here would be incidental to the trade; in a "
18419 "context where commercial publishing has ended, trading music should be as "
18420 "free as trading books."
18424 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18425 #: freeculture.xml:14099
18427 "Alternatively, the law could create a statutory license that would ensure "
18428 "that artists get something from the trade of their work. For example, if the "
18429 "law set a low statutory rate for the commercial sharing of content that was "
18430 "not offered for sale by a commercial publisher, and if that rate were "
18431 "automatically transferred to a trust for the benefit of the artist, then "
18432 "businesses could develop around the idea of trading this content, and "
18433 "artists would benefit from this trade."
18436 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18437 #: freeculture.xml:14109
18439 "This system would also create an incentive for publishers to keep works "
18440 "available commercially. Works that are available commercially would not be "
18441 "subject to this license. Thus, publishers could protect the right to charge "
18442 "whatever they want for content if they kept the work commercially "
18443 "available. But if they don't keep it available, and instead, the computer "
18444 "hard disks of fans around the world keep it alive, then any royalty owed for "
18445 "such copying should be much less than the amount owed a commercial "
18449 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18450 #: freeculture.xml:14119
18452 "The hard case is content of types A and B, and again, this case is hard only "
18453 "because the extent of the problem will change over time, as the technologies "
18454 "for gaining access to content change. The law's solution should be as "
18455 "flexible as the problem is, understanding that we are in the middle of a "
18456 "radical transformation in the technology for delivering and accessing "
18460 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18461 #: freeculture.xml:14127
18463 "So here's a solution that will at first seem very strange to both sides in "
18464 "this war, but which upon reflection, I suggest, should make some sense."
18467 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18468 #: freeculture.xml:14131
18470 "Stripped of the rhetoric about the sanctity of property, the basic claim of "
18471 "the content industry is this: A new technology (the Internet) has harmed a "
18472 "set of rights that secure copyright. If those rights are to be protected, "
18473 "then the content industry should be compensated for that harm. Just as the "
18474 "technology of tobacco harmed the health of millions of Americans, or the "
18475 "technology of asbestos caused grave illness to thousands of miners, so, too, "
18476 "has the technology of digital networks harmed the interests of the content "
18481 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18482 #: freeculture.xml:14142
18484 "I love the Internet, and so I don't like likening it to tobacco or "
18485 "asbestos. But the analogy is a fair one from the perspective of the law. "
18486 "And it suggests a fair response: Rather than seeking to destroy the "
18487 "Internet, or the p2p technologies that are currently harming content "
18488 "providers on the Internet, we should find a relatively simple way to "
18489 "compensate those who are harmed."
18492 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
18493 #: freeculture.xml:14188
18494 msgid "Fisher, William"
18497 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18498 #: freeculture.xml:14154
18500 "William Fisher, <citetitle>Digital Music: Problems and "
18501 "Possibilities</citetitle> (last revised: 10 October 2000), available at "
18502 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #77</ulink>; William "
18503 "Fisher, <citetitle>Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of "
18504 "Entertainment</citetitle> (forthcoming) (Stanford: Stanford University "
18505 "Press, 2004), ch. 6, available at <ulink "
18506 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #78</ulink>. Professor Netanel "
18507 "has proposed a related idea that would exempt noncommercial sharing from the "
18508 "reach of copyright and would establish compensation to artists to balance "
18509 "any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel, \"Impose a Noncommercial Use Levy to "
18510 "Allow Free P2P File Sharing,\" available at <ulink "
18511 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #79</ulink>. For other proposals, "
18512 "see Lawrence Lessig, \"Who's Holding Back Broadband?\" <citetitle>Washington "
18513 "Post</citetitle>, 8 January 2002, A17; Philip S. Corwin on behalf of Sharman "
18514 "Networks, A Letter to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate "
18515 "Foreign Relations Committee, 26 February 2002, available at <ulink "
18516 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #80</ulink>; Serguei Osokine, "
18517 "<citetitle>A Quick Case for Intellectual Property Use Fee "
18518 "(IPUF)</citetitle>, 3 March 2002, available at <ulink "
18519 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #81</ulink>; Jefferson Graham, "
18520 "\"Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,\" <citetitle>USA "
18521 "Today</citetitle>, 13 May 2002, available at <ulink "
18522 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #82</ulink>; Steven M. Cherry, "
18523 "\"Getting Copyright Right,\" IEEE Spectrum Online, 1 July 2002, available at "
18524 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #83</ulink>; Declan "
18525 "McCullagh, \"Verizon's Copyright Campaign,\" CNET News.com, 27 August 2002, "
18526 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #84</ulink>. "
18527 "Fisher's proposal is very similar to Richard Stallman's proposal for "
18528 "DAT. Unlike Fisher's, Stallman's proposal would not pay artists directly "
18529 "proportionally, though more popular artists would get more than the less "
18530 "popular. As is typical with Stallman, his proposal predates the current "
18531 "debate by about a decade. See <ulink "
18532 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #85</ulink>. <placeholder "
18533 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18536 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18537 #: freeculture.xml:14150
18539 "The idea would be a modification of a proposal that has been floated by "
18540 "Harvard law professor William Fisher.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
18541 "id=\"0\"/> Fisher suggests a very clever way around the current impasse of "
18542 "the Internet. Under his plan, all content capable of digital transmission "
18543 "would (1) be marked with a digital watermark (don't worry about how easy it "
18544 "is to evade these marks; as you'll see, there's no incentive to evade "
18545 "them). Once the content is marked, then entrepreneurs would develop (2) "
18546 "systems to monitor how many items of each content were distributed. On the "
18547 "basis of those numbers, then (3) artists would be compensated. The "
18548 "compensation would be paid for by (4) an appropriate tax."
