1 # SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
2 # Copyright (C) YEAR Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 # This file is distributed under the same license as the PACKAGE package.
4 # FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.
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34 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
36 msgid "<abbrev>\"freeculture\"</abbrev>"
39 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subtitle>
42 "HOW BIG MEDIA USES TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW TO LOCK DOWN CULTURE AND CONTROL "
46 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
48 msgid "<pubdate>2004-03-25</pubdate>"
51 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><releaseinfo>
53 msgid "Version 2004-02-10"
56 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><firstname>
61 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><authorgroup><author><surname>
66 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
68 msgid "Intellectual property—United States."
71 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
73 msgid "Mass media—United States."
76 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
78 msgid "Technological innovations—United States."
81 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><subjectset><subject><subjectterm>
83 msgid "Art—United States."
86 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><publisher><address>
89 msgid "<city>New York</city>"
92 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
95 "<publisher> <publishername>The Penguin Press</publishername> <placeholder "
96 "type=\"address\" id=\"0\"/> </publisher> <copyright> <year>2004</year> "
97 "<holder>Lawrence Lessig</holder> </copyright>"
100 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para><inlinemediaobject>
101 #: freeculture.xml:66
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110 #: freeculture.xml:73
111 msgid "Creative Commons, Some rights reserved"
114 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
115 #: freeculture.xml:65
116 msgid "<placeholder type=\"inlinemediaobject\" id=\"0\"/>"
119 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><legalnotice><para>
120 #: freeculture.xml:79
122 "This version of <citetitle>Free Culture</citetitle> is licensed under a "
123 "Creative Commons license. This license permits non-commercial use of this "
124 "work, so long as attribution is given. For more information about the "
125 "license, click the icon above, or visit <ulink "
126 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/\">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/</ulink>"
129 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><title>
130 #: freeculture.xml:88
131 msgid "ABOUT THE AUTHOR"
134 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo><abstract><para>
135 #: freeculture.xml:90
137 "LAWRENCE LESSIG (<ulink "
138 "url=\"http://www.lessig.org\">http://www.lessig.org</ulink>), professor of "
139 "law and a John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law "
140 "School, is founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society and is "
141 "chairman of the Creative Commons (<ulink "
142 "url=\"http://creativecommons.org\">http://creativecommons.org</ulink>). The "
143 "author of The Future of Ideas (Random House, 2001) and Code: And Other Laws "
144 "of Cyberspace (Basic Books, 1999), Lessig is a member of the boards of the "
145 "Public Library of Science, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public "
146 "Knowledge. He was the winner of the Free Software Foundation's Award for the "
147 "Advancement of Free Software, twice listed in BusinessWeek's <quote>e.biz "
148 "25,</quote> and named one of Scientific American's <quote>50 "
149 "visionaries.</quote> A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge "
150 "University, and Yale Law School, Lessig clerked for Judge Richard Posner of "
151 "the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals."
154 #. testing different ways to tag the cover page
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168 #: freeculture.xml:111
170 "<imageobject remap=\"lrg\" role=\"front-large\"> <imagedata "
171 "fileref=\"images/cover.png\" format=\"PNG\" width=\"444\" /> </imageobject>"
175 #. http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v3=1&DB=local&CMD=010a+2003063276&CNT=10+records+per+page
177 #. type: Content of: <book><bookinfo>
178 #: freeculture.xml:109
180 " <placeholder type=\"mediaobject\" id=\"0\"/> <biblioid "
181 "class=\"isbn\">1-59420-006-8</biblioid> <biblioid "
182 "class=\"libraryofcongress\">2003063276</biblioid>"
185 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
186 #: freeculture.xml:139
187 msgid "You can buy a copy of this book by clicking on one of the links below:"
190 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
191 #: freeculture.xml:142
192 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.amazon.com/\">Amazon</ulink>"
195 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
196 #: freeculture.xml:143
197 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/\">B&N</ulink>"
200 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><itemizedlist><listitem><para>
201 #: freeculture.xml:144
202 msgid "<ulink url=\"http://www.penguin.com/\">Penguin</ulink>"
205 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
206 #: freeculture.xml:153
207 msgid "ALSO BY LAWRENCE LESSIG"
210 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
211 #: freeculture.xml:156
212 msgid "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World"
215 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
216 #: freeculture.xml:159
217 msgid "Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace"
220 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
221 #: freeculture.xml:167
223 "THE PENGUIN PRESS, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street "
227 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
228 #: freeculture.xml:171
229 msgid "Copyright © Lawrence Lessig. All rights reserved."
232 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
233 #: freeculture.xml:174
235 "Excerpt from an editorial titled <quote>The Coming of Copyright "
236 "Perpetuity,</quote> <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, January 16, "
237 "2003. Copyright © 2003 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with "
241 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
242 #: freeculture.xml:179
244 "Cartoon in <xref linkend=\"fig-1711\"/> by Paul Conrad, copyright Tribune "
245 "Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission."
248 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
249 #: freeculture.xml:183
251 "Diagram in <xref linkend=\"fig-1761\"/> courtesy of the office of FCC "
252 "Commissioner, Michael J. Copps."
255 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
256 #: freeculture.xml:187
257 msgid "Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data"
260 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
261 #: freeculture.xml:190
263 "Lessig, Lawrence. Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law "
264 "to lock down culture and control creativity / Lawrence Lessig."
267 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
268 #: freeculture.xml:195
272 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
273 #: freeculture.xml:198
274 msgid "Includes index."
277 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
278 #: freeculture.xml:201
279 msgid "ISBN 1-59420-006-8 (hardcover)"
282 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
283 #: freeculture.xml:205
285 "1. Intellectual property—United States. 2. Mass media—United "
289 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
290 #: freeculture.xml:208
292 "3. Technological innovations—United States. 4. Art—United "
296 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
297 #: freeculture.xml:211
301 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
302 #: freeculture.xml:214
303 msgid "343.7309'9—dc22"
306 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
307 #: freeculture.xml:217
308 msgid "This book is printed on acid-free paper."
311 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
312 #: freeculture.xml:220
313 msgid "Printed in the United States of America"
316 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
317 #: freeculture.xml:223
318 msgid "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4"
321 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
322 #: freeculture.xml:226
323 msgid "Designed by Marysarah Quinn"
326 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
327 #: freeculture.xml:230
328 msgid "&translationblock;"
331 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
332 #: freeculture.xml:234
334 "Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this "
335 "publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval "
336 "system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, "
337 "photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission "
338 "of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book."
341 #. type: Content of: <book><colophon><para>
342 #: freeculture.xml:242
344 "The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or "
345 "via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and "
346 "punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and "
347 "do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted "
348 "materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated."
351 #. type: Content of: <book><dedication><para>
352 #: freeculture.xml:254
354 "To Eric Eldred—whose work first drew me to this cause, and for whom it "
358 #. type: Content of: <book><lot><title>
359 #: freeculture.xml:262
360 msgid "List of figures"
363 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><title>
364 #: freeculture.xml:324
368 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
369 #: freeculture.xml:325
373 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
374 #: freeculture.xml:327
376 "<emphasis role=\"bold\">At the end</emphasis> of his review of my first "
377 "book, <citetitle>Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle>, David "
378 "Pogue, a brilliant writer and author of countless technical and "
379 "computer-related texts, wrote this:"
382 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
383 #: freeculture.xml:338
385 "David Pogue, <quote>Don't Just Chat, Do Something,</quote> <citetitle>New "
386 "York Times</citetitle>, 30 January 2000."
389 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
390 #: freeculture.xml:334
392 "Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn't "
393 "affect people who aren't online (and only a tiny minority of the world "
394 "population is). And if you don't like the Internet's system, you can always "
395 "flip off the modem.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
398 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
399 #: freeculture.xml:343
401 "Pogue was skeptical of the core argument of the book—that software, or "
402 "<quote>code,</quote> functioned as a kind of law—and his review "
403 "suggested the happy thought that if life in cyberspace got bad, we could "
404 "always <quote>drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome</quote>-like simply flip a "
405 "switch and be back home. Turn off the modem, unplug the computer, and any "
406 "troubles that exist in <emphasis>that</emphasis> space wouldn't "
407 "<quote>affect</quote> us anymore."
411 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
412 #: freeculture.xml:352
414 "Pogue might have been right in 1999—I'm skeptical, but maybe. But "
415 "even if he was right then, the point is not right now: <citetitle>Free "
416 "Culture</citetitle> is about the troubles the Internet causes even after the "
417 "modem is turned off. It is an argument about how the battles that now rage "
418 "regarding life on-line have fundamentally affected <quote>people who aren't "
419 "online.</quote> There is no switch that will insulate us from the Internet's "
423 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
424 #: freeculture.xml:363
426 "But unlike <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, the argument here is not much about "
427 "the Internet itself. It is instead about the consequence of the Internet to "
428 "a part of our tradition that is much more fundamental, and, as hard as this "
429 "is for a geek-wanna-be to admit, much more important."
432 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para><footnote><para>
433 #: freeculture.xml:375
435 "Richard M. Stallman, <citetitle>Free Software, Free Societies</citetitle> 57 "
436 "(Joshua Gay, ed. 2002)."
439 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
440 #: freeculture.xml:370
442 "That tradition is the way our culture gets made. As I explain in the pages "
443 "that follow, we come from a tradition of <quote>free "
444 "culture</quote>—not <quote>free</quote> as in <quote>free beer</quote> "
445 "(to borrow a phrase from the founder of the free software "
446 "movement<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), but <quote>free</quote> "
447 "as in <quote>free speech,</quote> <quote>free markets,</quote> <quote>free "
448 "trade,</quote> <quote>free enterprise,</quote> <quote>free will,</quote> and "
449 "<quote>free elections.</quote> A free culture supports and protects creators "
450 "and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual property "
451 "rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those rights, to "
452 "guarantee that follow-on creators and innovators remain <emphasis>as free as "
453 "possible</emphasis> from the control of the past. A free culture is not a "
454 "culture without property, just as a free market is not a market in which "
455 "everything is free. The opposite of a free culture is a <quote>permission "
456 "culture</quote>—a culture in which creators get to create only with "
457 "the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past."
460 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
461 #: freeculture.xml:390
463 "If we understood this change, I believe we would resist it. Not "
464 "<quote>we</quote> on the Left or <quote>you</quote> on the Right, but we who "
465 "have no stake in the particular industries of culture that defined the "
466 "twentieth century. Whether you are on the Left or the Right, if you are in "
467 "this sense disinterested, then the story I tell here will trouble you. For "
468 "the changes I describe affect values that both sides of our political "
469 "culture deem fundamental."
472 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
473 #: freeculture.xml:398 freeculture.xml:1022
474 msgid "power, concentration of"
477 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
478 #: freeculture.xml:399 freeculture.xml:13114
479 msgid "CodePink Women in Peace"
482 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
483 #: freeculture.xml:400 freeculture.xml:421 freeculture.xml:13115
484 msgid "Safire, William"
487 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><indexterm><primary>
488 #: freeculture.xml:401
492 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
493 #: freeculture.xml:403
495 "We saw a glimpse of this bipartisan outrage in the early summer of 2003. As "
496 "the FCC considered changes in media ownership rules that would relax limits "
497 "on media concentration, an extraordinary coalition generated more than "
498 "700,000 letters to the FCC opposing the change. As William Safire described "
499 "marching <quote>uncomfortably alongside CodePink Women for Peace and the "
500 "National Rifle Association, between liberal Olympia Snowe and conservative "
501 "Ted Stevens,</quote> he formulated perhaps most simply just what was at "
502 "stake: the concentration of power. And as he asked,"
505 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
506 #: freeculture.xml:419
508 "William Safire, <quote>The Great Media Gulp,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
509 "Times</citetitle>, 22 May 2003. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
512 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><blockquote><para>
513 #: freeculture.xml:415
515 "Does that sound unconservative? Not to me. The concentration of "
516 "power—political, corporate, media, cultural—should be anathema "
517 "to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby "
518 "encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the "
519 "greatest expression of democracy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
522 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
523 #: freeculture.xml:426
525 "This idea is an element of the argument of <citetitle>Free "
526 "Culture</citetitle>, though my focus is not just on the concentration of "
527 "power produced by concentrations in ownership, but more importantly, if "
528 "because less visibly, on the concentration of power produced by a radical "
529 "change in the effective scope of the law. The law is changing; that change "
530 "is altering the way our culture gets made; that change should worry "
531 "you—whether or not you care about the Internet, and whether you're on "
532 "Safire's left or on his right."
535 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
536 #: freeculture.xml:437
538 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">The inspiration</emphasis> for the title and for "
539 "much of the argument of this book comes from the work of Richard Stallman "
540 "and the Free Software Foundation. Indeed, as I reread Stallman's own work, "
541 "especially the essays in <citetitle>Free Software, Free Society</citetitle>, "
542 "I realize that all of the theoretical insights I develop here are insights "
543 "Stallman described decades ago. One could thus well argue that this work is "
544 "<quote>merely</quote> derivative."
548 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
549 #: freeculture.xml:446
551 "I accept that criticism, if indeed it is a criticism. The work of a lawyer "
552 "is always derivative, and I mean to do nothing more in this book than to "
553 "remind a culture about a tradition that has always been its own. Like "
554 "Stallman, I defend that tradition on the basis of values. Like Stallman, I "
555 "believe those are the values of freedom. And like Stallman, I believe those "
556 "are values of our past that will need to be defended in our future. A free "
557 "culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the "
558 "path we are on right now. Like Stallman's arguments for free software, an "
559 "argument for free culture stumbles on a confusion that is hard to avoid, and "
560 "even harder to understand. A free culture is not a culture without property; "
561 "it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid. A culture without "
562 "property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not "
563 "freedom. Anarchy is not what I advance here."
566 #. type: Content of: <book><preface><para>
567 #: freeculture.xml:464
569 "Instead, the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance between "
570 "anarchy and control. A free culture, like a free market, is filled with "
571 "property. It is filled with rules of property and contract that get enforced "
572 "by the state. But just as a free market is perverted if its property becomes "
573 "feudal, so too can a free culture be queered by extremism in the property "
574 "rights that define it. That is what I fear about our culture today. It is "
575 "against that extremism that this book is written."
578 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
579 #: freeculture.xml:479
583 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
584 #: freeculture.xml:480 freeculture.xml:580 freeculture.xml:1011
585 msgid "Wright brothers"
588 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
589 #: freeculture.xml:482
591 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">On December 17</emphasis>, 1903, on a windy North "
592 "Carolina beach for just shy of one hundred seconds, the Wright brothers "
593 "demonstrated that a heavier-than-air, self-propelled vehicle could fly. The "
594 "moment was electric and its importance widely understood. Almost "
595 "immediately, there was an explosion of interest in this newfound technology "
596 "of manned flight, and a gaggle of innovators began to build upon it."
599 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
600 #: freeculture.xml:489
601 msgid "air traffic, land ownership vs."
604 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
605 #: freeculture.xml:490 freeculture.xml:14108
606 msgid "land ownership, air traffic and"
609 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
610 #: freeculture.xml:491 freeculture.xml:14109
611 msgid "property rights"
614 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
615 #: freeculture.xml:491 freeculture.xml:14109
616 msgid "air traffic vs."
619 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
620 #: freeculture.xml:497
622 "St. George Tucker, <citetitle>Blackstone's Commentaries</citetitle> 3 (South "
623 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1969), 18."
626 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
627 #: freeculture.xml:493
629 "At the time the Wright brothers invented the airplane, American law held "
630 "that a property owner presumptively owned not just the surface of his land, "
631 "but all the land below, down to the center of the earth, and all the space "
632 "above, to <quote>an indefinite extent, upwards.</quote><placeholder "
633 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> For many years, scholars had puzzled about how "
634 "best to interpret the idea that rights in land ran to the heavens. Did that "
635 "mean that you owned the stars? Could you prosecute geese for their willful "
636 "and regular trespass?"
639 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
640 #: freeculture.xml:507
642 "Then came airplanes, and for the first time, this principle of American "
643 "law—deep within the foundations of our tradition, and acknowledged by "
644 "the most important legal thinkers of our past—mattered. If my land "
645 "reaches to the heavens, what happens when United flies over my field? Do I "
646 "have the right to banish it from my property? Am I allowed to enter into an "
647 "exclusive license with Delta Airlines? Could we set up an auction to decide "
648 "how much these rights are worth?"
651 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
652 #: freeculture.xml:515 freeculture.xml:528 freeculture.xml:559 freeculture.xml:578 freeculture.xml:992 freeculture.xml:1009 freeculture.xml:1057 freeculture.xml:9027 freeculture.xml:12483 freeculture.xml:13218
653 msgid "Causby, Thomas Lee"
656 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
657 #: freeculture.xml:516 freeculture.xml:529 freeculture.xml:560 freeculture.xml:579 freeculture.xml:993 freeculture.xml:1010 freeculture.xml:1058 freeculture.xml:9028 freeculture.xml:12484 freeculture.xml:13219
658 msgid "Causby, Tinie"
661 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
662 #: freeculture.xml:518
664 "In 1945, these questions became a federal case. When North Carolina farmers "
665 "Thomas Lee and Tinie Causby started losing chickens because of low-flying "
666 "military aircraft (the terrified chickens apparently flew into the barn "
667 "walls and died), the Causbys filed a lawsuit saying that the government was "
668 "trespassing on their land. The airplanes, of course, never touched the "
669 "surface of the Causbys' land. But if, as Blackstone, Kent, and Coke had "
670 "said, their land reached to <quote>an indefinite extent, upwards,</quote> "
671 "then the government was trespassing on their property, and the Causbys "
675 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
676 #: freeculture.xml:531
678 "The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Causbys' case. Congress had declared "
679 "the airways public, but if one's property really extended to the heavens, "
680 "then Congress's declaration could well have been an unconstitutional "
681 "<quote>taking</quote> of property without compensation. The Court "
682 "acknowledged that <quote>it is ancient doctrine that common law ownership of "
683 "the land extended to the periphery of the universe.</quote> But Justice "
684 "Douglas had no patience for ancient doctrine. In a single paragraph, "
685 "hundreds of years of property law were erased. As he wrote for the Court,"
688 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
689 #: freeculture.xml:551
691 "United States v. Causby, U.S. 328 (1946): 256, 261. The Court did find that "
692 "there could be a <quote>taking</quote> if the government's use of its land "
693 "effectively destroyed the value of the Causbys' land. This example was "
694 "suggested to me by Keith Aoki's wonderful piece, <quote>(Intellectual) "
695 "Property and Sovereignty: Notes Toward a Cultural Geography of "
696 "Authorship,</quote> <citetitle>Stanford Law Review</citetitle> 48 (1996): "
697 "1293, 1333. See also Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Real Property</citetitle> "
698 "(Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press, 1984), 1112–13. <placeholder "
699 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
702 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
703 #: freeculture.xml:542
705 "[The] doctrine has no place in the modern world. The air is a public "
706 "highway, as Congress has declared. Were that not true, every "
707 "transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass "
708 "suits. Common sense revolts at the idea. To recognize such private claims to "
709 "the airspace would clog these highways, seriously interfere with their "
710 "control and development in the public interest, and transfer into private "
711 "ownership that to which only the public has a just claim.<placeholder "
712 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
715 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
716 #: freeculture.xml:565
717 msgid "<quote>Common sense revolts at the idea.</quote>"
721 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
722 #: freeculture.xml:568
724 "This is how the law usually works. Not often this abruptly or impatiently, "
725 "but eventually, this is how it works. It was Douglas's style not to "
726 "dither. Other justices would have blathered on for pages to reach the "
727 "conclusion that Douglas holds in a single line: <quote>Common sense revolts "
728 "at the idea.</quote> But whether it takes pages or a few words, it is the "
729 "special genius of a common law system, as ours is, that the law adjusts to "
730 "the technologies of the time. And as it adjusts, it changes. Ideas that were "
731 "as solid as rock in one age crumble in another."
734 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
735 #: freeculture.xml:582
737 "Or at least, this is how things happen when there's no one powerful on the "
738 "other side of the change. The Causbys were just farmers. And though there "
739 "were no doubt many like them who were upset by the growing traffic in the "
740 "air (though one hopes not many chickens flew themselves into walls), the "
741 "Causbys of the world would find it very hard to unite and stop the idea, and "
742 "the technology, that the Wright brothers had birthed. The Wright brothers "
743 "spat airplanes into the technological meme pool; the idea then spread like a "
744 "virus in a chicken coop; farmers like the Causbys found themselves "
745 "surrounded by <quote>what seemed reasonable</quote> given the technology "
746 "that the Wrights had produced. They could stand on their farms, dead "
747 "chickens in hand, and shake their fists at these newfangled technologies all "
748 "they wanted. They could call their representatives or even file a "
749 "lawsuit. But in the end, the force of what seems <quote>obvious</quote> to "
750 "everyone else—the power of <quote>common sense</quote>—would "
751 "prevail. Their <quote>private interest</quote> would not be allowed to "
752 "defeat an obvious public gain."
755 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
756 #: freeculture.xml:602 freeculture.xml:9035 freeculture.xml:9690
757 msgid "Armstrong, Edwin Howard"
760 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
761 #: freeculture.xml:603
762 msgid "Bell, Alexander Graham"
765 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
766 #: freeculture.xml:604
767 msgid "Edison, Thomas"
770 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
771 #: freeculture.xml:605
772 msgid "Faraday, Michael"
776 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
777 #: freeculture.xml:607
779 "<emphasis role='strong'>Edwin Howard Armstrong</emphasis> is one of "
780 "America's forgotten inventor geniuses. He came to the great American "
781 "inventor scene just after the titans Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham "
782 "Bell. But his work in the area of radio technology was perhaps the most "
783 "important of any single inventor in the first fifty years of radio. He was "
784 "better educated than Michael Faraday, who as a bookbinder's apprentice had "
785 "discovered electric induction in 1831. But he had the same intuition about "
786 "how the world of radio worked, and on at least three occasions, Armstrong "
787 "invented profoundly important technologies that advanced our understanding "
791 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
792 #: freeculture.xml:620
794 "On the day after Christmas, 1933, four patents were issued to Armstrong for "
795 "his most significant invention—FM radio. Until then, consumer radio "
796 "had been amplitude-modulated (AM) radio. The theorists of the day had said "
797 "that frequency-modulated (FM) radio could never work. They were right about "
798 "FM radio in a narrow band of spectrum. But Armstrong discovered that "
799 "frequency-modulated radio in a wide band of spectrum would deliver an "
800 "astonishing fidelity of sound, with much less transmitter power and static."
803 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
804 #: freeculture.xml:630
806 "On November 5, 1935, he demonstrated the technology at a meeting of the "
807 "Institute of Radio Engineers at the Empire State Building in New York "
808 "City. He tuned his radio dial across a range of AM stations, until the radio "
809 "locked on a broadcast that he had arranged from seventeen miles away. The "
810 "radio fell totally silent, as if dead, and then with a clarity no one else "
811 "in that room had ever heard from an electrical device, it produced the sound "
812 "of an announcer's voice: <quote>This is amateur station W2AG at Yonkers, New "
813 "York, operating on frequency modulation at two and a half meters.</quote>"
816 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
817 #: freeculture.xml:641
818 msgid "The audience was hearing something no one had thought possible:"
821 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
822 #: freeculture.xml:652
824 "Lawrence Lessing, <citetitle>Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard "
825 "Armstrong</citetitle> (Philadelphia: J. B. Lipincott Company, 1956), 209."
828 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
829 #: freeculture.xml:645
831 "A glass of water was poured before the microphone in Yonkers; it sounded "
832 "like a glass of water being poured. … A paper was crumpled and torn; "
833 "it sounded like paper and not like a crackling forest fire. … Sousa "
834 "marches were played from records and a piano solo and guitar number were "
835 "performed. … The music was projected with a live-ness rarely if ever "
836 "heard before from a radio <quote>music box.</quote><placeholder "
837 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
841 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
842 #: freeculture.xml:658
844 "As our own common sense tells us, Armstrong had discovered a vastly superior "
845 "radio technology. But at the time of his invention, Armstrong was working "
846 "for RCA. RCA was the dominant player in the then dominant AM radio "
847 "market. By 1935, there were a thousand radio stations across the United "
848 "States, but the stations in large cities were all owned by a handful of "
852 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
853 #: freeculture.xml:666 freeculture.xml:693
854 msgid "Sarnoff, David"
857 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
858 #: freeculture.xml:668
860 "RCA's president, David Sarnoff, a friend of Armstrong's, was eager that "
861 "Armstrong discover a way to remove static from AM radio. So Sarnoff was "
862 "quite excited when Armstrong told him he had a device that removed static "
863 "from <quote>radio.</quote> But when Armstrong demonstrated his invention, "
864 "Sarnoff was not pleased."
867 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
868 #: freeculture.xml:679
870 "See <quote>Saints: The Heroes and Geniuses of the Electronic Era,</quote> "
871 "First Electronic Church of America, at www.webstationone.com/fecha, "
872 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #1</ulink>."
875 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
876 #: freeculture.xml:676
878 "I thought Armstrong would invent some kind of a filter to remove static from "
879 "our AM radio. I didn't think he'd start a revolution— start up a whole "
880 "damn new industry to compete with RCA.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
884 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
885 #: freeculture.xml:687
886 msgid "Lessing, Lawrence"
889 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
890 #: freeculture.xml:689
892 "Armstrong's invention threatened RCA's AM empire, so the company launched a "
893 "campaign to smother FM radio. While FM may have been a superior technology, "
894 "Sarnoff was a superior tactician. As one author described, <placeholder "
895 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
898 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
899 #: freeculture.xml:702
900 msgid "Lessing, 226."
903 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
904 #: freeculture.xml:697
906 "The forces for FM, largely engineering, could not overcome the weight of "
907 "strategy devised by the sales, patent, and legal offices to subdue this "
908 "threat to corporate position. For FM, if allowed to develop unrestrained, "
909 "posed … a complete reordering of radio power … and the "
910 "eventual overthrow of the carefully restricted AM system on which RCA had "
911 "grown to power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
914 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
915 #: freeculture.xml:707
917 "RCA at first kept the technology in house, insisting that further tests were "
918 "needed. When, after two years of testing, Armstrong grew impatient, RCA "
919 "began to use its power with the government to stall FM radio's deployment "
920 "generally. In 1936, RCA hired the former head of the FCC and assigned him "
921 "the task of assuring that the FCC assign spectrum in a way that would "
922 "castrate FM—principally by moving FM radio to a different band of "
923 "spectrum. At first, these efforts failed. But when Armstrong and the nation "
924 "were distracted by World War II, RCA's work began to be more "
925 "successful. Soon after the war ended, the FCC announced a set of policies "
926 "that would have one clear effect: FM radio would be crippled. As Lawrence "
927 "Lessing described it,"
930 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
931 #: freeculture.xml:726
932 msgid "Lessing, 256."
935 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
936 #: freeculture.xml:722
938 "The series of body blows that FM radio received right after the war, in a "
939 "series of rulings manipulated through the FCC by the big radio interests, "
940 "were almost incredible in their force and deviousness.<placeholder "
941 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
944 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
945 #: freeculture.xml:731
949 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
950 #: freeculture.xml:733
952 "To make room in the spectrum for RCA's latest gamble, television, FM radio "
953 "users were to be moved to a totally new spectrum band. The power of FM radio "
954 "stations was also cut, meaning FM could no longer be used to beam programs "
955 "from one part of the country to another. (This change was strongly "
956 "supported by AT&T, because the loss of FM relaying stations would mean "
957 "radio stations would have to buy wired links from AT&T.) The spread of "
958 "FM radio was thus choked, at least temporarily."
961 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
962 #: freeculture.xml:743
964 "Armstrong resisted RCA's efforts. In response, RCA resisted Armstrong's "
965 "patents. After incorporating FM technology into the emerging standard for "
966 "television, RCA declared the patents invalid—baselessly, and almost "
967 "fifteen years after they were issued. It thus refused to pay him "
968 "royalties. For six years, Armstrong fought an expensive war of litigation to "
969 "defend the patents. Finally, just as the patents expired, RCA offered a "
970 "settlement so low that it would not even cover Armstrong's lawyers' "
971 "fees. Defeated, broken, and now broke, in 1954 Armstrong wrote a short note "
972 "to his wife and then stepped out of a thirteenth-story window to his death."
976 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
977 #: freeculture.xml:756
979 "This is how the law sometimes works. Not often this tragically, and rarely "
980 "with heroic drama, but sometimes, this is how it works. From the beginning, "
981 "government and government agencies have been subject to capture. They are "
982 "more likely captured when a powerful interest is threatened by either a "
983 "legal or technical change. That powerful interest too often exerts its "
984 "influence within the government to get the government to protect it. The "
985 "rhetoric of this protection is of course always public spirited; the reality "
986 "is something different. Ideas that were as solid as rock in one age, but "
987 "that, left to themselves, would crumble in another, are sustained through "
988 "this subtle corruption of our political process. RCA had what the Causbys "
989 "did not: the power to stifle the effect of technological change."
992 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
993 #: freeculture.xml:778
995 "Amanda Lenhart, <quote>The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at "
996 "Internet Access and the Digital Divide,</quote> Pew Internet and American "
997 "Life Project, 15 April 2003: 6, available at <ulink "
998 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #2</ulink>."
1001 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1002 #: freeculture.xml:772
1004 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">There's no</emphasis> single inventor of the "
1005 "Internet. Nor is there any good date upon which to mark its birth. Yet in a "
1006 "very short time, the Internet has become part of ordinary American "
1007 "life. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 58 percent of "
1008 "Americans had access to the Internet in 2002, up from 49 percent two years "
1009 "before.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That number could well "
1010 "exceed two thirds of the nation by the end of 2004."
1013 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1014 #: freeculture.xml:787
1016 "As the Internet has been integrated into ordinary life, it has changed "
1017 "things. Some of these changes are technical—the Internet has made "
1018 "communication faster, it has lowered the cost of gathering data, and so "
1019 "on. These technical changes are not the focus of this book. They are "
1020 "important. They are not well understood. But they are the sort of thing that "
1021 "would simply go away if we all just switched the Internet off. They don't "
1022 "affect people who don't use the Internet, or at least they don't affect them "
1023 "directly. They are the proper subject of a book about the Internet. But this "
1024 "is not a book about the Internet."
1027 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1028 #: freeculture.xml:798
1030 "Instead, this book is about an effect of the Internet beyond the Internet "
1031 "itself: an effect upon how culture is made. My claim is that the Internet "
1032 "has induced an important and unrecognized change in that process. That "
1033 "change will radically transform a tradition that is as old as the Republic "
1034 "itself. Most, if they recognized this change, would reject it. Yet most "
1035 "don't even see the change that the Internet has introduced."
1038 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1039 #: freeculture.xml:806
1040 msgid "Barlow, Joel"
1043 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1044 #: freeculture.xml:807
1045 msgid "Webster, Noah"
1049 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1050 #: freeculture.xml:809
1052 "We can glimpse a sense of this change by distinguishing between commercial "
1053 "and noncommercial culture, and by mapping the law's regulation of each. By "
1054 "<quote>commercial culture</quote> I mean that part of our culture that is "
1055 "produced and sold or produced to be sold. By <quote>noncommercial "
1056 "culture</quote> I mean all the rest. When old men sat around parks or on "
1057 "street corners telling stories that kids and others consumed, that was "
1058 "noncommercial culture. When Noah Webster published his "
1059 "<quote>Reader,</quote> or Joel Barlow his poetry, that was commercial "
1063 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1064 #: freeculture.xml:821
1066 "At the beginning of our history, and for just about the whole of our "
1067 "tradition, noncommercial culture was essentially unregulated. Of course, if "
1068 "your stories were lewd, or if your song disturbed the peace, then the law "
1069 "might intervene. But the law was never directly concerned with the creation "
1070 "or spread of this form of culture, and it left this culture "
1071 "<quote>free.</quote> The ordinary ways in which ordinary individuals shared "
1072 "and transformed their culture—telling stories, reenacting scenes from "
1073 "plays or TV, participating in fan clubs, sharing music, making "
1074 "tapes—were left alone by the law."
1077 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1078 #: freeculture.xml:846 freeculture.xml:1883 freeculture.xml:1894
1079 msgid "Brandeis, Louis D."
1082 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1083 #: freeculture.xml:838
1085 "This is not the only purpose of copyright, though it is the overwhelmingly "
1086 "primary purpose of the copyright established in the federal constitution. "
1087 "State copyright law historically protected not just the commercial interest "
1088 "in publication, but also a privacy interest. By granting authors the "
1089 "exclusive right to first publication, state copyright law gave authors the "
1090 "power to control the spread of facts about them. See Samuel D. Warren and "
1091 "Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> Harvard Law Review 4 "
1092 "(1890): 193, 198–200. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1095 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1096 #: freeculture.xml:832
1098 "The focus of the law was on commercial creativity. At first slightly, then "
1099 "quite extensively, the law protected the incentives of creators by granting "
1100 "them exclusive rights to their creative work, so that they could sell those "
1101 "exclusive rights in a commercial marketplace.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
1102 "id=\"0\"/> This is also, of course, an important part of creativity and "
1103 "culture, and it has become an increasingly important part in America. But in "
1104 "no sense was it dominant within our tradition. It was instead just one part, "
1105 "a controlled part, balanced with the free."
1108 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1109 #: freeculture.xml:853
1110 msgid "free culture"
1113 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1114 #: freeculture.xml:853
1115 msgid "permission culture vs."
1118 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1119 #: freeculture.xml:854
1120 msgid "permission culture"
1123 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1124 #: freeculture.xml:854
1125 msgid "free culture vs."
1128 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1129 #: freeculture.xml:860 freeculture.xml:9583
1130 msgid "Litman, Jessica"
1133 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1134 #: freeculture.xml:858
1136 "See Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (New York: "
1137 "Prometheus Books, 2001), ch. 13. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1140 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1141 #: freeculture.xml:856
1143 "This rough divide between the free and the controlled has now been "
1144 "erased.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Internet has set the "
1145 "stage for this erasure and, pushed by big media, the law has now affected "
1146 "it. For the first time in our tradition, the ordinary ways in which "
1147 "individuals create and share culture fall within the reach of the regulation "
1148 "of the law, which has expanded to draw within its control a vast amount of "
1149 "culture and creativity that it never reached before. The technology that "
1150 "preserved the balance of our history—between uses of our culture that "
1151 "were free and uses of our culture that were only upon permission—has "
1152 "been undone. The consequence is that we are less and less a free culture, "
1153 "more and more a permission culture."
1156 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1157 #: freeculture.xml:875
1159 "This change gets justified as necessary to protect commercial creativity. "
1160 "And indeed, protectionism is precisely its motivation. But the protectionism "
1161 "that justifies the changes that I will describe below is not the limited and "
1162 "balanced sort that has defined the law in the past. This is not a "
1163 "protectionism to protect artists. It is instead a protectionism to protect "
1164 "certain forms of business. Corporations threatened by the potential of the "
1165 "Internet to change the way both commercial and noncommercial culture are "
1166 "made and shared have united to induce lawmakers to use the law to protect "
1167 "them. It is the story of RCA and Armstrong; it is the dream of the Causbys."
1170 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1171 #: freeculture.xml:888
1173 "For the Internet has unleashed an extraordinary possibility for many to "
1174 "participate in the process of building and cultivating a culture that "
1175 "reaches far beyond local boundaries. That power has changed the marketplace "
1176 "for making and cultivating culture generally, and that change in turn "
1177 "threatens established content industries. The Internet is thus to the "
1178 "industries that built and distributed content in the twentieth century what "
1179 "FM radio was to AM radio, or what the truck was to the railroad industry of "
1180 "the nineteenth century: the beginning of the end, or at least a substantial "
1181 "transformation. Digital technologies, tied to the Internet, could produce a "
1182 "vastly more competitive and vibrant market for building and cultivating "
1183 "culture; that market could include a much wider and more diverse range of "
1184 "creators; those creators could produce and distribute a much more vibrant "
1185 "range of creativity; and depending upon a few important factors, those "
1186 "creators could earn more on average from this system than creators do "
1187 "today—all so long as the RCAs of our day don't use the law to protect "
1188 "themselves against this competition."
1191 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1192 #: freeculture.xml:907
1194 "Yet, as I argue in the pages that follow, that is precisely what is "
1195 "happening in our culture today. These modern-day equivalents of the early "
1196 "twentieth-century radio or nineteenth-century railroads are using their "
1197 "power to get the law to protect them against this new, more efficient, more "
1198 "vibrant technology for building culture. They are succeeding in their plan "
1199 "to remake the Internet before the Internet remakes them."
1202 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1203 #: freeculture.xml:915
1204 msgid "Valenti, Jack"
1207 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
1208 #: freeculture.xml:915
1209 msgid "on creative property rights"
1212 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1213 #: freeculture.xml:925
1215 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Black Hawk Download: Moving Beyond Music, Pirates Use New "
1216 "Tools to Turn the Net into an Illicit Video Club,</quote> <citetitle>New "
1217 "York Times</citetitle>, 17 January 2002."
1220 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1221 #: freeculture.xml:917
1223 "It doesn't seem this way to many. The battles over copyright and the "
1224 "Internet seem remote to most. To the few who follow them, they seem mainly "
1225 "about a much simpler brace of questions—whether <quote>piracy</quote> "
1226 "will be permitted, and whether <quote>property</quote> will be "
1227 "protected. The <quote>war</quote> that has been waged against the "
1228 "technologies of the Internet—what Motion Picture Association of "
1229 "America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti calls his <quote>own terrorist "
1230 "war</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—has been framed "
1231 "as a battle about the rule of law and respect for property. To know which "
1232 "side to take in this war, most think that we need only decide whether we're "
1233 "for property or against it."
1236 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1237 #: freeculture.xml:934
1239 "If those really were the choices, then I would be with Jack Valenti and the "
1240 "content industry. I, too, am a believer in property, and especially in the "
1241 "importance of what Mr. Valenti nicely calls <quote>creative "
1242 "property.</quote> I believe that <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong, and that "
1243 "the law, properly tuned, should punish <quote>piracy,</quote> whether on or "
1247 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1248 #: freeculture.xml:942
1250 "But those simple beliefs mask a much more fundamental question and a much "
1251 "more dramatic change. My fear is that unless we come to see this change, the "
1252 "war to rid the world of Internet <quote>pirates</quote> will also rid our "
1253 "culture of values that have been integral to our tradition from the start."
1256 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1257 #: freeculture.xml:956 freeculture.xml:14507
1258 msgid "Netanel, Neil Weinstock"
1261 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1262 #: freeculture.xml:954
1264 "Neil W. Netanel, <quote>Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society,</quote> "
1265 "<citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 106 (1996): 283. <placeholder "
1266 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
1269 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1270 #: freeculture.xml:948
1272 "These values built a tradition that, for at least the first 180 years of our "
1273 "Republic, guaranteed creators the right to build freely upon their past, and "
1274 "protected creators and innovators from either state or private control. The "
1275 "First Amendment protected creators against state control. And as Professor "
1276 "Neil Netanel powerfully argues,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1277 "copyright law, properly balanced, protected creators against private "
1278 "control. Our tradition was thus neither Soviet nor the tradition of "
1279 "patrons. It instead carved out a wide berth within which creators could "
1280 "cultivate and extend our culture."
1283 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1284 #: freeculture.xml:964
1286 "Yet the law's response to the Internet, when tied to changes in the "
1287 "technology of the Internet itself, has massively increased the effective "
1288 "regulation of creativity in America. To build upon or critique the culture "
1289 "around us one must ask, Oliver Twist–like, for permission first. "
1290 "Permission is, of course, often granted—but it is not often granted to "
1291 "the critical or the independent. We have built a kind of cultural nobility; "
1292 "those within the noble class live easily; those outside it don't. But it is "
1293 "nobility of any form that is alien to our tradition."
1296 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1297 #: freeculture.xml:976
1299 "The story that follows is about this war. Is it not about the "
1300 "<quote>centrality of technology</quote> to ordinary life. I don't believe in "
1301 "gods, digital or otherwise. Nor is it an effort to demonize any individual "
1302 "or group, for neither do I believe in a devil, corporate or otherwise. It is "
1303 "not a morality tale. Nor is it a call to jihad against an industry."
1306 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1307 #: freeculture.xml:984
1309 "It is instead an effort to understand a hopelessly destructive war inspired "
1310 "by the technologies of the Internet but reaching far beyond its code. And by "
1311 "understanding this battle, it is an effort to map peace. There is no good "
1312 "reason for the current struggle around Internet technologies to "
1313 "continue. There will be great harm to our tradition and culture if it is "
1314 "allowed to continue unchecked. We must come to understand the source of this "
1315 "war. We must resolve it soon."
1318 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1319 #: freeculture.xml:995
1321 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Like the Causbys'</emphasis> battle, this war is, "
1322 "in part, about <quote>property.</quote> The property of this war is not as "
1323 "tangible as the Causbys', and no innocent chicken has yet to lose its "
1324 "life. Yet the ideas surrounding this <quote>property</quote> are as obvious "
1325 "to most as the Causbys' claim about the sacredness of their farm was to "
1326 "them. We are the Causbys. Most of us take for granted the extraordinarily "
1327 "powerful claims that the owners of <quote>intellectual property</quote> now "
1328 "assert. Most of us, like the Causbys, treat these claims as obvious. And "
1329 "hence we, like the Causbys, object when a new technology interferes with "
1330 "this property. It is as plain to us as it was to them that the new "
1331 "technologies of the Internet are <quote>trespassing</quote> upon legitimate "
1332 "claims of <quote>property.</quote> It is as plain to us as it was to them "
1333 "that the law should intervene to stop this trespass."
1337 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1338 #: freeculture.xml:1013
1340 "And thus, when geeks and technologists defend their Armstrong or Wright "
1341 "brothers technology, most of us are simply unsympathetic. Common sense does "
1342 "not revolt. Unlike in the case of the unlucky Causbys, common sense is on "
1343 "the side of the property owners in this war. Unlike the lucky Wright "
1344 "brothers, the Internet has not inspired a revolution on its side."
1347 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1348 #: freeculture.xml:1024
1350 "My hope is to push this common sense along. I have become increasingly "
1351 "amazed by the power of this idea of intellectual property and, more "
1352 "importantly, its power to disable critical thought by policy makers and "
1353 "citizens. There has never been a time in our history when more of our "
1354 "<quote>culture</quote> was as <quote>owned</quote> as it is now. And yet "
1355 "there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the "
1356 "<emphasis>uses</emphasis> of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as "
1360 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1361 #: freeculture.xml:1034
1363 "The puzzle is, Why? Is it because we have come to understand a truth about "
1364 "the value and importance of absolute property over ideas and culture? Is it "
1365 "because we have discovered that our tradition of rejecting such an absolute "
1369 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1370 #: freeculture.xml:1040
1372 "Or is it because the idea of absolute property over ideas and culture "
1373 "benefits the RCAs of our time and fits our own unreflective intuitions?"
1376 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1377 #: freeculture.xml:1044
1379 "Is the radical shift away from our tradition of free culture an instance of "
1380 "America correcting a mistake from its past, as we did after a bloody war "
1381 "with slavery, and as we are slowly doing with inequality? Or is the radical "
1382 "shift away from our tradition of free culture yet another example of a "
1383 "political system captured by a few powerful special interests?"
1386 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1387 #: freeculture.xml:1051
1389 "Does common sense lead to the extremes on this question because common sense "
1390 "actually believes in these extremes? Or does common sense stand silent in "
1391 "the face of these extremes because, as with Armstrong versus RCA, the more "
1392 "powerful side has ensured that it has the more powerful view?"
1396 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1397 #: freeculture.xml:1060
1399 "I don't mean to be mysterious. My own views are resolved. I believe it was "
1400 "right for common sense to revolt against the extremism of the Causbys. I "
1401 "believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme "
1402 "claims made today on behalf of <quote>intellectual property.</quote> What "
1403 "the law demands today is increasingly as silly as a sheriff arresting an "
1404 "airplane for trespass. But the consequences of this silliness will be much "
1408 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1409 #: freeculture.xml:1070
1411 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">The struggle</emphasis> that rages just now "
1412 "centers on two ideas: <quote>piracy</quote> and <quote>property.</quote> My "
1413 "aim in this book's next two parts is to explore these two ideas."
1416 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1417 #: freeculture.xml:1075
1419 "My method is not the usual method of an academic. I don't want to plunge you "
1420 "into a complex argument, buttressed with references to obscure French "
1421 "theorists—however natural that is for the weird sort we academics have "
1422 "become. Instead I begin in each part with a collection of stories that set a "
1423 "context within which these apparently simple ideas can be more fully "
1427 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1428 #: freeculture.xml:1083
1430 "The two sections set up the core claim of this book: that while the Internet "
1431 "has indeed produced something fantastic and new, our government, pushed by "
1432 "big media to respond to this <quote>something new,</quote> is destroying "
1433 "something very old. Rather than understanding the changes the Internet might "
1434 "permit, and rather than taking time to let <quote>common sense</quote> "
1435 "resolve how best to respond, we are allowing those most threatened by the "
1436 "changes to use their power to change the law—and more importantly, to "
1437 "use their power to change something fundamental about who we have always "
1441 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
1442 #: freeculture.xml:1094
1444 "We allow this, I believe, not because it is right, and not because most of "
1445 "us really believe in these changes. We allow it because the interests most "
1446 "threatened are among the most powerful players in our depressingly "
1447 "compromised process of making law. This book is the story of one more "
1448 "consequence of this form of corruption—a consequence to which most of "
1449 "us remain oblivious."
1452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
1453 #: freeculture.xml:1104
1454 msgid "<quote>PIRACY</quote>"
1457 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1458 #: freeculture.xml:1107
1459 msgid "Copyright law"
1462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><secondary>
1463 #: freeculture.xml:1107
1467 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1468 #: freeculture.xml:1108 freeculture.xml:4841
1469 msgid "Mansfield, William Murray, Lord"
1472 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1473 #: freeculture.xml:1109
1474 msgid "music publishing"
1477 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
1478 #: freeculture.xml:1110 freeculture.xml:3041
1482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1483 #: freeculture.xml:1112
1485 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Since the inception</emphasis> of the law "
1486 "regulating creative property, there has been a war against "
1487 "<quote>piracy.</quote> The precise contours of this concept, "
1488 "<quote>piracy,</quote> are hard to sketch, but the animating injustice is "
1489 "easy to capture. As Lord Mansfield wrote in a case that extended the reach "
1490 "of English copyright law to include sheet music,"
1494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1495 #: freeculture.xml:1124
1497 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
1498 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777) (Mansfield)."
1501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1502 #: freeculture.xml:1120
1504 "A person may use the copy by playing it, but he has no right to rob the "
1505 "author of the profit, by multiplying copies and disposing of them for his "
1506 "own use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1511 #: freeculture.xml:1130
1513 "Today we are in the middle of another <quote>war</quote> against "
1514 "<quote>piracy.</quote> The Internet has provoked this war. The Internet "
1515 "makes possible the efficient spread of content. Peer-to-peer (p2p) file "
1516 "sharing is among the most efficient of the efficient technologies the "
1517 "Internet enables. Using distributed intelligence, p2p systems facilitate the "
1518 "easy spread of content in a way unimagined a generation ago."
1521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1522 #: freeculture.xml:1139
1524 "This efficiency does not respect the traditional lines of copyright. The "
1525 "network doesn't discriminate between the sharing of copyrighted and "
1526 "uncopyrighted content. Thus has there been a vast amount of sharing of "
1527 "copyrighted content. That sharing in turn has excited the war, as copyright "
1528 "owners fear the sharing will <quote>rob the author of the profit.</quote>"
1531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1532 #: freeculture.xml:1147
1534 "The warriors have turned to the courts, to the legislatures, and "
1535 "increasingly to technology to defend their <quote>property</quote> against "
1536 "this <quote>piracy.</quote> A generation of Americans, the warriors warn, is "
1537 "being raised to believe that <quote>property</quote> should be "
1538 "<quote>free.</quote> Forget tattoos, never mind body piercing—our kids "
1539 "are becoming <emphasis>thieves</emphasis>!"
1542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1543 #: freeculture.xml:1155
1545 "There's no doubt that <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong, and that pirates "
1546 "should be punished. But before we summon the executioners, we should put "
1547 "this notion of <quote>piracy</quote> in some context. For as the concept is "
1548 "increasingly used, at its core is an extraordinary idea that is almost "
1552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1553 #: freeculture.xml:1161
1554 msgid "The idea goes something like this:"
1557 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><blockquote><para>
1558 #: freeculture.xml:1165
1560 "Creative work has value; whenever I use, or take, or build upon the creative "
1561 "work of others, I am taking from them something of value. Whenever I take "
1562 "something of value from someone else, I should have their permission. The "
1563 "taking of something of value from someone else without permission is "
1564 "wrong. It is a form of piracy."
1567 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1568 #: freeculture.xml:1173
1572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1573 #: freeculture.xml:1174
1574 msgid "Dreyfuss, Rochelle"
1577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><indexterm><primary>
1578 #: freeculture.xml:1175
1582 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1583 #: freeculture.xml:1176 freeculture.xml:2850
1584 msgid "<quote>if value, then right</quote> theory"
1588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1589 #: freeculture.xml:1182
1591 "See Rochelle Dreyfuss, <quote>Expressive Genericity: Trademarks as Language "
1592 "in the Pepsi Generation,</quote> <citetitle>Notre Dame Law "
1593 "Review</citetitle> 65 (1990): 397."
1596 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1597 #: freeculture.xml:1195 freeculture.xml:6996
1598 msgid "Zittrain, Jonathan"
1601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1602 #: freeculture.xml:1190
1604 "Lisa Bannon, <quote>The Birds May Sing, but Campers Can't Unless They Pay "
1605 "Up,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 21 August 1996, "
1606 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #3</ulink>; "
1607 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>Calling Off the Copyright War: In Battle of "
1608 "Property vs. Free Speech, No One Wins,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
1609 "Globe</citetitle>, 24 November 2002. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
1613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1614 #: freeculture.xml:1178
1616 "This view runs deep within the current debates. It is what NYU law professor "
1617 "Rochelle Dreyfuss criticizes as the <quote>if value, then right</quote> "
1618 "theory of creative property<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
1619 "—if there is value, then someone must have a right to that value. It "
1620 "is the perspective that led a composers' rights organization, ASCAP, to sue "
1621 "the Girl Scouts for failing to pay for the songs that girls sang around Girl "
1622 "Scout campfires.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> There was "
1623 "<quote>value</quote> (the songs) so there must have been a "
1624 "<quote>right</quote>—even against the Girl Scouts."
1628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1629 #: freeculture.xml:1201
1631 "This idea is certainly a possible understanding of how creative property "
1632 "should work. It might well be a possible design for a system of law "
1633 "protecting creative property. But the <quote>if value, then right</quote> "
1634 "theory of creative property has never been America's theory of creative "
1635 "property. It has never taken hold within our law."
1638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1639 #: freeculture.xml:1210
1641 "Instead, in our tradition, intellectual property is an instrument. It sets "
1642 "the groundwork for a richly creative society but remains subservient to the "
1643 "value of creativity. The current debate has this turned around. We have "
1644 "become so concerned with protecting the instrument that we are losing sight "
1648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1649 #: freeculture.xml:1217
1651 "The source of this confusion is a distinction that the law no longer takes "
1652 "care to draw—the distinction between republishing someone's work on "
1653 "the one hand and building upon or transforming that work on the "
1654 "other. Copyright law at its birth had only publishing as its concern; "
1655 "copyright law today regulates both."
1658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1659 #: freeculture.xml:1224
1661 "Before the technologies of the Internet, this conflation didn't matter all "
1662 "that much. The technologies of publishing were expensive; that meant the "
1663 "vast majority of publishing was commercial. Commercial entities could bear "
1664 "the burden of the law—even the burden of the Byzantine complexity that "
1665 "copyright law has become. It was just one more expense of doing business."
1668 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1669 #: freeculture.xml:1231 freeculture.xml:1262
1670 msgid "Florida, Richard"
1673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
1674 #: freeculture.xml:1232 freeculture.xml:1263
1675 msgid "Rise of the Creative Class, The (Florida)"
1678 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
1679 #: freeculture.xml:1254
1681 "In <citetitle>The Rise of the Creative Class</citetitle> (New York: Basic "
1682 "Books, 2002), Richard Florida documents a shift in the nature of labor "
1683 "toward a labor of creativity. His work, however, doesn't directly address "
1684 "the legal conditions under which that creativity is enabled or stifled. I "
1685 "certainly agree with him about the importance and significance of this "
1686 "change, but I also believe the conditions under which it will be enabled are "
1687 "much more tenuous. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
1688 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
1691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1692 #: freeculture.xml:1234
1694 "But with the birth of the Internet, this natural limit to the reach of the "
1695 "law has disappeared. The law controls not just the creativity of commercial "
1696 "creators but effectively that of anyone. Although that expansion would not "
1697 "matter much if copyright law regulated only <quote>copying,</quote> when the "
1698 "law regulates as broadly and obscurely as it does, the extension matters a "
1699 "lot. The burden of this law now vastly outweighs any original "
1700 "benefit—certainly as it affects noncommercial creativity, and "
1701 "increasingly as it affects commercial creativity as well. Thus, as we'll see "
1702 "more clearly in the chapters below, the law's role is less and less to "
1703 "support creativity, and more and more to protect certain industries against "
1704 "competition. Just at the time digital technology could unleash an "
1705 "extraordinary range of commercial and noncommercial creativity, the law "
1706 "burdens this creativity with insanely complex and vague rules and with the "
1707 "threat of obscenely severe penalties. We may be seeing, as Richard Florida "
1708 "writes, the <quote>Rise of the Creative Class.</quote><placeholder "
1709 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Unfortunately, we are also seeing an "
1710 "extraordinary rise of regulation of this creative class."
1713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
1714 #: freeculture.xml:1269
1716 "These burdens make no sense in our tradition. We should begin by "
1717 "understanding that tradition a bit more and by placing in their proper "
1718 "context the current battles about behavior labeled <quote>piracy.</quote>"
1721 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
1722 #: freeculture.xml:1277
1723 msgid "CHAPTER ONE: Creators"
1726 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1727 #: freeculture.xml:1278
1728 msgid "animated cartoons"
1731 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1732 #: freeculture.xml:1279
1733 msgid "cartoon films"
1736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1737 #: freeculture.xml:1281
1739 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">In 1928</emphasis>, a cartoon character was "
1740 "born. An early Mickey Mouse made his debut in May of that year, in a silent "
1741 "flop called <citetitle>Plane Crazy</citetitle>. In November, in New York "
1742 "City's Colony Theater, in the first widely distributed cartoon synchronized "
1743 "with sound, <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle> brought to life the "
1744 "character that would become Mickey Mouse."
1747 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1748 #: freeculture.xml:1288
1750 "Synchronized sound had been introduced to film a year earlier in the movie "
1751 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle>. That success led Walt Disney to copy "
1752 "the technique and mix sound with cartoons. No one knew whether it would work "
1753 "or, if it did work, whether it would win an audience. But when Disney ran a "
1754 "test in the summer of 1928, the results were unambiguous. As Disney "
1755 "describes that first experiment,"
1759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1760 #: freeculture.xml:1297
1762 "A couple of my boys could read music, and one of them could play a mouth "
1763 "organ. We put them in a room where they could not see the screen and "
1764 "arranged to pipe their sound into the room where our wives and friends were "
1765 "going to see the picture."
1768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1769 #: freeculture.xml:1304
1771 "The boys worked from a music and sound-effects score. After several false "
1772 "starts, sound and action got off with the gun. The mouth organist played the "
1773 "tune, the rest of us in the sound department bammed tin pans and blew slide "
1774 "whistles on the beat. The synchronization was pretty close."
1778 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
1779 #: freeculture.xml:1317
1781 "Leonard Maltin, <citetitle>Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated "
1782 "Cartoons</citetitle> (New York: Penguin Books, 1987), 34–35."
1785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
1786 #: freeculture.xml:1311
1788 "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They "
1789 "responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought "
1790 "they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action "
1791 "again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something "
1792 "new!<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
1795 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
1796 #: freeculture.xml:1322
1800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1801 #: freeculture.xml:1324
1803 "Disney's then partner, and one of animation's most extraordinary talents, Ub "
1804 "Iwerks, put it more strongly: <quote>I have never been so thrilled in my "
1805 "life. Nothing since has ever equaled it.</quote>"
1808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1809 #: freeculture.xml:1329
1811 "Disney had created something very new, based upon something relatively "
1812 "new. Synchronized sound brought life to a form of creativity that had "
1813 "rarely—except in Disney's hands—been anything more than filler "
1814 "for other films. Throughout animation's early history, it was Disney's "
1815 "invention that set the standard that others struggled to match. And quite "
1816 "often, Disney's great genius, his spark of creativity, was built upon the "
1820 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1821 #: freeculture.xml:1338
1823 "This much is familiar. What you might not know is that 1928 also marks "
1824 "another important transition. In that year, a comic (as opposed to cartoon) "
1825 "genius created his last independently produced silent film. That genius was "
1826 "Buster Keaton. The film was <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>."
1829 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1830 #: freeculture.xml:1344
1832 "Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in 1895. In the era of silent film, "
1833 "he had mastered using broad physical comedy as a way to spark uncontrollable "
1834 "laughter from his audience. <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. was a "
1835 "classic of this form, famous among film buffs for its incredible stunts. "
1836 "The film was classic Keaton—wildly popular and among the best of its "
1841 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1842 #: freeculture.xml:1358
1844 "I am grateful to David Gerstein and his careful history, described at <ulink "
1845 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #4</ulink>. According to Dave "
1846 "Smith of the Disney Archives, Disney paid royalties to use the music for "
1847 "five songs in <citetitle>Steamboat Willie</citetitle>: <quote>Steamboat "
1848 "Bill,</quote> <quote>The Simpleton</quote> (Delille), <quote>Mischief "
1849 "Makers</quote> (Carbonara), <quote>Joyful Hurry No. 1</quote> (Baron), and "
1850 "<quote>Gawky Rube</quote> (Lakay). A sixth song, <quote>The Turkey in the "
1851 "Straw,</quote> was already in the public domain. Letter from David Smith to "
1852 "Harry Surden, 10 July 2003, on file with author."
1855 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1856 #: freeculture.xml:1352
1858 "<citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. appeared before Disney's cartoon "
1859 "Steamboat Willie. The coincidence of titles is not coincidental. Steamboat "
1860 "Willie is a direct cartoon parody of Steamboat Bill,<placeholder "
1861 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and both are built upon a common song as a "
1862 "source. It is not just from the invention of synchronized sound in "
1863 "<citetitle>The Jazz Singer</citetitle> that we get <citetitle>Steamboat "
1864 "Willie</citetitle>. It is also from Buster Keaton's invention of Steamboat "
1865 "Bill, Jr., itself inspired by the song <quote>Steamboat Bill,</quote> that "
1866 "we get Steamboat Willie, and then from Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse."
1870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1871 #: freeculture.xml:1379
1873 "He was also a fan of the public domain. See Chris Sprigman, <quote>The Mouse "
1874 "that Ate the Public Domain,</quote> Findlaw, 5 March 2002, at <ulink "
1875 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #5</ulink>."
1878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1879 #: freeculture.xml:1375
1881 "This <quote>borrowing</quote> was nothing unique, either for Disney or for "
1882 "the industry. Disney was always parroting the feature-length mainstream "
1883 "films of his day.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> So did many "
1884 "others. Early cartoons are filled with knockoffs—slight variations on "
1885 "winning themes; retellings of ancient stories. The key to success was the "
1886 "brilliance of the differences. With Disney, it was sound that gave his "
1887 "animation its spark. Later, it was the quality of his work relative to the "
1888 "production-line cartoons with which he competed. Yet these additions were "
1889 "built upon a base that was borrowed. Disney added to the work of others "
1890 "before him, creating something new out of something just barely old."
1893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1894 #: freeculture.xml:1394
1896 "Sometimes this borrowing was slight. Sometimes it was significant. Think "
1897 "about the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. If you're as oblivious as I "
1898 "was, you're likely to think that these tales are happy, sweet stories, "
1899 "appropriate for any child at bedtime. In fact, the Grimm fairy tales are, "
1900 "well, for us, grim. It is a rare and perhaps overly ambitious parent who "
1901 "would dare to read these bloody, moralistic stories to his or her child, at "
1902 "bedtime or anytime."
1906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1907 #: freeculture.xml:1403
1909 "Disney took these stories and retold them in a way that carried them into a "
1910 "new age. He animated the stories, with both characters and light. Without "
1911 "removing the elements of fear and danger altogether, he made funny what was "
1912 "dark and injected a genuine emotion of compassion where before there was "
1913 "fear. And not just with the work of the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the catalog "
1914 "of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set "
1915 "together: <citetitle>Snow White</citetitle> (1937), "
1916 "<citetitle>Fantasia</citetitle> (1940), <citetitle>Pinocchio</citetitle> "
1917 "(1940), <citetitle>Dumbo</citetitle> (1941), <citetitle>Bambi</citetitle> "
1918 "(1942), <citetitle>Song of the South</citetitle> (1946), "
1919 "<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle> (1950), <citetitle>Alice in "
1920 "Wonderland</citetitle> (1951), <citetitle>Robin Hood</citetitle> (1952), "
1921 "<citetitle>Peter Pan</citetitle> (1953), <citetitle>Lady and the "
1922 "Tramp</citetitle> (1955), <citetitle>Mulan</citetitle> (1998), "
1923 "<citetitle>Sleeping Beauty</citetitle> (1959), <citetitle>101 "
1924 "Dalmatians</citetitle> (1961), <citetitle>The Sword in the Stone</citetitle> "
1925 "(1963), and <citetitle>The Jungle Book</citetitle> (1967)—not to "
1926 "mention a recent example that we should perhaps quickly forget, "
1927 "<citetitle>Treasure Planet</citetitle> (2003). In all of these cases, Disney "
1928 "(or Disney, Inc.) ripped creativity from the culture around him, mixed that "
1929 "creativity with his own extraordinary talent, and then burned that mix into "
1930 "the soul of his culture. Rip, mix, and burn."
1933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1934 #: freeculture.xml:1426
1936 "This is a kind of creativity. It is a creativity that we should remember and "
1937 "celebrate. There are some who would say that there is no creativity except "
1938 "this kind. We don't need to go that far to recognize its importance. We "
1939 "could call this <quote>Disney creativity,</quote> though that would be a bit "
1940 "misleading. It is, more precisely, <quote>Walt Disney "
1941 "creativity</quote>—a form of expression and genius that builds upon "
1942 "the culture around us and makes it something different."
1946 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
1947 #: freeculture.xml:1440
1949 "Until 1976, copyright law granted an author the possibility of two terms: an "
1950 "initial term and a renewal term. I have calculated the "
1951 "<quote>average</quote> term by determining the weighted average of total "
1952 "registrations for any particular year, and the proportion renewing. Thus, if "
1953 "100 copyrights are registered in year 1, and only 15 are renewed, and the "
1954 "renewal term is 28 years, then the average term is 32.2 years. For the "
1955 "renewal data and other relevant data, see the Web site associated with this "
1956 "book, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
1960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1961 #: freeculture.xml:1434
1963 "In 1928, the culture that Disney was free to draw upon was relatively "
1964 "fresh. The public domain in 1928 was not very old and was therefore quite "
1965 "vibrant. The average term of copyright was just around thirty "
1966 "years—for that minority of creative work that was in fact "
1967 "copyrighted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That means that for "
1968 "thirty years, on average, the authors or copyright holders of a creative "
1969 "work had an <quote>exclusive right</quote> to control certain uses of the "
1970 "work. To use this copyrighted work in limited ways required the permission "
1971 "of the copyright owner."
1974 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1975 #: freeculture.xml:1457
1977 "At the end of a copyright term, a work passes into the public domain. No "
1978 "permission is then needed to draw upon or use that work. No permission and, "
1979 "hence, no lawyers. The public domain is a <quote>lawyer-free zone.</quote> "
1980 "Thus, most of the content from the nineteenth century was free for Disney to "
1981 "use and build upon in 1928. It was free for anyone— whether connected "
1982 "or not, whether rich or not, whether approved or not—to use and build "
1987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
1988 #: freeculture.xml:1466
1990 "This is the ways things always were—until quite recently. For most of "
1991 "our history, the public domain was just over the horizon. From until 1978, "
1992 "the average copyright term was never more than thirty-two years, meaning "
1993 "that most culture just a generation and a half old was free for anyone to "
1994 "build upon without the permission of anyone else. Today's equivalent would "
1995 "be for creative work from the 1960s and 1970s to now be free for the next "
1996 "Walt Disney to build upon without permission. Yet today, the public domain "
1997 "is presumptive only for content from before the Great Depression."
2000 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2001 #: freeculture.xml:1480
2003 "<emphasis role=\"strong\">Of course</emphasis>, Walt Disney had no monopoly "
2004 "on <quote>Walt Disney creativity.</quote> Nor does America. The norm of free "
2005 "culture has, until recently, and except within totalitarian nations, been "
2006 "broadly exploited and quite universal."
2009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2010 #: freeculture.xml:1486
2012 "Consider, for example, a form of creativity that seems strange to many "
2013 "Americans but that is inescapable within Japanese culture: "
2014 "<citetitle>manga</citetitle>, or comics. The Japanese are fanatics about "
2015 "comics. Some 40 percent of publications are comics, and 30 percent of "
2016 "publication revenue derives from comics. They are everywhere in Japanese "
2017 "society, at every magazine stand, carried by a large proportion of commuters "
2018 "on Japan's extraordinary system of public transportation."
2021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2022 #: freeculture.xml:1495
2024 "Americans tend to look down upon this form of culture. That's an "
2025 "unattractive characteristic of ours. We're likely to misunderstand much "
2026 "about manga, because few of us have ever read anything close to the stories "
2027 "that these <quote>graphic novels</quote> tell. For the Japanese, manga cover "
2028 "every aspect of social life. For us, comics are <quote>men in "
2029 "tights.</quote> And anyway, it's not as if the New York subways are filled "
2030 "with readers of Joyce or even Hemingway. People of different cultures "
2031 "distract themselves in different ways, the Japanese in this interestingly "
2035 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2036 #: freeculture.xml:1506
2038 "But my purpose here is not to understand manga. It is to describe a variant "
2039 "on manga that from a lawyer's perspective is quite odd, but from a Disney "
2040 "perspective is quite familiar."
2044 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2045 #: freeculture.xml:1511
2047 "This is the phenomenon of <citetitle>doujinshi</citetitle>. Doujinshi are "
2048 "also comics, but they are a kind of copycat comic. A rich ethic governs the "
2049 "creation of doujinshi. It is not doujinshi if it is "
2050 "<emphasis>just</emphasis> a copy; the artist must make a contribution to the "
2051 "art he copies, by transforming it either subtly or significantly. A "
2052 "doujinshi comic can thus take a mainstream comic and develop it "
2053 "differently—with a different story line. Or the comic can keep the "
2054 "character in character but change its look slightly. There is no formula for "
2055 "what makes the doujinshi sufficiently <quote>different.</quote> But they "
2056 "must be different if they are to be considered true doujinshi. Indeed, there "
2057 "are committees that review doujinshi for inclusion within shows and reject "
2058 "any copycat comic that is merely a copy."
2061 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2062 #: freeculture.xml:1526
2064 "These copycat comics are not a tiny part of the manga market. They are "
2065 "huge. More than 33,000 <quote>circles</quote> of creators from across Japan "
2066 "produce these bits of Walt Disney creativity. More than 450,000 Japanese "
2067 "come together twice a year, in the largest public gathering in the country, "
2068 "to exchange and sell them. This market exists in parallel to the mainstream "
2069 "commercial manga market. In some ways, it obviously competes with that "
2070 "market, but there is no sustained effort by those who control the commercial "
2071 "manga market to shut the doujinshi market down. It flourishes, despite the "
2072 "competition and despite the law."
2075 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2076 #: freeculture.xml:1537
2078 "The most puzzling feature of the doujinshi market, for those trained in the "
2079 "law, at least, is that it is allowed to exist at all. Under Japanese "
2080 "copyright law, which in this respect (on paper) mirrors American copyright "
2081 "law, the doujinshi market is an illegal one. Doujinshi are plainly "
2082 "<quote>derivative works.</quote> There is no general practice by doujinshi "
2083 "artists of securing the permission of the manga creators. Instead, the "
2084 "practice is simply to take and modify the creations of others, as Walt "
2085 "Disney did with <citetitle>Steamboat Bill, Jr</citetitle>. Under both "
2086 "Japanese and American law, that <quote>taking</quote> without the permission "
2087 "of the original copyright owner is illegal. It is an infringement of the "
2088 "original copyright to make a copy or a derivative work without the original "
2089 "copyright owner's permission."
2092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2093 #: freeculture.xml:1550
2094 msgid "Winick, Judd"
2098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2099 #: freeculture.xml:1562
2101 "For an excellent history, see Scott McCloud, <citetitle>Reinventing "
2102 "Comics</citetitle> (New York: Perennial, 2000)."
2105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2106 #: freeculture.xml:1552
2108 "Yet this illegal market exists and indeed flourishes in Japan, and in the "
2109 "view of many, it is precisely because it exists that Japanese manga "
2110 "flourish. As American graphic novelist Judd Winick said to me, <quote>The "
2111 "early days of comics in America are very much like what's going on in Japan "
2112 "now. … American comics were born out of copying each other. … "
2113 "That's how [the artists] learn to draw—by going into comic books and "
2114 "not tracing them, but looking at them and copying them</quote> and building "
2115 "from them.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2119 #: freeculture.xml:1566
2120 msgid "Superman comics"
2123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2124 #: freeculture.xml:1568
2126 "American comics now are quite different, Winick explains, in part because of "
2127 "the legal difficulty of adapting comics the way doujinshi are "
2128 "allowed. Speaking of Superman, Winick told me, <quote>there are these rules "
2129 "and you have to stick to them.</quote> There are things Superman "
2130 "<quote>cannot</quote> do. <quote>As a creator, it's frustrating having to "
2131 "stick to some parameters which are fifty years old.</quote>"
2135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2136 #: freeculture.xml:1585
2138 "See Salil K. Mehra, <quote>Copyright and Comics in Japan: Does Law Explain "
2139 "Why All the Comics My Kid Watches Are Japanese Imports?</quote> "
2140 "<citetitle>Rutgers Law Review</citetitle> 55 (2002): 155, "
2141 "182. <quote>[T]here might be a collective economic rationality that would "
2142 "lead manga and anime artists to forgo bringing legal actions for "
2143 "infringement. One hypothesis is that all manga artists may be better off "
2144 "collectively if they set aside their individual self-interest and decide not "
2145 "to press their legal rights. This is essentially a prisoner's dilemma "
2149 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2150 #: freeculture.xml:1577
2152 "The norm in Japan mitigates this legal difficulty. Some say it is precisely "
2153 "the benefit accruing to the Japanese manga market that explains the "
2154 "mitigation. Temple University law professor Salil Mehra, for example, "
2155 "hypothesizes that the manga market accepts these technical violations "
2156 "because they spur the manga market to be more wealthy and "
2157 "productive. Everyone would be worse off if doujinshi were banned, so the law "
2158 "does not ban doujinshi.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2162 #: freeculture.xml:1596
2164 "The problem with this story, however, as Mehra plainly acknowledges, is that "
2165 "the mechanism producing this laissez faire response is not clear. It may "
2166 "well be that the market as a whole is better off if doujinshi are permitted "
2167 "rather than banned, but that doesn't explain why individual copyright owners "
2168 "don't sue nonetheless. If the law has no general exception for doujinshi, "
2169 "and indeed in some cases individual manga artists have sued doujinshi "
2170 "artists, why is there not a more general pattern of blocking this "
2171 "<quote>free taking</quote> by the doujinshi culture?"
2174 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2175 #: freeculture.xml:1607
2177 "I spent four wonderful months in Japan, and I asked this question as often "
2178 "as I could. Perhaps the best account in the end was offered by a friend from "
2179 "a major Japanese law firm. <quote>We don't have enough lawyers,</quote> he "
2180 "told me one afternoon. There <quote>just aren't enough resources to "
2181 "prosecute cases like this.</quote>"
2185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2186 #: freeculture.xml:1614
2188 "This is a theme to which we will return: that regulation by law is a "
2189 "function of both the words on the books and the costs of making those words "
2190 "have effect. For now, focus on the obvious question that is begged: Would "
2191 "Japan be better off with more lawyers? Would manga be richer if doujinshi "
2192 "artists were regularly prosecuted? Would the Japanese gain something "
2193 "important if they could end this practice of uncompensated sharing? Does "
2194 "piracy here hurt the victims of the piracy, or does it help them? Would "
2195 "lawyers fighting this piracy help their clients or hurt them?"
2198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2199 #: freeculture.xml:1626
2200 msgid "<emphasis role='strong'>Let's pause</emphasis> for a moment."
2203 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2204 #: freeculture.xml:1629
2206 "If you're like I was a decade ago, or like most people are when they first "
2207 "start thinking about these issues, then just about now you should be puzzled "
2208 "about something you hadn't thought through before."
2211 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2212 #: freeculture.xml:1639 freeculture.xml:2867 freeculture.xml:4542 freeculture.xml:4767 freeculture.xml:7380 freeculture.xml:8487
2213 msgid "Vaidhyanathan, Siva"
2216 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2217 #: freeculture.xml:1639
2219 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The term <citetitle>intellectual "
2220 "property</citetitle> is of relatively recent origin. See Siva Vaidhyanathan, "
2221 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 11 (New York: New York "
2222 "University Press, 2001). See also Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>The Future of "
2223 "Ideas</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2001), 293 n. 26. The term "
2224 "accurately describes a set of <quote>property</quote> "
2225 "rights—copyright, patents, trademark, and trade-secret—but the "
2226 "nature of those rights is very different."
2229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2230 #: freeculture.xml:1634
2232 "We live in a world that celebrates <quote>property.</quote> I am one of "
2233 "those celebrants. I believe in the value of property in general, and I also "
2234 "believe in the value of that weird form of property that lawyers call "
2235 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2236 "id=\"0\"/> A large, diverse society cannot survive without property; a "
2237 "large, diverse, and modern society cannot flourish without intellectual "
2241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2242 #: freeculture.xml:1653
2244 "But it takes just a second's reflection to realize that there is plenty of "
2245 "value out there that <quote>property</quote> doesn't capture. I don't mean "
2246 "<quote>money can't buy you love,</quote> but rather, value that is plainly "
2247 "part of a process of production, including commercial as well as "
2248 "noncommercial production. If Disney animators had stolen a set of pencils "
2249 "to draw Steamboat Willie, we'd have no hesitation in condemning that taking "
2250 "as wrong— even though trivial, even if unnoticed. Yet there was "
2251 "nothing wrong, at least under the law of the day, with Disney's taking from "
2252 "Buster Keaton or from the Brothers Grimm. There was nothing wrong with the "
2253 "taking from Keaton because Disney's use would have been considered "
2254 "<quote>fair.</quote> There was nothing wrong with the taking from the Grimms "
2255 "because the Grimms' work was in the public domain."
2259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2260 #: freeculture.xml:1668
2262 "Thus, even though the things that Disney took—or more generally, the "
2263 "things taken by anyone exercising Walt Disney creativity—are valuable, "
2264 "our tradition does not treat those takings as wrong. Some things remain free "
2265 "for the taking within a free culture, and that freedom is good."
2268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2269 #: freeculture.xml:1677
2271 "The same with the doujinshi culture. If a doujinshi artist broke into a "
2272 "publisher's office and ran off with a thousand copies of his latest "
2273 "work—or even one copy—without paying, we'd have no hesitation in "
2274 "saying the artist was wrong. In addition to having trespassed, he would have "
2275 "stolen something of value. The law bans that stealing in whatever form, "
2276 "whether large or small."
2279 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2280 #: freeculture.xml:1685
2282 "Yet there is an obvious reluctance, even among Japanese lawyers, to say that "
2283 "the copycat comic artists are <quote>stealing.</quote> This form of Walt "
2284 "Disney creativity is seen as fair and right, even if lawyers in particular "
2285 "find it hard to say why."
2288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2289 #: freeculture.xml:1691
2291 "It's the same with a thousand examples that appear everywhere once you begin "
2292 "to look. Scientists build upon the work of other scientists without asking "
2293 "or paying for the privilege. (<quote>Excuse me, Professor Einstein, but may "
2294 "I have permission to use your theory of relativity to show that you were "
2295 "wrong about quantum physics?</quote>) Acting companies perform adaptations "
2296 "of the works of Shakespeare without securing permission from anyone. (Does "
2297 "<emphasis>anyone</emphasis> believe Shakespeare would be better spread "
2298 "within our culture if there were a central Shakespeare rights clearinghouse "
2299 "that all productions of Shakespeare must appeal to first?) And Hollywood "
2300 "goes through cycles with a certain kind of movie: five asteroid films in the "
2301 "late 1990s; two volcano disaster films in 1997."
2305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2306 #: freeculture.xml:1705
2308 "Creators here and everywhere are always and at all times building upon the "
2309 "creativity that went before and that surrounds them now. That building is "
2310 "always and everywhere at least partially done without permission and without "
2311 "compensating the original creator. No society, free or controlled, has ever "
2312 "demanded that every use be paid for or that permission for Walt Disney "
2313 "creativity must always be sought. Instead, every society has left a certain "
2314 "bit of its culture free for the taking—free societies more fully than "
2315 "unfree, perhaps, but all societies to some degree."
2318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2319 #: freeculture.xml:1716
2321 "The hard question is therefore not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> a culture is "
2322 "free. All cultures are free to some degree. The hard question instead is "
2323 "<quote><emphasis>How</emphasis> free is this culture?</quote> How much, and "
2324 "how broadly, is the culture free for others to take and build upon? Is that "
2325 "freedom limited to party members? To members of the royal family? To the top "
2326 "ten corporations on the New York Stock Exchange? Or is that freedom spread "
2327 "broadly? To artists generally, whether affiliated with the Met or not? To "
2328 "musicians generally, whether white or not? To filmmakers generally, whether "
2329 "affiliated with a studio or not?"
2332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2333 #: freeculture.xml:1728
2335 "Free cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build "
2336 "upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free "
2337 "culture. It is becoming much less so."
2340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
2341 #: freeculture.xml:1736
2342 msgid "CHAPTER TWO: <quote>Mere Copyists</quote>"
2345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2346 #: freeculture.xml:1737 freeculture.xml:1950 freeculture.xml:6416
2347 msgid "camera technology"
2350 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2351 #: freeculture.xml:1738
2355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2356 #: freeculture.xml:1739
2357 msgid "Daguerre, Louis"
2360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2361 #: freeculture.xml:1741
2363 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1839</emphasis>, Louis Daguerre invented the "
2364 "first practical technology for producing what we would call "
2365 "<quote>photographs.</quote> Appropriately enough, they were called "
2366 "<quote>daguerreotypes.</quote> The process was complicated and expensive, "
2367 "and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and "
2368 "wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that "
2369 "helped regulate the industry, as do all such associations, by keeping "
2370 "competition down so as to keep prices up.)"
2373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2374 #: freeculture.xml:1750
2375 msgid "Talbot, William"
2378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2379 #: freeculture.xml:1752
2381 "Yet despite high prices, the demand for daguerreotypes was strong. This "
2382 "pushed inventors to find simpler and cheaper ways to make <quote>automatic "
2383 "pictures.</quote> William Talbot soon discovered a process for making "
2384 "<quote>negatives.</quote> But because the negatives were glass, and had to "
2385 "be kept wet, the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the "
2386 "1870s, dry plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of "
2387 "a picture from its developing. These were still plates of glass, and thus it "
2388 "was still not a process within reach of most amateurs."
2391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2392 #: freeculture.xml:1762
2393 msgid "Eastman, George"
2397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2398 #: freeculture.xml:1764
2400 "The technological change that made mass photography possible didn't happen "
2401 "until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George Eastman, himself an "
2402 "amateur photographer, was frustrated by the technology of photographs made "
2403 "with plates. In a flash of insight (so to speak), Eastman saw that if the "
2404 "film could be made to be flexible, it could be held on a single "
2405 "spindle. That roll could then be sent to a developer, driving the costs of "
2406 "photography down substantially. By lowering the costs, Eastman expected he "
2407 "could dramatically broaden the population of photographers."
2410 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2411 #: freeculture.xml:1775
2412 msgid "Kodak Primer, The (Eastman)"
2416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2417 #: freeculture.xml:1782
2419 "Reese V. Jenkins, <citetitle>Images and Enterprise</citetitle> (Baltimore: "
2420 "Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 112."
2423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2424 #: freeculture.xml:1777
2426 "Eastman developed flexible, emulsion-coated paper film and placed rolls of "
2427 "it in small, simple cameras: the Kodak. The device was marketed on the basis "
2428 "of its simplicity. <quote>You press the button and we do the "
2429 "rest.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As he described in "
2430 "<citetitle>The Kodak Primer</citetitle>:"
2433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2434 #: freeculture.xml:1800 freeculture.xml:1824
2438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
2439 #: freeculture.xml:1798
2441 "Brian Coe, <citetitle>The Birth of Photography</citetitle> (New York: "
2442 "Taplinger Publishing, 1977), 53. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2446 #: freeculture.xml:1787
2448 "The principle of the Kodak system is the separation of the work that any "
2449 "person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an "
2450 "expert can do. … We furnish anybody, man, woman or child, who has "
2451 "sufficient intelligence to point a box straight and press a button, with an "
2452 "instrument which altogether removes from the practice of photography the "
2453 "necessity for exceptional facilities or, in fact, any special knowledge of "
2454 "the art. It can be employed without preliminary study, without a darkroom "
2455 "and without chemicals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2460 #: freeculture.xml:1816
2461 msgid "Jenkins, 177."
2465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2466 #: freeculture.xml:1820
2467 msgid "Based on a chart in Jenkins, p. 178."
2470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2471 #: freeculture.xml:1805
2473 "For $25, anyone could make pictures. The camera came preloaded with film, "
2474 "and when it had been used, the camera was returned to an Eastman factory, "
2475 "where the film was developed. Over time, of course, the cost of the camera "
2476 "and the ease with which it could be used both improved. Roll film thus "
2477 "became the basis for the explosive growth of popular photography. Eastman's "
2478 "camera first went on sale in 1888; one year later, Kodak was printing more "
2479 "than six thousand negatives a day. From 1888 through 1909, while industrial "
2480 "production was rising by 4.7 percent, photographic equipment and material "
2481 "sales increased by 11 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
2482 "Eastman Kodak's sales during the same period experienced an average annual "
2483 "increase of over 17 percent.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2488 #: freeculture.xml:1839
2492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2493 #: freeculture.xml:1828
2495 "The real significance of Eastman's invention, however, was not economic. It "
2496 "was social. Professional photography gave individuals a glimpse of places "
2497 "they would never otherwise see. Amateur photography gave them the ability to "
2498 "record their own lives in a way they had never been able to do before. As "
2499 "author Brian Coe notes, <quote>For the first time the snapshot album "
2500 "provided the man on the street with a permanent record of his family and its "
2501 "activities. … For the first time in history there exists an authentic "
2502 "visual record of the appearance and activities of the common man made "
2503 "without [literary] interpretation or bias.</quote><placeholder "
2504 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2508 #: freeculture.xml:1843
2510 "In this way, the Kodak camera and film were technologies of expression. The "
2511 "pencil or paintbrush was also a technology of expression, of course. But it "
2512 "took years of training before they could be deployed by amateurs in any "
2513 "useful or effective way. With the Kodak, expression was possible much sooner "
2514 "and more simply. The barrier to expression was lowered. Snobs would sneer at "
2515 "its <quote>quality</quote>; professionals would discount it as "
2516 "irrelevant. But watch a child study how best to frame a picture and you get "
2517 "a sense of the experience of creativity that the Kodak enabled. Democratic "
2518 "tools gave ordinary people a way to express themselves more easily than any "
2519 "tools could have before."
2523 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2524 #: freeculture.xml:1865
2526 "For illustrative cases, see, for example, <citetitle>Pavesich</citetitle> "
2527 "v. <citetitle>N.E. Life Ins. Co</citetitle>., 50 S.E. 68 (Ga. 1905); "
2528 "<citetitle>Foster-Milburn Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Chinn</citetitle>, "
2529 "123090 S.W. 364, 366 (Ky. 1909); <citetitle>Corliss</citetitle> "
2530 "v. <citetitle>Walker</citetitle>, 64 F. 280 (Mass. Dist. Ct. 1894)."
2533 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2534 #: freeculture.xml:1856
2536 "What was required for this technology to flourish? Obviously, Eastman's "
2537 "genius was an important part. But also important was the legal environment "
2538 "within which Eastman's invention grew. For early in the history of "
2539 "photography, there was a series of judicial decisions that could well have "
2540 "changed the course of photography substantially. Courts were asked whether "
2541 "the photographer, amateur or professional, required permission before he "
2542 "could capture and print whatever image he wanted. Their answer was "
2543 "no.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
2547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2548 #: freeculture.xml:1873
2550 "The arguments in favor of requiring permission will sound surprisingly "
2551 "familiar. The photographer was <quote>taking</quote> something from the "
2552 "person or building whose photograph he shot—pirating something of "
2553 "value. Some even thought he was taking the target's soul. Just as Disney was "
2554 "not free to take the pencils that his animators used to draw Mickey, so, "
2555 "too, should these photographers not be free to take images that they thought "
2559 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2560 #: freeculture.xml:1895
2561 msgid "Warren, Samuel D."
2564 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2565 #: freeculture.xml:1892
2567 "Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, <quote>The Right to Privacy,</quote> "
2568 "<citetitle>Harvard Law Review</citetitle> 4 (1890): 193. <placeholder "
2569 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
2572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2573 #: freeculture.xml:1885
2575 "On the other side was an argument that should be familiar, as well. Sure, "
2576 "there may be something of value being used. But citizens should have the "
2577 "right to capture at least those images that stand in public view. (Louis "
2578 "Brandeis, who would become a Supreme Court Justice, thought the rule should "
2579 "be different for images from private spaces.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2580 "id=\"0\"/>) It may be that this means that the photographer gets something "
2581 "for nothing. Just as Disney could take inspiration from <citetitle>Steamboat "
2582 "Bill, Jr</citetitle>. or the Brothers Grimm, the photographer should be free "
2583 "to capture an image without compensating the source."
2586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
2587 #: freeculture.xml:1901 freeculture.xml:9177
2588 msgid "images, ownership of"
2592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2593 #: freeculture.xml:1913
2595 "See Melville B. Nimmer, <quote>The Right of Publicity,</quote> "
2596 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 19 (1954): 203; William "
2597 "L. Prosser, <quote>Privacy,</quote> <citetitle>California Law "
2598 "Review</citetitle> 48 (1960) 398–407; <citetitle>White</citetitle> "
2599 "v. <citetitle>Samsung Electronics America, Inc</citetitle>., 971 F. 2d 1395 "
2600 "(9th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 951 (1993)."
2603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2604 #: freeculture.xml:1903
2606 "Fortunately for Mr. Eastman, and for photography in general, these early "
2607 "decisions went in favor of the pirates. In general, no permission would be "
2608 "required before an image could be captured and shared with others. Instead, "
2609 "permission was presumed. Freedom was the default. (The law would eventually "
2610 "craft an exception for famous people: commercial photographers who snap "
2611 "pictures of famous people for commercial purposes have more restrictions "
2612 "than the rest of us. But in the ordinary case, the image can be captured "
2613 "without clearing the rights to do the capturing.<placeholder "
2614 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>)"
2617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2618 #: freeculture.xml:1921
2620 "We can only speculate about how photography would have developed had the law "
2621 "gone the other way. If the presumption had been against the photographer, "
2622 "then the photographer would have had to demonstrate permission. Perhaps "
2623 "Eastman Kodak would have had to demonstrate permission, too, before it "
2624 "developed the film upon which images were captured. After all, if permission "
2625 "were not granted, then Eastman Kodak would be benefiting from the "
2626 "<quote>theft</quote> committed by the photographer. Just as Napster "
2627 "benefited from the copyright infringements committed by Napster users, Kodak "
2628 "would be benefiting from the <quote>image-right</quote> infringement of its "
2629 "photographers. We could imagine the law then requiring that some form of "
2630 "permission be demonstrated before a company developed pictures. We could "
2631 "imagine a system developing to demonstrate that permission."
2635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2636 #: freeculture.xml:1938
2638 "But though we could imagine this system of permission, it would be very hard "
2639 "to see how photography could have flourished as it did if the requirement "
2640 "for permission had been built into the rules that govern it. Photography "
2641 "would have existed. It would have grown in importance over "
2642 "time. Professionals would have continued to use the technology as they "
2643 "did—since professionals could have more easily borne the burdens of "
2644 "the permission system. But the spread of photography to ordinary people "
2645 "would not have occurred. Nothing like that growth would have been "
2646 "realized. And certainly, nothing like that growth in a democratic technology "
2647 "of expression would have been realized."