18551 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18552 #: freeculture.xml:14201
18554 "Fisher's proposal is careful and comprehensive. It raises a million "
18555 "questions, most of which he answers well in his upcoming book, "
18556 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep</citetitle>. The modification that I would make "
18557 "is relatively simple: Fisher imagines his proposal replacing the existing "
18558 "copyright system. I imagine it complementing the existing system. The aim "
18559 "of the proposal would be to facilitate compensation to the extent that harm "
18560 "could be shown. This compensation would be temporary, aimed at facilitating "
18561 "a transition between regimes. And it would require renewal after a period of "
18562 "years. If it continues to make sense to facilitate free exchange of content, "
18563 "supported through a taxation system, then it can be continued. If this form "
18564 "of protection is no longer necessary, then the system could lapse into the "
18565 "old system of controlling access."
18569 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18570 #: freeculture.xml:14216
18572 "Fisher would balk at the idea of allowing the system to lapse. His aim is "
18573 "not just to ensure that artists are paid, but also to ensure that the system "
18574 "supports the widest range of \"semiotic democracy\" possible. But the aims "
18575 "of semiotic democracy would be satisfied if the other changes I described "
18576 "were accomplished—in particular, the limits on derivative uses. A "
18577 "system that simply charges for access would not greatly burden semiotic "
18578 "democracy if there were few limitations on what one was allowed to do with "
18579 "the content itself."
18582 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18583 #: freeculture.xml:14229
18585 "No doubt it would be difficult to calculate the proper measure of \"harm\" "
18586 "to an industry. But the difficulty of making that calculation would be "
18587 "outweighed by the benefit of facilitating innovation. This background system "
18588 "to compensate would also not need to interfere with innovative proposals "
18589 "such as Apple's MusicStore. As experts predicted when Apple launched the "
18590 "MusicStore, it could beat \"free\" by being easier than free is. This has "
18591 "proven correct: Apple has sold millions of songs at even the very high price "
18592 "of 99 cents a song. (At 99 cents, the cost is the equivalent of a per-song "
18593 "CD price, though the labels have none of the costs of a CD to pay.) Apple's "
18594 "move was countered by Real Networks, offering music at just 79 cents a "
18595 "song. And no doubt there will be a great deal of competition to offer and "
18596 "sell music on-line."
18599 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18600 #: freeculture.xml:14244
18602 "This competition has already occurred against the background of \"free\" "
18603 "music from p2p systems. As the sellers of cable television have known for "
18604 "thirty years, and the sellers of bottled water for much more than that, "
18605 "there is nothing impossible at all about \"competing with free.\" Indeed, if "
18606 "anything, the competition spurs the competitors to offer new and better "
18607 "products. This is precisely what the competitive market was to be "
18608 "about. Thus in Singapore, though piracy is rampant, movie theaters are often "
18609 "luxurious—with \"first class\" seats, and meals served while you watch "
18610 "a movie—as they struggle and succeed in finding ways to compete with "
18614 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18615 #: freeculture.xml:14256
18617 "This regime of competition, with a backstop to assure that artists don't "
18618 "lose, would facilitate a great deal of innovation in the delivery of "
18619 "content. That competition would continue to shrink type A sharing. It would "
18620 "inspire an extraordinary range of new innovators—ones who would have a "
18621 "right to the content, and would no longer fear the uncertain and "
18622 "barbarically severe punishments of the law."