2650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2651 #: freeculture.xml:1952
2653 "<emphasis role='strong'>If you drive</emphasis> through San Francisco's "
2654 "Presidio, you might see two gaudy yellow school buses painted over with "
2655 "colorful and striking images, and the logo <quote>Just Think!</quote> in "
2656 "place of the name of a school. But there's little that's <quote>just</quote> "
2657 "cerebral in the projects that these busses enable. These buses are filled "
2658 "with technologies that teach kids to tinker with film. Not the film of "
2659 "Eastman. Not even the film of your VCR. Rather the <quote>film</quote> of "
2660 "digital cameras. Just Think! is a project that enables kids to make films, "
2661 "as a way to understand and critique the filmed culture that they find all "
2662 "around them. Each year, these busses travel to more than thirty schools and "
2663 "enable three hundred to five hundred children to learn something about media "
2664 "by doing something with media. By doing, they think. By tinkering, they "
2669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2670 #: freeculture.xml:1976
2672 "H. Edward Goldberg, <quote>Essential Presentation Tools: Hardware and "
2673 "Software You Need to Create Digital Multimedia Presentations,</quote> "
2674 "cadalyst, February 2002, available at <ulink "
2675 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #7</ulink>."
2678 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2679 #: freeculture.xml:1970
2681 "These buses are not cheap, but the technology they carry is increasingly "
2682 "so. The cost of a high-quality digital video system has fallen "
2683 "dramatically. As one analyst puts it, <quote>Five years ago, a good "
2684 "real-time digital video editing system cost $25,000. Today you can get "
2685 "professional quality for $595.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
2686 "id=\"0\"/> These buses are filled with technology that would have cost "
2687 "hundreds of thousands just ten years ago. And it is now feasible to imagine "
2688 "not just buses like this, but classrooms across the country where kids are "
2689 "learning more and more of something teachers call <quote>media "
2693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2694 #: freeculture.xml:1986
2695 msgid "Yanofsky, Dave"
2699 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2700 #: freeculture.xml:1989
2702 "<quote>Media literacy,</quote> as Dave Yanofsky, the executive director of "
2703 "Just Think!, puts it, <quote>is the ability … to understand, analyze, "
2704 "and deconstruct media images. Its aim is to make [kids] literate about the "
2705 "way media works, the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and the "
2706 "way people access it.</quote>"
2709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2710 #: freeculture.xml:1996
2712 "This may seem like an odd way to think about <quote>literacy.</quote> For "
2713 "most people, literacy is about reading and writing. Faulkner and Hemingway "
2714 "and noticing split infinitives are the things that <quote>literate</quote> "
2715 "people know about."
2718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2719 #: freeculture.xml:2001 freeculture.xml:2502 freeculture.xml:6415 freeculture.xml:7249 freeculture.xml:8321 freeculture.xml:8392
2724 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2725 #: freeculture.xml:2007
2727 "Judith Van Evra, <citetitle>Television and Child Development</citetitle> "
2728 "(Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990); <quote>Findings on "
2729 "Family and TV Study,</quote> <citetitle>Denver Post</citetitle>, 25 May "
2733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2734 #: freeculture.xml:2003
2736 "Maybe. But in a world where children see on average 390 hours of television "
2737 "commercials per year, or between 20,000 and 45,000 commercials "
2738 "generally,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it is increasingly "
2739 "important to understand the <quote>grammar</quote> of media. For just as "
2740 "there is a grammar for the written word, so, too, is there one for "
2741 "media. And just as kids learn how to write by writing lots of terrible "
2742 "prose, kids learn how to write media by constructing lots of (at least at "
2743 "first) terrible media."
2746 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2747 #: freeculture.xml:2018
2749 "A growing field of academics and activists sees this form of literacy as "
2750 "crucial to the next generation of culture. For though anyone who has written "
2751 "understands how difficult writing is—how difficult it is to sequence "
2752 "the story, to keep a reader's attention, to craft language to be "
2753 "understandable—few of us have any real sense of how difficult media "
2754 "is. Or more fundamentally, few of us have a sense of how media works, how it "
2755 "holds an audience or leads it through a story, how it triggers emotion or "
2759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2760 #: freeculture.xml:2028
2762 "It took filmmaking a generation before it could do these things well. But "
2763 "even then, the knowledge was in the filming, not in writing about the "
2764 "film. The skill came from experiencing the making of a film, not from "
2765 "reading a book about it. One learns to write by writing and then reflecting "
2766 "upon what one has written. One learns to write with images by making them "
2767 "and then reflecting upon what one has created."
2770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2771 #: freeculture.xml:2035
2772 msgid "Crichton, Michael"
2775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2776 #: freeculture.xml:2049 freeculture.xml:2109 freeculture.xml:2116 freeculture.xml:2565
2777 msgid "Barish, Stephanie"
2780 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
2781 #: freeculture.xml:2050
2782 msgid "Daley, Elizabeth"
2785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2786 #: freeculture.xml:2047
2788 "Interview with Elizabeth Daley and Stephanie Barish, 13 December 2002. "
2789 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
2794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2795 #: freeculture.xml:2061
2797 "See Scott Steinberg, <quote>Crichton Gets Medieval on PCs,</quote> E!online, "
2798 "4 November 2000, available at <ulink "
2799 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #8</ulink>; "
2800 "<quote>Timeline,</quote> 22 November 2000, available at <ulink "
2801 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #9</ulink>."
2804 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2805 #: freeculture.xml:2037
2807 "This grammar has changed as media has changed. When it was just film, as "
2808 "Elizabeth Daley, executive director of the University of Southern "
2809 "California's Annenberg Center for Communication and dean of the USC School "
2810 "of Cinema-Television, explained to me, the grammar was about <quote>the "
2811 "placement of objects, color, … rhythm, pacing, and "
2812 "texture.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But as computers "
2813 "open up an interactive space where a story is <quote>played</quote> as well "
2814 "as experienced, that grammar changes. The simple control of narrative is "
2815 "lost, and so other techniques are necessary. Author Michael Crichton had "
2816 "mastered the narrative of science fiction. But when he tried to design a "
2817 "computer game based on one of his works, it was a new craft he had to "
2818 "learn. How to lead people through a game without their feeling they have "
2819 "been led was not obvious, even to a wildly successful author.<placeholder "
2820 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2824 #: freeculture.xml:2068
2825 msgid "computer games"
2828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2829 #: freeculture.xml:2070
2831 "This skill is precisely the craft a filmmaker learns. As Daley describes, "
2832 "<quote>people are very surprised about how they are led through a film. [I]t "
2833 "is perfectly constructed to keep you from seeing it, so you have no idea. If "
2834 "a filmmaker succeeds you do not know how you were led.</quote> If you know "
2835 "you were led through a film, the film has failed."
2838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2839 #: freeculture.xml:2077
2841 "Yet the push for an expanded literacy—one that goes beyond text to "
2842 "include audio and visual elements—is not about making better film "
2843 "directors. The aim is not to improve the profession of filmmaking at all. "
2844 "Instead, as Daley explained,"
2847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2848 #: freeculture.xml:2084
2850 "From my perspective, probably the most important digital divide is not "
2851 "access to a box. It's the ability to be empowered with the language that "
2852 "that box works in. Otherwise only a very few people can write with this "
2853 "language, and all the rest of us are reduced to being read-only."
2856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2857 #: freeculture.xml:2092
2859 "<quote>Read-only.</quote> Passive recipients of culture produced elsewhere. "
2860 "Couch potatoes. Consumers. This is the world of media from the twentieth "
2864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
2865 #: freeculture.xml:2108
2866 msgid "Interview with Daley and Barish. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
2870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
2871 #: freeculture.xml:2113 freeculture.xml:3893 freeculture.xml:4959 freeculture.xml:8210
2875 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2876 #: freeculture.xml:2097
2878 "The twenty-first century could be different. This is the crucial point: It "
2879 "could be both read and write. Or at least reading and better understanding "
2880 "the craft of writing. Or best, reading and understanding the tools that "
2881 "enable the writing to lead or mislead. The aim of any literacy, and this "
2882 "literacy in particular, is to <quote>empower people to choose the "
2883 "appropriate language for what they need to create or "
2884 "express.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It is to enable "
2885 "students <quote>to communicate in the language of the twenty-first "
2886 "century.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
2889 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2890 #: freeculture.xml:2118
2892 "As with any language, this language comes more easily to some than to "
2893 "others. It doesn't necessarily come more easily to those who excel in "
2894 "written language. Daley and Stephanie Barish, director of the Institute for "
2895 "Multimedia Literacy at the Annenberg Center, describe one particularly "
2896 "poignant example of a project they ran in a high school. The high school "
2897 "was a very poor inner-city Los Angeles school. In all the traditional "
2898 "measures of success, this school was a failure. But Daley and Barish ran a "
2899 "program that gave kids an opportunity to use film to express meaning about "
2900 "something the students know something about—gun violence."
2903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2904 #: freeculture.xml:2130
2906 "The class was held on Friday afternoons, and it created a relatively new "
2907 "problem for the school. While the challenge in most classes was getting the "
2908 "kids to come, the challenge in this class was keeping them away. The "
2909 "<quote>kids were showing up at 6 A.M. and leaving at 5 at night,</quote> "
2910 "said Barish. They were working harder than in any other class to do what "
2911 "education should be about—learning how to express themselves."
2914 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2915 #: freeculture.xml:2138
2917 "Using whatever <quote>free web stuff they could find,</quote> and relatively "
2918 "simple tools to enable the kids to mix <quote>image, sound, and "
2919 "text,</quote> Barish said this class produced a series of projects that "
2920 "showed something about gun violence that few would otherwise "
2921 "understand. This was an issue close to the lives of these students. The "
2922 "project <quote>gave them a tool and empowered them to be able to both "
2923 "understand it and talk about it,</quote> Barish explained. That tool "
2924 "succeeded in creating expression—far more successfully and powerfully "
2925 "than could have been created using only text. <quote>If you had said to "
2926 "these students, `you have to do it in text,' they would've just thrown their "
2927 "hands up and gone and done something else,</quote> Barish described, in "
2928 "part, no doubt, because expressing themselves in text is not something these "
2929 "students can do well. Yet neither is text a form in which "
2930 "<emphasis>these</emphasis> ideas can be expressed well. The power of this "
2931 "message depended upon its connection to this form of expression."
2935 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2936 #: freeculture.xml:2157
2938 "<quote>But isn't education about teaching kids to write?</quote> I asked. In "
2939 "part, of course, it is. But why are we teaching kids to write? Education, "
2940 "Daley explained, is about giving students a way of <quote>constructing "
2941 "meaning.</quote> To say that that means just writing is like saying teaching "
2942 "writing is only about teaching kids how to spell. Text is one part—and "
2943 "increasingly, not the most powerful part—of constructing meaning. As "
2944 "Daley explained in the most moving part of our interview,"
2947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2948 #: freeculture.xml:2168
2950 "What you want is to give these students ways of constructing meaning. If all "
2951 "you give them is text, they're not going to do it. Because they can't. You "
2952 "know, you've got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, "
2953 "he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he "
2954 "can do all sorts of other things. He just can't read your text. So Johnny "
2955 "comes to school and you say, <quote>Johnny, you're illiterate. Nothing you "
2956 "can do matters.</quote> Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss "
2957 "you or he [can] dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he's going to "
2958 "dismiss you. [But i]nstead, if you say, <quote>Well, with all these things "
2959 "that you can do, let's talk about this issue. Play for me music that you "
2960 "think reflects that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw "
2961 "for me something that reflects that.</quote> Not by giving a kid a video "
2962 "camera and … saying, <quote>Let's go have fun with the video camera "
2963 "and make a little movie.</quote> But instead, really help you take these "
2964 "elements that you understand, that are your language, and construct meaning "
2965 "about the topic.…"
2968 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2969 #: freeculture.xml:2187
2971 "That empowers enormously. And then what happens, of course, is eventually, "
2972 "as it has happened in all these classes, they bump up against the fact, "
2973 "<quote>I need to explain this and I really need to write something.</quote> "
2974 "And as one of the teachers told Stephanie, they would rewrite a paragraph 5, "
2975 "6, 7, 8 times, till they got it right."
2979 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
2980 #: freeculture.xml:2194
2982 "Because they needed to. There was a reason for doing it. They needed to say "
2983 "something, as opposed to just jumping through your hoops. They actually "
2984 "needed to use a language that they didn't speak very well. But they had come "
2985 "to understand that they had a lot of power with this language."
2988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
2989 #: freeculture.xml:2204
2990 msgid "World Trade Center"
2993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
2994 #: freeculture.xml:2206
2996 "<emphasis role='strong'>When two planes</emphasis> crashed into the World "
2997 "Trade Center, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania "
2998 "field, all media around the world shifted to this news. Every moment of just "
2999 "about every day for that week, and for weeks after, television in "
3000 "particular, and media generally, retold the story of the events we had just "
3001 "witnessed. The telling was a retelling, because we had seen the events that "
3002 "were described. The genius of this awful act of terrorism was that the "
3003 "delayed second attack was perfectly timed to assure that the whole world "
3004 "would be watching."
3007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3008 #: freeculture.xml:2218
3010 "These retellings had an increasingly familiar feel. There was music scored "
3011 "for the intermissions, and fancy graphics that flashed across the "
3012 "screen. There was a formula to interviews. There was <quote>balance,</quote> "
3013 "and seriousness. This was news choreographed in the way we have increasingly "
3014 "come to expect it, <quote>news as entertainment,</quote> even if the "
3015 "entertainment is tragedy."
3018 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3019 #: freeculture.xml:2225 freeculture.xml:8149 freeculture.xml:8386
3023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3024 #: freeculture.xml:2226
3028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3029 #: freeculture.xml:2228
3031 "But in addition to this produced news about the <quote>tragedy of September "
3032 "11,</quote> those of us tied to the Internet came to see a very different "
3033 "production as well. The Internet was filled with accounts of the same "
3034 "events. Yet these Internet accounts had a very different flavor. Some people "
3035 "constructed photo pages that captured images from around the world and "
3036 "presented them as slide shows with text. Some offered open letters. There "
3037 "were sound recordings. There was anger and frustration. There were attempts "
3038 "to provide context. There was, in short, an extraordinary worldwide barn "
3039 "raising, in the sense Mike Godwin uses the term in his book <citetitle>Cyber "
3040 "Rights</citetitle>, around a news event that had captured the attention of "
3041 "the world. There was ABC and CBS, but there was also the Internet."
3045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3046 #: freeculture.xml:2242
3048 "I don't mean simply to praise the Internet—though I do think the "
3049 "people who supported this form of speech should be praised. I mean instead "
3050 "to point to a significance in this form of speech. For like a Kodak, the "
3051 "Internet enables people to capture images. And like in a movie by a student "
3052 "on the <quote>Just Think!</quote> bus, the visual images could be mixed with "
3056 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3057 #: freeculture.xml:2252
3059 "But unlike any technology for simply capturing images, the Internet allows "
3060 "these creations to be shared with an extraordinary number of people, "
3061 "practically instantaneously. This is something new in our "
3062 "tradition—not just that culture can be captured mechanically, and "
3063 "obviously not just that events are commented upon critically, but that this "
3064 "mix of captured images, sound, and commentary can be widely spread "
3065 "practically instantaneously."
3068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3069 #: freeculture.xml:2261
3071 "September 11 was not an aberration. It was a beginning. Around the same "
3072 "time, a form of communication that has grown dramatically was just beginning "
3073 "to come into public consciousness: the Web-log, or blog. The blog is a kind "
3074 "of public diary, and within some cultures, such as in Japan, it functions "
3075 "very much like a diary. In those cultures, it records private facts in a "
3076 "public way—it's a kind of electronic <citetitle>Jerry "
3077 "Springer</citetitle>, available anywhere in the world."
3080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3081 #: freeculture.xml:2269 freeculture.xml:2342 freeculture.xml:2465
3082 msgid "blogs (Web-logs)"
3085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3086 #: freeculture.xml:2271
3088 "But in the United States, blogs have taken on a very different character. "
3089 "There are some who use the space simply to talk about their private "
3090 "life. But there are many who use the space to engage in public "
3091 "discourse. Discussing matters of public import, criticizing others who are "
3092 "mistaken in their views, criticizing politicians about the decisions they "
3093 "make, offering solutions to problems we all see: blogs create the sense of a "
3094 "virtual public meeting, but one in which we don't all hope to be there at "
3095 "the same time and in which conversations are not necessarily linked. The "
3096 "best of the blog entries are relatively short; they point directly to words "
3097 "used by others, criticizing with or adding to them. They are arguably the "
3098 "most important form of unchoreographed public discourse that we have."
3102 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3103 #: freeculture.xml:2285
3105 "That's a strong statement. Yet it says as much about our democracy as it "
3106 "does about blogs. This is the part of America that is most difficult for "
3107 "those of us who love America to accept: Our democracy has atrophied. Of "
3108 "course we have elections, and most of the time the courts allow those "
3109 "elections to count. A relatively small number of people vote in those "
3110 "elections. The cycle of these elections has become totally professionalized "
3111 "and routinized. Most of us think this is democracy."
3114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3115 #: freeculture.xml:2295
3116 msgid "Tocqueville, Alexis de"
3119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3120 #: freeculture.xml:2296
3125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3126 #: freeculture.xml:2313
3128 "See, for example, Alexis de Tocqueville, <citetitle>Democracy in "
3129 "America</citetitle>, bk. 1, trans. Henry Reeve (New York: Bantam Books, "
3133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3134 #: freeculture.xml:2298
3136 "But democracy has never just been about elections. Democracy means rule by "
3137 "the people, but rule means something more than mere elections. In our "
3138 "tradition, it also means control through reasoned discourse. This was the "
3139 "idea that captured the imagination of Alexis de Tocqueville, the "
3140 "nineteenth-century French lawyer who wrote the most important account of "
3141 "early <quote>Democracy in America.</quote> It wasn't popular elections that "
3142 "fascinated him—it was the jury, an institution that gave ordinary "
3143 "people the right to choose life or death for other citizens. And most "
3144 "fascinating for him was that the jury didn't just vote about the outcome "
3145 "they would impose. They deliberated. Members argued about the "
3146 "<quote>right</quote> result; they tried to persuade each other of the "
3147 "<quote>right</quote> result, and in criminal cases at least, they had to "
3148 "agree upon a unanimous result for the process to come to an end.<placeholder "
3149 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3154 #: freeculture.xml:2322
3156 "Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, <quote>Deliberation Day,</quote> "
3157 "<citetitle>Journal of Political Philosophy</citetitle> 10 (2) (2002): 129."
3160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3161 #: freeculture.xml:2318
3163 "Yet even this institution flags in American life today. And in its place, "
3164 "there is no systematic effort to enable citizen deliberation. Some are "
3165 "pushing to create just such an institution.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3166 "id=\"0\"/> And in some towns in New England, something close to deliberation "
3167 "remains. But for most of us for most of the time, there is no time or place "
3168 "for <quote>democratic deliberation</quote> to occur."
3172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3173 #: freeculture.xml:2337
3175 "Cass Sunstein, <citetitle>Republic.com</citetitle> (Princeton: Princeton "
3176 "University Press, 2001), 65–80, 175, 182, 183, 192."
3179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3180 #: freeculture.xml:2330
3182 "More bizarrely, there is generally not even permission for it to occur. We, "
3183 "the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm "
3184 "against talking about politics. It's fine to talk about politics with people "
3185 "you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you "
3186 "disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse "
3187 "becomes more extreme.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We say what "
3188 "our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say."
3191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3192 #: freeculture.xml:2343
3197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3198 #: freeculture.xml:2345
3200 "Enter the blog. The blog's very architecture solves one part of this "
3201 "problem. People post when they want to post, and people read when they want "
3202 "to read. The most difficult time is synchronous time. Technologies that "
3203 "enable asynchronous communication, such as e-mail, increase the opportunity "
3204 "for communication. Blogs allow for public discourse without the public ever "
3205 "needing to gather in a single public place."
3208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3209 #: freeculture.xml:2356
3211 "But beyond architecture, blogs also have solved the problem of "
3212 "norms. There's no norm (yet) in blog space not to talk about politics. "
3213 "Indeed, the space is filled with political speech, on both the right and the "
3214 "left. Some of the most popular sites are conservative or libertarian, but "
3215 "there are many of all political stripes. And even blogs that are not "
3216 "political cover political issues when the occasion merits."
3219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3220 #: freeculture.xml:2363
3221 msgid "Dean, Howard"
3224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3225 #: freeculture.xml:2365
3227 "The significance of these blogs is tiny now, though not so tiny. The name "
3228 "Howard Dean may well have faded from the 2004 presidential race but for "
3229 "blogs. Yet even if the number of readers is small, the reading is having an "
3233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3234 #: freeculture.xml:2370
3238 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3239 #: freeculture.xml:2371
3240 msgid "Thurmond, Strom"
3244 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3245 #: freeculture.xml:2384
3247 "Noah Shachtman, <quote>With Incessant Postings, a Pundit Stirs the "
3248 "Pot,</quote> New York Times, 16 January 2003, G5."
3251 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3252 #: freeculture.xml:2373
3254 "One direct effect is on stories that had a different life cycle in the "
3255 "mainstream media. The Trent Lott affair is an example. When Lott "
3256 "<quote>misspoke</quote> at a party for Senator Strom Thurmond, essentially "
3257 "praising Thurmond's segregationist policies, he calculated correctly that "
3258 "this story would disappear from the mainstream press within forty-eight "
3259 "hours. It did. But he didn't calculate its life cycle in blog space. The "
3260 "bloggers kept researching the story. Over time, more and more instances of "
3261 "the same <quote>misspeaking</quote> emerged. Finally, the story broke back "
3262 "into the mainstream press. In the end, Lott was forced to resign as senate "
3263 "majority leader.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
3266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3267 #: freeculture.xml:2389
3269 "This different cycle is possible because the same commercial pressures don't "
3270 "exist with blogs as with other ventures. Television and newspapers are "
3271 "commercial entities. They must work to keep attention. If they lose "
3272 "readers, they lose revenue. Like sharks, they must move on."
3275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3276 #: freeculture.xml:2396
3278 "But bloggers don't have a similar constraint. They can obsess, they can "
3279 "focus, they can get serious. If a particular blogger writes a particularly "
3280 "interesting story, more and more people link to that story. And as the "
3281 "number of links to a particular story increases, it rises in the ranks of "
3282 "stories. People read what is popular; what is popular has been selected by a "
3283 "very democratic process of peer-generated rankings."
3286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3287 #: freeculture.xml:2404
3292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3293 #: freeculture.xml:2406
3295 "There's a second way, as well, in which blogs have a different cycle from "
3296 "the mainstream press. As Dave Winer, one of the fathers of this movement and "
3297 "a software author for many decades, told me, another difference is the "
3298 "absence of a financial <quote>conflict of interest.</quote> <quote>I think "
3299 "you have to take the conflict of interest</quote> out of journalism, Winer "
3300 "told me. <quote>An amateur journalist simply doesn't have a conflict of "
3301 "interest, or the conflict of interest is so easily disclosed that you know "
3302 "you can sort of get it out of the way.</quote>"
3305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3306 #: freeculture.xml:2416 freeculture.xml:2462
3310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3311 #: freeculture.xml:2417 freeculture.xml:2463 freeculture.xml:5608
3316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3317 #: freeculture.xml:2425
3318 msgid "Telephone interview with David Winer, 16 April 2003."
3321 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3322 #: freeculture.xml:2419
3324 "These conflicts become more important as media becomes more concentrated "
3325 "(more on this below). A concentrated media can hide more from the public "
3326 "than an unconcentrated media can—as CNN admitted it did after the Iraq "
3327 "war because it was afraid of the consequences to its own "
3328 "employees.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It also needs to sustain "
3329 "a more coherent account. (In the middle of the Iraq war, I read a post on "
3330 "the Internet from someone who was at that time listening to a satellite "
3331 "uplink with a reporter in Iraq. The New York headquarters was telling the "
3332 "reporter over and over that her account of the war was too bleak: She needed "
3333 "to offer a more optimistic story. When she told New York that wasn't "
3334 "warranted, they told her that <emphasis>they</emphasis> were writing "
3335 "<quote>the story.</quote>)"
3339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3340 #: freeculture.xml:2443
3342 "John Schwartz, <quote>Loss of the Shuttle: The Internet; A Wealth of "
3343 "Information Online,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 2 "
3344 "February 2003, A28; Staci D. Kramer, <quote>Shuttle Disaster Coverage Mixed, "
3345 "but Strong Overall,</quote> Online Journalism Review, 2 February 2003, "
3346 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #10</ulink>."
3349 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3350 #: freeculture.xml:2435
3352 "Blog space gives amateurs a way to enter the "
3353 "debate—<quote>amateur</quote> not in the sense of inexperienced, but "
3354 "in the sense of an Olympic athlete, meaning not paid by anyone to give their "
3355 "reports. It allows for a much broader range of input into a story, as "
3356 "reporting on the Columbia disaster revealed, when hundreds from across the "
3357 "southwest United States turned to the Internet to retell what they had "
3358 "seen.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And it drives readers to read "
3359 "across the range of accounts and <quote>triangulate,</quote> as Winer puts "
3360 "it, the truth. Blogs, Winer says, are <quote>communicating directly with our "
3361 "constituency, and the middle man is out of it</quote>—with all the "
3362 "benefits, and costs, that might entail."
3365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3366 #: freeculture.xml:2464
3367 msgid "Olafson, Steve"
3370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3371 #: freeculture.xml:2462
3373 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
3374 "id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder "
3375 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> See Michael Falcone, <quote>Does an Editor's "
3376 "Pencil Ruin a Web Log?</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 29 "
3377 "September 2003, C4. (<quote>Not all news organizations have been as "
3378 "accepting of employees who blog. Kevin Sites, a CNN correspondent in Iraq "
3379 "who started a blog about his reporting of the war on March 9, stopped "
3380 "posting 12 days later at his bosses' request. Last year Steve Olafson, a "
3381 "<citetitle>Houston Chronicle</citetitle> reporter, was fired for keeping a "
3382 "personal Web log, published under a pseudonym, that dealt with some of the "
3383 "issues and people he was covering.</quote>)"
3387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3388 #: freeculture.xml:2455
3390 "Winer is optimistic about the future of journalism infected with "
3391 "blogs. <quote>It's going to become an essential skill,</quote> Winer "
3392 "predicts, for public figures and increasingly for private figures as "
3393 "well. It's not clear that <quote>journalism</quote> is happy about "
3394 "this—some journalists have been told to curtail their "
3395 "blogging.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is clear that we "
3396 "are still in transition. <quote>A lot of what we are doing now is warm-up "
3397 "exercises,</quote> Winer told me. There is a lot that must mature before "
3398 "this space has its mature effect. And as the inclusion of content in this "
3399 "space is the least infringing use of the Internet (meaning infringing on "
3400 "copyright), Winer said, <quote>we will be the last thing that gets shut "
3404 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3405 #: freeculture.xml:2485
3407 "This speech affects democracy. Winer thinks that happens because <quote>you "
3408 "don't have to work for somebody who controls, [for] a gatekeeper.</quote> "
3409 "That is true. But it affects democracy in another way as well. As more and "
3410 "more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will "
3411 "change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and "
3412 "misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be "
3413 "criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has "
3414 "been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore "
3415 "when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and "
3416 "criticism improves democracy. Today there are probably a couple of million "
3417 "blogs where such writing happens. When there are ten million, there will be "
3418 "something extraordinary to report."
3421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3422 #: freeculture.xml:2501
3423 msgid "Brown, John Seely"
3426 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3427 #: freeculture.xml:2504
3429 "<emphasis role='strong'>John Seely Brown</emphasis> is the chief scientist "
3430 "of the Xerox Corporation. His work, as his Web site describes it, is "
3431 "<quote>human learning and … the creation of knowledge ecologies for "
3432 "creating … innovation.</quote>"
3435 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3436 #: freeculture.xml:2510
3438 "Brown thus looks at these technologies of digital creativity a bit "
3439 "differently from the perspectives I've sketched so far. I'm sure he would be "
3440 "excited about any technology that might improve democracy. But his real "
3441 "excitement comes from how these technologies affect learning."
3445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3446 #: freeculture.xml:2517
3448 "As Brown believes, we learn by tinkering. When <quote>a lot of us grew "
3449 "up,</quote> he explains, that tinkering was done <quote>on motorcycle "
3450 "engines, lawnmower engines, automobiles, radios, and so on.</quote> But "
3451 "digital technologies enable a different kind of tinkering—with "
3452 "abstract ideas though in concrete form. The kids at Just Think! not only "
3453 "think about how a commercial portrays a politician; using digital "
3454 "technology, they can take the commercial apart and manipulate it, tinker "
3455 "with it to see how it does what it does. Digital technologies launch a kind "
3456 "of bricolage, or <quote>free collage,</quote> as Brown calls it. Many get to "
3457 "add to or transform the tinkering of many others."
3460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3461 #: freeculture.xml:2530
3463 "The best large-scale example of this kind of tinkering so far is free "
3464 "software or open-source software (FS/OSS). FS/OSS is software whose source "
3465 "code is shared. Anyone can download the technology that makes a FS/OSS "
3466 "program run. And anyone eager to learn how a particular bit of FS/OSS "
3467 "technology works can tinker with the code."
3470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3471 #: freeculture.xml:2537
3473 "This opportunity creates a <quote>completely new kind of learning "
3474 "platform,</quote> as Brown describes. <quote>As soon as you start doing "
3475 "that, you … unleash a free collage on the community, so that other "
3476 "people can start looking at your code, tinkering with it, trying it out, "
3477 "seeing if they can improve it.</quote> Each effort is a kind of "
3478 "apprenticeship. <quote>Open source becomes a major apprenticeship "
3482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3483 #: freeculture.xml:2545
3485 "In this process, <quote>the concrete things you tinker with are abstract. "
3486 "They are code.</quote> Kids are <quote>shifting to the ability to tinker in "
3487 "the abstract, and this tinkering is no longer an isolated activity that "
3488 "you're doing in your garage. You are tinkering with a community "
3489 "platform. … You are tinkering with other people's stuff. The more you "
3490 "tinker the more you improve.</quote> The more you improve, the more you "
3494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3495 #: freeculture.xml:2554
3497 "This same thing happens with content, too. And it happens in the same "
3498 "collaborative way when that content is part of the Web. As Brown puts it, "
3499 "<quote>the Web [is] the first medium that truly honors multiple forms of "
3500 "intelligence.</quote> Earlier technologies, such as the typewriter or word "
3501 "processors, helped amplify text. But the Web amplifies much more than "
3502 "text. <quote>The Web … says if you are musical, if you are artistic, "
3503 "if you are visual, if you are interested in film … [then] there is a "
3504 "lot you can start to do on this medium. [It] can now amplify and honor these "
3505 "multiple forms of intelligence.</quote>"
3509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3510 #: freeculture.xml:2567
3512 "Brown is talking about what Elizabeth Daley, Stephanie Barish, and Just "
3513 "Think! teach: that this tinkering with culture teaches as well as "
3514 "creates. It develops talents differently, and it builds a different kind of "
3518 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3519 #: freeculture.xml:2575
3521 "Yet the freedom to tinker with these objects is not guaranteed. Indeed, as "
3522 "we'll see through the course of this book, that freedom is increasingly "
3523 "highly contested. While there's no doubt that your father had the right to "
3524 "tinker with the car engine, there's great doubt that your child will have "
3525 "the right to tinker with the images she finds all around. The law and, "
3526 "increasingly, technology interfere with a freedom that technology, and "
3527 "curiosity, would otherwise ensure."
3531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3532 #: freeculture.xml:2591
3534 "See, for example, Edward Felten and Andrew Appel, <quote>Technological "
3535 "Access Control Interferes with Noninfringing Scholarship,</quote> "
3536 "<citetitle>Communications of the Association for Computer "
3537 "Machinery</citetitle> 43 (2000): 9."
3540 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3541 #: freeculture.xml:2584
3543 "These restrictions have become the focus of researchers and scholars. "
3544 "Professor Ed Felten of Princeton (whom we'll see more of in chapter <xref "
3545 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>) has developed a "
3546 "powerful argument in favor of the <quote>right to tinker</quote> as it "
3547 "applies to computer science and to knowledge in general.<placeholder "
3548 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But Brown's concern is earlier, or younger, or "
3549 "more fundamental. It is about the learning that kids can do, or can't do, "
3550 "because of the law."
3553 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3554 #: freeculture.xml:2599
3556 "<quote>This is where education in the twenty-first century is going,</quote> "
3557 "Brown explains. We need to <quote>understand how kids who grow up digital "
3558 "think and want to learn.</quote>"
3561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3562 #: freeculture.xml:2604
3564 "<quote>Yet,</quote> as Brown continued, and as the balance of this book will "
3565 "evince, <quote>we are building a legal system that completely suppresses the "
3566 "natural tendencies of today's digital kids. … We're building an "
3567 "architecture that unleashes 60 percent of the brain [and] a legal system "
3568 "that closes down that part of the brain.</quote>"
3571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3572 #: freeculture.xml:2612
3574 "We're building a technology that takes the magic of Kodak, mixes moving "
3575 "images and sound, and adds a space for commentary and an opportunity to "
3576 "spread that creativity everywhere. But we're building the law to close down "
3580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3581 #: freeculture.xml:2618
3583 "<quote>No way to run a culture,</quote> as Brewster Kahle, whom we'll meet "
3584 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"collectors\"/>, "
3585 "quipped to me in a rare moment of despondence."
3588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3589 #: freeculture.xml:2625
3590 msgid "CHAPTER THREE: Catalogs"
3593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3594 #: freeculture.xml:2626
3598 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3599 #: freeculture.xml:2626 freeculture.xml:2627
3600 msgid "Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)"
3603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3604 #: freeculture.xml:2629
3606 "<emphasis role='strong'>In the fall</emphasis> of 2002, Jesse Jordan of "
3607 "Oceanside, New York, enrolled as a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic "
3608 "Institute, in Troy, New York. His major at RPI was information "
3609 "technology. Though he is not a programmer, in October Jesse decided to begin "
3610 "to tinker with search engine technology that was available on the RPI "
3614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3615 #: freeculture.xml:2637
3617 "RPI is one of America's foremost technological research institutions. It "
3618 "offers degrees in fields ranging from architecture and engineering to "
3619 "information sciences. More than 65 percent of its five thousand "
3620 "undergraduates finished in the top 10 percent of their high school "
3621 "class. The school is thus a perfect mix of talent and experience to imagine "
3622 "and then build, a generation for the network age."
3625 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3626 #: freeculture.xml:2645
3628 "RPI's computer network links students, faculty, and administration to one "
3629 "another. It also links RPI to the Internet. Not everything available on the "
3630 "RPI network is available on the Internet. But the network is designed to "
3631 "enable students to get access to the Internet, as well as more intimate "
3632 "access to other members of the RPI community."
3636 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3637 #: freeculture.xml:2652
3639 "Search engines are a measure of a network's intimacy. Google brought the "
3640 "Internet much closer to all of us by fantastically improving the quality of "
3641 "search on the network. Specialty search engines can do this even better. The "
3642 "idea of <quote>intranet</quote> search engines, search engines that search "
3643 "within the network of a particular institution, is to provide users of that "
3644 "institution with better access to material from that institution. "
3645 "Businesses do this all the time, enabling employees to have access to "
3646 "material that people outside the business can't get. Universities do it as "
3650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3651 #: freeculture.xml:2664
3653 "These engines are enabled by the network technology itself. Microsoft, for "
3654 "example, has a network file system that makes it very easy for search "
3655 "engines tuned to that network to query the system for information about the "
3656 "publicly (within that network) available content. Jesse's search engine was "
3657 "built to take advantage of this technology. It used Microsoft's network file "
3658 "system to build an index of all the files available within the RPI network."
3661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3662 #: freeculture.xml:2673
3664 "Jesse's wasn't the first search engine built for the RPI network. Indeed, "
3665 "his engine was a simple modification of engines that others had built. His "
3666 "single most important improvement over those engines was to fix a bug within "
3667 "the Microsoft file-sharing system that could cause a user's computer to "
3668 "crash. With the engines that existed before, if you tried to access a file "
3669 "through a Windows browser that was on a computer that was off-line, your "
3670 "computer could crash. Jesse modified the system a bit to fix that problem, "
3671 "by adding a button that a user could click to see if the machine holding the "
3672 "file was still on-line."
3675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3676 #: freeculture.xml:2685
3678 "Jesse's engine went on-line in late October. Over the following six months, "
3679 "he continued to tweak it to improve its functionality. By March, the system "
3680 "was functioning quite well. Jesse had more than one million files in his "
3681 "directory, including every type of content that might be on users' "
3686 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3687 #: freeculture.xml:2692
3689 "Thus the index his search engine produced included pictures, which students "
3690 "could use to put on their own Web sites; copies of notes or research; copies "
3691 "of information pamphlets; movie clips that students might have created; "
3692 "university brochures—basically anything that users of the RPI network "
3693 "made available in a public folder of their computer."
3696 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3697 #: freeculture.xml:2701
3699 "But the index also included music files. In fact, one quarter of the files "
3700 "that Jesse's search engine listed were music files. But that means, of "
3701 "course, that three quarters were not, and—so that this point is "
3702 "absolutely clear—Jesse did nothing to induce people to put music files "
3703 "in their public folders. He did nothing to target the search engine to these "
3704 "files. He was a kid tinkering with a Google-like technology at a university "
3705 "where he was studying information science, and hence, tinkering was the "
3706 "aim. Unlike Google, or Microsoft, for that matter, he made no money from "
3707 "this tinkering; he was not connected to any business that would make any "
3708 "money from this experiment. He was a kid tinkering with technology in an "
3709 "environment where tinkering with technology was precisely what he was "
3713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3714 #: freeculture.xml:2716
3716 "On April 3, 2003, Jesse was contacted by the dean of students at RPI. The "
3717 "dean informed Jesse that the Recording Industry Association of America, the "
3718 "RIAA, would be filing a lawsuit against him and three other students whom he "
3719 "didn't even know, two of them at other universities. A few hours later, "
3720 "Jesse was served with papers from the suit. As he read these papers and "
3721 "watched the news reports about them, he was increasingly astonished."
3724 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3725 #: freeculture.xml:2725
3727 "<quote>It was absurd,</quote> he told me. <quote>I don't think I did "
3728 "anything wrong. … I don't think there's anything wrong with the "
3729 "search engine that I ran or … what I had done to it. I mean, I hadn't "
3730 "modified it in any way that promoted or enhanced the work of pirates. I just "
3731 "modified the search engine in a way that would make it easier to "
3732 "use</quote>—again, a <emphasis>search engine</emphasis>, which Jesse "
3733 "had not himself built, using the Windows filesharing system, which Jesse had "
3734 "not himself built, to enable members of the RPI community to get access to "
3735 "content, which Jesse had not himself created or posted, and the vast "
3736 "majority of which had nothing to do with music."
3739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3740 #: freeculture.xml:2737
3741 msgid "statutory damages"
3745 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3746 #: freeculture.xml:2739
3748 "But the RIAA branded Jesse a pirate. They claimed he operated a network and "
3749 "had therefore <quote>willfully</quote> violated copyright laws. They "
3750 "demanded that he pay them the damages for his wrong. For cases of "
3751 "<quote>willful infringement,</quote> the Copyright Act specifies something "
3752 "lawyers call <quote>statutory damages.</quote> These damages permit a "
3753 "copyright owner to claim $150,000 per infringement. As the RIAA alleged more "
3754 "than one hundred specific copyright infringements, they therefore demanded "
3755 "that Jesse pay them at least $15,000,000."
3758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3759 #: freeculture.xml:2749
3760 msgid "Princeton University"
3763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3764 #: freeculture.xml:2750
3765 msgid "Michigan Technical University"
3769 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3770 #: freeculture.xml:2764
3772 "Tim Goral, <quote>Recording Industry Goes After Campus P-2-P Networks: Suit "
3773 "Alleges $97.8 Billion in Damages,</quote> <citetitle>Professional Media "
3774 "Group LCC</citetitle> 6 (2003): 5, available at 2003 WL 55179443."
3777 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3778 #: freeculture.xml:2752
3780 "Similar lawsuits were brought against three other students: one other "
3781 "student at RPI, one at Michigan Technical University, and one at "
3782 "Princeton. Their situations were similar to Jesse's. Though each case was "
3783 "different in detail, the bottom line in each was exactly the same: huge "
3784 "demands for <quote>damages</quote> that the RIAA claimed it was entitled "
3785 "to. If you added up the claims, these four lawsuits were asking courts in "
3786 "the United States to award the plaintiffs close to $100 "
3787 "<emphasis>billion</emphasis>—six times the <emphasis>total</emphasis> "
3788 "profit of the film industry in 2001.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
3792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3793 #: freeculture.xml:2771
3795 "Jesse called his parents. They were supportive but a bit frightened. An "
3796 "uncle was a lawyer. He began negotiations with the RIAA. They demanded to "
3797 "know how much money Jesse had. Jesse had saved $12,000 from summer jobs and "
3798 "other employment. They demanded $12,000 to dismiss the case."
3801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
3802 #: freeculture.xml:2777
3803 msgid "Oppenheimer, Matt"
3806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3807 #: freeculture.xml:2779
3809 "The RIAA wanted Jesse to admit to doing something wrong. He refused. They "
3810 "wanted him to agree to an injunction that would essentially make it "
3811 "impossible for him to work in many fields of technology for the rest of his "
3812 "life. He refused. They made him understand that this process of being sued "
3813 "was not going to be pleasant. (As Jesse's father recounted to me, the chief "
3814 "lawyer on the case, Matt Oppenheimer, told Jesse, <quote>You don't want to "
3815 "pay another visit to a dentist like me.</quote>) And throughout, the RIAA "
3816 "insisted it would not settle the case until it took every penny Jesse had "
3821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3822 #: freeculture.xml:2790
3824 "Jesse's family was outraged at these claims. They wanted to fight. But "
3825 "Jesse's uncle worked to educate the family about the nature of the American "
3826 "legal system. Jesse could fight the RIAA. He might even win. But the cost of "
3827 "fighting a lawsuit like this, Jesse was told, would be at least $250,000. If "
3828 "he won, he would not recover that money. If he won, he would have a piece of "
3829 "paper saying he had won, and a piece of paper saying he and his family were "
3833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3834 #: freeculture.xml:2800
3836 "So Jesse faced a mafia-like choice: $250,000 and a chance at winning, or "
3837 "$12,000 and a settlement."
3840 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
3841 #: freeculture.xml:2803 freeculture.xml:3159 freeculture.xml:4094 freeculture.xml:5209 freeculture.xml:5258 freeculture.xml:9642 freeculture.xml:9740 freeculture.xml:9909 freeculture.xml:14472 freeculture.xml:14537
3845 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
3846 #: freeculture.xml:2803 freeculture.xml:3159 freeculture.xml:4094 freeculture.xml:9642 freeculture.xml:9740 freeculture.xml:9909 freeculture.xml:14472 freeculture.xml:14537
3847 msgid "recording industry payments to"
3851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3852 #: freeculture.xml:2813
3854 "Occupational Employment Survey, U.S. Dept. of Labor (2001) "
3855 "(27–2042—Musicians and Singers). See also National Endowment for "
3856 "the Arts, <citetitle>More Than One in a Blue Moon</citetitle> (2000)."
3860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
3861 #: freeculture.xml:2821
3863 "Douglas Lichtman makes a related point in <quote>KaZaA and "
3864 "Punishment,</quote> <citetitle>Wall Street Journal</citetitle>, 10 September "
3868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3869 #: freeculture.xml:2805
3871 "The recording industry insists this is a matter of law and morality. Let's "
3872 "put the law aside for a moment and think about the morality. Where is the "
3873 "morality in a lawsuit like this? What is the virtue in scapegoatism? The "
3874 "RIAA is an extraordinarily powerful lobby. The president of the RIAA is "
3875 "reported to make more than $1 million a year. Artists, on the other hand, "
3876 "are not well paid. The average recording artist makes $45,900.<placeholder "
3877 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There are plenty of ways for the RIAA to affect "
3878 "and direct policy. So where is the morality in taking money from a student "
3879 "for running a search engine?<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
3882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3883 #: freeculture.xml:2826
3885 "On June 23, Jesse wired his savings to the lawyer working for the RIAA. The "
3886 "case against him was then dismissed. And with this, this kid who had "
3887 "tinkered a computer into a $15 million lawsuit became an activist:"
3890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
3891 #: freeculture.xml:2833
3893 "I was definitely not an activist [before]. I never really meant to be an "
3894 "activist. … [But] I've been pushed into this. In no way did I ever "
3895 "foresee anything like this, but I think it's just completely absurd what the "
3899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3900 #: freeculture.xml:2840
3902 "Jesse's parents betray a certain pride in their reluctant activist. As his "
3903 "father told me, Jesse <quote>considers himself very conservative, and so do "
3904 "I. … He's not a tree hugger. … I think it's bizarre that they "
3905 "would pick on him. But he wants to let people know that they're sending the "
3906 "wrong message. And he wants to correct the record.</quote>"
3909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
3910 #: freeculture.xml:2849
3911 msgid "CHAPTER FOUR: <quote>Pirates</quote>"
3914 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
3915 #: freeculture.xml:2852
3917 "<emphasis role='strong'>If <quote>piracy</quote> means</emphasis> using the "
3918 "creative property of others without their permission—if <quote>if "
3919 "value, then right</quote> is true—then the history of the content "
3920 "industry is a history of piracy. Every important sector of <quote>big "
3921 "media</quote> today—film, records, radio, and cable TV—was born "
3922 "of a kind of piracy so defined. The consistent story is how last "
3923 "generation's pirates join this generation's country club—until now."
3926 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
3927 #: freeculture.xml:2863
3931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
3932 #: freeculture.xml:2867
3934 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> I am grateful to Peter DiMauro "
3935 "for pointing me to this extraordinary history. See also Siva Vaidhyanathan, "
3936 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 87–93, which details "
3937 "Edison's <quote>adventures</quote> with copyright and patent."
3941 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3942 #: freeculture.xml:2865
3944 "The film industry of Hollywood was built by fleeing pirates.<placeholder "
3945 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Creators and directors migrated from the East "
3946 "Coast to California in the early twentieth century in part to escape "
3947 "controls that patents granted the inventor of filmmaking, Thomas "
3948 "Edison. These controls were exercised through a monopoly "
3949 "<quote>trust,</quote> the Motion Pictures Patents Company, and were based on "
3950 "Thomas Edison's creative property—patents. Edison formed the MPPC to "
3951 "exercise the rights this creative property gave him, and the MPPC was "
3952 "serious about the control it demanded."
3955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
3956 #: freeculture.xml:2883
3957 msgid "As one commentator tells one part of the story,"
3960 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
3961 #: freeculture.xml:2887
3963 "A January 1909 deadline was set for all companies to comply with the "
3964 "license. By February, unlicensed outlaws, who referred to themselves as "
3965 "independents protested the trust and carried on business without submitting "
3966 "to the Edison monopoly. In the summer of 1909 the independent movement was "
3967 "in full-swing, with producers and theater owners using illegal equipment and "
3968 "imported film stock to create their own underground market."
3971 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
3972 #: freeculture.xml:2895
3973 msgid "Fox, William"
3976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
3977 #: freeculture.xml:2896
3978 msgid "General Film Company"
3981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3982 #: freeculture.xml:2897 freeculture.xml:3177 freeculture.xml:4309 freeculture.xml:9782
3983 msgid "Picker, Randal C."
3986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
3987 #: freeculture.xml:2921 freeculture.xml:4308 freeculture.xml:9516 freeculture.xml:9637
3988 msgid "broadcast flag"
3991 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
3992 #: freeculture.xml:2910
3994 "J. A. Aberdeen, <citetitle>Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent "
3995 "Motion Picture Producers</citetitle> (Cobblestone Entertainment, 2000) and "
3996 "expanded texts posted at <quote>The Edison Movie Monopoly: The Motion "
3997 "Picture Patents Company vs. the Independent Outlaws,</quote> available at "
3998 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #11</ulink>. For a "
3999 "discussion of the economic motive behind both these limits and the limits "
4000 "imposed by Victor on phonographs, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison "
4001 "to the Broadcast Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the "
4002 "Propertization of Copyright</quote> (September 2002), University of Chicago "
4003 "Law School, James M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper "
4004 "No. 159. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4007 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4008 #: freeculture.xml:2899
4010 "With the country experiencing a tremendous expansion in the number of "
4011 "nickelodeons, the Patents Company reacted to the independent movement by "
4012 "forming a strong-arm subsidiary known as the General Film Company to block "
4013 "the entry of non-licensed independents. With coercive tactics that have "
4014 "become legendary, General Film confiscated unlicensed equipment, "
4015 "discontinued product supply to theaters which showed unlicensed films, and "
4016 "effectively monopolized distribution with the acquisition of all U.S. film "
4017 "exchanges, except for the one owned by the independent William Fox who "
4018 "defied the Trust even after his license was revoked.<placeholder "
4019 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4023 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4024 #: freeculture.xml:2932
4026 "Marc Wanamaker, <quote>The First Studios,</quote> <citetitle>The Silents "
4027 "Majority</citetitle>, archived at <ulink "
4028 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #12</ulink>."
4031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4032 #: freeculture.xml:2926
4034 "The Napsters of those days, the <quote>independents,</quote> were companies "
4035 "like Fox. And no less than today, these independents were vigorously "
4036 "resisted. <quote>Shooting was disrupted by machinery stolen, and "
4037 "`accidents' resulting in loss of negatives, equipment, buildings and "
4038 "sometimes life and limb frequently occurred.</quote><placeholder "
4039 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That led the independents to flee the East "
4040 "Coast. California was remote enough from Edison's reach that filmmakers "
4041 "there could pirate his inventions without fear of the law. And the leaders "
4042 "of Hollywood filmmaking, Fox most prominently, did just that."
4046 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4047 #: freeculture.xml:2942
4049 "Of course, California grew quickly, and the effective enforcement of federal "
4050 "law eventually spread west. But because patents grant the patent holder a "
4051 "truly <quote>limited</quote> monopoly (just seventeen years at that time), "
4052 "by the time enough federal marshals appeared, the patents had expired. A new "
4053 "industry had been born, in part from the piracy of Edison's creative "
4057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4058 #: freeculture.xml:2953
4059 msgid "Recorded Music"
4062 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4063 #: freeculture.xml:2955
4065 "The record industry was born of another kind of piracy, though to see how "
4066 "requires a bit of detail about the way the law regulates music."
4069 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4070 #: freeculture.xml:2958
4071 msgid "Fourneaux, Henri"
4074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4075 #: freeculture.xml:2959
4076 msgid "Russel, Phil"
4079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4080 #: freeculture.xml:2961
4082 "At the time that Edison and Henri Fourneaux invented machines for "
4083 "reproducing music (Edison the phonograph, Fourneaux the player piano), the "
4084 "law gave composers the exclusive right to control copies of their music and "
4085 "the exclusive right to control public performances of their music. In other "
4086 "words, in 1900, if I wanted a copy of Phil Russel's 1899 hit <quote>Happy "
4087 "Mose,</quote> the law said I would have to pay for the right to get a copy "
4088 "of the musical score, and I would also have to pay for the right to perform "
4092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4093 #: freeculture.xml:2970 freeculture.xml:3121
4097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4098 #: freeculture.xml:2972
4100 "But what if I wanted to record <quote>Happy Mose,</quote> using Edison's "
4101 "phonograph or Fourneaux's player piano? Here the law stumbled. It was clear "
4102 "enough that I would have to buy any copy of the musical score that I "
4103 "performed in making this recording. And it was clear enough that I would "
4104 "have to pay for any public performance of the work I was recording. But it "
4105 "wasn't totally clear that I would have to pay for a <quote>public "
4106 "performance</quote> if I recorded the song in my own house (even today, you "
4107 "don't owe the Beatles anything if you sing their songs in the shower), or if "
4108 "I recorded the song from memory (copies in your brain are "
4109 "not—yet— regulated by copyright law). So if I simply sang the "
4110 "song into a recording device in the privacy of my own home, it wasn't clear "
4111 "that I owed the composer anything. And more importantly, it wasn't clear "
4112 "whether I owed the composer anything if I then made copies of those "
4113 "recordings. Because of this gap in the law, then, I could effectively "
4114 "pirate someone else's song without paying its composer anything."
4117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4118 #: freeculture.xml:2995 freeculture.xml:3012
4119 msgid "Kittredge, Alfred"
4122 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4123 #: freeculture.xml:2991
4125 "The composers (and publishers) were none too happy about this capacity to "
4126 "pirate. As South Dakota senator Alfred Kittredge put it, <placeholder "
4127 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4131 #: freeculture.xml:3006
4133 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright: Hearings on S. 6330 "
4134 "and H.R. 19853 Before the ( Joint) Committees on Patents, 59th Cong. 59, 1st "
4135 "sess. (1906) (statement of Senator Alfred B. Kittredge, of South Dakota, "
4136 "chairman), reprinted in <citetitle>Legislative History of the Copyright "
4137 "Act</citetitle>, E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South "
4138 "Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman Reprints, 1976). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4142 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4143 #: freeculture.xml:2999
4145 "Imagine the injustice of the thing. A composer writes a song or an opera. A "
4146 "publisher buys at great expense the rights to the same and copyrights "
4147 "it. Along come the phonographic companies and companies who cut music rolls "
4148 "and deliberately steal the work of the brain of the composer and publisher "
4149 "without any regard for [their] rights.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4154 #: freeculture.xml:3016
4155 msgid "Sousa, John Philip"
4159 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4160 #: freeculture.xml:3022
4162 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 223 (statement of "
4163 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4167 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4168 #: freeculture.xml:3028
4170 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 226 (statement of "
4171 "Nathan Burkan, attorney for the Music Publishers Association)."
4175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4176 #: freeculture.xml:3035
4178 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 23 (statement of "
4179 "John Philip Sousa, composer)."
4182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4183 #: freeculture.xml:3018
4185 "The innovators who developed the technology to record other people's works "
4186 "were <quote>sponging upon the toil, the work, the talent, and genius of "
4187 "American composers,</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> and the "
4188 "<quote>music publishing industry</quote> was thereby <quote>at the complete "
4189 "mercy of this one pirate.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> "
4190 "As John Philip Sousa put it, in as direct a way as possible, <quote>When "
4191 "they make money out of my pieces, I want a share of it.</quote><placeholder "
4192 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
4195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4196 #: freeculture.xml:3039
4197 msgid "American Graphophone Company"
4200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4201 #: freeculture.xml:3040
4202 msgid "player pianos"
4206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4207 #: freeculture.xml:3051
4209 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 283–84 "
4210 "(statement of Albert Walker, representative of the Auto-Music Perforating "
4211 "Company of New York)."
4215 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4216 #: freeculture.xml:3062
4218 "To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyright, 376 (prepared "
4219 "memorandum of Philip Mauro, general patent counsel of the American "
4220 "Graphophone Company Association)."
4223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4224 #: freeculture.xml:3043
4226 "These arguments have familiar echoes in the wars of our day. So, too, do the "
4227 "arguments on the other side. The innovators who developed the player piano "
4228 "argued that <quote>it is perfectly demonstrable that the introduction of "
4229 "automatic music players has not deprived any composer of anything he had "
4230 "before their introduction.</quote> Rather, the machines increased the sales "
4231 "of sheet music.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In any case, the "
4232 "innovators argued, the job of Congress was <quote>to consider first the "
4233 "interest of [the public], whom they represent, and whose servants they "
4234 "are.</quote> <quote>All talk about `theft,'</quote> the general counsel of "
4235 "the American Graphophone Company wrote, <quote>is the merest claptrap, for "
4236 "there exists no property in ideas musical, literary or artistic, except as "
4237 "defined by statute.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
4241 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4242 #: freeculture.xml:3068
4244 "The law soon resolved this battle in favor of the composer "
4245 "<emphasis>and</emphasis> the recording artist. Congress amended the law to "
4246 "make sure that composers would be paid for the <quote>mechanical "
4247 "reproductions</quote> of their music. But rather than simply granting the "
4248 "composer complete control over the right to make mechanical reproductions, "
4249 "Congress gave recording artists a right to record the music, at a price set "
4250 "by Congress, once the composer allowed it to be recorded once. This is the "
4251 "part of copyright law that makes cover songs possible. Once a composer "
4252 "authorizes a recording of his song, others are free to record the same song, "
4253 "so long as they pay the original composer a fee set by the law."
4256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4257 #: freeculture.xml:3083
4259 "American law ordinarily calls this a <quote>compulsory license,</quote> but "
4260 "I will refer to it as a <quote>statutory license.</quote> A statutory "
4261 "license is a license whose key terms are set by law. After Congress's "
4262 "amendment of the Copyright Act in 1909, record companies were free to "
4263 "distribute copies of recordings so long as they paid the composer (or "
4264 "copyright holder) the fee set by the statute."
4267 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4268 #: freeculture.xml:3098 freeculture.xml:14168
4269 msgid "Grisham, John"
4272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4273 #: freeculture.xml:3091
4275 "This is an exception within the law of copyright. When John Grisham writes a "
4276 "novel, a publisher is free to publish that novel only if Grisham gives the "
4277 "publisher permission. Grisham, in turn, is free to charge whatever he wants "
4278 "for that permission. The price to publish Grisham is thus set by Grisham, "
4279 "and copyright law ordinarily says you have no permission to use Grisham's "
4280 "work except with permission of Grisham. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4285 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4286 #: freeculture.xml:3115
4288 "Copyright Law Revision: Hearings on S. 2499, S. 2900, H.R. 243, and "
4289 "H.R. 11794 Before the ( Joint) Committee on Patents, 60th Cong., 1st sess., "
4290 "217 (1908) (statement of Senator Reed Smoot, chairman), reprinted in "
4291 "<citetitle>Legislative History of the 1909 Copyright Act</citetitle>, "
4292 "E. Fulton Brylawski and Abe Goldman, eds. (South Hackensack, N.J.: Rothman "
4296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4297 #: freeculture.xml:3101
4299 "But the law governing recordings gives recording artists less. And thus, in "
4300 "effect, the law <emphasis>subsidizes</emphasis> the recording industry "
4301 "through a kind of piracy—by giving recording artists a weaker right "
4302 "than it otherwise gives creative authors. The Beatles have less control over "
4303 "their creative work than Grisham does. And the beneficiaries of this less "
4304 "control are the recording industry and the public. The recording industry "
4305 "gets something of value for less than it otherwise would pay; the public "
4306 "gets access to a much wider range of musical creativity. Indeed, Congress "
4307 "was quite explicit about its reasons for granting this right. Its fear was "
4308 "the monopoly power of rights holders, and that that power would stifle "
4309 "follow-on creativity.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4310 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4313 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4314 #: freeculture.xml:3124
4316 "While the recording industry has been quite coy about this recently, "
4317 "historically it has been quite a supporter of the statutory license for "
4318 "records. As a 1967 report from the House Committee on the Judiciary relates,"
4322 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4323 #: freeculture.xml:3146
4325 "Copyright Law Revision: Report to Accompany H.R. 2512, House Committee on "
4326 "the Judiciary, 90th Cong., 1st sess., House Document no. 83, (8 March "
4327 "1967). I am grateful to Glenn Brown for drawing my attention to this report."
4330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4331 #: freeculture.xml:3131
4333 "the record producers argued vigorously that the compulsory license system "
4334 "must be retained. They asserted that the record industry is a "
4335 "half-billion-dollar business of great economic importance in the United "
4336 "States and throughout the world; records today are the principal means of "
4337 "disseminating music, and this creates special problems, since performers "
4338 "need unhampered access to musical material on nondiscriminatory "
4339 "terms. Historically, the record producers pointed out, there were no "
4340 "recording rights before 1909 and the 1909 statute adopted the compulsory "
4341 "license as a deliberate anti-monopoly condition on the grant of these "
4342 "rights. They argue that the result has been an outpouring of recorded music, "
4343 "with the public being given lower prices, improved quality, and a greater "
4344 "choice.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4348 #: freeculture.xml:3153
4350 "By limiting the rights musicians have, by partially pirating their creative "
4351 "work, the record producers, and the public, benefit."
4354 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4355 #: freeculture.xml:3158 freeculture.xml:4273
4359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4360 #: freeculture.xml:3161
4361 msgid "Radio was also born of piracy."
4364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4365 #: freeculture.xml:3176
4366 msgid "Hand, Learned"
4369 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4370 #: freeculture.xml:3167
4372 "See 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, sections 106 and 110. At "
4373 "the beginning, record companies printed <quote>Not Licensed for Radio "
4374 "Broadcast</quote> and other messages purporting to restrict the ability to "
4375 "play a record on a radio station. Judge Learned Hand rejected the argument "
4376 "that a warning attached to a record might restrict the rights of the radio "
4377 "station. See <citetitle>RCA Manufacturing "
4378 "Co</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Whiteman</citetitle>, 114 F. 2d 86 (2nd "
4379 "Cir. 1940). See also Randal C. Picker, <quote>From Edison to the Broadcast "
4380 "Flag: Mechanisms of Consent and Refusal and the Propertization of "
4381 "Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> "
4382 "70 (2003): 281. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4383 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4386 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4387 #: freeculture.xml:3164
4389 "When a radio station plays a record on the air, that constitutes a "
4390 "<quote>public performance</quote> of the composer's work.<placeholder "
4391 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As I described above, the law gives the "
4392 "composer (or copyright holder) an exclusive right to public performances of "
4393 "his work. The radio station thus owes the composer money for that "
4397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4398 #: freeculture.xml:3194 freeculture.xml:8851 freeculture.xml:9310 freeculture.xml:12297
4399 msgid "Lovett, Lyle"
4403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4404 #: freeculture.xml:3184
4406 "But when the radio station plays a record, it is not only performing a copy "
4407 "of the <emphasis>composer's</emphasis> work. The radio station is also "
4408 "performing a copy of the <emphasis>recording artist's</emphasis> work. It's "
4409 "one thing to have <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> sung on the radio by the "
4410 "local children's choir; it's quite another to have it sung by the Rolling "
4411 "Stones or Lyle Lovett. The recording artist is adding to the value of the "
4412 "composition performed on the radio station. And if the law were perfectly "
4413 "consistent, the radio station would have to pay the recording artist for his "
4414 "work, just as it pays the composer of the music for his work. <placeholder "
4415 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4418 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4419 #: freeculture.xml:3199
4421 "But it doesn't. Under the law governing radio performances, the radio "
4422 "station does not have to pay the recording artist. The radio station need "
4423 "only pay the composer. The radio station thus gets a bit of something for "
4424 "nothing. It gets to perform the recording artist's work for free, even if it "
4425 "must pay the composer something for the privilege of playing the song."
4428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
4429 #: freeculture.xml:3206 freeculture.xml:3711 freeculture.xml:6170
4433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4434 #: freeculture.xml:3208
4436 "This difference can be huge. Imagine you compose a piece of music. Imagine "
4437 "it is your first. You own the exclusive right to authorize public "
4438 "performances of that music. So if Madonna wants to sing your song in public, "
4439 "she has to get your permission."
4442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4443 #: freeculture.xml:3214
4445 "Imagine she does sing your song, and imagine she likes it a lot. She then "
4446 "decides to make a recording of your song, and it becomes a top hit. Under "
4447 "our law, every time a radio station plays your song, you get some money. But "
4448 "Madonna gets nothing, save the indirect effect on the sale of her CDs. The "
4449 "public performance of her recording is not a <quote>protected</quote> "
4450 "right. The radio station thus gets to <emphasis>pirate</emphasis> the value "
4451 "of Madonna's work without paying her anything."
4454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4455 #: freeculture.xml:3225
4457 "No doubt, one might argue that, on balance, the recording artists "
4458 "benefit. On average, the promotion they get is worth more than the "
4459 "performance rights they give up. Maybe. But even if so, the law ordinarily "
4460 "gives the creator the right to make this choice. By making the choice for "
4461 "him or her, the law gives the radio station the right to take something for "
4465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
4466 #: freeculture.xml:3235 freeculture.xml:4279
4470 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4471 #: freeculture.xml:3236 freeculture.xml:4107 freeculture.xml:8046 freeculture.xml:8085 freeculture.xml:14570
4472 msgid "cable television"
4475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4476 #: freeculture.xml:3238
4477 msgid "Cable TV was also born of a kind of piracy."
4481 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4482 #: freeculture.xml:3241
4484 "When cable entrepreneurs first started wiring communities with cable "
4485 "television in 1948, most refused to pay broadcasters for the content that "
4486 "they echoed to their customers. Even when the cable companies started "
4487 "selling access to television broadcasts, they refused to pay for what they "
4488 "sold. Cable companies were thus Napsterizing broadcasters' content, but more "
4489 "egregiously than anything Napster ever did— Napster never charged for "
4490 "the content it enabled others to give away."
4493 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4494 #: freeculture.xml:3251
4495 msgid "Anello, Douglas"
4498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4499 #: freeculture.xml:3252
4500 msgid "Burdick, Quentin"
4503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4504 #: freeculture.xml:3253 freeculture.xml:3264
4505 msgid "Hyde, Rosel H."
4508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4509 #: freeculture.xml:3259
4511 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV: Hearing on S. 1006 Before the "
4512 "Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Senate Committee "
4513 "on the Judiciary, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 78 (1966) (statement of Rosel "
4514 "H. Hyde, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission). <placeholder "
4515 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4520 #: freeculture.xml:3271
4522 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 116 (statement of Douglas A. Anello, "
4523 "general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters)."
4526 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4527 #: freeculture.xml:3255
4529 "Broadcasters and copyright owners were quick to attack this theft. Rosel "
4530 "Hyde, chairman of the FCC, viewed the practice as a kind of <quote>unfair "
4531 "and potentially destructive competition.</quote><placeholder "
4532 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> There may have been a <quote>public "
4533 "interest</quote> in spreading the reach of cable TV, but as Douglas Anello, "
4534 "general counsel to the National Association of Broadcasters, asked Senator "
4535 "Quentin Burdick during testimony, <quote>Does public interest dictate that "
4536 "you use somebody else's property?</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
4537 "id=\"1\"/> As another broadcaster put it,"
4541 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4542 #: freeculture.xml:3282
4544 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 126 (statement of Ernest W. Jennes, "
4545 "general counsel of the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters, Inc.)."
4548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4549 #: freeculture.xml:3278
4551 "The extraordinary thing about the CATV business is that it is the only "
4552 "business I know of where the product that is being sold is not paid "
4553 "for.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4556 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4557 #: freeculture.xml:3288
4558 msgid "Again, the demand of the copyright holders seemed reasonable enough:"
4562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4563 #: freeculture.xml:3297
4565 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 169 (joint statement of Arthur B. Krim, "
4566 "president of United Artists Corp., and John Sinn, president of United "
4567 "Artists Television, Inc.)."
4570 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4571 #: freeculture.xml:3292
4573 "All we are asking for is a very simple thing, that people who now take our "
4574 "property for nothing pay for it. We are trying to stop piracy and I don't "
4575 "think there is any lesser word to describe it. I think there are harsher "
4576 "words which would fit it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4579 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4580 #: freeculture.xml:3303 freeculture.xml:3311
4581 msgid "Heston, Charlton"
4584 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4585 #: freeculture.xml:3309
4587 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 209 (statement of Charlton Heston, "
4588 "president of the Screen Actors Guild). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4593 #: freeculture.xml:3305
4595 "These were <quote>free-ride[rs],</quote> Screen Actor's Guild president "
4596 "Charlton Heston said, who were <quote>depriving actors of "
4597 "compensation.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4601 #: freeculture.xml:3316
4603 "But again, there was another side to the debate. As Assistant Attorney "
4604 "General Edwin Zimmerman put it,"
4607 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><indexterm><primary>
4608 #: freeculture.xml:3332 freeculture.xml:3334
4609 msgid "Zimmerman, Edwin"
4612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
4613 #: freeculture.xml:3330
4615 "Copyright Law Revision—CATV, 216 (statement of Edwin M. Zimmerman, "
4616 "acting assistant attorney general). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
4620 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
4621 #: freeculture.xml:3321
4623 "Our point here is that unlike the problem of whether you have any copyright "
4624 "protection at all, the problem here is whether copyright holders who are "
4625 "already compensated, who already have a monopoly, should be permitted to "
4626 "extend that monopoly. … The question here is how much compensation "
4627 "they should have and how far back they should carry their right to "
4628 "compensation.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4629 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4633 #: freeculture.xml:3338
4635 "Copyright owners took the cable companies to court. Twice the Supreme Court "
4636 "held that the cable companies owed the copyright owners nothing."
4639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4640 #: freeculture.xml:3342
4642 "It took Congress almost thirty years before it resolved the question of "
4643 "whether cable companies had to pay for the content they "
4644 "<quote>pirated.</quote> In the end, Congress resolved this question in the "
4645 "same way that it resolved the question about record players and player "
4646 "pianos. Yes, cable companies would have to pay for the content that they "
4647 "broadcast; but the price they would have to pay was not set by the copyright "
4648 "owner. The price was set by law, so that the broadcasters couldn't exercise "
4649 "veto power over the emerging technologies of cable. Cable companies thus "
4650 "built their empire in part upon a <quote>piracy</quote> of the value created "
4651 "by broadcasters' content."
4655 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4656 #: freeculture.xml:3360
4658 "See, for example, National Music Publisher's Association, <citetitle>The "
4659 "Engine of Free Expression: Copyright on the Internet—The Myth of Free "
4660 "Information</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
4661 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #13</ulink>. <quote>The threat of "
4662 "piracy—the use of someone else's creative work without permission or "
4663 "compensation—has grown with the Internet.</quote>"
4666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4667 #: freeculture.xml:3355
4669 "<emphasis role='strong'>These separate stories</emphasis> sing a common "
4670 "theme. If <quote>piracy</quote> means using value from someone else's "
4671 "creative property without permission from that creator—as it is "
4672 "increasingly described today<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
4673 "— then <emphasis>every</emphasis> industry affected by copyright today "
4674 "is the product and beneficiary of a certain kind of piracy. Film, records, "
4675 "radio, cable TV. … The list is long and could well be expanded. Every "
4676 "generation welcomes the pirates from the last. Every generation—until "
4680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
4681 #: freeculture.xml:3377
4682 msgid "CHAPTER FIVE: <quote>Piracy</quote>"
4685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4686 #: freeculture.xml:3379
4688 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is piracy</emphasis> of copyrighted "
4689 "material. Lots of it. This piracy comes in many forms. The most significant "
4690 "is commercial piracy, the unauthorized taking of other people's content "
4691 "within a commercial context. Despite the many justifications that are "
4692 "offered in its defense, this taking is wrong. No one should condone it, and "
4693 "the law should stop it."
4697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
4698 #: freeculture.xml:3387
4700 "But as well as copy-shop piracy, there is another kind of "
4701 "<quote>taking</quote> that is more directly related to the Internet. That "
4702 "taking, too, seems wrong to many, and it is wrong much of the time. Before "
4703 "we paint this taking <quote>piracy,</quote> however, we should understand "
4704 "its nature a bit more. For the harm of this taking is significantly more "
4705 "ambiguous than outright copying, and the law should account for that "
4706 "ambiguity, as it has so often done in the past."
4709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
4710 #: freeculture.xml:3397
4714 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4715 #: freeculture.xml:3398 freeculture.xml:3478 freeculture.xml:3528 freeculture.xml:14572
4716 msgid "Asia, commercial piracy in"
4719 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4720 #: freeculture.xml:3399 freeculture.xml:3846 freeculture.xml:9311 freeculture.xml:10118 freeculture.xml:13963 freeculture.xml:14554
4724 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4725 #: freeculture.xml:3399
4726 msgid "foreign piracy of"
4730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4731 #: freeculture.xml:3407
4733 "See IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), "
4734 "<citetitle>The Recording Industry Commercial Piracy Report 2003</citetitle>, "
4735 "July 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
4736 "#14</ulink>. See also Ben Hunt, <quote>Companies Warned on Music Piracy "
4737 "Risk,</quote> <citetitle>Financial Times</citetitle>, 14 February 2003, 11."
4740 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4741 #: freeculture.xml:3401
4743 "All across the world, but especially in Asia and Eastern Europe, there are "
4744 "businesses that do nothing but take others people's copyrighted content, "
4745 "copy it, and sell it—all without the permission of a copyright "
4746 "owner. The recording industry estimates that it loses about $4.6 billion "
4747 "every year to physical piracy<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> (that "
4748 "works out to one in three CDs sold worldwide). The MPAA estimates that it "
4749 "loses $3 billion annually worldwide to piracy."
4752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4753 #: freeculture.xml:3417
4755 "This is piracy plain and simple. Nothing in the argument of this book, nor "
4756 "in the argument that most people make when talking about the subject of this "
4757 "book, should draw into doubt this simple point: This piracy is wrong."
4760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4761 #: freeculture.xml:3423
4763 "Which is not to say that excuses and justifications couldn't be made for "
4764 "it. We could, for example, remind ourselves that for the first one hundred "
4765 "years of the American Republic, America did not honor foreign copyrights. We "
4766 "were born, in this sense, a pirate nation. It might therefore seem "
4767 "hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations "
4768 "treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, "
4772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4773 #: freeculture.xml:3432
4775 "That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the "
4776 "taking of foreign works. It explicitly limited itself to American "
4777 "works. Thus the American publishers who published foreign works without the "
4778 "permission of foreign authors were not violating any rule. The copy shops "
4779 "in Asia, by contrast, are violating Asian law. Asian law does protect "
4780 "foreign copyrights, and the actions of the copy shops violate that law. So "
4781 "the wrong of piracy that they engage in is not just a moral wrong, but a "
4782 "legal wrong, and not just an internationally legal wrong, but a locally "
4783 "legal wrong as well."
4787 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4788 #: freeculture.xml:3443
4790 "True, these local rules have, in effect, been imposed upon these "
4791 "countries. No country can be part of the world economy and choose not to "
4792 "protect copyright internationally. We may have been born a pirate nation, "
4793 "but we will not allow any other nation to have a similar childhood."
4796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4797 #: freeculture.xml:3471
4798 msgid "agricultural patents"
4801 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4802 #: freeculture.xml:3472 freeculture.xml:12581 freeculture.xml:13034 freeculture.xml:13041
4803 msgid "Drahos, Peter"
4806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4807 #: freeculture.xml:3456
4809 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism: "
4810 "<citetitle>Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New "
4811 "Press, 2003), 10–13, 209. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual "
4812 "Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement obligates member nations to create "
4813 "administrative and enforcement mechanisms for intellectual property rights, "
4814 "a costly proposition for developing countries. Additionally, patent rights "
4815 "may lead to higher prices for staple industries such as agriculture. Critics "
4816 "of TRIPS question the disparity between burdens imposed upon developing "
4817 "countries and benefits conferred to industrialized nations. TRIPS does "
4818 "permit governments to use patents for public, noncommercial uses without "
4819 "first obtaining the patent holder's permission. Developing nations may be "
4820 "able to use this to gain the benefits of foreign patents at lower "
4821 "prices. This is a promising strategy for developing nations within the TRIPS "
4822 "framework. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
4823 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
4826 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4827 #: freeculture.xml:3451
4829 "If a country is to be treated as a sovereign, however, then its laws are its "
4830 "laws regardless of their source. The international law under which these "
4831 "nations live gives them some opportunities to escape the burden of "
4832 "intellectual property law.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In my "
4833 "view, more developing nations should take advantage of that opportunity, but "
4834 "when they don't, then their laws should be respected. And under the laws of "
4835 "these nations, this piracy is wrong."
4838 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
4839 #: freeculture.xml:3493 freeculture.xml:3767 freeculture.xml:14720
4840 msgid "Liebowitz, Stan"
4843 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
4844 #: freeculture.xml:3486
4846 "For an analysis of the economic impact of copying technology, see Stan "
4847 "Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle> (New York: "
4848 "Amacom, 2002), 144–90. <quote>In some instances … the impact of "
4849 "piracy on the copyright holder's ability to appropriate the value of the "
4850 "work will be negligible. One obvious instance is the case where the "
4851 "individual engaging in pirating would not have purchased an original even if "
4852 "pirating were not an option.</quote> Ibid., 149. <placeholder "
4853 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
4856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4857 #: freeculture.xml:3480
4859 "Alternatively, we could try to excuse this piracy by noting that in any "
4860 "case, it does no harm to the industry. The Chinese who get access to "
4861 "American CDs at 50 cents a copy are not people who would have bought those "
4862 "American CDs at $15 a copy. So no one really has any less money than they "
4863 "otherwise would have had.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
4866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4867 #: freeculture.xml:3497
4869 "This is often true (though I have friends who have purchased many thousands "
4870 "of pirated DVDs who certainly have enough money to pay for the content they "
4871 "have taken), and it does mitigate to some degree the harm caused by such "
4872 "taking. Extremists in this debate love to say, <quote>You wouldn't go into "
4873 "Barnes & Noble and take a book off of the shelf without paying; why "
4874 "should it be any different with on-line music?</quote> The difference is, of "
4875 "course, that when you take a book from Barnes & Noble, it has one less "
4876 "book to sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, "
4877 "there is not one less CD that can be sold. The physics of piracy of the "
4878 "intangible are different from the physics of piracy of the tangible."
4882 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4883 #: freeculture.xml:3511
4885 "This argument is still very weak. However, although copyright is a property "
4886 "right of a very special sort, it <emphasis>is</emphasis> a property "
4887 "right. Like all property rights, the copyright gives the owner the right to "
4888 "decide the terms under which content is shared. If the copyright owner "
4889 "doesn't want to sell, she doesn't have to. There are exceptions: important "
4890 "statutory licenses that apply to copyrighted content regardless of the wish "
4891 "of the copyright owner. Those licenses give people the right to "
4892 "<quote>take</quote> copyrighted content whether or not the copyright owner "
4893 "wants to sell. But where the law does not give people the right to take "
4894 "content, it is wrong to take that content even if the wrong does no harm. If "
4895 "we have a property system, and that system is properly balanced to the "
4896 "technology of a time, then it is wrong to take property without the "
4897 "permission of a property owner. That is exactly what <quote>property</quote> "
4901 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
4902 #: freeculture.xml:3529 freeculture.xml:14573
4906 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
4907 #: freeculture.xml:3529 freeculture.xml:14573
4911 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4912 #: freeculture.xml:3530
4913 msgid "free software/open-source software (FS/OSS)"
4916 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4917 #: freeculture.xml:3531 freeculture.xml:3561 freeculture.xml:11385 freeculture.xml:12880 freeculture.xml:13478
4918 msgid "GNU/Linux operating system"
4921 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
4922 #: freeculture.xml:3532 freeculture.xml:3562 freeculture.xml:11387 freeculture.xml:12881 freeculture.xml:13479
4923 msgid "Linux operating system"
4926 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
4927 #: freeculture.xml:3533 freeculture.xml:3535 freeculture.xml:3536 freeculture.xml:5200 freeculture.xml:7685 freeculture.xml:12933
4931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4932 #: freeculture.xml:3533
4933 msgid "competitive strategies of"
4936 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4937 #: freeculture.xml:3534
4941 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4942 #: freeculture.xml:3535
4943 msgid "international software piracy of"
4946 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4947 #: freeculture.xml:3536
4948 msgid "Windows operating system of"
4951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4952 #: freeculture.xml:3538
4954 "Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the "
4955 "piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese "
4956 "<quote>steal</quote> Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on "
4957 "Microsoft. Microsoft loses the value of the software that was taken. But it "
4958 "gains users who are used to life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the "
4959 "nation grows more wealthy, more and more people will buy software rather "
4960 "than steal it. And hence over time, because that buying will benefit "
4961 "Microsoft, Microsoft benefits from the piracy. If instead of pirating "
4962 "Microsoft Windows, the Chinese used the free GNU/Linux operating system, "
4963 "then these Chinese users would not eventually be buying Microsoft. Without "
4964 "piracy, then, Microsoft would lose."
4967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4968 #: freeculture.xml:3550
4972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
4973 #: freeculture.xml:3550
4974 msgid "databases of case reports in"
4977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4978 #: freeculture.xml:3552
4980 "This argument, too, is somewhat true. The addiction strategy is a good "
4981 "one. Many businesses practice it. Some thrive because of it. Law students, "
4982 "for example, are given free access to the two largest legal databases. The "
4983 "companies marketing both hope the students will become so used to their "
4984 "service that they will want to use it and not the other when they become "
4985 "lawyers (and must pay high subscription fees)."
4988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4989 #: freeculture.xml:3559
4993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
4994 #: freeculture.xml:3560
4995 msgid "Internet Explorer"
4998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
4999 #: freeculture.xml:3564
5001 "Still, the argument is not terribly persuasive. We don't give the alcoholic "
5002 "a defense when he steals his first beer, merely because that will make it "
5003 "more likely that he will buy the next three. Instead, we ordinarily allow "
5004 "businesses to decide for themselves when it is best to give their product "
5005 "away. If Microsoft fears the competition of GNU/Linux, then Microsoft can "
5006 "give its product away, as it did, for example, with Internet Explorer to "
5007 "fight Netscape. A property right means giving the property owner the right "
5008 "to say who gets access to what—at least ordinarily. And if the law "
5009 "properly balances the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of "
5010 "access, then violating the law is still wrong."
5014 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5015 #: freeculture.xml:3578
5017 "Thus, while I understand the pull of these justifications for piracy, and I "
5018 "certainly see the motivation, in my view, in the end, these efforts at "
5019 "justifying commercial piracy simply don't cut it. This kind of piracy is "
5020 "rampant and just plain wrong. It doesn't transform the content it steals; it "
5021 "doesn't transform the market it competes in. It merely gives someone access "
5022 "to something that the law says he should not have. Nothing has changed to "
5023 "draw that law into doubt. This form of piracy is flat out wrong."
5026 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5027 #: freeculture.xml:3588
5029 "But as the examples from the four chapters that introduced this part "
5030 "suggest, even if some piracy is plainly wrong, not all <quote>piracy</quote> "
5031 "is. Or at least, not all <quote>piracy</quote> is wrong if that term is "
5032 "understood in the way it is increasingly used today. Many kinds of "
5033 "<quote>piracy</quote> are useful and productive, to produce either new "
5034 "content or new ways of doing business. Neither our tradition nor any "
5035 "tradition has ever banned all <quote>piracy</quote> in that sense of the "
5039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5040 #: freeculture.xml:3597
5042 "This doesn't mean that there are no questions raised by the latest piracy "
5043 "concern, peer-to-peer file sharing. But it does mean that we need to "
5044 "understand the harm in peer-to-peer sharing a bit more before we condemn it "
5045 "to the gallows with the charge of piracy."
5048 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5049 #: freeculture.xml:3603
5051 "For (1) like the original Hollywood, p2p sharing escapes an overly "
5052 "controlling industry; and (2) like the original recording industry, it "
5053 "simply exploits a new way to distribute content; but (3) unlike cable TV, no "
5054 "one is selling the content that is shared on p2p services."
5057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5058 #: freeculture.xml:3609
5060 "These differences distinguish p2p sharing from true piracy. They should push "
5061 "us to find a way to protect artists while enabling this sharing to survive."
5064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
5065 #: freeculture.xml:3615
5070 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5071 #: freeculture.xml:3620
5073 "<citetitle>Bach</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Longman</citetitle>, 98 "
5074 "Eng. Rep. 1274 (1777)."
5078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5079 #: freeculture.xml:3617
5081 "The key to the <quote>piracy</quote> that the law aims to quash is a use "
5082 "that <quote>rob[s] the author of [his] profit.</quote><placeholder "
5083 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This means we must determine whether and how "
5084 "much p2p sharing harms before we know how strongly the law should seek to "
5085 "either prevent it or find an alternative to assure the author of his profit."
5088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5089 #: freeculture.xml:3628 freeculture.xml:3636
5093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5094 #: freeculture.xml:3629
5095 msgid "Fanning, Shawn"
5098 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5099 #: freeculture.xml:3646 freeculture.xml:8279
5100 msgid "Christensen, Clayton M."
5103 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5104 #: freeculture.xml:3636
5106 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Clayton M. Christensen, "
5107 "<citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary National Bestseller "
5108 "That Changed the Way We Do Business</citetitle> (New York: HarperBusiness, "
5109 "2000). Professor Christensen examines why companies that give rise to and "
5110 "dominate a product area are frequently unable to come up with the most "
5111 "creative, paradigm-shifting uses for their own products. This job usually "
5112 "falls to outside innovators, who reassemble existing technology in inventive "
5113 "ways. For a discussion of Christensen's ideas, see Lawrence Lessig, "
5114 "<citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 89–92, 139. <placeholder "
5115 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5118 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5119 #: freeculture.xml:3631
5121 "Peer-to-peer sharing was made famous by Napster. But the inventors of the "
5122 "Napster technology had not made any major technological innovations. Like "
5123 "every great advance in innovation on the Internet (and, arguably, off the "
5124 "Internet as well<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), Shawn Fanning "
5125 "and crew had simply put together components that had been developed "
5130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5131 #: freeculture.xml:3656
5133 "See Carolyn Lochhead, <quote>Silicon Valley Dream, Hollywood "
5134 "Nightmare,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 "
5135 "September 2002, A1; <quote>Rock 'n' Roll Suicide,</quote> <citetitle>New "
5136 "Scientist</citetitle>, 6 July 2002, 42; Benny Evangelista, <quote>Napster "
5137 "Names CEO, Secures New Financing,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
5138 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 23 May 2003, C1; <quote>Napster's Wake-Up "
5139 "Call,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 24 June 2000, 23; John "
5140 "Naughton, <quote>Hollywood at War with the Internet</quote> (London) "
5141 "<citetitle>Times</citetitle>, 26 July 2002, 18."
5144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5145 #: freeculture.xml:3651
5147 "The result was spontaneous combustion. Launched in July 1999, Napster "
5148 "amassed over 10 million users within nine months. After eighteen months, "
5149 "there were close to 80 million registered users of the system.<placeholder "
5150 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Courts quickly shut Napster down, but other "
5151 "services emerged to take its place. (Kazaa is currently the most popular p2p "
5152 "service. It boasts over 100 million members.) These services' systems are "
5153 "different architecturally, though not very different in function: Each "
5154 "enables users to make content available to any number of other users. With a "
5155 "p2p system, you can share your favorite songs with your best friend— "
5156 "or your 20,000 best friends."
5160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5161 #: freeculture.xml:3678
5163 "See Ipsos-Insight, <citetitle>TEMPO: Keeping Pace with Online Music "
5164 "Distribution</citetitle> (September 2002), reporting that 28 percent of "
5165 "Americans aged twelve and older have downloaded music off of the Internet "
5166 "and 30 percent have listened to digital music files stored on their "
5171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5172 #: freeculture.xml:3687
5174 "Amy Harmon, <quote>Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight,</quote> "
5175 "<citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 6 June 2003, A1."
5178 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5179 #: freeculture.xml:3672
5181 "According to a number of estimates, a huge proportion of Americans have "
5182 "tasted file-sharing technology. A study by Ipsos-Insight in September 2002 "
5183 "estimated that 60 million Americans had downloaded music—28 percent of "
5184 "Americans older than 12.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A survey "
5185 "by the NPD group quoted in <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> "
5186 "estimated that 43 million citizens used file-sharing networks to exchange "
5187 "content in May 2003.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The vast "
5188 "majority of these are not kids. Whatever the actual figure, a massive "
5189 "quantity of content is being <quote>taken</quote> on these networks. The "
5190 "ease and inexpensiveness of file-sharing networks have inspired millions to "
5191 "enjoy music in a way that they hadn't before."
5194 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5195 #: freeculture.xml:3696
5197 "Some of this enjoying involves copyright infringement. Some of it does "
5198 "not. And even among the part that is technically copyright infringement, "
5199 "calculating the actual harm to copyright owners is more complicated than one "
5200 "might think. So consider—a bit more carefully than the polarized "
5201 "voices around this debate usually do—the kinds of sharing that file "
5202 "sharing enables, and the kinds of harm it entails."
5206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5207 #: freeculture.xml:3706
5209 "File sharers share different kinds of content. We can divide these different "
5210 "kinds into four types."
5214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5215 #: freeculture.xml:3714
5217 "There are some who use sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
5218 "content. Thus, when a new Madonna CD is released, rather than buying the CD, "
5219 "these users simply take it. We might quibble about whether everyone who "
5220 "takes it would actually have bought it if sharing didn't make it available "
5221 "for free. Most probably wouldn't have, but clearly there are some who "
5222 "would. The latter are the target of category A: users who download instead "
5227 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5228 #: freeculture.xml:3724
5230 "There are some who use sharing networks to sample music before purchasing "
5231 "it. Thus, a friend sends another friend an MP3 of an artist he's not heard "
5232 "of. The other friend then buys CDs by that artist. This is a kind of "
5233 "targeted advertising, quite likely to succeed. If the friend recommending "
5234 "the album gains nothing from a bad recommendation, then one could expect "
5235 "that the recommendations will actually be quite good. The net effect of this "
5236 "sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased."
5240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5241 #: freeculture.xml:3735
5243 "There are many who use sharing networks to get access to copyrighted content "
5244 "that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the "
5245 "transaction costs off the Net are too high. This use of sharing networks is "
5246 "among the most rewarding for many. Songs that were part of your childhood "
5247 "but have long vanished from the marketplace magically appear again on the "
5248 "network. (One friend told me that when she discovered Napster, she spent a "
5249 "solid weekend <quote>recalling</quote> old songs. She was astonished at the "
5250 "range and mix of content that was available.) For content not sold, this is "
5251 "still technically a violation of copyright, though because the copyright "
5252 "owner is not selling the content anymore, the economic harm is "
5253 "zero—the same harm that occurs when I sell my collection of 1960s "
5254 "45-rpm records to a local collector."
5259 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
5260 #: freeculture.xml:3752
5262 "Finally, there are many who use sharing networks to get access to content "
5263 "that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away."
5266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5267 #: freeculture.xml:3758
5268 msgid "How do these different types of sharing balance out?"
5271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5272 #: freeculture.xml:3766
5274 "See Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network Economy</citetitle>, "
5275 "148–49. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5279 #: freeculture.xml:3761
5281 "Let's start with some simple but important points. From the perspective of "
5282 "the law, only type D sharing is clearly legal. From the perspective of "
5283 "economics, only type A sharing is clearly harmful.<placeholder "
5284 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Type B sharing is illegal but plainly "
5285 "beneficial. Type C sharing is illegal, yet good for society (since more "
5286 "exposure to music is good) and harmless to the artist (since the work is "
5287 "not otherwise available). So how sharing matters on balance is a hard "
5288 "question to answer—and certainly much more difficult than the current "
5289 "rhetoric around the issue suggests."
5292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5293 #: freeculture.xml:3777
5295 "Whether on balance sharing is harmful depends importantly on how harmful "
5296 "type A sharing is. Just as Edison complained about Hollywood, composers "
5297 "complained about piano rolls, recording artists complained about radio, and "
5298 "broadcasters complained about cable TV, the music industry complains that "
5299 "type A sharing is a kind of <quote>theft</quote> that is "
5300 "<quote>devastating</quote> the industry."
5303 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5304 #: freeculture.xml:3784 freeculture.xml:3793 freeculture.xml:4136 freeculture.xml:7845 freeculture.xml:7874 freeculture.xml:9572 freeculture.xml:14280
5305 msgid "cassette recording"
5308 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5309 #: freeculture.xml:3784 freeculture.xml:4136 freeculture.xml:7845 freeculture.xml:7874 freeculture.xml:9572 freeculture.xml:9573 freeculture.xml:14280 freeculture.xml:14281
5313 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5314 #: freeculture.xml:3793
5316 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> See Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, "
5317 "<citetitle>Technology Evolution and the Music Industry's Business Model "
5318 "Crisis</citetitle> (2003), 3. This report describes the music industry's "
5319 "effort to stigmatize the budding practice of cassette taping in the 1970s, "
5320 "including an advertising campaign featuring a cassette-shape skull and the "
5321 "caption <quote>Home taping is killing music.</quote> At the time digital "
5322 "audio tape became a threat, the Office of Technical Assessment conducted a "
5323 "survey of consumer behavior. In 1988, 40 percent of consumers older than ten "
5324 "had taped music to a cassette format. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology "
5325 "Assessment, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges the "
5326 "Law</citetitle>, OTA-CIT-422 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing "
5327 "Office, October 1989), 145–56."
5330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5331 #: freeculture.xml:3786
5333 "While the numbers do suggest that sharing is harmful, how harmful is harder "
5334 "to reckon. It has long been the recording industry's practice to blame "
5335 "technology for any drop in sales. The history of cassette recording is a "
5336 "good example. As a study by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young put it, "
5337 "<quote>Rather than exploiting this new, popular technology, the labels "
5338 "fought it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The labels "
5339 "claimed that every album taped was an album unsold, and when record sales "
5340 "fell by 11.4 percent in 1981, the industry claimed that its point was "
5341 "proved. Technology was the problem, and banning or regulating technology was "
5345 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5346 #: freeculture.xml:3811
5351 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5352 #: freeculture.xml:3821
5353 msgid "U.S. Congress, <citetitle>Copyright and Home Copying</citetitle>, 4."
5356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5357 #: freeculture.xml:3813
5359 "Yet soon thereafter, and before Congress was given an opportunity to enact "
5360 "regulation, MTV was launched, and the industry had a record "
5361 "turnaround. <quote>In the end,</quote> Cap Gemini concludes, <quote>the "
5362 "`crisis' … was not the fault of the tapers—who did not [stop "
5363 "after MTV came into being]—but had to a large extent resulted from "
5364 "stagnation in musical innovation at the major labels.</quote><placeholder "
5365 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5369 #: freeculture.xml:3826
5371 "But just because the industry was wrong before does not mean it is wrong "
5372 "today. To evaluate the real threat that p2p sharing presents to the industry "
5373 "in particular, and society in general—or at least the society that "
5374 "inherits the tradition that gave us the film industry, the record industry, "
5375 "the radio industry, cable TV, and the VCR—the question is not simply "
5376 "whether type A sharing is harmful. The question is also "
5377 "<emphasis>how</emphasis> harmful type A sharing is, and how beneficial the "
5378 "other types of sharing are."
5381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5382 #: freeculture.xml:3836
5384 "We start to answer this question by focusing on the net harm, from the "
5385 "standpoint of the industry as a whole, that sharing networks cause. The "
5386 "<quote>net harm</quote> to the industry as a whole is the amount by which "
5387 "type A sharing exceeds type B. If the record companies sold more records "
5388 "through sampling than they lost through substitution, then sharing networks "
5389 "would actually benefit music companies on balance. They would therefore have "
5390 "little <emphasis>static</emphasis> reason to resist them."
5393 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
5394 #: freeculture.xml:3846
5395 msgid "sales levels of"
5398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5399 #: freeculture.xml:3848
5401 "Could that be true? Could the industry as a whole be gaining because of file "
5402 "sharing? Odd as that might sound, the data about CD sales actually suggest "
5403 "it might be close."
5407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5408 #: freeculture.xml:3857
5410 "See Recording Industry Association of America, <citetitle>2002 Yearend "
5411 "Statistics</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
5412 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #15</ulink>. A later report "
5413 "indicates even greater losses. See Recording Industry Association of "
5414 "America, <citetitle>Some Facts About Music Piracy</citetitle>, 25 June 2003, "
5415 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #16</ulink>: "
5416 "<quote>In the past four years, unit shipments of recorded music have fallen "
5417 "by 26 percent from 1.16 billion units in to 860 million units in 2002 in the "
5418 "United States (based on units shipped). In terms of sales, revenues are "
5419 "down 14 percent, from $14.6 billion in to $12.6 billion last year (based on "
5420 "U.S. dollar value of shipments). The music industry worldwide has gone from "
5421 "a $39 billion industry in 2000 down to a $32 billion industry in 2002 (based "
5422 "on U.S. dollar value of shipments).</quote>"
5425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
5426 #: freeculture.xml:3884
5430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5431 #: freeculture.xml:3881
5433 "Jane Black, <quote>Big Music's Broken Record,</quote> BusinessWeek online, "
5434 "13 February 2003, available at <ulink "
5435 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #17</ulink>. <placeholder "
5436 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
5439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5440 #: freeculture.xml:3853
5442 "In 2002, the RIAA reported that CD sales had fallen by 8.9 percent, from 882 "
5443 "million to 803 million units; revenues fell 6.7 percent.<placeholder "
5444 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This confirms a trend over the past few "
5445 "years. The RIAA blames Internet piracy for the trend, though there are many "
5446 "other causes that could account for this drop. SoundScan, for example, "
5447 "reports a more than 20 percent drop in the number of CDs released since "
5448 "1999. That no doubt accounts for some of the decrease in sales. Rising "
5449 "prices could account for at least some of the loss. <quote>From 1999 to "
5450 "2001, the average price of a CD rose 7.2 percent, from $13.04 to "
5451 "$14.19.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Competition from "
5452 "other forms of media could also account for some of the decline. As Jane "
5453 "Black of <citetitle>BusinessWeek</citetitle> notes, <quote>The soundtrack to "
5454 "the film <citetitle>High Fidelity</citetitle> has a list price of "
5455 "$18.98. You could get the whole movie [on DVD] for "
5456 "$19.99.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
5460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5461 #: freeculture.xml:3899
5463 "But let's assume the RIAA is right, and all of the decline in CD sales is "
5464 "because of Internet sharing. Here's the rub: In the same period that the "
5465 "RIAA estimates that 803 million CDs were sold, the RIAA estimates that 2.1 "
5466 "billion CDs were downloaded for free. Thus, although 2.6 times the total "
5467 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, sales revenue fell by just 6.7 "
5471 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5472 #: freeculture.xml:3907
5474 "There are too many different things happening at the same time to explain "
5475 "these numbers definitively, but one conclusion is unavoidable: The recording "
5476 "industry constantly asks, <quote>What's the difference between downloading a "
5477 "song and stealing a CD?</quote>—but their own numbers reveal the "
5478 "difference. If I steal a CD, then there is one less CD to sell. Every taking "
5479 "is a lost sale. But on the basis of the numbers the RIAA provides, it is "
5480 "absolutely clear that the same is not true of downloads. If every download "
5481 "were a lost sale—if every use of Kazaa <quote>rob[bed] the author of "
5482 "[his] profit</quote>—then the industry would have suffered a 100 "
5483 "percent drop in sales last year, not a 7 percent drop. If 2.6 times the "
5484 "number of CDs sold were downloaded for free, and yet sales revenue dropped "
5485 "by just 6.7 percent, then there is a huge difference between "
5486 "<quote>downloading a song and stealing a CD.</quote>"
5489 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5490 #: freeculture.xml:3923
5492 "These are the harms—alleged and perhaps exaggerated but, let's assume, "
5493 "real. What of the benefits? File sharing may impose costs on the recording "
5494 "industry. What value does it produce in addition to these costs?"
5498 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5499 #: freeculture.xml:3935
5501 "By one estimate, 75 percent of the music released by the major labels is no "
5502 "longer in print. See Online Entertainment and Copyright Law—Coming "
5503 "Soon to a Digital Device Near You: Hearing Before the Senate Committee on "
5504 "the Judiciary, 107th Cong., 1st sess. (3 April 2001) (prepared statement of "
5505 "the Future of Music Coalition), available at <ulink "
5506 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #18</ulink>."
5509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5510 #: freeculture.xml:3929
5512 "One benefit is type C sharing—making available content that is "
5513 "technically still under copyright but is no longer commercially available. "
5514 "This is not a small category of content. There are millions of tracks that "
5515 "are no longer commercially available.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5516 "id=\"0\"/> And while it's conceivable that some of this content is not "
5517 "available because the artist producing the content doesn't want it to be "
5518 "made available, the vast majority of it is unavailable solely because the "
5519 "publisher or the distributor has decided it no longer makes economic sense "
5520 "<emphasis>to the company</emphasis> to make it available."
5523 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
5524 #: freeculture.xml:3948 freeculture.xml:3956 freeculture.xml:3978 freeculture.xml:4000 freeculture.xml:4488 freeculture.xml:5817 freeculture.xml:5822 freeculture.xml:5874 freeculture.xml:6749 freeculture.xml:6750 freeculture.xml:7090 freeculture.xml:7152 freeculture.xml:7186 freeculture.xml:7395 freeculture.xml:13666 freeculture.xml:14392 freeculture.xml:14393
5528 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5529 #: freeculture.xml:3948 freeculture.xml:3956 freeculture.xml:6750 freeculture.xml:14393
5533 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5534 #: freeculture.xml:3956
5536 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> While there are not good "
5537 "estimates of the number of used record stores in existence, in 2002, there "
5538 "were 7,198 used book dealers in the United States, an increase of 20 percent "
5539 "since 1993. See Book Hunter Press, <citetitle>The Quiet Revolution: The "
5540 "Expansion of the Used Book Market</citetitle> (2002), available at <ulink "
5541 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #19</ulink>. Used records "
5542 "accounted for $260 million in sales in 2002. See National Association of "
5543 "Recording Merchandisers, <quote>2002 Annual Survey Results,</quote> "
5544 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #20</ulink>."
5547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5548 #: freeculture.xml:3950
5550 "In real space—long before the Internet—the market had a simple "
5551 "response to this problem: used book and record stores. There are thousands "
5552 "of used book and used record stores in America today.<placeholder "
5553 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These stores buy content from owners, then sell "
5554 "the content they buy. And under American copyright law, when they buy and "
5555 "sell this content, <emphasis>even if the content is still under "
5556 "copyright</emphasis>, the copyright owner doesn't get a dime. Used book and "
5557 "record stores are commercial entities; their owners make money from the "
5558 "content they sell; but as with cable companies before statutory licensing, "
5559 "they don't have to pay the copyright owner for the content they sell."
5562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5563 #: freeculture.xml:3977
5564 msgid "Bernstein, Leonard"
5567 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5568 #: freeculture.xml:3978 freeculture.xml:5817 freeculture.xml:5822 freeculture.xml:6749 freeculture.xml:14392
5569 msgid "out of print"
5572 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5573 #: freeculture.xml:3980
5575 "Type C sharing, then, is very much like used book stores or used record "
5576 "stores. It is different, of course, because the person making the content "
5577 "available isn't making money from making the content available. It is also "
5578 "different, of course, because in real space, when I sell a record, I don't "
5579 "have it anymore, while in cyberspace, when someone shares my 1949 recording "
5580 "of Bernstein's <quote>Two Love Songs,</quote> I still have it. That "
5581 "difference would matter economically if the owner of the copyright were "
5582 "selling the record in competition to my sharing. But we're talking about the "
5583 "class of content that is not currently commercially available. The Internet "
5584 "is making it available, through cooperative sharing, without competing with "
5588 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5589 #: freeculture.xml:3993
5591 "It may well be, all things considered, that it would be better if the "
5592 "copyright owner got something from this trade. But just because it may well "
5593 "be better, it doesn't follow that it would be good to ban used book "
5594 "stores. Or put differently, if you think that type C sharing should be "
5595 "stopped, do you think that libraries and used book stores should be shut as "
5599 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
5600 #: freeculture.xml:4000 freeculture.xml:13666
5601 msgid "free on-line releases of"
5605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5606 #: freeculture.xml:4002
5608 "Finally, and perhaps most importantly, file-sharing networks enable type D "
5609 "sharing to occur—the sharing of content that copyright owners want to "
5610 "have shared or for which there is no continuing copyright. This sharing "
5611 "clearly benefits authors and society. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow, "
5612 "for example, released his first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
5613 "Kingdom</citetitle>, both free on-line and in bookstores on the same "
5614 "day. His (and his publisher's) thinking was that the on-line distribution "
5615 "would be a great advertisement for the <quote>real</quote> book. People "
5616 "would read part on-line, and then decide whether they liked the book or "
5617 "not. If they liked it, they would be more likely to buy it. Doctorow's "
5618 "content is type D content. If sharing networks enable his work to be spread, "
5619 "then both he and society are better off. (Actually, much better off: It is a "
5623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5624 #: freeculture.xml:4020
5626 "Likewise for work in the public domain: This sharing benefits society with "
5627 "no legal harm to authors at all. If efforts to solve the problem of type A "
5628 "sharing destroy the opportunity for type D sharing, then we lose something "
5629 "important in order to protect type A content."
5632 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5633 #: freeculture.xml:4026
5635 "The point throughout is this: While the recording industry understandably "
5636 "says, <quote>This is how much we've lost,</quote> we must also ask, "
5637 "<quote>How much has society gained from p2p sharing? What are the "
5638 "efficiencies? What is the content that otherwise would be "
5639 "unavailable?</quote>"
5642 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5643 #: freeculture.xml:4033
5645 "For unlike the piracy I described in the first section of this chapter, much "
5646 "of the <quote>piracy</quote> that file sharing enables is plainly legal and "
5647 "good. And like the piracy I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
5648 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"pirates\"/>, much of this piracy is motivated by a "
5649 "new way of spreading content caused by changes in the technology of "
5650 "distribution. Thus, consistent with the tradition that gave us Hollywood, "
5651 "radio, the recording industry, and cable TV, the question we should be "
5652 "asking about file sharing is how best to preserve its benefits while "
5653 "minimizing (to the extent possible) the wrongful harm it causes artists. The "
5654 "question is one of balance. The law should seek that balance, and that "
5655 "balance will be found only with time."
5658 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5659 #: freeculture.xml:4047
5661 "<quote>But isn't the war just a war against illegal sharing? Isn't the "
5662 "target just what you call type A sharing?</quote>"
5666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5667 #: freeculture.xml:4064
5669 "See Transcript of Proceedings, In Re: Napster Copyright Litigation at 34- 35 "
5670 "(N.D. Cal., 11 July 2001), nos. MDL-00-1369 MHP, C 99-5183 MHP, available at "
5671 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #21</ulink>. For an "
5672 "account of the litigation and its toll on Napster, see Joseph Menn, "
5673 "<citetitle>All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's "
5674 "Napster</citetitle> (New York: Crown Business, 2003), 269–82."
5677 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5678 #: freeculture.xml:4051
5680 "You would think. And we should hope. But so far, it is not. The effect of "
5681 "the war purportedly on type A sharing alone has been felt far beyond that "
5682 "one class of sharing. That much is obvious from the Napster case "
5683 "itself. When Napster told the district court that it had developed a "
5684 "technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing "
5685 "material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not "
5686 "good enough. Napster had to push the infringements <quote>down to "
5687 "zero.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5690 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5691 #: freeculture.xml:4075
5693 "If 99.4 percent is not good enough, then this is a war on file-sharing "
5694 "technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. There is no way to assure "
5695 "that a p2p system is used 100 percent of the time in compliance with the "
5696 "law, any more than there is a way to assure that 100 percent of VCRs or 100 "
5697 "percent of Xerox machines or 100 percent of handguns are used in compliance "
5698 "with the law. Zero tolerance means zero p2p. The court's ruling means that "
5699 "we as a society must lose the benefits of p2p, even for the totally legal "
5700 "and beneficial uses they serve, simply to assure that there are zero "
5701 "copyright infringements caused by p2p."
5704 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5705 #: freeculture.xml:4086
5707 "Zero tolerance has not been our history. It has not produced the content "
5708 "industry that we know today. The history of American law has been a process "
5709 "of balance. As new technologies changed the way content was distributed, the "
5710 "law adjusted, after some time, to the new technology. In this adjustment, "
5711 "the law sought to ensure the legitimate rights of creators while protecting "
5712 "innovation. Sometimes this has meant more rights for creators. Sometimes "
5716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5717 #: freeculture.xml:4096
5719 "So, as we've seen, when <quote>mechanical reproduction</quote> threatened "
5720 "the interests of composers, Congress balanced the rights of composers "
5721 "against the interests of the recording industry. It granted rights to "
5722 "composers, but also to the recording artists: Composers were to be paid, but "
5723 "at a price set by Congress. But when radio started broadcasting the "
5724 "recordings made by these recording artists, and they complained to Congress "
5725 "that their <quote>creative property</quote> was not being respected (since "
5726 "the radio station did not have to pay them for the creativity it broadcast), "
5727 "Congress rejected their claim. An indirect benefit was enough."
5730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5731 #: freeculture.xml:4109
5733 "Cable TV followed the pattern of record albums. When the courts rejected the "
5734 "claim that cable broadcasters had to pay for the content they rebroadcast, "
5735 "Congress responded by giving broadcasters a right to compensation, but at a "
5736 "level set by the law. It likewise gave cable companies the right to the "
5737 "content, so long as they paid the statutory price."
5741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5742 #: freeculture.xml:4119
5744 "This compromise, like the compromise affecting records and player pianos, "
5745 "served two important goals—indeed, the two central goals of any "
5746 "copyright legislation. First, the law assured that new innovators would have "
5747 "the freedom to develop new ways to deliver content. Second, the law assured "
5748 "that copyright holders would be paid for the content that was "
5749 "distributed. One fear was that if Congress simply required cable TV to pay "
5750 "copyright holders whatever they demanded for their content, then copyright "
5751 "holders associated with broadcasters would use their power to stifle this "
5752 "new technology, cable. But if Congress had permitted cable to use "
5753 "broadcasters' content for free, then it would have unfairly subsidized "
5754 "cable. Thus Congress chose a path that would assure "
5755 "<emphasis>compensation</emphasis> without giving the past (broadcasters) "
5756 "control over the future (cable)."
5759 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
5760 #: freeculture.xml:4135
5764 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5765 #: freeculture.xml:4138
5767 "In the same year that Congress struck this balance, two major producers and "
5768 "distributors of film content filed a lawsuit against another technology, the "
5769 "video tape recorder (VTR, or as we refer to them today, VCRs) that Sony had "
5770 "produced, the Betamax. Disney's and Universal's claim against Sony was "
5771 "relatively simple: Sony produced a device, Disney and Universal claimed, "
5772 "that enabled consumers to engage in copyright infringement. Because the "
5773 "device that Sony built had a <quote>record</quote> button, the device could "
5774 "be used to record copyrighted movies and shows. Sony was therefore "
5775 "benefiting from the copyright infringement of its customers. It should "
5776 "therefore, Disney and Universal claimed, be partially liable for that "
5781 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5782 #: freeculture.xml:4151
5784 "There was something to Disney's and Universal's claim. Sony did decide to "
5785 "design its machine to make it very simple to record television shows. It "
5786 "could have built the machine to block or inhibit any direct copying from a "
5787 "television broadcast. Or possibly, it could have built the machine to copy "
5788 "only if there were a special <quote>copy me</quote> signal on the line. It "
5789 "was clear that there were many television shows that did not grant anyone "
5790 "permission to copy. Indeed, if anyone had asked, no doubt the majority of "
5791 "shows would not have authorized copying. And in the face of this obvious "
5792 "preference, Sony could have designed its system to minimize the opportunity "
5793 "for copyright infringement. It did not, and for that, Disney and Universal "
5794 "wanted to hold it responsible for the architecture it chose."
5798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5799 #: freeculture.xml:4173
5801 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders): Hearing on S. 1758 "
5802 "Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., "
5803 "459 (1982) (testimony of Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association "
5804 "of America, Inc.)."
5808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5809 #: freeculture.xml:4185
5810 msgid "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 475."
5814 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5815 #: freeculture.xml:4190
5817 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
5818 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 480 F. Supp. 429, (C.D. Cal., 1979)."
5822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5823 #: freeculture.xml:4201
5825 "Copyright Infringements (Audio and Video Recorders), 485 (testimony of Jack "
5829 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5830 #: freeculture.xml:4166
5832 "MPAA president Jack Valenti became the studios' most vocal champion. Valenti "
5833 "called VCRs <quote>tapeworms.</quote> He warned, <quote>When there are 20, "
5834 "30, 40 million of these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of "
5835 "`tapeworms,' eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious "
5836 "asset the copyright owner has, his copyright.</quote><placeholder "
5837 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> <quote>One does not have to be trained in "
5838 "sophisticated marketing and creative judgment,</quote> he told Congress, "
5839 "<quote>to understand the devastation on the after-theater marketplace caused "
5840 "by the hundreds of millions of tapings that will adversely impact on the "
5841 "future of the creative community in this country. It is simply a question of "
5842 "basic economics and plain common sense.</quote><placeholder "
5843 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Indeed, as surveys would later show, percent of "
5844 "VCR owners had movie libraries of ten videos or more<placeholder "
5845 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> — a use the Court would later hold was "
5846 "not <quote>fair.</quote> By <quote>allowing VCR owners to copy freely by the "
5847 "means of an exemption from copyright infringementwithout creating a "
5848 "mechanism to compensate copyrightowners,</quote> Valenti testified, Congress "
5849 "would <quote>take from the owners the very essence of their property: the "
5850 "exclusive right to control who may use their work, that is, who may copy it "
5851 "and thereby profit from its reproduction.</quote><placeholder "
5852 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"3\"/>"
5856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5857 #: freeculture.xml:4218
5859 "<citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Sony "
5860 "Corp. of America</citetitle>, 659 F. 2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981)."
5863 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><indexterm><primary>
5864 #: freeculture.xml:4221
5865 msgid "Kozinski, Alex"
5868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5869 #: freeculture.xml:4206
5871 "It took eight years for this case to be resolved by the Supreme Court. In "
5872 "the interim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Hollywood in "
5873 "its jurisdiction—leading Judge Alex Kozinski, who sits on that court, "
5874 "refers to it as the <quote>Hollywood Circuit</quote>—held that Sony "
5875 "would be liable for the copyright infringement made possible by its "
5876 "machines. Under the Ninth Circuit's rule, this totally familiar "
5877 "technology—which Jack Valenti had called <quote>the Boston Strangler "
5878 "of the American film industry</quote> (worse yet, it was a "
5879 "<emphasis>Japanese</emphasis> Boston Strangler of the American film "
5880 "industry)—was an illegal technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
5881 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
5885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5886 #: freeculture.xml:4224
5888 "But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit. And in "
5889 "its reversal, the Court clearly articulated its understanding of when and "
5890 "whether courts should intervene in such disputes. As the Court wrote,"
5894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
5895 #: freeculture.xml:4243
5897 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
5898 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984)."
5901 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
5902 #: freeculture.xml:4233
5904 "Sound policy, as well as history, supports our consistent deference to "
5905 "Congress when major technological innovations alter the market for "
5906 "copyrighted materials. Congress has the constitutional authority and the "
5907 "institutional ability to accommodate fully the varied permutations of "
5908 "competing interests that are inevitably implicated by such new "
5909 "technology.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
5912 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
5913 #: freeculture.xml:4248
5915 "Congress was asked to respond to the Supreme Court's decision. But as with "
5916 "the plea of recording artists about radio broadcasts, Congress ignored the "
5917 "request. Congress was convinced that American film got enough, this "
5918 "<quote>taking</quote> notwithstanding. If we put these cases together, a "
5922 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5923 #: freeculture.xml:4259
5927 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5928 #: freeculture.xml:4260
5929 msgid "WHOSE VALUE WAS <quote>PIRATED</quote>"
5932 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5933 #: freeculture.xml:4261
5934 msgid "RESPONSE OF THE COURTS"
5937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
5938 #: freeculture.xml:4262
5939 msgid "RESPONSE OF CONGRESS"
5942 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5943 #: freeculture.xml:4267
5947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5948 #: freeculture.xml:4268
5952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5953 #: freeculture.xml:4269 freeculture.xml:4281 freeculture.xml:4287
5954 msgid "No protection"
5957 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5958 #: freeculture.xml:4270 freeculture.xml:4282
5959 msgid "Statutory license"
5962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5963 #: freeculture.xml:4274
5964 msgid "Recording artists"
5967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5968 #: freeculture.xml:4275
5972 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5973 #: freeculture.xml:4276 freeculture.xml:4288
5977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5978 #: freeculture.xml:4280
5979 msgid "Broadcasters"
5982 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5983 #: freeculture.xml:4285
5987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
5988 #: freeculture.xml:4286
5989 msgid "Film creators"
5992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
5993 #: freeculture.xml:4298
5995 "These are the most important instances in our history, but there are other "
5996 "cases as well. The technology of digital audio tape (DAT), for example, was "
5997 "regulated by Congress to minimize the risk of piracy. The remedy Congress "
5998 "imposed did burden DAT producers, by taxing tape sales and controlling the "
5999 "technology of DAT. See Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Title 17 of the "
6000 "<citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>), Pub. L. No. 102-563, 106 Stat. "
6001 "4237, codified at 17 U.S.C. §1001. Again, however, this regulation did not "
6002 "eliminate the opportunity for free riding in the sense I've described. See "
6003 "Lessig, <citetitle>Future</citetitle>, 71. See also Picker, <quote>From "
6004 "Edison to the Broadcast Flag,</quote> <citetitle>University of Chicago Law "
6005 "Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 293–96. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6006 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
6009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6010 #: freeculture.xml:4295
6012 "In each case throughout our history, a new technology changed the way "
6013 "content was distributed.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In each "
6014 "case, throughout our history, that change meant that someone got a "
6015 "<quote>free ride</quote> on someone else's work."
6019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6020 #: freeculture.xml:4316
6022 "In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these cases did either the courts or "
6023 "Congress eliminate all free riding. In <emphasis>none</emphasis> of these "
6024 "cases did the courts or Congress insist that the law should assure that the "
6025 "copyright holder get all the value that his copyright created. In every "
6026 "case, the copyright owners complained of <quote>piracy.</quote> In every "
6027 "case, Congress acted to recognize some of the legitimacy in the behavior of "
6028 "the <quote>pirates.</quote> In each case, Congress allowed some new "
6029 "technology to benefit from content made before. It balanced the interests at "
6033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6034 #: freeculture.xml:4328
6036 "When you think across these examples, and the other examples that make up "
6037 "the first four chapters of this section, this balance makes sense. Was Walt "
6038 "Disney a pirate? Would doujinshi be better if creators had to ask "
6039 "permission? Should tools that enable others to capture and spread images as "
6040 "a way to cultivate or criticize our culture be better regulated? Is it "
6041 "really right that building a search engine should expose you to $15 million "
6042 "in damages? Would it have been better if Edison had controlled film? Should "
6043 "every cover band have to hire a lawyer to get permission to record a song?"
6047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6048 #: freeculture.xml:4345
6050 "<citetitle>Sony Corp. of America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City "
6051 "Studios, Inc</citetitle>., 464 U.S. 417, (1984)."
6054 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6055 #: freeculture.xml:4340
6057 "We could answer yes to each of these questions, but our tradition has "
6058 "answered no. In our tradition, as the Supreme Court has stated, copyright "
6059 "<quote>has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all "
6060 "possible uses of his work.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
6061 "Instead, the particular uses that the law regulates have been defined by "
6062 "balancing the good that comes from granting an exclusive right against the "
6063 "burdens such an exclusive right creates. And this balancing has historically "
6064 "been done <emphasis>after</emphasis> a technology has matured, or settled "
6065 "into the mix of technologies that facilitate the distribution of content."
6068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6069 #: freeculture.xml:4356
6071 "We should be doing the same thing today. The technology of the Internet is "
6072 "changing quickly. The way people connect to the Internet (wires "
6073 "vs. wireless) is changing very quickly. No doubt the network should not "
6074 "become a tool for <quote>stealing</quote> from artists. But neither should "
6075 "the law become a tool to entrench one particular way in which artists (or "
6076 "more accurately, distributors) get paid. As I describe in some detail in the "
6077 "last chapter of this book, we should be securing income to artists while we "
6078 "allow the market to secure the most efficient way to promote and distribute "
6079 "content. This will require changes in the law, at least in the "
6080 "interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the "
6081 "law against the strong public interest that innovation continue."
6085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
6086 #: freeculture.xml:4380
6088 "John Schwartz, <quote>New Economy: The Attack on Peer-to-Peer Software "
6089 "Echoes Past Efforts,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 22 "
6090 "September 2003, C3."
6093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6094 #: freeculture.xml:4372
6096 "This is especially true when a new technology enables a vastly superior mode "
6097 "of distribution. And this p2p has done. P2p technologies can be ideally "
6098 "efficient in moving content across a widely diverse network. Left to "
6099 "develop, they could make the network vastly more efficient. Yet these "
6100 "<quote>potential public benefits,</quote> as John Schwartz writes in "
6101 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, <quote>could be delayed in the "
6102 "P2P fight.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6105 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6106 #: freeculture.xml:4385
6108 "<emphasis role='strong'>Yet when anyone</emphasis> begins to talk about "
6109 "<quote>balance,</quote> the copyright warriors raise a different "
6110 "argument. <quote>All this hand waving about balance and incentives,</quote> "
6111 "they say, <quote>misses a fundamental point. Our content,</quote> the "
6112 "warriors insist, <quote>is our <emphasis>property</emphasis>. Why should we "
6113 "wait for Congress to `rebalance' our property rights? Do you have to wait "
6114 "before calling the police when your car has been stolen? And why should "
6115 "Congress deliberate at all about the merits of this theft? Do we ask whether "
6116 "the car thief had a good use for the car before we arrest him?</quote>"
6119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
6120 #: freeculture.xml:4397
6122 "<quote>It is <emphasis>our property</emphasis>,</quote> the warriors "
6123 "insist. <quote>And it should be protected just as any other property is "
6124 "protected.</quote>"
6127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
6128 #: freeculture.xml:4406
6129 msgid "<quote>PROPERTY</quote>"
6133 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6134 #: freeculture.xml:4411
6136 "<emphasis role='strong'>The copyright warriors</emphasis> are right: A "
6137 "copyright is a kind of property. It can be owned and sold, and the law "
6138 "protects against its theft. Ordinarily, the copyright owner gets to hold out "
6139 "for any price he wants. Markets reckon the supply and demand that partially "
6140 "determine the price she can get."
6143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6144 #: freeculture.xml:4418
6146 "But in ordinary language, to call a copyright a <quote>property</quote> "
6147 "right is a bit misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of "
6148 "property. Indeed, the very idea of property in any idea or any expression "
6149 "is very odd. I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you "
6150 "put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I "
6151 "take it, you don't have it. But what am I taking when I take the good "
6152 "<emphasis>idea</emphasis> you had to put a picnic table in the "
6153 "backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting "
6154 "it in my backyard? What is the thing I am taking then?"
6158 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6159 #: freeculture.xml:4443
6161 "Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (13 August 1813) in "
6162 "<citetitle>The Writings of Thomas Jefferson</citetitle>, vol. 6 (Andrew "
6163 "A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds., 1903), 330, 333–34."
6166 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6167 #: freeculture.xml:4430
6169 "The point is not just about the thingness of picnic tables versus ideas, "
6170 "though that's an important difference. The point instead is that in the "
6171 "ordinary case—indeed, in practically every case except for a narrow "
6172 "range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take "
6173 "anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem "
6174 "weird if I did it every day, and especially weird if you are a "
6175 "woman. Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and as is especially true when I "
6176 "copy the way someone else dresses), <quote>He who receives an idea from me, "
6177 "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his "
6178 "taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.</quote><placeholder "
6179 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6183 #: freeculture.xml:4449
6185 "The exceptions to free use are ideas and expressions within the reach of the "
6186 "law of patent and copyright, and a few other domains that I won't discuss "
6187 "here. Here the law says you can't take my idea or expression without my "
6188 "permission: The law turns the intangible into property."
6192 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para><footnote><para>
6193 #: freeculture.xml:4462
6195 "As the legal realists taught American law, all property rights are "
6196 "intangible. A property right is simply a right that an individual has "
6197 "against the world to do or not do certain things that may or may not attach "
6198 "to a physical object. The right itself is intangible, even if the object to "
6199 "which it is (metaphorically) attached is tangible. See Adam Mossoff, "
6200 "<quote>What Is Property? Putting the Pieces Back Together,</quote> "
6201 "<citetitle>Arizona Law Review</citetitle> 45 (2003): 373, 429 n. 241."
6204 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6205 #: freeculture.xml:4457
6207 "But how, and to what extent, and in what form—the details, in other "
6208 "words—matter. To get a good sense of how this practice of turning the "
6209 "intangible into property emerged, we need to place this "
6210 "<quote>property</quote> in its proper context.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
6215 #: freeculture.xml:4472
6217 "My strategy in doing this will be the same as my strategy in the preceding "
6218 "part. I offer four stories to help put the idea of <quote>copyright material "
6219 "is property</quote> in context. Where did the idea come from? What are its "
6220 "limits? How does it function in practice? After these stories, the "
6221 "significance of this true statement—<quote>copyright material is "
6222 "property</quote>— will be a bit more clear, and its implications will "
6223 "be revealed as quite different from the implications that the copyright "
6224 "warriors would have us draw."
6227 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6228 #: freeculture.xml:4485
6229 msgid "CHAPTER SIX: Founders"
6232 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6233 #: freeculture.xml:4486
6237 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6238 #: freeculture.xml:4487 freeculture.xml:4632
6239 msgid "Branagh, Kenneth"
6242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
6243 #: freeculture.xml:4488
6244 msgid "English copyright law developed for"
6247 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6248 #: freeculture.xml:4490
6250 "<emphasis role='strong'>William Shakespeare</emphasis> wrote "
6251 "<citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> in 1595. The play was first "
6252 "published in 1597. It was the eleventh major play that Shakespeare had "
6253 "written. He would continue to write plays through 1613, and the plays that "
6254 "he wrote have continued to define Anglo-American culture ever since. So "
6255 "deeply have the works of a sixteenth-century writer seeped into our culture "
6256 "that we often don't even recognize their source. I once overheard someone "
6257 "commenting on Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Henry V: <quote>I liked it, "
6258 "but Shakespeare is so full of clichés.</quote>"
6261 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6262 #: freeculture.xml:4506
6266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6267 #: freeculture.xml:4507
6268 msgid "Dryden, John"
6271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6272 #: freeculture.xml:4506
6274 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6275 "id=\"1\"/> Jacob Tonson is typically remembered for his associations with "
6276 "prominent eighteenth-century literary figures, especially John Dryden, and "
6277 "for his handsome <quote>definitive editions</quote> of classic works. In "
6278 "addition to <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle>, he published an "
6279 "astonishing array of works that still remain at the heart of the English "
6280 "canon, including collected works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, "
6281 "and John Dryden. See Keith Walker, <quote>Jacob Tonson, Bookseller,</quote> "
6282 "<citetitle>American Scholar</citetitle> 61:3 (1992): 424–31."
6286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6287 #: freeculture.xml:4519
6289 "Lyman Ray Patterson, <citetitle>Copyright in Historical "
6290 "Perspective</citetitle> (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968), "
6295 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6296 #: freeculture.xml:4502
6298 "In 1774, almost 180 years after <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> was "
6299 "written, the <quote>copy-right</quote> for the work was still thought by "
6300 "many to be the exclusive right of a single London publisher, Jacob "
6301 "Tonson.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Tonson was the most "
6302 "prominent of a small group of publishers called the Conger<placeholder "
6303 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> who controlled bookselling in England during "
6304 "the eighteenth century. The Conger claimed a perpetual right to control the "
6305 "<quote>copy</quote> of books that they had acquired from authors. That "
6306 "perpetual right meant that no one else could publish copies of a book to "
6307 "which they held the copyright. Prices of the classics were thus kept high; "
6308 "competition to produce better or cheaper editions was eliminated."
6311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6312 #: freeculture.xml:4531
6313 msgid "British Parliament"
6316 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6317 #: freeculture.xml:4542
6319 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> As Siva Vaidhyanathan nicely "
6320 "argues, it is erroneous to call this a <quote>copyright law.</quote> See "
6321 "Vaidhyanathan, <citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 40."
6324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6325 #: freeculture.xml:4533
6327 "Now, there's something puzzling about the year 1774 to anyone who knows a "
6328 "little about copyright law. The better-known year in the history of "
6329 "copyright is 1710, the year that the British Parliament adopted the first "
6330 "<quote>copyright</quote> act. Known as the Statute of Anne, the act stated "
6331 "that all published works would get a copyright term of fourteen years, "
6332 "renewable once if the author was alive, and that all works already published "
6333 "by 1710 would get a single term of twenty-one additional years.<placeholder "
6334 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Under this law, <citetitle>Romeo and "
6335 "Juliet</citetitle> should have been free in 1731. So why was there any issue "
6336 "about it still being under Tonson's control in 1774?"
6339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6340 #: freeculture.xml:4549
6341 msgid "Licensing Act (1662)"
6344 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6345 #: freeculture.xml:4551
6347 "The reason is that the English hadn't yet agreed on what a "
6348 "<quote>copyright</quote> was—indeed, no one had. At the time the "
6349 "English passed the Statute of Anne, there was no other legislation governing "
6350 "copyrights. The last law regulating publishers, the Licensing Act of 1662, "
6351 "had expired in 1695. That law gave publishers a monopoly over publishing, as "
6352 "a way to make it easier for the Crown to control what was published. But "
6353 "after it expired, there was no positive law that said that the publishers, "
6354 "or <quote>Stationers,</quote> had an exclusive right to print books."
6357 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6358 #: freeculture.xml:4562
6360 "There was no <emphasis>positive</emphasis> law, but that didn't mean that "
6361 "there was no law. The Anglo-American legal tradition looks to both the words "
6362 "of legislatures and the words of judges to know the rules that are to govern "
6363 "how people are to behave. We call the words from legislatures "
6364 "<quote>positive law.</quote> We call the words from judges <quote>common "
6365 "law.</quote> The common law sets the background against which legislatures "
6366 "legislate; the legislature, ordinarily, can trump that background only if it "
6367 "passes a law to displace it. And so the real question after the licensing "
6368 "statutes had expired was whether the common law protected a copyright, "
6369 "independent of any positive law."
6373 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6374 #: freeculture.xml:4574
6376 "This question was important to the publishers, or "
6377 "<quote>booksellers,</quote> as they were called, because there was growing "
6378 "competition from foreign publishers. The Scottish, in particular, were "
6379 "increasingly publishing and exporting books to England. That competition "
6380 "reduced the profits of the Conger, which reacted by demanding that "
6381 "Parliament pass a law to again give them exclusive control over "
6382 "publishing. That demand ultimately resulted in the Statute of Anne."
6385 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6386 #: freeculture.xml:4586
6388 "The Statute of Anne granted the author or <quote>proprietor</quote> of a "
6389 "book an exclusive right to print that book. In an important limitation, "
6390 "however, and to the horror of the booksellers, the law gave the bookseller "
6391 "that right for a limited term. At the end of that term, the copyright "
6392 "<quote>expired,</quote> and the work would then be free and could be "
6393 "published by anyone. Or so the legislature is thought to have believed."
6396 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6397 #: freeculture.xml:4595
6399 "Now, the thing to puzzle about for a moment is this: Why would Parliament "
6400 "limit the exclusive right? Not why would they limit it to the particular "
6401 "limit they set, but why would they limit the right <emphasis>at "
6405 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6406 #: freeculture.xml:4601
6408 "For the booksellers, and the authors whom they represented, had a very "
6409 "strong claim. Take <citetitle>Romeo and Juliet</citetitle> as an example: "
6410 "That play was written by Shakespeare. It was his genius that brought it into "
6411 "the world. He didn't take anybody's property when he created this play "
6412 "(that's a controversial claim, but never mind), and by his creating this "
6413 "play, he didn't make it any harder for others to craft a play. So why is it "
6414 "that the law would ever allow someone else to come along and take "
6415 "Shakespeare's play without his, or his estate's, permission? What reason is "
6416 "there to allow someone else to <quote>steal</quote> Shakespeare's work?"
6419 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6420 #: freeculture.xml:4612
6422 "The answer comes in two parts. We first need to see something special about "
6423 "the notion of <quote>copyright</quote> that existed at the time of the "
6424 "Statute of Anne. Second, we have to see something important about "
6425 "<quote>booksellers.</quote>"
6429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6430 #: freeculture.xml:4618
6432 "First, about copyright. In the last three hundred years, we have come to "
6433 "apply the concept of <quote>copyright</quote> ever more broadly. But in "
6434 "1710, it wasn't so much a concept as it was a very particular right. The "
6435 "copyright was born as a very specific set of restrictions: It forbade others "
6436 "from reprinting a book. In 1710, the <quote>copy-right</quote> was a right "
6437 "to use a particular machine to replicate a particular work. It did not go "
6438 "beyond that very narrow right. It did not control any more generally how a "
6439 "work could be <emphasis>used</emphasis>. Today the right includes a large "
6440 "collection of restrictions on the freedom of others: It grants the author "
6441 "the exclusive right to copy, the exclusive right to distribute, the "
6442 "exclusive right to perform, and so on."
6445 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6446 #: freeculture.xml:4634
6448 "So, for example, even if the copyright to Shakespeare's works were "
6449 "perpetual, all that would have meant under the original meaning of the term "
6450 "was that no one could reprint Shakespeare's work without the permission of "
6451 "the Shakespeare estate. It would not have controlled anything, for example, "
6452 "about how the work could be performed, whether the work could be translated, "
6453 "or whether Kenneth Branagh would be allowed to make his films. The "
6454 "<quote>copy-right</quote> was only an exclusive right to print—no "
6455 "less, of course, but also no more."
6458 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6459 #: freeculture.xml:4643
6460 msgid "Henry VIII, King of England"
6463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6464 #: freeculture.xml:4644
6465 msgid "Statute of Monopolies (1656)"
6468 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6469 #: freeculture.xml:4646
6471 "Even that limited right was viewed with skepticism by the British. They had "
6472 "had a long and ugly experience with <quote>exclusive rights,</quote> "
6473 "especially <quote>exclusive rights</quote> granted by the Crown. The English "
6474 "had fought a civil war in part about the Crown's practice of handing out "
6475 "monopolies—especially monopolies for works that already existed. King "
6476 "Henry VIII granted a patent to print the Bible and a monopoly to Darcy to "
6477 "print playing cards. The English Parliament began to fight back against this "
6478 "power of the Crown. In 1656, it passed the Statute of Monopolies, limiting "
6479 "monopolies to patents for new inventions. And by 1710, Parliament was eager "
6480 "to deal with the growing monopoly in publishing."
6483 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6484 #: freeculture.xml:4659
6486 "Thus the <quote>copy-right,</quote> when viewed as a monopoly right, was "
6487 "naturally viewed as a right that should be limited. (However convincing the "
6488 "claim that <quote>it's my property, and I should have it forever,</quote> "
6489 "try sounding convincing when uttering, <quote>It's my monopoly, and I should "
6490 "have it forever.</quote>) The state would protect the exclusive right, but "
6491 "only so long as it benefited society. The British saw the harms from "
6492 "specialinterest favors; they passed a law to stop them."
6495 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6496 #: freeculture.xml:4667
6497 msgid "booksellers, English"
6501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6502 #: freeculture.xml:4684
6504 "Philip Wittenberg, <citetitle>The Protection and Marketing of Literary "
6505 "Property</citetitle> (New York: J. Messner, Inc., 1937), 31."
6508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6509 #: freeculture.xml:4669
6511 "Second, about booksellers. It wasn't just that the copyright was a "
6512 "monopoly. It was also that it was a monopoly held by the booksellers. "
6513 "Booksellers sound quaint and harmless to us. They were not viewed as "
6514 "harmless in seventeenth-century England. Members of the Conger were "
6515 "increasingly seen as monopolists of the worst kind—tools of the "
6516 "Crown's repression, selling the liberty of England to guarantee themselves a "
6517 "monopoly profit. The attacks against these monopolists were harsh: Milton "
6518 "described them as <quote>old patentees and monopolizers in the trade of "
6519 "book-selling</quote>; they were <quote>men who do not therefore labour in an "
6520 "honest profession to which learning is indetted.</quote><placeholder "
6521 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6524 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6525 #: freeculture.xml:4689
6527 "Many believed the power the booksellers exercised over the spread of "
6528 "knowledge was harming that spread, just at the time the Enlightenment was "
6529 "teaching the importance of education and knowledge spread generally. The "
6530 "idea that knowledge should be free was a hallmark of the time, and these "
6531 "powerful commercial interests were interfering with that idea."
6534 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6535 #: freeculture.xml:4697
6537 "To balance this power, Parliament decided to increase competition among "
6538 "booksellers, and the simplest way to do that was to spread the wealth of "
6539 "valuable books. Parliament therefore limited the term of copyrights, and "
6540 "thereby guaranteed that valuable books would become open to any publisher to "
6541 "publish after a limited time. Thus the setting of the term for existing "
6542 "works to just twenty-one years was a compromise to fight the power of the "
6543 "booksellers. The limitation on terms was an indirect way to assure "
6544 "competition among publishers, and thus the construction and spread of "
6548 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6549 #: freeculture.xml:4709
6551 "When 1731 (1710 + 21) came along, however, the booksellers were getting "
6552 "anxious. They saw the consequences of more competition, and like every "
6553 "competitor, they didn't like them. At first booksellers simply ignored the "
6554 "Statute of Anne, continuing to insist on the perpetual right to control "
6555 "publication. But in 1735 and 1737, they tried to persuade Parliament to "
6556 "extend their terms. Twenty-one years was not enough, they said; they needed "
6560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6561 #: freeculture.xml:4718
6563 "Parliament rejected their requests. As one pamphleteer put it, in words that "
6568 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
6569 #: freeculture.xml:4733
6571 "A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill now depending in the "
6572 "House of Commons, for making more effectual an Act in the Eighth Year of the "
6573 "Reign of Queen Anne, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by "
6574 "Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such "
6575 "Copies, during the Times therein mentioned (London, 1735), in Brief Amici "
6576 "Curiae of Tyler T. Ochoa et al., 8, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
6577 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01-618)."
6580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6581 #: freeculture.xml:4723
6583 "I see no Reason for granting a further Term now, which will not hold as well "
6584 "for granting it again and again, as often as the Old ones Expire; so that "
6585 "should this Bill pass, it will in Effect be establishing a perpetual "
6586 "Monopoly, a Thing deservedly odious in the Eye of the Law; it will be a "
6587 "great Cramp to Trade, a Discouragement to Learning, no Benefit to the "
6588 "Authors, but a general Tax on the Publick; and all this only to increase the "
6589 "private Gain of the Booksellers.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6593 #: freeculture.xml:4744
6595 "Having failed in Parliament, the publishers turned to the courts in a series "
6596 "of cases. Their argument was simple and direct: The Statute of Anne gave "
6597 "authors certain protections through positive law, but those protections were "
6598 "not intended as replacements for the common law. Instead, they were "
6599 "intended simply to supplement the common law. Under common law, it was "
6600 "already wrong to take another person's creative <quote>property</quote> and "
6601 "use it without his permission. The Statute of Anne, the booksellers argued, "
6602 "didn't change that. Therefore, just because the protections of the Statute "
6603 "of Anne expired, that didn't mean the protections of the common law expired: "
6604 "Under the common law they had the right to ban the publication of a book, "
6605 "even if its Statute of Anne copyright had expired. This, they argued, was "
6606 "the only way to protect authors."
6609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
6610 #: freeculture.xml:4758 freeculture.xml:4766 freeculture.xml:4813
6611 msgid "Patterson, Raymond"
6614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6615 #: freeculture.xml:4766
6617 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6618 "id=\"1\"/> Lyman Ray Patterson, <quote>Free Speech, Copyright, and Fair "
6619 "Use,</quote> <citetitle>Vanderbilt Law Review</citetitle> 40 (1987): 28. For "
6620 "a wonderfully compelling account, see Vaidhyanathan, 37–48."
6623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6624 #: freeculture.xml:4760
6626 "This was a clever argument, and one that had the support of some of the "
6627 "leading jurists of the day. It also displayed extraordinary chutzpah. Until "
6628 "then, as law professor Raymond Patterson has put it, <quote>The publishers "
6629 "… had as much concern for authors as a cattle rancher has for "
6630 "cattle.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The bookseller "
6631 "didn't care squat for the rights of the author. His concern was the "
6632 "monopoly profit that the author's work gave."
6636 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6637 #: freeculture.xml:4780
6639 "For a compelling account, see David Saunders, <citetitle>Authorship and "
6640 "Copyright</citetitle> (London: Routledge, 1992), 62–69."
6643 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6644 #: freeculture.xml:4776
6646 "The booksellers' argument was not accepted without a fight. The hero of "
6647 "this fight was a Scottish bookseller named Alexander Donaldson.<placeholder "
6648 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6652 #: freeculture.xml:4784
6653 msgid "Boswell, James"
6656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6657 #: freeculture.xml:4785
6658 msgid "Erskine, Andrew"
6661 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6662 #: freeculture.xml:4794 freeculture.xml:14816
6666 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6667 #: freeculture.xml:4792
6669 "Mark Rose, <citetitle>Authors and Owners</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard "
6670 "University Press, 1993), 92. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
6674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6675 #: freeculture.xml:4803
6679 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6680 #: freeculture.xml:4787
6682 "Donaldson was an outsider to the London Conger. He began his career in "
6683 "Edinburgh in 1750. The focus of his business was inexpensive reprints "
6684 "<quote>of standard works whose copyright term had expired,</quote> at least "
6685 "under the Statute of Anne.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
6686 "Donaldson's publishing house prospered and became <quote>something of a "
6687 "center for literary Scotsmen.</quote> <quote>[A]mong them,</quote> Professor "
6688 "Mark Rose writes, was <quote>the young James Boswell who, together with his "
6689 "friend Andrew Erskine, published an anthology of contemporary Scottish poems "
6690 "with Donaldson.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
6693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6694 #: freeculture.xml:4813
6696 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Lyman Ray Patterson, "
6697 "<citetitle>Copyright in Historical Perspective</citetitle>, 167 (quoting "
6701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6702 #: freeculture.xml:4807
6704 "When the London booksellers tried to shut down Donaldson's shop in Scotland, "
6705 "he responded by moving his shop to London, where he sold inexpensive "
6706 "editions <quote>of the most popular English books, in defiance of the "
6707 "supposed common law right of Literary Property.</quote><placeholder "
6708 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His books undercut the Conger prices by 30 to "
6709 "50 percent, and he rested his right to compete upon the ground that, under "
6710 "the Statute of Anne, the works he was selling had passed out of protection."
6713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6714 #: freeculture.xml:4822
6716 "The London booksellers quickly brought suit to block <quote>piracy</quote> "
6717 "like Donaldson's. A number of actions were successful against the "
6718 "<quote>pirates,</quote> the most important early victory being "
6719 "<citetitle>Millar</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Taylor</citetitle>."
6722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6723 #: freeculture.xml:4826
6724 msgid "Seasons, The (Thomson)"
6727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6728 #: freeculture.xml:4827
6729 msgid "Taylor, Robert"
6733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6734 #: freeculture.xml:4836
6736 "Howard B. Abrams, <quote>The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: "
6737 "Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Wayne Law "
6738 "Review</citetitle> 29 (1983): 1152."
6741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6742 #: freeculture.xml:4829
6744 "Millar was a bookseller who in 1729 had purchased the rights to James "
6745 "Thomson's poem <quote>The Seasons.</quote> Millar complied with the "
6746 "requirements of the Statute of Anne, and therefore received the full "
6747 "protection of the statute. After the term of copyright ended, Robert Taylor "
6748 "began printing a competing volume. Millar sued, claiming a perpetual common "
6749 "law right, the Statute of Anne notwithstanding.<placeholder "
6750 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6753 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6754 #: freeculture.xml:4843
6756 "Astonishingly to modern lawyers, one of the greatest judges in English "
6757 "history, Lord Mansfield, agreed with the booksellers. Whatever protection "
6758 "the Statute of Anne gave booksellers, it did not, he held, extinguish any "
6759 "common law right. The question was whether the common law would protect the "
6760 "author against subsequent <quote>pirates.</quote> Mansfield's answer was "
6761 "yes: The common law would bar Taylor from reprinting Thomson's poem without "
6762 "Millar's permission. That common law rule thus effectively gave the "
6763 "booksellers a perpetual right to control the publication of any book "
6768 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6769 #: freeculture.xml:4854
6771 "Considered as a matter of abstract justice—reasoning as if justice "
6772 "were just a matter of logical deduction from first "
6773 "principles—Mansfield's conclusion might make some sense. But what it "
6774 "ignored was the larger issue that Parliament had struggled with in 1710: How "
6775 "best to limit the monopoly power of publishers? Parliament's strategy was to "
6776 "offer a term for existing works that was long enough to buy peace in 1710, "
6777 "but short enough to assure that culture would pass into competition within a "
6778 "reasonable period of time. Within twenty-one years, Parliament believed, "
6779 "Britain would mature from the controlled culture that the Crown coveted to "
6780 "the free culture that we inherited."
6783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6784 #: freeculture.xml:4869
6786 "The fight to defend the limits of the Statute of Anne was not to end there, "
6787 "however, and it is here that Donaldson enters the mix."
6790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6791 #: freeculture.xml:4872
6792 msgid "Beckett, Thomas"
6796 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6797 #: freeculture.xml:4878
6798 msgid "Ibid., 1156."
6801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6802 #: freeculture.xml:4874
6804 "Millar died soon after his victory, so his case was not appealed. His estate "
6805 "sold Thomson's poems to a syndicate of printers that included Thomas "
6806 "Beckett.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Donaldson then released an "
6807 "unauthorized edition of Thomson's works. Beckett, on the strength of the "
6808 "decision in <citetitle>Millar</citetitle>, got an injunction against "
6809 "Donaldson. Donaldson appealed the case to the House of Lords, which "
6810 "functioned much like our own Supreme Court. In February of 1774, that body "
6811 "had the chance to interpret the meaning of Parliament's limits from sixty "
6815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6816 #: freeculture.xml:4888
6818 "As few legal cases ever do, <citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> "
6819 "v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle> drew an enormous amount of attention "
6820 "throughout Britain. Donaldson's lawyers argued that whatever rights may have "
6821 "existed under the common law, the Statute of Anne terminated those "
6822 "rights. After passage of the Statute of Anne, the only legal protection for "
6823 "an exclusive right to control publication came from that statute. Thus, they "
6824 "argued, after the term specified in the Statute of Anne expired, works that "
6825 "had been protected by the statute were no longer protected."
6828 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6829 #: freeculture.xml:4898
6831 "The House of Lords was an odd institution. Legal questions were presented to "
6832 "the House and voted upon first by the <quote>law lords,</quote> members of "
6833 "special legal distinction who functioned much like the Justices in our "
6834 "Supreme Court. Then, after the law lords voted, the House of Lords generally "
6839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6840 #: freeculture.xml:4905
6842 "The reports about the law lords' votes are mixed. On some counts, it looks "
6843 "as if perpetual copyright prevailed. But there is no ambiguity about how the "
6844 "House of Lords voted as whole. By a two-to-one majority (22 to 11) they "
6845 "voted to reject the idea of perpetual copyrights. Whatever one's "
6846 "understanding of the common law, now a copyright was fixed for a limited "
6847 "time, after which the work protected by copyright passed into the public "
6851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6852 #: freeculture.xml:4923
6853 msgid "Bacon, Francis"
6856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6857 #: freeculture.xml:4924
6858 msgid "Bunyan, John"
6861 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6862 #: freeculture.xml:4925
6863 msgid "Johnson, Samuel"
6866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6867 #: freeculture.xml:4926
6868 msgid "Milton, John"
6871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><indexterm><primary>
6872 #: freeculture.xml:4927
6873 msgid "Shakespeare, William"
6876 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6877 #: freeculture.xml:4915
6879 "<quote>The public domain.</quote> Before the case of "
6880 "<citetitle>Donaldson</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Beckett</citetitle>, there "
6881 "was no clear idea of a public domain in England. Before 1774, there was a "
6882 "strong argument that common law copyrights were perpetual. After 1774, the "
6883 "public domain was born. For the first time in Anglo-American history, the "
6884 "legal control over creative works expired, and the greatest works in English "
6885 "history—including those of Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Johnson, and "
6886 "Bunyan—were free of legal restraint. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
6887 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
6888 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/> "
6889 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/>"
6893 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
6894 #: freeculture.xml:4940
6898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6899 #: freeculture.xml:4930
6901 "It is hard for us to imagine, but this decision by the House of Lords fueled "
6902 "an extraordinarily popular and political reaction. In Scotland, where most "
6903 "of the <quote>pirate publishers</quote> did their work, people celebrated "
6904 "the decision in the streets. As the <citetitle>Edinburgh "
6905 "Advertiser</citetitle> reported, <quote>No private cause has so much "
6906 "engrossed the attention of the public, and none has been tried before the "
6907 "House of Lords in the decision of which so many individuals were "
6908 "interested.</quote> <quote>Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon victory over "
6909 "literary property: bonfires and illuminations.</quote><placeholder "
6910 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
6913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6914 #: freeculture.xml:4944
6916 "In London, however, at least among publishers, the reaction was equally "
6917 "strong in the opposite direction. The <citetitle>Morning "
6918 "Chronicle</citetitle> reported:"
6921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
6922 #: freeculture.xml:4950
6924 "By the above decision … near 200,000 pounds worth of what was "
6925 "honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought property "
6926 "is now reduced to nothing. The Booksellers of London and Westminster, many "
6927 "of whom sold estates and houses to purchase Copy-right, are in a manner "
6928 "ruined, and those who after many years industry thought they had acquired a "
6929 "competency to provide for their families now find themselves without a "
6930 "shilling to devise to their successors.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
6935 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6936 #: freeculture.xml:4965
6938 "<quote>Ruined</quote> is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not an "
6939 "exaggeration to say that the change was profound. The decision of the House "
6940 "of Lords meant that the booksellers could no longer control how culture in "
6941 "England would grow and develop. Culture in England was thereafter "
6942 "<emphasis>free</emphasis>. Not in the sense that copyrights would not be "
6943 "respected, for of course, for a limited time after a work was published, the "
6944 "bookseller had an exclusive right to control the publication of that "
6945 "book. And not in the sense that books could be stolen, for even after a "
6946 "copyright expired, you still had to buy the book from someone. But "
6947 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> in the sense that the culture and its growth would "
6948 "no longer be controlled by a small group of publishers. As every free market "
6949 "does, this free market of free culture would grow as the consumers and "
6950 "producers chose. English culture would develop as the many English readers "
6951 "chose to let it develop— chose in the books they bought and wrote; "
6952 "chose in the memes they repeated and endorsed. Chose in a "
6953 "<emphasis>competitive context</emphasis>, not a context in which the choices "
6954 "about what culture is available to people and how they get access to it are "
6955 "made by the few despite the wishes of the many."
6958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6959 #: freeculture.xml:4987
6961 "At least, this was the rule in a world where the Parliament is antimonopoly, "
6962 "resistant to the protectionist pleas of publishers. In a world where the "
6963 "Parliament is more pliant, free culture would be less protected."
6966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
6967 #: freeculture.xml:4997
6968 msgid "CHAPTER SEVEN: Recorders"
6971 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6972 #: freeculture.xml:4999
6974 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jon Else</emphasis> is a filmmaker. He is best known "
6975 "for his documentaries and has been very successful in spreading his art. He "
6976 "is also a teacher, and as a teacher myself, I envy the loyalty and "
6977 "admiration that his students feel for him. (I met, by accident, two of his "
6978 "students at a dinner party. He was their god.)"
6981 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6982 #: freeculture.xml:5006
6984 "Else worked on a documentary that I was involved in. At a break, he told me "
6985 "a story about the freedom to create with film in America today."
6988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
6989 #: freeculture.xml:5017 freeculture.xml:5080
6990 msgid "San Francisco Opera"
6993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
6994 #: freeculture.xml:5011
6996 "In 1990, Else was working on a documentary about Wagner's Ring Cycle. The "
6997 "focus was stagehands at the San Francisco Opera. Stagehands are a "
6998 "particularly funny and colorful element of an opera. During a show, they "
6999 "hang out below the stage in the grips' lounge and in the lighting loft. They "
7000 "make a perfect contrast to the art on the stage. <placeholder "
7001 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
7005 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7006 #: freeculture.xml:5020
7008 "During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing "
7009 "checkers. In one corner of the room was a television set. Playing on the "
7010 "television set, while the stagehands played checkers and the opera company "
7011 "played Wagner, was <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. As Else judged it, "
7012 "this touch of cartoon helped capture the flavor of what was special about "
7016 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7017 #: freeculture.xml:5029
7019 "Years later, when he finally got funding to complete the film, Else "
7020 "attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds of <citetitle>The "
7021 "Simpsons</citetitle>. For of course, those few seconds are copyrighted; and "
7022 "of course, to use copyrighted material you need the permission of the "
7023 "copyright owner, unless <quote>fair use</quote> or some other privilege "
7027 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7028 #: freeculture.xml:5035 freeculture.xml:5043
7029 msgid "Gracie Films"
7032 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7033 #: freeculture.xml:5037
7035 "Else called <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> creator Matt Groening's office "
7036 "to get permission. Groening approved the shot. The shot was a "
7037 "four-and-a-halfsecond image on a tiny television set in the corner of the "
7038 "room. How could it hurt? Groening was happy to have it in the film, but he "
7039 "told Else to contact Gracie Films, the company that produces the program."
7042 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7043 #: freeculture.xml:5045
7045 "Gracie Films was okay with it, too, but they, like Groening, wanted to be "
7046 "careful. So they told Else to contact Fox, Gracie's parent company. Else "
7047 "called Fox and told them about the clip in the corner of the one room shot "
7048 "of the film. Matt Groening had already given permission, Else said. He was "
7049 "just confirming the permission with Fox."
7052 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7053 #: freeculture.xml:5052
7055 "Then, as Else told me, <quote>two things happened. First we discovered "
7056 "… that Matt Groening doesn't own his own creation—or at least "
7057 "that someone [at Fox] believes he doesn't own his own creation.</quote> And "
7058 "second, Fox <quote>wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to "
7059 "use this four-point-five seconds of … entirely unsolicited "
7060 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> which was in the corner of the shot.</quote>"
7063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7064 #: freeculture.xml:5059
7065 msgid "Herrera, Rebecca"
7068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7069 #: freeculture.xml:5061
7071 "Else was certain there was a mistake. He worked his way up to someone he "
7072 "thought was a vice president for licensing, Rebecca Herrera. He explained "
7073 "to her, <quote>There must be some mistake here. … We're asking for "
7074 "your educational rate on this.</quote> That was the educational rate, "
7075 "Herrera told Else. A day or so later, Else called again to confirm what he "
7080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7081 #: freeculture.xml:5069
7083 "<quote>I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight,</quote> he told "
7084 "me. <quote>Yes, you have your facts straight,</quote> she said. It would "
7085 "cost $10,000 to use the clip of <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle> in the "
7086 "corner of a shot in a documentary film about Wagner's Ring Cycle. And then, "
7087 "astonishingly, Herrera told Else, <quote>And if you quote me, I'll turn you "
7088 "over to our attorneys.</quote> As an assistant to Herrera told Else later "
7089 "on, <quote>They don't give a shit. They just want the money.</quote>"
7092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7093 #: freeculture.xml:5081
7094 msgid "Day After Trinity, The"
7097 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7098 #: freeculture.xml:5083
7100 "Else didn't have the money to buy the right to replay what was playing on "
7101 "the television backstage at the San Francisco Opera. To reproduce this "
7102 "reality was beyond the documentary filmmaker's budget. At the very last "
7103 "minute before the film was to be released, Else digitally replaced the shot "
7104 "with a clip from another film that he had worked on, <citetitle>The Day "
7105 "After Trinity</citetitle>, from ten years before."
7108 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7109 #: freeculture.xml:5091
7111 "There's no doubt that someone, whether Matt Groening or Fox, owns the "
7112 "copyright to <citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>. That copyright is their "
7113 "property. To use that copyrighted material thus sometimes requires the "
7114 "permission of the copyright owner. If the use that Else wanted to make of "
7115 "the <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> copyright were one of the uses "
7116 "restricted by the law, then he would need to get the permission of the "
7117 "copyright owner before he could use the work in that way. And in a free "
7118 "market, it is the owner of the copyright who gets to set the price for any "
7119 "use that the law says the owner gets to control."
7122 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7123 #: freeculture.xml:5102
7125 "For example, <quote>public performance</quote> is a use of <citetitle>The "
7126 "Simpsons</citetitle> that the copyright owner gets to control. If you take a "
7127 "selection of favorite episodes, rent a movie theater, and charge for tickets "
7128 "to come see <quote>My Favorite <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>,</quote> then "
7129 "you need to get permission from the copyright owner. And the copyright owner "
7130 "(rightly, in my view) can charge whatever she wants—$10 or "
7131 "$1,000,000. That's her right, as set by the law."
7135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7136 #: freeculture.xml:5114
7138 "For an excellent argument that such use is <quote>fair use,</quote> but that "
7139 "lawyers don't permit recognition that it is <quote>fair use,</quote> see "
7140 "Richard A. Posner with William F. Patry, <quote>Fair Use and Statutory "
7141 "Reform in the Wake of <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle></quote> (draft on file "
7142 "with author), University of Chicago Law School, 5 August 2003."
7145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7146 #: freeculture.xml:5111
7148 "But when lawyers hear this story about Jon Else and Fox, their first thought "
7149 "is <quote>fair use.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Else's "
7150 "use of just 4.5 seconds of an indirect shot of a "
7151 "<citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> episode is clearly a fair use of "
7152 "<citetitle>The Simpsons</citetitle>—and fair use does not require the "
7153 "permission of anyone."
7157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7158 #: freeculture.xml:5126
7160 "So I asked Else why he didn't just rely upon <quote>fair use.</quote> Here's "
7164 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7165 #: freeculture.xml:5130
7167 "The <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> fiasco was for me a great lesson in the "
7168 "gulf between what lawyers find irrelevant in some abstract sense, and what "
7169 "is crushingly relevant in practice to those of us actually trying to make "
7170 "and broadcast documentaries. I never had any doubt that it was "
7171 "<quote>clearly fair use</quote> in an absolute legal sense. But I couldn't "
7172 "rely on the concept in any concrete way. Here's why:"
7176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7177 #: freeculture.xml:5140
7179 "Before our films can be broadcast, the network requires that we buy Errors "
7180 "and Omissions insurance. The carriers require a detailed <quote>visual cue "
7181 "sheet</quote> listing the source and licensing status of each shot in the "
7182 "film. They take a dim view of <quote>fair use,</quote> and a claim of "
7183 "<quote>fair use</quote> can grind the application process to a halt."
7186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7187 #: freeculture.xml:5147
7188 msgid "<citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle>"
7191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
7192 #: freeculture.xml:5148
7193 msgid "Lucas, George"
7197 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7198 #: freeculture.xml:5151
7200 "I probably never should have asked Matt Groening in the first place. But I "
7201 "knew (at least from folklore) that Fox had a history of tracking down and "
7202 "stopping unlicensed <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle> usage, just as George "
7203 "Lucas had a very high profile litigating <citetitle>Star Wars</citetitle> "
7204 "usage. So I decided to play by the book, thinking that we would be granted "
7205 "free or cheap license to four seconds of <citetitle>Simpsons</citetitle>. As "
7206 "a documentary producer working to exhaustion on a shoestring, the last thing "
7207 "I wanted was to risk legal trouble, even nuisance legal trouble, and even to "
7208 "defend a principle."
7213 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7214 #: freeculture.xml:5163
7216 "I did, in fact, speak with one of your colleagues at Stanford Law School "
7217 "… who confirmed that it was fair use. He also confirmed that Fox "
7218 "would <quote>depose and litigate you to within an inch of your life,</quote> "
7219 "regardless of the merits of my claim. He made clear that it would boil down "
7220 "to who had the bigger legal department and the deeper pockets, me or them."
7224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><orderedlist><listitem><para>
7225 #: freeculture.xml:5173
7227 "The question of fair use usually comes up at the end of the project, when we "
7228 "are up against a release deadline and out of money."
7231 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7232 #: freeculture.xml:5180
7234 "In theory, fair use means you need no permission. The theory therefore "
7235 "supports free culture and insulates against a permission culture. But in "
7236 "practice, fair use functions very differently. The fuzzy lines of the law, "
7237 "tied to the extraordinary liability if lines are crossed, means that the "
7238 "effective fair use for many types of creators is slight. The law has the "
7239 "right aim; practice has defeated the aim."
7242 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7243 #: freeculture.xml:5188
7245 "This practice shows just how far the law has come from its "
7246 "eighteenth-century roots. The law was born as a shield to protect "
7247 "publishers' profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. It has "
7248 "matured into a sword that interferes with any use, transformative or not."
7251 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7252 #: freeculture.xml:5197
7253 msgid "CHAPTER EIGHT: Transformers"
7256 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7257 #: freeculture.xml:5198
7261 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
7262 #: freeculture.xml:5199 freeculture.xml:5259 freeculture.xml:5444 freeculture.xml:9887 freeculture.xml:14183
7266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7267 #: freeculture.xml:5202
7269 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1993</emphasis>, Alex Alben was a lawyer working "
7270 "at Starwave, Inc. Starwave was an innovative company founded by Microsoft "
7271 "cofounder Paul Allen to develop digital entertainment. Long before the "
7272 "Internet became popular, Starwave began investing in new technology for "
7273 "delivering entertainment in anticipation of the power of networks."
7276 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7277 #: freeculture.xml:5209
7278 msgid "retrospective compilations on"
7281 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7282 #: freeculture.xml:5210
7283 msgid "CD-ROMs, film clips used in"
7286 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7287 #: freeculture.xml:5212
7289 "Alben had a special interest in new technology. He was intrigued by the "
7290 "emerging market for CD-ROM technology—not to distribute film, but to "
7291 "do things with film that otherwise would be very difficult. In 1993, he "
7292 "launched an initiative to develop a product to build retrospectives on the "
7293 "work of particular actors. The first actor chosen was Clint Eastwood. The "
7294 "idea was to showcase all of the work of Eastwood, with clips from his films "
7295 "and interviews with figures important to his career."
7298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7299 #: freeculture.xml:5222
7301 "At that time, Eastwood had made more than fifty films, as an actor and as a "
7302 "director. Alben began with a series of interviews with Eastwood, asking him "
7303 "about his career. Because Starwave produced those interviews, it was free to "
7304 "include them on the CD."
7308 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7309 #: freeculture.xml:5229
7311 "That alone would not have made a very interesting product, so Starwave "
7312 "wanted to add content from the movies in Eastwood's career: posters, "
7313 "scripts, and other material relating to the films Eastwood made. Most of his "
7314 "career was spent at Warner Brothers, and so it was relatively easy to get "
7315 "permission for that content."
7318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7319 #: freeculture.xml:5236
7321 "Then Alben and his team decided to include actual film clips. <quote>Our "
7322 "goal was that we were going to have a clip from every one of Eastwood's "
7323 "films,</quote> Alben told me. It was here that the problem arose. <quote>No "
7324 "one had ever really done this before,</quote> Alben explained. <quote>No one "
7325 "had ever tried to do this in the context of an artistic look at an actor's "
7329 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7330 #: freeculture.xml:5244
7332 "Alben brought the idea to Michael Slade, the CEO of Starwave. Slade asked, "
7333 "<quote>Well, what will it take?</quote>"
7336 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><secondary>
7337 #: freeculture.xml:5258
7338 msgid "publicity rights on images of"
7341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7342 #: freeculture.xml:5254
7344 "Technically, the rights that Alben had to clear were mainly those of "
7345 "publicity—rights an artist has to control the commercial exploitation "
7346 "of his image. But these rights, too, burden <quote>Rip, Mix, Burn</quote> "
7347 "creativity, as this chapter evinces. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7348 "id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
7351 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7352 #: freeculture.xml:5248
7354 "Alben replied, <quote>Well, we're going to have to clear rights from "
7355 "everyone who appears in these films, and the music and everything else that "
7356 "we want to use in these film clips.</quote> Slade said, <quote>Great! Go for "
7357 "it.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7361 #: freeculture.xml:5263
7363 "The problem was that neither Alben nor Slade had any idea what clearing "
7364 "those rights would mean. Every actor in each of the films could have a claim "
7365 "to royalties for the reuse of that film. But CD- ROMs had not been specified "
7366 "in the contracts for the actors, so there was no clear way to know just what "
7367 "Starwave was to do."
7370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7371 #: freeculture.xml:5270
7373 "I asked Alben how he dealt with the problem. With an obvious pride in his "
7374 "resourcefulness that obscured the obvious bizarreness of his tale, Alben "
7375 "recounted just what they did:"
7378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7379 #: freeculture.xml:5276
7381 "So we very mechanically went about looking up the film clips. We made some "
7382 "artistic decisions about what film clips to include—of course we were "
7383 "going to use the <quote>Make my day</quote> clip from <citetitle>Dirty "
7384 "Harry</citetitle>. But you then need to get the guy on the ground who's "
7385 "wiggling under the gun and you need to get his permission. And then you "
7386 "have to decide what you are going to pay him."
7390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7391 #: freeculture.xml:5285
7393 "We decided that it would be fair if we offered them the dayplayer rate for "
7394 "the right to reuse that performance. We're talking about a clip of less than "
7395 "a minute, but to reuse that performance in the CD-ROM the rate at the time "
7396 "was about $600. So we had to identify the people—some of them were "
7397 "hard to identify because in Eastwood movies you can't tell who's the guy "
7398 "crashing through the glass—is it the actor or is it the stuntman? And "
7399 "then we just, we put together a team, my assistant and some others, and we "
7400 "just started calling people."
7403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7404 #: freeculture.xml:5296
7405 msgid "Sutherland, Donald"
7408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7409 #: freeculture.xml:5298
7411 "Some actors were glad to help—Donald Sutherland, for example, followed "
7412 "up himself to be sure that the rights had been cleared. Others were "
7413 "dumbfounded at their good fortune. Alben would ask, <quote>Hey, can I pay "
7414 "you $600 or maybe if you were in two films, you know, $1,200?</quote> And "
7415 "they would say, <quote>Are you for real? Hey, I'd love to get "
7416 "$1,200.</quote> And some of course were a bit difficult (estranged ex-wives, "
7417 "in particular). But eventually, Alben and his team had cleared the rights to "
7418 "this retrospective CD-ROM on Clint Eastwood's career."
7421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7422 #: freeculture.xml:5309
7424 "It was one <emphasis>year</emphasis> later—<quote>and even then we "
7425 "weren't sure whether we were totally in the clear.</quote>"
7428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7429 #: freeculture.xml:5313
7431 "Alben is proud of his work. The project was the first of its kind and the "
7432 "only time he knew of that a team had undertaken such a massive project for "
7433 "the purpose of releasing a retrospective."
7436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7437 #: freeculture.xml:5319
7439 "Everyone thought it would be too hard. Everyone just threw up their hands "
7440 "and said, <quote>Oh, my gosh, a film, it's so many copyrights, there's the "
7441 "music, there's the screenplay, there's the director, there's the "
7442 "actors.</quote> But we just broke it down. We just put it into its "
7443 "constituent parts and said, <quote>Okay, there's this many actors, this many "
7444 "directors, … this many musicians,</quote> and we just went at it very "
7445 "systematically and cleared the rights."
7449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7450 #: freeculture.xml:5331
7452 "And no doubt, the product itself was exceptionally good. Eastwood loved it, "
7453 "and it sold very well."
7456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7457 #: freeculture.xml:5334
7458 msgid "Drucker, Peter"
7462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7463 #: freeculture.xml:5342
7465 "U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Acquisition Management, "
7466 "<citetitle>Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services "
7467 "Acquisition</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
7468 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #22</ulink>."
7471 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7472 #: freeculture.xml:5336
7474 "But I pressed Alben about how weird it seems that it would have to take a "
7475 "year's work simply to clear rights. No doubt Alben had done this "
7476 "efficiently, but as Peter Drucker has famously quipped, <quote>There is "
7477 "nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at "
7478 "all.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Did it make sense, I "
7479 "asked Alben, that this is the way a new work has to be made?"
7482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7483 #: freeculture.xml:5350
7485 "For, as he acknowledged, <quote>very few … have the time and "
7486 "resources, and the will to do this,</quote> and thus, very few such works "
7487 "would ever be made. Does it make sense, I asked him, from the standpoint of "
7488 "what anybody really thought they were ever giving rights for originally, "
7489 "that you would have to go clear rights for these kinds of clips?"
7492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7493 #: freeculture.xml:5358
7495 "I don't think so. When an actor renders a performance in a movie, he or she "
7496 "gets paid very well. … And then when 30 seconds of that performance "
7497 "is used in a new product that is a retrospective of somebody's career, I "
7498 "don't think that that person … should be compensated for that."
7501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7502 #: freeculture.xml:5366
7504 "Or at least, is this <emphasis>how</emphasis> the artist should be "
7505 "compensated? Would it make sense, I asked, for there to be some kind of "
7506 "statutory license that someone could pay and be free to make derivative use "
7507 "of clips like this? Did it really make sense that a follow-on creator would "
7508 "have to track down every artist, actor, director, musician, and get explicit "
7509 "permission from each? Wouldn't a lot more be created if the legal part of "
7510 "the creative process could be made to be more clean?"
7514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7515 #: freeculture.xml:5377
7517 "Absolutely. I think that if there were some fair-licensing "
7518 "mechanism—where you weren't subject to hold-ups and you weren't "
7519 "subject to estranged former spouses—you'd see a lot more of this work, "
7520 "because it wouldn't be so daunting to try to put together a retrospective of "
7521 "someone's career and meaningfully illustrate it with lots of media from that "
7522 "person's career. You'd build in a cost as the producer of one of these "
7523 "things. You'd build in a cost of paying X dollars to the talent that "
7524 "performed. But it would be a known cost. That's the thing that trips "
7525 "everybody up and makes this kind of product hard to get off the ground. If "
7526 "you knew I have a hundred minutes of film in this product and it's going to "
7527 "cost me X, then you build your budget around it, and you can get investments "
7528 "and everything else that you need to produce it. But if you say, <quote>Oh, "
7529 "I want a hundred minutes of something and I have no idea what it's going to "
7530 "cost me, and a certain number of people are going to hold me up for "
7531 "money,</quote> then it becomes difficult to put one of these things "
7535 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7536 #: freeculture.xml:5397
7538 "Alben worked for a big company. His company was backed by some of the "
7539 "richest investors in the world. He therefore had authority and access that "
7540 "the average Web designer would not have. So if it took him a year, how long "
7541 "would it take someone else? And how much creativity is never made just "
7542 "because the costs of clearing the rights are so high?"
7545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7546 #: freeculture.xml:5406
7548 "These costs are the burdens of a kind of regulation. Put on a Republican hat "
7549 "for a moment, and get angry for a bit. The government defines the scope of "
7550 "these rights, and the scope defined determines how much it's going to cost "
7551 "to negotiate them. (Remember the idea that land runs to the heavens, and "
7552 "imagine the pilot purchasing flythrough rights as he negotiates to fly from "
7553 "Los Angeles to San Francisco.) These rights might well have once made "
7554 "sense; but as circumstances change, they make no sense at all. Or at least, "
7555 "a well-trained, regulationminimizing Republican should look at the rights "
7556 "and ask, <quote>Does this still make sense?</quote>"
7560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7561 #: freeculture.xml:5419
7563 "I've seen the flash of recognition when people get this point, but only a "
7564 "few times. The first was at a conference of federal judges in California. "
7565 "The judges were gathered to discuss the emerging topic of cyber-law. I was "
7566 "asked to be on the panel. Harvey Saferstein, a well-respected lawyer from an "
7567 "L.A. firm, introduced the panel with a video that he and a friend, Robert "
7568 "Fairbank, had produced."
7571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7572 #: freeculture.xml:5429
7574 "The video was a brilliant collage of film from every period in the twentieth "
7575 "century, all framed around the idea of a <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> "
7576 "episode. The execution was perfect, down to the sixty-minute stopwatch. The "
7577 "judges loved every minute of it."
7580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7581 #: freeculture.xml:5434
7582 msgid "Nimmer, David"
7585 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7586 #: freeculture.xml:5436
7588 "When the lights came up, I looked over to my copanelist, David Nimmer, "
7589 "perhaps the leading copyright scholar and practitioner in the nation. He had "
7590 "an astonished look on his face, as he peered across the room of over 250 "
7591 "well-entertained judges. Taking an ominous tone, he began his talk with a "
7592 "question: <quote>Do you know how many federal laws were just violated in "
7593 "this room?</quote>"
7596 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7597 #: freeculture.xml:5443
7598 msgid "Boies, David"
7601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7602 #: freeculture.xml:5446
7604 "For of course, the two brilliantly talented creators who made this film "
7605 "hadn't done what Alben did. They hadn't spent a year clearing the rights to "
7606 "these clips; technically, what they had done violated the law. Of course, "
7607 "it wasn't as if they or anyone were going to be prosecuted for this "
7608 "violation (the presence of 250 judges and a gaggle of federal marshals "
7609 "notwithstanding). But Nimmer was making an important point: A year before "
7610 "anyone would have heard of the word Napster, and two years before another "
7611 "member of our panel, David Boies, would defend Napster before the Ninth "
7612 "Circuit Court of Appeals, Nimmer was trying to get the judges to see that "
7613 "the law would not be friendly to the capacities that this technology would "
7614 "enable. Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you "
7615 "couldn't easily do them legally."
7618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7619 #: freeculture.xml:5461
7621 "We live in a <quote>cut and paste</quote> culture enabled by "
7622 "technology. Anyone building a presentation knows the extraordinary freedom "
7623 "that the cut and paste architecture of the Internet created—in a "
7624 "second you can find just about any image you want; in another second, you "
7625 "can have it planted in your presentation."
7628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7629 #: freeculture.xml:5467
7634 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7635 #: freeculture.xml:5469
7637 "But presentations are just a tiny beginning. Using the Internet and its "
7638 "archives, musicians are able to string together mixes of sound never before "
7639 "imagined; filmmakers are able to build movies out of clips on computers "
7640 "around the world. An extraordinary site in Sweden takes images of "
7641 "politicians and blends them with music to create biting political "
7642 "commentary. A site called Camp Chaos has produced some of the most biting "
7643 "criticism of the record industry that there is through the mixing of Flash! "
7647 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7648 #: freeculture.xml:5480
7650 "All of these creations are technically illegal. Even if the creators wanted "
7651 "to be <quote>legal,</quote> the cost of complying with the law is impossibly "
7652 "high. Therefore, for the law-abiding sorts, a wealth of creativity is never "
7653 "made. And for that part that is made, if it doesn't follow the clearance "
7654 "rules, it doesn't get released."
7657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7658 #: freeculture.xml:5487
7660 "To some, these stories suggest a solution: Let's alter the mix of rights so "
7661 "that people are free to build upon our culture. Free to add or mix as they "
7662 "see fit. We could even make this change without necessarily requiring that "
7663 "the <quote>free</quote> use be free as in <quote>free beer.</quote> Instead, "
7664 "the system could simply make it easy for follow-on creators to compensate "
7665 "artists without requiring an army of lawyers to come along: a rule, for "
7666 "example, that says <quote>the royalty owed the copyright owner of an "
7667 "unregistered work for the derivative reuse of his work will be a flat 1 "
7668 "percent of net revenues, to be held in escrow for the copyright "
7669 "owner.</quote> Under this rule, the copyright owner could benefit from some "
7670 "royalty, but he would not have the benefit of a full property right (meaning "
7671 "the right to name his own price) unless he registers the work."
7674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7675 #: freeculture.xml:5502
7677 "Who could possibly object to this? And what reason would there be for "
7678 "objecting? We're talking about work that is not now being made; which if "
7679 "made, under this plan, would produce new income for artists. What reason "
7680 "would anyone have to oppose it?"
7684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7685 #: freeculture.xml:5508
7687 "<emphasis role='strong'>In February 2003</emphasis>, DreamWorks studios "
7688 "announced an agreement with Mike Myers, the comic genius of "
7689 "<citetitle>Saturday Night Live</citetitle> and Austin Powers. According to "
7690 "the announcement, Myers and Dream-Works would work together to form a "
7691 "<quote>unique filmmaking pact.</quote> Under the agreement, DreamWorks "
7692 "<quote>will acquire the rights to existing motion picture hits and classics, "
7693 "write new storylines and—with the use of stateof-the-art digital "
7694 "technology—insert Myers and other actors into the film, thereby "
7695 "creating an entirely new piece of entertainment.</quote>"
7698 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7699 #: freeculture.xml:5521
7701 "The announcement called this <quote>film sampling.</quote> As Myers "
7702 "explained, <quote>Film Sampling is an exciting way to put an original spin "
7703 "on existing films and allow audiences to see old movies in a new light. Rap "
7704 "artists have been doing this for years with music and now we are able to "
7705 "take that same concept and apply it to film.</quote> Steven Spielberg is "
7706 "quoted as saying, <quote>If anyone can create a way to bring old films to "
7707 "new audiences, it is Mike.</quote>"
7710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7711 #: freeculture.xml:5530
7713 "Spielberg is right. Film sampling by Myers will be brilliant. But if you "
7714 "don't think about it, you might miss the truly astonishing point about this "
7715 "announcement. As the vast majority of our film heritage remains under "
7716 "copyright, the real meaning of the DreamWorks announcement is just this: It "
7717 "is Mike Myers and only Mike Myers who is free to sample. Any general freedom "
7718 "to build upon the film archive of our culture, a freedom in other contexts "
7719 "presumed for us all, is now a privilege reserved for the funny and "
7720 "famous—and presumably rich."
7723 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7724 #: freeculture.xml:5540
7726 "This privilege becomes reserved for two sorts of reasons. The first "
7727 "continues the story of the last chapter: the vagueness of <quote>fair "
7728 "use.</quote> Much of <quote>sampling</quote> should be considered "
7729 "<quote>fair use.</quote> But few would rely upon so weak a doctrine to "
7730 "create. That leads to the second reason that the privilege is reserved for "
7731 "the few: The costs of negotiating the legal rights for the creative reuse of "
7732 "content are astronomically high. These costs mirror the costs with fair "
7733 "use: You either pay a lawyer to defend your fair use rights or pay a lawyer "
7734 "to track down permissions so you don't have to rely upon fair use "
7735 "rights. Either way, the creative process is a process of paying "
7736 "lawyers—again a privilege, or perhaps a curse, reserved for the few."
7739 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
7740 #: freeculture.xml:5555
7741 msgid "CHAPTER NINE: Collectors"
7744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7745 #: freeculture.xml:5556 freeculture.xml:8685 freeculture.xml:10898 freeculture.xml:11143
7746 msgid "archives, digital"
7749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
7750 #: freeculture.xml:5557 freeculture.xml:7984
7754 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7755 #: freeculture.xml:5559
7757 "<emphasis role='strong'>In April 1996</emphasis>, millions of "
7758 "<quote>bots</quote>—computer codes designed to <quote>spider,</quote> "
7759 "or automatically search the Internet and copy content—began running "
7760 "across the Net. Page by page, these bots copied Internet-based information "
7761 "onto a small set of computers located in a basement in San Francisco's "
7762 "Presidio. Once the bots finished the whole of the Internet, they started "
7763 "again. Over and over again, once every two months, these bits of code took "
7764 "copies of the Internet and stored them."