18625 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18626 #: freeculture.xml:14265
18627 msgid "In summary, then, my proposal is this:"
18631 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18632 #: freeculture.xml:14270
18634 "The Internet is in transition. We should not be regulating a technology in "
18635 "transition. We should instead be regulating to minimize the harm to "
18636 "interests affected by this technological change, while enabling, and "
18637 "encouraging, the most efficient technology we can create."
18640 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18641 #: freeculture.xml:14277
18642 msgid "We can minimize that harm while maximizing the benefit to innovation by"
18646 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18647 #: freeculture.xml:14283
18648 msgid "guaranteeing the right to engage in type D sharing;"
18652 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18653 #: freeculture.xml:14287
18655 "permitting noncommercial type C sharing without liability, and commercial "
18656 "type C sharing at a low and fixed rate set by statute;"
18660 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
18661 #: freeculture.xml:14293
18663 "while in this transition, taxing and compensating for type A sharing, to the "
18664 "extent actual harm is demonstrated."
18667 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18668 #: freeculture.xml:14298
18670 "But what if \"piracy\" doesn't disappear? What if there is a competitive "
18671 "market providing content at a low cost, but a significant number of "
18672 "consumers continue to \"take\" content for nothing? Should the law do "
18676 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18677 #: freeculture.xml:14304
18679 "Yes, it should. But, again, what it should do depends upon how the facts "
18680 "develop. These changes may not eliminate type A sharing. But the real issue "
18681 "is not whether it eliminates sharing in the abstract. The real issue is its "
18682 "effect on the market. Is it better (a) to have a technology that is 95 "
18683 "percent secure and produces a market of size <citetitle>x</citetitle>, or "
18684 "(b) to have a technology that is 50 percent secure but produces a market of "
18685 "five times <citetitle>x</citetitle>? Less secure might produce more "
18686 "unauthorized sharing, but it is likely to also produce a much bigger market "
18687 "in authorized sharing. The most important thing is to assure artists' "
18688 "compensation without breaking the Internet. Once that's assured, then it may "
18689 "well be appropriate to find ways to track down the petty pirates."
18693 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18694 #: freeculture.xml:14318
18696 "But we're a long way away from whittling the problem down to this subset of "
18697 "type A sharers. And our focus until we're there should not be on finding "
18698 "ways to break the Internet. Our focus until we're there should be on how to "
18699 "make sure the artists are paid, while protecting the space for innovation "
18700 "and creativity that the Internet is."
18703 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18704 #: freeculture.xml:14329
18705 msgid "5. Fire Lots of Lawyers"
18708 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18709 #: freeculture.xml:14331
18711 "I'm a lawyer. I make lawyers for a living. I believe in the law. I believe "
18712 "in the law of copyright. Indeed, I have devoted my life to working in law, "
18713 "not because there are big bucks at the end but because there are ideals at "
18714 "the end that I would love to live."
18717 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18718 #: freeculture.xml:14337
18720 "Yet much of this book has been a criticism of lawyers, or the role lawyers "
18721 "have played in this debate. The law speaks to ideals, but it is my view that "
18722 "our profession has become too attuned to the client. And in a world where "
18723 "the rich clients have one strong view, the unwillingness of the profession "
18724 "to question or counter that one strong view queers the law."
18728 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18729 #: freeculture.xml:14354
18731 "Lawrence Lessig, \"Copyright's First Amendment\" (Melville B. Nimmer "
18732 "Memorial Lecture), <citetitle>UCLA Law Review</citetitle> 48 (2001): 1057, "
18736 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18737 #: freeculture.xml:14345
18739 "The evidence of this bending is compelling. I'm attacked as a \"radical\" by "
18740 "many within the profession, yet the positions that I am advocating are "
18741 "precisely the positions of some of the most moderate and significant figures "
18742 "in the history of this branch of the law. Many, for example, thought crazy "
18743 "the challenge that we brought to the Copyright Term Extension Act. Yet just "
18744 "thirty years ago, the dominant scholar and practitioner in the field of "
18745 "copyright, Melville Nimmer, thought it obvious.<placeholder "
18746 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
18749 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18750 #: freeculture.xml:14360
18752 "However, my criticism of the role that lawyers have played in this debate is "
18753 "not just about a professional bias. It is more importantly about our failure "
18754 "to actually reckon the costs of the law."