7767 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7768 #: freeculture.xml:5569 freeculture.xml:5600 freeculture.xml:5662
7769 msgid "Way Back Machine"
7772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7773 #: freeculture.xml:5571
7775 "By October 2001, the bots had collected more than five years of copies. And "
7776 "at a small announcement in Berkeley, California, the archive that these "
7777 "copies created, the Internet Archive, was opened to the world. Using a "
7778 "technology called <quote>the Way Back Machine,</quote> you could enter a Web "
7779 "page, and see all of its copies going back to 1996, as well as when those "
7783 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7784 #: freeculture.xml:5578
7785 msgid "Orwell, George"
7788 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7789 #: freeculture.xml:5580
7791 "This is the thing about the Internet that Orwell would have appreciated. In "
7792 "the dystopia described in <citetitle>1984</citetitle>, old newspapers were "
7793 "constantly updated to assure that the current view of the world, approved of "
7794 "by the government, was not contradicted by previous news reports."
7798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7799 #: freeculture.xml:5588
7801 "Thousands of workers constantly reedited the past, meaning there was no way "
7802 "ever to know whether the story you were reading today was the story that was "
7803 "printed on the date published on the paper."
7806 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7807 #: freeculture.xml:5593
7809 "It's the same with the Internet. If you go to a Web page today, there's no "
7810 "way for you to know whether the content you are reading is the same as the "
7811 "content you read before. The page may seem the same, but the content could "
7812 "easily be different. The Internet is Orwell's library—constantly "
7813 "updated, without any reliable memory."
7816 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
7817 #: freeculture.xml:5609
7818 msgid "White House press releases"
7821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
7822 #: freeculture.xml:5608
7824 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
7825 "id=\"1\"/> The temptations remain, however. Brewster Kahle reports that the "
7826 "White House changes its own press releases without notice. A May 13, 2003, "
7827 "press release stated, <quote>Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.</quote> "
7828 "That was later changed, without notice, to <quote>Major Combat Operations in "
7829 "Iraq Have Ended.</quote> E-mail from Brewster Kahle, 1 December 2003."
7832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7833 #: freeculture.xml:5602
7835 "Until the Way Back Machine, at least. With the Way Back Machine, and the "
7836 "Internet Archive underlying it, you can see what the Internet was. You have "
7837 "the power to see what you remember. More importantly, perhaps, you also have "
7838 "the power to find what you don't remember and what others might prefer you "
7839 "forget.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
7842 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7843 #: freeculture.xml:5617
7844 msgid "history, records of"
7847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7848 #: freeculture.xml:5619
7850 "<emphasis role='strong'>We take it</emphasis> for granted that we can go "
7851 "back to see what we remember reading. Think about newspapers. If you wanted "
7852 "to study the reaction of your hometown newspaper to the race riots in Watts "
7853 "in 1965, or to Bull Connor's water cannon in 1963, you could go to your "
7854 "public library and look at the newspapers. Those papers probably exist on "
7855 "microfiche. If you're lucky, they exist in paper, too. Either way, you are "
7856 "free, using a library, to go back and remember—not just what it is "
7857 "convenient to remember, but remember something close to the truth."
7860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7861 #: freeculture.xml:5630
7863 "It is said that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat "
7864 "it. That's not quite correct. We <emphasis>all</emphasis> forget "
7865 "history. The key is whether we have a way to go back to rediscover what we "
7866 "forget. More directly, the key is whether an objective past can keep us "
7867 "honest. Libraries help do that, by collecting content and keeping it, for "
7868 "schoolchildren, for researchers, for grandma. A free society presumes this "
7873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7874 #: freeculture.xml:5639
7876 "The Internet was an exception to this presumption. Until the Internet "
7877 "Archive, there was no way to go back. The Internet was the quintessentially "
7878 "transitory medium. And yet, as it becomes more important in forming and "
7879 "reforming society, it becomes more and more important to maintain in some "
7880 "historical form. It's just bizarre to think that we have scads of archives "
7881 "of newspapers from tiny towns around the world, yet there is but one copy of "
7882 "the Internet—the one kept by the Internet Archive."
7885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7886 #: freeculture.xml:5650
7888 "Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive. He was a very "
7889 "successful Internet entrepreneur after he was a successful computer "
7890 "researcher. In the 1990s, Kahle decided he had had enough business "
7891 "success. It was time to become a different kind of success. So he launched "
7892 "a series of projects designed to archive human knowledge. The Internet "
7893 "Archive was just the first of the projects of this Andrew Carnegie of the "
7894 "Internet. By December of 2002, the archive had over 10 billion pages, and it "
7895 "was growing at about a billion pages a month."
7898 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7899 #: freeculture.xml:5659 freeculture.xml:5713
7900 msgid "Library of Congress"
7903 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7904 #: freeculture.xml:5660
7905 msgid "Television Archive"
7908 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7909 #: freeculture.xml:5661
7910 msgid "Vanderbilt University"
7913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7914 #: freeculture.xml:5663
7918 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7919 #: freeculture.xml:5663
7920 msgid "archival function of"
7923 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7924 #: freeculture.xml:5665
7926 "The Way Back Machine is the largest archive of human knowledge in human "
7927 "history. At the end of 2002, it held <quote>two hundred and thirty terabytes "
7928 "of material</quote>—and was <quote>ten times larger than the Library "
7929 "of Congress.</quote> And this was just the first of the archives that Kahle "
7930 "set out to build. In addition to the Internet Archive, Kahle has been "
7931 "constructing the Television Archive. Television, it turns out, is even more "
7932 "ephemeral than the Internet. While much of twentieth-century culture was "
7933 "constructed through television, only a tiny proportion of that culture is "
7934 "available for anyone to see today. Three hours of news are recorded each "
7935 "evening by Vanderbilt University—thanks to a specific exemption in the "
7936 "copyright law. That content is indexed, and is available to scholars for a "
7937 "very low fee. <quote>But other than that, [television] is almost "
7938 "unavailable,</quote> Kahle told me. <quote>If you were Barbara Walters you "
7939 "could get access to [the archives], but if you are just a graduate "
7940 "student?</quote> As Kahle put it,"
7943 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
7944 #: freeculture.xml:5682
7948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
7949 #: freeculture.xml:5683
7954 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
7955 #: freeculture.xml:5685
7957 "Do you remember when Dan Quayle was interacting with Murphy Brown? Remember "
7958 "that back and forth surreal experience of a politician interacting with a "
7959 "fictional television character? If you were a graduate student wanting to "
7960 "study that, and you wanted to get those original back and forth exchanges "
7961 "between the two, the <citetitle>60 Minutes</citetitle> episode that came out "
7962 "after it … it would be almost impossible. … Those materials "
7963 "are almost unfindable. …"
7966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7967 #: freeculture.xml:5696
7971 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
7972 #: freeculture.xml:5696
7976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7977 #: freeculture.xml:5698
7979 "Why is that? Why is it that the part of our culture that is recorded in "
7980 "newspapers remains perpetually accessible, while the part that is recorded "
7981 "on videotape is not? How is it that we've created a world where researchers "
7982 "trying to understand the effect of media on nineteenthcentury America will "
7983 "have an easier time than researchers trying to understand the effect of "
7984 "media on twentieth-century America?"
7987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
7988 #: freeculture.xml:5706
7990 "In part, this is because of the law. Early in American copyright law, "
7991 "copyright owners were required to deposit copies of their work in "
7992 "libraries. These copies were intended both to facilitate the spread of "
7993 "knowledge and to assure that a copy of the work would be around once the "
7994 "copyright expired, so that others might access and copy the work."
7997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
7998 #: freeculture.xml:5714 freeculture.xml:5757
8002 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
8003 #: freeculture.xml:5714 freeculture.xml:5757
8008 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8009 #: freeculture.xml:5725
8011 "Doug Herrick, <quote>Toward a National Film Collection: Motion Pictures at "
8012 "the Library of Congress,</quote> <citetitle>Film Library "
8013 "Quarterly</citetitle> 13 nos. 2–3 (1980): 5; Anthony Slide, "
8014 "<citetitle>Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United "
8015 "States</citetitle> ( Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1992), 36."
8018 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8019 #: freeculture.xml:5716
8021 "These rules applied to film as well. But in 1915, the Library of Congress "
8022 "made an exception for film. Film could be copyrighted so long as such "
8023 "deposits were made. But the filmmaker was then allowed to borrow back the "
8024 "deposits—for an unlimited time at no cost. In 1915 alone, there were "
8025 "more than 5,475 films deposited and <quote>borrowed back.</quote> Thus, when "
8026 "the copyrights to films expire, there is no copy held by any library. The "
8027 "copy exists—if it exists at all—in the library archive of the "
8028 "film company.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8031 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8032 #: freeculture.xml:5733
8034 "The same is generally true about television. Television broadcasts were "
8035 "originally not copyrighted—there was no way to capture the broadcasts, "
8036 "so there was no fear of <quote>theft.</quote> But as technology enabled "
8037 "capturing, broadcasters relied increasingly upon the law. The law required "
8038 "they make a copy of each broadcast for the work to be "
8039 "<quote>copyrighted.</quote> But those copies were simply kept by the "
8040 "broadcasters. No library had any right to them; the government didn't demand "
8041 "them. The content of this part of American culture is practically invisible "
8042 "to anyone who would look."
8045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8046 #: freeculture.xml:5743
8047 msgid "September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks of"
8051 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8052 #: freeculture.xml:5745
8054 "Kahle was eager to correct this. Before September 11, 2001, he and his "
8055 "allies had started capturing television. They selected twenty stations from "
8056 "around the world and hit the Record button. After September 11, Kahle, "
8057 "working with dozens of others, selected twenty stations from around the "
8058 "world and, beginning October 11, 2001, made their coverage during the week "
8059 "of September 11 available free on-line. Anyone could see how news reports "
8060 "from around the world covered the events of that day."
8063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8064 #: freeculture.xml:5755
8065 msgid "Movie Archive"
8068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8069 #: freeculture.xml:5756
8073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8074 #: freeculture.xml:5756 freeculture.xml:5758
8075 msgid "Internet Archive"
8078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8079 #: freeculture.xml:5759
8080 msgid "Duck and Cover film"
8083 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8084 #: freeculture.xml:5760
8085 msgid "ephemeral films"
8088 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8089 #: freeculture.xml:5761
8090 msgid "Prelinger, Rick"
8093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8094 #: freeculture.xml:5763
8096 "Kahle had the same idea with film. Working with Rick Prelinger, whose "
8097 "archive of film includes close to 45,000 <quote>ephemeral films</quote> "
8098 "(meaning films other than Hollywood movies, films that were never "
8099 "copyrighted), Kahle established the Movie Archive. Prelinger let Kahle "
8100 "digitize 1,300 films in this archive and post those films on the Internet to "
8101 "be downloaded for free. Prelinger's is a for-profit company. It sells copies "
8102 "of these films as stock footage. What he has discovered is that after he "
8103 "made a significant chunk available for free, his stock footage sales went up "
8104 "dramatically. People could easily find the material they wanted to use. Some "
8105 "downloaded that material and made films on their own. Others purchased "
8106 "copies to enable other films to be made. Either way, the archive enabled "
8107 "access to this important part of our culture. Want to see a copy of the "
8108 "<quote>Duck and Cover</quote> film that instructed children how to save "
8109 "themselves in the middle of nuclear attack? Go to archive.org, and you can "
8110 "download the film in a few minutes—for free."
8113 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8114 #: freeculture.xml:5781
8116 "Here again, Kahle is providing access to a part of our culture that we "
8117 "otherwise could not get easily, if at all. It is yet another part of what "
8118 "defines the twentieth century that we have lost to history. The law doesn't "
8119 "require these copies to be kept by anyone, or to be deposited in an archive "
8120 "by anyone. Therefore, there is no simple way to find them."
8123 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8124 #: freeculture.xml:5789
8126 "The key here is access, not price. Kahle wants to enable free access to this "
8127 "content, but he also wants to enable others to sell access to it. His aim is "
8128 "to ensure competition in access to this important part of our culture. Not "
8129 "during the commercial life of a bit of creative property, but during a "
8130 "second life that all creative property has—a noncommercial life."
8134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8135 #: freeculture.xml:5797
8137 "For here is an idea that we should more clearly recognize. Every bit of "
8138 "creative property goes through different <quote>lives.</quote> In its first "
8139 "life, if the creator is lucky, the content is sold. In such cases the "
8140 "commercial market is successful for the creator. The vast majority of "
8141 "creative property doesn't enjoy such success, but some clearly does. For "
8142 "that content, commercial life is extremely important. Without this "
8143 "commercial market, there would be, many argue, much less creativity."
8146 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8147 #: freeculture.xml:5809
8149 "After the commercial life of creative property has ended, our tradition has "
8150 "always supported a second life as well. A newspaper delivers the news every "
8151 "day to the doorsteps of America. The very next day, it is used to wrap fish "
8152 "or to fill boxes with fragile gifts or to build an archive of knowledge "
8153 "about our history. In this second life, the content can continue to inform "
8154 "even if that information is no longer sold."
8157 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8158 #: freeculture.xml:5822
8160 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Dave Barns, <quote>Fledgling "
8161 "Career in Antique Books: Woodstock Landlord, Bar Owner Starts a New Chapter "
8162 "by Adopting Business,</quote> <citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 5 "
8163 "September 1997, at Metro Lake 1L. Of books published between 1927 and 1946, "
8164 "only 2.2 percent were in print in 2002. R. Anthony Reese, <quote>The First "
8165 "Sale Doctrine in the Era of Digital Networks,</quote> <citetitle>Boston "
8166 "College Law Review</citetitle> 44 (2003): 593 n. 51."
8169 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8170 #: freeculture.xml:5819
8172 "The same has always been true about books. A book goes out of print very "
8173 "quickly (the average today is after about a year<placeholder "
8174 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>). After it is out of print, it can be sold in "
8175 "used book stores without the copyright owner getting anything and stored in "
8176 "libraries, where many get to read the book, also for free. Used book stores "
8177 "and libraries are thus the second life of a book. That second life is "
8178 "extremely important to the spread and stability of culture."
8181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8182 #: freeculture.xml:5837
8184 "Yet increasingly, any assumption about a stable second life for creative "
8185 "property does not hold true with the most important components of popular "
8186 "culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For "
8187 "these—television, movies, music, radio, the Internet—there is no "
8188 "guarantee of a second life. For these sorts of culture, it is as if we've "
8189 "replaced libraries with Barnes & Noble superstores. With this culture, "
8190 "what's accessible is nothing but what a certain limited market demands. "
8191 "Beyond that, culture disappears."
8195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8196 #: freeculture.xml:5848
8198 "<emphasis role='strong'>For most of</emphasis> the twentieth century, it was "
8199 "economics that made this so. It would have been insanely expensive to "
8200 "collect and make accessible all television and film and music: The cost of "
8201 "analog copies is extraordinarily high. So even though the law in principle "
8202 "would have restricted the ability of a Brewster Kahle to copy culture "
8203 "generally, the real restriction was economics. The market made it impossibly "
8204 "difficult to do anything about this ephemeral culture; the law had little "
8208 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8209 #: freeculture.xml:5860
8211 "Perhaps the single most important feature of the digital revolution is that "
8212 "for the first time since the Library of Alexandria, it is feasible to "
8213 "imagine constructing archives that hold all culture produced or distributed "
8214 "publicly. Technology makes it possible to imagine an archive of all books "
8215 "published, and increasingly makes it possible to imagine an archive of all "
8216 "moving images and sound."
8219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8220 #: freeculture.xml:5868
8222 "The scale of this potential archive is something we've never imagined "
8223 "before. The Brewster Kahles of our history have dreamed about it; but we are "
8224 "for the first time at a point where that dream is possible. As Kahle "
8228 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><indexterm><secondary>
8229 #: freeculture.xml:5874
8230 msgid "total number of"
8233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8234 #: freeculture.xml:5876
8236 "It looks like there's about two to three million recordings of music. "
8237 "Ever. There are about a hundred thousand theatrical releases of movies, "
8238 "… and about one to two million movies [distributed] during the "
8239 "twentieth century. There are about twenty-six million different titles of "
8240 "books. All of these would fit on computers that would fit in this room and "
8241 "be able to be afforded by a small company. So we're at a turning point in "
8242 "our history. Universal access is the goal. And the opportunity of leading a "
8243 "different life, based on this, is … thrilling. It could be one of the "
8244 "things humankind would be most proud of. Up there with the Library of "
8245 "Alexandria, putting a man on the moon, and the invention of the printing "
8250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8251 #: freeculture.xml:5890
8253 "Kahle is not the only librarian. The Internet Archive is not the only "
8254 "archive. But Kahle and the Internet Archive suggest what the future of "
8255 "libraries or archives could be. <emphasis>When</emphasis> the commercial "
8256 "life of creative property ends, I don't know. But it does. And whenever it "
8257 "does, Kahle and his archive hint at a world where this knowledge, and "
8258 "culture, remains perpetually available. Some will draw upon it to understand "
8259 "it; some to criticize it. Some will use it, as Walt Disney did, to re-create "
8260 "the past for the future. These technologies promise something that had "
8261 "become unimaginable for much of our past—a future "
8262 "<emphasis>for</emphasis> our past. The technology of digital arts could make "
8263 "the dream of the Library of Alexandria real again."
8266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8267 #: freeculture.xml:5905
8269 "Technologists have thus removed the economic costs of building such an "
8270 "archive. But lawyers' costs remain. For as much as we might like to call "
8271 "these <quote>archives,</quote> as warm as the idea of a "
8272 "<quote>library</quote> might seem, the <quote>content</quote> that is "
8273 "collected in these digital spaces is also someone's <quote>property.</quote> "
8274 "And the law of property restricts the freedoms that Kahle and others would "
8278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
8279 #: freeculture.xml:5916
8280 msgid "CHAPTER TEN: <quote>Property</quote>"
8283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8284 #: freeculture.xml:5917
8285 msgid "Johnson, Lyndon"
8288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8289 #: freeculture.xml:5918 freeculture.xml:9643
8290 msgid "Kennedy, John F."
8293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8294 #: freeculture.xml:5920
8296 "<emphasis role='strong'>Jack Valenti</emphasis> has been the president of "
8297 "the Motion Picture Association of America since 1966. He first came to "
8298 "Washington, D.C., with Lyndon Johnson's administration—literally. The "
8299 "famous picture of Johnson's swearing-in on Air Force One after the "
8300 "assassination of President Kennedy has Valenti in the background. In his "
8301 "almost forty years of running the MPAA, Valenti has established himself as "
8302 "perhaps the most prominent and effective lobbyist in Washington."
8305 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8306 #: freeculture.xml:5929
8307 msgid "Disney, Inc."
8310 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8311 #: freeculture.xml:5930
8312 msgid "Sony Pictures Entertainment"
8315 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8316 #: freeculture.xml:5931
8320 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8321 #: freeculture.xml:5932
8322 msgid "Paramount Pictures"
8325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8326 #: freeculture.xml:5933
8327 msgid "Twentieth Century Fox"
8330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8331 #: freeculture.xml:5934
8332 msgid "Universal Pictures"
8335 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8336 #: freeculture.xml:5935 freeculture.xml:7361
8337 msgid "Warner Brothers"
8340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8341 #: freeculture.xml:5937
8343 "The MPAA is the American branch of the international Motion Picture "
8344 "Association. It was formed in 1922 as a trade association whose goal was to "
8345 "defend American movies against increasing domestic criticism. The "
8346 "organization now represents not only filmmakers but producers and "
8347 "distributors of entertainment for television, video, and cable. Its board is "
8348 "made up of the chairmen and presidents of the seven major producers and "
8349 "distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States: "
8350 "Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth "
8351 "Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers."
8355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8356 #: freeculture.xml:5950
8358 "Valenti is only the third president of the MPAA. No president before him has "
8359 "had as much influence over that organization, or over Washington. As a "
8360 "Texan, Valenti has mastered the single most important political skill of a "
8361 "Southerner—the ability to appear simple and slow while hiding a "
8362 "lightning-fast intellect. To this day, Valenti plays the simple, humble "
8363 "man. But this Harvard MBA, and author of four books, who finished high "
8364 "school at the age of fifteen and flew more than fifty combat missions in "
8365 "World War II, is no Mr. Smith. When Valenti went to Washington, he mastered "
8366 "the city in a quintessentially Washingtonian way."
8369 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8370 #: freeculture.xml:5962
8372 "In defending artistic liberty and the freedom of speech that our culture "
8373 "depends upon, the MPAA has done important good. In crafting the MPAA rating "
8374 "system, it has probably avoided a great deal of speech-regulating harm. But "
8375 "there is an aspect to the organization's mission that is both the most "
8376 "radical and the most important. This is the organization's effort, "
8377 "epitomized in Valenti's every act, to redefine the meaning of "
8378 "<quote>creative property.</quote>"
8381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8382 #: freeculture.xml:5971
8383 msgid "In 1982, Valenti's testimony to Congress captured the strategy perfectly:"
8387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
8388 #: freeculture.xml:5985
8390 "Home Recording of Copyrighted Works: Hearings on H.R. 4783, H.R. 4794, "
8391 "H.R. 4808, H.R. 5250, H.R. 5488, and H.R. 5705 Before the Subcommittee on "
8392 "Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee "
8393 "on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, 97th Cong., 2nd "
8394 "sess. (1982): 65 (testimony of Jack Valenti)."
8397 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
8398 #: freeculture.xml:5976
8400 "No matter the lengthy arguments made, no matter the charges and the "
8401 "counter-charges, no matter the tumult and the shouting, reasonable men and "
8402 "women will keep returning to the fundamental issue, the central theme which "
8403 "animates this entire debate: <emphasis>Creative property owners must be "
8404 "accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other property "
8405 "owners in the nation</emphasis>. That is the issue. That is the "
8406 "question. And that is the rostrum on which this entire hearing and the "
8407 "debates to follow must rest.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
8411 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8412 #: freeculture.xml:5995
8414 "The strategy of this rhetoric, like the strategy of most of Valenti's "
8415 "rhetoric, is brilliant and simple and brilliant because simple. The "
8416 "<quote>central theme</quote> to which <quote>reasonable men and "
8417 "women</quote> will return is this: <quote>Creative property owners must be "
8418 "accorded the same rights and protections resident in all other property "
8419 "owners in the nation.</quote> There are no second-class citizens, Valenti "
8420 "might have continued. There should be no second-class property owners."
8423 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8424 #: freeculture.xml:6006
8426 "This claim has an obvious and powerful intuitive pull. It is stated with "
8427 "such clarity as to make the idea as obvious as the notion that we use "
8428 "elections to pick presidents. But in fact, there is no more extreme a claim "
8429 "made by <emphasis>anyone</emphasis> who is serious in this debate than this "
8430 "claim of Valenti's. Jack Valenti, however sweet and however brilliant, is "
8431 "perhaps the nation's foremost extremist when it comes to the nature and "
8432 "scope of <quote>creative property.</quote> His views have "
8433 "<emphasis>no</emphasis> reasonable connection to our actual legal tradition, "
8434 "even if the subtle pull of his Texan charm has slowly redefined that "
8435 "tradition, at least in Washington."
8439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8440 #: freeculture.xml:6021
8442 "Lawyers speak of <quote>property</quote> not as an absolute thing, but as a "
8443 "bundle of rights that are sometimes associated with a particular "
8444 "object. Thus, my <quote>property right</quote> to my car gives me the right "
8445 "to exclusive use, but not the right to drive at 150 miles an hour. For the "
8446 "best effort to connect the ordinary meaning of <quote>property</quote> to "
8447 "<quote>lawyer talk,</quote> see Bruce Ackerman, <citetitle>Private Property "
8448 "and the Constitution</citetitle> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), "
8452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8453 #: freeculture.xml:6018
8455 "While <quote>creative property</quote> is certainly <quote>property</quote> "
8456 "in a nerdy and precise sense that lawyers are trained to "
8457 "understand,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> it has never been the "
8458 "case, nor should it be, that <quote>creative property owners</quote> have "
8459 "been <quote>accorded the same rights and protection resident in all other "
8460 "property owners.</quote> Indeed, if creative property owners were given the "
8461 "same rights as all other property owners, that would effect a radical, and "
8462 "radically undesirable, change in our tradition."
8465 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8466 #: freeculture.xml:6036
8468 "Valenti knows this. But he speaks for an industry that cares squat for our "
8469 "tradition and the values it represents. He speaks for an industry that is "
8470 "instead fighting to restore the tradition that the British overturned in "
8471 "1710. In the world that Valenti's changes would create, a powerful few would "
8472 "exercise powerful control over how our creative culture would develop."
8476 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8477 #: freeculture.xml:6044
8479 "I have two purposes in this chapter. The first is to convince you that, "
8480 "historically, Valenti's claim is absolutely wrong. The second is to convince "
8481 "you that it would be terribly wrong for us to reject our history. We have "
8482 "always treated rights in creative property differently from the rights "
8483 "resident in all other property owners. They have never been the same. And "
8484 "they should never be the same, because, however counterintuitive this may "
8485 "seem, to make them the same would be to fundamentally weaken the opportunity "
8486 "for new creators to create. Creativity depends upon the owners of "
8487 "creativity having less than perfect control."
8490 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8491 #: freeculture.xml:6059
8493 "Organizations such as the MPAA, whose board includes the most powerful of "
8494 "the old guard, have little interest, their rhetoric notwithstanding, in "
8495 "assuring that the new can displace them. No organization does. No person "
8496 "does. (Ask me about tenure, for example.) But what's good for the MPAA is "
8497 "not necessarily good for America. A society that defends the ideals of free "
8498 "culture must preserve precisely the opportunity for new creativity to "
8502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8503 #: freeculture.xml:6068
8505 "<emphasis role='strong'>To get</emphasis> just a hint that there is "
8506 "something fundamentally wrong in Valenti's argument, we need look no further "
8507 "than the United States Constitution itself."
8510 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8511 #: freeculture.xml:6073
8513 "The framers of our Constitution loved <quote>property.</quote> Indeed, so "
8514 "strongly did they love property that they built into the Constitution an "
8515 "important requirement. If the government takes your property—if it "
8516 "condemns your house, or acquires a slice of land from your farm—it is "
8517 "required, under the Fifth Amendment's <quote>Takings Clause,</quote> to pay "
8518 "you <quote>just compensation</quote> for that taking. The Constitution thus "
8519 "guarantees that property is, in a certain sense, sacred. It cannot "
8520 "<emphasis>ever</emphasis> be taken from the property owner unless the "
8521 "government pays for the privilege."
8525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8526 #: freeculture.xml:6084
8528 "Yet the very same Constitution speaks very differently about what Valenti "
8529 "calls <quote>creative property.</quote> In the clause granting Congress the "
8530 "power to create <quote>creative property,</quote> the Constitution "
8531 "<emphasis>requires</emphasis> that after a <quote>limited time,</quote> "
8532 "Congress take back the rights that it has granted and set the "
8533 "<quote>creative property</quote> free to the public domain. Yet when "
8534 "Congress does this, when the expiration of a copyright term "
8535 "<quote>takes</quote> your copyright and turns it over to the public domain, "
8536 "Congress does not have any obligation to pay <quote>just "
8537 "compensation</quote> for this <quote>taking.</quote> Instead, the same "
8538 "Constitution that requires compensation for your land requires that you lose "
8539 "your <quote>creative property</quote> right without any compensation at all."
8542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8543 #: freeculture.xml:6099
8545 "The Constitution thus on its face states that these two forms of property "
8546 "are not to be accorded the same rights. They are plainly to be treated "
8547 "differently. Valenti is therefore not just asking for a change in our "
8548 "tradition when he argues that creative-property owners should be accorded "
8549 "the same rights as every other property-right owner. He is effectively "
8550 "arguing for a change in our Constitution itself."
8553 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8554 #: freeculture.xml:6108
8556 "Arguing for a change in our Constitution is not necessarily wrong. There "
8557 "was much in our original Constitution that was plainly wrong. The "
8558 "Constitution of 1789 entrenched slavery; it left senators to be appointed "
8559 "rather than elected; it made it possible for the electoral college to "
8560 "produce a tie between the president and his own vice president (as it did in "
8561 "1800). The framers were no doubt extraordinary, but I would be the first to "
8562 "admit that they made big mistakes. We have since rejected some of those "
8563 "mistakes; no doubt there could be others that we should reject as well. So "
8564 "my argument is not simply that because Jefferson did it, we should, too."
8567 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8568 #: freeculture.xml:6120
8570 "Instead, my argument is that because Jefferson did it, we should at least "
8571 "try to understand <emphasis>why</emphasis>. Why did the framers, fanatical "
8572 "property types that they were, reject the claim that creative property be "
8573 "given the same rights as all other property? Why did they require that for "
8574 "creative property there must be a public domain?"
8577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8578 #: freeculture.xml:6128
8580 "To answer this question, we need to get some perspective on the history of "
8581 "these <quote>creative property</quote> rights, and the control that they "
8582 "enabled. Once we see clearly how differently these rights have been "
8583 "defined, we will be in a better position to ask the question that should be "
8584 "at the core of this war: Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> creative property "
8585 "should be protected, but how. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> we will "
8586 "enforce the rights the law gives to creative-property owners, but what the "
8587 "particular mix of rights ought to be. Not <emphasis>whether</emphasis> "
8588 "artists should be paid, but whether institutions designed to assure that "
8589 "artists get paid need also control how culture develops."
8593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8594 #: freeculture.xml:6143
8596 "To answer these questions, we need a more general way to talk about how "
8597 "property is protected. More precisely, we need a more general way than the "
8598 "narrow language of the law allows. In <citetitle>Code and Other Laws of "
8599 "Cyberspace</citetitle>, I used a simple model to capture this more general "
8600 "perspective. For any particular right or regulation, this model asks how "
8601 "four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken the "
8602 "right or regulation. I represented it with this diagram:"
8605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8606 #: freeculture.xml:6152
8608 "How four different modalities of regulation interact to support or weaken "
8609 "the right or regulation."
8612 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8613 #: freeculture.xml:6153 freeculture.xml:6337 freeculture.xml:6644
8614 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1331.png\"></graphic>"
8617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8618 #: freeculture.xml:6156
8620 "At the center of this picture is a regulated dot: the individual or group "
8621 "that is the target of regulation, or the holder of a right. (In each case "
8622 "throughout, we can describe this either as regulation or as a right. For "
8623 "simplicity's sake, I will speak only of regulations.) The ovals represent "
8624 "four ways in which the individual or group might be regulated— either "
8625 "constrained or, alternatively, enabled. Law is the most obvious constraint "
8626 "(to lawyers, at least). It constrains by threatening punishments after the "
8627 "fact if the rules set in advance are violated. So if, for example, you "
8628 "willfully infringe Madonna's copyright by copying a song from her latest CD "
8629 "and posting it on the Web, you can be punished with a $150,000 fine. The "
8630 "fine is an ex post punishment for violating an ex ante rule. It is imposed "
8631 "by the state. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
8634 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8635 #: freeculture.xml:6172 freeculture.xml:6231 freeculture.xml:6340
8636 msgid "norms, regulatory influence of"
8639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8640 #: freeculture.xml:6174
8642 "Norms are a different kind of constraint. They, too, punish an individual "
8643 "for violating a rule. But the punishment of a norm is imposed by a "
8644 "community, not (or not only) by the state. There may be no law against "
8645 "spitting, but that doesn't mean you won't be punished if you spit on the "
8646 "ground while standing in line at a movie. The punishment might not be harsh, "
8647 "though depending upon the community, it could easily be more harsh than many "
8648 "of the punishments imposed by the state. The mark of the difference is not "
8649 "the severity of the rule, but the source of the enforcement."
8652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8653 #: freeculture.xml:6184 freeculture.xml:6230 freeculture.xml:6320 freeculture.xml:6339 freeculture.xml:9268 freeculture.xml:9467
8654 msgid "market constraints"
8657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8658 #: freeculture.xml:6186
8660 "The market is a third type of constraint. Its constraint is effected through "
8661 "conditions: You can do X if you pay Y; you'll be paid M if you do N. These "
8662 "constraints are obviously not independent of law or norms—it is "
8663 "property law that defines what must be bought if it is to be taken legally; "
8664 "it is norms that say what is appropriately sold. But given a set of norms, "
8665 "and a background of property and contract law, the market imposes a "
8666 "simultaneous constraint upon how an individual or group might behave."
8669 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8670 #: freeculture.xml:6195 freeculture.xml:6229 freeculture.xml:6278 freeculture.xml:6319
8671 msgid "architecture, constraint effected through"
8674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8675 #: freeculture.xml:6197
8677 "Finally, and for the moment, perhaps, most mysteriously, "
8678 "<quote>architecture</quote>—the physical world as one finds "
8679 "it—is a constraint on behavior. A fallen bridge might constrain your "
8680 "ability to get across a river. Railroad tracks might constrain the ability "
8681 "of a community to integrate its social life. As with the market, "
8682 "architecture does not effect its constraint through ex post "
8683 "punishments. Instead, also as with the market, architecture effects its "
8684 "constraint through simultaneous conditions. These conditions are imposed not "
8685 "by courts enforcing contracts, or by police punishing theft, but by nature, "
8686 "by <quote>architecture.</quote> If a 500-pound boulder blocks your way, it "
8687 "is the law of gravity that enforces this constraint. If a $500 airplane "
8688 "ticket stands between you and a flight to New York, it is the market that "
8689 "enforces this constraint."
8693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8694 #: freeculture.xml:6214
8696 "So the first point about these four modalities of regulation is obvious: "
8697 "They interact. Restrictions imposed by one might be reinforced by "
8698 "another. Or restrictions imposed by one might be undermined by another."
8701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8702 #: freeculture.xml:6220
8704 "The second point follows directly: If we want to understand the effective "
8705 "freedom that anyone has at a given moment to do any particular thing, we "
8706 "have to consider how these four modalities interact. Whether or not there "
8707 "are other constraints (there may well be; my claim is not about "
8708 "comprehensiveness), these four are among the most significant, and any "
8709 "regulator (whether controlling or freeing) must consider how these four in "
8710 "particular interact."
8713 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8714 #: freeculture.xml:6228
8715 msgid "driving speed, constraints on"
8718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8719 #: freeculture.xml:6233
8721 "So, for example, consider the <quote>freedom</quote> to drive a car at a "
8722 "high speed. That freedom is in part restricted by laws: speed limits that "
8723 "say how fast you can drive in particular places at particular times. It is "
8724 "in part restricted by architecture: speed bumps, for example, slow most "
8725 "rational drivers; governors in buses, as another example, set the maximum "
8726 "rate at which the driver can drive. The freedom is in part restricted by the "
8727 "market: Fuel efficiency drops as speed increases, thus the price of gasoline "
8728 "indirectly constrains speed. And finally, the norms of a community may or "
8729 "may not constrain the freedom to speed. Drive at 50 mph by a school in your "
8730 "own neighborhood and you're likely to be punished by the neighbors. The same "
8731 "norm wouldn't be as effective in a different town, or at night."
8735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8736 #: freeculture.xml:6251
8738 "By describing the way law affects the other three modalities, I don't mean "
8739 "to suggest that the other three don't affect law. Obviously, they do. Law's "
8740 "only distinction is that it alone speaks as if it has a right "
8741 "self-consciously to change the other three. The right of the other three is "
8742 "more timidly expressed. See Lawrence Lessig, <citetitle>Code: And Other "
8743 "Laws of Cyberspace</citetitle> (New York: Basic Books, 1999): 90–95; "
8744 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>The New Chicago School,</quote> <citetitle>Journal "
8745 "of Legal Studies</citetitle>, June 1998."
8749 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8750 #: freeculture.xml:6247
8752 "The final point about this simple model should also be fairly clear: While "
8753 "these four modalities are analytically independent, law has a special role "
8754 "in affecting the three.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The law, in "
8755 "other words, sometimes operates to increase or decrease the constraint of a "
8756 "particular modality. Thus, the law might be used to increase taxes on "
8757 "gasoline, so as to increase the incentives to drive more slowly. The law "
8758 "might be used to mandate more speed bumps, so as to increase the difficulty "
8759 "of driving rapidly. The law might be used to fund ads that stigmatize "
8760 "reckless driving. Or the law might be used to require that other laws be "
8761 "more strict—a federal requirement that states decrease the speed "
8762 "limit, for example—so as to decrease the attractiveness of fast "
8766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
8767 #: freeculture.xml:6275
8768 msgid "Law has a special role in affecting the three."
8771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
8772 #: freeculture.xml:6276
8773 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1361.png\"></graphic>"
8776 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8777 #: freeculture.xml:6317
8778 msgid "Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)"
8781 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
8782 #: freeculture.xml:6318
8783 msgid "Commons, John R."
8786 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
8787 #: freeculture.xml:6288
8789 "Some people object to this way of talking about <quote>liberty.</quote> They "
8790 "object because their focus when considering the constraints that exist at "
8791 "any particular moment are constraints imposed exclusively by the "
8792 "government. For instance, if a storm destroys a bridge, these people think "
8793 "it is meaningless to say that one's liberty has been restrained. A bridge "
8794 "has washed out, and it's harder to get from one place to another. To talk "
8795 "about this as a loss of freedom, they say, is to confuse the stuff of "
8796 "politics with the vagaries of ordinary life. I don't mean to deny the value "
8797 "in this narrower view, which depends upon the context of the inquiry. I do, "
8798 "however, mean to argue against any insistence that this narrower view is the "
8799 "only proper view of liberty. As I argued in <citetitle>Code</citetitle>, we "
8800 "come from a long tradition of political thought with a broader focus than "
8801 "the narrow question of what the government did when. John Stuart Mill "
8802 "defended freedom of speech, for example, from the tyranny of narrow minds, "
8803 "not from the fear of government prosecution; John Stuart Mill, <citetitle>On "
8804 "Liberty</citetitle> (Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978), 19. John "
8805 "R. Commons famously defended the economic freedom of labor from constraints "
8806 "imposed by the market; John R. Commons, <quote>The Right to Work,</quote> in "
8807 "Malcom Rutherford and Warren J. Samuels, eds., <citetitle>John R. Commons: "
8808 "Selected Essays</citetitle> (London: Routledge: 1997), 62. The Americans "
8809 "with Disabilities Act increases the liberty of people with physical "
8810 "disabilities by changing the architecture of certain public places, thereby "
8811 "making access to those places easier; 42 <citetitle>United States "
8812 "Code</citetitle>, section 12101 (2000). Each of these interventions to "
8813 "change existing conditions changes the liberty of a particular group. The "
8814 "effect of those interventions should be accounted for in order to understand "
8815 "the effective liberty that each of these groups might face. <placeholder "
8816 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
8817 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
8821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
8822 #: freeculture.xml:6280
8824 "These constraints can thus change, and they can be changed. To understand "
8825 "the effective protection of liberty or protection of property at any "
8826 "particular moment, we must track these changes over time. A restriction "
8827 "imposed by one modality might be erased by another. A freedom enabled by one "
8828 "modality might be displaced by another.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
8832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
8833 #: freeculture.xml:6324
8834 msgid "Why Hollywood Is Right"
8837 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8838 #: freeculture.xml:6326
8840 "The most obvious point that this model reveals is just why, or just how, "
8841 "Hollywood is right. The copyright warriors have rallied Congress and the "
8842 "courts to defend copyright. This model helps us see why that rallying makes "
8846 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8847 #: freeculture.xml:6332
8848 msgid "Let's say this is the picture of copyright's regulation before the Internet:"
8851 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8852 #: freeculture.xml:6336 freeculture.xml:6643
8853 msgid "Copyright's regulation before the Internet."
8857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8858 #: freeculture.xml:6343
8860 "There is balance between law, norms, market, and architecture. The law "
8861 "limits the ability to copy and share content, by imposing penalties on those "
8862 "who copy and share content. Those penalties are reinforced by technologies "
8863 "that make it hard to copy and share content (architecture) and expensive to "
8864 "copy and share content (market). Finally, those penalties are mitigated by "
8865 "norms we all recognize—kids, for example, taping other kids' "
8866 "records. These uses of copyrighted material may well be infringement, but "
8867 "the norms of our society (before the Internet, at least) had no problem with "
8868 "this form of infringement."
8871 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8872 #: freeculture.xml:6355
8874 "Enter the Internet, or, more precisely, technologies such as MP3s and p2p "
8875 "sharing. Now the constraint of architecture changes dramatically, as does "
8876 "the constraint of the market. And as both the market and architecture relax "
8877 "the regulation of copyright, norms pile on. The happy balance (for the "
8878 "warriors, at least) of life before the Internet becomes an effective state "
8879 "of anarchy after the Internet."
8883 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8884 #: freeculture.xml:6363
8886 "Thus the sense of, and justification for, the warriors' response. "
8887 "Technology has changed, the warriors say, and the effect of this change, "
8888 "when ramified through the market and norms, is that a balance of protection "
8889 "for the copyright owners' rights has been lost. This is Iraq after the fall "
8890 "of Saddam, but this time no government is justifying the looting that "
8894 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
8895 #: freeculture.xml:6373
8896 msgid "effective state of anarchy after the Internet."
8899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
8900 #: freeculture.xml:6374
8901 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1381.png\"></graphic>"
8904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8905 #: freeculture.xml:6377
8907 "Neither this analysis nor the conclusions that follow are new to the "
8908 "warriors. Indeed, in a <quote>White Paper</quote> prepared by the Commerce "
8909 "Department (one heavily influenced by the copyright warriors) in 1995, this "
8910 "mix of regulatory modalities had already been identified and the strategy to "
8911 "respond already mapped. In response to the changes the Internet had "
8912 "effected, the White Paper argued (1) Congress should strengthen intellectual "
8913 "property law, (2) businesses should adopt innovative marketing techniques, "
8914 "(3) technologists should push to develop code to protect copyrighted "
8915 "material, and (4) educators should educate kids to better protect copyright."
8918 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8919 #: freeculture.xml:6388
8920 msgid "steel industry"
8924 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8925 #: freeculture.xml:6390
8927 "This mixed strategy is just what copyright needed—if it was to "
8928 "preserve the particular balance that existed before the change induced by "
8929 "the Internet. And it's just what we should expect the content industry to "
8930 "push for. It is as American as apple pie to consider the happy life you have "
8931 "as an entitlement, and to look to the law to protect it if something comes "
8932 "along to change that happy life. Homeowners living in a flood plain have no "
8933 "hesitation appealing to the government to rebuild (and rebuild again) when a "
8934 "flood (architecture) wipes away their property (law). Farmers have no "
8935 "hesitation appealing to the government to bail them out when a virus "
8936 "(architecture) devastates their crop. Unions have no hesitation appealing to "
8937 "the government to bail them out when imports (market) wipe out the "
8938 "U.S. steel industry."
8941 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8942 #: freeculture.xml:6407
8944 "Thus, there's nothing wrong or surprising in the content industry's campaign "
8945 "to protect itself from the harmful consequences of a technological "
8946 "innovation. And I would be the last person to argue that the changing "
8947 "technology of the Internet has not had a profound effect on the content "
8948 "industry's way of doing business, or as John Seely Brown describes it, its "
8949 "<quote>architecture of revenue.</quote>"
8952 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
8953 #: freeculture.xml:6414
8954 msgid "railroad industry"
8958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
8959 #: freeculture.xml:6426
8961 "See Geoffrey Smith, <quote>Film vs. Digital: Can Kodak Build a "
8962 "Bridge?</quote> BusinessWeek online, 2 August 1999, available at <ulink "
8963 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #23</ulink>. For a more recent "
8964 "analysis of Kodak's place in the market, see Chana R. Schoenberger, "
8965 "<quote>Can Kodak Make Up for Lost Moments?</quote> Forbes.com, 6 October "
8966 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
8970 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
8971 #: freeculture.xml:6418
8973 "But just because a particular interest asks for government support, it "
8974 "doesn't follow that support should be granted. And just because technology "
8975 "has weakened a particular way of doing business, it doesn't follow that the "
8976 "government should intervene to support that old way of doing "
8977 "business. Kodak, for example, has lost perhaps as much as 20 percent of "
8978 "their traditional film market to the emerging technologies of digital "
8979 "cameras.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Does anyone believe the "
8980 "government should ban digital cameras just to support Kodak? Highways have "
8981 "weakened the freight business for railroads. Does anyone think we should ban "
8982 "trucks from roads <emphasis>for the purpose of</emphasis> protecting the "
8983 "railroads? Closer to the subject of this book, remote channel changers have "
8984 "weakened the <quote>stickiness</quote> of television advertising (if a "
8985 "boring commercial comes on the TV, the remote makes it easy to surf ), and "
8986 "it may well be that this change has weakened the television advertising "
8987 "market. But does anyone believe we should regulate remotes to reinforce "
8988 "commercial television? (Maybe by limiting them to function only once a "
8989 "second, or to switch to only ten channels within an hour?)"
8992 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
8993 #: freeculture.xml:6447 freeculture.xml:14759
8994 msgid "Brezhnev, Leonid"
8997 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
8998 #: freeculture.xml:6448 freeculture.xml:12995
9003 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9004 #: freeculture.xml:6460
9006 "Fred Warshofsky, <citetitle>The Patent Wars</citetitle> (New York: Wiley, "
9007 "1994), 170–71."
9010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9011 #: freeculture.xml:6450
9013 "The obvious answer to these obviously rhetorical questions is no. In a free "
9014 "society, with a free market, supported by free enterprise and free trade, "
9015 "the government's role is not to support one way of doing business against "
9016 "others. Its role is not to pick winners and protect them against loss. If "
9017 "the government did this generally, then we would never have any progress. As "
9018 "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates wrote in 1991, in a memo criticizing software "
9019 "patents, <quote>established companies have an interest in excluding future "
9020 "competitors.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And relative "
9021 "to a startup, established companies also have the means. (Think RCA and FM "
9022 "radio.) A world in which competitors with new ideas must fight not only the "
9023 "market but also the government is a world in which competitors with new "
9024 "ideas will not succeed. It is a world of stasis and increasingly "
9025 "concentrated stagnation. It is the Soviet Union under Brezhnev."
9028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9029 #: freeculture.xml:6471
9031 "Thus, while it is understandable for industries threatened with new "
9032 "technologies that change the way they do business to look to the government "
9033 "for protection, it is the special duty of policy makers to guarantee that "
9034 "that protection not become a deterrent to progress. It is the duty of policy "
9035 "makers, in other words, to assure that the changes they create, in response "
9036 "to the request of those hurt by changing technology, are changes that "
9037 "preserve the incentives and opportunities for innovation and change."
9040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9041 #: freeculture.xml:6481
9043 "In the context of laws regulating speech—which include, obviously, "
9044 "copyright law—that duty is even stronger. When the industry "
9045 "complaining about changing technologies is asking Congress to respond in a "
9046 "way that burdens speech and creativity, policy makers should be especially "
9047 "wary of the request. It is always a bad deal for the government to get into "
9048 "the business of regulating speech markets. The risks and dangers of that "
9049 "game are precisely why our framers created the First Amendment to our "
9050 "Constitution: <quote>Congress shall make no law … abridging the "
9051 "freedom of speech.</quote> So when Congress is being asked to pass laws that "
9052 "would <quote>abridge</quote> the freedom of speech, it should ask— "
9053 "carefully—whether such regulation is justified."
9057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9058 #: freeculture.xml:6495
9060 "My argument just now, however, has nothing to do with whether the changes "
9061 "that are being pushed by the copyright warriors are "
9062 "<quote>justified.</quote> My argument is about their effect. For before we "
9063 "get to the question of justification, a hard question that depends a great "
9064 "deal upon your values, we should first ask whether we understand the effect "
9065 "of the changes the content industry wants."
9068 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9069 #: freeculture.xml:6504
9070 msgid "Here's the metaphor that will capture the argument to follow."
9073 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9074 #: freeculture.xml:6506
9078 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9079 #: freeculture.xml:6507
9080 msgid "Müller, Paul Hermann"
9083 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9084 #: freeculture.xml:6509
9086 "In 1873, the chemical DDT was first synthesized. In 1948, Swiss chemist Paul "
9087 "Hermann Müller won the Nobel Prize for his work demonstrating the "
9088 "insecticidal properties of DDT. By the 1950s, the insecticide was widely "
9089 "used around the world to kill disease-carrying pests. It was also used to "
9090 "increase farm production."
9093 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9094 #: freeculture.xml:6516
9096 "No one doubts that killing disease-carrying pests or increasing crop "
9097 "production is a good thing. No one doubts that the work of Müller was "
9098 "important and valuable and probably saved lives, possibly millions."
9101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9102 #: freeculture.xml:6520
9103 msgid "Carson, Rachel"
9106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9107 #: freeculture.xml:6521
9108 msgid "Silent Sprint (Carson)"
9111 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9112 #: freeculture.xml:6523
9114 "But in 1962, Rachel Carson published <citetitle>Silent Spring</citetitle>, "
9115 "which argued that DDT, whatever its primary benefits, was also having "
9116 "unintended environmental consequences. Birds were losing the ability to "
9117 "reproduce. Whole chains of the ecology were being destroyed."
9120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9121 #: freeculture.xml:6529
9123 "No one set out to destroy the environment. Paul Müller certainly did not aim "
9124 "to harm any birds. But the effort to solve one set of problems produced "
9125 "another set which, in the view of some, was far worse than the problems that "
9126 "were originally attacked. Or more accurately, the problems DDT caused were "
9127 "worse than the problems it solved, at least when considering the other, more "
9128 "environmentally friendly ways to solve the problems that DDT was meant to "
9132 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
9133 #: freeculture.xml:6537
9134 msgid "Boyle, James"
9138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9139 #: freeculture.xml:6543
9141 "See, for example, James Boyle, <quote>A Politics of Intellectual Property: "
9142 "Environmentalism for the Net?</quote> <citetitle>Duke Law "
9143 "Journal</citetitle> 47 (1997): 87."
9147 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9148 #: freeculture.xml:6539
9150 "It is to this image precisely that Duke University law professor James Boyle "
9151 "appeals when he argues that we need an <quote>environmentalism</quote> for "
9152 "culture.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His point, and the point I "
9153 "want to develop in the balance of this chapter, is not that the aims of "
9154 "copyright are flawed. Or that authors should not be paid for their work. Or "
9155 "that music should be given away <quote>for free.</quote> The point is that "
9156 "some of the ways in which we might protect authors will have unintended "
9157 "consequences for the cultural environment, much like DDT had for the natural "
9158 "environment. And just as criticism of DDT is not an endorsement of malaria "
9159 "or an attack on farmers, so, too, is criticism of one particular set of "
9160 "regulations protecting copyright not an endorsement of anarchy or an attack "
9161 "on authors. It is an environment of creativity that we seek, and we should "
9162 "be aware of our actions' effects on the environment."
9165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9166 #: freeculture.xml:6560
9168 "My argument, in the balance of this chapter, tries to map exactly this "
9169 "effect. No doubt the technology of the Internet has had a dramatic effect on "
9170 "the ability of copyright owners to protect their content. But there should "
9171 "also be little doubt that when you add together the changes in copyright law "
9172 "over time, plus the change in technology that the Internet is undergoing "
9173 "just now, the net effect of these changes will not be only that copyrighted "
9174 "work is effectively protected. Also, and generally missed, the net effect of "
9175 "this massive increase in protection will be devastating to the environment "
9179 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9180 #: freeculture.xml:6571
9182 "In a line: To kill a gnat, we are spraying DDT with consequences for free "
9183 "culture that will be far more devastating than that this gnat will be lost."
9186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9187 #: freeculture.xml:6578
9191 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9192 #: freeculture.xml:6580
9194 "America copied English copyright law. Actually, we copied and improved "
9195 "English copyright law. Our Constitution makes the purpose of <quote>creative "
9196 "property</quote> rights clear; its express limitations reinforce the English "
9197 "aim to avoid overly powerful publishers."
9200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9201 #: freeculture.xml:6586
9203 "The power to establish <quote>creative property</quote> rights is granted to "
9204 "Congress in a way that, for our Constitution, at least, is very odd. Article "
9205 "I, section 8, clause 8 of our Constitution states that:"
9209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9210 #: freeculture.xml:6591
9212 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, "
9213 "by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right "
9214 "to their respective Writings and Discoveries. We can call this the "
9215 "<quote>Progress Clause,</quote> for notice what this clause does not say. It "
9216 "does not say Congress has the power to grant <quote>creative property "
9217 "rights.</quote> It says that Congress has the power <emphasis>to promote "
9218 "progress</emphasis>. The grant of power is its purpose, and its purpose is a "
9219 "public one, not the purpose of enriching publishers, nor even primarily the "
9220 "purpose of rewarding authors."
9223 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9224 #: freeculture.xml:6604
9226 "The Progress Clause expressly limits the term of copyrights. As we saw in "
9227 "chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"founders\"/>, the "
9228 "English limited the term of copyright so as to assure that a few would not "
9229 "exercise disproportionate control over culture by exercising "
9230 "disproportionate control over publishing. We can assume the framers followed "
9231 "the English for a similar purpose. Indeed, unlike the English, the framers "
9232 "reinforced that objective, by requiring that copyrights extend <quote>to "
9233 "Authors</quote> only."
9236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9237 #: freeculture.xml:6614
9239 "The design of the Progress Clause reflects something about the "
9240 "Constitution's design in general. To avoid a problem, the framers built "
9241 "structure. To prevent the concentrated power of publishers, they built a "
9242 "structure that kept copyrights away from publishers and kept them short. To "
9243 "prevent the concentrated power of a church, they banned the federal "
9244 "government from establishing a church. To prevent concentrating power in the "
9245 "federal government, they built structures to reinforce the power of the "
9246 "states—including the Senate, whose members were at the time selected "
9247 "by the states, and an electoral college, also selected by the states, to "
9248 "select the president. In each case, a <emphasis>structure</emphasis> built "
9249 "checks and balances into the constitutional frame, structured to prevent "
9250 "otherwise inevitable concentrations of power."
9253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9254 #: freeculture.xml:6629
9256 "I doubt the framers would recognize the regulation we call "
9257 "<quote>copyright</quote> today. The scope of that regulation is far beyond "
9258 "anything they ever considered. To begin to understand what they did, we need "
9259 "to put our <quote>copyright</quote> in context: We need to see how it has "
9260 "changed in the 210 years since they first struck its design."
9264 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9265 #: freeculture.xml:6636
9267 "Some of these changes come from the law: some in light of changes in "
9268 "technology, and some in light of changes in technology given a particular "
9269 "concentration of market power. In terms of our model, we started here:"
9272 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9273 #: freeculture.xml:6647
9274 msgid "We will end here:"
9277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9278 #: freeculture.xml:6650
9279 msgid "<quote>Copyright</quote> today."
9282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9283 #: freeculture.xml:6651
9284 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1442.png\"></graphic>"
9288 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9289 #: freeculture.xml:6654
9290 msgid "Let me explain how."
9293 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9294 #: freeculture.xml:6659
9295 msgid "Law: Duration"
9298 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9299 #: freeculture.xml:6675
9300 msgid "Crosskey, William W."
9303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9304 #: freeculture.xml:6669
9306 "William W. Crosskey, <citetitle>Politics and the Constitution in the History "
9307 "of the United States</citetitle> (London: Cambridge University Press, 1953), "
9308 "vol. 1, 485–86: <quote>extinguish[ing], by plain implication of `the "
9309 "supreme Law of the Land,' <emphasis>the perpetual rights which authors had, "
9310 "or were supposed by some to have, under the Common Law</emphasis></quote> "
9311 "(emphasis added). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9315 #: freeculture.xml:6661
9317 "When the first Congress enacted laws to protect creative property, it faced "
9318 "the same uncertainty about the status of creative property that the English "
9319 "had confronted in 1774. Many states had passed laws protecting creative "
9320 "property, and some believed that these laws simply supplemented common law "
9321 "rights that already protected creative authorship.<placeholder "
9322 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> This meant that there was no guaranteed public "
9323 "domain in the United States in 1790. If copyrights were protected by the "
9324 "common law, then there was no simple way to know whether a work published in "
9325 "the United States was controlled or free. Just as in England, this lingering "
9326 "uncertainty would make it hard for publishers to rely upon a public domain "
9327 "to reprint and distribute works."
9330 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9331 #: freeculture.xml:6685
9333 "That uncertainty ended after Congress passed legislation granting "
9334 "copyrights. Because federal law overrides any contrary state law, federal "
9335 "protections for copyrighted works displaced any state law protections. Just "
9336 "as in England the Statute of Anne eventually meant that the copyrights for "
9337 "all English works expired, a federal statute meant that any state copyrights "
9341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9342 #: freeculture.xml:6693
9344 "In 1790, Congress enacted the first copyright law. It created a federal "
9345 "copyright and secured that copyright for fourteen years. If the author was "
9346 "alive at the end of that fourteen years, then he could opt to renew the "
9347 "copyright for another fourteen years. If he did not renew the copyright, his "
9348 "work passed into the public domain."
9352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9353 #: freeculture.xml:6708
9355 "Although 13,000 titles were published in the United States from 1790 to "
9356 "1799, only 556 copyright registrations were filed; John Tebbel, <citetitle>A "
9357 "History of Book Publishing in the United States</citetitle>, vol. 1, "
9358 "<citetitle>The Creation of an Industry, 1630–1865</citetitle> (New "
9359 "York: Bowker, 1972), 141. Of the 21,000 imprints recorded before 1790, only "
9360 "twelve were copyrighted under the 1790 act; William J. Maher, "
9361 "<citetitle>Copyright Term, Retrospective Extension and the Copyright Law of "
9362 "1790 in Historical Context</citetitle>, 7–10 (2002), available at "
9363 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #25</ulink>. Thus, the "
9364 "overwhelming majority of works fell immediately into the public domain. Even "
9365 "those works that were copyrighted fell into the public domain quickly, "
9366 "because the term of copyright was short. The initial term of copyright was "
9367 "fourteen years, with the option of renewal for an additional fourteen "
9368 "years. Copyright Act of May 31, 1790, §1, 1 stat. 124."
9371 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9372 #: freeculture.xml:6700
9374 "While there were many works created in the United States in the first ten "
9375 "years of the Republic, only 5 percent of the works were actually registered "
9376 "under the federal copyright regime. Of all the work created in the United "
9377 "States both before 1790 and from 1790 through 1800, 95 percent immediately "
9378 "passed into the public domain; the balance would pass into the pubic domain "
9379 "within twenty-eight years at most, and more likely within fourteen "
9380 "years.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9384 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9385 #: freeculture.xml:6724
9387 "This system of renewal was a crucial part of the American system of "
9388 "copyright. It assured that the maximum terms of copyright would be granted "
9389 "only for works where they were wanted. After the initial term of fourteen "
9390 "years, if it wasn't worth it to an author to renew his copyright, then it "
9391 "wasn't worth it to society to insist on the copyright, either."
9395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9396 #: freeculture.xml:6739
9398 "Few copyright holders ever chose to renew their copyrights. For instance, of "
9399 "the 25,006 copyrights registered in 1883, only 894 were renewed in 1910. For "
9400 "a year-by-year analysis of copyright renewal rates, see Barbara A. Ringer, "
9401 "<quote>Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright,</quote> <citetitle>Studies on "
9402 "Copyright</citetitle>, vol. 1 (New York: Practicing Law Institute, 1963), "
9403 "618. For a more recent and comprehensive analysis, see William M. Landes and "
9404 "Richard A. Posner, <quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> "
9405 "<citetitle>University of Chicago Law Review</citetitle> 70 (2003): 471, "
9406 "498–501, and accompanying figures."
9409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9410 #: freeculture.xml:6733
9412 "Fourteen years may not seem long to us, but for the vast majority of "
9413 "copyright owners at that time, it was long enough: Only a small minority of "
9414 "them renewed their copyright after fourteen years; the balance allowed their "
9415 "work to pass into the public domain.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
9420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9421 #: freeculture.xml:6756
9422 msgid "See Ringer, ch. 9, n. 2."
9425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9426 #: freeculture.xml:6752
9428 "Even today, this structure would make sense. Most creative work has an "
9429 "actual commercial life of just a couple of years. Most books fall out of "
9430 "print after one year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When that "
9431 "happens, the used books are traded free of copyright regulation. Thus the "
9432 "books are no longer <emphasis>effectively</emphasis> controlled by "
9433 "copyright. The only practical commercial use of the books at that time is to "
9434 "sell the books as used books; that use—because it does not involve "
9435 "publication—is effectively free."
9438 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9439 #: freeculture.xml:6764
9441 "In the first hundred years of the Republic, the term of copyright was "
9442 "changed once. In 1831, the term was increased from a maximum of 28 years to "
9443 "a maximum of 42 by increasing the initial term of copyright from 14 years to "
9444 "28 years. In the next fifty years of the Republic, the term increased once "
9445 "again. In 1909, Congress extended the renewal term of 14 years to 28 years, "
9446 "setting a maximum term of 56 years."
9449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9450 #: freeculture.xml:6772
9452 "Then, beginning in 1962, Congress started a practice that has defined "
9453 "copyright law since. Eleven times in the last forty years, Congress has "
9454 "extended the terms of existing copyrights; twice in those forty years, "
9455 "Congress extended the term of future copyrights. Initially, the extensions "
9456 "of existing copyrights were short, a mere one to two years. In 1976, "
9457 "Congress extended all existing copyrights by nineteen years. And in 1998, "
9458 "in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Congress extended the term "
9459 "of existing and future copyrights by twenty years."
9463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9464 #: freeculture.xml:6782
9466 "The effect of these extensions is simply to toll, or delay, the passing of "
9467 "works into the public domain. This latest extension means that the public "
9468 "domain will have been tolled for thirty-nine out of fifty-five years, or 70 "
9469 "percent of the time since 1962. Thus, in the twenty years after the Sonny "
9470 "Bono Act, while one million patents will pass into the public domain, zero "
9471 "copyrights will pass into the public domain by virtue of the expiration of a "
9475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9476 #: freeculture.xml:6793
9478 "The effect of these extensions has been exacerbated by another, "
9479 "little-noticed change in the copyright law. Remember I said that the framers "
9480 "established a two-part copyright regime, requiring a copyright owner to "
9481 "renew his copyright after an initial term. The requirement of renewal meant "
9482 "that works that no longer needed copyright protection would pass more "
9483 "quickly into the public domain. The works remaining under protection would "
9484 "be those that had some continuing commercial value."
9487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9488 #: freeculture.xml:6803
9490 "The United States abandoned this sensible system in 1976. For all works "
9491 "created after 1978, there was only one copyright term—the maximum "
9492 "term. For <quote>natural</quote> authors, that term was life plus fifty "
9493 "years. For corporations, the term was seventy-five years. Then, in 1992, "
9494 "Congress abandoned the renewal requirement for all works created before "
9495 "1978. All works still under copyright would be accorded the maximum term "
9496 "then available. After the Sonny Bono Act, that term was ninety-five years."
9499 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9500 #: freeculture.xml:6813
9502 "This change meant that American law no longer had an automatic way to assure "
9503 "that works that were no longer exploited passed into the public domain. And "
9504 "indeed, after these changes, it is unclear whether it is even possible to "
9505 "put works into the public domain. The public domain is orphaned by these "
9506 "changes in copyright law. Despite the requirement that terms be "
9507 "<quote>limited,</quote> we have no evidence that anything will limit them."
9511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9512 #: freeculture.xml:6830
9514 "These statistics are understated. Between the years 1910 and 1962 (the first "
9515 "year the renewal term was extended), the average term was never more than "
9516 "thirty-two years, and averaged thirty years. See Landes and Posner, "
9517 "<quote>Indefinitely Renewable Copyright,</quote> loc. cit."
9520 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9521 #: freeculture.xml:6822
9523 "The effect of these changes on the average duration of copyright is "
9524 "dramatic. In 1973, more than 85 percent of copyright owners failed to renew "
9525 "their copyright. That meant that the average term of copyright in 1973 was "
9526 "just 32.2 years. Because of the elimination of the renewal requirement, the "
9527 "average term of copyright is now the maximum term. In thirty years, then, "
9528 "the average term has tripled, from 32.2 years to 95 years.<placeholder "
9529 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9533 #: freeculture.xml:6839
9537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9538 #: freeculture.xml:6841
9540 "The <quote>scope</quote> of a copyright is the range of rights granted by "
9541 "the law. The scope of American copyright has changed dramatically. Those "
9542 "changes are not necessarily bad. But we should understand the extent of the "
9543 "changes if we're to keep this debate in context."
9546 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9547 #: freeculture.xml:6847
9549 "In 1790, that scope was very narrow. Copyright covered only <quote>maps, "
9550 "charts, and books.</quote> That means it didn't cover, for example, music or "
9551 "architecture. More significantly, the right granted by a copyright gave the "
9552 "author the exclusive right to <quote>publish</quote> copyrighted works. That "
9553 "means someone else violated the copyright only if he republished the work "
9554 "without the copyright owner's permission. Finally, the right granted by a "
9555 "copyright was an exclusive right to that particular book. The right did not "
9556 "extend to what lawyers call <quote>derivative works.</quote> It would not, "
9557 "therefore, interfere with the right of someone other than the author to "
9558 "translate a copyrighted book, or to adapt the story to a different form "
9559 "(such as a drama based on a published book)."
9562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9563 #: freeculture.xml:6860
9565 "This, too, has changed dramatically. While the contours of copyright today "
9566 "are extremely hard to describe simply, in general terms, the right covers "
9567 "practically any creative work that is reduced to a tangible form. It covers "
9568 "music as well as architecture, drama as well as computer programs. It gives "
9569 "the copyright owner of that creative work not only the exclusive right to "
9570 "<quote>publish</quote> the work, but also the exclusive right of control "
9571 "over any <quote>copies</quote> of that work. And most significant for our "
9572 "purposes here, the right gives the copyright owner control over not only his "
9573 "or her particular work, but also any <quote>derivative work</quote> that "
9574 "might grow out of the original work. In this way, the right covers more "
9575 "creative work, protects the creative work more broadly, and protects works "
9576 "that are based in a significant way on the initial creative work."
9580 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9581 #: freeculture.xml:6875
9583 "At the same time that the scope of copyright has expanded, procedural "
9584 "limitations on the right have been relaxed. I've already described the "
9585 "complete removal of the renewal requirement in 1992. In addition to the "
9586 "renewal requirement, for most of the history of American copyright law, "
9587 "there was a requirement that a work be registered before it could receive "
9588 "the protection of a copyright. There was also a requirement that any "
9589 "copyrighted work be marked either with that famous © or the word "
9590 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis>. And for most of the history of American "
9591 "copyright law, there was a requirement that works be deposited with the "
9592 "government before a copyright could be secured."
9595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9596 #: freeculture.xml:6889
9598 "The reason for the registration requirement was the sensible understanding "
9599 "that for most works, no copyright was required. Again, in the first ten "
9600 "years of the Republic, 95 percent of works eligible for copyright were never "
9601 "copyrighted. Thus, the rule reflected the norm: Most works apparently didn't "
9602 "need copyright, so registration narrowed the regulation of the law to the "
9603 "few that did. The same reasoning justified the requirement that a work be "
9604 "marked as copyrighted—that way it was easy to know whether a copyright "
9605 "was being claimed. The requirement that works be deposited was to assure "
9606 "that after the copyright expired, there would be a copy of the work "
9607 "somewhere so that it could be copied by others without locating the original "
9611 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9612 #: freeculture.xml:6903
9614 "All of these <quote>formalities</quote> were abolished in the American "
9615 "system when we decided to follow European copyright law. There is no "
9616 "requirement that you register a work to get a copyright; the copyright now "
9617 "is automatic; the copyright exists whether or not you mark your work with a "
9618 "©; and the copyright exists whether or not you actually make a copy "
9619 "available for others to copy."
9622 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9623 #: freeculture.xml:6911
9624 msgid "Consider a practical example to understand the scope of these differences."
9628 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9629 #: freeculture.xml:6922
9631 "See Thomas Bender and David Sampliner, <quote>Poets, Pirates, and the "
9632 "Creation of American Literature,</quote> 29 <citetitle>New York University "
9633 "Journal of International Law and Politics</citetitle> 255 (1997), and James "
9634 "Gilraeth, ed., Federal Copyright Records, 1790–1800 (U.S. G.P.O., "
9638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9639 #: freeculture.xml:6915
9641 "If, in 1790, you wrote a book and you were one of the 5 percent who actually "
9642 "copyrighted that book, then the copyright law protected you against another "
9643 "publisher's taking your book and republishing it without your "
9644 "permission. The aim of the act was to regulate publishers so as to prevent "
9645 "that kind of unfair competition. In 1790, there were 174 publishers in the "
9646 "United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Copyright Act "
9647 "was thus a tiny regulation of a tiny proportion of a tiny part of the "
9648 "creative market in the United States—publishers."
9652 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9653 #: freeculture.xml:6934
9655 "The act left other creators totally unregulated. If I copied your poem by "
9656 "hand, over and over again, as a way to learn it by heart, my act was totally "
9657 "unregulated by the 1790 act. If I took your novel and made a play based upon "
9658 "it, or if I translated it or abridged it, none of those activities were "
9659 "regulated by the original copyright act. These creative activities remained "
9660 "free, while the activities of publishers were restrained."
9663 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9664 #: freeculture.xml:6943
9666 "Today the story is very different: If you write a book, your book is "
9667 "automatically protected. Indeed, not just your book. Every e-mail, every "
9668 "note to your spouse, every doodle, <emphasis>every</emphasis> creative act "
9669 "that's reduced to a tangible form—all of this is automatically "
9670 "copyrighted. There is no need to register or mark your work. The protection "
9671 "follows the creation, not the steps you take to protect it."
9674 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9675 #: freeculture.xml:6952
9677 "That protection gives you the right (subject to a narrow range of fair use "
9678 "exceptions) to control how others copy the work, whether they copy it to "
9679 "republish it or to share an excerpt."
9682 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9683 #: freeculture.xml:6957
9685 "That much is the obvious part. Any system of copyright would control "
9686 "competing publishing. But there's a second part to the copyright of today "
9687 "that is not at all obvious. This is the protection of <quote>derivative "
9688 "rights.</quote> If you write a book, no one can make a movie out of your "
9689 "book without permission. No one can translate it without permission. "
9690 "CliffsNotes can't make an abridgment unless permission is granted. All of "
9691 "these derivative uses of your original work are controlled by the copyright "
9692 "holder. The copyright, in other words, is now not just an exclusive right to "
9693 "your writings, but an exclusive right to your writings and a large "
9694 "proportion of the writings inspired by them."
9697 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9698 #: freeculture.xml:6971
9700 "It is this derivative right that would seem most bizarre to our framers, "
9701 "though it has become second nature to us. Initially, this expansion was "
9702 "created to deal with obvious evasions of a narrower copyright. If I write a "
9703 "book, can you change one word and then claim a copyright in a new and "
9704 "different book? Obviously that would make a joke of the copyright, so the "
9705 "law was properly expanded to include those slight modifications as well as "
9706 "the verbatim original work."
9709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9710 #: freeculture.xml:6993
9712 "Jonathan Zittrain, <quote>The Copyright Cage,</quote> <citetitle>Legal "
9713 "Affairs</citetitle>, July/August 2003, available at <ulink "
9714 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #26</ulink>. <placeholder "
9715 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9718 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9719 #: freeculture.xml:6983
9721 "In preventing that joke, the law created an astonishing power within a free "
9722 "culture—at least, it's astonishing when you understand that the law "
9723 "applies not just to the commercial publisher but to anyone with a "
9724 "computer. I understand the wrong in duplicating and selling someone else's "
9725 "work. But whatever <emphasis>that</emphasis> wrong is, transforming someone "
9726 "else's work is a different wrong. Some view transformation as no wrong at "
9727 "all—they believe that our law, as the framers penned it, should not "
9728 "protect derivative rights at all.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9729 "Whether or not you go that far, it seems plain that whatever wrong is "
9730 "involved is fundamentally different from the wrong of direct piracy."
9733 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
9734 #: freeculture.xml:7015
9735 msgid "Rubenfeld, Jeb"
9738 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9739 #: freeculture.xml:7008
9741 "Professor Rubenfeld has presented a powerful constitutional argument about "
9742 "the difference that copyright law should draw (from the perspective of the "
9743 "First Amendment) between mere <quote>copies</quote> and derivative "
9744 "works. See Jed Rubenfeld, <quote>The Freedom of Imagination: Copyright's "
9745 "Constitutionality,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law Journal</citetitle> 112 "
9746 "(2002): 1–60 (see especially pp. 53–59). <placeholder "
9747 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
9750 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9751 #: freeculture.xml:7003
9753 "Yet copyright law treats these two different wrongs in the same way. I can "
9754 "go to court and get an injunction against your pirating my book. I can go to "
9755 "court and get an injunction against your transformative use of my "
9756 "book.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> These two different uses of "
9757 "my creative work are treated the same."
9760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9761 #: freeculture.xml:7020
9763 "This again may seem right to you. If I wrote a book, then why should you be "
9764 "able to write a movie that takes my story and makes money from it without "
9765 "paying me or crediting me? Or if Disney creates a creature called "
9766 "<quote>Mickey Mouse,</quote> why should you be able to make Mickey Mouse "
9767 "toys and be the one to trade on the value that Disney originally created?"
9770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9771 #: freeculture.xml:7028
9773 "These are good arguments, and, in general, my point is not that the "
9774 "derivative right is unjustified. My aim just now is much narrower: simply to "
9775 "make clear that this expansion is a significant change from the rights "
9776 "originally granted."
9779 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
9780 #: freeculture.xml:7035
9781 msgid "Law and Architecture: Reach"
9785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9786 #: freeculture.xml:7042
9788 "This is a simplification of the law, but not much of one. The law certainly "
9789 "regulates more than <quote>copies</quote>—a public performance of a "
9790 "copyrighted song, for example, is regulated even though performance per se "
9791 "doesn't make a copy; 17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section "
9792 "106(4). And it certainly sometimes doesn't regulate a <quote>copy</quote>; "
9793 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 112(a). But the "
9794 "presumption under the existing law (which regulates <quote>copies;</quote> "
9795 "17 <citetitle>United States Code</citetitle>, section 102) is that if there "
9796 "is a copy, there is a right."
9799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9800 #: freeculture.xml:7037
9802 "Whereas originally the law regulated only publishers, the change in "
9803 "copyright's scope means that the law today regulates publishers, users, and "
9804 "authors. It regulates them because all three are capable of making copies, "
9805 "and the core of the regulation of copyright law is copies.<placeholder "
9806 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
9810 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9811 #: freeculture.xml:7054
9813 "<quote>Copies.</quote> That certainly sounds like the obvious thing for "
9814 "<emphasis>copy</emphasis>right law to regulate. But as with Jack Valenti's "
9815 "argument at the start of this chapter, that <quote>creative property</quote> "
9816 "deserves the <quote>same rights</quote> as all other property, it is the "
9817 "<emphasis>obvious</emphasis> that we need to be most careful about. For "
9818 "while it may be obvious that in the world before the Internet, copies were "
9819 "the obvious trigger for copyright law, upon reflection, it should be obvious "
9820 "that in the world with the Internet, copies should <emphasis>not</emphasis> "
9821 "be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not "
9822 "<emphasis>always</emphasis> be the trigger for copyright law."
9826 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9827 #: freeculture.xml:7072
9829 "Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we "
9830 "should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for its "
9831 "extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of "
9832 "arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology."
9835 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9836 #: freeculture.xml:7067
9838 "This is perhaps the central claim of this book, so let me take this very "
9839 "slowly so that the point is not easily missed. My claim is that the Internet "
9840 "should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of "
9841 "copyright automatically applies,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9842 "because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never "
9843 "contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright "
9847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9848 #: freeculture.xml:7083
9850 "We can see this point abstractly by beginning with this largely empty "
9854 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9855 #: freeculture.xml:7087
9856 msgid "All potential uses of a book."
9859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9860 #: freeculture.xml:7088
9861 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1521.png\"></graphic>"
9864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9865 #: freeculture.xml:7090
9866 msgid "three types of uses of"
9870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9871 #: freeculture.xml:7093
9873 "Think about a book in real space, and imagine this circle to represent all "
9874 "its potential <emphasis>uses</emphasis>. Most of these uses are unregulated "
9875 "by copyright law, because the uses don't create a copy. If you read a book, "
9876 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you give someone the book, "
9877 "that act is not regulated by copyright law. If you resell a book, that act "
9878 "is not regulated (copyright law expressly states that after the first sale "
9879 "of a book, the copyright owner can impose no further conditions on the "
9880 "disposition of the book). If you sleep on the book or use it to hold up a "
9881 "lamp or let your puppy chew it up, those acts are not regulated by copyright "
9882 "law, because those acts do not make a copy."
9885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9886 #: freeculture.xml:7106
9887 msgid "Examples of unregulated uses of a book."
9890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9891 #: freeculture.xml:7107
9892 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1531.png\"></graphic>"
9895 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9896 #: freeculture.xml:7110
9898 "Obviously, however, some uses of a copyrighted book are regulated by "
9899 "copyright law. Republishing the book, for example, makes a copy. It is "
9900 "therefore regulated by copyright law. Indeed, this particular use stands at "
9901 "the core of this circle of possible uses of a copyrighted work. It is the "
9902 "paradigmatic use properly regulated by copyright regulation (see first "
9903 "diagram on next page)."
9906 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9907 #: freeculture.xml:7118
9909 "Finally, there is a tiny sliver of otherwise regulated copying uses that "
9910 "remain unregulated because the law considers these <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
9913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9914 #: freeculture.xml:7123
9916 "Republishing stands at the core of this circle of possible uses of a "
9920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9921 #: freeculture.xml:7124
9922 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1541.png\"></graphic>"
9925 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9926 #: freeculture.xml:7127
9928 "These are uses that themselves involve copying, but which the law treats as "
9929 "unregulated because public policy demands that they remain unregulated. You "
9930 "are free to quote from this book, even in a review that is quite negative, "
9931 "without my permission, even though that quoting makes a copy. That copy "
9932 "would ordinarily give the copyright owner the exclusive right to say whether "
9933 "the copy is allowed or not, but the law denies the owner any exclusive right "
9934 "over such <quote>fair uses</quote> for public policy (and possibly First "
9935 "Amendment) reasons."
9938 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9939 #: freeculture.xml:7137
9940 msgid "Unregulated copying considered <quote>fair uses.</quote>"
9943 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9944 #: freeculture.xml:7138
9945 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1542.png\"></graphic>"
9948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
9949 #: freeculture.xml:7142
9951 "Uses that before were presumptively unregulated are now presumptively "
9955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
9956 #: freeculture.xml:7143
9957 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1551.png\"></graphic>"
9961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9962 #: freeculture.xml:7147
9964 "In real space, then, the possible uses of a book are divided into three "
9965 "sorts: (1) unregulated uses, (2) regulated uses, and (3) regulated uses that "
9966 "are nonetheless deemed <quote>fair</quote> regardless of the copyright "
9970 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
9971 #: freeculture.xml:7152 freeculture.xml:7186 freeculture.xml:7395
9976 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
9977 #: freeculture.xml:7157
9979 "I don't mean <quote>nature</quote> in the sense that it couldn't be "
9980 "different, but rather that its present instantiation entails a copy. Optical "
9981 "networks need not make copies of content they transmit, and a digital "
9982 "network could be designed to delete anything it copies so that the same "
9983 "number of copies remain."
9986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
9987 #: freeculture.xml:7154
9989 "Enter the Internet—a distributed, digital network where every use of a "
9990 "copyrighted work produces a copy.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
9991 "And because of this single, arbitrary feature of the design of a digital "
9992 "network, the scope of category 1 changes dramatically. Uses that before were "
9993 "presumptively unregulated are now presumptively regulated. No longer is "
9994 "there a set of presumptively unregulated uses that define a freedom "
9995 "associated with a copyrighted work. Instead, each use is now subject to the "
9996 "copyright, because each use also makes a copy—category 1 gets sucked "
9997 "into category 2. And those who would defend the unregulated uses of "
9998 "copyrighted work must look exclusively to category 3, fair uses, to bear the "
9999 "burden of this shift."
10003 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10004 #: freeculture.xml:7175
10006 "So let's be very specific to make this general point clear. Before the "
10007 "Internet, if you purchased a book and read it ten times, there would be no "
10008 "plausible <emphasis>copyright</emphasis>-related argument that the copyright "
10009 "owner could make to control that use of her book. Copyright law would have "
10010 "nothing to say about whether you read the book once, ten times, or every "
10011 "night before you went to bed. None of those instances of "
10012 "use—reading— could be regulated by copyright law because none of "
10013 "those uses produced a copy."
10016 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10017 #: freeculture.xml:7188
10019 "But the same book as an e-book is effectively governed by a different set of "
10020 "rules. Now if the copyright owner says you may read the book only once or "
10021 "only once a month, then <emphasis>copyright law</emphasis> would aid the "
10022 "copyright owner in exercising this degree of control, because of the "
10023 "accidental feature of copyright law that triggers its application upon there "
10024 "being a copy. Now if you read the book ten times and the license says you "
10025 "may read it only five times, then whenever you read the book (or any portion "
10026 "of it) beyond the fifth time, you are making a copy of the book contrary to "
10027 "the copyright owner's wish."
10030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10031 #: freeculture.xml:7200
10033 "There are some people who think this makes perfect sense. My aim just now is "
10034 "not to argue about whether it makes sense or not. My aim is only to make "
10035 "clear the change. Once you see this point, a few other points also become "
10039 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10040 #: freeculture.xml:7206
10042 "First, making category 1 disappear is not anything any policy maker ever "
10043 "intended. Congress did not think through the collapse of the presumptively "
10044 "unregulated uses of copyrighted works. There is no evidence at all that "
10045 "policy makers had this idea in mind when they allowed our policy here to "
10046 "shift. Unregulated uses were an important part of free culture before the "
10050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10051 #: freeculture.xml:7214
10053 "Second, this shift is especially troubling in the context of transformative "
10054 "uses of creative content. Again, we can all understand the wrong in "
10055 "commercial piracy. But the law now purports to regulate "
10056 "<emphasis>any</emphasis> transformation you make of creative work using a "
10057 "machine. <quote>Copy and paste</quote> and <quote>cut and paste</quote> "
10058 "become crimes. Tinkering with a story and releasing it to others exposes the "
10059 "tinkerer to at least a requirement of justification. However troubling the "
10060 "expansion with respect to copying a particular work, it is extraordinarily "
10061 "troubling with respect to transformative uses of creative work."
10065 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10066 #: freeculture.xml:7226
10068 "Third, this shift from category 1 to category 2 puts an extraordinary burden "
10069 "on category 3 (<quote>fair use</quote>) that fair use never before had to "
10070 "bear. If a copyright owner now tried to control how many times I could read "
10071 "a book on-line, the natural response would be to argue that this is a "
10072 "violation of my fair use rights. But there has never been any litigation "
10073 "about whether I have a fair use right to read, because before the Internet, "
10074 "reading did not trigger the application of copyright law and hence the need "
10075 "for a fair use defense. The right to read was effectively protected before "
10076 "because reading was not regulated."
10079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10080 #: freeculture.xml:7240
10082 "This point about fair use is totally ignored, even by advocates for free "
10083 "culture. We have been cornered into arguing that our rights depend upon fair "
10084 "use—never even addressing the earlier question about the expansion in "
10085 "effective regulation. A thin protection grounded in fair use makes sense "
10086 "when the vast majority of uses are <emphasis>unregulated</emphasis>. But "
10087 "when everything becomes presumptively regulated, then the protections of "
10088 "fair use are not enough."
10091 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10092 #: freeculture.xml:7251
10094 "The case of Video Pipeline is a good example. Video Pipeline was in the "
10095 "business of making <quote>trailer</quote> advertisements for movies "
10096 "available to video stores. The video stores displayed the trailers as a way "
10097 "to sell videos. Video Pipeline got the trailers from the film distributors, "
10098 "put the trailers on tape, and sold the tapes to the retail stores."
10101 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
10102 #: freeculture.xml:7257 freeculture.xml:7317 freeculture.xml:13346
10106 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10107 #: freeculture.xml:7259
10109 "The company did this for about fifteen years. Then, in 1997, it began to "
10110 "think about the Internet as another way to distribute these previews. The "
10111 "idea was to expand their <quote>selling by sampling</quote> technique by "
10112 "giving on-line stores the same ability to enable <quote>browsing.</quote> "
10113 "Just as in a bookstore you can read a few pages of a book before you buy the "
10114 "book, so, too, you would be able to sample a bit from the movie on-line "
10115 "before you bought it."
10119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10120 #: freeculture.xml:7268
10122 "In 1998, Video Pipeline informed Disney and other film distributors that it "
10123 "intended to distribute the trailers through the Internet (rather than "
10124 "sending the tapes) to distributors of their videos. Two years later, Disney "
10125 "told Video Pipeline to stop. The owner of Video Pipeline asked Disney to "
10126 "talk about the matter—he had built a business on distributing this "
10127 "content as a way to help sell Disney films; he had customers who depended "
10128 "upon his delivering this content. Disney would agree to talk only if Video "
10129 "Pipeline stopped the distribution immediately. Video Pipeline thought it "
10130 "was within their <quote>fair use</quote> rights to distribute the clips as "
10131 "they had. So they filed a lawsuit to ask the court to declare that these "
10132 "rights were in fact their rights."
10135 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10136 #: freeculture.xml:7283
10138 "Disney countersued—for $100 million in damages. Those damages were "
10139 "predicated upon a claim that Video Pipeline had <quote>willfully "
10140 "infringed</quote> on Disney's copyright. When a court makes a finding of "
10141 "willful infringement, it can award damages not on the basis of the actual "
10142 "harm to the copyright owner, but on the basis of an amount set in the "
10143 "statute. Because Video Pipeline had distributed seven hundred clips of "
10144 "Disney movies to enable video stores to sell copies of those movies, Disney "
10145 "was now suing Video Pipeline for $100 million."
10148 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10149 #: freeculture.xml:7293
10151 "Disney has the right to control its property, of course. But the video "
10152 "stores that were selling Disney's films also had some sort of right to be "
10153 "able to sell the films that they had bought from Disney. Disney's claim in "
10154 "court was that the stores were allowed to sell the films and they were "
10155 "permitted to list the titles of the films they were selling, but they were "
10156 "not allowed to show clips of the films as a way of selling them without "
10157 "Disney's permission."
10160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10161 #: freeculture.xml:7303
10163 "Now, you might think this is a close case, and I think the courts would "
10164 "consider it a close case. My point here is to map the change that gives "
10165 "Disney this power. Before the Internet, Disney couldn't really control how "
10166 "people got access to their content. Once a video was in the marketplace, the "
10167 "<quote>first-sale doctrine</quote> would free the seller to use the video as "
10168 "he wished, including showing portions of it in order to engender sales of "
10169 "the entire movie video. But with the Internet, it becomes possible for "
10170 "Disney to centralize control over access to this content. Because each use "
10171 "of the Internet produces a copy, use on the Internet becomes subject to the "
10172 "copyright owner's control. The technology expands the scope of effective "
10173 "control, because the technology builds a copy into every transaction."
10176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10177 #: freeculture.xml:7316
10178 msgid "Barnes & Noble"
10182 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10183 #: freeculture.xml:7320
10185 "No doubt, a potential is not yet an abuse, and so the potential for control "
10186 "is not yet the abuse of control. Barnes & Noble has the right to say you "
10187 "can't touch a book in their store; property law gives them that right. But "
10188 "the market effectively protects against that abuse. If Barnes & Noble "
10189 "banned browsing, then consumers would choose other bookstores. Competition "
10190 "protects against the extremes. And it may well be (my argument so far does "
10191 "not even question this) that competition would prevent any similar danger "
10192 "when it comes to copyright. Sure, publishers exercising the rights that "
10193 "authors have assigned to them might try to regulate how many times you read "
10194 "a book, or try to stop you from sharing the book with anyone. But in a "
10195 "competitive market such as the book market, the dangers of this happening "
10196 "are quite slight."
10199 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10200 #: freeculture.xml:7335
10202 "Again, my aim so far is simply to map the changes that this changed "
10203 "architecture enables. Enabling technology to enforce the control of "
10204 "copyright means that the control of copyright is no longer defined by "
10205 "balanced policy. The control of copyright is simply what private owners "
10206 "choose. In some contexts, at least, that fact is harmless. But in some "
10207 "contexts it is a recipe for disaster."
10210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
10211 #: freeculture.xml:7344
10212 msgid "Architecture and Law: Force"
10215 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10216 #: freeculture.xml:7346
10218 "The disappearance of unregulated uses would be change enough, but a second "
10219 "important change brought about by the Internet magnifies its "
10220 "significance. This second change does not affect the reach of copyright "
10221 "regulation; it affects how such regulation is enforced."
10224 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10225 #: freeculture.xml:7352
10227 "In the world before digital technology, it was generally the law that "
10228 "controlled whether and how someone was regulated by copyright law. The law, "
10229 "meaning a court, meaning a judge: In the end, it was a human, trained in the "
10230 "tradition of the law and cognizant of the balances that tradition embraced, "
10231 "who said whether and how the law would restrict your freedom."