18757 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18758 #: freeculture.xml:14370
18760 "A good example is the work of Professor Stan Liebowitz. Liebowitz is to be "
18761 "commended for his careful review of data about infringement, leading him to "
18762 "question his own publicly stated position—twice. He initially "
18763 "predicted that downloading would substantially harm the industry. He then "
18764 "revised his view in light of the data, and he has since revised his view "
18765 "again. Compare Stan J. Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network "
18766 "Economy: The True Forces That Drive the Digital Marketplace</citetitle> (New "
18767 "York: Amacom, 2002), (reviewing his original view but expressing skepticism) "
18768 "with Stan J. Liebowitz, \"Will MP3s Annihilate the Record Industry?\" "
18769 "working paper, June 2003, available at <ulink "
18770 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #86</ulink>. Liebowitz's careful "
18771 "analysis is extremely valuable in estimating the effect of file-sharing "
18772 "technology. In my view, however, he underestimates the costs of the legal "
18773 "system. See, for example, <citetitle>Rethinking</citetitle>, 174–76. "
18774 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18777 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18778 #: freeculture.xml:14365
18780 "Economists are supposed to be good at reckoning costs and benefits. But "
18781 "more often than not, economists, with no clue about how the legal system "
18782 "actually functions, simply assume that the transaction costs of the legal "
18783 "system are slight.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> They see a "
18784 "system that has been around for hundreds of years, and they assume it works "
18785 "the way their elementary school civics class taught them it works."
18789 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18790 #: freeculture.xml:14394
18792 "But the legal system doesn't work. Or more accurately, it doesn't work for "
18793 "anyone except those with the most resources. Not because the system is "
18794 "corrupt. I don't think our legal system (at the federal level, at least) is "
18795 "at all corrupt. I mean simply because the costs of our legal system are so "
18796 "astonishingly high that justice can practically never be done."
18799 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18800 #: freeculture.xml:14402
18802 "These costs distort free culture in many ways. A lawyer's time is billed at "
18803 "the largest firms at more than $400 per hour. How much time should such a "
18804 "lawyer spend reading cases carefully, or researching obscure strands of "
18805 "authority? The answer is the increasing reality: very little. The law "
18806 "depended upon the careful articulation and development of doctrine, but the "
18807 "careful articulation and development of legal doctrine depends upon careful "
18808 "work. Yet that careful work costs too much, except in the most high-profile "
18809 "and costly cases."
18812 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18813 #: freeculture.xml:14412
18815 "The costliness and clumsiness and randomness of this system mock our "
18816 "tradition. And lawyers, as well as academics, should consider it their duty "
18817 "to change the way the law works—or better, to change the law so that "
18818 "it works. It is wrong that the system works well only for the top 1 percent "
18819 "of the clients. It could be made radically more efficient, and inexpensive, "
18820 "and hence radically more just."
18823 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18824 #: freeculture.xml:14420
18826 "But until that reform is complete, we as a society should keep the law away "
18827 "from areas that we know it will only harm. And that is precisely what the "
18828 "law will too often do if too much of our culture is left to its review."
18831 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18832 #: freeculture.xml:14426
18834 "Think about the amazing things your kid could do or make with digital "
18835 "technology—the film, the music, the Web page, the blog. Or think about "
18836 "the amazing things your community could facilitate with digital "
18837 "technology—a wiki, a barn raising, activism to change something. "
18838 "Think about all those creative things, and then imagine cold molasses poured "
18839 "onto the machines. This is what any regime that requires permission "
18840 "produces. Again, this is the reality of Brezhnev's Russia."
18844 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18845 #: freeculture.xml:14435
18847 "The law should regulate in certain areas of culture—but it should "
18848 "regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely "
18849 "test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic "
18850 "question: \"Will it do good?\" When challenged about the expanding reach of "
18851 "the law, the lawyer answers, \"Why not?\""
18854 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18855 #: freeculture.xml:14444
18857 "We should ask, \"Why?\" Show me why your regulation of culture is "
18858 "needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your "
18862 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
18863 #: freeculture.xml:14453
18867 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18868 #: freeculture.xml:14455
18870 "Throughout this text, there are references to links on the World Wide "
18871 "Web. As anyone who has tried to use the Web knows, these links can be highly "
18872 "unstable. I have tried to remedy the instability by redirecting readers to "
18873 "the original source through the Web site associated with this book. For each "
18874 "link below, you can go to http://free-culture.cc/notes and locate the "
18875 "original source by clicking on the number after the # sign. If the original "
18876 "link remains alive, you will be redirected to that link. If the original "
18877 "link has disappeared, you will be redirected to an appropriate reference for "
18881 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
18882 #: freeculture.xml:14470
18883 msgid "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS"
18886 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18887 #: freeculture.xml:14472
18889 "This book is the product of a long and as yet unsuccessful struggle that "
18890 "began when I read of Eric Eldred's war to keep books free. Eldred's work "
18891 "helped launch a movement, the free culture movement, and it is to him that "
18892 "this book is dedicated."