10234 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10235 #: freeculture.xml:7359
10239 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10240 #: freeculture.xml:7360 freeculture.xml:7529
10241 msgid "Marx Brothers"
10245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10246 #: freeculture.xml:7371
10248 "See David Lange, <quote>Recognizing the Public Domain,</quote> "
10249 "<citetitle>Law and Contemporary Problems</citetitle> 44 (1981): "
10253 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10254 #: freeculture.xml:7363
10256 "There's a famous story about a battle between the Marx Brothers and Warner "
10257 "Brothers. The Marxes intended to make a parody of "
10258 "<citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>. Warner Brothers objected. They wrote a "
10259 "nasty letter to the Marxes, warning them that there would be serious legal "
10260 "consequences if they went forward with their plan.<placeholder "
10261 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10264 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10265 #: freeculture.xml:7380
10267 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Ibid. See also Vaidhyanathan, "
10268 "<citetitle>Copyrights and Copywrongs</citetitle>, 1–3."
10271 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10272 #: freeculture.xml:7376
10274 "This led the Marx Brothers to respond in kind. They warned Warner Brothers "
10275 "that the Marx Brothers <quote>were brothers long before you "
10276 "were.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The Marx Brothers "
10277 "therefore owned the word <citetitle>brothers</citetitle>, and if Warner "
10278 "Brothers insisted on trying to control <citetitle>Casablanca</citetitle>, "
10279 "then the Marx Brothers would insist on control over "
10280 "<citetitle>brothers</citetitle>."
10283 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10284 #: freeculture.xml:7390
10286 "An absurd and hollow threat, of course, because Warner Brothers, like the "
10287 "Marx Brothers, knew that no court would ever enforce such a silly "
10288 "claim. This extremism was irrelevant to the real freedoms anyone (including "
10289 "Warner Brothers) enjoyed."
10292 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10293 #: freeculture.xml:7397
10295 "On the Internet, however, there is no check on silly rules, because on the "
10296 "Internet, increasingly, rules are enforced not by a human but by a machine: "
10297 "Increasingly, the rules of copyright law, as interpreted by the copyright "
10298 "owner, get built into the technology that delivers copyrighted content. It "
10299 "is code, rather than law, that rules. And the problem with code regulations "
10300 "is that, unlike law, code has no shame. Code would not get the humor of the "
10301 "Marx Brothers. The consequence of that is not at all funny."
10304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10305 #: freeculture.xml:7409
10306 msgid "Adobe eBook Reader"
10309 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10310 #: freeculture.xml:7411
10311 msgid "Consider the life of my Adobe eBook Reader."
10314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10315 #: freeculture.xml:7414
10317 "An e-book is a book delivered in electronic form. An Adobe eBook is not a "
10318 "book that Adobe has published; Adobe simply produces the software that "
10319 "publishers use to deliver e-books. It provides the technology, and the "
10320 "publisher delivers the content by using the technology."
10323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10324 #: freeculture.xml:7421
10325 msgid "On the next page is a picture of an old version of my Adobe eBook Reader."
10329 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10330 #: freeculture.xml:7425
10332 "As you can see, I have a small collection of e-books within this e-book "
10333 "library. Some of these books reproduce content that is in the public domain: "
10334 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, for example, is in the public domain. "
10335 "Some of them reproduce content that is not in the public domain: My own book "
10336 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> is not yet within the public "
10337 "domain. Consider <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> first. If you click on "
10338 "my e-book copy of <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle>, you'll see a fancy "
10339 "cover, and then a button at the bottom called Permissions."
10342 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10343 #: freeculture.xml:7438
10344 msgid "Picture of an old version of Adobe eBook Reader"
10347 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10348 #: freeculture.xml:7439
10349 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1611.png\"></graphic>"
10352 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10353 #: freeculture.xml:7442
10355 "If you click on the Permissions button, you'll see a list of the permissions "
10356 "that the publisher purports to grant with this book."
10359 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10360 #: freeculture.xml:7446
10361 msgid "List of the permissions that the publisher purports to grant."
10364 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10365 #: freeculture.xml:7447
10366 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1612.png\"></graphic>"
10370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10371 #: freeculture.xml:7451
10373 "According to my eBook Reader, I have the permission to copy to the clipboard "
10374 "of the computer ten text selections every ten days. (So far, I've copied no "
10375 "text to the clipboard.) I also have the permission to print ten pages from "
10376 "the book every ten days. Lastly, I have the permission to use the Read Aloud "
10377 "button to hear <citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> read aloud through the "
10381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10382 #: freeculture.xml:7458
10386 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10387 #: freeculture.xml:7459
10388 msgid "<citetitle>Politics</citetitle>, (Aristotle)"
10391 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10392 #: freeculture.xml:7461
10394 "Here's the e-book for another work in the public domain (including the "
10395 "translation): Aristotle's <citetitle>Politics</citetitle>."
10398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10399 #: freeculture.xml:7465
10400 msgid "E-book of Aristotle;s <quote>Politics</quote>"
10403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10404 #: freeculture.xml:7466
10405 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1621.png\"></graphic>"
10408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10409 #: freeculture.xml:7469
10411 "According to its permissions, no printing or copying is permitted at "
10412 "all. But fortunately, you can use the Read Aloud button to hear the book."
10415 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10416 #: freeculture.xml:7474
10417 msgid "List of the permissions for Aristotle;s <quote>Politics</quote>."
10420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10421 #: freeculture.xml:7475
10422 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1622.png\"></graphic>"
10425 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10426 #: freeculture.xml:7478
10428 "Finally (and most embarrassingly), here are the permissions for the original "
10429 "e-book version of my last book, <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>:"
10432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10433 #: freeculture.xml:7484
10434 msgid "List of the permissions for <quote>The Future of Ideas</quote>."
10437 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10438 #: freeculture.xml:7485
10439 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1631.png\"></graphic>"
10442 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10443 #: freeculture.xml:7488
10444 msgid "No copying, no printing, and don't you dare try to listen to this book!"
10448 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10449 #: freeculture.xml:7498
10451 "In principle, a contract might impose a requirement on me. I might, for "
10452 "example, buy a book from you that includes a contract that says I will read "
10453 "it only three times, or that I promise to read it three times. But that "
10454 "obligation (and the limits for creating that obligation) would come from the "
10455 "contract, not from copyright law, and the obligations of contract would not "
10456 "necessarily pass to anyone who subsequently acquired the book."
10459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10460 #: freeculture.xml:7491
10462 "Now, the Adobe eBook Reader calls these controls "
10463 "<quote>permissions</quote>— as if the publisher has the power to "
10464 "control how you use these works. For works under copyright, the copyright "
10465 "owner certainly does have the power—up to the limits of the copyright "
10466 "law. But for work not under copyright, there is no such copyright "
10467 "power.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> When my e-book of "
10468 "<citetitle>Middlemarch</citetitle> says I have the permission to copy only "
10469 "ten text selections into the memory every ten days, what that really means "
10470 "is that the eBook Reader has enabled the publisher to control how I use the "
10471 "book on my computer, far beyond the control that the law would enable."
10474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10475 #: freeculture.xml:7513
10477 "The control comes instead from the code—from the technology within "
10478 "which the e-book <quote>lives.</quote> Though the e-book says that these are "
10479 "permissions, they are not the sort of <quote>permissions</quote> that most "
10480 "of us deal with. When a teenager gets <quote>permission</quote> to stay out "
10481 "till midnight, she knows (unless she's Cinderella) that she can stay out "
10482 "till 2 A.M., but will suffer a punishment if she's caught. But when the "
10483 "Adobe eBook Reader says I have the permission to make ten copies of the text "
10484 "into the computer's memory, that means that after I've made ten copies, the "
10485 "computer will not make any more. The same with the printing restrictions: "
10486 "After ten pages, the eBook Reader will not print any more pages. It's the "
10487 "same with the silly restriction that says that you can't use the Read Aloud "
10488 "button to read my book aloud—it's not that the company will sue you if "
10489 "you do; instead, if you push the Read Aloud button with my book, the machine "
10490 "simply won't read aloud."
10494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10495 #: freeculture.xml:7532
10497 "These are <emphasis>controls</emphasis>, not permissions. Imagine a world "
10498 "where the Marx Brothers sold word processing software that, when you tried "
10499 "to type <quote>Warner Brothers,</quote> erased <quote>Brothers</quote> from "
10503 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10504 #: freeculture.xml:7538
10506 "This is the future of copyright law: not so much copyright "
10507 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> as copyright <emphasis>code</emphasis>. The "
10508 "controls over access to content will not be controls that are ratified by "
10509 "courts; the controls over access to content will be controls that are coded "
10510 "by programmers. And whereas the controls that are built into the law are "
10511 "always to be checked by a judge, the controls that are built into the "
10512 "technology have no similar built-in check."
10515 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10516 #: freeculture.xml:7547
10518 "How significant is this? Isn't it always possible to get around the controls "
10519 "built into the technology? Software used to be sold with technologies that "
10520 "limited the ability of users to copy the software, but those were trivial "
10521 "protections to defeat. Why won't it be trivial to defeat these protections "
10525 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10526 #: freeculture.xml:7554
10528 "We've only scratched the surface of this story. Return to the Adobe eBook "
10532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10533 #: freeculture.xml:7557
10534 msgid "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)"
10537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10538 #: freeculture.xml:7559
10540 "Early in the life of the Adobe eBook Reader, Adobe suffered a public "
10541 "relations nightmare. Among the books that you could download for free on the "
10542 "Adobe site was a copy of <citetitle>Alice's Adventures in "
10543 "Wonderland</citetitle>. This wonderful book is in the public domain. Yet "
10544 "when you clicked on Permissions for that book, you got the following report:"
10547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
10548 #: freeculture.xml:7567
10549 msgid "List of the permissions for <quote>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</quote>."
10552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
10553 #: freeculture.xml:7569
10554 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1641.png\"></graphic>"
10557 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10558 #: freeculture.xml:7573
10560 "Here was a public domain children's book that you were not allowed to copy, "
10561 "not allowed to lend, not allowed to give, and, as the "
10562 "<quote>permissions</quote> indicated, not allowed to <quote>read "
10566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10567 #: freeculture.xml:7578
10569 "The public relations nightmare attached to that final permission. For the "
10570 "text did not say that you were not permitted to use the Read Aloud button; "
10571 "it said you did not have the permission to read the book aloud. That led "
10572 "some people to think that Adobe was restricting the right of parents, for "
10573 "example, to read the book to their children, which seemed, to say the least, "
10577 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10578 #: freeculture.xml:7586
10580 "Adobe responded quickly that it was absurd to think that it was trying to "
10581 "restrict the right to read a book aloud. Obviously it was only restricting "
10582 "the ability to use the Read Aloud button to have the book read aloud. But "
10583 "the question Adobe never did answer is this: Would Adobe thus agree that a "
10584 "consumer was free to use software to hack around the restrictions built into "
10585 "the eBook Reader? If some company (call it Elcomsoft) developed a program to "
10586 "disable the technological protection built into an Adobe eBook so that a "
10587 "blind person, say, could use a computer to read the book aloud, would Adobe "
10588 "agree that such a use of an eBook Reader was fair? Adobe didn't answer "
10589 "because the answer, however absurd it might seem, is no."
10592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10593 #: freeculture.xml:7599
10595 "The point is not to blame Adobe. Indeed, Adobe is among the most innovative "
10596 "companies developing strategies to balance open access to content with "
10597 "incentives for companies to innovate. But Adobe's technology enables "
10598 "control, and Adobe has an incentive to defend this control. That incentive "
10599 "is understandable, yet what it creates is often crazy."
10602 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10603 #: freeculture.xml:7609
10605 "To see the point in a particularly absurd context, consider a favorite story "
10606 "of mine that makes the same point."
10609 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10610 #: freeculture.xml:7612 freeculture.xml:7756 freeculture.xml:7821 freeculture.xml:7929
10611 msgid "Aibo robotic dog"
10614 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10615 #: freeculture.xml:7613 freeculture.xml:7757 freeculture.xml:7822 freeculture.xml:7930
10616 msgid "robotic dog"
10619 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10620 #: freeculture.xml:7614 freeculture.xml:7758 freeculture.xml:7823 freeculture.xml:7931
10624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10625 #: freeculture.xml:7614 freeculture.xml:7758 freeculture.xml:7823 freeculture.xml:7931
10626 msgid "Aibo robotic dog produced by"
10629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10630 #: freeculture.xml:7616
10632 "Consider the robotic dog made by Sony named <quote>Aibo.</quote> The Aibo "
10633 "learns tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity and "
10634 "that doesn't leave that much of a mess (at least in your house)."
10638 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10639 #: freeculture.xml:7621
10641 "The Aibo is expensive and popular. Fans from around the world have set up "
10642 "clubs to trade stories. One fan in particular set up a Web site to enable "
10643 "information about the Aibo dog to be shared. This fan set up aibopet.com "
10644 "(and aibohack.com, but that resolves to the same site), and on that site he "
10645 "provided information about how to teach an Aibo to do tricks in addition to "
10646 "the ones Sony had taught it."
10649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10650 #: freeculture.xml:7630
10652 "<quote>Teach</quote> here has a special meaning. Aibos are just cute "
10653 "computers. You teach a computer how to do something by programming it "
10654 "differently. So to say that aibopet.com was giving information about how to "
10655 "teach the dog to do new tricks is just to say that aibopet.com was giving "
10656 "information to users of the Aibo pet about how to hack their computer "
10657 "<quote>dog</quote> to make it do new tricks (thus, aibohack.com)."
10660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10661 #: freeculture.xml:7637
10665 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10666 #: freeculture.xml:7639
10668 "If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the word "
10669 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly "
10670 "connotation. Nonprogrammers hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in horror "
10671 "movies do even worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call them, "
10672 "<citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much more positive "
10673 "term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the program "
10674 "to do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to do. If you buy a "
10675 "new printer for an old computer, you might find the old computer doesn't "
10676 "run, or <quote>drive,</quote> the printer. If you discovered that, you'd "
10677 "later be happy to discover a hack on the Net by someone who has written a "
10678 "driver to enable the computer to drive the printer you just bought."
10681 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10682 #: freeculture.xml:7653
10684 "Some hacks are easy. Some are unbelievably hard. Hackers as a community like "
10685 "to challenge themselves and others with increasingly difficult "
10686 "tasks. There's a certain respect that goes with the talent to hack "
10687 "well. There's a well-deserved respect that goes with the talent to hack "
10691 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10692 #: freeculture.xml:7660
10694 "The Aibo fan was displaying a bit of both when he hacked the program and "
10695 "offered to the world a bit of code that would enable the Aibo to dance "
10696 "jazz. The dog wasn't programmed to dance jazz. It was a clever bit of "
10697 "tinkering that turned the dog into a more talented creature than Sony had "
10702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10703 #: freeculture.xml:7670
10705 "I've told this story in many contexts, both inside and outside the United "
10706 "States. Once I was asked by a puzzled member of the audience, is it "
10707 "permissible for a dog to dance jazz in the United States? We forget that "
10708 "stories about the backcountry still flow across much of the world. So let's "
10709 "just be clear before we continue: It's not a crime anywhere (anymore) to "
10710 "dance jazz. Nor is it a crime to teach your dog to dance jazz. Nor should it "
10711 "be a crime (though we don't have a lot to go on here) to teach your robot "
10712 "dog to dance jazz. Dancing jazz is a completely legal activity. One imagines "
10713 "that the owner of aibopet.com thought, <emphasis>What possible problem could "
10714 "there be with teaching a robot dog to dance?</emphasis>"
10717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
10718 #: freeculture.xml:7685
10719 msgid "government case against"
10722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10723 #: freeculture.xml:7687
10725 "Let's put the dog to sleep for a minute, and turn to a pony show— not "
10726 "literally a pony show, but rather a paper that a Princeton academic named Ed "
10727 "Felten prepared for a conference. This Princeton academic is well known and "
10728 "respected. He was hired by the government in the Microsoft case to test "
10729 "Microsoft's claims about what could and could not be done with its own "
10730 "code. In that trial, he demonstrated both his brilliance and his "
10731 "coolness. Under heavy badgering by Microsoft lawyers, Ed Felten stood his "
10732 "ground. He was not about to be bullied into being silent about something he "
10736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10737 #: freeculture.xml:7710 freeculture.xml:10199
10738 msgid "Electronic Frontier Foundation"
10741 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
10742 #: freeculture.xml:7700
10744 "See Pamela Samuelson, <quote>Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to "
10745 "Science,</quote> <citetitle>Science</citetitle> 293 (2001): 2028; Brendan "
10746 "I. Koerner, <quote>Play Dead: Sony Muzzles the Techies Who Teach a Robot Dog "
10747 "New Tricks,</quote> <citetitle>American Prospect</citetitle>, January 2002; "
10748 "<quote>Court Dismisses Computer Scientists' Challenge to DMCA,</quote> "
10749 "<citetitle>Intellectual Property Litigation Reporter</citetitle>, 11 "
10750 "December 2001; Bill Holland, <quote>Copyright Act Raising Free-Speech "
10751 "Concerns,</quote> <citetitle>Billboard</citetitle>, May 2001; Janelle Brown, "
10752 "<quote>Is the RIAA Running Scared?</quote> Salon.com, April 2001; Electronic "
10753 "Frontier Foundation, <quote>Frequently Asked Questions about "
10754 "<citetitle>Felten and USENIX</citetitle> v. <citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> "
10755 "Legal Case,</quote> available at <ulink "
10756 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #27</ulink>. <placeholder "
10757 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10761 #: freeculture.xml:7698
10763 "But Felten's bravery was really tested in April 2001.<placeholder "
10764 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> He and a group of colleagues were working on a "
10765 "paper to be submitted at conference. The paper was intended to describe the "
10766 "weakness in an encryption system being developed by the Secure Digital Music "
10767 "Initiative as a technique to control the distribution of music."
10770 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10771 #: freeculture.xml:7718
10773 "The SDMI coalition had as its goal a technology to enable content owners to "
10774 "exercise much better control over their content than the Internet, as it "
10775 "originally stood, granted them. Using encryption, SDMI hoped to develop a "
10776 "standard that would allow the content owner to say <quote>this music cannot "
10777 "be copied,</quote> and have a computer respect that command. The technology "
10778 "was to be part of a <quote>trusted system</quote> of control that would get "
10779 "content owners to trust the system of the Internet much more."
10782 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10783 #: freeculture.xml:7728
10785 "When SDMI thought it was close to a standard, it set up a competition. In "
10786 "exchange for providing contestants with the code to an SDMI-encrypted bit of "
10787 "content, contestants were to try to crack it and, if they did, report the "
10788 "problems to the consortium."
10792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10793 #: freeculture.xml:7735
10795 "Felten and his team figured out the encryption system quickly. He and the "
10796 "team saw the weakness of this system as a type: Many encryption systems "
10797 "would suffer the same weakness, and Felten and his team thought it "
10798 "worthwhile to point this out to those who study encryption."
10801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10802 #: freeculture.xml:7741
10804 "Let's review just what Felten was doing. Again, this is the United "
10805 "States. We have a principle of free speech. We have this principle not just "
10806 "because it is the law, but also because it is a really great idea. A "
10807 "strongly protected tradition of free speech is likely to encourage a wide "
10808 "range of criticism. That criticism is likely, in turn, to improve the "
10809 "systems or people or ideas criticized."
10812 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10813 #: freeculture.xml:7749
10815 "What Felten and his colleagues were doing was publishing a paper describing "
10816 "the weakness in a technology. They were not spreading free music, or "
10817 "building and deploying this technology. The paper was an academic essay, "
10818 "unintelligible to most people. But it clearly showed the weakness in the "
10819 "SDMI system, and why SDMI would not, as presently constituted, succeed."
10822 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10823 #: freeculture.xml:7760
10825 "What links these two, aibopet.com and Felten, is the letters they then "
10826 "received. Aibopet.com received a letter from Sony about the aibopet.com "
10827 "hack. Though a jazz-dancing dog is perfectly legal, Sony wrote:"
10830 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10831 #: freeculture.xml:7767
10833 "Your site contains information providing the means to circumvent AIBO-ware's "
10834 "copy protection protocol constituting a violation of the anti-circumvention "
10835 "provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
10838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10839 #: freeculture.xml:7776
10841 "And though an academic paper describing the weakness in a system of "
10842 "encryption should also be perfectly legal, Felten received a letter from an "
10843 "RIAA lawyer that read:"
10847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10848 #: freeculture.xml:7782
10850 "Any disclosure of information gained from participating in the Public "
10851 "Challenge would be outside the scope of activities permitted by the "
10852 "Agreement and could subject you and your research team to actions under the "
10853 "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (<quote>DMCA</quote>)."
10856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10857 #: freeculture.xml:7790
10859 "In both cases, this weirdly Orwellian law was invoked to control the spread "
10860 "of information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act made spreading such "
10861 "information an offense."
10864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10865 #: freeculture.xml:7795
10867 "The DMCA was enacted as a response to copyright owners' first fear about "
10868 "cyberspace. The fear was that copyright control was effectively dead; the "
10869 "response was to find technologies that might compensate. These new "
10870 "technologies would be copyright protection technologies— technologies "
10871 "to control the replication and distribution of copyrighted material. They "
10872 "were designed as <emphasis>code</emphasis> to modify the original "
10873 "<emphasis>code</emphasis> of the Internet, to reestablish some protection "
10874 "for copyright owners."
10877 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10878 #: freeculture.xml:7806
10880 "The DMCA was a bit of law intended to back up the protection of this code "
10881 "designed to protect copyrighted material. It was, we could say, "
10882 "<emphasis>legal code</emphasis> intended to buttress <emphasis>software "
10883 "code</emphasis> which itself was intended to support the <emphasis>legal "
10884 "code of copyright</emphasis>."
10887 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10888 #: freeculture.xml:7813
10890 "But the DMCA was not designed merely to protect copyrighted works to the "
10891 "extent copyright law protected them. Its protection, that is, did not end at "
10892 "the line that copyright law drew. The DMCA regulated devices that were "
10893 "designed to circumvent copyright protection measures. It was designed to ban "
10894 "those devices, whether or not the use of the copyrighted material made "
10895 "possible by that circumvention would have been a copyright violation."
10899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10900 #: freeculture.xml:7825
10902 "Aibopet.com and Felten make the point. The Aibo hack circumvented a "
10903 "copyright protection system for the purpose of enabling the dog to dance "
10904 "jazz. That enablement no doubt involved the use of copyrighted material. But "
10905 "as aibopet.com's site was noncommercial, and the use did not enable "
10906 "subsequent copyright infringements, there's no doubt that aibopet.com's hack "
10907 "was fair use of Sony's copyrighted material. Yet fair use is not a defense "
10908 "to the DMCA. The question is not whether the use of the copyrighted material "
10909 "was a copyright violation. The question is whether a copyright protection "
10910 "system was circumvented."
10913 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10914 #: freeculture.xml:7837
10916 "The threat against Felten was more attenuated, but it followed the same line "
10917 "of reasoning. By publishing a paper describing how a copyright protection "
10918 "system could be circumvented, the RIAA lawyer suggested, Felten himself was "
10919 "distributing a circumvention technology. Thus, even though he was not "
10920 "himself infringing anyone's copyright, his academic paper was enabling "
10921 "others to infringe others' copyright."
10924 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
10925 #: freeculture.xml:7844 freeculture.xml:7879
10926 msgid "Rogers, Fred"
10929 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
10930 #: freeculture.xml:7855 freeculture.xml:7892 freeculture.xml:7918
10931 msgid "Conrad, Paul"
10934 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10935 #: freeculture.xml:7847
10937 "The bizarreness of these arguments is captured in a cartoon drawn in 1981 by "
10938 "Paul Conrad. At that time, a court in California had held that the VCR could "
10939 "be banned because it was a copyright-infringing technology: It enabled "
10940 "consumers to copy films without the permission of the copyright owner. No "
10941 "doubt there were uses of the technology that were legal: Fred Rogers, aka "
10942 "<quote><citetitle>Mr. Rogers</citetitle>,</quote> for example, had testified "
10943 "in that case that he wanted people to feel free to tape Mr. Rogers' "
10944 "Neighborhood. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10947 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
10948 #: freeculture.xml:7874
10950 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <citetitle>Sony Corporation of "
10951 "America</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Universal City Studios, Inc</citetitle>., "
10952 "464 U.S. 417, 455 fn. 27 (1984). Rogers never changed his view about the "
10953 "VCR. See James Lardner, <citetitle>Fast Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, "
10954 "and the Onslaught of the VCR</citetitle> (New York: W. W. Norton, 1987), "
10955 "270–71. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
10958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
10959 #: freeculture.xml:7859
10961 "Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "
10962 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> at hours when some children cannot use it. I "
10963 "think that it's a real service to families to be able to record such "
10964 "programs and show them at appropriate times. I have always felt that with "
10965 "the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the "
10966 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "
10967 "<quote>Neighborhood</quote> because that's what I produce, that they then "
10968 "become much more active in the programming of their family's television "
10969 "life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My "
10970 "whole approach in broadcasting has always been <quote>You are an important "
10971 "person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.</quote> Maybe "
10972 "I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to "
10973 "be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is "
10974 "important.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
10978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10979 #: freeculture.xml:7885
10981 "Even though there were uses that were legal, because there were some uses "
10982 "that were illegal, the court held the companies producing the VCR "
10986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10987 #: freeculture.xml:7890
10989 "This led Conrad to draw the cartoon below, which we can adopt to the DMCA. "
10990 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
10993 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10994 #: freeculture.xml:7895
10995 msgid "No argument I have can top this picture, but let me try to get close."
10998 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
10999 #: freeculture.xml:7898
11001 "The anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA target copyright circumvention "
11002 "technologies. Circumvention technologies can be used for different "
11003 "ends. They can be used, for example, to enable massive pirating of "
11004 "copyrighted material—a bad end. Or they can be used to enable the use "
11005 "of particular copyrighted materials in ways that would be considered fair "
11006 "use—a good end."
11009 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11010 #: freeculture.xml:7905
11015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11016 #: freeculture.xml:7907
11018 "A handgun can be used to shoot a police officer or a child. Most would agree "
11019 "such a use is bad. Or a handgun can be used for target practice or to "
11020 "protect against an intruder. At least some would say that such a use would "
11021 "be good. It, too, is a technology that has both good and bad uses."
11024 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
11025 #: freeculture.xml:7915
11026 msgid "VCR/handgun cartoon."
11029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11030 #: freeculture.xml:7916
11031 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1711.png\"></graphic>"
11034 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11035 #: freeculture.xml:7920
11037 "The obvious point of Conrad's cartoon is the weirdness of a world where guns "
11038 "are legal, despite the harm they can do, while VCRs (and circumvention "
11039 "technologies) are illegal. Flash: <emphasis>No one ever died from copyright "
11040 "circumvention</emphasis>. Yet the law bans circumvention technologies "
11041 "absolutely, despite the potential that they might do some good, but permits "
11042 "guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do."
11045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11046 #: freeculture.xml:7933
11048 "The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are changing the "
11049 "balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright owners restrict "
11050 "fair use; using the DMCA, they punish those who would attempt to evade the "
11051 "restrictions on fair use that they impose through code. Technology becomes a "
11052 "means by which fair use can be erased; the law of the DMCA backs up that "
11056 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11057 #: freeculture.xml:7941
11059 "This is how <emphasis>code</emphasis> becomes <emphasis>law</emphasis>. The "
11060 "controls built into the technology of copy and access protection become "
11061 "rules the violation of which is also a violation of the law. In this way, "
11062 "the code extends the law—increasing its regulation, even if the "
11063 "subject it regulates (activities that would otherwise plainly constitute "
11064 "fair use) is beyond the reach of the law. Code becomes law; code extends the "
11065 "law; code thus extends the control that copyright owners effect—at "
11066 "least for those copyright holders with the lawyers who can write the nasty "
11067 "letters that Felten and aibopet.com received."
11070 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11071 #: freeculture.xml:7953
11073 "There is one final aspect of the interaction between architecture and law "
11074 "that contributes to the force of copyright's regulation. This is the ease "
11075 "with which infringements of the law can be detected. For contrary to the "
11076 "rhetoric common at the birth of cyberspace that on the Internet, no one "
11077 "knows you're a dog, increasingly, given changing technologies deployed on "
11078 "the Internet, it is easy to find the dog who committed a legal wrong. The "
11079 "technologies of the Internet are open to snoops as well as sharers, and the "
11080 "snoops are increasingly good at tracking down the identity of those who "
11081 "violate the rules."
11085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11086 #: freeculture.xml:7972
11088 "For an early and prescient analysis, see Rebecca Tushnet, <quote>Legal "
11089 "Fictions, Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,</quote> "
11090 "<citetitle>Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal</citetitle> 17 "
11094 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11095 #: freeculture.xml:7966
11097 "For example, imagine you were part of a <citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> fan "
11098 "club. You gathered every month to share trivia, and maybe to enact a kind of "
11099 "fan fiction about the show. One person would play Spock, another, Captain "
11100 "Kirk. The characters would begin with a plot from a real story, then simply "
11101 "continue it.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11105 #: freeculture.xml:7978
11107 "Before the Internet, this was, in effect, a totally unregulated activity. "
11108 "No matter what happened inside your club room, you would never be interfered "
11109 "with by the copyright police. You were free in that space to do as you "
11110 "wished with this part of our culture. You were allowed to build on it as you "
11111 "wished without fear of legal control."
11114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11115 #: freeculture.xml:7986
11117 "But if you moved your club onto the Internet, and made it generally "
11118 "available for others to join, the story would be very different. Bots "
11119 "scouring the Net for trademark and copyright infringement would quickly find "
11120 "your site. Your posting of fan fiction, depending upon the ownership of the "
11121 "series that you're depicting, could well inspire a lawyer's threat. And "
11122 "ignoring the lawyer's threat would be extremely costly indeed. The law of "
11123 "copyright is extremely efficient. The penalties are severe, and the process "
11127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11128 #: freeculture.xml:7996
11130 "This change in the effective force of the law is caused by a change in the "
11131 "ease with which the law can be enforced. That change too shifts the law's "
11132 "balance radically. It is as if your car transmitted the speed at which you "
11133 "traveled at every moment that you drove; that would be just one step before "
11134 "the state started issuing tickets based upon the data you transmitted. That "
11135 "is, in effect, what is happening here."
11138 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11139 #: freeculture.xml:8005
11140 msgid "Market: Concentration"
11144 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11145 #: freeculture.xml:8007
11147 "So copyright's duration has increased dramatically—tripled in the past "
11148 "thirty years. And copyright's scope has increased as well—from "
11149 "regulating only publishers to now regulating just about everyone. And "
11150 "copyright's reach has changed, as every action becomes a copy and hence "
11151 "presumptively regulated. And as technologists find better ways to control "
11152 "the use of content, and as copyright is increasingly enforced through "
11153 "technology, copyright's force changes, too. Misuse is easier to find and "
11154 "easier to control. This regulation of the creative process, which began as a "
11155 "tiny regulation governing a tiny part of the market for creative work, has "
11156 "become the single most important regulator of creativity there is. It is a "
11157 "massive expansion in the scope of the government's control over innovation "
11158 "and creativity; it would be totally unrecognizable to those who gave birth "
11159 "to copyright's control."
11162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11163 #: freeculture.xml:8025
11165 "Still, in my view, all of these changes would not matter much if it weren't "
11166 "for one more change that we must also consider. This is a change that is in "
11167 "some sense the most familiar, though its significance and scope are not well "
11168 "understood. It is the one that creates precisely the reason to be concerned "
11169 "about all the other changes I have described."
11172 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11173 #: freeculture.xml:8032
11175 "This is the change in the concentration and integration of the media. In "
11176 "the past twenty years, the nature of media ownership has undergone a radical "
11177 "alteration, caused by changes in legal rules governing the media. Before "
11178 "this change happened, the different forms of media were owned by separate "
11179 "media companies. Now, the media is increasingly owned by only a few "
11180 "companies. Indeed, after the changes that the FCC announced in June 2003, "
11181 "most expect that within a few years, we will live in a world where just "
11182 "three companies control more than percent of the media."
11185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11186 #: freeculture.xml:8043
11187 msgid "These changes are of two sorts: the scope of concentration, and its nature."
11190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11191 #: freeculture.xml:8047
11195 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11196 #: freeculture.xml:8048 freeculture.xml:9392
11200 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11201 #: freeculture.xml:8049
11202 msgid "McCain, John"
11205 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11206 #: freeculture.xml:8050 freeculture.xml:9393
11207 msgid "Universal Music Group"
11210 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11211 #: freeculture.xml:8051
11212 msgid "Warner Music Group"
11216 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11217 #: freeculture.xml:8057
11219 "FCC Oversight: Hearing Before the Senate Commerce, Science and "
11220 "Transportation Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (22 May 2003) (statement "
11221 "of Senator John McCain)."
11225 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11226 #: freeculture.xml:8064
11228 "Lynette Holloway, <quote>Despite a Marketing Blitz, CD Sales Continue to "
11229 "Slide,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 23 December 2002."
11233 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11234 #: freeculture.xml:8070
11236 "Molly Ivins, <quote>Media Consolidation Must Be Stopped,</quote> "
11237 "<citetitle>Charleston Gazette</citetitle>, 31 May 2003."
11240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11241 #: freeculture.xml:8053
11243 "Changes in scope are the easier ones to describe. As Senator John McCain "
11244 "summarized the data produced in the FCC's review of media ownership, "
11245 "<quote>five companies control 85 percent of our media "
11246 "sources.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The five recording "
11247 "labels of Universal Music Group, BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music "
11248 "Group, and EMI control 84.8 percent of the U.S. music market.<placeholder "
11249 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The <quote>five largest cable companies pipe "
11250 "programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers "
11251 "nationwide.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
11255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11256 #: freeculture.xml:8075
11258 "The story with radio is even more dramatic. Before deregulation, the "
11259 "nation's largest radio broadcasting conglomerate owned fewer than "
11260 "seventy-five stations. Today <emphasis>one</emphasis> company owns more than "
11261 "1,200 stations. During that period of consolidation, the total number of "
11262 "radio owners dropped by 34 percent. Today, in most markets, the two largest "
11263 "broadcasters control 74 percent of that market's revenues. Overall, just "
11264 "four companies control 90 percent of the nation's radio advertising "
11268 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11269 #: freeculture.xml:8087
11271 "Newspaper ownership is becoming more concentrated as well. Today, there are "
11272 "six hundred fewer daily newspapers in the United States than there were "
11273 "eighty years ago, and ten companies control half of the nation's "
11274 "circulation. There are twenty major newspaper publishers in the United "
11275 "States. The top ten film studios receive 99 percent of all film revenue. The "
11276 "ten largest cable companies account for 85 percent of all cable "
11277 "revenue. This is a market far from the free press the framers sought to "
11278 "protect. Indeed, it is a market that is quite well protected— by the "
11282 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11283 #: freeculture.xml:8101 freeculture.xml:8118
11284 msgid "Fallows, James"
11287 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11288 #: freeculture.xml:8098
11290 "Concentration in size alone is one thing. The more invidious change is in "
11291 "the nature of that concentration. As author James Fallows put it in a recent "
11292 "article about Rupert Murdoch, <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11295 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11296 #: freeculture.xml:8116
11298 "James Fallows, <quote>The Age of Murdoch,</quote> <citetitle>Atlantic "
11299 "Monthly</citetitle> (September 2003): 89. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11303 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11304 #: freeculture.xml:8105
11306 "Murdoch's companies now constitute a production system unmatched in its "
11307 "integration. They supply content—Fox movies … Fox TV shows "
11308 "… Fox-controlled sports broadcasts, plus newspapers and books. They "
11309 "sell the content to the public and to advertisers—in newspapers, on "
11310 "the broadcast network, on the cable channels. And they operate the physical "
11311 "distribution system through which the content reaches the "
11312 "customers. Murdoch's satellite systems now distribute News Corp. content in "
11313 "Europe and Asia; if Murdoch becomes DirecTV's largest single owner, that "
11314 "system will serve the same function in the United States.<placeholder "
11315 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11319 #: freeculture.xml:8123
11321 "The pattern with Murdoch is the pattern of modern media. Not just large "
11322 "companies owning many radio stations, but a few companies owning as many "
11323 "outlets of media as possible. A picture describes this pattern better than a "
11324 "thousand words could do:"
11327 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure><title>
11328 #: freeculture.xml:8129
11329 msgid "Pattern of modern media ownership."
11332 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><figure>
11333 #: freeculture.xml:8130
11334 msgid "<graphic fileref=\"images/1761.png\"></graphic>"
11338 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11339 #: freeculture.xml:8134
11341 "Does this concentration matter? Will it affect what is made, or what is "
11342 "distributed? Or is it merely a more efficient way to produce and distribute "
11346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11347 #: freeculture.xml:8139
11349 "My view was that concentration wouldn't matter. I thought it was nothing "
11350 "more than a more efficient financial structure. But now, after reading and "
11351 "listening to a barrage of creators try to convince me to the contrary, I am "
11352 "beginning to change my mind."
11355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11356 #: freeculture.xml:8145
11358 "Here's a representative story that begins to suggest how this integration "
11362 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11363 #: freeculture.xml:8148
11364 msgid "Lear, Norman"
11367 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11368 #: freeculture.xml:8150 freeculture.xml:8213
11369 msgid "All in the Family"
11372 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11373 #: freeculture.xml:8152
11375 "In 1969, Norman Lear created a pilot for <citetitle>All in the "
11376 "Family</citetitle>. He took the pilot to ABC. The network didn't like it. It "
11377 "was too edgy, they told Lear. Make it again. Lear made a second pilot, more "
11378 "edgy than the first. ABC was exasperated. You're missing the point, they "
11379 "told Lear. We wanted less edgy, not more."
11383 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11384 #: freeculture.xml:8164
11386 "Leonard Hill, <quote>The Axis of Access,</quote> remarks before Weidenbaum "
11387 "Center Forum, <quote>Entertainment Economics: The Movie Industry,</quote> "
11388 "St. Louis, Missouri, 3 April 2003 (transcript of prepared remarks available "
11389 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #28</ulink>; for the "
11390 "Lear story, not included in the prepared remarks, see <ulink "
11391 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #29</ulink>)."
11394 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11395 #: freeculture.xml:8159
11397 "Rather than comply, Lear simply took the show elsewhere. CBS was happy to "
11398 "have the series; ABC could not stop Lear from walking. The copyrights that "
11399 "Lear held assured an independence from network control.<placeholder "
11400 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11404 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11405 #: freeculture.xml:8175
11407 "The network did not control those copyrights because the law forbade the "
11408 "networks from controlling the content they syndicated. The law required a "
11409 "separation between the networks and the content producers; that separation "
11410 "would guarantee Lear freedom. And as late as 1992, because of these rules, "
11411 "the vast majority of prime time television—75 percent of it—was "
11412 "<quote>independent</quote> of the networks."
11416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11417 #: freeculture.xml:8194
11419 "NewsCorp./DirecTV Merger and Media Consolidation: Hearings on Media "
11420 "Ownership Before the Senate Commerce Committee, 108th Cong., 1st "
11421 "sess. (2003) (testimony of Gene Kimmelman on behalf of Consumers Union and "
11422 "the Consumer Federation of America), available at <ulink "
11423 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #30</ulink>. Kimmelman quotes "
11424 "Victoria Riskin, president of Writers Guild of America, West, in her Remarks "
11425 "at FCC En Banc Hearing, Richmond, Virginia, 27 February 2003."
11428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11429 #: freeculture.xml:8184
11431 "In 1994, the FCC abandoned the rules that required this independence. After "
11432 "that change, the networks quickly changed the balance. In 1985, there were "
11433 "twenty-five independent television production studios; in 2002, only five "
11434 "independent television studios remained. <quote>In 1992, only 15 percent of "
11435 "new series were produced for a network by a company it controlled. Last "
11436 "year, the percentage of shows produced by controlled companies more than "
11437 "quintupled to 77 percent.</quote> <quote>In 1992, 16 new series were "
11438 "produced independently of conglomerate control, last year there was "
11439 "one.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> In 2002, 75 percent of "
11440 "prime time television was owned by the networks that ran it. <quote>In the "
11441 "ten-year period between 1992 and 2002, the number of prime time television "
11442 "hours per week produced by network studios increased over 200%, whereas the "
11443 "number of prime time television hours per week produced by independent "
11444 "studios decreased 63%.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
11447 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11448 #: freeculture.xml:8215
11450 "Today, another Norman Lear with another <citetitle>All in the "
11451 "Family</citetitle> would find that he had the choice either to make the show "
11452 "less edgy or to be fired: The content of any show developed for a network is "
11453 "increasingly owned by the network."
11456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11457 #: freeculture.xml:8220
11458 msgid "Diller, Barry"
11461 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11462 #: freeculture.xml:8221
11463 msgid "Moyers, Bill"
11466 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11467 #: freeculture.xml:8223
11469 "While the number of channels has increased dramatically, the ownership of "
11470 "those channels has narrowed to an ever smaller and smaller few. As Barry "
11471 "Diller said to Bill Moyers,"
11475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
11476 #: freeculture.xml:8238
11478 "<quote>Barry Diller Takes on Media Deregulation,</quote> <citetitle>Now with "
11479 "Bill Moyers</citetitle>, Bill Moyers, 25 April 2003, edited transcript "
11480 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #31</ulink>."
11483 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
11484 #: freeculture.xml:8229
11486 "Well, if you have companies that produce, that finance, that air on their "
11487 "channel and then distribute worldwide everything that goes through their "
11488 "controlled distribution system, then what you get is fewer and fewer actual "
11489 "voices participating in the process. [We u]sed to have dozens and dozens of "
11490 "thriving independent production companies producing television programs. Now "
11491 "you have less than a handful.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11494 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11495 #: freeculture.xml:8245
11497 "This narrowing has an effect on what is produced. The product of such large "
11498 "and concentrated networks is increasingly homogenous. Increasingly "
11499 "safe. Increasingly sterile. The product of news shows from networks like "
11500 "this is increasingly tailored to the message the network wants to "
11501 "convey. This is not the communist party, though from the inside, it must "
11502 "feel a bit like the communist party. No one can question without risk of "
11503 "consequence—not necessarily banishment to Siberia, but punishment "
11504 "nonetheless. Independent, critical, different views are quashed. This is not "
11505 "the environment for a democracy."
11508 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
11509 #: freeculture.xml:8256
11510 msgid "Clark, Kim B."
11514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11515 #: freeculture.xml:8265
11517 "Clayton M. Christensen, <citetitle>The Innovator's Dilemma: The "
11518 "Revolutionary National Bestseller that Changed the Way We Do "
11519 "Business</citetitle> (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, "
11520 "1997). Christensen acknowledges that the idea was first suggested by Dean "
11521 "Kim Clark. See Kim B. Clark, <quote>The Interaction of Design Hierarchies "
11522 "and Market Concepts in Technological Evolution,</quote> <citetitle>Research "
11523 "Policy</citetitle> 14 (1985): 235–51. For a more recent study, see "
11524 "Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, <citetitle>Creative Destruction: Why "
11525 "Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—and How to "
11526 "Successfully Transform Them</citetitle> (New York: Currency/Doubleday, "
11530 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11531 #: freeculture.xml:8258
11533 "Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration "
11534 "affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the "
11535 "<quote>Innovator's Dilemma</quote>: the fact that large traditional firms "
11536 "find it rational to ignore new, breakthrough technologies that compete with "
11537 "their core business. The same analysis could help explain why large, "
11538 "traditional media companies would find it rational to ignore new cultural "
11539 "trends.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Lumbering giants not only "
11540 "don't, but should not, sprint. Yet if the field is only open to the giants, "
11541 "there will be far too little sprinting. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11545 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11546 #: freeculture.xml:8282
11548 "I don't think we know enough about the economics of the media market to say "
11549 "with certainty what concentration and integration will do. The efficiencies "
11550 "are important, and the effect on culture is hard to measure."
11553 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11554 #: freeculture.xml:8288
11556 "But there is a quintessentially obvious example that does strongly suggest "
11560 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11561 #: freeculture.xml:8292
11563 "In addition to the copyright wars, we're in the middle of the drug "
11564 "wars. Government policy is strongly directed against the drug cartels; "
11565 "criminal and civil courts are filled with the consequences of this battle."
11569 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11570 #: freeculture.xml:8297
11572 "Let me hereby disqualify myself from any possible appointment to any "
11573 "position in government by saying I believe this war is a profound mistake. I "
11574 "am not pro drugs. Indeed, I come from a family once wrecked by "
11575 "drugs—though the drugs that wrecked my family were all quite legal. I "
11576 "believe this war is a profound mistake because the collateral damage from it "
11577 "is so great as to make waging the war insane. When you add together the "
11578 "burdens on the criminal justice system, the desperation of generations of "
11579 "kids whose only real economic opportunities are as drug warriors, the "
11580 "queering of constitutional protections because of the constant surveillance "
11581 "this war requires, and, most profoundly, the total destruction of the legal "
11582 "systems of many South American nations because of the power of the local "
11583 "drug cartels, I find it impossible to believe that the marginal benefit in "
11584 "reduced drug consumption by Americans could possibly outweigh these costs."
11587 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11588 #: freeculture.xml:8316
11590 "You may not be convinced. That's fine. We live in a democracy, and it is "
11591 "through votes that we are to choose policy. But to do that, we depend "
11592 "fundamentally upon the press to help inform Americans about these issues."
11595 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11596 #: freeculture.xml:8323
11598 "Beginning in 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched a "
11599 "media campaign as part of the <quote>war on drugs.</quote> The campaign "
11600 "produced scores of short film clips about issues related to illegal "
11601 "drugs. In one series (the Nick and Norm series) two men are in a bar, "
11602 "discussing the idea of legalizing drugs as a way to avoid some of the "
11603 "collateral damage from the war. One advances an argument in favor of drug "
11604 "legalization. The other responds in a powerful and effective way against the "
11605 "argument of the first. In the end, the first guy changes his mind (hey, it's "
11606 "television). The plug at the end is a damning attack on the pro-legalization "
11610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11611 #: freeculture.xml:8335
11613 "Fair enough. It's a good ad. Not terribly misleading. It delivers its "
11614 "message well. It's a fair and reasonable message."
11617 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11618 #: freeculture.xml:8339
11620 "But let's say you think it is a wrong message, and you'd like to run a "
11621 "countercommercial. Say you want to run a series of ads that try to "
11622 "demonstrate the extraordinary collateral harm that comes from the drug "
11623 "war. Can you do it?"
11627 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11628 #: freeculture.xml:8345
11630 "Well, obviously, these ads cost lots of money. Assume you raise the "
11631 "money. Assume a group of concerned citizens donates all the money in the "
11632 "world to help you get your message out. Can you be sure your message will be "
11636 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11637 #: freeculture.xml:8387
11641 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11642 #: freeculture.xml:8388
11643 msgid "Marijuana Policy Project"
11646 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11647 #: freeculture.xml:8389
11651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11652 #: freeculture.xml:8390
11656 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11657 #: freeculture.xml:8391
11661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11662 #: freeculture.xml:8362
11664 "The Marijuana Policy Project, in February 2003, sought to place ads that "
11665 "directly responded to the Nick and Norm series on stations within the "
11666 "Washington, D.C., area. Comcast rejected the ads as <quote>against [their] "
11667 "policy.</quote> The local NBC affiliate, WRC, rejected the ads without "
11668 "reviewing them. The local ABC affiliate, WJOA, originally agreed to run the "
11669 "ads and accepted payment to do so, but later decided not to run the ads and "
11670 "returned the collected fees. Interview with Neal Levine, 15 October 2003. "
11671 "These restrictions are, of course, not limited to drug policy. See, for "
11672 "example, Nat Ives, <quote>On the Issue of an Iraq War, Advocacy Ads Meet "
11673 "with Rejection from TV Networks,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
11674 "Times</citetitle>, 13 March 2003, C4. Outside of election-related air time "
11675 "there is very little that the FCC or the courts are willing to do to even "
11676 "the playing field. For a general overview, see Rhonda Brown, <quote>Ad Hoc "
11677 "Access: The Regulation of Editorial Advertising on Television and "
11678 "Radio,</quote> <citetitle>Yale Law and Policy Review</citetitle> 6 (1988): "
11679 "449–79, and for a more recent summary of the stance of the FCC and the "
11680 "courts, see <citetitle>Radio-Television News Directors "
11681 "Association</citetitle> v. <citetitle>FCC</citetitle>, 184 F. 3d 872 "
11682 "(D.C. Cir. 1999). Municipal authorities exercise the same authority as the "
11683 "networks. In a recent example from San Francisco, the San Francisco transit "
11684 "authority rejected an ad that criticized its Muni diesel buses. Phillip "
11685 "Matier and Andrew Ross, <quote>Antidiesel Group Fuming After Muni Rejects "
11686 "Ad,</quote> SFGate.com, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
11687 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #32</ulink>. The ground was that "
11688 "the criticism was <quote>too controversial.</quote> <placeholder "
11689 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> "
11690 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
11691 "id=\"3\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"4\"/> <placeholder "
11692 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"5\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"6\"/>"
11695 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11696 #: freeculture.xml:8352
11698 "No. You cannot. Television stations have a general policy of avoiding "
11699 "<quote>controversial</quote> ads. Ads sponsored by the government are deemed "
11700 "uncontroversial; ads disagreeing with the government are controversial. "
11701 "This selectivity might be thought inconsistent with the First Amendment, but "
11702 "the Supreme Court has held that stations have the right to choose what they "
11703 "run. Thus, the major channels of commercial media will refuse one side of a "
11704 "crucial debate the opportunity to present its case. And the courts will "
11705 "defend the rights of the stations to be this biased.<placeholder "
11706 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11710 #: freeculture.xml:8396
11712 "I'd be happy to defend the networks' rights, as well—if we lived in a "
11713 "media market that was truly diverse. But concentration in the media throws "
11714 "that condition into doubt. If a handful of companies control access to the "
11715 "media, and that handful of companies gets to decide which political "
11716 "positions it will allow to be promoted on its channels, then in an obvious "
11717 "and important way, concentration matters. You might like the positions the "
11718 "handful of companies selects. But you should not like a world in which a "
11719 "mere few get to decide which issues the rest of us get to know about."
11722 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
11723 #: freeculture.xml:8409
11727 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11728 #: freeculture.xml:8411
11730 "There is something innocent and obvious about the claim of the copyright "
11731 "warriors that the government should <quote>protect my property.</quote> In "
11732 "the abstract, it is obviously true and, ordinarily, totally harmless. No "
11733 "sane sort who is not an anarchist could disagree."
11737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11738 #: freeculture.xml:8417
11740 "But when we see how dramatically this <quote>property</quote> has "
11741 "changed— when we recognize how it might now interact with both "
11742 "technology and markets to mean that the effective constraint on the liberty "
11743 "to cultivate our culture is dramatically different—the claim begins to "
11744 "seem less innocent and obvious. Given (1) the power of technology to "
11745 "supplement the law's control, and (2) the power of concentrated markets to "
11746 "weaken the opportunity for dissent, if strictly enforcing the massively "
11747 "expanded <quote>property</quote> rights granted by copyright fundamentally "
11748 "changes the freedom within this culture to cultivate and build upon our "
11749 "past, then we have to ask whether this property should be redefined."
11752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11753 #: freeculture.xml:8433
11755 "Not starkly. Or absolutely. My point is not that we should abolish copyright "
11756 "or go back to the eighteenth century. That would be a total mistake, "
11757 "disastrous for the most important creative enterprises within our culture "
11761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11762 #: freeculture.xml:8439
11764 "But there is a space between zero and one, Internet culture "
11765 "notwithstanding. And these massive shifts in the effective power of "
11766 "copyright regulation, tied to increased concentration of the content "
11767 "industry and resting in the hands of technology that will increasingly "
11768 "enable control over the use of culture, should drive us to consider whether "
11769 "another adjustment is called for. Not an adjustment that increases "
11770 "copyright's power. Not an adjustment that increases its term. Rather, an "
11771 "adjustment to restore the balance that has traditionally defined copyright's "
11772 "regulation—a weakening of that regulation, to strengthen creativity."
11775 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11776 #: freeculture.xml:8451
11778 "Copyright law has not been a rock of Gibraltar. It's not a set of constant "
11779 "commitments that, for some mysterious reason, teenagers and geeks now "
11780 "flout. Instead, copyright power has grown dramatically in a short period of "
11781 "time, as the technologies of distribution and creation have changed and as "
11782 "lobbyists have pushed for more control by copyright holders. Changes in the "
11783 "past in response to changes in technology suggest that we may well need "
11784 "similar changes in the future. And these changes have to be "
11785 "<emphasis>reductions</emphasis> in the scope of copyright, in response to "
11786 "the extraordinary increase in control that technology and the market enable."
11790 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11791 #: freeculture.xml:8463
11793 "For the single point that is lost in this war on pirates is a point that we "
11794 "see only after surveying the range of these changes. When you add together "
11795 "the effect of changing law, concentrated markets, and changing technology, "
11796 "together they produce an astonishing conclusion: <emphasis>Never in our "
11797 "history have fewer had a legal right to control more of the development of "
11798 "our culture than now</emphasis>."
11801 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11802 #: freeculture.xml:8487
11804 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Siva Vaidhyanathan captures a "
11805 "similar point in his <quote>four surrenders</quote> of copyright law in the "
11806 "digital age. See Vaidhyanathan, 159–60."
11809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11810 #: freeculture.xml:8472
11812 "Not when copyrights were perpetual, for when copyrights were perpetual, they "
11813 "affected only that precise creative work. Not when only publishers had the "
11814 "tools to publish, for the market then was much more diverse. Not when there "
11815 "were only three television networks, for even then, newspapers, film "
11816 "studios, radio stations, and publishers were independent of the "
11817 "networks. <emphasis>Never</emphasis> has copyright protected such a wide "
11818 "range of rights, against as broad a range of actors, for a term that was "
11819 "remotely as long. This form of regulation—a tiny regulation of a tiny "
11820 "part of the creative energy of a nation at the founding—is now a "
11821 "massive regulation of the overall creative process. Law plus technology plus "
11822 "the market now interact to turn this historically benign regulation into the "
11823 "most significant regulation of culture that our free society has "
11824 "known.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
11827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11828 #: freeculture.xml:8493
11830 "<emphasis role='strong'>This has been</emphasis> a long chapter. Its point "
11831 "can now be briefly stated."
11834 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11835 #: freeculture.xml:8497
11837 "At the start of this book, I distinguished between commercial and "
11838 "noncommercial culture. In the course of this chapter, I have distinguished "
11839 "between copying a work and transforming it. We can now combine these two "
11840 "distinctions and draw a clear map of the changes that copyright law has "
11841 "undergone. In 1790, the law looked like this:"
11844 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11845 #: freeculture.xml:8509 freeculture.xml:8546
11849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11850 #: freeculture.xml:8510 freeculture.xml:8547 freeculture.xml:8585 freeculture.xml:8617
11854 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11855 #: freeculture.xml:8515 freeculture.xml:8552 freeculture.xml:8590 freeculture.xml:8622
11859 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11860 #: freeculture.xml:8516 freeculture.xml:8553 freeculture.xml:8554 freeculture.xml:8591 freeculture.xml:8592 freeculture.xml:8623 freeculture.xml:8624 freeculture.xml:8628 freeculture.xml:8629
11864 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11865 #: freeculture.xml:8517 freeculture.xml:8521 freeculture.xml:8522 freeculture.xml:8558 freeculture.xml:8559 freeculture.xml:8597
11869 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11870 #: freeculture.xml:8520 freeculture.xml:8557 freeculture.xml:8595 freeculture.xml:8627
11871 msgid "Noncommercial"
11875 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11876 #: freeculture.xml:8529
11878 "The act of publishing a map, chart, and book was regulated by copyright "
11879 "law. Nothing else was. Transformations were free. And as copyright attached "
11880 "only with registration, and only those who intended to benefit commercially "
11881 "would register, copying through publishing of noncommercial work was also "
11885 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11886 #: freeculture.xml:8538
11887 msgid "By the end of the nineteenth century, the law had changed to this:"
11890 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11891 #: freeculture.xml:8566
11893 "Derivative works were now regulated by copyright law—if published, "
11894 "which again, given the economics of publishing at the time, means if offered "
11895 "commercially. But noncommercial publishing and transformation were still "
11896 "essentially free."
11899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11900 #: freeculture.xml:8572
11902 "In 1909 the law changed to regulate copies, not publishing, and after this "
11903 "change, the scope of the law was tied to technology. As the technology of "
11904 "copying became more prevalent, the reach of the law expanded. Thus by 1975, "
11905 "as photocopying machines became more common, we could say the law began to "
11909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><thead><row><entry>
11910 #: freeculture.xml:8584 freeculture.xml:8616
11914 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><informaltable><tgroup><tbody><row><entry>
11915 #: freeculture.xml:8596
11916 msgid "©/Free"
11919 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11920 #: freeculture.xml:8604
11922 "The law was interpreted to reach noncommercial copying through, say, copy "
11923 "machines, but still much of copying outside of the commercial market "
11924 "remained free. But the consequence of the emergence of digital technologies, "
11925 "especially in the context of a digital network, means that the law now looks "
11930 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11931 #: freeculture.xml:8636
11933 "Every realm is governed by copyright law, whereas before most creativity was "
11934 "not. The law now regulates the full range of creativity— commercial or "
11935 "not, transformative or not—with the same rules designed to regulate "
11936 "commercial publishers."
11939 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11940 #: freeculture.xml:8644
11942 "Obviously, copyright law is not the enemy. The enemy is regulation that does "
11943 "no good. So the question that we should be asking just now is whether "
11944 "extending the regulations of copyright law into each of these domains "
11945 "actually does any good."
11948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11949 #: freeculture.xml:8650
11951 "I have no doubt that it does good in regulating commercial copying. But I "
11952 "also have no doubt that it does more harm than good when regulating (as it "
11953 "regulates just now) noncommercial copying and, especially, noncommercial "
11954 "transformation. And increasingly, for the reasons sketched especially in "
11955 "chapters <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/> and "
11956 "<xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"transformers\"/>, one "
11957 "might well wonder whether it does more harm than good for commercial "
11958 "transformation. More commercial transformative work would be created if "
11959 "derivative rights were more sharply restricted."
11962 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
11963 #: freeculture.xml:8674
11964 msgid "legal realist movement"
11967 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
11968 #: freeculture.xml:8668
11970 "It was the single most important contribution of the legal realist movement "
11971 "to demonstrate that all property rights are always crafted to balance public "
11972 "and private interests. See Thomas C. Grey, <quote>The Disintegration of "
11973 "Property,</quote> in <citetitle>Nomos XXII: Property</citetitle>, J. Roland "
11974 "Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds. (New York: New York University Press, "
11975 "1980). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
11978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11979 #: freeculture.xml:8662
11981 "The issue is therefore not simply whether copyright is property. Of course "
11982 "copyright is a kind of <quote>property,</quote> and of course, as with any "
11983 "property, the state ought to protect it. But first impressions "
11984 "notwithstanding, historically, this property right (as with all property "
11985 "rights<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>) has been crafted to "
11986 "balance the important need to give authors and artists incentives with the "
11987 "equally important need to assure access to creative work. This balance has "
11988 "always been struck in light of new technologies. And for almost half of our "
11989 "tradition, the <quote>copyright</quote> did not control <emphasis>at "
11990 "all</emphasis> the freedom of others to build upon or transform a creative "
11991 "work. American culture was born free, and for almost 180 years our country "
11992 "consistently protected a vibrant and rich free culture."
11996 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
11997 #: freeculture.xml:8687
11999 "We achieved that free culture because our law respected important limits on "
12000 "the scope of the interests protected by <quote>property.</quote> The very "
12001 "birth of <quote>copyright</quote> as a statutory right recognized those "
12002 "limits, by granting copyright owners protection for a limited time only (the "
12003 "story of chapter 6). The tradition of <quote>fair use</quote> is animated by "
12004 "a similar concern that is increasingly under strain as the costs of "
12005 "exercising any fair use right become unavoidably high (the story of chapter "
12006 "7). Adding statutory rights where markets might stifle innovation is another "
12007 "familiar limit on the property right that copyright is (chapter 8). And "
12008 "granting archives and libraries a broad freedom to collect, claims of "
12009 "property notwithstanding, is a crucial part of guaranteeing the soul of a "
12010 "culture (chapter 9). Free cultures, like free markets, are built with "
12011 "property. But the nature of the property that builds a free culture is very "
12012 "different from the extremist vision that dominates the debate today."
12015 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12016 #: freeculture.xml:8706
12018 "Free culture is increasingly the casualty in this war on piracy. In response "
12019 "to a real, if not yet quantified, threat that the technologies of the "
12020 "Internet present to twentieth-century business models for producing and "
12021 "distributing culture, the law and technology are being transformed in a way "
12022 "that will undermine our tradition of free culture. The property right that "
12023 "is copyright is no longer the balanced right that it was, or was intended to "
12024 "be. The property right that is copyright has become unbalanced, tilted "
12025 "toward an extreme. The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened "
12026 "in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check "
12030 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
12031 #: freeculture.xml:8723
12035 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
12036 #: freeculture.xml:8727
12037 msgid "CHAPTER ELEVEN: Chimera"
12040 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12041 #: freeculture.xml:8728
12045 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12046 #: freeculture.xml:8729
12047 msgid "Wells, H. G."
12050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
12051 #: freeculture.xml:8730
12052 msgid "<quote>Country of the Blind, The</quote> (Wells)"
12056 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
12057 #: freeculture.xml:8738
12059 "H. G. Wells, <quote>The Country of the Blind</quote> (1904, 1911). See "
12060 "H. G. Wells, <citetitle>The Country of the Blind and Other "
12061 "Stories</citetitle>, Michael Sherborne, ed. (New York: Oxford University "
12065 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12066 #: freeculture.xml:8733
12068 "<emphasis role='strong'>In a well-known</emphasis> short story by "
12069 "H. G. Wells, a mountain climber named Nunez trips (literally, down an ice "
12070 "slope) into an unknown and isolated valley in the Peruvian "
12071 "Andes.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The valley is "
12072 "extraordinarily beautiful, with <quote>sweet water, pasture, an even "
12073 "climate, slopes of rich brown soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an "
12074 "excellent fruit.</quote> But the villagers are all blind. Nunez takes this "
12075 "as an opportunity. <quote>In the Country of the Blind,</quote> he tells "
12076 "himself, <quote>the One-Eyed Man is King.</quote> So he resolves to live "
12077 "with the villagers to explore life as a king."
12080 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12081 #: freeculture.xml:8750
12083 "Things don't go quite as he planned. He tries to explain the idea of sight "
12084 "to the villagers. They don't understand. He tells them they are "
12085 "<quote>blind.</quote> They don't have the word "
12086 "<citetitle>blind</citetitle>. They think he's just thick. Indeed, as they "
12087 "increasingly notice the things he can't do (hear the sound of grass being "
12088 "stepped on, for example), they increasingly try to control him. He, in turn, "
12089 "becomes increasingly frustrated. <quote>`You don't understand,' he cried, in "
12090 "a voice that was meant to be great and resolute, and which broke. `You are "
12091 "blind and I can see. Leave me alone!'</quote>"
12095 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12096 #: freeculture.xml:8762
12098 "The villagers don't leave him alone. Nor do they see (so to speak) the "
12099 "virtue of his special power. Not even the ultimate target of his affection, "
12100 "a young woman who to him seems <quote>the most beautiful thing in the whole "
12101 "of creation,</quote> understands the beauty of sight. Nunez's description of "
12102 "what he sees <quote>seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she "
12103 "listened to his description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet "
12104 "white-lit beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence.</quote> <quote>She "
12105 "did not believe,</quote> Wells tells us, and <quote>she could only half "
12106 "understand, but she was mysteriously delighted.</quote>"
12109 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12110 #: freeculture.xml:8773
12112 "When Nunez announces his desire to marry his <quote>mysteriously "
12113 "delighted</quote> love, the father and the village object. <quote>You see, "
12114 "my dear,</quote> her father instructs, <quote>he's an idiot. He has "
12115 "delusions. He can't do anything right.</quote> They take Nunez to the "
12119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12120 #: freeculture.xml:8779
12122 "After a careful examination, the doctor gives his opinion. <quote>His brain "
12123 "is affected,</quote> he reports."
12126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12127 #: freeculture.xml:8783
12129 "<quote>What affects it?</quote> the father asks. <quote>Those queer things "
12130 "that are called the eyes … are diseased … in such a way as to "
12131 "affect his brain.</quote>"
12134 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12135 #: freeculture.xml:8788
12137 "The doctor continues: <quote>I think I may say with reasonable certainty "
12138 "that in order to cure him completely, all that we need to do is a simple and "
12139 "easy surgical operation—namely, to remove these irritant bodies [the "
12143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12144 #: freeculture.xml:8794
12146 "<quote>Thank Heaven for science!</quote> says the father to the doctor. They "
12147 "inform Nunez of this condition necessary for him to be allowed his bride. "
12148 "(You'll have to read the original to learn what happens in the end. I "
12149 "believe in free culture, but never in giving away the end of a story.)"
12153 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12154 #: freeculture.xml:8800
12156 "<emphasis role='strong'>It sometimes</emphasis> happens that the eggs of "
12157 "twins fuse in the mother's womb. That fusion produces a "
12158 "<quote>chimera.</quote> A chimera is a single creature with two sets of "
12159 "DNA. The DNA in the blood, for example, might be different from the DNA of "
12160 "the skin. This possibility is an underused plot for murder "
12161 "mysteries. <quote>But the DNA shows with 100 percent certainty that she was "
12162 "not the person whose blood was at the scene. …</quote>"
12165 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12166 #: freeculture.xml:8814
12168 "Before I had read about chimeras, I would have said they were impossible. A "
12169 "single person can't have two sets of DNA. The very idea of DNA is that it is "
12170 "the code of an individual. Yet in fact, not only can two individuals have "
12171 "the same set of DNA (identical twins), but one person can have two different "
12172 "sets of DNA (a chimera). Our understanding of a <quote>person</quote> should "
12173 "reflect this reality."
12176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12177 #: freeculture.xml:8822
12179 "The more I work to understand the current struggle over copyright and "
12180 "culture, which I've sometimes called unfairly, and sometimes not unfairly "
12181 "enough, <quote>the copyright wars,</quote> the more I think we're dealing "
12182 "with a chimera. For example, in the battle over the question <quote>What is "
12183 "p2p file sharing?</quote> both sides have it right, and both sides have it "
12184 "wrong. One side says, <quote>File sharing is just like two kids taping each "
12185 "others' records—the sort of thing we've been doing for the last thirty "
12186 "years without any question at all.</quote> That's true, at least in "
12187 "part. When I tell my best friend to try out a new CD that I've bought, but "
12188 "rather than just send the CD, I point him to my p2p server, that is, in all "
12189 "relevant respects, just like what every executive in every recording company "
12190 "no doubt did as a kid: sharing music."
12193 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12194 #: freeculture.xml:8836
12196 "But the description is also false in part. For when my p2p server is on a "
12197 "p2p network through which anyone can get access to my music, then sure, my "
12198 "friends can get access, but it stretches the meaning of "
12199 "<quote>friends</quote> beyond recognition to say <quote>my ten thousand best "
12200 "friends</quote> can get access. Whether or not sharing my music with my best "
12201 "friend is what <quote>we have always been allowed to do,</quote> we have not "
12202 "always been allowed to share music with <quote>our ten thousand best "
12206 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12207 #: freeculture.xml:8845
12209 "Likewise, when the other side says, <quote>File sharing is just like walking "
12210 "into a Tower Records and taking a CD off the shelf and walking out with "
12211 "it,</quote> that's true, at least in part. If, after Lyle Lovett (finally) "
12212 "releases a new album, rather than buying it, I go to Kazaa and find a free "
12213 "copy to take, that is very much like stealing a copy from Tower. "
12214 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12218 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12219 #: freeculture.xml:8856
12221 "But it is not quite stealing from Tower. After all, when I take a CD from "
12222 "Tower Records, Tower has one less CD to sell. And when I take a CD from "
12223 "Tower Records, I get a bit of plastic and a cover, and something to show on "
12224 "my shelves. (And, while we're at it, we could also note that when I take a "
12225 "CD from Tower Records, the maximum fine that might be imposed on me, under "
12226 "California law, at least, is $1,000. According to the RIAA, by contrast, if "
12227 "I download a ten-song CD, I'm liable for $1,500,000 in damages.)"
12230 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12231 #: freeculture.xml:8866
12233 "The point is not that it is as neither side describes. The point is that it "
12234 "is both—both as the RIAA describes it and as Kazaa describes it. It is "
12235 "a chimera. And rather than simply denying what the other side asserts, we "
12236 "need to begin to think about how we should respond to this chimera. What "
12237 "rules should govern it?"
12240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12241 #: freeculture.xml:8882 freeculture.xml:9164 freeculture.xml:10200
12242 msgid "ISPs (Internet service providers), user identities revealed by"
12245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12246 #: freeculture.xml:8913
12247 msgid "Conyers, John, Jr."
12250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12251 #: freeculture.xml:8914 freeculture.xml:9635
12252 msgid "Berman, Howard L."
12255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
12256 #: freeculture.xml:8882
12258 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For an excellent summary, see the "
12259 "report prepared by GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society "
12260 "at Harvard Law School, <quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster "
12261 "World,</quote> 27 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12262 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #33</ulink>. Reps. John Conyers "
12263 "Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill that "
12264 "would treat unauthorized on-line copying as a felony offense with "
12265 "punishments ranging as high as five years imprisonment; see Jon Healey, "
12266 "<quote>House Bill Aims to Up Stakes on Piracy,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
12267 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 17 July 2003, available at <ulink "
12268 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #34</ulink>. Civil penalties are "
12269 "currently set at $150,000 per copied song. For a recent (and unsuccessful) "
12270 "legal challenge to the RIAA's demand that an ISP reveal the identity of a "
12271 "user accused of sharing more than 600 songs through a family computer, see "
12272 "<citetitle>RIAA</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Verizon Internet Services (In "
12273 "re. Verizon Internet Services)</citetitle>, 240 F. Supp. 2d 24 "
12274 "(D.D.C. 2003). Such a user could face liability ranging as high as $90 "
12275 "million. Such astronomical figures furnish the RIAA with a powerful arsenal "
12276 "in its prosecution of file sharers. Settlements ranging from $12,000 to "
12277 "$17,500 for four students accused of heavy file sharing on university "
12278 "networks must have seemed a mere pittance next to the $98 billion the RIAA "
12279 "could seek should the matter proceed to court. See Elizabeth Young, "
12280 "<quote>Downloading Could Lead to Fines,</quote> redandblack.com, August "
12281 "2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12282 "#35</ulink>. For an example of the RIAA's targeting of student file sharing, "
12283 "and of the subpoenas issued to universities to reveal student file-sharer "
12284 "identities, see James Collins, <quote>RIAA Steps Up Bid to Force BC, MIT to "
12285 "Name Students,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 8 August 2003, "
12286 "D3, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12287 "#36</ulink>. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder "
12288 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/>"
12291 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12292 #: freeculture.xml:8873
12294 "We could respond by simply pretending that it is not a chimera. We could, "
12295 "with the RIAA, decide that every act of file sharing should be a felony. We "
12296 "could prosecute families for millions of dollars in damages just because "
12297 "file sharing occurred on a family computer. And we can get universities to "
12298 "monitor all computer traffic to make sure that no computer is used to commit "
12299 "this crime. These responses might be extreme, but each of them has either "
12300 "been proposed or actually implemented.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
12304 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12305 #: freeculture.xml:8920
12307 "Alternatively, we could respond to file sharing the way many kids act as "
12308 "though we've responded. We could totally legalize it. Let there be no "
12309 "copyright liability, either civil or criminal, for making copyrighted "
12310 "content available on the Net. Make file sharing like gossip: regulated, if "
12311 "at all, by social norms but not by law."
12314 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12315 #: freeculture.xml:8927
12317 "Either response is possible. I think either would be a mistake. Rather than "
12318 "embrace one of these two extremes, we should embrace something that "
12319 "recognizes the truth in both. And while I end this book with a sketch of a "
12320 "system that does just that, my aim in the next chapter is to show just how "
12321 "awful it would be for us to adopt the zero-tolerance extreme. I believe "
12322 "<emphasis>either</emphasis> extreme would be worse than a reasonable "
12323 "alternative. But I believe the zero-tolerance solution would be the worse "
12324 "of the two extremes."
12328 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12329 #: freeculture.xml:8939
12331 "Yet zero tolerance is increasingly our government's policy. In the middle of "
12332 "the chaos that the Internet has created, an extraordinary land grab is "
12333 "occurring. The law and technology are being shifted to give content holders "
12334 "a kind of control over our culture that they have never had before. And in "
12335 "this extremism, many an opportunity for new innovation and new creativity "
12339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12340 #: freeculture.xml:8947
12342 "I'm not talking about the opportunities for kids to <quote>steal</quote> "
12343 "music. My focus instead is the commercial and cultural innovation that this "
12344 "war will also kill. We have never seen the power to innovate spread so "
12345 "broadly among our citizens, and we have just begun to see the innovation "
12346 "that this power will unleash. Yet the Internet has already seen the passing "
12347 "of one cycle of innovation around technologies to distribute content. The "
12348 "law is responsible for this passing. As the vice president for global public "
12349 "policy at one of these new innovators, eMusic.com, put it when criticizing "
12350 "the DMCA's added protection for copyrighted material,"
12353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12354 #: freeculture.xml:8960
12356 "eMusic opposes music piracy. We are a distributor of copyrighted material, "
12357 "and we want to protect those rights."
12360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12361 #: freeculture.xml:8964
12363 "But building a technology fortress that locks in the clout of the major "
12364 "labels is by no means the only way to protect copyright interests, nor is it "
12365 "necessarily the best. It is simply too early to answer that question. Market "
12366 "forces operating naturally may very well produce a totally different "
12371 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12372 #: freeculture.xml:8981
12374 "WIPO and the DMCA One Year Later: Assessing Consumer Access to Digital "
12375 "Entertainment on the Internet and Other Media: Hearing Before the "
12376 "Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, House "
12377 "Committee on Commerce, 106th Cong. 29 (1999) (statement of Peter Harter, "
12378 "vice president, Global Public Policy and Standards, EMusic.com), available "
12379 "in LEXIS, Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony File."
12382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
12383 #: freeculture.xml:8971
12385 "This is a critical point. The choices that industry sectors make with "
12386 "respect to these systems will in many ways directly shape the market for "
12387 "digital media and the manner in which digital media are distributed. This in "
12388 "turn will directly influence the options that are available to consumers, "
12389 "both in terms of the ease with which they will be able to access digital "
12390 "media and the equipment that they will require to do so. Poor choices made "
12391 "this early in the game will retard the growth of this market, hurting "
12392 "everyone's interests.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12396 #: freeculture.xml:8995 freeculture.xml:9353
12397 msgid "Vivendi Universal"
12400 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12401 #: freeculture.xml:8992
12403 "In April 2001, eMusic.com was purchased by Vivendi Universal, one of "
12404 "<quote>the major labels.</quote> Its position on these matters has now "
12405 "changed. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12409 #: freeculture.xml:8998
12411 "Reversing our tradition of tolerance now will not merely quash piracy. It "
12412 "will sacrifice values that are important to this culture, and will kill "
12413 "opportunities that could be extraordinarily valuable."
12416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
12417 #: freeculture.xml:9006
12418 msgid "CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms"
12421 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12422 #: freeculture.xml:9008
12424 "<emphasis role='strong'>To fight</emphasis> <quote>piracy,</quote> to "
12425 "protect <quote>property,</quote> the content industry has launched a "
12426 "war. Lobbying and lots of campaign contributions have now brought the "
12427 "government into this war. As with any war, this one will have both direct "
12428 "and collateral damage. As with any war of prohibition, these damages will be "
12429 "suffered most by our own people."
12432 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12433 #: freeculture.xml:9016
12435 "My aim so far has been to describe the consequences of this war, in "
12436 "particular, the consequences for <quote>free culture.</quote> But my aim now "
12437 "is to extend this description of consequences into an argument. Is this war "
12441 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12442 #: freeculture.xml:9022
12444 "In my view, it is not. There is no good reason why this time, for the first "
12445 "time, the law should defend the old against the new, just when the power of "
12446 "the property called <quote>intellectual property</quote> is at its greatest "
12450 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12451 #: freeculture.xml:9030
12453 "Yet <quote>common sense</quote> does not see it this way. Common sense is "
12454 "still on the side of the Causbys and the content industry. The extreme "
12455 "claims of control in the name of property still resonate; the uncritical "
12456 "rejection of <quote>piracy</quote> still has play."
12460 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
12461 #: freeculture.xml:9038
12463 "There will be many consequences of continuing this war. I want to describe "
12464 "just three. All three might be said to be unintended. I am quite confident "
12465 "the third is unintended. I'm less sure about the first two. The first two "
12466 "protect modern RCAs, but there is no Howard Armstrong in the wings to fight "
12467 "today's monopolists of culture."
12470 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12471 #: freeculture.xml:9045
12472 msgid "Constraining Creators"
12475 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12476 #: freeculture.xml:9047
12478 "In the next ten years we will see an explosion of digital technologies. "
12479 "These technologies will enable almost anyone to capture and share "
12480 "content. Capturing and sharing content, of course, is what humans have done "
12481 "since the dawn of man. It is how we learn and communicate. But capturing and "
12482 "sharing through digital technology is different. The fidelity and power are "
12483 "different. You could send an e-mail telling someone about a joke you saw on "
12484 "Comedy Central, or you could send the clip. You could write an essay about "
12485 "the inconsistencies in the arguments of the politician you most love to "
12486 "hate, or you could make a short film that puts statement against "
12487 "statement. You could write a poem to express your love, or you could weave "
12488 "together a string—a mash-up— of songs from your favorite artists "
12489 "in a collage and make it available on the Net."
12492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12493 #: freeculture.xml:9062
12495 "This digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> is in part an extension of "
12496 "the capturing and sharing that has always been integral to our culture, and "
12497 "in part it is something new. It is continuous with the Kodak, but it "
12498 "explodes the boundaries of Kodak-like technologies. The technology of "
12499 "digital <quote>capturing and sharing</quote> promises a world of "
12500 "extraordinarily diverse creativity that can be easily and broadly "
12501 "shared. And as that creativity is applied to democracy, it will enable a "
12502 "broad range of citizens to use technology to express and criticize and "
12503 "contribute to the culture all around."
12507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12508 #: freeculture.xml:9073
12510 "Technology has thus given us an opportunity to do something with culture "
12511 "that has only ever been possible for individuals in small groups, isolated "
12512 "from others. Think about an old man telling a story to a collection of "
12513 "neighbors in a small town. Now imagine that same storytelling extended "
12514 "across the globe."
12517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12518 #: freeculture.xml:9083
12520 "Yet all this is possible only if the activity is presumptively legal. In the "
12521 "current regime of legal regulation, it is not. Forget file sharing for a "
12522 "moment. Think about your favorite amazing sites on the Net. Web sites that "
12523 "offer plot summaries from forgotten television shows; sites that catalog "
12524 "cartoons from the 1960s; sites that mix images and sound to criticize "
12525 "politicians or businesses; sites that gather newspaper articles on remote "
12526 "topics of science or culture. There is a vast amount of creative work spread "
12527 "across the Internet. But as the law is currently crafted, this work is "
12528 "presumptively illegal."
12531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12532 #: freeculture.xml:9093 freeculture.xml:9112
12536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12537 #: freeculture.xml:9107
12539 "See Lynne W. Jeter, <citetitle>Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at "
12540 "WorldCom</citetitle> (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 176, 204; "
12541 "for details of the settlement, see MCI press release, <quote>MCI Wins "
12542 "U.S. District Court Approval for SEC Settlement</quote> (7 July 2003), "
12543 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #37</ulink>. "
12544 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12548 #: freeculture.xml:9128
12549 msgid "Bush, George W."
12552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12553 #: freeculture.xml:9119
12555 "The bill, modeled after California's tort reform model, was passed in the "
12556 "House of Representatives but defeated in a Senate vote in July 2003. For an "
12557 "overview, see Tanya Albert, <quote>Measure Stalls in Senate: `We'll Be "
12558 "Back,' Say Tort Reformers,</quote> amednews.com, 28 July 2003, available at "
12559 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #38</ulink>, and "
12560 "<quote>Senate Turns Back Malpractice Caps,</quote> CBSNews.com, 9 July 2003, "
12561 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12562 "#39</ulink>. President Bush has continued to urge tort reform in recent "
12563 "months. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
12566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12567 #: freeculture.xml:9095
12569 "That presumption will increasingly chill creativity, as the examples of "
12570 "extreme penalties for vague infringements continue to proliferate. It is "
12571 "impossible to get a clear sense of what's allowed and what's not, and at the "
12572 "same time, the penalties for crossing the line are astonishingly harsh. The "
12573 "four students who were threatened by the RIAA ( Jesse Jordan of chapter 3 "
12574 "was just one) were threatened with a $98 billion lawsuit for building search "
12575 "engines that permitted songs to be copied. Yet World-Com—which "
12576 "defrauded investors of $11 billion, resulting in a loss to investors in "
12577 "market capitalization of over $200 billion—received a fine of a mere "
12578 "$750 million.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And under legislation "
12579 "being pushed in Congress right now, a doctor who negligently removes the "
12580 "wrong leg in an operation would be liable for no more than $250,000 in "
12581 "damages for pain and suffering.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> Can "
12582 "common sense recognize the absurdity in a world where the maximum fine for "
12583 "downloading two songs off the Internet is more than the fine for a doctor's "
12584 "negligently butchering a patient?"
12587 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12588 #: freeculture.xml:9134
12589 msgid "art, underground"
12593 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12594 #: freeculture.xml:9155
12596 "See Danit Lidor, <quote>Artists Just Wanna Be Free,</quote> "
12597 "<citetitle>Wired</citetitle>, 7 July 2003, available at <ulink "
12598 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #40</ulink>. For an overview of "
12599 "the exhibition, see <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
12603 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12604 #: freeculture.xml:9136
12606 "The consequence of this legal uncertainty, tied to these extremely high "
12607 "penalties, is that an extraordinary amount of creativity will either never "
12608 "be exercised, or never be exercised in the open. We drive this creative "
12609 "process underground by branding the modern-day Walt Disneys "
12610 "<quote>pirates.</quote> We make it impossible for businesses to rely upon a "
12611 "public domain, because the boundaries of the public domain are designed to "
12612 "be unclear. It never pays to do anything except pay for the right to create, "
12613 "and hence only those who can pay are allowed to create. As was the case in "
12614 "the Soviet Union, though for very different reasons, we will begin to see a "
12615 "world of underground art—not because the message is necessarily "
12616 "political, or because the subject is controversial, but because the very act "
12617 "of creating the art is legally fraught. Already, exhibits of <quote>illegal "
12618 "art</quote> tour the United States.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
12619 "In what does their <quote>illegality</quote> consist? In the act of mixing "
12620 "the culture around us with an expression that is critical or reflective."
12623 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12624 #: freeculture.xml:9166
12626 "Part of the reason for this fear of illegality has to do with the changing "
12627 "law. I described that change in detail in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: "
12628 "labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>. But an even bigger part has to do "
12629 "with the increasing ease with which infractions can be tracked. As users of "
12630 "file-sharing systems discovered in 2002, it is a trivial matter for "
12631 "copyright owners to get courts to order Internet service providers to reveal "
12632 "who has what content. It is as if your cassette tape player transmitted a "
12633 "list of the songs that you played in the privacy of your own home that "
12634 "anyone could tune into for whatever reason they chose."
12637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12638 #: freeculture.xml:9179
12640 "Never in our history has a painter had to worry about whether his painting "
12641 "infringed on someone else's work; but the modern-day painter, using the "
12642 "tools of Photoshop, sharing content on the Web, must worry all the "
12643 "time. Images are all around, but the only safe images to use in the act of "
12644 "creation are those purchased from Corbis or another image farm. And in "
12645 "purchasing, censoring happens. There is a free market in pencils; we needn't "
12646 "worry about its effect on creativity. But there is a highly regulated, "
12647 "monopolized market in cultural icons; the right to cultivate and transform "
12648 "them is not similarly free."
12651 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12652 #: freeculture.xml:9190
12654 "Lawyers rarely see this because lawyers are rarely empirical. As I described "
12655 "in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"recorders\"/>, "
12656 "in response to the story about documentary filmmaker Jon Else, I have been "
12657 "lectured again and again by lawyers who insist Else's use was fair use, and "
12658 "hence I am wrong to say that the law regulates such a use."
12662 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12663 #: freeculture.xml:9201
12665 "But fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer to defend "
12666 "your right to create. And as lawyers love to forget, our system for "
12667 "defending rights such as fair use is astonishingly bad—in practically "
12668 "every context, but especially here. It costs too much, it delivers too "
12669 "slowly, and what it delivers often has little connection to the justice "
12670 "underlying the claim. The legal system may be tolerable for the very rich. "
12671 "For everyone else, it is an embarrassment to a tradition that prides itself "
12672 "on the rule of law."
12675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12676 #: freeculture.xml:9211
12678 "Judges and lawyers can tell themselves that fair use provides adequate "
12679 "<quote>breathing room</quote> between regulation by the law and the access "
12680 "the law should allow. But it is a measure of how out of touch our legal "
12681 "system has become that anyone actually believes this. The rules that "
12682 "publishers impose upon writers, the rules that film distributors impose upon "
12683 "filmmakers, the rules that newspapers impose upon journalists— these "
12684 "are the real laws governing creativity. And these rules have little "
12685 "relationship to the <quote>law</quote> with which judges comfort themselves."
12688 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12689 #: freeculture.xml:9222
12691 "For in a world that threatens $150,000 for a single willful infringement of "
12692 "a copyright, and which demands tens of thousands of dollars to even defend "
12693 "against a copyright infringement claim, and which would never return to the "
12694 "wrongfully accused defendant anything of the costs she suffered to defend "
12695 "her right to speak—in that world, the astonishingly broad regulations "
12696 "that pass under the name <quote>copyright</quote> silence speech and "
12697 "creativity. And in that world, it takes a studied blindness for people to "
12698 "continue to believe they live in a culture that is free."
12701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12702 #: freeculture.xml:9233
12703 msgid "As Jed Horovitz, the businessman behind Video Pipeline, said to me,"
12707 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12708 #: freeculture.xml:9237
12710 "We're losing [creative] opportunities right and left. Creative people are "
12711 "being forced not to express themselves. Thoughts are not being "
12712 "expressed. And while a lot of stuff may [still] be created, it still won't "
12713 "get distributed. Even if the stuff gets made … you're not going to "
12714 "get it distributed in the mainstream media unless you've got a little note "
12715 "from a lawyer saying, <quote>This has been cleared.</quote> You're not even "
12716 "going to get it on PBS without that kind of permission. That's the point at "
12717 "which they control it."
12720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
12721 #: freeculture.xml:9250
12722 msgid "Constraining Innovators"
12725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12726 #: freeculture.xml:9252
12728 "The story of the last section was a crunchy-lefty story—creativity "
12729 "quashed, artists who can't speak, yada yada yada. Maybe that doesn't get you "
12730 "going. Maybe you think there's enough weird art out there, and enough "
12731 "expression that is critical of what seems to be just about everything. And "
12732 "if you think that, you might think there's little in this story to worry "
12736 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12737 #: freeculture.xml:9260
12739 "But there's an aspect of this story that is not lefty in any sense. Indeed, "
12740 "it is an aspect that could be written by the most extreme promarket "
12741 "ideologue. And if you're one of these sorts (and a special one at that, 188 "
12742 "pages into a book like this), then you can see this other aspect by "
12743 "substituting <quote>free market</quote> every place I've spoken of "
12744 "<quote>free culture.</quote> The point is the same, even if the interests "
12745 "affecting culture are more fundamental."
12748 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12749 #: freeculture.xml:9270
12751 "The charge I've been making about the regulation of culture is the same "
12752 "charge free marketers make about regulating markets. Everyone, of course, "
12753 "concedes that some regulation of markets is necessary—at a minimum, we "
12754 "need rules of property and contract, and courts to enforce both. Likewise, "
12755 "in this culture debate, everyone concedes that at least some framework of "
12756 "copyright is also required. But both perspectives vehemently insist that "
12757 "just because some regulation is good, it doesn't follow that more regulation "
12758 "is better. And both perspectives are constantly attuned to the ways in which "
12759 "regulation simply enables the powerful industries of today to protect "
12760 "themselves against the competitors of tomorrow."
12763 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12764 #: freeculture.xml:9282 freeculture.xml:9390
12765 msgid "Barry, Hank"
12769 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12770 #: freeculture.xml:9284
12772 "This is the single most dramatic effect of the shift in regulatory strategy "
12773 "that I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
12774 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>. The consequence of this massive threat of "
12775 "liability tied to the murky boundaries of copyright law is that innovators "
12776 "who want to innovate in this space can safely innovate only if they have the "
12777 "sign-off from last generation's dominant industries. That lesson has been "
12778 "taught through a series of cases that were designed and executed to teach "
12779 "venture capitalists a lesson. That lesson—what former Napster CEO Hank "
12780 "Barry calls a <quote>nuclear pall</quote> that has fallen over the "
12781 "Valley—has been learned."
12784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12785 #: freeculture.xml:9297
12787 "Consider one example to make the point, a story whose beginning I told in "
12788 "<citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle> and which has progressed in a way "
12789 "that even I (pessimist extraordinaire) would never have predicted."
12792 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12793 #: freeculture.xml:9301
12794 msgid "Roberts, Michael"
12797 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12798 #: freeculture.xml:9303
12800 "In 1997, Michael Roberts launched a company called MP3.com. MP3.com was "
12801 "keen to remake the music business. Their goal was not just to facilitate new "
12802 "ways to get access to content. Their goal was also to facilitate new ways to "
12803 "create content. Unlike the major labels, MP3.com offered creators a venue to "
12804 "distribute their creativity, without demanding an exclusive engagement from "
12808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
12809 #: freeculture.xml:9311
12810 msgid "preference data on"
12813 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12814 #: freeculture.xml:9313
12816 "To make this system work, however, MP3.com needed a reliable way to "
12817 "recommend music to its users. The idea behind this alternative was to "
12818 "leverage the revealed preferences of music listeners to recommend new "
12819 "artists. If you like Lyle Lovett, you're likely to enjoy Bonnie Raitt. And "
12823 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12824 #: freeculture.xml:9320
12826 "This idea required a simple way to gather data about user preferences. "
12827 "MP3.com came up with an extraordinarily clever way to gather this preference "
12828 "data. In January 2000, the company launched a service called "
12829 "my.mp3.com. Using software provided by MP3.com, a user would sign into an "
12830 "account and then insert into her computer a CD. The software would identify "
12831 "the CD, and then give the user access to that content. So, for example, if "
12832 "you inserted a CD by Jill Sobule, then wherever you were—at work or at "
12833 "home—you could get access to that music once you signed into your "
12834 "account. The system was therefore a kind of music-lockbox."
12838 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12839 #: freeculture.xml:9332
12841 "No doubt some could use this system to illegally copy content. But that "
12842 "opportunity existed with or without MP3.com. The aim of the my.mp3.com "
12843 "service was to give users access to their own content, and as a by-product, "
12844 "by seeing the content they already owned, to discover the kind of content "
12848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12849 #: freeculture.xml:9342
12851 "To make this system function, however, MP3.com needed to copy 50,000 CDs to "
12852 "a server. (In principle, it could have been the user who uploaded the music, "
12853 "but that would have taken a great deal of time, and would have produced a "
12854 "product of questionable quality.) It therefore purchased 50,000 CDs from a "
12855 "store, and started the process of making copies of those CDs. Again, it "
12856 "would not serve the content from those copies to anyone except those who "
12857 "authenticated that they had a copy of the CD they wanted to access. So while "
12858 "this was 50,000 copies, it was 50,000 copies directed at giving customers "
12859 "something they had already bought."
12862 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12863 #: freeculture.xml:9355
12865 "Nine days after MP3.com launched its service, the five major labels, headed "
12866 "by the RIAA, brought a lawsuit against MP3.com. MP3.com settled with four of "
12867 "the five. Nine months later, a federal judge found MP3.com to have been "
12868 "guilty of willful infringement with respect to the fifth. Applying the law "
12869 "as it is, the judge imposed a fine against MP3.com of $118 million. MP3.com "
12870 "then settled with the remaining plaintiff, Vivendi Universal, paying over "
12871 "$54 million. Vivendi purchased MP3.com just about a year later."
12874 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12875 #: freeculture.xml:9365
12876 msgid "That part of the story I have told before. Now consider its conclusion."
12879 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12880 #: freeculture.xml:9368
12882 "After Vivendi purchased MP3.com, Vivendi turned around and filed a "
12883 "malpractice lawsuit against the lawyers who had advised it that they had a "
12884 "good faith claim that the service they wanted to offer would be considered "
12885 "legal under copyright law. This lawsuit alleged that it should have been "
12886 "obvious that the courts would find this behavior illegal; therefore, this "
12887 "lawsuit sought to punish any lawyer who had dared to suggest that the law "
12888 "was less restrictive than the labels demanded."
12892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12893 #: freeculture.xml:9378
12895 "The clear purpose of this lawsuit (which was settled for an unspecified "
12896 "amount shortly after the story was no longer covered in the press) was to "
12897 "send an unequivocal message to lawyers advising clients in this space: It is "
12898 "not just your clients who might suffer if the content industry directs its "
12899 "guns against them. It is also you. So those of you who believe the law "
12900 "should be less restrictive should realize that such a view of the law will "
12901 "cost you and your firm dearly."
12904 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12905 #: freeculture.xml:9389
12906 msgid "Hummer, John"
12909 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
12910 #: freeculture.xml:9391
12911 msgid "Hummer Winblad"
12915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
12916 #: freeculture.xml:9401
12918 "See Joseph Menn, <quote>Universal, EMI Sue Napster Investor,</quote> "
12919 "<citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 23 April 2003. For a parallel "
12920 "argument about the effects on innovation in the distribution of music, see "
12921 "Janelle Brown, <quote>The Music Revolution Will Not Be Digitized,</quote> "
12922 "Salon.com, 1 June 2001, available at <ulink "
12923 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #42</ulink>. See also Jon "
12924 "Healey, <quote>Online Music Services Besieged,</quote> <citetitle>Los "
12925 "Angeles Times</citetitle>, 28 May 2001."
12928 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12929 #: freeculture.xml:9395
12931 "This strategy is not just limited to the lawyers. In April 2003, Universal "
12932 "and EMI brought a lawsuit against Hummer Winblad, the venture capital firm "
12933 "(VC) that had funded Napster at a certain stage of its development, its "
12934 "cofounder ( John Hummer), and general partner (Hank Barry).<placeholder "
12935 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The claim here, as well, was that the VC should "
12936 "have recognized the right of the content industry to control how the "
12937 "industry should develop. They should be held personally liable for funding a "
12938 "company whose business turned out to be beyond the law. Here again, the aim "
12939 "of the lawsuit is transparent: Any VC now recognizes that if you fund a "
12940 "company whose business is not approved of by the dinosaurs, you are at risk "
12941 "not just in the marketplace, but in the courtroom as well. Your investment "
12942 "buys you not only a company, it also buys you a lawsuit. So extreme has the "
12943 "environment become that even car manufacturers are afraid of technologies "
12944 "that touch content. In an article in <citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, "
12945 "Rafe Needleman describes a discussion with BMW:"
12948 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
12949 #: freeculture.xml:9423
12953 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><indexterm><primary>
12954 #: freeculture.xml:9424
12955 msgid "cars, MP3 sound system in"
12958 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
12959 #: freeculture.xml:9439
12960 msgid "Needleman, Rafe"
12963 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
12964 #: freeculture.xml:9435
12966 "Rafe Needleman, <quote>Driving in Cars with MP3s,</quote> "
12967 "<citetitle>Business 2.0</citetitle>, 16 June 2003, available at <ulink "
12968 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #43</ulink>. I am grateful to "
12969 "Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli for this example. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
12973 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
12974 #: freeculture.xml:9426
12976 "I asked why, with all the storage capacity and computer power in the car, "
12977 "there was no way to play MP3 files. I was told that BMW engineers in Germany "
12978 "had rigged a new vehicle to play MP3s via the car's built-in sound system, "
12979 "but that the company's marketing and legal departments weren't comfortable "
12980 "with pushing this forward for release stateside. Even today, no new cars are "
12981 "sold in the United States with bona fide MP3 players. … <placeholder "
12982 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
12985 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12986 #: freeculture.xml:9444
12988 "This is the world of the mafia—filled with <quote>your money or your "
12989 "life</quote> offers, governed in the end not by courts but by the threats "
12990 "that the law empowers copyright holders to exercise. It is a system that "
12991 "will obviously and necessarily stifle new innovation. It is hard enough to "
12992 "start a company. It is impossibly hard if that company is constantly "
12993 "threatened by litigation."
12997 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
12998 #: freeculture.xml:9454
13000 "The point is not that businesses should have a right to start illegal "
13001 "enterprises. The point is the definition of <quote>illegal.</quote> The law "
13002 "is a mess of uncertainty. We have no good way to know how it should apply to "
13003 "new technologies. Yet by reversing our tradition of judicial deference, and "
13004 "by embracing the astonishingly high penalties that copyright law imposes, "
13005 "that uncertainty now yields a reality which is far more conservative than is "
13006 "right. If the law imposed the death penalty for parking tickets, we'd not "
13007 "only have fewer parking tickets, we'd also have much less driving. The same "
13008 "principle applies to innovation. If innovation is constantly checked by this "
13009 "uncertain and unlimited liability, we will have much less vibrant innovation "
13010 "and much less creativity."
13013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13014 #: freeculture.xml:9469
13016 "The point is directly parallel to the crunchy-lefty point about fair "
13017 "use. Whatever the <quote>real</quote> law is, realism about the effect of "
13018 "law in both contexts is the same. This wildly punitive system of regulation "
13019 "will systematically stifle creativity and innovation. It will protect some "
13020 "industries and some creators, but it will harm industry and creativity "
13021 "generally. Free market and free culture depend upon vibrant competition. "
13022 "Yet the effect of the law today is to stifle just this kind of competition. "
13023 "The effect is to produce an overregulated culture, just as the effect of too "
13024 "much control in the market is to produce an overregulatedregulated market."
13028 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13029 #: freeculture.xml:9481
13031 "The building of a permission culture, rather than a free culture, is the "
13032 "first important way in which the changes I have described will burden "
13033 "innovation. A permission culture means a lawyer's culture—a culture in "
13034 "which the ability to create requires a call to your lawyer. Again, I am not "
13035 "antilawyer, at least when they're kept in their proper place. I am certainly "
13036 "not antilaw. But our profession has lost the sense of its limits. And "
13037 "leaders in our profession have lost an appreciation of the high costs that "
13038 "our profession imposes upon others. The inefficiency of the law is an "
13039 "embarrassment to our tradition. And while I believe our profession should "
13040 "therefore do everything it can to make the law more efficient, it should at "
13041 "least do everything it can to limit the reach of the law where the law is "
13042 "not doing any good. The transaction costs buried within a permission culture "
13043 "are enough to bury a wide range of creativity. Someone needs to do a lot of "
13044 "justifying to justify that result."
13047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13048 #: freeculture.xml:9500
13050 "<emphasis role='strong'>The uncertainty</emphasis> of the law is one burden "
13051 "on innovation. There is a second burden that operates more directly. This is "
13052 "the effort by many in the content industry to use the law to directly "
13053 "regulate the technology of the Internet so that it better protects their "
13057 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13058 #: freeculture.xml:9507
13060 "The motivation for this response is obvious. The Internet enables the "
13061 "efficient spread of content. That efficiency is a feature of the Internet's "
13062 "design. But from the perspective of the content industry, this feature is a "
13063 "<quote>bug.</quote> The efficient spread of content means that content "
13064 "distributors have a harder time controlling the distribution of content. "
13065 "One obvious response to this efficiency is thus to make the Internet less "
13066 "efficient. If the Internet enables <quote>piracy,</quote> then, this "
13067 "response says, we should break the kneecaps of the Internet."
13071 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13072 #: freeculture.xml:9522
13074 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> "
13075 "GartnerG2 and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law "
13076 "School (2003), 33–35, available at <ulink "
13077 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>."
13081 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13082 #: freeculture.xml:9535
13083 msgid "GartnerG2, 26–27."
13086 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13087 #: freeculture.xml:9518
13089 "The examples of this form of legislation are many. At the urging of the "
13090 "content industry, some in Congress have threatened legislation that would "
13091 "require computers to determine whether the content they access is protected "
13092 "or not, and to disable the spread of protected content.<placeholder "
13093 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Congress has already launched proceedings to "
13094 "explore a mandatory <quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would be required on "
13095 "any device capable of transmitting digital video (i.e., a computer), and "
13096 "that would disable the copying of any content that is marked with a "
13097 "broadcast flag. Other members of Congress have proposed immunizing content "
13098 "providers from liability for technology they might deploy that would hunt "
13099 "down copyright violators and disable their machines.<placeholder "
13100 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
13104 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13105 #: freeculture.xml:9539
13107 "In one sense, these solutions seem sensible. If the problem is the code, why "
13108 "not regulate the code to remove the problem. But any regulation of technical "
13109 "infrastructure will always be tuned to the particular technology of the "
13110 "day. It will impose significant burdens and costs on the technology, but "
13111 "will likely be eclipsed by advances around exactly those requirements."
13114 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
13115 #: freeculture.xml:9548 freeculture.xml:11386
13120 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13121 #: freeculture.xml:9554
13123 "See David McGuire, <quote>Tech Execs Square Off Over Piracy,</quote> "
13124 "Newsbytes, February 2002 (Entertainment)."
13127 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13128 #: freeculture.xml:9550
13130 "In March 2002, a broad coalition of technology companies, led by Intel, "
13131 "tried to get Congress to see the harm that such legislation would "
13132 "impose.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Their argument was "
13133 "obviously not that copyright should not be protected. Instead, they argued, "
13134 "any protection should not do more harm than good."
13137 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13138 #: freeculture.xml:9562
13140 "<emphasis role='strong'>There is one</emphasis> more obvious way in which "
13141 "this war has harmed innovation—again, a story that will be quite "
13142 "familiar to the free market crowd."
13145 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13146 #: freeculture.xml:9567
13148 "Copyright may be property, but like all property, it is also a form of "
13149 "regulation. It is a regulation that benefits some and harms others. When "
13150 "done right, it benefits creators and harms leeches. When done wrong, it is "
13151 "regulation the powerful use to defeat competitors."
13154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13155 #: freeculture.xml:9581
13157 "Jessica Litman, <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle> (Amherst, N.Y.: "
13158 "Prometheus Books, 2001). <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
13161 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13162 #: freeculture.xml:9575
13164 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13165 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, despite this feature of copyright as regulation, "
13166 "and subject to important qualifications outlined by Jessica Litman in her "
13167 "book <citetitle>Digital Copyright</citetitle>,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13168 "id=\"0\"/> overall this history of copyright is not bad. As chapter 10 "
13169 "details, when new technologies have come along, Congress has struck a "
13170 "balance to assure that the new is protected from the old. Compulsory, or "
13171 "statutory, licenses have been one part of that strategy. Free use (as in the "
13172 "case of the VCR) has been another."
13175 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13176 #: freeculture.xml:9592
13178 "But that pattern of deference to new technologies has now changed with the "
13179 "rise of the Internet. Rather than striking a balance between the claims of a "
13180 "new technology and the legitimate rights of content creators, both the "
13181 "courts and Congress have imposed legal restrictions that will have the "
13182 "effect of smothering the new to benefit the old."
13185 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13186 #: freeculture.xml:9601
13187 msgid "Grokster, Ltd."
13190 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13191 #: freeculture.xml:9601
13193 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> The only circuit court exception "
13194 "is found in <citetitle>Recording Industry Association of America "
13195 "(RIAA)</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Diamond Multimedia Systems</citetitle>, 180 "
13196 "F. 3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999). There the court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit "
13197 "reasoned that makers of a portable MP3 player were not liable for "
13198 "contributory copyright infringement for a device that is unable to record or "
13199 "redistribute music (a device whose only copying function is to render "
13200 "portable a music file already stored on a user's hard drive). At the "
13201 "district court level, the only exception is found in "
13202 "<citetitle>Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, "
13203 "Inc</citetitle>. v. <citetitle>Grokster, Ltd</citetitle>., 259 F. Supp. 2d "
13204 "1029 (C.D. Cal., 2003), where the court found the link between the "
13205 "distributor and any given user's conduct too attenuated to make the "
13206 "distributor liable for contributory or vicarious infringement liability."
13209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13210 #: freeculture.xml:9620
13211 msgid "Tauzin, Billy"
13214 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13215 #: freeculture.xml:9636
13216 msgid "Hollings, Fritz"
13219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13220 #: freeculture.xml:9620
13222 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> For example, in July 2002, "
13223 "Representative Howard Berman introduced the Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention "
13224 "Act (H.R. 5211), which would immunize copyright holders from liability for "
13225 "damage done to computers when the copyright holders use technology to stop "
13226 "copyright infringement. In August 2002, Representative Billy Tauzin "
13227 "introduced a bill to mandate that technologies capable of rebroadcasting "
13228 "digital copies of films broadcast on TV (i.e., computers) respect a "
13229 "<quote>broadcast flag</quote> that would disable copying of that "
13230 "content. And in March of the same year, Senator Fritz Hollings introduced "
13231 "the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which mandated "
13232 "copyright protection technology in all digital media devices. See GartnerG2, "
13233 "<quote>Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World,</quote> 27 June "
13234 "2003, 33–34, available at <ulink "
13235 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #44</ulink>. <placeholder "
13236 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"2\"/> "
13237 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
13240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13241 #: freeculture.xml:9599
13243 "The response by the courts has been fairly universal.<placeholder "
13244 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It has been mirrored in the responses "
13245 "threatened and actually implemented by Congress. I won't catalog all of "
13246 "those responses here.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> But there is "
13247 "one example that captures the flavor of them all. This is the story of the "
13248 "demise of Internet radio."
13252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13253 #: freeculture.xml:9647
13255 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
13256 "linkend=\"pirates\"/>, when a radio station plays a song, the recording "
13257 "artist doesn't get paid for that <quote>radio performance</quote> unless he "
13258 "or she is also the composer. So, for example if Marilyn Monroe had recorded "
13259 "a version of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote>—to memorialize her famous "
13260 "performance before President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden— then "
13261 "whenever that recording was played on the radio, the current copyright "
13262 "owners of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> would get some money, whereas "
13263 "Marilyn Monroe would not."
13266 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13267 #: freeculture.xml:9658
13269 "The reasoning behind this balance struck by Congress makes some sense. The "
13270 "justification was that radio was a kind of advertising. The recording artist "
13271 "thus benefited because by playing her music, the radio station was making it "
13272 "more likely that her records would be purchased. Thus, the recording artist "
13273 "got something, even if only indirectly. Probably this reasoning had less to "
13274 "do with the result than with the power of radio stations: Their lobbyists "
13275 "were quite good at stopping any efforts to get Congress to require "
13276 "compensation to the recording artists."
13279 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13280 #: freeculture.xml:9669
13282 "Enter Internet radio. Like regular radio, Internet radio is a technology to "
13283 "stream content from a broadcaster to a listener. The broadcast travels "
13284 "across the Internet, not across the ether of radio spectrum. Thus, I can "
13285 "<quote>tune in</quote> to an Internet radio station in Berlin while sitting "
13286 "in San Francisco, even though there's no way for me to tune in to a regular "
13287 "radio station much beyond the San Francisco metropolitan area."
13290 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13291 #: freeculture.xml:9678
13293 "This feature of the architecture of Internet radio means that there are "
13294 "potentially an unlimited number of radio stations that a user could tune in "
13295 "to using her computer, whereas under the existing architecture for broadcast "
13296 "radio, there is an obvious limit to the number of broadcasters and clear "
13297 "broadcast frequencies. Internet radio could therefore be more competitive "
13298 "than regular radio; it could provide a wider range of selections. And "
13299 "because the potential audience for Internet radio is the whole world, niche "
13300 "stations could easily develop and market their content to a relatively large "
13301 "number of users worldwide. According to some estimates, more than eighty "
13302 "million users worldwide have tuned in to this new form of radio."
13306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13307 #: freeculture.xml:9694
13309 "Internet radio is thus to radio what FM was to AM. It is an improvement "
13310 "potentially vastly more significant than the FM improvement over AM, since "
13311 "not only is the technology better, so, too, is the competition. Indeed, "
13312 "there is a direct parallel between the fight to establish FM radio and the "
13313 "fight to protect Internet radio. As one author describes Howard Armstrong's "
13314 "struggle to enable FM radio,"
13318 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
13319 #: freeculture.xml:9718
13320 msgid "Lessing, 239."
13323 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13324 #: freeculture.xml:9704
13326 "An almost unlimited number of FM stations was possible in the shortwaves, "
13327 "thus ending the unnatural restrictions imposed on radio in the crowded "
13328 "longwaves. If FM were freely developed, the number of stations would be "
13329 "limited only by economics and competition rather than by technical "
13330 "restrictions. … Armstrong likened the situation that had grown up in "
13331 "radio to that following the invention of the printing press, when "
13332 "governments and ruling interests attempted to control this new instrument of "
13333 "mass communications by imposing restrictive licenses on it. This tyranny was "
13334 "broken only when it became possible for men freely to acquire printing "
13335 "presses and freely to run them. FM in this sense was as great an invention "
13336 "as the printing presses, for it gave radio the opportunity to strike off its "
13337 "shackles.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
13341 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13342 #: freeculture.xml:9728
13343 msgid "Ibid., 229."
13346 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13347 #: freeculture.xml:9723
13349 "This potential for FM radio was never realized—not because Armstrong "
13350 "was wrong about the technology, but because he underestimated the power of "
13351 "<quote>vested interests, habits, customs and legislation</quote><placeholder "
13352 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> to retard the growth of this competing "
13356 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13357 #: freeculture.xml:9733
13359 "Now the very same claim could be made about Internet radio. For again, there "
13360 "is no technical limitation that could restrict the number of Internet radio "
13361 "stations. The only restrictions on Internet radio are those imposed by the "
13362 "law. Copyright law is one such law. So the first question we should ask is, "
13363 "what copyright rules would govern Internet radio?"
13367 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13368 #: freeculture.xml:9742
13370 "But here the power of the lobbyists is reversed. Internet radio is a new "
13371 "industry. The recording artists, on the other hand, have a very powerful "
13372 "lobby, the RIAA. Thus when Congress considered the phenomenon of Internet "
13373 "radio in 1995, the lobbyists had primed Congress to adopt a different rule "
13374 "for Internet radio than the rule that applies to terrestrial radio. While "
13375 "terrestrial radio does not have to pay our hypothetical Marilyn Monroe when "
13376 "it plays her hypothetical recording of <quote>Happy Birthday</quote> on the "
13377 "air, <emphasis>Internet radio does</emphasis>. Not only is the law not "
13378 "neutral toward Internet radio—the law actually burdens Internet radio "
13379 "more than it burdens terrestrial radio."
13382 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
13383 #: freeculture.xml:9781
13384 msgid "CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel)"
13387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13388 #: freeculture.xml:9764
13390 "This example was derived from fees set by the original Copyright Arbitration "
13391 "Royalty Panel (CARP) proceedings, and is drawn from an example offered by "
13392 "Professor William Fisher. Conference Proceedings, iLaw (Stanford), 3 July "
13393 "2003, on file with author. Professors Fisher and Zittrain submitted "
13394 "testimony in the CARP proceeding that was ultimately rejected. See Jonathan "
13395 "Zittrain, Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings and Ephemeral "
13396 "Recordings, Docket No. 2000-9, CARP DTRA 1 and 2, available at <ulink "
13397 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #45</ulink>. For an excellent "
13398 "analysis making a similar point, see Randal C. Picker, <quote>Copyright as "
13399 "Entry Policy: The Case of Digital Distribution,</quote> <citetitle>Antitrust "
13400 "Bulletin</citetitle> (Summer/Fall 2002): 461: <quote>This was not confusion, "
13401 "these are just old-fashioned entry barriers. Analog radio stations are "
13402 "protected from digital entrants, reducing entry in radio and diversity. Yes, "
13403 "this is done in the name of getting royalties to copyright holders, but, "
13404 "absent the play of powerful interests, that could have been done in a "
13405 "media-neutral way.</quote> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> "
13406 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
13409 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13410 #: freeculture.xml:9757
13412 "This financial burden is not slight. As Harvard law professor William Fisher "
13413 "estimates, if an Internet radio station distributed adfree popular music to "
13414 "(on average) ten thousand listeners, twenty-four hours a day, the total "
13415 "artist fees that radio station would owe would be over $1 million a "
13416 "year.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> A regular radio station "
13417 "broadcasting the same content would pay no equivalent fee."
13420 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13421 #: freeculture.xml:9789
13423 "The burden is not financial only. Under the original rules that were "
13424 "proposed, an Internet radio station (but not a terrestrial radio station) "
13425 "would have to collect the following data from <emphasis>every listening "
13426 "transaction</emphasis>:"
13429 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13430 #: freeculture.xml:9797
13431 msgid "name of the service;"
13434 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13435 #: freeculture.xml:9800
13436 msgid "channel of the program (AM/FM stations use station ID);"
13439 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13440 #: freeculture.xml:9803
13441 msgid "type of program (archived/looped/live);"
13444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13445 #: freeculture.xml:9806
13446 msgid "date of transmission;"
13449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13450 #: freeculture.xml:9809
13451 msgid "time of transmission;"
13454 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13455 #: freeculture.xml:9812
13456 msgid "time zone of origination of transmission;"
13459 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13460 #: freeculture.xml:9815
13461 msgid "numeric designation of the place of the sound recording within the program;"
13464 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13465 #: freeculture.xml:9818
13466 msgid "duration of transmission (to nearest second);"
13469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13470 #: freeculture.xml:9821
13471 msgid "sound recording title;"
13474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13475 #: freeculture.xml:9824
13476 msgid "ISRC code of the recording;"
13479 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13480 #: freeculture.xml:9827
13482 "release year of the album per copyright notice and in the case of "
13483 "compilation albums, the release year of the album and copy- right date of "
13487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13488 #: freeculture.xml:9830
13489 msgid "featured recording artist;"
13492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13493 #: freeculture.xml:9833
13494 msgid "retail album title;"
13497 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13498 #: freeculture.xml:9836
13499 msgid "recording label;"
13502 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13503 #: freeculture.xml:9839
13504 msgid "UPC code of the retail album;"
13507 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13508 #: freeculture.xml:9842
13509 msgid "catalog number;"
13512 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13513 #: freeculture.xml:9845
13514 msgid "copyright owner information;"
13517 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13518 #: freeculture.xml:9848
13519 msgid "musical genre of the channel or program (station format);"
13522 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13523 #: freeculture.xml:9851
13524 msgid "name of the service or entity;"
13527 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13528 #: freeculture.xml:9854
13529 msgid "channel or program;"
13532 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13533 #: freeculture.xml:9857
13534 msgid "date and time that the user logged in (in the user's time zone);"
13537 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13538 #: freeculture.xml:9860
13539 msgid "date and time that the user logged out (in the user's time zone);"
13542 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13543 #: freeculture.xml:9863
13544 msgid "time zone where the signal was received (user);"
13547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13548 #: freeculture.xml:9866
13549 msgid "unique user identifier;"
13552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
13553 #: freeculture.xml:9869
13554 msgid "the country in which the user received the transmissions."
13557 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13558 #: freeculture.xml:9874
13560 "The Librarian of Congress eventually suspended these reporting requirements, "
13561 "pending further study. And he also changed the original rates set by the "
13562 "arbitration panel charged with setting rates. But the basic difference "
13563 "between Internet radio and terrestrial radio remains: Internet radio has to "
13564 "pay a <emphasis>type of copyright fee</emphasis> that terrestrial radio does "
13568 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13569 #: freeculture.xml:9882
13571 "Why? What justifies this difference? Was there any study of the economic "
13572 "consequences from Internet radio that would justify these differences? Was "
13573 "the motive to protect artists against piracy?"
13576 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
13577 #: freeculture.xml:9886 freeculture.xml:14553
13578 msgid "Real Networks"
13581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13582 #: freeculture.xml:9889
13584 "In a rare bit of candor, one RIAA expert admitted what seemed obvious to "
13585 "everyone at the time. As Alex Alben, vice president for Public Policy at "
13586 "Real Networks, told me,"
13590 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13591 #: freeculture.xml:9895
13593 "The RIAA, which was representing the record labels, presented some testimony "
13594 "about what they thought a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller, and "
13595 "it was much higher. It was ten times higher than what radio stations pay to "
13596 "perform the same songs for the same period of time. And so the attorneys "
13597 "representing the webcasters asked the RIAA, … <quote>How do you come "
13598 "up with a rate that's so much higher? Why is it worth more than radio? "
13599 "Because here we have hundreds of thousands of webcasters who want to pay, "
13600 "and that should establish the market rate, and if you set the rate so high, "
13601 "you're going to drive the small webcasters out of business. …</quote>"
13604 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
13605 #: freeculture.xml:9911
13607 "And the RIAA experts said, <quote>Well, we don't really model this as an "
13608 "industry with thousands of webcasters, <emphasis>we think it should be an "
13609 "industry with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate "
13610 "and it's a stable, predictable market</emphasis>.</quote> (Emphasis added.)"
13613 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13614 #: freeculture.xml:9920
13616 "Translation: The aim is to use the law to eliminate competition, so that "
13617 "this platform of potentially immense competition, which would cause the "
13618 "diversity and range of content available to explode, would not cause pain to "
13619 "the dinosaurs of old. There is no one, on either the right or the left, who "
13620 "should endorse this use of the law. And yet there is practically no one, on "
13621 "either the right or the left, who is doing anything effective to prevent it."
13624 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><title>
13625 #: freeculture.xml:9930
13626 msgid "Corrupting Citizens"
13629 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13630 #: freeculture.xml:9932
13632 "Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives "
13633 "dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity "
13634 "for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables."
13637 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13638 #: freeculture.xml:9938
13640 "In addition to these important harms, there is one more that was important "
13641 "to our forebears, but seems forgotten today. Overregulation corrupts "
13642 "citizens and weakens the rule of law."
13646 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13647 #: freeculture.xml:9947
13649 "Mike Graziano and Lee Rainie, <quote>The Music Downloading Deluge,</quote> "
13650 "Pew Internet and American Life Project (24 April 2001), available at <ulink "
13651 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #46</ulink>. The Pew Internet "
13652 "and American Life Project reported that 37 million Americans had downloaded "
13653 "music files from the Internet by early 2001."
13657 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13658 #: freeculture.xml:9943
13660 "The war that is being waged today is a war of prohibition. As with every war "
13661 "of prohibition, it is targeted against the behavior of a very large number "
13662 "of citizens. According to <citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>, 43 "
13663 "million Americans downloaded music in May 2002.<placeholder "
13664 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> According to the RIAA, the behavior of those 43 "
13665 "million Americans is a felony. We thus have a set of rules that transform 20 "
13666 "percent of America into criminals. As the RIAA launches lawsuits against not "
13667 "only the Napsters and Kazaas of the world, but against students building "
13668 "search engines, and increasingly against ordinary users downloading content, "
13669 "the technologies for sharing will advance to further protect and hide "
13670 "illegal use. It is an arms race or a civil war, with the extremes of one "
13671 "side inviting a more extreme response by the other."
13675 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13676 #: freeculture.xml:9981
13678 "Alex Pham, <quote>The Labels Strike Back: N.Y. Girl Settles RIAA "
13679 "Case,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, "
13683 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13684 #: freeculture.xml:9968
13686 "The content industry's tactics exploit the failings of the American legal "
13687 "system. When the RIAA brought suit against Jesse Jordan, it knew that in "
13688 "Jordan it had found a scapegoat, not a defendant. The threat of having to "
13689 "pay either all the money in the world in damages ($15,000,000) or almost all "
13690 "the money in the world to defend against paying all the money in the world "
13691 "in damages ($250,000 in legal fees) led Jordan to choose to pay all the "
13692 "money he had in the world ($12,000) to make the suit go away. The same "
13693 "strategy animates the RIAA's suits against individual users. In September "
13694 "2003, the RIAA sued 261 individuals—including a twelve-year-old girl "
13695 "living in public housing and a seventy-year-old man who had no idea what "
13696 "file sharing was.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> As these "
13697 "scapegoats discovered, it will always cost more to defend against these "
13698 "suits than it would cost to simply settle. (The twelve year old, for "
13699 "example, like Jesse Jordan, paid her life savings of $2,000 to settle the "
13700 "case.) Our law is an awful system for defending rights. It is an "
13701 "embarrassment to our tradition. And the consequence of our law as it is, is "
13702 "that those with the power can use the law to quash any rights they oppose."
13705 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13706 #: freeculture.xml:9992
13707 msgid "alcohol prohibition"
13711 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13712 #: freeculture.xml:10004
13714 "Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, <quote>Alcohol Consumption During "
13715 "Prohibition,</quote> <citetitle>American Economic Review</citetitle> 81, "
13716 "no. 2 (1991): 242."
13720 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13721 #: freeculture.xml:10012
13723 "National Drug Control Policy: Hearing Before the House Government Reform "
13724 "Committee, 108th Cong., 1st sess. (5 March 2003) (statement of John "
13725 "P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy)."
13729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
13730 #: freeculture.xml:10022
13732 "See James Andreoni, Brian Erard, and Jonathon Feinstein, <quote>Tax "
13733 "Compliance,</quote> <citetitle>Journal of Economic Literature</citetitle> 36 "
13734 "(1998): 818 (survey of compliance literature)."
13737 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13738 #: freeculture.xml:9994
13740 "Wars of prohibition are nothing new in America. This one is just something "
13741 "more extreme than anything we've seen before. We experimented with alcohol "
13742 "prohibition, at a time when the per capita consumption of alcohol was 1.5 "
13743 "gallons per capita per year. The war against drinking initially reduced that "
13744 "consumption to just 30 percent of its preprohibition levels, but by the end "
13745 "of prohibition, consumption was up to 70 percent of the preprohibition "
13746 "level. Americans were drinking just about as much, but now, a vast number "
13747 "were criminals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> We have launched a "
13748 "war on drugs aimed at reducing the consumption of regulated narcotics that 7 "
13749 "percent (or 16 million) Americans now use.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
13750 "id=\"1\"/> That is a drop from the high (so to speak) in 1979 of 14 percent "
13751 "of the population. We regulate automobiles to the point where the vast "
13752 "majority of Americans violate the law every day. We run such a complex tax "
13753 "system that a majority of cash businesses regularly cheat.<placeholder "
13754 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> We pride ourselves on our <quote>free "
13755 "society,</quote> but an endless array of ordinary behavior is regulated "
13756 "within our society. And as a result, a huge proportion of Americans "
13757 "regularly violate at least some law."
13760 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13761 #: freeculture.xml:10030
13762 msgid "law schools"
13765 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13766 #: freeculture.xml:10032
13768 "This state of affairs is not without consequence. It is a particularly "
13769 "salient issue for teachers like me, whose job it is to teach law students "
13770 "about the importance of <quote>ethics.</quote> As my colleague Charlie "
13771 "Nesson told a class at Stanford, each year law schools admit thousands of "
13772 "students who have illegally downloaded music, illegally consumed alcohol and "
13773 "sometimes drugs, illegally worked without paying taxes, illegally driven "
13774 "cars. These are kids for whom behaving illegally is increasingly the "
13775 "norm. And then we, as law professors, are supposed to teach them how to "
13776 "behave ethically—how to say no to bribes, or keep client funds "
13777 "separate, or honor a demand to disclose a document that will mean that your "
13778 "case is over. Generations of Americans—more significantly in some "
13779 "parts of America than in others, but still, everywhere in America "
13780 "today—can't live their lives both normally and legally, since "
13781 "<quote>normally</quote> entails a certain degree of illegality."
13784 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13785 #: freeculture.xml:10049
13787 "The response to this general illegality is either to enforce the law more "
13788 "severely or to change the law. We, as a society, have to learn how to make "
13789 "that choice more rationally. Whether a law makes sense depends, in part, at "
13790 "least, upon whether the costs of the law, both intended and collateral, "
13791 "outweigh the benefits. If the costs, intended and collateral, do outweigh "
13792 "the benefits, then the law ought to be changed. Alternatively, if the costs "
13793 "of the existing system are much greater than the costs of an alternative, "
13794 "then we have a good reason to consider the alternative."
13798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13799 #: freeculture.xml:10062
13801 "My point is not the idiotic one: Just because people violate a law, we "
13802 "should therefore repeal it. Obviously, we could reduce murder statistics "
13803 "dramatically by legalizing murder on Wednesdays and Fridays. But that "
13804 "wouldn't make any sense, since murder is wrong every day of the week. A "
13805 "society is right to ban murder always and everywhere."
13808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13809 #: freeculture.xml:10069
13811 "My point is instead one that democracies understood for generations, but "
13812 "that we recently have learned to forget. The rule of law depends upon people "
13813 "obeying the law. The more often, and more repeatedly, we as citizens "
13814 "experience violating the law, the less we respect the law. Obviously, in "
13815 "most cases, the important issue is the law, not respect for the law. I don't "
13816 "care whether the rapist respects the law or not; I want to catch and "
13817 "incarcerate the rapist. But I do care whether my students respect the "
13818 "law. And I do care if the rules of law sow increasing disrespect because of "
13819 "the extreme of regulation they impose. Twenty million Americans have come "
13820 "of age since the Internet introduced this different idea of "
13821 "<quote>sharing.</quote> We need to be able to call these twenty million "
13822 "Americans <quote>citizens,</quote> not <quote>felons.</quote>"
13825 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13826 #: freeculture.xml:10083
13828 "When at least forty-three million citizens download content from the "
13829 "Internet, and when they use tools to combine that content in ways "
13830 "unauthorized by copyright holders, the first question we should be asking is "
13831 "not how best to involve the FBI. The first question should be whether this "
13832 "particular prohibition is really necessary in order to achieve the proper "
13833 "ends that copyright law serves. Is there another way to assure that artists "
13834 "get paid without transforming forty-three million Americans into felons? "
13835 "Does it make sense if there are other ways to assure that artists get paid "
13836 "without transforming America into a nation of felons?"
13839 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13840 #: freeculture.xml:10095
13841 msgid "This abstract point can be made more clear with a particular example."
13845 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13846 #: freeculture.xml:10098
13848 "We all own CDs. Many of us still own phonograph records. These pieces of "
13849 "plastic encode music that in a certain sense we have bought. The law "
13850 "protects our right to buy and sell that plastic: It is not a copyright "
13851 "infringement for me to sell all my classical records at a used record store "
13852 "and buy jazz records to replace them. That <quote>use</quote> of the "
13853 "recordings is free."
13856 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13857 #: freeculture.xml:10109
13859 "But as the MP3 craze has demonstrated, there is another use of phonograph "
13860 "records that is effectively free. Because these recordings were made without "
13861 "copy-protection technologies, I am <quote>free</quote> to copy, or "
13862 "<quote>rip,</quote> music from my records onto a computer hard disk. Indeed, "
13863 "Apple Corporation went so far as to suggest that <quote>freedom</quote> was "
13864 "a right: In a series of commercials, Apple endorsed the <quote>Rip, Mix, "
13865 "Burn</quote> capacities of digital technologies."
13868 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13869 #: freeculture.xml:10117
13873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><secondary>
13874 #: freeculture.xml:10118
13875 msgid "mix technology and"
13878 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13879 #: freeculture.xml:10120
13881 "This <quote>use</quote> of my records is certainly valuable. I have begun a "
13882 "large process at home of ripping all of my and my wife's CDs, and storing "
13883 "them in one archive. Then, using Apple's iTunes, or a wonderful program "
13884 "called Andromeda, we can build different play lists of our music: Bach, "
13885 "Baroque, Love Songs, Love Songs of Significant Others—the potential is "
13886 "endless. And by reducing the costs of mixing play lists, these technologies "
13887 "help build a creativity with play lists that is itself independently "
13888 "valuable. Compilations of songs are creative and meaningful in their own "
13892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13893 #: freeculture.xml:10131
13895 "This use is enabled by unprotected media—either CDs or records. But "
13896 "unprotected media also enable file sharing. File sharing threatens (or so "
13897 "the content industry believes) the ability of creators to earn a fair return "
13898 "from their creativity. And thus, many are beginning to experiment with "
13899 "technologies to eliminate unprotected media. These technologies, for "
13900 "example, would enable CDs that could not be ripped. Or they might enable spy "
13901 "programs to identify ripped content on people's machines."
13905 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13906 #: freeculture.xml:10141
13908 "If these technologies took off, then the building of large archives of your "
13909 "own music would become quite difficult. You might hang in hacker circles, "
13910 "and get technology to disable the technologies that protect the "
13911 "content. Trading in those technologies is illegal, but maybe that doesn't "
13912 "bother you much. In any case, for the vast majority of people, these "
13913 "protection technologies would effectively destroy the archiving use of "
13914 "CDs. The technology, in other words, would force us all back to the world "
13915 "where we either listened to music by manipulating pieces of plastic or were "
13916 "part of a massively complex <quote>digital rights management</quote> system."
13919 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13920 #: freeculture.xml:10156
13922 "If the only way to assure that artists get paid were the elimination of the "
13923 "ability to freely move content, then these technologies to interfere with "
13924 "the freedom to move content would be justifiable. But what if there were "
13925 "another way to assure that artists are paid, without locking down any "
13926 "content? What if, in other words, a different system could assure "
13927 "compensation to artists while also preserving the freedom to move content "
13931 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13932 #: freeculture.xml:10165
13934 "My point just now is not to prove that there is such a system. I offer a "
13935 "version of such a system in the last chapter of this book. For now, the only "
13936 "point is the relatively uncontroversial one: If a different system achieved "
13937 "the same legitimate objectives that the existing copyright system achieved, "
13938 "but left consumers and creators much more free, then we'd have a very good "
13939 "reason to pursue this alternative—namely, freedom. The choice, in "
13940 "other words, would not be between property and piracy; the choice would be "
13941 "between different property systems and the freedoms each allowed."
13944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13945 #: freeculture.xml:10176
13947 "I believe there is a way to assure that artists are paid without turning "
13948 "forty-three million Americans into felons. But the salient feature of this "
13949 "alternative is that it would lead to a very different market for producing "
13950 "and distributing creativity. The dominant few, who today control the vast "
13951 "majority of the distribution of content in the world, would no longer "
13952 "exercise this extreme of control. Rather, they would go the way of the "
13953 "horse-drawn buggy."
13956 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13957 #: freeculture.xml:10185
13959 "Except that this generation's buggy manufacturers have already saddled "
13960 "Congress, and are riding the law to protect themselves against this new form "
13961 "of competition. For them the choice is between fortythree million Americans "
13962 "as criminals and their own survival."
13966 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13967 #: freeculture.xml:10191
13969 "It is understandable why they choose as they do. It is not understandable "
13970 "why we as a democracy continue to choose as we do. Jack Valenti is charming; "
13971 "but not so charming as to justify giving up a tradition as deep and "
13972 "important as our tradition of free culture."
13975 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13976 #: freeculture.xml:10202
13978 "<emphasis role='strong'>There's one more</emphasis> aspect to this "
13979 "corruption that is particularly important to civil liberties, and follows "
13980 "directly from any war of prohibition. As Electronic Frontier Foundation "
13981 "attorney Fred von Lohmann describes, this is the <quote>collateral "
13982 "damage</quote> that <quote>arises whenever you turn a very large percentage "
13983 "of the population into criminals.</quote> This is the collateral damage to "
13984 "civil liberties generally."
13987 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><indexterm><primary>
13988 #: freeculture.xml:10210 freeculture.xml:10310
13989 msgid "von Lohmann, Fred"
13992 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
13993 #: freeculture.xml:10212
13995 "<quote>If you can treat someone as a putative lawbreaker,</quote> von "
13996 "Lohmann explains,"
13999 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14000 #: freeculture.xml:10217
14002 "then all of a sudden a lot of basic civil liberty protections evaporate to "
14003 "one degree or another. … If you're a copyright infringer, how can you "
14004 "hope to have any privacy rights? If you're a copyright infringer, how can "
14005 "you hope to be secure against seizures of your computer? How can you hope to "
14006 "continue to receive Internet access? … Our sensibilities change as "
14007 "soon as we think, <quote>Oh, well, but that person's a criminal, a "
14008 "lawbreaker.</quote> Well, what this campaign against file sharing has done "
14009 "is turn a remarkable percentage of the American Internet-using population "
14010 "into <quote>lawbreakers.</quote>"
14013 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14014 #: freeculture.xml:10229
14016 "And the consequence of this transformation of the American public into "
14017 "criminals is that it becomes trivial, as a matter of due process, to "
14018 "effectively erase much of the privacy most would presume."
14021 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14022 #: freeculture.xml:10234
14024 "Users of the Internet began to see this generally in 2003 as the RIAA "
14025 "launched its campaign to force Internet service providers to turn over the "
14026 "names of customers who the RIAA believed were violating copyright "
14027 "law. Verizon fought that demand and lost. With a simple request to a judge, "
14028 "and without any notice to the customer at all, the identity of an Internet "
14029 "user is revealed."
14033 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14034 #: freeculture.xml:10252
14036 "See Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single "
14037 "Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> "
14038 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, E1; Chris Cobbs, "
14039 "<quote>Worried Parents Pull Plug on File `Stealing'; With the Music Industry "
14040 "Cracking Down on File Swapping, Parents are Yanking Software from Home PCs "
14041 "to Avoid Being Sued,</quote> <citetitle>Orlando Sentinel "
14042 "Tribune</citetitle>, 30 August 2003, C1; Jefferson Graham, <quote>Recording "
14043 "Industry Sues Parents,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 15 "
14044 "September 2003, 4D; John Schwartz, <quote>She Says She's No Music Pirate. No "
14045 "Snoop Fan, Either,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 25 "
14046 "September 2003, C1; Margo Varadi, <quote>Is Brianna a Criminal?</quote> "
14047 "<citetitle>Toronto Star</citetitle>, 18 September 2003, P7."
14050 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14051 #: freeculture.xml:10243
14053 "The RIAA then expanded this campaign, by announcing a general strategy to "
14054 "sue individual users of the Internet who are alleged to have downloaded "
14055 "copyrighted music from file-sharing systems. But as we've seen, the "
14056 "potential damages from these suits are astronomical: If a family's computer "
14057 "is used to download a single CD's worth of music, the family could be liable "
14058 "for $2 million in damages. That didn't stop the RIAA from suing a number of "
14059 "these families, just as they had sued Jesse Jordan.<placeholder "
14060 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14065 #: freeculture.xml:10270
14067 "See <quote>Revealed: How RIAA Tracks Downloaders: Music Industry Discloses "
14068 "Some Methods Used,</quote> CNN.com, available at <ulink "
14069 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #47</ulink>."
14072 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14073 #: freeculture.xml:10266
14075 "Even this understates the espionage that is being waged by the RIAA. A "
14076 "report from CNN late last summer described a strategy the RIAA had adopted "
14077 "to track Napster users.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Using a "
14078 "sophisticated hashing algorithm, the RIAA took what is in effect a "
14079 "fingerprint of every song in the Napster catalog. Any copy of one of those "
14080 "MP3s will have the same <quote>fingerprint.</quote>"
14084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para><footnote><para>
14085 #: freeculture.xml:10291
14087 "See Jeff Adler, <quote>Cambridge: On Campus, Pirates Are Not "
14088 "Penitent,</quote> <citetitle>Boston Globe</citetitle>, 18 May 2003, City "
14089 "Weekly, 1; Frank Ahrens, <quote>Four Students Sued over Music Sites; "
14090 "Industry Group Targets File Sharing at Colleges,</quote> "
14091 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 4 April 2003, E1; Elizabeth "
14092 "Armstrong, <quote>Students `Rip, Mix, Burn' at Their Own Risk,</quote> "
14093 "<citetitle>Christian Science Monitor</citetitle>, 2 September 2003, 20; "
14094 "Robert Becker and Angela Rozas, <quote>Music Pirate Hunt Turns to Loyola; "
14095 "Two Students Names Are Handed Over; Lawsuit Possible,</quote> "
14096 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 16 July 2003, 1C; Beth Cox, "
14097 "<quote>RIAA Trains Antipiracy Guns on Universities,</quote> "
14098 "<citetitle>Internet News</citetitle>, 30 January 2003, available at <ulink "
14099 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #48</ulink>; Benny Evangelista, "
14100 "<quote>Download Warning 101: Freshman Orientation This Fall to Include "
14101 "Record Industry Warnings Against File Sharing,</quote> <citetitle>San "
14102 "Francisco Chronicle</citetitle>, 11 August 2003, E11; <quote>Raid, Letters "
14103 "Are Weapons at Universities,</quote> <citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 26 "
14104 "September 2000, 3D."
14107 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14108 #: freeculture.xml:10279
14110 "So imagine the following not-implausible scenario: Imagine a friend gives a "
14111 "CD to your daughter—a collection of songs just like the cassettes you "
14112 "used to make as a kid. You don't know, and neither does your daughter, where "
14113 "these songs came from. But she copies these songs onto her computer. She "
14114 "then takes her computer to college and connects it to a college network, and "
14115 "if the college network is <quote>cooperating</quote> with the RIAA's "
14116 "espionage, and she hasn't properly protected her content from the network "
14117 "(do you know how to do that yourself ?), then the RIAA will be able to "
14118 "identify your daughter as a <quote>criminal.</quote> And under the rules "
14119 "that universities are beginning to deploy,<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14120 "id=\"0\"/> your daughter can lose the right to use the university's computer "
14121 "network. She can, in some cases, be expelled."
14125 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14126 #: freeculture.xml:10312
14128 "Now, of course, she'll have the right to defend herself. You can hire a "
14129 "lawyer for her (at $300 per hour, if you're lucky), and she can plead that "
14130 "she didn't know anything about the source of the songs or that they came "
14131 "from Napster. And it may well be that the university believes her. But the "
14132 "university might not believe her. It might treat this "
14133 "<quote>contraband</quote> as presumptive of guilt. And as any number of "
14134 "college students have already learned, our presumptions about innocence "
14135 "disappear in the middle of wars of prohibition. This war is no different. "
14136 "Says von Lohmann,"
14139 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><blockquote><para>
14140 #: freeculture.xml:10327
14142 "So when we're talking about numbers like forty to sixty million Americans "
14143 "that are essentially copyright infringers, you create a situation where the "
14144 "civil liberties of those people are very much in peril in a general "
14145 "matter. [I don't] think [there is any] analog where you could randomly "
14146 "choose any person off the street and be confident that they were committing "
14147 "an unlawful act that could put them on the hook for potential felony "
14148 "liability or hundreds of millions of dollars of civil liability. Certainly "
14149 "we all speed, but speeding isn't the kind of an act for which we routinely "
14150 "forfeit civil liberties. Some people use drugs, and I think that's the "
14151 "closest analog, [but] many have noted that the war against drugs has eroded "
14152 "all of our civil liberties because it's treated so many Americans as "
14153 "criminals. Well, I think it's fair to say that file sharing is an order of "
14154 "magnitude larger number of Americans than drug use. … If forty to "
14155 "sixty million Americans have become lawbreakers, then we're really on a "
14156 "slippery slope to lose a lot of civil liberties for all forty to sixty "
14160 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><section><para>
14161 #: freeculture.xml:10347
14163 "When forty to sixty million Americans are considered "
14164 "<quote>criminals</quote> under the law, and when the law could achieve the "
14165 "same objective— securing rights to authors—without these "
14166 "millions being considered <quote>criminals,</quote> who is the villain? "
14167 "Americans or the law? Which is American, a constant war on our own people or "
14168 "a concerted effort through our democracy to change our law?"
14171 #. type: Content of: <book><part><title>
14172 #: freeculture.xml:10360
14176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14177 #: freeculture.xml:10365
14179 "<emphasis role='strong'>So here's</emphasis> the picture: You're standing at "
14180 "the side of the road. Your car is on fire. You are angry and upset because "
14181 "in part you helped start the fire. Now you don't know how to put it "
14182 "out. Next to you is a bucket, filled with gasoline. Obviously, gasoline "
14183 "won't put the fire out."
14186 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14187 #: freeculture.xml:10372
14189 "As you ponder the mess, someone else comes along. In a panic, she grabs the "
14190 "bucket. Before you have a chance to tell her to stop—or before she "
14191 "understands just why she should stop—the bucket is in the air. The "
14192 "gasoline is about to hit the blazing car. And the fire that gasoline will "
14193 "ignite is about to ignite everything around."
14196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14197 #: freeculture.xml:10380
14199 "<emphasis role='strong'>A war</emphasis> about copyright rages all "
14200 "around—and we're all focusing on the wrong thing. No doubt, current "
14201 "technologies threaten existing businesses. No doubt they may threaten "
14202 "artists. But technologies change. The industry and technologists have "
14203 "plenty of ways to use technology to protect themselves against the current "
14204 "threats of the Internet. This is a fire that if let alone would burn itself "
14209 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14210 #: freeculture.xml:10390
14212 "Yet policy makers are not willing to leave this fire to itself. Primed with "
14213 "plenty of lobbyists' money, they are keen to intervene to eliminate the "
14214 "problem they perceive. But the problem they perceive is not the real threat "
14215 "this culture faces. For while we watch this small fire in the corner, there "
14216 "is a massive change in the way culture is made that is happening all around."
14219 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14220 #: freeculture.xml:10398
14222 "Somehow we have to find a way to turn attention to this more important and "
14223 "fundamental issue. Somehow we have to find a way to avoid pouring gasoline "
14227 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14228 #: freeculture.xml:10403
14230 "We have not found that way yet. Instead, we seem trapped in a simpler, "
14231 "binary view. However much many people push to frame this debate more "
14232 "broadly, it is the simple, binary view that remains. We rubberneck to look "
14233 "at the fire when we should be keeping our eyes on the road."
14236 #. type: Content of: <book><part><partintro><para>
14237 #: freeculture.xml:10409
14239 "This challenge has been my life these last few years. It has also been my "
14240 "failure. In the two chapters that follow, I describe one small brace of "
14241 "efforts, so far failed, to find a way to refocus this debate. We must "
14242 "understand these failures if we're to understand what success will require."
14245 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
14246 #: freeculture.xml:10419
14247 msgid "CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Eldred"
14250 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14251 #: freeculture.xml:10420
14252 msgid "Hawthorne, Nathaniel"
14255 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14256 #: freeculture.xml:10422
14258 "<emphasis role='strong'>In 1995</emphasis>, a father was frustrated that his "
14259 "daughters didn't seem to like Hawthorne. No doubt there was more than one "
14260 "such father, but at least one did something about it. Eric Eldred, a retired "
14261 "computer programmer living in New Hampshire, decided to put Hawthorne on the "
14262 "Web. An electronic version, Eldred thought, with links to pictures and "
14263 "explanatory text, would make this nineteenth-century author's work come "
14267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14268 #: freeculture.xml:10431
14270 "It didn't work—at least for his daughters. They didn't find Hawthorne "
14271 "any more interesting than before. But Eldred's experiment gave birth to a "
14272 "hobby, and his hobby begat a cause: Eldred would build a library of public "
14273 "domain works by scanning these works and making them available for free."
14277 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14278 #: freeculture.xml:10438
14280 "Eldred's library was not simply a copy of certain public domain works, "
14281 "though even a copy would have been of great value to people across the world "
14282 "who can't get access to printed versions of these works. Instead, Eldred was "
14283 "producing derivative works from these public domain works. Just as Disney "
14284 "turned Grimm into stories more accessible to the twentieth century, Eldred "
14285 "transformed Hawthorne, and many others, into a form more "
14286 "accessible—technically accessible—today."
14289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14290 #: freeculture.xml:10449
14292 "Eldred's freedom to do this with Hawthorne's work grew from the same source "
14293 "as Disney's. Hawthorne's <citetitle>Scarlet Letter</citetitle> had passed "
14294 "into the public domain in 1907. It was free for anyone to take without the "
14295 "permission of the Hawthorne estate or anyone else. Some, such as Dover Press "
14296 "and Penguin Classics, take works from the public domain and produce printed "
14297 "editions, which they sell in bookstores across the country. Others, such as "
14298 "Disney, take these stories and turn them into animated cartoons, sometimes "
14299 "successfully (<citetitle>Cinderella</citetitle>), sometimes not "
14300 "(<citetitle>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</citetitle>, <citetitle>Treasure "
14301 "Planet</citetitle>). These are all commercial publications of public domain "
14306 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14307 #: freeculture.xml:10473
14309 "There's a parallel here with pornography that is a bit hard to describe, but "
14310 "it's a strong one. One phenomenon that the Internet created was a world of "
14311 "noncommercial pornographers—people who were distributing porn but were "
14312 "not making money directly or indirectly from that distribution. Such a "
14313 "class didn't exist before the Internet came into being because the costs of "
14314 "distributing porn were so high. Yet this new class of distributors got "
14315 "special attention in the Supreme Court, when the Court struck down the "
14316 "Communications Decency Act of 1996. It was partly because of the burden on "
14317 "noncommercial speakers that the statute was found to exceed Congress's "
14318 "power. The same point could have been made about noncommercial publishers "
14319 "after the advent of the Internet. The Eric Eldreds of the world before the "
14320 "Internet were extremely few. Yet one would think it at least as important to "
14321 "protect the Eldreds of the world as to protect noncommercial pornographers."
14324 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14325 #: freeculture.xml:10462
14327 "The Internet created the possibility of noncommercial publications of public "
14328 "domain works. Eldred's is just one example. There are literally thousands of "
14329 "others. Hundreds of thousands from across the world have discovered this "
14330 "platform of expression and now use it to share works that are, by law, free "
14331 "for the taking. This has produced what we might call the "
14332 "<quote>noncommercial publishing industry,</quote> which before the Internet "
14333 "was limited to people with large egos or with political or social "
14334 "causes. But with the Internet, it includes a wide range of individuals and "
14335 "groups dedicated to spreading culture generally.<placeholder "
14336 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14339 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14340 #: freeculture.xml:10490
14342 "As I said, Eldred lives in New Hampshire. In 1998, Robert Frost's collection "
14343 "of poems <citetitle>New Hampshire</citetitle> was slated to pass into the "
14344 "public domain. Eldred wanted to post that collection in his free public "
14345 "library. But Congress got in the way. As I described in chapter <xref "
14346 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, in 1998, for the "
14347 "eleventh time in forty years, Congress extended the terms of existing "
14348 "copyrights—this time by twenty years. Eldred would not be free to add "
14349 "any works more recent than 1923 to his collection until 2019. Indeed, no "
14350 "copyrighted work would pass into the public domain until that year (and not "
14351 "even then, if Congress extends the term again). By contrast, in the same "
14352 "period, more than 1 million patents will pass into the public domain."
14355 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14356 #: freeculture.xml:10503 freeculture.xml:10513
14360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
14361 #: freeculture.xml:10504 freeculture.xml:10514
14362 msgid "Bono, Sonny"
14365 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14366 #: freeculture.xml:10513
14368 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
14369 "id=\"1\"/> The full text is: <quote>Sonny [Bono] wanted the term of "
14370 "copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a "
14371 "change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me "
14372 "to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you "
14373 "know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for a term to last forever less "
14374 "one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress,</quote> 144 "
14375 "Cong. Rec. H9946, 9951-2 (October 7, 1998)."
14378 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14379 #: freeculture.xml:10508
14381 "This was the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), enacted in "
14382 "memory of the congressman and former musician Sonny Bono, who, his widow, "
14383 "Mary Bono, says, believed that <quote>copyrights should be "
14384 "forever.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14387 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14388 #: freeculture.xml:10526
14390 "Eldred decided to fight this law. He first resolved to fight it through "
14391 "civil disobedience. In a series of interviews, Eldred announced that he "
14392 "would publish as planned, CTEA notwithstanding. But because of a second law "
14393 "passed in 1998, the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act, his act of publishing "
14394 "would make Eldred a felon—whether or not anyone complained. This was a "
14395 "dangerous strategy for a disabled programmer to undertake."
14398 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14399 #: freeculture.xml:10535
14401 "It was here that I became involved in Eldred's battle. I was a "
14402 "constitutional scholar whose first passion was constitutional "
14403 "interpretation. And though constitutional law courses never focus upon the "
14404 "Progress Clause of the Constitution, it had always struck me as importantly "
14405 "different. As you know, the Constitution says,"
14408 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
14409 #: freeculture.xml:10546
14411 "Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science … by "
14412 "securing for limited Times to Authors … exclusive Right to their "
14413 "… Writings. …"
14416 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14417 #: freeculture.xml:10552
14419 "As I've described, this clause is unique within the power-granting clause of "
14420 "Article I, section 8 of our Constitution. Every other clause granting power "
14421 "to Congress simply says Congress has the power to do something—for "
14422 "example, to regulate <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> or "
14423 "<quote>declare War.</quote> But here, the <quote>something</quote> is "
14424 "something quite specific—to <quote>promote … "
14425 "Progress</quote>—through means that are also specific— by "
14426 "<quote>securing</quote> <quote>exclusive Rights</quote> (i.e., copyrights) "
14427 "<quote>for limited Times.</quote>"
14430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14431 #: freeculture.xml:10561 freeculture.xml:12043
14432 msgid "Jaszi, Peter"
14436 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14437 #: freeculture.xml:10563
14439 "In the past forty years, Congress has gotten into the practice of extending "
14440 "existing terms of copyright protection. What puzzled me about this was, if "
14441 "Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then the Constitution's "
14442 "requirement that terms be <quote>limited</quote> will have no practical "
14443 "effect. If every time a copyright is about to expire, Congress has the power "
14444 "to extend its term, then Congress can achieve what the Constitution plainly "
14445 "forbids—perpetual terms <quote>on the installment plan,</quote> as "
14446 "Professor Peter Jaszi so nicely put it."
14449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14450 #: freeculture.xml:10574
14452 "As an academic, my first response was to hit the books. I remember sitting "
14453 "late at the office, scouring on-line databases for any serious consideration "
14454 "of the question. No one had ever challenged Congress's practice of extending "
14455 "existing terms. That failure may in part be why Congress seemed so "
14456 "untroubled in its habit. That, and the fact that the practice had become so "
14457 "lucrative for Congress. Congress knows that copyright owners will be willing "
14458 "to pay a great deal of money to see their copyright terms extended. And so "
14459 "Congress is quite happy to keep this gravy train going."
14462 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14463 #: freeculture.xml:10585
14465 "For this is the core of the corruption in our present system of "
14466 "government. <quote>Corruption</quote> not in the sense that representatives "
14467 "are bribed. Rather, <quote>corruption</quote> in the sense that the system "
14468 "induces the beneficiaries of Congress's acts to raise and give money to "
14469 "Congress to induce it to act. There's only so much time; there's only so "
14470 "much Congress can do. Why not limit its actions to those things it must "
14471 "do—and those things that pay? Extending copyright terms pays."
14474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14475 #: freeculture.xml:10594
14477 "If that's not obvious to you, consider the following: Say you're one of the "
14478 "very few lucky copyright owners whose copyright continues to make money one "
14479 "hundred years after it was created. The Estate of Robert Frost is a good "
14480 "example. Frost died in 1963. His poetry continues to be extraordinarily "
14481 "valuable. Thus the Robert Frost estate benefits greatly from any extension "
14482 "of copyright, since no publisher would pay the estate any money if the poems "
14483 "Frost wrote could be published by anyone for free."
14486 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14487 #: freeculture.xml:10604
14489 "So imagine the Robert Frost estate is earning $100,000 a year from three of "
14490 "Frost's poems. And imagine the copyright for those poems is about to "
14491 "expire. You sit on the board of the Robert Frost estate. Your financial "
14492 "adviser comes to your board meeting with a very grim report:"
14496 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14497 #: freeculture.xml:10611
14499 "<quote>Next year,</quote> the adviser announces, <quote>our copyrights in "
14500 "works A, B, and C will expire. That means that after next year, we will no "
14501 "longer be receiving the annual royalty check of $100,000 from the publishers "
14502 "of those works.</quote>"
14505 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14506 #: freeculture.xml:10619
14508 "<quote>There's a proposal in Congress, however,</quote> she continues, "
14509 "<quote>that could change this. A few congressmen are floating a bill to "
14510 "extend the terms of copyright by twenty years. That bill would be "
14511 "extraordinarily valuable to us. So we should hope this bill passes.</quote>"
14514 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14515 #: freeculture.xml:10625
14517 "<quote>Hope?</quote> a fellow board member says. <quote>Can't we be doing "
14518 "something about it?</quote>"
14521 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14522 #: freeculture.xml:10629
14524 "<quote>Well, obviously, yes,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>We could "
14525 "contribute to the campaigns of a number of representatives to try to assure "
14526 "that they support the bill.</quote>"
14529 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14530 #: freeculture.xml:10634
14532 "You hate politics. You hate contributing to campaigns. So you want to know "
14533 "whether this disgusting practice is worth it. <quote>How much would we get "
14534 "if this extension were passed?</quote> you ask the adviser. <quote>How much "
14535 "is it worth?</quote>"
14538 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14539 #: freeculture.xml:10640
14541 "<quote>Well,</quote> the adviser says, <quote>if you're confident that you "
14542 "will continue to get at least $100,000 a year from these copyrights, and you "
14543 "use the `discount rate' that we use to evaluate estate investments (6 "
14544 "percent), then this law would be worth $1,146,000 to the estate.</quote>"
14547 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14548 #: freeculture.xml:10646
14550 "You're a bit shocked by the number, but you quickly come to the correct "
14554 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14555 #: freeculture.xml:10650
14557 "<quote>So you're saying it would be worth it for us to pay more than "
14558 "$1,000,000 in campaign contributions if we were confident those "
14559 "contributions would assure that the bill was passed?</quote>"
14562 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14563 #: freeculture.xml:10656
14565 "<quote>Absolutely,</quote> the adviser responds. <quote>It is worth it to "
14566 "you to contribute up to the `present value' of the income you expect from "
14567 "these copyrights. Which for us means over $1,000,000.</quote>"
14571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14572 #: freeculture.xml:10662
14574 "You quickly get the point—you as the member of the board and, I trust, "
14575 "you the reader. Each time copyrights are about to expire, every beneficiary "
14576 "in the position of the Robert Frost estate faces the same choice: If they "
14577 "can contribute to get a law passed to extend copyrights, they will benefit "
14578 "greatly from that extension. And so each time copyrights are about to "
14579 "expire, there is a massive amount of lobbying to get the copyright term "
14583 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14584 #: freeculture.xml:10673
14586 "Thus a congressional perpetual motion machine: So long as legislation can be "
14587 "bought (albeit indirectly), there will be all the incentive in the world to "
14588 "buy further extensions of copyright."
14592 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14593 #: freeculture.xml:10685
14595 "Associated Press, <quote>Disney Lobbying for Copyright Extension No Mickey "
14596 "Mouse Effort; Congress OKs Bill Granting Creators 20 More Years,</quote> "
14597 "<citetitle>Chicago Tribune</citetitle>, 17 October 1998, 22."
14601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14602 #: freeculture.xml:10692
14604 "See Nick Brown, <quote>Fair Use No More?: Copyright in the Information "
14605 "Age,</quote> available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
14610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14611 #: freeculture.xml:10700
14613 "Alan K. Ota, <quote>Disney in Washington: The Mouse That Roars,</quote> "
14614 "<citetitle>Congressional Quarterly This Week</citetitle>, 8 August 1990, "
14615 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #50</ulink>."
14618 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14619 #: freeculture.xml:10678
14621 "In the lobbying that led to the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term "
14622 "Extension Act, this <quote>theory</quote> about incentives was proved "
14623 "real. Ten of the thirteen original sponsors of the act in the House received "
14624 "the maximum contribution from Disney's political action committee; in the "
14625 "Senate, eight of the twelve sponsors received contributions.<placeholder "
14626 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The RIAA and the MPAA are estimated to have "
14627 "spent over $1.5 million lobbying in the 1998 election cycle. They paid out "
14628 "more than $200,000 in campaign contributions.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14629 "id=\"1\"/> Disney is estimated to have contributed more than $800,000 to "
14630 "reelection campaigns in the cycle.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/>"
14633 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14634 #: freeculture.xml:10707
14636 "<emphasis role='strong'>Constitutional law</emphasis> is not oblivious to "
14637 "the obvious. Or at least, it need not be. So when I was considering Eldred's "
14638 "complaint, this reality about the never-ending incentives to increase the "
14639 "copyright term was central to my thinking. In my view, a pragmatic court "
14640 "committed to interpreting and applying the Constitution of our framers would "
14641 "see that if Congress has the power to extend existing terms, then there "
14642 "would be no effective constitutional requirement that terms be "
14643 "<quote>limited.</quote> If they could extend it once, they would extend it "
14644 "again and again and again."
14648 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14649 #: freeculture.xml:10719
14651 "It was also my judgment that <emphasis>this</emphasis> Supreme Court would "
14652 "not allow Congress to extend existing terms. As anyone close to the Supreme "
14653 "Court's work knows, this Court has increasingly restricted the power of "
14654 "Congress when it has viewed Congress's actions as exceeding the power "
14655 "granted to it by the Constitution. Among constitutional scholars, the most "
14656 "famous example of this trend was the Supreme Court's decision in 1995 to "
14657 "strike down a law that banned the possession of guns near schools."
14660 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14661 #: freeculture.xml:10732
14663 "Since 1937, the Supreme Court had interpreted Congress's granted powers very "
14664 "broadly; so, while the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate "
14665 "only <quote>commerce among the several states</quote> (aka <quote>interstate "
14666 "commerce</quote>), the Supreme Court had interpreted that power to include "
14667 "the power to regulate any activity that merely affected interstate commerce."
14670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14671 #: freeculture.xml:10742
14673 "As the economy grew, this standard increasingly meant that there was no "
14674 "limit to Congress's power to regulate, since just about every activity, when "
14675 "considered on a national scale, affects interstate commerce. A Constitution "
14676 "designed to limit Congress's power was instead interpreted to impose no "
14680 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14681 #: freeculture.xml:10748 freeculture.xml:11530
14682 msgid "Rehnquist, William H."
14685 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14686 #: freeculture.xml:10750
14688 "The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Rehnquist's command, changed that in "
14689 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The "
14690 "government had argued that possessing guns near schools affected interstate "
14691 "commerce. Guns near schools increase crime, crime lowers property values, "
14692 "and so on. In the oral argument, the Chief Justice asked the government "
14693 "whether there was any activity that would not affect interstate commerce "
14694 "under the reasoning the government advanced. The government said there was "
14695 "not; if Congress says an activity affects interstate commerce, then that "
14696 "activity affects interstate commerce. The Supreme Court, the government "
14697 "said, was not in the position to second-guess Congress."
14701 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14702 #: freeculture.xml:10765
14704 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>, 514 "
14705 "U.S. 549, 564 (1995)."
14709 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14710 #: freeculture.xml:10772
14712 "<citetitle>United States</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>, 529 "
14716 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14717 #: freeculture.xml:10763
14719 "<quote>We pause to consider the implications of the government's "
14720 "arguments,</quote> the Chief Justice wrote.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14721 "id=\"0\"/> If anything Congress says is interstate commerce must therefore "
14722 "be considered interstate commerce, then there would be no limit to "
14723 "Congress's power. The decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> was "
14724 "reaffirmed five years later in <citetitle>United States</citetitle> "
14725 "v. <citetitle>Morrison</citetitle>.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
14729 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14730 #: freeculture.xml:10779
14732 "If it is a principle about enumerated powers, then the principle carries "
14733 "from one enumerated power to another. The animating point in the context of "
14734 "the Commerce Clause was that the interpretation offered by the government "
14735 "would allow the government unending power to regulate commerce—the "
14736 "limitation to interstate commerce notwithstanding. The same point is true in "
14737 "the context of the Copyright Clause. Here, too, the government's "
14738 "interpretation would allow the government unending power to regulate "
14739 "copyrights—the limitation to <quote>limited times</quote> "
14744 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14745 #: freeculture.xml:10776
14747 "If a principle were at work here, then it should apply to the Progress "
14748 "Clause as much as the Commerce Clause.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
14749 "id=\"0\"/> And if it is applied to the Progress Clause, the principle should "
14750 "yield the conclusion that Congress can't extend an existing term. If "
14751 "Congress could extend an existing term, then there would be no "
14752 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power over terms, though the "
14753 "Constitution expressly states that there is such a limit. Thus, the same "
14754 "principle applied to the power to grant copyrights should entail that "
14755 "Congress is not allowed to extend the term of existing copyrights."
14758 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14759 #: freeculture.xml:10800
14761 "<emphasis>If</emphasis>, that is, the principle announced in "
14762 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for a principle. Many believed the "
14763 "decision in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> stood for politics—a "
14764 "conservative Supreme Court, which believed in states' rights, using its "
14765 "power over Congress to advance its own personal political preferences. But I "
14766 "rejected that view of the Supreme Court's decision. Indeed, shortly after "
14767 "the decision, I wrote an article demonstrating the <quote>fidelity</quote> "
14768 "in such an interpretation of the Constitution. The idea that the Supreme "
14769 "Court decides cases based upon its politics struck me as extraordinarily "
14770 "boring. I was not going to devote my life to teaching constitutional law if "
14771 "these nine Justices were going to be petty politicians."
14774 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14775 #: freeculture.xml:10813
14777 "<emphasis role='strong'>Now let's pause</emphasis> for a moment to make sure "
14778 "we understand what the argument in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was not "
14779 "about. By insisting on the Constitution's limits to copyright, obviously "
14780 "Eldred was not endorsing piracy. Indeed, in an obvious sense, he was "
14781 "fighting a kind of piracy—piracy of the public domain. When Robert "
14782 "Frost wrote his work and when Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, the maximum "
14783 "copyright term was just fifty-six years. Because of interim changes, Frost "
14784 "and Disney had already enjoyed a seventy-five-year monopoly for their "
14785 "work. They had gotten the benefit of the bargain that the Constitution "
14786 "envisions: In exchange for a monopoly protected for fifty-six years, they "
14787 "created new work. But now these entities were using their "
14788 "power—expressed through the power of lobbyists' money—to get "
14789 "another twenty-year dollop of monopoly. That twenty-year dollop would be "
14790 "taken from the public domain. Eric Eldred was fighting a piracy that affects "
14794 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14795 #: freeculture.xml:10830
14796 msgid "Nashville Songwriters Association"
14800 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14801 #: freeculture.xml:10838
14803 "Brief of the Nashville Songwriters Association, "
14804 "<citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. "
14805 "186 (2003) (No. 01-618), n.10, available at <ulink "
14806 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #51</ulink>."
14809 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14810 #: freeculture.xml:10832
14812 "Some people view the public domain with contempt. In their brief before the "
14813 "Supreme Court, the Nashville Songwriters Association wrote that the public "
14814 "domain is nothing more than <quote>legal piracy.</quote><placeholder "
14815 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> But it is not piracy when the law allows it; "
14816 "and in our constitutional system, our law requires it. Some may not like the "
14817 "Constitution's requirements, but that doesn't make the Constitution a "
14818 "pirate's charter."
14821 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14822 #: freeculture.xml:10848
14824 "As we've seen, our constitutional system requires limits on copyright as a "
14825 "way to assure that copyright holders do not too heavily influence the "
14826 "development and distribution of our culture. Yet, as Eric Eldred discovered, "
14827 "we have set up a system that assures that copyright terms will be repeatedly "
14828 "extended, and extended, and extended. We have created the perfect storm for "
14829 "the public domain. Copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long "
14830 "as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."
14833 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14834 #: freeculture.xml:10860
14836 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is valuable</emphasis> copyrights that are "
14837 "responsible for terms being extended. Mickey Mouse and <quote>Rhapsody in "
14838 "Blue.</quote> These works are too valuable for copyright owners to "
14839 "ignore. But the real harm to our society from copyright extensions is not "
14840 "that Mickey Mouse remains Disney's. Forget Mickey Mouse. Forget Robert "
14841 "Frost. Forget all the works from the 1920s and 1930s that have continuing "
14842 "commercial value. The real harm of term extension comes not from these "
14843 "famous works. The real harm is to the works that are not famous, not "
14844 "commercially exploited, and no longer available as a result."
14848 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14849 #: freeculture.xml:10878
14851 "The figure of 2 percent is an extrapolation from the study by the "
14852 "Congressional Research Service, in light of the estimated renewal "
14853 "ranges. See Brief of Petitioners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
14854 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 7, available at <ulink "
14855 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #52</ulink>."
14858 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14859 #: freeculture.xml:10872
14861 "If you look at the work created in the first twenty years (1923 to 1942) "
14862 "affected by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 2 percent of that "
14863 "work has any continuing commercial value. It was the copyright holders for "
14864 "that 2 percent who pushed the CTEA through. But the law and its effect were "
14865 "not limited to that 2 percent. The law extended the terms of copyright "
14866 "generally.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
14870 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14871 #: freeculture.xml:10887
14873 "Think practically about the consequence of this extension—practically, "
14874 "as a businessperson, and not as a lawyer eager for more legal work. In 1930, "
14875 "10,047 books were published. In 2000, 174 of those books were still in "
14876 "print. Let's say you were Brewster Kahle, and you wanted to make available "
14877 "to the world in your iArchive project the remaining 9,873. What would you "
14881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14882 #: freeculture.xml:10900
14884 "Well, first, you'd have to determine which of the 9,873 books were still "
14885 "under copyright. That requires going to a library (these data are not "
14886 "on-line) and paging through tomes of books, cross-checking the titles and "
14887 "authors of the 9,873 books with the copyright registration and renewal "
14888 "records for works published in 1930. That will produce a list of books still "
14892 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14893 #: freeculture.xml:10908
14895 "Then for the books still under copyright, you would need to locate the "
14896 "current copyright owners. How would you do that?"
14899 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14900 #: freeculture.xml:10912
14902 "Most people think that there must be a list of these copyright owners "
14903 "somewhere. Practical people think this way. How could there be thousands and "
14904 "thousands of government monopolies without there being at least a list?"
14907 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14908 #: freeculture.xml:10919
14910 "But there is no list. There may be a name from 1930, and then in 1959, of "
14911 "the person who registered the copyright. But just think practically about "
14912 "how impossibly difficult it would be to track down thousands of such "
14913 "records—especially since the person who registered is not necessarily "
14914 "the current owner. And we're just talking about 1930!"
14917 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14918 #: freeculture.xml:10928
14920 "<quote>But there isn't a list of who owns property generally,</quote> the "
14921 "apologists for the system respond. <quote>Why should there be a list of "
14922 "copyright owners?</quote>"
14925 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14926 #: freeculture.xml:10933
14928 "Well, actually, if you think about it, there <emphasis>are</emphasis> plenty "
14929 "of lists of who owns what property. Think about deeds on houses, or titles "
14930 "to cars. And where there isn't a list, the code of real space is pretty "
14931 "good at suggesting who the owner of a bit of property is. (A swing set in "
14932 "your backyard is probably yours.) So formally or informally, we have a "
14933 "pretty good way to know who owns what tangible property."
14937 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14938 #: freeculture.xml:10942
14940 "So: You walk down a street and see a house. You can know who owns the house "
14941 "by looking it up in the courthouse registry. If you see a car, there is "
14942 "ordinarily a license plate that will link the owner to the car. If you see a "
14943 "bunch of children's toys sitting on the front lawn of a house, it's fairly "
14944 "easy to determine who owns the toys. And if you happen to see a baseball "
14945 "lying in a gutter on the side of the road, look around for a second for some "
14946 "kids playing ball. If you don't see any kids, then okay: Here's a bit of "
14947 "property whose owner we can't easily determine. It is the exception that "
14948 "proves the rule: that we ordinarily know quite well who owns what property."
14951 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14952 #: freeculture.xml:10957
14954 "Compare this story to intangible property. You go into a library. The "
14955 "library owns the books. But who owns the copyrights? As I've already "
14956 "described, there's no list of copyright owners. There are authors' names, of "
14957 "course, but their copyrights could have been assigned, or passed down in an "
14958 "estate like Grandma's old jewelry. To know who owns what, you would have to "
14959 "hire a private detective. The bottom line: The owner cannot easily be "
14960 "located. And in a regime like ours, in which it is a felony to use such "
14961 "property without the property owner's permission, the property isn't going "
14965 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
14966 #: freeculture.xml:10969
14968 "The consequence with respect to old books is that they won't be digitized, "
14969 "and hence will simply rot away on shelves. But the consequence for other "
14970 "creative works is much more dire."
14973 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14974 #: freeculture.xml:10974
14975 msgid "Agee, Michael"
14978 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14979 #: freeculture.xml:10975 freeculture.xml:11410
14980 msgid "Hal Roach Studios"
14983 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14984 #: freeculture.xml:10976
14985 msgid "Laurel and Hardy Films"
14988 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
14989 #: freeculture.xml:10977
14990 msgid "Lucky Dog, The"
14994 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
14995 #: freeculture.xml:10990
14997 "See David G. Savage, <quote>High Court Scene of Showdown on Copyright "
14998 "Law,</quote> <citetitle>Los Angeles Times</citetitle>, 6 October 2002; David "
14999 "Streitfeld, <quote>Classic Movies, Songs, Books at Stake; Supreme Court "
15000 "Hears Arguments Today on Striking Down Copyright Extension,</quote> "
15001 "<citetitle>Orlando Sentinel Tribune</citetitle>, 9 October 2002."
15004 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15005 #: freeculture.xml:10979
15007 "Consider the story of Michael Agee, chairman of Hal Roach Studios, which "
15008 "owns the copyrights for the Laurel and Hardy films. Agee is a direct "
15009 "beneficiary of the Bono Act. The Laurel and Hardy films were made between "
15010 "1921 and 1951. Only one of these films, <citetitle>The Lucky "
15011 "Dog</citetitle>, is currently out of copyright. But for the CTEA, films made "
15012 "after 1923 would have begun entering the public domain. Because Agee "
15013 "controls the exclusive rights for these popular films, he makes a great deal "
15014 "of money. According to one estimate, <quote>Roach has sold about 60,000 "
15015 "videocassettes and 50,000 DVDs of the duo's silent "
15016 "films.</quote><placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15019 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15020 #: freeculture.xml:10997
15022 "Yet Agee opposed the CTEA. His reasons demonstrate a rare virtue in this "
15023 "culture: selflessness. He argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that "
15024 "the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act will, if left standing, destroy "
15025 "a whole generation of American film."
15029 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15030 #: freeculture.xml:11003
15032 "His argument is straightforward. A tiny fraction of this work has any "
15033 "continuing commercial value. The rest—to the extent it survives at "
15034 "all—sits in vaults gathering dust. It may be that some of this work "
15035 "not now commercially valuable will be deemed to be valuable by the owners of "
15036 "the vaults. For this to occur, however, the commercial benefit from the work "
15037 "must exceed the costs of making the work available for distribution."
15041 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15042 #: freeculture.xml:11021
15044 "Brief of Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee as Amicus Curiae Supporting the "
15045 "Petitoners, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15046 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. 186 (2003) (No. 01- 618), "
15047 "12. See also Brief of Amicus Curiae filed on behalf of Petitioners by the "
15048 "Internet Archive, <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15049 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, available at <ulink "
15050 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #53</ulink>."
15053 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15054 #: freeculture.xml:11014
15056 "We can't know the benefits, but we do know a lot about the costs. For most "
15057 "of the history of film, the costs of restoring film were very high; digital "
15058 "technology has lowered these costs substantially. While it cost more than "
15059 "$10,000 to restore a ninety-minute black-and-white film in 1993, it can now "
15060 "cost as little as $100 to digitize one hour of mm film.<placeholder "
15061 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15064 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15065 #: freeculture.xml:11031
15067 "Restoration technology is not the only cost, nor the most important. "
15068 "Lawyers, too, are a cost, and increasingly, a very important one. In "
15069 "addition to preserving the film, a distributor needs to secure the rights. "
15070 "And to secure the rights for a film that is under copyright, you need to "
15071 "locate the copyright owner."
15074 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15075 #: freeculture.xml:11039
15077 "Or more accurately, <emphasis>owners</emphasis>. As we've seen, there isn't "
15078 "only a single copyright associated with a film; there are many. There isn't "
15079 "a single person whom you can contact about those copyrights; there are as "
15080 "many as can hold the rights, which turns out to be an extremely large "
15081 "number. Thus the costs of clearing the rights to these films is "
15082 "exceptionally high."
15085 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15086 #: freeculture.xml:11047
15088 "<quote>But can't you just restore the film, distribute it, and then pay the "
15089 "copyright owner when she shows up?</quote> Sure, if you want to commit a "
15090 "felony. And even if you're not worried about committing a felony, when she "
15091 "does show up, she'll have the right to sue you for all the profits you have "
15092 "made. So, if you're successful, you can be fairly confident you'll be "
15093 "getting a call from someone's lawyer. And if you're not successful, you "
15094 "won't make enough to cover the costs of your own lawyer. Either way, you "
15095 "have to talk to a lawyer. And as is too often the case, saying you have to "
15096 "talk to a lawyer is the same as saying you won't make any money."
15100 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15101 #: freeculture.xml:11058
15103 "For some films, the benefit of releasing the film may well exceed these "
15104 "costs. But for the vast majority of them, there is no way the benefit would "
15105 "outweigh the legal costs. Thus, for the vast majority of old films, Agee "
15106 "argued, the film will not be restored and distributed until the copyright "
15110 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15111 #: freeculture.xml:11069
15113 "But by the time the copyright for these films expires, the film will have "
15114 "expired. These films were produced on nitrate-based stock, and nitrate stock "
15115 "dissolves over time. They will be gone, and the metal canisters in which "
15116 "they are now stored will be filled with nothing more than dust."
15119 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15120 #: freeculture.xml:11077
15122 "<emphasis role='strong'>Of all the</emphasis> creative work produced by "
15123 "humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that "
15124 "tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. For that "
15125 "tiny fraction, the copyright creates incentives to produce and distribute "
15126 "the creative work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an "
15127 "<quote>engine of free expression.</quote>"
15130 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15131 #: freeculture.xml:11085
15133 "But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative "
15134 "work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books "
15135 "go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and "
15136 "film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a "
15137 "creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the "
15138 "commercial life ends."
15141 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15142 #: freeculture.xml:11095
15144 "Yet that doesn't mean the life of the creative work ends. We don't keep "
15145 "libraries of books in order to compete with Barnes & Noble, and we don't "
15146 "have archives of films because we expect people to choose between spending "
15147 "Friday night watching new movies and spending Friday night watching a 1930 "
15148 "news documentary. The noncommercial life of culture is important and "
15149 "valuable—for entertainment but also, and more importantly, for "
15150 "knowledge. To understand who we are, and where we came from, and how we have "
15151 "made the mistakes that we have, we need to have access to this history."
15155 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15156 #: freeculture.xml:11108
15158 "Copyrights in this context do not drive an engine of free expression. In "
15159 "this context, there is no need for an exclusive right. Copyrights in this "
15160 "context do no good."
15163 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15164 #: freeculture.xml:11115
15166 "Yet, for most of our history, they also did little harm. For most of our "
15167 "history, when a work ended its commercial life, there was no "
15168 "<emphasis>copyright-related use</emphasis> that would be inhibited by an "
15169 "exclusive right. When a book went out of print, you could not buy it from a "
15170 "publisher. But you could still buy it from a used book store, and when a "
15171 "used book store sells it, in America, at least, there is no need to pay the "
15172 "copyright owner anything. Thus, the ordinary use of a book after its "
15173 "commercial life ended was a use that was independent of copyright law."
15176 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15177 #: freeculture.xml:11126
15179 "The same was effectively true of film. Because the costs of restoring a "
15180 "film—the real economic costs, not the lawyer costs—were so high, "
15181 "it was never at all feasible to preserve or restore film. Like the remains "
15182 "of a great dinner, when it's over, it's over. Once a film passed out of its "
15183 "commercial life, it may have been archived for a bit, but that was the end "
15184 "of its life so long as the market didn't have more to offer."
15187 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15188 #: freeculture.xml:11135
15190 "In other words, though copyright has been relatively short for most of our "
15191 "history, long copyrights wouldn't have mattered for the works that lost "
15192 "their commercial value. Long copyrights for these works would not have "
15193 "interfered with anything."
15196 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15197 #: freeculture.xml:11141
15198 msgid "But this situation has now changed."
15201 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15202 #: freeculture.xml:11145
15204 "One crucially important consequence of the emergence of digital technologies "
15205 "is to enable the archive that Brewster Kahle dreams of. Digital "
15206 "technologies now make it possible to preserve and give access to all sorts "
15207 "of knowledge. Once a book goes out of print, we can now imagine digitizing "
15208 "it and making it available to everyone, forever. Once a film goes out of "
15209 "distribution, we could digitize it and make it available to everyone, "
15210 "forever. Digital technologies give new life to copyrighted material after it "
15211 "passes out of its commercial life. It is now possible to preserve and assure "
15212 "universal access to this knowledge and culture, whereas before it was not."
15216 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15217 #: freeculture.xml:11158
15219 "And now copyright law does get in the way. Every step of producing this "
15220 "digital archive of our culture infringes on the exclusive right of "
15221 "copyright. To digitize a book is to copy it. To do that requires permission "
15222 "of the copyright owner. The same with music, film, or any other aspect of "
15223 "our culture protected by copyright. The effort to make these things "
15224 "available to history, or to researchers, or to those who just want to "
15225 "explore, is now inhibited by a set of rules that were written for a "
15226 "radically different context."
15229 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15230 #: freeculture.xml:11168
15232 "Here is the core of the harm that comes from extending terms: Now that "
15233 "technology enables us to rebuild the library of Alexandria, the law gets in "
15234 "the way. And it doesn't get in the way for any useful "
15235 "<emphasis>copyright</emphasis> purpose, for the purpose of copyright is to "
15236 "enable the commercial market that spreads culture. No, we are talking about "
15237 "culture after it has lived its commercial life. In this context, copyright "
15238 "is serving no purpose <emphasis>at all</emphasis> related to the spread of "
15239 "knowledge. In this context, copyright is not an engine of free "
15240 "expression. Copyright is a brake."