18895 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18896 #: freeculture.xml:14478
18898 "I received guidance in various places from friends and academics, including "
18899 "Glenn Brown, Peter DiCola, Jennifer Mnookin, Richard Posner, Mark Rose, and "
18900 "Kathleen Sullivan. And I received correction and guidance from many amazing "
18901 "students at Stanford Law School and Stanford University. They included "
18902 "Andrew B. Coan, John Eden, James P. Fellers, Christopher Guzelian, Erica "
18903 "Goldberg, Robert Hallman, Andrew Harris, Matthew Kahn, Brian Link, Ohad "
18904 "Mayblum, Alina Ng, and Erica Platt. I am particularly grateful to Catherine "
18905 "Crump and Harry Surden, who helped direct their research, and to Laura "
18906 "Lynch, who brilliantly managed the army that they assembled, and provided "
18907 "her own critical eye on much of this."
18911 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18912 #: freeculture.xml:14491
18914 "Yuko Noguchi helped me to understand the laws of Japan as well as its "
18915 "culture. I am thankful to her, and to the many in Japan who helped me "
18916 "prepare this book: Joi Ito, Takayuki Matsutani, Naoto Misaki, Michihiro "
18917 "Sasaki, Hiromichi Tanaka, Hiroo Yamagata, and Yoshihiro Yonezawa. I am "
18918 "thankful as well as to Professor Nobuhiro Nakayama, and the Tokyo University "
18919 "Business Law Center, for giving me the chance to spend time in Japan, and to "
18920 "Tadashi Shiraishi and Kiyokazu Yamagami for their generous help while I was "
18924 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18925 #: freeculture.xml:14502
18927 "These are the traditional sorts of help that academics regularly draw "
18928 "upon. But in addition to them, the Internet has made it possible to receive "
18929 "advice and correction from many whom I have never even met. Among those who "
18930 "have responded with extremely helpful advice to requests on my blog about "
18931 "the book are Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, David Gerstein, and Peter DiMauro, as "
18932 "well as a long list of those who had specific ideas about ways to develop my "
18933 "argument. They included Richard Bondi, Steven Cherry, David Coe, Nik "
18934 "Cubrilovic, Bob Devine, Charles Eicher, Thomas Guida, Elihu M. Gerson, "
18935 "Jeremy Hunsinger, Vaughn Iverson, John Karabaic, Jeff Keltner, James "
18936 "Lindenschmidt, K. L. Mann, Mark Manning, Nora McCauley, Jeffrey McHugh, Evan "
18937 "McMullen, Fred Norton, John Pormann, Pedro A. D. Rezende, Shabbir Safdar, "
18938 "Saul Schleimer, Clay Shirky, Adam Shostack, Kragen Sitaker, Chris Smith, "
18939 "Bruce Steinberg, Andrzej Jan Taramina, Sean Walsh, Matt Wasserman, Miljenko "
18940 "Williams, \"Wink,\" Roger Wood, \"Ximmbo da Jazz,\" and Richard Yanco. (I "
18941 "apologize if I have missed anyone; with computers come glitches, and a crash "
18942 "of my e-mail system meant I lost a bunch of great replies.)"
18945 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18946 #: freeculture.xml:14522
18948 "Richard Stallman and Michael Carroll each read the whole book in draft, and "
18949 "each provided extremely helpful correction and advice. Michael helped me to "
18950 "see more clearly the significance of the regulation of derivitive works. And "
18951 "Richard corrected an embarrassingly large number of errors. While my work is "
18952 "in part inspired by Stallman's, he does not agree with me in important "
18953 "places throughout this book."
18956 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18957 #: freeculture.xml:14531
18959 "Finally, and forever, I am thankful to Bettina, who has always insisted that "
18960 "there would be unending happiness away from these battles, and who has "
18961 "always been right. This slow learner is, as ever, grateful for her perpetual "
18962 "patience and love."