15243 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15244 #: freeculture.xml:11179
15246 "You may well ask, <quote>But if digital technologies lower the costs for "
15247 "Brewster Kahle, then they will lower the costs for Random House, too. So "
15248 "won't Random House do as well as Brewster Kahle in spreading culture "
15252 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15253 #: freeculture.xml:11185
15255 "Maybe. Someday. But there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that "
15256 "publishers would be as complete as libraries. If Barnes & Noble offered "
15257 "to lend books from its stores for a low price, would that eliminate the need "
15258 "for libraries? Only if you think that the only role of a library is to serve "
15259 "what <quote>the market</quote> would demand. But if you think the role of a "
15260 "library is bigger than this—if you think its role is to archive "
15261 "culture, whether there's a demand for any particular bit of that culture or "
15262 "not—then we can't count on the commercial market to do our library "
15267 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15268 #: freeculture.xml:11209
15270 "Jason Schultz, <quote>The Myth of the 1976 Copyright `Chaos' Theory,</quote> "
15271 "20 December 2002, available at <ulink "
15272 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #54</ulink>."
15275 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15276 #: freeculture.xml:11197
15278 "I would be the first to agree that it should do as much as it can: We should "
15279 "rely upon the market as much as possible to spread and enable culture. My "
15280 "message is absolutely not antimarket. But where we see the market is not "
15281 "doing the job, then we should allow nonmarket forces the freedom to fill the "
15282 "gaps. As one researcher calculated for American culture, 94 percent of the "
15283 "films, books, and music produced between and 1946 is not commercially "
15284 "available. However much you love the commercial market, if access is a "
15285 "value, then 6 percent is a failure to provide that value.<placeholder "
15286 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
15289 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15290 #: freeculture.xml:11216
15292 "<emphasis role='strong'>In January 1999</emphasis>, we filed a lawsuit on "
15293 "Eric Eldred's behalf in federal district court in Washington, D.C., asking "
15294 "the court to declare the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act "
15295 "unconstitutional. The two central claims that we made were (1) that "
15296 "extending existing terms violated the Constitution's <quote>limited "
15297 "Times</quote> requirement, and (2) that extending terms by another twenty "
15298 "years violated the First Amendment."
15301 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15302 #: freeculture.xml:11225
15304 "The district court dismissed our claims without even hearing an argument. A "
15305 "panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also dismissed our "
15306 "claims, though after hearing an extensive argument. But that decision at "
15307 "least had a dissent, by one of the most conservative judges on that "
15308 "court. That dissent gave our claims life."
15311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15312 #: freeculture.xml:11232
15314 "Judge David Sentelle said the CTEA violated the requirement that copyrights "
15315 "be for <quote>limited Times</quote> only. His argument was as elegant as it "
15316 "was simple: If Congress can extend existing terms, then there is no "
15317 "<quote>stopping point</quote> to Congress's power under the Copyright "
15318 "Clause. The power to extend existing terms means Congress is not required to "
15319 "grant terms that are <quote>limited.</quote> Thus, Judge Sentelle argued, "
15320 "the court had to interpret the term <quote>limited Times</quote> to give it "
15321 "meaning. And the best interpretation, Judge Sentelle argued, would be to "
15322 "deny Congress the power to extend existing terms."
15325 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15326 #: freeculture.xml:11243
15328 "We asked the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as a whole to hear the "
15329 "case. Cases are ordinarily heard in panels of three, except for important "
15330 "cases or cases that raise issues specific to the circuit as a whole, where "
15331 "the court will sit <quote>en banc</quote> to hear the case."
15334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15335 #: freeculture.xml:11248
15336 msgid "Tatel, David"
15340 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15341 #: freeculture.xml:11250
15343 "The Court of Appeals rejected our request to hear the case en banc. This "
15344 "time, Judge Sentelle was joined by the most liberal member of the "
15345 "D.C. Circuit, Judge David Tatel. Both the most conservative and the most "
15346 "liberal judges in the D.C. Circuit believed Congress had overstepped its "
15350 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15351 #: freeculture.xml:11259
15353 "It was here that most expected Eldred v. Ashcroft would die, for the Supreme "
15354 "Court rarely reviews any decision by a court of appeals. (It hears about one "
15355 "hundred cases a year, out of more than five thousand appeals.) And it "
15356 "practically never reviews a decision that upholds a statute when no other "
15357 "court has yet reviewed the statute."
15360 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15361 #: freeculture.xml:11266
15363 "But in February 2002, the Supreme Court surprised the world by granting our "
15364 "petition to review the D.C. Circuit opinion. Argument was set for October of "
15365 "2002. The summer would be spent writing briefs and preparing for argument."
15368 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15369 #: freeculture.xml:11272
15371 "<emphasis role='strong'>It is over</emphasis> a year later as I write these "
15372 "words. It is still astonishingly hard. If you know anything at all about "
15373 "this story, you know that we lost the appeal. And if you know something more "
15374 "than just the minimum, you probably think there was no way this case could "
15375 "have been won. After our defeat, I received literally thousands of missives "
15376 "by well-wishers and supporters, thanking me for my work on behalf of this "
15377 "noble but doomed cause. And none from this pile was more significant to me "
15378 "than the e-mail from my client, Eric Eldred."
15381 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15382 #: freeculture.xml:11283
15384 "But my client and these friends were wrong. This case could have been "
15385 "won. It should have been won. And no matter how hard I try to retell this "
15386 "story to myself, I can never escape believing that my own mistake lost it."
15389 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15390 #: freeculture.xml:11288 freeculture.xml:11302
15391 msgid "Steward, Geoffrey"
15395 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15396 #: freeculture.xml:11290
15398 "<emphasis role='strong'>The mistake</emphasis> was made early, though it "
15399 "became obvious only at the very end. Our case had been supported from the "
15400 "very beginning by an extraordinary lawyer, Geoffrey Stewart, and by the law "
15401 "firm he had moved to, Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. Jones Day took a great "
15402 "deal of heat from its copyright-protectionist clients for supporting "
15403 "us. They ignored this pressure (something that few law firms today would "
15404 "ever do), and throughout the case, they gave it everything they could."
15407 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15408 #: freeculture.xml:11300 freeculture.xml:11659 freeculture.xml:11675 freeculture.xml:11772 freeculture.xml:11992 freeculture.xml:12023 freeculture.xml:12121
15412 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15413 #: freeculture.xml:11301
15414 msgid "Bromberg, Dan"
15417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15418 #: freeculture.xml:11304
15420 "There were three key lawyers on the case from Jones Day. Geoff Stewart was "
15421 "the first, but then Dan Bromberg and Don Ayer became quite "
15422 "involved. Bromberg and Ayer in particular had a common view about how this "
15423 "case would be won: We would only win, they repeatedly told me, if we could "
15424 "make the issue seem <quote>important</quote> to the Supreme Court. It had to "
15425 "seem as if dramatic harm were being done to free speech and free culture; "
15426 "otherwise, they would never vote against <quote>the most powerful media "
15427 "companies in the world.</quote>"
15430 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15431 #: freeculture.xml:11314
15433 "I hate this view of the law. Of course I thought the Sonny Bono Act was a "
15434 "dramatic harm to free speech and free culture. Of course I still think it "
15435 "is. But the idea that the Supreme Court decides the law based on how "
15436 "important they believe the issues are is just wrong. It might be "
15437 "<quote>right</quote> as in <quote>true,</quote> I thought, but it is "
15438 "<quote>wrong</quote> as in <quote>it just shouldn't be that way.</quote> As "
15439 "I believed that any faithful interpretation of what the framers of our "
15440 "Constitution did would yield the conclusion that the CTEA was "
15441 "unconstitutional, and as I believed that any faithful interpretation of what "
15442 "the First Amendment means would yield the conclusion that the power to "
15443 "extend existing copyright terms is unconstitutional, I was not persuaded "
15444 "that we had to sell our case like soap. Just as a law that bans the "
15445 "swastika is unconstitutional not because the Court likes Nazis but because "
15446 "such a law would violate the Constitution, so too, in my view, would the "
15447 "Court decide whether Congress's law was constitutional based on the "
15448 "Constitution, not based on whether they liked the values that the framers "
15449 "put in the Constitution."
15452 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15453 #: freeculture.xml:11335
15455 "In any case, I thought, the Court must already see the danger and the harm "
15456 "caused by this sort of law. Why else would they grant review? There was no "
15457 "reason to hear the case in the Supreme Court if they weren't convinced that "
15458 "this regulation was harmful. So in my view, we didn't need to persuade them "
15459 "that this law was bad, we needed to show why it was unconstitutional."
15463 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15464 #: freeculture.xml:11343
15466 "There was one way, however, in which I felt politics would matter and in "
15467 "which I thought a response was appropriate. I was convinced that the Court "
15468 "would not hear our arguments if it thought these were just the arguments of "
15469 "a group of lefty loons. This Supreme Court was not about to launch into a "
15470 "new field of judicial review if it seemed that this field of review was "
15471 "simply the preference of a small political minority. Although my focus in "
15472 "the case was not to demonstrate how bad the Sonny Bono Act was but to "
15473 "demonstrate that it was unconstitutional, my hope was to make this argument "
15474 "against a background of briefs that covered the full range of political "
15475 "views. To show that this claim against the CTEA was grounded in "
15476 "<emphasis>law</emphasis> and not politics, then, we tried to gather the "
15477 "widest range of credible critics—credible not because they were rich "
15478 "and famous, but because they, in the aggregate, demonstrated that this law "
15479 "was unconstitutional regardless of one's politics."
15482 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15483 #: freeculture.xml:11361 freeculture.xml:11388
15484 msgid "Eagle Forum"
15487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15488 #: freeculture.xml:11362
15489 msgid "Schlafly, Phyllis"
15492 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15493 #: freeculture.xml:11364
15495 "The first step happened all by itself. Phyllis Schlafly's organization, "
15496 "Eagle Forum, had been an opponent of the CTEA from the very beginning. "
15497 "Mrs. Schlafly viewed the CTEA as a sellout by Congress. In November 1998, "
15498 "she wrote a stinging editorial attacking the Republican Congress for "
15499 "allowing the law to pass. As she wrote, <quote>Do you sometimes wonder why "
15500 "bills that create a financial windfall to narrow special interests slide "
15501 "easily through the intricate legislative process, while bills that benefit "
15502 "the general public seem to get bogged down?</quote> The answer, as the "
15503 "editorial documented, was the power of money. Schlafly enumerated Disney's "
15504 "contributions to the key players on the committees. It was money, not "
15505 "justice, that gave Mickey Mouse twenty more years in Disney's control, "
15509 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15510 #: freeculture.xml:11378
15512 "In the Court of Appeals, Eagle Forum was eager to file a brief supporting "
15513 "our position. Their brief made the argument that became the core claim in "
15514 "the Supreme Court: If Congress can extend the term of existing copyrights, "
15515 "there is no limit to Congress's power to set terms. That strong "
15516 "conservative argument persuaded a strong conservative judge, Judge Sentelle."
15520 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15521 #: freeculture.xml:11390
15523 "In the Supreme Court, the briefs on our side were about as diverse as it "
15524 "gets. They included an extraordinary historical brief by the Free Software "
15525 "Foundation (home of the GNU project that made GNU/ Linux possible). They "
15526 "included a powerful brief about the costs of uncertainty by Intel. There "
15527 "were two law professors' briefs, one by copyright scholars and one by First "
15528 "Amendment scholars. There was an exhaustive and uncontroverted brief by the "
15529 "world's experts in the history of the Progress Clause. And of course, there "
15530 "was a new brief by Eagle Forum, repeating and strengthening its arguments."
15533 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15534 #: freeculture.xml:11402
15535 msgid "American Association of Law Libraries"
15538 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15539 #: freeculture.xml:11403
15540 msgid "National Writers Union"
15543 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15544 #: freeculture.xml:11405
15546 "Those briefs framed a legal argument. Then to support the legal argument, "
15547 "there were a number of powerful briefs by libraries and archives, including "
15548 "the Internet Archive, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the "
15549 "National Writers Union."
15552 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15553 #: freeculture.xml:11412
15555 "But two briefs captured the policy argument best. One made the argument I've "
15556 "already described: A brief by Hal Roach Studios argued that unless the law "
15557 "was struck, a whole generation of American film would disappear. The other "
15558 "made the economic argument absolutely clear."
15561 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15562 #: freeculture.xml:11418
15563 msgid "Akerlof, George"
15566 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15567 #: freeculture.xml:11419
15568 msgid "Arrow, Kenneth"
15571 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15572 #: freeculture.xml:11420
15573 msgid "Buchanan, James"
15576 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15577 #: freeculture.xml:11421
15578 msgid "Coase, Ronald"
15581 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15582 #: freeculture.xml:11422
15583 msgid "Friedman, Milton"
15586 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15587 #: freeculture.xml:11424
15589 "This economists' brief was signed by seventeen economists, including five "
15590 "Nobel Prize winners, including Ronald Coase, James Buchanan, Milton "
15591 "Friedman, Kenneth Arrow, and George Akerlof. The economists, as the list of "
15592 "Nobel winners demonstrates, spanned the political spectrum. Their "
15593 "conclusions were powerful: There was no plausible claim that extending the "
15594 "terms of existing copyrights would do anything to increase incentives to "
15595 "create. Such extensions were nothing more than "
15596 "<quote>rent-seeking</quote>—the fancy term economists use to describe "
15597 "special-interest legislation gone wild."
15600 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15601 #: freeculture.xml:11434 freeculture.xml:11452 freeculture.xml:11661 freeculture.xml:12024
15602 msgid "Fried, Charles"
15605 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15606 #: freeculture.xml:11435
15607 msgid "Morrison, Alan"
15610 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15611 #: freeculture.xml:11436
15612 msgid "Public Citizen"
15615 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15616 #: freeculture.xml:11437 freeculture.xml:11660 freeculture.xml:12780
15617 msgid "Reagan, Ronald"
15621 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15622 #: freeculture.xml:11439
15624 "The same effort at balance was reflected in the legal team we gathered to "
15625 "write our briefs in the case. The Jones Day lawyers had been with us from "
15626 "the start. But when the case got to the Supreme Court, we added three "
15627 "lawyers to help us frame this argument to this Court: Alan Morrison, a "
15628 "lawyer from Public Citizen, a Washington group that had made constitutional "
15629 "history with a series of seminal victories in the Supreme Court defending "
15630 "individual rights; my colleague and dean, Kathleen Sullivan, who had argued "
15631 "many cases in the Court, and who had advised us early on about a First "
15632 "Amendment strategy; and finally, former solicitor general Charles Fried."
15635 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15636 #: freeculture.xml:11454
15638 "Fried was a special victory for our side. Every other former solicitor "
15639 "general was hired by the other side to defend Congress's power to give media "
15640 "companies the special favor of extended copyright terms. Fried was the only "
15641 "one who turned down that lucrative assignment to stand up for something he "
15642 "believed in. He had been Ronald Reagan's chief lawyer in the Supreme "
15643 "Court. He had helped craft the line of cases that limited Congress's power "
15644 "in the context of the Commerce Clause. And while he had argued many "
15645 "positions in the Supreme Court that I personally disagreed with, his joining "
15646 "the cause was a vote of confidence in our argument."
15649 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15650 #: freeculture.xml:11466
15652 "The government, in defending the statute, had its collection of friends, as "
15653 "well. Significantly, however, none of these <quote>friends</quote> included "
15654 "historians or economists. The briefs on the other side of the case were "
15655 "written exclusively by major media companies, congressmen, and copyright "
15659 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15660 #: freeculture.xml:11473
15662 "The media companies were not surprising. They had the most to gain from the "
15663 "law. The congressmen were not surprising either—they were defending "
15664 "their power and, indirectly, the gravy train of contributions such power "
15665 "induced. And of course it was not surprising that the copyright holders "
15666 "would defend the idea that they should continue to have the right to control "
15667 "who did what with content they wanted to control."
15670 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15671 #: freeculture.xml:11481
15672 msgid "Gershwin, George"
15676 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15677 #: freeculture.xml:11490
15679 "Brief of Amici Dr. Seuss Enterprise et al., <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
15680 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, 537 U.S. (2003) (No. 01-618), 19."
15684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
15685 #: freeculture.xml:11498
15687 "Dinitia Smith, <quote>Immortal Words, Immortal Royalties? Even Mickey Mouse "
15688 "Joins the Fray,</quote> <citetitle>New York Times</citetitle>, 28 March "
15693 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15694 #: freeculture.xml:11483
15696 "Dr. Seuss's representatives, for example, argued that it was better for the "
15697 "Dr. Seuss estate to control what happened to Dr. Seuss's work— better "
15698 "than allowing it to fall into the public domain—because if this "
15699 "creativity were in the public domain, then people could use it to "
15700 "<quote>glorify drugs or to create pornography.</quote><placeholder "
15701 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> That was also the motive of the Gershwin "
15702 "estate, which defended its <quote>protection</quote> of the work of George "
15703 "Gershwin. They refuse, for example, to license <citetitle>Porgy and "
15704 "Bess</citetitle> to anyone who refuses to use African Americans in the "
15705 "cast.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> That's their view of how this "
15706 "part of American culture should be controlled, and they wanted this law to "
15707 "help them effect that control."
15710 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15711 #: freeculture.xml:11507
15713 "This argument made clear a theme that is rarely noticed in this debate. "
15714 "When Congress decides to extend the term of existing copyrights, Congress is "
15715 "making a choice about which speakers it will favor. Famous and beloved "
15716 "copyright owners, such as the Gershwin estate and Dr. Seuss, come to "
15717 "Congress and say, <quote>Give us twenty years to control the speech about "
15718 "these icons of American culture. We'll do better with them than anyone "
15719 "else.</quote> Congress of course likes to reward the popular and famous by "
15720 "giving them what they want. But when Congress gives people an exclusive "
15721 "right to speak in a certain way, that's just what the First Amendment is "
15722 "traditionally meant to block."
15725 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15726 #: freeculture.xml:11519
15728 "We argued as much in a final brief. Not only would upholding the CTEA mean "
15729 "that there was no limit to the power of Congress to extend "
15730 "copyrights—extensions that would further concentrate the market; it "
15731 "would also mean that there was no limit to Congress's power to play "
15732 "favorites, through copyright, with who has the right to speak."
15735 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15736 #: freeculture.xml:11526
15738 "<emphasis role='strong'>Between February</emphasis> and October, there was "
15739 "little I did beyond preparing for this case. Early on, as I said, I set the "
15743 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15744 #: freeculture.xml:11531 freeculture.xml:11717
15745 msgid "O'Connor, Sandra Day"
15748 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15749 #: freeculture.xml:11533
15751 "The Supreme Court was divided into two important camps. One camp we called "
15752 "<quote>the Conservatives.</quote> The other we called <quote>the "
15753 "Rest.</quote> The Conservatives included Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice "
15754 "O'Connor, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. These five "
15755 "had been the most consistent in limiting Congress's power. They were the "
15756 "five who had supported the <citetitle>Lopez/Morrison</citetitle> line of "
15757 "cases that said that an enumerated power had to be interpreted to assure "
15758 "that Congress's powers had limits."
15761 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15762 #: freeculture.xml:11542 freeculture.xml:11567 freeculture.xml:11919 freeculture.xml:11931
15763 msgid "Breyer, Stephen"
15766 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
15767 #: freeculture.xml:11543 freeculture.xml:11883
15768 msgid "Ginsburg, Ruth Bader"
15772 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15773 #: freeculture.xml:11545
15775 "The Rest were the four Justices who had strongly opposed limits on "
15776 "Congress's power. These four—Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, Justice "
15777 "Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer—had repeatedly argued that the "
15778 "Constitution gives Congress broad discretion to decide how best to implement "
15779 "its powers. In case after case, these justices had argued that the Court's "
15780 "role should be one of deference. Though the votes of these four justices "
15781 "were the votes that I personally had most consistently agreed with, they "
15782 "were also the votes that we were least likely to get."
15785 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15786 #: freeculture.xml:11557
15788 "In particular, the least likely was Justice Ginsburg's. In addition to her "
15789 "general view about deference to Congress (except where issues of gender are "
15790 "involved), she had been particularly deferential in the context of "
15791 "intellectual property protections. She and her daughter (an excellent and "
15792 "well-known intellectual property scholar) were cut from the same "
15793 "intellectual property cloth. We expected she would agree with the writings "
15794 "of her daughter: that Congress had the power in this context to do as it "
15795 "wished, even if what Congress wished made little sense."
15798 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15799 #: freeculture.xml:11569
15801 "Close behind Justice Ginsburg were two justices whom we also viewed as "
15802 "unlikely allies, though possible surprises. Justice Souter strongly favored "
15803 "deference to Congress, as did Justice Breyer. But both were also very "
15804 "sensitive to free speech concerns. And as we strongly believed, there was a "
15805 "very important free speech argument against these retrospective extensions."
15808 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15809 #: freeculture.xml:11578
15811 "The only vote we could be confident about was that of Justice "
15812 "Stevens. History will record Justice Stevens as one of the greatest judges "
15813 "on this Court. His votes are consistently eclectic, which just means that no "
15814 "simple ideology explains where he will stand. But he had consistently argued "
15815 "for limits in the context of intellectual property generally. We were fairly "
15816 "confident he would recognize limits here."
15819 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15820 #: freeculture.xml:11586
15822 "This analysis of <quote>the Rest</quote> showed most clearly where our focus "
15823 "had to be: on the Conservatives. To win this case, we had to crack open "
15824 "these five and get at least a majority to go our way. Thus, the single "
15825 "overriding argument that animated our claim rested on the Conservatives' "
15826 "most important jurisprudential innovation—the argument that Judge "
15827 "Sentelle had relied upon in the Court of Appeals, that Congress's power must "
15828 "be interpreted so that its enumerated powers have limits."
15832 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15833 #: freeculture.xml:11596
15835 "This then was the core of our strategy—a strategy for which I am "
15836 "responsible. We would get the Court to see that just as with the "
15837 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, under the government's argument here, "
15838 "Congress would always have unlimited power to extend existing terms. If "
15839 "anything was plain about Congress's power under the Progress Clause, it was "
15840 "that this power was supposed to be <quote>limited.</quote> Our aim would be "
15841 "to get the Court to reconcile <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> with "
15842 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>: If Congress's power to regulate commerce was "
15843 "limited, then so, too, must Congress's power to regulate copyright be "
15847 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15848 #: freeculture.xml:11610
15850 "<emphasis role='strong'>The argument</emphasis> on the government's side "
15851 "came down to this: Congress has done it before. It should be allowed to do "
15852 "it again. The government claimed that from the very beginning, Congress has "
15853 "been extending the term of existing copyrights. So, the government argued, "
15854 "the Court should not now say that practice is unconstitutional."
15857 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15858 #: freeculture.xml:11618
15860 "There was some truth to the government's claim, but not much. We certainly "
15861 "agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in 1831 and in 1909. And of "
15862 "course, in 1962, Congress began extending existing terms "
15863 "regularly—eleven times in forty years."
15866 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15867 #: freeculture.xml:11625
15869 "But this <quote>consistency</quote> should be kept in perspective. Congress "
15870 "extended existing terms once in the first hundred years of the Republic. It "
15871 "then extended existing terms once again in the next fifty. Those rare "
15872 "extensions are in contrast to the now regular practice of extending existing "
15873 "terms. Whatever restraint Congress had had in the past, that restraint was "
15874 "now gone. Congress was now in a cycle of extensions; there was no reason to "
15875 "expect that cycle would end. This Court had not hesitated to intervene where "
15876 "Congress was in a similar cycle of extension. There was no reason it "
15877 "couldn't intervene here."
15881 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15882 #: freeculture.xml:11640
15884 "<emphasis role='strong'>Oral argument</emphasis> was scheduled for the first "
15885 "week in October. I arrived in D.C. two weeks before the argument. During "
15886 "those two weeks, I was repeatedly <quote>mooted</quote> by lawyers who had "
15887 "volunteered to help in the case. Such <quote>moots</quote> are basically "
15888 "practice rounds, where wannabe justices fire questions at wannabe winners."
15891 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15892 #: freeculture.xml:11650
15894 "I was convinced that to win, I had to keep the Court focused on a single "
15895 "point: that if this extension is permitted, then there is no limit to the "
15896 "power to set terms. Going with the government would mean that terms would be "
15897 "effectively unlimited; going with us would give Congress a clear line to "
15898 "follow: Don't extend existing terms. The moots were an effective practice; I "
15899 "found ways to take every question back to this central idea."
15902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15903 #: freeculture.xml:11663
15905 "One moot was before the lawyers at Jones Day. Don Ayer was the skeptic. He "
15906 "had served in the Reagan Justice Department with Solicitor General Charles "
15907 "Fried. He had argued many cases before the Supreme Court. And in his review "
15908 "of the moot, he let his concern speak:"
15911 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15912 #: freeculture.xml:11669
15914 "<quote>I'm just afraid that unless they really see the harm, they won't be "
15915 "willing to upset this practice that the government says has been a "
15916 "consistent practice for two hundred years. You have to make them see the "
15917 "harm—passionately get them to see the harm. For if they don't see "
15918 "that, then we haven't any chance of winning.</quote>"
15921 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15922 #: freeculture.xml:11677
15924 "He may have argued many cases before this Court, I thought, but he didn't "
15925 "understand its soul. As a clerk, I had seen the Justices do the right "
15926 "thing—not because of politics but because it was right. As a law "
15927 "professor, I had spent my life teaching my students that this Court does the "
15928 "right thing—not because of politics but because it is right. As I "
15929 "listened to Ayer's plea for passion in pressing politics, I understood his "
15930 "point, and I rejected it. Our argument was right. That was enough. Let the "
15931 "politicians learn to see that it was also good."
15935 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15936 #: freeculture.xml:11687
15938 "<emphasis role='strong'>The night before</emphasis> the argument, a line of "
15939 "people began to form in front of the Supreme Court. The case had become a "
15940 "focus of the press and of the movement to free culture. Hundreds stood in "
15941 "line for the chance to see the proceedings. Scores spent the night on the "
15942 "Supreme Court steps so that they would be assured a seat."
15945 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15946 #: freeculture.xml:11697
15948 "Not everyone has to wait in line. People who know the Justices can ask for "
15949 "seats they control. (I asked Justice Scalia's chambers for seats for my "
15950 "parents, for example.) Members of the Supreme Court bar can get a seat in a "
15951 "special section reserved for them. And senators and congressmen have a "
15952 "special place where they get to sit, too. And finally, of course, the press "
15953 "has a gallery, as do clerks working for the Justices on the Court. As we "
15954 "entered that morning, there was no place that was not taken. This was an "
15955 "argument about intellectual property law, yet the halls were filled. As I "
15956 "walked in to take my seat at the front of the Court, I saw my parents "
15957 "sitting on the left. As I sat down at the table, I saw Jack Valenti sitting "
15958 "in the special section ordinarily reserved for family of the Justices."
15961 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15962 #: freeculture.xml:11712
15964 "When the Chief Justice called me to begin my argument, I began where I "
15965 "intended to stay: on the question of the limits on Congress's power. This "
15966 "was a case about enumerated powers, I said, and whether those enumerated "
15967 "powers had any limit."
15970 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15971 #: freeculture.xml:11719
15973 "Justice O'Connor stopped me within one minute of my opening. The history "
15974 "was bothering her."
15977 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15978 #: freeculture.xml:11724
15980 "justice o'connor: Congress has extended the term so often through the years, "
15981 "and if you are right, don't we run the risk of upsetting previous extensions "
15982 "of time? I mean, this seems to be a practice that began with the very first "
15986 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
15987 #: freeculture.xml:11731
15989 "She was quite willing to concede <quote>that this flies directly in the face "
15990 "of what the framers had in mind.</quote> But my response again and again was "
15991 "to emphasize limits on Congress's power."
15995 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
15996 #: freeculture.xml:11737
15998 "mr. lessig: Well, if it flies in the face of what the framers had in mind, "
15999 "then the question is, is there a way of interpreting their words that gives "
16000 "effect to what they had in mind, and the answer is yes."
16003 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16004 #: freeculture.xml:11745
16006 "There were two points in this argument when I should have seen where the "
16007 "Court was going. The first was a question by Justice Kennedy, who observed,"
16010 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16011 #: freeculture.xml:11751
16013 "justice kennedy: Well, I suppose implicit in the argument that the '76 act, "
16014 "too, should have been declared void, and that we might leave it alone "
16015 "because of the disruption, is that for all these years the act has impeded "
16016 "progress in science and the useful arts. I just don't see any empirical "
16017 "evidence for that."
16020 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16021 #: freeculture.xml:11759
16023 "Here follows my clear mistake. Like a professor correcting a student, I "
16027 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16028 #: freeculture.xml:11765
16030 "mr. lessig: Justice, we are not making an empirical claim at all. Nothing "
16031 "in our Copyright Clause claim hangs upon the empirical assertion about "
16032 "impeding progress. Our only argument is this is a structural limit necessary "
16033 "to assure that what would be an effectively perpetual term not be permitted "
16034 "under the copyright laws."
16037 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16038 #: freeculture.xml:11774
16040 "That was a correct answer, but it wasn't the right answer. The right answer "
16041 "was instead that there was an obvious and profound harm. Any number of "
16042 "briefs had been written about it. He wanted to hear it. And here was the "
16043 "place Don Ayer's advice should have mattered. This was a softball; my answer "
16044 "was a swing and a miss."
16047 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16048 #: freeculture.xml:11781
16050 "The second came from the Chief, for whom the whole case had been "
16051 "crafted. For the Chief Justice had crafted the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
16052 "ruling, and we hoped that he would see this case as its second cousin."
16056 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16057 #: freeculture.xml:11786
16059 "It was clear a second into his question that he wasn't at all sympathetic. "
16060 "To him, we were a bunch of anarchists. As he asked:"
16063 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16064 #: freeculture.xml:11793
16066 "chief justice: Well, but you want more than that. You want the right to copy "
16067 "verbatim other people's books, don't you?"
16070 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16071 #: freeculture.xml:11797
16073 "mr. lessig: We want the right to copy verbatim works that should be in the "
16074 "public domain and would be in the public domain but for a statute that "
16075 "cannot be justified under ordinary First Amendment analysis or under a "
16076 "proper reading of the limits built into the Copyright Clause."
16079 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16080 #: freeculture.xml:11805
16081 msgid "Olson, Theodore B."
16084 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16085 #: freeculture.xml:11807
16087 "Things went better for us when the government gave its argument; for now the "
16088 "Court picked up on the core of our claim. As Justice Scalia asked Solicitor "
16092 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16093 #: freeculture.xml:11813
16095 "justice scalia: You say that the functional equivalent of an unlimited time "
16096 "would be a violation [of the Constitution], but that's precisely the "
16097 "argument that's being made by petitioners here, that a limited time which is "
16098 "extendable is the functional equivalent of an unlimited time."
16101 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16102 #: freeculture.xml:11821
16104 "When Olson was finished, it was my turn to give a closing rebuttal. Olson's "
16105 "flailing had revived my anger. But my anger still was directed to the "
16106 "academic, not the practical. The government was arguing as if this were the "
16107 "first case ever to consider limits on Congress's Copyright and Patent Clause "
16108 "power. Ever the professor and not the advocate, I closed by pointing out the "
16109 "long history of the Court imposing limits on Congress's power in the name of "
16110 "the Copyright and Patent Clause— indeed, the very first case striking "
16111 "a law of Congress as exceeding a specific enumerated power was based upon "
16112 "the Copyright and Patent Clause. All true. But it wasn't going to move the "
16113 "Court to my side."
16117 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16118 #: freeculture.xml:11834
16120 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I left</emphasis> the court that day, I knew "
16121 "there were a hundred points I wished I could remake. There were a hundred "
16122 "questions I wished I had answered differently. But one way of thinking about "
16123 "this case left me optimistic."
16126 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16127 #: freeculture.xml:11843
16129 "The government had been asked over and over again, what is the limit? Over "
16130 "and over again, it had answered there is no limit. This was precisely the "
16131 "answer I wanted the Court to hear. For I could not imagine how the Court "
16132 "could understand that the government believed Congress's power was unlimited "
16133 "under the terms of the Copyright Clause, and sustain the government's "
16134 "argument. The solicitor general had made my argument for me. No matter how "
16135 "often I tried, I could not understand how the Court could find that "
16136 "Congress's power under the Commerce Clause was limited, but under the "
16137 "Copyright Clause, unlimited. In those rare moments when I let myself believe "
16138 "that we may have prevailed, it was because I felt this Court—in "
16139 "particular, the Conservatives—would feel itself constrained by the "
16140 "rule of law that it had established elsewhere."
16143 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16144 #: freeculture.xml:11858
16146 "<emphasis role='strong'>The morning</emphasis> of January 15, 2003, I was "
16147 "five minutes late to the office and missed the 7:00 A.M. call from the "
16148 "Supreme Court clerk. Listening to the message, I could tell in an instant "
16149 "that she had bad news to report.The Supreme Court had affirmed the decision "
16150 "of the Court of Appeals. Seven justices had voted in the majority. There "
16151 "were two dissents."
16154 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16155 #: freeculture.xml:11866
16157 "A few seconds later, the opinions arrived by e-mail. I took the phone off "
16158 "the hook, posted an announcement to our blog, and sat down to see where I "
16159 "had been wrong in my reasoning."
16162 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16163 #: freeculture.xml:11871
16165 "My <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. Here was a case that pitted all the money "
16166 "in the world against <emphasis>reasoning</emphasis>. And here was the last "
16167 "naïve law professor, scouring the pages, looking for reasoning."
16170 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16171 #: freeculture.xml:11877
16173 "I first scoured the opinion, looking for how the Court would distinguish the "
16174 "principle in this case from the principle in "
16175 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. The argument was nowhere to be found. The case "
16176 "was not even cited. The argument that was the core argument of our case did "
16177 "not even appear in the Court's opinion."
16181 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16182 #: freeculture.xml:11887
16184 "Justice Ginsburg simply ignored the enumerated powers argument. Consistent "
16185 "with her view that Congress's power was not limited generally, she had found "
16186 "Congress's power not limited here."
16189 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16190 #: freeculture.xml:11892
16192 "Her opinion was perfectly reasonable—for her, and for Justice "
16193 "Souter. Neither believes in <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle>. It would be too "
16194 "much to expect them to write an opinion that recognized, much less "
16195 "explained, the doctrine they had worked so hard to defeat."
16198 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16199 #: freeculture.xml:11898
16201 "But as I realized what had happened, I couldn't quite believe what I was "
16202 "reading. I had said there was no way this Court could reconcile limited "
16203 "powers with the Commerce Clause and unlimited powers with the Progress "
16204 "Clause. It had never even occurred to me that they could reconcile the two "
16205 "simply <emphasis>by not addressing the argument</emphasis>. There was no "
16206 "inconsistency because they would not talk about the two together. There was "
16207 "therefore no principle that followed from the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> "
16208 "case: In that context, Congress's power would be limited, but in this "
16209 "context it would not."
16212 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16213 #: freeculture.xml:11909
16215 "Yet by what right did they get to choose which of the framers' values they "
16216 "would respect? By what right did they—the silent five—get to "
16217 "select the part of the Constitution they would enforce based on the values "
16218 "they thought important? We were right back to the argument that I said I "
16219 "hated at the start: I had failed to convince them that the issue here was "
16220 "important, and I had failed to recognize that however much I might hate a "
16221 "system in which the Court gets to pick the constitutional values that it "
16222 "will respect, that is the system we have."
16225 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16226 #: freeculture.xml:11921
16228 "Justices Breyer and Stevens wrote very strong dissents. Stevens's opinion "
16229 "was crafted internal to the law: He argued that the tradition of "
16230 "intellectual property law should not support this unjustified extension of "
16231 "terms. He based his argument on a parallel analysis that had governed in the "
16232 "context of patents (so had we). But the rest of the Court discounted the "
16233 "parallel—without explaining how the very same words in the Progress "
16234 "Clause could come to mean totally different things depending upon whether "
16235 "the words were about patents or copyrights. The Court let Justice Stevens's "
16236 "charge go unanswered."
16240 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16241 #: freeculture.xml:11934
16243 "Justice Breyer's opinion, perhaps the best opinion he has ever written, was "
16244 "external to the Constitution. He argued that the term of copyrights has "
16245 "become so long as to be effectively unlimited. We had said that under the "
16246 "current term, a copyright gave an author 99.8 percent of the value of a "
16247 "perpetual term. Breyer said we were wrong, that the actual number was "
16248 "99.9997 percent of a perpetual term. Either way, the point was clear: If the "
16249 "Constitution said a term had to be <quote>limited,</quote> and the existing "
16250 "term was so long as to be effectively unlimited, then it was "
16251 "unconstitutional."
16254 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16255 #: freeculture.xml:11945
16257 "These two justices understood all the arguments we had made. But because "
16258 "neither believed in the <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> case, neither was "
16259 "willing to push it as a reason to reject this extension. The case was "
16260 "decided without anyone having addressed the argument that we had carried "
16261 "from Judge Sentelle. It was <citetitle>Hamlet</citetitle> without the "
16265 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16266 #: freeculture.xml:11952
16268 "<emphasis role='strong'>Defeat brings depression</emphasis>. They say it is "
16269 "a sign of health when depression gives way to anger. My anger came quickly, "
16270 "but it didn't cure the depression. This anger was of two sorts."
16273 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16274 #: freeculture.xml:11957
16275 msgid "originalism"
16278 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16279 #: freeculture.xml:11959
16281 "It was first anger with the five <quote>Conservatives.</quote> It would have "
16282 "been one thing for them to have explained why the principle of "
16283 "<citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> didn't apply in this case. That wouldn't have "
16284 "been a very convincing argument, I don't believe, having read it made by "
16285 "others, and having tried to make it myself. But it at least would have been "
16286 "an act of integrity. These justices in particular have repeatedly said that "
16287 "the proper mode of interpreting the Constitution is "
16288 "<quote>originalism</quote>—to first understand the framers' text, "
16289 "interpreted in their context, in light of the structure of the "
16290 "Constitution. That method had produced <citetitle>Lopez</citetitle> and many "
16291 "other <quote>originalist</quote> rulings. Where was their "
16292 "<quote>originalism</quote> now?"
16296 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16297 #: freeculture.xml:11972
16299 "Here, they had joined an opinion that never once tried to explain what the "
16300 "framers had meant by crafting the Progress Clause as they did; they joined "
16301 "an opinion that never once tried to explain how the structure of that clause "
16302 "would affect the interpretation of Congress's power. And they joined an "
16303 "opinion that didn't even try to explain why this grant of power could be "
16304 "unlimited, whereas the Commerce Clause would be limited. In short, they had "
16305 "joined an opinion that did not apply to, and was inconsistent with, their "
16306 "own method for interpreting the Constitution. This opinion may well have "
16307 "yielded a result that they liked. It did not produce a reason that was "
16308 "consistent with their own principles."
16311 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16312 #: freeculture.xml:11987
16314 "My anger with the Conservatives quickly yielded to anger with myself. For I "
16315 "had let a view of the law that I liked interfere with a view of the law as "
16319 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16320 #: freeculture.xml:11994
16322 "Most lawyers, and most law professors, have little patience for idealism "
16323 "about courts in general and this Supreme Court in particular. Most have a "
16324 "much more pragmatic view. When Don Ayer said that this case would be won "
16325 "based on whether I could convince the Justices that the framers' values were "
16326 "important, I fought the idea, because I didn't want to believe that that is "
16327 "how this Court decides. I insisted on arguing this case as if it were a "
16328 "simple application of a set of principles. I had an argument that followed "
16329 "in logic. I didn't need to waste my time showing it should also follow in "
16334 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16335 #: freeculture.xml:12005
16337 "As I read back over the transcript from that argument in October, I can see "
16338 "a hundred places where the answers could have taken the conversation in "
16339 "different directions, where the truth about the harm that this unchecked "
16340 "power will cause could have been made clear to this Court. Justice Kennedy "
16341 "in good faith wanted to be shown. I, idiotically, corrected his "
16342 "question. Justice Souter in good faith wanted to be shown the First "
16343 "Amendment harms. I, like a math teacher, reframed the question to make the "
16344 "logical point. I had shown them how they could strike this law of Congress "
16345 "if they wanted to. There were a hundred places where I could have helped "
16346 "them want to, yet my stubbornness, my refusal to give in, stopped me. I have "
16347 "stood before hundreds of audiences trying to persuade; I have used passion "
16348 "in that effort to persuade; but I refused to stand before this audience and "
16349 "try to persuade with the passion I had used elsewhere. It was not the basis "
16350 "on which a court should decide the issue."
16353 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16354 #: freeculture.xml:12026
16356 "Would it have been different if I had argued it differently? Would it have "
16357 "been different if Don Ayer had argued it? Or Charles Fried? Or Kathleen "
16361 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16362 #: freeculture.xml:12031
16364 "My friends huddled around me to insist it would not. The Court was not "
16365 "ready, my friends insisted. This was a loss that was destined. It would take "
16366 "a great deal more to show our society why our framers were right. And when "
16367 "we do that, we will be able to show that Court."
16370 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16371 #: freeculture.xml:12037
16373 "Maybe, but I doubt it. These Justices have no financial interest in doing "
16374 "anything except the right thing. They are not lobbied. They have little "
16375 "reason to resist doing right. I can't help but think that if I had stepped "
16376 "down from this pretty picture of dispassionate justice, I could have "
16380 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16381 #: freeculture.xml:12045
16383 "And even if I couldn't, then that doesn't excuse what happened in "
16384 "January. For at the start of this case, one of America's leading "
16385 "intellectual property professors stated publicly that my bringing this case "
16386 "was a mistake. <quote>The Court is not ready,</quote> Peter Jaszi said; this "
16387 "issue should not be raised until it is."
16390 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16391 #: freeculture.xml:12052
16393 "After the argument and after the decision, Peter said to me, and publicly, "
16394 "that he was wrong. But if indeed that Court could not have been persuaded, "
16395 "then that is all the evidence that's needed to know that here again Peter "
16396 "was right. Either I was not ready to argue this case in a way that would do "
16397 "some good or they were not ready to hear this case in a way that would do "
16398 "some good. Either way, the decision to bring this case—a decision I "
16399 "had made four years before—was wrong."
16403 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16404 #: freeculture.xml:12061
16406 "<emphasis role='strong'>While the reaction</emphasis> to the Sonny Bono Act "
16407 "itself was almost unanimously negative, the reaction to the Court's decision "
16408 "was mixed. No one, at least in the press, tried to say that extending the "
16409 "term of copyright was a good idea. We had won that battle over ideas. Where "
16410 "the decision was praised, it was praised by papers that had been skeptical "
16411 "of the Court's activism in other cases. Deference was a good thing, even if "
16412 "it left standing a silly law. But where the decision was attacked, it was "
16413 "attacked because it left standing a silly and harmful law. <citetitle>The "
16414 "New York Times</citetitle> wrote in its editorial,"
16417 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><blockquote><para>
16418 #: freeculture.xml:12076
16420 "In effect, the Supreme Court's decision makes it likely that we are seeing "
16421 "the beginning of the end of public domain and the birth of copyright "
16422 "perpetuity. The public domain has been a grand experiment, one that should "
16423 "not be allowed to die. The ability to draw freely on the entire creative "
16424 "output of humanity is one of the reasons we live in a time of such fruitful "
16425 "creative ferment."
16428 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><indexterm><primary>
16429 #: freeculture.xml:12090 freeculture.xml:12095
16430 msgid "Bolling, Ruben"
16433 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16434 #: freeculture.xml:12085
16436 "The best responses were in the cartoons. There was a gaggle of hilarious "
16437 "images—of Mickey in jail and the like. The best, from my view of the "
16438 "case, was Ruben Bolling's, reproduced on the next page (<xref "
16439 "linkend=\"fig-18\"/>). The <quote>powerful and wealthy</quote> line is a bit "
16440 "unfair. But the punch in the face felt exactly like that. <placeholder "
16441 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16444 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure><title>
16445 #: freeculture.xml:12093
16446 msgid "Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon"
16449 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><figure>
16450 #: freeculture.xml:12094
16452 "<graphic fileref=\"images/18.png\"></graphic> <placeholder "
16453 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16456 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16457 #: freeculture.xml:12098
16459 "The image that will always stick in my head is that evoked by the quote from "
16460 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle>. That <quote>grand "
16461 "experiment</quote> we call the <quote>public domain</quote> is over? When I "
16462 "can make light of it, I think, <quote>Honey, I shrunk the "
16463 "Constitution.</quote> But I can rarely make light of it. We had in our "
16464 "Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the "
16465 "Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would "
16466 "have made them see differently."
16469 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><title>
16470 #: freeculture.xml:12109
16471 msgid "CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Eldred II"
16474 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16475 #: freeculture.xml:12111
16477 "<emphasis role='strong'>The day</emphasis> <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
16478 "decided, fate would have it that I was to travel to Washington, D.C. (The "
16479 "day the rehearing petition in <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> was "
16480 "denied—meaning the case was really finally over—fate would have "
16481 "it that I was giving a speech to technologists at Disney World.) This was a "
16482 "particularly long flight to my least favorite city. The drive into the city "
16483 "from Dulles was delayed because of traffic, so I opened up my computer and "
16484 "wrote an op-ed piece."
16487 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16488 #: freeculture.xml:12123
16490 "It was an act of contrition. During the whole of the flight from San "
16491 "Francisco to Washington, I had heard over and over again in my head the same "
16492 "advice from Don Ayer: You need to make them see why it is important. And "
16493 "alternating with that command was the question of Justice Kennedy: "
16494 "<quote>For all these years the act has impeded progress in science and the "
16495 "useful arts. I just don't see any empirical evidence for that.</quote> And "
16496 "so, having failed in the argument of constitutional principle, finally, I "
16497 "turned to an argument of politics."
16501 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16502 #: freeculture.xml:12133
16504 "<citetitle>The New York Times</citetitle> published the piece. In it, I "
16505 "proposed a simple fix: Fifty years after a work has been published, the "
16506 "copyright owner would be required to register the work and pay a small "
16507 "fee. If he paid the fee, he got the benefit of the full term of "
16508 "copyright. If he did not, the work passed into the public domain."
16511 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16512 #: freeculture.xml:12141
16514 "We called this the Eldred Act, but that was just to give it a name. Eric "
16515 "Eldred was kind enough to let his name be used once again, but as he said "
16516 "early on, it won't get passed unless it has another name."
16519 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16520 #: freeculture.xml:12146
16522 "Or another two names. For depending upon your perspective, this is either "
16523 "the <quote>Public Domain Enhancement Act</quote> or the <quote>Copyright "
16524 "Term Deregulation Act.</quote> Either way, the essence of the idea is clear "
16525 "and obvious: Remove copyright where it is doing nothing except blocking "
16526 "access and the spread of knowledge. Leave it for as long as Congress allows "
16527 "for those works where its worth is at least $1. But for everything else, let "
16531 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16532 #: freeculture.xml:12154 freeculture.xml:12355
16533 msgid "Forbes, Steve"
16536 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16537 #: freeculture.xml:12156
16539 "The reaction to this idea was amazingly strong. Steve Forbes endorsed it in "
16540 "an editorial. I received an avalanche of e-mail and letters expressing "
16541 "support. When you focus the issue on lost creativity, people can see the "
16542 "copyright system makes no sense. As a good Republican might say, here "
16543 "government regulation is simply getting in the way of innovation and "
16544 "creativity. And as a good Democrat might say, here the government is "
16545 "blocking access and the spread of knowledge for no good reason. Indeed, "
16546 "there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this "
16547 "issue. Anyone can recognize the stupid harm of the present system."
16550 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16551 #: freeculture.xml:12168
16553 "Indeed, many recognized the obvious benefit of the registration "
16554 "requirement. For one of the hardest things about the current system for "
16555 "people who want to license content is that there is no obvious place to look "
16556 "for the current copyright owners. Since registration is not required, since "
16557 "marking content is not required, since no formality at all is required, it "
16558 "is often impossibly hard to locate copyright owners to ask permission to use "
16559 "or license their work. This system would lower these costs, by establishing "
16560 "at least one registry where copyright owners could be identified."
16563 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16564 #: freeculture.xml:12178
16565 msgid "Berlin Act (1908)"
16568 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16569 #: freeculture.xml:12179 freeculture.xml:12220
16570 msgid "Berne Convention (1908)"
16573 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
16574 #: freeculture.xml:12187
16575 msgid "German copyright law"
16578 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para><footnote><para>
16579 #: freeculture.xml:12187
16581 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> Until the 1908 Berlin Act of the "
16582 "Berne Convention, national copyright legislation sometimes made protection "
16583 "depend upon compliance with formalities such as registration, deposit, and "
16584 "affixation of notice of the author's claim of copyright. However, starting "
16585 "with the 1908 act, every text of the Convention has provided that <quote>the "
16586 "enjoyment and the exercise</quote> of rights guaranteed by the Convention "
16587 "<quote>shall not be subject to any formality.</quote> The prohibition "
16588 "against formalities is presently embodied in Article 5(2) of the Paris Text "
16589 "of the Berne Convention. Many countries continue to impose some form of "
16590 "deposit or registration requirement, albeit not as a condition of "
16591 "copyright. French law, for example, requires the deposit of copies of works "
16592 "in national repositories, principally the National Museum. Copies of books "
16593 "published in the United Kingdom must be deposited in the British "
16594 "Library. The German Copyright Act provides for a Registrar of Authors where "
16595 "the author's true name can be filed in the case of anonymous or pseudonymous "
16596 "works. Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>International Intellectual Property Law, "
16597 "Cases and Materials</citetitle> (New York: Foundation Press, 2001), "
16601 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16602 #: freeculture.xml:12182
16604 "As I described in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
16605 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, formalities in copyright law were removed in 1976, "
16606 "when Congress followed the Europeans by abandoning any formal requirement "
16607 "before a copyright is granted.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
16608 "Europeans are said to view copyright as a <quote>natural right.</quote> "
16609 "Natural rights don't need forms to exist. Traditions, like the "
16610 "Anglo-American tradition that required copyright owners to follow form if "
16611 "their rights were to be protected, did not, the Europeans thought, properly "
16612 "respect the dignity of the author. My right as a creator turns on my "
16613 "creativity, not upon the special favor of the government."
16616 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16617 #: freeculture.xml:12214
16619 "That's great rhetoric. It sounds wonderfully romantic. But it is absurd "
16620 "copyright policy. It is absurd especially for authors, because a world "
16621 "without formalities harms the creator. The ability to spread <quote>Walt "
16622 "Disney creativity</quote> is destroyed when there is no simple way to know "
16623 "what's protected and what's not."
16626 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16627 #: freeculture.xml:12222
16629 "The fight against formalities achieved its first real victory in Berlin in "
16630 "1908. International copyright lawyers amended the Berne Convention in 1908, "
16631 "to require copyright terms of life plus fifty years, as well as the "
16632 "abolition of copyright formalities. The formalities were hated because the "
16633 "stories of inadvertent loss were increasingly common. It was as if a Charles "
16634 "Dickens character ran all copyright offices, and the failure to dot an "
16635 "<citetitle>i</citetitle> or cross a <citetitle>t</citetitle> resulted in the "
16636 "loss of widows' only income."
16639 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16640 #: freeculture.xml:12232
16642 "These complaints were real and sensible. And the strictness of the "
16643 "formalities, especially in the United States, was absurd. The law should "
16644 "always have ways of forgiving innocent mistakes. There is no reason "
16645 "copyright law couldn't, as well. Rather than abandoning formalities totally, "
16646 "the response in Berlin should have been to embrace a more equitable system "
16650 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16651 #: freeculture.xml:12240
16653 "Even that would have been resisted, however, because registration in the "
16654 "nineteenth and twentieth centuries was still expensive. It was also a "
16655 "hassle. The abolishment of formalities promised not only to save the "
16656 "starving widows, but also to lighten an unnecessary regulatory burden "
16657 "imposed upon creators."
16661 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16662 #: freeculture.xml:12248
16664 "In addition to the practical complaint of authors in 1908, there was a moral "
16665 "claim as well. There was no reason that creative property should be a "
16666 "second-class form of property. If a carpenter builds a table, his rights "
16667 "over the table don't depend upon filing a form with the government. He has "
16668 "a property right over the table <quote>naturally,</quote> and he can assert "
16669 "that right against anyone who would steal the table, whether or not he has "
16670 "informed the government of his ownership of the table."
16673 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16674 #: freeculture.xml:12260
16676 "This argument is correct, but its implications are misleading. For the "
16677 "argument in favor of formalities does not depend upon creative property "
16678 "being second-class property. The argument in favor of formalities turns upon "
16679 "the special problems that creative property presents. The law of "
16680 "formalities responds to the special physics of creative property, to assure "
16681 "that it can be efficiently and fairly spread."
16684 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16685 #: freeculture.xml:12269
16687 "No one thinks, for example, that land is second-class property just because "
16688 "you have to register a deed with a court if your sale of land is to be "
16689 "effective. And few would think a car is second-class property just because "
16690 "you must register the car with the state and tag it with a license. In both "
16691 "of those cases, everyone sees that there is an important reason to secure "
16692 "registration—both because it makes the markets more efficient and "
16693 "because it better secures the rights of the owner. Without a registration "
16694 "system for land, landowners would perpetually have to guard their "
16695 "property. With registration, they can simply point the police to a "
16696 "deed. Without a registration system for cars, auto theft would be much "
16697 "easier. With a registration system, the thief has a high burden to sell a "
16698 "stolen car. A slight burden is placed on the property owner, but those "
16699 "burdens produce a much better system of protection for property generally."
16702 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16703 #: freeculture.xml:12285
16705 "It is similarly special physics that makes formalities important in "
16706 "copyright law. Unlike a carpenter's table, there's nothing in nature that "
16707 "makes it relatively obvious who might own a particular bit of creative "
16708 "property. A recording of Lyle Lovett's latest album can exist in a billion "
16709 "places without anything necessarily linking it back to a particular "
16710 "owner. And like a car, there's no way to buy and sell creative property with "
16711 "confidence unless there is some simple way to authenticate who is the author "
16712 "and what rights he has. Simple transactions are destroyed in a world without "
16713 "formalities. Complex, expensive, <emphasis>lawyer</emphasis> transactions "
16714 "take their place. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
16717 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16718 #: freeculture.xml:12300
16720 "This was the understanding of the problem with the Sonny Bono Act that we "
16721 "tried to demonstrate to the Court. This was the part it didn't "
16722 "<quote>get.</quote> Because we live in a system without formalities, there "
16723 "is no way easily to build upon or use culture from our past. If copyright "
16724 "terms were, as Justice Story said they would be, <quote>short,</quote> then "
16725 "this wouldn't matter much. For fourteen years, under the framers' system, a "
16726 "work would be presumptively controlled. After fourteen years, it would be "
16727 "presumptively uncontrolled."
16730 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16731 #: freeculture.xml:12310
16733 "But now that copyrights can be just about a century long, the inability to "
16734 "know what is protected and what is not protected becomes a huge and obvious "
16735 "burden on the creative process. If the only way a library can offer an "
16736 "Internet exhibit about the New Deal is to hire a lawyer to clear the rights "
16737 "to every image and sound, then the copyright system is burdening creativity "
16738 "in a way that has never been seen before <emphasis>because there are no "
16739 "formalities</emphasis>."
16742 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16743 #: freeculture.xml:12319
16745 "The Eldred Act was designed to respond to exactly this problem. If it is "
16746 "worth $1 to you, then register your work and you can get the longer "
16747 "term. Others will know how to contact you and, therefore, how to get your "
16748 "permission if they want to use your work. And you will get the benefit of an "
16749 "extended copyright term."
16752 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16753 #: freeculture.xml:12326
16755 "If it isn't worth it to you to register to get the benefit of an extended "
16756 "term, then it shouldn't be worth it for the government to defend your "
16757 "monopoly over that work either. The work should pass into the public domain "
16758 "where anyone can copy it, or build archives with it, or create a movie based "
16759 "on it. It should become free if it is not worth $1 to you."
16762 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16763 #: freeculture.xml:12333
16765 "Some worry about the burden on authors. Won't the burden of registering the "
16766 "work mean that the $1 is really misleading? Isn't the hassle worth more than "
16767 "$1? Isn't that the real problem with registration?"
16771 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16772 #: freeculture.xml:12339
16774 "It is. The hassle is terrible. The system that exists now is awful. I "
16775 "completely agree that the Copyright Office has done a terrible job (no doubt "
16776 "because they are terribly funded) in enabling simple and cheap "
16777 "registrations. Any real solution to the problem of formalities must address "
16778 "the real problem of <emphasis>governments</emphasis> standing at the core of "
16779 "any system of formalities. In this book, I offer such a solution. That "
16780 "solution essentially remakes the Copyright Office. For now, assume it was "
16781 "Amazon that ran the registration system. Assume it was one-click "
16782 "registration. The Eldred Act would propose a simple, one-click registration "
16783 "fifty years after a work was published. Based upon historical data, that "
16784 "system would move up to 98 percent of commercial work, commercial work that "
16785 "no longer had a commercial life, into the public domain within fifty "
16786 "years. What do you think?"
16789 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16790 #: freeculture.xml:12357
16792 "<emphasis role='strong'>When Steve Forbes</emphasis> endorsed the idea, some "
16793 "in Washington began to pay attention. Many people contacted me pointing to "
16794 "representatives who might be willing to introduce the Eldred Act. And I had "
16795 "a few who directly suggested that they might be willing to take the first "
16799 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16800 #: freeculture.xml:12363
16801 msgid "Lofgren, Zoe"
16804 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16805 #: freeculture.xml:12365
16807 "One representative, Zoe Lofgren of California, went so far as to get the "
16808 "bill drafted. The draft solved any problem with international law. It "
16809 "imposed the simplest requirement upon copyright owners possible. In May "
16810 "2003, it looked as if the bill would be introduced. On May 16, I posted on "
16811 "the Eldred Act blog, <quote>we are close.</quote> There was a general "
16812 "reaction in the blog community that something good might happen here."
16815 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16816 #: freeculture.xml:12374
16818 "But at this stage, the lobbyists began to intervene. Jack Valenti and the "
16819 "MPAA general counsel came to the congresswoman's office to give the view of "
16820 "the MPAA. Aided by his lawyer, as Valenti told me, Valenti informed the "
16821 "congresswoman that the MPAA would oppose the Eldred Act. The reasons are "
16822 "embarrassingly thin. More importantly, their thinness shows something clear "
16823 "about what this debate is really about."
16827 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16828 #: freeculture.xml:12382
16830 "The MPAA argued first that Congress had <quote>firmly rejected the central "
16831 "concept in the proposed bill</quote>—that copyrights be renewed. That "
16832 "was true, but irrelevant, as Congress's <quote>firm rejection</quote> had "
16833 "occurred long before the Internet made subsequent uses much more likely. "
16834 "Second, they argued that the proposal would harm poor copyright "
16835 "owners—apparently those who could not afford the $1 fee. Third, they "
16836 "argued that Congress had determined that extending a copyright term would "
16837 "encourage restoration work. Maybe in the case of the small percentage of "
16838 "work covered by copyright law that is still commercially valuable, but again "
16839 "this was irrelevant, as the proposal would not cut off the extended term "
16840 "unless the $1 fee was not paid. Fourth, the MPAA argued that the bill would "
16841 "impose <quote>enormous</quote> costs, since a registration system is not "
16842 "free. True enough, but those costs are certainly less than the costs of "
16843 "clearing the rights for a copyright whose owner is not known. Fifth, they "
16844 "worried about the risks if the copyright to a story underlying a film were "
16845 "to pass into the public domain. But what risk is that? If it is in the "
16846 "public domain, then the film is a valid derivative use."
16849 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16850 #: freeculture.xml:12403
16852 "Finally, the MPAA argued that existing law enabled copyright owners to do "
16853 "this if they wanted. But the whole point is that there are thousands of "
16854 "copyright owners who don't even know they have a copyright to give. Whether "
16855 "they are free to give away their copyright or not—a controversial "
16856 "claim in any case—unless they know about a copyright, they're not "
16860 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16861 #: freeculture.xml:12411
16863 "<emphasis role='strong'>At the beginning</emphasis> of this book, I told two "
16864 "stories about the law reacting to changes in technology. In the one, common "
16865 "sense prevailed. In the other, common sense was delayed. The difference "
16866 "between the two stories was the power of the opposition—the power of "
16867 "the side that fought to defend the status quo. In both cases, a new "
16868 "technology threatened old interests. But in only one case did those "
16869 "interest's have the power to protect themselves against this new competitive "
16873 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16874 #: freeculture.xml:12421
16876 "I used these two cases as a way to frame the war that this book has been "
16877 "about. For here, too, a new technology is forcing the law to react. And "
16878 "here, too, we should ask, is the law following or resisting common sense? If "
16879 "common sense supports the law, what explains this common sense?"
16883 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16884 #: freeculture.xml:12430
16886 "When the issue is piracy, it is right for the law to back the copyright "
16887 "owners. The commercial piracy that I described is wrong and harmful, and the "
16888 "law should work to eliminate it. When the issue is p2p sharing, it is easy "
16889 "to understand why the law backs the owners still: Much of this sharing is "
16890 "wrong, even if much is harmless. When the issue is copyright terms for the "
16891 "Mickey Mouses of the world, it is possible still to understand why the law "
16892 "favors Hollywood: Most people don't recognize the reasons for limiting "
16893 "copyright terms; it is thus still possible to see good faith within the "
16897 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16898 #: freeculture.xml:12440
16899 msgid "Kelly, Kevin"
16902 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16903 #: freeculture.xml:12442
16905 "But when the copyright owners oppose a proposal such as the Eldred Act, "
16906 "then, finally, there is an example that lays bare the naked selfinterest "
16907 "driving this war. This act would free an extraordinary range of content that "
16908 "is otherwise unused. It wouldn't interfere with any copyright owner's desire "
16909 "to exercise continued control over his content. It would simply liberate "
16910 "what Kevin Kelly calls the <quote>Dark Content</quote> that fills archives "
16911 "around the world. So when the warriors oppose a change like this, we should "
16912 "ask one simple question:"
16915 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16916 #: freeculture.xml:12452
16917 msgid "What does this industry really want?"
16920 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16921 #: freeculture.xml:12455
16923 "With very little effort, the warriors could protect their content. So the "
16924 "effort to block something like the Eldred Act is not really about protecting "
16925 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> content. The effort to block the Eldred Act is an "
16926 "effort to assure that nothing more passes into the public domain. It is "
16927 "another step to assure that the public domain will never compete, that there "
16928 "will be no use of content that is not commercially controlled, and that "
16929 "there will be no commercial use of content that doesn't require "
16930 "<emphasis>their</emphasis> permission first."
16933 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16934 #: freeculture.xml:12466
16936 "The opposition to the Eldred Act reveals how extreme the other side is. The "
16937 "most powerful and sexy and well loved of lobbies really has as its aim not "
16938 "the protection of <quote>property</quote> but the rejection of a tradition. "
16939 "Their aim is not simply to protect what is theirs. <emphasis>Their aim is to "
16940 "assure that all there is is what is theirs</emphasis>."
16944 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16945 #: freeculture.xml:12474
16947 "It is not hard to understand why the warriors take this view. It is not hard "
16948 "to see why it would benefit them if the competition of the public domain "
16949 "tied to the Internet could somehow be quashed. Just as RCA feared the "
16950 "competition of FM, they fear the competition of a public domain connected to "
16951 "a public that now has the means to create with it and to share its own "
16955 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16956 #: freeculture.xml:12486
16958 "What is hard to understand is why the public takes this view. It is as if "
16959 "the law made airplanes trespassers. The MPAA stands with the Causbys and "
16960 "demands that their remote and useless property rights be respected, so that "
16961 "these remote and forgotten copyright holders might block the progress of "
16965 #. type: Content of: <book><part><chapter><para>
16966 #: freeculture.xml:12493
16968 "All this seems to follow easily from this untroubled acceptance of the "
16969 "<quote>property</quote> in intellectual property. Common sense supports it, "
16970 "and so long as it does, the assaults will rain down upon the technologies of "
16971 "the Internet. The consequence will be an increasing <quote>permission "
16972 "society.</quote> The past can be cultivated only if you can identify the "
16973 "owner and gain permission to build upon his work. The future will be "
16974 "controlled by this dead (and often unfindable) hand of the past."
16977 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
16978 #: freeculture.xml:12505
16982 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16983 #: freeculture.xml:12506
16984 msgid "antiretroviral drugs"
16987 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16988 #: freeculture.xml:12507
16989 msgid "HIV/AIDS therapies"
16992 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
16993 #: freeculture.xml:12508
16994 msgid "Africa, medications for HIV patients in"
16997 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
16998 #: freeculture.xml:12510
17000 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are more</emphasis> than 35 million people "
17001 "with the AIDS virus worldwide. Twenty-five million of them live in "
17002 "sub-Saharan Africa. Seventeen million have already died. Seventeen million "
17003 "Africans is proportional percentage-wise to seven million Americans. More "
17004 "importantly, it is seventeen million Africans."
17007 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17008 #: freeculture.xml:12517
17010 "There is no cure for AIDS, but there are drugs to slow its progression. "
17011 "These antiretroviral therapies are still experimental, but they have already "
17012 "had a dramatic effect. In the United States, AIDS patients who regularly "
17013 "take a cocktail of these drugs increase their life expectancy by ten to "
17014 "twenty years. For some, the drugs make the disease almost invisible."
17018 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17019 #: freeculture.xml:12532
17021 "Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, <quote>Final Report: Integrating "
17022 "Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy</quote> (London, 2002), "
17023 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
17024 "#55</ulink>. According to a World Health Organization press release issued 9 "
17025 "July 2002, only 230,000 of the 6 million who need drugs in the developing "
17026 "world receive them—and half of them are in Brazil."
17029 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17030 #: freeculture.xml:12525
17032 "These drugs are expensive. When they were first introduced in the United "
17033 "States, they cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per person per year. Today, "
17034 "some cost $25,000 per year. At these prices, of course, no African nation "
17035 "can afford the drugs for the vast majority of its population: $15,000 is "
17036 "thirty times the per capita gross national product of Zimbabwe. At these "
17037 "prices, the drugs are totally unavailable.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
17042 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17043 #: freeculture.xml:12543
17045 "These prices are not high because the ingredients of the drugs are "
17046 "expensive. These prices are high because the drugs are protected by "
17047 "patents. The drug companies that produced these life-saving mixes enjoy at "
17048 "least a twenty-year monopoly for their inventions. They use that monopoly "
17049 "power to extract the most they can from the market. That power is in turn "
17050 "used to keep the prices high."
17053 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17054 #: freeculture.xml:12551
17056 "There are many who are skeptical of patents, especially drug patents. I am "
17057 "not. Indeed, of all the areas of research that might be supported by "
17058 "patents, drug research is, in my view, the clearest case where patents are "
17059 "needed. The patent gives the drug company some assurance that if it is "
17060 "successful in inventing a new drug to treat a disease, it will be able to "
17061 "earn back its investment and more. This is socially an extremely valuable "
17062 "incentive. I am the last person who would argue that the law should abolish "
17063 "it, at least without other changes."
17066 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17067 #: freeculture.xml:12562
17069 "But it is one thing to support patents, even drug patents. It is another "
17070 "thing to determine how best to deal with a crisis. And as African leaders "
17071 "began to recognize the devastation that AIDS was bringing, they started "
17072 "looking for ways to import HIV treatments at costs significantly below the "
17076 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17077 #: freeculture.xml:12580 freeculture.xml:13035
17078 msgid "Braithwaite, John"
17081 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17082 #: freeculture.xml:12578
17084 "See Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism: "
17085 "Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?</citetitle> (New York: The New Press, 2003), "
17086 "37. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
17087 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
17090 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17091 #: freeculture.xml:12569
17093 "In 1997, South Africa tried one tack. It passed a law to allow the "
17094 "importation of patented medicines that had been produced or sold in another "
17095 "nation's market with the consent of the patent owner. For example, if the "
17096 "drug was sold in India, it could be imported into Africa from India. This is "
17097 "called <quote>parallel importation,</quote> and it is generally permitted "
17098 "under international trade law and is specifically permitted within the "
17099 "European Union.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
17103 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17104 #: freeculture.xml:12591
17106 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
17107 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
17108 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
17109 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 14, available at <ulink "
17110 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #56</ulink>. For a firsthand "
17111 "account of the struggle over South Africa, see Hearing Before the "
17112 "Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, House "
17113 "Committee on Government Reform, H. Rep., 1st sess., Ser. No. 106-126 (22 "
17114 "July 1999), 150–57 (statement of James Love)."
17118 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17119 #: freeculture.xml:12618
17121 "International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), <citetitle>Patent "
17122 "Protection and Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a "
17123 "Report Prepared for the World Intellectual Property Organization</citetitle> "
17124 "(Washington, D.C., 2000), 15."
17127 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17128 #: freeculture.xml:12585
17130 "However, the United States government opposed the bill. Indeed, more than "
17131 "opposed. As the International Intellectual Property Association "
17132 "characterized it, <quote>The U.S. government pressured South Africa … "
17133 "not to permit compulsory licensing or parallel imports.</quote><placeholder "
17134 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Through the Office of the United States Trade "
17135 "Representative, the government asked South Africa to change the "
17136 "law—and to add pressure to that request, in 1998, the USTR listed "
17137 "South Africa for possible trade sanctions. That same year, more than forty "
17138 "pharmaceutical companies began proceedings in the South African courts to "
17139 "challenge the government's actions. The United States was then joined by "
17140 "other governments from the EU. Their claim, and the claim of the "
17141 "pharmaceutical companies, was that South Africa was violating its "
17142 "obligations under international law by discriminating against a particular "
17143 "kind of patent— pharmaceutical patents. The demand of these "
17144 "governments, with the United States in the lead, was that South Africa "
17145 "respect these patents as it respects any other patent, regardless of any "
17146 "effect on the treatment of AIDS within South Africa.<placeholder "
17147 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/>"
17150 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17151 #: freeculture.xml:12624
17153 "We should place the intervention by the United States in context. No doubt "
17154 "patents are not the most important reason that Africans don't have access to "
17155 "drugs. Poverty and the total absence of an effective health care "
17156 "infrastructure matter more. But whether patents are the most important "
17157 "reason or not, the price of drugs has an effect on their demand, and patents "
17158 "affect price. And so, whether massive or marginal, there was an effect from "
17159 "our government's intervention to stop the flow of medications into Africa."
17162 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17163 #: freeculture.xml:12634
17165 "By stopping the flow of HIV treatment into Africa, the United States "
17166 "government was not saving drugs for United States citizens. This is not "
17167 "like wheat (if they eat it, we can't); instead, the flow that the United "
17168 "States intervened to stop was, in effect, a flow of knowledge: information "
17169 "about how to take chemicals that exist within Africa, and turn those "
17170 "chemicals into drugs that would save 15 to 30 million lives."
17173 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17174 #: freeculture.xml:12642
17176 "Nor was the intervention by the United States going to protect the profits "
17177 "of United States drug companies—at least, not substantially. It was "
17178 "not as if these countries were in the position to buy the drugs for the "
17179 "prices the drug companies were charging. Again, the Africans are wildly too "
17180 "poor to afford these drugs at the offered prices. Stopping the parallel "
17181 "import of these drugs would not substantially increase the sales by "
17187 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17188 #: freeculture.xml:12657
17190 "See Sabin Russell, <quote>New Crusade to Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's "
17191 "Needs at Odds with Firms' Profit Motive,</quote> <citetitle>San Francisco "
17192 "Chronicle</citetitle>, 24 May 1999, A1, available at <ulink "
17193 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #57</ulink> (<quote>compulsory "
17194 "licenses and gray markets pose a threat to the entire system of intellectual "
17195 "property protection</quote>); Robert Weissman, <quote>AIDS and Developing "
17196 "Countries: Democratizing Access to Essential Medicines,</quote> "
17197 "<citetitle>Foreign Policy in Focus</citetitle> 4:23 (August 1999), available "
17198 "at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #58</ulink> (describing "
17199 "U.S. policy); John A. Harrelson, <quote>TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and "
17200 "the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance Between Intellectual "
17201 "Property Rights and Compassion, a Synopsis,</quote> <citetitle>Widener Law "
17202 "Symposium Journal</citetitle> (Spring 2001): 175."
17205 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17206 #: freeculture.xml:12651
17208 "Instead, the argument in favor of restricting this flow of information, "
17209 "which was needed to save the lives of millions, was an argument about the "
17210 "sanctity of property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> It was "
17211 "because <quote>intellectual property</quote> would be violated that these "
17212 "drugs should not flow into Africa. It was a principle about the importance "
17213 "of <quote>intellectual property</quote> that led these government actors to "
17214 "intervene against the South African response to AIDS."
17217 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17218 #: freeculture.xml:12678
17220 "Now just step back for a moment. There will be a time thirty years from now "
17221 "when our children look back at us and ask, how could we have let this "
17222 "happen? How could we allow a policy to be pursued whose direct cost would be "
17223 "to speed the death of 15 to 30 million Africans, and whose only real benefit "
17224 "would be to uphold the <quote>sanctity</quote> of an idea? What possible "
17225 "justification could there ever be for a policy that results in so many "
17226 "deaths? What exactly is the insanity that would allow so many to die for "
17227 "such an abstraction?"
17230 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17231 #: freeculture.xml:12688
17233 "Some blame the drug companies. I don't. They are corporations. Their "
17234 "managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a "
17235 "certain patent policy not because of ideals, but because it is the policy "
17236 "that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money "
17237 "because of a certain corruption within our political system— a "
17238 "corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for."
17241 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17242 #: freeculture.xml:12696
17244 "The corruption is our own politicians' failure of integrity. For the drug "
17245 "companies would love—they say, and I believe them—to sell their "
17246 "drugs as cheaply as they can to countries in Africa and elsewhere. There "
17247 "are issues they'd have to resolve to make sure the drugs didn't get back "
17248 "into the United States, but those are mere problems of technology. They "
17249 "could be overcome."
17253 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17254 #: freeculture.xml:12704
17256 "A different problem, however, could not be overcome. This is the fear of the "
17257 "grandstanding politician who would call the presidents of the drug companies "
17258 "before a Senate or House hearing, and ask, <quote>How is it you can sell "
17259 "this HIV drug in Africa for only $1 a pill, but the same drug would cost an "
17260 "American $1,500?</quote> Because there is no <quote>sound bite</quote> "
17261 "answer to that question, its effect would be to induce regulation of prices "
17262 "in America. The drug companies thus avoid this spiral by avoiding the first "
17263 "step. They reinforce the idea that property should be sacred. They adopt a "
17264 "rational strategy in an irrational context, with the unintended consequence "
17265 "that perhaps millions die. And that rational strategy thus becomes framed in "
17266 "terms of this ideal—the sanctity of an idea called <quote>intellectual "
17267 "property.</quote>"
17270 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17271 #: freeculture.xml:12719
17273 "So when the common sense of your child confronts you, what will you say? "
17274 "When the common sense of a generation finally revolts against what we have "
17275 "done, how will we justify what we have done? What is the argument?"
17278 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17279 #: freeculture.xml:12725
17281 "A sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly support the patent "
17282 "system without having to reach everyone everywhere in exactly the same "
17283 "way. Just as a sensible copyright policy could endorse and strongly support "
17284 "a copyright system without having to regulate the spread of culture "
17285 "perfectly and forever, a sensible patent policy could endorse and strongly "
17286 "support a patent system without having to block the spread of drugs to a "
17287 "country not rich enough to afford market prices in any case. A sensible "
17288 "policy, in other words, could be a balanced policy. For most of our history, "
17289 "both copyright and patent policies were balanced in just this sense."
17292 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17293 #: freeculture.xml:12737
17295 "But we as a culture have lost this sense of balance. We have lost the "
17296 "critical eye that helps us see the difference between truth and extremism. "
17297 "A certain property fundamentalism, having no connection to our tradition, "
17298 "now reigns in this culture—bizarrely, and with consequences more grave "
17299 "to the spread of ideas and culture than almost any other single policy "
17300 "decision that we as a democracy will make."
17304 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17305 #: freeculture.xml:12748
17307 "<emphasis role='strong'>A simple idea</emphasis> blinds us, and under the "
17308 "cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if any of us "
17309 "looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we "
17310 "don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are "
17311 "dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in "
17312 "culture that we don't even question when the control of that property "
17313 "removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture "
17314 "democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for "
17315 "anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way "
17316 "to make this common sense open its eyes."
17319 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17320 #: freeculture.xml:12762
17322 "So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet "
17323 "see what there could be to revolt about. The extremism that now dominates "
17324 "this debate fits with ideas that seem natural, and that fit is reinforced by "
17325 "the RCAs of our day. They wage a frantic war to fight <quote>piracy,</quote> "
17326 "and devastate a culture for creativity. They defend the idea of "
17327 "<quote>creative property,</quote> while transforming real creators into "
17328 "modern-day sharecroppers. They are insulted by the idea that rights should "
17329 "be balanced, even though each of the major players in this content war was "
17330 "itself a beneficiary of a more balanced ideal. The hypocrisy reeks. Yet in a "
17331 "city like Washington, hypocrisy is not even noticed. Powerful lobbies, "
17332 "complex issues, and MTV attention spans produce the <quote>perfect "
17333 "storm</quote> for free culture."
17336 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17337 #: freeculture.xml:12775
17338 msgid "public domain"
17341 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
17342 #: freeculture.xml:12775
17343 msgid "public projects in"
17346 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17347 #: freeculture.xml:12776
17348 msgid "single nucleotied polymorphisms (SNPs)"
17351 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17352 #: freeculture.xml:12777
17353 msgid "Wellcome Trust"
17356 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17357 #: freeculture.xml:12778
17358 msgid "World Wide Web"
17361 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17362 #: freeculture.xml:12779
17363 msgid "Global Positioning System"
17366 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17367 #: freeculture.xml:12781
17368 msgid "biomedical research"
17372 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17373 #: freeculture.xml:12786
17375 "Jonathan Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> "
17376 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, August 2003, E1, available at <ulink "
17377 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #59</ulink>; William New, "
17378 "<quote>Global Group's Shift on `Open Source' Meeting Spurs Stir,</quote> "
17379 "<citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 August 2003, "
17380 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #60</ulink>; "
17381 "William New, <quote>U.S. Official Opposes `Open Source' Talks at "
17382 "WIPO,</quote> <citetitle>National Journal's Technology Daily</citetitle>, 19 "
17383 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
17387 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17388 #: freeculture.xml:12814 freeculture.xml:13505
17389 msgid "academic journals"
17392 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17393 #: freeculture.xml:12815 freeculture.xml:12882 freeculture.xml:13431
17397 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><indexterm><primary>
17398 #: freeculture.xml:12816 freeculture.xml:13568
17399 msgid "PLoS (Public Library of Science)"
17402 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17403 #: freeculture.xml:12783
17405 "<emphasis role='strong'>In August 2003</emphasis>, a fight broke out in the "
17406 "United States about a decision by the World Intellectual Property "
17407 "Organization to cancel a meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
17408 "At the request of a wide range of interests, WIPO had decided to hold a "
17409 "meeting to discuss <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
17410 "goods.</quote> These are projects that have been successful in producing "
17411 "public goods without relying exclusively upon a proprietary use of "
17412 "intellectual property. Examples include the Internet and the World Wide Web, "
17413 "both of which were developed on the basis of protocols in the public "
17414 "domain. It included an emerging trend to support open academic journals, "
17415 "including the Public Library of Science project that I describe in the "
17416 "Afterword. It included a project to develop single nucleotide polymorphisms "
17417 "(SNPs), which are thought to have great significance in biomedical "
17418 "research. (That nonprofit project comprised a consortium of the Wellcome "
17419 "Trust and pharmaceutical and technological companies, including Amersham "
17420 "Biosciences, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffmann-La "
17421 "Roche, Glaxo-SmithKline, IBM, Motorola, Novartis, Pfizer, and Searle.) It "
17422 "included the Global Positioning System, which Ronald Reagan set free in the "
17423 "early 1980s. And it included <quote>open source and free software.</quote> "
17424 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
17425 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
17428 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17429 #: freeculture.xml:12820
17431 "The aim of the meeting was to consider this wide range of projects from one "
17432 "common perspective: that none of these projects relied upon intellectual "
17433 "property extremism. Instead, in all of them, intellectual property was "
17434 "balanced by agreements to keep access open or to impose limitations on the "
17435 "way in which proprietary claims might be used."
17439 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17440 #: freeculture.xml:12828
17442 "I should disclose that I was one of the people who asked WIPO for the "
17446 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17447 #: freeculture.xml:12827
17449 "From the perspective of this book, then, the conference was "
17450 "ideal.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The projects within its "
17451 "scope included both commercial and noncommercial work. They primarily "
17452 "involved science, but from many perspectives. And WIPO was an ideal venue "
17453 "for this discussion, since WIPO is the preeminent international body dealing "
17454 "with intellectual property issues."
17458 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17459 #: freeculture.xml:12838
17461 "Indeed, I was once publicly scolded for not recognizing this fact about "
17462 "WIPO. In February 2003, I delivered a keynote address to a preparatory "
17463 "conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At a "
17464 "press conference before the address, I was asked what I would say. I "
17465 "responded that I would be talking a little about the importance of balance "
17466 "in intellectual property for the development of an information society. The "
17467 "moderator for the event then promptly interrupted to inform me and the "
17468 "assembled reporters that no question about intellectual property would be "
17469 "discussed by WSIS, since those questions were the exclusive domain of "
17470 "WIPO. In the talk that I had prepared, I had actually made the issue of "
17471 "intellectual property relatively minor. But after this astonishing "
17472 "statement, I made intellectual property the sole focus of my talk. There was "
17473 "no way to talk about an <quote>Information Society</quote> unless one also "
17474 "talked about the range of information and culture that would be free. My "
17475 "talk did not make my immoderate moderator very happy. And she was no doubt "
17476 "correct that the scope of intellectual property protections was ordinarily "
17477 "the stuff of WIPO. But in my view, there couldn't be too much of a "
17478 "conversation about how much intellectual property is needed, since in my "
17479 "view, the very idea of balance in intellectual property had been lost."
17482 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17483 #: freeculture.xml:12862
17485 "So whether or not WSIS can discuss balance in intellectual property, I had "
17486 "thought it was taken for granted that WIPO could and should. And thus the "
17487 "meeting about <quote>open and collaborative projects to create public "
17488 "goods</quote> seemed perfectly appropriate within the WIPO agenda."
17491 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17492 #: freeculture.xml:12867 freeculture.xml:14551
17493 msgid "Apple Corporation"
17496 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17497 #: freeculture.xml:12869
17499 "But there is one project within that list that is highly controversial, at "
17500 "least among lobbyists. That project is <quote>open source and free "
17501 "software.</quote> Microsoft in particular is wary of discussion of the "
17502 "subject. From its perspective, a conference to discuss open source and free "
17503 "software would be like a conference to discuss Apple's operating "
17504 "system. Both open source and free software compete with Microsoft's "
17505 "software. And internationally, many governments have begun to explore "
17506 "requirements that they use open source or free software, rather than "
17507 "<quote>proprietary software,</quote> for their own internal uses."
17510 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17511 #: freeculture.xml:12879
17512 msgid "<quote>copyleft</quote> licenses"
17516 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17517 #: freeculture.xml:12895
17519 "Microsoft's position about free and open source software is more "
17520 "sophisticated. As it has repeatedly asserted, it has no problem with "
17521 "<quote>open source</quote> software or software in the public "
17522 "domain. Microsoft's principal opposition is to <quote>free software</quote> "
17523 "licensed under a <quote>copyleft</quote> license, meaning a license that "
17524 "requires the licensee to adopt the same terms on any derivative work. See "
17525 "Bradford L. Smith, <quote>The Future of Software: Enabling the Marketplace "
17526 "to Decide,</quote> <citetitle>Government Policy Toward Open Source "
17527 "Software</citetitle> (Washington, D.C.: AEI-Brookings Joint Center for "
17528 "Regulatory Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy "
17529 "Research, 2002), 69, available at <ulink "
17530 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #62</ulink>. See also Craig "
17531 "Mundie, Microsoft senior vice president, <citetitle>The Commercial Software "
17532 "Model</citetitle>, discussion at New York University Stern School of "
17533 "Business (3 May 2001), available at <ulink "
17534 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #63</ulink>."
17537 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17538 #: freeculture.xml:12884
17540 "I don't mean to enter that debate here. It is important only to make clear "
17541 "that the distinction is not between commercial and noncommercial "
17542 "software. There are many important companies that depend fundamentally upon "
17543 "open source and free software, IBM being the most prominent. IBM is "
17544 "increasingly shifting its focus to the GNU/Linux operating system, the most "
17545 "famous bit of <quote>free software</quote>—and IBM is emphatically a "
17546 "commercial entity. Thus, to support <quote>open source and free "
17547 "software</quote> is not to oppose commercial entities. It is, instead, to "
17548 "support a mode of software development that is different from "
17549 "Microsoft's.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
17552 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17553 #: freeculture.xml:12912
17554 msgid "General Public License (GPL)"
17557 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17558 #: freeculture.xml:12913
17559 msgid "GPL (General Public License)"
17563 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17564 #: freeculture.xml:12915
17566 "More important for our purposes, to support <quote>open source and free "
17567 "software</quote> is not to oppose copyright. <quote>Open source and free "
17568 "software</quote> is not software in the public domain. Instead, like "
17569 "Microsoft's software, the copyright owners of free and open source software "
17570 "insist quite strongly that the terms of their software license be respected "
17571 "by adopters of free and open source software. The terms of that license are "
17572 "no doubt different from the terms of a proprietary software license. Free "
17573 "software licensed under the General Public License (GPL), for example, "
17574 "requires that the source code for the software be made available by anyone "
17575 "who modifies and redistributes the software. But that requirement is "
17576 "effective only if copyright governs software. If copyright did not govern "
17577 "software, then free software could not impose the same kind of requirements "
17578 "on its adopters. It thus depends upon copyright law just as Microsoft does."
17581 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17582 #: freeculture.xml:12932
17583 msgid "Krim, Jonathan"
17586 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
17587 #: freeculture.xml:12933
17588 msgid "WIPO meeting opposed by"
17592 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17593 #: freeculture.xml:12943
17595 "Krim, <quote>The Quiet War over Open-Source,</quote> available at <ulink "
17596 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #64</ulink>."
17599 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17600 #: freeculture.xml:12935
17602 "It is therefore understandable that as a proprietary software developer, "
17603 "Microsoft would oppose this WIPO meeting, and understandable that it would "
17604 "use its lobbyists to get the United States government to oppose it, as "
17605 "well. And indeed, that is just what was reported to have happened. According "
17606 "to Jonathan Krim of the <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, Microsoft's "
17607 "lobbyists succeeded in getting the United States government to veto the "
17608 "meeting.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And without U.S. backing, "
17609 "the meeting was canceled."
17612 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17613 #: freeculture.xml:12949
17615 "I don't blame Microsoft for doing what it can to advance its own interests, "
17616 "consistent with the law. And lobbying governments is plainly consistent with "
17617 "the law. There was nothing surprising about its lobbying here, and nothing "
17618 "terribly surprising about the most powerful software producer in the United "
17619 "States having succeeded in its lobbying efforts."
17622 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17623 #: freeculture.xml:12956 freeculture.xml:13009
17624 msgid "Boland, Lois"
17627 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17628 #: freeculture.xml:12958
17630 "What was surprising was the United States government's reason for opposing "
17631 "the meeting. Again, as reported by Krim, Lois Boland, acting director of "
17632 "international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, explained "
17633 "that <quote>open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which "
17634 "is to promote intellectual-property rights.</quote> She is quoted as saying, "
17635 "<quote>To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such "
17636 "rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.</quote>"
17639 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17640 #: freeculture.xml:12968
17641 msgid "These statements are astonishing on a number of levels."
17644 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17645 #: freeculture.xml:12972
17647 "First, they are just flat wrong. As I described, most open source and free "
17648 "software relies fundamentally upon the intellectual property right called "
17649 "<quote>copyright</quote>. Without it, restrictions imposed by those "
17650 "licenses wouldn't work. Thus, to say it <quote>runs counter</quote> to the "
17651 "mission of promoting intellectual property rights reveals an extraordinary "
17652 "gap in understanding—the sort of mistake that is excusable in a "
17653 "first-year law student, but an embarrassment from a high government official "
17654 "dealing with intellectual property issues."
17657 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17658 #: freeculture.xml:12981
17659 msgid "generic drugs"
17662 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17663 #: freeculture.xml:12983
17665 "Second, who ever said that WIPO's exclusive aim was to "
17666 "<quote>promote</quote> intellectual property maximally? As I had been "
17667 "scolded at the preparatory conference of WSIS, WIPO is to consider not only "
17668 "how best to protect intellectual property, but also what the best balance of "
17669 "intellectual property is. As every economist and lawyer knows, the hard "
17670 "question in intellectual property law is to find that balance. But that "
17671 "there should be limits is, I had thought, uncontested. One wants to ask "
17672 "Ms. Boland, are generic drugs (drugs based on drugs whose patent has "
17673 "expired) contrary to the WIPO mission? Does the public domain weaken "
17674 "intellectual property? Would it have been better if the protocols of the "
17675 "Internet had been patented?"
17678 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17679 #: freeculture.xml:12997
17681 "Third, even if one believed that the purpose of WIPO was to maximize "
17682 "intellectual property rights, in our tradition, intellectual property rights "
17683 "are held by individuals and corporations. They get to decide what to do with "
17684 "those rights because, again, they are <emphasis>their</emphasis> rights. If "
17685 "they want to <quote>waive</quote> or <quote>disclaim</quote> their rights, "
17686 "that is, within our tradition, totally appropriate. When Bill Gates gives "
17687 "away more than $20 billion to do good in the world, that is not inconsistent "
17688 "with the objectives of the property system. That is, on the contrary, just "
17689 "what a property system is supposed to be about: giving individuals the right "
17690 "to decide what to do with <emphasis>their</emphasis> property."
17694 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17695 #: freeculture.xml:13011
17697 "When Ms. Boland says that there is something wrong with a meeting "
17698 "<quote>which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights,</quote> "
17699 "she's saying that WIPO has an interest in interfering with the choices of "
17700 "the individuals who own intellectual property rights. That somehow, WIPO's "
17701 "objective should be to stop an individual from <quote>waiving</quote> or "
17702 "<quote>disclaiming</quote> an intellectual property right. That the interest "
17703 "of WIPO is not just that intellectual property rights be maximized, but that "
17704 "they also should be exercised in the most extreme and restrictive way "
17708 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17709 #: freeculture.xml:13023
17711 "There is a history of just such a property system that is well known in the "
17712 "Anglo-American tradition. It is called <quote>feudalism.</quote> Under "
17713 "feudalism, not only was property held by a relatively small number of "
17714 "individuals and entities. And not only were the rights that ran with that "
17715 "property powerful and extensive. But the feudal system had a strong interest "
17716 "in assuring that property holders within that system not weaken feudalism by "
17717 "liberating people or property within their control to the free "
17718 "market. Feudalism depended upon maximum control and concentration. It fought "
17719 "any freedom that might interfere with that control."
17722 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17723 #: freeculture.xml:13040
17725 "See Drahos with Braithwaite, <citetitle>Information Feudalism</citetitle>, "
17726 "210–20. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
17729 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17730 #: freeculture.xml:13037
17732 "As Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite relate, this is precisely the choice we "
17733 "are now making about intellectual property.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
17734 "id=\"0\"/> We will have an information society. That much is certain. Our "
17735 "only choice now is whether that information society will be "
17736 "<emphasis>free</emphasis> or <emphasis>feudal</emphasis>. The trend is "
17737 "toward the feudal."
17740 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17741 #: freeculture.xml:13049
17743 "When this battle broke, I blogged it. A spirited debate within the comment "
17744 "section ensued. Ms. Boland had a number of supporters who tried to show why "
17745 "her comments made sense. But there was one comment that was particularly "
17746 "depressing for me. An anonymous poster wrote,"
17750 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><blockquote><para>
17751 #: freeculture.xml:13056
17753 "George, you misunderstand Lessig: He's only talking about the world as it "
17754 "should be (<quote>the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should "
17755 "be to promote the right balance of intellectual property rights, not simply "
17756 "to promote intellectual property rights</quote>), not as it is. If we were "
17757 "talking about the world as it is, then of course Boland didn't say anything "
17758 "wrong. But in the world as Lessig would have it, then of course she "
17759 "did. Always pay attention to the distinction between Lessig's world and "
17763 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17764 #: freeculture.xml:13068
17766 "I missed the irony the first time I read it. I read it quickly and thought "
17767 "the poster was supporting the idea that seeking balance was what our "
17768 "government should be doing. (Of course, my criticism of Ms. Boland was not "
17769 "about whether she was seeking balance or not; my criticism was that her "
17770 "comments betrayed a first-year law student's mistake. I have no illusion "
17771 "about the extremism of our government, whether Republican or Democrat. My "
17772 "only illusion apparently is about whether our government should speak the "
17776 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17777 #: freeculture.xml:13079
17779 "Obviously, however, the poster was not supporting that idea. Instead, the "
17780 "poster was ridiculing the very idea that in the real world, the "
17781 "<quote>goal</quote> of a government should be <quote>to promote the right "
17782 "balance</quote> of intellectual property. That was obviously silly to "
17783 "him. And it obviously betrayed, he believed, my own silly "
17784 "utopianism. <quote>Typical for an academic,</quote> the poster might well "
17788 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17789 #: freeculture.xml:13087
17791 "I understand criticism of academic utopianism. I think utopianism is silly, "
17792 "too, and I'd be the first to poke fun at the absurdly unrealistic ideals of "
17793 "academics throughout history (and not just in our own country's history)."
17796 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17797 #: freeculture.xml:13093
17799 "But when it has become silly to suppose that the role of our government "
17800 "should be to <quote>seek balance,</quote> then count me with the silly, for "
17801 "that means that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be "
17802 "obvious to everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the "
17803 "government is simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that the idea "
17804 "of holding the government to a different standard is absurd, that the idea "
17805 "of demanding of the government that it speak truth and not lies is just "
17806 "naïve, then who have we, the most powerful democracy in the world, "
17811 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17812 #: freeculture.xml:13104
17814 "It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the "
17815 "truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something "
17816 "more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy "
17817 "to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our "
17818 "tradition for most of our history—free culture."
17821 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17822 #: freeculture.xml:13112
17823 msgid "If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon."
17826 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17827 #: freeculture.xml:13116
17828 msgid "Turner, Ted"
17831 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17832 #: freeculture.xml:13118
17834 "<emphasis role='strong'>There are moments</emphasis> of hope in this "
17835 "struggle. And moments that surprise. When the FCC was considering relaxing "
17836 "ownership rules, which would thereby further increase the concentration in "
17837 "media ownership, an extraordinary bipartisan coalition formed to fight this "
17838 "change. For perhaps the first time in history, interests as diverse as the "
17839 "NRA, the ACLU, Moveon.org, William Safire, Ted Turner, and CodePink Women "
17840 "for Peace organized to oppose this change in FCC policy. An astonishing "
17841 "700,000 letters were sent to the FCC, demanding more hearings and a "
17842 "different result."
17845 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17846 #: freeculture.xml:13129
17848 "This activism did not stop the FCC, but soon after, a broad coalition in the "
17849 "Senate voted to reverse the FCC decision. The hostile hearings leading up to "
17850 "that vote revealed just how powerful this movement had become. There was no "
17851 "substantial support for the FCC's decision, and there was broad and "
17852 "sustained support for fighting further concentration in the media."
17855 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17856 #: freeculture.xml:13137
17858 "But even this movement misses an important piece of the puzzle. Largeness "
17859 "as such is not bad. Freedom is not threatened just because some become very "
17860 "rich, or because there are only a handful of big players. The poor quality "
17861 "of Big Macs or Quarter Pounders does not mean that you can't get a good "
17862 "hamburger from somewhere else."
17865 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17866 #: freeculture.xml:13144
17868 "The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but "
17869 "instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in "
17870 "copyright, produces. It is not just that there are a few powerful companies "
17871 "that control an ever expanding slice of the media. It is that this "
17872 "concentration can call upon an equally bloated range of "
17873 "rights—property rights of a historically extreme form—that makes "
17874 "their bigness bad."
17877 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17878 #: freeculture.xml:13154
17880 "It is therefore significant that so many would rally to demand competition "
17881 "and increased diversity. Still, if the rally is understood as being about "
17882 "bigness alone, it is not terribly surprising. We Americans have a long "
17883 "history of fighting <quote>big,</quote> wisely or not. That we could be "
17884 "motivated to fight <quote>big</quote> again is not something new."
17887 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17888 #: freeculture.xml:13161
17890 "It would be something new, and something very important, if an equal number "
17891 "could be rallied to fight the increasing extremism built within the idea of "
17892 "<quote>intellectual property.</quote> Not because balance is alien to our "
17893 "tradition; indeed, as I've argued, balance is our tradition. But because the "
17894 "muscle to think critically about the scope of anything called "
17895 "<quote>property</quote> is not well exercised within this tradition anymore."
17898 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17899 #: freeculture.xml:13169
17901 "If we were Achilles, this would be our heel. This would be the place of our "
17905 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17906 #: freeculture.xml:13172
17911 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17912 #: freeculture.xml:13178
17914 "John Borland, <quote>RIAA Sues 261 File Swappers,</quote> CNET News.com, "
17915 "September 2003, available at <ulink "
17916 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #65</ulink>; Paul R. La Monica, "
17917 "<quote>Music Industry Sues Swappers,</quote> CNN/Money, 8 September 2003, "
17918 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #66</ulink>; "
17919 "Soni Sangha and Phyllis Furman with Robert Gearty, <quote>Sued for a Song, "
17920 "N.Y.C. 12-Yr-Old Among 261 Cited as Sharers,</quote> <citetitle>New York "
17921 "Daily News</citetitle>, 9 September 2003, 3; Frank Ahrens, <quote>RIAA's "
17922 "Lawsuits Meet Surprised Targets; Single Mother in Calif., 12-Year-Old Girl "
17923 "in N.Y. Among Defendants,</quote> <citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 10 "
17924 "September 2003, E1; Katie Dean, <quote>Schoolgirl Settles with RIAA,</quote> "
17925 "<citetitle>Wired News</citetitle>, 10 September 2003, available at <ulink "
17926 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #67</ulink>."
17930 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17931 #: freeculture.xml:13196
17933 "Jon Wiederhorn, <quote>Eminem Gets Sued … by a Little Old "
17934 "Lady,</quote> mtv.com, 17 September 2003, available at <ulink "
17935 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #68</ulink>."
17940 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
17941 #: freeculture.xml:13203
17943 "Kenji Hall, Associated Press, <quote>Japanese Book May Be Inspiration for "
17944 "Dylan Songs,</quote> Kansascity.com, 9 July 2003, available at <ulink "
17945 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #69</ulink>."
17948 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
17949 #: freeculture.xml:13174
17951 "<emphasis role='strong'>As I write</emphasis> these final words, the news is "
17952 "filled with stories about the RIAA lawsuits against almost three hundred "
17953 "individuals.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> Eminem has just been "
17954 "sued for <quote>sampling</quote> someone else's music.<placeholder "
17955 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> The story about Bob Dylan "
17956 "<quote>stealing</quote> from a Japanese author has just finished making the "
17957 "rounds.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"2\"/> An insider from "
17958 "Hollywood—who insists he must remain anonymous—reports <quote>an "
17959 "amazing conversation with these studio guys. They've got extraordinary [old] "
17960 "content that they'd love to use but can't because they can't begin to clear "
17961 "the rights. They've got scores of kids who could do amazing things with the "
17962 "content, but it would take scores of lawyers to clean it first.</quote> "
17963 "Congressmen are talking about deputizing computer viruses to bring down "
17964 "computers thought to violate the law. Universities are threatening expulsion "
17965 "for kids who use a computer to share content."
17968 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17969 #: freeculture.xml:13220
17973 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17974 #: freeculture.xml:13221
17975 msgid "Brazil, free culture in"
17978 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
17979 #: freeculture.xml:13222 freeculture.xml:13584
17980 msgid "Creative Commons"
17983 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17984 #: freeculture.xml:13223
17985 msgid "Gil, Gilberto"
17988 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><primary>
17989 #: freeculture.xml:13224
17990 msgid "United Kingdom"
17993 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><indexterm><secondary>
17994 #: freeculture.xml:13224
17995 msgid "public creative archive in"
17999 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18000 #: freeculture.xml:13229
18002 "<quote>BBC Plans to Open Up Its Archive to the Public,</quote> BBC press "
18003 "release, 24 August 2003, available at <ulink "
18004 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #70</ulink>."
18008 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para><footnote><para>
18009 #: freeculture.xml:13238
18011 "<quote>Creative Commons and Brazil,</quote> Creative Commons Weblog, 6 "
18012 "August 2003, available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link "
18017 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18018 #: freeculture.xml:13226
18020 "Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, the BBC has just announced that it "
18021 "will build a <quote>Creative Archive,</quote> from which British citizens "
18022 "can download BBC content, and rip, mix, and burn it.<placeholder "
18023 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> And in Brazil, the culture minister, Gilberto "
18024 "Gil, himself a folk hero of Brazilian music, has joined with Creative "
18025 "Commons to release content and free licenses in that Latin American "
18026 "country.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"1\"/> I've told a dark "
18027 "story. The truth is more mixed. A technology has given us a new "
18028 "freedom. Slowly, some begin to understand that this freedom need not mean "
18029 "anarchy. We can carry a free culture into the twenty-first century, without "
18030 "artists losing and without the potential of digital technology being "
18031 "destroyed. It will take some thought, and more importantly, it will take "
18032 "some will to transform the RCAs of our day into the Causbys."
18036 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18037 #: freeculture.xml:13252
18039 "Common sense must revolt. It must act to free culture. Soon, if this "
18040 "potential is ever to be realized."
18043 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
18044 #: freeculture.xml:13260
18049 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18050 #: freeculture.xml:13264
18052 "<emphasis role='strong'>At least some</emphasis> who have read this far will "
18053 "agree with me that something must be done to change where we are "
18054 "heading. The balance of this book maps what might be done."
18057 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18058 #: freeculture.xml:13269
18060 "I divide this map into two parts: that which anyone can do now, and that "
18061 "which requires the help of lawmakers. If there is one lesson that we can "
18062 "draw from the history of remaking common sense, it is that it requires "
18063 "remaking how many people think about the very same issue."
18066 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18067 #: freeculture.xml:13275
18069 "That means this movement must begin in the streets. It must recruit a "
18070 "significant number of parents, teachers, librarians, creators, authors, "
18071 "musicians, filmmakers, scientists—all to tell this story in their own "
18072 "words, and to tell their neighbors why this battle is so important."
18075 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
18076 #: freeculture.xml:13282
18078 "Once this movement has its effect in the streets, it has some hope of having "
18079 "an effect in Washington. We are still a democracy. What people think "
18080 "matters. Not as much as it should, at least when an RCA stands opposed, but "
18081 "still, it matters. And thus, in the second part below, I sketch changes that "
18082 "Congress could make to better secure a free culture."
18085 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
18086 #: freeculture.xml:13291
18090 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18091 #: freeculture.xml:13293
18093 "<emphasis role='strong'>Common sense</emphasis> is with the copyright "
18094 "warriors because the debate so far has been framed at the extremes—as "
18095 "a grand either/or: either property or anarchy, either total control or "
18096 "artists won't be paid. If that really is the choice, then the warriors "
18100 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18101 #: freeculture.xml:13300
18103 "The mistake here is the error of the excluded middle. There are extremes in "
18104 "this debate, but the extremes are not all that there is. There are those who "
18105 "believe in maximal copyright—<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote>— "
18106 "and those who reject copyright—<quote>No Rights Reserved.</quote> The "
18107 "<quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe that you should ask "
18108 "permission before you <quote>use</quote> a copyrighted work in any way. The "
18109 "<quote>No Rights Reserved</quote> sorts believe you should be able to do "
18110 "with content as you wish, regardless of whether you have permission or not."
18114 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18115 #: freeculture.xml:13310
18117 "When the Internet was first born, its initial architecture effectively "
18118 "tilted in the <quote>no rights reserved</quote> direction. Content could be "
18119 "copied perfectly and cheaply; rights could not easily be controlled. Thus, "
18120 "regardless of anyone's desire, the effective regime of copyright under the "
18121 "original design of the Internet was <quote>no rights reserved.</quote> "
18122 "Content was <quote>taken</quote> regardless of the rights. Any rights were "
18123 "effectively unprotected."
18126 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18127 #: freeculture.xml:13322
18129 "This initial character produced a reaction (opposite, but not quite equal) "
18130 "by copyright owners. That reaction has been the topic of this book. Through "
18131 "legislation, litigation, and changes to the network's design, copyright "
18132 "holders have been able to change the essential character of the environment "
18133 "of the original Internet. If the original architecture made the effective "
18134 "default <quote>no rights reserved,</quote> the future architecture will make "
18135 "the effective default <quote>all rights reserved.</quote> The architecture "
18136 "and law that surround the Internet's design will increasingly produce an "
18137 "environment where all use of content requires permission. The <quote>cut "
18138 "and paste</quote> world that defines the Internet today will become a "
18139 "<quote>get permission to cut and paste</quote> world that is a creator's "
18143 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18144 #: freeculture.xml:13336
18146 "What's needed is a way to say something in the middle—neither "
18147 "<quote>all rights reserved</quote> nor <quote>no rights reserved</quote> but "
18148 "<quote>some rights reserved</quote>— and thus a way to respect "
18149 "copyrights but enable creators to free content as they see fit. In other "
18150 "words, we need a way to restore a set of freedoms that we could just take "
18151 "for granted before."
18154 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18155 #: freeculture.xml:13345
18156 msgid "Rebuilding Freedoms Previously Presumed: Examples"
18159 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18160 #: freeculture.xml:13348
18162 "If you step back from the battle I've been describing here, you will "
18163 "recognize this problem from other contexts. Think about privacy. Before the "
18164 "Internet, most of us didn't have to worry much about data about our lives "
18165 "that we broadcast to the world. If you walked into a bookstore and browsed "
18166 "through some of the works of Karl Marx, you didn't need to worry about "
18167 "explaining your browsing habits to your neighbors or boss. The "
18168 "<quote>privacy</quote> of your browsing habits was assured."
18171 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18172 #: freeculture.xml:13358
18173 msgid "What made it assured?"
18176 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18177 #: freeculture.xml:13362
18179 "Well, if we think in terms of the modalities I described in chapter <xref "
18180 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"property-i\"/>, your privacy was "
18181 "assured because of an inefficient architecture for gathering data and hence "
18182 "a market constraint (cost) on anyone who wanted to gather that data. If you "
18183 "were a suspected spy for North Korea, working for the CIA, no doubt your "
18184 "privacy would not be assured. But that's because the CIA would (we hope) "
18185 "find it valuable enough to spend the thousands required to track you. But "
18186 "for most of us (again, we can hope), spying doesn't pay. The highly "
18187 "inefficient architecture of real space means we all enjoy a fairly robust "
18188 "amount of privacy. That privacy is guaranteed to us by friction. Not by law "
18189 "(there is no law protecting <quote>privacy</quote> in public places), and in "
18190 "many places, not by norms (snooping and gossip are just fun), but instead, "
18191 "by the costs that friction imposes on anyone who would want to spy."
18194 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18195 #: freeculture.xml:13377
18199 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18200 #: freeculture.xml:13378
18201 msgid "cookies, Internet"
18204 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18205 #: freeculture.xml:13380
18207 "Enter the Internet, where the cost of tracking browsing in particular has "
18208 "become quite tiny. If you're a customer at Amazon, then as you browse the "
18209 "pages, Amazon collects the data about what you've looked at. You know this "
18210 "because at the side of the page, there's a list of <quote>recently "
18211 "viewed</quote> pages. Now, because of the architecture of the Net and the "
18212 "function of cookies on the Net, it is easier to collect the data than "
18213 "not. The friction has disappeared, and hence any <quote>privacy</quote> "
18214 "protected by the friction disappears, too."
18217 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18218 #: freeculture.xml:13390
18220 "Amazon, of course, is not the problem. But we might begin to worry about "
18221 "libraries. If you're one of those crazy lefties who thinks that people "
18222 "should have the <quote>right</quote> to browse in a library without the "
18223 "government knowing which books you look at (I'm one of those lefties, too), "
18224 "then this change in the technology of monitoring might concern you. If it "
18225 "becomes simple to gather and sort who does what in electronic spaces, then "
18226 "the friction-induced privacy of yesterday disappears."
18230 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18231 #: freeculture.xml:13407
18233 "See, for example, Marc Rotenberg, <quote>Fair Information Practices and the "
18234 "Architecture of Privacy (What Larry Doesn't Get),</quote> "
18235 "<citetitle>Stanford Technology Law Review</citetitle> 1 (2001): "
18236 "par. 6–18, available at <ulink "
18237 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink> (describing examples "
18238 "in which technology defines privacy policy). See also Jeffrey Rosen, "
18239 "<citetitle>The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious "
18240 "Age</citetitle> (New York: Random House, 2004) (mapping tradeoffs between "
18241 "technology and privacy)."
18245 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18246 #: freeculture.xml:13401
18248 "It is this reality that explains the push of many to define "
18249 "<quote>privacy</quote> on the Internet. It is the recognition that "
18250 "technology can remove what friction before gave us that leads many to push "
18251 "for laws to do what friction did.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
18252 "And whether you're in favor of those laws or not, it is the pattern that is "
18253 "important here. We must take affirmative steps to secure a kind of freedom "
18254 "that was passively provided before. A change in technology now forces those "
18255 "who believe in privacy to affirmatively act where, before, privacy was given "
18259 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18260 #: freeculture.xml:13425
18262 "A similar story could be told about the birth of the free software "
18263 "movement. When computers with software were first made available "
18264 "commercially, the software—both the source code and the "
18265 "binaries— was free. You couldn't run a program written for a Data "
18266 "General machine on an IBM machine, so Data General and IBM didn't care much "
18267 "about controlling their software. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
18271 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18272 #: freeculture.xml:13433
18273 msgid "Stallman, Richard"
18276 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18277 #: freeculture.xml:13435
18279 "That was the world Richard Stallman was born into, and while he was a "
18280 "researcher at MIT, he grew to love the community that developed when one was "
18281 "free to explore and tinker with the software that ran on machines. Being a "
18282 "smart sort himself, and a talented programmer, Stallman grew to depend upon "
18283 "the freedom to add to or modify other people's work."
18286 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18287 #: freeculture.xml:13443
18289 "In an academic setting, at least, that's not a terribly radical idea. In a "
18290 "math department, anyone would be free to tinker with a proof that someone "
18291 "offered. If you thought you had a better way to prove a theorem, you could "
18292 "take what someone else did and change it. In a classics department, if you "
18293 "believed a colleague's translation of a recently discovered text was flawed, "
18294 "you were free to improve it. Thus, to Stallman, it seemed obvious that you "
18295 "should be free to tinker with and improve the code that ran a machine. This, "
18296 "too, was knowledge. Why shouldn't it be open for criticism like anything "
18300 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18301 #: freeculture.xml:13455
18303 "No one answered that question. Instead, the architecture of revenue for "
18304 "computing changed. As it became possible to import programs from one system "
18305 "to another, it became economically attractive (at least in the view of some) "
18306 "to hide the code of your program. So, too, as companies started selling "
18307 "peripherals for mainframe systems. If I could just take your printer driver "
18308 "and copy it, then that would make it easier for me to sell a printer to the "
18309 "market than it was for you."
18313 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18314 #: freeculture.xml:13464
18316 "Thus, the practice of proprietary code began to spread, and by the early "
18317 "1980s, Stallman found himself surrounded by proprietary code. The world of "
18318 "free software had been erased by a change in the economics of computing. And "
18319 "as he believed, if he did nothing about it, then the freedom to change and "
18320 "share software would be fundamentally weakened."
18323 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18324 #: freeculture.xml:13472
18325 msgid "Torvalds, Linus"
18328 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18329 #: freeculture.xml:13474
18331 "Therefore, in 1984, Stallman began a project to build a free operating "
18332 "system, so that at least a strain of free software would survive. That was "
18333 "the birth of the GNU project, into which Linus Torvalds's "
18334 "<quote>Linux</quote> kernel was added to produce the GNU/Linux operating "
18335 "system. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> <placeholder "
18336 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/>"
18339 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18340 #: freeculture.xml:13482
18342 "Stallman's technique was to use copyright law to build a world of software "
18343 "that must be kept free. Software licensed under the Free Software "
18344 "Foundation's GPL cannot be modified and distributed unless the source code "
18345 "for that software is made available as well. Thus, anyone building upon "
18346 "GPL'd software would have to make their buildings free as well. This would "
18347 "assure, Stallman believed, that an ecology of code would develop that "
18348 "remained free for others to build upon. His fundamental goal was freedom; "
18349 "innovative creative code was a byproduct."
18352 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18353 #: freeculture.xml:13493
18355 "Stallman was thus doing for software what privacy advocates now do for "
18356 "privacy. He was seeking a way to rebuild a kind of freedom that was taken "
18357 "for granted before. Through the affirmative use of licenses that bind "
18358 "copyrighted code, Stallman was affirmatively reclaiming a space where free "
18359 "software would survive. He was actively protecting what before had been "
18360 "passively guaranteed."
18363 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18364 #: freeculture.xml:13501
18366 "Finally, consider a very recent example that more directly resonates with "
18367 "the story of this book. This is the shift in the way academic and scientific "
18368 "journals are produced."
18372 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18373 #: freeculture.xml:13507
18375 "As digital technologies develop, it is becoming obvious to many that "
18376 "printing thousands of copies of journals every month and sending them to "
18377 "libraries is perhaps not the most efficient way to distribute "
18378 "knowledge. Instead, journals are increasingly becoming electronic, and "
18379 "libraries and their users are given access to these electronic journals "
18380 "through password-protected sites. Something similar to this has been "
18381 "happening in law for almost thirty years: Lexis and Westlaw have had "
18382 "electronic versions of case reports available to subscribers to their "
18383 "service. Although a Supreme Court opinion is not copyrighted, and anyone is "
18384 "free to go to a library and read it, Lexis and Westlaw are also free to "
18385 "charge users for the privilege of gaining access to that Supreme Court "
18386 "opinion through their respective services."
18389 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18390 #: freeculture.xml:13523
18392 "There's nothing wrong in general with this, and indeed, the ability to "
18393 "charge for access to even public domain materials is a good incentive for "
18394 "people to develop new and innovative ways to spread knowledge. The law has "
18395 "agreed, which is why Lexis and Westlaw have been allowed to flourish. And if "
18396 "there's nothing wrong with selling the public domain, then there could be "
18397 "nothing wrong, in principle, with selling access to material that is not in "
18398 "the public domain."
18401 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18402 #: freeculture.xml:13532
18404 "But what if the only way to get access to social and scientific data was "
18405 "through proprietary services? What if no one had the ability to browse this "
18406 "data except by paying for a subscription?"
18409 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18410 #: freeculture.xml:13537
18412 "As many are beginning to notice, this is increasingly the reality with "
18413 "scientific journals. When these journals were distributed in paper form, "
18414 "libraries could make the journals available to anyone who had access to the "
18415 "library. Thus, patients with cancer could become cancer experts because the "
18416 "library gave them access. Or patients trying to understand the risks of a "
18417 "certain treatment could research those risks by reading all available "
18418 "articles about that treatment. This freedom was therefore a function of the "
18419 "institution of libraries (norms) and the technology of paper journals "
18420 "(architecture)—namely, that it was very hard to control access to a "
18424 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18425 #: freeculture.xml:13549
18427 "As journals become electronic, however, the publishers are demanding that "
18428 "libraries not give the general public access to the journals. This means "
18429 "that the freedoms provided by print journals in public libraries begin to "
18430 "disappear. Thus, as with privacy and with software, a changing technology "
18431 "and market shrink a freedom taken for granted before."
18434 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18435 #: freeculture.xml:13557
18437 "This shrinking freedom has led many to take affirmative steps to restore the "
18438 "freedom that has been lost. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), for "
18439 "example, is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making scientific research "
18440 "available to anyone with a Web connection. Authors of scientific work submit "
18441 "that work to the Public Library of Science. That work is then subject to "
18442 "peer review. If accepted, the work is then deposited in a public, electronic "
18443 "archive and made permanently available for free. PLoS also sells a print "
18444 "version of its work, but the copyright for the print journal does not "
18445 "inhibit the right of anyone to redistribute the work for free. <placeholder "
18446 "type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
18449 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18450 #: freeculture.xml:13571
18452 "This is one of many such efforts to restore a freedom taken for granted "
18453 "before, but now threatened by changing technology and markets. There's no "
18454 "doubt that this alternative competes with the traditional publishers and "
18455 "their efforts to make money from the exclusive distribution of content. But "
18456 "competition in our tradition is presumptively a good—especially when "
18457 "it helps spread knowledge and science."
18460 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18461 #: freeculture.xml:13583
18462 msgid "Rebuilding Free Culture: One Idea"
18465 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18466 #: freeculture.xml:13586
18468 "The same strategy could be applied to culture, as a response to the "
18469 "increasing control effected through law and technology."
18472 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18473 #: freeculture.xml:13589
18474 msgid "Stanford University"
18477 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18478 #: freeculture.xml:13591
18480 "Enter the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation "
18481 "established in Massachusetts, but with its home at Stanford University. Its "
18482 "aim is to build a layer of <emphasis>reasonable</emphasis> copyright on top "
18483 "of the extremes that now reign. It does this by making it easy for people to "
18484 "build upon other people's work, by making it simple for creators to express "
18485 "the freedom for others to take and build upon their work. Simple tags, tied "
18486 "to human-readable descriptions, tied to bulletproof licenses, make this "
18491 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18492 #: freeculture.xml:13602
18494 "<emphasis>Simple</emphasis>—which means without a middleman, or "
18495 "without a lawyer. By developing a free set of licenses that people can "
18496 "attach to their content, Creative Commons aims to mark a range of content "
18497 "that can easily, and reliably, be built upon. These tags are then linked to "
18498 "machine-readable versions of the license that enable computers automatically "
18499 "to identify content that can easily be shared. These three expressions "
18500 "together—a legal license, a human-readable description, and "
18501 "machine-readable tags—constitute a Creative Commons license. A "
18502 "Creative Commons license constitutes a grant of freedom to anyone who "
18503 "accesses the license, and more importantly, an expression of the ideal that "
18504 "the person associated with the license believes in something different than "
18505 "the <quote>All</quote> or <quote>No</quote> extremes. Content is marked with "
18506 "the CC mark, which does not mean that copyright is waived, but that certain "
18507 "freedoms are given."
18510 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18511 #: freeculture.xml:13620
18513 "These freedoms are beyond the freedoms promised by fair use. Their precise "
18514 "contours depend upon the choices the creator makes. The creator can choose a "
18515 "license that permits any use, so long as attribution is given. She can "
18516 "choose a license that permits only noncommercial use. She can choose a "
18517 "license that permits any use so long as the same freedoms are given to other "
18518 "uses (<quote>share and share alike</quote>). Or any use so long as no "
18519 "derivative use is made. Or any use at all within developing nations. Or any "
18520 "sampling use, so long as full copies are not made. Or lastly, any "
18524 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18525 #: freeculture.xml:13631
18527 "These choices thus establish a range of freedoms beyond the default of "
18528 "copyright law. They also enable freedoms that go beyond traditional fair "
18529 "use. And most importantly, they express these freedoms in a way that "
18530 "subsequent users can use and rely upon without the need to hire a "
18531 "lawyer. Creative Commons thus aims to build a layer of content, governed by "
18532 "a layer of reasonable copyright law, that others can build upon. Voluntary "
18533 "choice of individuals and creators will make this content available. And "
18534 "that content will in turn enable us to rebuild a public domain."
18537 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18538 #: freeculture.xml:13641
18539 msgid "Garlick, Mia"
18543 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18544 #: freeculture.xml:13643
18546 "This is just one project among many within the Creative Commons. And of "
18547 "course, Creative Commons is not the only organization pursuing such "
18548 "freedoms. But the point that distinguishes the Creative Commons from many is "
18549 "that we are not interested only in talking about a public domain or in "
18550 "getting legislators to help build a public domain. Our aim is to build a "
18551 "movement of consumers and producers of content (<quote>content "
18552 "conducers,</quote> as attorney Mia Garlick calls them) who help build the "
18553 "public domain and, by their work, demonstrate the importance of the public "
18554 "domain to other creativity."
18557 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18558 #: freeculture.xml:13655
18560 "The aim is not to fight the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> sorts. The "
18561 "aim is to complement them. The problems that the law creates for us as a "
18562 "culture are produced by insane and unintended consequences of laws written "
18563 "centuries ago, applied to a technology that only Jefferson could have "
18564 "imagined. The rules may well have made sense against a background of "
18565 "technologies from centuries ago, but they do not make sense against the "
18566 "background of digital technologies. New rules—with different freedoms, "
18567 "expressed in ways so that humans without lawyers can use them—are "
18568 "needed. Creative Commons gives people a way effectively to begin to build "
18572 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18573 #: freeculture.xml:13668
18575 "Why would creators participate in giving up total control? Some participate "
18576 "to better spread their content. Cory Doctorow, for example, is a science "
18577 "fiction author. His first novel, <citetitle>Down and Out in the Magic "
18578 "Kingdom</citetitle>, was released on-line and for free, under a Creative "
18579 "Commons license, on the same day that it went on sale in bookstores."
18582 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18583 #: freeculture.xml:13675
18585 "Why would a publisher ever agree to this? I suspect his publisher reasoned "
18586 "like this: There are two groups of people out there: (1) those who will buy "
18587 "Cory's book whether or not it's on the Internet, and (2) those who may never "
18588 "hear of Cory's book, if it isn't made available for free on the "
18589 "Internet. Some part of (1) will download Cory's book instead of buying "
18590 "it. Call them bad-(1)s. Some part of (2) will download Cory's book, like "
18591 "it, and then decide to buy it. Call them (2)-goods. If there are more "
18592 "(2)-goods than bad-(1)s, the strategy of releasing Cory's book free on-line "
18593 "will probably <emphasis>increase</emphasis> sales of Cory's book."
18596 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18597 #: freeculture.xml:13687
18599 "Indeed, the experience of his publisher clearly supports that conclusion. "
18600 "The book's first printing was exhausted months before the publisher had "
18601 "expected. This first novel of a science fiction author was a total success."
18604 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18605 #: freeculture.xml:13692
18606 msgid "Free for All (Wayner)"
18609 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18610 #: freeculture.xml:13693
18611 msgid "Wayner, Peter"
18615 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18616 #: freeculture.xml:13695
18618 "The idea that free content might increase the value of nonfree content was "
18619 "confirmed by the experience of another author. Peter Wayner, who wrote a "
18620 "book about the free software movement titled <citetitle>Free for "
18621 "All</citetitle>, made an electronic version of his book free on-line under a "
18622 "Creative Commons license after the book went out of print. He then monitored "
18623 "used book store prices for the book. As predicted, as the number of "
18624 "downloads increased, the used book price for his book increased, as well."
18627 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18628 #: freeculture.xml:13706
18629 msgid "Public Enemy"
18632 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18633 #: freeculture.xml:13707
18637 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
18638 #: freeculture.xml:13708
18639 msgid "Leaphart, Walter"
18643 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18644 #: freeculture.xml:13725
18646 "<citetitle>Willful Infringement: A Report from the Front Lines of the Real "
18647 "Culture Wars</citetitle> (2003), produced by Jed Horovitz, directed by Greg "
18648 "Hittelman, a Fiat Lucre production, available at <ulink "
18649 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #72</ulink>."
18652 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18653 #: freeculture.xml:13710
18655 "These are examples of using the Commons to better spread proprietary "
18656 "content. I believe that is a wonderful and common use of the Commons. There "
18657 "are others who use Creative Commons licenses for other reasons. Many who use "
18658 "the <quote>sampling license</quote> do so because anything else would be "
18659 "hypocritical. The sampling license says that others are free, for commercial "
18660 "or noncommercial purposes, to sample content from the licensed work; they "
18661 "are just not free to make full copies of the licensed work available to "
18662 "others. This is consistent with their own art—they, too, sample from "
18663 "others. Because the <emphasis>legal</emphasis> costs of sampling are so high "
18664 "(Walter Leaphart, manager of the rap group Public Enemy, which was born "
18665 "sampling the music of others, has stated that he does not "
18666 "<quote>allow</quote> Public Enemy to sample anymore, because the legal costs "
18667 "are so high<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>), these artists release "
18668 "into the creative environment content that others can build upon, so that "
18669 "their form of creativity might grow."
18672 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18673 #: freeculture.xml:13734
18675 "Finally, there are many who mark their content with a Creative Commons "
18676 "license just because they want to express to others the importance of "
18677 "balance in this debate. If you just go along with the system as it is, you "
18678 "are effectively saying you believe in the <quote>All Rights Reserved</quote> "
18679 "model. Good for you, but many do not. Many believe that however appropriate "
18680 "that rule is for Hollywood and freaks, it is not an appropriate description "
18681 "of how most creators view the rights associated with their content. The "
18682 "Creative Commons license expresses this notion of <quote>Some Rights "
18683 "Reserved,</quote> and gives many the chance to say it to others."
18687 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18688 #: freeculture.xml:13746
18690 "In the first six months of the Creative Commons experiment, over 1 million "
18691 "objects were licensed with these free-culture licenses. The next step is "
18692 "partnerships with middleware content providers to help them build into their "
18693 "technologies simple ways for users to mark their content with Creative "
18694 "Commons freedoms. Then the next step is to watch and celebrate creators who "
18695 "build content based upon content set free."
18698 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18699 #: freeculture.xml:13756
18701 "These are first steps to rebuilding a public domain. They are not mere "
18702 "arguments; they are action. Building a public domain is the first step to "
18703 "showing people how important that domain is to creativity and "
18704 "innovation. Creative Commons relies upon voluntary steps to achieve this "
18705 "rebuilding. They will lead to a world in which more than voluntary steps are "
18709 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18710 #: freeculture.xml:13764
18712 "Creative Commons is just one example of voluntary efforts by individuals and "
18713 "creators to change the mix of rights that now govern the creative field. The "
18714 "project does not compete with copyright; it complements it. Its aim is not "
18715 "to defeat the rights of authors, but to make it easier for authors and "
18716 "creators to exercise their rights more flexibly and cheaply. That "
18717 "difference, we believe, will enable creativity to spread more easily."
18720 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><title>
18721 #: freeculture.xml:13778
18725 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18726 #: freeculture.xml:13780
18728 "<emphasis role='strong'>We will</emphasis> not reclaim a free culture by "
18729 "individual action alone. It will also take important reforms of laws. We "
18730 "have a long way to go before the politicians will listen to these ideas and "
18731 "implement these reforms. But that also means that we have time to build "
18732 "awareness around the changes that we need."
18735 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><para>
18736 #: freeculture.xml:13787
18738 "In this chapter, I outline five kinds of changes: four that are general, and "
18739 "one that's specific to the most heated battle of the day, music. Each is a "
18740 "step, not an end. But any of these steps would carry us a long way to our "
18744 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
18745 #: freeculture.xml:13794
18746 msgid "1. More Formalities"
18749 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18750 #: freeculture.xml:13796
18752 "If you buy a house, you have to record the sale in a deed. If you buy land "
18753 "upon which to build a house, you have to record the purchase in a deed. If "
18754 "you buy a car, you get a bill of sale and register the car. If you buy an "
18755 "airplane ticket, it has your name on it."
18759 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18760 #: freeculture.xml:13803
18762 "These are all formalities associated with property. They are requirements "
18763 "that we all must bear if we want our property to be protected."
18766 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18767 #: freeculture.xml:13808
18769 "In contrast, under current copyright law, you automatically get a copyright, "
18770 "regardless of whether you comply with any formality. You don't have to "
18771 "register. You don't even have to mark your content. The default is control, "
18772 "and <quote>formalities</quote> are banished."
18775 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18776 #: freeculture.xml:13814
18780 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18781 #: freeculture.xml:13817
18783 "As I suggested in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
18784 "linkend=\"property-i\"/>, the motivation to abolish formalities was a good "
18785 "one. In the world before digital technologies, formalities imposed a burden "
18786 "on copyright holders without much benefit. Thus, it was progress when the "
18787 "law relaxed the formal requirements that a copyright owner must bear to "
18788 "protect and secure his work. Those formalities were getting in the way."
18791 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18792 #: freeculture.xml:13826
18794 "But the Internet changes all this. Formalities today need not be a "
18795 "burden. Rather, the world without formalities is the world that burdens "
18796 "creativity. Today, there is no simple way to know who owns what, or with "
18797 "whom one must deal in order to use or build upon the creative work of "
18798 "others. There are no records, there is no system to trace— there is no "
18799 "simple way to know how to get permission. Yet given the massive increase in "
18800 "the scope of copyright's rule, getting permission is a necessary step for "
18801 "any work that builds upon our past. And thus, the <emphasis>lack</emphasis> "
18802 "of formalities forces many into silence where they otherwise could speak."
18806 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18807 #: freeculture.xml:13840
18809 "The proposal I am advancing here would apply to American works only. "
18810 "Obviously, I believe it would be beneficial for the same idea to be adopted "
18811 "by other countries as well."
18814 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18815 #: freeculture.xml:13838
18817 "The law should therefore change this requirement<placeholder "
18818 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>—but it should not change it by going back "
18819 "to the old, broken system. We should require formalities, but we should "
18820 "establish a system that will create the incentives to minimize the burden of "
18821 "these formalities."
18824 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
18825 #: freeculture.xml:13848
18827 "The important formalities are three: marking copyrighted work, registering "
18828 "copyrights, and renewing the claim to copyright. Traditionally, the first of "
18829 "these three was something the copyright owner did; the second two were "
18830 "something the government did. But a revised system of formalities would "
18831 "banish the government from the process, except for the sole purpose of "
18832 "approving standards developed by others."
18835 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
18836 #: freeculture.xml:13860
18837 msgid "REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL"
18840 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18841 #: freeculture.xml:13862
18843 "Under the old system, a copyright owner had to file a registration with the "
18844 "Copyright Office to register or renew a copyright. When filing that "
18845 "registration, the copyright owner paid a fee. As with most government "
18846 "agencies, the Copyright Office had little incentive to minimize the burden "
18847 "of registration; it also had little incentive to minimize the fee. And as "
18848 "the Copyright Office is not a main target of government policymaking, the "
18849 "office has historically been terribly underfunded. Thus, when people who "
18850 "know something about the process hear this idea about formalities, their "
18851 "first reaction is panic—nothing could be worse than forcing people to "
18852 "deal with the mess that is the Copyright Office."
18855 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18856 #: freeculture.xml:13875
18858 "Yet it is always astonishing to me that we, who come from a tradition of "
18859 "extraordinary innovation in governmental design, can no longer think "
18860 "innovatively about how governmental functions can be designed. Just because "
18861 "there is a public purpose to a government role, it doesn't follow that the "
18862 "government must actually administer the role. Instead, we should be creating "
18863 "incentives for private parties to serve the public, subject to standards "
18864 "that the government sets."
18867 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18868 #: freeculture.xml:13884
18870 "In the context of registration, one obvious model is the Internet. There "
18871 "are at least 32 million Web sites registered around the world. Domain name "
18872 "owners for these Web sites have to pay a fee to keep their registration "
18873 "alive. In the main top-level domains (.com, .org, .net), there is a central "
18874 "registry. The actual registrations are, however, performed by many competing "
18875 "registrars. That competition drives the cost of registering down, and more "
18876 "importantly, it drives the ease with which registration occurs up."
18880 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18881 #: freeculture.xml:13894
18883 "We should adopt a similar model for the registration and renewal of "
18884 "copyrights. The Copyright Office may well serve as the central registry, but "
18885 "it should not be in the registrar business. Instead, it should establish a "
18886 "database, and a set of standards for registrars. It should approve "
18887 "registrars that meet its standards. Those registrars would then compete with "
18888 "one another to deliver the cheapest and simplest systems for registering and "
18889 "renewing copyrights. That competition would substantially lower the burden "
18890 "of this formality—while producing a database of registrations that "
18891 "would facilitate the licensing of content."
18894 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><title>
18895 #: freeculture.xml:13909
18899 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18900 #: freeculture.xml:13911
18902 "It used to be that the failure to include a copyright notice on a creative "
18903 "work meant that the copyright was forfeited. That was a harsh punishment for "
18904 "failing to comply with a regulatory rule—akin to imposing the death "
18905 "penalty for a parking ticket in the world of creative rights. Here again, "
18906 "there is no reason that a marking requirement needs to be enforced in this "
18907 "way. And more importantly, there is no reason a marking requirement needs to "
18908 "be enforced uniformly across all media."
18911 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18912 #: freeculture.xml:13921
18914 "The aim of marking is to signal to the public that this work is copyrighted "
18915 "and that the author wants to enforce his rights. The mark also makes it easy "
18916 "to locate a copyright owner to secure permission to use the work."
18919 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18920 #: freeculture.xml:13927
18922 "One of the problems the copyright system confronted early on was that "
18923 "different copyrighted works had to be differently marked. It wasn't clear "
18924 "how or where a statue was to be marked, or a record, or a film. A new "
18925 "marking requirement could solve these problems by recognizing the "
18926 "differences in media, and by allowing the system of marking to evolve as "
18927 "technologies enable it to. The system could enable a special signal from the "
18928 "failure to mark—not the loss of the copyright, but the loss of the "
18929 "right to punish someone for failing to get permission first."
18933 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para><footnote><para>
18934 #: freeculture.xml:13944
18936 "There would be a complication with derivative works that I have not solved "
18937 "here. In my view, the law of derivatives creates a more complicated system "
18938 "than is justified by the marginal incentive it creates."
18942 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18943 #: freeculture.xml:13937
18945 "Let's start with the last point. If a copyright owner allows his work to be "
18946 "published without a copyright notice, the consequence of that failure need "
18947 "not be that the copyright is lost. The consequence could instead be that "
18948 "anyone has the right to use this work, until the copyright owner complains "
18949 "and demonstrates that it is his work and he doesn't give "
18950 "permission.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The meaning of an "
18951 "unmarked work would therefore be <quote>use unless someone "
18952 "complains.</quote> If someone does complain, then the obligation would be to "
18953 "stop using the work in any new work from then on though no penalty would "
18954 "attach for existing uses. This would create a strong incentive for "
18955 "copyright owners to mark their work."
18958 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18959 #: freeculture.xml:13957
18961 "That in turn raises the question about how work should best be marked. Here "
18962 "again, the system needs to adjust as the technologies evolve. The best way "
18963 "to ensure that the system evolves is to limit the Copyright Office's role to "
18964 "that of approving standards for marking content that have been crafted "
18968 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
18969 #: freeculture.xml:13963
18970 msgid "copyright marking of"
18973 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18974 #: freeculture.xml:13965
18976 "For example, if a recording industry association devises a method for "
18977 "marking CDs, it would propose that to the Copyright Office. The Copyright "
18978 "Office would hold a hearing, at which other proposals could be made. The "
18979 "Copyright Office would then select the proposal that it judged preferable, "
18980 "and it would base that choice <emphasis>solely</emphasis> upon the "
18981 "consideration of which method could best be integrated into the registration "
18982 "and renewal system. We would not count on the government to innovate; but we "
18983 "would count on the government to keep the product of innovation in line with "
18984 "its other important functions."
18987 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18988 #: freeculture.xml:13977
18990 "Finally, marking content clearly would simplify registration requirements. "
18991 "If photographs were marked by author and year, there would be little reason "
18992 "not to allow a photographer to reregister, for example, all photographs "
18993 "taken in a particular year in one quick step. The aim of the formality is "
18994 "not to burden the creator; the system itself should be kept as simple as "
18998 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
18999 #: freeculture.xml:13985
19001 "The objective of formalities is to make things clear. The existing system "
19002 "does nothing to make things clear. Indeed, it seems designed to make things "
19006 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><section><para>
19007 #: freeculture.xml:13990
19009 "If formalities such as registration were reinstated, one of the most "
19010 "difficult aspects of relying upon the public domain would be removed. It "
19011 "would be simple to identify what content is presumptively free; it would be "
19012 "simple to identify who controls the rights for a particular kind of content; "
19013 "it would be simple to assert those rights, and to renew that assertion at "
19014 "the appropriate time."
19017 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19018 #: freeculture.xml:14002
19019 msgid "2. Shorter Terms"
19022 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19023 #: freeculture.xml:14004
19025 "The term of copyright has gone from fourteen years to ninety-five years for "
19026 "corporate authors, and life of the author plus seventy years for natural "
19031 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19032 #: freeculture.xml:14017
19034 "<quote>A Radical Rethink,</quote> <citetitle>Economist</citetitle>, 366:8308 "
19035 "(25 January 2003): 15, available at <ulink "
19036 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #74</ulink>."
19039 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19040 #: freeculture.xml:14009
19042 "In <citetitle>The Future of Ideas</citetitle>, I proposed a "
19043 "seventy-five-year term, granted in five-year increments with a requirement "
19044 "of renewal every five years. That seemed radical enough at the time. But "
19045 "after we lost <citetitle>Eldred</citetitle> "
19046 "v. <citetitle>Ashcroft</citetitle>, the proposals became even more "
19047 "radical. <citetitle>The Economist</citetitle> endorsed a proposal for a "
19048 "fourteen-year copyright term.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> "
19049 "Others have proposed tying the term to the term for patents."
19052 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19053 #: freeculture.xml:14024
19055 "I agree with those who believe that we need a radical change in copyright's "
19056 "term. But whether fourteen years or seventy-five, there are four principles "
19057 "that are important to keep in mind about copyright terms."
19061 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19062 #: freeculture.xml:14032
19064 "<emphasis>Keep it short:</emphasis> The term should be as long as necessary "
19065 "to give incentives to create, but no longer. If it were tied to very strong "
19066 "protections for authors (so authors were able to reclaim rights from "
19067 "publishers), rights to the same work (not derivative works) might be "
19068 "extended further. The key is not to tie the work up with legal regulations "
19069 "when it no longer benefits an author."
19074 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19075 #: freeculture.xml:14041
19077 "<emphasis>Keep it simple:</emphasis> The line between the public domain and "
19078 "protected content must be kept clear. Lawyers like the fuzziness of "
19079 "<quote>fair use,</quote> and the distinction between <quote>ideas</quote> "
19080 "and <quote>expression.</quote> That kind of law gives them lots of work. But "
19081 "our framers had a simpler idea in mind: protected versus unprotected. The "
19082 "value of short terms is that there is little need to build exceptions into "
19083 "copyright when the term itself is kept short. A clear and active "
19084 "<quote>lawyer-free zone</quote> makes the complexities of <quote>fair "
19085 "use</quote> and <quote>idea/expression</quote> less necessary to navigate."
19088 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><indexterm><primary>
19089 #: freeculture.xml:14053
19090 msgid "veterans' pensions"
19094 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para><footnote><para>
19095 #: freeculture.xml:14064
19097 "Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran's Application for Compensation "
19098 "and/or Pension, VA Form 21-526 (OMB Approved No. 2900-0001), available at "
19099 "<ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #75</ulink>."
19102 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19103 #: freeculture.xml:14056
19105 "<emphasis>Keep it alive:</emphasis> Copyright should have to be renewed. "
19106 "Especially if the maximum term is long, the copyright owner should be "
19107 "required to signal periodically that he wants the protection continued. This "
19108 "need not be an onerous burden, but there is no reason this monopoly "
19109 "protection has to be granted for free. On average, it takes ninety minutes "
19110 "for a veteran to apply for a pension.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
19111 "id=\"0\"/> If we make veterans suffer that burden, I don't see why we "
19112 "couldn't require authors to spend ten minutes every fifty years to file a "
19117 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19118 #: freeculture.xml:14075
19120 "<emphasis>Keep it prospective:</emphasis> Whatever the term of copyright "
19121 "should be, the clearest lesson that economists teach is that a term once "
19122 "given should not be extended. It might have been a mistake in 1923 for the "
19123 "law to offer authors only a fifty-six-year term. I don't think so, but it's "
19124 "possible. If it was a mistake, then the consequence was that we got fewer "
19125 "authors to create in 1923 than we otherwise would have. But we can't correct "
19126 "that mistake today by increasing the term. No matter what we do today, we "
19127 "will not increase the number of authors who wrote in 1923. Of course, we can "
19128 "increase the reward that those who write now get (or alternatively, increase "
19129 "the copyright burden that smothers many works that are today invisible). But "
19130 "increasing their reward will not increase their creativity in 1923. What's "
19131 "not done is not done, and there's nothing we can do about that now."
19134 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19135 #: freeculture.xml:14091
19137 "These changes together should produce an <emphasis>average</emphasis> "
19138 "copyright term that is much shorter than the current term. Until 1976, the "
19139 "average term was just 32.2 years. We should be aiming for the same."
19142 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19143 #: freeculture.xml:14097
19145 "No doubt the extremists will call these ideas <quote>radical.</quote> (After "
19146 "all, I call them <quote>extremists.</quote>) But again, the term I "
19147 "recommended was longer than the term under Richard Nixon. How "
19148 "<quote>radical</quote> can it be to ask for a more generous copyright law "
19149 "than Richard Nixon presided over?"
19152 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19153 #: freeculture.xml:14107
19154 msgid "3. Free Use Vs. Fair Use"
19157 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19158 #: freeculture.xml:14111
19160 "As I observed at the beginning of this book, property law originally granted "
19161 "property owners the right to control their property from the ground to the "
19162 "heavens. The airplane came along. The scope of property rights quickly "
19163 "changed. There was no fuss, no constitutional challenge. It made no sense "
19164 "anymore to grant that much control, given the emergence of that new "
19168 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19169 #: freeculture.xml:14119
19171 "Our Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors <quote>exclusive "
19172 "right</quote> to <quote>their writings.</quote> Congress has given authors "
19173 "an exclusive right to <quote>their writings</quote> plus any derivative "
19174 "writings (made by others) that are sufficiently close to the author's "
19175 "original work. Thus, if I write a book, and you base a movie on that book, I "
19176 "have the power to deny you the right to release that movie, even though that "
19177 "movie is not <quote>my writing.</quote>"
19180 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19181 #: freeculture.xml:14127
19182 msgid "Kaplan, Benjamin"
19186 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19187 #: freeculture.xml:14133
19189 "Benjamin Kaplan, <citetitle>An Unhurried View of Copyright</citetitle> (New "
19190 "York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 32."
19193 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19194 #: freeculture.xml:14129
19196 "Congress granted the beginnings of this right in 1870, when it expanded the "
19197 "exclusive right of copyright to include a right to control translations and "
19198 "dramatizations of a work.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> The "
19199 "courts have expanded it slowly through judicial interpretation ever "
19200 "since. This expansion has been commented upon by one of the law's greatest "
19201 "judges, Judge Benjamin Kaplan."
19205 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para><footnote><para>
19206 #: freeculture.xml:14146
19210 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><blockquote><para>
19211 #: freeculture.xml:14142
19213 "So inured have we become to the extension of the monopoly to a large range "
19214 "of so-called derivative works, that we no longer sense the oddity of "
19215 "accepting such an enlargement of copyright while yet intoning the "
19216 "abracadabra of idea and expression.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19219 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19220 #: freeculture.xml:14151
19222 "I think it's time to recognize that there are airplanes in this field and "
19223 "the expansiveness of these rights of derivative use no longer make "
19224 "sense. More precisely, they don't make sense for the period of time that a "
19225 "copyright runs. And they don't make sense as an amorphous grant. Consider "
19226 "each limitation in turn."
19229 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19230 #: freeculture.xml:14158
19232 "<emphasis>Term:</emphasis> If Congress wants to grant a derivative right, "
19233 "then that right should be for a much shorter term. It makes sense to protect "
19234 "John Grisham's right to sell the movie rights to his latest novel (or at "
19235 "least I'm willing to assume it does); but it does not make sense for that "
19236 "right to run for the same term as the underlying copyright. The derivative "
19237 "right could be important in inducing creativity; it is not important long "
19238 "after the creative work is done. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19241 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19242 #: freeculture.xml:14171
19244 "<emphasis>Scope:</emphasis> Likewise should the scope of derivative rights "
19245 "be narrowed. Again, there are some cases in which derivative rights are "
19246 "important. Those should be specified. But the law should draw clear lines "
19247 "around regulated and unregulated uses of copyrighted material. When all "
19248 "<quote>reuse</quote> of creative material was within the control of "
19249 "businesses, perhaps it made sense to require lawyers to negotiate the "
19250 "lines. It no longer makes sense for lawyers to negotiate the lines. Think "
19251 "about all the creative possibilities that digital technologies enable; now "
19252 "imagine pouring molasses into the machines. That's what this general "
19253 "requirement of permission does to the creative process. Smothers it."
19256 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19257 #: freeculture.xml:14185
19259 "This was the point that Alben made when describing the making of the Clint "
19260 "Eastwood CD. While it makes sense to require negotiation for foreseeable "
19261 "derivative rights—turning a book into a movie, or a poem into a "
19262 "musical score—it doesn't make sense to require negotiation for the "
19263 "unforeseeable. Here, a statutory right would make much more sense."
19266 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19267 #: freeculture.xml:14201
19268 msgid "Goldstein, Paul"
19271 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19272 #: freeculture.xml:14199
19274 "Paul Goldstein, <citetitle>Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the "
19275 "Celestial Jukebox</citetitle> (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), "
19276 "187–216. <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19279 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19280 #: freeculture.xml:14193
19282 "In each of these cases, the law should mark the uses that are protected, and "
19283 "the presumption should be that other uses are not protected. This is the "
19284 "reverse of the recommendation of my colleague Paul Goldstein.<placeholder "
19285 "type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> His view is that the law should be written so "
19286 "that expanded protections follow expanded uses."
19289 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19290 #: freeculture.xml:14207
19292 "Goldstein's analysis would make perfect sense if the cost of the legal "
19293 "system were small. But as we are currently seeing in the context of the "
19294 "Internet, the uncertainty about the scope of protection, and the incentives "
19295 "to protect existing architectures of revenue, combined with a strong "
19296 "copyright, weaken the process of innovation."
19300 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19301 #: freeculture.xml:14214
19303 "The law could remedy this problem either by removing protection beyond the "
19304 "part explicitly drawn or by granting reuse rights upon certain statutory "
19305 "conditions. Either way, the effect would be to free a great deal of culture "
19306 "to others to cultivate. And under a statutory rights regime, that reuse "
19307 "would earn artists more income."
19310 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19311 #: freeculture.xml:14224
19312 msgid "4. Liberate the Music—Again"
19315 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19316 #: freeculture.xml:14226
19318 "The battle that got this whole war going was about music, so it wouldn't be "
19319 "fair to end this book without addressing the issue that is, to most people, "
19320 "most pressing—music. There is no other policy issue that better "
19321 "teaches the lessons of this book than the battles around the sharing of "
19325 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19326 #: freeculture.xml:14233
19328 "The appeal of file-sharing music was the crack cocaine of the Internet's "
19329 "growth. It drove demand for access to the Internet more powerfully than any "
19330 "other single application. It was the Internet's killer app—possibly in "
19331 "two senses of that word. It no doubt was the application that drove demand "
19332 "for bandwidth. It may well be the application that drives demand for "
19333 "regulations that in the end kill innovation on the network."
19336 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19337 #: freeculture.xml:14242
19339 "The aim of copyright, with respect to content in general and music in "
19340 "particular, is to create the incentives for music to be composed, performed, "
19341 "and, most importantly, spread. The law does this by giving an exclusive "
19342 "right to a composer to control public performances of his work, and to a "
19343 "performing artist to control copies of her performance."
19346 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19347 #: freeculture.xml:14249
19349 "File-sharing networks complicate this model by enabling the spread of "
19350 "content for which the performer has not been paid. But of course, that's not "
19351 "all the file-sharing networks do. As I described in chapter <xref "
19352 "xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" linkend=\"piracy\"/>, they enable four "
19353 "different kinds of sharing:"
19357 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19358 #: freeculture.xml:14258
19360 "There are some who are using sharing networks as substitutes for purchasing "
19365 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19366 #: freeculture.xml:14263
19368 "There are also some who are using sharing networks to sample, on the way to "
19374 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19375 #: freeculture.xml:14269
19377 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
19378 "that is no longer sold but is still under copyright or that would have been "
19379 "too cumbersome to buy off the Net."
19383 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19384 #: freeculture.xml:14275
19386 "There are many who are using file-sharing networks to get access to content "
19387 "that is not copyrighted or to get access that the copyright owner plainly "
19391 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19392 #: freeculture.xml:14283
19394 "Any reform of the law needs to keep these different uses in focus. It must "
19395 "avoid burdening type D even if it aims to eliminate type A. The eagerness "
19396 "with which the law aims to eliminate type A, moreover, should depend upon "
19397 "the magnitude of type B. As with VCRs, if the net effect of sharing is "
19398 "actually not very harmful, the need for regulation is significantly "
19402 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19403 #: freeculture.xml:14291
19405 "As I said in chapter <xref xrefstyle=\"select: labelnumber\" "
19406 "linkend=\"piracy\"/>, the actual harm caused by sharing is controversial. "
19407 "For the purposes of this chapter, however, I assume the harm is real. I "
19408 "assume, in other words, that type A sharing is significantly greater than "
19409 "type B, and is the dominant use of sharing networks."
19412 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19413 #: freeculture.xml:14299
19415 "Nonetheless, there is a crucial fact about the current technological context "
19416 "that we must keep in mind if we are to understand how the law should "
19420 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19421 #: freeculture.xml:14304
19423 "Today, file sharing is addictive. In ten years, it won't be. It is addictive "
19424 "today because it is the easiest way to gain access to a broad range of "
19425 "content. It won't be the easiest way to get access to a broad range of "
19426 "content in ten years. Today, access to the Internet is cumbersome and "
19427 "slow—we in the United States are lucky to have broadband service at "
19428 "1.5 MBs, and very rarely do we get service at that speed both up and "
19429 "down. Although wireless access is growing, most of us still get access "
19430 "across wires. Most only gain access through a machine with a keyboard. The "
19431 "idea of the always on, always connected Internet is mainly just an idea."
19435 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19436 #: freeculture.xml:14316
19438 "But it will become a reality, and that means the way we get access to the "
19439 "Internet today is a technology in transition. Policy makers should not make "
19440 "policy on the basis of technology in transition. They should make policy on "
19441 "the basis of where the technology is going. The question should not be, how "
19442 "should the law regulate sharing in this world? The question should be, what "
19443 "law will we require when the network becomes the network it is clearly "
19444 "becoming? That network is one in which every machine with electricity is "
19445 "essentially on the Net; where everywhere you are—except maybe the "
19446 "desert or the Rockies—you can instantaneously be connected to the "
19447 "Internet. Imagine the Internet as ubiquitous as the best cell-phone service, "
19448 "where with the flip of a device, you are connected."
19451 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19452 #: freeculture.xml:14330
19453 msgid "cell phones, music streamed over"
19457 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19458 #: freeculture.xml:14350
19460 "See, for example, <quote>Music Media Watch,</quote> The J@pan "
19461 "Inc. Newsletter, 3 April 2002, available at <ulink "
19462 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #76</ulink>."
19465 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19466 #: freeculture.xml:14332
19468 "In that world, it will be extremely easy to connect to services that give "
19469 "you access to content on the fly—such as Internet radio, content that "
19470 "is streamed to the user when the user demands. Here, then, is the critical "
19471 "point: When it is <emphasis>extremely</emphasis> easy to connect to services "
19472 "that give access to content, it will be <emphasis>easier</emphasis> to "
19473 "connect to services that give you access to content than it will be to "
19474 "download and store content <emphasis>on the many devices you will have for "
19475 "playing content</emphasis>. It will be easier, in other words, to subscribe "
19476 "than it will be to be a database manager, as everyone in the "
19477 "download-sharing world of Napster-like technologies essentially is. Content "
19478 "services will compete with content sharing, even if the services charge "
19479 "money for the content they give access to. Already cell-phone services in "
19480 "Japan offer music (for a fee) streamed over cell phones (enhanced with plugs "
19481 "for headphones). The Japanese are paying for this content even though "
19482 "<quote>free</quote> content is available in the form of MP3s across the "
19483 "Web.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19487 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19488 #: freeculture.xml:14357
19490 "This point about the future is meant to suggest a perspective on the "
19491 "present: It is emphatically temporary. The <quote>problem</quote> with file "
19492 "sharing—to the extent there is a real problem—is a problem that "
19493 "will increasingly disappear as it becomes easier to connect to the "
19494 "Internet. And thus it is an extraordinary mistake for policy makers today "
19495 "to be <quote>solving</quote> this problem in light of a technology that will "
19496 "be gone tomorrow. The question should not be how to regulate the Internet "
19497 "to eliminate file sharing (the Net will evolve that problem away). The "
19498 "question instead should be how to assure that artists get paid, during this "
19499 "transition between twentieth-century models for doing business and "
19500 "twenty-first-century technologies."
19503 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19504 #: freeculture.xml:14373
19506 "The answer begins with recognizing that there are different "
19507 "<quote>problems</quote> here to solve. Let's start with type D "
19508 "content—uncopyrighted content or copyrighted content that the artist "
19509 "wants shared. The <quote>problem</quote> with this content is to make sure "
19510 "that the technology that would enable this kind of sharing is not rendered "
19511 "illegal. You can think of it this way: Pay phones are used to deliver ransom "
19512 "demands, no doubt. But there are many who need to use pay phones who have "
19513 "nothing to do with ransoms. It would be wrong to ban pay phones in order to "
19514 "eliminate kidnapping."
19517 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19518 #: freeculture.xml:14384
19520 "Type C content raises a different <quote>problem.</quote> This is content "
19521 "that was, at one time, published and is no longer available. It may be "
19522 "unavailable because the artist is no longer valuable enough for the record "
19523 "label he signed with to carry his work. Or it may be unavailable because the "
19524 "work is forgotten. Either way, the aim of the law should be to facilitate "
19525 "the access to this content, ideally in a way that returns something to the "
19529 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19530 #: freeculture.xml:14395
19532 "Again, the model here is the used book store. Once a book goes out of print, "
19533 "it may still be available in libraries and used book stores. But libraries "
19534 "and used book stores don't pay the copyright owner when someone reads or "
19535 "buys an out-of-print book. That makes total sense, of course, since any "
19536 "other system would be so burdensome as to eliminate the possibility of used "
19537 "book stores' existing. But from the author's perspective, this "
19538 "<quote>sharing</quote> of his content without his being compensated is less "
19542 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19543 #: freeculture.xml:14405
19545 "The model of used book stores suggests that the law could simply deem "
19546 "out-of-print music fair game. If the publisher does not make copies of the "
19547 "music available for sale, then commercial and noncommercial providers would "
19548 "be free, under this rule, to <quote>share</quote> that content, even though "
19549 "the sharing involved making a copy. The copy here would be incidental to the "
19550 "trade; in a context where commercial publishing has ended, trading music "
19551 "should be as free as trading books."
19555 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19556 #: freeculture.xml:14416
19558 "Alternatively, the law could create a statutory license that would ensure "
19559 "that artists get something from the trade of their work. For example, if the "
19560 "law set a low statutory rate for the commercial sharing of content that was "
19561 "not offered for sale by a commercial publisher, and if that rate were "
19562 "automatically transferred to a trust for the benefit of the artist, then "
19563 "businesses could develop around the idea of trading this content, and "
19564 "artists would benefit from this trade."
19567 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19568 #: freeculture.xml:14426
19570 "This system would also create an incentive for publishers to keep works "
19571 "available commercially. Works that are available commercially would not be "
19572 "subject to this license. Thus, publishers could protect the right to charge "
19573 "whatever they want for content if they kept the work commercially "
19574 "available. But if they don't keep it available, and instead, the computer "
19575 "hard disks of fans around the world keep it alive, then any royalty owed for "
19576 "such copying should be much less than the amount owed a commercial "
19580 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19581 #: freeculture.xml:14436
19583 "The hard case is content of types A and B, and again, this case is hard only "
19584 "because the extent of the problem will change over time, as the technologies "
19585 "for gaining access to content change. The law's solution should be as "
19586 "flexible as the problem is, understanding that we are in the middle of a "
19587 "radical transformation in the technology for delivering and accessing "
19591 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19592 #: freeculture.xml:14444
19594 "So here's a solution that will at first seem very strange to both sides in "
19595 "this war, but which upon reflection, I suggest, should make some sense."
19598 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19599 #: freeculture.xml:14448
19601 "Stripped of the rhetoric about the sanctity of property, the basic claim of "
19602 "the content industry is this: A new technology (the Internet) has harmed a "
19603 "set of rights that secure copyright. If those rights are to be protected, "
19604 "then the content industry should be compensated for that harm. Just as the "
19605 "technology of tobacco harmed the health of millions of Americans, or the "
19606 "technology of asbestos caused grave illness to thousands of miners, so, too, "
19607 "has the technology of digital networks harmed the interests of the content "
19612 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19613 #: freeculture.xml:14459
19615 "I love the Internet, and so I don't like likening it to tobacco or "
19616 "asbestos. But the analogy is a fair one from the perspective of the law. "
19617 "And it suggests a fair response: Rather than seeking to destroy the "
19618 "Internet, or the p2p technologies that are currently harming content "
19619 "providers on the Internet, we should find a relatively simple way to "
19620 "compensate those who are harmed."
19623 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19624 #: freeculture.xml:14466 freeculture.xml:14508
19625 msgid "Promises to Keep (Fisher)"
19628 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para><indexterm><primary>
19629 #: freeculture.xml:14506
19630 msgid "Fisher, William"
19633 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19634 #: freeculture.xml:14472
19636 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/> William Fisher, "
19637 "<citetitle>Digital Music: Problems and Possibilities</citetitle> (last "
19638 "revised: 10 October 2000), available at <ulink "
19639 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #77</ulink>; William Fisher, "
19640 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of "
19641 "Entertainment</citetitle> (forthcoming) (Stanford: Stanford University "
19642 "Press, 2004), ch. 6, available at <ulink "
19643 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #78</ulink>. Professor Netanel "
19644 "has proposed a related idea that would exempt noncommercial sharing from the "
19645 "reach of copyright and would establish compensation to artists to balance "
19646 "any loss. See Neil Weinstock Netanel, <quote>Impose a Noncommercial Use Levy "
19647 "to Allow Free P2P File Sharing,</quote> available at <ulink "
19648 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #79</ulink>. For other proposals, "
19649 "see Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Who's Holding Back Broadband?</quote> "
19650 "<citetitle>Washington Post</citetitle>, 8 January 2002, A17; Philip "
19651 "S. Corwin on behalf of Sharman Networks, A Letter to Senator Joseph "
19652 "R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 26 "
19653 "February 2002, available at <ulink "
19654 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #80</ulink>; Serguei Osokine, "
19655 "<citetitle>A Quick Case for Intellectual Property Use Fee "
19656 "(IPUF)</citetitle>, 3 March 2002, available at <ulink "
19657 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #81</ulink>; Jefferson Graham, "
19658 "<quote>Kazaa, Verizon Propose to Pay Artists Directly,</quote> "
19659 "<citetitle>USA Today</citetitle>, 13 May 2002, available at <ulink "
19660 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #82</ulink>; Steven M. Cherry, "
19661 "<quote>Getting Copyright Right,</quote> IEEE Spectrum Online, 1 July 2002, "
19662 "available at <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #83</ulink>; "
19663 "Declan McCullagh, <quote>Verizon's Copyright Campaign,</quote> CNET "
19664 "News.com, 27 August 2002, available at <ulink "
19665 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #84</ulink>. Fisher's proposal "
19666 "is very similar to Richard Stallman's proposal for DAT. Unlike Fisher's, "
19667 "Stallman's proposal would not pay artists directly proportionally, though "
19668 "more popular artists would get more than the less popular. As is typical "
19669 "with Stallman, his proposal predates the current debate by about a "
19670 "decade. See <ulink url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #85</ulink>. "
19671 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"1\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" "
19672 "id=\"2\"/> <placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"3\"/>"
19675 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19676 #: freeculture.xml:14468
19678 "The idea would be a modification of a proposal that has been floated by "
19679 "Harvard law professor William Fisher.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" "
19680 "id=\"0\"/> Fisher suggests a very clever way around the current impasse of "
19681 "the Internet. Under his plan, all content capable of digital transmission "
19682 "would (1) be marked with a digital watermark (don't worry about how easy it "
19683 "is to evade these marks; as you'll see, there's no incentive to evade "
19684 "them). Once the content is marked, then entrepreneurs would develop (2) "
19685 "systems to monitor how many items of each content were distributed. On the "
19686 "basis of those numbers, then (3) artists would be compensated. The "
19687 "compensation would be paid for by (4) an appropriate tax."
19690 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19691 #: freeculture.xml:14522
19693 "Fisher's proposal is careful and comprehensive. It raises a million "
19694 "questions, most of which he answers well in his upcoming book, "
19695 "<citetitle>Promises to Keep</citetitle>. The modification that I would make "
19696 "is relatively simple: Fisher imagines his proposal replacing the existing "
19697 "copyright system. I imagine it complementing the existing system. The aim "
19698 "of the proposal would be to facilitate compensation to the extent that harm "
19699 "could be shown. This compensation would be temporary, aimed at facilitating "
19700 "a transition between regimes. And it would require renewal after a period of "
19701 "years. If it continues to make sense to facilitate free exchange of content, "
19702 "supported through a taxation system, then it can be continued. If this form "
19703 "of protection is no longer necessary, then the system could lapse into the "
19704 "old system of controlling access."
19708 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19709 #: freeculture.xml:14539
19711 "Fisher would balk at the idea of allowing the system to lapse. His aim is "
19712 "not just to ensure that artists are paid, but also to ensure that the system "
19713 "supports the widest range of <quote>semiotic democracy</quote> possible. But "
19714 "the aims of semiotic democracy would be satisfied if the other changes I "
19715 "described were accomplished—in particular, the limits on derivative "
19716 "uses. A system that simply charges for access would not greatly burden "
19717 "semiotic democracy if there were few limitations on what one was allowed to "
19718 "do with the content itself."
19721 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19722 #: freeculture.xml:14552
19726 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19727 #: freeculture.xml:14554
19731 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19732 #: freeculture.xml:14556
19734 "No doubt it would be difficult to calculate the proper measure of "
19735 "<quote>harm</quote> to an industry. But the difficulty of making that "
19736 "calculation would be outweighed by the benefit of facilitating "
19737 "innovation. This background system to compensate would also not need to "
19738 "interfere with innovative proposals such as Apple's MusicStore. As experts "
19739 "predicted when Apple launched the MusicStore, it could beat "
19740 "<quote>free</quote> by being easier than free is. This has proven correct: "
19741 "Apple has sold millions of songs at even the very high price of 99 cents a "
19742 "song. (At 99 cents, the cost is the equivalent of a per-song CD price, "
19743 "though the labels have none of the costs of a CD to pay.) Apple's move was "
19744 "countered by Real Networks, offering music at just 79 cents a song. And no "
19745 "doubt there will be a great deal of competition to offer and sell music "
19749 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19750 #: freeculture.xml:14571
19754 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19755 #: freeculture.xml:14571
19756 msgid "cable vs. broadcast"
19759 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19760 #: freeculture.xml:14574
19761 msgid "film industry"
19764 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19765 #: freeculture.xml:14574
19766 msgid "luxury theatres vs. video piracy in"
19769 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19770 #: freeculture.xml:14576
19772 "This competition has already occurred against the background of "
19773 "<quote>free</quote> music from p2p systems. As the sellers of cable "
19774 "television have known for thirty years, and the sellers of bottled water for "
19775 "much more than that, there is nothing impossible at all about "
19776 "<quote>competing with free.</quote> Indeed, if anything, the competition "
19777 "spurs the competitors to offer new and better products. This is precisely "
19778 "what the competitive market was to be about. Thus in Singapore, though "
19779 "piracy is rampant, movie theaters are often luxurious—with "
19780 "<quote>first class</quote> seats, and meals served while you watch a "
19781 "movie—as they struggle and succeed in finding ways to compete with "
19782 "<quote>free.</quote>"
19785 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19786 #: freeculture.xml:14588
19788 "This regime of competition, with a backstop to assure that artists don't "
19789 "lose, would facilitate a great deal of innovation in the delivery of "
19790 "content. That competition would continue to shrink type A sharing. It would "
19791 "inspire an extraordinary range of new innovators—ones who would have a "
19792 "right to the content, and would no longer fear the uncertain and "
19793 "barbarically severe punishments of the law."
19796 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19797 #: freeculture.xml:14597
19798 msgid "In summary, then, my proposal is this:"
19802 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19803 #: freeculture.xml:14602
19805 "The Internet is in transition. We should not be regulating a technology in "
19806 "transition. We should instead be regulating to minimize the harm to "
19807 "interests affected by this technological change, while enabling, and "
19808 "encouraging, the most efficient technology we can create."
19811 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19812 #: freeculture.xml:14609
19813 msgid "We can minimize that harm while maximizing the benefit to innovation by"
19817 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19818 #: freeculture.xml:14615
19819 msgid "guaranteeing the right to engage in type D sharing;"
19823 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19824 #: freeculture.xml:14619
19826 "permitting noncommercial type C sharing without liability, and commercial "
19827 "type C sharing at a low and fixed rate set by statute;"
19831 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><orderedlist><listitem><para>
19832 #: freeculture.xml:14625
19834 "while in this transition, taxing and compensating for type A sharing, to the "
19835 "extent actual harm is demonstrated."
19838 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19839 #: freeculture.xml:14630
19841 "But what if <quote>piracy</quote> doesn't disappear? What if there is a "
19842 "competitive market providing content at a low cost, but a significant number "
19843 "of consumers continue to <quote>take</quote> content for nothing? Should the "
19844 "law do something then?"
19847 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19848 #: freeculture.xml:14636
19850 "Yes, it should. But, again, what it should do depends upon how the facts "
19851 "develop. These changes may not eliminate type A sharing. But the real issue "
19852 "is not whether it eliminates sharing in the abstract. The real issue is its "
19853 "effect on the market. Is it better (a) to have a technology that is 95 "
19854 "percent secure and produces a market of size <citetitle>x</citetitle>, or "
19855 "(b) to have a technology that is 50 percent secure but produces a market of "
19856 "five times <citetitle>x</citetitle>? Less secure might produce more "
19857 "unauthorized sharing, but it is likely to also produce a much bigger market "
19858 "in authorized sharing. The most important thing is to assure artists' "
19859 "compensation without breaking the Internet. Once that's assured, then it may "
19860 "well be appropriate to find ways to track down the petty pirates."
19864 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19865 #: freeculture.xml:14650
19867 "But we're a long way away from whittling the problem down to this subset of "
19868 "type A sharers. And our focus until we're there should not be on finding "
19869 "ways to break the Internet. Our focus until we're there should be on how to "
19870 "make sure the artists are paid, while protecting the space for innovation "
19871 "and creativity that the Internet is."
19874 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><title>
19875 #: freeculture.xml:14661
19876 msgid "5. Fire Lots of Lawyers"
19879 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19880 #: freeculture.xml:14663
19882 "I'm a lawyer. I make lawyers for a living. I believe in the law. I believe "
19883 "in the law of copyright. Indeed, I have devoted my life to working in law, "
19884 "not because there are big bucks at the end but because there are ideals at "
19885 "the end that I would love to live."
19888 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19889 #: freeculture.xml:14669
19891 "Yet much of this book has been a criticism of lawyers, or the role lawyers "
19892 "have played in this debate. The law speaks to ideals, but it is my view that "
19893 "our profession has become too attuned to the client. And in a world where "
19894 "the rich clients have one strong view, the unwillingness of the profession "
19895 "to question or counter that one strong view queers the law."
19898 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19899 #: freeculture.xml:14676
19900 msgid "Nimmer, Melville"
19903 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><primary>
19904 #: freeculture.xml:14677
19905 msgid "Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) (1998)"
19908 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><indexterm><secondary>
19909 #: freeculture.xml:14677
19910 msgid "Supreme Court challenge of"
19914 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19915 #: freeculture.xml:14688
19917 "Lawrence Lessig, <quote>Copyright's First Amendment</quote> (Melville "
19918 "B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture), <citetitle>UCLA Law Review</citetitle> 48 "
19919 "(2001): 1057, 1069–70."
19922 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19923 #: freeculture.xml:14679
19925 "The evidence of this bending is compelling. I'm attacked as a "
19926 "<quote>radical</quote> by many within the profession, yet the positions that "
19927 "I am advocating are precisely the positions of some of the most moderate and "
19928 "significant figures in the history of this branch of the law. Many, for "
19929 "example, thought crazy the challenge that we brought to the Copyright Term "
19930 "Extension Act. Yet just thirty years ago, the dominant scholar and "
19931 "practitioner in the field of copyright, Melville Nimmer, thought it "
19932 "obvious.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/>"
19935 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19936 #: freeculture.xml:14694
19938 "However, my criticism of the role that lawyers have played in this debate is "
19939 "not just about a professional bias. It is more importantly about our failure "
19940 "to actually reckon the costs of the law."
19943 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para><footnote><para>
19944 #: freeculture.xml:14704
19946 "A good example is the work of Professor Stan Liebowitz. Liebowitz is to be "
19947 "commended for his careful review of data about infringement, leading him to "
19948 "question his own publicly stated position—twice. He initially "
19949 "predicted that downloading would substantially harm the industry. He then "
19950 "revised his view in light of the data, and he has since revised his view "
19951 "again. Compare Stan J. Liebowitz, <citetitle>Rethinking the Network "
19952 "Economy: The True Forces That Drive the Digital Marketplace</citetitle> (New "
19953 "York: Amacom, 2002), (reviewing his original view but expressing skepticism) "
19954 "with Stan J. Liebowitz, <quote>Will MP3s Annihilate the Record "
19955 "Industry?</quote> working paper, June 2003, available at <ulink "
19956 "url=\"http://free-culture.cc/notes/\">link #86</ulink>. Liebowitz's careful "
19957 "analysis is extremely valuable in estimating the effect of file-sharing "
19958 "technology. In my view, however, he underestimates the costs of the legal "
19959 "system. See, for example, <citetitle>Rethinking</citetitle>, 174–76. "
19960 "<placeholder type=\"indexterm\" id=\"0\"/>"
19963 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19964 #: freeculture.xml:14699
19966 "Economists are supposed to be good at reckoning costs and benefits. But "
19967 "more often than not, economists, with no clue about how the legal system "
19968 "actually functions, simply assume that the transaction costs of the legal "
19969 "system are slight.<placeholder type=\"footnote\" id=\"0\"/> They see a "
19970 "system that has been around for hundreds of years, and they assume it works "
19971 "the way their elementary school civics class taught them it works."
19975 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19976 #: freeculture.xml:14728
19978 "But the legal system doesn't work. Or more accurately, it doesn't work for "
19979 "anyone except those with the most resources. Not because the system is "
19980 "corrupt. I don't think our legal system (at the federal level, at least) is "
19981 "at all corrupt. I mean simply because the costs of our legal system are so "
19982 "astonishingly high that justice can practically never be done."
19985 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19986 #: freeculture.xml:14736
19988 "These costs distort free culture in many ways. A lawyer's time is billed at "
19989 "the largest firms at more than $400 per hour. How much time should such a "
19990 "lawyer spend reading cases carefully, or researching obscure strands of "
19991 "authority? The answer is the increasing reality: very little. The law "
19992 "depended upon the careful articulation and development of doctrine, but the "
19993 "careful articulation and development of legal doctrine depends upon careful "
19994 "work. Yet that careful work costs too much, except in the most high-profile "
19995 "and costly cases."
19998 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
19999 #: freeculture.xml:14746
20001 "The costliness and clumsiness and randomness of this system mock our "
20002 "tradition. And lawyers, as well as academics, should consider it their duty "
20003 "to change the way the law works—or better, to change the law so that "
20004 "it works. It is wrong that the system works well only for the top 1 percent "
20005 "of the clients. It could be made radically more efficient, and inexpensive, "
20006 "and hence radically more just."
20009 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20010 #: freeculture.xml:14754
20012 "But until that reform is complete, we as a society should keep the law away "
20013 "from areas that we know it will only harm. And that is precisely what the "
20014 "law will too often do if too much of our culture is left to its review."
20017 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20018 #: freeculture.xml:14761
20020 "Think about the amazing things your kid could do or make with digital "
20021 "technology—the film, the music, the Web page, the blog. Or think about "
20022 "the amazing things your community could facilitate with digital "
20023 "technology—a wiki, a barn raising, activism to change something. "
20024 "Think about all those creative things, and then imagine cold molasses poured "
20025 "onto the machines. This is what any regime that requires permission "
20026 "produces. Again, this is the reality of Brezhnev's Russia."
20030 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20031 #: freeculture.xml:14770
20033 "The law should regulate in certain areas of culture—but it should "
20034 "regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely "
20035 "test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic "
20036 "question: <quote>Will it do good?</quote> When challenged about the "
20037 "expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, <quote>Why not?</quote>"
20040 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><section><section><para>
20041 #: freeculture.xml:14779
20043 "We should ask, <quote>Why?</quote> Show me why your regulation of culture is "
20044 "needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your "
20048 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
20049 #: freeculture.xml:14788
20053 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20054 #: freeculture.xml:14790
20056 "Throughout this text, there are references to links on the World Wide "
20057 "Web. As anyone who has tried to use the Web knows, these links can be highly "
20058 "unstable. I have tried to remedy the instability by redirecting readers to "
20059 "the original source through the Web site associated with this book. For each "
20060 "link below, you can go to http://free-culture.cc/notes and locate the "
20061 "original source by clicking on the number after the # sign. If the original "
20062 "link remains alive, you will be redirected to that link. If the original "
20063 "link has disappeared, you will be redirected to an appropriate reference for "
20067 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><title>
20068 #: freeculture.xml:14809
20069 msgid "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS"
20072 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20073 #: freeculture.xml:14811
20075 "This book is the product of a long and as yet unsuccessful struggle that "
20076 "began when I read of Eric Eldred's war to keep books free. Eldred's work "
20077 "helped launch a movement, the free culture movement, and it is to him that "
20078 "this book is dedicated."
20081 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20082 #: freeculture.xml:14818
20084 "I received guidance in various places from friends and academics, including "
20085 "Glenn Brown, Peter DiCola, Jennifer Mnookin, Richard Posner, Mark Rose, and "
20086 "Kathleen Sullivan. And I received correction and guidance from many amazing "
20087 "students at Stanford Law School and Stanford University. They included "
20088 "Andrew B. Coan, John Eden, James P. Fellers, Christopher Guzelian, Erica "
20089 "Goldberg, Robert Hallman, Andrew Harris, Matthew Kahn, Brian Link, Ohad "
20090 "Mayblum, Alina Ng, and Erica Platt. I am particularly grateful to Catherine "
20091 "Crump and Harry Surden, who helped direct their research, and to Laura "
20092 "Lynch, who brilliantly managed the army that they assembled, and provided "
20093 "her own critical eye on much of this."
20097 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20098 #: freeculture.xml:14831
20100 "Yuko Noguchi helped me to understand the laws of Japan as well as its "
20101 "culture. I am thankful to her, and to the many in Japan who helped me "
20102 "prepare this book: Joi Ito, Takayuki Matsutani, Naoto Misaki, Michihiro "
20103 "Sasaki, Hiromichi Tanaka, Hiroo Yamagata, and Yoshihiro Yonezawa. I am "
20104 "thankful as well as to Professor Nobuhiro Nakayama, and the Tokyo University "
20105 "Business Law Center, for giving me the chance to spend time in Japan, and to "
20106 "Tadashi Shiraishi and Kiyokazu Yamagami for their generous help while I was "
20110 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20111 #: freeculture.xml:14842
20113 "These are the traditional sorts of help that academics regularly draw "
20114 "upon. But in addition to them, the Internet has made it possible to receive "
20115 "advice and correction from many whom I have never even met. Among those who "
20116 "have responded with extremely helpful advice to requests on my blog about "
20117 "the book are Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, David Gerstein, and Peter DiMauro, as "
20118 "well as a long list of those who had specific ideas about ways to develop my "
20119 "argument. They included Richard Bondi, Steven Cherry, David Coe, Nik "
20120 "Cubrilovic, Bob Devine, Charles Eicher, Thomas Guida, Elihu M. Gerson, "
20121 "Jeremy Hunsinger, Vaughn Iverson, John Karabaic, Jeff Keltner, James "
20122 "Lindenschmidt, K. L. Mann, Mark Manning, Nora McCauley, Jeffrey McHugh, Evan "
20123 "McMullen, Fred Norton, John Pormann, Pedro A. D. Rezende, Shabbir Safdar, "
20124 "Saul Schleimer, Clay Shirky, Adam Shostack, Kragen Sitaker, Chris Smith, "
20125 "Bruce Steinberg, Andrzej Jan Taramina, Sean Walsh, Matt Wasserman, Miljenko "
20126 "Williams, <quote>Wink,</quote> Roger Wood, <quote>Ximmbo da Jazz,</quote> "
20127 "and Richard Yanco. (I apologize if I have missed anyone; with computers come "
20128 "glitches, and a crash of my e-mail system meant I lost a bunch of great "
20132 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20133 #: freeculture.xml:14862
20135 "Richard Stallman and Michael Carroll each read the whole book in draft, and "
20136 "each provided extremely helpful correction and advice. Michael helped me to "
20137 "see more clearly the significance of the regulation of derivitive works. And "
20138 "Richard corrected an embarrassingly large number of errors. While my work is "
20139 "in part inspired by Stallman's, he does not agree with me in important "
20140 "places throughout this book."
20143 #. type: Content of: <book><chapter><para>
20144 #: freeculture.xml:14871
20146 "Finally, and forever, I am thankful to Bettina, who has always insisted that "
20147 "there would be unending happiness away from these battles, and who has "
20148 "always been right. This slow learner is, as ever, grateful for her perpetual "
20149 "patience and love."